Modern Responsa: An Anthology of Jewish Ethical and Ritual Decisions - Paperback

by Pamela Barmash (Author)

An original anthology of modern responsa (Jewish ethical and ritual decision-making) by rabbinic authorities, men and women, across movements (Conservative, Orthodox, Reform), geographic locales, and ethnicities (Ashkenazic, Sefardic, Mizraḥi), Modern Responsa engages readers in understanding how rabbis expert in Jewish law apply principles, precedents, and rules from Judaism's legal tradition to real-life issues.

Responsa on ten topics--personal and business ethics, ritual, personal status, women, LGBTQIA+ people, medical ethics, the COVID-19 pandemic, relationships with the other, the modern State of Israel, and Jewish life in the United States--showcase how the rabbinic decisors who wrote them handle modern quandaries for their communities. Pamela Barmash's translations open up most of these original Hebrew texts to English-speaking readers for the first time. Sometimes the decisors disagree--but other times they rule similarly, despite differing ideological commitments. Clear explanations of how the decisors build their arguments along with historical background, decisor biographies, implications, and a glossary enable general adult and teen readers as well as scholars to grasp the finer points of Jewish ethical and ritual decision-making.

Ultimately, Modern Responsa illuminates the dynamic nature of Jewish law, the creativity of Jewish legal writings, and the multidimensionality of the Jewish experience in modernity.

Author Biography

Pamela Barmash is a rabbi and a professor of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as chair of the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. She is the author of Homicide in the Biblical World and The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions.