The Brain Death Debate: A Methodological Analysis (Part 3b—Rabbi Moshe Feinstein) by Daniel Reifman

[Click on these links for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3a] Determining death in trauma victims In our last post, we saw that Rabbi Feinstein considers the interaction between different bodily functions central to the way we determine the moment of death.  This is a more nuanced and complicated approach than that proposed by [...]

Parashat Korach: The Disappearing Act of Ohn ben Peles by Yaakov Bieler

A character who vanishes from the biblical text after a single mention. Ohn ben Peles, who is mentioned among Korach’s cohorts in the very first verse in the Parasha (BaMidbar 16:1), is another biblical character surrounded by mystery.[1]  After Ohn is identified as one of the key plotters enlisted by Korach, he disappears entirely, never [...]

Parashat Shelach: Kalev’s Shining Hour by Yaakov Bieler

An intriguing minor character[1] in the Bible.                 Kalev ben Yefuna is a man of mystery. The purpose of his entire life is defined by his brief address to the Jewish people[2] on a single portentous day in biblical history.[3]                 Kalev first comes to our attention when he is listed as the tribe of [...]

The Brain Death Debate: A Methodological Analysis (Part 3a—Rabbi Moshe Feinstein) by Daniel Reifman

[Click on these links for Part 1 and Part 2] Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was one of the very few contemporary poskim with sufficient stature to potentially resolve the contemporary halakhic dispute over brainstem death.  That Rabbi Feinstein’s position on this issue has become the subject of intense debate is particularly unfortunate.  It is also highly uncharacteristic: [...]

Parashat BeHa’alotcha: The Seven Books of Moses? by Yaakov Bieler

 Deliberate calligraphic irregularities in the Tora text.  One of the stranger aspects of the written Sefer Tora is the augmentation of the size of letters within words,[1] the addition of dots over some or all letters of a word,[2] and the insertion of symbols into the text that are not part of any word at [...]

From Our Archives: Shavuot and BeHa’alotcha

Particularly appropriate for this week is a close reading of the Humash by Rabbi Zvi Grumet.  Rabbi Grumet’s article, “WITHIN AND WITHOUT OUR ENCAMPMENT IN THE DESERT: The Ambivalent Acceptance of a Biblical Convert” (Spring 1994 28:3), examines the account of Moshe’s conversations with his father-in-law, in which they discuss the latter’s conversion to a [...]