The process of Jewish law has developed and evolved over the past three thousand years. According to Jewish tradition, the Written Torah was accompanied by an Oral Torah. This Oral Torah was written down in two phases; the first phase was the writing of the Mishna at the end of the second century CE, the second phase was the writing of the Gemara in the sixth century CE. How did the decision to write the Oral Torah affect the evolution of Jewish law? How has Jewish history addressed legal issues since the writing of the Oral Torah?

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The challenge facing the rabbinic community following the redaction of the gemara in the sixth century was how to transform the gemara into a usable and useful code for the people. Jewish codifiers have taken different approaches to the issue ranging from the narrow code of the Rambam to the expansive code of the Tur. Rabbi Joseph Caro grappled with this issue as he decided to compose the Shulchan Aruch at the end of his life. This lecture will address the history of codification and its importance in the history of Jewish law.

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This class will analyze and compare the treatment of the Laws of Visiting the Sick as they are described in the Rambam, Tur and Shulchan Aruch. We will also discuss the reaction of the rabbinic community to the Shulchan Aruch and explain why there has not been a complete code written since that time. Finally, we will introduce the topic of Responsa Literature and define the difference between codes and case law.

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The Crusades in Germany in 1096 and the Spanish riots of 1391 created tragic situations for the Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity. How did the rabbis in each country address the problem of these Conversos? Were they to be considered Jews even after they had converted? This lecture will explore two responsa; one written by Rashi and the other by the Rivash, the leading halakhic authority in Algiers in the fifteenth century who had escaped from Spain in 1391 after being forced to convert to Christianity.

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In the early nineteenth century, the Reform movement began in Germany. It soon spread to Hungary and created a serious challenge to the Orthodox rabbinate which struggled to define legitimate Orthodoxy and to decide how to view these reformers in a legal framework. One of the leading Orthodox rabbis in Hungary who dealt with with this issue was Rabbi Moshe Schick. In this class, we will study and evaluate Rabbi Schicks' teshuvot on this topic and analyze his seemingly contradictory views on this subject.

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Jewish law has responded to life and death situations throughout Jewish History. During the Nazi era, the rabbis were faced with tragic situations that required their insight and decision. This class will study three teshuvot from this period; the first, addressing the Nazi prohibition against shechitah, the second, reflecting a life and death question that was asked in Auschwitz and finally a question that was raised in the DP camps immediately following the liberation from the death camps. These questions and the responses of the rabbis attest to the power and relevance of Jewish law in all situations.

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Rav Moshe Feinstein was the leading halachik authority for the Ashkenazic community of the United States during the second half of the twentieth century. His teshuvot are collected in the eight volume set of Iggerot Moshe. In this class, we will study and analyze three teshuvot of Rav Feinstein; the first dealing with participation in a conference with Catholics, the second dealing with the permissibility of teaching in a Conservative Hebrew school and the final teshuva addressing the proper conduct for a Jewish doctor on Shabbat.

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The Conservative movement has created a literature of teshuvot that address critical issues for the movement. In this class, we will explore the methodology of these teshuvot and study three examples; Ordination of Women, Driving on Shabbat and the Permissibility of "Non-Kosher" Wine.

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The Modern Orthodox movement has developed in the United States over the past forty years. The movement has experienced great success in building communities. However, the Modern Orthodox community has generally not been in the forefront of the halakhic decision making process. In this class, we will study several examples of Modern Orthodox teshuvot and attempt to both present the methodology of these teshuvot and explain why Modern Orthodoxy has ceded this aspect of the process to others.

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