Halakhah as a Language of Applied Values

[hatam_soferet]

Some people see halakha as a sort of calculator into which you enter circumstances and from which you obtain answers. Some people see it as a great tide sweeping across time and space and carrying the Jews willy-nilly with it. And some people see it as a language, rising from the common experience and shared past of those who speak it and used to communicate matters of current concern.

However you conceive of halakha, rabbinic Judaism has always needed people who understand how it works. The computer scientists, the linguists, the navigators, depending on your model of choice.

I like understanding how things work, which is why I like halakha. I also like applying that understanding for practical effect, which is why a) I write Torahs b) I will be spending this Sunday at...

Mechon Hadar's Halakha Yom Iyyun
Halakhah as a Language of Applied Values:
Theory and Practice
Sunday December 6
at Yeshivat Hadar
190 Amsterdam Ave, NY
(@69th St – West End Synagogue)

A whole day with other people who think halakha is a living language. And who speak that language and use it to talk about everyday things and also those things which other languages cannot reach. And who are making rabbinic Judaism once more about halakha, in these days when "rabbi" chiefly means "pastoral adjunct."

And lunch.