20th Century Responsa

Since today is election day in Israel, this class will look at a few responsa about voting and elections.

Some of the issues we will try to cover:

What did the rabbis of the 20th century think of democracy?

Did the rabbis believe in telling people which party to vote for?

In this class we look at the opinions of different 20th century rabbis on whether women should be allowed to vote and/or elected to public office.
We learn about the biographies and halachic views of:
Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann
Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook
Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel
Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog

In this class we spend most of the time learning about Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rav. He came from a rabbinic family of Siget Hasidim. He was renowned from a young age for his Torah knowledge, but faced opposition when he wanted to become the town’s Rav. He rejected working with the Zionists to escape the Nazis, then fled Hungary on the Kastner train. He lived in Israel for a short while and made regular visits to Israel, yet he was a strong opponent of Zionism and the state. He moved to New York where he took a handful of Holocaust survivors and created a new Hasidic dynasty which today is the biggest in the world.

We learn a section from the introduction of Vayo’el Moshe.

We also begin to speak about Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin, who was born in almost the same year as the Satmar Rav. He came from a Chabad (but not Lubavitch) family, and was known as a Torah genius from a young age. He moved to Israel where he became the editor in chief of Encyclopedia Talmudit, one of the most unique and ambitious projects of Torah scholarship ever attempted.

According to his grandson, he often said he did not know if the State of Israel was the beginning of the redemption or the opposite. But he knew that it provided salvation to Jews, and its founding was miraculous.

In this class we look at several different 20th century rabbis and their views on whether it is permissible to eat turkey on Thanksgiving and celebrate the festival.

In this shiur we will look at the various rabbinic opinions on the dateline and the rabbis who held them.

Some rabbis rule it is forbidden to ascend the Temple Mount today. Others say it is permitted.
In this class we will look at the biographies of some of those who say yes and some who say no.

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, in this class we will learn about three American rabbis: Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, Rabbi Chaim David Regensberg, Rabbi Norman Lamm, and what they wrote about civil rights.

In this class we look at the lives of several rabbis and their opinions on whether the principle of Dina DeMalchuta Dina (The Law of the Land is Binding) applies when there is no king but an elected parliament, whether it applies in a Jewish country or not, and how far reaching its application is.
The rabbis we study are Rabbi Yehuda Henkin, Rabbi Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, Rabbi Tzvi Tau and Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu.

This class focuses mainly on the life and some of the teachings of Rabbi David HaCohen, also known as the Nazir.

He spent his entire life striving for perfection and prophecy. And had a vision of the Messianic era.

He dedicated himself to writing down the teachings of his Rav, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook.

And both Rav Kook and the Nazir saw vegetarianism as a goal for the pre-Messianic era.