Mental Health & Halacha
Do those suffering from anorexia need to fast on Yom Kippur? Can a person suffering from depression listen to music on Shabbat? How must a community handle a person suffering from dementia who wants to keep coming to shul to daven, but disrupts the davening? Can techniques rooted in the philosophies of other religions be used as therapeutic tools?
After a 3-year process of both halachic and professional research, discussion with mental health professionals, and sitting with leading Poskim in the Orthodox world Rav Yoni Rosensweig will share some of his conclusions in this series of Shiurim on Mental Health & Halacha.
Mental Health & Halacha: The concept of a Shoteh for a specific issue
Rav Yoni is rabbi of the Netzach Menashe community in Beit Shemesh and is a renowned teacher of Halakha, Gemara and Jewish thought. From 2006-2009 he served as Rosh Kollel of the Mizrahi community in Melbourne, Australia. Upon his return, he headed Yeshivat Hamivtar, and then became Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Shevut Yisrael in Efrat, a post which he held until 2016. He currently teaches at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Rav Yoni has semikha from Rav Nachum Eliezer Rabinovitch and from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and degrees in education, philosophy and history. He is the author of “Yishrei Lev,” a three-volume responsa on different halakhic questions, and of “Conversations in Essence,” in which he engages in imaginary dialogue with great Jewish thinkers from the past.