Technology & Halacha
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Over the millennia various technological advances have posed a challenge to halacha and yet our great sages have always referred back to our age old sources for answers and inspiration. In this course with Rabbi Dovid Fink challenge your halachic mind by exploring a number of modern practical halachic issues. Journey through the halachic process from the Talmudic sources down through today’s leading poskim. Understand the halachic reasoning behind their conclusions.
Some topics we will cover include: Shabbat: electronic devices; refrigerator doors; solar water heaters; elevators; communicating digitally where it is Shabbat for other Jews. Kashrut: Milk, meat and treif on ceramic and induction cookers; non-Jewish cooking and microwaves. General technology: Torah writings and digital medium; online Torah learning and non-Jews; kol isha broadcasted live or recorded; electric shavers; elevators and mezuzot and yichud; virtual visits to the sick, and more.
Technology & Halacha: Lesson
Our first topic in Technology & Halacha focuses on the halachic status of electronically reproduced sound.
Does the prohibition of kol isha apply to radio transmissions?
Does it apply to analog or digital recordings?
Sources are available through the links in both WORD format and pdf. In class we will translate and analyse these sources.
Technology & Halacha: Electrical Devices on Shabbat
This evening (Sunday) we begin the issue of using electrical devices on Shabbat.
We shall begin with the Hazon Ish’s strict opinion.
Sources are available through the links both in WORD format and pdf.
Technology & Halacha: Voice Activated Devices
Our next topic in Technology and Halacha deals with voice activated devices.
Although still in the realm of science fiction, we will also touch on purely mental activation of electronic devices in the expectation that reality will soon catch up with fiction.
Sources are available through the links in both WORD format and pdf.
Technology & Halacha: Microwave Cookers
Technology & Halacha: Lesson
Source sheets for Vide monitors are available through the links
Technology & Halacha: Lesson
Our next topic in Technology and Halacha deals with fulfilling mitsvot through virtual presence.
Visiting the sick, listening to havdala or megillat Esther by Zoom, etc.
Sources are available through the links as usual.
Technology & Halacha: Virtual Attendance
B”H
After virtual visiting the sick, we will turn to performance of other mitsvot by means of virtual attendance.
Can you fulfill the mitsva of havdala after Shabbat or the mitsva of Megillat Esther on Purim by telephone or Zoom?
Can you participate in Leil ha-Seder or Lighting Hanukka candles by Zoom?
Sources are available as usual.
Technology & Halacha: Timing Devices
After virtual attendance (hearing Megillat Ester and visiting the sick by Zoom), we will turn to the use of timing devices for Shabbat and Yom Tov.
Sources are available both in WORD format and pdf through the links.
Technology & Halacha: Lesson
Today we will complete the topic changing the settings on Shabbat timers.
Then we will move on to time zone issues: if it is not Shabbat in your time zone, can you operate electronic apparatuses in another time zone where it is Shabbat?
Sources are available through the link as usual.
Technology & Halacha: Lesson
After discussing the halachot that depend on time zones, we will turn to solar water heaters (דודי שמש).
Sources are available through the links as usual.
Technology & Halacha: Elevators (Lifts)
Our next topic is privacy in elevators (lifts).
Can a man and woman ride together in an elevator when it is clearly impossible for the public to see them as long as the doors are closed?
Sources are available through the links.
Technology & Halacha: Artificial Insemination and In-vitro Fertilization
Sources for artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization are available through the links.
In addition to being one of Rabbi Brovender's first students, Rabbi Dovid Fink is an outstanding expertᅠand teacher of Halacha. Rabbi Fink received his Rabbinic ordination from ITRI and the Mir and was awarded his Ph.D in Semitic Languages and Linguistics from Yale University. Rav Fink has taught thousands of students from all over the world for over 35 years.