Trust & Halacha
There are issues of Jewish religious life that revolve around trust. For instance, the foundation of kashrut is trust or believing a merchant regarding his merchandise is built on trust. Can you trust a non-Jew who says that food is kosher? Can you trust children? Join Rabbi Dovid Fink and study the opinions of the great rabbis in defining trustworthiness.
Trust & Halacha: Lesson 1
Trust is the foundation of all halacha. In kashrut, we must trust the ritual slaughterer and the rabbis who give their approval to the meat; in matters of charity, we must trust that the poor person is genuinely poor and will use money donated to him wisely; in clothing, we must trust the label that claims that the garment is free of a mixture of linen and wool. We trust our relatives, our friends and neighbors when they offer us food. Do strangers deserve our trust? Do merchants deserve trust regarding their wares? In this series we will examine the principles of trustworthiness: Who is trustworthy and how do we decide whom to trust? The links provide primary source materials in Hebrew. In class we will translate and explain these sources.
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.