The Coronavirus pandemic has affected our lives in many unfortunate ways, and we worry that much worse is yet to come. Saving lives is our first obligation, and this responsibility led most Jewish communities across the world to cancel public worship as soon as public health officials recommended this measure. As with other aspects of…
Category: Divrei Halakhah
From Kilayim to Kabbalah to CRISPR
I participated in a conference on the new gene-editing technology known as CRISPR/Cas9 at Berkeley on June 18-19, 2017. Below are my remarks, building on the foundation of my 2015 responsum on genetic engineering. Gene Editing Ethics Workshop convened by Jennifer Doudna and Bill Hurlbut Panel on Catholic, Muslim and Jewish Perspectives (Texts displayed as…
Ostrich Eggs and Miracle Meat: Shmini 5777
It might have been Parashat Shmini that put the idea of becoming a rabbi in my head. No, not the part about the two young priests getting zapped, but rather the detailed laws of kashrut. I grew up eating “glatt treife,” but by the time I was 13 I bought into the kashrut system as…
Praying for Rain in Bavel
Those who attended Shaharit in WLSS on Wednesday had the treat of hearing Rabbi Joel Roth explain the history of how diaspora Jews settled on Dec. 4/5 for the beginning of the petition for rain, ותן טל ומטר לברכה. It’s a long and complicated story related to the calendrical reform of Pope Gregory XIII in…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 