JLI: Captivating Cases in Rabbinic Responsa

Captivating Cases in Rabbinic Responsa

Listen in on the surprising, practical questions your ancestors asked rabbis across Jewish history.

Join this six-session course to discover the little-known world of rabbinic responsa, a vast archive of the real-life questions of ethics and practice Jews asked across history—and the scholarly answers rabbis wrote.

Algiers is under siege: May I pray in a bathhouse? The Inquisition is watching: How will I celebrate Passover? Seventeen Jews are held hostage in faraway Regensburg after a blood libel: Must I help pay their ransom? 

See what enables Jewish tradition to offer relevant guidance in a rapidly changing world—and come face-to-face with raw Jewish history. 

(If you don’t know what a “rabbinic responsa” is, you’ll fit right in.)