Program

‫תרבות וזהות יהודית‬
Death
and the Philosophy
of Halakhah
The Fifth Conference on the
Philosophy of Halakhah
Monday–Tuesday
23–24 December 2013
At The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
43 Jabotinsky Street, Jerusalem
The conference will examine the
direct and indirect approaches of
Halakhah to the issue of death.
Participants will explore the
influence of the concept of death,
as a defining event in human
culture, on the shaping of Halakhic
thought on a variety of topics.
Academic Committee:
Dr. Avinoam Rosenak (chairman)
Prof. Rachel Elior
Prof. Yonatan Meir
Prof. Shalom Rosenberg,
Prof. Tamar Ross
Rabbi Prof. Naftali Rothenberg
Dafna Schreiber
Admission is free. The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute,43 Jabotinsky Street, Jerusalem
Tel. 972-2-560-5222/251, Fax. 972-2-561-9293, shirak@vanleer.org.il
Photographs taken at the event will be posted on the Institute’s website and on social networks.
Parking is not available at the Institute. (Metered parking is available on the neighboring streets.)
www.vanleer.org.il • www.vanleer.org.il/en/judaism
Monday, December 23, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
09:30 – 10:00
10:00 – 12:00
Gathering
10:00 – 11:00
Opening Session
Opening remarks: Avinoam Rosenak
Opening lecture: Gabriel Motzkin, Director, The Van Leer
Jerusalem Institute
The Role of Death in Heidegger’s Thought and its Challenge
to Religion
Chair: Naftali Rothenberg
11:00 – 13:00
Life after Death: Halakhah and Aggadah
Chair: Rachel Elior
Shai Wozner, Is Death Good or Bad? Two Perspectives in Halakhah
and Aggadah
Arye Edrei, Exiting the World in Purity: The Moment of Death in
Rabbinic Legend
Sharon Shalom, Death: Between the Concept of “Fate” In the
Ethiopian Tradition and the Concept of “Destiny” in the Tradition of
the Talmudic Sages
Moshe Hallamish, Life and Death are Brothers
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch Break
14:00 – 16:00
Halakhah and Ritual as Means for the Living to
Cope with Death
Chair: Naftali Rothenberg
Yehoyada Amir, Living with the Memory of the Life That Has
Ended: Reform Theological-Liturgical Attitudes to Death
Biti Roi, Dying While Living – From Myth to Ritual: Nefilat Apayim
(falling on one’s face) as a Death-Event in Zoharic Literature
Elisha S. Ancselovits, Intellectual Study as a Means of Confronting
Mortality: Traditional Halakhic Discourse on Death-Impurity/
Mourning as a Model for an Anthropological-Psychological
Approach to Academic Study
Michael Baris, De-sanctified Space: The Ritual Laws of Impurity in
Halakhic Consciousness
16:00 – 16:15
Break
16:15 – 18:15
Religious Thought and Philosophy as a
Foundation for Halakhah on Death
Chair: Tamar Ross
Eliezer Sariel, A Battle over Life and Death: Halakhic Discourse on
Suicide as an Arena of Philosophical Contention
Nadav Berman-Shifman, Beliefs Concerning Death and Pragmatic
Halakhic Decision-Making in Rabbi Hayyim Hirschensohn’s Thought
Shmuel Wygoda, How to Relate to the Unknown: Between Levinas
and Jankelevitch on Death, and Some Halakhic Implications
Avinoam Rosenak, Models of Anxiety in Confronting Death:
The Halakhic Context
18:15 – 18:30
Break
18:30 – 20:30
Panel Discussion: The Denial of Death:
Psychology, Philosophy, and Halakhah
Chair: Avinoam Rosenak
Rabbi Daniel Epstein
Raanan Kulka
Haviva Pedaya
Attitudes toward the Dead in the Face of Life
Chair: Dafna Schreiber
Haim Gertner, The Relocation of Jewish Cemeteries outside the
City and the Beginning of the Modern Rabbinic Debate on the
Excavation of Graves
Michael Wygoda, Exhumation of Bodies in the Public Interest:
Theory and Practice
Jeffrey R. Woolf, Death and Death Pollution among the Martyrs
of 1096: Between Law and Perception
Yaacov Shapira, “The Living Dead”: Filial Obligation after Parents’
Death: Memory, Commitment, or Redemption
12:00 – 12:15
Break
12:15 – 13:45
Mythological Figures and Folk Beliefs in
Halakhah
Chair: Benjamin Brown
Amy Birkan, Rabbinic Attitudes towards Life Emerging from
Contemplation of Death (in English)
Chana Friedman, The Attitude of Ancient Jewish Halakhah to Laws
of Mourning: Between Denial and Sublimation
Itamar Brenner, Worms Are as Painful to the Dead as a Needle in
the Flesh of the
Living”: “Zombies” in the World of the Babylonian Sages
13:45 – 14:45
Lunch Break
14:45 – 16:45
On the Brink of Death
Chair: Caterina Rigo
Beni Gesundheit, Confession of the Dying Patient: HalakhicPhilosophical Analysis with Psychological-Clinical Implications
Allan Jotkowitz, Death as Implacable Enemy or Welcome Friend
in the Theology and Halakhic Decision-Making of Rabbis Moshe
Feinstein, Eliezer Waldenberg, and Haim David Halevy (in English)
Irit Offer-Stark, Ethical Considerations in the Halakhic Discussion
about Determining the Moment of Death: A Study of the Rulings of
Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg and Rabbi Shlomo Goren
Mimi (Miriam Sara) Feigelson, Life and Death: Socially Conferred
and/or Biologically Determined?
16:45 – 17:00
Break
17:00 – 19:15
Inclusion, Recoiling, and Fear of Death in
Halakhah and in Thought
Chair: Jonatan Meir
Shalom Rosenberg, From the Bible to the Sages
Shlomo Kassierer, The Metaphysics and Psychology of Mourning
in Nachmanides’s Introduction to Torat Ha-Adam
Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel, Between Life and Death: The Anxiety of
Not Being Born
Nissan Rubin, The Sages’ Conception of the Angel of Death:
Between Two Worlds
Concluding Remarks: Avinoam Rosenak, Death, Fear, and Passages
Participants
Prof. Gabriel Motzkin, Director, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Rabbi Prof. Yehoyada Amir, Jewish Thought, Hebrew Union College
Dr. Elisha S. Ancselovits, Visiting Professor, University of Potsdam;
Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies
Dr. Michael Baris, Sha’arei Mishpat College
Nadav Berman-Shifman, PhD Student, Department of Jewish Thought,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Amy Birkan, PhD Student, Department of Jewish Thought,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Itamar Brenner, Department of Hebrew Culture, Tel Aviv University; Herzog College
Dr. Benjamin Brown, Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. Arye Edrei, Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University
Prof. Rachel Elior, Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem;
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Rabbi Daniel Epstein, Philosopher
Rabbi Mimi (Miriam Sara) Feigelson, Lecturer of Rabbinic Literature and Chassidic
Thought, Mashpia Ruchanit, The American Jewish University, Los Angeles;
Doctoral Student, Hebrew Union College-JIR
Dr. Chana Friedman, Alma – Home for Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv; Kolot; Havruta;
Beit Morasha of Jerusalem
Dr. Haim Gertner, Director of the Archives Division, Yad Vashem
Dr. Beni Gesundheit, Basic Jewish Studies Program, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Moshe Hallamish, Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Allan Jotkowitz, Director, Jakobovits Center for Jewish Medical Ethics, Faculty of
Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Soroka University Medical Center
Dr. Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Shalom Hartman
Institute; Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Dr. Shlomo Kassierer, Michlalah-Jerusalem College; Efrata College
Raanan Kulka, Training and Supervising Analyst, Israel Psychoanalytic Society;
Chair, Israel Association for Self Psychology and the Study of Subjectivity;
Psychotherapy Program, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
Prof. Jonatan Meir, The Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Irit Offer-Stark, PhD Student, Department of Jewish Philosophy,
Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Haviva Pedaya, Department of Jewish History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev;
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Dr. Caterina Rigo, Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Biti Roi, Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem;
Shalom Hartman Institute
Dr. Avinoam Rosenak, Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem; The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Prof. Shalom Rosenberg, Department of Jewish Thought and Department of Philosophy,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. Tamar Ross, Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University
Rabbi Prof. Naftali Rothenberg, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Prof. Nissan Rubin, Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Bar-Ilan University; Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Ashkelon Academic College
Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Sariel, Department of History, Shaanan College;
Department of Judaism, Ohalo College, Katzrin
Dafna Schreiber, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Rabbi Sharon Shalom, Kedoshei Israel Congregation, Kiryat Gat;
PhD Student, Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University
Dr. Yaacov Shapira, Jewish Law, Ministry of Justice; Faculty of Law,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Roni Weinstein, Amirim and Revivim Programs, The Hebrew University
of Jerusalem; Department of Jewish History, Bar-Ilan University;
Dr. Jeffrey R. Woolf, Department of Talmud, Bar-Ilan University
Dr. Shai Wozner, Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University
Dr. Michael Wygoda, Senior Director, Jewish Law, Ministry of Justice
Dr. Shmuel Wygoda, Head, Department of Jewish Thought, Herzog College;
Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem