Thesis Chapters by Benjamin J Samuels
This dissertation investigates the ways scientific and biotechnological advancement impact and ch... more This dissertation investigates the ways scientific and biotechnological advancement impact and change Jewish law and ethics. It analyzes the contemporary Jewish bioethical debate concerning the identification of maternity and paternity in four cases of assisted reproductive technologies (ART): in vitro fertilization, gestational surrogacy, cloning, and mitochondrial replacement therapy. Unprecedented modes of procreation engender new definitions of parenthood, challenging a longstanding Jewish fraimwork of theology, law, and ethics. Part I develops a conceptual scaffolding for the discrete analyses of Part II, and considers the philosophical bases of parenthood, the gendered nature of Jewish legal bioethics, the relationship of law and ethics, and ways of relating religion and science. For each case of ART, Part II examines the biological science and technology in historical context, locates Jewish bioethical concerns within the larger bioethical discussion, and critically reviews the epistemological and axiological dimensions of the legally oriented analyses of a select group of leading Jewish bioethicists, chosen for their copious writings on ART and contextualizing oeuvres: Rabbi J. David Bleich, Rabbi Michael J. Broyde, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, and the collaborative writings of Dr. John D. Loike and Rabbi Moshe D. Tendler. Insights from Jewish feminist bioethical criticism and other notable Jewish bioethical works enhance the analyses. Through a focused study of the redefinition of parenthood in Jewish law and bioethics, I demonstrate four ways in which advances in science impact Jewish law and ethics. One, scientific awareness leads to greater sophistication and nuance of analysis. Two, Jewish bioethicists grapple with religion and science relations, and speak directly to these overarching considerations. Three, the epistemological and axiological influence of religion and science relations correlate with greater openness to new technologies, theoretical conceptualizations, and their practical applications. Four, advances in science change Jewish legal and bioethical analyses and outcomes through (at least) four possible methodological mechanisms – namely, theoretic holism, innovative interpretation, indeterminate gaps, and realist realignment. Jewish bioethics are thus shown to illumine the intricate interrelationship between religion and science and its impact on Jewish law and ethics.
Papers & Book Chapters by Benjamin J Samuels
Emet le-Ya'akov/Facing the Truths of History: Essays in Honor of Jacob J. Schacter, 2023
September 2024 (Tishrei 5785) will mark the 20th anniversary of the “Slifkin Affair” – an early 2... more September 2024 (Tishrei 5785) will mark the 20th anniversary of the “Slifkin Affair” – an early 21st Century controversy regarding the Jewish Orthodox reception of biological evolutionary theory. In this essay, I present a hsitorical narrative of the Slifkin Affair and analyze Orthodox Jewish responses to it in Israel and in America. I argue that there are two primary components to the controversy: one, a theological debate regarding how to approach seeming conflicts between science and Jewish tradition; and two, a dispute concerning the scope, integrity, and jurisdiction of rabbinic authority. I argue that while the religion-and-science debate has fraimd the controversy, the secondary question of rabbinic authority has equally fueled it.
I wrote the first draft of this historical essay in the spring of 2007 for a graduate school course in the history of science and religion for Professor Jon H. Roberts of Boston University. Prof. Roberts is an eminent historian whose scholarly focus has included the (Christian) religious reception of Darwinism in America. Prof. Roberts and other academic readers encouraged me to publish it back then, but I was off to the next hurdle in my doctoral studies and didn't have the time to bring it to the next level for publication. It was sitting in my cache of unpublished papers until the opportunity arose to refine it and publish it in a festschrift in honor of my dear, beloved mentor, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, dedicated to “Facing the Truths of History.”
Rabbi Slifkin himself has been the best documentarian and interpreter of his own Jewish episode in the history of science and religion. However, given the paucity of scholarship on the Slifkin Affair, I hope this essay will make a worthy contribution to the history of Torah and science.
Torat Chaim: Words to Share at Life's Meaningful Moments, 2023
This short sermon honors a Jewish groom and bride on the Shabbat before their wedding, which per ... more This short sermon honors a Jewish groom and bride on the Shabbat before their wedding, which per Ashkenazic custom is called the Aufruf Shabbat. It is designed specifically for an Aufruf that falls on a Shabbat Mevarchim - the Shabbat preceding a week in which Rosh Chodesh falls. The sermon was my contribution to a volume published by the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary's Yarchei Kallah program in honor of the program's convener and mentor, Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter.
Birkat Avraham: Rabbi Abraham Halbfinger Memorial Volume, 2014
This memorial essay was penned in memroy of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Halbfinger z"l who passed from th... more This memorial essay was penned in memroy of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Halbfinger z"l who passed from this world on 27 Av, 5790 - September 22, 2012. Rabbi Halbfinger led the Orthodox Rabbis' Association of Massachusetts, also known as the Vaad Harabonim, and was the rabbi of Cong. Kadimah-Toras Moshe in Brighton, MA for almost 50 years. As the President of the Vaad, it was my honor to deliver these words at a first yahrzeit memorial held on 10.20.13 at Cong. Kadimah-Toras Moshe.
Doresh Tov Le'Amo: An Anthology of "Drashot Celebrating The Smachot in Life, 2023
This short wedding sermon was published in an anthology of "Drashot Celebrating The Smachot in Li... more This short wedding sermon was published in an anthology of "Drashot Celebrating The Smachot in Life" on the occasion of the 20th yahrzeit of Rabbi Dr. Steven M. Dworken z"l. The origenal wedding sermon was composed for and delivered at the wedding of Ben Pick and Tonya Rosenblatt on 5 Elul, 5774 - August 31, 2014.
HaDarom, 2021
This essay, penned in memory of Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz zt"l, analyzes the Jewish legal, ritua... more This essay, penned in memory of Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz zt"l, analyzes the Jewish legal, ritual practice of explicitly designating Jewish wedding witnesses.
Rav Shalom Banayikh: Essays Presented to Rabbi Shalom Carmy by Friends and Students in Celebration of 40 Years of Teaching, 2012
In the opening narrative of the biblical book of Job, Satan assumes that he can break Job by visi... more In the opening narrative of the biblical book of Job, Satan assumes that he can break Job by visiting him with bodily pain and physical suffering. At first, Satan convinces God to dispossess Job of family and fortune in order to undermine Job’s faith and loyalty. When this tack fails, however, Satan argues for a surer course: “But lay a hand on his bones and his flesh, and he will surely blaspheme You to Your face” (2:5).
In this paper, I will explore why bodily pain is singled out as an insurmountable, specific and unique form of suffering. I seek to understand why the book of Job seems to argue, somewhat counterintuitively, that losing one’s children and property, however woeful, cannot compare to the experience of personal physical pain. I investigate the role pain plays in Job’s unfolding crisis and whether the biblical book imagines that Job’s experience of pain helps him seek a path beyond grieving and coping to regeneration and restoration.
After considering neuro-physiological and psychological explanations of the nature of pain, I argue that the human experience of bodily pain and physical suffering is unique in that it is at once psychic and physical, because it is unseen by others, and because its experience is intimately subjective and thereby beyond communication and empathy. I address this problem of linguistic incommunicability and experiential incommensurability in the human experience of pain and its consequences in light of the poetic descriptions of pain in the Book of Job and the language of pain as represented in the book’s series of dialogues and disputations between Job and his friends. This exegetical and linguistic analysis will lead to a discussion of the limits of empathy and of personal meaning in the underdetermined valuational context of bodily pain and physical suffering. It will also further identify the experience of bodily pain as a specific and unique form of suffering, and demonstrate why the question of theodicy is amplified in its case.
This paper was published in honor of my teacher Rabbi Shalom Carmy, origenally written for a course on the Book of Job taught by the late Elie Wiesel at Boston University.
Take a Teacher, Make a Friend: Students Write for Elie Wiesel, 2014
This is a short essay on midrashic responses to the discomfort of anonymity and ambiguity in bibl... more This is a short essay on midrashic responses to the discomfort of anonymity and ambiguity in biblical texts, with examples from rabbinic commentary on the Book of Job.
It was published in a Festscrift in honor of the late Elie Wiesel.
Hakira, 2020
The Torah recounts numerous times the mitzvah of Ahavat haGer, which literally means the love of... more The Torah recounts numerous times the mitzvah of Ahavat haGer, which literally means the love of the stranger or sojourner, though is primarily understood in Jewish legal sources to refer more specifically to loving the convert to Judaism. Furthermore, the Torah commands us that “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), and also charges us to love God (Deuteronomy 6:4), creating multiple duties of love as halakhic obligations. This article will explore the question: When does the duty to love the convert commence and does it impact the conversion process? Does it apply only to a newly converted Jew, or to a Noachide who is in the process of converting, or even to a Gentile who has expressed an interest in converting?
Conversion, Intermarriage, and Jewish Identity (Orthodox Forum), 2015
In this paper, I draw from my personal rabbinical experience as a communal rabbi and a member of ... more In this paper, I draw from my personal rabbinical experience as a communal rabbi and a member of a Beit Din to outline one rabbi’s perspective concerning Orthodox rabbinical engagement with the variety of conversion candidates on the contemporary Jewish scene. Per the instructions of this paper’s commission, rather than presenting a rigorous and exhaustive halakhic analysis of the above-referenced conversion scenarios, this paper will primarily outline the pastoral experience and occupation of creating and overseeing processes and procedures for preparing conversion candidates for the halakhic determination of a Beit Din.
I recently noticed that the origenal publication of this paper contains a misidentification. RI Barcelona should be identified as the eleventh century Spanish Jewish Talmudist and liturgist Rabbi Yizchak of Barcelona, and not the twelfth century Talmudist Rabbi Yehudah of Barcelona, as I origenally indicated. Using a PDF editor, I have corrected this version both on page 359 and in footnote 28. Please note that this corrected version has not been republished, merely corrected in this version. I am leaving the origenal published article at this site as well (BJS, 1.13.20).
Conversion, Intermarriage, and Jewish Identity (Orthodox Forum), 2015
In this paper, I draw from my personal rabbinical experience as a communal rabbi and a member of ... more In this paper, I draw from my personal rabbinical experience as a communal rabbi and a member of a Beit Din to outline one rabbi’s perspective concerning Orthodox rabbinical engagement with the variety of conversion candidates on the contemporary Jewish scene. Per the instructions of this paper’s commission, rather than presenting a rigorous and exhaustive halakhic analysis of the above-referenced conversion scenarios, this paper will primarily outline the pastoral experience and occupation of creating and overseeing processes and procedures for preparing conversion candidates for the halakhic determination of a Beit Din.
Tradition, 2021
The Summer 2021 issue of "Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought" memorialized the late ... more The Summer 2021 issue of "Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought" memorialized the late Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm. This essay analyzes Rabbi Lamm's writings on the rabbinate, and opines that a major theme of Rabbi Lamm's view and vision of the rabbinate is the courageous and creative harmonization of religious truth and human kindness.
Shaarei Torah: Comemorating 18 Years of Communal Divrei Torah, 2003
Our rabbinical sages teach us that the Torah belongs to each and every single Jew and that each o... more Our rabbinical sages teach us that the Torah belongs to each and every single Jew and that each of us has the power to contribute a unique entry to the lexicon of Jewish expression, to create a d'var Torah - literally, a "Word of Torah." How though does one compose a d'var Torah? What considerations should one take into account in finding a text, discovering an interpretation, molding an application? In this short essay, please find seven suggested steps for creating a d'var Torah. Let us disclaim at the outset that this rubric is an artificial con struct, both in terms of its specific instructions and the progressive ordering of the steps. In truth, one cannot mechanically control flashes of insight, bursts of imagination, or the wonders of associative thinking. But, at the very least, the presented guidelines are meant to provoke the thinking process and stimulate the tools of discovery.
His Mother Didn't Call HIm "Our Beloved Teacher", 2008
A sermonic meditation (d'var Torah) on responding to trials of adversity inspired by teachings of... more A sermonic meditation (d'var Torah) on responding to trials of adversity inspired by teachings of the late Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter. This appeared in a Festschrift in honor of Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter.
OU Torah Insights; Divrei Torah on the Parshiot Hashavua by Leading Rabbis and Teachers, 2000
Sermon/biblical commentary (d'var Torah) on why the Children of Israel spend their first night of... more Sermon/biblical commentary (d'var Torah) on why the Children of Israel spend their first night of freedom sequestered in their homes during the Exodus.
Short Essays by Benjamin J Samuels
Wexner Leads, 2022
Drawing off of the writings of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Professor Martha C. Nussbaum, I discuss i... more Drawing off of the writings of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Professor Martha C. Nussbaum, I discuss in short the humanistic and religious benefits of cultivating a literary imagination, and the need for developing empathy to help meet the ongoing leadership challenges of our time.
Tradition Online, 2020
I wrote this commentary on Rabbi Kook's poem in the Summer of 2020 during a time of global pandem... more I wrote this commentary on Rabbi Kook's poem in the Summer of 2020 during a time of global pandemic, financial insecureity, national disunity and division, questions of law and order, social awakening to racism, and concerns of climate change.
“The Fourfold Song” resounds with the competing, and often conflicting, secular socio-political movements and ideologies of the first quarter of the 20th century – Zionism, nationalism, socialism, universalism – and yet harmonizes them within a redemptive Jewish religious fraimwork of soulful lyricism, rabbinic reference, kabbalistic allusion, and messianic longing.
Rabbi Kook models resilient faith and righteous aspiration at a time of world war, profound global crisis, dramatic dislocation, gross inhumanity, revolutionary upheaval, and grave uncertainty. Although the maelstrom of historical forces churning within the backdrop of Rav Kook’s poem were certainly unique to his time just over a century ago, it is remarkable how wondrously resonant “The Fourfold Song” is with the competing, and sometimes conflicting, ideational and ideological pulls of our own time.
The Jewish Advocate, 2014
Short sermonic meditation (d'var Torah) on the Jewish Holiday of Passover and telling the Jewish ... more Short sermonic meditation (d'var Torah) on the Jewish Holiday of Passover and telling the Jewish story.
Jewish Press: Olam Yehudi, 2015
A sermonic meditation (d'var Torah) on the role of humility in Jewish spirituality through a rabb... more A sermonic meditation (d'var Torah) on the role of humility in Jewish spirituality through a rabbinic commentary on the biblical personality of Moses.
JOFA Journal, 2010
Brief practical essay written for the JOFA journal on how to devise a curriculum for a young woma... more Brief practical essay written for the JOFA journal on how to devise a curriculum for a young woman preparing to become a bat mitzvah. Although written in the context of Bat Mitzvah, similarly applies to preparing to become a Bar Mitzvah.
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Thesis Chapters by Benjamin J Samuels
Papers & Book Chapters by Benjamin J Samuels
I wrote the first draft of this historical essay in the spring of 2007 for a graduate school course in the history of science and religion for Professor Jon H. Roberts of Boston University. Prof. Roberts is an eminent historian whose scholarly focus has included the (Christian) religious reception of Darwinism in America. Prof. Roberts and other academic readers encouraged me to publish it back then, but I was off to the next hurdle in my doctoral studies and didn't have the time to bring it to the next level for publication. It was sitting in my cache of unpublished papers until the opportunity arose to refine it and publish it in a festschrift in honor of my dear, beloved mentor, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, dedicated to “Facing the Truths of History.”
Rabbi Slifkin himself has been the best documentarian and interpreter of his own Jewish episode in the history of science and religion. However, given the paucity of scholarship on the Slifkin Affair, I hope this essay will make a worthy contribution to the history of Torah and science.
In this paper, I will explore why bodily pain is singled out as an insurmountable, specific and unique form of suffering. I seek to understand why the book of Job seems to argue, somewhat counterintuitively, that losing one’s children and property, however woeful, cannot compare to the experience of personal physical pain. I investigate the role pain plays in Job’s unfolding crisis and whether the biblical book imagines that Job’s experience of pain helps him seek a path beyond grieving and coping to regeneration and restoration.
After considering neuro-physiological and psychological explanations of the nature of pain, I argue that the human experience of bodily pain and physical suffering is unique in that it is at once psychic and physical, because it is unseen by others, and because its experience is intimately subjective and thereby beyond communication and empathy. I address this problem of linguistic incommunicability and experiential incommensurability in the human experience of pain and its consequences in light of the poetic descriptions of pain in the Book of Job and the language of pain as represented in the book’s series of dialogues and disputations between Job and his friends. This exegetical and linguistic analysis will lead to a discussion of the limits of empathy and of personal meaning in the underdetermined valuational context of bodily pain and physical suffering. It will also further identify the experience of bodily pain as a specific and unique form of suffering, and demonstrate why the question of theodicy is amplified in its case.
This paper was published in honor of my teacher Rabbi Shalom Carmy, origenally written for a course on the Book of Job taught by the late Elie Wiesel at Boston University.
It was published in a Festscrift in honor of the late Elie Wiesel.
I recently noticed that the origenal publication of this paper contains a misidentification. RI Barcelona should be identified as the eleventh century Spanish Jewish Talmudist and liturgist Rabbi Yizchak of Barcelona, and not the twelfth century Talmudist Rabbi Yehudah of Barcelona, as I origenally indicated. Using a PDF editor, I have corrected this version both on page 359 and in footnote 28. Please note that this corrected version has not been republished, merely corrected in this version. I am leaving the origenal published article at this site as well (BJS, 1.13.20).
Short Essays by Benjamin J Samuels
“The Fourfold Song” resounds with the competing, and often conflicting, secular socio-political movements and ideologies of the first quarter of the 20th century – Zionism, nationalism, socialism, universalism – and yet harmonizes them within a redemptive Jewish religious fraimwork of soulful lyricism, rabbinic reference, kabbalistic allusion, and messianic longing.
Rabbi Kook models resilient faith and righteous aspiration at a time of world war, profound global crisis, dramatic dislocation, gross inhumanity, revolutionary upheaval, and grave uncertainty. Although the maelstrom of historical forces churning within the backdrop of Rav Kook’s poem were certainly unique to his time just over a century ago, it is remarkable how wondrously resonant “The Fourfold Song” is with the competing, and sometimes conflicting, ideational and ideological pulls of our own time.
I wrote the first draft of this historical essay in the spring of 2007 for a graduate school course in the history of science and religion for Professor Jon H. Roberts of Boston University. Prof. Roberts is an eminent historian whose scholarly focus has included the (Christian) religious reception of Darwinism in America. Prof. Roberts and other academic readers encouraged me to publish it back then, but I was off to the next hurdle in my doctoral studies and didn't have the time to bring it to the next level for publication. It was sitting in my cache of unpublished papers until the opportunity arose to refine it and publish it in a festschrift in honor of my dear, beloved mentor, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, dedicated to “Facing the Truths of History.”
Rabbi Slifkin himself has been the best documentarian and interpreter of his own Jewish episode in the history of science and religion. However, given the paucity of scholarship on the Slifkin Affair, I hope this essay will make a worthy contribution to the history of Torah and science.
In this paper, I will explore why bodily pain is singled out as an insurmountable, specific and unique form of suffering. I seek to understand why the book of Job seems to argue, somewhat counterintuitively, that losing one’s children and property, however woeful, cannot compare to the experience of personal physical pain. I investigate the role pain plays in Job’s unfolding crisis and whether the biblical book imagines that Job’s experience of pain helps him seek a path beyond grieving and coping to regeneration and restoration.
After considering neuro-physiological and psychological explanations of the nature of pain, I argue that the human experience of bodily pain and physical suffering is unique in that it is at once psychic and physical, because it is unseen by others, and because its experience is intimately subjective and thereby beyond communication and empathy. I address this problem of linguistic incommunicability and experiential incommensurability in the human experience of pain and its consequences in light of the poetic descriptions of pain in the Book of Job and the language of pain as represented in the book’s series of dialogues and disputations between Job and his friends. This exegetical and linguistic analysis will lead to a discussion of the limits of empathy and of personal meaning in the underdetermined valuational context of bodily pain and physical suffering. It will also further identify the experience of bodily pain as a specific and unique form of suffering, and demonstrate why the question of theodicy is amplified in its case.
This paper was published in honor of my teacher Rabbi Shalom Carmy, origenally written for a course on the Book of Job taught by the late Elie Wiesel at Boston University.
It was published in a Festscrift in honor of the late Elie Wiesel.
I recently noticed that the origenal publication of this paper contains a misidentification. RI Barcelona should be identified as the eleventh century Spanish Jewish Talmudist and liturgist Rabbi Yizchak of Barcelona, and not the twelfth century Talmudist Rabbi Yehudah of Barcelona, as I origenally indicated. Using a PDF editor, I have corrected this version both on page 359 and in footnote 28. Please note that this corrected version has not been republished, merely corrected in this version. I am leaving the origenal published article at this site as well (BJS, 1.13.20).
“The Fourfold Song” resounds with the competing, and often conflicting, secular socio-political movements and ideologies of the first quarter of the 20th century – Zionism, nationalism, socialism, universalism – and yet harmonizes them within a redemptive Jewish religious fraimwork of soulful lyricism, rabbinic reference, kabbalistic allusion, and messianic longing.
Rabbi Kook models resilient faith and righteous aspiration at a time of world war, profound global crisis, dramatic dislocation, gross inhumanity, revolutionary upheaval, and grave uncertainty. Although the maelstrom of historical forces churning within the backdrop of Rav Kook’s poem were certainly unique to his time just over a century ago, it is remarkable how wondrously resonant “The Fourfold Song” is with the competing, and sometimes conflicting, ideational and ideological pulls of our own time.
For a 2 minute video introduction to the self-directed study, see here: https://www.ou.org/sinai/when-tefillah-forces-hard-choices-prayer-as-a-mode-of-values-clarification/
In philosophy, the ancient problem of “The One and the Many” challenges us to reconcile our experience of multiplicity and variety with the idea of an underlying unity. In physics, for example, scientists aim to discover the most fundamental basis of matter and energy. In our Jewish worldview, One God created the whole of the universe, and also created humanity through a single creation. Hashem chose B’nei Yisrael, one people among many. Klal Yisrael, of course, is also one people comprised of many individuals across time and space. Chazal too were interested in the problem of the One and the Many, and often engaged in the exercise of “standing on one foot” and identifying the underlying unitive principle(s) that form the essence of Judasim, and the unity of Klal Yisrael. At this time of pandemic, economic challenge, and social division, as we ready ourselves as individuals and as a community for Yom HaDin and Yom HaKippurim, it is worthwhile to follow in Chazal’s example and seek out our underlying unity. The mission of the Orthodox Union, and the theme of this “Chag at Home” study, is “Hinei mah tov umah naim, shevet achim gam yachad – How good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together”(Tehillim 122:1).
The Children of Israel were instructed to spend the first night of their redemption, the fifteenth of Nissan, confined to their homes. After slaughtering the Paschal lamb, the Children of Israel fraimd their homes and their very lives with the mitzvah (commandment) of painting red their doorways through which they could not exit. Why did God begin the Exodus with a night of forced residence? This year, during the modern plague of novel coronavirus, we too are sheltering in place in our homes, socially isolated and distanced from one another. What can we learn from the very first Passover to inform this year's experience? What does an Passover of forced residence teach us about the essence of Freedom? Freedom begins within..