Zohar, Z: Rabbinic Creativity in the Modern Middle East

Zvi Zohar is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Sephardic Law and Ethics at Bar Ilan University, where he teaches in the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Jewish Studies. At the Shalom Hartman Institute, Prof. Zohar heads the Alan A. and Loraine Fischer Family Center for Contemporary Halakha. He has published over 60 scholarly articles in Hebrew, English and French, as well as several book-length studies in Hebrew, including: Tradition and Change: Halakhic Responses of Middle Eastern Rabbis to Legal and Technological Change; The Luminous Face of the East - Studies in the Legal and Religious Thought of Sephardic Rabbis of the Middle East; and A Socio-Cultural Drama in Aleppo in the French Mandatory Period. His previous publication with Continuum [written with Avi Sagi] is Transforming Identity, on the history and development of Judaic norms concerning conversion.

An exploration of central aspects of Sephardic-Mizrahi rabbinic creativity in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria and Egypt from 1850 to 1950).

An exploration of central aspects of Sephardic-Mizrahi rabbinic creativity in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria and Egypt from 1850 to 1950).

Introduction 1. New Horizons - Aspects of the Halakhic Creativity of Rabbi 'Abdallah Somekh 2. Iraqi Rabbis and Ashkenazic Halakhic Literature 3. The Sephardic Halakhic Ethos according to Iraqi Rabbinic Leaders 4. Rabbinic Scholars of Aleppo in the Modern Era: Conservatism as a Core Cultural-Religious Value 5. Rabbi Yitzhak Dayyan: A "Maskil" in Aleppo 6. "A Seal of Truth Which I Have Sought and Loved With All My Being": Aspects of the Halakhic and Religious World of Rabbi Shaul-Matloub 'Abadi 7. "There is none like this Arabic language upon the Earth."The Arabic Language and Oriental Culture through the Eyes of Rabbi Israel Moshe Hazan 8. Rabbinic Responses to transformations in the social life of Egyptian Jews 9. The Synagogue - Changes and Trends 10. Halakha, Suicide and Social Policy 11. Rabbanite-Karaite Intermarriage in Twentieth-Century Egyptian Halakha 12. Freedom Engraved on the Tablets General Bibliographic List Rabbinic Works Cited Index