Rabbi Michael Leo SamuelThe principle of annulment for failed marriages has been used throughout Jewish history since the days of Late Antiquity.
In one Responsa of the Rashbam, he writes:
The correct rationale for all Talmudic statements that ?the Rabbis annul this marriage? is that the court has the authority to expropriate the money used to effect the marriage, since the law recognizes the principle of hefker ...
Continue ReadingCategories: Current Events, ethics, Halacha, Jewish customs
Tags: agunah, Halacha and ethics, women's rights
The Divine Feminine?The Theology of Immanence
History has shown us time and time again how God-images impact the way a religious culture treats its female members. Cultures ruled by a misogynistic conception of the Divine, cannot help but treat its women in a barbarous manner. Indeed, a society that hates its women becomes incapable of loving anything else. Conversely, a religious culture that respects and values the maternal aspects of the Divine Feminine produces a community of believers where life ...
Continue ReadingWhat we can we do to bring civility back to faith, and remove its thorn of toxicity? Decades ahead of his time, the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber argued that one of the great spiritual challenges of our time is the process of purging our faith of all imagery that portrays the Divine as either vindictive or abusive. In his short but insightful ...
Posted by: Rabbi Michael Samuel
As the 11th century Jewish philosopher Judah HaLevi observed in his Kuzari, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, is intimately concerned about the life of humankind.
© Copyright 2013 Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
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