Water Wears Away Stone: How Halakhah Shapes Us as Ethical Agents
Sarah Zager / January 2, 2020
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In this shiur we’ll explore how living within a halakhic framework can shape who we are as ethical agents. Can practicing halakhah make us more thoughtful, more caring, or more committed moral actors? What parts of our practices help or hinder this kind of ethical work? What do our communities need to look like for halakhah to not only guide our ethical conduct but also shape us as people? To address these questions, we’ll consider philosophical approaches to the meaning of the mitzvot of tefflin and mezuzah drawn from sources ranging from the Rambam to contemporary Jewish feminist thought.
Introduction by Rabbi David Silber
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Sarah Zager
Sarah Zager is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies and Philosophy at Yale University, where her research focuses on the influence of Judaism and Christianity on moral philosophy. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sarah earned an MA in Religion from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a BA from Williams College. She was awarded the Leo Baeck Fellowship for the study of German Jewry, and was a David Hartman Center Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She has also learned at Yeshivat Hadar. She has written for The Lehrhaus, JewSchool, The Journal of Jewish Ethics, and Nashim.
