When the printing press arrived in the Jewish world, rabbis asked: Can a machine-printed text be sacred? Centuries later, when electricity transformed daily life, they debated whether electric lights could fulfill mitzvot, and whether they could be used on Shabbat. This class examines rabbinic responses to two major technological revolutions, exploring the ways that halakhic authorities grappled with unprecedented change.
Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld is the Chief Learning Officer at Sefaria and a fellow at The Hartman Institute of North America.Her experience includes serving as Director of Education at the Center for Jewish Life – Hillel at Princeton University as part of the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, as well as serving as faculty at the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago and at the Drisha Institute in New York. She studied Talmud and Jewish Law at various institutions of Jewish learning in Israel and America including Midreshet Lindenbaum, Drisha, Nishmat, and Beit Morasha and speaks on various Jewish topics at synagogues, schools, and university communities. She lives in Chicago with her husband and their five children.
