This series is sponsored by Unpacking Israeli History.

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Elli Fischer— a writer, translator, and editor—about the relationship between Jewish law and the Jewish state.

For almost 2,000 years, we were able to maintain a system of Jewish law without the convenience of a homeland. Yet now, when we have our own state, Jewish law seems more difficult and complicated to implement than ever.

In this episode we discuss:

• What is the effect of halacha on the Jewish state and the effect of the Jewish state on halacha?
• How can halacha and society be integrated in Israel?
• What is it about the nature of halacha that puts it outside the domain of the current systems of government?

Tune in to hear a conversation about the role of Jewish religion in the Israeli government.

Interview begins at 19:27.

R. Elli Fischer is an independent writer, translator, and rabbi. Previously, he was the OU-JLIC rabbi and campus educator at the University of Maryland. He holds BA and MS degrees from Yeshiva University, rabbinical ordination from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and is working toward a doctorate in Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. He is a founding editor of The Lehrhaus, a web magazine of contemporary Jewish thought. His original writing on religion and politics in Israel, the interplay between legal and nonlegal elements of the Talmud, Jewish religious culture, and Central European Jewish History have been widely published. He is the translator of By Faith Alone: The Story of R. Yehuda Amital and the editor of R. Eliezer Melamed’s Peninei Halakha series in English.

References:

Ezekiel
The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel by Alexander Kaye
Halakha and the Challenge of Israeli Sovereignty by Asaf Yedidya
Isaiah
Sefer Lev ha-Ivri by Rabbi Akiva Joseph Schlesinger
“Ivri Anochi” by Benny Friedman
Rabbi Elli Fischer's translation of Peninei Halakha
State of Halakha: Israel's History in Jewish Law by Aviad Tabory
The Politics of Torah: The Jewish Political Tradition and the Founding of Agudat Israel by Alan L. Mittleman