9:36 PM
Gil Student
There is a new issue of Tradition 43:1 (Spring 2010). This is a blockbuster issue in which every article is fascinating and important.
- Editor's Note: A Peshat in the Dark: Reflections on the Age of Cary Grant by R. Shalom Carmy - Very important critique of undisciplined peshat and dismissal of tradition.
- Self-Dealing in the Not-For-Profit Board Room: An Inquiry into a Trustee's Multi-Faceted Halakhic Identity by R. A. Yehudah Warburg - An analysis of the obligations of board members in the wake of Madoff. In which halakhic category is a board member -- an apotropus or a shali'ach? And the halakhic ramifications.
- On Rationalizing Biblical Tum'a by R. Shlomo Spiro - A creative interpetation: impurity reflects a deviation from the Edenic ideal. I question how well it works on all cases but this is a worthy and original approach.
- On the Methodology of Jewish Medical Ethics by Dr. Alan Jotkowitz - A study of the general approaches to Jewish medical ethics, informed from general trends in medical ethics. Recognition of these differing approaches can help maintaining consistency and recognizing new directions.
- Short Selling and Jewish Law by R. Dr. Aaron Levine - Advocates the value of short selling in maintaining market equilibrium but prohibits naked shorts. Prohibits short selling your competitor's stock (I wonder if you can sell short an offshore competitor's stock because it does not pay tax). Also points out the rabbinic violation in inter-Jewish shorts but shows how to avoid the problem.
- Sacrificing the Few to Save the Many by R. J. David Bleich - Can you shoot down a plane with innocent passengers to prevent terrorists from using the plane as a weapon? Proof after complex proof that the answer is no.
- Communications - Dr. Joel Wolowelsky has to point out again that he was defending and not denying the Flood story (see this post: link). Dr. Russel Jay Hendel wonders why Dr. Nathan Aviezer doesn't mention his allegorical interpretation of the 6 days of Creation as a way of reconciling Torah and science.
