J. David Bleich
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Rabbi Dr. J. (Judah) David Bleich (born 1936) is an authority on Jewish law and ethics and bioethics. He is a professor of Talmud (Rosh Yeshiva) at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University, as well as head of its postgraduate institute for the study of Talmudic jurisprudence and family law. (His official position is called the "Herbert and Florence Tenzer Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics.") He also teaches at Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School. He grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, the son of a rabbi. He attended public elementary school and received private tutoring on Jewish subjects. He has commented that he would be the only boy in his class to show up in school during deer hunting season. He then attended Torah VoDaath and Beth Medrash Elyon, Monsey.
His wife, Judith, is a professor of Jewish history at Touro College. They have three children together.
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[edit] Academic Credentials
Rabbi Bleich is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a postdoctoral fellow at the Hastings Center, fellow of the Academy of Jewish Philosophy, and a member of the Governor’s Commission on Life and the Law.
Degree: B.A., Brooklyn College of the City University of New York; M.A., Columbia University; Ph.D., New York University; Ordination, Yeshiva Torah VoDaat, New York; Ordination Yadin Yadin, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Mendel Zaks.
[edit] Publications
Rabbi Bleich is the author of Jewish Bioethics (a collection of essays, which he coedited with Fred Rosner); With Perfect Faith: Foundations of Jewish Belief; Contemporary Halakhic Problems (five volumes); Time of Death in Jewish Law; and Judaism and Healing. He has written extensively on the applications of Jewish law to contemporary social issues and on the interface of Jewish law and the American legal system.
[edit] The Yorkville Synagogue
Rabbi Bleich has been the rabbi (Jewish spiritual leader) of the Yorkville Synagogue, located in Manhattan on 352 E 78 St. and 1st Ave., for over forty years. He teaches two hour-long Talmud classes on Saturday (Shabbos), before the morning service (Shacharit) and afternoon service (Mincha).
Once every two or three weeks, Rabbi Bleich teaches an hour-long class on a Jewish halakhic or philosophical issue, in a program called "Kiddush, Cholent and Learning." The topic usually is related to the subject matter of the weekly Torah portion. (For example, Rabbi Bleich discussed the seven Noahide Laws on the Shabbat in 2005 when Genesis chapter 34, the story of Dinah's abduction and rescue, was read. Medieval commentators have discussed whether the actions of Shimon and Levi, and the people of Shekhem, were consistent with the Noahide Laws.) Rabbi Bleich distributes photocopied source sheets, including excerpts from the Talmud, medieval commentators on the Bible and Talmud, medieval and modern responsa, and some modern English-language scientists, philosophers, and news reporters. These interdisciplinary Torah lectures, sweeping across a wide historical range of ideas, provide a rare opportunity for Torah students and reflect the brilliance of Rabbi Bleich's mind.
[edit] External links
- Rabbi Bleich's recorded Torah lectures
- http://www.yutorah.org/roshei_yeshiva.cfm
- Yorkville Synagogue
| Rabbis at Yeshiva University |
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| Chancellor: Norman Lamm
Dean: Zevulun Charlop Roshei Yeshiva: Elchanan Adler • Eliyahu Ben-Chaim • J. David Bleich • Yitzchok Cohen • Meir Goldwicht • David Hirsch • Dovid Horowitz • Aharon Kahn • Aharon Lichtenstein • Yaakov Neuburger • Hershel Reichman • Michael Rosensweig • Yonason Sacks • Hershel Schachter • Eli Baruch Shulman • Baruch Simon • Zvi Sobolofsky • Moshe Tendler • Mayer Twersky • Jeremy Wieder • Mordechai Willig • Gershon Yankelewitz Former Roshei Yeshiva: Nisson Alpert • Yosef Leib Arnest • Samuel Belkin • Ahron Dovid Burack • Solomon Drillman • Michael Katz • Shlomo Nosson Kotler • Dovid Lifshitz • Shlomo Polachek • Moshe Ahron Poleyeff • Elazar Meir Preil • Bernard Revel • Shimon Shkop • Ahron Soloveichik • Joseph B. Soloveitchik • Moshe Soloveichik • Ephraim M. Steinberg • Shalom Elchanan Yaffe • Mendel Zaks |
