Yasher Koach—I’m a fan! As an Orthodox Jew myself I’ve been collecting some EA-relevant halakhic/biblical texts on this “source sheet” to eventually get back around to. It needs a lot of fleshing out, not to mention much clearer structure; perhaps this project will be the kick in the pants I’ve needed.
I’m personally still grappling with the same sorts of tension referenced in Raffi’s post (linked above). Though I think a number of halakhic texts align quite neatly with an EA direction, a very well-known / internalized notion in the Orthodox Jewish world is the concept of aniyei ircha kodmim—the poor of your city come first i.e., proximity matters, which of course is… less well-aligned to EA thinking.
Given that, I think there’s particular value in shining a light on some of those halakhic sources which emphasize the relative weighting of need and/or imperative to save lives to help foster more critical thinking among Orthodox Jews with regard to their giving, careers, volunteering etc. Hopeful that can be folded into this project!
Thanks Jeremy! Great minds think alike—I’ve got a collection of sources I’ve been compiling on this topic as well and we’ve hit a lot of the same ones. Luckily there are plenty of arguments on all sides of just about every issue addressed in the talmud; so no doubt the concept of helping your community first is present, so too is the preeminent importance of saving a life over other values (pikuach nefesh); see alsoMishneh Sanhedrin 4, etc,. and other concepts that align more with EA principles. Anyway—I’ll shoot you a message and I’d love to discuss further!
Hi Jeremy—I am going through a similar process currently and would love to connect and see if there may be ways to combine efforts / share learnings. I wrote more about my project here.
Yasher Koach—I’m a fan! As an Orthodox Jew myself I’ve been collecting some EA-relevant halakhic/biblical texts on this “source sheet” to eventually get back around to. It needs a lot of fleshing out, not to mention much clearer structure; perhaps this project will be the kick in the pants I’ve needed.
I’m personally still grappling with the same sorts of tension referenced in Raffi’s post (linked above). Though I think a number of halakhic texts align quite neatly with an EA direction, a very well-known / internalized notion in the Orthodox Jewish world is the concept of aniyei ircha kodmim—the poor of your city come first i.e., proximity matters, which of course is… less well-aligned to EA thinking.
Given that, I think there’s particular value in shining a light on some of those halakhic sources which emphasize the relative weighting of need and/or imperative to save lives to help foster more critical thinking among Orthodox Jews with regard to their giving, careers, volunteering etc. Hopeful that can be folded into this project!
Thanks Jeremy! Great minds think alike—I’ve got a collection of sources I’ve been compiling on this topic as well and we’ve hit a lot of the same ones. Luckily there are plenty of arguments on all sides of just about every issue addressed in the talmud; so no doubt the concept of helping your community first is present, so too is the preeminent importance of saving a life over other values (pikuach nefesh); see also Mishneh Sanhedrin 4, etc,. and other concepts that align more with EA principles. Anyway—I’ll shoot you a message and I’d love to discuss further!
Hi Jeremy—I am going through a similar process currently and would love to connect and see if there may be ways to combine efforts / share learnings. I wrote more about my project here.