Tag: od yosek chai yeshiva

• April 24, 2010

  Rabbinic Text Calling for Terror: What Can We Learn?

  This introduces a kind of literary authoritative text in Judaism called a ‘P’sak’. A P’sak is quite similar to an Islamic Fatwa. Remember way back in the day, just a few years ago, when everyone in the West became obsessed with Fatwas that were supportive of harming civilians? What has emerged is a parallel development in the Israeli Jewish world. There are indications of some pretty terrible things emerging in the shadows of the radical Christian community that also parallel this. Protestants, for example, when they get nasty, don’t make legal decisions for a variety of theological reasons, but they do start ‘praying’, like praying for a president’s death. But that is not our subject right now.

  A P’sak and a Fatwa  have another thing in common, they are not as authoritative as they look from the outside because so many people claim this authority. On the other hand, it …