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Teaching a course on ‘Medicine and Halacha’ by a secular person

שו”תCategory: generalTeaching a course on ‘Medicine and Halacha’ by a secular person
asked 3 years ago

Hello Rabbi,
In nursing (medical nurse) study tracks intended for religious students, there is a course called ‘Medicine and Halacha’ (nursing on the Sabbath, abortions and organ donation, etc.).
Is there any obstacle to the lesson being delivered by someone who is knowledgeable in the subject, but is not legally obligated to do so?
If there is a prohibition against this, does excluding him from teaching the lesson constitute discrimination (legal or moral)?

thanks!


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 3 years ago
Questions regarding legality should be directed to lawyers. With regard to morality, there is a concern that although he is knowledgeable, he may not present the correct picture for various reasons. Otherwise, there is no reason for him to teach. If there is such a concern, then there is no discrimination here. Beyond that, the material being taught is not mathematics and there is room for judgment. Someone who is not committed to halakhic law cannot teach halakhic judgment.

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טירגיץ replied 3 years ago

“One who is not bound by Halacha cannot teach Halacha judgment”. Why? [Is it because one who is not bound by Halacha is prone to failure in weighing Halacha judgment. Or because the teacher's Halacha judgment cannot be examined (why is it impossible, and what does it matter)]

מיכי replied 3 years ago

Because it is prone to failure. Commitment to halakhic values influences interpretive judgment, which consists of reading and understanding.

טירגיץ replied 3 years ago

It turns out that someone who learns Torah from another's mouth can learn reasoning from him, but it is impossible to learn Torah discernment from him. (This is consistent with the fact that Rabbi Yochanan is the one who claims the angel of the covenant to learn Torah from him, and he, in his general halakhic ruling, does not rule like Rabbi Meir in front of each of his friends. Furthermore, discernment is learned from him.)

ישראל replied 3 years ago

Thank you Rabbi.

Basically, the material is defined, there are presentations that describe different cases and different halakhic solutions, the lecturer is supposed to expand on what is written in the presentation, and not solve suspicious cases that require new judgment.
Do you also see a problem in a lecturer who does not observe Torah and mitzvot?

By the way, what will happen in the case of a lecturer who is a datla”sh (this is not the case), can he teach as someone who knows the umbrella, or not?

מיכי Staff replied 3 years ago

If so, then there doesn't seem to be a problem. In any case, what you learn at university is not halachically binding.

חיים replied 3 years ago

It's a bit strange to hear you say: "What you learn at university is not halakhically binding." After all, in your opinion, what a rabbi says is not binding either, he is at most sharing his knowledge, and what is binding is the halakhic law and not the rabbi's ruling.
So what is the difference between a lecture by a rabbi and a lecture by a university lecturer?

מיכי replied 3 years ago

If the questioner were a bar, the question would not arise. Since he is not, he will probably rely on what he has learned (not as a formal authority but as knowledge from an expert). That is the discussion. The halachic knowledge you learned at university cannot be relied upon in practice.

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