Since the days of the Mishna 1800 years ago, whenever Jews have had a serious ethical or legal problem, they have sent a written question to the rabbi of their choice who has written a detailed reply based upon the Bible, the Babylonian Talmud, commentaries to the Talmud and codes of Jewish law. These questions and answers are called responsa. There are over 9,000 volumes of responsa containing over 300,000 individual responsa.
This site features responsa written by Conservative/Masorti rabbis:
- Responsa in a Moment by Rabbi Professor David Golinkin.
- Six volumes of responsa written by the Va'ad Halakhah (Law Committee) of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel between 1985-1999.
- English Summaries of Volumes 1-6.
- The Responsa on this website were written by many different Conservative/Masorti rabbis over the course of many years on a wide variety of subjects in Jewish law. They contain the views of the rabbis who wrote them or endorsed them at the time they were written, and are not the opinions, today or in the past, of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies.
- In the future, unpublished responsa by Conservative/Masorti rabbis will be added.
