Tikkun Leil 2025

Printable version here.

10:45pm: Ari Daube: Held Over Our Heads: Mount Sinai, Umbrellas on Shabbat, and the Weight of Normative Practice

We will explore the Halachic debate over whether an umbrella may be used on Shabbat, and examine how contemporary intuition on its permissibility may be shaped more by social norms and an ingrained sense of prohibition than by a first-principles analysis of the Halachic sources—considering how this kind of bias, for better or worse, is an integral part of the religious experience.

11:30pm: S-I-R: Rabbi Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz: Between Sunset and Sunrise: The Rabbis After Dark

Sarit Kattan Gribetz is Associate Professor at Yale University, where she teaches in the Department of Religious Studies and the Program in Jewish Studies. She received her BA and PhD from Princeton University and smicha from Yeshivat Maharat. Her first book, Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism, received a National Jewish Book Award. She lives in Riverdale with her family.

12:45am: Hillel Jaffe: The Disappearance of the Ten Commandments

1:45am: Elliott Rabin: (Robert) Moses: The Components of Leadership

As described in Robert Caro's tome The Power Broker, Robert Moses, who nearly single-handedly shaped New York City into its modern form, provides an object lesson in the accumulation of power and exercise of leadership. Come explore themes of leadership in the original Moses, such as vision and aims, the sources of power, its exercise and constraints, legitimacy, reputation, administrative colleagues, relationship with the people, and more.

2:45am:  Rabbi Michael Rosenberg: Should We Permit the Lesser of Two Evils?

Sometimes we are faced with a choice between allowing something problematic in order to avoid a greater violation, or standing strong in our principles.
We will study a few cases, spanning halakhic history from the modern responsa, to consider the costs and benefits of both options.

3:45am: Sofia Freudenstein: The Fun Halakhic History of Waiting Between Meat and Milk

Ever found yourself scared to eat that last bit of shabbat dinner chicken leftovers in case some surprise ice cream arises? Are you confused why some people wait 1, or 3, or 5.5, or 6 hours between meat and milk? Join us in exploring the halakhic evolution of one of the most defining aspects (for the non-vegetarians and non-vegans) of halakhic living.

4:35am: Shavuot Morning Melodies w/Rav Steven