Divine Will and Human Experience: Explorations of the Halakhic System and Its Values

Wallace Stevens wrote that poetry is generated by the pressure of reality on imagination. Along the same lines, practical halakhah, at its best, is generated by the pressure of reality on the Torah. "Divine Will and Human Experience" illuminates every stage of that process in a wide variety of contexts and genres. Readers will find the halakhot of art and the art of halakhah. In this book, Rabbi Klapper discusses an authoritative responsum, a psak that failed, an explanation of how a beit din practice became oppressive, and an explanation of how rabbinic powerlessness enables oppression. This book is for everyone who wants to understand halakhah deeply and share responsibility for the Torah's role in constructing and governing personal and communal religious lives.