Course Overview

Listen in on the surprising, practical questions your ancestors asked rabbis across Jewish history.

 Join this six-session course to discover the little-known world of rabbinic responsa, a vast archive of the real-life questions of ethics and practice Jews asked across history—and the scholarly answers rabbis wrote.

Algiers is under siege: May I pray in a bathhouse? The Inquisition is watching: How will I celebrate Passover? Seventeen Jews are held hostage in faraway Regensburg after a blood libel: Must I help pay their ransom

See what enables Jewish tradition to offer relevant guidance in a rapidly changing world—and come face-to-face with raw Jewish history. 

(If you don’t know what a “rabbinic responsa” is, you’ll fit right in.)

This course will satisfy the continuing education (CLE) requirements of lawyers and other legal professionals. 


Coming Winter 2026

Your Registration

Check out the rest of this year’s JLI courses:

The Kabbalah of Meaning
Fall 2025

For All Humankind
Spring 2026