Frisch Halacha Department Chair Rabbi Asher Bush’s second volume of halachic responsa, “Sho’el B’Shlomo,” is fresh off the OU Press. The sefer deals with a wide range of contemporary questions, many on topics to do with health and medicine in the realms of Shabbat, holidays, kashrut, and mourning, as well as other areas of life. Many are questions that have not been specifically written about before, and go in a variety of directions. Some examples: How to give someone in a wheelchair an aliyah? Can a therapy dog be used on Shabbat? When does aveilut start when participating via phone/skype for a funeral in another country? What can someone do on Chanukah if they and their entire family are flying all night long? Some topics may even be viewed as controversial. For example, does the mitzvah of pidyon shevu’im (redeeming captives) apply also to criminals?
“One of the most beautiful things is that all sorts of people ask questions,” said Rabbi Bush. “They really care about the Torah—about doing it right and following it. This is about people who have gone beyond [established] custom, to ask real questions that can affect people on a broader basis.”
Rabbi Bush’s methodology involves analyzing each topic from its earliest sources in the Mishna and Gemara, tracing it through the rishonim and various poskim through our own time. Rabbi Bush emphasized that answering such questions properly requires not just knowledge, but also “shimush talmidei chachamim,” a “feel” for the issue gained from experience interacting with other people, including, importantly, one’s teachers. In Rabbi Bush’s case, those teachers are Rabbi Hershel Schachter and Rabbi Mordechai Willig, who both gave their haskamot for the sefer, as well as his group of friends, colleagues and associates who offered constructive feedback.
Rabbi Bush is also the author of a source and workbook for Frisch’s medical ethics curriculum. “The students stimulate a lot of interesting questions and conversations, and some of these topics [in the sefer] we’ll talk about in class,” said Rabbi Bush. In class, his goal is “to take people through the sources so they can understand and appreciate how the halacha applies to the real world—not just to small corners but to every aspect of their lives.”
“Sho’el B’Shlomo” is titled in honor of Rabbi Bush’s father as well as former Frisch faculty member Rabbi Shlomo Kahn, both of blessed memory. Those interested in obtaining a copy of the sefer should contact [email protected].
