Cain and Abel’s Day In Court: What The World’s First Murder Can Teach Us About Dispensing Justice And Injustice – Rabbi Dan Ornstein

EVENT CO-SPONSORED BY:
Beth El Phoenix

ABOUT THE EVENT:

Cain and Abel is a foundational story about sibling rivalry and fraternal responsibility, but in the hands of rabbinic tradition, it’s also a powerful “script” for understanding the moral basis of law and justice. We’ll re-read this great Torah narrative using classic mishnaic and midrashic interpretations that seek to clarify the enduring values lying just beneath the surface of the Torah’s laws about dispensing justice.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dan Ornstein is the rabbi of Congregation Ohav Shalom and a writer living with his family in Albany, New York.  He also teaches Judaic Studies in the middle school of the Hebrew Academy of The Capital District.  Rabbi Ornstein is the author of Cain v. Abel: A Jewish Courtroom Drama (The Jewish Publication Society 2020).  He blogs at the Times Of Israel, and  contributes essays to WAMC Northeast Public Radio, The Jerusalem Post, and The Jewish Forward.  He is a contributor to the multi-volume Mesorah Matrix book series on Judaism and a number of other print and online journals.  He and his wife, Marian Alexander, are the proud parents of Joseph, Shulamit and Vered.