Daniel Sperber

This article is about the Israeli rabbi. For the French social and cognitive scientist, see Dan Sperber.

Daniel Sperber

Daniel Sperber (Hebrew: דניאל שפרבר) is a British-born Israeli academic and rabbi. He is a professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and an expert in classical philology, history of Jewish customs, Jewish art history, Jewish education and Talmudic studies.

Biography

Daniel Sperber was born on November 4, 1940 in Gwrych Castle, Wales. He studied for rabbinical ordination at Yeshivat Kol Torah in Israel, earned a doctorate from University College, London in the departments of Ancient History and Hebrew Studies.

He is married to Phyllis (Hannah) Magnus, a couples therapist, originally of Highland Park, Illinois. They have ten children. One of their daughters, Abigail, is the founder of Bat Kol, a Jewish religious lesbian group.

Academic and rabbinical career

He is the Milan Roven professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he is also the President of the Ludwig and Erica Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies. He also serves as rabbi of Menachem Zion Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. In 2010, Rabbi Sperber accepted an appointment as honorary Chancellor of the Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School in Toronto.

Sperber is the author of Minhagei Yisrael: Origins and History on the character and evolution of Jewish customs. He has written extensively on many issues regarding how Jewish law can and has evolved. This includes a call for a greater inclusion of women in certain ritual services, including ordination.

He is also a critic of how certain halachic rules have become too strict in recent years. Regarding kitniyot, he has said, "The attitude in the last few decades has changed and become stricter to the point of absurdity," pointing out that non-kitniyot items have been added to the list, including "cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil and even hemp."

Sperber explains his rationale for allowing a greater role for women in Orthodox practice: "The first is that in the same way it is forbidden to permit that which is forbidden, it’s also forbidden to forbid that which is permitted. The second is that it is not forbidden to permit that which is permitted, even if it wasn’t practiced in the past, because halakha is dynamic and when cultural circumstances change, one has to face up to these changes and accommodate them. The third principle is that if you can find a position of leniency, you should do so. So when things are permitted, they should be encouraged."

Awards

In 1992, Sperber won the Israel Prize, for Jewish studies.

Published work

• Minhagei Yisrael: Origins and History. Mossad Harav Kook, 1998–2007, 8 vol..
• Masekhet Derekh erets zuṭa u-Fereḳ ha-shalom (3rd Edition) [in Hebrew], 1994. OCLC 31267940
• Magic and Folklore in Rabbinic Literature, Bar-Ilan University Press, 1994. ISBN 965-226-165-3
• Great is Peace, Jerusalem, 1979. OCLC 9368592
• Roman Palestine 200-400: Money and Prices, Bar-Ilan University Press, 1974; second edition with supplement 1991 . ISBN 965-226-147-5
• Nautica Talmudica, Bar-Ilan University Press and E.J. Brill, 1986. ISBN 90-04-08249-2
• A Commentary on Derech Eretz Zuta Chapters 5-8, Bar-Ilan University Press, 1990. OCLC 10107498
• Essays on Greek and Latin in the Mishna, Talmud and midrashic 1982
• Nautica in Talmudic Palestine. Mediterranean History Review, vol. 15, 2001
• Paralysis in Contemporary Halakhah? Tradition 36:3 (Fall 2002), 1-13.
• Tarbut Homrit Be'eretz Yisrael Beyemai Hatalmud (Material Culture in Eretz-Israel during the Talmudic Period), Vol. 2, Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi & Bar Ilan University
• The Path of Halacha, Women Reading the Torah: A Case of Pesika Policy, Rubin Mass, Jerusalem, 2007 (Hebrew)
• The Jewish Life Cycle: Custom, Lore and Iconography—Jewish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave (Oxford UP and Bar-Ilan UP, Aug. 2008)
• Why Jews Do What They Do: The History of Jewish Customs Throughout the Cycle of the Jewish Year by Daniel Sperber and Yaakov Elman, (KTAV, Jan 1999).
• Women and Men in Communal Prayer: Halakhic Perspectives by Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber, Rabbi Mendel Shapiro, Professor Eliav Shochetman and Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin, (KTAV, Mar 10, 2010).
• Contributor to the Talmud El Am on Kiddushin.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients

External sources

• Erica and Ludwig Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies
• Sherman Lectures, University of Manchester, 2004
• Sperber, D., "Congregational Dignity and Human Dignity: Women and Public Torah Reading” (pdf) Edah 3:2, 2002
• Bar-Ilan University Talmud Department
• Sperber, D. "'Friendly' Pesaq and the 'Friendly' Poseq" (pdf) Edah 5:2, 2006
• Edah, Daniel Sperber speaker information