General Information
The Gruss Scholar-in-Residence will spend a year in full-time residence at NYU School of Law while researching and writing significant and publishable scholarship in an area related to Jewish law and/or the interaction between Jewish and American law. It is expected that at least one published article will result from the Scholar's year of residence; this article will be considered for publication in a working paper series of the Law School.
In addition, the Gruss Scholar will familiarize him/herself with the Gruss Library, so as to serve as a resource on its contents for members of the Law School community. The Scholar will supervise the continual updating and enriching of the Gruss Library and will act as the resident liaison between the library, the main Law School library and the rest of the Law School community. The Scholar will become fully integrated with the intellectual community of the Law School, regularly attending events of the School of Law, including the faculty colloquia and other similar events.
2024-2025 Gruss Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Elad Schlesinger
Elad Schlesinger studies Jewish and European history, Jewish law, and rabbinic cultures. His interests include the intellectual, cultural, and social history of European societies in the autumn of the Middle Ages and the modern era, the history of law in its social and cultural contexts, the history of knowledge and the book, and legal theory in a historical perspective. Elad completed his BA (philosophy) and MA (Jewish History and the MA honors program at the Mandel School in Humanities) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
His doctoral dissertation, "The Development of 'Decision Rules' and Mechanisms in Early Modern Rabbinic Discourse," completed at the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University, explores themes of halakhic dispute, epistemic uncertainty and doubt, legal decision-making, and textual canonization in early modern European Jewish cultures. Through the lenses of "decision rules" as a literary and paradigmatic phenomenon, the mechanization of rules and legal processes, decision-making procedures in their social and professional contexts, textual canonization, and geographic and spatial tenses, he demonstrates how these intertwined themes affect each other and fundamentally alter key concepts in Jewish and halakhic discourses from medieval to modern times. His research employs methods from intellectual and social history, the history of knowledge, and close reading and analysis of rabbinic texts.
Contact: es6759@nyu.edu
Research Title:
Halakhic Decision Rules and Normative Uncertainty in Early Modern Rabbinic Thinking
Research Synopsis:
In this research project, Dr. Schlesinger aims to expand upon themes explored in his doctoral dissertation, developing a broader thematic framework for understanding the evolution of decision-making rules in rabbinic discourse. Central to this investigation is the fundamental tension between discretionary judgment and mechanical rule application, which underlies several critical debates in halakhic literature.
The early modern period witnessed a series of conceptual shifts – intellectual, communal, and social – that led to the development of paradigmatic structures designed to create frameworks or mechanisms for halakhic ruling. Some of these structures, at least in an idyllic manner, sought to operate without relying on either "substantive" examination of previous halakhic and rabbinic literature or human discretion. This development marks a significant turning point in the perception of halakha, the conceptualization of uncertainties within halakhic knowledge, expectations placed on halakhic authorities, and the institutional-professional frameworks within which legal rulings are produced.
Dr. Schlesinger’s research aims to construct an intellectual and cultural history of the development of decision rules, contextualizing this evolution against both the pre-modern halakhic tradition and parallel developments in contemporary law, philosophy, and religion. This approach will illuminate the unique characteristics of halakhic decision-making while situating it within broader historical and cultural trends. By examining this crucial shift in legal reasoning and authority, this study will contribute to our understanding of Jewish legal history, the transformation of religious thought in the early modern period, and the broader intellectual history of decision-making processes in legal, religious, and philosophical contexts. This historical analysis may also offer insights relevant to contemporary debates about legal reasoning, religious authority, and decision-making processes in complex normative systems.
Previous Gruss Scholars-in-Residence
- Emmanuel Bloch
- Job Y. Jindo
- Hillel Mali
- Irit Offer Stark
- Adiel Zimran
- Debra Glasberg Gail
- Tamara Morsel-Eisenberg
- Shraga Bar-On
- Shivi Greenfield
- Ruth Kaniel Kara-Ivanov
- Job Y. Jindo
- Yehuda Septimus
- Rabbi Naftali Cohn
- Rabbi David Flatto
- Rabbi Dr. Gidon Rothstein