Ask the Rabbi: Women Rabbis Respond to Modern Halakhic Questions

This book is a collection of responsa written by Rabbis Monique Susskind Goldberg and Diana Villa, Research Fellows at the Center for Women in Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. It is the first volume of responsa ever written by two women rabbis. The approximately 90 responsa in this volume were selected from almost 600 responsa written to Jews and non-Jews from all over the world on the Ask the Rabbi feature of the Schechter Institute website between 2002-2010. The responsa in this volume deal with a wide range of topics including questions about the Bible, conversion, ethical dilemmas, intermarriage, kashrut, life cycle, Shabbat and festivals, theology and women.

Rabbi Monique Goldberg was ordained by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem. She contracted polio at the age of two and spent most of her life in a wheelchair. Rabbi Goldberg worked as a Research Fellow at the Center for Women in Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute. She co-wrote or co-edited ten books or periodicals.

Rabbi Diana Villa was born in Argentina and holds an M.A. degree in Jewish Philosophy at J.T.S., a degree in Psychology from Buenos Aires University and rabbinic ordination from the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary. Rabbi Villa lectured on Jewish philosophy and rabbinic literature at the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires for over eleven years. She is a senior researcher at the Center for Women in Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute and the co-author of Za akat Dalot - Halakhic Solutions for the Agunot of Our Time . Rabbi Villa is active is finding solutions for the agunot issue. She is currently a lecturer in Talmud and Jewish Law and coordinates the Mishlei program at The Schechter Rabbinical School.