As a rabbi or spiritual leader of your community, you are charged with overseeing various Jewish lifecyle events. At times, you will be the one to lead a joyous occasion such as a Bar Mitzvah or a wedding. The role of a rabbi is also to be there to visit sick congregants or students in a hospital. Likewise, people will turn to you asking halachic advice related to all fields of medicine. When it comes to major halachic issues, you might opt to turn to a posek for advice. But, a new book is now available that will help you and your congregants and students with many of the more common issues.
Rabbi Jason Weiner, senior rabbi and manager of the Spiritual Care Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, has just published a Guide to Traditional Jewish Observance in a Hospital. The book comes with approbations from many leading rabbis including: Rabbi Asher Weiss and Rabbi Yitzchok Weinberg, the Talner Rebbe. The halachos that appear in the book have been thoroughly reviewed by Rabbis Gershon Bess, Nachum Sauer, and Yosef Shusterman. This book is certain to come in handy and is worth downloading or bookmarking for future use.
To read more about Rabbi Weiner and how he masters the mitzvah of bikur cholim, check out this article that appeared in Ami Magazine about him here. For further rabbinic resources that we provide free of charge on the topic of Jewish Medical Ethics, see here. Also, check out our Online Books on Rabbinics and Halacha. If you are looking for additional resources on this or any other topic, please let us know and we’d be happy to put you in touch with the right resource!
Photo Credit: Alex E. Proimos