In the area of Jewish medical ethics brain death is the topic which just will not die. No other rabbinic figure’s opinion has factored in quite so significantly on the subject as R. Moshe Feinstein zt”l. However his position has been intensely debated over the years. In a recent piece of research which surfaces some relevant new points of evidence, Dr. Noam Stadlan offers a re-understanding of R. Feinstein’s ruling, with various implications for end-of-life care and organ donation. In this episode of the Tradition Podcast, Stadlan joins our editor, Jeffrey Saks, to discuss the article, as well as larger trends in the field of Jewish medical ethics, the partnership that should exist between physicians and medical research on one hand with poskim on the other, and why our readers are perennially interested in the field of medical halakha.

The Tradition Podcast discusses Gidon Rothstein’s thoughtful and sensitive review of Elisha Aviner’s “Dor Tahpukhot” and its advice to parents whose children have left the fold. Joining Jeffrey Saks to discuss the issue, Rothstein considers the book’s very specifically Israeli focus, and how its lessons might be adapted – or not – for an American audience.