A Rabbinic Debate about Slavery on the Eve of the Civil War

with Dr. Michah Gottlieb, New York University

As civil war loomed, President James Buchanan designated January 4, 1861 as a national day for fasting and prayer. That day Rabbi Morris Raphall of Congegration B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan gave a sermon arguing that a civil war should not be waged over slavery since slavery was a biblically sanctioned institution. The Baltimore Rabbi David Einhorn responded with an essay excoriating Raphall for his terrible misunderstanding of the Bible. Does the Bible consider slavery legitimate? In this session, we’ll explore a  rabbinic debate over this question.

Michah Gottlieb is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU. An expert on modern Jewish thought and philosophy, his current research centers on musar and the practice of ethical self-development. He is author of several books and numerous articles including most recently, The Jewish Reformation: Bible Translation and Middle-Class German Judaism as Spiritual Enterprise (Oxford, 2021).

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