As a member of the Association of Scholars of the Maghreb in the Land of Israel, which issued the now-famous Zoom-seder ruling, I am very grateful to Chaim Saiman for devoting his scholarly attentions to it, and for his careful analysis. In my response, I would like to focus my attention on the distinctively Sephardi and North African methods of legal decision-making that lay behind the ruling. In doing so, I not only wish to offer a better understanding of the mindset behind it, but also to provide a window into a philosophy of halakhah (Jewish law) that is different from the conventional Ashkenazi conceptions that inform Saiman’s essay.
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More about: Halakhah, Passover, Religion & Holidays, Seder, Sephardim, Zoom Seder