Visit to San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum: ‘Are We There Yet?’ Audiobook

The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco recently offered and continues to offer a unique show that explores (in audio alone) a question with a question: “Are We There Yet?” In an effort to find out about this uniquely special, creative museum, which is known in San Francisco but not even as far away as Los Angeles, let alone the rest of the world, this writer asked a Jewish law legal expert what is meant by asking a question with a question. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, of Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, who is an adjunct teacher, made these remarks (paraphrased):

The Talmud has been a kind of constitution of Jewish living…and the Talmud is neither a code nor a commentary on the Bible. It is a combination of both, including lots of argumentation in support of different views. Very often in the Talmud, you may get a question answered with a question. Is “A” not true; what do you think?

There are good questions and not so good questions. When someone asks a question, Talmud study requires that everything be a good question, not a shot in the dark – a way of questioning the seriousness of a question. Answering a question with a question is meant as an analysis of very sophisticated legal thinking.

Atlanta Jewish Life magazine called the rabbi “the go-to guy for the media…looking for a sane Orthodox voice for comment”. His reasoned approach to issues of faith and life qualify him to be the director of interfaith affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and of Project Next Step at Yeshiva of Los Angeles. He holds the Sydney M. Irmas chair in Jewish law and ethics at Loyola Law School and serves as a faculty member at Yeshiva of Los Angeles in its secondary education program. [Answering a question with a question is] meant as an analysis of very sophisticated legal thinking.

In Orthodox life, Talmud study is important and usually starts at an early age.