Emotions in Halakhah
Victoria Sutton
Rabbanit Victoria Sutton is on the Judaic studies faculty at the Heschel School and has taught in the Drisha High School Summer Program. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Education and Community Engagement at Congregation Beth Israel, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley. She was ordained through Yeshivat Maharat in 2014. A graduate of Barnard College, with a BA in Biological Sciences, she also holds a Grand Diploma in Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute. Victoria sat on the board of Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay and was involved with community organizations in New York City focusing on homelessness, literacy, sexual assault and domestic violence.
The Jewish legal tradition has much to say about how we are to act. But what about how we are to feel? Do emotional states, in and of themselves, have significance in halakha? In this course, we will explore this question, examining some common human emotions such as (e.g. joy and shame) in light of halakhic sources drawn from the Talmud through the responsa literature. We will also consider somewhat more elusive emotional states that have implications in Jewish law, such as oneg (pleasure), tza’ar (pain) and yishuv da’at (peace of mind).