Exploring Parameters of Halachah for our Time

Originally published on 6/1/11, 8:12 pm.
Certainly we see changes in Halachah towards Humrot. For example, who grew up with a Fleishig Oven? Thus leaving Traditional Halachah behind poses risks of going-out-of-bounds
Yet the alternative presented by the Left of "Halachic Fundamentalism" is no solution either. How can we address the shifts in technology? Do we become Luddites in order to enshrine a "status quo we can believe in"?

Here are some topics I'd like to address over the next few weeks

1. Intellectual Property as addressed by Torah
2. Microwave Cooking
3. Brain Stem Death
4. New Behaviours in the realm of Human Sexuality
5. Bicycles on Yom Tov

The common thread is how to apply or to expand existing Torah principles without doing violence to Halachah or even Hashqafah? Some principles may fall outside strict Halachic guidelines but well within Aggadic Values.
A Corollary to this is exploring any Naffqa Minah between expanding old existing Halachah for new situations vs. Brand new Social Policy Legislation.

Shalom,
RRW