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East County News Service
December 23, 2016 (San Diego) — You’re invited to engage in a brain-twisting, mind-wrestling, hair-splitting experience as you explore modern situations and the complex dilemmas they give rise to while you seek solutions by examining original Talmudic texts.
Beginning Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 7:00 p.m., Rabbi Rafi Andrusier of San Carlos will offer a fascinating new six-session course from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) called The Dilemma: Modern Conundrums. Talmudic Debates. Your Solutions. Classes are located at Lomas Del Cerro Club Room (7255 Navajo Rd. San Diego).
In an example of one such conundrum, Tesla Motors is currently programming self-driving cars for instances when death is inevitable. Should they program the cars to swerve and avoid killing more pedestrians, but kill one whose life was previously not endangered? Should it favor the lives of pedestrians over passengers? Should it favor the lives of younger people over those who are older? And should owners be given the ability to determine these settings?
In another example relating to the recently popularized Pokémon Go mobile app: should the game’s creators be held liable in the hundreds of cases of trespassing and damages that were incurred because of Pokémon characters negligently programmed to be found on private properties?
“In The Dilemma we encounter fascinating, real-life conundrums; situations in which your gut instinctively responds one way, but your brain tells you quite the opposite,” explained Rabbi Zalman Abraham of JLI’s Brooklyn, New York headquarters. “To solve these dilemmas, participants are asked to break into study groups and explore hair-splitting Talmudic arguments that participants then debate and apply to solve the cases using new, interactive polling technology.”
“The Dilemma is a mental expedition in which participants mind-wrestle with situations that force them to choose between two reasonable truths,” said Rabbi Rafi of Chabad of East County, the local JLI Instructor in eastern San Diego. “Participants analyze, discuss, and debate original Talmudic texts to solve dilemmas and get an authentic taste of dynamic Talmud study.”
“I find people in East County love having the opportunity to engage in social discourse, particularly when it involves fascinating intellectual challenges and hot topics such as Pokémon Go and Tesla’s self-driving cars,” said Rabbi Rafi. “This is by far the most captivating course we’ve ever offered and I encourage everyone to attend.”
The Dilemma is accredited in California for continuing legal education credits for attorneys and others in the legal professions. Like all JLI programs, this course is designed to appeal to people at all levels of knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular synagogue, temple, or other house of worship.
Interested students may call 619-387-8770 or visit www.jewishec.com/Dilemma for registration and for other course-related information.
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JLI, the adult education branch of Chabad-Lubavitch, offers programs in more than 800 locations in the U.S. and in numerous foreign countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Panama, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela. More than 400,000 students have attended JLI classes since the organization was founded in 1998.
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