Kesher Israel is pleased to welcome Dr. Benny Porat, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Israel Matz Institute for Jewish Law at Hebrew University, as scholar-in-residence the Shabbat of February 2-3, parshat Yitro.

Dr. Porat will be delivering the morning drashot at hashkama and the main minyan on the topic of "Why Was the Torah Given Outside of the Land of Israel? A New Perspective on the Grand Narrative of the Pentateuch."

He will also deliver remarks at seudah shlishit on the topic of "Reviving Jewish Law in a Modern Democratic State: An Ambitious Israeli Project."

Benjamin Porat is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of the Israel Matz Institute for Research in Jewish Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Law. He completed his PhD at the Faculty of Law. After completing his doctorate in 2010, he was a Halbert Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. Dr. Porat focuses on the areas of theory of Jewish law, contract law, and distributive justice. He is a coeditor of the Jewish Law Annual. He is currently completing a book entitled "The Principles of Welfare Regulations: From Biblical Law to Rabbinic Literature."

This event is cosponsored by the American Friends of the Hebrew University.