Tirza
Y.
Kelman
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Primo Levi Fellowship
Research Topic
R. Joseph Karo’s Halakhic Writings: The Book History Perspective
Bio
Tirza Y. Kelman researches contextualized Jewish Halakha and Jewish thought, especially in sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire. She is currently working on book history issues connected to R. Joseph Karo’s treatises.
Kelman received her PhD from Ben Gurion University. She is a public activist in Israel, and regularly addresses Halachic inquiries as a Yoetzet Halakha, a female Orthodox halachic authority. Since 2007, she has also served as director of the Hebrew “Women’s Health & Halacha” Nishmat Yoatzot Halakha website.
Selected publications
- “What Makes a Text Responsa? R. Israel Isserlein's Trumat Hadeshen as a Case Study,” Jewish Law Association Studies (forthcoming)
- “’Written with Iron and Lead Letter in Print’: The Print Revolution and the Creation of the Beit Yosef,” Hebrew; Pe'amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry 148 (2017)
