Research/Areas of Interest
Areas of Specialization: Modern Jewish thought; Jewish law and ethics; philosophy of religion; moral, legal and political philosophy.
Areas of Competence: Medieval Jewish thought; rabbinic literature; pragmatism; 20th century philosophy; theories of religion.
Biography
Yonatan Y. Brafman is assistant professor of Modern Judaism in the Department of Religion, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Literary and Cultural Studies, as well as a member of the Program in Judaic Studies at Tufts University. He is also an affiliated scholar at the Brodie Center for Jewish and Israeli Law at Yale Law School.
He is a scholar of modern Jewish thought and a philosopher of religion. His research focuses on the intersection of Jewish thought, Jewish law, and contemporary moral, legal, and political philosophy. He also studies the implications of religious ritual for critical social theory and praxis.
His current research project, tentatively entitled, The Order of Jewish Laws: Text, Object, System, assesses the conditions and consequences of understanding Jewish texts, norms, and practices as constituting a discrete object—Jewish law—that could be separated from other discourses and areas of life, and subsequently systematized.
He is the author of Critique of Halakhic Reason: Divine Commandments and Social Normativity (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is the editor, with Suzanne Last Stone, of Jewish Law: New Perspectives (De Gruyter, 2024) and, with Leora Batnitzky, of Jewish Legal Theories: Writings on State, Religion, and Morality (Brandeis, 2018). He has published articles in several journals, including Journal of Religious Ethics, Jewish Studies Quarterly, and Diné Israel, Studies in Halakhah and Jewish Law.
Previously, he was assistant professor of Jewish thought and ethics and the director of the Handel Center for Ethics and Justice at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He has held fellowships at the Hebert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (2022 - 2023), in the Department of Religion and Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University (2017 - 2018; 2014 - 2015), the Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization at New York University Law School (2012–2013), and the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University (2008–2010). He holds a PhD in Philosophy of Religion and Jewish Thought from the Department of Religion at Columbia University, where he also received his BA, MA, and MPhil.
He is a scholar of modern Jewish thought and a philosopher of religion. His research focuses on the intersection of Jewish thought, Jewish law, and contemporary moral, legal, and political philosophy. He also studies the implications of religious ritual for critical social theory and praxis.
His current research project, tentatively entitled, The Order of Jewish Laws: Text, Object, System, assesses the conditions and consequences of understanding Jewish texts, norms, and practices as constituting a discrete object—Jewish law—that could be separated from other discourses and areas of life, and subsequently systematized.
He is the author of Critique of Halakhic Reason: Divine Commandments and Social Normativity (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is the editor, with Suzanne Last Stone, of Jewish Law: New Perspectives (De Gruyter, 2024) and, with Leora Batnitzky, of Jewish Legal Theories: Writings on State, Religion, and Morality (Brandeis, 2018). He has published articles in several journals, including Journal of Religious Ethics, Jewish Studies Quarterly, and Diné Israel, Studies in Halakhah and Jewish Law.
Previously, he was assistant professor of Jewish thought and ethics and the director of the Handel Center for Ethics and Justice at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He has held fellowships at the Hebert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (2022 - 2023), in the Department of Religion and Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University (2017 - 2018; 2014 - 2015), the Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization at New York University Law School (2012–2013), and the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University (2008–2010). He holds a PhD in Philosophy of Religion and Jewish Thought from the Department of Religion at Columbia University, where he also received his BA, MA, and MPhil.