Harav Dovid Cohen Shlita will deliver a shiur on “End-of-Life Issues and Halacha” for medical professionals, pre-health students, and the public. Rabbi Cohen is the recipient of the Rabbi Raphael Zalman Levine Endowed Distinguished Talmudic Scholar Award presented by Touro University. The shiur will take place at Touro’s Lander College for Women, 227 West 60th St, NYC on February 26, 2024 at 7 pm and will be available virtually as well.

Culled from the Rav’s real-life experience, the lecture,  will explore complex issues and questions that regularly arise, including:

• The controversy regarding brain death and halacha
• What are the criteria that define the obligation to keep a terminally ill person alive, and when do they no longer apply?
• A discussion of the laws of goses, including controversies regarding “pulling the plug,”
• To operate or not?  Without an operation, the patient will survive for a limited period of time; whereas the operation may completely effect a cure or result in death.

“Pikuach Nefesh is one of the most basic issues in Halacha. It even supersedes Shmiras Shabbos. It is important to define what halachic death is all about. The question of  whether or not brain death is truly death has been an issue for many decades. We shall take a stand on these issues,” said Rav Cohen.

Posek and Advocate

Born in Brooklyn, Rav Cohen attended Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, where he became a talmid of Rav Yitzchak Hutner, zt”l, and forged close ties with a roster of Torah giants. His position as Rav of Congregation Gvul Yaavetz in Brooklyn is the springboard from which he was launched to prominence as the eminence grise of contemporary American poskim.  As the Mara D’asra of Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, Nefesh International, Hatzolah of Flatbush, Central Hatzolah, and Camp Munk, as well as Dean of the Long Island Commission of Rabbis, his fingerprint is apparent in many critical aspects of communal Jewish life.

A fearless advocate for the underdog, Rav Cohen has championed the cause of agunos, and has been an outspoken defender of victims of abuse.  His abiding ahavas Yisroel and profound understanding of the pain of mental illness have made him the address for those seeking nuanced and authoritative piskei halacha in this sensitive area. Author of over seventy sefarim on Gemara, Tefila, Nach, and Machshava, Rav Cohen is a widely sought-after speaker and scholar in residence.  His effortless mastery over vast areas of Torah and secular knowledge, combined with his deep comprehension of the interface of halacha and real life, have dazzled audiences worldwide.

Prestigious Award

Touro University’s Rabbi Raphael Zalman Levine Endowed Distinguished Talmudic Scholar Award is generously endowed by Mr. Joel Margolis of Albany, New York, to honor individuals who have made exceptional contributions in the field of Torah Scholarship and dissemination. The first recipient of the award was HaRav Asher Weiss. Rav Dovid Cohen is the second recipient of this award and this is the second lecture Rav Cohen is delivering as the recipient.

“Rabbi Levine of blessed memory had enormous respect for those exceptional individuals who provide clear and decisive halachic guidance to our community. How very appropriate that this award, in his memory, goes to an extraordinary scholar who has provided lucid and timely guidance to so many people for so many decades,” said Mr. Joel Margolis.

Zalman Levine, a musmach of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, and devoted student of Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, came to the United States in 1923. After a brief teaching career at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, he moved to Albany. Eschewing any rabbinic titles, he spent the next six decades deeply involved in studying and teaching Torah, while supporting his family, first as an insurance salesman and then, for several decades, as a deeply respected staff member of the New York State Comptroller’s Office.

When Rabbi Levine arrived in Albany, the concept of a Torah scholar serving as a lay communal leader was unheard of, and his pioneering role set an example for others. Not only was Zalman Levine a devoted communal lay leader and an accomplished Torah scholar, but he also enjoyed the deep friendship of several generations of North American Torah luminaries.

For more information and to register to attend virtually, visit www.touro.edu/ravcohen