Burton L. Visotzky, born in Chicago, Illinois, 1951, is a Conservative Rabbi and professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary who also studied moral development at Harvard University under Lawrence Kohlberg. Conservative Judaism, (also known as Masorti Judaism in Israel predominantly), is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s. ... Rabbi, in Judaism, means ‘teacher’, or more literally ‘great one’. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ or ‘distinguished (in knowledge)’. Sephardic and Yemenite Jews pronounce this word ribbī; the modern Israeli pronunciation rabbī is derived from a recent (18th... Lawrence Kohlberg (October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was born in Bronxville, New York. ...

He later applied the moral reasoning and ethical relationship approach pioneered by Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan to Ethics in the Bible in his book The Genesis of Ethics, 1997. This explored a modern incarnation of the Jewish theological traditions of midrash, and built on Visotzky's experience leading seminars in Manhattan with a mixed group of students, businessmen and professionals of various religious backgrounds. Moral reasoning is a study in psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy. ... An ethical relationship, in most theories of ethics that employ the term, is a basic and trustworthy relationship that one has to another human being, that cannot necessarily be characterized in terms of any abstraction other than trust and common protection of each others body. ... Carol Gilligan (1936– ) is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work with and against Lawrence Kohlberg on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject-object problems in ethics. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For a discussion of Jews as an ethnicity or ethnic group see the article on Jew. ... Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim) is a Hebrew word referring to a method of exegesis of a Biblical text. ... Manhattan is a borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County. ...

Visotzky serves as the Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary. He has been visiting faculty at Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, and the Russian State University of the Humanities; as well as Union Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Hebrew Union College. In Spring, 2007, he served as Master Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, known in the Jewish community simply as JTS, is the academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism, and is the movements main rabbinical seminary. ...

In addition to The Genesis of Ethics, he is the author of the popular books: Reading the Book: Making the Bible a Timeless Text, The Road to Redemption: Lessons from Exodus on Leadership and Community. He has also authored scholarly works such as The Midrash on Proverbs (Yale), Midrash Mishle (Hebrew), Fathers of the World: Essays on Rabbinic and Patristic Literatures, and Golden Bells and Pomegranates: Essays on Midrash Leviticus Rabbah. He co-edited with David Fishman the textbook From Mesopotamia to Modernity: Ten Introductions to Jewish History and Literature. His first novel, A Delightful Compendium of Consolation, due to be published by Ben Yehuda Press in 2007, brings together Rabbinic Aggadah, the daily life of the medieval Mediterranean revealed by the Cairo Geniza discoveries, and the tales of the Arabian Nights. Visotzky served as collaborator and on-screen participant in Bill Moyers' ten-hour series, "Genesis: A Living Conversation" (PBS, 1996). He also served as a principal consultant for DreamWorks 1998 film, "Prince of Egypt." He is active as a lecturer and scholar-in-residence in North America and Europe. Visotzky also is involved in Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue in America, Europe, and the Middle East. Aggadah (Aramaic אגדה: tales, lore; pl. ... The Cairo Geniza is an accumulation of Jewish manuscripts written from about 870 to as late as 1880 CE, that were found in the geniza of the synagogue of Fustat (Old Cairo), Egypt (built 882), the Busatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and a number of old documents that were... Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryar. ...

See also: list of ethicists List of ethicists including religious or political figures recognized by those outside their tradition as having made major contributions to ideas about ethics, or raised major controversies by taking strong positions on previously unexplored problems. ...