David Novak is a scholar of Jewish philosophy, law (Halakha) and ethics. He has rabbinical ordination and has trained with Catholic moral theologians. Novak taught at the University of Virginia and subsequently at the University of Toronto. Halakha (הלכה or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ... The University of Virginia (also referred to as UVa and often called simply Virginia for short) is a research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. ... The University of Toronto (U of T), in Toronto, Ontario, is the largest university in Canada with more than 60,000 students across three campuses. ...

Novak has contributed to Jewish ethics by advocating a Jewish social ethics drawn from both the natural law tradition and Halakha. To this end, he interprets the rabbinic approach to Noahide law as a useful grounding for cross-cultural moral reasoning. He also writes extensively on Jewish-Christian relations. His expertise includes Maimonides, John Courtney Murray, and Paul Tillich. Jewish ethics stands at the intersection of Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of ethics. ... In law, natural law is the doctrine that just laws are immanent in nature (that can be claimed as discovered but not created by such things as a bill of rights) and/or that they can emerge by natural process of resolving conflicts (as embodied by common law). ... Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מיימון; Arabic: Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdallah al-Kurtubi al-Israili; March 30, 1135—December 13, 1204), commonly known by his Greek name Maimonides, was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. ... Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 - October 22, 1965) was a German-born American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. ...

His specific normative claims in Jewish ethics include a curious mix of what may be characterized as liberal and right-wing positions. Novak had been affiliated with the liberal-leaning Conservative movement in Judaism and then shifted to the "Traditional Judaism" offshoot.

Selected works

Law and Theology in Judaism (volumes I and II) (Vol. 1 Foreword by Louis Finkelstein. New York : Ktav Pub. House, [1974])

Suicide and morality : the theories of Plato, Aquinas, and Kant and their relevance for suicidology. New York : Scholars Studies Press, c1975

The image of the non-Jew in Judaism: an historical and constructive study of the Noahide Laws / David Novak. New York : E. Mellen Press, c1983.

Halakhah in a theological dimension. Chico, Calif. : Scholars Press, c1985.

Jewish-Christian dialogue: a Jewish justification. New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1989.

The theology of Nahmanides systematically presented. Atlanta, Ga. : Scholars Press, c1992.

Jewish social ethics. New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

The election of Israel : the idea of the chosen people. Cambridge [England] ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Natural law in Judaism / David Novak. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Covenantal rights : a study in Jewish political theory / David Novak. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2000.

DABRU EMET: A JEWISH STATEMENT ON CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY. A statement by four authors. (http://www.icjs.org/what/njsp/dabruemet.html)

Articles:

Leo Strauss and Judaism : Jerusalem and Athens critically revisited / edited by David Novak. Lanham, MD : Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. 8. Philosophy and the Possibility of Revelation: A Theological Response to the Challenge of Leo Strauss by David Novak.