Rabbi Mark Washofsky, PhD, is an emeritus professor of Jewish Law and Practice at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he received his rabbinical ordination (1980) and his Ph.D. (1987), and where he taught Talmud and Jewish legal literature from 1985 to 2021. He served as chair of the Responsa Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis from 1996 to 2017. He is currently the chair of the Solomon B. Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah. His publications include Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice, Reform Responsa for the Twenty-First Century, Reading Reform Responsa: Jewish Tradition, Reform Rabbis, and Today's Issues, and numerous articles on the development of halachah, the application of legal and literary theory to Jewish legal writing, and Jewish bioethics.