In 2003, while a student in the Kollel Elyon post-rabbinical program, Stein published an article in
Beit Yitzchak, a student-edited journal of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, examining the
Noahide laws and the
halakhic status of the prohibition against a Jew killing a non-Jew. The article cited classical rabbinic authorities to distinguish between the biblical prohibition against killing a fellow Jew and what some commentators characterize as a rabbinic-level prohibition against killing a non-Jew. The piece drew criticism from scholars and Jewish communal leaders who argued that the distinction could be read as implying a difference in the value of Jewish and non-Jewish life. Rabbi
Norman Lamm, then chancellor of
Yeshiva University, stated that the view represented only a minority of commentators and was not generally accepted in Jewish law, noting that according to the majority opinion, a Jew who kills a non-Jew is subject to the same punishment as one who kills a Jew. Lamm described the article as an "innocent mistake" in which the author had failed to provide sufficient context for a broader audience, but stopped short of condemning it. ==Articles==