A rabbi, dayan, shochet, doctor, and matir bechorot—these are some of the licensed functionaries needed to fully run a Jewish…
Sometimes the most obscure of arguments can teach the greatest of lessons. That Rabbi Eliezer’s “proofs” from heaven were rejected…
It is not uncommon to hear people define a mitzvah as a “good deed”. And there is little doubt that many mitzvot are, in fact, very good…
The period of sefirat haomer has undergone great transformation over the ages. In the Torah itself, it links the korban haomer …
For those who write divrei Torah, the next few months will be a bit challenging and will demonstrate our geographical frame of reference.…
“Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your G-d: Do not follow the ways of Egypt where you once lived, nor of…
Amongst the many wonderful opportunities and challenges wrought by the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is that of running our…
The privileges and obligations of the firstborn are a major theme of Pesach. Most famously, the proximate cause of the Exodus was makat bechorot, the…
As we all know too well, there is often a gap between the ideal and reality. In trying to implement our goals, we all too often fall prey to conflict…
As we all know too well, there is often a gap between the ideal and reality. In trying to implement our goals, we all too often fall prey to conflict…
It is an amazing but all too common phenomenon that two people can witness the same event and yet “see it” very differently. This is the…
“In each and every generation, one must see oneself as if they had left Egypt”. In Judaism, we not only commemorate the past, we…
“Where is Moshe [mentioned] in the Torah?” It is hard to imagine a more—let's be gentle here—superfluous question. A…
Judaism teaches that everything has the potential for holiness; after all everything in this world was created by G-d. But it is up to man to…
When I ask ba’alei teshuva what the hardest thing for them to give up is, the most common response I receive is "…
The first of Nissan and the first of Tishrei mark the beginnings of the Jewish year. The solar aspect of our calendar—representing the fixed…
It is an often-cited truism that the Orthodox community, most ironically, tends to place much greater emphasis on kosher food than on kosher money.…
When tragedy strikes there is a tendency to search for some rational explanation as we subsequently attempt to find meaning and a degree of comfort,…
“Mar Ukva said: I am, with regard to this matter, like vinegar, son of wine, with respect to Father. Father, if he were to eat meat…
“Moshe then inquired, darosh darash, about the goat of the sin offering, and it had been burned” (Vayikra 10:16). Judaism has always…
Excitement and consistency: We tend to view these terms as contradictory. Man gets excited over discovering new things and views variety as the spice…
Purim celebrates the eternity of the Jewish people. Despite exile and dispersion, genocidal enemies and those willing to turn a blind eye to such,…
“Because of this the children of Israel, to this day, do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip…
Rabbinic debates are not for the faint-hearted. They can be most intense, and sadly, can lead to tragic consequences. One of the most famous of…
In our last post, we spoke about geneivat da’at, generating false goodwill, in the context of gid hanasheh. I imagine very few people…
“The laws of Shabbat…are like a mountain being held up by a thread” (Chagigah 10a). Shabbat is the pivot around which Jewish life…
One would not normally associate the prohibition to eat the gid hanashe, the sciatic nerve, with issues of business ethics. But related…
“G-d declared to Moshe, Go down [from the mountain] for the people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt” (Shemot 32:7…
One of most famous mitzvot of the Torah is that of shiluach haken, the obligation to send away the mother bird before taking her little chicks…
One of the teachings that is ingrained in us from a young age is that every letter, and surely every verse and story, found in the Torah is of great…
The least observed of biblical holidays is undoubtedly Rosh Chodesh. As a holiday based in the Temple, with no home or synagogue based rituals,…
Symbols play a crucial role in self and group identification and affect almost everything we do. Be they roses or a diamond ring, symbols can…
Dan Arielly begins his best-selling book, Predictably Irrational, by noting that for we humans it’s all relative. We do not by evaluate A…
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot” (Shemot 21:24). Perhaps no Biblical verse has generated as…
That the “Orthodox” community is more careful about kosher food than kosher money is sadly obvious, and demonstrated all too often.…
Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe lei'mor is the most commonly occurring verse of the Bible. While it is usually translated as, “G-d spoke to…
In the introduction to his responsa, Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that the Sages of each generation are permitted and obligated to issue halachic…
“And it will be, when the Lord, your G-d, brings you to the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you,…
In a beautiful teshuva (Orach Chaim 4 #89) written during Chanukah 1960, Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked (by Rabbi Leo Yung, rabbi of the Jewish Centre…
“It is a sign between Me and the Jewish people that in ‘six days’ G-d created the heavens and the earth” (Shemot 31:17).…
The initial meeting between Moshe and Pharaoh did not go well. The workload placed on the poor Jewish slaves was increased, and more importantly, the…
That one must be Jewish to shecht an animal is not necessarily obvious. One might have argued that as long as the meat is slaughtered…
When I mention to people that it is likely worse to smoke than to eat pork, I often get strange looks. And usually the more observant the person, the…
There are few, if any, semicha programs that require their students to learn shechita or safrut, and even fewer that require good…
One of the questions I am often asked by those of my students who do not keep kosher, is have you really never eaten non-kosher food? I generally…
Over and over again the Torah warns us not to allow avodah zara, idolatry, in the Land of Israel. Yet, as is often the case, things are not always…
"It was for this reason that man was first created as one person [Adam]…to teach that no man is the same as another; therefore, every…
In the fall of 1860, Rav Yaakov Ettlinger penned what is likely the most revolutionary responsa of modern times; one that opened the door to allowing…
Some years back I attended a talk by Rabbi Dr. M.D. Tendler who spoke about the most important teshuvot written by his father-in-law, Rav Moshe…
That the role of a modern rabbi in the Western World is far different than that of the rabbi of Eastern Europe is rather obvious. The typical 19th…