2014-02-21

The halachic system, like all legal systems, is on based on verifiable actions. What one may think when signing a contract is of little bearing;…

2014-02-17

While the Jerusalem Talmud rules that one makes a bracha upon construction of a sukkah (Sukkah 1:2), our practice is not to do so, seeing…

2014-02-13

In 1878, Yehuda Leib Gordon published a poem, Kotzo shel yud, in which he pokes fun at the technicalities of halacha. In his poem, a…

2014-02-11

The Gemara derives the minimum height of a sukkah from two separate and very distinct sources. In fact, the first “source” is no source…

2014-02-09

We eat matza on Pesach to commemorate the matza eaten by our ancestors as slaves in Egypt and as newly freed people. The blowing of the shofar on…

2014-02-06

Masechet Sukkah holds a special place in my heart, being the first tractate I learned cover to cover. Its topics are interesting, wide-ranging,…