"And if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate unto the elders, and say:…

Even those far removed from Jewish learning know that it is the mother who determines the Jewish status of a baby. Why this is so is not clearly…

"Whoever starts in a mitzvah, we tell him to finish"; "a mitzvah that comes to your hand, do not let it wait". These and other…

Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental norm of Western jurisprudence. This concept goes back until at least Talmudic times, when our Sages…

By dint of the fifth amendment to the Constitution, US citizens are protected from being forced to give self-incriminating testimony; pleading…

All great pieces of literature can be understood on multiple levels, over multiple time periods, and by a variety of cultures. There is no greater…

Life is not always fair. So much that befalls us--both positive and negative--is beyond our control. And there is little that is less fair than being…

On Yom Kippur afternoon, the Torah reading focuses on the Jewish sexual ethic. The Torah has a relatively long list of relatives with whom intimacy…

It is the Jewish woman who is privileged with bestowing Jewishness to her offspring. Yet while the mother determines the Jewish status--or lack…

The assimilation and subsequent loss of Jews has been a problem since the beginning of Jewish history. Many of us were taught--in kindergarten, no…

Our rabbis greatly extolled the virtues of arguments for the sake of heaven. In these disputes, the disputants not only do not take their opponents…

Life is full of conflicts, contradictions, and challenges ,and it is our task to mediate them as best possible. Torah, our guide to life, is…

Masechet Yevamot opens by listing the fifteen women who "exempt their co-wives and the co-wives of their co-wives from chalitzah and…