2017-11-29

“A song to David; G-d, who will live in Your tent, who shall dwell on your holy mountain? He [who] speaks truth in his heart” (Tehillim…

2017-11-28

“’And now let Me go, so that I may destroy them and make you a great nation’ (Shemot 32:10). Rav Abahu said: If the verse had not…

2017-11-26

Almost by definition, news—at least most of it—is of the less-positive variety, often causing us to think the world is a lot worse than…

2017-11-23

“Rava said: How foolish are the rest of the people who stand before a sefer Torah, but do not stand before a great person!” (…

2017-11-20

The Torah takes justice very seriously: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot” (Shemot 21:24).…

2017-11-19

When I first started learning Gemara – and as we prepared for tests – we were told not to worry if we got the names of the rabbis wrong.…

2017-11-15

“And you shall do to them as they sought to do to others” (Devarim 19:19). Edim zomimim, plotting witnesses, are punished…

2017-11-12

“The witnesses do not become zomimim, ‘plotting witnesses’, unless they falsify themselves” (Makkot 5a). The law of…

2017-11-09

  In the standard editions of the Talmud Bavli in vogue today, there are 63 tractates of Mishna, 37 of which have a corresponding Gemara. The…