Judaism

Amazingly, each and every blade was green and moist as if it was just freshly cut.

Yaakov is now so confident in his newly acquired ability to protect himself from the scammers of the world, that he feels that he doesn’t need G-d’s help. So he heads straight for the web of deception in Charan. Something makes him pause, however.

Our rabbis, keenly aware of the often ephemeral nature of our resolutions, make us jump through some procedural hoops in order to ensure that we mean what we sell or give away.

Although the Rabbis tended to conform to biblical Hebrew in the phraseology of the prayers, here they used the word purkan because the root peh-reish-kuf already appears in the Torah in the context of “salvation.”

My sister and brother-in-law were among the would-be travelers, but their motivation was to visit our elderly mother, whose health had declined in virtually every respect over the prolonged period of isolation.

"To be honest, I don't remember clearly," replied Mr. Silver. "We did discuss repaying, but I don't remember whether in the end Mr. Kaplan paid. I assume, though, that since I didn't return the loan document to him, the loan was not paid, but cannot say for sure."

A Jew’s life is supposed to be governed by deliberation, forethought, mental preparedness, and understanding, not impulsivity or “living for the moment.”

How often do we try to live life on our terms, even when the reality of the situation is clearly otherwise?

Asher had Yankel summoned to Rabbi Dayan's beis din. He presented his claim; Yankel denied it.

The sign above the doorpost

On the eve of battle, 4 groups can leave. Who are the 4 & what does it mean "allowed to go home"?

Our story takes place in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan in 2014. What?! You never heard of Sault Ste. Marie? The very town of legendary native American fur trapper Ozhaguscodaywayquay.

How, might you ask, in the middle of Italian neighborhoods would Rav Mintz be able to ferret out Jewish families?

The Torah is a song? Torah certainly doesn’t feel like a song. We think of songs as relaxing, easy, accessible. Torah can certainly be that, but Torah is also so much more.

“Rebbetzin,” people say to me, “we have been following your articles on chesed and rachamim. You presented the challenge, but what is the solution? How do we impart these values to our children? How do we instill them in our homes?”

What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye. -Horace

Question: Is it proper for Orthodox synagogues to have their parking lots open on Shabbat?

Special Note: Several weeks ago, I received two letters regarding gemach problems. For those of our readers who are unfamiliar with the term, gemachs are organizations found in every Torah community to help families who are in financial straits. Interestingly enough, the two letters that I received describe gemach problems from different perspectives - one speaks about the responsibilities of the donors, and the other about the responsibilities of the recipients. They each make valid points that should be addressed.

It is important to keep in mind that there are numerous midrashim that are not meant to be taken literally.

Avraham Avinu was commanded with a supreme test, and one of the greatest challenges ever presented to man: “Take your son, your only son, the son that you love…”

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The mitzvos associated with prompt payment apply to a Jewish employee, although a non-Jewish employee should also be paid according to his contractual terms.

On Shabbat one should eat three meals. The Friday night and the Shabbat morning meals require Kiddush with wine and two challot, lechem mishneh, and the third meal, the seudah shlishit, requires lechem mishneh. The correct time for seudah shlishit is the afternoon. But what if it’s Shabbat Erev Pesach, when no chametz may be eaten after the fourth halachic hour of the day? No problem, some might think. Let’s use matzah for seudah shlishit. But that cannot be done either, because one may not eat kasher l’Pesach matzah on Erev Pesach and though it is Shabbat, it is also Erev Pesach. So if you cannot use challot or matzah for seudah shlishit, what should you do?

This moment is a turning-point in history: Judah is the first person in the Torah explicitly to admit he was wrong

Notice that we do not speak in the past tense. Omdim alainu – they stand against us attempting to wipe us off the face of this earth. As we sit down to our seder, we discover the eternal secret of the Jew.

Yom Kippur is not a day to beat ourselves up, to knock ourselves further down.  We are here to confront our mistakes, to think about failures and the times we have fallen, but to use them to give us the momentum, the energy, and the knowledge of how to fly.  שזדונות נעשות לו כזכיות, your fall turns into your lift, into flight. 

As I got older and matured, however, I came to appreciate that we Jews carry out mitzvos with simplicity for no other reason than the fact that Hashem commanded us to in His Torah.

Kayin does not deny personal responsibility. He does not say, “It was not me,” or “It was not my fault.” He denies moral responsibility.

Because verbal abuse is more prevalent and generally overlooked as being problematic, the Torah makes the consequences more severe.

A window to the world.