בס“ד טז רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הָיָה אוֹמֵר, 1. עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, 2. וְהִסְתַּלֵּק מִן הַסָּפֵק, 3. וְאַל תַּרְבֶּה לְעַשֵּר אֳמָדוֹת: Rabban Gammaliel regularly taught [as a singular saying, a common phrase often said]: Make for yourself a teacher raise/remove yourself from doubt to not regularly tithe by estimation Rabban Gammaliel was the great rabbi of his [...]

(ו) עֲשָׂרָה דְבָרִים נִבְרְאוּ בְעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת, וְאֵלּו הֵן, א. פִּי הָאָרֶץ, וּפִי הַבְּאֵר, וּפִי הָאָתוֹן, וְהַקֶּשֶׁת, וְהַמָּן, ב. וְהַמַּטֶּה, וְהַשָּׁמִיר, וְהַכְּתָב, וְהַמִּכְתָּב, וְהַלּוּחוֹת. ג[a] וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים, 1 אַף הַמַּזִּיקִין, 2 וקְבוּרָתוֹ שֶׁל משֶׁה, 3 וְאֵילוֹ שֶׁל אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ. [b] וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים, אַף צְבָת בִצְבָת עֲשׂוּיָה: This Mishnah lists ten things created on the [...]

The Midrash tells us that the Sodomites would take their guests and if they were small, they stretch the bodies as in a wrack; those who are tall get cut down to size. This Midrash does not reflect the simple sense of Scripture. What is the rabbinic teaching telling us? The Genesis narrative tells the [...]

בס“ד After discussing the weights and measures of commandments, that one should run in order to observe the easy and light commandments, because the reward for good is good character and the payback for wrong is bad character, Ben Azzai turns to people: (ג) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, א. 1 אַל תְּהִי בָז לְכָל אָדָם, 2 [...]

According to Pogo, we have met the enemy and it is us. In our liturgy, we are reminded that our exile occurred because of our own wrongdoings. The sefira mourning period occurred according to a Talmudic Tradition because students did not give respect to one another. Rudeness has become part of our culture. We put [...]

שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן שָׁטַח אוֹמֵר, A הֱוֵי מַרְבֶּה לַחֲקוֹר אֶת הָעֵדִים, B וֶהֱוֵי זָהִיר בִּדְבָרֶיךָ, C שֶׁמָּא מִתּוֹכָם יִלְמְדוּ לְשַׁקֵּר: R. Simon b. Shetach taught Be thorough in examining witnesses Be judicious in your words Perhaps from them [your words] the witnesses will [self-servingly] learn to lie. Simon the son of Shetach was a Pharisee at [...]

Rabbi Nosson Tsvi Finkel, head of the prestigious Mirrer Yeshiva, died at 68 of a heart attack. His funeral was held in Meah Shearim; schools and streets closed, and a sea of ultra-Orthodox humanity showed up to mourn the passing of one of its iconic heroes. The front page of the Jewish Press [“Torah World [...]

At Torah from Dixie, “Is Thanksgiving Kosher?”, Rabbi Michael Broyde provides an exemplar of how a modern Orthodox Jew, a Jew who is faithful to the legislated norms of the Jewish religious/legal order, can inhabit the social and psychological space time called “modernity.” The Torah forbids huqqat ha-akkum, [Lev. 18:3] which R. Broyde renders “Gentile [...]

The Question The Answer The Upshot ………………………………………………… I. The Question The question as asked is both insightful and inciteful. A voicemail was sent to B’nai Israel from a female, who left her complaint, but not her name, phone, or e-mail. Apparently following Rambam, Deot, 6, she listed the fact that we are teaching “The Gospels” [...]

Questions: Is “trick or treating” a proper activity? How is this question to be answered? What is at stake in the conversation? Answer: “Trick or treat” as observed today by most Jewish youngsters that I have met seems to have zero connection with Halloween’s early pagan roots or its later Christian development. The trick or [...]

We are taught, told and trained to believe that repentance makes a difference. One great rabbi thought and taught that repentance is composed of three parts, knowing what we did, regretting the past, and resolving in the future to do better. Teshuva, or repenting/returning and turning a new moral leaf, may also be understood in [...]

According to Jewish law, one for whom rain causes discomfort is exempt from the Sukkah. There is no Talmudic law, i.e., canonical rule, that disputes this codified rule. [OH 6:40:3] The Kol Bo glosses [n. 15] that on the first night of Sukkot, we are obliged to be in the Sukkah even if we are [...]

Oedipus heard that there was a curse that predicted that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Driven to distraction to undo and avoid the curse, Oedipus undertakes the very actions that cause the curse to occur, that he kills his father, whom he does not know but who exposed him at birth [...]

Question: During the month of Elul, we begin the process of thinking about our sins for which we need to ask forgiveness. If we are granted forgiveness by Hashem on Rosh Hashana, is it only the “punishment” for the sin that is removed or is it also the sin itself that is removed from our [...]

There are two major narratives in Parashat Noah, the Flood and the Tower of Babel. Taken together, the two narratives describe God giving up on an inhuman humankind that is neither kindly nor morally human. We find Homo Sapiens at its worst. Human intellect is mustered as a tool for the jungle. The world of [...]

If a newborn or child is adopted by Jewish parents and the child is raised a Jew, is the person Jewish since there is no way of knowing if the child came from a Jewish woman? Or, as in my case, the birth mother was not Jewish at time of the birth but did later [...]

We speak a lot about spirituality. We are told that it is good to be “spiritual,” which is a code word for being fine, refined, good, sensitive, and thoughtful. Its opposite, materialism, is physical, coarse, rough, brutish, and by implication, morally unworthy. Non-canonical Jewish writings speak about ruhnius, being like a wind or spirit, which [...]

1. What the Tradition says By violating mGittin 4:6, Israel the nation and Israel the Torah people became different identities. According to the Mishnah, which is oral Torah, If a Jew sells his Jewish slave to a Gentile or [even] to [a Jew] outside the land of Israel, that slave becomes free. Captives are not [...]

What Happened? What Was Done? The Biblical Precedent for sincere commitment. The Torah template that we need to apply. 1. What Happened? Jerry Sandusky, a former football coach under Penn State’s Joe Paterno, was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over fifteen years. Who knew what was happening? The legendary Mister Nice Guy and school [...]

There remains no question that America is committed to Israel. Based on its commitments made at Oslo, America supports a negotiated, two state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian statehood conflict. By trying to become a legal state without doing so through direct, face to face, give and take negotiations, Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, the Ph.D. Holocaust denier, [...]