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General Q&A about Judaism, Jewish texts, and Jewish life. This site does not give personal advice.
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In biblical/temple times, would it have been wrong to vounteer to do something which will make one tameii if the motivation is to avoid a different obligation? If I don't want to spend time with m...
Reading Bereshit I ask for the precise measure of a year using seven days and it does not work mathematically. How do you make it work as Hashem is perfect?
On the sabbath before the new month, we announce the upcoming new moon and on those days, we also do NOT say Av Harachamim (except during sefirah when the history of persecution is particularly rel...
Once moshiach comes, we will have resolution to all sorts of halachic issues which have been left unresolved (teikus for example and even, maybe eilu v'eilu cases). But what about minhagim, some of...
A tallit is normally worn only during the day, yet there is a custom to also wear it for all services of Yom Kippur including Kol Nidrei. Why? I've heard that it's because we take the torah scrol...
There are certain things that we do because we have been commanded to, and the bracha on these mitzvot includes the phrase "asher kidishanu" indicating that Hashem commanded us to perform these mit...
After Tisha b'Av we have seven special haftarah readings, which always align with the same torah portions. Every chumash I've seen gives these special readings for those parshiyot. I was taught t...
I was paring a Hebrew word and left with a biconsonantal But on the answer key it had three Hebrew letters intead of two Hebrew letters. A III he, was added to the end of the biconsonantal. What am...
At the beginning of Perek Chelek in Masechet Sanhedrin, the text specifies that "All Israel has a share in the world to come." But when the exceptions are presented, Bilam is included and he isn't ...
I have frequently heard people wish a newborn baby boy that he "merit an on-time circumcision". Now, in general, an on-time circumcision is performed if the baby is healthy enough, and is not perf...
I have read that men wear a tallit gadol at Shacharit because of a connection to Avraham (the mitzvah was given in his merit and Shacharit is 'his' prayer). Why then are men instructed to wear it a...
I read the following statement on the Chabad.org website https://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=12/9/2022 "The Talmud (Ketubot 103a) relates that even after his passing, for a time, Ra...
Every time I've made a Siyum in the past, it's been after learning all of the material in order. When making a siyum on a Seder of the Mishna, it was after learning every Masechet in order; when ma...
We have a second day of yom tov outside of Israel because the delay (or the deception) allowed for uncertainty about the date of Rosh Chodesh, therefore, the certainty regarding the date of the hol...
At what point did a sefer torah start to look like the sefer torah that we know? When Moshe wrote the torah, did he do so as a sofer, requiring kavanot and immersion and sirtutim and a particular ...
In the movie Dredd (and in the comic books) the cities have huge apartment buildings in them which serve as mini-cities on their own (called "blocks" I think). Vast numbers of people can live in on...
I noticed that Pesach goes from being a holiday marked by עני to one, a month later, called שני, moving from ayin (eye) to shein (tooth). Yeah, I know that the words don't actually mean that (pover...
I remember from when I was in elementary school that we try very carefully NOT to count the omer before we count the omer. We refer to the current count by stating what yesterday's count was. But ...
I recall hearing of a medrash which explains that Adam harishon was supposed to live until 1000 years old but he saw that Dovid Hamelech would die as an infant so he "donated" 70 of his years to Da...
Rabbi Tz'vi Elimelech Spira of Dynów wrote a book called "בני יששכר" that is popular enough that he himself is sometimes called the "בני יששכר". But the phrase (whether referring to the book or to ...
I'm not fully finished with this question as I haven't researched all of my premises, and if someone can point me in the direction of a resource which would stop my question before it starts, that ...
This is a strange fact pattern that I thought of and I will explain my premises as I move through it, but the bottom line is whether a person can use suicide as a halachically acceptable behavior: ...
If a Noahide wants to convert to Judaism and the nearest Orthodox community is hundreds of miles away, should he go with what's available in his area? Even if it's Reform? As I understand it, Juda...
During the plague of darkness, the Jews went around to scout out what the Egyptians had in their houses and then they "asked" for things before they left and the Egyptians gave them lots. No doubt...
One may light Channukah candles ad shetichle regel min hashuk, until people stop walking through the market, because after that there would be no pirsumei nisa, advertisement of the miracle, outsid...
After Yosef gave the brothers provisions, he kept Shimon (Bereisheet 42:24) there to guarantee that the brothers would return with Binyomin. They went home and didn't come back until they ran out o...
Ploni is the child of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. The father is ill and Ploni would like to say Mi Sheberach for him in a minyan. How should Ploni form the name for a non-Jewish rela...
In Shemot 18:2-4, Yitro comes from Midian to join the Israelites after the exodus, bringing Moshe's wife Tzipporah and his sons Gershon and Eliezer. This appears to be the torah's last mention of ...
Ignoring the question of why, there is a practice of using different musical trop when laining the 10 commandments from when studying it. Are there other examples of different trop or pronunciatio...
I was reading up on tevillas keilim and saw the following statements on this site: Utensils require tevila if they were given by a Jew to a Yehudi as a gift or if they were bought from a aino Ye...
I recall asking someone about whether a Jew could work in a non-kosher restaurant. One of the opinions I heard was that a Jew shouldn't because "odds are" that the person, as a waiter, will end up ...
There are candles that are made from beef tallow (https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2014/01/tallow-emergency-candles.html). If one were to burn one, residue and soot from incomplete combustion co...
What is hateful to you, do not do to others. That is the whole Torah. The rest is the explanation. Go learn! ~ Rabbi Hillel I would like to know the ouisa (essence) of Judaism (the oldest of t...
I was recently doing some baking, and it led to a household discussion: what makes bread bread, as opposed to mezunot? I wondered if it might be about ingredients. Bread, fundamentally, is made o...
I am wondering what the range of opinions are, and what the key legal points are, on the question of whether cultivated meat can be kosher. The New York Times (paywalled) just published an article...
In S. Y. Agnon's short story "The Kerchief", we're treated to this snippet of the narrator's Shabbat lunch traditions: Father entered, said, "A Sabbath of peace and blessing," put his tallit on ...
What is the difference in translation according to dikduk (grammar) between שנואה AND שניאה? Both are used in Devarim 21:15 to refer to the same person.
We have in Ki Setze the laws of 'yefas toar' meaning a non-Jewish woman captured in war whom a Jewish man now wants as his wife. The meforshim (commentators) say that the only reason this was allow...
Non kosher food creates a status in dishes that requires that they go through a kashering process. I recall learning that this is at least partially to remove any residual taste or particulates fro...
The context here is the aftermath of the debate about the oven of Akhnai. What did Rabbi Eliezer do that was worthy of ostracism? Dissent, by itself, must have happened many times without discipl...
Someone at my seder asked about the ordering in Dayeinu, specifically that "had God not given us Shabbat..." comes before "had God not give us the Torah..." -- but wasn't Shabbat given at Sinai, as...
I am looking for resources that go through the section (Vayikra 11:1-30) with a fine toothed comb and discuss and explain the inconsistencies in how animals are described/listed. I have assembled a...
If one is in shul on a Shabbos afternoon and a mourner (who is in his 7 days) is davening there, does the minyan say Tzidkat'cha? My logic -- during the week,one does not say tachanun in the house...
I am looking at the geneology of the 12 tribes and I found that Reuvein had son named Palu. Palu had a son named Eli'av and Eli'av had 3 sons, Datan, Aviram and Nemuel (Bamidbar 26:9) וּבְנֵ֣י אֱל...
When Haman came home after leading Mordechai around, he complained to his wife, Zeresh. Her reaction was (from Sefaria) וַיְסַפֵּ֨ר הָמָ֜ן לְזֶ֤רֶשׁ אִשְׁתּוֹ֙ וּלְכׇל־אֹ֣הֲבָ֔יו אֵ֖ת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ...
I've been reading recent debates about Catholic communion wine, and which types of wine are or are not valid. One person suggested that kosher wine is always valid, someone else said that kosher wi...
Simply put, why is Pesach in the singular while Shavu'ot and Sukkot are in the plural? Shavu'ot makes sense to me because the day celebrates the culmination of weekS. But I only made 1 Sukkah so w...
Some seder plates (or layout instructions in haggadot) use two bitter herbs (I'm used to seeing horseradish and endive), one labelled maror and one labelled chazeret. Others have only a single spa...
In the Talmudic discussion of the Sotah ritual, the halacha is derived that, because part of the ritual requires uncovering the woman's hair, the obligation would otherwise be to keep the hair cove...
While reading Megillat Ruth on Shavuot, I noticed that there were an unusually large number of words that were read differently than how they're written in the text. This includes outright omitting...
