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In the Viduy (confessions) that we say as part of the Yom Kippur prayers, there's a section where we list a whole bunch of sins, saying "Al chet..." (for the sin...) before each one. Two of the sec...
This is a research-methods question with a concrete example. I'm interested in the answer to the concrete example, but what I really want to know is: how could I look this up myself? There are so...
It's academic now that US citizens are no longer allowed to travel to North Korea, but I'm still curious. This is one of the things I've talked to Monica about, and she was sure it was "problematic...
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...
Numbers 20:13 (with my own, loose translation): הֵמָּה מֵי מְרִיבָה אֲשֶׁר רָבוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת ה׳ This was the Fight Water: the Jews fought God The word "רָבוּ" ("fought") has its str...
The Mah Tovu statement of Bil'am's, though intended as a curse was actually praise, and attested to (via Bava Batra 60a) the modesty of the children of Israel. They did not construct their tents in...
Throughout Yom Kippur everyone says viduy (confession) numerous times. In the shuls that I have davened at (and I think most shuls), when everyone says it together during chazaras hashatz, there i...
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...
I think I remember hearing that there is a particular prayer to be said when seeing a place where there was formerly a shul. Can anyone confirm this? Could you tell me what the prayer says? (I am m...
There is a conept that there is a s'char mitzvah, a reward for doing a mitzvah, and an oneish/punishment for "sinning". But there is also an idea that a child, under the age of bar/bat mitzvah who ...
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...
The torah records many places where God speaks to Moshe telling him to speak to others, generally to relay instructions. The common structure is: ... וידבר יי אל ... לאמר: ךבר But sometimes ...
For various of the ten plagues, God tells Moses or Aaron to do something to bring the plague on Egypt: Take your wand and tip your hand over the waters of Egypt… and they will be blood. Blood wi...
Upon learning of someone's passing, I have been taught, we immediately say baruch dayan ha-emet. I have also been taught that we don't say blessings (or learn torah) in inappropriate locations. M...
My understanding is that even an actual Sefer Torah - i.e., full text, written on parchment, etc. - written by an apostate (Jew or non-Jew with the "wrong" intentions) is not Sheimos. This would ce...
While sorting through boxes of books in the attic, I came across a Christian bible written in Hebrew. (Some family member was apparently given it by a missionary when living in Israel and didn't d...
I was talking to a Druze friend of mine a couple weeks ago, and the topic turned to religion. My friend is fairly knowledgeable about a lot of religion-related things (including for the Druze relig...
The rabbis of the Talmud and Midrash didn't use the Septuagint. The Septuagint is mentioned in Megilla 9a, which lists the changes made in the translation. The story only deals with the translation...
For what it's worth, Frank Zimmerman ("The Perpetuation of Variants in the Masoretic Text," p. 468) cites this as an instance of two textual variants being preserved in the text. Version 1: וְש...
We weren't able to solve the problem directly (something something Javascript is single-threaded something), but there is now a preference to disable auto-saving, which is a work-around. Go to you...
In Shmuel 1:31:4 it says that Shaul committed suicide rather than be captured alive by the Plishtim. Later, in Shmuel 2:1:2-15 it says that the son of an Amalekite ger who was in the ranks of Shau...
Generally speaking, cooking - including Bishul but also Afiah (baking) and other variants - is about "improving food through the application of heat". The key words include: Improving - e.g., if...
Any produce that hasn't had trumot and maasrot taken from it needs to have it taken before it can be eaten, once it's been brought inside. (If you're eating them straight from the plant as a snack,...
D'varim 25:6 says "the firstborn that she'll give birth to, he will stand on his dead brother's name". There are a few interpretations: Rashi says the eldest brother of the deceased should do yi...
