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Suppose someone started reading a haftara for a different week, or according to a different custom for the same week, or a piece of navi that's not a haftara at all. What should the community do? ...
This is a hypothetical question; it doesn't apply to anyone I know, but I heard an anecdote and it led me to wonder. Suppose someone discovers that her maternal grandmother was in fact Jewish, but...
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 ...
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...
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...
Occasionally, I have to act as gabbai for a small minyan, where other members of my family also daven. When calling up my father for an aliyah, I use the formulation "יעמוד, אבי מורי הרב..." (Rise,...
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...
Kind of a weird question. Does anyone have any idea what happened to the fruit brought by the spies from Israel to the desert? Was it eaten by specific people? Buried? Left behind?
Mishnayot Tamid 6:3 says that the kohen who wins the right to offer the daily incense brings a buddy with him to hold one of the vessels and help him retrieve any dropped incense: מִי שֶׁזָּכָה בַ...
Once upon a time, I was on a trip up in north Georgia and stumbled across this gem: a security service branding itself as "Adonai Security, LLC." The tagline proceeds to make a pun in the same vei...
If there is someone who does not yet own a Tallis (prayer shawl), and he is davening for the amud (so he wears a shul tallis), when he gets to the places in davening where you are supposed to kiss ...
Does a woman fulfill the obligation to hear the shofar during Elul if she blows it for herself, or is this one of the mitzvot where a man (must? should?) perform the action on behalf of others? Fo...
Everywhere that the term חנם appears, as far as I can tell, it always means "without personal benefit": a שומר חנם (Bava Metzia 7:8) watches an object without receiving anything in return; a Jewish...
Suppose Reuven is ordained as a Rabbi (receives semicha). His teacher, Rabbi Yaakov, decides that he is learned enough and of the right character to serve as a Rabbinic authority and proclaims that...
There are many medicines which are permitted to be used on Shabbos in various situations. However, some of them have letters written or engraved on them. Is it permitted to take these pills on Shab...
Last week I took a class on priorities in triage -- one ventilator, two people who will die without it, who gets it? We reviewed sources in talmud and later commentaries, some of which I remember ...
If semen was extracted from a dead man, and then used to impregnate a woman, is the offspring a legal son (let's limit it to male) of the dead man? Or, more simply put, is a child born of ones seme...
In 2004, a group of rabbis in Israel attempted to begin the process of re-establishing the Sanhedrin using the Rambam's method of universal consensus to re-establish the line of semikha. Rabbi Mosh...
Avodah Zarah 6a.16-6b.1: והתניא: אמר רבי נתן, ״מנין שלא יושיט אדם כוס של יין לנזיר ואבר מן החי לבני נח? ת"ל (ויקרא יט, יד) ולפני עור לא תתן מכשול.״ It was taught in a Braisa: R' Nassan said, "Fro...
Generally speaking, whenever the Torah tells us "do not do X," the context is "do not do a specific action" (don't eat non-Kosher, don't do work on Shabbos, etc.). In a select few prohibitions, how...
Yoma 87a and Rambam Hilchot Teshuvah 2 both describe requirements for doing teshuva and gaining forgiveness. According to them, the one doing teshuva must first make restitution and then, in front...
I learned what I understand to be a S'fardi or maybe Israeli pronunciation of Hebrew. I'm aware of the differences between this and the usual Ashkenazi pronunciation. My question is about variati...
The Gemara (Berachot 38a) cites a dispute whether the blessing on bread is המוציא or מוציא. The issue is that the blessing must reflect the past tense; while everyone agrees that מוציא is past tens...
If one had placed a bouquet of flowers in a vase prior to Shabbat, is it considered muktzah? In what scenario would it be permissible to move it on Shabbat?
I bought a package of frozen salmon filet pieces in Israel; they'd been imported from Poland. The package reads, in part: מטעמי הכשרות חובה לשטוף את העור או להסירו לפני השימוש. In my own tra...
