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Fortunately, I live in an area that has had an active Eruv for the last few years. For the first few months of the pandemic, this was actually not much of an issue. Local regulations prohibited gro...
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...
Shabbat was given Shemot 15:25. See rashi there that is sourced from Sanhedrin 56b. Which is before the mana (ch 16) and the giving of the torah (ch 20).
There is a list in Bamidbar 33 of the places and transitions (they set out from X and camped at Y, they set out from Y and camped at Z, etc). This list doesn't say how long they stayed at each. I...
I found myself wondering about this while clearing the table after the first seder this year (which was also Shabbat). Most of the time, both in my family and in the group of friends I sometimes s...
This question arose at my seder this year and nobody present knew of an answer: The haggadah designates the three matzot for specific purposes: We are to break the middle one (and save the larg...
Jacob and his sons, when speaking to Egyptians, consistently refer to God as (ה)אלקים, "the god", and not by his name, יקוק, that distinguishes him from other supposed gods, or other names of his....
Each day, we recite the 8 p'sukim from Bamidbar 28 (1-8) which detail the rules of the twice daily Tamid. The Tamid is an Olah but I'm not sure of the exact purpose of the sacrifice. On weekdays, ...
Simply put, how much physical distance on the globe/map effects a discernable change in time? If I compute the zman for something, I do so based on (for some websites) my zip code. But that zip co...
This d'var torah makes the argument that an orphan can still fulfill the obligation to honor parents, because the sages interpret it more broadly than just your two biological parents. (See the li...
tl;dr in what sense did "the people" as a collective do/say anything? In the Artscroll A""Z 5b1, the commentary in note 1 points out that "The Jews referred to the manna as..." and later, that "th...
At the end of Shemot 19, Moshe has gone down from the mountain to speak to the people. Then Shemot 20 begins with the decalogue, with God speaking the commandments. We're then told (20:15) that a...
AA pointed out in a comment that this is addressed in Makkot 23b-24a. There the g'mara says that of the 613 mitzvot stated to Moshe, The word Torah, in terms of its numerical value, is 611, the...
I'm not fully finished with my hypothetical but it goes something like this: If I davened mincha at the earliest possible time, I can daven maariv before sunset. If I am called to help out with a...
I'm trying to integrate things I (think I) know. Am I right that there's a general religious principle to follow most secular law? The Bible has more than one example of defying a law that contrad...
I've chatted with Monica about this. She agreed with my assessment of the place I first heard about it, which I don't consider good enough to link to. It's about a jurisdiction where COVID emergen...
I'm trying to understand (the classical Jewish view of) the character of Yaakov. He gets the birthright by exploiting a situation -- he did nothing inherently wrong and WE see him as justified in ...
Measuring is always a Rabbinic prohibition. It is only prohibited to directly measure something, but there is no problem to do an action that indirectly measures something out. See Shulchan Aruch 3...
This Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh Av. During the three weeks (which we're in the midst of) we read three special haftarot. On Rosh Chodesh normally we read a special haftarah. When they coincide, do ...
I had been under the impression that somebody who is not personally obligated in a mitzvah (or maybe specifically a b'racha?) cannot do it on behalf of someone else. This is one of the usual expla...
Reproduced: In the comment thread on this post, the reference to Devarim 21:15 does not show as a link when you open the thread on the post page, but if you go to the full thread page it does. I w...
I've learned two things since asking this question: Trope Trainer still works if disconnected from the Internet at launch time (a bit of a hassle, but it's a workaround -- h/t Power Users). ...
The g'mara on Yoma 73a gives the following examples of questions asked of the urim v'tummim (Exodus 28:30) and their answers: "Shall I pursue after this troop?" (I Samuel 30:8). Answer: "Thus...
The past few weeks, the phrase "halachta b'drachav" or "Lalechet B'drachav" or "Lalechet b'chol drachav" meaning "walk in His ways" (or "walk in ways that are proper before Him" according to Onkelo...
I was taught that we shouldn't make an interruption between saying a mitzvah b'racha and taking the action. I don't have a source for this other than that it makes sense; you don't want to risk ma...
