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Welcome to the Judaism community on Codidact!

Will you help us build our community of learners? Drop into our study hall, ask questions, help others with answers to their questions, share a d'var torah if you're so inclined, invite your friends, and join us in building this community together. Not an ask-the-rabbi service, just people at all levels learning together.

Activity for Monica Cellio‭

Type On... Excerpt Status Date
Question Is a loft a room for purposes of mezuzah?
Consider a cabin that has one large room with a loft extending over part of that room. A half-height wall at the front of the loft separates it from the rest of the cabin, so there is a single common ceiling over all. (Someone standing in the loft can see someone standing in the main room.) Does t...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #282418 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question Why is parshat Balak written without breaks in the torah scroll?
This past Shabbat I was reminded (while watching the torah reader rolling the scroll) that all (or nearly all?) of parshat Balak is written as one long paragraph in the scroll -- three solid columns with no short or long breaks. Why is this? I could imagine that it being about a gentile prophet b...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #276876 Post edited:
over 3 years ago
Edit Post #282274 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Answer A: Is starting of Judaism on-topic?
Questions at all levels of background are welcome, and this community isn't only for Jews. Basic questions are fine. I'm not sure what you mean about "starting point". The torah, specifically the five books of Moses, records some history that traditional Judaism understands to be true, so if you...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #282207 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question Sefaria's holding a contest; can our community build something that uses Codidact and Sefaria together?
Sefaria has just announced this year's Powered by Sefaria contest. The goal is to attract projects that are interesting and creative and that make use of Sefaria's library of texts and/or open APIs in some significant way. I imagine that, if it didn't already exist, the Sefaria linker that we use h...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #282064 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Article the wood-gatherer, kiruv, and congregational life
Originally given to a group of lay leaders from liberal congregations. Sh'lach L'cha records the incident with the wood-gatherer. To review, on Shabbat two men find a third outside the camp gathering wood, a clear violation of the laws of Shabbat they have been given. The men bring the wood-ga...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #282062 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Article What was the sin of Sh'lach L'cha?
This is a short d'var I gave at a weekday minyan years ago. I came across it while searching for something else and decided its message is still timely. In Sh'lach L'cha we read about the spies who were sent to scout out the land before the conquest. They came back with a bad report and the p...
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281865 The fox is lying to con the fish, yes, but is it a plausible lie (they actually *did* previously hang out together somehow, so maybe the fish is more likely to believe it) or a bald-faced lie (that never happened)?
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281785 @msh210 oh, one of the stones on the *choshen*? I didn't realize.
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281786 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question how should we organize the prophets tags?
I asked a question about a passage from Ezekiel, creating the "ezekiel-book-of" tag in the process. (I followed the pattern I saw with other book tags.) I saw that we also have a "prophets" tag, so I was going to make this new tag a child of it, but then I noticed that "jeremiah-book-of" is a child...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281785 Post edited:
over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281785 Post edited:
over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281785 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question What is the connection between the "tarshish" in Ezekiel's vision and the city Jonah fled toward?
I noticed that Ezekiel 1:16, in describing his vision of something like a heavenly chariot (merkavah), says the words gleaned like tarshish, translated "beryl" by Sefaria and some others: > מַרְאֵ֨ה הָאוֹפַנִּ֤ים וּמַעֲשֵׂיהֶם֙ כְּעֵ֣ין תַּרְשִׁ֔ישׁ > As for the appearance and structure of the...
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281336 If a list is too long to manage or isn't getting traction, what about compiling a post with an organized list of useful links (it could be a wiki post) and then adding a link to *that* post in the sidebar?
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281538 Post edited:
clarification
over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281538 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question Handedness for t'fillin: nature or nurture?
I know that t'fillin are placed on the weaker arm, which for most people is the left, so that the stronger hand is the one doing the binding. I have heard, but don't remember where, that someone who is ambidextrous uses the left as well, since the right isn't weaker and the left is more common. W...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281499 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Answer A: Why ones needs a chat.
Eventually we want to have integrated chat. We aren't there yet. In the nearer term, we're overhauling the commenting system in a way that will make it easier to have discussion threads on questions without them overwhelming the page. Instead of seeing all the comments on the post, you'll see th...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281451 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Answer A: Why do we stop saying Mashiv Haruach?
The placement of this text suggests "praise, not request" to me too. In fact, we ask for rain separately in the ninth blessing, which makes it seem even clearer that this mention is not a request (would we make the same request twice?). Ta'anit 3:a cites a baraita that says that both dew and rain...
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281340 @rosends I haven't read the linked sources, but I would have thought the consultation would be "is this too leavened" -- like, I baked it within 18 minutes but it looks puffy anyway; is this ok (hands over piece of matzah).
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281324 And it's Shabbat *Ha*Chodesh, too.
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281292 @robev the chronology suggested by the text is: Paro summoned Moshe and Aharon "in the night" and told them to get out, the Egyptians urged the Israelites to go, and the Israelites took their dough. It doesn't sound like they set out to *make* dough after the order to leave; they must have already h...
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281292 @manassehkatz weren't they gone by morning? And even if not, we would expect it to take at least a few hours to leave Egypt and get to a place where they could start baking that day's bread, no?
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281292 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question Why didn't the dough rise during the night of the Exodus?
When it comes to the bread, my plain understanding of the Exodus is that the Israelites left Egypt with dough (Exodus 12:34) and later baked it into unleavened bread because it had not risen (Exodus 12:39). That's what I've always understood, from the torah and from the haggadah: the dough did not r...
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281266 Fixed now. Thanks Mith and luap!
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281266 I'm seeing the same thing -- 20 Nisan (so it's rolled over), but Wednesday night (Thursday). Mac, Chrome. (Also, yes: timezones are a pain, DST makes it worse, and approximating the time is *just fine* for our purposes.)
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281266 Nice -- thanks luap42! (I'm guessing the API doesn't know about daylight saving time, as it hasn't rolled over for me yet at about 8:30PM. Not a complaint; I'll check back in half an hour. I'm mentioning it in case anyone else is seeing this and is confused like I was.)
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281230 Post edited:
over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281230 Post edited:
over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281230 @msh210 oh, thanks -- let me check more *haggadot*; maybe this is a local quirk.
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281230 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question Are we expecting Eliyahu to drink the fifth cup of wine?
Many kids I know (including past-me) think that Eliyahu drinks from the fifth cup at each seder. I've been to several where parents encouraged this belief, perhaps as a way of keeping the kids awake and attentive. (By "encouraged", I mean things like visibly checking the glass to see if the level h...
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over 3 years ago
Comment Post #281213 Thanks for the source and explanation. (I eat *matzah* every day, as it seems in keeping with the commandment and isn't forbidden.)
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281205 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question Why aren't we required to eat matzah every day during Pesach?
Shemot 12:15 tells us: "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread". But our tradition (I don't know the source, sorry) is that we are required to eat matzah only at the seder(s). Otherwise, the command is understood as "if you eat bread, it must be unleavened bread". Why aren't we required to ea...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281162 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question How does agency work for selling chameitz?
Each year my rabbi arranges the sale of chameitz for me (and anybody else who asks), and I know that I could also do this online. Either way, I provide some basic information, like the location of the chameitz, and that's it -- I don't sign anything, I don't make a public declaration, I don't pay hi...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281143 Initial revision over 3 years ago
Question Omer weekly/daily themes, online-style?
I know that there are some customary "categories" of daily contemplation during the Omer -- combinations of Chesed, Hod, etc. I know that each week has one of these as a theme, and then within that, each day has a theme, for 49 combinations of 7 basic ideas. This hasn't been part of my Omer observa...
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over 3 years ago
Edit Post #281051 Post edited:
fixed typo
almost 4 years ago