I. Preaching and Change Rabbis speaking in the local language, e.g. German or English, was once denounced as forbidden but now is commonplace. Some people mistakenly conclude that if rabbis forbid...
God is just, merciful and fair. Why, then, are we told that saying something bad–opening our mouths to Satan–can cause bad things to happen? Why should a just God punish...
Does the prohibition against washing dirty clothes on Chol Ha-Mo’ed, the intermediate days of the holiday, still apply today when doing laundry is relatively quick and easy?1 In theory, washing laundry...
I think it was 1995 when Rav Feivel Cohen returned from an Agudah convention upset. He explained to his congregation, of which I was a member, that there was great...
A seemingly lopsided dispute between leading Mussar thinkers may be more even than initially appears, finding basis in an oddly placed Medieval polemic. When Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan brought his Chafetz Chaim before publication...
Jews traditionally name children after ancestors, Ashkenazim after deceased ancestors and Sephardim after living ancestors. However, there are many non-traditional Jews and many reasons why a traditional Jew may want...
Fixing Judaism On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, many have the custom of walking to a natural source of running water and reciting the Tashlich prayers. The...
In 1872, Rav Yosef Zechariah Stern (Zeicher Yehosef, Yoreh De’ah, vol. 2 no. 142), a prominent Lithuanian rabbi, was asked whether a house was cursed. After a house burned down,...
On Rosh Hashanah, Jews throughout the world hear the shofar blown 100 times each of the two days (except on Shabbos). Hearing shofar is a time-bound positive mitzvah (mitzvas aseih...
Do women have to say kiddush in shul after Shabbos morning services? For a variety of reasons, often people do not hear the rabbi saying Kiddush in shul. Since they...