I. Rashbash and Chumra Religious life tends toward conservatism, retaining the practices and rhythms of prior years. New stringencies are often derided as fanaticism, an offensive rejection of earlier generations’ religiosity....
Jewish law requires immersing in a mikveh utensils used with food. This only applies if the utensils are made of certain materials (generally metal and glass) and if they were...
I. Learning & Sleeping On Shavuos, many stay up all night learning Torah and go to sleep after early morning services. This year, when the holiday followed Shabbos, most people had...
I. It’s All Good What is the most important passage in the Torah? The debate over a Shavuos custom teaches that answering this question opens the door to claims that other...
I. Calculating the End For a long time, I struggled to understand how classical Bible commentators could be so wrong. Many of them attempted to calculate when mashiach would come based...
I. Video Game Avodah Zarah A recently released, ground-breaking video game raises important questions for Jews, who pride themselves on their devotion to monotheism. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the...
I. Technology and Halakhah The influence of technology on halakhah offers a fascinating study of flexibility within a framework of conservation. Experts apply an eternal law to new situations, using analogies...
I. Lower East Side Dispute The question has arisen numerous times whether a community may buy a church building to be used as a synagogue. In the 1850’s, such a question...
The period between Pesach and Shavuos contains a mourning period–different days depending on one’s custom–during which certain joyous behaviors are forbidden (commonly called Sefirah because this period also includes the...
The Passover seder is full of fours: four questions, four cups, four sons. The midrashic reading of four sons into the biblical text is brilliant, comparing the four times the Torah refers...
