The Issur Chazal wanted to protect the Jews from assimilating with the non-Jews and therefore enacted a gezeira that the bread of a non-Jew is forbidden for a Jew to eat. This is known as pas akum. This issur applies...
Please tell everyone a little bit about Joey Saban. I was born and raised in South Brooklyn as a first generation American with proud Sephardic Jewish heritage. My passion for community service began when I was...
Have you ever felt like a fraud? Ever experience that sentiment that you’re a fake, that you are making this up as you go and, eventually will be found out and exposed? It could be in your professional life,...
As we bring the year to a close, it seems like not only the year is ending, but history and the world as well. Looking back, it is fascinating to see the enormous number of events that...
Dear Rabbi and Shira, In high school we were told that when we start dating, never to talk to friends about it for multiple reasons such as it can cause jealousy or...
The posuk in the Torah says that melacha is generally forbidden on Yom Tov, although melacha which is needed to prepare food to eat is permitted. Once these melachos (cooking, and baking) were permitted for the preparation of food they are also...
As we approach a string of three three-day yamim tovim, people are thinking about their hygiene and comfort, including showering and brushing teeth. I will discuss here the longstanding debate about the permissibility of brushing teeth on Shabbos and...
It seems that every few years, someone argues that the message of the Akedah, the binding and near-sacrifice of Yitzchak (Gen. 22), is something other than that we should follow G-d’s commands no matter how hard they may be....
Many people enter the season of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur asking themselves, “What’s the point? I went through all this last year, and here I am, the same person as I was a year ago. Why...
The Mishna says [Rosh HaShanah 27b] that someone who passes the back side of a shul or someone whose house is next to a shul and he hears the Shofar has fulfilled his obligation if he intends...