This weekend-as the USA celebrates Independence Day- we inevitably reflect upon the dramatic introduction of democracy into the human theater. Democracy and its values revolutionized human experience and terminated thousands...
A famous Mishna in Pirkeh Abot (5:17) distinguishes between two kinds of “Mahloket” (controversy) – one which is “Le’shem Shamayim” (for the sake of Heaven), and one which is not...
AN AREA VERSUS A LINE The Talmud (Berachos 8a) refers to the body of the halacha as “the four amos of halacha”. We had a rebbe at Yeshiva who was fond...
PARSHAS KORACH: STICK FIGURES The chronology of complaining and retribution in this week’s portion is not only disheartening, it seems almost endless. First, there is the terrible Korach rebellion where this...
The year is 1933. Two Jews are sitting in a Viennese coffee house, reading the news. One is reading the local Jewish paper, the other the notoriously antisemitic publication Der...
STOP POUNDING Rabbi Sam Wolfson was giving his speech to the Jewish federation about the “Tragedy of Jewish assimilation.” Toward the end of his long speech the Rabbi clapped his hands...
Is there such a thing as a mezonos bagel? The OU as a matter of policy does not believe that there is such a thing. Rabbi Belskey zt”l was very sensitive...
I. No Smell After Shabbos ends, we recite havdalah on wine, a special candle and spices for smelling, each item with its own blessing plus a blessing on separation itself marking...
If you look in your Chumash, you will see that at the end of every parsha it tells you how many pesukim there are in the parsha. It then gives...
In Bamidbar, Perek Tes Zayin, posuk lamed bais, the posuk tells us that the earth opened its mouth and swallowed Korach and his people and their houses. There is well known...