Tagged Questions
9
votes
4answers
287 views
Why wasn't the Torah given in Israel?
One might naturally expect that the Jewish people would enter the land and then receive the Torah there. It seems logical to me that the Torah should come from a holy place characterized by the ...
6
votes
1answer
86 views
Walled from the times of Joshua: Why Joshua?
The Halacha is that those who live in a city that was walled in the times of Yehoshuah reads on a different day. The question is why from Yehoshuah (Joshua) when the commentaries explain it they speak ...
8
votes
0answers
129 views
The size/shape of biblical Israel
Based on this Tosafot in Bava Metzia 28a (D"H Chamisha Asar Yom), Eretz Israel is a square (400 sq. Parsah), and the distance between Jerusalem and the Jordan river is 1/39th the distance between ...
3
votes
1answer
59 views
Archeological finds related to King Hezekiah's closing a wellspring under Jerusalem?
The Gemara says that King Hezekiah (Chizkiyahu) closed one of the springs of water in (under?) Jerusalem, so the Assyrian army wouldn't be able to use it.
Do we have any guesses what exactly that ...
6
votes
4answers
155 views
What defines a “Jewish State” according to Rav Kook?
This question is only According to the opinion of R' Kook, who says that modern day Israel "would be considered the
quasi-Kingdom of Israel".
What component of the modern-day state would give it ...
4
votes
6answers
119 views
Al Hamichyah - Wide land?
In the Brocho after eating grains which are not bread we say:
על ארץ חמדה טובה ורחבה
Translated very loosely as: On the Land (ISRAEL) that is desirable good and WIDE.
Now, anyone with a ...
2
votes
0answers
62 views
Where are the borders of Eretz Israel nowadays? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What are the Halachic boundaries of Eretz Yisroel?
How far into Jordan/Lebanon/Syria/Egypt is still considered "Halachic" Eretz Israel?
2
votes
1answer
64 views
Redistribution of refuge cities after expansion
When the Torah commands the establishment of cities of refuge in Eretz Yisra'el to protect accidental murderers from vengeful relatives it states that the three cities must be evenly placed ...
3
votes
2answers
103 views
cities that start with ה־
There are a good number of cities referred to in Y'hoshua, of course, and a sizable percentage (I'm guesstimating about 5%) of them start with ה־ (most famously הָעַי, I think).What ...
3
votes
1answer
66 views
The list of Binyamin's cities
When Y'hoshua 15:21–62 lists the cities of Y'huda, it does so by area/topography. M'tzudas David to 15:37 says that "everywhere it counts some separately and others separately", it does so by area or ...
8
votes
4answers
541 views
How precisely oriented towards Jerusalem should we face for praying?
I know we're supposed to face towards Jerusalem when praying/davening. For most of us in the Europe or the Western Hemisphere, we're used to facing "Mizrach", east.
How precise should we be? If ...
