All Questions

Are there any more songs similar in folk dance and style like Hava Nagila? I'm looking for a song to listen to while studying Torah commentary. All suggestions are open and appreciated.

Someone tied a garbage bag with a double knot (due to distraction by talking) on Yom Tov. He then quickly opened the top knot as if to "undo" the melacha. A) Did he transgress "tying"? B) Did he ...

Is writing on your body acceptable? Leviticus 19:28 ESV / 471 You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.

There are many countries with corrupted governments who steal taxpayers' money. Is one still obliged to pay taxes if the government is corrupted and steals a big fraction of the taxes one pays? What's ...

During Succot, we were discussing what materials may be used to secure the schach. Most people that I know, including I, use a bamboo mat and lay some planks of wood on top to secure it down. Someone ...

I remember seeing on tv in the 80’s this movie/tv movie/tv show, don’t know which it was. The scene in question has a boy and a father figure in a boat. The boy sees a tattoo on the man’s arm, asks, “...

@Maurice has asked a series of interesting questions on how our reward and punishment system works. We generally hold that Yom Kippur is the time of the final verdict for a year, but I'd like to know ...

Starting with the Mishna in Ta'anis 1.4 we learn that there are occasions (lack of rain in this case) when we fast BeHaB, i.e. Monday, Thursday, and Monday. הִגִּיעַ שִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר בְּמַרְחֶשְׁוָן ...

The Bavli, Gitin 2 amud 2, says that one person is believed when he testifies about isurin (prohibitions), and it immediately limits that to the case that the person is not testifying against an ...

1-Good things happen to good people. Because God rewards good behavior. [Lev 26:3-13] 2-Bad things happen to bad people. Because God punishes bad behavior. [Lev 26:14-45] 3-Good things happen to ...

On Rosh Hashanah the judgment is written. On Yom Kippur it is sealed. But we really have until Hoshanah Rabbah to repent. The Zohar [Tzav 31b] says that's when the judgment is delivered. Who is ...

תנא אלף ושבע מאות קלין וחמורין וגזירות שוות ודקדוקי סופרים נשתכחו בימי אבלו של משה: אמר רבי אבהו אעפ"כ החזירן עתניאל בן קנז מתוך פלפולו One thousand and seven hundred inferences, and verbal ...

Rambam in his Mishneh Torah (Prayer and the Priestly Blessing 11:14) states that a hall of study is holier than a synagogue. This raises an interesting question if a hall of study can be holier than ...

I don't really understand the essence of a Brocho and the ways it works, and that's why I'm asking those questions. How did the Brochos of Moses to the tribes (Deut. 33:6-25) correlate to those that ...

I have a hard time understanding Moses' Brochos to the tribes and how it correlates to the actual course of history. As I can see, the interpreters felt the same problem and tried to pick single ...

The way Genesis is structured it is not clear if Adam ate of the tree more then once? Adam is disobedient, because he ate fruit from the forbidden tree If Adam was to eat of the tree the second ...

Yaakov was severely criticized for not treating his sons equally. We say the same Brachah on Shabbos for all of our kids Moses (in Deut 33), however, has a different approach to the final blessing ...

Rambam in Yesodey Hatorah 7 writes that Prophets are very special people that prepare themselves thoroughly to detach themselves from this physical world and serve Hashem. However, we can clearly see ...

I'm not asking "Who was the fist Jew who had two names?" like Yaakov [Israel] or Benyamin [Ben-Oni] had, I'm asking who was the first Jew who got "Menachem-Mendel" or "Avraham-Yitzhak" type of naming -...

What is the halachic stance on the Tetragrammaton transliterated into English as YHWH or Yawheh or Jehovah? Is it accurate to use the English letters YHWH as the Hebrew equivalent? We see this ...

In Exodus 34:6-7 it is written וַיַּעֲבֹר יְהוָה עַל־פָּנָיו וַיִּקְרָא יְהוָה יְהוָה אֵל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת: נֹצֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים נֹשֵׂא עָוֺן וָפֶשַׁע ...

One of the Maimonides' 13 principals is the belief in resurrection of the dead but what is the qualifier for this? Does this only include Jews? Does it only apply to the righteous? Will Noachides ...

I have seen some sefarim (books) from the past couple centuries discuss and review other people's opinions and interpretations, and describe the wild/hard to believe mahalchim (opinions) as being הפלא ...

The gemarra often employs the different types of derashos/hermeneutics such as kal vachomer/a fortiori arguments and hekesh/juxtaposition of phrases or terms. Also often, is these derashos are ...

Wasn't last week Parshat Vezot Hab'rachah? But we are now repeating it! Am I off a portion or are we actually repeating it?

In the Hoshana poem L'ma'an Amitach, various characteristics of God are enlisted as a reason for God to save us. The version appearing in my prayerbook, and recited in congregations I have been ...

Whenever I wave my four species in shul, I always find that my tallis repeatedly slips off my head and shoulders. I typically have to adjust it every single set of waves, which is rather distracting. ...

The word "hoshana" is said before and after every verse in the weekday hoshanas. Is this also the case in the "Nation Protected" hoshana that is said on Shabbos, found on page 736 in the Artscroll ...

I came across an anomaly while dividing Hebrew words into their proper syllables. The word is לְצַוְּארֵ֥י. At first I thought to divide it as: |לְ|צַ|וְּ|ארֵ֥י but realized that the Aleph Nacha (אלף ...

I understand that Moshe ascended Har Sinai 3 times. The 1st time was on 6th of Sivan The 2nd time seems to have occurred after the sin of the Golden Calf, starting on 18 Tamuz and he spent 40 days ...

You remove your tallit while services are ongoing (say, to go to the bathroom). When you put it back on, do you have to say the blessing on the tallit again?

When we recite Hallel in the synagogue for Rosh Hodesh or the holidays, we say a blessing beforehand. We do not say a blessing before Hallel at the seder table on Pessah. Why not?

Why did Hillel not turn a convert away three times, not even once? And why did he convert them straight away, when if seen by todays standards, they're the most terrible candidates. They were ...

WHile completely understood metaphorically, the sentence makes no sense Halachicly, for example: "You should pay this man $20 but don't deviate to the right or to the left" "This tool is Tame but don'...

Hear me out before you judge: The question of Hishtadlus (personal effort vs relying on G-d) is deeply rooted in our sources, the Torah tells us that when Yaakov anticipated a violent meeting with ...

We visited a family of non-orthodox Jews here in Jerusalem that has a permanent wooden pergola on their large balcony. The roof is a wooden frame with wooden bars about 2x10 cm freely inserted (no ...

Are there any Jewish historical traditions that young Jewish girls often hoped and desired to be the mother of the messiah? For this question, I am interested in the historical time period of the 1st ...

Preface During Shabbat, Orthodox Jewish practice is to avoid turning lights on or off. Perhaps turning lights on or off is a form of melacha. On Chol Ha'moed, melacha is sometimes, but not always, ...

I think I have heard that one should not measure or weigh things on Shabbat. However, I wonder if this rule applies to Yom Tov related food needs, e.g., can one stick a food thermometer into meat to ...

You live in a house in North America with a 75-gallon power-vented gas-fired hot water heater. The house has no chimney, which is why the power-vent feature is useful. The instruction manual (PDF) ...

On the second night of Yom Tov, can one take fire from a yartzeit candle to light your Yom Tov candles?

See Mishna Yevamot 7.4. העובר, והיבם, והאירוסין, והחירש, ובן תשע שנים ויום אחד, פוסלין ולא מאכילין. ספק שהוא בן תשע שנים ויום אחד ספק שאינו, ספק הביא שתי שערות ספק לא הביא, נפל הבית עליו ועל בת ...

I have heard (in conversation) that there are early Torah scrolls, or sources mentioning this, that don't follow the two-column Haazinu that is now universally written; but rather, something similar ...

Many have the custom to stand at Vayevarech Dovid. The reason behind this minhag is because many give tzedakah at this point, and it is proper to stand while doing a mitzvah. With this being said, why ...

In the entry for Talmud Bavli/Yerushalmi in Chida's Shem Hagedolim Hashalem (c.1800, the older versions do not have this paragraph), he references a theory from maskilim of his time that the Rabbis ...

Is the word אֱלוֹהַּ pronounced as: 1) "Elo-ha" or 2) "Elo-ah"? DonielF pointed out a similar question. It seems to me that that question was asking for the reasoning of how Patach Genuvah works. I ...

Before doing many mitzvos (commandments), we are required derabanan to say a blessing. Why is this not the same for giving tzedakah (charity)?

In his supercommentary to Rashi Genesis 7:2, R. Yissechar Ber Eilenberg cites the following from his teacher R. Mordecha Yaffe: וטעם שאסור ללמוד תורה לגוי הוא מפני הערלה שבו ויש בו סוד שלא להכניס ...

The Egyptian people surely knew that the Jewish people were immune to the plagues and many must have suspected that all these catastrophes were happening to them on our account (either through Moshe's ...

What constitutes tzedakah? The general understanding is that tzedakah is giving money or things to the poor, or help them help themselves with jobs, loans, tuition for training, etc. You must give ...