17
votes
Accepted
If the lulav and etrog are biblically mandated, how were people in cold climates able to obtain them before modern times?
It seems, according to this article, that people found a way.
It would seem that as long as Jews stayed in the moderate climate on the shores of the Mediterranean, there was no difficulty obtaining ...
- 37.8k
15
votes
Joining a synagogue after two generations non-practising
Yashar koach on becoming more involved in Jewish life.
We can't say what they will do (only they can answer that), but I'll address how you can approach it. You are Jewish because your mother is (...
- 56.4k
12
votes
Accepted
Can Jews be rulers of countries other than Israel?
Brachos 58a says that upon seeing a "melech Yisrael", one recites the blessing:
Baruch ... SheChalak MiKvodo Lirei'av.
Bless You God, who apportioned from Your honor to those who fear you!
...
- 131k
11
votes
Did any Achronim comment on the American Revolutionary or Civil Wars?
R. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai twice refers to the American Revolution in his diary. Both times he is talking about the negative effect the war was having on the finances of Jews in Amsterdam who had ...
- 49.1k
9
votes
Niagara Falls does it require a Bracha if so which one?
Some believe that an "Oseh Ma'aseh V'reishis" should be made on the Niagara Falls because undoubtedly it is one of the most impressive natural wonders. However, after doing some research I have found ...
- 91
7
votes
Any books dealing with minhaggim of Lita?
Minhagei Lita (Customs of Lithuanian Jewry) by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Poliakoff.
It should be noted that this work has been critiqued as reflecting the author's personal experiences, not historic ...
- 35.4k
6
votes
"Secular" studies in the Rhineland academies of the 11th-13th centuries
It seems Ashkenazi Jews of the time - including the Tosafists - lacked formal secular knowledge.
Rabbi Prof. Ephraim Kanarfogel wrote in his essay "The Tosafist Oeuvre and Torah u-Madda":
&...
- 24.9k
5
votes
Can Jews be rulers of countries other than Israel?
Consider the medrash that Moshe Rabbeinu was the king of Ethiopia. If you want to say that since it was before Sinai, it would not apply, consider the Khazars where the king and nobility appear to ...
- 42.9k
5
votes
Accepted
לישב בסוכה the second night if you've been in the sukkah continuously
Kovetz halachos (Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky) says like you that 2nd day night you make a new bracha because by sfaika diyoma we look at it as if yesterday wasn't yom tov.
Ive seen the ashrei ish that ...
- 2,525
4
votes
Accepted
Are Jews who live and died in diaspora non-believers?
The gemara doesn't end there ... it clarifies the baraita you cite and continues
Whoever lives outside of the Land of Israel, it is as if he is an
idolater.
artscroll elucidates this
...
- 47.9k
4
votes
Cohanim in Paris
The question is not for a problem of touching a dead but for a problem of Maahil (to be over the dead). Tum'a Bokaat Veola (uncleanness erupt upward).
In some conditions, to walk over a buried dead ...
- 22.7k
4
votes
Accepted
When would a convert affix the Mezuzah in the diaspora?
The Concise Code of Jewish Law for Converts by Rabbi Michael Broyde addresses this question. It cites Agur BeOhalecha (page 366:36), by Rabbi Eliyahu Avigdor Feldman, as saying that a convert outside ...
- 9,777
4
votes
Accepted
Birkat Kohanim in Chutz Laaretz
See RM Issarles on SA OC 128, 44:
נהגו בכל מדינות אלו שאין נושאים כפים אלא ביום טוב משום שאז שרויים בשמחת יום טוב וטוב לב הוא יברך מה שאין כן בשאר ימים אפילו בשבתות השנה שטרודים בהרהורים על מחייתם ...
- 22.7k
4
votes
Melacha for people observing Yom Tov Sheni in Israel
Rav Moshe Feinstein (OC 3:73) writes that there is a machlokes in the Shaarei Teshuva (496:3) about thi, but writes that the halacha follows the authorities who prohibit asking others to perform ...
- 6,175
3
votes
Accepted
Giving handouts/alms to the poor: Which halachos and Jewish ideas are relevant?
Arthur Kurzweil (the publisher and Jewish genealogy specialist) wrote a wonderful article on this 20 years ago which stayed with me until now. See it fully here.
He brings a number of relevant quotes ...
- 47.9k
3
votes
Secret Ops, The President, and The Blessing On a King
Since not everyone agrees with this other answer here's a different view, from R Shlomo Aviner's book On the air p. 45
The king must have the ability to administer capital punishment (Shut ...
- 47.9k
3
votes
Can I omit ברוך השם לעולם אמן ואמן to catch up in Maariv?
Yes, it's befeirush (explicit) in Mishna Berura siman 236 s"k 11. that one should skip it to daven Shmoneh Esrei with the tzibur:
ואם הם עוסקים עדיין בברכות ק"ש והוא משער שעד שיגיעו הצבור ...
- 91
3
votes
National Character affecting its Jewish Community
Rabbi Hamburger quotes the source as:
Michtav
Mei'Eliyahu, vol. IV, Yerushalayim 5745, pp. 129-30
He also goes on to quote Reb Yehuda HaChassid:
Sefer Chassidim (siman #1101), `In most places,...
- 33.4k
3
votes
Birkat Kohanim in entirely Israeli minyan in chutz laaretz
The minhag of those from Eretz Yisrael is to say birchath kohanim daily. While many Ashkenazim in Europe had a controversial practice of refraining from birchat kohanim during the year, this custom ...
- 17.7k
2
votes
Is the ketuba enforceable in American law?
R' Michael Broyde-- in a 2004 article titled "The Ketubah in America: Its Value in Dollars, its Significance in Halacha and its Enforceability in American Law"-- seems to say no:
(bolding for emphasis)...
- 12k
2
votes
Why no 15-minutes-early clause in English rabbis' contracts?
I tried my very best to research this question, and I sent the following email to two major Rabbinic bodies in England:
Hello,
Firstly, I apologize if this is the "wrong address" for these ...
- 20.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Does one really have 30 days to put up a mezuza outside Eretz Israel?
Since I wrote up the question, a related question was asked and answers there bring very interesting and relevant sources for my question here. I think we can now answer positively that indeed anyone ...
- 47.9k
2
votes
Accepted
How widespread was the practice of Judaism in pre-WW2 Europe?
It varied tremendously across Europe. World War I actually demolished a lot of communal structure, and Orthodox observance declined from there.
Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik commented that as a young ...
- 131k
2
votes
Can Sefardim carry in Monsey, NY?
Rabbi Hassan describes the problem here:
Now is there a problem for Sephardim?
This is a complicated area of halakha but I will try and write as short and as clear as possible.
Rav Yosef ...
- 31.8k
2
votes
If you put up a mezuzah before 30 days, can you make a blessing?
I wrote this up as a question here although it is not an exact duplicate. Like you I believe we might need to say a blessing right away.
See here for one possible source confirming this from R ...
- 47.9k
2
votes
If you put up a mezuzah before 30 days, can you make a blessing?
Your question is interesting in that you ask "can one make a blessing when putting up a mezuzah before 30 days..." There seems to be conflicting opinions on this idea. The situation of delaying a ...
- 10.5k
2
votes
What is mandatory for the second seder?
In fact, many aspects of the first seder are also Rabbinical. However, there is no difference: everything done at the second seder is identical to the first seder (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 496:2). ...
- 626
2
votes
Rav Moshe Feinstein and chodosh in the Diaspora
In an interview published in Mishpacha magazine in 2011, R. Michel Shurkin reports the following:
...I ask whether Reb Moshe was supportive of the trend towards being
machmir even if there was a ...
- 14.3k
2
votes
How does one travelling from Israel abroad (or vice versa) perform Shnayim Mikra when the parshiyot are out of sync?
Many years ago I was advised by my Rabbi Z"l to read חוק לישראל. And I faced a similar problem. Here's what he told me:
There are two maps of reading Torah - personal and social:
On the personal ...
- 25.7k
2
votes
Jeremiah 29:6 - encouragement of intermarriage?
How do you see a hint at intermarriage?
Yirmiyahu is encouraging the Jewish people to keep building Klal Yisrael through marriage, even though they are in exile.
Don't despair, since eventually they'...
- 2,961
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