April 25, 2023

Internal Pesach, External Sukkot

There is a puzzling distinction between Pesach and Sukkot. Pesach has a very clear reason for celebration, it commemorates the time we left Mitzrayim. Sukkot, while the Torah does provide a reason, the timing is not particularly clear. And yet, Pesach seems to be, externally at least, a much more […]
April 25, 2023

Vayakel Pekudi

Few times throughout the Jews’ journeys in the desert does Moshe Rabbenu gather the people to speak with them. We must therefore consider the purpose of such events each time they occur. Rav Aharon Lichtenstein proposes that each time such a gathering occurred it a momentous occasion where Moshe gathered […]
April 25, 2023

Parshat Zachor

Three prominent enemies of the Jewish people appear throughout the Torah but only one bears the title of eternal enemy of the Jewish people. The מצרים enslaved us for hundreds of years. They drowned our babies and tormented our people. And yet, of them the Torah tells us לא תתעב […]
April 24, 2023

The Physical Informs the Spiritual (Tazria-Metzora)

In today’s פרשיות, we encounter intricate instructions regarding the procedure for identifying a מצורע. Various verses elaborate on the specific criteria, such as changes in color, size, and hair, that must be met to diagnose someone as a מצורע. However, the practical applications of these regulations are not explicitly mentioned. […]
April 10, 2023

The Anticlimactic Seder

The miracles were wonderous events that God performed for us. But they are not the point of the story. Now that He has redeemed us we must prepare to begin the next stage. We must discuss the technical details of the Seder so we understand the laws of how the celebration must be made. This is what we are entrusted to teach our children.
March 12, 2023

Kotev

כותב is doing an action that will form permanent words, numbers or pictures. That action does not necessarily need to be a form of writing. Instead, any action that will form words will be an איסור מדאורייתא. מוחק is the reverse of כותב. That is, the removal of letters in order to make space for new letters to be written down.
January 29, 2023

Microblading

An erroneous position attributed to Judaism is that tattooed individuals cannot be buried in Jewish cemeteries. Nevertheless, tattooing is clearly Biblically prohibited by Jewish law. Here, we define this prohibition and determine how those qualifications affect cosmetic tattooing, specifically, microblading.