Torah 948 articles

Messianism is a brisk and dangerous business. A top story in the news about a year ago, was the halachic status of an erstwhile convert who believes in a Mashiach that...

At the beginning of our parsha, HaShem explains to Moshe that He will redeem the Jewish people in four successive stages: “Therefore go and tell the children of Israel, I am...

The Coming Week’s Daf Yomi by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz This essay is based upon the insights and chidushim (original ideas) of Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, as published in the Hebrew...

For about three months, Moshe had a normal childhood. Then, under Pharaoh’s decree, mother Yocheved weepingly sets him afloat upon the Nile river. A most traumatic beginning manifests itself in a...

Kosher animals and fowl can be eaten only after shechita. Fish do not require such slaughter (SA YD 13:1). We have explained this in previous columns as follows: While our lower...

The Coming Week’s Daf Yomi by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz This essay is based upon the insights and chidushim (original ideas) of Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, as published in the Hebrew...

“Why is it so hard to find Parshas Vayechi?” is the oft frustrating lament of the ba’al koreh (Torah reader) The answer of course is that Vayechi has the unique status...

It was late one Saturday night, a few hours after the end of Shabbos, when I arrived at the funeral home to perform a Tahara-to wash and dress the body of...

The Torah forbids men from shaving the “corners of the beard” with a razor. (Vayikra 19:27. Most electric razors work like scissors and don’t fall foul of this prohibition.) In the...

The Coming Week’s Daf Yomi by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz This essay is based upon the insights and chidushim (original ideas) of Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, as published in the Hebrew...