Torah 948 articles

We say it; it seems like it fits – but one suspects that we are essentially clueless (an admitted projection) to its Sukkos significance. I refer to the strange recitation at...

Customarily, the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh is called “Shabbat Mevarchim” because after the Torah reading the coming of the new month is announced and then a special prayer is said (Rema...

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 this mitzvah that I am prescribing to you today is not too mysterious or remote from you. It is not in heaven, to say, “Who will go up...

Our parsha opens with the declaration of thanks made by the farmer who brings his first fruits. He affirms that he separated out tithes including maaser sheni, and adds, “I did...

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...

Here’s an unfortunate but fascinating halachic question: Does a blind woman (or man when relevant) light Shabbos candles with a bracha (blessing)? In other words, does the act of lighting constitute...

The last of the 613 commandments of the Torah is for each individual to write a Torah scroll, or to have one written: “Now write for you this song, and teach...

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...

Allow me to present the beautiful (almost) unvarnished comments of Ohr HaChaim (Morocco, Jerusalem; 1696-1743). First, consider that Rav Chaim Ibn Attar lived in Morocco in the early 18th century and note...