Torah 948 articles

It is a classic machlokes (disagreement), one for the ages. Everybody but Ramban knows that the Torah is not written in chronological order. After all, ein mukdam u’meuchar batorah (lit. there...

One of the most important institutions in halakha is that of agency, or “shlichut”. The basic legal principle at work is that “a person’s agent is like himself”, and this principle...

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...

Far too many years ago, my sixth grade Rebbe once challenged our class: For a moment, imagine that you can be an eyewitness to any scene in Tanach – which one...

In our parsha eating meat seems to have a very negative image. The Torah tells us that it is specifically the “mob” who request meat; that they do so because of...

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...

What do Cal Ripken Jr. and Aharon HaKohen (the High Priest) have in common? Probably nothing – except in the mind of American Jews who have a penchant of connecting the...

A custom mentioned in many places is to eat milk foods at Shavuot, particularly in the daytime meal. In a previous column (as well as the forthcoming book) we connected this...

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...

Shavuot is just around the corner, and most of us are trying to remember what it is exactly that we are supposed to gain from the holiday. We know that it...