It is an amazing but all too common phenomenon that two people can witness the same event and yet “see it” very differently. This is the…
Chulin 139: Where is Moshe?
“Where is Moshe [mentioned] in the Torah?” It is hard to imagine a more—let's be gentle here—superfluous question. A…
Chulin 109: Can I Have Some Udder Please
When I ask ba’alei teshuva what the hardest thing for them to give up is, the most common response I receive is "…
Chulin 105: Time for a Field Trip
It is an often-cited truism that the Orthodox community, most ironically, tends to place much greater emphasis on kosher food than on kosher money.…
Chulin 105: Can We Drink Milk Yet?
“Mar Ukva said: I am, with regard to this matter, like vinegar, son of wine, with respect to Father. Father, if he were to eat meat…
Chulin 100: Torah at Sinai
“Because of this the children of Israel, to this day, do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip…
Chulin 97: It Tastes Great
Rabbinic debates are not for the faint-hearted. They can be most intense, and sadly, can lead to tragic consequences. One of the most famous of…
Chulin 94: Let's Have Some Wine
In our last post, we spoke about geneivat da’at, generating false goodwill, in the context of gid hanasheh. I imagine very few people…
Chulin 94: What a Nerve!
One would not normally associate the prohibition to eat the gid hanashe, the sciatic nerve, with issues of business ethics. But related…
Chulin 83: Cow and Calf
One of most famous mitzvot of the Torah is that of shiluach haken, the obligation to send away the mother bird before taking her little chicks…
Chulin 60: The Essence of Torah
One of the teachings that is ingrained in us from a young age is that every letter, and surely every verse and story, found in the Torah is of great…
Chulin 60: Once in a Blue Moon
The least observed of biblical holidays is undoubtedly Rosh Chodesh. As a holiday based in the Temple, with no home or synagogue based rituals,…
Chulin 54: We Can Talk Later
Dan Arielly begins his best-selling book, Predictably Irrational, by noting that for we humans it’s all relative. We do not by evaluate A…
Chulin 44: A Kosher Animal?
That the “Orthodox” community is more careful about kosher food than kosher money is sadly obvious, and demonstrated all too often.…
Chulin 42: Heavenly Truth
In the introduction to his responsa, Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that the Sages of each generation are permitted and obligated to issue halachic…
Chulin 17: I Would Love Some Pork
“And it will be, when the Lord, your G-d, brings you to the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you,…
Chulin 15: Please Be Quiet
In a beautiful teshuva (Orach Chaim 4 #89) written during Chanukah 1960, Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked (by Rabbi Leo Yung, rabbi of the Jewish Centre…
Chulin 15: Shabbat Slaughter
“It is a sign between Me and the Jewish people that in ‘six days’ G-d created the heavens and the earth” (Shemot 31:17).…