While “only” a rabbinic command, drinking four cups of wine is given special status at the seder. Unlike matzah and marror—which…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_309619208.jpg?itok=-diL5TR2)
Pesachim 113: Crossing the Line
There is a fine line between matzah and chametz. They are, by definition, made of the same ingredients. All that separates them is a fleeting moment…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2182844533.jpg?itok=0QAblUDP)
Pesachim 99: Wine for the Poor
The most repeated mitzvah in the Torah—and hence, one can argue, the most important message of the Torah—is to be kind and sensitive…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2373666829.jpg?itok=xsgYMRc7)
Pesachim 99: To Lean or Not to Lean
“On the eve of Pesachim, one may not eat adjacent to mincha time until it gets dark; even a poor person of Israel should not eat until…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_1310692859.jpg?itok=2B20Sx7N)
Pesachim 99: What's to Eat
“On the eve of Pesachim, one may not eat adjacent to mincha time until it gets dark” (Pesachim 99b). The seder meal is the most…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2129088551_0.jpg?itok=p_qCH73Z)
Pesachim 66: Anger Management
Judaism eschews extremism. “The two extremes in each and every tendency are not a good way, and it is not proper for a man to follow them…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2163674901.jpg?itok=ar5FY6dT)
Pesachim 66: A Wise Leader
The Shulchan Aruch, the most accepted code of Jewish law, consists of four sections: Orach Chaim, dealing with the day-to-day routine of Jewish law;…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2305502091.jpg?itok=znQg_Uwq)
Pesachim 50: Time to Work
There is a fascinating debate amongst the medieval greats as to whether one is obligated to act lifnim meshurat hadin, over and above what…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2334009427.jpg?itok=eOb07NV-)
Pesachim 50: That's My Minhag
In one of his teshuva derashot, Rav Soloveitchik lamented the fact that, while there are many shomer Shabbat Jews in America, there are very few…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_1985121530.jpg?itok=HUGT0-LA)
Pesachim 49: A Great Family
Language is much more than a method of communication. It conveys the values and culture of those who speak it. The Hebrew language is known as …
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2119160231.jpg?itok=2wPGBj-X)
Pesachim 50: A Very Clear World
I am on occasion asked by my (generally non-observant) students questions about the afterlife. This is a most welcome question, indicating some…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2239889031.jpg?itok=VdtDemlN)
Pesachim 43: Chametz at the Seder
In our last post, we discussed the fascinating view of Rabbi Yehuda (at least, as understood by Rashi) that the prohibition of eating chametz on…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_1538156231.jpg?itok=Kn2pfv8t)
Pesachim 21: Welcome Stranger
There is no more oft-repeated command in the Torah than the charge to be kind and sensitive to the ger—ki because[1], …
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_331503632.jpg?itok=WtdTZM9x)
Pesachim 13: Time for a Joke
In describing our Talmudic Sages, one would not put a sense of humour at the top of the list—maybe not even at the bottom. Yet that would be…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2203396321.jpg?itok=aCymuIbw)
Pesachim 8: Bathing In Jerusalem
The problem of theodicy—why a benevolent G-d allows so much evil to exist in this world—has troubled thinkers from time immemorial.…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2155075343.jpg?itok=kRFL9Nas)
Pesachim 6: 30 Days Notice
One of the principles of Biblical interpretation is that the Torah is not necessarily written in chronological order, ein mukdam umeuchar…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_1457013101.jpg?itok=WZACz5TS)
Pesachim 7: Let the Dough Rise
One of the requirements our Talmudic Sages set for the receiving of semicha, rabbinic ordination, was the ability to speak clearly (…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/380x240/public/2024-05/shutterstock_2218554807.jpg?itok=Ksaz3tjz)
Pesachim 2: Searching for Chametz
“On the eve of the fourteenth, we search for chametz by candlelight” (Pesachim 2a). I fondly recall hiding pieces of chametz all over the…