Articles Shabbat

The Talmud teaches that everything is dependent on mazal, “even the Sefer Torah in the ark”. Some sifrei Torah are used week in and week out, while…

One of the differences between Talmudic rabbis and those of the post-Talmudic era is the “ability” of the former to link “crime and punishment”, or…

One of the most famous Talmudic stories is that of the potential convert who conditioned his conversion on whether or not he could be taught the…

Having the questions of an exam in advance would seem to be a big advantage. Yet often, such advantages are frittered away as we are apt to work a…

Rav Moshe Feinstein noted that one of the tragedies of American Jewish life was the common notion that it is difficult to be a Jew. Children saw…

“The rabbis wanted to bury the book of Kohelet, as its words contradict one another” (30b). The Talmud notes that, in addition to contradicting…

In an age before electricity, having light at night was no simple matter. While various forms of lamps were in use, their effectiveness was limited.…

Human nature is to be forgetful, even in the midst of doing something. This human frailty is what leads the Mishnah (11a) to rule that a tailor may…

While the prelude to the giving of the Torah is the establishment of a court system (see Shemot 18), it would seem that having to actually use the…

Two of our most fundamental mitzvoth are those of Tefillah, prayer and Talmud Torah, the study of Torah. Yet there has long been a…

When discussing the transition of torah sheba’al peh from knowledge that was transmitted orally to knowledge that is primarily studied via texts, we…

I had the privilege of learning in Rav Herschel Schachter’s shiur at Yeshiva University for four years, in the days before he was universally…

Much of Masechet Brachot deals with non-legal matters - extolling the importance of prayers and blessings and recording many stories involving our…