In recent years, as more forensic tools have become available, we have been able to free many people who languished for years in prison before their…
Sanhedrin 43: Confess and Die
The fact that the Bible allows – perhaps at times even encourages – the death penalty for violating its most serious transgressions is…
Sanhedrin 40:Where Were You on Monday at 3:00pm?
"They would cross-examine him with seven questions: in which year of the jubilee, in which year of the shmitta cycle, in which month,…
Sanhedrin 37: The World Was Created for Me
There is nothing more precious than human life. As we discussed in our last post, it is due to the crucial importance of one individual life that man…
Sanhedrin 37: 1+1=Eternity
One of the most famous and beautiful teachings of Judaism is, “whoever preserves one life, it is as if he has preserved an entire world…
Sanhedrin 37: Back to School
With thousands going back to school today (myself included), parents, teachers and students are looking forward (well, maybe not all are looking…
Sanhedrin 36: The Mean Judge
The conflict between truth and peace dates back at least as far as the creation of the world, with “truth” arguing that being that man is…
Sanhedrin 29: I Hate that Rabbi
“Based on the words of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established” (Devarim 19:15). While absent cause, we have little…
Sanhedrin 27: I Love to Sin
Over the last few posts (see here and here) we have been discussing those who are disqualified from giving testimony or sitting as a judge…
Sanhedrin 26: Eating Pork at the Food Bank
“Rav Nachman said: Those who eat davar acher, the other, are pasul, invalid to give testimony” (Sanhedrin 26b). As is often the…
Sanhedrin 25: The Non-Kosher Butcher
Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental tenet of the our secular legal system. It finds an antecedent in the rabbinic notion of a …
Sanhedrin 24: Off to Vegas
"And G-d blessed them and G-d said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the land and conquer it” (Breisheet 1:28). These are…
Sanhedrin 24: Down with Bavel!
We are all products of—and greatly influenced by—our environments, which is why our Sages put so much emphasis on ensuring that we live…
Sanhedrin 22: A Beautiful Font
Malcolm Gladwell, in his best-selling book Outliers, delineates how much of one's success in life is dependent on when one is born. Thus,…
Sanhedrin 21: What is the Reason?
I have long thought that far and away the best introduction to and overview of Judaism is the Sefer haChinuch, the great 13th century…
Sanhedrin 19: Cemetery Etiquette
One of the areas of law that even otherwise non-observant Jews tend to observe are those relating to mourning[1]. Perhaps this phenomenon is based on…
Sanhedrin 17: Where Should We Live?
Marshall McLuhan, the insightful Canadian philosopher, noted that with the rapid advances in technology and communications, we citizens of earth were…
Sanhedrin 15: The Ox and I
Perhaps the fundamental difference between the Written Law and the Oral Law is that the former is “spoken” from a Divine perspective,…