Debates between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai are the bread and butter of Mishnaic discourse. There…
Shabbat Chol HaMoed: A Long Journey
It is hard to imagine a more impactful ritual than that of our weekly Torah reading. While its…
Beitza 6: Nothing New Under the Sun
It is on Sukkot that we read sefer Kohelet. A devar Torah on masechet Beitza is not the place to…
Sukkot: The Season of Joy
"On the first day, you must take for yourself a fruit of the citron tree, an opened palm frond,…
Haazinu: The Lessons of History
Despite our long and frequently miraculous past, the actual study of Jewish history is an oft-…
Yom Kippur: Far and Near
“With the approval of Hamakom, the Omnipresent, and with the approval of the congregation, in the…
Beitza 5: Two Days of Yom Kippur
The State of California today is voting on whether to recall and remove its governor from office.…
Beitza 4: Fresh Eggs
As most investors know, there is little that rattles the markets more than uncertainty.…
Nitzavim: What Do You Do?
Rare is the person who measures his success by looking only at themselves, trying to determine how…
Vayelech: Time for a Change
"And G-d said, 'My spirit shall not continue to judge him forever; he is nothing but flesh, and his…
Beitza 2: It's Better to Permit
In our last post, we noted the principle milta d’lo schicha lo gazru ba rabbanan, that our Sages do…
Rosh Hashanah: Sounding the Shofar
The blowing of the shofar is a most enigmatic mitzvah. The reasons we eat matzah, sit in the Sukkah…
An Introduction to Masechet Beitzah
One of the manifold changes of modernity is manifest in the modern methods of food preparation. No…
Sukkah 41: Offering Comfort on Sukkot
Those who have sat shiva know that the weeks after shiva can be much harder than the shiva itself.…
Sukkah 41: An Expensive Lulav
It was not long ago that it was hard to find a minyan of people with a lulav and etrog in shul.…
Ki Tavo: Year-End Readings
Observance of religious precepts is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Just because one is…
Sukkah 41: My Own Lulav
One of the unique laws of the arba minim, the four species, is that one can only fulfil the …
Ki Teitzei: Reach for the Top
One of the beautiful aspects of the Torah is its setting of high, perhaps even unattainable,…