Debates between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai are the bread and butter of Mishnaic discourse. There…
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Shabbat Chol HaMoed: A Long Journey
It is hard to imagine a more impactful ritual than that of our weekly Torah reading. While its…
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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…
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Sukkot: The Season of Joy
"On the first day, you must take for yourself a fruit of the citron tree, an opened palm frond,…
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Haazinu: The Lessons of History
Despite our long and frequently miraculous past, the actual study of Jewish history is an oft-…
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Yom Kippur: Far and Near
“With the approval of Hamakom, the Omnipresent, and with the approval of the congregation, in the…
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Beitza 5: Two Days of Yom Kippur
The State of California today is voting on whether to recall and remove its governor from office.…
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Beitza 4: Fresh Eggs
As most investors know, there is little that rattles the markets more than uncertainty.…
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Nitzavim: What Do You Do?
Rare is the person who measures his success by looking only at themselves, trying to determine how…
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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…
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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…
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Rosh Hashanah: Sounding the Shofar
The blowing of the shofar is a most enigmatic mitzvah. The reasons we eat matzah, sit in the Sukkah…
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An Introduction to Masechet Beitzah
One of the manifold changes of modernity is manifest in the modern methods of food preparation. No…
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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.…
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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.…
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Ki Tavo: Year-End Readings
Observance of religious precepts is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Just because one is…
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Sukkah 41: My Own Lulav
One of the unique laws of the arba minim, the four species, is that one can only fulfil the …
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Ki Teitzei: Reach for the Top
One of the beautiful aspects of the Torah is its setting of high, perhaps even unattainable,…