"And he [Yaakov] sent Judah ahead of him l'horot, to make preparations, in Goshen (Breisheet 46:28…
Daf Yomi, Football and New Year's
There is something surreal about 92,000 people gathering at a football stadium on New Year’s…
Chanukah: Timing the Market
Before there were clocks and standard time, time was determined in relation to the position of the…
Mikeitz: Home Sweet Home
That one has a natural love for one's place of birth is a truism long recognized by our…
Chanukah: An Eternal Message
One of the painful realties of Jewish life is that the Jewish people are often judged by a double…
VaYeshev: The Successful Man
Our Sages attach the appellation Tzadik, righteous one, to Yosef, presumably because of his ability…
Nidah 30: The Lord is Against Me
“And it does not leave the womb before it is made to take an oath…and what is the oath…
VaYishlach: The Unsung Hero
How common it is for people to return from a funeral and realize how little they knew about the…
Nidah 30: In Utero
Being pregnant with one’s first child is the best of times. One imagines a talmid…
VaYetze: From Yaakov to Yisrael
“And Yaakov was a pure man, dwelling in the tents” (Breisheet 25:27). Like his father…
Niddah 31: A Great Mitzva
In our last post, we discussed that seven days after giving birth to a boy and 14 after a girl, the…
Niddah 31: The Joy of Being Jewish
Death, as we have often noted, is the primary source of tumah, impurity, with a corpse classified…
Chayei Sarah: Growing Old, Staying Young
"And Sarah lived one hundred years, twenty years and seven years; these are the years of Sarah…
Niddah 2: Shammai and Hillel
It is hard to imagine more influential institutions of Jewish learning than those of Beit Hillel…
VaYera: Moving Out of Town
One of the fundamental issues of debate amongst observant Jews regards the degree of openness with…
Niddah: Blood and Water
“And you shall live by them” (Vayikra 18:5). The mitzvot of the Torah are meant to…
Lech Lecha: In Defence of Terach
Our rabbis famously debate the righteousness of Noach. Was he a tzadik only relative to the corrupt…