In our last post we discussed the view of Rabbi Eliezer that one who teaches his daughter Torah is as if he has taught her tiflut, frivolity. To…
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is this notion that lay at the heart of one of the most important disputes of the Talmud (though many are…
For most people carpool is a scheduling nuisance, one of those necessary but unwanted jobs of parenting. Helping with homework is not much better.…
Just this week an Ontario Court ruled that a 19 year old convicted of first degree murder of a police officer would be spared jail time (he was 15 at…
What a Beginning!: Sotah 14 “Rav Simlai expounded: The Torah begins with an act of chesed, benevolence, and ends…
As we end the first chapter of masechet Sotah (and as discussed in our last post) we transition from discussing the punishment of the sotah…
"In the measure that a person measures so it is measured to him. She [the sotah] adorned her body in order to transgress, God has…
Teaching is what one would call a long-term investment. Teachers plant seeds but rarely get to see the fruit of their labour, leading many to…
Our Sages were great realists. They understood the complexities of the human condition and how even otherwise great people can make…
The Mishna is almost exclusively a legal code and like all codes displays little 'emotion' even when it describes emotionally wrenching…
Jewish law and thought covers all aspects of life and that means nothing is beyond the purview of Talmudic and rabbinic discussion. With the primary…
The opening lines of a book are meant to set the tone of the book - providing background, introducing its major characters and themes.…
Seder Nasim is the shortest of the six orders of the Mishna comprising only seven of the sixty-three masechtot and “only…
“And G-d said to Abram; go from your land, your birthplace and from the home of your father” (Breisheet 12:1). Rashi…
Jewish law rules that when one must “desecrate” the Shabbat in order to save a life it is the greatest scholar present who should…
While it was Rav Yehuda Hanassi who edited the Mishna it is the teachings of Rav Meir, who lived in the generation prior, that form the basis…
“For there is no righteous person in the land who does [only] good and does not sin” (Kohelet 7:20). Sinning is part and parcel of…
One of the long standing debates in ethical theory is whether it is actions or intentions that determines the ethical probity of our actions. There…
When one thinks of the mitzvoth dependent on the land of Israel we think of the agricultural laws of the Torah; terumah, maaser, shmittaand the…
After discussing the general topic of nedarim, vows, the Mishna moves to a most specific form of a vow, that of a nazir. The…
One of the primary messages of masechet Nedarim is how negatively [most of] our Sages viewed the taking of vows. More often than not a vow reflected…
Just this past Shabbat, we read of the mitzvah of tzedakah. The Torah describes the case where the poor are our neighbours, and we must…
Adam and Cain, Noah and Cham, Abraham and Yishmael, Yitzchak and Eisav. Our children do not always turn out as we would like. Even children…
Everybody loves a good story. And what one cannot accomplish through direct teaching, one can often accomplish through a story. Yet it is…