“Reish Lakish said: Whomever has a beit knesset in his city and he does not enter it, he is called a bad neighbour” (Brachot 8a).…
Throughout most of history wealth was primarily a result of land ownership. The more land one owned the wealthier one was. It is quite likely that it…
We often imagine that the ancient world was one in which almost all lived on farms tilling their land, and only in modern times with the advent of…
“Arba shomrim hem, there are four guardians, a shomer chinam, an unpaid guardian; the shoel, the borrower; the sachar, the paid guardian and…
Our society venerates youth, with an entire industry dedicated to keeping people looking and feeling young. While youth is great, it is old age…
“Everything goes according to the custom of the land (Bava Metzia 83a). As much as lawyers may try, it is impossible to contract for each and…
One of the challenges of higher education is ensuring that one does not sit in an ivory tower where what one learns has little application to real…
“Pray for the welfare of government for, if not fear of them, man would swallow his friend alive” (Avot 3:2). Law and order is the…
Family owned businesses comprise some 90% of all business enterprises in the United States, account for about 65% of gross domestic product and 75%…
The traditional way to study Talmud is with a chavruta, a study partner, someone with whom to bounce off ideas, debate, question and argue about…
“’For they are My slaves’ (Vayikra 25:55) – and not slaves to My slaves” (Bava Kamma 116b). Our Sages understood that…
Jews pray three times a day to be blessed with material wealth. Yet precisely because so much good can be done with money, it can be a great source…
People convert to Judaism for all kinds of reasons. Ideally, one may accept only those who convert due to a love of Judaism; those who see the…
One of the unique features of the prohibition of charging interest is that the prohibition cannot be waived by the debtor. Whereas Jewish law allows…
The word damim in biblical Hebrew means both blood and money. Lo ta’amod al dam reacha (Vayikra19:16) means not only may we not stand idly by…
Teaching in a community school, I often hear from many of my students that they are “not religious.” After all, they don’t observe…
One of most difficult laws to comprehend, both technically and philosophically, is the Torah prohibition against charging interest – the…
“If an oven is cut into rings, and sand is placed between the rings, Rabbi Eliezer says it is pure. But the sages say it is susceptible to…
One of the most famous, powerful and tragic stories in all of Talmudic literature is that of the excommunication of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, known…
“Just as there is ona’ah, oppression, regarding commerce, so too there is ona’ah, oppression, regarding words. One should not say…
There is not too much one can do with a penny; so little, in fact, that the Canadian government removed them from circulation in 2013 with purchases…
“Ona’ah is four silver maot in twenty-four…1/6th of the price” (Bava Metzia 49b). The laws of ona’ah, price fraud,…
The Ramban, in perhaps his most famous biblical comment, notes that one can observe every law in the Torah and yet be no better than a dead carcass (…
In our last post we discussed the responsibilities of a shomer entrusted to guard produce. The Mishnayot continue with a discussion of one’s…