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“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).…
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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…
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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…
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“Arba shomrim hem, there are four guardians, a shomer chinam, an unpaid guardian; the shoel, the borrower; the sachar, the paid guardian and…
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Our society venerates youth, with an entire industry dedicated to keeping people looking and feeling young. While youth is great, it is old age…
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“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…
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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…
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“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…
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Family owned businesses comprise some 90% of all business enterprises in the United States, account for about 65% of gross domestic product and 75%…
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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…
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“’For they are My slaves’ (Vayikra 25:55) – and not slaves to My slaves” (Bava Kamma 116b). Our Sages understood that…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Teaching in a community school, I often hear from many of my students that they are “not religious.” After all, they don’t observe…
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One of most difficult laws to comprehend, both technically and philosophically, is the Torah prohibition against charging interest – the…
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“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…
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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…
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“Just as there is ona’ah, oppression, regarding commerce, so too there is ona’ah, oppression, regarding words. One should not say…
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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…
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“Ona’ah is four silver maot in twenty-four…1/6th of the price” (Bava Metzia 49b). The laws of ona’ah, price fraud,…
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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 (…
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In our last post we discussed the responsibilities of a shomer entrusted to guard produce. The Mishnayot continue with a discussion of one’s…