Ketuvot

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Ketuvot resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Ketubot 62: Time Together

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Finding the proper balance between work and family is a challenge that man has been dealing with since the beginning of time. There never seems to be enough time to do all that needs to be done. In our daily rush and attention to our multifold …
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Ketubot 50: Practice Practice Practice

Rabbi Jay Kelman

One of the most difficult, yet vital, tasks as we learn, is allotting enough time and effort for review. We all find the new more exciting, and oftentimes feel that if we spend our time reviewing, we are not progressing in learning. We may know that…
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Ketubot 49: Family Support

Rabbi Jay Kelman

  The increasing age for marriage coupled with the high cost of housing has led to a situation of more and more children in their 20's and beyond living at home. The financial responsibilities of these working children is often a most…
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Ketubot 47: The New Family

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Our conception of the family unit has undergone revolutionary changes in the last few years. It should come as no surprise that norms of today often stand in stark contrast to the family unit of Biblical and Talmudic times, descriptions of which…
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Ketubot 33: Worse than Death!

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"One should be as careful with a light mitzvah as with a heavy mitzvah" (Pirkei Avot 2:1). Not every mitzvah is created equal. While all emanate from G-d at Sinai, some mitzvoth are more important (heavy) than others (light). Shabbat is,…
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Ketubot 30: In the Hands of Heaven

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestselling book Outliers, demonstrates how so much of our success is a result of factors beyond our control. While in many areas—place of birth, our genetic makeup—this is obvious, he demonstrates the…
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Ketubot 28: Kids Talk

Rabbi Jay Kelman

  In our last post we discussed the fickleness of memory and how and when one may write down testimony for future use in a court of law.  The last Mishna of the second chapter of Ketubot discusses under what circumstances we…
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Ketubot 20: Keeping Memories Alive

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Our memories are notoriously fickle and even untrustworthy. Yet we have little choice but to rely on such. It is likely due to the unreliability of our memories that Jewish law generally requires two witnesses[1] - who must separately testify…
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Ketubot 19: Dying for Lying

Rabbi Jay Kelman

It is well known that a Jew must give up his or her life only if asked, or ordered, to violate one of the three cardinal sins of Judaism; idolatry, adultery or murder. To do so for the sake of any other mitzvah renders one “liable for his soul…
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Ketubot 11: It's Great to Be a Jew

Rabbi Jay Kelman

A legal system is much more than a collection of laws. It signifies the values a society holds dear. When one studies halacha, one is actually also studying philosophy. The Mishne Torah, the great legal code of the Rambam begins not with…
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