Nidah

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

Nidah 73: The Last Word

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“Tanna devei Eliyahu, the school of Eliyahu, taught: Kol hashoneh, all who study (and review) halachot every day are guaranteed that they are destined for the World-to-Come, as it is stated: ‘His ways, halikhot, are…
Article
Jan 4, 2020

Daf Yomi, Football and New Year's

Rabbi Jay Kelman

There is something surreal about 92,000 people gathering at a football stadium on New Year’s Day to make a siyum on the entire Talmud. That thousands should gather in a football stadium on New Year's is not at all surprising. Growing up it…
Article
Jan 1, 2020

Nidah 30: The Lord is Against Me

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“And it does not leave the womb before it is made to take an oath…and what is the oath one is made to take? Be righteous and do not be wicked” (Nidah 30b). As He was set to destroy Sedom, G-d—talking to Himself—muses…
Article
Dec 18, 2019

Nidah 30: In Utero

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Being pregnant with one’s first child is the best of times. One imagines a talmid chacham, a nuclear physicist, a Nobel laureate, an Olympic athlete and a great philanthropist all wrapped in one. It is only when one gives birth and begins…
Article
Dec 10, 2019

Niddah 31: A Great Mitzva

Rabbi Jay Kelman

In our last post, we discussed that seven days after giving birth to a boy and 14 after a girl, the newborn mother purifies herself in a mikvah. Any bleeding over the next 33 days for a boy and 66 for a girl is considered dam tohar, blood of…
Article
Nov 28, 2019

Niddah 31: The Joy of Being Jewish

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Death, as we have often noted, is the primary source of tumah, impurity, with a corpse classified as avi avot hatumah, the grandfather of tumah.  Ironically, life itself can also create tumah and hence, after giving birth, a mother is tameh;…
Article
Nov 26, 2019

Niddah 2: Shammai and Hillel

Rabbi Jay Kelman

It is hard to imagine more influential institutions of Jewish learning than those of Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. These two great schools set in motion much of the foundation of the Oral Law. It was regarding their some 316 disputes recorded in the…
Article
Nov 18, 2019

Niddah: Blood and Water

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“And you shall live by them” (Vayikra 18:5). The mitzvot of the Torah are meant to enhance life, adding meaning and sanctity to our sojourn on earth. The Torah is an eitz chaim, a tree of life, providing beautiful fruit year…
Article
Nov 13, 2019

Masechet Kelim: Time for New Dishes

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Seder Taharot opens with masechet Kelim, vessels, which at 30 chapters and 254 mishnayot is far and away the largest of the 63 tractates of the Mishna[1]. To fully understand the masechet, one needs great knowledge of “realia”,…
Article
Nov 6, 2019

An Introduction to Seder Taharot

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Jewish law is generally divided into three distinct areas: issur v’heter, ritual law; dinei mammonot, monetary law; and tumah v’tahara, laws of purity and impurity. Just as the laws regarding criminal and civil law differ…
Article
Oct 31, 2019