MISCONCEPTION: It is prohibited to wear leather items, such as a leather belt or yarmulke, on Yom Kippur and Tishah B’Av. FACT: Only leather shoes are prohibited on Yom Kippur and Tishah B’Av. One is permitted to wear belts, yarmulkes, jackets, or other items made from leather. Some authorities prohibit all “protective footwear,” even if […]
By Avraham Rosen Digitally adjusted image of the calendar Rabbi Yehoshua Neuwirth, author of Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchata, created when he was seventeen years old while hiding in a bunker in Amsterdam during the war years. Courtesy of Rabbi and Rebbetzin Yehoshua Neuwirth, with the assistance of Dr. Esther Farbstein The threat to the calendar and […]
Slow cookers come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Most models are dishwasher-safe and quite easy to clean. If your conventional oven is full, a slow cooker can provide a wonderful alternative for long-cooking dishes such as stews and pot roasts. Autumn Vegetable Soup Yields 8 to 10 servings This scrumptious soup from Valerie […]
Rabbi Ari Kahn, a distinguished scholar and educator at Bar-Ilan University, presents a series of strikingly original interpretive essays on the weekly parashah,
Anyone reading the news regularly sees images and stories of Orthodox Jews, occasionally even rabbis, misbehaving.
Psychologist Ivan Lerner argues that “Tiger Mom” may have a point after all As an educator and a clinical psychologist for the past thirty-five years, I found the debate generated by the publication of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Yale professor Amy Chua most interesting. While I do not support Chua’s overall parenting […]
Truly historic publishing events, those that stand the test of time, rarely occur. The Koren Mesorat HaRav Siddur, featuring the commentary of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, “the Rav,” is one such landmark event.
When the terror attack occurred, Avremel was fifty-five; his friend Ed, a quadriplegic, was forty-two. Both worked at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield as program analysts on the 27th floor of One World Trade Center.
The following is a meager attempt to record the awesome occurrences that both my colleagues in Hatzalah–the emergency Jewish volunteer ambulance service for all members of the New York community–and I had experienced during our rescue efforts at the World Trade Center attack of September 11th. Of course no words can truly capture the thoughts, […]
“The great tragedy of life,” Kierkegaard wrote, “is that it must be lived forward and can only be understood backwards.”
Nancy Morgenstern, a”h: Remembering a Life of Joy, Faith and Passion As told to Bayla Sheva Brenner Nancy Morgenstern, a vibrant thirty-two-year-old Orthodox woman, was one of the thousands of victims in the terrorist attack on 9/11. Nancy worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, the global financial services firm which occupied the 101st to 105th floors of […]
The tuition crisis is one of the most significant issues challenging our community today. School administrators and board members know the staggering costs of providing a quality education. The parent body, frequently both mom and dad, work long hours. And even if they make upwards of $200,000 a […]
JA: How much money should one give to tzedakah? RHS: If one can afford it, the recommended amount is one-tenth of one’s annual earnings, which includes salary and interest earned. There are different opinions as to whether the one-tenth is applied to the total earned [aside from withheld taxes] or to the remainder after essential […]
In the years following the Holocaust, survivors were, for the most part, silent about the devastation of European Jewry. Slowly, over time, a trickle of Holocaust memoirs and historical accounts appeared. Most of these works, however, emphasized physical heroism, such as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. But there was no comprehensive country-by-country treatment of the […]
Counting Israeli Shekels. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski We all know the old joke: “How do you become a millionaire in Israel? You come with two million!” While that one-liner used to be true, nowadays Israel’s economy is flourishing, and economic and employment opportunities abound. Israeli ingenuity and creativity are leading the way, and the country has […]
OK, I’ll admit it: Royalty these days is nothing but a puff of smoke and mirrors. But there I was, in the holy city of Jerusalem, a grandmother and retired community rebbetzin, glued to a small, borrowed TV on a Friday afternoon—trying to watch the Royal Wedding. Well, who doesn’t love a wedding? And here […]
A debate between Rabbis Hillel Goldberg and Michael Broyde Rabbi Hillel Goldberg An exchange between Rabbis Aharon Lichtenstein and Aharon Feldman in the pages of Jewish Action (“Dear Reb Aharon,” summer 2010) prompted a letter by Rabbi Michael Broyde, which prompted a letter by Yosef Wiener, which now prompts a letter from me. I wish […]
Vision and Valor: An Illustrated History of the Talmud By Berel Wein Maggid Books Jerusalem, 2010 255 pages + xiv The Oral Law of Sinai: An Illustrated History of the Mishnah By Berel Wein Jossey-Bass San Francisco, 2008 208 pages Reviewed by Hillel Goldberg I can dream. In theory, someday I’ll visit the […]
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine, 1946-2011 Photos courtesy of the Levine family In an Orthodox community that has become increasingly fragmented and compartmentalized, Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine was one of the few halachic authorities who was able to transcend narrow institutional and ideological labels and command respect across the entire Orthodox spectrum. Rabbi Levine, who was […]
Though many weeks have passed since the tragic murder of Leiby Kletzky, a”h, the pain of his loss still haunts us. The Jewish people are still reeling with shock and grief, and try as we may to understand why such a young, innocent boy was brutally taken from us, our response is the same that […]
Every year, as the chazzan starts the first few notes of the special Kaddish for the Yamim Noraim on the first night of Selichot, the mood of Rosh Hashanah inevitably wells up in me. What are you thinking at that moment?
For a book on prayer to be successful, it has to be smart but not too smart. A book that is too intellectual may engage your mind,
For many people, engaging in modern Biblical scholarship means ignoring all previous attempts to understand the Bible. Recent trends, however, incorporate modern and ancient explanations,
Halachah, Jewish law, evolves but only in a limited way. It has a static core whose applications and many details vary based on time, place, circumstance and authority.