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Found 100 result(s) for Halakhah
Can Sea Water Be Used for Netilat Yadayim Before Eating Bread?
Parashat Va’etchanan - Shabbat Nachamu
Erev Tisha B'Av: Preparing the Heart Before the Fast
What Is Forbidden on Tisha B'av, and Which Torah Subjects May Be Studied?
When Av Begins, We Diminish Our Joy
Must One Leave Part of a Home Unfinished in Memory of the Destruction of the Bet HaMikdash?
Should Jewish Parents Ever Strike Their Children?
Parashat Balak (Outside Israel Parashiyot Chukat-Balak)
What Really Interests a Person and WHO Stole the Gold?
Belgium’s Assault on Brit Milah Is an Assault on Jewish Life
A nation cannot claim to welcome Jews while criminalising one of the oldest and most fundamental commandments of Judaism
When a Rabbi Goes Astray
Hebrew Synagogue Welcomes UK Court Clarity on Biologically Specific Facilities
Hebrew Synagogue Welcomes UK Court Clarity on Biologically Specific Facilities Hebrew Synagogue has today confirmed its support for the legal clarification provided by the United Kingdom Supreme Court and subsequent Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance regarding the use of single-sex facilities based upon biological sex under the Equality Act 2010. The organisation confirmed that this position will apply across all facilities operated by Hebrew Synagogue throughout the United...
Do I Need to Fast Before Studying the Talmud?
Why “Foreign” Words Matter
What is the Halakhah Regarding Receiving a Blood Transfusion?
The Call That Must Be Answered: Rabbi Teichtal and the End of Comfortable Exile
Pesach, Not “Passover”: The Distortion of a Divine Act
Shabbat Hagadol: the Shabbat of Greatness Before Redemption
The Covenant Is Everything
When the Wolf Howls
Opening Our Eyes to the Hidden Miracles
May a Jew Celebrate the Death of an Enemy?
Not Us — Or Have We Forgotten?
Putting Words into G-D’s Mouth Is Not Torah
Parashat Yitro
The Addiction to Outrage and the Strengthening of Evil
The Judeo-Christian Fiction: Stop Claiming What Is Not Yours
by Ram ben Ze’ev The Judeo-Christian Fiction: Stop Claiming What Is Not Yours In January 2020 I wrote Judeo-Christian Divide to address a growing falsehood: the claim that Judaism and Christianity share a common religious foundation. In the years since, that falsehood has not diminished. It has intensified. Today, ever more voices from foreign belief systems insist on associating themselves with Jews, with Israel, and with Judaism itself, as though repetition might somehow transform...
Doubt on Shabbat: Did I Put On Tefillin?
Parashat Beshalach – Shabbat Shirah
One Who Wishes to Be Pious — On Blessings, Intention, and Reliance
Silence as Sovereignty: the Four Responses of the Tanya and the Discipline We Have Forgotten
Parashat Bo
G-D Does Not Have a “Wife”: The Academic Reinvention of Idolatry
When Death Becomes Theatre: the Idolatry of Public Praise
When Protection Is Withdrawn: the Halakhic Meaning of the Tenth of Tevet
When Words Are Corrupted, Meaning Is Lost
Parashat Miketz – Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Chanukah
The War on Words: How the Nations Distort Our Holiest Language
by Ram ben Ze'ev The War on Words: How the Nations Distort Our Holiest Language Language is not neutral. For ישראל, it is the vessel through which קדושה enters the world. When the nations take our sacred words, reshape them, and hand them back to us with their meaning hollowed out, something essential is lost. Holiness becomes obscured, and the identity of our people is quietly eroded. Few examples reveal this more starkly than the distortion of שבת (Shabbat, rest) into the Christian term...
Parashat Chayye Sarah
Tell No One
Clarification and Ruling on the Placement of Tefilin Shel Yad
When Titles Overshadow Torah
Guarding the Purity of Torah
Do Not Cast Doubt on a Fellow Jew
The Fantasy of Idolatry: Myths Masquerading as History
Sanctifying Idolatry: the Praise of Charlie Kirk
Nothing Outside His Will
When Jews Commit Blood Libel
The Fire That Should Never Burn: A Plea for Halakhic Burial
by Ram ben Ze'ev The Fire That Should Never Burn: A Plea for Halakhic Burial An alarming statistic has emerged in recent years—50% of American Jews are cremated. Not just secular Jews, not just unaffiliated Jews. Jews. Our brothers and sisters, each created in the image of G-D, choosing a path that is not only foreign to our tradition but in direct violation of Halakhah (הלכה, Jewish law). Cremation is not a modern innovation. It is an ancient practice rooted in paganism and used by empires...
When Will We Finally Understand?
The Down Pillow: Lashon Hara, Gossip, and the Irreversible Damage of Public Shame
Banning Sharia: A Slippery Slope Toward Banning Halakha
When Steadfast Faith Is Called Simple: a Reflection on Emunah and Bitachon
When Awareness Becomes Idolatry: a Call to Restrain Our Tongues and Our Feeds
The Halakhic Framework of Bishul Akum: Understanding the Prohibition and Its Permissible Boundaries
by Ram ben Ze'ev The Halakhic Framework of Bishul Akum: Understanding the Prohibition and Its Permissible Boundaries The Sages of Israel, in their unmatched wisdom, instituted many decrees to preserve the holiness of the Jewish nation and to prevent assimilation and spiritual decline. One such decree is the prohibition against eating food cooked by a non-Jew, known as בישול עכו"ם ( bishul akum – cooking by a non-Jew). This rabbinic restriction remains in force to this day and is observed by...
“As Though It Were Hidden”: The Abuse of Jeremiah 31:31 by the Agents of Idolatry
Marked or Remembered? A Jewish Teaching on Tattoos, Piercings, and Body Modification
How Public Talk of Terror Strengthens Our Enemies
by Ram ben Ze'ev How Public Talk of Terror Strengthens Our Enemies In times of terror and tragedy, good people often struggle to know how to respond. The natural instinct — particularly in an age of relentless media and instant communication — is to speak: to share, to bear witness, to denounce evil aloud. Yet in doing so, many unintentionally serve the very purposes of those who commit such heinous acts. This truth must be confronted, particularly by those who seek to live in accordance with...
Trading with Terror: The Price of Jewish Lives
by Ram ben Ze'ev Trading with Terror: The Price of Jewish Lives A proposed ceasefire agreement has been placed before the Israeli government and the Jewish people. Its details are by now widely known: a temporary cessation of hostilities, the release of 10 living Jewish hostages, the return of 18 bodies of murdered Jews being grotesquely held by Arab terrorists, and in exchange, the release of 125 Arab terrorists serving life sentences, and the release of 1,111 additional Arab prisoners...