Legal System When any legal matter is too extraordinary [פָּלָא] for you, in justice, between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, between stroke and stroke, in matters of quarreling within your gates, you are to arise and go up…
Calendar Rabbi HaLevi asks what month is being referenced in Shemot 12:24: “Let this new moon be for you the beginning of new moons, the beginning-one let it be for you of the new moons of the year.”1 We clearly…
Jewish apologetics attempts to defend Jews, our religion, and our culture from critics. The history of Jewish apologetics reflects a complicated relationship between Jews and Gentiles throughout the millennia. Jewish apologetics formed as a response to the challenges of pagans…
Bereishit יב (Genesis 12) 1 Now the Eternal One said unto Avram: ‘Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, unto the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of…
There are many traditions regarding the location of Ur Chasdim including Islam and the classical writer Eusebius. According to Islamic tradition, the birthplace of Abraham – Ur Chasdim – is location not in Mesopotamia but in southern Turkey. Islamic tradition…
Bereishit יא (Genesis 11) 27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begot Avram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. 28 And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in…
We have now established that the mechitza is actually something that started centuries after the destruction of the Temple. We have also established the fact that there are no ancient synagogues that separated women and men. So now let’s turn…
The mechitza is a modern tradition pushed upon all Jews regardless of the traditions or beliefs of non-Orthodox Jews or even other Orthodox Jews. As I explained in part one, the mechitza comes from the supposed separation of men and…
I write this after years of frustration and anger over how women are treated at the Kotel (Western Wall). I have not had the fortune to visit Israel yet so I speak as a true outsider on this issue. The…
