Halachah Category

by R. Eli Ozarowski Rabbi Eli Ozarowski serves as editor of the English Tzurba M’Rabanan halacha series as well as editor of numerous other Torah projects and sefarim. He is also a former editor of the Steinsaltz English Gemara series. Rabbi Ozarowski received semicha from RIETS and currently lives in Mitzpeh Yericho, Israel, where he also delivers frequent shiurim. Introduction[1]I ...

by R. Yaakov Hoffman When Purim falls on Friday, Purim and Shabbat are at cross purposes. On the one hand, one is supposed to have a large and festive seudah in honor of Purim. On the other hand, this meal could potentially spoil one’s appetite for the evening’s Shabbat meal. How should one balance these two considerations? Based on the ...

by R. Moshe Kurtz This year, many synagogues will reluctantly curtail or omit the dancing from their Simchas Torah services in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. R. Hershel Schachter published a responsum (Piskei Corona #55) on October 2nd, 2020 in which he advised that similar to Hoshanos either the chazzan (prayer leader) should be the only one making ...

by R. David Roth One of the thirty-nine prohibited categories of forbidden activities on Shabbos is baking or cooking. [1]Mishna, Shabbos 73a, and Gemara 74b However, much to the relief of many coffee and tea drinkers, there may be a number of reasons that making coffee or tea is not included in the prohibition of cooking. Cooking Something That Has ...

by R. Ronen Neuwirth As we begin to emerge from lockdown and society gets used to our new routine, it is important to examine the halakhic ramifications of the new reality. The lockdown may be over but not the pandemic, which is still actively taking lives around the world. What are the halakhic guidelines for going out to public spaces ...

by R. Gil Student I. Jewish Sovereignty Israel is currently considering whether to annex land in Judea and Samaria to become part of the sovereign State of Israel. There are many aspects to this issue, including political, military and moral. I am not going to address those but will instead discuss the halakhic issue of whether there is any relevance, ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Finishing Siman 153: Needs and Rights in Selling a Shul As matters have begun to open in New York, state and city, I have had the renewed privilege of attending minyan again, and it has been more moving than I had thought it would be (especially hearing birkhat kohanim for the first time, albeit not from actual kohanim.) A downside has been ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein I am pivoting away from direct discussion of our current time of trouble—as I pray the signs of relief show Hashem is giving us respite to learn the lessons of the trouble, react properly enough for Hashem to spare us any revisiting of it—and taking up issues the Shulhan Arukh presents regarding shuls, in the hope our discussions ...

by R. Gil Student The status today of the terumah portion of produce allotted to kohanim, as well as other agricultural mitzvos, is a story of population growth as well as a perplexing Maimonidean statement. Most agricultural mitzvos today are of rabbinic nature. One wonders about the contemporary impact of the Talmudic statement (Sotah 14a) that Moshe was desperate to ...

(UPDATE: See additional responsa here: link) Responsa by Rav Hershel Schachter on timely questions (click on the images to enlarge) Tevilas Keilim, Firstborn Siyum, Selling Chametz     Dishwashers, Minhagim and Burning Chametz       Zoom Seder