Halachah

Question: Would it be better, when I take off terumot and ma’asrot, to give the teruma to a kohen instead of wrapping and throwing it out? Answer: First, let us consider what a kohen could do with teruma he received. It is forbidden to eat teruma when either the eater (Rambam, Terumot 7:1) or the teruma (ibid. 2:14) is tameh. ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: If one flies a kite on Shabbat and it gets stuck in a tree, may he extricate it from the tree? Answer: We wrote in the past about whether it is permitted to fly a kite on Shabbat. We concluded that there are not sufficient grounds to forbid it, despite the possibility a person could ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: I was invited to a wedding, during my sefirat ha’omer observance period. May I go? If so, may I dance? Answer: As we have written (see Living the Halachic Process III, D-21), we believe in the legitimacy of the various minhagim for which days of sefira to observe and that one may choose different ones ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: A kohen often comes to my minyan and even if he is early, he says Shemoneh Esrei together with the chazan and does not perform the mitzva of Birkat Kohanim (=BK). I understand that he is allowed to break his prayers to do BK and then to return to his place. He claims that what ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: At my son’s recent Shabbat bar mitzva, a non-Jew who is close to him came to shul. It turns out he videoed some of the proceedings on his phone (if I had noticed, I would have asked him not to) and offered to send it to me, which, of course, would be nice. May I ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: Do the fruit of Eretz Yisrael in our times have kedusha that would make it preferable to eat them over other foods? Answer: Usually discussion of kedusha of the Land’s produce relates to land-based mitzvot. Without going into detail, we posit that most land-based mitzvot apply on a Rabbinic level rather than a Torah-level after ...

by R. Gil Student I. Kosher Pig The news recently carried a report that Rav Yuval Cherlow said that cloned pigs are kosher. This is clearly wrong. A cloned pig is implanted as an embryo into a female pig and born naturally. There is no reason it should not be treated halakhically like other pigs, indeed like its clone. Presumably, ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: In some years, my kids have been aggressive about hiding the afikoman. They have hid it in places where it broke into several pieces. When I have not found it, they have “negotiated” its return for more than I think is proper. In such a case, can I just use a different piece of matza? ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: Sometimes I have foods that I cooked in chametzdik pots without any chametz ingredients that I fail to finish before Pesach. May I keep them in the corner of the freezer and mark them as chametzdik? (I try to not sell chametz, especially if it was already cooked.) Answer: First we will deal with the ...

by R. Daniel Mann Question: I am a general partner (having special authority and responsibility) in an LLC (Limited Liability Company) with only Jewish partners. In order to facilitate a real estate purchase, some of us lent money to the company (we have the authority to do so at market rate interest or invest for equity) without a heter iska. ...