No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. -John Donne The epic

A few times a year, the Mir Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, assembled all the students to urge them to look out for the

רַבִּי יַעֲקֹב אוֹמֵר, הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה דּוֹמֶה לִפְרוֹזְדוֹר בִּפְנֵי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. הַתְקֵן עַצְמְךָ בַפְּרוֹזְדוֹר, כְּדֵי שֶׁתִּכָּנֵס לַטְּרַקְלִין: הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, יָפָה שָׁעָה אַחַת בִּתְשׁוּבָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים

Parshat Vayakhel Shabbat Shekalim The special haftarah ordained by Chazal to be read on Shabbat Shekalim—the Shabbat of or before Rosh Chodesh Adar (in which

לֹא תְבַעֲרוּ אֵשׁ בְּכֹל משְׁבֹתֵיכֶם בְּיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת (שמות לה:ג) The Gemara in Shabbos (69b) discusses a predicament of someone stranded in the desert who doesn’t

(Note: This column was written a few years ago.) I’m really happy that I got the flu shot this year. This way when I got

At a rabbinic convention in St. Petersburg, a very wealthy gevir—known for his open-hearted support of Torah institutions—approached the Chofetz Chaim, Rav Yisroel Meir HaKohen.

Part I Many who visited Jabal Musa (“Moses’ Mountain”) on the Sinai Peninsula in the 1970’s (before Israel gave it back to Egypt) brought back

There is a principle of זָכִין לְאָדָם שֶׁלֹּא בְּפָנָיו—Shimon can act on Reuven’s behalf to his benefit, even without Reuven’s explicit appointment to do so.

לעילוי נשמת יואל אפרים בן אברהם עוזיאל זלצמן ז”ל Question: One of my tzitzit strings ripped so that it was very short. May I tie

Of late, there are politicians in Israel who have taken up the call to draft yeshiva students again. As a result, there are young yeshiva

Bava Metzia 2a שנים אוחזים A court in San Francisco was asked to decide who owns the baseball that Barry Bonds hit for his record-setting