A couple of years ago, our good friends Rabbi Avrohom and Ayala Weinrib made a wedding for their daughter in Lakewood. Since we had just

Rebbe Yisrael Alter—the Beis Yisroel of Gur, zt”l—was fond of repeating a maaseh (story) about his great-grandfather, Reb Yitzchok Meir, the Chiddushei Harim: One day,

וַיְעַנְּךָ וַיַּרְעִבֶךָ וַיַּאֲכִלְךָ אֶת הַמָּן אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַעְתָּ וְלֹא יָדְעוּן אֲבֹתֶיךָ לְמַעַן הוֹדִעֲךָ כִּי לֹא עַל הַלֶּחֶם לְבַדּוֹ יִחְיֶה הָאָדָם כִּי עַל כָּל מוֹצָא פִי

There are certain decisive principles, כללי הוראה, which halachic decisors, פוסקים, utilize when analyzing a Talmudic passage and establish the halacha. Two such principles are

There is a word that is found in the Torah a total of four times, three of them in this week’s Parsha (8:10, 8:12, 11:15),

During the summer of 1991, I was a camper in the intermediate division of Camp Dora Golding. One day, I got off my bed and

To have hakarat hatov—to recognize and appreciate the good Hashem gives one isn’t just a means to enhance the quality of one’s life; indeed, it’s

Tu B’Av is a special day in the Jewish calendar, involving shidduchim, the king’s daughter and the Kohen Gadol’s daughter. Other than that, not too

לעילוי נשמת יואל אפרים בן אברהם עוזיאל זלצמן ז”ל Question: Do panim chadashot, new guests, have to stay until Birkat Hamazon? Answer: One of the

Josephus is our main source for much of Jewish history in the last centuries of the Second Temple period. Who was he? Do we have

It’s quite possibly one of the more pervasive, widely-cited and (in certain circles) commonly accepted midrashim in our mesorah. And I struggle with it. The

וְעַתָּה֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מָ֚ה ה’ אֱלֹק֛יךָ שֹׁאֵ֖ל מֵעִמָּ֑ךְ כִּ֣י אִם־לְ֠יִרְאָ֠ה אֶת־ה’ אֱלֹק֛יךָ לָלֶ֤כֶת בְּכׇל־דְּרָכָיו֙ וּלְאַהֲבָ֣ה אֹת֔וֹ וְלַֽעֲבֹד֙ אֶת־ה’ אֱלֹק֛יךָ בְּכׇל־לְבָבְךָ֖ וּבְכׇל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃ “And now, Israel, what does