Marking the completion of the second machzor of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and the beginning of the third machzor.

“What better eis ratzon, what more opportune time, can we find to go to the Chofetz Chaim’s kever to daven? Now we are on the cusp of completing the

toThe whole world is suffering through this pandemic and the way it has been mismanaged by most governments as they have had to reverse themselves more often than a car approaching a series of cliffs. The suffering of the people who died, the failure to possibly adequately consider the full range of available remedies, and the suffering of

What is success? Once a year, as we read Parshat Mikeitz, we are reminded of a believing Jew living in a foreign culture—Yosef the tzadik. As long as complete redemption has not arrived, most of us encounter many contradictions daily in our world of values. We live, study and work in settings where we do not feel entirely at home. Many of

Once a year we have a special day set aside when we are asked to pause and give thanks for all the blessings we have experienced. The tradition of a Thanksgiving Day feast is often attributed to the Pilgrims celebrating a successful harvest year in 1621. While they surely observed this feast hundreds of years ago, we as Jews had the custom

Before I knew of the Rokeah, I met his wife. [1]

My eleventh-grade medieval Jewish history teacher, Raizi Chechik, introduced us to her with a photocopied handout of the elegy R. Eleazar of Worms composed after the murder of his beloved wife

There is talk in the U.S. about taxing the wealth of the super-rich. Without engaging in discussion about proper policy today, I would like to explore the concept of a wealth tax in the Jewish tradition. Should CEOs of tech companies pay taxes on their accumulated wealth?

I. Jewish Wealth Tax

At any given moment, many—if not most—of us may be thinking, “How will I get through this latest crisis?” It may be the political chaos that is troubling us, or financial worries like the slide of the dollar, or the seemingly endless conflict(s) on our borders. Whatever the problem may be, there are times when we seem to reach the

This article is a lightly edited transcript of a sichat mussar delivered in the Glueck Beis Midrash of Yeshiva University.

The story of Yaakov Avinu’s sojourn in Charan is bookended by two dreams. After spending 14 years in the Beit Midrash of Shem veEver, Yaakov Avinu heads toward Charan, and when he

“When we come upstairs after 120, we will be asked, ‘Where is the Shulchan Aruch, the Mishnah Berurah?!’ Dirshu empowers us to have and realize that dream of completing Shas and Shulchan Aruch!” exclaimed Rav Zev Smith at a recent Dirshu gathering in Flatbush.

Later this winter,

A society in which technology enables us to deal effortlessly with many of life’s difficulties raises the issue of the value of challenges and struggles. The Torah’s view on this question lies at the center of the account of the struggle between Yaakov and the angel.

According to one midrash

Wednesday of this coming week is the yahrzeit of my mother-in-law, Rebbetzin Ita Singer, a”h. Many of you who know my father-in-law, Rabbi Singer, his love of all klal Yisrael and the incredible vision he had many years ago of building a yeshiva for the working man. It all became a reality because of his dear wife, Rebbetzin Singer. She

Yaakov endures a lifetime of confrontation and chaos. He grappled with his father-in-law, warred with the local rapists of Shechem, and, toward the end of his life, emigrated to a foreign country—never to return to his homeland. Amidst all this drama, his tense face-off with his armed brother—flush with four hundred