In days such as ours, Purim speaks to us in a different—and necessary—way.

On Purim things get all turned around. It’s a theme of the day. Maybe that’s why Jews do things on Purim they don’t do all year long. They make lots of noise in the synagogue. [Of course, you never do that!] Some drink

In Parshat Ki Tisa, Moshe asked Hashem the age-old question: “Please make your ways known to me so that I can understand you.” The Gemara in Brachot (7a) explained that Moshe wanted to know why good people seem to suffer at times and why bad people seem to prosper at times. From our perspective, the world may not always seem to

The past year shook the world. Humanity faced a pandemic, the likes of which only occurs every hundred years. Locked in battle with an invisible but deadly virus, we also discovered that bees can also be deadly. Regular bees sometimes cause irrational fear because they buzz and are airborne. But their sting rarely inflicts more

Last year on Shabbat Parshat Mishpatim, the Agudas Yisrael Bircas Yaakov, a shul in the Passaic/Clifton community, hosted a Shabbat with singer Shulem Lemmer. It was a lovely Shabbat and people from all over the community came to listen to Shulem’s incredible voice and be uplifted by his singing. Our yeshiva annually hosts Rabbi Noach

I once heard a story from R’ Zecharia Wallerstein, about two friends who were once on an expedition to climb a tall mountain. Into their climb, however, as is the way up snowy mountains, an avalanche came plundering down, knocking out one of the climbers and leaving the other one only minutely stable. As the barely stable climber called

Pesachim 44b

If the Torah does not wish us to mix meat and milk, why not just say so? How, one may ask, are we to understand this from the thrice-repeated refrain of “Lo tevashel gedi bachalev imo,” “Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk”?

This

The roster of presidents of the United States might be quite different had every potential presidential candidate studied the Daf Yomi that will be studied all over the world the day after President’s Day in the United States this year.

Love him or hate him, had former President Trump, as a private

In last week’s Parshat Yitro, the Torah recounts Am Yisrael’s response to what they saw and heard at Har Sinai: “And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off…And the people

700-page sefer contains more than 6,000 categories and 30,000 subcategories and an English index.

“We have to make the bracha of Shehechiyanu on such a sefer!” exclaimed HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, shlita, rosh yeshiva of Telshe and the Lakewood Mesivta, when

Two intriguing stories about the eternal impact of Har Sinai: one fable about two engagement rings and one actual story about a chasidic Rebbe and a cow. First the tale of the two rings.

Typically, a husband presents his bride with only one engagement ring—a ring she will treasure throughout her

My cousin, Rabbi Nachman Seltzer, tells the following story. ¹The Tzcherbiner Rav loved to listen and converse with yeshiva students about any topic of Torah they were learning. Every Shabbos afternoon, anyone could visit the rav to speak with him on any topic they were studying. Rav Moshe Shternbuch (currently age 92) was a

Which of the Aseret HaDibrot (10 commandments) came with a multiverse explanation in order to “sell” the idea to its followers? If you answered that it was the concept of resting on Shabbat you would be correct. First we are commanded to sanctify the Sabbath day by ceasing to work. Then the explanation continues, “For in six days