Anyone who thinks Jewish Federation activities are rote, bureaucratic or boring has clearly never met the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, the charismatic dynamo that is Jason Shames.

Shames (pronounced Shaah-mes) joined JFNNJ in 2011 after overseeing all

Keter Torah Will Host Rabbi Dr. J.J. Schacter Starting at 9:15 a.m.

The opening shiur will be “Preparing for Tisha B’Av in 2017.” This program will be broadcast live on www.yutorah.org. To co-sponsor, please email [email protected] Keter Torah is

May these words of Torah serve as a merit le’iluy nishmat Menachem Mendel ben Harav Yoel David Balk, a”h.

 This week we learned Sanhedrin 6 and 7. These are some highlights.

Sanhedrin 6: Is a rabbi obligated to teach halachot his listeners might have

An important lesson for Tisha b’Av may be gleaned from Hacham Ovadia Yosef’s approach to the issue of chalak, or glatt kosher meat. On the one hand, Hacham Ovadia was insistent that Sephardic Jews should make every effort to purchase meat that is chalak or glatt by Sephardic standards (Teshuvot Yabia Omer 5: Yoreh Deah

I have always wondered how the ancient Hebrew language understood dreams. My initial thought was that Ch-L-M might have derived from Ch-L-H (sick). As I investigated, I learned that the issue is really the opposite. Two times in Tanach there are words that seem to be from the root Ch-L-M and that mean something like “healthy”

Arachim was running one of its powerful seminars in Eretz Yisrael, exposing the attendees to the beauty of Torah and mitzvos. The crescendo of this seminar was going to be Shabbos. Friday afternoon, as most of the attendees were getting ready, Rabbi Wallis noticed one of the participants, a noted doctor and professor, wheeling his

Parshat Devarim

Shabbat Chazon

It is difficult for one to analyze this week’s haftarah in a detached, unemotional fashion. The passionate cry of the navi Yeshayahu reflecting, as it should, the fervent call of Hashem Himself should touch the heart of

Not every bar mitzvah speech is so memorable that you remember it in detail years later, but when we hear something that speaks to us, it becomes etched in our memory. It was probably about 12 years ago that I heard a bar mitzvah boy thanking family members who had helped him. Toward the end of his speech he added, “To my father

Reviewing: “Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen: Between War and Peace,” by Professor Yechiel Frish and Rabbi Yedidya HaCohen (Irene Lancaster, translator). Urim Publications. Hardcover, 334 pages. 2017. ISBN-10: 9655242536.

Just in time for Tisha B’Av, a new book, titled “Rabbi

Part 6 (Continued from last week)

Train to Kazakhstan

Meantime, we had written to my mother’s brothers in Moscow and finally got a reply from one of them, the doctor. He was being evacuated to Kazakhstan

Our daughter Rena is 22 years old. She has not expressed to us the least bit of interest in dating. In fact, she has explicitly told us that she does not want to start dating yet. We are all modern Orthodox and though maybe we don’t feel as nervous about her being married already as others might feel, we do think that it

Dear Shoshy,

I just went on my second date with someone, and he told the girl who set us up that he wants to “break shadchan.” In other words, he no longer wants to go through her and report to her about how each of our dates has gone, rather he thinks we are ready to discuss this and