Adapted from a shiur by Rav Daniel Dombroff Whose oil is it? Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world, estimated in 2017 at 300 million barrels. But its people are starving. No war or natural disaster brought what was once the fourth-richest country on Earth to its knees. The crisis resulted almost entirely from choices and policy … [Read more...]

Adapted from a shiur by Rav Eliezer Gewirtzman Answering the call One Purim some years ago, I was about to begin the Megilla reading when a man approached and placed a cell phone on the bima. He explained that his father lived in a place with no Megilla reading; could he listen to ours by phone? The Halachot Ketanot (2:276) discusses the case of a man reading the Megilla … [Read more...]