Premature Babies in Halacha By Rav Ariel Ovadia The challenge of premature and congenitally ill infants has riddled humanity from the beginning of time, and until as recently as the turn of the 20th century premature babies stood little to no chance to survive. The pages of the Talmud and Poskim are rife with discussions of babies born in the eighth month and prior, or babies … [Read more...]
Credit Guaranteed: Arvut and Honor
The Value of Credibility By: Rabbi Tzvi Price One of the aspects of the study of Choshen Mishpat that makes it so extraordinary, is the way in which it combines razor-sharp logic and strict legalism, with the swirling emotion and drama that money seems to always engender. The Torah looks into a person’s heart, understands the assumptions, the emotions, the motives that … [Read more...]
Cancelling a Playgroup
By: Rav Baruch Meir Levine This past year, right after Tu’bshvat, I signed up my daughter in a playgroup next to my home, for the coming school year. Now it turns out that we will be moving to a new neighborhood. After doing some research I found out that there is a playgroup for my daughter’s age on my new block … [Read more...]
Spirited Away: The Case of the Lost Liquor
Adapted from a shiur by Rav Yosef Greenwald The leaven that left A man we’ll call David was traveling two months ago with whiskey in his luggage. The airline lost the bag. Weeks went by. Pessah came and went. Last week the suitcase, invigorated from having traveled the world, was delivered to his home. May he drink the whiskey? Hachamim (Pessahim 29) forbade … [Read more...]
Bake Sale: Can a Transfer of Ownership Effect Biur Hametz?
Adapted from a shiur by Rav Yosef Greenwald Selling as “Tashbitu”: Getting Rid of your Hametz Mechirat Hametz, the sale of Hametz to a gentile before Pessah - used to avoid violating the prohibition of owning Hametz on Pessah – appears in the Mishna and Tosefta. But for most of Jewish history, it was employed only in exigent circumstances. Decrees in Europe four … [Read more...]