I am starting a new job next week and I really do not want to fast on Tuesday ( Read more... )

I think this post that I am about to write is going to touch upon a lot of sensitive issues for my LJ friends and so I just want to clarify that I am not writing about this to cause more pain and if it does, I apologize in advance. I am writing this because I have been thinking about this topic this week as someone in our family just finished ( Read more... )

So, did you know that it is a positive mitzvah to charge interest to a gentile?

The 198th mitzvah is that we are commanded to charge interest to a non-Jew and only then lend him money, in order that we not assist him nor give him rest. Rather we should cause him [financial] loss, even with the kind of interest that we are forbidden from taking from ( Read more... )

A lot has been written about slavery and the Chumash. So I'm not going to repeat it all here, not going to go on and on about the differences between how the Jewish and Gentile slaves were treated, not going to blather on about female slaves and the status of their children, etc, etc.

Today I just  wanted to ask about this weird little halacha I ( Read more... )

I've been thinking about adultery all day. It's pretty confusing, actually.

Take Mei Sotah for example. Here's the Rambam's run down of how it works. Pretty wild.

But the craziest part is that she doesn't have to drink the water. She can refuse to drink it or admit her guilt and then she gets a divorce and loses her kesuba money. No drinking the ( Read more... )

I will only patronize an establishment that operates in harmony with the laws of modesty. Where crude language is non-existent; modesty is exercised between genders, and employees dress in a Tznius fashion. The establishment must not contain immodest imagery (advertising, magazines, television, etc.), and not run programs and activities which are ( Read more... )

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After reading these three  Naarah Besulah chapters, it is very clear that rape was completely a civil matter back in the days of the Rambam and the only thing wrong was that the girl's virginity value was decreased. The punishment, therefore, for rape was a set of fines, payable to the girl's dad, of course, and forced marriage to the victim, if ( Read more... )

In a very sad event last week, a young daughter of a shliach in Israel was tragically killed in a school-bus accident. The whole story was horrible.

At the shiva, the little girl's grandmother, the famous Miriam Swerdlov, spoke about taking the good with the bad and mi k'amcha yisrael and so on. She also sang a song with the women at the shiva, one ( Read more... )