Halakhah, Halakhic Books/Works/Writings “…within Mishna Torah, there may be Talmudic laws which have been redefined or reformulated for anti-Qaraite reasons” Author Drew Kaplan Date 9 November 2015 Professor Haym Soloveitchik has argued convincingly that the unique arrangement of Hilchos Shabbos in...
Halakhah, Modern Orthodoxy “Modern Orthodox Jews often express ambivalence about these workarounds” Author Drew Kaplan Date 22 October 2015 Modern Orthodox Jews often express ambivalence about these workarounds. On the one hand, the...
Halakhah, Modern Orthodoxy “Majority rule can break down in at least three ways” Author Drew Kaplan Date 19 October 2015 Majority rule can break down in at least three ways. First, we can disagree...
Halakhah “The process of chok-ification, of relating to a halakhah as lacking any humanly discernible purpose, often leads to that halakhah having its application narrowed to the point of nonexistence” Author Drew Kaplan Date 18 October 2015 The process of chok-ification, of relating to a halakhah as lacking any humanly discernible...
Halakhah, Halakhic Books/Works/Writings “Rabbenu Tam altered the text of a blessing that had been in use for probably a thousand years” Author Drew Kaplan Date 19 May 2015 When someone gets married, Ketubot 7b tells us that the following words appear in...
Halakhah “…directly confronting difficult or discomfiting halakhic opinions, whether tending to the conservative or the liberal side, can have a positive effect…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 20 April 2015 Some writers tend to downplay the existence of stringent or seemingly unenlightened opinions on...
Halakhah, Passover “The procedure used today for mechirat chametz developed in various stages…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 30 March 2015 The procedure used today for mechirat chametz developed in various stages. Originally, the sale...
Halakhah “There is no source anywhere indicating that the two foods must have different berachot” for mishloach manot Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 March 2015 The basic requirement is to send two portions, but what exactly constitutes “two portions”?...
Halakhah, Incarceration “Jewish law…does not sentence people to prison as a punishment…because the Jewish communities didn’t have real prisons” Author Drew Kaplan Date 14 January 2015 He tells us that Jewish law, unlike secular law, does not sentence people to...
Halakhah Difficulties with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein’s Reading of the Source for Synagogue Mehitzah Author Drew Kaplan Date 6 January 2015 Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and others argue that the “great reform” made on...