Parashat HashavuaSeries'LibraryPiskei Din (Hebrew)Test YourselfOur Sedra details the last plague, the slaying of Egypt’s first-born. The pasuk seems to make it quite clear that Hashem Himself will administer this plague: "I will go through Egypt on this night; I will strike down the first-born; I will mete out punishment to their gods." And the Hagada stresses: "Not through an angel or a seraph or a messenger, but by HKBH Himself." But then Hashem says, "if you place the blood of the Korban Pesach on your doorposts, I will not let the "mashchit-destroyer" enter your homes & plague you." Who is this "destroyer?!" We said it’s not an angel; & would we refer to Hashem as a "Mashchit?!" Rav Ahron Soloveichik gives a novel answer. He says that "mashchit" is the spirit of rampant destruction that generally results when an oppressed people are set free (e.g. in the French Revolution). Hashem wants us to have a higher moral character, & so we were forbidden to leave our homes that night & wreak havoc on our Egyptian masters.
Can I be mekadeish the levanah when there is just a slight cloud cover? Am I permitted to be mekadeish the levanah either before it gets fully dark or during the post-dawn, pre-sunrise morning hours? Did the Rif not write on this topic? Why not?
When minyanim closed, I started davening vatikin (starting Shemoneh Esrei (=SE) at hanetz hachama (sunrise=netz)). If I do not know precisely when netz is, is it better to err on the side of starting SE before or after netz?
A young engaged man and his fiancée naturally have very strong feelings for each other. It goes without saying that these will be expressed after the wedding, but what expression, if any, is permitted in the meantime? And while we're on the subject, is the attraction of men and women to each other really a good thing to begin with?
The mitzvah of gid hanosheh forbids us from eating the sciatic nerve, a sinew that runs from the lower back over the top of the hip and down the leg.
Another Mitzvah is not eating the Cheylev, some fats in an animal.
The laws relating to Jewish converts are most astounding. Despite the criticism directed at the Jewish people on the grounds that Judaism is racist, the Torah teaches us that any non-Jew who earnestly seeks to join the Jewish people may do so.