Ancient Connection – Modern Pioneers
As Yaakov Avinu gathers the shevatim around his deathbed, he blesses them and prophesizes about their future. The Gemara Pesachim (56a) famously tells us that as Yaakov prepared to reveal eschatological secrets, the Divine Presence departed from him. He worried that one of his son’s may be inadequate to receive the prophecy, “perhaps, God forbid, […]
This year, on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, our shuls will be silent from the sound of the shofar. As the Gemara in the fourth chapter of Tractate Rosh Hashanah explains (29b), the sages decreed that we should not blow shofar when Rosh Hashanah coincides with Shabbat, lest one come to inadvertently desecrate Shabbat […]
This week’s parsha juxtaposes the laws of marriage with the laws of divorce. The Talmud teaches us that these two states are to remain independent of each other. Rambam codifies this law as follows: [A man] should not marry a woman if he intends to divorce her. Nor should he maintain her as a wife […]
