by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 31, 2019
The enterprise of ta’amei ha’mitzvot, trying to identify the values that underlie the mitzvot, is an important although potentially dangerous one. The importance lies in the fact that it helps us actualize those values both in the performance of the mitzvot and in other areas of our lives. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 24, 2019
How many commandments were given at Mt. Sinai? The answer, surprisingly, is not 10. The Torah speaks of the aseret ha’devarim, the Ten Utterances, not the Ten Commandments. When one gets down to counting the commandments, she finds that the first of the utterances, “I am the Lord your God,” is not exactly a commandment, and that some, like “You shall have no other gods before me; you shall not bow down to them nor shall you worship them,” actually contain 3 commandments, if not more.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 1, 2018
Ger vi’toshav anokhi imakhem, “A sojourner and a resident am I in your midst” (Gen. 23:4). Avraham’s description of his status in the land of Canaan – as both someone living among the inhabitants of the land, and yet not fully one of them – powerfully captures the experience of immigrants in general, and that of Jews in America starting from the first wave of major immigration in 19th century, in particular. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 17, 2018
QUESTION: I am the father of a newborn beautiful baby boy. The bris is coming up in a few days. Since I have a mitzvah to give my son a bris, and the mohel is just an agent, is it better that I do the bris myself (after the mohel sets everything up, of course)?…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on August 2, 2018
Sefat Emet teaches that those who were to enter the Land of Israel would be the beginning of the Oral Torah – the taking of the Divine word and interpreting it and applying it to the lived reality of their lives. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on July 26, 2018
The Ten Commandments open with the declaration “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of land of Egypt.” This is often understood to be a mitzvah of belief. Is there such a mitzvah? And what do we mean by belief anyway?…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on June 14, 2018
“For the entire community – they are all holy!” It is with these words that Korach challenges the leadership of Moshe. These are words that on the face of them express a lofty and noble sentiment. But they are words which ultimately belie an understanding of kedushah and an understanding of leadership that is limited, self-serving, and destructive.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 24, 2018
The Temple rite of the suspected adulteress, the sotah, is profoundly challenging to our contemporary sensibilities. As the Torah describes it, a man who is seized by a fit of jealousy and suspects—with purely circumstantial evidence—that his wife has committed adultery can bring her to the Temple and force her to undergo an ordeal which contains elements of shaming and declarations that presume guilt: The woman’s head is uncovered.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 3, 2018
QUESTION: Can I shave with an electric shaver and are all models permissible? ANSWER: In two separate verses, the Torah prohibits men to shave their beards. In parashat Kedoshim, the Torah states: “You shall not destroy (tashchit) the corners of your beards,” (Vayikra 19:27). …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 26, 2018
May a husband hold his wife’s hand or give her a massage during childbirth, according to halakhah? We began to answer this question last week and came to the following interim conclusions: A pregnant woman is not considered to be in niddah until either she experiences uterine bleeding (distinct from mere stains), or until a limb of the baby emerges from the womb. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 19, 2018
QUESTION: I am nine months pregnant, and my husband and I have been doing Lamaze classes to prepare for the birth of our baby. Part of the Lamaze method includes pressure massage and massage of the abdomen. I have been told, though, that it is forbidden by halakhah for my husband to do this because I will be in niddah at that time. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 12, 2018
QUESTION: My daughter recently turned one year old. For children of her age, it is recommended that they consume 16 ounces of whole milk a day. It is hard to get my daughter to drink milk when she is not eating. …
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