7 texts
Rabbi Yoshiyah raised a question that touches the very structure of the Jewish calendar: who has the authority to add an extra month to the year? The Hebrew calendar is lunar, and ...
The Mekhilta draws a parallel that cuts both ways. In the previous passage, the rabbis established that believing in Moses equals believing in God. Now they demonstrate the reverse...
"Mahor yimharenah — to himself as a wife" — the Mekhilta asks whether the seducer can take the woman as his wife even if her father objects. Perhaps the Torah's language implies an...
And it leads us right into a somewhat delicate area: the laws surrounding vows made by women, and who had the power to uphold or annul them. Specifically, we're diving into a passa...
to a fascinating snippet from Sifrei Devarim, specifically section 154. The verse from Devarim (Deuteronomy) 17:11 states, "And you shall do according to the thing that they tell y...
Jewish law has some pretty specific ideas about that, especially when it comes to authority. to a fascinating little corner of legal thought from Sifrei Devarim 155, a commentary o...
The rabbis once overruled God—and God laughed. According to Bava Metzia 59b, the incident began with an argument about an oven. Rabbi Eliezer declared a certain oven ritually pure....
