So, did you know that it is a positive mitzvah to charge interest to a gentile?

The 198th mitzvah is that we are commanded to charge interest to a non-Jew and only then lend him money, in order that we not assist him nor give him rest. Rather we should cause him [financial] loss, even with the kind of interest that we are forbidden from taking from ( Read more... )

Here's a topic I am completely ignorant about : Valuations. Arachin.

There is apparently a whole section of halacha that deals with donation vows made based on a person's worth. I guess it would be like this:  "In honor of our anniversary, I hereby promise to donate my wife's value to the Temple." Or something like that.  One type of valuation vow ( Read more... )

The Supreme Court of the United States is the ultimate authority in terms of constitutional interpretation. Once the Court has ruled, their holding is the law. The law which all citizens are obligated to follow under penalty of incarceration and even death.

Yet, isn't it interesting that when the media wants to test the political knowledge, the ( Read more... )

Dear Gedolim,

You were right and I was wrong. Please accept my apologies. Your followers should stay far away from the evil tumah that is the internet.

With Much Love, OSM.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, reading the YWN ( Read more... )

A lot has been written about slavery and the Chumash. So I'm not going to repeat it all here, not going to go on and on about the differences between how the Jewish and Gentile slaves were treated, not going to blather on about female slaves and the status of their children, etc, etc.

Today I just  wanted to ask about this weird little halacha I ( Read more... )

From the Gospel of Matthew:

[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
[19] Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.
[20] But while he ( Read more... )

According to the Emes Ve-Emunah blog,  the distinguished Rosh Yeshiva Horav Yisroel Weingarten is hosting  important visitors from the Monsey area this week. Several choshuve gedolim and rabbonim from New York have come to speak with the rosh yeshiva and bring him words of encouragement and divrei torah and chizzuk from the Eida Chareidis in ( Read more... )

In 1996, Sacker studied ultra-Orthodox and Syrian Jewish communities in Brooklyn and found that 1 out of 19 girls was diagnosed with an eating disorder - a rate about 50 percent higher than the general U.S. population.

From here.

That whole article is so incredibly ironic in light of  the kiruv machine's continuous insistence that following the laws ( Read more... )

This article raised many questions for me.

Sending your kid away at 6 years of age? So he can get a Jewish education? How does that work?

I mean, I'm not one of these crunchie mommies who think all children should be breastfed and homeschooled until they are 20, really I'm not.  Still, sending  all your kids away at  age 6 seems extreme. At that ( Read more... )

( Read more... )