MASHIB HARUAH: Why do we pray for rain in plural?
From the first day of shemini 'atseret (Oct. 5th 2015) we began reciting the prayer mashib haruah umorid hageshem, i.e., HaShem "makes the wind blow, and He...
Rabbi Levi Ibn Habib and the rabbinical ordination debate
Rabbi Levi ben Habib was born in Zamora, Spain, approximately in 1480. At the age of five he managed to escape to Portugal, with...
What is a Prozbul and why you should sign one?
This year that is coming to an end, 5775, has been a Shemita year. In addition to the restrictions of working the land in...
The SHOFAR and Jiminy Cricket
I remember the first time heard the word "conscience" was when I was a kid and I discovered one of my favorite characters, "Jiminy...
TESHUBA: Obstacles, on the way to repentance
In Chapter 4 of Hilkhot Teshuba Maimonides enumerates twenty-four actions, personality patterns or attitudes which prevent or make very difficult for a person to...
TESHUBA: What do people think before dying?
In his monumental book, Mishne Tora, Maimonides dedicates ten chapters to the subject of Teshuba (repentance). In the first four chapters Maimonides describes and...
TESHUBA, in front of a camera
"What is considered a perfect act of repentance? When one is faced with the same opportunity to repeat the original transgression, but now he...
TESHUBA 5:3. I’m what I do in the next 5 minutes
In the third chapter of his Hilkhot Teshuba, Maimonides explains that in terms of religious behavior there are three categories of people: rasha 'tsadiq...
Free Will and Evolution Theory
האדם רשותו בידו וכל מעשיו מסורים לו
Hilkhot Teshuba, 5:4
Yesterday, we explained that the difference between humans and all other living beings is "free will"....
HILKHOT TESHUBA 5:3: Free will and human progress
Yesterday we explained that the idea of free will is, according to Maimonides, the essential foundation of the Tora and its mitzvot. We also...
