Is it permissible to put the blood or flesh of a pig in one’s mouth? Is it, for that matter, permissible to but any blood from another person or animal in one’s mouth, in that Judaism blanketly prohibits blood? The opinion of the Taz1 and many other …
Megillat Esther on Sexism and “Who is a Jew?” If you really paid attention to the Megillat Esther this Purim, they would have noticed a few important things about it. First is the fact that the work is extremely pro-Woman. The text literally mocks sexism at every turn. The sexist King …
In his letter to rabbi Yosef ben Ha’Rav Yehudah, Maimonides explained his belief that in the future “all of Israel will subsist on it alone” in reference to his Mishneh Torah, over even the Talmud, as the Jewish people “will ABANDON ALL ELSE BESIDES IT …
The occurrence of Chanukah – coming on the 24th day of the month of Kislev – corresponds with approach of the winter solstice. The holiday brings a reminder that no matter how immersed in darkness we are, light will always return. As such, we need …
Question and Comments from Jeremy ben-Daniel: Who was the man who wrestled with Ya`qov? Was it indeed a man (ish)?`Esav? Melkhitzedeq (Shem)? Was it an angel?Was it, as the Talmud indicates, `Esav’s ‘angel’? Why did `Esav have an angel assigned to begin with? Or …
There was once a world populated by monkeys who had been taught to revere ants. These monkeys were not stupid at all, though to human beings they might seem to be. These monkeys were in many ways the same as what we think of as …
Sometimes people ask me why i don’t like the Donmeh or the Shatz (Shabbatai Tz’vi)… Read the following from his and NoG’s manifesto and tell me if you would be stoked on a dude saying this shit and then crapping out when push came to …
The entire history of the development of Anti-Jewish propaganda in Ithnā’ `Ashariyyah Shī`īsm is too long a history to recount here. It will suffice, however, to jump forward a few centuries to the Allāhdad massacre of 1839 in Iran. The dismal picture of the severe …
Indicated by the title of William Schulz’s article “Is the ‘Ticking Bomb’ Case Plausible?” the author is presenting a compelling counter-thesis to the hypothetical “ticking bomb” scenario, so often posited by proponents of “necessary” instances of torture. Specifically, Schulz is arguing against Alan Dershowitz’s thesis, …
There once was a King. The King had a beautiful daughter whose beauty filled the entirety of the Kingdom. It came to pass that a pauper desired to marry the daughter because – being a young woman wishing to go about through the Kingdom – …