The Twelve Minute Shiur

" Throughout the eight days of Hanukkah / These lights are sacred / And we have no permission to make use of them / We may only look upon them..." That's part of the liturgy traditionally recited upon kindling the Hanukkah lights. But what does it mean to "make use" of the Hanukkah lights? Why are we not permitted to make use of them? And how do we know all of this anyway? A bit of learning for th...

Our tradition teaches that Joshua imposed a set of  t'naim,  stipulations or conditions, upon the people before they took possession of the land. Those stipulations suggest a vision of land use that allows for private ownership  and  for public benefit. Does that vision have anything to teach us in our time? ​

It's a  mitzvah  to rejoice on a festival .  And what better way to rejoice than a  se`udat yom tov , a festive meal? Does meat have to be on the menu? Many Orthodox Jews say "yes" and that they have the sources to prove it. We're here to say "no," and we've got sources, too. It's a  machloket.  And not to brag or anything, but we think that our argument is ​more persuasive! Get the source sheet a...

Can you fulfill the  mitzvah  of  n'tilat lulav  on Sukkot with a lulav that is stolen?  That is, if you use a stolen lulav, are you  yotzei ? Do you fulfill your requirement? After all, even if it's stolen, it's still a lulav! Or does the  halakhah  refuse to recognize the action on the grounds that you have fulfilled a  mitzvah  by way of a transgression against the Torah? In this installment, w...

Who is the better person: the  ba`al t'shuvah , the repentant sinner, or the  tzadik gamur , the wholly righteous individual who has never sinned at all? ​You can argue it either way. And - are you surprised? - the tradition  does  argue it either way! Plus, there's an element of  halakhah  that rides on the decision, which is why we talk about it here. Download the source sheet at www.freehofinst...

The Torah says we are to hear the sound of  t`ru'ah  on Rosh Hashanah. What's a  t'ru`ah ? Why must it be sounded by a ram's horn? And how many sounds are we supposed to hear - one? Nine? Thirty? Sixty? 100? So many questions - can we answer them in twelve minutes? ​We can try! ​ Download the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/podcast

The ethics of judges is - unfortunately - a timely subject. So it's a good time to look at some of what the halakhic literature has to say about it. As is often the case, our study may leave us with more questions than answers. But then, asking the right questions is a good first step.

In 1846, the Reform rabbinical conference at Breslau annulled the observance of yom tov sheni shel galuyot, the second festival day traditionally observed by Jews living outside of Eretz Yisrael . How could they simply do away with such an ancient religious practice? Is there any halakhic justification for their action? As those Reform rabbis would have replied (loosely translated from the German)...

More on the second festival day, like: why do many Jews still observe it when we no longer have any doubt as to the right date of yom tov ? And what about the second day of Rosh Hashanah? It looks, smells, and quacks just like a regular yom tov sheni ... but it's not! Source sheet available at www.freehofinstiute.org/podcast.

Why do many Jews outside of Eretz Yisrael turn every Biblically-ordained festival day ( yom tov ) into a two-day observance? What's the nature of that second day, especially since we no longer have any uncertainty about determining the months and the dates of the Jewish calendar? And why do progressive Jews dispense with the observance of  yom tov sheni ​ altogether? Lots of questions, and we&...

Rabbi Yosef Caro, in his  Shulhan Arukh , holds that a blind person may not be called up to the Torah. That ruling stirred a halakhist of the next generation, Rabbi Binyamin Selonik, to write a responsum that holds the opposite. Just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill halakhic  mahloket -  except that   Rabbi Selonik himself was blind, a reality he emphasizes explicitly and passionately in his text, m...

In halakhah , as in life, there are two ways - one "passive," the other "active" - to think about disability and of our response to it. In this episode, we consider examples of each. Source sheet available at www.freehofinstitute.org/podcast.

Picking up where we left off in episode #53. What qualities should we want in a shaliach tzibur (prayer leader)? And what qualities are we best advised to avoid? The halakhah weighs in. Get the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/podcast.

Pesach is coming. Time to get rid of your hametz. And there are four different ways to do it. Oh, the choices! This episode explores the whys and the hows. Get the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/podcast.

The leader of the prayer service - the shaliach tzibur - is traditionally considered our representative or emissary before God. So it's understandable that we want to appoint the very best person, or at least someone who is worthy for that job. Okay... but how do we define "worthy"? The first of a two-part series. Get the source sheet at www.freehofinstitute.org/podcast.

For nearly a thousand years, students of the  Mishneh Torah , Rambam's great code of  halakhah , have sought to identify the Talmudic sources of his rulings. Sometimes, he appears to ​have no source whatsoever. When this happens, we have to ask: is Rambam just making this up? Is it permissible even for a great  posek  to derive a rule of  halakhah  on the basis of common sense or of his person...

Progressive Jews have been writing new texts for the  b'rakhot , the blessings or benedictions that form the core of our worship, for just about 200 years. There are lots of reasons for that, but our question here is whether we violate  halakhah  when we do it. Does Jewish law permit us to alter the text - the  nusach  - of a liturgical form that tradition says was ordained by the ancient Rabb...

We ask that the congregation please rise... to observe a custom ( minhag ) that was created for a very specific reason. That reason disappeared over 1000 years ago. So what did the Jews do about that? You guessed it: they maintained the  minhag  and came up with new reasons for it. That in itself tells us something about the role of  minhag  in our religious life. And as for those new reasons, do...

It's one of the most famous cases of suicide in all of Jewish literature. Saul, king of Israel, falls on his sword in order to avoid being taken alive and abused by the Philistines. Does this story serve as a precedent in support of physician-assisted suicide in cases of terminal illness? Some say yes. But (and you saw this coming, didn't you?) it's complicated. Download the source she...

At the Freehof Institute, we understand  halakhah  in its best sense not as a set of fixed rules but as a discourse, a language of thought and of argument that Jews utilize to study their sacred sources and determine just what they tell us when it comes to matters of sacred action. And we believe that language to be a  flexible  one, a process that can yield guidance fully coherent with our own li...

According to  halakhah , can you fulfill the  mitzvah  of Hanukkah, the lighting of the Hanukkah lamp, by using electric lights? Most Orthodox authorities say "no." We say "yes," and here's why. Source sheet available at www.freehofinstitute.org/podcast.

In shiur #44, we saw that the halakhah prohibits g'neivat da`at , deceptive speech and conduct, behavior that creates a false impression in the mind of another. In this shiur we ask: are there exceptions to this isur , this prohibition? Is there any situation in which we are permitted to deceive? The Talmud clearly says "yes" - there are exceptions. But Rambam just as clearly says &q...

Does Jewish law distinguish between "just" and "unjust" wars? And what duties do we owe to noncombatant populations during wartime? This episode was recorded in October 2023, when these subjects suddenly and sadly became relevant for Israel and the entire Jewish people. Source sheet available at www.freehofinstitute.org/podcasts .

It's no surprise that the halakhah frowns upon deceptive behavior ( g'neivat da`at ). We are forbidden to act in such a way as to create a false impression in the minds of others, even when our action causes them no material loss, simply because deception in and of itself is a bad thing. But how bad is it? Are we always forbidden to deceive? Without exception? Well, there's a machloket...

Does your community recite Kol Nidrei before or after sundown at the beginning of Yom Kippur? Does it matter? In a word: yes... because either way, you're making a statement. What statement is that? Glad you asked - do we have a shiur for you!