by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed
Yonaton Behar A comment in advance of the elections: In the heat of ideological debates, let’s not forget the values we all share – even if we disagree about the political way of fulfilling them * Milk with standard kashrut is halachically kosher, but milk with mehadrin kashrut takes into consideration all the poskim’s differing approaches in … Read more
In continuation of last week’s article: there is a disagreement concerning bishul goyim – according to Sephardim, it is not enough for a Jew to light the fire before cooking * According to this minhag it is difficult to employ non-Jewish cooks * In disputes between ethnic minhagim, the ethnic minhag itself is not the … Read more
May a Foreign Caregiver Cook for a Jew? The prohibition of bishulei goyim also applies to foreign caregivers of the elderly and the sick * The gezera is intended to prevent widespread assimilation and not to solve specific concerns about avodah zarah, therefore it is relevant even when there is no reasonable chance of intermarriage … Read more
In continuation of the previous columns: Clarifying the educational approach towards alcohol at parties *Drinking wine in the atmosphere of a mitzvah brings joy, whereas drinking wine frivolously causes only sorrow * Alcohol can cause even the most honorable person to lose control * Music adds to frivolity, therefore, after the destruction of the Temple … Read more
More Decrees, or Education? The previous column ended with a question to the public: Should parties with a secular atmosphere be included in the prohibition against drinking at non-Jewish parties, or is teaching to refrain from drinking at such parties enough? * Consultation with the public is important in halachic rulings * The question of … Read more
Drinking with Non-Jews – What is Forbidden and Where? The prohibition against wine of non-Jews is more severe than the ban on bread and cooked food, and even the touch of a non-Jew renders it forbidden * Our Sages also forbade drinking alcoholic beverages with a non-Jew, even when drinking alone * At parties and … Read more
The Mitzvah of Pru U’ Revu Requires Effort Every birth of a child is a great mitzvah and partnership with Hashem in the creation of the world * Our Sages determined it is impracticable to rely only on the birth of two children since we do not know what their future will be, and thus … Read more
Chalav Nochri – Between Kashrut and Hiddur Chalav Nochri is forbidden from a Rabbinical prohibition out of concern that non-kosher milk was mixed in it; the question is, how concerned must we be * According to the lenient opinions, as long as there is no reasonable fear that non-kosher milk was mixed in, one can … Read more
Time has Come to Connect to the European Right Matteo Salvini, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and a leading candidate for Prime Minister, visited Israel and expressed enthusiastic support for it – but the political Left preferred to ignore his warm feelings, and accuse him of anti-Semitism * Regrettably, President Rivlin also failed to respect … Read more
The vaccine against measles is vital and necessary * The scientific claims against the vaccine are based on research proven to be false * The halakhic rule that we follow the majority is also true in the field of medicine: if there is disagreement, we go according to the position of the majority of doctors … Read more