Author: David Rutman

Photo Credit: Jewish Press If a person is uncomfortable sitting in a sukkah, he is halachically exempt from doing so. But why? A person is not exempt from the mitzvah of tefillin if they are uncomfortable, so why is he exempt from the mitzvah of sukkah if he is uncomfortable? Rav Reuven Kerelenstein cites the […]

[embedded content] Thousands of Lebanese protesters on Thursday packed the streets of Beirut and other cities to condemn the Government’s plans to impose 20 cents a day in taxes on WhatsApp and other free messaging applications as a way of combating the country’s economic crisis. The protesters blamed the state of the economy on decades […]

Photo Credit: Ziv Sokolov/US Embassy Jerusalem Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) at Ben Gurion Airport, October 18, 2019. Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday agreed on a five-day ceasefire in Turkey’s military invasion of northeastern Syria, during which time Kurdish forces must move away from their homeland. “I’m […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press Censorship of Hebrew books in the 19th century was rather commonplace although the reasons for it varied greatly. In an 1864 issue of the Hebrew newspaper Hamagid that I just acquired, I found part of an advertisement for a new Talmud censored; tar was placed over the words, completely obliterating the […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press Vol. LXIX No.42                                                   5780 New York CityCANDLE LIGHTING TIMEOctober 18, 2019 – 19 Tishrei 57805:53 p.m. NYC E.D.T.Sabbath Ends: 6:52 p.m. NYC E.D.T. Advertisement ‘); _avp.push({ tagid: article_top_ad_tagid, alias: ‘/’, type: ‘banner’, zid: ThisAdID, pid: 16, onscroll: 0 }); Sabbath Ends: Rabbenu Tam 7:23 p.m. NYC E.D.T.Weekly Reading: Chol Hamo’ed Sukkos […]

Photo Credit: Corinna Kern/Flash90 The Zikim beach border fence along the northern Gaza Strip IDF forces on Thursday identified and shot down a drone that flew from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. The IDF found the drone’s remains and took them for further inspection, an IDF spokesman stated. Advertisement ‘); _avp.push({ tagid: article_top_ad_tagid, alias: ‘/’, […]

Photo Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Reut Rehabilitation Hospital in Tel Aviv signed an agreement on collaboration with the China Rehabilitation Research Center (CRRC), the largest such facility in China. The signing ceremony recently took place as part of the visit of the hospital’s director, Dr. Dov Albukerk, at an international conference in Beijing […]