Halacha & Hashkafa

Is it appropriate to read works of fantasy – say, Harry Potter, for example?

For Want Of A Miracle ‘Levi Taught: [It Is The] Liquids of the Altar’ (Pesachim 17a)

Mr. Poupko felt that all owners, from both sides of the building, should contribute. "The sewage line serves the building in general, and is considered joint property," he reasoned.

Gam zeh yaavor is a beautiful Jewish wisdom. Nothing lasts forever. Not the good and not the bad. This difficult time will pass.

The practice of the Vilna Gaon was not to have the challah on the table at all during Kiddush (Masseh Rav 118). Why don't all Jews act similarly?

Is having a natural birth advisable, inadvisable, or a value-free decision?

Rabbi Dayan said, To replace the juice from the mini-bar with a bottle from the store would be cheating the hotel.

Accepted Custom ‘We Burn at the Sixth’ (Pesachim 11b)

A Matter Of Resolve ‘The One Who Searches [For Chametz] Recites A Berachah’ (Pesachim 7a)

One day, the elderly Mrs. Miller returned from some errands and found that the house had been robbed. When word got back to Mrs. Rosen, she asked the Millers to pay her the value of her stolen jewelry.

Should you give money to a panhandler on the street (or a subways car) if you have no idea if the person really needs it or not (e.g., he may take the money to buy drugs)?

Out Of One’s Box ‘All May Enter the Heichal to Build, Repair…’ (Eruvin 105a)

Accordingly, the Gemara [Bava Basra 21a] states that a person who rented a house from a person who isn’t the owner must pay the true owner when the house is intended for rent, but not when it isn’t.

Tosafot indicates that one can fulfull the precept of shalosh seudot by eating all three meals on Shabbat day.

Should you read the Rambam’s Guide for the Perplexed if you aren’t perplexed?

But would that be fair to the other person? Eli asked. You asked me first for payment, but he lent me first and he might ask me soon to pay him back.

As we got into the car, we made a decision. We would go to see my zaida and my bubby, whom we called Mama, a"h. I needed their brachos, I needed to receive their blessings.

I have heard eyewitness reports of individuals mistakenly performing melachah immediately after the conclusion of an early Maariv - exactly the scenario about which the Maharshal was concerned.

Should a person daven a long Shemoneh Esrei if others around him might consider him arrogant (or holier than thou) as a result?

The following evening, the mohel came by. "Unfortunately, the baby is still yellow," he said. "We have to delay the bris.”

Elevated Train Tracks As An Eruv ‘Pi Tikra Reaches’ (Eruvin 94b)

Is it okay for a young man to leave his parents’ mesorah and join another (e.g., for a chassid to become yeshivish, for a dati le’umi/Modern Orthodox Jew to become black-hat, etc.)?

Who’s Fridge? ‘If The Owner Retains a Holding There’ (Eruvin 85b)

Is it ever appropriate for a husband to put his foot down with his wife or a wife with her husband? Or is compromise the answer no matter what the issue is?

Detached Or Unrelated ‘He Made an Asheirah Tree Into a Ladder…’ (Eruvin 78b)

I can post a sign about the sefer, said Moshe, but I’m hesitant about the money. It's a big city with a wide variety of people; I don't want to start getting phone calls from strange people asking me about an envelope of money.

Is following sports a waste of time or harmless pleasure?

Do Hotels Need Eruvin? ‘A Separate Contribution From Each Company’ (Eruvin 72b)

Is it appropriate for a man to wear cologne?

Spreading The Wealth ‘Giving to Only One Poor Person’ (Eruvin 63a)