יום שני, כ״ב חשוון תשפ״זMonday, November 2, 2026
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As I study the pages of Gemara, the literature of Torah Sheb’al-Peh is transformed to a live discussion between Tannaim and Amoraim across generations...
Those of us who learn Gemara tend to talk about Gemara differently from the way people talk about other books. We don’t just read the Gemara; we learn it.
Gemara, where a statement made by one can and has affected millions, where a language of its own is needed to unlock millennia of history.
When I mentioned that we were newly married, the Pope remarked, jokingly, that he didn't remember seeing an invitation to our wedding.
My margins are filled with sources, questions, translations and attempted insights. You would never find such doodles or notes inside a Sefer Torah.
We see and project and imagine such possibility onto the blank slate of a baby's pudgy punim.
By Avi Ganz
Life begins with our willingness to use the faculties with which we've been entrusted, as well as to open ourselves up to input from the outside.
By Eli Lebowicz
Thank G-d, both of my kids were born healthy and we could bring them each home from the hospital after a couple of days. We checked the mailbox and amazingly there was already a bill for yeshiva tuition.
The best things in life – practicing Judaism, being married, having children – can be very difficult. But without the struggles, we wouldn’t appreciate the joys.
As I thought about how the child who stole our sleep had become the child who guarded our sleep, the verse from Tehillim echoed in my head: Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.
While there is a time for crying and mourning, at that same time we should know that with faith and resilience we can move forward with confidence that better times are coming.
Mourning over this massive loss of our physical conduit for the Shechinah’s presence on earth carries with it the divine impetus to effect change, to act in a way that merits the re-establishment of the Beis HaMikdash.
By Chaim Saiman
The stark contrast of dipping the hard bread in ash underscores how some of the most poignant messages of the fast are found not in the fasting but davka in the eating.
By Solly Hess
The ash, like the broken glass beneath the groom’s feet, is there for a meaningful purpose – to remember the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.
There is an ancient custom, recorded in the Talmud of placing ashes on the head of the groom, in the place where tefillin is usually worn, as a way of fulfilling the verse If I do not place Jerusalem on the head of my rejoicing.
Yirmiyahu, the navi of the Three Weeks, is the prophet who saw the brokenness of his people, of Hashem’s garden being taken over by the weeds of idolatry and evil.
The narrow strait, however, is not a roadblock; on the contrary, it is a mechanism for increased productivity.
I sometimes wonder what it must have felt like to be him: to not just believe but to know you have important words to share – words from G-d no less – but the people don’t want to hear it.
It seems from chapter 27, one of the sharpest chapters in his book, that the people of his age simply could not imagine that they would lose their hold on Eretz Yisrael.
Today, 2,500 years later, Yirmiyahu is welcomed in our happiest moments, as we sing: Od Yishama, his song of Yerushalayim.
As an influencer who speaks to many women on a daily basis, I find myself saying "oy" when someone shares an unfortunate situation with me. I guess it's my version of "oy gevalt" without the gevalt.
Some of the comments complained that religious Jews should not be speaking about this in public.
You can say things like, “It’s “mamesh a gevalt.” In this context it means wow – that is an unbelievable thing.
By Hillel Fuld
It could mean that someone is alarmed or realized something very bad. Alternatively, it could be used to express gratitude to Hashem.
By Keshet Starr
According to Webster’s dictionary, gevalt is an expression of alarm, while oy indicates exasperation or dismay.
By Rabbanit Dr. Adena Berkowitz
Look at the bustling city it has become – with yeshivas, seminaries, mosdos, restaurants, apartments, hotels, archeology come to life and the kaleidoscope of Jews, Sabras and those ingathered from all over the world.
Walking up Rachel Imeinu Street it is hard to feel lonely. For thousands of years, Rachel has been masterfully offering solace to lonely, wandering Jews.
Calling it home is perhaps the greatest gift I ever gave myself (with Hashem’s help, of course), one that I receive anew each day.
When we had to return to the U.S. 12 years later there was an ache in my soul.
By JJ Eleff
One of the things I love about the DansDeals forums is the diversity in our members – people coming together from all different walks of life. We frequently discuss our differences and educate each other on the beauty of our own traditions and customs.
By The Honorable Rachel Freier
Knowing that my children and grandchildren create another link in the chain makes tradition not just a word in my family but a way of life.
Adherence to traditions will fade away if there is no understanding of why we do what we do.
By Anat Coleman
At the height of the pandemic, for example, New Yorkers came together in a new tradition of making noise at 7 p.m. each evening in support of our essential workers.
If what you say is a received tradition we accept it. (But) if you have derived it logically then we have a response.
Maybe the most important lesson I learned during those years was from a rebbe who remarked that the most essential character trait developed in yeshiva by a ben Torah is curiosity.
While there is something to be said for being an eclectic learner, who in many ways pieced together my own derech, I deeply wish that I had started learning seriously earlier in my life, and that I had a derech in learning, particularly when it comes to Gemara.
By Rachel Kohn
With its derivation from the Hebrew word "to sit," yeshiva can be seen to connote continuity through hunkering down...
If next year’s tuition contract has given you sticker shock, remember that the challenge to afford tuition is nothing new.
This video highlighted something else. It was like an old couple, with decades of carpools and those daily pedestrian responsibilities of families, reading their first love letters. This video reminded us of that first love.
Would that we could sweat out impatience, addictions, anger, and our many other self-destructive behaviors that leave us worse off, closed off, and far off the mark!
By Maayan Zik
One of the most important schvitz-making projects of our lives is the journey to be more of ourselves.
Language academics created an entire discipline – phonoaesthetics – to figure out what makes a word pleasant-sounding. Idyllic appears on that list, and so does mellifluous and cellar door. Shvitz doesn’t.
Yiddish – and by extension, modern Hebrew – offers us yet another use for this term – the 'shvitzer,' or braggart, someone who's trying too hard and constantly showing off.
Hashem views the past, present, and future in synchronization. We too must broaden our scope.
By Avi Ganz
The Gemara (Kiddushin 30b) says, I have created the yetzer hara and I have created the Torah for it as a spice. A spice? Not a defense, an antidote or a vaccine?
By Eli Lebowicz
When Sodom is destroyed, Lot’s wife looks back at the city because the angels said not to, and she gets turned into a pillar of salt.
If you describe someone as salty? It’s someone who is not in the best of moods. A sailor with salty language is not speaking eloquently; a salty person is one who is upset over minor nuisances.
Something that is salty in terms of cooking means it’s not seasoned properly, but too much salt or being salty could also be applied to balance as well.
Lot’s wife was indeed warned not to look back, a warning she ignored. But when she did, she saw the city she loved, and which she missed dearly, in a state of utter desolation.
As reflections of the image of Hashem we must maintain our healthy bodies, selves and souls.
Health is like anything else: the set of circumstances within which we operate.
I was powerless to influence his health in any measurable way, save for fervent davening. Yet is that not what is implied when we utter gezunt in well wishes?
When we allow extremes to become norms, the community is not healthy. When we place one value over all others, the community is not healthy.
Its impact is far-reaching and beyond all proportion to its quantity.
Shavuos is our wedding day, when we recommit ourselves to our relationship with Hashem. We don’t just look at our photo album and videos from the wedding, we re-experience it.
Rephrasing the Gemara into the current vernacular: Good things come to those who wait.
It’s the perfect time to remember that Hashem entrusted each of us with a special mission in this world.
At the very climax of our exodus from Egypt and, arguably, the most crucial moment in our nation’s birth, we were told to keep our distance and sit tight.
As we are about to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, we treasure that gift from the Almighty.
Where I grew up in Queens, N.Y., we were a little more lenient. We never cut off our peyos, but we also were allowed to cut them below the bone.
What are they really about? To make us look respectable (Bechor Shor)? Separate us from paganism (Ralbag)?
I did notice that the Hebrew word for wig is a peya, so I’m naturally going to think of a connection there.
By Keshet Starr
As frum Jews, we’re called to be different, to surpass the physical elements of life with deeper spiritual pursuits. This is, indeed, a responsibility – we feel its burden for a reason.
By Hillel Fuld
What does it mean to maintain your identity as a Jew? The answer is that the Israelites kept their names, language, and clothing.
We are encouraged to perform hiddur mitzvah, putting aside the cost, to some extent, to glorify serving Hashem.
In the Torah each person is obligated to use their money to pursue justice. The common meaning of the word tzedaka is charity, but a more true definition is justice.
By Chaim Saiman
Almost everyone “believes in” money, and even the “monetary atheists” who dream of returning to the gold-standard usually lead their lives as if money really exists.
When we talk about problematic influences from the world around us, we are likely to think about matters of ideology, entertainment and mass culture, or dress.
Our approach to money should be understanding that our financial status is determined by G-d.
October 30, 2026 
