דער פאלטאווער עילוי

Rabbi Yoel Shurin — the Poltava Illui — was a talmid of the Netziv and the Rosh Yeshiva of yeshivas Ohr Torah.

Haircuts, Bonfires and Weddings: Lag BaOmer and the customs of Sefira

Who Is This Rabbi?

Many have asked me to explain who the Rabbi in this picture is and why I use his likeness in my blog sometimes. His name is…

Random Ezra Graphics from my phone

I found some random graphics I did for Ezra World on my phone. Figured I’d post ‘em.

Hebrew Calendar / Sefira Page w/ The Hebcal API

Happy Passover all!

Jewish Mourning Customs Between Passover and Shavous

The 8.58 Hour Workday

I’ve discovered, after finally crunching the numbers with hr, that my contract requires me to work 8.58 hours a day. :-(

If It’s A Dig, It Had Better Be Clever!

Some recent talk about whether certain remarks were “uncalled for” or too aggressive — I…

Misplaced Loyalties: Part IV

Correction: Previously, I had written that the Ohr HaChaim was a 15th Century commentator. He is a…

Horayos: Even The Sadducees Admit

So I have some opinions about this that I don’t have time to write about / fully flesh out, so I’ll just mention some questions.

The Talmud says:

אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל אין ב”ד חייבין עד שיורו בדבר שאין הצדוקין מודין בו…