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1500 questions
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What is the bracha on "cookies and cream" flavor ice cream?
I saw here that Rav Belsky holds the following:
One of the flavors of Klein's parve ice cream is "Cookies and Cream" which contains cookie crumbs or bits which are sprinkled through areas of vanilla frozen dessert. The appropriate brocha rishona on…
Curiouser
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4 answers
How does laughing confuse the Satan?
Sefardim have a practice (custom?) to laugh during habdalah. When I asked the reason for this practice I was told that it was "to confound the satan". I assume it has something to do with Eliyahu/Moshiach coming motzei shabbos (hence all the malave…
Identitytheft-Dave
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Why is hair sometimes considered *erva* (nakedness) but sometimes not?
Why do people say that the hair of a married woman is considered as nakedness, but not the hair of a single woman? Isn't hair just hair? What if a man grew his hair long - would it also be considered erva?
Adam Mosheh
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Why do we say that Hashem chose us if He offered to the Torah to all the other nations first?
According to Midrash Sifri (Deuteronomy 343), Hashem first went around to all the nations and offered them the Torah before offering it to Bnei Yisroel. So why do we say in Kiddush and Birchas HaTorah that "Hashem Has Chosen Us From All of The…
SimchasTorah
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What halachot does an American traveling to Israel have to be made aware of?
I'm planning to go to Israel for the first time, b"h, in just over a month. I'll be going on an organized trip and then I hope to stay until after tisha b'av. What halachot do I need to know about? (I know that there's kri'ah when seeing the kotel…
Moshe
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Flying and sorcery
Rashi (Sanhedrin 44b, s.v. D'ba'ya) relates the story of Shimon ben Shetach's capture of 80 witches. He instructed his students to pick up the witches because the sorcery would be powerless against the students if the witches were ungrounded. Is…
Fred
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19 answers
Shelosh Meyot - mi yodeya?
Who knows three hundred?
?שלוש מאות - מי יודע
In the spirit of the song "Echad - mi yodeya", please post interesting and significant Jewish facts about the number 300.
Check out mi-yodeya-series for the previous two hundred ninety-nine entries in…
Isaac Moses
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Calling a father Abba, when his name is Abba
May a child call his father Abba - if his name is Abba?
Gershon Gold
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Understanding of Ps. 137 before the exile
Psalm 137 starts (in my own translation)
On Babylon's rivers, there, we sat, also cried, in our remembering Zion.
and continues to describe the scene. Ibn Ezra cites some who hold that David authored the psalm with divine inspiration and was…
msh210
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How big, and what exactly, is "Kedei Kelipah"?
{Kedei Kelipah is a term used in Kashruth for the amount of something that needs to be removed in order to allow one to treat the remnant as Kosher. (This only applies under certain conditions, which are outside the scope of this question - at…
Seth J
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Are you allowed to benefit from an electrical appliance turned on during shabbos?
If a jewish person were to accidentally turn on the light in their bedroom, or if the television were accidentally turned on (for these purposes, let's assume that the person in question woke up, temporarily forgot what day it was, and turned on the…
Barry Hammer
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Coerced testimony in halacha
My chavrusa and I were going through Sanhedrin (40b) this evening, and the topic of how to get accurate statements from witnesses. Rashi mentioned the concept of moving the witnesses around in order to get them "confused" so that they'll state the…
eykanal
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Where Rashi uses a Russian word in Nach?
I heard that Rashi uses a Russian word where he deals with the building of the Beis Hamikdash by King Shlomo. I also heard that he uses a Polish word.
Does anyone know where it is?
Am Haaretz Gamur Mideoraysa
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What was the attitude of Rabbonim regarding Purim Torah?
Purim Torah seems to be a two sided concept. On one hand, many people do it for many years (for example, Maseches Purim was published in 1871).
On the other hand, it seems to be a Bizayon HaTorah (disgracing Torah) as one is making fun of Torah and…
ertert3terte
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Why does the Jewish calendar HAVE to end?
It seems to be common knowledge that on or around the year 6,000 of the Jewish calendar "everything" (left intentionally vague) will come to an end and there will be a 1,000 year 'Shabbos'. I'm looking for an explanation as to why this is…
none
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