Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher, Dean of Students and Senior Lecturer at Diaspora Yeshiva, is not only a popular speaker and teacher, but also a dynamic thinker and writer. A student of Harav Yaakov Kamenetsky and Harav Gedalia Schorr, Rabbi Sprecher was granted smicha (rabbinical ordination) by Torah Vodaath Yeshiva. Prior to his current position, Rabbi Sprecher was a professor of Judaic studies at Touro College in New York. In addition to his duties at Diaspora Yeshiva, Rabbi Sprecher writes a regular column on various Judaic topics in the Jewish Press, and lectures regularly at the OU Israel Center in Jerusalem.
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 Yona's Dilemma –Commit Suicide to Save Others?  .: Viewed: 2615 times :.
Was throwing Yona into the sea to save the sailors on the ship in accordance with Halachah? May one person be killed to save the lives of many people? Sanhedrin 74b teaches: Regarding any of the sins in the Torah, if a person is told "Violate it and you will not be killed, " he should violate it. The only exceptions are idolatry, sexual sin and murder…And how do we know that this...
Published: September 16, 2014
 Yom Kipur – Rehearsal for Eternity!  .: Viewed: 2152 times :.
The last Mishna in Taanit states, "There is no more joyous festival for Israel than Yom Kipur." Yet Yom Kipur is also the most solemn day of the Jewish year, and it is also the strangest day, because it seems to negate all that makes us human. For that one day we step out of ourselves and have an Out of Body Experience. We are no longer part of this world as we know it. Denying our bodies the...
Published: September 5, 2014
 TESHUVA – Returning G-d's Name  .: Viewed: 1926 times :.
The Zohar explains that the word TESHUVA is a compound of the words, TASHUV HEH, "returning the HEH". The HEH that the Zohar is referring to is the HEH of G-d's Name, YUD – KEH – VAV – KEH, known as the SHEM HAVAYA, which has two letters HEH. The Zohar infers from the two HEHS  of G-d's Name that the process of TESHUVA, "of returning the HEH", actually has two levels....
Published: August 26, 2014
 SHMITAT KESAFIM – PRUZBUL – It's Greek to me  .: Viewed: 2727 times :.
The Shemita year cancels all financial debts. If someone owes you money, and he comes to repay it to you after the Shemita year, you are supposed to say that the debt is canceled. If the borrower still would like to return the money, you are permitted to accept it, and this is considered a meritorious act on the part of the borrower. This is stated by the Rambam in Hilchos Shemita V'Yovel...
Published: August 20, 2014
 SHEMITAH – Is HETER MECHIRA Kosher  .: Viewed: 2352 times :.
HETER MECHIRA (the Sale License) refers to produce from Jewish fields that were formally sold to a non-Jew before SHEMITAH, the way Chometz is sold to a non-Jew before Pesach. The sale of the land in Israel of participating farms allows work to be conducted in the fields. The fruit and vegetables, grown on these fields, are considered as grown on non-Jewish land and therefore are not bound by...
Published: August 20, 2014
 Does G-d Have Physical Features?  .: Viewed: 2193 times :.
The Midrash Mechilta, on the first of the Ten Commandments asks why G-d identifies Himself as the One who took us out of Egypt, instead of the Creator of the Universe? The Mechlita answers that G-d appeared to the Jewish People as a Youthful Warrior at the Red Sea, but at Mount Sinai He appeared as an Elderly Scholar. Thus, G-d assured us that He was One and the Same on both occasions,...
Published: August 10, 2014
 Our TEHILLIM vs. Their TILIM  .: Viewed: 2003 times :.
It is just amazing how the weekly Parshah and Haftorah refer to Current Events. In Parshat Matot Moshe orders the IDF to mobilize 12,000 soldiers for the war against Midian. That very same week, the IDF mobilized 12,000 soldiers for the war against Hamas. Since the ground operation in Gaza another 60,000 reservists have been called up. Rashi in Bamidbar 31:3, states that all soldiers in the...
Published: July 31, 2014
 Tisha BÁv – The Hidden "Festival"?  .: Viewed: 1825 times :.
Four days a year Jews fast and mourn, commemorating various historical events concerning the destruction of the Holy Temple. The 17 th of Tamuz is one of the four days, and it began a three week period of limited mourning that climaxes with Tisha B'Av, the day of the destruction of both Holy Temples. These four days of fasting are found in the prophet Zechariah. Consistent with Judaism's...
Published: July 25, 2014
 Iron Dome in the Haftorah  .: Viewed: 2133 times :.
It is just amazing how the weekly Parshah and Haftorah refer to Current Events. In Parshat Matot Ch. 31, Moshe orders the IDF to mobilize 12,000 soldiers for the war against Midian. The very same week, the IDF mobilized 12,000 reservists for the war against Hamas. Since the ground operation in Gaza, another 50,000 reservists have been called up. Rashi in the weekly Parshah, Bamidbar 31:3,...
Published: July 20, 2014
 Did G-d Reject Our Prayers?  .: Viewed: 2634 times :.
The night before the murdered bodies of our precious and holy teenagers were found, nearly 100,000 Jews gathered in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to pray for the youths' safe return. Secular celebrities sang songs from the Psalms, and the huge crowd joined in. Afterwards Iris Yifrach, the mother of Eyal, addressed her missing son, "The whole nation is uniting. Everybody is worried about you. I turn...
Published: July 11, 2014
 Climbing the Soul Ladder!  .: Viewed: 2750 times :.
The Zohar says that Eliyahu Hanavi was the Reincarnated soul of Pinchas, the grandson of Aharon, the High Priest. Pinchas was the hero whose act of Zealotry saved the Jewish People from destruction by a deadly plague (Bamidbar 25). Is Reincarnation mentioned in TANACH (The Bible)? The Ramban and other Kabbalists state that the Book of Ruth teaches the doctrine of Reincarnation (Gilgul...
Published: July 2, 2014
 Is Evolution Kosher?  .: Viewed: 2023 times :.
The Israel Education Ministry recently announced that Evolution will be taught to 7th through 9thgrade pupils throughout the State education system, including National Religious Schools. What is the Torah's attitude regarding Evolution? The Rambam in the Guide to the Perplexed explains that the Six Days of Creation represent a conceptual rather than an historical account of Creation. There...
Published: June 24, 2014
 The Mysterious Red Cow  .: Viewed: 1834 times :.
The laws concerning the Red Heifer are considered the most strange and mysterious of all 613 Mitzvot. How can the same ashes of the Red Heifer purify one and defile the other simultaneously? The Midrash explains with the following parable that the Red Heifer is a Tikun for the sin of the Golden Calf. "A maidservant in the king's palace on the day that she could not find a babysitter brought...
Published: June 20, 2014
 A Tikkun for the Spies Syndrome  .: Viewed: 2864 times :.
What was the sin of the Spies?  It cannot be that the sin was the very fact that they were sent.  On the contrary,  we find the use of spies against the enemy camp in many places.  For example, it says, “Moshe sent out men to spy on Ya’azer” (Bamidbar 21:32).  Likewise, Yehoshua sent out two spies to see the Land and Jericho.  Regarding Gideon we...
Published: June 13, 2014
 The Pope and King David's Tomb  .: Viewed: 2029 times :.
Why did the Pope come to King David's Tomb on Mount Zion? MK Nissim Zeev of Shas stated that Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef told him that the Prime Minister's Bureau asked him for Halachic permission for Israel to hand over the Tomb of King David to the Vatican. The Chief Rabbi told the Prime Minister's Bureau that it is of course strictly prohibited to transfer King David's Tomb to the...
Published: June 13, 2014
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