In preparation for a lecture I recently gave on halachic perspectives toward the determination of identity and paternity via forensic tissue examination, I reviewed Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg’s famous treatment of several agunah cases resulting from the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center, in which he wholeheartedly endorses the reliance upon D.N.A. […]
Monthly Archives: January 2014
If They Are Not Prophets, They Are the Sons Of Prophets
daughtersintheparsha writes: I’ll Assume They are Ignorant…. though if you are old enough to get married, and old enough to propose, learn some Halachos. Maybe I’m wrong, in which case, I am humbled. … But this newest thing I noticed on onlysimchas, is proposing with ring! Which to begin with really makes sense. But I […]
Of Anno Domini and Ad Hominem
From yesterday’s parshah: הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם, רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים: רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם, לְחָדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָה.1 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Ramban famously ascribes normative force to this verse: וטעם החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים, שימנו אותו ישראל חדש הראשון, וממנו ימנו […]