Rabbi Azriel Schreiber
855 answers
Whenever possible, JewishAnswers.org tries to include the name of the author on every post. However, at certain times, we make significant changes to the answers posted. In that case, we will often sign the post with our generic “pen name” – Rabbi Azriel Schreiber. This “pen name” may also be used when a writer declines to have his name published.
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Testimony about the Torah
Is the Torah mentioned in ancient sources? Aside from references to the Torah in other Biblical books, the earliest written sources that mention it date from about 2-300 B.C.E., over 1000 years after Moses. But the Jews have an unbroken…
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Midrash
What is Midrash? Midrash is a process that associates ideas with Biblical verses. The ideas need only be suggested by the verses; they needn't be their literal meanings.
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The Text of the Bible
Has the text of the Bible been preserved exactly? In many places, the Talmud, the Midrash and the Rishonim appear to have had different spellings or punctuations of words in the Tanach than we do. For a long list see…
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Fallen Angels and Satan
Who were the fallen angels? Was Satan one of them? In the Jewish tradition, Satan isn’t a “fallen” angel; he’s an angel whose occupation is tempting men to sin, as illustrated in Ch.1 of Job. “Satan” means something like “adversary”;…
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Unicorns
Does the Torah mention the unicorn? The Torah doesn't mention an animal with one horn, but the Talmud does mention it, and there are even Midrashim that associate it with Adam.
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Kneeling
Do Jews ever kneel? Answer: In the Temple, Jews knelt and prostrated themselves when praying, and they still do it in synagogues on Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur. But since kneeling is quite rare for Jews, they often think of…
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The Maftir
What is the Maftir? After finishing the Parashah on Shabbos or Yom Yov, we reread the last few verses. The person who is called to the Torah for this rereading then reads the Haftarah (a portion from the Prophets). The…
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Reading the Torah in Three Years
Was there a custom to read the Torah once every three years? The Talmud (Megillah 29b) says that in the Land of Israel it was customary to read through the Torah every three years. There are traditional subdivisions of the…
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Praying Outside a Synagogue
Can a person pray outside a synagogue? There is a statement in the Talmud that a person's prayer is heard "only" in a synagogue, but this is not intended literally; it means only that prayer in a synagogue is especially…