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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Observing Jewish Civil and Criminal Law
Why don’t we observe the civil and criminal laws in the Torah? Jewish civil and criminal law were enforced when there was a Sanhedrin. In its absence, we follow the Talmudic principle “The law of the kingdom is the law”…
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Following a Majority
Doesn’t Ex. 23:2 say that one SHOULDN’T follow a majority? The plain interpretation of Ex.23:2 is that one shoudn’t follow a majority to do evil or to pervert (le-hatos) the law. The Talmud’s explanation of the verse (Sanhedrin 2a) is…
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A Bris Being Done in the Day
Why must a bris be done in the daytime? The Talmud derives this from the extra “vav” in Lev. 12:3 (AND on the eighth day…): Even a bris that is not done on the eighth day must still be done…
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The Messiah in the Torah
Where is the Messiah mentioned in the Torah? Answer: Well, nowhere explicitly. According to some commentators, there are two verses in the Torah which allude to the Messiah (they are the only places where the word “Messiah” occurs in the…
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The Messiah as the Son of David
Must the Messiah be a descendant of David? In what line? Apparently anyone in the male line (son of a son… of David) is eligible; birth order doesn’t necessarily give priority. Until the middle ages, the heads of the Jewish…
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The Messiah as a Religious Leader
Will the Messiah be a religious leader? Will he be a Kohen? According to Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Kings 11:4), the Messiah will be a king from the house of David who studies the Torah, observes the commandments, and inspires the…
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When Will the Messiah Come?
When Will the Messiah Come? There have been many attempts to predict when the Messiah will come, but none of them have so far been successful. However, we expect that the world as we know it will come to an…
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Sheol
What is “Sheol”? The word “sheol” occurs in Gen. 37,42, and 44, in Num. 30 and 33, in Job, and many other places in the Bible. Many of its uses imply that it is an underworld inhabited by (the spirits…
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Mixtures of Meat and Milk
What is the reason for not eating mixtures of meat and milk? The Torah repeats the prohibition of boiling a kid (a baby goat) in its mother’s milk three times. From the repetition we conclude that the prohibition applies to…