LifeCycle Events
-
Sending Flowers to a Mourner
Why don't Jews send flowers to funerals? They don't last, and sending them is a Christian custom.
-
Dates when Weddings are Prohibited
Please let me know what dates you cannot marry. Can you marry on Shabbat Shuvah? A wedding is considered one of the happiest and meaningful occasions in Jewish Life. For this reason, Jewish custom restricts the dates when a wedding…
-
"Spreading a sheet" to prove virginity?
I was told that according to Jewish custom, when a man married a woman (contracturally) after the consummation of the marriage, the father of the bride was given a blanket soiled with the blood from the brides broken hymen which…
-
A Woman Divorcing a Man
Can a wife divorce her husband? The Torah says explicitly (Deut.24:1) that it’s the husband who divorces the wife, not the other way around. However, a woman who wants a divorce can ask a Rabbinical court to compel her husband…
-
Divorcing a Woman Against her Will
Can a husband divorce his wife against her will? Originally a man could divorce his wife for any reason, but for the past thousand years it has been forbidden to divorce a woman against her will.
-
Literacy
In Biblical times, could ordinary Jews read and write? There’s not much detail in the sources about instruction in reading and writing in Biblical times. It’s possible that in the average home, instruction was oral. But an interesting piece of…
-
Haircuts
What is the Jewish view about haircuts? Nazirites of either sex are forbidden to cut their hair (Num.Ch.6); this implies that cutting the hair was the normal practice. The Kohanim were forbidden to either grow their hair very long or…
-
Adultery
The Torah requires a test for a wife who is suspected of unfaithfulness (Sotah; Num. 5:12-31). Is something similar required for an unfaithful husband? When the Sotah ceremony was performed for a suspected woman, her drinking the “bitter water” was…
-
Shaving
Is shaving with an electric shaver forbidden? In an electric shaver, the hairs of the beard go through narrow openings. The small blades rotate (or oscillate) in back of those openings. Hairs are cut off because they are caught between…