Basic Values and Morality
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Sacrificing One Life to Save Many
Is there a precedent in Jewish law for a case where someone is either forced to kill one person in order to save a group of people? A precedent is found in Shulchan Aruch 157:1, in the glosses of Rabbi…
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Smoking Marijuana
Does smoking weed [i.e. marijuana] make me a sinner? One of the commandments in the Torah is that we have a responsibility to keep our body healthy, and maintain our ability to do the right things. Since “weed” damages various…
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Business Values
What does the Torah tell us about honesty in business dealings? Are there any guiding principles for Jews in honest business dealings? The Jerusalem Talmud (Bava Metzia 2:5) states it powerfully (what follows is a free translation): Rabbi Shimon ben…
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Purpose of Planets in Outer Space
What’s the purpose of other planets? Some say that people get a certain kind of “energy” from other planets. I thought that everything came, and will always come, from G-d! Answer: I think that when dealing with the “purpose” of…
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Pro-Choice and Belief in G-d
Recently my granddaughter and wife were talking about the right to abortion and how they were afraid it would be overturned by a more conservative court. My wife yelled, “It’s my body and they have no right to tell me…
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“If I Am Not For Myself…”
The Rabbi quoted the following in his sermon: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” Who said this and what do you…
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Spiritual Basis of Caring for the Elderly
I need a source for the requirement to help the elderly. Can you please help me? There are 2 mitzvos in the Torah that you could use as a source for helping the elderly. Firstly, there is a general mitzvah…
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Free Choice and Religion
If we say that God gives us free choice to choose good and bad, then why did God not give us the choice of being Jewish, much less being religious? Even if God considers it best for us to keep…