Ask The Rabbi
Halachic questions answered by Hagaon Rav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
5,912 questions and answers
# 1349 News To Me
The... Star newspaper has started randomly delivering their Saturday paper to several houses in the Clanton Park area. We never asked for it, it just started showing up. Although I plan to likely canc...
# 1348 Hair Today Hair Tomorrow
1. There are those that have "male pattern baldness," that choose to get rid of all the hair on their head in order to look cleaner/better. Since there is a prohibition in cutting the payos areas dow...
# 1347 On E-Autopilot
E-commerce & electronic transactions on Yom Tov (when unlike Shabbos the markets & banks are open): Although there’s already different contemporary Poskim ruled on the above, I’d very much ...
# 1346 A Delicate Condition
If one is offered something that is cholov stam, and he is not interested in explaining that he cannot eat it, or getting into an argument with someone who relies on Rav Moshe’s so-called heter*,...
# 1345 Shiva Shevuei Torah?
According to Rebi’s opinion on gemorah Shabbos, we have seven Seforim on the Torah, divided in this parsha, and the Halacha seems to follow him. Why is it then that we always mention five Chumshei Tor...
# 1344 A Walk In The Park
Can I carry items in a park inside a city that has an eiruv on Shabbos? Does it make a difference how big the park is? If it is surrounded by a fence and has gates? If it has benches, many trees or wa...
# 1343 Behind Closed Doors
Re- question 1327 on using a hotel key-card on Shabbos and the challenge this almost universal change now presents to the observant traveler, I heard from Rabbi M. Skobac an easy way out. It is to fas...
# 1342 Brocho To Barter?
My daughter, is about to return from learning in a seminar in Yisroel, and a friend of hers, that resides in Yisroel, and is well connected, asked for clothing, that she and her friends would not need...
# 1341 See The Daylight?
The Torah says: ’Vayehi erev vayehi boker" (mentioning night before day). The Talmud also starts out by discussing the dinim of krias Shema at night. Why, then, does the Shulchan Aruch begin with...
# 1340 Ruth The Moaviah or Ruth The Midyonite?
Why is Ruth called the Moaviah, and the Talmud Yebamos discusses whether she and King David, her offspring were permitted to intermarry with the Jewish nation. Rashi explains at the beginning of Megil...
# 1339 Sleep It Off?
If someone was staying up the learn the whole night of Shavuos, but then realized that he is too tired and went to sleep in his bed for an hour, when he comes back to continue learning, does he have t...
# 1338 Milk Of Kindness
The minhag to eat macholei cholov in Shavuos is very important in my family and I have always kept it. But now I’m in a very strict diet. Can I keep it by just drinking skimmed milk? If not do I hav...
# 1337 Time To Call It A Night?
If one would have a net loss of learning over Shavuos by staying up all night learning because would be too exhausted to learn over the rest of Yom Tov, is it better to go to sleep or should one stick...
# 1336 Bentching Etiquette
A Jewish man is sitting at his desk at work, having just said the words "Baruch ata Hashem Elokeinu Melech Haolam" of bentching. Suddenly, his gentile boss walks in, accompanied by an entourage of dis...
# 1335 The Angle On Angels
In a number of benchers, I’ve seen printed that there’s actually a 5th verse/stanza to Sholom Alechaim. Why is the minhag not to sing/say this verse?...
# 1334 Sitting In Judgment
Can a convert sit shiva and recite kadish for his benevolent and righteous father or mother that did not convert? How about if they were actively keeping another religion?...
# 1333 Holy Tongue!
A person who has a hard time davening in Hebrew (it takes a long time to do so, he is just starting to learn how to daven in Hebrew), may he recite part of the SE (e.g., 1st three and last three brach...
# 1332 Advanced In Year?
I am (reciting) kaddish for a father of a female friend. He was niftar on the first day of Shavuos 5776 before sunset and buried on 8 Sivan. What would be the last day I would say kaddish? Thank you....
# 1331 The Shape Of Things To Come
Can you give a shape on Shabbos to the food you are eating, by cutting it with a knife or by selectively biting and eating from it, such as cutting the challah in a triangle or creating other shapes? ...
# 1330 Count Your Blessings
Shalom Aleichem Harav. When one is waiting for a bagel to finish toasting and wants to eat a danish, does this constitute a bracha she’eina tzricha? assuming it doesn’t since there is significant hu...