Rosh Yeshiva Responds
Rabbi Linzer answers halakhic questions from rabbis and community members

5 11, 2023

Reciting Berakhot on Reading Megillat Rut From a Klaf

November 5th, 2023|Chol Hamoed, Moadim, Orach Chayim, Pesach, Purim, Shavuot, Sukkot|

QUESTION

Maryland

We are reading Megillat Rut from a klaf for the first time this year. The Ba’al Koreh told me he would like to say the berakhot of mikrah megillah and shehechiyanu. I thought this was not widely practiced and I was wondering your guidance on the matter.

ANSWER

I am fine making the berakhot when read from a klaf. I think what is not widely practiced is to read it from a klaf. My sense is that the places that do so, do it with a brakha. (See Rema SA OH 390:9,

3 06, 2022

Starting Shavuot Early – Day 1 and Day 2

June 3rd, 2022|Shavuot|

Starting Shavuot Early – Day 1 and Day 2

Rabbi Dov Linzer

Denver, CO.

Question

In previous years, a number of families in my shul have asked me about making Shavuot early so that they can have the seudah at a reasonable time, and so that the small children to participate in the se’udat Yom Tov. The general practice is to not accept Shavuot until Tzeit, and I have told them they cannot do so, but it did create some serious difficulties for them.

This year, this is also relevant to us as a community – at least from the hakhanah perspective. We

5 06, 2019

Accepting the Mitzvot as a Convert: Does it Matter What You’re Really Thinking?

June 5th, 2019|Geirut and Geirim, Marriage and Family, Shavuot|

Rabbi Yitzchak Yehuda Shmelkes (1828-1904) was one of the leading rabbis in the latter part of the 19th century in Eastern Europe. He was the head of the rabbinical court in Lvov (Lemberg) from 1869-1893. His Beit Yiẓḥak (6 vols., 1875–1908), on the four parts of the Shulkḥan Arukh, was widely acclaimed. His opinion on halakhic questions was sought by many prominent contemporary scholars. Rabbi Schmelkes made a number of particularly influential rulings in new areas of Jewish law. Regarding copyrights, he argued that an author’s exclusive right to publish their manuscript derived from the Jewish law of unfair competition and the author’s property right