Menachot Archives | Rosh Yeshiva Responds

26 04, 2026

Counting the Omer Early

April 26th, 2026|Moadim, Orach Chayim, Sefirah, Tefillah|

QUESTION

Do you have any guidance on counting sefirat ha’omer at shul on erev Shabbat or erev yom tov when we daven early?

ANSWER

It depends on how early you are planning to count.

If you will be counting after shekiyah, then I think that, given how easy and common it is for people to forget and miss counting, one should definitely count with a berakhah, and say: “If you remember, please count again after X:XX.” This is not to suggest that there is any problem if they do not count again.

This is

19 04, 2026

When the Rabbi Forgets to Count the Omer

April 19th, 2026|Orach Chayim, Pesach, Sefirah, Tefillah|

QUESTION

If a rabbi forgets to count Sefirat HaOmer for an entire day, may he continue counting with a berakhah?

ANSWER

This question arises more often than one might expect. At times, even rabbis forget and miss a day. The standard halakhah is that one who misses a full day of counting the Omer continues counting without a berakhah (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 489:8;

26 11, 2020

Mezuzah for Bedrooms off Hall

November 26th, 2020|Mezuzah, Yoreh De'ah|

QUESTION

Chicago, IL

Does this (see picture) require a mezuzah? I assume the doors off the hallway are bedrooms. Not sure the entrance to the hallway is itself a doorway or not.

ANSWER

There are two requirements to be obligated in a mezuzah: two doorposts AND a lintel (horizontal beam on the top of the doorway for the door, if it exists, to close on) (Rambam, hilkhot

4 01, 2018

May a Woman Be a Mohelet?

January 4th, 2018|Milah, Women, Yoreh De'ah|

May a woman be a mohelet?

Although women are not circumcised, they are members of the covenant that the Jewish people, have with God:

“You stand this day all of you before the Lord your God.. all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in your camp… that you enter into covenant with the Lord your God…” (Deut. 29:10-12).

Men, women, children; Jews by birth and Jews by choice, are all part of the brit. In other words, we must distinguish between the brit and the milah. Women do not have a milah; they are most definitely part of the

Tzniut, Halakha, and the Male Gaze

15 08, 2016

Tzniut, Halakha, and the Male Gaze

August 15th, 2016|Tzeniut, Women|

This essay was written in the context of this op ed in the New York Times. This accompanying source sheet provides a closer look at the sources.

Tova Hartman, in her chapter “Modesty and the Religious Male Gaze,” in Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism, discusses the topic of the male gaze, and how the culture around tzniut reinforces this – accepts it as a given – and the status of women as sex objects. The only difference between this approach and that of Western culture is whether the response

3 06, 2011

Using Ma’aser Money for Other Mitzvah Obligations

June 3rd, 2011|Tzedakah & Social Justice|

Can I use my ma’aser kesafim, tithes from my income, towards pre-existing mitzvah or tzedakah obligations, such as my synagogue dues, my children’s day school tuition, or pledges to charity that I have already made? A mishna from Menachot touches on an answer to this question.

In the mishna in Menachot 81a, we learn that a korban todah cannot be purchased from ma’aser sheni money. This is based on the principle stated in the following mishna (Menachot 82) that כל דבר שבחובה אין

Mesechet Menachot: The Taxonomy of the Gemara’s Grains

20 05, 2011

Mesechet Menachot: The Taxonomy of the Gemara’s Grains

May 20th, 2011|Kashrut, Science and Medical Ethics|

The Mishna of Menachot 70a lists the five species of grain. These species are of central importance in many halakhot. Only bread made from these species of grains is considered bread, and gets the brakha of hamotzi. Only matzah made from these grains is considered matzah, and can be used on the seder night. One only takes challah from bread made from these grains and no others. And it is only these grains which are forbidden prior to the bringing of the omer.

As the Gemara (70b)

Rabbeinu Tam’s Two Sunsets: When is it Nighttime?

1 04, 2011

Rabbeinu Tam’s Two Sunsets: When is it Nighttime?

April 1st, 2011|Science and Medical Ethics|

One of the key Tosafots in Shas (Menachot 20b, s.v., ini) discusses the position of Rabbeinu Tam that there are two sunsets – the visible one, and then one occurring almost an hour later, when the sun – according to Rabbinic cosmology – exists the tunnel of the opaque dome of the rakiya, sky or firmament, and begins to travel above the rakiya from West to East so it can rise again the next morning. This informs his position that the end of the day, tzeit hakokhavim, halakhically does not occur until 72

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