Question: Is it permissible to urinate or defecate on grass or dirt during Shabbos? Answer:It is permitted to urinate on grass (O.C. 336:3). It is also permitted to defecate on grass or dirt in a city. In either case there is no concern that human waste is helping the plants grow (see last Biur Halocho…
Question: Is there any real difference between a very short beard and a clean shave (with a permitted razor)? Is the "tzura of Jew" supposed to be a bushy beard, or does a very short one count, too? How important is it to have a beard, bushy or not? Answer: It is not necessary to…
Question: Is it forbidden to look into someone else's garden just as it is forbidden to look into someone's house? Answer: It is forbidden to look into another Jew’s yard and watch the people there (Ramo, C.M. 154:3, 154:7). If your Jewish neighbor will minimize his activities as a result, it is as if you…
Question: If I turn on a hot water tap on Shabbos by accident, am I allowed to switch it off? Answer: If you accidentally opened a hot water faucet on Shabbos and let cold water enter a tank that heats water, it is forbidden to close the faucet. If you let the water continue running,…
Question: Answer: מקור חסרון קנין דברים למדנו מריש ב''ב על הא דמוקמינן מתניתין בשותפין שרצו לעשות מחיצה בחצר שאין בה דין חלוקה הקשה הגמרא (ג.) כי רצו מאי הוי נהדרו בהו, א''ר אסי א''ר יוחנן שקנו מידן, וכי קנו מידן מאי הוי קנין דברים בעלמא הוא, כשקנו מידן ברוחות ופירש''י דאין חליפין קונין אלא דבר…
Question: Answer: סיכום של השיטות העיקריות בסוגית אסמכתא: כל דאי הוה אסמכתא ולא קנה שאין גמירות דעת סומכת שיהיה או לא יהיה, ואפילו אמר בפני עדים ובשטר לא מהני (רמב''ם פי''א ממכירה ה''ו), וכ''ש בקנסות שקונס את עצמו. הרמב''ם כתב דכשהקנין נגמר ומחזיק בחפץ ומתנה תנאי שאם לא יתקיים יתבטל העסק, אי''ז אסמכתא אלא…
Question: I have read that one is not supposed to wear tefillin during Mussaf on Rosh Chodesh. How important is this? 1. Once I forgot to take them off and only realized in the middle of Shemoneh Esrei. Should I have stopped in the middle, removed them, and continued, or left them on? 2. Another…
Question: My father passed away and he was not buried the day he died. How should we calculate the sheloshim? Our family wishes to gather friends and relatives for an azkoroh at the end of the sheloshim. When should we do this if the sheloshim ends on Shabbos? When can I bathe or cut hair?…
Question: The Shabbos after I (Reuven) picked up my tallis from the dry cleaner I wore it in shul and realized that it wasn't mine. Can I continue using it? I (Reuven) took an umbrella from the coatroom at work, thinking it was mine, and realized two weeks later that it was somebody else's. What…
Question: Am I allowed to paint a moon with facial features and five pointed stars? Answer: The Torah prohibits making an image, whether two- or three-dimensional, of the sun, moon, stars and twelve constellations used in astrology. Chazal understand this to be alluded to in the verse lo saaasun iti (Shemos 20:20).[1] Nevertheless, it is…