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See, I set before you today life and good, death, and evil. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will have life and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But, if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will...

Why Isn’t G-d’s Name Mentioned in the Megillah?Compare the story of Purim with that of our other holidays. Ever notice how the plot features no open miracles? No seas split, no mass revelation, no dwelling in clouds for forty years, and no overcoming an enemy a hundred times our size using guerrilla warfare. What did happen? A lot of people were in the right place at the right time to provide just the political clout necessary when needed. What a coincidence. Of course, the word “coincidence” is not part of the Jewish lexicon. All these events were deliberately orchestrated...

Csanád Szegedi grew up in a mildly racist milieu in Miskolc, a midsized town in northeastern Hungary. His father was the scion of an old noble family of Magyars, a point of pride for the young Szegedi, who was born in 1982 and came of age in the chaotic years following the fall of the Soviet-influenced Hungarian People’s Republic. Although the city had a large, crumbling synagogue in its center, like most of his peers, Szegedi chose to ignore it. For them, it served as a fading manifestation of the city’s Jews, many of whom had met their deaths in...

Greetings fellow FReepers. G-d forgives the sins committed against Him when we sincerely turn to Him in repentance. However, for sins committed against our fellow man He commands that we seek forgiveness from those we have wronged and to correct our offenses against them. To Jim Robinson, I once again express the deepest thanks for allowing an un-American Theocrat like myself to post here. I have said many times that when I first came to FR (back when it was full of anti-Semites) I was a first class @$$hole. I have attempted to improve my attitude and my behavior since...

How do we relate to a person who has sinned and repented? Jewish Law is very clear on this question. The Mishnah in Bava Metzia (4:10) rules that it is forbidden to remind someone of their past sins after they have done Teshuvah. You may never say to someone, "Hey, I remember when you used to eat pork!" or "Remember how much you used to love golfing on Shabbat?" No matter what their purpose, such statements fall into the category of "Ona'at Devarim - hurting another person with words" (see also Rambam, Hilkhot Teshuvah 7:8). But what about reminding yourself...