Eli Talks Archive | My Jewish Learning

It’s never just about the money. If it were, asking for reduced synagogue dues wouldn’t be so painful and fraught. If it were, the debts we carry would just be a red number on a balance sheet — not a number that keeps us up at all hours of the night...

Can a non-Jew write a valid get, a bill of divorce, for a Jewish couple? The mishnah on yesterday’s daf taught us:
All documents produced in gentile courts, even though they are signed by gentiles, are valid — except for bills of divorce and bills of manumission....

We learn in a mishnah:
Any document that has a Samaritan witness signed is invalid, except for bills of divorce and bills of manumission.
Living alongside the rabbinic community were the Samaritans, a community that followed the Torah but did not accept the rabbinic interpretations of the laws found therein. And while they were neighbors and has some rituals and practices in common, they...

The U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause requires states to honor the “public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” States are not at liberty to pick and choose which acts of another state to respect and which to...