Question: How do I celebrate the in-between days of Passover? — Rachel M. The four middle days of Passover — known in Hebrew a hol hamoed — are a period in which some of the restrictions observed on the first and last days of the holiday (known as yom tov) are relaxed, but the days are still meant to have a festive holiday feel.  Among the main differences between hol hamoed and yom tov of Passover is that it’s permitted to do work. In general, you are not supposed to work on hol hamoed unless you enjoy it, it is for the holiday or if not doing so would make you incur loss. So many people ..read more

Passover kashrut laws are always challenging, and the biggest challenge has to be finding a good kosher-for-Passover cake. If you need the cake to be pareve (dairy free), that’s even harder. So when a festive and good-looking Passover cake, made of layers of chocolate cake and whipped cream, first appeared in a national newspaper in Israel in the 80s, it was immediately adopted by many home cooks, my mother included. The cake was a revelation! At the bottom rests a rich chocolate layer made of whipped eggs and melted chocolate. When cooled down, the cake is topped with simple whipped cream lig ..read more

As we’ve seen in recent pages, the Torah demands that people act ethically when buying and selling in the marketplace. Specifically, the rabbis define an ethical transaction as one in which the agreed-upon price is no more or less than one-sixth the value of the item. Today, we learn about some exceptions to this rule. Here’s the mishnah: These are matters that are not subject to (the halakhot of) exploitation. Slaves, and documents, and land and consecrated property. Why these four categories? The Gemara, drawing from a beraita, explains: It is written: “And if you se ..read more

On today’s daf, the Gemara continues its examination of the laws of second tithe, the sacred portion of one’s produce that had to be brought to Jerusalem and consumed there. While one method is to bring the produce itself, depending on how close one lived to Jerusalem, it might not be feasible to get the produce to the city before it rotted, or the burden might be unmanageable. So the Torah provides a solution: One can desacralize the produce, transferring its second-tithe status on to coins, which are then brought to Jerusalem where new produce is bought with this money and consumed. The ..read more

The Torah prescribes a complex system of tithing that was clarified by the rabbis. Maaser sheni, the second tithe, was taken from produce grown in the land of Israel during the first, second, fourth and fifth years of the seven-year agricultural cycle. When the tithe was operative, it was brought to Jerusalem and eaten there. If the distance from your home was too great to transport the tithe, you could sell the tithed produce for cash, bring the money to Jerusalem, purchase new food, and consume it there. Opting for this convenience obligated you to add a fifth to the value of ..read more

This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Metzorah, is primarily concerned with a peculiar biblical affliction called tzaraat (tzah-RAH-at). Commonly mistranslated as leprosy — the Greek translation of the Hebrew, lepra, sounds a bit like the word leprosy — tzaraat is frequently characterized by white patches of skin, something modern scholars have suggested is similar to vitiligo. This week’s portion is primarily concerned with how to recognize tzaraat, prevent its spread and purify someone afflicted with it.  We might wonder why so much of the Torah’s attention is devoted to this subject. Aft ..read more

Ancient coins didn’t just hold “symbolic” value like today’s paper money — the metal in them had inherent value. This meant that as coins were circulated and worn out and slowly dropped weight, they could erode in value. Today’s daf deals with the question of when a coin becomes deficient enough to be considered fraudulent. The mishnah presents us with three opinions: Rabbi Meir holds that a coin can lose up to 1/24th of its physical weight and still be considered to have its full value, while Rabbi Yehudah holds it can be damaged up to 1/12th and Rabbi Shimon holds even up to 1/6th ..read more

As we know, the Talmud developed over hundreds of years and the editorial efforts of the three major eras of rabbis each shaped the text in their own unique ways. The earliest generations of rabbis, called the Tannaim, composed in Hebrew and gave us the Mishnah as well as all the independent traditions called beraitas that the Gemara frequently quotes. The next generations, called the Amoraim, composed in both Hebrew and Aramaic and their statements comprise the named sources in the Gemara. The latest rabbis are not named. They are the Gemara’s anonymous voice, representing ..read more

Yesterday’s daf introduced us to the concept of ona’ah, exploitation. Ever bought a bottle of water at an amusement park you thought was priced way too high? The rabbis hold that there is only so much mark-up that is permissible on items for sale. Yesterday’s mishnah offered us a set of principles that define financial exploitation and its remedy:  The measure of exploitation: Four silver ma’a from the 24 silver ma’a in a sela, or one-sixth of the transaction. Until when is it permitted to return the item? Until a period that would allow him to show it to a m ..read more

Matzah brei is tasty it’s classic, it’s versatile, and we love it for all those reasons. But it can also be stodgy, same-y and yet another matzah-based meal that our sore stomachs don’t want. This year, bring the spirit of Passover freedom to your breakfast table, and introduce some variety, freshness and novelty to the most important meal of the day. Here are eight Passover breakfast ideas better than matzah brei from The Nosher — to fill each morning with promise. But before we dive in, if you’re struggling to break up with ‘brei, try this cacio e pepe twist for a savory, modern matzah brei ..read more