Eli J. Mansour (born 1968) is a rabbi [1] at Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in Brooklyn.
Mansour studied at Mercaz HaTorah in Israel, and after returning to the US at Yeshiva Ateret Torah in Brooklyn, and then Bet Midrash Gavoha in Lakewood [2] and at Keter Tzion Kollel under Rabbi Max Maslaton, receiving ordination (Smichah) in 1998. [3]
His lectures are carried on a phone-based service [8] and are featured on seven websites. [9]
Halakha, also transliterated as halacha, halakhah, and halocho, is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandments (mitzvot), subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws, and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the Shulchan Aruch. Halakha is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation might be "the way to behave" or "the way of walking". The word is derived from the root which means "to behave". Halakha not only guides religious practices and beliefs; it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life.
A siddur is a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers. The word siddur comes from the Hebrew root ס־ד־ר, meaning 'order.'
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writings. It aligns with the Hebrew term Sifrut Chazal, which translates to “literature [of our] sages” and generally pertains only to the sages (Chazal) from the Talmudic period. This more specific sense of "Rabbinic literature"—referring to the Talmud, Midrashim, and related writings, but hardly ever to later texts—is how the term is generally intended when used in contemporary academic writing. The terms mefareshim and parshanim almost always refer to later, post-Talmudic writers of rabbinic glosses on Biblical and Talmudic texts.
Kitniyot is a Hebrew word meaning legumes. During the Passover holiday, however, the word kitniyot takes on a broader meaning to include grains and seeds such as rice, corn, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds, in addition to legumes such as beans, peas, and lentils.
ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Rahway, New Jersey. Rabbi Nosson Scherman is the general editor.
Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach (נוסח), refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers.
Berel Wein is an American-born Orthodox rabbi, lecturer and writer. He authored several books, in both Hebrew and English, concerning Jewish history and popularized the subject through more than 1,000 audio tapes, newspaper articles and international lectures. Throughout his career, he has retained personal and ideological ties to both Modern Orthodox and Haredi Judaism.
Rabbi Yissocher Frand is an American Orthodox rabbi and author. He is a senior lecturer at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, MD. Raised in Seattle, Washington, he attended Ner Yisrael as a student and progressed to become a maggid shiur (lecturer). He is well known within the Orthodox Jewish community as a skilled orator, and has given thousands of invited lectures over the past decades.
Syrian Jews are Jews who live in the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times, and sometimes classified as Mizrahi Jews ; and from the Sephardi Jews who fled to Syria after the Alhambra Decree forced the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
Moshe Feinstein was a Russian-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, scholar, and posek. He has been called the most famous Orthodox Jewish legal authority of the twentieth century and his rulings are often referenced in contemporary rabbinic literature. Feinstein served as president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, Chairman of the Council of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the Agudath Israel of America, and head of Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem in New York.
Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin, author of the responsa Benei Banim, was a Religious Zionist and Modern Orthdox posek.
Dovid Feinstein was an American rabbi and halachic authority. He served as the rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem yeshiva elementary and high school and kollel, inheriting the position after the passing of his father Rabbi Moshe Feinstein in 1986. He also wrote a number of books on such topics as halacha, Torah and the Jewish calendar, as well as some very popular Passover Haggadahs.
Howard (Chaim) Jachter is an American Orthodox rabbi, Dayan, educator, and author. He sits on the Beth Din of Elizabeth, New Jersey as a Dayan and Get administrator. Noted as an expert on the laws of Jewish divorce, he also chairs the Agunah Prevention and Resolution Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Jachter is also the consulting rabbi for over 60 Eruvs across the United States. He serves as the Rabbi of Sha'arei Orah, the Sephardic Congregation of Teaneck, and is a faculty member at the Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC). Author of sixteen books and over one thousand online and journal articles, he writes and lectures extensively on contemporary topics in Jewish law and thought. He has five children.
Nishmat is a Jewish prayer that is recited during Pesukei D'Zimrah between the Song of the Sea and Yishtabach on Shabbat and Yom Tov. It is also recited during the Passover seder.
Pesukei dezimra, or zemirot as they are called in the Spanish and Portuguese tradition, are a group of prayers that may be recited during Shacharit. They consist of various blessings, psalms, and sequences of other Biblical verses. Historically, reciting pesukei dezimra in morning prayer was a practice of only the especially pious. Over the course of Jewish history, their recitation has become widespread custom among all of the various rites of Jewish prayer.
On Yom Tov the Torah is read during Shacharit services.
In Jewish law, a posek is a legal scholar who determines the application of halakha, the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are inconclusive, or in those situations where no clear halakhic precedent exists.
Orthodox Jewish philosophy comprises the philosophical and theological teachings of Orthodox Judaism. Though Orthodox Judaism sees itself as the heir of traditional rabbinic Judaism, the present-day movement is thought to have first formed in the late 18th century, mainly in reaction to the Jewish emancipation and the growth of the Haskalah and Reform movements. Orthodox Jewish philosophy concerns itself with interpreting traditional Jewish sources, reconciling the Jewish faith with the changes in the modern world and the movement's relationships with the State of Israel and other Jewish denominations.
The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch is a work of halacha written by Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried which summarizes the Shulchan Aruch, mainly the sections "Orach Chayim" and "Yoreh De'ah", and deals with daily laws, prayers, Shabbat and holiday laws, etc. The work was written in simple Hebrew which made it easy for the layperson to understand and contributed to its popularity.
Community Magazine is a Brooklyn-published monthly magazine whose addressed communities are plural: Brooklyn's large Sephardic population, that of Deal, NJ and also Orthodox Ashkenaz readers. Until 2001 its name was Aram Soba newsletter.