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Mihael Malyshev (St. Petersburg)
Orthodox-oriented sites
In today's excursion we will speak about religious sites - basically Orthodox-oriented. I am going to tell you about two very large and interesting sites.
First goes the site of a well-known religious organization Ohr-Torah:
This site is led by rabbi Shlomo Riskin.
It should be said that this site contains many relatively useless materials: the virtual version of their journal (it seems that it is published quarterly and is basically dedicated to programs and news of this international organization in different countries), information from the life of graduates of different Ohr-Torah programs (everything, that starts with the word "alumni"), etc. However, there also is a lot of interesting things.
Thus, on this site one can find commentaries to the week portions of the Torah: if you want to read the commentaries to the current week portion, enter on
if you'd like to read the commentary to any other portion, select the portion you're interested in on
The commentaries, to my mind, are rather interesting and deep.
There is also a lot of other very interesting information. For example, I have found many materials connected with the recent Pesach. Here goes what I recommend very much:
There are 4 texts on this page: about the problem of chosenness of the Jewish people; about women in Egypt; about the problem of quantity of chunks of matzos on the Pesach dish (2 or 3).
On the site also there are a lot of links to other religious sites – we are going to look through them in the course of the next excursion.
Now let's talk about the site of another organization, which is at least not less well-known, but this time an American one called «The Orthodox Union». It really is a union of orthodox Jewish communities of the USA, whose heksher stands on many American kosher products.
On this site there is close to everything an orthodox Jew of the USA may need: information on kosher restaurants, kosher foodstuffs, Jewish calendar, events of Jewish life in the USA, commentaries to the chapters of Torah - for the beginners and for advanced students, detailed information about different Halachot and many other things.
For example, on the page
it is possible to receive advice by a rabbi about Halachic difficulties, including those connected with the peculiarities of this Pesach, which began in erev Shabbat, and about the ways of overcoming these difficulties.
Some really indispensable information on holidays can be found on
The list of all holidays is given here, including new moon, and of all Jewish months. Having clicked on a holiday you're interested in, it is possible to receive rather detailed information about the history of this holiday, its meaning, and about the Halachot bound with it, about the texts to be read on this holiday. For example, on the page dedicated to Pesach
there is a sub-page, dedicated to the Song of Songs
If you are interested, say, in the month of Iyar, go to
and read about the place of this month in the Jewish calendar and its symbolical meaning. The laws of Shabbath with detailed analysis and Halachic commentary can be found on
As for the time of candle lightening in any place on the globe, it can be found on
There is a lot of information about kashruth:
both theoretical and practical, for example about novelties of the market of kosher products in the USA and about wrongly put hekshers. It is possible to ask a question or impart a problem to a rabbi, and there even is a possibility to select the rabbi you're addressing to:
It is even possible to ask a question to the members of the Beit-Din of the USA.
One can also get information about synagogues in different countries, though unfortunately the former USSR and countries of the Eastern Europe are not included (but there is Ecuador, Venezuela, etc.) -
It is also possible, for example, to learn your, as they have called it, "coefficient of the Jewish intellect": on
Select the desirable test - on one of the holidays, including Shabbath, on kashruth, etc. - and respond in the on-line mode. Your scores are calculated and so you get your “Jewish IQ”.
It is also possible to deepen your knowledge. The site offers different options for Torah studying. For example, to receive the commentaries to the week portion it is possible on
(it will be necessary to select the week), to the current week on
or on
And, what is interesting, it is possible to select the teacher.
On the same page, on the sub-page
there is an article about the Arab-Israeli conflict from the point of view of Orthodox Judaism.
And
contains links to sub-pages on different aspects of the Jewish faith. It is possible to find, for example, texts of prayers - in Hebrew and English, for example
materials on «why the Jews do not believe in Christ» and «who is Mashiah», materials on all moments and stages in the life cycle of an orthodox Jew, description of thirteen principles of faith according to Rambam, and many other things.
On the page
it is possible to receive not only the list of mitzvoth, but also a commentary to the majority of them.
The page
contains, among other things, a glossary of Judaic terms on
It is possible also to learn what events of the Jewish history happened on any day according to the Gregorian and Jewish calendars
Of course, in all the mentioned texts one can find links to other pages of this site, as well as to other sites.
As you can easily understand, I couldn't list everything one can find on this site. My advice is to include it in “Favorites", as it is, to my mind, the most interesting site I have come across so far.
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