Halakhic Methodology- Rabbi Haim Ovadia

R Messas cracks down on an abusive husband in one ruling, and warns those who try to be strict in another. The two seemingly disparate rulings are interconnected with the themes of sensitivity and responsibility.

In the second part we discuss briefly the different opinions and present the conclusion of Rabbi Yosef Messas that if needed, umbrella can be used on Shabbat without any restrictions.

Why do people think that it is forbidden to use an umbrella on Shabbat? Why were the rabbis OK with watches? Historical and social reasons are explored here.

Rabbi Yosef Messas of Meknes was undoubtedly one of the greatest scholars in modern times, yet for political reasons his Torah was marginalized and almost forgotten. Today, thank God, there is a reawakening and an interest in his teachings and those of the great Sephardic rabbis. This is an introduction to his life and work.

A response to a post by a secretly off-the-Derekh woman. Discussing discrimination against women and the weapon used by those women who do not want to be vocal feminist. This weapon, holding off the mikveh, was invented by Talmudic era women, and a similar version emerged in Christian Europe in medieval times. The author of the post is right in her complaints, she indeed is one of many secret dissenters, and the rabbis should start listening to people's real problems.

An alternative reading of chapter 4 in berachot suggest five different opinions regarding the obligation of prayer. Two of them seem to reject completely the idea of uniform prayer.

How do we catalogue the works of Shabbat. The struggle to distinguish categories and sub categories.

We discuss here the transition from the ancient Halacha to the uniform Halacha of the Mishnah. In the ancient one, each work was dealt with separately, whereas the modernizing rabbis of the Mishnah created categories to file different actions under one rubric.

How did the rabbis arrive at the number 39 for Shabbat prohibitions? The many answers raise the question whether any of them is correct. We also discuss the order of the chapters in tractate Shabbat and the extreme approach of sectarian Judaism.

The 39 Shabbat prohibitions are broken into sets of 11,13,9, and 5 which are associated with established processes, not necessarily related to Shabbat. The last one is particularly of Shabbat.