Reviewed By Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Head of the Baltimore Bais Din

In a previous article (February, 2025), we discussed the halachos of bal talin. Bal talin refers to the mitzva to pay workers on time. We will present a brief summary of the halachos previously discussed and will then discuss some new situations.

Bal talin means that if a worker was hired for the entire day, the worker must be paid that night. Conversely, if the worker was hired to work for the entire night, then the worker must be paid the next day. Let’s use an example of a babysitter hired by parents to watch their children.  If the babysitter watched children throughout the day Sunday until night, the parents must pay her some time Sunday night, before daybreak Monday morning. If she watched them for Sunday night until Monday morning, then she must be paid Monday, before nightfall.

This is also true if the babysitter watched the children for a few hours during the day; she must be paid by the end of the day before nightfall. Conversely, if the babysitter watched the children for a few hours during the night, she must be paid by the end of the night before daybreak.

The mitzva does not just apply to a worker. It also applies to a renter who rents an item to use for a day, such as rental of a car, tables and chairs, or any other utensils. The above parameters of what halacha considers to be a timely payment will also apply.[1]

It should be noted that for a rental of something that is halachically considered karka, part of the ground, there is a question whether the halachos of bal talin apply. For example, someone rents a room in a hotel that is owned by another Jew. There is a question in the poskim as to whether the halachos of bal talin will apply.[2] However, even if the mitzva of bal talin would not apply, there is still an obligation on the renter to pay in a timely fashion. This point will be explained more fully in this article.

It’s very empowering to understand how diet affects your body. So, a few years ago, when I noticed changes happening to myself and family members, I decided to investigate. I really got into the weeds of nutrition and took a deep dive into the topic of insulin resistance.

It is well known that type 2 diabetes is becoming more and more prevalent. Moreover, about 98 million Americans – one in three adults – have prediabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although more than eight in ten don’t know

There are neshamos whose journeys stretch beyond the ordinary boundaries of time, neshamos that shine even as the body weakens, neshamos that rise higher even as the world pulls down.

Goli was such a neshama.

Her name hints to her mission. Goli, from the same root as gimel-lamed-hay – to reveal. As we plead in davening, Galeh kvod malchuscha aleinu, reveal the glory of Your Kingdom upon us. In her quiet, steady way, Goli revealed the hidden greatness and power of a Yiddishe neshama. She showed that true strength lies in spirit, that the glory of Hashem’s Malchus can be seen in a radiant heart anchored in unwavering faith.

Goli’s story cannot be measured by hardship alone. She wouldn’t want it to be. Rather, it’s a story of aliyah, a life where the physical grew smaller and the neshama grew stronger and brighter, filling every corner of her world and every heart that entered it.

Several months ago, our daughter Shani called and suggested we visit my sister Elsie Blum. Shani had learned that my 93-year-old only surviving sibling had gone through a difficult medical situation and was now recovered. Elsie lives in a retirement community in Fort Worth, Texas. Shani made all the arrangements and insisted on covering all the costs. She drove up from her home in Richmond, Virginia, and we flew out of BWI on a Sunday and returned Monday. It was a wonderful opportunity to visit our Fort Worth family and to spend quality time with my sister. Shani got especially close to her family as she attended LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a semester and visited the Blums. Elsie has always been close to us and came to all our family simchas.

Shabbos was over, and I went around the house putting everything away. I folded the tablecloth, put the dining room table pads away, cleaned the Shabbos leichter, and then started the dishwasher. I glanced over at the fridge and couldn’t help but notice the readout lights on the front panel, a glaring reminder that the Shabbos mode was indeed broken. It was fun having a light in my fridge for the short time that the Shabbos mode was working, but what can you do? It was just plain broken. The bells and whistles are officially gone, and it isn’t worth the time or money to bring them back. Broken. Now my fridge will always remain in the dark.  

My thoughts turn to other dark and broken things. Like broken engagements or broken women who would like to remarry. I watch the process of my single women friends who so want to remarry but aren’t finding it to be an easy process. A shadchan calls them with an idea. They go out on a date or talk on Zoom. Oh, how they want it to work out and how they try making different personalities and lifestyles fit together. So often, they are unsuccessful.

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Among the many Baltimoreans who made dramatic changes in their lives when they began to keep the mitzvos are two women who rejected the drama – literally. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Sheina Ettel Menda and Lindsay Feldman, both of whom were immersed in theater and headed for careers in that exciting field.

*  *  *

Sheina Ettel Menda

Last winter, our many women participated in putting on a spectacular performance of Mary Poppins. One of the main actresses and singers was Sheina Ettel Menda, who gave up gave up a career in singing and acting to become a frum Jew.

Sheina Ettel comes from a very musical family. Her father played in a band, and her mother played the piano. Living in an upstate New York town called Schuylerville, she was part of the Child Community Theater and acted and sang in several musicals. She started voice lessons when she was eight and was always singing and acting from a very young age. In fact, she was in 50 musicals from age six to 21 and was the star in half of them.

(Based on a True Story in Zichronos Harav Maza)

 He was my grandfather’s father. His name was R’ Yeshaye ben R’ Moshe. His father, R’ Moshe, had been the av beis din of Bober, in the province of Mogilev, near Kropki. The son, R’Yeshaye, was a very distinguished man, famous for his wealth, his scholarship, and his yiras Shamayim (fear of heaven).

Yes, this R’ Yeshaye was the famous Jew who hefkered his chometz. Yes, he gave it all away because of the Poritz’s meshugas. Of course, all the Poritzim were crazy. It’s not surprising; remember, each Poritz in the Ukraine was an absolute dictator of all the peasants and Jews (there were no others) who lived on his lands; he literally had the power of life and death over his subjects. But this Poritz was particularly crazy, or eccentric, if you prefer that term. He derived particular pleasure from devising new and original ways of embittering the lives of his Jews.

It is as if a massive tsunami had hit the U.S., its shock waves quickly spreading across the world! The reference here is not to the geographic phenomenon but to its political equivalent: “Trump-in-action” or, for lack of a better term, “Trumpism.” The rapid-fire, multi-sphere initiatives, pronouncements, and moves of the initial weeks of his second term, along with their vast scope, have been as unprecedented as they are unconventional. To say “unconventional” is actually an understatement; President Trump has given new meaning to the term.

It could probably be said without too much exaggeration that few, if any – from the proverbial man-in-the-street to the experts to government officials – understand what, and why, the President is doing what he is doing. Confusion reigns. And it is the aggregate of all the still ongoing stream of far-reaching, even radical, moves – not any individual component – that has everyone snowed under and taken by surprise and that has kept the targets of the President’s activities off-balance.

Most people are self-proclaimed frog experts. After all, we all learned about the stages of the frog’s life cycle in elementary school and are aware of the reactions they get when they’re stuck in swimming pools. And that’s all there really is to know, right?

Frogs are possibly the most famous when they are taken apart. Dissecting frogs is a “highlight” of most middle school science classes. Personally examining how perfectly each individual organ fits with the others is truly incredible. Hashem’s wisdom in design is so clear when you remove and identify each essential, internal body part – magnified tremendously when you consider the complexity of the human body.

After successfully dissecting a frog (or getting your lab partner to do it while you keep your eyes shut), it’s time to expand our understanding by putting some pieces together. Firstly, it helps to recognize that frogs come in a wide variety of types and sizes, ranging from a third of an inch to over a foot long! A group of frogs is called an “army,” and some of them are extremely lethal; there is enough poison found in the skin of just one Golden Poison Dart frog to kill 10 people!