The Modern Autopen
The Presidential Autopen The presidential autopen is a clever machine that helps the President manage the huge stack of documents requiring a signature each day.
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Life and Society
Technology and Halacha
Modern technology through the lens of the Gemara: machines, voice devices, self-driving cars and more.
The Halacha Up in the Air
The Air Up water bottle is a reusable drinking bottle designed to make plain water taste flavored through scent-based technology. It uses special “aroma pods” that sit on the mouthpiece and release natural scents as you…
Don’t Make a “Pour” Decision
A kosher bottle of wine was sold with a label that stated in Hebrew “Lo Mevushal” (not cooked). However, in English, it stated “Mevushal” (cooked). How can wine be both mevushal and non-mevushal simultaneously?
A Pair of Glasses, a Spoon, and a Bottle of Beer Walk Into a Halachic Debate
Rebbetzin Leah Auerbach, a”h, once visited a glasses store in Yerushalayim to purchase a new pair of glasses. She was considering photochromic lenses, which darken in sunlight and return to their clear state indoors.
Lying Waze
The Waze app has a crucial safety feature: it prohibits drivers from typing instructions while the vehicle is in motion, allowing only voice commands.
More Crockpot Questions
Last week’s article generated comments from readers, especially since the article ended with a statement that a blech was recommended for the use of a crockpot on Shabbos.
Crockpot Controversies
When Irving Nachumson filed for a patent in 1936, could he have imagined that his invention would be the center of a major halachic controversy sixty years later?
Visiting the Sick
There is a machlokes Rishonim whether the mitzvah of bikur cholim is m’d’oraysa or m’d’rabbanan. It is based on the understanding of a passage in Bava Metzia (30b).
Special Delivery
This article will touch on some issues regarding ordering food items from Amazon that will be delivered on Purim day. Does it qualify as mishloach manos?
Is eBay For-Bid-Den?
If you had asked someone 2,000 years ago what “eBay” means, he would have told you “it’s fruit.” Onkelos uses the word “ebay” many times in his translation of Bereishis. Nowadays, eBay is an Internet success story.
Sparking Debate
A nice Chanukah present might be the FlashTorch. It’s billed as the world’s brightest flashlight, sporting 4,100 lumens of power. Interestingly, it comes with a safety switch.
App-ortioned Learning
A frum businessman was returning home from a busy day at work. The seat next to him on the train was empty. A young man who presumably spent the entire day learning at a yeshiva in Manhattan boarded the train at one of…
Illuminating The Shabbos Blessing
There is a controversy that has been around for some time, and a passage from our daf may ameliorate it somewhat. There is a mitzvah of hadlakas neiros every Friday before the onset of Shabbos.
Machmir Or Make Cool?
What’s black and white and cold all over? A Lakewood bachur in the freezer. It was the first Shabbos after Tu B’Shevat. Someone suggested to a Lakewood bachur that he go on a Shabbos stroll for a first date.
LOL: Lots Of Learning
aftR I finishD learning d Daf Yomi on mon I realized dat OMG I had Nuttin 2 wrte bout. Nuttin jumped out @ me. I wz turniN things Ovr n my hed wen d ideas of acronyms hit me. ppl uz dem whIl txtN.
Gemara stories on Technology and Halacha
Rav Chaim Ozer's Lightbulb Havdalah Ruling
To publicize that turning on a lightbulb on Shabbos is lighting a fire, Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski ruled that an incandescent bulb may be used for Havdalah.