Welcome back and topic shift

No, I have not stopped blogging - merely paused due to the overwhelming preparations necessary for Pesach.

As the next month is filled with more recently instituted observances and holidays on the calendar, I am going to try to find teshuvot that are appropriate to those days. With Yom HaShoah next week, the next few days will contain summaries of teshuvot from She'elot U'Teshuvot MiMa'amakim, the collection of responsa written in the Kovno ghetto by Rabbi Ephraim Oshry (for more on Rabbi Oshry, click here). In his introduction to this collection, Rabbi Oshry himself notes that the responsa are valuable not only for their Torah value but also for shedding some light on the lives that the Jews lived in the ghetto. Indeed, the cases and questions are generally striking and sometimes painful to read.

Fortunately, many happy days come after Yom HaShoah, and I plan to change the tone of the teshuvot covered accordingly.