Recently, about half of the incoming emails have all been asking the same thing – who I am? So I guess it’s about time to put up an “About Us” page.

I was always hesitant because I am not a rabbi (yet, but I hope to be one day) and I don’t want the site to seem any less credible because I lack the proper certification. Despite, my under qualified status – I try very hard to make sure the halachot are accurate.

I primarily use the fantastic sefer, "V’Zot Haberacha" and additionally Rav Bodner’s Sefer "Halachos of Brochos" for the halacha section. For the most part the halachos are all universally accepted and rather straightforward. Occasionally, I run into some controversial areas and then I try to ask my rebbeim for the mainstream psak. In such scenarios, I usually write the ikur Ha’din halacha and then include the chumra separately.

Ok – so about us. My older brother first started the website 8 years ago. Back then there was barely anything on the web at the time, especially Jewish halacha websites. I don't know if anyone here used to be big computer buffs, but I'm talking about way before Google dominated the internet, before yahoo, I'm talking about the age of lycos. In terms of Jewish websites, there was practically nothing - even ou.org (which might be today's biggest) contained nothing more than their phone number.

So, my older brother started the website with the goal of spreading vital halacha for anyone and everyone, available all the time, and for free. At the time he was in Yeshiva University (in New York). Over the years I have become more and more involved with the site, and my brother less and less as he was in Medical school. Until most recently, when he started residency, I have fully taken over. I currently attend Yeshiva University and I enjoy working on the site as a hobby. I really enjoy all the creative questions out there. I was also into computers, technology, the internet, and site building and now I am finally able to put it all towards a useful resource.

(Actually, my brother has a new site he is working on and it is a great idea, hopefully it will take off some day - http://primospot.com. Some other ideas are a halachapedia site which if it was popular enough could be as powerful as wikipedia just for halachic topics. Imagine, It could potentially be the next big halachic work breakthrough, the Shulchan Aruch of our age. It could contain every little detail, the capacity to constantly grow, everyone able to contribute, tons of sources and accuracy from 100,000's of peer reviews. Lastly, I also wanted to create a review forum for sheitals because from what my sister n'law tells me people are unfortunately getting taken advantage of and being ripped off left and right. Anyway, we'll see what comes of these ideas.)

About two months ago, I received a generous donation from one of our supporters to really improve the site. If you take a look at our old site, (http://brochot.tripod.com) you can really see the difference. First off, we finally have a real domain name, and no annoying pop up ads. we also redesigned the halacha section and added questions and answers. Finally, I added a search feature which should make site navigation easier.
   
Thanks for using the site, and please keep the questions and comments coming!

 

Back to top

Questions or comments?
send me an email