Hello, I am a jewish man and I am planning to have laser hair removal on my back and was wondering if it is kosher to do so. I am not very observant, and would not normally look to Judaism in matters of aesthetics (I don't have payos and have long hair, both of which are transgressions as I understand). But it came to my attention that there are some serious consequences for some things, such as not being buried in a Jewish cemetary if you have a tattoo (I have none), so I just wanted to get the opinion of a rabbi before having the hair removal procedure. From what I learned about it, laser hair removal basically involves burning away the hair follicle at specific laser frequencies that are tuned so as not to burn the surrounding skin. Perhaps you can dig up more complete information, however, for halachic purposes. I greatly appreciate your help and look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Danny

I am going to be giving a class for one and half hours a week in a senior center. I am going to be teaching Jewish Philosophy/Machashava. I want to give a basic overview of Jewish Philosophy and deal with some key Concepts such as free choice and stuff like that how would you recommend I go about doing it. Is there an English book or not so hard Sefer I can use as my base. Thanks

I just bought a pair of tzitzit. I usually buy the V-neck ones, but yesterday I mistakenly walked out with a round neck. Can I do the surgery myself, and cut the front of the beged to form a V-neck? And how deep a cut would be too deep? Thanks, Rabbi.....

I understand that the minhag is not to work on Tisha b' Av until chatzot. I have a lot of paper work to deal with and telephone calls to make overseas which I would normally deal with from home. This is not something which I enjoy particularly. I just need to do it and whilst I could put it off to another time without losing money this puts me under pressure. This is even more so since I need to go to England on Friday. I am not buying and selling over the telephone. The work is in the nature of administrative work. The Shulchan Aruch seems to me to refer to work carried out in public and not office work since at the time when the Shulchan Aruch was written down, there were no offices in peoples homes and there were no emails or telephones. Would I be transgressing the minhag if I did office work from home on the night of Tisha b' Av and in the morning so as to not put myself under pressure? Shimshon Krell

Dear Rabbi, I am uncomfortable emailing this question, since I wish all the Arabs would stop fighting with Israel or die, yet, because this is weighing on my mind, I have to ask it anyway. This is a three part question. First part, we have a concept of Milchemes Mitzva, A holy war, and when that is done, I believe that killing civilians is permissible. The Arabs believe that they are fighting a Milchemes Mitzva, so according to their logic, why shouldn't they be able to target civilians? Is it not a double standard to call them evil, when in our history, we have killed civilians, as stated in the Torah? Second part, if they are doing it lesham shamayim, soling for the sake of G-d, when suicide bombers die, will they be punished or rewarded for their noble intentions? Third part, is there anyway to prove to the Arabs, that what they are doing is not G-ds will, since their sole aim appears to be to do G-ds will? Thank you for your help clarifying this, Cobi