Observance

Do you actually have to eat the erev tavshilin?

Eat cheeseburgers, and in the eyes of Orthodox Jews, you are not ‘frum.’ Drive a car on Shabbat and to many, you have forfeited the ‘frum’ label. At the same time, while most frum Jews are perfectly decent people and are law abiding citizens, it is no secret that there are a sizable number of ‘frum’ Jews who embezzle money, cheat customers in business, molest children, or beat their spouses, all as they continue to observe Shabbat and Kashrut and wear a kippah and most of all, maintain the ‘frum’ label. How can that be? Theft, deceitful business practices, sex offenses, and inflicting physical injury on others must certainly be graver sins than eating treif or violating Shabbat.

Whenever I visit my parents, my mother makes lots of food. Some of it I like and some not. My mother expects me to eat even the food I don’t like. I have told her already what my likes and dislikes are, but she still insists that I eat things I dislike. Am I required to eat food for which I have extreme dislike in order to keep the mitzvah of honoring my parents?

What is a man required to do to clean himself following an intentionally caused seminal emission before being allowed to pray or put on tefillin? Please do not answer by saying it is forbidden to do this. I am single and have an unavoidable physiological need to do it almost daily that Hashem created me and almost every other man with. I am not looking to be told it is forbidden. I am not looking to be judged because I do it. The fact is I will continue to do it out of uncontrollable necessity no matter how much I am told it is sinful. What I am asking is what should I do after in order to be considered clean enough to daven, put on tefillin, enter a synagogue, or study Torah?

What does Jewish teaching say about a person who has an inborn personality trait or physiological or mental health issue that makes it impossible or nearly impossible to avoid breaching a certain negative commandment? For example, one who is unable to restrain oneself from speaking lashon hora, no matter how hard they try, because they have a brain that makes them behave impulsively and lack self-control? Or one who cannot concentrate on his prayers because his mind is too easily distracted and this is unavoidable. Is such a person really responsible for their sins, or are they pardoned for their wrongdoing?

What are the differences between the law of God, statutes, ordinances, decrees - if any?

In what situation can you do a mitzva and then something happens and you have to do the mitzva again in a few weeks and the first one doesn't even count?