Question
What exactly is Mishmar? I see lots of yeshiva boys going to something called Mishmar once a week where they study Torah for about an hour.

Question
What counts as ‘learning Torah’ in order to fulfill the mitzvah? Does reading a book or website in English (or one’s native tongue) that talks about the Torah count as learning Torah? What about attending a shiur or lecture from a rabbi or a layperson knowledgeable about at least part of the Torah? How about just watching a YouTube video in which there is no two-way interaction in which someone reads verses or comments about the Torah? Can any of these methods fulfill the mitzvah of studying Torah? Or must one actually open a book of the Tanakh or Talmud and read the exact word written inside?

Question
Rabbi, in light of the belief that the face of Hashem takes many forms, why do you think we continue to live in a world that is organized hierarchically, with some people being superior or having more power than others?

Question
Usually we read from the same Torah each week. When the Torah is opened the following week, we are at the correct point for the current parasha. If a different Torah needs to be taken out to read the current parasha, it probably will not open to the correct section. Therefore, the Torah needs to be scrolled until the correct place is located. Since the Torah has no vowels, no trope, no chapter/verse numbers, how does the Torah reader know when he/she has reached the right spot? Thanks.

Question
I am a gentile Bible scholar. Scripture says that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for "three days and three nights." My Christian pastor quoting Moody Bible Commentary told us that "Jewish people regarded even a part of a day as a day and a night." In theory, that would mean that Jonah could have been in the fish no more than 25 hours ... still a miracle but certainly of a different flavor. My question is, when Scripture says "3 days and 3 nights", does it mean "not less than" that amount of time?

Question
So the Torah was offered to all the nations of the world. How did G-d communicate this offer to the other nations, and how in turn did the other nations communicate their rejection? Seemingly they weren’t having back-and-forth conversations with G-d in the same way humans talk to each other. And so many nations did not even believe He existed.

Question
As we all know, there are 613 mitzvot. The gematria of the word תורה is 611, just two shy of that. Yet it is very close, which is hard to ignore. Is there any significance to this proximity and the number 2 in which the gematria falls short?