Living the Halachic Process, volume IV, by Rabbi Daniel Mann (Book of the Month, Kislev 5786)

For chodesh Kislev our choice of Book of the Month is Living the Halachic Process, volume IV: Questions and Answers for the Modern Jew, by Rabbi Daniel Mann. This work, published by the Eretz Chemdah Institute, features answers to queries sent to the Institute. These answers are divided by field of human activity: prayer, berachot, Shabbat, festivals, kashrut, holy articles, money, family matters and, for questions that fit none of these categories, miscellany. Members of the shul have already been acquainted with one such she’elah: what should one do if, in the middle of one’s Shemon’Esrei, one remembers that one has already davened it earlier (you can enjoy Rabbi Kenigsberg’s mini-shiur on this issue here). 

This book covers lots of important topics. For example:

• Bathroom breaks during tefillah
• Berachot over pizza
• Using a dishwasher with a timer on Shabbat
• The correct routine for lighting one’s Chanukiah when coming home late
• Selling sifrei Torah that are too heavy for an ageing community
• Hosting a difficult guest
• Thanking Hashem after a “false alarm”
• Veganism
• Charging for incidental work that was not originally discussed.

We have this volume in our Beit Midrash library—but you don’t have to come to shul to borrow it. The full text is available online from the Eretz Chemdah website here. And if you want to test yourself against the book by reading the source materials and seeking to reach your own conclusions, these materials are also available online, here.