When we look at the world, most of us see trees, sky, buildings.

The Patriarchs of the Jewish People, however, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, looked into the world and they saw that one may not wear a garment in which linen and wool were sewn together. They looked into the world and they saw that you may not cook milk and meat together. They even saw that you should wait several hours after eating meat before eating milk.

Maybe I need to change my eyeglass prescription, but I never see such things. I also can't remember seeing in Nature that you can't eat animals which don't have cloven hooves and chew the cud. All I see is trees, sky, buildings.

The Torah is the blueprint of Reality: If one had eyes to see, shatnez, tefillin and keeping kosher would be as visible as trees, the sky and houses.

Abraham had those eyes. He kept the entire Torah -- even the Rabbinic decrees -- long before the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. The entire Torah... with one exception: The mitzvah of brit mila. What is the difference between brit mila and all the other mitzvot?

The word brit means "covenant." The essence of a covenant is that it requires two parties to enter into it together. Until G-d actually made a covenant with Abraham, no covenant existed. Therefore, no mitzvah to perform brit mila existed.

When G-d made the covenant, the brit, with Abraham, He made the sign of the covenant on the part of the body which expresses the essence of a person; the place from which flows the life-force and progeny. Abraham took that essential part of himself which expressed his very continuation; he took the symbol of everything he would ever be through his children's children, and he gave it to G-d.

A brit has to have two sides. There is no pact in the world which consists of only one side. What was it, then, that G-d gave to Abraham? What was the gift of His essence which was to bind Him and the Jewish People to an everlasting pact?

G-d gave Abraham His Will that it would be only the seed of Abraham that would be the agency through which He would conduct and direct the events of the world. The recognition of G-d in the world, His purpose for the whole of Creation, would be brought out through the progeny of Abraham.

It was a beautiful spring night and the next day was a civil holiday, so I was off from work. I said to myself that I can't stay inside on this warm night, and so I grabbed my jump rope and water bottle and headed to the park.

Two days later, at the Friday night Shabbos meal, my brother said: "A co-worker told me that his wife saw you walking the street late at night carrying a beer bottle and a gun!"

Now, I ask you, why wouldn't she think to herself: "That's Morris; he can't be carrying a gun in the street." Instead, she assumed the worst and told her husband, who told my brother, and who knows who else!

Dear Judith Subar,

On Shabbat, 39 categories of creative activities are forbidden by the Torah. These include such things as cooking, writing and building a fire. Other prohibitions were added by our Sages to safeguard the sanctity and spirit of Shabbat.

As long as the caterer avoids any of these forbidden activities, he is allowed to "work" on Shabbat. For example, all food must be cooked in advance and kept warm on a stove that was lit before Shabbat. He doesn't violate the spirit of Shabbat either, because his efforts are Shabbat related.

Another issue is the Rabbinic prohibition against earning wages on Shabbat. The Sages forbade earning wages for a Shabbat activity, even if the activity itself is permitted. They limited this prohibition, however, only to payment designated specifically for work done on Shabbat. But if the pay is part of a "package deal" which includes work done during the week, such as setting up before Shabbat and cleaning up after Shabbat, then even the Shabbat wages are permitted.

Dear Helen Block,

Amulets or kemiot are mentioned in the Talmud in many places and are not forbidden as superstitious. The amulets mentioned in the Talmud were parchments with prayers in them written by pious scholars, and they are like continuous prayers. An amulet which is just a symbol or hand, while not forbidden, does not have the same impact. Nevertheless they can serve to remind a person of Divine Protection and Providence (the 'Hand of G-d') and to focus on G-d. As Maimonides states in the Guide for the Perplexed, "The degree of Divine Providence is directly proportional to the degree of attachment of the person to the Divine."

It's said that the towering sage Rabbi Akiva Eiger once wrote a very effective amulet. Curious about what mystical letter permutations or Kabbalistic incantations lay within, someone opened the scroll. What did he find? A single paragraph of Tosefos's logical, straightforward commentary to the Talmud! The amulet was "powered" simply by the merit of Rabbi Eiger's sincere Torah study.