Each week, Rabbi Braun explores fascinating halachic questions across a wide range of practical topics — real inquiries that have reached his desk, along with his clear and insightful responses.

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Spelling “Tverya” with an alef or hei

• In a kesubah or get, should the city name Tverya be spelled with an alef, as found throughout Shas, or with a hei, as in modern Hebrew?
• If the city is named after the Roman emperor Tiberius, how could the Gemara say it is called Tverya because of “tovah re’iyasah” (its good vision) or because it sits at the “tabur” (belly) of Eretz Yisrael?
• How does this compare to the term “Sanhedrin,” a Greek word, being commonly usedin Chazal instead of the Torah terms shoftim or dayanim?

Calabrian esrogim in Moshe Rabbeinu’s time

• Why is there a Chabad tradition to use esrogim specifically from Calabria, Italy?
• If the Gemara says Italy came into existence only when Shlomo HaMelech married the daughter of Pharaoh, how could shluchim have brought esrogim from Calabria in the times of Moshe Rabbeinu?
• Which sources indicate that Italy existed already at Matan Torah, and how is the contradiction resolved?
• What about the bracha of “oseh ma’aseh bereishis” on Italian mountains, or the date for reading the Megillah in a walled Italian city?

Makeup on Shabbos during shiva

• May a woman sitting shiva put on makeup for Shabbos if she does so every single Shabbos, given that its absence would be noticeable aveilus b’farhesya (public mourning)?
• Is refraining from a routine practice itself considered public mourning, comparable to not wearing shoes or not eating meat when Tisha B’Av falls on Shabbos?
• Does it matter that the makeup would need to be applied before Shabbos, while the shiva restrictions are still fully in force?
• What about cutting overgrown hair or shaving (a discussion onto itself) during shiva, when their absence would be noticeable on Shabbos?

Cochlear implants in halacha

• Is one who hears only through a cochlear implant yotzei hearing shofar, Megillah, Kiddush, and Havdalah?
• Why do most poskim consider hearing aids to produce a new artificial sound rather than halachic hearing?
• Is a cochlear implant better than a hearing aid because it stimulates the hearing nerve directly, or is it a bigger problem because no actual sound is heard at all?
• Why are glasses considered real seeing, while a camera wired directly to the nerve would not be?

Calling someone by his father’s nickname

• May a bochur in camp call a friend by a nickname that is identical to his father’s unusual nickname (a shem peli)?
• Does the prohibition against calling others by one’s father’s name apply only in the father’s presence, or even away from him?
• Is this an actual issur or a matter of kavod?
• How rare must the name be for the concern to apply, and does the likelihood that the father is mochel create room for leniency?