How this works
How Ask Torah answers
Ask Torah is not a rabbi and does not issue rulings. That is not modesty, it is the design. Here is exactly what we claim and what we don't.
Every source is checked before you see it
When an answer cites Shulchan Aruch or Mishnah Berurah, that citation has been looked up against Sefaria's library by our server. If a reference doesn't resolve, it is dropped from the answer entirely rather than shown to you. Nobody types a citation in by hand, ever. The check mark means one specific thing: verified against sefaria's library.
This matters because the common failure of AI on Jewish law is not a wrong answer. It is a confident answer wearing a citation that was invented. You should be able to click the source and read it yourself. That is the whole point.
We tell you how settled the question is
Most questions have a clean answer, and those carry no label at all. When there is more to say, the answer says it:
- Practice differs by community The sources agree; what people actually do does not.
- Depends on your situation The rule is clear but the facts change the outcome.
- Worth asking your rabbi This one resolves on details we cannot see.
We will not rule for you
There is a difference between three things, and keeping them apart is most of what this site does:
- What a source says. That is checkable, and we check it.
- What a question turns on. The factors that decide it. Rabbis who disagree sharply about outcomes tend to agree about which factors matter.
- What the answer is, for you. That depends on your circumstances, your community, and your rabbi's judgment. We do not do this one, on any question.
So what happens when the answer is "ask your rabbi"?
We don't just say it and stop. A page that only says "ask a rabbi" isn't careful, it's useless, and at eleven at night it sends you somewhere less careful than we are.
Instead, those answers tell you what the question turns on, what your rabbi or your doctor will want to know, and when to ask. You still get the ruling from a person. You show up to that conversation knowing what it's about.
Disagreement is not a bug
Different communities hold differently. Two serious rabbis can look at the same sources and land in different places, and that is not a flaw in Jewish law, it is how it has always worked. Any tool that flattens that into one confident paragraph is telling you something untrue about the tradition.
We would rather show you the disagreement and tell you where to take it.
Educational, not a halachic ruling, for your situation, ask your rabbi.