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Hi Rabbi, What is the meaning of “Tisha B’Av”? Thank you so much for your answer and for this informative and inspiring “Ask the Rabbi” service!

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I am a vegetarian. Where I draw the line is I don’t eat anything considered fleishig. I eat dairy, eggs, and fish, but no meat or poultry. My diet therefore has no changes during the nine days. For the nine days, the kosher fleishig restaurants around here replace their regular menu with an extended fish and vegetarian menu offering tasty items not served any other time of year. Every year, I find myself taking advantage of this and ordering all these items. It seems to have become an unintended simcha for people like me, which apparently our community has lots of. Does that defeat the purpose of the nine days, when the restrictions are not really a personal "restriction" but rather become a simcha for me?

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Hi Rabbi, I read that this weekend “The Three Weeks” begin. What does this mean? Thank you

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Shalom aleichem Rabbi Lauffer. Thank you for answering my last question. The Artscroll "Purim" brings "Oheiv Yisrael" as saying that when Haman requested Achashverosh's permission to kill out the Jews, he used the word "l'abdam," which can mean either "to destroy" or "to enslave" depending on whether the word has an aleph or an ayin, both words being pronounced the same. Haman used this word because if Achashverosh balked at killing such a large portion of the population of the kingdom, Haman could say he meant "to enslave," rather than "to kill." But this only makes sense if Haman was speaking in loshon kodesh to the king. Was Haman in fact speaking to the king in loshon kodesh, rather than Persian? Thanks a lot.

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Dear Rabbi, Why is the Book of Ruth read on Shavuot? Thank you

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Dear Rabbi, Why is there a custom to eat cheesecake on Shavuot? Thank you!