Chopping Wood

Preparing for the Light at the End of the Tunnel - Video Dvar Torah for Parshat Beshalach 5781

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:43:00 +0000

How do we have hope in such a challenging time? We must follow the example of the righteous women of Israel who demonstrated their faith in the future through their actions.

Rabbi Schachter, the Mishnah and COVID-19

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 May 2020 12:58:00 +0000

Message in the Mishnah for May 12 2020 (Mishnah Yomit Temurah 5:1-2)

The COVID-19 pandemic which crippled Jewish communities around the world raised a number of challenging halachic questions, especially as Jews prepared for Pesach from the confines of self-quarantine. One issue that arose was the question of how and whether one could use newly purchased utensils before ritual immersion (tevillah), which is normally done in a mikveh. Most mikvaot were closed for immersion of utensils, and immersion in a natural body of water proved impractical if not impossible. Was there another way?

Rabbi Herschel Schacter, Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, ruled that indeed there was. According to the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 120:16), one may transfer legal ownership of his metal and glass utensils to a non-Jew, relieving the owner of the requirement of immersion, at least temporarily. Rabbi Schachter expanded this leniency, and ruled that in the case where one could not physically transfer ownership to a gentile, he or she could even renounce ownership of said utensils via email or social media. (I did not actually see any such posts – but that would have been fascinating!)

What was the basis for Rabbi Schacter’s ruling? It starts with today’s Mishnah Yomit.
The Mishnah suggests a way for the owner of an animal about to give birth to a bechor (first-born, which, if it turns out to be a male, he will have to give to the Kohen) to avoid the “bechor penalty” and keep the animal for himself. If you want to understand how it works, you can learn the Mishnah here. But even more important is the language utilized by the Mishnah.

“Keitzad ma’arimim al ha-bechor” – “How can we act deceptively with regard to the first-born?” (Mishnah Temurah 5:1) In other words, how can we “trick” the Kohen out of his first-born?

While this language sounds troubling, the Sages were teaching us that sometimes the utilization of legal loopholes is not only acceptable, but necessary. They even called recognized that it looks like trickery, using the term “leha’arim” – “to act deceptively”.
We find examples of legal loopholes throughout Jewish law. The sale of Chametz on Pesach and the sale of the Land of Israel during the Shemittah years are two prime examples. Another Mishnah teaches us that Hillel Hazaken introduced pruzbol as a legal loophole to ensure economic activity during the difficult Sabbatical years.

Rabbi Schachter in his ruling, recognizing the challenge of COVID-19 and the need for creative halachic solutions, followed this longstanding rabbinic tradition explicitly, writing in the Hebrew version of his ruling, “yesh lehatir ha’aramah,” it is appropriate to allow [halachic] trickery.

Rabbi Schachter appreciated the tenuousness of his ruling, noting that once the crisis abates, people should immediately immerse their utensils. But his creativity and willingness to employ legalities in a time of need followed a long tradition of rabbinic creativity, found in the earliest halachic resource we have: our Mishnah.

For more on legal loopholes in Jewish law, see this article in Hebrew written by Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, zt”l, the founder of Machon Tzomet in Israel.

Reuven Spolter is the founder of The Mishnah Project. You can join the Mishnah Yomit program by subscribing on WhatsApp or Telegram

The Pace of Tefillah: In Defense of the Daily Minyan - the People Who Show Up Every Day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 08:17:00 +0000

Rabbi Barry Kornblau recently shared this Facebook post, which garnered a great deal of attention about the breakneck speed of the morning minyan. The post contained a chart of different speeds at which we speak, and the length of time it would (or should) take to recite the entire Tefillah. Here's the chart:

Rabbi Kornblau wrote:

This Shabbat, my sermon noted that my upbringing in Reform Temple Beth El of Great Neck properly taught me, among other things, one basic halachah: the requirement to recite all one's prayers and blessings with feeling and understanding. One cannot do this while reciting the siddur at the speed of an auctioneer (daily amidah of 3 minutes, for example) as is routine for many Orthodox Jews; instead, one must speak slowly and enunciate deliberately - as is fitting for addressing the Master of All.

The post prompted a lively discussion, much of which centered on complaining about the speed of the daily minyan in most shuls. Over the years, I too have joined this chorus of complainers, wondering how people say "all the words" so quickly. My conclusion was usually that they don't.

I would like to offer some push back.

The chart makes no distinction between the various segments of Tefillah. Using a simple word count, the chart calculates that Amidah, at 824 words, should take about a third as long as Pesukei D'zimra, which clock in at 2,064 words, and Kriat Shema, at 248 words, should take a full minute at "slow auctioneer" pace. Nowhere does the chart note that Pesukei D'zimra is halachically considered customary at best, the Amidah is D'rabanan (according to many poskim), while Kriat Shema (at least the first paragraph) is a D'oraita - a Torah commandment. It seems reasonable to me that the halachic significance of a specific section should have some impact on the speed at which it is recited.

Moreover, as my friend David Brofsky notes in a comment to the post,

Aside from conversation taking into account the other person, most of davening is not a conversation, but rather, reflective statements. In other words, WE are the audience of pesukei dezimra, shema, ashrei, etc. Whether or not that means we should say these passages quickly, or very slow (as a meditation) is an interesting question, but they are not similar to a conversation (maybe closer to the audio book..)

Psukei D'zimrah (as well as most of birchot Kriat Shema and much of the concluding portions of Tefillah) focus on Divine praise. On the other hand, Amidah is supposed to represent a conversation with God, while Kriat Shema focuses on our acceptance of the heavenly yoke as well as other elements of our faith. While it's certainly preferable to praise God with feeling and intent, it is obligatory to recite Shema with focus and concentration, and Amidah must be recited with focus - and with the personalization that transforms prayer texts into true worship. (Also, the chart completely ignores Korbanot, which seem to be ignored in modern shuls, but some of which have greater halachic significance than much of Pesukei D'zimrah. See Peninei Halachah here for more information.)

Personally, I have no problem with speed-reading (or "auctioneering" through Pesukei D'zimrah) if that means that a person spends more time on the more important parts of davening. I would love to see a siddur in which the importance of the prayer is reflected in font size and number of pages, giving the user the sense of importance of each section.
Moreover, Rabbi Kornblau's initial point - his comparison to his Reform upbringing, is flawed for a simple reason. Reform Judaism has cut out much of davening, leaving just enough prayer to allow people to focus and concentrate.

Just look at the amount of words that one must recite in the daily prayer, not including the additional Tachanun on Mondays and Thursdays. A commenter on the post noted that there's a "kavanah" minyan one Sunday a month in Teaneck which takes seventy minutes. On a Sunday (actually the best day to take a long time to daven).

As Rabbi Brofsky noted, we're not talking about having a conversation at all. We're reciting texts, that don't change. Imagine trying to do that in English, day after day. Just recite the US Constitution (4,543 words) day after day, without fail, for your entire life. How long could you do it? How long would it take before people were flying through it, skimming or speed-reading or auctioneering? (Answer: Not long.)

I have spoken to many people about this issue, many of whom have said privately (and quoted rabbis and scholars) that they almost never recite all of Pesukei D'zimrah. Or that they haven't recited Kedushah with the community in years. The "unspoken" secret is that it's a mouthful - a lot to say - and perhaps we should be a bit more forgiving of people who either don't say it all, or say it faster than you or I think they should. Today, I don't feel that it's realistic to expect most people to spend 70-90 minutes in meditative prayer each morning.

In a recent episode of This American Life, host Ira Glass opened the episode describing his visit to shul to recite Kaddish for his mother.

And it was the anniversary of my mom's death. And we're Jews, so you're supposed to go say Kaddish, this old prayer that's one of the central prayers in Judaism at the anniversary of somebody's death. And so my dad, and my stepmom, and I were at one of the daily services that observant Jews go to every day in Baltimore where I grew up.
And I always liked going to synagogue as a kid. We went a lot. And so it was nice going back. I know all the Hebrew prayers by heart. And [LAUGHS] I don't know if this is good or bad, but not having sat in a synagogue in over a decade, it really hit me how every day is a rerun.
Do you know what I mean? They never do a new episode. Every day, the same words, same songs in the same order, stretching back hundreds of years. They read a new part of the Bible, part of the Torah some days. So there's that, but all the rest basically exactly the same every day.

We don't give the standard "daveners" who come each and every day enough credit. Prayer is clearly important, and of course focus and concentration are critical. But there's also great value in showing up; in being part of the minyan, day in and day out. In saying the word and being part of the prayer process.

I sometimes get the feeling that people often criticize the daily minyan from the outside: "I don't go because it's too fast." Or, "They don't say all the words anyway. How much can it really mean?" It means a lot - even if they do say it very, very fast. Because the people who get up and make it to minyan each day - which is a Herculean effort in my mind - are doing something that the vast majority of observant Jews are not: they're showing up.

They're showing up so that everyone else who wants to has a place to say kaddish. They're showing their sense of allegiance to the community in a meaningful and tangible way. They're actively engaged in an act of prayer and devotion to God - even if they don't really understand many (if not most) of the words.

And when those times come in life when they really do need that prayer and connection - and those times come for all of us, they already know where to go and what to do, because for their entire lives they've been showing up.

Tech in the Shomer Shabbat Home

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 09:11:00 +0000

A while back, Google introduced the Google Home Hub, a kind of alarm clock-tablet-speaker that people can place around the home. One of the features of this home hub is what the company calls "Ambient EQ" - which "dynamically adjusts the color temperature and brightness of your display to create a non-intrusive smart display experience. Using the sensor on the top of the device, Ambient EQ adapts the display brightness and color temperature to match the surrounding environment, so that your display resembles a physical photo."

In other words, the device will automatically adjust the color on the screen based on the light in the room. Sounds great - and it is: you turn off the lights, and the screen goes dark so that you're not blinded when you're trying to sleep. You open the window shades and it adjusts so the screen always looks great.

Of course, this sensor and the automatic changes raise halachic issues for the Shomer Shabbat consumer. You can always just turn the feature off (see here). But I'm wondering: does the halachah require people to disable such a feature? It seems to be a psik reisha (an immediate, direct response) to a change in light. And it also seems to be "nicha lei" - I do like my screen to look its very best. But do I care enough? I imagine that at some point these sensors will become so ubiquitous that we may not even have the option of turning them off (which will necessitate someone developing a Shomer Shabbat version of whatever Google Home operating system these things use...)

What do you think? Is it a halachic issue? A chumrah?

"Meet Your Meat" and the Ethics of Animal Consumption

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 08:35:00 +0000

Watching an old episode of Parks and Recreation recently, I came across this short vignette which encapsulates the ethical challenges inherent in today's meat production industry. After inviting his employees to a barbecue, department boss Ron Swanson proceeds to introduce them to the pig that he intends to slaughter for lunch.

Ron says, "In my opinion, not enough people have looked their dinner in the eyes and considered the circle of life. This is your dinner. His name is Tom."

Their reactions are both priceless, and fully understandable. The very thought that they would kill and eat a cute, precocious pig repulses everyone in the crowd. Ron is finally forced to relent when he learns that doing so in public park would violate numerous laws and health codes.

Today, we're just like the people in this video: we of course want to eat the cute and cuddly animal, just as long as we don't see that it was an animal, that it bled, or that it was alive at all. We want our meat in clean, ready to prepare packages, devoid of all possible messiness. And we certainly don't want to think about how the animal was treated before someone, somewhere killed it for us.

I have been struggling with this ethical question lately.

I am by no means a vegetarian. I believe that God gave human beings the right to kill animals for necessary purposes including consumption and clothing. The very Torah scroll read in every synagogue around the world is written on an animal hide. Were it written on plain paper - no matter how fine and high-quality - it would not be kosher.

That being said, that same Torah demands that we take into account the treatment of those animals in life. The commandments prohibiting tza'ar ba'alei chayyim, require us to treat animals humanely, with care for their well-being. (see here, here, or just do a search on Google.) And it also seems clear that modern animal production - factory farming - fails to take the animal's well-being into account, and falls far short of the Torah standards - both for meat and poultry. I'm not basing this on the numerous studies, reports and articles written on the subject over the past many years. Rather, I base my opinion on common sense: have you personally seen the cows regularly used for milk nowadays, with udders so large they can barely stand? What about the massive chicken pens in which chickens are raised in great density? I'm sure that there are many more issues about which we have absolutely no idea - not because we can't know, but because we don't want to. (Did you know that in the United States, there are currently no laws whatsoever that regular the treatment of farm animals? That's pretty amazing to me, and tells me that as a society, we don't want to know. We don't want to think about the fact that the steak we're eating came from an animal, and someone had to raise, feed and kill that animal on our behalf before it arrived in a neat plastic package at the grocery store.)

It's therefore at least a bit gratifying that the Orthodox Union recently announced that it would no longer certify meat slaughtered with a method called "Shackle and Hoist". Essentially, this involved flipping the animal upside-down before it was slaughtered. While this is certainly a positive development, the OU doesn't get all the credit; the State of Israel does. According to the Times of Israel article, the OU issued it's new guidelines,

after Israel decided to ban the import of any meat slaughtered using the method, in which the animal is pulled into the air by its legs and then flipped onto the ground before being slaughtered....Israel’s agriculture department banned the method for imported meat last year and gave slaughterhouses, many of which also produce kosher meat sold to the US, until June 1, 2018, to comply. The Israeli policy said that slaughterhouses had to install rotating pens to turn the animal upside down, which is seen as more humane than using shackle and hoist.

So, animal activists lobbied Israeli bureaucrats to change Israeli food production regulations, which thus gave the OU the cover it needed to change its policy. This teaches us a number of important lessons:

First of all, for many years the OU has claimed that it does not legislate on issues related to ethics, and that it only addresses the issue of whether a food is technically kosher. This new letter represents a sharp departure from this longstanding OU policy and opens the door to any number of other ethical issues. How indeed can we claim that food is kosher if the production of that food involved Torah violations? Theoretically, what if the OU learned that an animal producer was literally torturing animals in order to produce a special type of meat (a claim made by critics of goose-stomach-pumping to make fois-gras)? What if the OU discovered that a company it oversees was involved in systematic theft and corruption? Today, the OU can no longer look the other way.
This decision reinforces the centrality of the State of Israel in the Jewish world. Why did the OU wait for Israel to issue its new regulations? Did it feel that "shackle and hoist" is inhumane before Israel changed the regulations? Whatever the case, this should only encourage those involved in animal rights to focus even more strongly on the Israeli front, where there are people who are very receptive to these issues who we now know can make a difference not only in Israel, but in the kosher industry around the world.
This new policy addresses only the very last seconds of the life of an animal. It in no way addresses many, many other ethical issues, such as how the animal was born, raised, farmed, fed and brought to slaughter. What is the role of the OU - and the Israeli government - in issues like these?

This entire issue of factory farming has been bothering me for a while now.

On one hand, I'm not a vegetarian, nor do I wish to become one. I eat meat - far less than I used to - but still quite a bit. How can a person (me) who considers Jewish teaching and halachah primary to the way that I live, ignore major halachot, simply because I don't see them before my very eyes - because I choose not to?

I actually agree with Ron Swanson. I think that you shouldn't eat meat if you've never seen one being slaughtered, at least once. In a way, I wish there were a way to go back to the way they did it years ago. You went to the market and bought a chicken, which you took to the shochet to slaughter for you. It was gross. It was labor intensive. It was definitely more expensive. But at least you knew that it was an animal, and wasn't raised on a factory farm in horrifying conditions.

I recently became aware of a brand of meat in Israel called Hai Bari - which claims that it is "the first and only food label in Israel that guarantees consumers that their meat and dairy products come from farms who implement the highest animal welfare standards." (This isn't what it seems either. It's actually a response of Golan farmers to the Israeli government opening the market to the import of foreign cattle. They decided that if they can't compete on price - which they can't - they can at least try to corner the "ethical" market, which is fine by me.)

Changing factory farming is a very tall order. Like the rest of the crowd in the "Parks and Rec" video clip, most people really don't want to "Meat their meat." They don't want to know.

But I, and others like me, do want to know - not the name of the chicken that I'm eating, but at least that it was raised humanely and ethically. And I'm willing to pay more for the privilege, even if that means eating less meat and chicken to do it. I'm sure that I'm not alone.

I'd like to see the OU, the government of Israel, and even the animal rights movement join forces in finding and encouraging new ways to create ethical meat and poultry production. This would give the kosher-eating public the sense that the food their eating isn't just kosher technically, but ethically as well.

Avoiding the Question, Or "Why David Kestenbaum's Sadness Makes Me Sad"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 07:08:00 +0000

I feel sad for David Kestenbaum.

No, I don't know Mr. Kestenbaum, who is a producer-reporter for This American Life (although he used to be a particle physicist), a popular podcast that I sometimes listen to. But I'm sad, because he's sad (or at least he was - apparently, this is a repeat episode from a year ago).

Why is Kestenbaum sad? What's got him down as he brushes his teeth in the morning and goes about his day? A perplexing question called "Fermi's Paradox". Kestenbaum explains (I'm quoting from the transcript of the show, which is a conversation between TAL host Ira Glass and Kestenbaum that I've edited for brevity):

David Kestenbaum
So the story goes that this is 1950. Fermi's visiting Los Alamos, and they're sitting around at lunch. It's Fermi and a handful of other physicists and they start talking about extraterrestrials.

Ira Glass
One of the scientists who was there remembers that they talked about some New Yorker cartoon, which had flying saucers and cheerful aliens stealing our trash cans. They joked about it.

David Kestenbaum
And then out of nowhere, Fermi says something like, so where are they?

Ira Glass
Meaning?

David Kestenbaum
The aliens.

Ira Glass
And did people know what he meant?

David Kestenbaum
Yeah, somehow everybody knew exactly what he meant. The idea was basically that, like, the galaxy is this huge place, right? Hundreds of billions of stars. It's been around for billions of years. If you believe that intelligent life is something that just arises given enough time, where is everybody? Like, there have been billions of years, where civilizations could have developed and become way more advanced than we are and traveled from star to star, sent signals or something. Where are they? If that's right, where are they?

Ira Glass
This question became known as the Fermi Paradox, which goes like this. If it's so likely that intelligent life exists elsewhere, where is it? Why hasn't anybody shown up? And of course, the simple answer to that would be, well, nobody else exists.

David Kestenbaum
And I had never thought-- it made me think, maybe we're alone. I really thought that for the first time. Yeah, it made me really sad. I had never thought about it seriously before. I had always assumed that life was everywhere. But he's making a really serious point here. He's raising a tough question. The specific thought I was having was that this would mean that there's nobody out there who knows more than we do, like, about science, about-- there are no better songs. There are no better books. This is it, you know?

Ira Glass
So for months now, when David's brushing his teeth or doing nothing in particular, it'll hit him again. Maybe we're alone in the universe. Like this morning, on the train. Like, what we know is it. What we are is it.

The thing is, no one he talks to can really understand why it makes Kestenbaum so sad. They laugh off the question. What difference does it really make if we're all that there really is? Why does this question upset Kestenbaum so much? He never really explains what bother him, and other cannot really appreciate his angst.

I think that I understand what bothered him. But to me, what's sad about the whole story isn't that Kestenbaum is sad. The most upsetting aspect is the fact that he won't allow himself to ask the deeper question, and when he does, he rejects it out of hand.

*********

To address his question, Kestenbaum turns to Melissa Franklin, his physics professor from Harvard, who he thinks will at least understand the question. After humoring him for a bit, Franklin starts to ask him some serious questions.

What exactly do you mean by being alone? Let's properly define the question here. You're talking about no intelligent life or no life at all? What if there's one crappy plant on another planet? How would you feel about that? What if advanced life like us is just a mathematical improbability, a total fluke?

Professor Franklin concluded, "And then you would say, OK, if that's the case, I have to believe in God. So that's what you're saying."

You would think that as a physicist - an empirical person trying to understand scientific truth, Kestenbaum would react seriously to this question. He would consider it and its implications, and actually wonder whether this was what's really bothering him. But no. He responds with a sad, actually pathetic argument.

David Kestenbaum
How many physicists do you know who believe in God?

Melissa Franklin
Six.

That's his answer? He's been pondering a question for months, literally walking around in a funk from a question, and as soon as a serious thinker proposes that what's really bothering him is a much deeper question of faith and creation, rather than addressing the question seriously, he scoffs at it.

His answer isn't even an answer, and is actually irrelevant to the question. What difference does it make how many physicists believe in God? Maybe they're all under the spell of some cult. What about those six? Are they crazy? Have they lost their mind. Is that how science works? You take a poll of commonly held beliefs, and ignore the actual facts entirely?

Moreover, what if they Professor Franklin only knows six god-believing physicists because that's the circle of colleagues she has created for herself? According to a HuffPost article I just found (pretty easily), a recent Pew Research Center survey, "found that the percentage of scientists that believe in some form of a deity or power was higher than you may think — 51 percent."

Kestenbaum's response immediately made me think of the very first of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, which is a brilliant treatise about human nature and the cause of sin. In his letter, he explains how the devil (i.e. the yetzer hara) works very hard not by arguing with us about the facts. Quite the opposite. His most effective strategy is avoiding argument.

That's exactly what Kestenbaum does. Confronted with an argument, he avoids and deflects. Rather than try and address a difficult and challenging question, he responds by scoffing at the possibility that he might actually believe in God. After all, he's a physicist! And they don't believe in God, do they?

In fact David, many of them do. And while you once were a physicist, you're not really a physicist anymore. You're a journalist. And in the NPR world that you inhabit, they really don't believe in God, and really would ridicule you if you in fact did.

The fact that you cannot in fact see this makes me quite sad.

Religious Zionist Photoshop of the Week Award

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 10:14:00 +0000

The Religious Zionist Photoshop of the Week Award goes to...Egged for this crazy picture in a full page ad in בשבע Besheva (actually, it goes to גל אורן לרנר Gal Oren Lerner, the ad firm that designed the ad). 

In any case, the ad, which thanks the "Rosen Family" for "not forgetting to validate their Rav Kav", features a typical Religious Zionist family (if not only that's a bit less religious than your average B'sheva family).

Yet, the ad caught my eye because of the picture, which just seemed off. The woman's hair band doesn't sit quite right, nor does her skirt (which is totally wrong for her anyway), nor her husband's kipah. A quick Shutterstock search yielded the attached picture, which indicates that the family's actual name might not indeed be "Rosen".

Then Rena noticed that while the woman's body is the same, they actually painted someone else's face on, which is just downright creepy.

With all this attention for this ad, I started to wonder: Why does Egged care so much that people validate their Rav Kav? In the ad copy on the bottom, we learn how validation gives Egged important information about travel habits, bus line and the like. Still, is it so important that Egged would pay tens of thousands of shekels to remind us to validate?

It turns out that "validate" is a euphemism for "swiping" the card on a trip. In other words, Egged is encouraging us to pay, and not just ride for free - which I'm all for. You should swipe your card, and "riding without swiping" is another term for "stealing". 

Now though, the family's identity - who they were photoshopped to look like, is quite important. Who exactly does Egged think is stealing from them? Who are they accusing - or not accusing - of "forgetting" to swipe their cards when they get on at the back of the bus?

That is a very interesting question indeed.

Why was Esther Chosen to be the Queen?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 07:51:00 +0000

Why did Achashverosh pick Esther? Why did the most powerful man in the world choose a queen of unknown origin, who refused to divulge her nationality and family connections? 

Last night, I was studying the Megilah with my daughter at wonderful father-daughter program at אולפנת בני עקיבא אבן שמואל, and a thought came to mind: Perhaps he chose Esther specifically because she came without any baggage. Throughout history, monarchs married to create political alliances. Yet, while Achashverosh might have understood the need for a queen, he saw no need for any new political connections that would obligate him in the future. So, when he finally came upon a girl with no past, that would tell him nothing about herself (and would presumably have no father-brother-uncle making political demands), he chose her immediately.

Ironically (and isn't irony the key the Megillah?), the Persian King would soon discover that Esther, like all of us, did come from somewhere, and would one day make demands on behalf of her people.

Specialization in Life and in Education

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 14:54:00 +0000

Somehow, with all the conveniences of modern technology, life doesn't seem more convenient. We feel pulled in ever-more directions, with ever-more responsibilities, obligations, concerns and interests. While these pulls can often be destructive, they offer an almost unlimited array of opportunities as well. Do you like guitar? Today you can teach yourself to play any instrument using YouTube or a number of apps on your phone. Interested in botany, or knitting, or Israel advocacy, or basically anything else you can possibly imagine? There's a website, email list, podcast and Facebook group dedicated to exactly your interest. An almost unlimited number of Torah shiurim and resources span every possible skill level on topics from Tanach to Talmud to Tefillah and every sub-topic in-between. It's all really interesting.

In the worst-case scenario, we ignore this potpourri of possibilities, perhaps perplexed by their scale and breadth. Rather than diving head-first into something, we escape from it all to the safety of the also unlimited spectrum of time-wasting options at our fingertips. Surely that is an trap into which we all fall from time to time. But we also engage in the positives as well, learning a new subject, studying this or that; trying a new class or a hobby. We find ourselves dabbling – a bit of this, something of that, without really specializing in any one area or interest. Today, the world presents with an infinite array of options ready for the taking, making each of us dabblers in everything, but masters of none.

In his commentary on Gemara Berachot, Rav Kook writes that while a little knowledge in many areas represents one possible path, it is certainly not ideal. The Gemara in Berachot (39b) in the context of making Berachot on bread, mentions an interesting fact about how Rav Ami and Rav Asi chose which bread to use for their Seudat Shabbat.

רב אמי ורב אסי כי הוה מתרמי להו ריפתא דערובא מברכין עליה המוציא לחם מן הארץ אמרי הואיל ואתעביד ביה מצוה חדא נעביד ביה מצוה אחריתי (ברכות לט ע"ב)
"Rav Ami and Rav Asi, when the opportunity to use the bread of the eiruv in the Shabbat meal would present itself, they would recite: "Who brings forth bread from the earth" over it. They said in explanation: Since one mitzvah was performed with it, we will perform another mitzvah with it."

Rav Kook (Ein Ayah Berachot vol. 2 p. 12) sees in this passage an important message about specialization. He writes that in our pursuits throughout life we can choose one of two general paths: Completion through Quantity (sheleimut b’kamut) and Completion through Quality (sheleimut b’eichut).

השלימות בכמות היא שירבה נמצאים מושלמים אע"פ שבכ"א לא יהי' כ"א השלמה מועטת...והאיכות היא שישתדל שמי שראוי מהנמצאים לקבל השלימות ישלימהו כפי האפשרי ברב יתרון, ומהשלמה של אחד בתכלית המעלה ימשך טוב לרבים.
“Completion through quantity Is that a person will increase his areas of completeness even though in each area he will only realize a small measure of completion…[Completion through] quality refers to the effort to focus on the most worthy of attributes to strive for completion – in that area he will achieve fulfillment to the greatest possible degree…”

In other words, we can strive to improve a small amount in many different areas or we can ignore most areas of study and choose to focus our efforts and energies on one specific area or endeavor, striving to be the very best we can be in that one discipline. Which then is better: quantity or quality? Should I strive to be a “jack of all trades” or a “master of one”? To Rav Kook, the answer is clear: Quality over quantity.

והוא כלל גדול ג"כ בכל חכמה ומלאכה, כי שלימות העולם בכללו תבא מריבוי בקיאים כ"א במקצע מיוחד בתכלית המעלה, ולא ממי שסופג הכל רק בדרך שיטחי, כי ההשלמה האיכותית גדולה היא בערכה על ההשלמה הכמותית.
"This is also a great rule in all areas of wisdom and work; the completion of the entire world will come from a growing number of experts who have achieved the greatest possible excellence in their specific fields, and not from one who absorbs everything in a superficial manner. For completeness in quality is greater in value than completeness in quantity."

Rav Kook views this matter from an educational perspective as well, noting that educators should focus their efforts specifically on students capable of reaching great heights.

וזוהי הדרך המשובחת שכוננו חכמינו ז"ל להעמיד תלמידים הרבה ולהגדיל תורה בחוג המוסגלים לקבלה ולא לפזר כוחינו בין בתי כנסיות של עמי הארץ. וכן בכללו ישראל, להרבות עצמה בתורה ויראת ד', ולא לנוד להאיר עמי הארץ וגוים רבים באור ד' בדרך מועט שיכולין לקבל. כי מריבוי האור שיזרח בשלמים הגמורים יאיר אור גדול ג"כ על שאינם שלמים, אבל בהשתדלות לפזר הכוחות על הרבה נושאים, וכ"א לא יהי' שלם בתכלית, לא יבא לעולם אל מטרה נכונה.
"[Completeness of Quality] is the praised path established by the Sages who said to 'Establish many students' (Avot 1:1) and exalt the Torah among those who are capable of receiving it, and not to disperse our energies among the synagogues and simple people…for the greatness of the light that spreads from individuals that are whole and complete will shine on those that are less complete. On the other hand, the effort to disperse our energies in many areas so that we achieve wholeness in any one area will not bring us to the correct goal. "

Rav Kook's comments must carry great weight as we evaluate our own choices and priorities in life. Are we specialists in a single area, focusing our light and energy to become experts who can shine the greatest possible focused light? Or do we dabble, dispersing ourselves in different directions, but failing to create much light at all?

In education, society has clearly chosen to reject Rav Kook's priorities. In our community, we don't focus only on the diamonds who can achieve greatness. Instead we strive to reach each and every child. The Chareidi community makes a different choice, gearing its educational system specifically towards those who can thrive and achieve greatness. Each system has benefits, but also brings great costs as well. It is incumbent upon our community to at least wonder what costs we pay for rejecting Rav Kook's position by choosing a different educational path.

Making Decisions - Dvar Torah for Parshat Bo by Bezalel Spolter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 13:40:00 +0000

Last year, as a senior, I had to check a couple of yeshivot for the next year. All over the place, no matter where I went and who I talked to, the question was always the same: "Have you decided what yeshiva to go to for next year?" The answer was always no.

The pressure was very intense. The decision I had to make would decide what I would do for the next five years, what kind of Torah I would learn, and even what kind of person I would turn out to be. Yet, people kept asking me the same thing over and over again. I had only checked out two yeshivot but I really liked both of them. It was a very hard to choose between them.

As I thought about this earlier today, watching seniors check out my yeshiva, I wondered. How do you make that kind of decision? How do you decide what's best for you? How can you know what the right decision to make is? The yeshiva decision is just one of many other decisions I will have to make in my life, all of them probably equally as hard, if not harder. The truth is, I have no idea how I did it.

Luckily, that is exactly what the Baal Shem Tov talks about on this week's parsha (On a side note. It amazes me that I had a thought this morning and then that day learned about it with my chavruta that afternoon).

The Baal Shem Tov asks a similar question. How can one know if he is on the right path, making the right decisions? לוט's daughters thought the world was destroyed and they were the last human being alive. Were they making the right decision? What aboutבני ישראל at מעשה פעור? They thought they doing the right thing but got severely punished. So how can one know what to do?

Charedim or Dati Leumi? Right or Left? Raanana or Kiryat Shmona (the yeshivot I liked)? And many more personal or general dilemas.

The Baal Shem Tov starts by stating that in reality, it is very hard to know whether the thing you choose is the right one or not.

However, the way you make the decision is very important. There is a big difference between rushing into the decision and sitting on it for a while. There's a difference between frantically pushing for an answer and calmly choosing. The way you make the decision, is what decided what the outcome will be.

More so, it doesn't end there. Once a person calms himself (the Baal Shem Tov says a good way to calm yourself is by learning Torah), there is one more thing needed. Hashem. Inspiration from above.
Lightning won't strike and make the answer suddenly become clear. Hashem won’t choose for you. But he will certainly guide you to what you really want, what's really good and what’s really right. Now the question is: are you able to receive his guidance? Are you panicking and making an irrational choice? Or are you slowing it down, calmly and logically making what you think is the right choice.

And that's what מכת בכורות is about. At midnight, possibly the first half of the night or the second.

Exactly in the middle. A ספק. In the still, calm atmosphere. That's when Hashem will make his move.

That's when he intervenes.

It's a very small technical difference, but it drastically changes everything.

It's true whether you're deciding on switching to a different path or staying where you are. Choosing what profession to focus on, or where to live. Whether to dramatically change everything or keep walking the same path.

שנזכה...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 12:54:00 +0000

The Israeli press are ablaze about the terrible things Bibi Netanyahu's son said two years ago. I find myself torn: on one hand, he's a private citizens, and happens to be the son of the Prime Minister (and his political opponents don't care about how they attack Bibi. They just hate him.) On the other hand, my mind keeps coming back to a famous story at the very end of Masechet Sukkah.

The last Mishnah in Sukkah, in the context of discussing some of the perks that the Kohanim received when they served in the Beit Hamidash, notes that one Mishmar - that of the Bilgah Watch - was put into permanent punishment, having their locker priveleges suspended among other minor inconveniences.

The Gemara asks what prompted the punishment. What did the Kohanim of Bilgah do to deserve the public dressing down? The Gemara (Sukkah 56b) explains:

The Sages taught in a baraita: There was an incident involving Miriam, the daughter of a member of the Bilga watch, who apostatized and went and married a soldier [sardeyot] serving in the army of the Greek kings. When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary, she entered with them and was kicking with her sandal on the altar and said: Wolf, wolf [lokos], until when will you consume the property of the Jewish people, and yet you do not stand with them when they face exigent circumstances? And after the victory of the Hasmoneans over the Greeks, when the Sages heard about this matter and how she denigrated the altar, they fixed the ring of the Bilga watch in place, rendering it nonfunctional, and sealed its niche.

In other words, because a daughter of Bilga, who had abandoned Judaism and married a Greek soldier, the Sages permanently punished the Priests of the Bilga Watch. The Gemara asks the obvious question:

...According to the one who said it is due to Miriam, daughter of Bilga, who apostatized, do we penalize the entire watch of Bilga because of his daughter? Abaye said: Yes, as people say, the speech of a child in the marketplace is learned either from that of his father or from that of his mother. Miriam would never have said such things had she not heard talk of that kind in her parents’ home.

The speech of children in public does indeed teach us a great deal about the way their parents speak at home.

Where Are the Women? In Haredi Comics, Women are Nowhere to be Found

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 11:31:00 +0000

This past Shabbat, my daughter discovered a book that had been sitting in our library for a while. "A Yiddishe Kop" is a very popular puzzle book, which asks the reader to look at beautifully illustrated pictures and decipher puzzles hidden throughout the book. My daughter spent hours poring over the pictures trying to find clues and answers to the very clever questions, and asked me at one point to help her. The author, Gadi Pollack, is a talented illustrator, and the pictures jump off the page.

I've seen the book before, and enjoyed some of the sharp puzzles. But this time, as I sat next to my seven-year-old, one question jumped out at me from each and every page: Where are the women? In the vast majority of instances, they are nowhere to be found. Here's a sample page I found on the web:

No women on the street, perhaps. But the book has a large number of scenes. I get that there are no women in shul or cheder. But no women at the doctor's office? No women at home? The clever way he gets out of that one is by creating a scene where the mother has just given birth, so the hapless father is stuck in kitchen. There is a woman at the zoo, but you can barely see her hidden in the golf cart. (I can only imagine a zoo where they let patrons drive around in goft carts!)

Pollack just released the second volume of the series (which I learned is also avaiable in English). Here's the sample page:

Again, boys, girls and men. But no women! In the park! In America! (They do not have minivans like those in Haredi communities in Israel.) What happened to the women?

I'm not entirely sure why Pollack feels the need to erase the women from his illustrations. After all, he can draw them as modestly as he liked, in wigs, snoods, however he sees fit. Does he really feel that mere drawings of women will hurt sales of the book?

Modern families must fight back. They must go to their bookstores and tell the owners that they won't buy books, clever as they may be, that erase women from every possible situation. They must send the clear message that until women are portrayed properly, they won't expose their children to this type of media.

Until they do that, the media in which women are absent will continue to expand.

In Those Days and In Our Time

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Dec 2017 11:22:00 +0000

In his powerful essay Kol Dodi Dofek, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik outlines what he views a six "knocks" – divine messages from heaven which a sensitive Jew must hear, recognize and incorporate into his or her religious worldview. He writes,

First, the knock of the Beloved was heard in the political arena. From the point of view ‎of ‎international relations, no one will deny that the rebirth of the State of Israel, in a political ‎sense, ‎was an almost supernatural occurrence. Both Russia and the Western nations supported ‎the ‎establishment of the State of Israel. This was perhaps the one resolution on which East and ‎West ‎concurred [during the Cold War era]. I am inclined to believe that the United Nations was ‎especially ‎created for this end — for the sake of fulfilling the mission that Divine Providence had ‎placed upon ‎it.

The Rav reminds us that sometimes political events, especially related to the Jewish people, represent something greater than simply the decisions of individuals. They reflect the guidance of the Divine, bringing blessing to the Jewish people and to the world.

I believe that this past month we experienced just such an event. For the first time since the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, the individual who represents the most powerful nation on earth (the President of the United States) officially recognized Yerushalayim as the capital of the Jewish State, the homeland of the Jewish people.

Some will argue that nothing has changed. Currently, they may in fact be correct. The US State Department announcedthat it has no plans to recognize my daughter (who was born in Hadassah hospital) as having been born in "Jerusalem, Israel" on her US passport. (As of now, she was only born in Jerusalem.) But if it's so unimportant, why did tens of thousands of Muslims protest in Indonesia? Why is the President of Turkey up in arms? Why is Egypt introducing yet another UN Security Council resolution aimed at declaring the American recognition illegal? Politics matter, and have very real consequences in world. While the President of the United States' statement was just, in his words, "a recognition of reality," it also established a new reality – one that Israelis intuitively appreciated and understood.

As religious Jews, we must ask ourselves: What is our religious response to this declaration? Have we responded spiritually in any way at all? I'm not referring to Facebook posts or WhatsApp messages. Rather, has this recent news affected us spiritually? Have we reacted religiously to this great gift to the Jewish people?

Orthodox Judaism is notoriously (and justifiably) conservative. We don't like change, and don't adapt to it very well. Our strength lies in our allegiance to our traditions; to adhering to the way things have been done because that's how our parents and their parents did things. We're reluctant to introduce new liturgy which makes us inherently uncomfortable (I'm still uneasy reciting parts of Lecha Dodi on the eve of Yom Ha'atzmaut). At the same time, that reluctance to innovate and introduce seems downright inappropriate in the face of historic events. If we can't or won't give thanks to God when our Holy City is recognized internationally as belonging to the Jewish people, what does that say about us as a religious people? I believe that one answer to the pull between these two values lies in coming to a new understanding and appreciation of a blessing and prayer we already recite throughout this entire week of Chanukah.

When we kindle the Chanukah lights we recite two blessings – the first on the rabbinic commandment to light the candles – a birkat mitzvah. Tradition teaches us that we recite a second blessing as well.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אלקינו מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁעָשָׂה נִסִּים לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe who made miracles for our ancestors in their days in this time.

This is of course a reflection of the opening to Al Hanisim where we give thanks,

עַל הַנִּסִּים וְעַל הַפֻּרְקָן וְעַל הַגְּבוּרות וְעַל הַתְּשׁוּעות וְעַל הַמִּלְחָמות שֶׁעָשיתָ לַאֲבותֵינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בִּזְּמַן הַזֶּה:

[And we praise You] For the miracles and for the redemption and for the mighty deeds and for the victories and for the battles that You performed for our fathers in those days at this time.

In his Levush commentary on the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayyim682), Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe writes that in his opinion, one should add a "vav" to the last two words of this sentence.

We says, שעשית לאבותנו בימים ההם ובזמן הזה – "That you have done for our forefathers andin our time"...[through this language] we give thanks for the miracles that [God] did for our forefathers in those days, and we are also thankful for the miracles that You have done for us in this time, for each and every day He performs among us revealed and hidden miracles, as He did in the era of our forefathers...

The halachah does not follow the position of the Levush; the Taz(O.C. 682:5) rejects his suggestion and we don't add the additional "vav". Nonetheless, I find his sentiment inherently appealing. In addition to giving thanks for the miracles that occurred centuries ago, we must also give thanks to God for those miracles that take place in our time. And, if the author of the Levush – who suffered great persecution and exile, had no problem seeing hidden miracles in his lifetime, how can we, who live in the era of the greatest renaissance in Jewish history, not see even greater miracles today?

Commenting on the timelessness of Chanukah Rabbi Berel Wein writes that,

The Rabbis framed one of the blessings over the lights of Chanuka as recognizing the events ‘bayamim hahem,’ in those days’ bazman hazeh,’ in our time. We always have to look at how past events play themselves out in the current scene.

When we recite Al Hanisim and the second brachah of She'asah Nisim, we must concentrate not only on the miracles of long ago, but those taking place literally in our time – this year, and this month. It is incumbent upon each of us to add a special kavanah when reciting these brachot, to give thanks that dominion of the Jewish people of Yerushalayim has been strengthened and reinforced across the globe.

Finally, we must also give thanks and recognize that this small but significant declaration brings us closer to the day when the Jewish people will light the candles of the menorah not only in their homes, but in God's true home as well.

Praying for Rain in an Age of Desalination

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 12:18:00 +0000

The Chief Rabbinate has issued a directive to add Anenu (an additional prayer for rain) to our shemonah esreh. This makes perfect sense and follows a long line of halachic tradition, from the Mishnah Taanit down through the Shulchan Aruch. Rain is a critical element, fundamental to human life. When periods of drought threaten, we must cry out to God and beseech Him for mercy to bring the necessary rain. While it has rained a bit, it hasn't been nearly enough, and halachically, this call is a response to a crisis situation.

Except it's not. There is no water crisis here in Israel. With four major desalination plants online producing vast quantities of fresh water at very reasonable prices, the country is not in any crisis at all. We've gotten no directives to cut our water use in any way. No one has even asked us to cut the watering of the lawn, nor have water prices risen. There is no water shortage.

So we're left with a situation where we're supposed to recite a prayer of supplication and anguish, of great need due to a technicality, where there really isn't that great of a need.

This is not meant as a criticism of the Chief Rabbinate - far from it! It's an expression of a sense of frustration from a disconnect between ritual and reality. Sure, Jews around the world will add Anenu. But will that translate into religious fervor? Will the words reflect any real feelings?

Is it better to add something to davening when it will just be one more paragraph that you don't really feel strongly about? How does this affect our connection with the rest of our davening?

There are many, many things about which we need to cry out to God. A terrorist stabbed a security guard yesterday. Hamas shot rockets this week. The Israeli government decided to subsidize televisions rather than education yesterday.

But until the Water Authority tells me to take shorter showers and stop watering my lawn, we don't have a water shortage. Why then are we praying like we do?

Audio Shiur: The Avodah on Yom Kippur

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 11:44:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
The Avodah on Yom Kippur

The Avodah represents the pinnacle of service on Yom Kippur. The Mishnah dedicates seven out of eight chapters to the service in the Beit Hamikdash. What actually happened? Why was it so dangerous? What message did Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi convey to us about religious leadership through the language of the Mishnah? And does God control every single thing that happens in the world?

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Audio Shiur: Ein Ayah on Ki Tavo - Finding the Spiritual in the Physical

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 07:12:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
Ein Ayah on Ki Tavo - Finding the Spiritual in the Physical

From the Mitzvah of Mikra Bikkurim we move to a powerful piece from Rav Kook about the purpose and meaning behind the recitation of Brachot

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Audio Shiur: Parashat Vaetchanan - Seeing the Positive in Judaism

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 13:34:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
Parashat Vaetchanan - Seeing the Positive in Judaism

All too often, we allow ourselves to focus on the negative, failing to see the amazing positives in Jewish life. Despite facing difficult news, Moshe never allows himself to fall into this trap. Ever the optimist, Moshe Rabbeinu, through his language and message, encourages us to see the good and act upon it.

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Audio Shiur: Parashat Devarim - Why Do We Need a Second Torah?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 06:10:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
Parashat Devarim - Why Do We Need a Second Torah?

Why do we need a "Second" Torah? Isn't that concept a bit problematic? We also study the beginning of the Abrabanel's introduction to Devarim, where he poetically describes the destruction of Spanish Jewry?

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Keeping Our Promises

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 14:59:00 +0000

Several years ago, we were in the process of buying our house in Israel, and had found a great home being sold by its original owner. After a brief period of negotiations, we finally managed to agree on what we felt was a fair price. We were ecstatic, excited to have found a home in the Jewish State for a price that was within our budget.

A week later the seller called me and said, "When you made the offer, were you serious? Had you made a decision to buy the house?" My palms immediately started to sweat. I could sense that this phone call wasn’t going to end well.

"Look," he said. "When I told a neighbor on our final price, he couldn’t believe it. He told me that he'd give me 100 thousand shekel more than you offered for the house."

I thought I knew what was coming next. I was sure of it. We had no written agreement, not even on a napkin. He was going to raise the price or the deal was off. I was sure of it. But then he told me, "But I'm a man of my word. These things are very important to me. I just wanted to make sure that you really had decided to buy the house, and since you do, I will honor our verbal agreement."

Parashat Matot opens with a description of the halachotof nedarim -- oaths. Before describing how a person can nullify his oaths and who can make and nullify different types of nedarim, the Torah establishes an important rule. Moshe tells us that, "Should a person make an oath to God he shall not desecrate his word; Whatever comes from his mouth he shall do.” (Bamidbar 30:3) At first glance, it might seem that this only applies to oaths or promises. What about regular types of commitments? What if I promise to do something, but don’t swear to it?

Rambam, in the Sefer Hamitzvotexplains that in saying "Do not desecrate your words," the Torah is warning us in plain and simple language, not to go back on our word. In the words of the Midrash, "Do not make your words chullin – profane". When you make commitments, keep them. When you make promises, honor them. Why is it so important that the Torah command me not only to keep my oaths, but also to keep my non-oaths?

The answer to this question lies in understanding the choice of words in the Midrash. When the Midrash teaches us not to make our word chullin – "profane", this reminds us that from the perspective of the Torah, everything that we say has a level of kedushah - of inherent holiness. Indeed, this makes a great deal of sense. The primary physical characteristic that distinguishes man from animal is our power of speech. Only when we use this power in a positive way do we elevate ourselves. When we desecrate our speech, be it by speaking slander or with profanity or even not keeping our words, we take that spark of holiness that lies within each of us, and we make it chullin – profane. We take something beautiful and bright, and turn it into plainness and ugliness. It is for this reason that the Torah commands us to think about what we say and then follow through on our commitments. Only in this way can we ensure that our words retain the kedushah that God instilled within us.

As parents, we strive to raise our children with consistency. Common sense tell us, “Don’t make a threat if you’re aren’t going to carry it out.” If you do, your children know that you aren’t serious, and you’ll lose your ability to discipline. Have you ever been driving your car as your children scream at each other in the back, and turned around [while driving] and said, “If you kids don’t stop fighting, I’m going to stop this car right now?” You’re not going to do it – so don’t say it.

As our children grow older, these issues become even more serious. Teenagers find inconsistency and hypocrisy particularly frustrating. Time and time again they’d say, “I don’t care what crazy rules the school makes. That doesn’t bother me. What does bother me is when the school makes rules and then doesn’t enforce them.” To kids, hypocrisy and duplicity are the worst possible crimes. If our children feel that we don’t keep the commitments we make to them, or they see us not keeping the promises that we make to others, we run the danger of having them tune out everything else that we say as well. That’s a terrible risk to take.

Audio Shiur: Parshat Balak - Truth and Falsehood

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 06:43:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Balak - Truth and Falsehood

Is Balak a person who tells the truth? He seems to think that he is, and says so all the time.

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Audio Shiur: Parshat Chukat - The Death of Aharon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 06:25:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Chukat - The Death of Aharon

Chazal convey the pain and beauty in the process of Aharon's death. Why was he punished? And what can we learn from his death about the way that we handle death today? (Trigger warning: Shiur is a bit heavy. It's about death.)

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Audio Shiur: Parshat Behaalotecha - Moshe's Pain

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 17:04:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Behaalotecha - Moshe's Pain

When Miriam and Aharon speak negatively about Moshe, what was his reaction? Did he react at all? Was he above it all?

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Audio Shiur: Shevii Shel Pesach and the Meaning of Yom Yerushalayim

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 May 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
Shevii Shel Pesach and the Meaning of Yom Yerushalayim

Each year, I struggle to find meaning in Yom Yerushalayim. As we neared the 50th anniversary of Yom Yerushalayim, I have been giving the holiday a great deal of thought. In this shiur I discuss the miracle of the Six Day War and the meaning of the capture of Jerusalem in the broader context of the State of Israel in 1967. To do that, we study several texts related to the holiday of the Seventh Day of Pesach, and find through it new meaning in Yom Yerushalayim.

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Audio Shiur: The Case of Kelaim - Why do we Keep Commandments

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 May 2017 06:00:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
The Case of Kelaim - Why do we Keep Commandments

A short comment in Rashi about the reason (or lack of one) for the mitzvah of Kelaim leads us to a long essay from Ramban and a deep discussion about the nature of mitzvot and the reasons why we perform them.

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Audio Shiur: The Three Oaths - Why Some People Don't Celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut - and Why They're Wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 06:14:00 +0000

Audio Shiur:
The Three Oaths - Why Some People Don't Celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut - and Why They're Wrong

The three oaths appear in a very famous passage in Masechet Ketubot, and represent one of the basic texts of the anti-Zionist movement. We begin the shiur with a "hook" from Parashat Metzora

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