So, Should I Believe?
If the topic of how far we can stretch Orthodox believes, and whether Dr Farber’s paper violates those limists bore you, you might want to skip ahead to the subtitle “Toward an Orthodox Epistemology“....
Faith and Proof / Fundamentals
by Micha Berger · Published August 2, 2013 – כ״ו באב תשע״ג · Last modified August 2, 2013
If the topic of how far we can stretch Orthodox believes, and whether Dr Farber’s paper violates those limists bore you, you might want to skip ahead to the subtitle “Toward an Orthodox Epistemology“....
by Micha Berger · Published July 30, 2013 – כ״ג באב תשע״ג · Last modified July 30, 2013
I feel a need to chime in about the contretemps about Dr Zev Farber’s essay “Avraham Avinu is My Father: Thoughts on Torah, History and Judaism” on thetorah.com. But first I want to lay...
by Micha Berger · Published July 30, 2013 – כ״ג באב תשע״ג · Last modified July 30, 2013
This is part two of my reactions to the internet discussions about Dr Zev Farber’s essay “Avraham Avinu is My Father: Thoughts on Torah, History and Judaism” on thetorah.com. In the first part, I...
The Netziv (Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin 1816-1893, last Rosh Yeshiva at Volozhin) wrote a relatively famous piece in Meishiv Davar (1:44) that is quoted a lot this time of year. I thought I...
In a comment on my recent post “Infinite Worth“, Raffi asked: Hey – would you elaborate on your intriguing definition of darkhei Shalom as “walking the path of He Who makes peace”? Vav —...
by Micha Berger · Published June 28, 2013 – כ׳ בתמוז תשע״ג · Last modified June 28, 2013
Yerushalmi Mes’ Qiddushin (or, as the Y-mi would itself call it: Meikhas Qiddushin, see here , the section subtitled “Linguistics”, for why I believe the difference in nomenclature is significant) includes three discussions that...
by Micha Berger · Published June 28, 2013 – כ׳ בתמוז תשע״ג · Last modified June 28, 2013
I have for a while kept a theory that not only do we aggadically consider human life to be of infinite value but that this notion has halachic import. For example, there is a...
Scientific American just (June 24,2013) put up a podcast titled “Teaching People To Be Nice” by Christie Nicholson on their “Mind & Brain :: 60 Second Mind” series. To quote (in full): Can you...
5- Devarim / Shema / Yahrzeits
by Micha Berger · Published June 17, 2013 – ט׳ בתמוז תשע״ג · Last modified June 17, 2013
My rebbe, Rav Dovid Lifshitz, passed away on 9 Tammuz 5753, 20 years ago today. I am posting a gemara that rebbe would often refer to in his shmuessin. Yuma 86a: At Rabbi Yanai[‘s...
by Micha Berger · Published June 12, 2013 – ד׳ בתמוז תשע״ג · Last modified June 12, 2013
When you drop a drop of ink into a cup of water, the ink spirals around in some chaotic pattern and eventually diffuses until the entire liquid is a uniform light blue. Even though...
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