Keeping Torah and Values in Focus
by Micha Berger · Published March 14, 2011 – ח׳ באדר ב׳ תשע״א · Last modified March 14, 2011
(Expanded from a couple of months ago.) שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים, תֵּעָשֶׂה מְלָאכָה, וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי יִהְיֶה לָכֶם קֹדֶשׁ, שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן לַה’; כָּל-הָעֹשֶׂה בוֹ מְלָאכָה, יוּמָת. Six days work shall be done, and the seventh day shall...
(For an earlier post on depression and hopelessness, see “Raba Got Up and Slaughtered Rav Zeira” about a famous gemara about Purim. This thought comes mostly from R’ Menachem Zupnik, said a number of...
by Micha Berger · Published February 22, 2011 – י״ח באדר א׳ תשע״א · Last modified February 22, 2011
This will only be of interest to people who care about Symbolic Logic and about the rules of birur, of resolution of doubt in halachic questions. But I found something I wrote back in...
by Micha Berger · Published February 4, 2011 – ל׳ בשבט תשע״א · Last modified February 4, 2011
There are two halachic indivisible units of time. When it comes to interruption, or for defining a single statement (e.g. when correcting oneself in davening) the unit is tokh kedei dibbur — within the...
by Micha Berger · Published January 23, 2011 – י״ח בשבט תשע״א · Last modified January 23, 2011
(Published in the December 2010 issue of Kol Hamevaser, “The Jewish Thought Magazine of the Yeshiva University Student Body”. The issue’s topic: “Derekh Ha-Limmud”. (Two additions not in the published version are added in...
by Micha Berger · Published January 10, 2011 – ה׳ בשבט תשע״א · Last modified January 10, 2011
I want to share, with permission, the following exchange I had with Ellen Rosen, a member of The Mussar Institute. On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 09:15:00AM -0800, Erosen1@aol.com wrote: I have a question...
by Micha Berger · Published January 6, 2011 – א׳ בשבט תשע״א · Last modified January 6, 2011
One more thought about my “Halakhah and Phenomenology” series…. A basic assumption behind the series is that what justifies looking at the world as experienced and as it could be directly experienced is the...
by Micha Berger · Published January 3, 2011 – כ״ז בטבת תשע״א · Last modified January 3, 2011
The Yerushami (Challah 3:5) discusses the case of when bread which didn’t have challah taken (or flour which didn’t have terumah taken from it), fell into a quantity of already separated bread. The gemara...
by Micha Berger · Published December 29, 2010 – כ״ב בטבת תשע״א · Last modified December 29, 2010
In “Invoking Tradition” I suggested that the amora’im of the Yerushalmi would not add their own interpretations to the words of the tana’im. The traditions must be preserved in their integrity. (And in “On...
by Micha Berger · Published December 21, 2010 – י״ד בטבת תשע״א · Last modified December 21, 2010
(Initial post: With thanks to R’ Eli Turkel for providing some of the sources and all of the motivation for this post. (Dec 21st: Significantly expanded to include sources I dug up for further...
by Micha Berger · Published December 15, 2010 – ח׳ בטבת תשע״א · Last modified December 15, 2010
It seems to me, the overall question of theodicy and explaining why tragedy enters the lives of anyone but the most evil, can be addressed on two levels. Philosophically, the question is unanswerable. As...
by Micha Berger · Published December 9, 2010 – ב׳ בטבת תשע״א · Last modified December 9, 2010
The Mishnah in Maaser Sheini 5:4 discusses the obligation to be finished with all maaser by the Pesach after the third and sixth years of the shemittah cycle. The mishnah describes messages sent to...
3- Vayiqra / Qedushah / Shaarei Yosher
by Micha Berger · Published November 29, 2010 – כ״ב בכסלו תשע״א · Last modified November 29, 2010
(The following is based on a class I gave on Shabbat at Mussar Kallah IX, and is the further development of a number of ideas R’ Gil Student and I wrote for Mesuqim MiDevash.)...
by Micha Berger · Published November 25, 2010 – י״ח בכסלו תשע״א · Last modified November 25, 2010
The story so far: In the first post, I suggested that it was Rav Yehudah, founder of the Yeshiva in Pumbedisa, who really developed the style of shaqla vetarya (dialectic) that we find in...
by Micha Berger · Published November 19, 2010 – י״ב בכסלו תשע״א · Last modified November 19, 2010
From R’ Gil Student’s blog “Hirhurim“, a sad quote about the underlying greatness of my rebbe: When I was a bochur in yeshivah I had a scary experience. I had the zekhus of assisting...
by Micha Berger · Published November 12, 2010 – ה׳ בכסלו תשע״א · Last modified November 12, 2010
(Cut-n-paste from R’ Chaim Brown’s blog, Divrei Chaim.) Thursday, November 11, 2010 “In public school, they’ll ask you at the end, ‘Well, what have you learned?’ But here at Rice, the question is, ‘What...
by Micha Berger · Published November 9, 2010 – ב׳ בכסלו תשע״א · Last modified November 9, 2010
Now available by R’ Dr Daniel Eidensohn and Dr Baruch Shulem!Daas Torah: Child & Domestic Abuse, vol 1 & 2 This book is divided into two volumes – each of which is a complete...
by Micha Berger · Published November 7, 2010 – ל׳ במרחשוון תשע״א · Last modified November 7, 2010
So, I recently described Rav Yehudah’s trip down to Pumbedisa, where he founded a yeshiva where learning was based on the dialectic method, the style of shaqla vetarya (question and answer) that typifies the...
by Micha Berger · Published October 29, 2010 – כ״א במרחשוון תשע״א · Last modified October 29, 2010
Yet Another Peshat in the Aqeidah One thing highlighted by the vast rabbinic discussion of the aqeidah — we can’t expect simple, clear-cut, answers to these questions. Much like the numerous opinions in the...
by Micha Berger · Published October 20, 2010 – י״ב במרחשוון תשע״א · Last modified October 20, 2010
These are notes from a talk I gave in Zion Il at the 8th Mussar Kallah. As a favor to those who asked me to publish notes, as the talk was given on Shabbos,...
by Micha Berger · Published September 26, 2010 – י״ח בתשרי תשע״א · Last modified September 26, 2010
I There is a famous dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Aqiva about what it is we commemorate with the mitzvah of sukkah. The Torah reads (Vayiqra 23:42-43): בַּסֻּכֹּ֥ת תֵּֽשְׁב֖וּ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֑ים כָּל־הָֽאֶזְרָח֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל...
by Micha Berger · Published September 18, 2010 – י׳ בתשרי תשע״א · Last modified September 18, 2010
Now that the US’s role in Iraq has formally changed, I want to mention something about the city of Falluja. During the early years of US presence in Iraq, we heard a lot about...
by Micha Berger · Published September 14, 2010 – ו׳ בתשרי תשע״א · Last modified September 14, 2010
Caveat: Most of these entries are extrapolations from something I learned. In this case, the entry is a chidush on top of an earlier chidush. In Mesilas Yesharim ch. 24, the Ramchal describes the...
by Micha Berger · Published September 7, 2010 – כ״ח באלול תש״ע · Last modified September 7, 2010
There is much todo in some circles about Stephen Hawking’s latest book, “The Grand Design”. Co-written by Leonard Mlodinow, but it’s Hawking’s name in science and sheer genius that gives the book its gravitas,...
by Micha Berger · Published August 30, 2010 – כ׳ באלול תש״ע · Last modified August 30, 2010
It is interesting to contrast the Chinukh’s description of terumah, the first gift taken from one’s produce, given to a kohein, with his description of ma’aser rishon, the tenth given to the levi’im. Terumah,...
by Micha Berger · Published August 17, 2010 – ז׳ באלול תש״ע · Last modified January 12, 2023
So there I was, first day of calculus class, and the professor, Dr Leon Ehrenpreisz”l hands out a xerox of a page of gemara. The blatt is Sukkah 8a, a conversation of the minimum...
As I write this, it’s a few hours before Rosh Chodesh Elul. For many people, a time for choosing chumeros, stringencies in those areas of our lives that could use that extra attention. The...
כל הכלים שעשה משה כשרים לו וכשרים לדורות, חצוצרות ־ כשרות לו ופסולות לדורות. All the vessels that Moshe made were valid for him and valid for future generations, [except for] the chatzotzros ([silver]...
by Micha Berger · Published July 13, 2010 – ב׳ באב תש״ע · Last modified July 13, 2010
This post, like the one I blogged last week, reflects a conversation with R’ Rich Wolpoe and R’ Ben Hecht on NishmaBlog and email, on the topic of R’ Nathan Lopez Cardozo’s “On the...
Now available. Alan’s newest book! (assisted by Rabbi Micha Berger) “You shall be holy,” teaches the Torah, and the masters of Mussar have always taken that command very seriously. Mussar is a system of...
This post is in response to R’ Nathan Lopez Cordozo’s “On the Nature and Future of Halakha in Relation to Autonomous Religiosity” on the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals web site. First to...
מעשה ברבי ישבב שעמד והחליק את כל נכסיו לעניים. שלח לו ר”ג, “והלא אמרו חומש מנכסיו למצות?” ור”ג לא קודם לאושא היה? ר’ יוסי בר’ בון בשם ר’ לוי: כך היתה הלכה בידם, ושכחוה,...
by Micha Berger · Published June 11, 2010 – כ״ט בסיון תש״ע · Last modified June 11, 2010
The title verse of this week’s parashah reads “ויקח קרח” (Bamidbar 16:39). The simple translation would be “And Qorach took”. However, the Midrash Rabbah takes it slightly differently, using an equally valid if less...
As a memorial to R’ Mordechai Eliyahuzt”l, here is a translation of the introduction to his siddur, “Sefatei Tiftach”: How Does Prayer Influence? One must read well the verses that speak about the creation...
R’ Yaakov Haber put this up at his blog, and I think it SO warrants further distribution, I’m mentioning it here. To quote: … [E]veryday there were posters about how, in the opinion of...
by Micha Berger · Published June 4, 2010 – כ״ב בסיון תש״ע · Last modified June 4, 2010
Note this map of Israel, as it was divided into the territories for the various shevatim: There are two things odd about the south-west corner of the map. First, the Gaza Strip is not...
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