Keeping Torah and Values in Focus
I Dr Haym Solovetichik, in his famous paper “Rupture and Reconstruction“, describes a difference between the the Mishnah Berurah and the Arukh haShulchan as follows: This dual tradition of the intellectual and the mimetic, law as...
During my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans...
In 1967 Phillippa Foote raised a thought experiment philosophers call the Runaway Trolly Problem. Here is how wikipedia describes it: There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks,...
by Micha Berger · Published April 20, 2015 – א׳ באייר תשע״ה · Last modified April 20, 2015
When someone passes away, I try to find a life-lesson from their lives that I can incorporate into my own. This is rather easy with regard to Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, as the rosh yeshiva...
Here are two possibilities for the source of the minhag. The Yerushalmi makes the same statement that we have in the Bavli, that dough made from rice and water undergo a sirchon, not chameitz. Then it continues...
by Micha Berger · Published April 2, 2015 – י״ג בניסן תשע״ה · Last modified April 2, 2015
Resolved, That Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, be a committee, to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America. – Journals of Continental Congress, July 4th,...
by Micha Berger · Published March 5, 2015 – י״ד באדר תשע״ה · Last modified March 5, 2015
Esther’s life was overall a very tragic one. The story ends, and we’re told about Mordechai’s rise to political power and the taxes and all. Meanwhile, she is still married to a non-Jewish drunkard...
by Micha Berger · Published March 4, 2015 – י״ג באדר תשע״ה · Last modified March 4, 2015
One Purim at the se’udah, when people were feeling a little levity, Rav Chaim Volozhiner asked his Rebbe, the Vilna Gaon, for a berakahah. The Vilna Gaon blessed him that he would merit to...
“And they cried out in a great voice to Hashem their G-d” ((Nechemiah 9:4. The gemara’s quote is corrected here to match verse. The standard text reads “ויצעקו אל ה’ אלקים בקול גדול”.)) –...
by Micha Berger · Published February 13, 2015 – כ״ד בשבט תשע״ה · Last modified February 13, 2015
The Arukh HaShulchan (OC 431:21) writes: …והנה לדינא: חמץ ושאור – הכל אחד, שהרי מצינו שני פסוקים המתחילים ב”שאור” ומסיימים ב”חמץ”, דכתיב: “[שִׁבְעַת יָמִים מַצּוֹת תֹּאכֵלוּ] אַךְ בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן תַּשְׁבִּיתוּ שְּׂאֹר מִבָּתֵּיכֶם [כִּי כָּל...
by Micha Berger · Published February 8, 2015 – י״ט בשבט תשע״ה · Last modified February 8, 2015
It makes a lot of sense that the first mitzvos the Torah teaches after the Aseres haDiberos would be the interpersonal mitzvos of parashas Mishpatim. And many rabbis have given sermons on this point. The only problem...
by Micha Berger · Published February 7, 2015 – י״ח בשבט תשע״ה · Last modified February 7, 2015
We just looked at the section on the mizbeiach as being more about the role of the religious rite in a life of Torah. We don’t offer qorbanos — or daven, or shake lulav and esrog or… — ...
We say in the Friday night Amidah: אַתָּה קִדַּשְׂתָּ אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי לִשְׁמֶךָ, תַּכְלִית מַעֲשֶׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ, וּבֵרַכְתּוֹ מִכָּל הַיָּמִים, וְקִדַּשְׁתּוֹ מִכָּל הַזְּמַנִּים, וְכֵן כָּתוּב בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ: וַיְכֻלּוּ… You sanctified the seventh day for Your...
by Micha Berger · Published January 18, 2015 – כ״ז בטבת תשע״ה · Last modified January 18, 2015
If you would like this picture as a PDF to print for hanging in a school, shul or home, it is available here. We often complain that we spend so much time on the...
by Micha Berger · Published December 11, 2014 – י״ט בכסלו תשע״ה · Last modified December 11, 2014
I commented on Gratitude: What does “todah” mean? As it stands, it means “thanks”. The same root conjugated as “vidui” means to “confess”. Last, when the mishnah wants to stress that something is outside...
by Micha Berger · Published December 1, 2014 – ט׳ בכסלו תשע״ה · Last modified December 1, 2014
A gett must be given willingly, and for the past 1,100 years (among Ashkenazim, eventually reaching Sepharadim as well) received willingly as well. However, when a husband is obligated to dissolve the marriage, beis...
by Micha Berger · Published November 26, 2014 – ד׳ בכסלו תשע״ה · Last modified November 26, 2014
Rabbi R Yitzchak Eisenman recently wrote a “Short Vort” essay that asked: Many of us recall with horror the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School which occurred almost two years ago…. What ever happened...
by Micha Berger · Published November 24, 2014 – ב׳ בכסלו תשע״ה · Last modified November 24, 2014
וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַה לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ כִּי עֲקָרָה הִוא וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ ה וַתַּהַר רִבְקָה אִשְׁתּוֹ And Yitzchaq pleaded with Hashem opposite his wife, for she was sterile, and Hashem responded to his pleas, and Rivqa became...
by Micha Berger · Published October 28, 2014 – ד׳ במרחשוון תשע״ה · Last modified October 28, 2014
Here are things my dream Growth Oriented Shul would provide that normal shuls today do not: Qiddush after leining, before mussaf, combined with a devar Torah or text learning. Our attention spans have shrunk....
by Micha Berger · Published October 15, 2014 – כ״א בתשרי תשע״ה · Last modified October 15, 2014
Why is Sukkos called in our tefillos “zeman simchaseinu – the time of our joy“, or the Torah tell us at this holiday in particular “vehayisa akh sameich – you should only be happy”...
The following is the inaugural article (October 2014 issue) in a new column in Yashar: the Newsletter of The Mussar Institute. (Unlike Rabbi Yaakov Feldman, I wrote most of my piece before being told...
by Micha Berger · Published September 28, 2014 – ד׳ בתשרי תשע״ה · Last modified September 28, 2014
אמר רבי יהודה משום רבי עקיבא … אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא: … ואמרו לפני בראש השנה מלכיות זכרונות ושופרות. מלכיות: כדי שתמליכוני עליכם. זכרונות: כדי שיעלה זכרוניכם לפני לטובה. ובמה? בשופר. Rabbi Yehudah said...
Bitachon / Holidays / Teshuvah
by Micha Berger · Published September 18, 2014 – כ״ג באלול תשע״ד · Last modified September 18, 2014
תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר, בַּכֵּסֶה לְיוֹם חַגֵּנוּ. כִּי חֹק לְיִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא, מִשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹקֵי יַעֲקֹב. Blow the shofar at the new moon, at the fullness for our holiday. For it is a choq [a trans-rational statute]...
by Micha Berger · Published September 3, 2014 – ח׳ באלול תשע״ד · Last modified September 3, 2014
An intensive exploration into living life more skillfully What if you could … find joy in everyday transitions? get beyond judging the good and bad of transitions? bring order to the chaos of change?...
by Micha Berger · Published August 5, 2014 – ט׳ באב תשע״ד · Last modified August 5, 2014
As far as we can tell, Bar Qamtza comes off as something of a jerk. He is personally offended, so he actually joins with the enemy to take down his own people. A bit...
by Micha Berger · Published July 31, 2014 – ד׳ באב תשע״ד · Last modified July 31, 2014
As long as we continue teaching our kids halakhah (הלכה) without investing the same effort to give them a derekh, a path, we are literally teaching them how to walk (איך ללכת) but not...
by Micha Berger · Published July 1, 2014 – ג׳ בתמוז תשע״ד · Last modified July 1, 2014
My dear brothers and sisters, One thing that struck me is how heavily Hashem pointed out to us the concept of achdus, of unity, in how this tragedy unfolded. First, note the communities each...
Shaarei Yosher / Torah as Growth / Uncategorized
by Micha Berger · Published June 22, 2014 – כ״ד בסיון תשע״ד · Last modified June 22, 2014
Nefesh haChaim is a collection of Rav Chaim Volozhiner’s writings organized posthumously by his son and successor, R’ Yitzchak. We can see this in the self-description in the title page of the early editions...
by Micha Berger · Published June 15, 2014 – י״ז בסיון תשע״ד · Last modified June 15, 2014
Rav Yisrael Salanter wrote to Volozhin, the flagship yeshiva of the yeshiva movement. He offered the Netziv his services as a mashgiach ruchani. The Netziv said that he was welcome to come, but if...
Continuing on the prior post… A recurring topic on Avodah is the Mishnah Berurah’s use of the concept of ba’al nefesh yachmir, that while the halakhah itself allows for some leniency, “one who masters...
by Micha Berger · Published May 19, 2014 – י״ט באייר תשע״ד · Last modified May 19, 2014
Somewhat off topic for this blog, but I hope it will help those following daf yomi who are getting to the topic of astronomy and cross-examining witnesses to determine Rosh Chodesh (Rosh haShanah, mostly...
The gemara (Eirukhin 10b-11a) describes the magreifah, one of the musical instruments in the Beis haMiqdash, which in Biblical Hebrew is either the minnim or the ugav. Shemuel describes it as a box about...
We are here between ourselves, so we may frankly make the confession that we did not invent the art of printing; we did not discover America, in spite of Kayserling; we did not inaugurate...
by Micha Berger · Published May 1, 2014 – א׳ באייר תשע״ד · Last modified May 1, 2014
(This post comes with background music. If you listen to a capella singing during the omer, press play below now. “Ana Hashem”, sung by Nachum Stark, from “A Sefirah Kumzitz”.) There is a story...
by Micha Berger · Published April 18, 2014 – י״ח בניסן תשע״ד · Last modified April 18, 2014
AishDas’s motto is lifted from the motto of HaOlim, founded by Dr. Nathan Birnbaum which existed from the 1910s through the 1930s, ending with the decimation of European Jewry. “Da’as, Rachamim, Tif’eres” — Knowledge...
by Micha Berger · Published April 17, 2014 – י״ז בניסן תשע״ד · Last modified April 17, 2014
So, I was asked in the middle of the second seder: Why do we break the middle matzah for Yachatz? Is there some significance to it being the middle matzah? Here was my off-the-cuff answer,...
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