What did the Elders see?
I It could be that this dispute between the rishonim speaks to a fundamental difference about what it is people are meant to accomplish in life. The Rambam’s navi is fully integrated on physical, intellectual...
by Micha Berger · Published February 4, 2016 – כ״ה בשבט תשע״ו · Last modified February 4, 2016
I It could be that this dispute between the rishonim speaks to a fundamental difference about what it is people are meant to accomplish in life. The Rambam’s navi is fully integrated on physical, intellectual...
by Micha Berger · Published December 1, 2013 – כ״ח בכסלו תשע״ד · Last modified December 1, 2013
The mitzvah of Beris Milah is introduced with the words, “אֲנִי קֵל שַׁקַּי, הִתְהַלֵּךְ לְפָנַי וֶהְיֵה תָמִים — I am Kel Shakai, walk yourself before Me, and be whole.” To me, this pasuk addresses...
I have been exposed to many misunderstandings in online conversations that revolve around the issue of Mysticism and Rationalism as competing strains in Jewish Thought. Including the idea that these accurate describe streams of...
by Micha Berger · Published September 8, 2012 – כ״א באלול תשע״ב · Last modified September 8, 2012
I was at a Mussar conference once, and Rabbi Dr. Meir Levin asked me about the programming. He asked, roughly, “When did Mussar shift from being about giving to others to being about working...
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 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...
4- Bamidbar / Forks / Holidays
by Micha Berger · Published January 8, 2009 – י״ב בטבת תשס״ט · Last modified January 8, 2009
Back on Chanukah I wrote: Chomos migdalei, the walls of my citadel [mentioned in the poem “Ma’oz Tzur“], were not the mighty walls around the Temple Mount or the walls of a fortress. They...
by Micha Berger · Published January 6, 2006 – ו׳ בטבת תשס״ו · Last modified January 6, 2006
We say in the Amidah for Shabbos and Yom Tov, “Vetaheir libeinu le’avekha be’emes”, usually translated simply as “And purify our hearts to serve You in truth.””Vetaheir libeinu” provides an interesting contrast to “veyacheid...
by Micha Berger · Published June 28, 2005 – כ״א בסיון תשס״ה · Last modified June 28, 2005
Thinking about it, I don’t think the whole Torah uMadah (TuM) vs. Torah im Derekh Eretz (TIDE) vs. “Torah Only” distinctions which have become the borders between our communities are really compatible with Mussar....
by Micha Berger · Published June 15, 2005 – ח׳ בסיון תשס״ה · Last modified June 15, 2005
We can draw a theme from parashas Bamidbar through the beginning of Beha’alosekha.In Beha’alosekha, Moshe and Aharon count the Jewish People “according to their families, by their father’s household” (1:2), divided by sheivet. Sheivet...
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