The True Hero
Don’t picture a single jar of oil found amidst the rubble. The Beis haMiqdash wasn’t trashed, it was perverted into a Temple of Zeus. … That single jar oil needed to be searched for because it had been hidden. Who hid it?
Anavah / Bitachon / Holidays / Yir`ah
by Micha Berger · Published December 22, 2022 – כ״ח בכסלו תשפ״ג · Last modified December 23, 2022
Don’t picture a single jar of oil found amidst the rubble. The Beis haMiqdash wasn’t trashed, it was perverted into a Temple of Zeus. … That single jar oil needed to be searched for because it had been hidden. Who hid it?
5- Devarim / Dei`os / Other-Focused O / Yir`ah
by Micha Berger · Published August 19, 2022 – כ״ב באב תשפ״ב · Last modified August 31, 2022
Adding together the two pesuqim, then, we get a more complete description of the path Hashem expects us to walk:
1- To be aware of the enormity of the Divine,,,.
2- which should motivate us to emulate…
3- … we come to love Him
and aim everything at wholeheartedly following His Plan to be good to us.
4- Hashem gave us Jews the Torah and mitzvos …
5- To help us become good human beings, creatures who are fair, motivated by lovingkindness, humility, in our partnership with our Creator.
2- Shemos / Pesach / Torah as Growth / Yir`ah
by Micha Berger · Published April 12, 2019 – ז׳ בניסן תשע״ט · Last modified April 12, 2019
The Mussar Institute is doing an omer series based on the 48 skills necessary to acquire Torah, listed in Avos 6:6. I was given the task of writing today’s — day 5, eimah (fear)....
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...
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...
by Micha Berger · Published November 29, 2012 – ט״ו בכסלו תשע״ג · Last modified November 29, 2012
The story so far… Words are how we divide the space of ideas into more specific “countries”. Our choice of vocabulary therefore not only reflects our thoughts, but shape them. And more importantly, they...
by Micha Berger · Published November 26, 2012 – י״ב בכסלו תשע״ג · Last modified November 26, 2012
The time it took me to write my previous post grew long, so I cut it down to being set-up material for this one just to get it out the door. Here was the...
by Micha Berger · Published November 15, 2012 – א׳ בכסלו תשע״ג · Last modified November 15, 2012
In a relatively recent post (“Confrontation and Babel“) I invoked a quote from R’ J.B. Soloveitchik’s Confrontation to highlight the linkage between language and worldview, and thus between language and religion. Rabbi Soloveitchik writes:...
by Micha Berger · Published October 2, 2005 – כ״ח באלול תשס״ה · Last modified October 2, 2005
In an earlier entry, I suggested that we take the feelings generated by seeing the shuls of Azza ransacked, and use them to motivate our behavior in our own synagogues. Including (but not limited...
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