Keeping Torah and Values in Focus
by Micha Berger · Published August 5, 2013 – כ״ט באב תשע״ג · Last modified August 5, 2013
Thinking about the title word of yesterday’s parashah, I wondered about the two sensory metaphors we use for learning. Here our parashah opens “re’eih”– see. But usually the Torah uses “shema“, to listen. In fact, shemi’ah appears later in...
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...
Absolutism / Ta`amei haMitzvos
by Micha Berger · Published June 10, 2013 – ב׳ בתמוז תשע״ג · Last modified June 10, 2013
(Originally posted Mar 2007, now enlarged.) “Qinyan” is usually translated “acquisition”, and “ba’alus“, “ownership”. I would suggest that neither translation is precise. And this imprecision only leads to difficulties in understanding the law, rather...
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...
See the value of a single mitzvah, even if performed for primarily ulterior motives! From Yerushalmi Qiddushin 22b: א”ר יוחנן: אם שמעת דבר מר’ ליעזר בנו של ר”י הגלילי, נקב אזנך כאפרכס. הזו ושמע...
by Micha Berger · Published May 21, 2013 – י״ב בסיון תשע״ג · Last modified May 21, 2013
I just completed a webinar (3 classes, 45 min each) for The Mussar Institute on Project Sinai‘s web site. Recordings of the classes are available on Project Sinai’s site: First Shiur. (The volume is...
by Micha Berger · Published April 30, 2013 – כ׳ באייר תשע״ג · Last modified April 30, 2013
H/T RYGB, who posted this Tanchuma under the same title (“An amazing, …”). I would like to add translation. Medrash Tanchuma, Tzav (#3 in Warsaw ed., #5 in Buber ed.): “This is the Torah of...
by Micha Berger · Published April 21, 2013 – י״א באייר תשע״ג · Last modified April 21, 2013
A central theme in this “Phenomenology” category of this blog is an extension of an idea from a responsum by R’ Aqiva Eiger. That extension isn’t really part of this observation, but since I’m...
by Micha Berger · Published April 10, 2013 – ל׳ בניסן תשע״ג · Last modified April 10, 2013
Nowadays, it’s the norm to believe that all events in the universe, even which way a leaf falls in the middle of the forest, is subject to specific Divine Providence (hashgachah peratis — HP...
by Micha Berger · Published April 7, 2013 – כ״ז בניסן תשע״ג · Last modified April 7, 2013
דְּבַשׁ מָצָאתָ אֱכֹל דַּיֶּךָּ פֶּן תִּשְׂבָּעֶנּוּ וַהֲקֵאתוֹ. If you find honey, eat just enough; lest you get full and vomit it. – Mishlei 25:16 (In the days of the geonim and earlier rishonim it was...
We can consider the rasha, the evil child, to be a failed chakham (the wise one). He is engaged with the laws of Pesach, but unlike the first child, he rejects them. The third son, the tam, is...
by Micha Berger · Published March 25, 2013 – י״ד בניסן תשע״ג · Last modified March 25, 2013
My friend Neil Harris wrote over on his blog Modern Uberdox: I pray that this Pesach brings an end to the exile of the self and a redemption of the person I was created...
Halakhah is the means G-d gave us to actively and creatively complete ourselves, to use our Image-of-G-d ability to be who choose to make ourselves and become ever close to that “Image”. The word...
by Micha Berger · Published March 20, 2013 – ט׳ בניסן תשע״ג · Last modified March 20, 2013
A second thought on the first / title word of parashas Vayiqra… וַיִּקְרָא אֶל מֹשֶׁה וַיְדַבֵּר ה אֵלָיו מֵאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֵאמֹר. And He called to Moshe, and Hashem spoke to him from the Ohel...
by Micha Berger · Published March 19, 2013 – ח׳ בניסן תשע״ג · Last modified March 19, 2013
וַיִּקְרָא אֶל מֹשֶׁה וַיְדַבֵּר ה אֵלָיו מֵאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֵאמֹר. And He called to Moshe, and Hashem spoke to him from the Ohel Moeid, saying. – Vayiqra 1:1 “וַיִּקְרָא אֶל מֹשֶׁה” – לכל דברות ולכל...
R’ Moshe Halbertal’s paper on the nature of machloqes found three classical positions. (I blogged on this back in 2005; and you can see RMH’s original 1994 paper “The History of Halakhah, Views from...
by Micha Berger · Published March 1, 2013 – י״ט באדר תשע״ג · Last modified March 1, 2013
I have heard many derashos discussing the linkage between parashas Tetzaveh and Purim, which usually falls out around the week of Tetzaveh. Typically involving the discussion of the kohein‘s uniform in Tetzaveh and all...
by Micha Berger · Published February 27, 2013 – י״ז באדר תשע״ג · Last modified February 27, 2013
(Version 3.) In the previous entry, I wrote: “Rav SR Hirsch argues that the Rambam only failed to find the meaning to the details of the mitzvos because his assumption that mitzvos serve to...
by Micha Berger · Published February 22, 2013 – י״ב באדר תשע״ג · Last modified February 22, 2013
The argument over whether the Rambam’s philosophy had a place in Jewish Thought didn’t end in 1306 when the Maimonidian Controversies (that began in his lifetime) died down. Even to this day, in many...
by Micha Berger · Published February 13, 2013 – ג׳ באדר תשע״ג · Last modified February 13, 2013
Saying that I have bitachon, trust that Hashem sets up the world I experience to maximize my opportunity for success, implies that I believe that all of my failures are due to my own...
by Micha Berger · Published January 16, 2013 – ה׳ בשבט תשע״ג · Last modified January 16, 2013
We open the Shemoneh Esrei by referring to Hashem as “Hashem Elokeinu vEilokei avoseinu — Hashem, our G-d, and the G-d of our ancestors….” Three distinct ways of perceiving G-d are being given here:...
by Micha Berger · Published January 14, 2013 – ג׳ בשבט תשע״ג · Last modified January 14, 2013
נענה רבן גמליאל ואמר: “צְדָקָה תְרוֹמֵם גּוֹי…” (משלי יד:לד) — אלו ישראל. דכתיב (דברי הימים א יז:כא) “וּמִי כְּעַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל…” [וגו’] “…וְחֶסֶד לְאֻמִּים חַטָּאת”(משלי שם) — כל צדקה וחסד שעכו”ם עושין, חטא הוא להן....
by Micha Berger · Published December 27, 2012 – י״ד בטבת תשע״ג · Last modified December 27, 2012
Until adultery became too commonplace (in the days of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai, shortly after the destruction of the Beis haMiqdash) a wife whose husband suspected her of having an affair could forbid her...
by Micha Berger · Published December 18, 2012 – ה׳ בטבת תשע״ג · Last modified December 18, 2012
צריך שיהיו תפילין עליו בשעת ק”ש ותפלה. A man must have tefillin on at the time of reading Shema and prayer [Shemoneh Esrei]. – Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 25:4 בשעת ק”ש ותפלה: ר”ל לכל...
by Micha Berger · Published December 9, 2012 – כ״ה בכסלו תשע״ג · Last modified December 9, 2012
(This post is a different treatment of the same themes as “Mas’ei — the Journey as a Name of G-d“.) וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. And Yaaqov settled in the land of...
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...
1- Bereishis / Business Ethics - QSA
by Micha Berger · Published November 28, 2012 – י״ד בכסלו תשע״ג · Last modified November 28, 2012
What is the role of the laws of business listed in Choshein Mishpat (the quarter of the Tur and Shulchan Aruch on financial matters)? One approach could be that working for income is a...
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