Brisk and Telz
(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...
Aspaqlaria Blog
Glory and Egalitarianism
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...
Halakhah and Phenomenology – Addendum: Placebos
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...
Halakhah and Phenomenology – The Unknown and Bitul
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...
Pesaq Without Resolution
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...
When Science and Torah Conflict
(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...
Explaining Tragedy
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...
Tevel is Called Holy
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...
Holiness and Carrying the Yoke with the Other
(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.)...
On Nets and Pieces
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...
What defines greatness
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...
In one sentence, what Yeshiva chinuch is all about
(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...
Book Announcement: Daas Torah: Child and Domestic Abuse
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...
Invoking Tradition
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...
Tefillah Behitpa’alut
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,...
Clouds of Glory
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...
Selichah, Mechilah, Kapparah, Yir’ah and Simchah
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...
M-Theory and Creation
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,...
Terumah and Maaser
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,...
R’ Dr Eliezer Ehrenpreis z”l
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...
Choosing Chumeros
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...
The Call of the Chatzotzros
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]...
Balancing Community and Authenticity
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...
Book Announcement: Every Day, Holy Day
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...
Balancing Simplicity and Authenticity
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...
Halakhah leMosheh miSinai
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,...
Qorach’s Heart
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...
How Does Prayer Influence?
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...
The Pashkevil To End All Pashkevilin
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...
The Time of the Ivrim
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...
Two Ideals
(Split off from last week’s post “Shavuos Reading” because I thought of a number of points I wanted to add.) Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, in the Naso 5770 issue of his weekly Parashah Sheet...
Shavuos Reading
I just wanted to share some of what I came across this Shavuos… 1- From YU’s “Shavuos-to-Go”, R’ Mordechai Torczyner writes about the connection between Shavuos and chessed. Often cited is the idea that...
Yom Yerushalayim
“זְכֹ֤ר ה’֨ ׀ לִבְנֵ֬י אֱד֗וֹם אֵת֮ י֤וֹם יְֽרוּשָׁ֫לִָ֥ם …— Hashem, remind the children of Edom of the Day of Jerusalem…” – Tehillim 137:7 It seems odd to me, but this is the oldest source...
Building Anew
65 years before was the holocaust — one third of our people killed. When we left Egypt, we were led through the desert by a pillar of fire by day, and a pillar of...
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