Rabbi David Sedley

A repository of written, audio and video Torah classes given by Rabbi David Sedley

Month: August 2008

  • New kitchen

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    OK, I’m hot and exhausted but feeling very proud of myself for having actually accomplished something this morning. I have spent the last 2 hours putting in two shelves. I took a couple of pieces of wood that I found near the dumpster, sawed them (with a small hand saw) to the right size (well,… Read more

  • Some suggestions for the 2nd JBlogging Convention

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    OK, I suppose I was a bit too harsh in my assessment of the JBlogging convention because I’ve had many more hits than usual and been mentioned by DovBear! Must be bad. The truth is that if I’d just read his liveblogging of the event it would have been much better. He cut Bibi down… Read more

  • Research says: Large families aren't so bad

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    Cassandra Jardine has written an article for the Daily Telegraph about the advantages of having lots of children. She makes a lot of good points, showing the many advantages of large families, and some of the disadvantages (many of which only apply in Britain – higher taxes, or Australia – carbon tax!) The funny (to… Read more

  • inside the monkey suit – Jblogger convention

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    There is a principle in halacha that people don’t lie about something which can easily be proven false. Which is why I don’t understand the guys who found Bigfoot. What were they thinking? Perhaps nobody will notice it is a rubber monkey suit?Quite honestly I couldn’t care less if there is a bigfoot or not,… Read more

  • Hilchot Berachot

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    For the past three summers I have given shiurim at Midreshet Rachel v’Chaya on the subject of Berachot. During the rest of the year I teach Hilchot Shabbat (which is fairly straight forward) and Hilchot Kashrut (which is much more difficult). But always the most difficult subject is Berachot. There are many reasons why it… Read more

  • Devarim – tochecha

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    I gave a shiur this past Shabbos on the concept of tochecha – rebuke, reproach, admonishment – whatever you want to call it. The source sheets are here: Devarim shiur Isn’t it odd that on Tisha B’Av one of the signs of mourning is that we are not allowed to greet each other. Unfortunately some… Read more

  • Langton's Ant and the confines of Halacha

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    I’m not sure what the message from this is, but this is really neat. It is a thing called Langton’s Ant, which is a computer program with only a couple of simple rules. The ‘ant’ (a colored square) is placed on an infinite grid of white or black squares. The ant moves according to the… Read more

  • Free kids activities in Jerusalem

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    OK – two posts in two days is a bit too much to begin with right – but anyway… As everyone (in the northern hemisphere) knows it is now the summer holidays. Fun times will be had by all – or else! I have been trying to think of places to take my kids, or… Read more

  • JBlogger Convention

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    As you have probably noticed by now I haven’t blogged in a long time. I always wondered how people could have a blog for many months or years and then just give up. I won’t mention names, but we all know several bloggers who have disappeared from our rss feeds. Blogging used to give me… Read more