Category: audio
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Unetane Tokef
Here is a recording of a shiur I gave on the Unetane Tokef prayer, recited by Ashkenazim on both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. It is mainly about the provenance of the prayer, how the story is first recorded by the Or Zarua, who cites Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn, who reportedly said that Rabbi Kalonymous… Read more
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New Series of Shiurim
Beginning next week I will be giving a new series of shiurim on WebYeshiva entitled “Who Wrote the Commentaries on the Talmud.” The shiurim are broadcast live at 10:00pm (Israel time) on Wednesdays, and all shiurim are recorded and available for download by the day after the shiur. Previous series of shiurim that I have… Read more
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Three weeks
This shiur is for a refuah shleima of Ayala Pamela bat Leah. May she get well very soon! This is basically a repeat of a shiur I gave a few years ago (on a Shabbat, so it wasnt’t recorded) so you can read more about it here. I claim that one of the important (often… Read more
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Ralbag (Gersonides)
Rabbi Levi ben Gershom is not only the most studied Rishon in academia (after Rambam) but is also one of the most unique and interesting Rishonim (in a world when many were very interesting and unique). His views on science and Torah are both relevant (and speak to me) and dated (and only of historical… Read more
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Moshe Taku
This shiur was supposed to be about Rav Moshe Taku, but is really about the Maimonidean Controversy, and the relationship between philosophy and religion. I show that there were really three different approaches to the issues (and conflicts) of philosophy and religion. Rambam tries to make Judaism fit with Aristotle (or his version of it… Read more
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Shem Tov ibn Falaquera
This shiur is about Shem Tov ibn Falaquera (though there are many different ways of spelling his last name). Here is what Jewish Virtual Library says about ibn Falaquera: Shem Tov b. Joseph ibn Falaquera (c. 1225–c. 1295), translator and author of many works devoted largely to ethics and psychology, also wrote Moreh ha-Moreh, a… Read more
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Torah Moves to Spain
For the last two weeks I have spoken about Kairouan and the Torah that was taught there. At some point the Muhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifslims in Tunisia became too fundamental, and Torah moved to Spain. Rav Yitzchak Alfasi moved to Spain and while there one of his pupils was Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi. In this shiur I go off… Read more
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Rabbeinu Chananel
This shiur is really about the Rabbis of Kairouan and the codification of the Talmud. Having never heard of Kairouan at all until very recently it amazes me how many famous Rabbis lived there or learnt there. I have also wondered for many years about what made the Talmud a binding text on all of… Read more
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Rabbi Yitzchak Yisraeli
I gave a shiur last night about Rabbi Yitzchak (ben Shlomo) Yisraeli. He is possibly the first Rishon (because he was a contemporary of Rav Saadiah Gaon, so he is really before the era of the Rishonim. He also lived to the age of 100, so he really spanned the transition from Gaonim to Rishonim… Read more
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Acharei Mot
I kind of cheated here, because in Israel we read Acharei Mot last week, but outside of Israel it will be read this coming week, so it is still relevant (and I didn’t give a shiur last week because of Yom HaAtzma’ut). In this shiur I try to understand the position of Rabbi Abahu, who… Read more