Category: torah
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Who Would Rabbeinu Tam Vote For
In the recent election campaign, one of the parties (who were not elected to Knesset) ran a campaign asking who Rambam would vote for. The implications of the ad were: 1. Rambam is in favour of learning Torah AND working (and by extension serving the country/army/being a productive member of society) 2. (Not stated but… Read more
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How heavy were the Ten Commandments?
I know it isn’t relevant until Ki Tissa, which we won’t read for another two weeks. (Or it was relevant to the daf from 3 weeks ago), but I was just wondering… How heavy were the two tablets that Moshe brought down from Mount Sinai? I mean in weight, not in importance. The Talmud (Nedarim… Read more
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Would you still be Religious?
Someone asked me the following question this week. This blog is my attempt at an answer (though I still don’t have a final answer, and may change my mind in the future) Let’s say archaeologists find writings from 2700 years ago, were King Josiah and the priests discuss the name of what is going to… Read more
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Post Tisha B’Av Post
It is amazing how deprivation makes the desire grow stronger. For 24 hours, the whole of Tisha B’Av, we are not allowed to learn Torah, because it makes us happy. For 24 hours I sit and stare at all the seforim on the shelf and wish I was allowed to learn them. They look so… Read more
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Pray for Learning
I have just come home from my son’s end of year performance (and what a performance it was – don’t ask. Just let me tell you that I love him a lot). The principle spoke told a story about R’ Shimon Shkop, who said that once, while learning in Volozhin, he was unable to understand… Read more
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Short vort Parshat Zachor
I gave the short vort this week for Shapell’s. It is about Parshat Zachor. The midrash (Pesikta d’Rabbi Yishmael end of Beshalach)says that Amalek’s descendents are not accepted as converts. On the other hand the Gemara in Gittin (57b) says that Haman’s grandsons taught and learnt Torah in B’nei Brak. The short vort tries to… Read more
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Remember 6 – Mount Sinai
This is the final shiur in the series on the Six Remembrances that I gave at Midreshet Rachel (I know that there are only 4 shiurim and there are 6 remembrances, but I only had a four week slot). It deals with the mitzvah to remember the Giving of the Torah and the Sinai experience.The… Read more
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Remember Amalek
This is the latest in my series of shiurim on the Six Remembrances. It is about remembering what Amalek did to us when we left Egypt (and therefore is also connected to Parshat Hashavua). I talk about Amalek, Purim, masks, time, Moshe, atomic half-life, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and patterns in randomness.Click here to listen to… Read more
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Golden Calf
This is the shiur I gave yesterday at Midreshet Rachel. It is the second of my series on the six things that we must remember daily (although in the siddur it is actually the fourth one, but I explained in the shiur that the second and third fit in very well with the next two… Read more
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Parshat Vaera
Here is my d’var Torah for parshat vaera. I will be the in-Shabbos Rabbi at Darche Noam this week, so if you will be there I had better think of something else to say as well. Here is the link to the pdf version If you like this summary can you click on this link… Read more