Public Service announcement for those who take the light railway in Jerusalem. ***See RESPONSE FROM CITYPASS POST*** ***NEW: POTENTIAL CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST CITYPASS*** I found out today that CitiPass, the company that runs the trains, no longer honours the transfers from the Egged busses. When the train was proposed, built and became operational, the… Read more

Mazel Tov to all those who are learning daf hayomi and made a siyum today on Masechet Berachot. I don’t think Hallmark have yet made a card for this milestone event, but mazel tov to all of us, and may we continue to learn, to teach, to observe and to keep the mitzvot. (I still… Read more

I was reading an old Guitar magazine recently (from April 1996) and found a great vort from Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz) of the band KISS. He said: I tell you, this band does not have a self-esteem problem, but we never palled it that way. We just wanted walk our walk, talk our talk… Read more

Over Shabbat I was reading Rabbi Binyamin Lau’s book on the Sages (vol. 2) and found a footnote which sent me to a Tiferet Yisrael in Pirkei Avot. In his commentary there, Rav Lifschitz challenges some assumptions about the difference between Jews and non-Jews. I decided to try to translate it – but I only… Read more

The Daily Telegraph reports that a court in England (Essex) has ruled that a Jewish girl of 10 is old enough to decide that she wants to convert to Christianity. Apparently her Jewish parents divorced, and her father converted to become a Christian. Now the girl wants to join the father in his religion, against… Read more

As the Jewish world prepares for another cycle of daf yomi I was thinking about what makes ‘the daf’ so special. It seems, on the face of it, to be a crazy thing – to learn a daf of gemara – a whole folio – each day. It is beyond the capabilities of most people… Read more

Jon Lord – far left. The world is a little bit less ‘Purple’ today, with the passing of Jon Lord last night. He was the keyboard player for Deep Purple, and was a childhood hero of mine (probably still is one of my heroes if I’m honest). He was comfortable in the worlds of both… Read more

What would Rambam do if Aristotle was proven to be correct regarding the eternity of the universe? Rambam writes that Aristotle’s belief in the eternity of the universe contradicts many fundamental principles of Torah. Yet Rambam rejects Aristotle for two reasons: (1) Eternity has never been demonstrated conclusively and (2) Eternity contradicts the Torah. Here… Read more

This week we begin the book of Vayikra (Leviticus). The first few parshiyot deal with various kinds of sacrifices. Slaughtering animals for religous rites is a concept which is quite foreign to us today. (See ParshaBlog on Ibn Caspi’s view on sacrifices.) In the 1990 edition of the Singer Siddur (Authorised Daily Prayer Book) there… Read more

I know this is just an advertisement for Intel, but it is really quite cool. What happens to all those balls afterwards? Read more