Michael el Chayil

There is a Russian expression (really, I confirmed it with a Romanian dental technician): Once you are 40, if you wake up and nothing hurts; you are dead. That is one way to look at growing older. Here's another. There was an ad campaign (I am told) that featured a 20's saying that he's never going to get cataracts, nor arthritis, nor even wrinkles. Why? Well, it was a campaign for disease that was infecting and killing a certain segment of the population. It ended with a plea for donations for more research. They also had a more lighthearted approach, putting a positive spin on wrinkles and grey hair as beautiful; mostly because it meant you hadn't died yet. That's one approach to aging. Basically difference spins on "well, it beats the alternative!" I would like to suggest a different approach. One of the most distressing situations I can imagine is being bored. Before you pshaw my phobia, consider that solitary confinement is one of the most feared puni...

If you have already heard of תדיר ושאינו תדיר תדיר קודם -- frequent and not frequent, frequent first -- and are surprised by the title, you are welcome to skip to the end, but please hear me out. If you are not so familiar with the topic, let's start with a short introduction. In those cases where two obligations come up for a single event, this rule determines which comes first. For example, in bentching there are additions for both Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh. On Shabbos Rosh Chodesh, you will perforce say one before the other; halacha neither requires nor even condones speaking different things out of both sides of your mouth. The rule of תדיר ושאינו תדיר תדיר קודם tells you to say the addition for Shabbos first, and then the addition for Rosh Chodesh. This also comes up in the chapter of psalms we say after morning prayers. The extra psalm for Rosh Chodesh -- which is said 18-ish times a year -- comes after the daily psalm -- which is said 52-ish times a year. What about לדוד/Psal...

Sundown is still a bit late for R' Schwimmer's Friday night chumash shiur at the Tessler home, but we are getting close. We are also between Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur, which is an excellent time for some honest and significant soul searching. That being the case, R' Schwimmer graciously agreed to give a short shiur last Friday night on Shabbos Shuva. If you were there, you may want to just move on, as my summary is not going to approach the inspiration you have already received. If you were not there, then I hope this sparks your interest enough to make going to the shiur a regular part of your winter Shabbos evenings. The shiur started with two questions on the time in which we now find ourselves. One is something I have contemplated for years and I believe is a relatively famous topic. Namely, why do we have the Day of Judgement first and then 10 days later the Day of Atonement. Any reasonable person would much rather work out a deal before going to court. Going to co...

I am not known for being subtle. That also means that subtle messages often pass me by, way under my radar. When I hear the same message -- nearly word for word -- from two different shiurim one right after the other, even I sometimes notice. There is a mitzvah to do תשובה. That means to confess your past bad deeds, regret them, abandon them, and accept with full sincerity to never repeat them. What would you say is the main part of that? I would think that abandoning one's bad ways, regretting them, and accepting never to do them again. After all, if we don't change, have we done תשובה? If I don't regret the sins, have I really changed? Confession? Pshaw... there is a religion that has little booths for confession.  They are sort of like telephone booths, but more dark and cramped, and only for extremely local calls; through a little opening to an adjoining booth. You tell the priest, whom you can't see and you hope he doesn't recognize your voice, all the bad thin...

Funny story. For years we have not eaten grapes on ראש השנה. (Funny story within funny story, I couldn't decide how many "n"'s and whether to put an "h" at the end of the transliteration of ראש השנה; so I punted and decided to just leave it in the original.) We didn't eat grapes, because I had been told that the Vilna Gaon (I'll leave that one alone) said we shouldn't eat grapes on ראש השנה. Why not? It's a secret 😉; you know, kabala stuff. (No final "h", one "l"; sigh...) I thought this was well known. After all, if I -- who did not grow up in the Orthodox Jewish tradition -- know something, then everyone must know it. Fine, fine, that is getting less true as I get older, but still. Anyway... We are, בעזרת השם , having guests for the first day of ראש השנה and they wanted to bring a Waldorf Salad -- which happens to include grapes and walnuts. (My wife knew that, not me.) Of course, we all knew that the walnuts would have...

I have been giving a weekly shiur on Sefer Chafeitz Chaim for some time. Just last night, we finished the sefer. Minutes after the shiur  concluded, I received two different emails inviting me to online presentations about the Chafeitz Chaim, whose yarhtzeit is today, 24 Elul. Amazing coincidence, no? The last syef, 15, of the last siman, 9, of Hilchos רכילות, which follows a slightly larger section on Hilchos לשון הרע, begins with an all too common scenario that the Chafeitz Chaim uses to demonstrate just have fast and how deeply a relatively parve situation can dive into the murky waters of רכילות ולשון הרע. Near the end of that example, the saintly Chafeitz Chaim explains how one should act in that situation. Then, for the last paragraph, the closing thought and message, that same saintly Chafetz Chaim seems to take a sharp left turn. ודע/Now know that everything we have written in this sefer regarding the great care one must take to stay away from the sin of לשון הרע is re...