Michael el Chayil

As I have mentioned more times than you'd care to remember, I have been learning Spanish for more than two years now. I am now able to offer my seat on the bus to a young mother to be able to sit with her two little boys. I am also able to ask the cleaning lady to please put the recyclable trash straight into the blue can and to not put it into a trash bag. This process has taken longer than I had imagined, so to not take time from my learning, I also now get Manantiales de Torà , divrei Torah from R' Biderman (Torah Wellsprings, gringo). That has been a challenge and I am usually hard pressed to really get anything from it. But I have hope. I recently started a new chavrusa with a young man who is looking to improve his gemara skills. We are starting with Eilu Metzios and going carefully through the topics and each Rashi. Not just "getting the gist", but translating every word in the gemara and Rashi to really get a firm handle on both the topic and the skills that

At the table where I generally sit for the morning prayer service recently there was a cohein and a levi. I joked, "Hey if R' Ploni were here we would have all of Klal Yisrael represented -- cohein, levi, yisrael, and me -- the eirev rav." (They weren't born as part of Klal Yisrael, I wasn't born as part of Klal Yisrael... get it?) 😁 I thought it was funny, but the cohein and levi both looked at me and said, "You are not eirev rav; don't talk like that!" It was parshas Ki Sisa, so "eirev rav" is a bit of a trigger, after all. I started thinking about the eirev rav, though, and -- as often happens -- the simple, superficial understanding of the situation started to unravel. How did they get there? They crossed though the Yam Suf with Klal Yisrael. What did the eirev rav eat? Presumably the mahn along with everyone else. Moreover, even though it certainly was (a relatively small number of ) individuals from the eirev rav who built and worsh

During the recent celebration of the bar mitzvah of a grandson, many divrei Torah were shared. Among them, the following thought was shared:  Lashon HaKodesh is unique. In all other (human developed) languages, the words are merely labels that folks in a certain region have agreed to apply to this or that concept, this or that object. Lashon HaKodesh, though, captures the essence of the objects with the words it uses to describe them. In fact, the word דבר is translated as both "word" and "thing". (Except for Google Translate, which can't distinguish between דבר and שום דבר! That's certainly the peak of human invention!) Here's a specific example: the word for "hand" is יד. The gematria of יד is 14, and there are 14 moveable joints in the hand; three on each finger, two on the thumb. Go ahead and try it; I'll wait. Now wasn't that satisfying? Cute. Nice short vort to add spice to a larger d'var Torah. Is it more than that, or just a

Everyone knows that even though a forbidden substance is nullified once it is less than one part in 60 (and the other nullification rules). Everyone also knows: אין מבטל איסור לכתחילה/you are not allowed to nullify ; that is, to nullify the forbidden substance that is already in the mixture by adding more of the good stuff until the forbidden substance becomes nullified. Here is something that a lot of people know: Whole bugs are never nullified, even if less than one part in 60. Breaking up the bugs to nullify them is just as bad as adding more good stuff... not permitted. However, if they get busted up as part of making a recipe -- such as blending frozen fruit to make a smoothie -- then it is permitted. That is because you are not busting them up to nullify them; you are busting them up to make the recipe, in the process of which they get busted up. Now you can drink your smoothie because it only has less than one part in 60 of bug bits. Bon appétit -- and don't go g

The last mishna of masechta Tamid lists the שיר של יום, the chapter of Psalms we say each day at the end of shacharis. For Tuesday, we say Psalm 82, which begins: A song of Asaph. G-d stands in the congregation of G-d; in the midst of the judges He will judge.   מִזְמ֗וֹר לְאָ֫סָ֥ף אֱלֹקים נִצָּ֥ב בַּֽעֲדַת־קל בְּקֶ֖רֶב אֱלֹהִ֣ים יִשְׁפֹּֽט:  Why that particular psalm? The Bartenura explains: because on the third day of Creation the dry land/ היבשה appeared, and on it  -- היבשה -- the judges stand to do justice. Let's let that sink in. The entire land mass, without which human life would be impossible, came into being so we could have courts of justice. It sounds like justice is just as important to human life as dry land. That's one thing, but there is another. Since October 7th we have been saying psalms multiple times a day; beseeching HaShem to bring a swift end to hostilities and a real, lasting peace. After we say the requisite psalms, we all recite in unison: אַחֵינוּ

Seems obvious, right? I mean, if it's not broken, then how can you possibly fix it? In fact, why would you even want to fix it? Each week, I get Torah Wellsprings filled with divrei Torah on the parsha from R' Biderman. I just started to read this week's edition on parshas Mishpatim. It starts with a mashal: A man goes to a watchmaker and asks him, "Can you please fix the hands on my watch? They aren't moving." The watchmaker answers in the affirmative and asks for the watch. The man replies, more than a little surprised, "The watch? I left that at home. I brought you the hands. They are not moving and I need you to fix them." There is much more in the Torah Wellsprings, but I stopped there. How many times have I thought I knew what needed fixing and just focused my attention on that. How many times have I actually done more damage by trying to fix the obvious problem that is right in front of me? I once asked R' Dovid Siegel a question just to