Michael el Chayil

As a physicist, one of the first things we learn is that physics never answers "why" questions.  Nonetheless, people do  ask perfectly reasonable questions that are phrased as "why" questions -- "Why is the sky blue?", for example.  What they mean, of course, is: "how/by what mechanism does such and such happen".  Where does one go to get his "why" questions answered?  The stock physicist answer is "religion"; by which physicists actually mean to say that asking why is meaningless, so feel free to shop around for any answer you like. Prayer seems like such an integral part of religion that one may never think to ask, "why pray?"  (Besides, obviously, the anti-religious crowd who aren't asking at all, but are making a snide commentary on the entire institution.)  I have learned a lot, though, by asking questions no one thought to ask.  So... why pray? To make the question more concrete, imagine I were to walk ...

I had the opportunity recently to enjoy getting to know a couple who have lived their entire life in a very small town in Iowa.  Very, very nice people.  Mid-seventies, married almost 60 years; he was a lineman for the power company and she did daycare in her home and took in ironing.  You just can't get more salt of the earth than that. Chazal tell us that even though there is no Torah among the nations, there is  wisdom.  In fact, there is a Torah obligation to stand when anyone over 70 -- Jew or non-Jew -- walks into the room.  Chazal explain that even without Torah, someone who has lived that long has seen miracles and has thereby achieved some measure of wisdom.  My ears therefore really perked up when she said that there was something she had a lesson from her parents that needed to be shared with the younger generation. Her older sisters had been born during the Great Depression  (she had been born during WWII).  During the war, in...

One of the highlights of my week is when I get a phone call from my first born granddaughter on erev Shabbos.  Sometimes she has a d'var Torah to tell me, and she always asks for a d'var Torah from me.  I always try to have a d'var Torah for her that will elicit a giggle... then I know I've been successful.  I was particularly motivated the Friday of parshas Toldos; a young man I knew had been taken from the world suddenly and I was full of uncomfortable questions. I asked her if she knew what character trait Yitzchak Avinu exemplified and represented his whole life.  "Of course!  Yitzchak is דין/strict measure of law."  Very good... and then I asked if she knew what the name "Yitzchak" means.  "Um... he will laugh?"  Right again!  So I asked her it that seems like the right name for him.  Of course it didn't.  So I told her that the great Torah sage for whom her brother is named -- R' Alter Chanoch Henoch Leibowitz, ztz"l --...

I love expressions like "there nothing cooler than..."  Really?  You are willing to categorically state that whatever follows that ellipsis is not only the coolest thing you have ever experienced, but is actually cooler than anything that has been or could ever been or even can in the future experienced by anyone in the world?  Really?  I would say that tells you more about the one make that wild assertion than the coolness of the experience itself. There are few things cooler than randomly opening a sefer before davening on Shabbos morning and seeing a reference to that week's parsha completely out of the blue.  There is an extra dimension of coolness when the reference itself is only tangential.  It feels like a whisper in your ear from the Creator saying, "Just wanted to say hi, dude."  (He talks to me in language I can understand; what can I say.)  Not only did that happen, but it corrected an important detail in a story I had heard.  N...

Among the first words we teach our children are "please" and "thank you".  Usually by the time they are three we are no longer honoring requests that are not preceded by "please"; and "thank you" is expected upon delivery. The Pele Yoeitz, in his chapter on eating and drinking, spends significant time on that idea.  First of all, he notes, it's common decency to say please and thank you.  Automatically, then, it should just be common decency to say a bracha.  At this point -- and please don't take this the wrong way -- he begins to sound like something from the home shopping network.  When you eat or drink something, you have just received the most incredible gift; quite literally life saving.  Of course you are going to want to say please and thank you. But there's more!  You get extra credit -- i.e., a mitzvah -- for exercising that normal, decent behavior. But there's more!  The Creator of the world lets you use His holy ...

I had the wonderful opportunity to help my granddaughter study for her chumash test last night.  25 verses and about seven Rashi's.  Let's see... I do שניים מקרא ואחד תרגום/Hebrew text twice followed by Targum Onkelos once and all the Rashi's every week.  I can do that in an hour or a bit more.  So let's do the math.  Assume an average of 150 verses in a parasha =>  450 verses per a bit more than an hour => 25 verses in 3.5 minutes.  I am also doing 150 Rashi's in that same bit more than an hour => seven Rashi's adds another three minutes.  She might need help with a word or two in Rashi, so a generous estimate puts this at a 10 minute commitment; maybe 15 because she's so cute and I'll want to tell her that a few times. At this point, you are probably either thinking, "seems reasonable" or "boy oh boy... did this guy ever  do homework with his kids?!"  I did, actually, do some homework with my children; but you forget, y...