Michael el Chayil

When I started taking college physics classes, I would sometime get a different answer than was in the back of the book. Of course, my first thought was, "Good grief! Another typo in the answer key!" I would very often go running to my grandfather (I lived with me grandparents for the first year of college... one of the most idyllic times of my life), who was a professor of electrical engineering to prove to him that I was right. While how I was right and the book couldn't possibly be correct, I would often stop short and realize... ohhh... yeah... perhaps I did make mistake there. The other times, though, my grandfather (who was very smart and very, very patient) would point out my error. I give that introduction (besides the fact that I love talking about grandpa) to stop you from making the same mistake I did. Chazal tell us there are 600,000 letter in the Torah. I know  if you go page by page through your ArtScroll  or Koren  chumash that you will get something like...

The Torah, of course, has no extra words; every word of Torah is a vital piece of information we need to understand reality, our place, our goals, and how to achieve those goals. Even when the words seem to be simply relaying a conversation, the recording of that conversation is only a vehicle to get the words into the Torah that must be there. When Avraham told his slaves (Eliezer, קנין כספו/store bought from כנעני; Ishmael, יליד ביתו/homemade from מצרים) to remain with the donkey, for example, the Torah is relaying to us that Avraham had an important insight to share with us. Namely, שבו פה עם החמור/remain here with the donkey was to tell us that his slaves were members of עם הדומה לחמור/a nation essentially similar to the donkey. Moreover, חמור/donkey in this context really signifies חומר/material, the stuff with which the creation started. Avraham Avinu, on the other hand, represents צורה שלם/complete form; the reason for which there is  a creation...

As is well known, there a "Jewish sounding last names" mostly because they were given to us by the surrounding nation for their convenience and record keeping. That's why our last names tend to be where we came from, the family business, or our tribe (mostly -- maybe exclusively -- for kohanim and l'vi'im). For our own purposes, though, we prefer the Ploni son/daughter of Ploni/Plonisse. That is, we use the father's name (Ploni) for most things, including being called to the Torah and legal documents. We use the mother's name (Plonisse) pretty much exclusively when praying for Ploni's speedy recovery. (Note: Plonisse -- feminine of "Ploni"; Ploni's -- possessive form of Ploni; Plonis -- plural form of Ploni.) I recently, however, found another place where the mother's name is used. I have been learning Bava Metzia on my own daf-weekly plan (not weekly by design, just by historical fact) and came to a sudden halt (well, at my pace, p...

My grandfather (my mother's father) was a major influence on the way I think, the way I view the world, and the goals to which I aspire. (He passed away when I was 19... and I regret the time in my late teens when I did not make more of an effort to see him.) He was, for example, the smartest person I knew growing up; not just smarter than most, but a different kind of smart. He also inspired me to be appropriately lazy -- christmas lights were strategically strung among the ivy to be nearly invisible unless plugged in, so they were strung once and done. He was also known to speak his mind; there was a famous story of him taking a tray of baked goods around a holiday party, offering them as "inedible cookies"... including to the woman who baked them. My grandfather also had an amazing vegetable garden; several kinds of tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, squash, bell peppers, zucchini, and whatever else looked interesting in the Burpee seed catalog that year. I've tried a fe...

There is a standard line of reasoning in logic known as  reductio ad absurdum . It is usually employed when a direct proof would be difficult/impossible and it works as follows: You want to prove that some proposition is true; say, for example, that the there is no smallest, positive, non-zero, rational number. The first step is to consider the opposite; in this case, suppose that there is , in fact, a  smallest, positive, non-zero, rational number; call it x . Next, we formulate some logical implications of our supposition; in our case, divide that smallest, positive, non-zero, rational number by two; call that y . We have posited that x is the smallest, positive, non-zero, rational number, which implies that any other positive, non-zero, rational number -- including  y  -- is bigger than  x . So by assuming that there is, in fact, a smallest, positive, non-zero, rational number, we have shown by logical inference that would mean there is a number that is both ...

Here's the question: Just What Is The Difference Between a Miracle and Nature? Before you start rolling your eyes (what? too late? oh well...) and thinking.... "Good grief. Miracles are super natural; you know, above   nature! Got it, Mikey?" Are you finished? Good; then we can proceed. So here's one problem with that definition. If you one is not religious and/or simply an apologist, it is very easy to assert that the miracles of yore were simply the romanitification and fanitizisation of events that happened at a propitious time and were perhaps somewhat out of the ordinary that have grown into the stuff of legends. Of course, they just assert things like that without any proof or data; their argument being, "Well, obviously it didn't happen as reported. Things like that can't happen." To which I generally respond (if it seems like it might be worth my time or if I am just in a contrary mood): "Why, yes... that's why they call i...

I don't think I am overstating the case to say that one cannot live a proper Jewish life without having a rav. (Some people are their own rav... the doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient.) There are many, many, many halachic issues the depend on weighting and balancing several factors. For example: using a tea bag to make tea on Shabbos, opening soda bottles on Shabbos, carrying in a public thoroughfare on Shabbos, keeping an ice pop in the (previously unopened) plastic wrapper while eating it on Shabbos, on Shabbos. Given that there are sensitive to weighting and balancing, and given that a violation of Shabbos is so serious, and given that enjoyment of Shabbos is a cornerstone of Jewish life... you very often have a מחלוקת הפוסקים in how to actually conduct oneself. Given "two Jews, three opinions", it is right on impossible to avoid differences in opinions at the Shabbos table. So, as my small contribution to Tikun Olam, I herewith discuss some of the i...