Michael el Chayil

We recently acquired a new oven -- combination of stimulus check and spending much less money on travel this year. It is a double oven, so we now have a milchig and fleishig oven. Interestingly, when we went to Abt to look for ovens and noted that we were only interested in ovens with Shabbos mode, their search page has a check box specifically for that feature. We've had the oven for a few months and it is quite nice. One of my jobs on Friday afternoon is to set the oven before leaving for Shul. I set the top oven at 170 degrees to keep our challos warm and set the cook time to turn off the oven a few minutes after צאת הכוכבים/halachic nightfall. I set the bottom oven -- with soup/main/kugel/veggies/etc -- to 215 degrees to keep everything piping hot for the meal, and the cook time to turn off 10 minutes after the top oven. That gives me time to say קריאת שמע, then pull the challos from the (now off) top oven with plenty of time to welcome the Shabbos, say kiddush and motzi -- and...

We prepare for davening each morning by reciting the several chapters from T'hillim; Dovid HaMelech's opus to express all possible feelings in any situation. On Shabbos, when we have more time, we recite a few more, but everyday we finish with the last six chapters. And we end with a redoubled recitation of the last verse, the crescendo of the entire Book of T'hilim: כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה, תְּהַלֵּל יָהּ, הַלְלוּ-יָהּ Let every soul praise HaShem; Praise Ye, the L-ord! Inspiring, no? How about this? The medrash understands this statement of Dovid HaMelech to have a deeper undercurrent: Don't read נשמה/soul, rather נשימה/breath -- with every נשימה and נשימה praise HaShem! Even more inspiring, no? The Vilna Gaon (brought in the introduction to his commentary on Mishlei) says that you cannot really understand the depth of the secrets of Torah without clearing understanding פשט/the simple, surface meaning. Ok, what is the simple meaning of breathing? I say an article from the Ne...

Here are two halachic issues about which you may or may not care: If one intends to put on Rashi t'fillin and after he made the bracha realizes that he accidentally put on Rabeinu Tam t'fillin, then he should just remove them an put on his Rashi t'fillin without making a new bracha. If one accidentally says ותן טל ומטר לברכה instead of ותן ברכה at the wrong time of year on Shabbos, when he shouldn't be saying either and then corrects his שבת שמונה עשרה by adding adding the appropriate Shabbos insertion, then one need not repeat שמונה עשרה. Perhaps you would like a skosh more explanation of #2. In fact, perhaps you are wondering what's the חידוש of #1. Perfectly reasonable thoughts, which we shall address one at at time, in order, בעזרת השם. The interesting factor in #1 is that we pasken that Rabeinu Tam t'fillin are pasul. Certainly if one made a bracha and then put on t'fillin that were, in fact, devoid of any parchments, one would certainly need to make a ...

R' Fuerst is presenting a series of shiurim on medical/hospital issues that can arise on Shabbos. Not : "Hmm... well I guess if that ever happens, I'll just call my rav for instructions" kinds of issues, but: "Oh no, oh no, oh no... what do I do now?!" kinds of issues. These shiurim can be found both on TorahAnytime and psak.org . The shiurim are packed with practical answers to many common halachic questions regarding medical issues -- such as taking medicine, when/how to go to the hospital, and conduct in the hospital -- that arise on Shabbos. The learning of these halachos should be a merit to never need to apply them in practice. Spending a Shabbos in the hospital is never great (unless, perhaps, you are mother of n+1 children, and this is your chance to gather your strength before returning home; ha'meivin yavein). Many of the questions that arise are unique to Shabbos -- using a call button, having food prepared, helping/participating in having yo...