Michael el Chayil

Let's do a quick rundown on מוקצה. The word מוקצה, of course, basically mean "set aside". There are things we set aside on Shabbos (and Yom Tov) because Shabbos is really, really important and violations are really, really bad. (That is my high level, executive summary of the Mishna Brura's introduction to siman 308.) Doing melacha on Shabbos is really bad. Also, Shabbos should be really, really special. (Yikes... talk about ירידת הדורות!) Since every Jew knows that, things that would bring one to violate the Shabbos or cheapen it's sanctity, are not at the forefront of our minds. There are, to one level or another, מוקצה. Because over our history, there have been times when Klal Yisrael is not as careful with Shabbos as they should be, Chazal have baked some basic principles into practical halacha. There are essentially four levels of מוקצה: Holy Writ and food -- Not set aside at all, you can move them just cuz. Utensils whose main use is permitted on Shabbos; sp...

Yesterday was the observance of the fast of Tisha b'Av, pushed off to the 10th of Av because the 9th of Av fell on a Shabbos this year. In Chicago this year, we had no need for Tisha b'Av programming. We got two hours of programming that nobody asked for -- the levaya of R' Yaakov Rajchenbach, may the memory of this righteous person be a blessing. It was a personal tragedy for me; I counted him as a friend and neighbor. I honestly cannot remember him in any way but with that big, sincere, and heartfelt smile. It was a tragedy for Chicago, as there was not a Jewish organization of any importance that did not look to him for counsel. (Counsel first, money second.) For the entire Jewish world for all the reasons discussed in the speeches from his children; and more. I will not try to summarize words that are already only a brief insight into the life of a giant of a human being; though I do encourage you to seek and absorb the recordings if you were not zoche to be there. I wi...

Consider, if you will, the numbers six, eight, and nine. Two are divisible by two, two by three, two are consecutive, two have only one number in their set of prime factors. Only one of those facts is known because they are part of a well known group that is famous/distinguished by precisely that fact: six and eight are both even numbers, and all even numbers are divisible by two. (In fact, the even club is pretty non-discriminating -- if you are divisible by two, you are in; it doesn't care about your shady past.) Still reading? Here's the point: by just reading that list of facts, there was no way for you to know which were happenstance and which was/were associated with an underlying principle. Once I started the statement with "Only one of those facts is known because...", you pretty much understood where I was going. Had I said, "six and eight are even", you also would have known they were even, but -- again -- you wouldn't have a basis for believin...

At work, we need to take harassment training -- no, smart guy, not training in how to harass (a class that I could probably give, actually), but what the term harassment means in the work place. It's cute; lots of little vignettes and "what-if" scenarios. Mostly pretty obvious (and I am not at all sure what benefit any of this would be to someone to whom these situations are not obvious!), but they said something at the end I thought was worth the price of admission. At the end of the training they mention that each state has it's own rules and they actually list some of the rules unique to Illinois. Then the voice said, "But instead of memorizing a lot of detailed rules, just keep this in mind: treat everyone with respect and dignity". I listened to a shiur on TorahAnytime.com from R' Shraga Kallus, entitled simply: The 3 Weeks: The Minhagim Of Not Being Self Absorbed ( audio ) ( video ) I think that concept is quite brilliant. (The shiur is also very...

There is an old and not very good movie about someone who is 50,000 years old. The only reason I mention it is that there was one very good line in the movie. At this point in his life he happened to be a history teacher. One of his students, playing along as though they really believed him, said she now understood why he was such a good history teacher -- he had, after all, seen and lived it all. "No," he replied, "I am one person with one perspective. The history I teach is from what I have read, just like you." I cannot possibly understand, let alone express, the magnitude of the loss the world experienced this last Shiva Asar b'Tammuz with the sudden -- and wholly unexpected -- p'tira of Rabbi Shmuel Yehuda Levin zt"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Telshe Chicago. I can express the deep sense of loss I personally feel. I can also tell you about the profound impact the attendance of his levaya had on me. A few months ago, I attended the H3 Business Halach...

There is a YouTube star (nebbich...) who has a popular series of her taking to her past self through the pandemic. It's cute. The first one was particularly brilliant and (it seems to me) was the hit that launched her to fame. Part of the shtick is that her future (ie, present) self has to talk in code to her past self in order to not "disturb the space time continuum" more than she already has. The coded messages are part of the fun. The most recent episode included this jewel:  <present>Well... let me put it this way: If you order a pizza and it comes with pineapple -- even though you didn't order pineapple on your pizza -- it is illegal for you to remove it. <past>But it's my pizza! What if I get someone else to remove the pineapple? <present>No... then you'll both get arrested. <past>But what if I am allergic to pineapple and eating it could even cause me to die? Then can I remove it? <present>Uh... nope! My first reaction was...

Anyone who has known me for more than a few days has certainly heard about the בדיעבד Jew. His whole life, any time someone questioned what he was doing, his answer was, "בדיעבד, it's fine". When our friend left this world, we was greeted and escorted to his eternal residence in The World to Come. It was about the size of a coat closet with 40W bulb overhead, leaky and damp. He asked, "This is Olam HaBah?!?". They smiled and told him, "בדיעבד, it is" So why in the world is there בדיעבד? We are already doing so much as frum Jews. Just give a single, uniform standard, and we'll perform to task (or not). The truth is, this question was already addressed by the Chovos HaLevavos. Here is the executive summary: There are three categories mitzvos: עשה/positive/you must do; לאו/negative/you are forbidden to do; רשות/permitted/optional. Examples would be making kiddush Friday night is a positive mitzvah, eating pork is a negative mitzvah, wear...

Let's start with something that sounds incredibly boring: We -- outside of Eretz Yisrael -- are one parasha behind the Torah reading in Eretz Yisrael. That happened because the last day of Pesach in Eretz Yisrael was on a Friday, so they returned to their normally scheduled programing of weekly Torah readings that Shabbos. For us, though, the last day of Pesach was Shabbos, so we couldn't return to our normally scheduled programing of weekly Torah readings until the following Shabbos. How long will we be out of sync? About 15 weeks, when we will double up on Matos-Ma'asei and the first Shabbos of the three weeks. So what, you ask? So, this , I say... Why are we waiting so long? The very Shabbos where this happened is, in fact, a doubleable parsha. We could have doubled up with Acharei-Mos/K'doshim and been in sync right away. That's question number one. Question number two: there are actually two more possibilities before that 2 Av date; why are we waiting so long? ...

I am, Baruch HaShem, getting older. Besides physical exercise to keep my lifetime warranty in force, it is important to also engage in mental exercises. Now, you might think that learning gemara, mishayos, halacha, and chumush would be enough mental exercise. It certainly should be. After all, if I am not doing one of those things in my "free" time, then I should be sleeping... right?  I strive to reach that level some time. In the meantime, though, there are times during the day when I am too tired or distracted to learn. What to do? Some options are: watch pareve movie/YouTube -- about as passive as you can get. Not a great option. It's like being on a diet and eating lots of celery. Keeps you busy, but provides no nutrition and doesn't really address the root issue. read a pareve book/article -- certainly better in terms of using your mind. But here's the thing... if it is intellectually stimulating, then it is likely more effort than I have to give. If it isn...

I was having a lively discussion about brachos with a couple of my grandchildren this last Shabbos. On the way to mincha, I related a story about brachos to my grandson: A guest (an important guest, but I have a terrible time with names) made a request of his host on Shabbos afternoon; he requested an apple and a strawberry. Before the host could find them, they realized it was time to leave for mincha. After mincha, the host found the fruits and brought them to his guest. The guest was appreciative, but said he no longer needed them. The host was confused, as they had not eaten anything in the meantime. The guest, seeing his host's confusion, explained: "I was short two brachos for my needed 100 today, so I asked for an "ha'adama" and "ha'eitz" fruit, but then I got an aliyah at mincha, so I am good now." My grandson and I were walking into shul for mincha just as I finished the story. As it turned out, I got the third aliyah. I should note th...

 Just for grins, I looked up what Merriam-Webster thinks is the definition of apikores: apikores api·​ko·​res variants: or apikoros \ ˌäpēˈkȯrəs \ plural apikorsim \ -​rsə̇m \ Definition of apikores : a Jew who is lax in observing Jewish law or who does not believe in Judaism; ...

I have an interesting demonstration of our inability to fully grasp infinity. Start with the set of all counting numbers, we'll call that A. So set A contains 1,2,3,4,.... Now we are going to make two new sets using A as a start and applying a rule. For the first new set, the rule is to take each element from A and square it; we'll call this set B. So B contains 1^2, 2^2, 3^2, 4^2 --> 1, 4, 9, 16, ...  Note well: for every number in A there is a corresponding number in B. For the other new set, we are going to filter elements from A. That is, we won't copy all the elements of A, we'll only copy the perfect squares. So: 1 from A gets copied to C 2 from A does *not* get copied to C 3 from A does *not* get copied to C 4 from A gets copied to C etc So C contains: 1, 4, 9, 16, ... Note well: Not every element in A has a corresponding element in C; we only copied some of them. A quite small fraction, actually, when you consider how perfect squares get more and more spre...

The Torah forbids stealing. One who does steal needs to return the stolen goods (if they exist, their value otherwise) and, of course, do תשובה. How much more could there be to say about it? Yet, in the Choshen Mishpat section of the Shulchan Aruch, you will find a full 29 chapters -- from 348 to 376, inclusive -- on the topic. Let's get clarity on some of the basics. First, it is interesting to observe the organization of the Shulchan Aruch. The chapters immediately preceding 348 discuss withholding a worker's wages. Immediately after 376 begins a long section of dealing with damages. Stealing, in the system of halacha, stands between withholding wages (not quite stealing, but smells like it) and outright damage to another person's property. At its root, stealing means to have taken control over someone else's financial resources against their will. There are three ways that can happen. גניבה -- Take the money without the owner's knowledge. A cat burgl...