Michael el Chayil

I asked a friend this morning how much free time he had. He started by saying it depends on the day, then he stopped and said, "I almost forgot to whom I was talking. I have no free time. Yesterday, as part of the process of writing the TftD about opportunity cost, explicit and implicit, I was discussing the concept with a chavrusa. He disagreed with my approach and challenged me with: Yet you are insisting on always using the term that highlights the loss of alternative spending. In fact, yes; that is precisely what I am doing. Before I retired, for example, I had a discussion with my wife. After all, her day wasn't going to change. My day, though, was getting a major makeover. The cost of that decision was very real. I was the main breadwinner of the family. Upon retirement, my income would go from a very comfortable sum to zero. I have an obligation to provide for my wife.  This is not just a verbal commitment; the obligations I have are in a black on white document -- her...

I hate being wrong. No, really; I hate it. I love, therefore, when someone corrects me. Now, to be honest, I try to make that difficult. Here's my trick: I have a lot of data and I base my knowledge and opinions on those facts. Nonetheless, I get things wrong. Recently, in fact, I learned the meaning of opportunity cost. When I say recently, I mean up till and including writing the TftD! I was recently learning Bava Kamma with a long time chavrusa (I have very few of those; see above); on daf 117b it says, "Why? Let him just say he was joking!" Oh, wait... let's put that in context. The mishna that starts on 116b and bleeds over to 117a has two cases of saving someone else's property at the cost of your own. I said, "Oh! Opportunity cost!" (I was so excited because I had just learned that term.) Actually, it is a bit more complicated than that. Let's take a look. Case One: Two people, one with a barrel of wine (which is cheap ¢) and one with a jug of...

The mishna (Brachos 30b) says that the חסידים הראשונים/earlier particularly pious one would delay שעה אחת/one hour, then daven. Why? In order to direct their hearts/minds to their Father in Heaven.  Wow. That is intense. So intense that even the mishna refers to them with a reverence for the amazing piety of the previous generation. Now, very often the term שעה אחת doesn't mean a 60 minutes hour, it just means a short period of time. But here it actually means a full, 60 minute hour. That is according to the Mishna Brura, sk 1 on siman 93 in the Orach Chaim section of the Shulchan Aruch. Wait... what?! The Mishna Brura and Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim are הלכה למעשה/normative Jewish law that we are expected to follow. An hour before each שמונה עשרי, three times a day. Oh, yes, and the gemara adds (Brachos 32b) that one should delay an hour after davening before going on with his day. These חסידים הראשונים also spent an entire hour on שמונה עשרי itself. There must be a dis...

As I may have mentioned once or eighteen times, we recently returned from an incredible vacation in Panama. When traveling, I always look for things that are unique to that locale. In Alaska, for example, we bought a wind chime of copper plates in the shape of moose. (Ok, turns out it was made in China, nebbich; but, still, you can only buy it in Alaska 😑) I found that there are several good rums made in Panama, so at the duty free shop on leaving I got a bottle of Ron Abuelo 12 year aged dark rum, which had come highly recommended. We got home and I made a Piña Colada ... and it didn't taste quite right. Turns out Piña Coladas should be made with white rum. Fine, I looked up a recipe for cocktails with dark rum and found a Rum Manhattan -- which specifically calls for aged, dark rum. Bingo! Two parts rum, one part sweet vermouth, dash of bitters. I didn't have vermouth as I don't usually drink mixed drinks. Off to Kol Tuv -- great liquor selection, knowledgeable staff. Si...

I spoke to a group of students and Northwestern University as part of the Olami program. Olami is an orthodox Jewish outreach program for college students. The title, which really captures the message I wanted to convey, was: Leveraging my passion for physics and science as a route to Torah and Judaism. Not "the Torah doesn't contradict science", rather "if you really understand science, you will be led to the Torah." Ok, that is much more than I really expected to accomplish in one hour. What I did tell them was that I didn't expect to change their minds in an hour. I also told them not to expect to change my mind. I have, after all, been studying this topic intensely for more than 30 years. What I wanted them to do, though, was to open their minds and start questioning what they know and how they know it. I think it was eye opening for them -- as woke young liberals -- to be told by an old orthodox Jew that that they needed to be more open. It was even mo...

In my youth (recently my granddaughter, commenting no a picture she saw of my giving a bracha to her mom, said: Zeidy... you used to have black hair?) I thought that the Chafeitz Chaim only wrote Mishna Brura on the Orach Chaim section of Shulchan Aruch because he ran out of time (it did take about 40 years to write the משנה ברורה, so not a totally crazy thought). But no, the משנה ברורה is for regular folk. A sefer to have on your shelf for when those doubts come up about the laws of daily living. If a regular folk type person needs to clarify a doubt about milk and meat, nida, how to write a get or run a wedding, then he should run to his LOR -- local Orthodox rabbi. That being said, and since I am retired now (have I mentioned that?), I now have time to delve into new areas of Torah and halacha that were beyond my reach before. In particular, I have begun looking into the halachos of איסור והיתר by looking at meat and milk -- at the suggestion of my rabbaim, of course. I am using th...

Now that I have retired, I have more time to learn, Baruch HaShem. I have kept my schedule the same, except now I go to kollel in the morning with my backpack, instead of to work. They say (you know, them...) that preparing a schedule of goals and activities is probably more important than the financial preparation. With rabbinic counsel, I have added the following to my daily seder: gemara, halacha, navi. For gemara, I have gone back to the beginning and am learning masechta Brachos with Rashi and the Rosh. For halacha, I am learning meat and milk. For navi, Yeshayahu. I figured with eight-ish more hours a day, I would just be sailing through. Not quite. I have, of course, learned gemara for some time. This is just review, right? No... This time I have two new aims. First, not only understand what the gemara is saying according to Rashi, but also working on why Rashi chose that way to explain the gemara; that is, to learn Rashi as a rishon as well as using him as a mentor. The Rosh hi...

After returning from Panama (yes, anyone who knows me is going to hear about this trip for a long, long time), I bentched gomel. As I mentioned in a previous TftD , it seemed obvious to me that I should. Then I found out that it wasn't obvious to everyone. Hmm... what, then, are the parameters for bentching gomel after a flight? We need to go back to the source. Sometimes that means going back to the gemaras. In this case, though, since air travel is a relatively recent phenomenon. Even the Mishna Brura is pre-air travel. However, the Mishna Brura is still a good starting point, as it is modern enough to clarify the principles. See siman 219, where you will find that Shulchan Aruch brings that one bentches gomel upon being released from a prison (a prison where people often get stuck for life, not like our country clubs in America), upon recovering from a deadly disease (I bentched gomel after recovering from cancer), crossing a desert, and crossing the sea. These last two cases ar...

On the heels of Parashas Yisro comes Parasha Mishpatim. The very first Rashi explains that the parasha starts with the word ואלה/ and these to teach that this parasha is a continuation from the previous parasha; just as those were said at Har Sinai, so are these. Keep that in mind. At kiddush on Shabbos Yisro, someone noted a seeming contradiction in Rashi in Yisro and a Rashi in Mishpatim. You can't actually ask that question on Rashi on gemara. On gemara, Rashi's job is to explain how to read the gemara. Similar gemaras on different pages -- sometime even just a page or two away -- may have a different pshat, and Rashi will reflect that. In chumash, though, Rashi has a different job; Rashi chooses among all the gemaras and medrashim to give us the most basic reading of the chumash. Generally, then, all the Rashi's in chumash will be consistent. What is the apparent contradition? In parashas Yisro, on the declaration of לא תגנוב/you shall not steal, Rashi comments that th...

In parshas Yisro, we find two verses, Shmos 19:11 (before matan Torah) and 20:15 (after matan Torah) on which Rashi comments: this teaches that there were no blind among them. The inference is from the fact the both verses use the phrase כל העם/all of the people in their relationship to a visual experience. Of course, whenever we have two verses that teach the same thing, we need to wonder why we need two if one would do the job. Obviously, of course, there must be more than meets the eye here. (You better believe the pun is intended. I just thought of that while writing; I am pretty proud of myself, actually!) This situation is more demanding of an explanation than usual. I can't remember another place off the top of my head where Rashi uses nearly identical wording in his comments on these two verses. The verse after matan Torah also has an interesting context, and it actually what first got my attention. Verse 20:15 says that they saw sounds. I have no idea what that means. Rash...

This has defied my best efforts at understanding for decades. The mishna (Brachos 51b) says that for havdala you may not use the candle of non-Jew. The gemara (Brachos 52b) explains that we can't use that candle משום שלא שבת/because it didn't, you know, it didn't שבת. Fortunately, Rashi -- ever helpful -- explains (it is a read through Rashi): it didn't שבת/cease from sinful מלאכה/labor, because the non-Jew lit it (freer than usual translation), and the gemara will say later on that not to make a blessing on a candle that was used in the commission of a עבירה/transgression. I am head-spinning confused now. True, the non-Jew lit the candle on Shabbos. And therefore? A non-Jew is not required to keep Shabbos. In fact, a non-Jew is not even allowed to keep Shabbos -- it is a capital crime for a non-Jew to keep Shabbos! So what transgression happened here? Let's try Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 298:5. That's where this is brought as halacha. The Shulchan Aruch says o...

Of course we all know that you can't use an umbrella on Shabbos (even if you happen to live in a place with an kosher eruv) because opening an umbrella is considering making a אהל/tent/awning which is in the category of building, one of the 39 forbidden labors on Shabbos. Finished.  Well... What if you were to open the umbrella on a dark and stormy erev Shabbos before sundown? Could you not then use that umbrella on Shabbos? You wouldn't be making anything and you are certainly allowed to use an existing אהל. We do it all the time with our shlock on Sukkos and with our carriages that have an awning to protect our precious next generation from rain and heat and cold and whatever. Still... people seemed nervous about that, so I decided to check. I asked the dayan and, as I am sure you figured out (or already knew), he said absolutely not. I asked why not and he told me because the umbrella is mobile, so moving it is considered like breaking one אהל and creating a new one. I thou...

My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Panama. Besides the usual sites ... the canal, monkey island, the beaches, etc, we asked the travel agent what she would recommend. She recommended Boquete, in the north of Panama. It is in the mountains, a bit cooler, not so touristy, and some amazing landscapes and scenery. We loved it. We hiked over gorgeous hanging bridges, toured a coffee plantation, saw an archaeological site, and ... a honey farm. It was all amazing. We learned so much that our granddaughter said, "You didn't go on vacation! You went on a history and science tour!"  I'd like to focus on the bees and honey. Bees have a very complex living arrangement, and it was fascinating to see several varieties of bees, including "little angels"/angelitas en español. More on that later. We brought some honey home for Rosh HaShanah.. Pure, raw, unfiltered honey is 100% kosher when acquired directly from the farm. (Factories have too many moving parts, s...

A friend of mine learns in a chabura in the evenings. He told me that they had finished a topic and R' Fuerst gave them a shiur on relevant practical halachos. I asked him to please let me know when that happens again, as I would like to attend. He agreed, but notified me that they had been learning for four years and this was the first time R' Fuerst gave them a shiur; so don't hold my breath. Two weeks later... another chabura in the same shul has just finished a topic, and -- not to be outdone by their rival chabura -- has asked R' Fuerst to give them a shiur. I attended. There were about eight of us in attendance, the members of the chabura, and me. Apparently they had been studying Hilchos Mezuzos for several months and now had some unresolved questions. They had provided the dayan with three pages of questions, including pictures. We didn't get through all of the cases, but two points in particular stood out to me. There is, of course, a best place to locate t...

My wife and I just returned from a trip we have wanted to make for a long time: Panama. The trip was everything we were anticipating and more. Part of that "more" was some interesting questions in halacha. There were two (active) questions: Do I bentch gomel after the flight to/from Panama and Chicago? What bracha do I make on the seeing the Atlantic Ocean? There was also one pending question: on the next trip (yes... we really liked it there and hope to go again), I want to hike to the peak of Volcán Barú (Baru Volcano for your monolinguals). Besides the other coolness and beauty factors, the peak of Volcán Barú is unique: it is the one place in the entire world where you can stand and see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans just but turning around. What is the halachic question? Do I make one bracha or two? Which ones? Regarding (1), I actually didn't think it was a question; of course I should. However, upon return I discovered that not everyone thought it was a obvio...

There is a famous drash about the timing of the 10th plague, the slaying of the first born. Moshe tells Paroh (Shmos 11:4): Thus says HaShem: כחצות הלילה/at midnight, I shall go out.... Chazal note the change from how the actual event is described (Shmos 12:29): It was בחצי הלילה/at midnight... Both בחצי הלילה and כחצות הלילה mean exactly at midnight. The description of the event uses a phrase that means "at the middle of the night", whereas Moshe's proclamation to Paroh means "when the night is divided" (see Rashi and ArtScroll on both). Nonetheless, since the כ as a prefix can mean "approximately", Chazal tell us that Moshe used that term so that the Egyptians would understand it is "about midnight". Why? Lest Paroh's astrologers/scientists err and get the time wrong by a few seconds and say that Moshe made a mistake. Cool. However, the Torah tells us (Shmos 12:31) that there was not an Egyptian house without a corpse. So many firstbor...