Michael el Chayil

Have you ever told someone a really interesting story and, even though they listen with enthusiasm, they ask about some completely unimportant detail? Like how you went out to dinner and out of the blue saw someone you hadn't seen in years and after catching up for a bit, they offered you this amazing dream job... and they ask, "Wait... wasn't it alternate side parking that night?" I know that is frustrating because I am that guy and I see your eyes rolling. That's one reason I get along with gemara so well. Chalal tell us ( .תענית כ''ה ) that R' Chanina ben Dosa's neighbors complained that his goats were causing damage. R' Chanina told them that if the goats were causing damage, they should be eaten by wolves. If, however, they were not causing problems, then when the goats return home that evening, they each be carrying a wolf on their horns. They came back that night each carrying a wolf on their horns. Pretty amazing story, no? What's ...

Chazal ( Ta'anis 24b ) introduce us to the great tanna R' Chanina ben Dosa with  the following two stories. (There are several stories about the R' Chanina ben Dosa on the very next daf, but these are more about putting him in context.) First: R' Chanina ben Dosa was once walking home and it started to rain. He said, "Master of the World! The whole world is comfortable and Chanina is in distress." It stopped raining. He got home and said, "Master of the world! The whole world is in distress, and Chanina is in comfort." It started to rain. Second: Every day an announcement goes out from heaven: The whole world is nourished because/for the sake of Chanina ben Dosa, and one measure of carob every week suffices for My son Chanina. I was bothered by these two gemaras. It seems more than a little petty for anyone to be willing to have the whole world suffer just so he doesn't get his feet wet! Moreover, this is a person who seems to be living on a sub...

"Grandma Brag Book" is not just an expression, it is a real thing. You can buy one on Amazon. I don't have a book, but I have a blog. If you don't want to hear a story about my beautiful, spiritual, and absolutely normal granddaughter, then go ahead and move on now. You will miss a great story and amazing life lessons if you do, but I am just giving you a heads up. For logistic reasons, it works out for us take a couple of our grandchildren to schools in the mornings to accommodate the gap between their parents needing to be at work and when school starts. I often make breakfast for my 11 year old granddaughter. Here was the text exchange (names elided): Me: Now taking orders for breakfast. Does she want English muffin or raisin bread? Tatty: Mommy bought donuts yesterday. The boys took extra yesterday and the last one was for your granddaughter this morning. She let the boys split it because she would love Zeidy to make her cereal. Tatty (second message): She a...

I asked a friend why people find it difficult to get along with me. The question was tongue in cheek, of course, I know very well what the issue is. Here's an example: I think people are saying something stupid when they say, "All I want is for my children to be happy." (That's not what makes it difficult to get along with me.) I believe we all really want much more for our children. (Still not the issue.) I believe that what they mean is that they won't feel badly if their children choose a different life than they expected, as long as they are successful, productive human beings who have found their way to utilize and maximize their potential. (I think that they don't really mean that either, but it's close enough to how they feel to not argue. This is still not the issue.) When they say that, I respond with, "Really? So you would be happy if your children were addicted to drugs, as long as they have a ready supply so they will always have a smile o...

A recent (as of this writing) TftD discussed how The Jewish People are the Parchment of the Oral Torah . I still believe it is a good choice of words, but there are those who have pushed back:  The Oral Law cannot be written, so how does that go with parchment? Let me explain by way of cloud computing. Unless you have been living under a rock (in which case, I suppose you are not the one reading this), then you have heard of "the cloud" from which we get our files and podcasts and to which we can save pictures, videos, and other documents. What is the cloud? I could tell you it is a myriad of connected computers, but that is not quite true. While you need a myriad of computers to actually build the cloud, you also need a lot of programs that manage how the computers work together. You also need a system that manages those programs. Also, only certain computers can be used. One of the deep realities of cloud computing is that all computers in the cloud are peers. There is no o...

One of my favorite parts of each Yom Tov is the opportunity to hear specially prepared shiurim throughout the holiday. All year we daven mincha followed by ma'ariv. On Yom Tov, though, there are often special circumstances that require us to wait for actual night fall -- approximately one hour after sundown in Chicago -- before we daven ma'ariv. Moreover, the yeshivos are on break, meaning that are busy roshei yeshiva and magidei shiur do not have their usual teaching schedule. Klal Yisrael, the עם קודש that we are, uses that opportunity to invite them to present matters of Torah law and philosophy from their exalted viewpoint. R' Mannes, well known for the depth and breadth of his Torah knowledge, for his התמדה, and dedication to his students (of which I am one, Baruch HaShem) was the "clean-up" speaker for the נעילת החג "matzah fest" this last Pesach at the Agudah in Peterson Park. Of course I cannot do his shiur justice for many reasons, but one point...

The night before pesach when my younger daughter was about 1.3 years old, my wife and I were doing bidkas chameitz with her and her older sister. I heard her older sister tell her little sister, "And then we are going to look for chomeitz with the candle and sweep it up with the feather." So cute. Then I realized that since my older daughter was all of 2.6 years older than her younger sibling -- meaning she was just shy of 4 years old -- had only really seen this ceremony once before (maybe twice, if you count when she was under 2). That's amazing, no? These simple ceremonies, required by halacha for very practical reasons, make a deep and lasting impression on even the youngest of participants. This year on the way home from a chol ha'mo'ed trip with some of my younger grandchildren, I told my 11 year old granddaughter about being at a seder with my bubbie. "I was at a seder with my bubbie and it was the same seder we had last night. And she told me it was t...

We had considered relocating to Winston Towers a few years ago. Of course, I discussed the idea with R' Fuerst, who disabused us of the notion. Among the reasons the dayan gave us for not moving was simply: You are in a good neighborhood; why take a chance on moving? Baruch HaShem, we accepted the advice/p'sak and didn't move. One of the great things about this neighborhood is that you can get a Torah vort just  taking a walk with your grandchildren. I heard this yesterday: We have just changed our request for parnassa in ברך עלינו from ותן טל ומטר לברכה/give dew and rain for a blessing, to simply ותן ברכה/give a blessing. What if a person mistakenly said ותן טל ומטר לברכה because that is what he is used to and, let's be honest, he was sort of on autopilot? Then the person needs to correct his mistake. Either by going back to the ברך עלינו, or repeating shmone esrei, or saying a make-up shmone esrei after the next t'fila; depending on when he realized his mistake. O...

I ran across this saying a few years ago and it really hit home: Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster. There is a vast gulf between being smart, knowing the facts, and being wise, knowing what the facts mean. I learned a new expression over Yom Tov from R' Biderman on Pesach: Apparently the term "chacham of the mah nishtenah" means someone foolish; or, at least, acting foolishly. (I checked it out with a few friends who have been Jewish much  longer than I have, and they confirmed that they had, indeed, heard this expression.) Why would the expression "chacham of the mah nishtenah" be used to wittily call someone silly? I also saw a great answer to that question in the same R' Biderman on Pesach; but first... That got me thinking: Why do we need to be told how to answer the wise child? If the Hagadah is telling me how to answer him, there must be a wrong way to answer that Chazal are...

I finished the Rashi's on this week's parasha  early, so that gives me a time slot to work on completing Manantíales de la Torá from Purim. (It is 43 pages and I don't read Spanish so quickly.) The topic this morning was how the plot of Bigsan and Seresh saved Klal Yisrael. When Mordechai heard the plot, he informed Esther. Why didn't he tell the authorities himself? After all, the government was not very happy with him just now and this could have given him a boost. Mordechai told Esther because he was worried for her safety and he felt that if she told the king, she would be safer. Esther, on the other hand, told the king that Mordechai had given her the information specifically because he was in trouble with the government and she felt this would give him a boost. If he had told the king himself, he likely would have been rewarded right away. If Esther had not told the king in the name of Mordechai, the king would have no record of needing to reward Mordechai. As is...

Ever heard of the "Little Albert" experiment? I took three weeks of freshman psychology just over a half century ago; that's where I heard about it. They wanted to prove that humans work just like Pavlov's dog and can be trained. So they took a little baby who liked white rats and terrorized him with loud sounds every time the rat came near. They were able to demonstrate that little Albert (not his real name, but Google "little albert experiment" if you want to know more) eventually became terrified of rats even without the loud sounds. Beautiful. I wish I could say that is why I dropped, but I actually dropped because the course required too much reading. I loved listening to science and math lectures and then doing word problems; reading long winded articles about the human condition; not so much. Of course, some people were understandably disturbed by the ethics of the experiment and a set of rules governing use of humans and other motile mul...

Just to level set: Definition of "politically correct": "Politically correct" means using language and actions that avoid offending others, especially those relating to sex, gender, and race. It can also refer to policies or measures that are intended to avoid disadvantaging members of particular groups in society. Synonyms include: considerate, diplomatic, inclusive, and respectful. Antonyms include: insensitive, like a bull in a china shop, Michael E. Allen Parashas Mishpatim comes directly after the (so-called) Ten Commandments have been given and received from Mount Sinai. The Ramban explains that the first verse of parashas Mishpatim is basically a prologue to set our point of view regarding the process of justice and court in Jewish law. Then we get to the second verse, which deals with purchasing a slave. A Jewish slave that is owned by a Jewish slave owner. Generally, when you hear people trying to explain how civilized and beautiful To...

On the heels of R' Akvia teaching us that ואהבתה את ה' אלוקך ... ובכל נפשך/we are enjoined to love HaShem even when He is taking our life, the gemara ( Brachos 61b ) brings a description of the events that actually lead R' Akiva returning his exalted soul to his Creator with profound love. An evil government had decreed that Jews were forbidden to be involved in Torah. Pappus ben Yehuda found that R' Akiva was organizing public meetings for Jews to learn Torah. Pappus asked R' Akiva, "Aren't you afraid of the government?" R' Akiva answered with a משל/parable (I hate that translation, but it's all we have): A fox was walking along a river and saw the fish gathering in groups; first one place then another. The fox asked what they were running away from. They answered that they were fleeing from the nets cast by people. The fox suggested: Would you like me to bring you up onto the land so we can live together as our ancestors did? They answered ve...

When I first entered the workforce in the late 1900s (😱 really?!), there was a thing called "vacation time." Companies offered vacation time as a bargaining chip to lure potential employees. When comparing job offers, one might weigh the benefit of a higher salary from one company with more vacation time from the other. Eventually the phrase "vacation time" went out of style and it became PTO (paid time off), which also included sick days, personal holidays, etc. Also the personnel departments rebranded themselves as "Human Resources" (kind of a sick and demented term, if you think about it: the status of being a human being has been demoted to just another resource, like computers and desks). The HR departments also invented (in 1970s, but really took off in 1980s) the term " work-life balance " to make everybody feel like the company cared more about you than just a vehicle to make money. (They don't. They just discovered that they can att...

Without context, you can't answer the simplest questions. Here is an example: Is the earth big? Here is a more subtle example. The mishnah on daf 118a of Bava Kamma makes a seemingly straightforward statement, and then goes on to demonstrate that there are four different ways to read it. Each of which leads to quite different and practical differences in halacha. (The interested reader may see at the end of this for more details.) I brought this up because I want to take a more wholistic view of a recent TftD regarding the receipt of bad news. Chazal teach us that our response to bad news and our understanding of bad news are distinct and often apparently contradictory. That being said, it is also clear from Chazal that there is, indeed, bad news. This may stem from the nature of good and bad tidings. Good tidings mean we are right now able to experience the goodness of those situations. Bad tidings, on the other hand, require us to do some work to reveal the goodness. When I hea...