Michael el Chayil

Ok... get over it; I was also surprised to discover that Chazal addressed evolution. Who would have thunk? Where? Here (Brachos 61b): R' Akiva explained why he was teaching Torah in public -- even though the government had outlawed such assemblies on pain of death -- with a parable: A fox saw  fish darting together from one place to another. He asked them from what were they fleeing. They responded from the nets that people were bringing to catch them. The fox suggested that they join him to live together with him on dry land  as his ancestors and their ancestors had done . (Italics mine, but that's how R' Akiva phrased the fox's proposal.) The fish said to the fox: Everyone extols you for being the most insightful (פיקח) of the animals. You are not insightful; you are a fool (טיפש)! If we are afraid in an environment that supports our life, how much more so would be afraid in an environment that does not supply even the basic necessities for us to live! So... I first...

My son (who was working as a -- ahem, quite upscale -- clothing salesman at the time) got a thank you email from a client whom he had helped pick just the right business suit for the occasion. The outfit was very smart and professional and helped to give her the confidence she needed for that occasion. The occasion? She was presenting a brief before the Supreme Court of the United States of America. The suit was just part of her preparation, and obviously not even the bulk of her preparation; but it was  an important part of her preparation. If she spent that much effort on having just the right look, she obviously spent hours, days, maybe even weeks, preparing the brief itself and polishing her delivery. That was just for a presentation to the US Supreme Court. The absolute worst that could happen to her would be to lose her case, be embarrassed and shamed in front of her peers and supervisors, lose her job, be black balled from the entire legal industry, lose her licence to pra...

I don't smoke. I have never smoked. I never had any desire to smoke. I think I dodged that bullet due to my naiveté and also due to the aspect of my personality that others label as "black and white". In my youth I was wont to unquestioningly believe any statement of science (that's the naiveté). I therefore believed all the statements about the dangers of smoking. I put smoking cigarettes in the same category as cyanide pills and rat poison. There was no temptation at all. I was privileged to participate once again in Shas For Shidduchim. (There are lots of pictures  here ; please note the wide spectrum of those learning.) Last year was the first year and I learned only two daf. This year the "buy in" was raised; so I took the day off work and learned a total of six daf. Having never been to yeshiva, this is the first opportunity I had to just sit and learn for six hours straight. I could get used to that. R' Fuerst, shilta, spoke at the siyum dinne...

I do own a smart phone. I do use the internet. I mostly do not play computer games . I am not opposed to computer games in principle, I just don't much see the point. I work as a computer programmer, you see; I have more than enough frustration getting a computer to do what I want when it is not  trying to oppose me. (Though there is one game on my phone that I allow to occupy more of my time than I should.) That being said, I do  believe that technology can be a vehicle to much ביטול תורה/murdering of time and a portal to quite serious Torah violations. Note I said "a vehicle to" and not that technology is in and of itself evil. Nothing in this world, in fact, is in and of itself evil; everything can be used for both good and evil. None the less, some things are so powerfully attractive to our יצר הרע and have so little to offer on the positive side that they must be avoided and almost any cost. I would put heroin and crystal meth in that category. Others have eno...

Spirituality and physicality make strange bedfellows. In fact, the Rema explains words מפליא לעשות/acts wondrously at the end of אשר יצר to be expressing our wonder that our health is actually the vehicle by which HaShem maintains the connection between our spirituality and physicality. (If you haven't, I urge you to pick at least one organ or system in the body and really study the details of how it works and what it does. I guarantee wonder and amazement; as well as becoming even more puzzled that smart people actually believe this all happened accidentally.) Part of maintaining that vital connection between are physical and spiritual components is our weekly infusion of extra spirituality -- Shabbos! For that encounter we are required to put in some effort of our own: kiddush to usher in the extra spirituality and הבדלה to return ourselves back to our mundane week. Think of it as coming up for spiritual air from the physical vacuum in which we live our weekday lives; kidd...

Sigh... תיקון עולם has been so overused that Google Translate yields: Tikkun Olam. My sigh...  is because our mission statement and reason for existing in this world has been reduced -- at best -- to a hackneyed phrase; and at worst into yet another excuse for everything from promoting recreational drug use to ethnic cleansing. Let's talk about their "Tikkun Olam". The פלא יועץ addresses their idea of tikun olam in very strong terms of condemnation. The Chafeitz Chaim made a one verse in Psalms more famous than any other in all of the Bible (Psalms 34:13): מי-האיש החפץ חיים; אוהב ימים, לראות טוב; which is translated as: Who is the one that desires life, to love days and to see good? Of course what follows immediately is one must refrain from Lashon HaRa. According to the פלא יועץ, the punctuation is wrong. The פלא יועץ reads: Who is the one that desires life? To love days and to see good?! Are you kidding me? All you want is to enjoy life and see good...

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...

With out a doubt, the best part of giving a shiur is how much I learn in preparation. (The worst part, but the way, is agonizing and panic in the weeks leading up to giving the shiur making sure I have something to say that is worth the attendees time to hear.) Moreover, I find that while actually giving the shiur, ideas and thoughts that were still a bit murky come into sharp focus. Then there are questions that come up after the shiur. This TftD is in response to one of those questions. So regarding the reason that חנוכה is the name of the holiday that commemorates our victory over the Greeks and the miracle of the one-day-supply-of-oil-that-lasted-eight-whole-days: it's because our enemies stopped bugging us on the 25th of Kislev -- חנו כ''ה/they rested ("parked" according to Google translate) on the 25th. (See Mishna Brura 670, sk 1.) I know that's not what I learned in Sunday school... shocking. But hang on... besides that fact that the commemoration ...

The " Law of the Excluded Middle " is one of the basic laws of logic. It means that for any proposition A, either "A" or "not A" is true. For example, let's take as our proposition that bumble bees cannot fly. The law of the excluded middle says that either it is true that bumble bees cannot fly (A), or it is true that bumble bees can, indeed, fly (not A); there is no third possibility. That principle is the foundation of many logical proofs, because it is often easier to prove (or disprove) "not A" than "A"; after which one simply invokes the law of excluded middle to claim a victory. Understandably, the strict laws of classical logic do not apply to apply to all situations (as any man who has been married for more than an hour or two can surely testify). It doesn't mean there is anything illogical about the situation, it simply means that the over strict laws of classical logic have been applied incorrectly to the situatio...

The title is not entirely accurate, but: (1) if I said "twice removed", I fear many would think כלי שני/second vessel; (2) c'mon... how cool is it to be able to use the word thrice? Besides the opportunity to use the word thrice (thrice, in you include the title and not this one, or just not including this one) in one TftD, I have a more serious reason to write about this. Namely, my rush to incorrectly tell someone that, "Of course the Mishna Brura says you can make tea in a כלי שלישי! It's in that long paragraph where he describes how to make tea on Shabbos." I, in my arrogance did not bother to double check. My friend (still even after this), though, did. Thank goodness. So... the Mishna Brura has a long paragraph (Siman 318, end of s.k. 39) starting by declaring as obvious to the poskim that making tea is a cooking process, for which one would transgress a capital offence if done on purpose and with intention. The Mishna Brura then decries the lax at...

This is yet another reason why you need a rav. A close chaver directed my attention to the third Mishna Brura to siman 672. The Shulchan Aruch there says that if you are really busy/preoccupied and need to light Chanuka candles early, then you can light from פלג המנחה. The Mishna Brura notes that the hour and a quarter is measured in שעות זמניות/hours adjusted for the day length. I looked back to my friend wondering what he wanted so show me. He directed me to look again (Baruch HaShem, my friends are patient with me). Sure... The Mishna Brura notes that פלג המנחה is one and a quarter hours before צאת הכוכבים/night fall and the hours are determined by the length or shortness of the day; that is, שעות זמניות. Wait... backup... before צאת הכוכבים/night fall?! We nearly always means before שקיע/sundown; not צאת הכוכבים/night fall! Right, replied my friend; what do you make of that? The Mishna Brura is not at all shy about mentioning the different ways of calculating...

In parashas תולדות, we are told of one of the most difficult tests for our illustrious patriarch, Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov is the ultimate איש אמת/man of Truth, and he is given the task of subverting his father's plan to give the brachos to the evil Esav. Why Yitzchak Avinu wanted to give the brachos -- which would have been a horrific disaster, and why HaShem wanted him to be put in a position where he needed to be tricked by Yaakov Avinu to do the right thing -- and for which Yitzchak Avinu was very thankful, and how Rivka Imeinu knew that and what to do are all very, very interesting topics. All very, very far outside the scope of this TftD. I want to focus on a single point. When Esav learns of the subterfuge he was devastated; וַיִּצְעַ֣ק צְעָקָ֔ה גְּדֹלָ֥ה וּמָרָ֖ה עַד־מְאֹ֑ד/he howled a very, very great and bitter cry (B'reishis 27:32). (Why it meant so much to him is also outside the scope of this TftD.) The medrash says that Klal Yisrael were punished for causing E...

I have, Baruch Hashem, bli ayin hara, puh-puh-puh, several very bright and adorable grandsons. I have one in particular who has an incredible eye for details. He recently told me that he had a question on Chumash, parshas Lech L'cha; the battle of the four kings vs the five kings. I told him to get a chumash and show me. As he was headed to the Mikra'os HaG'dolos, I redirected him to a regular chumash. (I mean, he's only seven. How complicated could this be?) He showed that in 14:2 and 14:8 the verses tell me that one of the kings was from Bela, which is now called Tzo'ar. Verse 14:3 says that they engaged in the battle in the valley of Siddim, which is the Dead Sea. Verse 14:8 also  mentions that the battle was in the valley of Siddim... but does not mention that the valley of Siddim is the Dead Sea in that second verse. In all innocence, he asked why the new name was repeated for one place but not for the other.  I sent him back for the Mikra'os HaG'dolos....

When I was younger and would express "but if" questions, my father would usually answer, "If a frog had six shooters and a ten gallon hat, then he would be a Texas ranger." As I got older, my "but if" questions got more sophisticated, and my father's response got more colorful. I am going to stick with the frog/Texas ranger response; thank you very much. The truth is, though, that hypothetical situations can be used to reveal insights about real situations. Physicists use thought experiments (the real physicists use "gedanken" experiments; "frummer than thou" permeates all walks of life) to explore the consequences of physical theory. Recently, to my extreme delight, I learned of a situation where the hypothetical is used to drive practical halacha. The pre-setup: We do not daven a regular weekday שמונה עשרה on Shabbos and Yom Tov. This is not  because we have no need of such things as health, livelihood, in-gathering of the exi...