Michael el Chayil

On June 29, 2014, I started a TftD with this: I was struck by the following idea at n'ila a few years ago. Ashamnu, bagadnu, ... gazalnu? From global to specific? Rather, I think we can understand all 23 expressions of admission as applying to each and every sin that we commit. Even if this is not p'shat, it gives a perspective on the damage done by every sin, even the "little" ones. So nine years ago that had been bothering me for "a few years" and it still strikes me each time I say viduy. Looking back at that TftD, it still rings true to me. Moreover, as I wrote then, even though it might not be p'shat in the viduy, it is a good thought and (I hope) that HaShem is giving me an A for effort. This morning, though, I found a gemara that leads me to believe that this might actually be p'shat! (Notice the copious use of weasel words to keep me free of actual liability.) Chazal (Avoda Zara 36b, fist line, you can't miss it) quotes the prop...

I mean, really, wouldn't we just as soon move forward? Of course we need to make the necessary changes and ask for forgiveness and pardon. But once we have done that, let's drop it already. Can you imagine sitting down with your spouse or child every morning, pulling out that book (again) and starting your day with, "Well... let's review all of the awful things you have done to me, but for which I have forgiven you." Yet, in the Avinu Malkeinu we say twice a day during the 10 days of repentance, we actually plead -- oh, please write us into Your book of things for which we have been forgiven and pardoned. The phrase "written in a book" means that it is constantly/permanently at the front, so to speak, of HaShem's mind. I saw this question in the sefer K'dushas Levi. (I mentioned to my son-in-law that I had a copy and he suggested I look at the section on Rosh HaShanah -- I am so glad I did.) As is well known, תשובה/repentance comes...

Shabbos morning after davening, a chavrusa presented to me a question I don't remember hearing before, nor even knew was a thing. Chazal say (Rosh HaShanah 16b) that a year that doesn't start with shofar will not end well. Since the first day or Rosh HaShanah this year was on Shabbos, we didn't blow shofar. So the question is: What will protect us from a difficult year? Honestly, I didn't really appreciate the question. We didn't blow shofar because Chazal told us not to; זה הוא/what's the question? Then he told me the Meshech Chochma is the source of the question. I now appreciated better that it was my ignorance that was preventing me from really appreciating the question. He told me the answer of the Meshech Chachma and I thanked him... though still not really appreciating what I was hearing. After mincha that afternoon the Agudah had a guest speaker,  R' Rajchenbach, the rosh kollel of the Kollel Zichron Eliyahu. The rosh kollel started with the question...

The mishha in Avos says to be as careful with "light" mitzvos as "important" mitzvos, because you don't know how the reward is calculated. There are several different explanations of the lessons one is meant to learn from this mishna, but the unifying theme is that we just don't know how the final דין וחשבון/accountability will be computed. I had an amazing experience at work today that brought this mishna to life for me like never before. We had our quarterly group meeting today, attended also by the heads of our internal customers. (The group I work for by and large provides software tools that allow that group to do the work our external/paying customers need done.) The head of that group showed a slide of all the wonderful things we had done for them over the last year. The list included very large features, some required months of effort and as many as a dozen people involved. People had been given special recognition awards for some of those projects. ...

[Gleaned from R' Fuerst's Sunday morning shiur, Sept 10 -- last one this year! Any mistakes are mine.] Take a look at the beautiful set of Mishna Brura on most of our shelves and you'll notice that one volume looks particularly pristine. Right, I don't even have to tell you which one; and it's not because it also happens to be the thinnest volume. Nonetheless, everyone really does need to know a bit more about eruvin than either (1) I don't hold by any eruv, or (2) I don't know what the fuss about the eruv is. [My two cents: For the (2) people -- the rule is that in case of doubt on a Torah prohibition, you are obligated to rule stringently. If you don't know then you certainly should not be carrying on Shabbos! For the (1) people -- umm... there is an entire masechta eruvin; perhaps you ought to come down from that high horse and get a better view of reality.] In fact, a hotel fits quite nicely into the definition of courtyards as describ...

The question of why the Day of Judgement comes before the Day of Atonement probably has as many answers as "why does Chanukah have eight days?" I heard and thought about a different angle, so of course I want to share it. Our intense preparation for Rosh HaShanah just started on Sunday with slichos. Slichos have at their core the 13 attributes of mercy that were revealed to Moshe Rabeinu after the terrible tragedy of the Sin of the Golden Calf. It is interesting to note how Moshe Rabeinu started this plea for atonement (Shmos 32:30/1): First Moshe Rabeinu tells the nation that they have committed a terrible transgression and he will do his best to gain atonement for them. Then Moshe turns to HaShem and declares: Your nation has committed a terrible transgression, they made golden gods! So Moshe even magnified the sin when addressing the Creator as his opening argument! Let's not quibble about the grammar just now. That's the way you mount a defense? Imagine an accused...

I really love this Spanish expression: Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo.  The devil knows more because he is old than because he is the devil. (For your monolinguals.) The Rema (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 581:3) informs us that (at least for Ashkenazim) we do not blow shofar on erev Rosh HaShanah. As usual, that is all the Rema has to say. As usual, the Mishna Brura (sk 24) gives the reasoning behind the p'sak. We all know the reasons, but I'd like to unpack this Mishna Brura and get a glimpse of what the saintly R' Yisroel Meir Kagan really gave to us. The Mishna Brura first tells us that we stop blowing the shofar on erev Rosh HaShanah because we want to make a break between the permitted (that is, blown because of long standing tradition) shofar blasts and the ones we are obligated by the Torah to blow. The Mishna Brura adds two points: we don't blow on erev Rosh HaShanah even when Rosh HaShanah starts on Shabbos -- so, in fact, we will have a break in an...

Ok... this is short, but oh so practical. As mentioned in a previous TftD , I endeavor each year to make a siyum on a seder of mishnayos for both my father and father-in-law. Their  yahrzeits  are far enough apart that it is more or less practical. What is less practical, though, is getting a minyan together for the kaddish. One option is to just announce after ma'ariv at some shuls that I am making a siyum for a  yahrzeit . People are accommodating, but it is not  always convenient for everyone there. My father's  yahrzeit  is 13 Adar I... but when there is only one Adar, then people are often in a rush to get home to help with Purim preparations.  So I had a thought. I wondered if making a siyum with people dancing around wanting to leave is really such a great z'chus for the niftar. Maybe I would be better off making the siyum on Sunday morning when people have more time and are more amenable. Besides, there is a larger crowd, so no one feels trappe...

I am uncomfortable with the term "rebbi"; I don't know why, it just doesn't seem to sit/fit well with me. However, if I did have a rebbi, it would be R' Dovid Siegel, shlita; now of Kollel Ahavas Torah in Eretz Yisrael. R' Siegel comes to America each year. He is wont to daven vasikin, which works out very conveniently for me. This year, however, the logistics did not work out. There was never a question of whether we would see the rabbi; only a question of venue as he has a very busy schedule. When I say "we", I mean my wife and I. R' Siegel has been a mentor to me and has been instrumental in helping us to continue building a Torah marriage even though we both came from a background bereft of any real spirituality; which is to say, bereft of reality. The hashgacha arranged that R' Siegel walked in from Telshe to address the olam for shashlos s'udos at the Agudah. The rabbi needed a ride back after Shabbos, so we had the merit of hosting...

  [Paraphrased/extracted from The Treasure of Simchas HaMitzvah -- R' Ezriel Cziment ] In the  In the middle of the dire predictions of the rebuke we find in Ki Savo, we are given a clear and explicit reason for all this sorrow (D'varim 28:47): because you did not serve the Lord, your God, with happiness and with gladness of heart, when [you had an] abundance of everything.   תַּ֗חַת אֲשֶׁ֤ר לֹֽא־עָבַ֨דְתָּ֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ בְּשִׂמְחָ֖ה וּבְט֣וּב לֵבָ֑ב מֵרֹ֖ב כֹּֽל: Um... what? And more than that, the Rambam brings this as halachah -- if one doesn't serve HaShem with joy, then he is deserving of all the misfortunes that befall him. That didn't help at all... this is halachah? And we never see that even failure to perform a positive mitzvah comes with punishment at all (I mean, you need to bring an elevation offering, but not a punishment, per se.) Wait... there's more: What does the Rambam mean "he deserves what he gets"; either he is g...

  [Note: much of this is taken from the shiur from R' Czimetn, The Paradox of the Yifas Toar ] R' Chezkal Abramsky used to give a Chumash shiur on Friday nights to largely unaffiliated/non-religious Jews. When parshas Ki Savo arrived he wasn't sure what to say; how do you explain that the Torah allows a "war bride"? The Torah allows -- albeit with a slew of conditions and procedures -- a soldier in the midst of a war to take a woman captive and compel her to become Jewish so he can marry her. Moreover, Rashi notes that the Torah allows this because, even if it were forbidden, the soldier would take her anyway, so better for it ot be permitted. How in the world do you explain that to anyone, let alone the marginally religious. R' Abramsky had an epiphany. He walked in and said, "Rabosai -- before you open your chumash tonight, I want to tell you the amazing principle we are going to learn: There is nothing in the Torah that is beyond your abilities, becaus...

The mishna in Pirkei Avos (5:4) lists 10 miracles that our ancestors were able to experience in the Beis HaMikdash; may it be rebuilt soon and in our lifetime. Here's the list, some explanation added parenthetically. No woman ever miscarried because of the aroma from the sacrificial offerings. (If a pregnant woman gets a craving for something, it can be dangerous if she isn't given a sample. Since she couldn't eat from the offerings, this could have brought her into danger; but it never happened.) The meat of the offerings never spoiled. (It can get quite hot in Yerushalayim and the meat could be left out for hours. Even so, none ever spoiled.) לא אירע קרי לכוהן גדול ביום הכיפורים (Since it would have been a tuma from his body, it would have been particularly disgraceful.) A fly was never seen where the meat was butchered. (Hot raw meat, outside; you get the picture.) The barely offering (omer) was never disqualified. (There would not have been time to harvest m...

In a recent TftD , I wrote: The Ramban doesn't explain what it means that "he caused death to himself". I have some thoughts about that, but I need to do some research before saying more.  Well... I did more research and I found something really interesting. I learn mishnayos daily (a practice I started some years ago when I aked my rebbi, R' Dovid Siegel, shlita, for some counsel in what I should be learning. He started with, "Well... hmm... of course you are already learning mishnayos every day, so you are asking what else you should be learning." Yeah, well... I started that day to make his words true.) This year I decided to add the perush of the Bartenura. (No, that name is not Italian for "blue bottle".)  I just go in order, with an eye to making a siyum on the yahrtzeits of my father and my father-in-law. (They are far enough apart that it is doable with some juggling.) I am currently coming to the end of Seder Nezikin, and learning Pirk...

I found the Ramban on this set of verses just so clear and really showed how much information is right there; one need only take the time to look. It is really beautiful. I was finishing up a couple of verses from the weekly "verses twice, translation once" with the following verses as my chavrusa arrived. I finished with "hmm". He really should know better, but curiosity got the best of him and he asked what the "hmm" was all about. I read the verses and noted: pretty strange that after talking about giving lashes to a guilty criminal, the Torah then exhorts us to not muzzle an ox when he is threshing, don't you think? He said, "hmm." (1) When there is a quarrel between men, and they approach the tribunal, and they judge them, and they affirm the righteousness of the  righteous one and affirm the evil of the evil one.   א כִּי־יִֽהְיֶ֥ה רִיב֙ בֵּ֣ין אֲנָשִׁ֔ים וְנִגְּשׁ֥וּ אֶל־הַמִּשְׁפָּ֖ט וּשְׁפָט֑וּם וְהִצְדִּ֨יקוּ֙ אֶת־הַצַּדִּ֔י...

Thrice daily we (except Shabbos and Yom Tov), we beseech HaShem: סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו, מחל לנו מלכנו כי פשענו, כי מוחל וסולח אתה Forgive us, our Father, that we have (mistakenly) sinned; pardon us, our King, that we have (intentionally) sinned; because You are the One who Pardons and Forgives. Poetry that it is, it means what it says; and that meaning was crafted with precision. I actually started this TftD nearly a year ago. I had an inkling of how to understand this petition, but could not find any good sources. Baruch HaShem, I have finally found solid support for my inkling and an expansion of my understanding. In the Siddur HaMeforash, he brings two sources, the Avudraham and the Ya'aros D'vash. Both start with noting the the difference between סְלִיחָה/forgiveness and מְחִילָה/pardon. סְלִיחָה/forgiveness means a complete erasure of the effect of the sin. מְחִילָה/pardon, on the other hand, means that we accept that some the erasure of the effect of the sin ...

At the end of parshas Shoftim, we have the involved ceremony that must be performed when an unidentified corpse is found outside the city boundaries. As part of that ceremony, the elders/spiritual leaders make a declaration that they did not murder this unknown person. Of course they didn't; so what's going on? Rashi explains on the spot that they mean that in their city strangers are treated with dignity and do not leave the city unescorted -- someone would surely have ensured his safety as he continued on his travels. Great, so now we know what they are saying. But... if they did not ensure that strangers were treated with dignity and even given appropriate protection to the city limits, then the Torah would call them murderers?! In fact, a few parshios ago, Moshe Rabeinu tells the nation that as they take Eretz Yisrael, be sure to destroy the places of idol worship... then adds: But don't do that to HaShem. By which he means (again, courtesy of Rashi): Don't do thing...

From Rosh Chodesh Elul we start saying L'Dovid ( Psalm 27 ) after davening -- once in the morning and once... well, that depends. Nusach S'fard says it after mincha, nusach Ashkenaz after ma'ariv. But suppose you are a nusach Ashkenaz guy who davens mincha at a shul that uses nusach S'fard? Do I say L'Dovid with them, or wait till ma'ariv? How about if I daven with a nusach Ashkenaz minyan for mincha and a nusach S'fard minyan for ma'ariv? Do I need to say it at all? Pre-pandamic, that was an annual occurrence for me, as I would daven downtown at the Loop Synagogue for mincha then at the Aguda (Peterson Park) for ma'ariv. I haven't seen that discussed anywhere -- which is a sad commentary on my lack of b'ki'us rather than a statement about what is available. Fortunately, though, I make up for my ignorance by having a good relationship with R' Fuerst, shlita; at whose shul I typically daven for mincha (post-pandemic advantage) and ma...

Near the end of parshas Shoftim (D'varim 20:1-9) we learn how Klal Yisrael went to war. I wrote about this in a TftD once before -- five years ago this week, in fact. There the discussion is about how sin affects us. This time I want to focus more on how we deal with sin. The setup is well known. The War Kohein tells the troops that they should not be afraid; HaShem is fighting for them and they just need to have trust. Then he tells them that anyone who has a new house/vineyard/wife but has not yet experienced the fruits of his labor should go home lest he die in war and another takes his place. Then the War Kohein gives his final instruction: Anyone who is afraid should go home. On that, R' Akiva says it means what it says. R' Yossi says it means they have a sin in their hand and are therefore afraid. What is the Torah telling us with this speech and what do Chazal want us to learn from the divergent opinions of R' Akiva and R' Yossi? Let us first have clarity tha...

Why are there converts to Judaism? You could ask the question the other way, of course: Why are there non-Jews? In other words, why would HaShem create human beings that do not have the merit to build a relationship with HaShem? The answer to that is deceptively easy: He didn't; He offered everyone that opportunity and most people said, "No thank you, I'm good." Nebbich. So the question returns: Why, then, are there converts? In truth, there is really no such thing as a non-Jew becoming Jewish. Instead, it is a Jewish soul born into a non-Jewish body and it is the גרות process that transforms it into a Jewish body. Why? Because that is the test/trial that will perfect that Jew's soul. How does it happen that a Jewish soul has to go through this process? There are different opinions, but one opinion is that all converts come from Eisav, and  we can thank Rivka Imeinu for opening that door. It is apparent in the text how much Yitzchak did for Eisav. What is less app...

We just returned from a beautiful few days in Arizona. Two days exploring and enjoying some of HaShem's most over the top, spectacular creations at Sedona and, l'havdil, the Grand Canyon. ("l'havdil" because as beautiful as Sedona is; the Grand Canyon is in a class by itself). We thought about actually staying at a lodge at the Grand Canyon, but then didn't. Why not? One word: food. There closest kosher food is in Flagstaff, about an hour away. Oh well, that's what we get for keeping kosher. Goyim can just go wherever they want and the food is plentiful and comes in a wide variety. Is that fair? Let's talk about that. After the first sin (I don't know how original it was; seems pretty run of the mill to me; he did what he wanted instead of what was right), the first man was told (B'reishis 3:18/19): 18 And it will cause thorns and thistles to grow for you, and you shall eat the herbs of the field.   יח וְק֥וֹץ וְדַרְדַּ֖ר תַּצְמִ֣יחַ לָ֑ךְ ...