NEW PROJECT!!:-)

Everybody heard of the "Artscroll Revolution". The elucidated gemara that was so well done has enabled thousands to learn and comprehend gemara.

However, there is always more to learn and understand. The commentary of Tosfos which has been part and parcel of gemara study for hundreds of years and brings a completely new dimension to the learning is unfortunately out of reach for so many.

Therefore, I have decided to, bli neder, attempt to elucidate and translate it into English for the benefit of the larger population. In order to expedite the work it would be much better if I can gather a staff of scholars.

Sounds great - right?

SOUNDS AMAZING!!!

One "minor" challenge - I need a sponsor/s in order to move this project forward. Everyone reading this knows wealthy people who appreciate Torah. If you would like to be my partner in spreading the Light - please forward this post to any parties that may be interested in helping. Help me change the world!:-)

THANKS!


PS - I have other ideas as well be would like to start with this one..

New Article

On the sugya in Chezkas Habatim of מפלניא זבינתה דזבנה מינך - here.

Pnimiyus Vs. Chitzoniyus

The Greeks were scientists. Science is called chochma chitzonis - external wisdom. The reason it described that way is because science only defines what is happening in the material universe. What is the inner source of this materialistic existence? The spirit. Or better, the Spirit of Hashem. That is the pnimiyus - the depth of everything we see. There is a bracha one makes when he sees a great scholar of chochma chitzonis but this bracha is not said [according to many] upon seeing a Jewish scholar of chochma chitzonis. This is because he could have used his towering intellect to study the pnimiyus of the world in Torah and instead used it to explore material phenomena which is considered a certain failing. So Einstein - no, Isaac Newton [despite his very Jewish sounding first name he wasn't Jewish] - yes.

Science also studies what MUST be, the world of הכרח. The laws of nature are constant and unchanging. Torah examines the world on a higher level - the level of choice. Choice is the pendulum upon which all of our existence swings. Good or evil, life or death.

Also, when we study Torah there are rarely absolutes - things can be understood in countless different ways. In science and math "it is what it is". There is no "svara" that 2 plus 2 will be five. When learning Torah we essentially becomes G-d's partner by adding our own personal input to the text being studied.

Many scientists believed that man is a pre-programmed robot and doesn't really exercise free choice. The Torah is vehemently opposed to this notion. We can choose and we must choose.

On Chanuka we appreciate the importance of choosing good and adding our personal touch and approach to the eternal Torah of Hashem.

[Based in part on ideas culled from Maran HaRav Hutner]

Backwards

What is Yavan?

Yavan loves beauty. Not the internal, pure, deep and holy beauty but the external "what you see is what you get" type of beauty.

That is the OPPOSITE of the truth. True beauty is not just skin deep.

Yavan's understanding of beauty is all BACKWARDS. That is probably why the word יון is the word נוי [beauty] spelled backwards....

Warriors Or Not?

A wonder: The pasuk in Vi-zos Habracha says that Moshe blessed Shevet Levi  that ברך ה' חילו ופעל ידיו תרצה מחץ מתניים מקמיו ומשנאיו מן יקומון - They are going to rip their enemies into pieces. Rashi says that this is alluding to the Chashmonaim who were Kohanim from Shevet Levi and took 'good care' of the Greeks.

The Rambam learns [at the end of Shmittah Vi-Yovel] from the SAME PASSUK that Shevet Levi doesn't go out to war....

Hmmmmmmmmm.

What do you think?

Shabbos 68 - 'Shvach-eh' Geirus?

Rav and Shmuel both maintain: Even a child who was taken captive among Gentiles [תינוק שנשבה] or a proselyte who became converted in the midst of Gentiles is as one who knew [about Shabbos] but subsequently forgot, and so he is liable [a korban for chilul shabbos]. But R. Yochanan and Resh Lakish maintain: Only one who knew but subsequently forgot [is liable], but a child who was taken captive among Gentiles, or a proselyte who became converted in the midst of Gentiles, is not culpable.

Here we have a case of a person who live among Gentiles, never even heard of Shabbos and yet converted. How is it possible to convert if one doesn't know something as fundamental as Shabbos?? Or at LEAST Shabbat. But to know about neither of them....... Dos heist a yid? That's a Jew??? I mean even if he speaks Yiddish he is a goy!

From here we see that to convert one need not know about all of the mitzvos. The halacha is that a convert must be told about only a few of the mitzvos and accept upon himself in principle to follow everything. This is a huge topic beyond the scope of one post. See for example Igros Moshe Yo"d 1/160, Chemdas Shlomo Yo"d 29 and Achiezer 3/26.

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Rav Zeitchik in his Chaye Nefesh asks how a תינוק שנשבה can be liable a korban when he finds out that he was mechalel Shabbos? He never heard of Shabbos and grew up on a farm in South Dakota where even Chabad didn't arrive [yet:-)].

He answers that  this person over time certainly had inner stirrings of Teshuva to which he didn't pay enough heed and for that he is liable.

I direct you to a wonderful article written by Mo"V Rav Yeshayahu Shteinberger Shlita called המצפון כצו הלכתי מחייב - 'The Conscience As A Halachikally Binding Force' in his sefer אשי יובל.

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Another note  - This gemara is the source for the concept of תינוק שנשבה. The context of the gemara is the obligation of a person who was literally taken captive by the Gentiles as a baby to bring a korban. Today this has been extended by some to include every irreligious Jew and to absolve him from any wrongdoing and [among other things] remove from him the halachic status of Mechalel Shabbos [שדינו כגוי]. I am also on the מלמד זכות team but I question how broadly we can apply this term. Of course this is an extremely broad topic and requires a lot more that the few words I devoted to it. See the interesting remarks of Rabbi Henkin in the Bnei Banim 4 page 110. [During the course of the piece, he discusses the question he was asked by a Jew who wanted to watch the וורלד סיריז - World Series, on Motzei Shabbos when the game was being televised from California where it was still Shabbos. When the final credits appear there is invariably a Steinberg and Goldberg listed and that means Shabbos was being desecrated. Go Angels!]

The Holiness Of The Eyes

Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg - Rosh Yeshivat Kerem Bi-Yavneh from Shabbat Bi-Shabbato [translated by Moshe Goldberg]

Yehuda sends his friend from Adulam to find a woman, and the friend asks, "Where is the harlot at the lookout point (literally: 'eyes') of the road?" [Bereishit 38:21]. The word used for harlot is "kedaisha," related to the word for holiness. Chassidim see this language as a hint that the sanctity of a person depends on the eyes. The sages commented on the phrase, "He who shuts his eyes from seeing evil" [Yeshayahu 33:16], that this refers to a man who does not look at women while they wash laundry. It is written in the Shulchan Aruch, "A man must stay far away from women, and it is forbidden to make light with them, to be brash with them, or to look at their beauty" [Even Ha'ezer 21]. The Rambam writes, "One who looks at forbidden sexual sights may think that it is nothing, since he will say to himself, did I have sexual relations with them or get close to them? But he is not aware that looking with the eyes is a great sin, which leads to the full sin of sexual misconduct." [Hilchot Teshuva 4:4]. On the other hand, it is written that one who looks at sexual sights and refrains from partaking in the act will have the privilege of encountering the face of the Shechina (Vayikra Rabba 23).     Chanukah lamps are able to mend problems of the eyes. When the sages stated that we do not have permission to make use of them but only to look at them, they did not mean that we are only allowed to view the flames. Rather, the goal of lighting the lamps is to look at them, because they are an extension of the lamps in the Temple. It is written in the Midrash, "As long as the Temple continues to exist the custom will continue to exist, but the lamps will always burn facing the Menorah" [Bamidbar Rabba 15:8]. The Ramban explains, "This is a hint of the Chanukah lamps of the Chashmona'im, which are lit even after the destruction of the Temple, while we are in exile." The windows in the Temple were "transparent and sealed" [Melachim I 6:4]. That is, they were narrow on the inside and wide on the outside, so that the light would emanate out and light up the entire universe. And that is why we recite a blessing about seeing the lamps, since this act spreads the light and brings the sanctity inside us.   We are told in the book Netivot Shalom about a Chassidic rabbi who would look at the Chanukah flames for most of the time that they were lit, for several hours at a time. He would not take his eyes from the lamps even when he was giving a Torah sermon. In addition, according to the halacha a Chanukah menorah must be less than twenty Amot above the ground because if it is higher than this "the eye does not include it."   The Talmud teaches us that the Chanukah lamps should continue to shine their light "until the feet of the people of Termod have left the public area" [Shabbat 21b]. We are also told that a Gentile asked Hillel, "Why are the eyes of the people of Termod narrow?" And he answered, "It is because they live in the sand." [31a]. The Maharsha explains that the people followed their eyes, which means that they were drawn into illicit sexual encounters, like Shimshon who followed the direction of his gaze. In this way the people of Termod harmed the sanctity of their eyes, which became narrow. And this is the meaning of the words of Hillel, that they live in the sand. "Chol," sand, also means profane, and Hillel was teaching us that the people of Termod are not holy since they are drawn after the profane. Thus, the hidden explanation of the phrase, "until the feet of the people of Termod have left the public area" is as follows: maintain the light until these people change their behavior and no longer gaze on forbidden sights. The Chanukah lamps have the power to curtail their behavior and to mend the eyes ("regel" not in the sense of feet but rather "hergel," a normal practice), such that mankind will return to its proper holy state.   [A reader added...]  In connection with this, we may note the fascinating and superbly on target commentary by the linguistic expert Hillel Zeidel on the verse, "A lamp of G-d is the soul of man, it searches out all the innermost chambers of the stomach" [Mishlei 20:27]. The word "ner," a lamp, can be viewed as a verb, as a parallel expression to the verb in the second half of the verse. Just as G-d searches and finds what is not outwardly visible, in the innermost chambers of the stomach, so does He "plow" – dig and search – within the innermost part of man, his soul, and reach into "the soul of man." Thus, more than anything else the lamps of Chanukah symbolize the inner soul of the nation of Yisrael from which it draws its strength. Let us hope and pray that lighting the Chanukah lamps and looking at them will enlighten us and wake us up to serve G-d in the holiest possible way.