Tag Archives: Talmud

Fish Out Of Water

A true master of life never leaves this world—he transcends it, but he is still within it. He is still there to assist those who are bonded with him with blessing and advice, just as before, and even more so. … Continue reading

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The Bible as a Quantum Cookbook

When I was young, my father, a rabbi, would roll up his sleeves in front of an open Talmud and spend four or five hours putting different postulates and corollaries together as though he were building a road in ancient … Continue reading

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The Unsimple Truth

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. -attributed to Albert Einstein According to Rashi, the question is directed against Rav Yirmiyah who had said that the basket in the tree does not actually have to … Continue reading

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Moshiach Rabbeinu

Believe it or not, this week’s message was not inspired by the fact that the Catholic Church has chosen a new Pope; it just offers a convenient contrast. As you probably know, there is, in their beliefs, a doctrine of … Continue reading

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When the Fruit Tree is Silent

One who humiliates another person in public … even though he may be a scholar and may have done many good deeds, nevertheless loses his portion in the eternal world. -Ethics of the Fathers 3:15 Imagine a situation: you have … Continue reading

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The Unintentional Shabbos Christian

If a non-Jew lit a candle [for himself], a Jew may also benefit from it. If the non-Jew lit it for the Jew, this is prohibited. -Shabbos 122a The Mishnah discusses the case where a gentile lit a candle on Shabbos. … Continue reading

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Love and Commentary

From where do we learn from the Torah that changing one’s clothes is a sign of respect? -Shabbos 114a The verse from Yeshaya 58:13 was already expounded to teach, among other things, that one’s Shabbos clothes should not be like one’s weekday … Continue reading

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Struggling to Touch the Essence

During the centuries following the completion of the Mishnah, the chain of transmission of the Oral law was further weakened by a number of factors: Economic hardship and increased persecution of the Jewish community in Israel caused many Jews, including … Continue reading

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Reunification

On this day in 1601, Hebrew books that had been confiscated by Church authorities were burned in Rome. This was an unfortunate theme throughout the Middle Ages: In 1592, Pope Clement VIII had condemned the Talmud and other Hebrew writings … Continue reading

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Messiah in the Jewish Writings, Part 1

It cannot be said that everything the sages taught about the Messiah was correct. There is the occasional story which seeks to make the Messiah subservient to a certain rabbi (such as in Zohar 1:4b, which has the Messiah trembling … Continue reading

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