Intimate Knowledge of G‑d
Compassion Toward People
Splendor in Mind and Heart
Avodah
. R' Meir G. Rabi asked: > HKBH knows what He's doing > DON'T MIX IN > Just do as you're told. > Why does this not apply to > [...]
> > Michael Poppers wrote RAMiller asked, "What > was miraculous about that ram?" Interestingly enough issues relating to this (tangentially) are on yesterday's and today's daf! (Zevachim 85 & [...]
R' Joel Rich asked: > Does hkbh give one a nisayon that one cannot pass? I guess the > answer depends a lot on how you define the terms but [...]
The righteous King Chizkiyahu Was to be divinely punished for avoiding having children Because he knew that they would be evil, not only to themselves, but to the entire nation [...]
In Avodah V43n73, RAMiller asked, "What was miraculous about that ram?" On a Mi Yodeya page (URL: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/48734/what-was-the-significance-of-the-ram-by-the-akeida), I noticed a few answers: -1- 3. The special nature of this [...]
"Why? Why didn't the ba`al qri'ah just write in the vowels? We are obliged to read the book of Esther from a parchment (which is, parenthetically, a better term than [...]
. There is a mishna in perek 5 of Pirkei Avos which lists several things that were created at Bein Hashmashos just prior to the Shabbos of Bereishis. My understanding [...]
>From Malka Z. Simkovich in Tradition Postscript Working on this essay gave me occasion to consider the rising tendency among Modern Orthodox American Jews to accept the notion that judaism [...]
Blogs
- YGB - יג"ב
- Aspaqlaria
- Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Traveling on Chanukah when you will completely miss lighting,and no one will light for you that night.A recording for the BHP daily Halachic Whatsapp group https://chat.whatsapp.com/Gz8rrxqRcfy9rMOXRLG6GS [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
I was out of town and did not participate in this episode of the podcast.Play EpisodeDownload EpisodeSupport This EpisodeRischa D'Araisa Season 12 Episode 14:Submitting to Authority and Defying the Rule of [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
A short shiur on the Rambam on Chanukah given at the Young Israel of Northridge, CA.17 Kislev 5785. December 7, 2025. We come to explain the language used by the [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
I was out of town and did not participate in this episode of the podcast.Play EpisodeDownload EpisodeSupport This EpisodeRischa D'Araisa Season 12 Episode 13:Derech Eretz, Derech Eretz, Wherefore Art Thou?https://listen.jewishpodcasts.fm/yeshivaofnewark/111294 [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Play EpisodeDownload EpisodeSupport This EpisodeRischa D'Araisa Season 12 Episode 12:Three Courses and Dessert:Remembering Rabbi Jay MarcusSettler ViolencePonevezh DecisionRabbi Boruch Chait's Anthemhttps://listen.jewishpodcasts.fm/yeshivaofnewark/111065 [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
A shiur on Emunah and the Holocaust to the YBH 8th grade girls in the context of the Names Not Numbers program, November 2025. [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
A recording for the BHP daily Halachic Whatsapp group https://chat.whatsapp.com/Gz8rrxqRcfy9rMOXRLG6GS [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Rischa D'Araisa Season 12 Episode 11:כלי קודש וכלי שרת וכלי כסף וכלי חרסShould we be offering steep discounts for Rabbe'im?https://listen.jewishpodcasts.fm/yeshivaofnewark/110746Play EpisodeDownload EpisodeSupport This Episode [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Subsequent installments in the series will be linked in the comments here. [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
My brother, HaRav Yochanan Meir shlita,is our special guest to reminisce about the niftar zt"l.https://listen.jewishpodcasts.fm/yeshivaofnewark/110529 [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Focusing on the Malbim.Subsequent parts will be linked in the comments here. [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
אשה אחת שאלה אותי אם אני מוכן להעביר את הזוהר היומי בעברית. אמרתי לה שאם יהיו אנשים מעוניינים בזה אנסה. האם יש כאן או ידוע למישהו כאן על מי שיהיה [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Orot HaTechiyah 9 This is the most explicit explication of Rav Kook's novel perspective on Secular Zionism as a holy movement. I have connected it to the "tzitzit bli kippa" [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Focusing on the Dover Shalom (in the Otzar HaTefillos Siddur) on Shemoneh Esrei.See the comments here for subsequent parts in this series. [...]
- Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
- Micha Berger
This week’s parshah, VaYeishev, this second Tefillah Meanings post for the week as well. Today’s topic: The closing pasuq of Mizmor shir leYom haShabbos. Many pesuqim in Tehillim say nearly [...]
- Micha Berger
We say in Ashrei (Tehillim 145:13): ,מַֽלְכוּתְךָ֗ מַלְכ֥וּת כׇּל־עֹלָמִ֑יםוּ֝מֶֽמְשַׁלְתְּךָ֗ בְּכׇל־דּ֥וֹר וָדֹֽר׃ Your kingdom is a kingdom over all the worlds,and Your rule is throughout each and every generation. Tefillah Meaning [...]
- Micha Berger
ShehaKol is said so often, we kind of take it for granted. But for a number of years now, ShehaKol on my morning cup of coffee has been one of [...]
- Micha Berger
We request three steps to the dawn of the Messianic Age in Shemoneh Esrei: תְּקַע בְּשׁוֹפָר גָּדוֹל לְחֵרוּתֵֽנוּ – “Sound the great shofar for our freedom” about our return from [...]
- Micha Berger
The next berakhah I found a relationship to requires skipping ahead to “VelaMalshinim… — And for the informers, let there be no hope”. I think we need a little historical [...]
- Micha Berger
Tzitzum (literally: contraction) is a fundamental idea in the Ari’s Qabbalah. It describes the Act of Creation as Hashem making “room” for us and everything created “constricting” Himself from conceptual [...]
- Micha Berger
I relate to the second set of requests as being for the nation’s physical well-being as individuals. This follows the prerequisite three requests, for our spiritual well-being. First we need [...]
- Micha Berger
Yet another detour from Shemoneh Esrei, this time because the thought is from Rashi on this week’s parashah. This thought from Anne Frank Hy”d is very inspiring. However, Rashi on [...]
- Micha Berger
I am taking what I expect to be a one post break from Shemoneh Esrei because I saw something related to kavvanah in tomorrow’s Arukh haShulchan Yomi. In Orach Chaim [...]
- Micha Berger
The next berakhah in Shemoneh Esrei begins, “סְלַח לָנוּ אָבִינוּ כִּי חָטָאנוּ מְחַל לָנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ כִּי פָשָׁעְנוּ – Selach us our Father because we erred, Mechal us our King because [...]
- Micha Berger
Usually, we think of qiddush hasheim and chillul hasheim in terms of what an action does to Hashem’s reputation. Does an action motivate people to follow Hashem, or dissuade them [...]
- Micha Berger
Three weeks ago, I shared that the body of the berakhah “Atah Gibbor” became for me more of a request than the intended praise. “מְחַיֵּה מֵתִים בְּרַחֲמִים רַבִּים” bringing to [...]
- Micha Berger
One of the conservation laws of Aristotelian and Newtonian physics was that the total amount of matter in the universe is constant. None is created or destroyed. But E = [...]
- Micha Berger
The structure I suggested for the requests of Shemoneh Esrei places the berakhah of Hashiveinu as the second of a set of requests about granting each person their spiritual potential. [...]
- Micha Berger
Now that we spent two posts (1, 2) building an approach to what it is we are asking for, the noun, I want to go to the originally intended topic [...]
- Micha Berger
In the previous post, I explained how I think about Da’as in terms the Sephirah, that Da’as is seen only when dealing with reality on a level where one cannot [...]
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Nephesh Hachaim 1:13 1. T The things we say can also link celestial worlds, rectify this one, and interconnect with the upper worlds, as we’ll now see. After all, we’re [...]
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Da’at Tevunot 3:7 (¶ 118 [middle]) 1. We’d do well to take something into consideration, Ramchal adds here. It’s that just because something or someone is imperfect doesn’t mean [...]
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The Way of G-d 2:6:4 1. G-d allowed for a prosecutor in His court, famously known as satan 1. His role is to argue against the accused, which them enables [...]
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Nephesh Hachaim 1:12 1. R. Chaim already spoke 1 of the fact that we could only link celestial worlds, rectify this one, and interconnect with those upper worlds after we’d [...]
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Da’at Tevunot 3:6 (¶ 118 [beginning]) 1. Ramchal reiterates here 1 that wrong is a created entity 2 that was only designed to last for as long as G-d wanted [...]
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The Way of G-d 2:6:3 1. Given the above, the fact is that G-d doesn’t judge the world according to His foreknowledge but rather according to the way He wants [...]
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Nephesh Hachaim 1:11 1. Following up on the thought offered in the last chapter that despite our being connected to physicality we’re nevertheless superior to angels, R’ Chaim now [...]
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Da’at Tevunot 3:5 (¶s 116 [end] – 117) 1. Ramchal says that he’s going to expand upon things he’d said above 1 and reveal things that are “deep” about [...]
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The Way of G-d 2:6:2 1. G-d appears in each Sanhedrin and court, influences it, and sees to it that justice is served 1. Now, in some instances [...]
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Nephesh Hachaim 1:10 1. Given all of the above concerning our makeup and capacities, it’s reasonable to wonder whether angels are loftier than we are or we’re loftier than they. [...]
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Da’at Tevunot 3:4 (¶ 116 [beg.]) 1. Ramchal is about to offer something that will serve as a prelude to what’s to follow 1. It’s that even though G-d [...]
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Derech Hashem 2:6:1 In the course of His interactions with the world 1, G-d arranged it so that phenomena that affect both the things that humankind brings about 2 and [...]
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Nephesh Hachaim 1:9 1. Following through on the discussion of the previous chapter, R’ Chaim contrasts the situation of the generation that dwelt in the Sinai Desert 1 with that [...]
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Da’at Tevunot 3:3 (¶’s 103- 115) 1. It seems logical, doesn’t it, that goodness would be a product of something that emanates goodness while wrongfulness would be a product of [...]
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Da’atTevunot 3:2 (# 98 – 102) 1. Ramchal starts to explain the role of wrong and injustice in the world with a proposition derived from Rambam1. It’s that when G-d [...]
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Nephesh Hachaim 1:8 1. R’ Chaim offers a rather complex discussion here about the positioning of the Cherubs in the Tabernacle and Holy Temple in order to illustrate his point [...]
- Neil Harris
The website 18FORTY has a fantastic and thoughtful multimedia post on OTD that is worth watching, reading, and listening to. If you are reading this then you know I don’t [...]
- Neil Harris
Spoiler, there isn’t much substance to I what have to say. Also, I am spoiling the end of the Skywalker saga. After reading an excellent essay by Rabbi Harry Maryles [...]
- Neil Harris
I checked my recent writing history today and the last legit post of mine was really 3.5 years ago. For some that’s a long chunk of time. In that time [...]
- Neil Harris
My wife’s comment on Simchas Torah pretty much summed it up, “I feel like this is the biggest tease for you.” You see, my mom a”h was niftar right before [...]
- Neil Harris
When today comes around I usually think about things my father missed since he has been gone. I decided that this year I’ll attempt to list a number of things [...]
- Neil Harris
Walking out of shul, the morning after Yom Kippur, a follow early Sunday morning riser casually said to me, “Back to normal, right?” I was taken off guard (and also [...]
- Neil Harris
I have started this post about 2 dozen times over the past 3 years and I never seem to get more than about 300 words written about why I stopped [...]
- Neil Harris
I want to share something that Rav Efraim Twerski said at his Shabbos HaGadol drasha. After starting off with 10 questions Rav Twerski said over an amazing Torah from Rav [...]
- Neil Harris
So, tonight’s the 6th yahrtzeit for my dad, Avraham ben Zorach a”h (Al, of blessed memory). Like everyone else that has lost a parent I lit my 24 hour yahrzeit [...]
- Neil Harris
“WARMED BY THE FIRE OF THE AISH KODESH– Torah from the Hilulas of Reb Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczna” by Rav Moshe Weinberger and adapted by Binyomin Wolf is more [...]