by micha · Published כ״ו בטבת תשס״ו – Wed, Jan 25, 2006 · Last modified Fri, Jan 4, 2008
The Rambam lists his ikkarim in his introduction to the chapter “Cheileq” in Tr. Sanhedrin. The mishnah states “All of Israel has a portion in the World to Come except…” The Rambam is addressing the question of who is “Yisrael” in this mishnah, which beliefs keep one from their guaranteed portion in the World to Come. (See also Hilkhos Teshuvah...
by micha · Published כ״ט בכסלו תשס״ו – Thu, Dec 29, 2005 · Last modified Sun, Feb 5, 2017
In honor of Chanukah, I thought I would finally post my ideas on the differences between the Yefetic and Semitic perspectives. Yefes, and his son Yavan are the progenitors of western thought. Yavan, the Ionians, are the first Greeks to establish academies of art and philosophy, paving the way for the more famous Athenians. We, on the other hand, are...
Fundamentals / Qedushah / Shabbos
by micha · Published כ״ד בתשרי תשנ״ו – Wed, Oct 18, 1995 · Last modified Wed, Apr 9, 2008
This week I’d like to discuss three seemingly unrelated questions about the words of the tephillah: The focus of Shabbos Mussaf davening is the paragraph that begins “Tiqanta Shabbos…” What most readily jumps to the eye about the tephilla is that the 22 words it opens with are an anagram of the Hebrew alphabet in reverse. (“Tiqanta” starts with a...