1. The Setup A discussion on Facebook made me realize that my own attitude toward halakhah is quite different than Rav Hershel Schachter’s. If I thought there was only one right approach, I’d bet against myself, but since there isn’t… Here’s the context. Both Rav Hershel Schacter and I wear tzitzis made with a dye obtained from the banded dye-murex...
התכלת ××™× ×” מעכבת ×ת הלבן והלבן ××™× ×• מעכב ×ת התכלת תפילה של יד ××™× ×” מעכבת של ר×ש ושל ר×ש ××™× ×” מעכבת של יד הסולת והשמן ××™× ×Ÿ מעכבין ×ת היין ×•×œ× ×”×™×™×Ÿ מעכבן ×”×ž×ª× ×•×ª של מזבח החיצון ××™× ×Ÿ מעכבות זו ×ת זו. [The absence of] the tekheiles [strings of a tzitzis] does not hold up [the validity of] the white [string],...
I discussed the role of tzitzis and the various roles we have for clothing in a number of earlier posts in this topic. The following is a different take on the idea from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the UK. He is closest in topic to my “Tzitzis: Advance and Retreat“. I wrote about two aspects to the mitzvah...
There are two descriptions of the mitzvah of tzitzis. First, from parashas Shelach (and Qeri’as Shema): … [T]hey should make for themselves tzitzis on the corners of their garments (bigdeihem) throughout their generations, and that they put on the tzitzis of each corner a thread of blue wool (techeiles). And it shall for you tzitzis, and you will see it...
“And the snake was [more] arum than all the animals of the field…” (Bereishis 3:1)In this pasuq, “arum” is variously translated. JPS has “subtle”. Others have “sly”, “cunning”, and the like. In Iyov (5:12), Elifaz describes Hashem as One Who “annuls the thoughts of arumim”. In these contexts, it would appear that being an “arum” is no compliment. But in...
(Another version of this thought was included in Mesukim MiDevash for parashas Shelach, in the “Bemachashavah Techilah” column, pp 1-2. -micha) Inherent Tension Judaism sees man as a synthesis of two opposite concepts. On the one hand, man is a physical animal, on the other, he carries “the spark of the Divine.” As the Torah describes it: Then G-d...