Aspaqlaria Blog

Today’s Daas Torah 0

Today’s Daas Torah

Here’s a theory that I developed recently [when this was posted in its first, much shorter, version on 26-Nov-04]… The gemara uses the term “da’as Torah” in a sense totally different than today’s usage....

No Answers 0

No Answers

Why do bad things happen? אמר אביי לא חרבה ירושלים אלא בשביל שחללו בה את השבת… אמר ר’ אבהו לא חרבה ירושלים אלא בשביל שביטלו ק”ש שחרית וערבית… אמר רב המנונא לא חרבה ירושלים...

Clear the Air Week 0

Clear the Air Week

לא חרבה ירושלים, אלא בשביל שלא הוכיח זה את זה. Yerushalayim was only destroyed because they didn’t give tokhachah to [usually translated: rebuke] one another. – Shabbos 119b Not the sin we usually associate...

The God Particle 0

The God Particle

Not long ago, CERN announced that the Large Hadron Collider produced evidence of the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle Peter Higgs predicted in 1964, and was a major missing piece from the Standard Model....

Da’as Rachamim Tif’eres 0

Da’as Rachamim Tif’eres

You might have noticed on the AishDas home page the motto “Da’as, Rachamim, Tif’eres” and wondered what it meant. It was something lifted from Dr Nathan Birnbaum’s organization “HaOlim”. (Note to the skimmer: Please...

3×2 Constant Mitzvos 0

3×2 Constant Mitzvos

There Chinuch famously states in his introduction that there are six mitzvos that because they refer to a state of mind, can be performed constantly or perpetually. (At least, while awake; I won’t speak...

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An Ideal “Balebos”

We often speak of gedolim who pursue the learning and teaching of Torah as both their vocation and avocation — rashei yeshiva and other great rabbanim. Today (10 Sivan 5772) is the 108th yahrzeit...

What Shabbos is For 0

What Shabbos is For

Jonathan Rosenblum shared on February 21st on the Cross-Currents blog a beautiful thought by Rabbi Yaakov Estreicher. To quote: Rabbi Estreicher presented Shabbos as the key to experiencing life with joy, of rejoicing in...

The Curriculum at Volozhin 24

The Curriculum at Volozhin

On the April 6, 1858, the government ordered the closure of the yeshiva in Volozhin. There is no record that anyone from the government tried to implement this order. But on the 22nd, R’...

The Holy Refrain 0

The Holy Refrain

Rav Shim’on Shkop comments on the Toras Kohanim (a/k/a the Sifra) at the opening of parashas Qedoshim.… Yes, I’m revisiting the introduction to Shaarei Yosher. Again. And about the foundation of this mitzvah of...