Aspaqlaria

Aspaqlaria Blog

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Other-Focused Orthodoxy

Choosing Role Models

Next time you hear a speaker or a rabbi speak about “the goyim” in some disparaging stereotype, ask them about this gemara. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asks about an apparent contradiction in seifer Yechezqeil. The first pasuq (5:7): לָכֵ֞ן כֹּֽה־אָמַ֣ר ׀ אֲ-דֹנָ֣י ה֗’ יַ֤עַן הֲמָנְכֶם֙ מִן־הַגּוֹיִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר סְבִיבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֔ם בְּחֻקּוֹתַי֙ לֹ֣א הֲלַכְתֶּ֔ם וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַ֖י לֹ֣א עֲשִׂיתֶ֑ם וּֽכְמִשְׁפְּטֵ֧י הַגּוֹיִ֛ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר סְבִיבוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם לֹ֥א עֲשִׂיתֶֽם׃...

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Creation / Gratitude

For He Remembered Us When We Were Low

Tehillim 136, which Chazal call Hallel haGadol, has a long list of things Hashem did for us with the refrain “כי לעולם חסדו — for His Lovingkindness is eternal.” The first three call us to thank Hashem: הוֹד֣וּ לַה֣’ כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ ה֭וֹדוּ לֵֽאלֹקֵ֣י הָאֱלֹקִ֑ים כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ ה֭וֹדוּ לַאֲדֹנֵ֣י הָאֲדֹנִ֑ים כִּ֖י לְעֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ Thank Hashem for He is...

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Clothing / Teshuvah

The Blue Does Not Hold Up the White

התכלת אינה מעכבת את הלבן והלבן אינו מעכב את התכלת תפילה של יד אינה מעכבת של ראש ושל ראש אינה מעכבת של יד הסולת והשמן אינן מעכבין את היין ולא היין מעכבן המתנות של מזבח החיצון אינן מעכבות זו את זו. [The absence of] the tekheiles [strings of a tzitzis] does not hold up [the validity of] the white [string],...

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Holidays

Dip the Apple in the Honey

Here are three thoughts related to the siman, the mnemonic practice, of eating an apple dipped in honey. (Aside from the ear-worm you or your kid learned in preschool that starts with the words in the post’s subject line.) 1- The original Bostoner Rebbe commented on the expression “Shanah tovah umsuqah – a good and sweet new year”, which is...

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Uncategorized

Mind and Body, Qabbalah and the Sorites Paradox

I The name of the Sorites Paradox comes from the Greek word for heap, “soros”, a key word in the typical formulation. If someone had one million grains of sand, they would have a heap of sand. If we took away just one grain of sand, it would still be a heap. And similarly, the second grain. But what if...

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Uncategorized

Yerushalayim

I’m about to repeat two points by R’ Meir Simchah haKohein miDvinsk zt”l: 1- Yerushalayim is named for being the convergance of two principles: refined middos and perfected intellectual comprehension. 2- There is an old question, “Chazal say that Sheim and Eiver ran a yeshiva that Avraham, Yitzchaq and Yaaqov attended. But that far before the giving of the Torah,...

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Holidays / Reward and Punishment

Simanei Milsa

I was asked the following question, and the author thought enough people want to know the answer that it pays to share it here: Q: “Siman“, as on Rosh Hashanah night, is translated as “omen”, but I’ve always thought that an omen is something one sees or finds out about. leading one to anticipate a positive or negative future event....

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5- Devarim

Justice, Justice, You Shall Pursue

צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙ וְיָרַשְׁתָּ֣ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־ה אֱלֹקיךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ׃ Justice justice you shall pursue, so that you will live and inherit the land that Hashem your G-d gives to you. – Devarim 16:20 Chazal are understandably bothered by the doubling of “tzedeq tzedeq — justice justice”. What does the repetition add? Targum Unqelus translates the opening phrase in...

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Theology

What isn’t Omnipotence?

Orion asked on Mi Yodeya: Hashem’s infinite power I’ve heard many times that Hashem is infinitely powerful. But how do we know this? Perhaps he’s just very powerful or even all powerful (possessing all power there is, which is possibly finite). Is there a source for the ‘infinite’? I liked how my answer came out, so here it is: The...

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Uncategorized

Mourning the Three Weeks

The point of mourning during Bein haMetzarim (“between the tragedies”, a/k/a the “Three Weeks”) is not to be miserable in-and-of itself. How many politicians and other famous people recently said “I’m sorry” only to continue their announcement in a way that implies that they mean “I’m sorry I was caught?” Now picture the criminal who is caught and actually repents...

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Other-Focused O

Bil’am the Frummy

The Medrash Tankhuma (Balaq 1) says: … וְאִם תֹּאמַר מִפְּנֵי מָה הִשְׁרָה הַקָּבָּ”ה שְׁכִינָתוֹ עַל גּוֹי רָשָׁע? כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹּא יִהְיֶה פִתְחוֹן פֶּה לָאֻמּוֹת לוֹמַר, אִלּו הָיוּ לָנוּ נְבִיאִים, חָזַרְנוּ לְמוּטָב, הֶעֱמִיד לָהֶם נְבִיאִים וְהֵם פָּרְצוּ גֶדֶר הָעוֹלָם,… And if you ask: Why did the Holy One blessed be He, let his Shechinah rest upon so wicked a non-Jew? So that...

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UFEM

Day 22 – Lev Tov

The Mussar Institute is doing an omer series based on the 48 skills necessary to acquire Torah, listed in Avos 6:6. I was given the task of writing two entries — day 5, eimah (fear) and this one for day 22 — Leiv Tov (A Good Heart). Here’s the email:   Counting the Omer with Rabbi Susie Moskowitz Day 22...

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Preparation

Waiting before Prayer

כמה ישהה בין תפלה לתפלה? רב הונא ורב חסדא. חד אמר: כדי שתתחונן דעתו עליו. וחד אמר: כדי שתתחולל דעתו עליו. [Minimally,] how long must one wait between [one] prayer to [another] prayer? Rav Huna and Rav Chisda [both spoke on the subject, but we lost the record of who said which]. One said: long enough that one would be...

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Yir`ah

Day 5 – Eimah

The Mussar Institute is doing an omer series based on the 48 skills necessary to acquire Torah, listed in Avos 6:6. I was given the task of writing today’s — day 5, eimah (fear). My guess is because no one else wanted to touch a middah so far from the warm fuzzies. (See here for my submission for day 22...

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Faith and Proof

Irrational Rishonim

I was kind of surprised by the reception this answer on Mi Yodeia got; the questioner didn’t even think I answered his query. Here’s the exchange: Eli asked: Are there any Rishonim who believe that God´s existence cannot be proven rationally? Here is my reply, which I was happy with, even if no one there was: It depends what you...

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Uncategorized

Gratitude – Natural and Learned

“If he shall offer it as a todah, a thanksgiving offering…” (Vayikra 7:1). The gemara reads, “Rabbi Yehudah said that Rav said: There are four who have to thank [Hashem] — those who go down to sea, those who traverse the desert, one who was sick and was cured, and one who was trapped in jail and was freed.” (Berachos...

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Other-Focused Orthodoxy / Rachmanus

A Lesson of Shushan Purim

Rabbi Meir Simchah haKohein from Dvinsk (1842-1926, Lithuania), in his Meshekh Chokhmah (on Shemos 12:16, s.v. “uveyom”), writes that Jews do not celebrate even the vanquishing of our enemies. As the verse in Mishlei (22:17) says, “בִּנְפֹל אויביך (אוֹיִבְךָ), אַל-תִּשְׂמָח — when your enemy falls, do not rejoice”. And this is why the verse he is explaining does not say...

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Teshuvah

If I’m unconscious about it should I still apologize?

user4762 asked the above question on Mi Yodeya, and I liked how my answer turned out so I’m sharing it here. Question: If I’m unconscious about it should I still apologise? Someone else points out to me that I have hurt another person by something I’ve done or said, but any of the following apply, then how should I deal...

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Phenomenology

Phenomenalism – Baruch sheKivanti!

The central thesis of this “Phenomenalism” category of this blog was built on two parts. The first is Rabbi Aqiva Eiger’s (RAE) explanation (shu”t, mahadura qama #136) that the ways in which uncertainty in halakhah is resolved come in two different kinds. And from that perspective we looked at testimony, migo, chazaqah demei’iqara, rov, chazaqah disvara, etc… The second part...

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Machashavah

Post-Modern Orthodoxy

Modern Orthodoxy is based on an integration of Orthodoxy with life in the modern world. However, with R’ JB Soloveitchik’s passing, the movement was left without a luminary who analyzes and discusses matters of worldview. Consequently, Modern Orthodoxy’s thought is that of the mid 20th century, when Neo-Kantian and Existential answers addressed the kinds of religious questions people on the...

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1- Bereishis / Kavod

The Greatness of a Person

Bereishis 1:27: וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹקים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹקים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃ And G-d created the man in his mold; in the image of G-d He created him; male and female He created them [on the sixth day, forming Eve from Adam’s side]. In His description of the creation of humanity, Hashem tells us of our own...

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1- Bereishis

Rising to the Test

וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹקִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם; וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו, “אַבְרָהָ֖ם!” וַיֹּ֥אמֶר, “הִנֵּֽנִי!”׃ And it was, after these events, that G-d put Abraham to the test; He said to him: “Avraham!” and he said: “Here I am!” – Bereishis 22:1 Just stop and thing about this… Hashem presents Avraham with a test, a challenge, a nisayon. Avraham does not try to...

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Holidays

Rejoicing of the Water-Drawing House

כָּל מִי שֶׁלֹּא רָאָה שִׂמְחַת בֵּית הַשּׁוֹאֵבָה – לֹא רָאָה שִׂמְחָה מִיָּמָיו! Whomever didn’t see Simchas Beis haShoeivah did not see simchah in all his days! –Mishnah Sukkah 5:1 The talmud on this mishnah then continues describing at length the singing, dancing and juggling that lasted through the night as the water was brought from the Beis haShoeivah — the...

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Anavah / Holidays

Anavah and Anvanus

The story of Qamtza and Bar Qamtza is very well known. It is introduced by Rabbi Yochanan, who asks, “’What is the meaning of the verse in Mishlei which reads, ‘Fortunate is the one who is always fearful, but the one who is hard of heart will fall to evil?’ (28:14) It was because of Qamtza and Bar Qamtza that...