Avodah Mailing List

Volume 44: Number 8

Fri, 06 Feb 2026

• 1. Re: easy tractate for beginners (Noam Stadlan)
• 2. Re: Kach Shamati (Joel Rich)
• 3. Re: Kach Shamati (Micha Berger)
• 4. Re: Kach Shamati (Micha Berger)
• 5. Faith Talk? (Joel Rich)
• 6. caskets (Joel Rich)
• 7. Baruch Dayan Emes? (Akiva Miller)

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2026 10:26:27 -0500
From: Sholom Simon <sho...@aishdas.org>

> I have a near 70-yr old friend at shul -- he's a senior (he's "on the path"
> and while he's extremely smart (Ph.D. in Math) he doesn't have any
> classical Jewish education.  He wants to dip his toe in the waters and read
> an Artscroll tractate of Gemara for the first time.  He had picked Me'ila,
> because it was short, and found it too hard/esoteric for him, and found it
> presumed way too much background knowledge. (Yeah, no kidding!)

> Does anybody have suggestions for a different one?

I learned Ta'anit with 2 of my children for their bar/bar mitzvah. We
found it adequately short, full of interesting aggadah, and a good
springboard to consider what a relationship between a person and God
looks like.

Kol tuv. Noam 

On Sun, Feb 1, 2026 at 12:05PM Micha Berger <mi...@aishdas.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 05:45:55AM +0200, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
>> Rashi uses the phrase kach shamati 94 times in shas. Many times he seems to
>> be setting up for disagreeing with the comment that proceeded this but
>> other times not. What exactly do you think he's telegraphing when using
>> this phrase? What does it mean when he doesn't use it?

> Back a step, why not take it at face value, that these are the things
> Rashi remembers learning in shiur?

I would've thought there would be many more on that basis.
KT
Joel Rich

On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 05:45:55AM +0200, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> Rashi uses the phrase kach shamati 94 times in shas. Many times he seems to
> be setting up for disagreeing with the comment that proceeded this but
> other times not. What exactly do you think he's telegraphing when using
> this phrase? What does it mean when he doesn't use it?

Back a step, why not take it at face value, that these are the things
Rashi remembers learning in shiur?

-Micha

On Sun, Feb 01, 2026 at 12:25:43PM +0200, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
>> Back a step, why not take it at face value, that these are the things
>> Rashi remembers learning in shiur?

> I would've thought there would be many more on that basis.

You're right. Rashi does seem to primarily (only?) use it to bolster
the authority of a position when he offers another alternative take.

But I don't think your question is so strong. How often do you hear
someone who gives a contemporary shiur cite their rebbe? (There are
special cases, but they are noted for it: Like R Dovid Lifshitz citing
R Shimon Shkop, or R Shlomo Wolbe citing R Chazkel Levenstein.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 If you won't be better tomorrow
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   than you were today,
Author: Widen Your Tent      then what need do you have for tomorrow?
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF            - Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

Charlie Kirk?s widow on faith ? does our community talk like this? Should
we?

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1290467793118078


KT
Joel Rich
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At the very end of sefer breishit it states that Yoseph was buried in a
?aron? in Egypt. It doesn?t mention anything about an aron by any of the
avot. A number of commentaries state that the reason was so he could be
taken back to israel. It occurs to me that maybe this is the symbolism of
the fact that most burials outside of israel are in a coffin and those back
home or not. Food for thought.
KT
Joel Rich
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.
Sometimes, I hear people say "Baruch Dayan Emes", and sometimes I hear
"Baruch Dayan HAemes" (with the Heh prefix). A quick look in any siddur
shows that the Heh is supposed to be included, and I have wondered whether
those who omit the Heh are simply slurring it. But the recent rise of
abbreviations in text messages, where this appears as "BDE", suggest that
the Heh is missing deliberately, and I have wondered if dropping the Heh
might be justified.

Today's Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Yomi includes halacha 59:6, where the KSA
paskens that in certain cases, where the loss is felt strongly, one should
say, "Baruch Atah Hashem E-okeinu Melech Haolam Dayan Ha'emes", but in
other cases, where one is not so upset, he skips Shem U'Malchus, and says
merely "Baruch Dayan Emes," with*out* the Heh.

I understand that one should invoke Hashem's Name only in serious cases,
but is that the significance of the Heh prefix? Why drop the Heh if the
loss is not so acute?

I thought this might be a typo of some sort. But three different publishers
(ArtScroll, Feldheim [Sh'arim Metzyanim B'halacha], Shabsi Frankel) all
printed it as I translated - include the Heh in the long one, omit it in
the short. OTOH, two others (Metzudah and Sefaria) include the Heh in both.

Can anyone suggest other poskim who have weighed in on this? (Mishna Brura
223:8 does mention the idea of saying this bracha without Shem U'Malchus,
but he does not give the full text like the KSA does.)

I just now saw the Ateres Zekeinim on O"C 223, who says that for close
relatives one says the bracha with Shem U'Malchus but *without* the Heh,
and to say the bracha for others without Shem U'Malchus and also without
the Heh. That would make sense *IF* the bracha means the same thing with or
without the Heh. But I have 3 publishers who say that the KSA felt that
there *is* a difference between saying the Heh and omitting it.

Any thoughts?
advTHANKSance

Akiva Miller
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