by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper “I am Oz, the great and terrible”. L. Frank Baum presumably drew “great and terrible” from Bible translations of gadol venora. Devarim 1:19 describes the wilderness that we traversed after the Exodus as gadol venora; Devarim 7:21 describes Hashem Elokekha as E-l gadol venora; and Yoel 3:4 and Malakhi 3:23 each describe a future “day of Hashem hagadol vehanora.” (Despite Devarim 7:21, all commentaries I’ve seen understand hagadol vehanora in Yoel and Malakhi as modifying the day rather than modifying Hashem.) The word “terror” has a deeply negative valence in contempora ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper Why is the redemption of captives given such importance in halakhah? Granting its significance, why does the Torah not specifically mandate it? I’ll take a somewhat circuitous route to answering those questions. Responsa Chavot Yair #183 illustrates the gap between halakhic abstraction and human experience in several important ways.   We rule that Jews (may or) must violate most halakhic prohibitions rather than be killed. In the standard abstract case, an idolater presents the Jew with an either/or: “Violate this prohibition or I will kill you!” The ruling is tha ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper The phrase berov am hadrat melekh, taken from Mishlei 14:28, is probably invoked most often in contemporary Orthodox conversations to oppose “breakaway minyanim”, or to encourage minyan attendance even when the minyan is assured; this argument has the advantage of applying equally to men and women. The assumed meaning is that G-d as king is more hadarified by one large crowd praying than by several smaller crowds, even if the total number of participants remains the same or decreases. The Talmud (Yoma 70a and Megillah 27b) uses the phrase in this meaning only to explai ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper If You Were G-d is a tour-de-force pamphlet by the late Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Kaplan demonstrates with his signature clarity and reasonableness that it was not at all odd of G-d to choose the Jews; rather, this was the optimal strategy for spreading His ideals throughout humanity, and would be adopted by any omnipotent and omniscient divinity. Put yourself in G-d’s place, and the Torah comes out exactly the same. One can resist Kaplan’s magnetic literary intellect only by having experienced the likes of Bertrand Russell and (lehavdil/mutatis mutandum) Isaac Asimov, or by ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper If the Third Temple were to be built tomorrow, what emotions should we feel today? Think for a moment. (This parenthesis is inserted to give you time to think.) I suspect that most of you thought in terms of joy and anticipation. Certainly those are part of what we should be feeling. What about apprehension? Let me be clearer. Of course we would be worried that things might go wrong and prevent construction. But should we be worried that things might go right? My high school mashgiach often made the cynical comment that American Jews have trouble rooting for the Messia ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper How responsible are teachers for their students’ souls, and for how long? When I taught high school, I told students that I would evaluate myself as a teacher by the condition of their souls ten years after graduation. That was a semifacetious reaction to a real problem. Teachers, schools et al often evaluate success and failure by what they see from students while they have power over them. Thus when a day school or yeshiva/seminary student doesn’t turn out shomer/et Shabbat, or tzanua, or ethical, it’s the fault of their “secular college”. That is wrong empirically b ..read more

(significantly revised from 2019) by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper According to my father z”l, his father did not sing the stanza “Tzeitkhem l’shalom” (Go in/to peace) on Friday nights because it’s rude to rush guests out. My wife’s family sings “Tzeitkhem” but omits “Barkhuni” (Bless me in/to peace) on the ground that asking angels for blessings violates Rambam’s Fifth Principle of Faith, which forbids praying to Heavenly beings intermediaries. Deborah and I have agreed to disagree about this. We sometimes hum along to each other’s verses. Here’s how I frame the issue to guests: Should we give more w ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper 2024 Matt Eisenfeld Memorial Essay on Commandedness True love generates contracts. That’s why the ketubah and “The Prenup” are incredibly romantic documents. Because of course a person will give everything they have for love, in the moment, so long as the sacrifice lasts only as long as the love. True love is the willingness to make commitments that will survive against our will if love “alters when it alteration finds”. I suggest this as an explanation of Rabbi Chanina’s famous statement that Greater is the one who is commanded and acts than the one who is not comman ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper This week’s haftorah is presumably excerpted to focus on the construction of the Beit HaMikdash. But if so, it begins one verse too early or several too late. 1 Kings 5:27 relates an apparently necessary prelude: Shlomo the King raised a levy from all Israel, and the levy came to thirty thousand men. However, the haftorah begins from the previous verse (26). Hashem natan/had given wisdom to Shlomo, as He had spoken to him; There was peace between Chiram and Shlomo; They cut a covenant, the two of them ..read more

by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l sometimes dealt with clashes between halakhah and morality syllogistically, as follows: Rav Chaim Brisker was the paragon of human and ethical concern. Rav Chaim Brisker was utterly committed to the observance of all mitzvot, including those I find ethically troubling. Therefore, commitment to the observance of all mitzvot does not prevent one from being a paragon of human and ethical concern, and: If Rav Chaim could deal with e.g. the mitzvah of destroying Amalek without undermining his character, so could Rav Aharon. Whether Rav Chaim e ..read more