והיה רגיל להוכיח אותי על שראה שאינני משתתף בצערא דאחרינא. וכה היה דברו אלי תמיד שזה כל האדם. לא לעצמו נברא רק להועיל לאחריני ככל אשר ימצא בכחו לעשות. [My father, Rav Chaim Volozhiner,] regularly rebuked me, because he saw that I did not participate in the pain of others. And these were his constant words to me: This is the entire person. One is not created for himself, but to benefit others with the full extent of his powers. Rav Yitzchaq Volozhiner redacted Nefesh haChaim from notes his father, Rav Chaim Volozhiner, left him. In the introduction, Rav Yitzchaq outlines his father’s approach ..read more

Micha’s note: The following was a post written to the Mesorah email list by Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel zt”l, a rebbe-chaver of mine (more: a rebbe who insisted on treating me like a chaver) who was a talmid of R Y.B. Solovetchik from his school days in Maimonides (Boston) through semichah, as well as having a PhD in Semitic Languages from Harvard. I sorely miss him. We knew each other from when I was a teen davening at the Bachurei Minyan of KGH, and sat down next to the man with the precise Hebrew accent, until his passing in 5783. Thank you to Michael Poppers for preserving the post and for bring ..read more

(I put these thoughts together for a reply for my daughter Gavi, who pointed me to a medrash that “everyone in her neighborhood” were talking about, but I then was moved to share it with a wider audience.) When we were slaves in Egypt, we had a tradition from our grandfather Yaaqov that the person Hashem would send to redeem us would come with the words “paqod paqadti – I have surely Remember”. And I presume the cynics in the crowd wondered what kind of sign was that? After all, anyone who wanted to be the leeder could learn of the tradition and for that reason use the words “paqod paqadti ..read more

“Poteach et Yadekha“, oil on canvas Haim Masliach, 2021 A comment by Ilana Elzafun* brought this Seforno to my attention. This week’s parashah (Lekh Likha), Bereishis 16:13, describes Hagar’s prayer to Hashem after she was expelled from Avram’s home and was visited by a mal’akh who promised her she would have a son (Yishma’el): וַתִּקְרָ֤א שֵׁם־ה֙׳ הַדֹּבֵ֣ר אֵלֶ֔יהָ אַתָּ֖ה קֵ֣ל רֳאִ֑י כִּ֣י אָֽמְרָ֗ה הֲגַ֥ם הֲלֹ֛ם רָאִ֖יתִי אַחֲרֵ֥י רֹאִֽי׃ And she called the name of Hashem who spoke to her, “You Are Kel-Ro’i [the G-d Who Sees me]” by which she meant, “Have I not gone on seeing after my bei ..read more

Dear R Dr Broyde (Cc: Avodah), Over Shabbos, I read your article about getting ChatGPT to discuss whether a kohein in a same-sex marriage may go up to duchen. I don’t know the strength of your background in Large Language Models in general or GPTs in particular. I am now researching their use at my job. Here is my impressions as a programmer who has put in a couple of months writing clients for a GPT. Hopefully, much of it is material you already know, and hopeful my attempt to fill in information I didn’t see in your essay won’t come across as talking down to you. First, a large language mod ..read more

I am only trying to start a conversation about whether this definition of who I am is one we should really promote. As for who “I” am, that’s a matter of perspective. Even on a physical level. I move my up, I don’t think about what muscles I need to tighten. When driving, someone could be speeding up, or putting their foot on the accelerator. If they are “speeding up”, didn’t they just extend their definition of their physical selves to include the car? And on a spiritual plane… The size of one’s “I” is central to R Shimon’s thought. I like R Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer’s contrast between Ada ..read more

Began Thursday, June 8th, 2023, at 8:00pm EDT at Zelemele’s Kloiz The chaburah at Zelmele’s Kloiz started the Ran’s third derashah Thursday, June 8th, 2023. It is now ongoing at our usual time, 8pm Eastern Daylight Time. In this derashah, the Ran discusses Moshe, Aharon, the nature of nevu’ah, Moshe’s special kind of nevu’ah, the urim vetumim, and the first mitzvos given to the Jewish People — counting months from Nissan and of Pesach. There are currently three meetings up on YouTube. Here is the Derashos haRan playlist, scrolled forward to the beginning of the derashah: Contact me for more ..read more

The Medrash about Qorach rhetorically asking of Moshe why a tallis that is made of tekheiles would need one more tekheiles thread for tzitzis ties the mitzvah of tzitzis to the next story in the Chumash – Qorach. The words of the parashah about tzitzis tie it to a slightly earlier story – the meraglim. 13:16: אֵ֚לֶּה שְׁמ֣וֹת הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַ֥ח מֹשֶׁ֖ה לָת֣וּר אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ… And 15:39 ..read more

Thursday, March 16th – June 1st, 2023, at 8:00pm EDT at Zelemele’s Kloiz The chaburah at Zelmele’s Kloiz finished the Ran’s second derashah this past Thursday, June 1st, 2023, at our usual time 8pm Eastern Daylight Time. Contact me for more info about how to join us at the kloiz. Click on WhatsApp or . The Yaaqov – Eisav conflict plays out three times: in the womb, until Yaaqov grabs Eisav’s ankle, in their lives, until Yaaqov wins a fight against Eisav’s angel and the two part ways, and throughout the course of the exile that has already been the majority of human history. The earlier itera ..read more

There is something I wanted to check today in Chovos haLvavos, Shaar haBitachon. Related to the machloqes between the prescriptive focus of Chassidus and Novhardoker Mussar (if you have bitachon, things will work out well) and the descriptive focus of the Chazon Ish (bitchon is the knowledge that things are working out well as Hashem Planned it, even if I personally would have wanted something else). My question revolved around specific wording. And this is only a couple of days after losing the rebbe-chaver who would have explained the original Judeo-Arabic Al Hidayah ila Faraid al-Qulub, th ..read more