For better or worse most people pay little attention to the proof texts brought to support various Talmudic views and positions, focusing on the…
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Moed Katan 5: The Right Path
One of the fascinating features of the Talmud is how it seamlessly moves from topic to topic. The opening Mishnah of Moed Katan teaches that amongst…
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Some Opening Thoughts on Masechet Moed Katan
Moed Katan has as its focus two contradictory themes: the laws of Chol Hamoed and of aveilut, mourning. Chol Hamoed is a time when we are obligated…
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Some Concluding Thoughts on Masechet Megillah
“And I have given them statutes that are not good, and laws that they do not live with" (Yechezkel 20:25). In our last post, we…
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Megillah 32: Torah Tunes
Learning Torah is meant to be enjoyable. It is for this reason that a mourner is not permitted to learn (Moed Katan 21a) [1]--the joy that…
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Megillah 21: We Stand on Guard for Thee
One of the ways we show respect for a person is to stand in their honour, and such an honour is not only bestowed on people. The notion of the…
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Megillah 17: Must We Pray?
One of the most central requirements of Jewish life—both in time and importance—is that of daily prayer. Yet most fascinatingly, the…
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Megillah 14: The Songs of Israel
Pesach is the foundational holiday of the Jewish people, and the Exodus is the defining moment of Jewish history. A group of slaves formed a nation…
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Megillah 14: Whipped Into Shape
Often it takes our enemies to whip us into shape. “Rav Abba the son of Kahana said: Greater was the removal of the ring [of Achashverosh] than…
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Megillah 6: Try Harder
When one makes a siyum to mark the completion of a tractate of Talmud, we recite the beautiful words of the hadran[1], that "we toil and they…
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Megillah 4: Active Defence
"Rav Yehoshua ben Levi said, women are obligated in the reading of the Megillah she'af hen, because they, too, were included in the…
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Megillah 3: What Comes First
"These days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of…
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Megillah 2: Breaking the Walls
The first daf (page) of Masechet Megillah focuses on the distinction between open and walled cites, regarding the timing of the reading of…
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Some Opening Thoughts on Masechet Megillah
Masechet Ta'anit ends with a description of how, on the 15th of Av and on Yom Kippur, "the maidens of Jerusalem" would dance in the…
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Taanit 10: To Fast or Not to Fast
Sukkot marks the beginning of the rainy season, and Rabbi Eliezer opines that we should start saying masheev haruach umoreed hageshem starting…
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Taanit 9: Give So You Can Get
"If not for my covenant, day and night, the laws of heaven and earth, I would not have created" (Yirmiyahu 33:25). Classical Jewish thought…
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Taanit 7: The Wrong Reason
It is hard enough to do what is right. Our wants, desirers, egos, social pressure, and the like often get in the way of acting properly. Even when we…
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Taanit 7: Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away
Living in Canada, it is hard to get excited about rain. Often it puts a damper on nice summer plans. Even in Israel, where water is so much more of a…