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In our last post we discussed the view of Rabbi Eliezer that one who teaches his daughter Torah is as if he has taught her tiflut, frivolity. To…
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A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is this notion that lay at the heart of one of the most important disputes of the Talmud (though many are…
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For most people carpool is a scheduling nuisance, one of those necessary but unwanted jobs of parenting. Helping with homework is not much better.…
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Just this week an Ontario Court ruled that a 19 year old convicted of first degree murder of a police officer would be spared jail time (he was 15 at…
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What a Beginning!: Sotah 14 “Rav Simlai expounded: The Torah begins with an act of chesed, benevolence, and ends…
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As we end the first chapter of masechet Sotah (and as discussed in our last post) we transition from discussing the punishment of the sotah…
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"In the measure that a person measures so it is measured to him. She [the sotah] adorned her body in order to transgress, God has…
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Teaching is what one would call a long-term investment. Teachers plant seeds but rarely get to see the fruit of their labour, leading many to…
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Our Sages were great realists. They understood the complexities of the human condition and how even otherwise great people can make…
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The Mishna is almost exclusively a legal code and like all codes displays little 'emotion' even when it describes emotionally wrenching…
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Jewish law and thought covers all aspects of life and that means nothing is beyond the purview of Talmudic and rabbinic discussion. With the primary…
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The opening lines of a book are meant to set the tone of the book - providing background, introducing its major characters and themes.…
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Seder Nasim is the shortest of the six orders of the Mishna comprising only seven of the sixty-three masechtot and “only…
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“And G-d said to Abram; go from your land, your birthplace and from the home of your father” (Breisheet 12:1). Rashi…
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Jewish law rules that when one must “desecrate” the Shabbat in order to save a life it is the greatest scholar present who should…
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While it was Rav Yehuda Hanassi who edited the Mishna it is the teachings of Rav Meir, who lived in the generation prior, that form the basis…
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“For there is no righteous person in the land who does [only] good and does not sin” (Kohelet 7:20). Sinning is part and parcel of…
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One of the long standing debates in ethical theory is whether it is actions or intentions that determines the ethical probity of our actions. There…
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When one thinks of the mitzvoth dependent on the land of Israel we think of the agricultural laws of the Torah; terumah, maaser, shmittaand the…
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After discussing the general topic of nedarim, vows, the Mishna moves to a most specific form of a vow, that of a nazir. The…
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One of the primary messages of masechet Nedarim is how negatively [most of] our Sages viewed the taking of vows. More often than not a vow reflected…
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Just this past Shabbat, we read of the mitzvah of tzedakah. The Torah describes the case where the poor are our neighbours, and we must…
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Adam and Cain, Noah and Cham, Abraham and Yishmael, Yitzchak and Eisav. Our children do not always turn out as we would like. Even children…
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Everybody loves a good story. And what one cannot accomplish through direct teaching, one can often accomplish through a story. Yet it is…