Rosh Hashanah marked 100 years of Daf Yomi. I have seen surprisingly little written about this important milestone. The thoughts below on this…
Leadership is not for the faint of heart. A leader, by definition, must make decisions that are going to hurt people. That does not mean the…
I imagine that many of us had elementary school classmates whom we knew were going to reach great heights. Their intelligence and drive to succeed…
We have often noted that the Talmud was edited with great precision. A simple example is the extreme to which it goes to record who, and in whose…
When one is consumed with hatred, one is liable to act in ways that are out of the norm, to say the least. “Sina’ah mekalkelet et hashura…
“Rav Hamnuna said: How many important halakhot can be derived from these verses of the prayer of Hannah?” (Brachot 31a).…
“Our Sages taught: Shimon Hapekuli arranged the eighteen blessings before Rabban Gamliel, al haseder, in order, in Yavne…
It is hard to think of a mitzvah that has undergone as much change over time as that of prayer. Originally, prayer was a spontaneous pouring out of…
It is fair to say that, if not for the leadership of Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai, you would not be reading these words. Judaism as we know it today could…
The years following the destruction of the Temple were fraught with great danger and uncertainty. The infighting that had so weakened the Jewish…
As we transition from the third to the fourth chapter of masechet Brachot, our focus shifts from the mitzvah of kriat shema to that of…
Shehechiyanu vekemanu vhegeyanu lazman hazeh. It was when daf yomi last reached Brachot 27 that I wrote my first “Daily Daf”. For…
One of the things I love about the Gemara is how realistic and human it is—how it portrays people, rabbis and laypeople alike, in all their…
“A jewel in the mouth of Rava. The purpose of chochmah, wisdom, is teshuva and maasim tovim, good deeds”(Brachot 17a…
“The appointed one [assistant kohen gadol] said to them [the priests in the Temple]: ‘Recite a single blessing.’ They…
“Rabbi Chelbo said in the name of Rav Huna: All who have yira’at shamayim, fear of Heaven, his words are heeded, as it is…
What should one pray for? If we were to take a survey of the typical shul-goer, or even one who is not, I suspect we will hear such ideas as health,…
In our post discussing the last lines of the Talmud Bavli, we wondered why the Gemara ends with a teaching by Eliyahu Hanavi. As Daf Yomi begins its…
“From when may one recite the kriat shema in the evening? From the time the kohanim enter to eat their terumah until the end of the…
Rashi begins his commentary to Chumash asking why the Torah begins with the story of creation and not with the first mitzva given to the Jewish…
The story of the martyrdom of Rabbi Akiva is well known. Defying the orders of the Roman government not to engage in Torah study, Rabbi Akiva…
One of the most well known blessings is that of dayan haemet, the blessing said upon the death of an immediate relative accepting G-d as the…
The Talmud spends quite a number of pages discussing dreams. Taking their cue from the Bible itself, they put great stock in the significance of our…
“From the blessings of man, we see if he is a scholar or not” (Brachot 50a). How, and more importantly, whom one blesses tells us much…