Moed Katan

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Moed Katan resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Moed Katan 5: That's A Good Question

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Isaac Rabi, winner of the 1944 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, was asked what inspired him to become a scientist. His response: “My mother made me a scientist without ever knowing it. Every other child would…
Article
Feb 3, 2022

Some Opening Thoughts on Moed Katan

Rabbi Jay Kelman

This past week, Daf Yomi began learning masechet Moed Katan, “the little holiday.” This signals that our two years’ study of seder Moed, the second of the six orders of the Mishna, is soon coming to an end. We might translate katan as “small”, as…
Article
Jan 23, 2022

Some Concluding Thoughts on Masechet Moed Katan

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The commitment to learn Daf Yomi is a remarkable one. It is the only study project I know that takes seven and half years to complete (2,711 days, to be precise). Even the most complex and difficult Ph.D programs are generally finished in less time…
Article
Sep 10, 2014

Moed Katan 28: Beyond Our Control

Rabbi Jay Kelman

It is to be expected that, in a chapter dealing with the laws of mourning, a discussion of the philosophical implications of death will follow. Such discussions are scattered in various places in the Talmud and tend to present a variety of…
Article
Sep 9, 2014

Moed Katan 27: Leading By Example

Rabbi Jay Kelman

No idea is stressed more in the Torah than that of being kind to strangers, “because we were strangers in the land of Egypt”. This notion, in various forms, appears no less than 36 times in the Torah. Concern for the vulnerable is the…
Article
Sep 7, 2014

Moed Katan 21: A Living Torah

Rabbi Jay Kelman

As previously discussed, both mourning and Chol Hamoed share a prohibition of shaving. Yet the reasons for such are very different; the prohibition to shave for a mourner is an expression of that mourning, whereas the prohibition of shaving on…
Article
Sep 4, 2014

An Outsider: Moed Katan 17

Rabbi Jay Kelman

One of the greatest and the most tragic figure of Talmudic literature is Rav Eliezer ben Hurcanus, known simply as Rabbi Eliezer Hagadol, Rabbi Eliezer the Great. His teacher, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai, declared that "he was like a plastered…
Article
Aug 29, 2014

Moed Katan 17: How to Sin

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The primary way we can tell which commandments are more important than others is by the punishment recorded in the Torah for various offences[1]. Thus, murder and adultery carry the death penalty; whereas eating on Yom Kippur "only"…
Article
Aug 28, 2014

Moed Katan 9: To Fast or Not To Fast

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The Gemara (Megillah 5b) relates that Rebbe wanted to abolish Tisha B'Av. Interestingly, no reason is given for this idea of Rebbe's[1]. And while this might be a popular move, "his colleagues would not consent". So much so, that…
Article
Aug 25, 2014

Moed Katan 8: Mazel Tov--Soon

Rabbi Jay Kelman

As we discussed in our last post, mourning and Yom Tov[1] are polar opposites, and mourning has no place on these days of joy.  Such is readily understandable. What is less understandable is the following Mishnah. “We do not marry…
Article
Aug 21, 2014