Haholchim B'Torat HaShem
Haholchim B'Torat HaShem
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The Scribe Part 2
Monday August 13 2018, 10:22 AM Scribe
In the Song of the Sea, Moses says "This is my G-d and I will beautify Him..." The rabbis ask "How can we beautify G-d? Beautify Him with Mitzvot! Anything you make for the Divine Service should be beautiful." This is understood in two ways. One...
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The Scribe Part 3
Monday August 13 2018, 10:21 AM Scribe
We are required to write the Torah and other Holy Writings in "dyo" (ink). The ink must be black, the most changeless color, much like G-d and His Torah are changeless. In ancient times, scribes would prepare their own ink out of soot (usually...
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The Scribe Part 4
Monday August 13 2018, 10:21 AM Scribe
The scribe is about to write. He has purchased fine parchment. It may be pre-ruled, or he may prefer to rule it himself. Each letter will "hang" from lines scratched into the parchment, except for the letter "lamed", the top of which goes over the...
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The Scribe Part 5
Monday August 13 2018, 10:20 AM Scribe
We have seen how the Ashkenazi script became very pervasive through the careful documentation of the Beit Yosef. The descendants of German Jewry, as they moved Eastward into Poland, Russia, and other East European countries, took this scrip with...
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Whom are you Fooling?
Monday August 13 2018, 10:19 AM Community
When I lived in Israel, one Shabbat I was standing on the steps of the synagogue after morning services, with two friends/students. I told them a teaching of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov: "A person must either fool the whole world, or fool himself. If...
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The Scribe Part 6
Monday August 13 2018, 10:18 AM Scribe
Besides the Sephardic and Ashkenazic scripts, several others are used.I have mentioned on several occasions the customs of the Yemenites. The Jews of Yemen are the oldest continuous group in Jewish history. They were in one geographic area since...
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The Scribe Part 7
Monday August 13 2018, 10:17 AM Scribe
I have described in an earlier series my unbounded admiration for Rabbi Issac Luria (1534-1572), generally known as the ARI (Holy Lion). He was a great Kabbalist, as well as an accomplished scholar in other areas. He would go into the deeper...
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Whispering
Monday August 13 2018, 10:16 AM Women
"If your wife is short, lean over and whisper" (Talmud, Bava Metzi'a 59). Rashi explains: "seek her advice". Although there can be many ways of understanding this, i wold like to offer the following:Rabbi Nachman has a teaching in which he...
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The Scribe Part 8
Monday August 13 2018, 10:14 AM Scribe
Besides writing Torah Scrolls, the scribe also writes several other holy objects, as I shall describe. The first of these that I shall discuss is the Tefillin. The Tefillin are bound on the arm, opposite the heart, and on the head, symbolizing the...
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The Scribe Part 9
Monday August 13 2018, 10:13 AM Scribe
The tefillin are a beautiful mitzvah (actually two, as the hand tefillin and head tefillin constitute two separate mitzvot.) Surprisingly, the Talmud puts what would seem to be disproportional emphasis on this precept. "The skull that has not...
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The Scribe Part 10
Monday August 13 2018, 10:12 AM Scribe
When I lived in Israel, I often got around by hitchhiking (what the Israelis call "tremping"). Once, I got a ride with a man who looked at me and said "Hey, aren't you the tefillin expert? What do you think of the guy with the new kind of...
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The Scribe Part 11
Monday August 13 2018, 10:11 AM Scribe
The divergent opinions as to the correct order of the Tefillin passages, while seemingly a minor detail, did in fact threaten the unity of the Jewish people. One view was clearly right, one clearly wrong, but which one was which? Although custom...
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The Scribe Part 12
Monday August 13 2018, 10:10 AM Scribe
In my last post, I described the two views concerning the order of the Torah passages in the Tefillin. Although most Orthodox Jews, even if they only wear RASHI's Tefiilin, are aware that there exists the alternative view of Rabbenu Tam, there...
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The Scribe Part 13
Monday August 13 2018, 10:09 AM Scribe
The Torah commands that we write "these words" on the doorposts of your homes, and upon your gates".(Deuteronomy 6:9). This has come down to us through the Oral Torah as meaning that a parchment scroll, hand written with intent (like a Torah...
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Women's Education
Monday August 13 2018, 10:06 AM Women's Education
When I lived in Israel, I met a a neighbor's wife on a bus going from the Beit El settlement, where we lived, to Jerusalem. I asked her what she was going to do in Jerusalem. She informed me that she was taking a course to become a "to'entet"; a...
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