How to Get High on Purim

Reb Shlomo on the true drug of the world

Origin of a Tune

 In spirit of the new Jewish month of Adar, I decided to post about the merry tune sung worldwide on the words of Hazal's dictum "mishenikhnas Adar marbin besimhah" - when the month of Adar arrives, we increase our joy (BT Taanit 29a).

This popular folk's tune is actually very old, dating back to the era of slavery. The lyrics of the song speak about having to jump down and pick a cotton bale a day which is a nearly improbable feat for one person, ...

Moshele Gut Shabbas

Please, take the time to close your eyes and truly listen, I'll guarantee it being the highlight of your day

Avodas Ha'Middos Series

In this next group of posts, I present the highly regarded Avodas Ha'Middos Series sponsored by Yeshivat Shaalvim. These select classes are recordings of the most recent Vaadim given by Rav Ezra Shapiro. Rav Ezra is one of the most prized minds and hearts of the Yeshiva. His true mastery of machshava, hashkafa, mussar and the human psyche is a rare treat.

This series, devoted to character improvement, contains some of the most magnificently organized and phenomenally inspirational lectures on topics most crucial to self improvement.

For our first shiur, we give you the Avodas Ha'Middos Intro.

The Blind Chazzan

Machlokes L'Shem Shamayim

This is the first of a series of articles that I would like to present that tackle  fascinating and fundamental topics. I will try to post at least a single article a week from this series. These are not my own compositions but rather from true Torah and secular scholars who have mastered a good deal of the material about which they are writing.

Our first article engages in a broad analysis of the differences between the Rambam and Ramban concerning the world of the mystical,hashgacha pratis, the workings of prayer and magic. Even if you think yourself already well read on the topic, I highly suggest taking the time to go through the piece carefully. There are a few twists that I found surprising, and imagine them to be so for anyone who has not thoroughly delved into the subject.

By Rabbi Buchman: U-Madua Lo Yeresem

Naftali Bennett on Fox News' Huckabee: World Must Stop Iran Now

Bayis Shlishi in Morroco

בעיר בווארזאזאט שבמרוקו , במרחק 10 דקות מקברו של רבי יחיא בן ברוך - בנו המרוקאים בית מקדש ממש ענק גדול על פי הדימוי היהודי לצורכי הפקת סרטים (ווארזזאזאט היא עיר הסרטים של מרוקו) . הבית מקדש ממוקם באמצע המדבר (סיהרא)

Vital Mussar

Curious to hear your takes on the message....

Holocaust Reconsidered ?

In recent hours, another controversial Beacon article has claimed a multitude of spotlights across the blogosphere. While I cannot say for certain what author's true intentions were in writing the piece, I think it is clear that it begs some response - and response there is aplenty (update: there was before the comments section was closed).

Personally however, I don't deem the article worthy a line-by-line analysis. Instead, I thought to make mention of a message which  I have been dwelling on now for a few years.

        To the modern Jew, suffering is almost a pillar of faith. To many, myself included, it serves as an ironic testimony to G-d's constant omniscience and intervention in a world where the song of the hour is 'Anything Goes'. Read More

Rant from an Inner Stirring

have you ever tasted freedom? have you ever lived without a care in the world or perhaps all the care in the world? where has it moved you? when a man begins to ponder that which is most dear, appreciate that which is most basic and experience that which is most mundane he will know. It exists not in the state of body, nor in the weight of pocket....Read More

$250,000 Mechitza

From Ha'Emtza

A quarter of a million dollars. According to an article in the 5 Towns Jewish Times - this will be the cost of a Mechitza at the MetLife stadium. It is being constructed for the next Dafyomi Siyum HaShas (the 12th) sponsored by Agudah that will take place in August. The stadium can hold 90,000 people and they are expecting a sellout crowd!

I understand why they are doing it. Even though most of even right wing Orthodox Jewry would agree that there is no Halachic need for a Mechitza to separate the sexes at this event, Agudah says they are willing to spend the money because they want to encourage all segments of Judaism to attend. So they are willing to spend $250,000 dollars to build a custom Mechitza that will likely never be used again....Read More

Bible Criticism: A Short History

[1]One of traditional Judaism's most important claims is its total commitment to the divinity of the text of the Torah, the Pentateuch. It is believed that the other books of Tanach may contain a human element since "no two prophets prophesied in the same style."[2] But the Torah came to Moshe from God in a manner that is metaphorically called "speaking," after which Moshe wrote it down "like a scribe writing from dictation."[3] In the nineteenth century, this belief came under severe attack by a theory called Higher Criticism or Quellenscheidung. This theory denied the divinity of the Torah as a verbal account of God's words to Moshe. Instead, the text was seen to be made up of a conglomeration of various sources compiled over many hundreds of years. As such, it could not have been written by Moshe.[4]

The proponent of this theory was Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918),Read More Here

National Drug Trip? I think not...

Given:

1  1) We see this concept by matan תורה that בני ישראל saw the thunder and the sound of the shofar. 

“וְכָל הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת הַלַּפִּידִם וְאֵת קןל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק:” ( of the shofar)

    2)      We also see another pasuk in  ישעיה פרק מ that mentions the idea of seeing speech. It refers to the time of moshiach.

“וְנִגְלָה כְּבוֹד יְהוָה וְרָאוּ כָל בָּשָׂר יַחְדָּו כי פי יְהוָה דִּבֵּר:”

The Question: What does it mean to see sound? What is the literal meaning of this? It can’t just be a metaphor? And what is the connection between the pasuk by matan Torah and yemot hamoshiach?

Understanding Sight and Sound:

 “וְאַחַר עוֹרִי נִקְּפוּ זֹאת ומבשרי אֶחֱזֶה אֱלוֹהַּ”- from my flesh I will see hashem.

From this pasuk we learn that the body is a reflection of Hashem and his workings that

על כנפי נשרים

How to best Overcome the Yetzer

The Monstrejo from Pep Lluis Llado on Vimeo.
Personally, I see a multitude of messages in this video. Curious to hear what you guys think...

For starters, light=knowledge of Truth. The driving force behind beating the Y"H lies in our trust in that light and knowing that if we love and embrace our challenges we stand to win any battle.

Desperate Faith

An excerpt that will forever remain with me from Desperate Faith:

We live on your block.
We are your collegues, your classmates.
We are the people in line behind you at the grocery store.
We are REGULAR people who are living a double life.
On one side, we appear to be a normal family, dealing with the regular issues that crop up in our lives. On the other side though, the hidden side, we are a family falling to peices. We are a family that is being torn apart slowly, bit by bit, day by day.

In the Spirit of Purim

 Recently, a good, comedic friend of mine was asked to write a few articles for Ha'Modia's upcoming Purim issue. Rather than immediately invest a few hours to brainstorm, Eli's decided to first send The Purim Story… Well Sorta, a composition he had written for another publication a few years back.

A few hours later.....
The editor of Ha'Modia sent back the following critique:

Disclaimer: This article and its response is 100% authentic. It has been said that the comments could be funnier than the actual article

Eli on Purim

Okay, I read your piece, and I’ve made a short list of the things that would bother Hamodia, so you have some idea. I don’t know how much you know about them, but they’re basically for an audience who views everything as assur. Like take whatever Lakewood holds is assur and add that to whatever Chassidim think is assur, and that’s your audience. The editors don’t necessarily feel that way, but here’s the thing: With the entire newspaper industry fighting a losing battle against the internet, the only paper that is going to be left standing is the one whose audience believes the internet is assur. It’s all the frummies who are keeping Hamodia in business. So they don’t want to offend ANYBODY. They also have an official mashgiach, who reads everything, and every once in a while, I discover a new thing that they like to censor.

So you know, it is still possible to write humor under these conditions. I’ve been doing it for almost six years now, and I’m nearing 300 columns.

Anyway, here are some things that you mentioned in your article that Hamodia will ask you to replace (I’m not saying for sure, just in my experience):

1. Page 1 – references to professional sports
2. Page 1 – the party only had non-kosher food? They might not like you contradicting a midrash
3. Page 1 – can’t mention goyish comedians by name
4. Page 1 – can’t show Jews liking bacon. Even if you’re right and they did like it, hamodia would not consider that a laughing matter.
5. Page 1 – reference to a goyishe song
6. Page 1 – not sure you could talk about facebook. I’ve always been afraid to go there in my columns.
7. Page 1 – can’t reference girlie movies (or any movies, really) – also on page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6
8. Page 1 – not sure they will like you mentioning hitler in any way in a humor piece. Too soon.
9. Page 2 – reference to celebrities and required knowledge of what American Idol is
10. (Page 2 – the pinky and the brain references will probably go over their heads)
11. Page 2 – reference to modern family. And tivo
12. Page 2 – reference to mel Gibson who is a huge anti-semite, but only famous because of movies, and Hamodia reads aren’t supposed to know who he is.
13. Page 3 – oj simpson, Charlie sheen, steven spielberg, mel gibson
14. Page 3 – I’m not even sure you can reference a maccabeats song that was a parody of goyishe song
15. Page 4 – starbucks is chalav stam. This actually got cut from one of my articles once.
16. Page 4 – Seinfeld reference
17. Page 4 – amazon
18. Page 5 – professional sports
19. Page 5 – hamodia might think you’re implying that mordechai’s feet smell worse than garbage
20. Page 5 – bert and ernie. Also the lion king song reference
21. Page 5 – was there really a third party? I thought there were only 2
22. Page 6 – they’re not going to love you giving G-d dialogue, no matter how respectful
23. Page 7 – you might not be allowed to mention a non-jewish holiday.

        Anyway, I don’t mean to hurt you in any way, I’m just trying to teach you the rules. Once you take out what I told you to, you’ll be left with like two jokes. It’s just important that you know the rules before planning a new piece. Oh, and also, no references to shaving (Chassidim don’t do that), women driving (again, Chassidim), shidduch dating (Chassidim don’t believe in that), and this is even though most of their audience is not actually chassidish. Also, nothing that is halachically assur or questionable or frowned upon by rabbonim, unless you’re going to excuse it in the very next senence, and often not even THEN. How I made it to 300 articles I don’t know. Better to focus on what you can make jokes about than what you can’t.

Thanks,
          (Name Removed)

True importance of Tu' Bishvat

In response to Opening the Freezer I'm not sure what is more frightening:


          1) The idea that an authoritative "ruling" can be issued concerning an appropriate time for dating

          2) The competition now facing the chevra




Credit to A. Caplan for the Reference

Women Rabbis: A Response to Sara Hurwitz

Recently, Sara Hurwitz has decided to capitalize on the current political stirrings taking place in Beit Shemesh. Her most recent article, found here, deserves a treatment from some more educated sources. Obviously, having a sephardic rabbi of a previous generation make a passing statement about the concept is far from an adequate treatment of this issue. Ms. Hurwitz's literary tactics do well to persuade many of the uneducated masses. All I can see to be authentic about this work is a unabashed use of manipulative pathos - a poor replacement for the denied support from a single mainstream Torah authority.

Here are two important halachic articles that give a fuller treatment of the issues at hand:

                             Women Rabbis? by Rav Hershel Schechter                             Orthodox Women Rabbis?  By M. Broyde and S. Brody 

~2nd is more liberal~

Did Miriam Sing?

With recent media discussion of the prohibition for men to listen to women sing, we would do well to closely examine the story of Miriam publicly singing after the splitting of the sea. We certainly cannot decide matters of Jewish law from simply a verse without taking into account the Oral Torah. However, the Taz’s famous dictum that the Sages are unable