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Soon after Sukkos, we are given the opportunity to study the lives of the Avos and Imahos. Some Torah readings are immediately accessible to us; others are more complex.
In two consecutive weeks of Torah reading, Sarah Imenu is taken captive by a powerful king. This, after Avraham Avinu portrays the relationship between them as being simply brother and sister. There is, though, a subtle difference between the narratives.
When Sarah is taken by Ph …
Does your soul consent to being born? Does some part of you choose to enter into a particular body and form of existence at a particular time? If we do say that is true, then it makes the world seem a lot more fair. We see a person who appears to have physical deformities or illness and rightfully notice suffering in this world. But, what if the person’s soul CHOSE to occupy that body at that time, for some reason that the …
Our Gemara on Amud Beis references the famous rabbinic dispute about whether the world was created in Tishrei or in Nissan. Of course, many have asked how can there be a dispute about a historical fact, and we shall shortly discuss some answers offered by Rishonim and mystics, and their deeper meanings. Before I do that, I feel compelled to point out how the question itself only comes from a linear western idea that the history portrayed in …
There are two interesting Gemaras on this daf that I think illuminate each other. At the top of Amud Beis it states:
It is written: “Blow a shofar at the New Moon, at the covered time for our Festival day” (Psalms 81:4). Which is the Festival day on which the moon is covered, i.e., hidden? You must say that this is Rosh HaShana, which is the only Festival that occurs at the beginning of a month, when the moon cannot be seen. …
Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us that there is an obligation to make sure that Pesach falls out during the spring. Since the Jewish calendar follows the lunar months, a Jewish year is approximately 354 days. In order to keep the Jewish year aligned with seasons, there must be 7 leap years in every 19 Jewish years, adding on a second month of Adar.
Elsewhere in Psychology of the Daf (Yoma 65) we discussed the significance of the Jewish Calendar a …
