We all would like to be right all the time. But there are some dangers to have the right on your side without questioning it. I always had a distaste for people who claimed (or gave the impression that) they had morality on their…
Keep Reading
Joel, Eruvin 98 ends with a mishna that teaches -amongst other things- that one may stand in a private domain and move things in a public domain. This means, for instance, that if one is in his own house, and sees a potato on…
Keep Reading
Last week the weather was better than expected, and the Dutch Mule Corps, the Dutch Jewish motorcycle club -after some discussion of course- went for a ride. And what a ride it was! If you’re interested you can check out the first, second and…
Keep Reading
Today was probably one of the last days of the motorcycle season, so I decided to drive through the polders and visit the Jewish cemetery of Diemen. This relatively young cemetery was founded just over a century ago. It has several rows of people…
Keep Reading
Rav Sheishet is quoted to have said that the Jews should not be held responsible for their sins, as they were “drunk without having drunk wine” due to all the hardships they encountered during the continued state of exile. A lame excuse. Everyone is…
Keep Reading
Joel – Todays daf also speaks about substance over form. The Gemara brings in Raba bar Rav Chanan whose custom it was to go from Artibbena to Pumbedita on Shabbat and formally acquired residence in Tzinta, which was located between the Shabbat limits of…
Keep Reading
When a person is outside of the area he can walk (his techum, which is 2.000 amot from his residence), he is only allowed to walk an additional 4 amot (one ama is 6 handbreadths). There was an an incident which is recorded on…
Keep Reading
Various psalms mention this “new song”, but then the same old psalm follows. The solution: just as you can’t step into the same river twice, you can’t sing the same song twice. Every time a song is sung, it is different in intensity, stirs…
Keep Reading