Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/18/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we learned through another shiur from The Kuntress (Sevaros b'Mishneh Torah le'ha'Rambam) on a major problem with the berachos we make on matzah, maror, and the korban Pesach - namely, they violate the Rambam's own rules about how to formulate our berachos on mitzvos! The Baal ha'Kuntress proposes an explanation that resolves this contradiction and sheds new light on the uniqu...
Mar 18, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/17/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we learned through a shiur from The Kuntress (Sevaros b'Mishneh Torah le'ha'Rambam) on the bizarre conclusion of the Rambam's Nusach ha'Haggadah, in which he implies that we might think we SHOULDN'T read the hagadah or do any of the mitzvos on the second night of Pesach. As is his wont, the Baal ha'Kuntress comes up with a creative sevara to explain this hava amina, which shed...
Mar 17, 2021•52 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/16/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah Chapter 8, in which the Rambam walks us through the rest of the seder and assorted other halachos. As I mentioned last time, our priority was to note differences between Ch8 and Ch7, differences between the Rambam's seder and our (Ashkenazic) seder, and to raise whatever other questions or problems we spotted. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנ...
Mar 17, 2021•53 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/15/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah Chapter 8, in which the Rambam walks us through the seder. Our priority was to note differences between Ch8 and Ch7, differences between the Rambam's seder and our (Ashkenazic) seder, and to raise whatever other questions or problems we spotted. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה ח:א-ח רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר עבודה,...
Mar 15, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/11/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah Perek 7. We began by looking up the pesukim cited as the source for the obligation to "see/show oneself as having left Egypt." We then read the halachos of the four cups, the obligation to recline, the mitzvah of charoses, and the mitzvah of maror. Next week we plan on learning Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah Perek 8. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - מש...
Mar 11, 2021•52 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Because we've been talking about the erroneous printed editions of the Mishneh Torah, I decided to read an excerpt from an English translation of R' Qafih's Introduction to the Mishneh Torah. I recommend reading this introduction in its entirety, which is why I recorded this pre-shiur discussion. See below for the link. ---------- מקורות: R' Qafih's Introduction to the Mishneh Torah (English translation) ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Not...
Mar 11, 2021•8 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/10/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we continued learning through the halachos of the seder, raising questions, giving answers, and making observations (and jokes). ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה ז:ד-ו דברים כו:א-י ירמיהו ב:יג ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Note that this is a bekius chavurah - as opposed to an iyun shiur . Each session consists of us reading through the Rambam's ...
Mar 10, 2021•50 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/9/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began the halachos of Sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim. Now that we're here, we're going to slow down and think more into what we read. There are lots of questions and problems, some of which will be answered this year, and some of which will be left for future sedarim/generations. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה ז:א-ד רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר זמנים, ה...
Mar 09, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/8/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued through Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah, touching upon the critical halachos in Chapter 5 and 6 so that we could make it to the halachos of the seder with plenty of time. And guess what? We made it! Tomorrow (בג"ה) we will begin Chapter 7 and proceed at a much more thoughtful and leisurely pace. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה פרקים ה-ו ר...
Mar 08, 2021•58 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/4/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued through Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah, covering the topics of bal yiraei and bal yimatzei. Reminder: we're sticking to the "roshei perakim" and skipping over (no pun intended) the details, so that we can get to chapters 7 and 8 and focus on them in-depth. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה פרק ד ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Note that this...
Mar 04, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/3/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued through Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah, covering the topics of tashbisu (a.k.a. bitul chametz) and bedikah. Reminder: we're sticking to the "roshei perakim" and skipping over (no pun intended) the details, so that we can get to chapters 7 and 8 and focus on them in-depth. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה פרקים ב-ג ---------- Bekius Discla...
Mar 03, 2021•58 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/2/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah. The Rambam says at the end of the minyan ha'mitzvos in the introduction to the Mishneh Torah (and elsewhere) that each mitzvah has klalim, pratim, and dikdukim. We intend to do all of the klalim, some of the pratim, and none of the dikdukim for Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah chapters 1-6, and then focus on chapters 7-8 for the rest of the time. Ho...
Mar 02, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/1/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began Hilchos Pesach in preparation for the upcoming chag. Because we know that there's no way we'll make it through all of the halachos in all eight chapters of Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah in the 13 sessions we have in march, we've decided to do an overview of all the mitzvos - using the Sefer ha'Mitzvos and the first couple halachos in each chatper - and then focusing prima...
Mar 01, 2021•45 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/24/21 at YBT) was our last Rambam Bekius chavurah before Purim. Seeing as how we finished the Hilchos Megilah section of Hilchos Megilah v'Chanukah last time, we decided to do a shiur on megilah from Sevaros b'Mishneh Torah le'ha'Rambam, by the Baal ha'Kuntress. Although the shiur focused on megilah, it answered a ton of questions we raised when we went through the intro to the Mishneh Torah and gave us a lot to think a...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/23/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we concluded Hilchos Megilah! We began with the remaining halachos of Mikra Megilah, then read the halachos about the Ymei ha'Purim, mishteh, mishloach manos, matanos la'evyonim, and the Rambam's concluding statements. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות מגילה וחנוכה ב:ח-סוף ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Note that this is a bekius chavurah - as opposed to ...
Feb 22, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/18/21 at YBT), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued in the halachos of Purim, making our way through the laws of megilah reading. My lazy title of this shiur is due to the fact that we covered a variety of topics under that heading which didn't easily lend themselves to a more specific theme. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות מגילה וחנוכה א:ט-ב:ז רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר אהבה, הלכות תפילין ומזו...
Feb 18, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/17/21 at YBT), in the second part of our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued in the halachos of Purim, focusing on the times established by Chazal for the reading of the megilah. We definitely faced some difficulties in understanding the structure of these times as presented by the Rambam, but we eventually solved the problem that had puzzled us. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות מגילה וחנוכה א:ד-ח...
Feb 17, 2021•41 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/17/21 at YBT) we began our Rambam Bekius chavurah with an addendum to the halachos we learned yesterday about tefilin, mezuzos, and sifrei Torah written by heretics. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר אהבה, הלכות תפילין ומזוזה וספר תורה א:יג רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר המדע, הלכות תשובה ג:ז,ט רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר עבודה, הלכות מעשה קרבנות ג:ב-ד ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Note that this is a bekius chavurah - as op...
Feb 17, 2021•20 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/16/21 at YBT), in the second half of our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began the halachos of Purim, starting with the Rambam's introduction of the mitzvah of krias ha'megilah, along with certain related sources - including one from Hilchos Nachalos, of all places! ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה: הקדמה, מנין המצוות, סיום מצות עשה רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות מגילה וחנוכה א:א-ג רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר אהבה, הלכות...
Feb 16, 2021•28 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/16/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we completed Chapter 6 of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah. The last two halachos dealt with the halachos of destroying Kisvei ha'Kodesh, which involves distinctions between who wrote the text, as well as the halachos about names in specific parts of Tanaach which appear to be kodesh but are chol and vice versa. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר המדע, הלכות יסודי התורה ו:ח-ט ...
Feb 16, 2021•30 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/15/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we took up a side-quest: to defend the Rambam against a charge leveled by the Riaz (R' Yeshaya Acharon di'Trani). The Rambam famously held that one who believes that Hashem has a body or an appearance qualifies as a "min" (heretic). The Riaz, like the Raavad, disagreed with the Rambam's psak and explains his reasoning. Our defense was drawn from the best Rambam defender of the...
Feb 15, 2021•55 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/11/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued learning the Rambam's presentation of the halachos of "destroying that upon which the Name of Hashem is proclaimed." We covered the detailed halachos of erasing Hashem's name, dwelling for a while on what we mean when we describe things as "kadosh" vs. "tahor," and on making some elementary conceptual analysis moves on some of the cases. We then moved on to the p...
Feb 11, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Note: I realize I made a mistake in this shiur when I said that the halacha of destroying the altar isn't mentioned in this perek. It is, as we'll see tomorrow. This afternoon (2/9/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began a new mitzvah - one which is presented by the Rambam VERY differently in the Sefer ha'Mitzvos and the Mishneh Torah. We spent most of today noting and marveling at these differences. We then read the first two...
Feb 09, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/8/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we concluded Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah Chapter 5. The penultimate halacha in the chapter deals with relatively unknown and difficult to understand form of chilul ha'shem and kidush ha'shem. The last halacha is what many think of as the ONLY form of chilul ha'shem and kidush ha'shem. After reading these halachos we attempted to answer some of the questions we raised along the wa...
Feb 08, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/4/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued in Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah Chapter 5. After a brief review of what we covered yesterday we moved on to the halachos of mesirah (i.e. giving up a Jewish person to be killed or raped), followed by the halachos about when we are and aren't permitted to violate a prohibition for the sake of healing. We concluded with the perplexing case of the "terminally lovesick" i...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/3/21 at YBT) we began Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah Chapter 5. We were quite taken aback by the difference in his presentation when compared to the Sefer ha'Mitzvos. As usual, we made many observations raised many questions, and were even able to answer a few of them. We finished the overview today, and we'll continue tomorrow with the particular cases the Rambam mentions. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם: משנה תורה, ספר המדע, הלכות...
Feb 03, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/2/21 at YBT, from Seattle) we reviewed what we learned yesterday in preparation for today's topic: chilul ha'Shem, as formulated by the Rambam in the Sefer ha'Mitzvos. Considering the Rambam's opening statement that this mitzvah is simply "the opposite of kidush ha'Shem," we were surprised by how many differences there were! These differences will be explored in detail when we learn Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah Chapter 5 wh...
Feb 02, 2021•39 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/1/21 at YBT, from Seattle) we began learning the next pair of topics on our agenda: kidush ha'Shem and chilul ha'Shem. We started with the mitzvah of kidush ha'Shem as formulated by the Rambam in the Sefer ha'Mitzvos, which differs markedly from his presentation in the Mishneh Torah and also from the conception of the mitzvah in the minds of the populace. Tomorrow we will continue with his presentation of chilul ha'Shem...
Feb 01, 2021•43 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Today was the first day of our spring semester, and our first day back after a two-week break! This afternoon (2/1/21 at YBT, from Seattle) we began with a brief interlude prompted by a friend's comment on a Facebook post of mine in which he said about the Rambam: "the dude liked making lists." That comment, even though it was made in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner, nevertheless rubbed me the wrong way. I thought it would be a good to...
Feb 01, 2021•17 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (1/13/21 at YBT) we (re)learned the final halachos in Yesodei ha'Torah Chapter 4, thereby concluding the chapters about the topics referred to as "Pardes" (the "Orchard"). We then compared and contrasted the Rambam's descriptions of ahavas Hashem and Yiras Hashem here and in Chapter 2. We then read the Talmudic anecdote about "the four who entered Pardes" as explained by the Rashbatz in his commentary on the Haggadah. Then...
Jan 13, 2021•58 min
