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© Copyright 2006 Published by Reuven Meir through lulu.com For more copies, visit: http://www.lulu.com/reuven Read more of Rabbi Bechhofer’s writings at his blog: http://rygb.blogspot.com and at his website: http://www.aishdas.org/rygb/ To listen to Rabbi Bechhofer’s shiurim including his Daf HaYomi Yerushalmi, visit: http://www.teachittome.com and http://www.yerushalmionline.org Bigdeh Shesh The collected writings of Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer Table of Contents ESSAYS ON HASHKAFAH...................................... 8 FACING THE MACHASHAVAH CHALLENGE.............................. 8 FORKS IN THE ROAD: OLD DIVISIONS, MODERN RAMIFICATIONS ..................................................................................... 20 THINK, ASK, INTERNALIZE!................................................ 41 GOOD CHUMROS?........................................................... 52 MEZUZOS, MACHLOKOS AND EILU V'EILU DIVREI ELOKIM CHAYIM ......................................................................... 64 BITACHON, HISHTADLUS, HISTAPKUS................................. 75 THE DVEYKUS VS. SHLEYMUS DEBATE.............................. 89 HAKHEL, SUKKOS, AND ACHDUS ....................................... 90 JUDAISM AND RACISM...................................................... 94 THESIS: JUDAISM AND COUNSELING ................................. 99 AYIN HO’RA.................................................................. 146 THE VALUE OF S’MICHAH ............................................... 149 SHIDDUCHIM IN AMERICA ............................................... 155 DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR YETZER HA’TOV IS?............. 161 HASHKAFIC TABLE......................................................... 170 AN ANALYSIS OF DARCHEI HALIMUD CENTERING ON A CUP OF TEA ............................................................................. 175 TALMUD YERUSHALMI ..................................... 178 THE OTHER DAF YOMI ................................................... 178 DVAR HASHEM ME'YERUSHALMI...................................... 182 YERUSHALMI ON KODASHIM............................................ 189 HALACHAH....................................................... 210 PROBLEMS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ERUVIN IN MODERN METROPOLITAN AREAS................................................... 210 OUR VERY OWN Y2K PROBLEM (MORE PRECISELY: Y0.92K) ................................................................................... 218 CHANGING NEIGHBORHOODS: MAY THE JEWS LEAVE? ...... 234 HALACHOS OF SHABBOS GOYIM....................................... 245 THE DETERMINATION OF DEATH: HALACHIC CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................... 251 JEWISH MEDICAL ETHICS: AN OUTLINE OF PRINCIPLES ..... 259 IMPOSING BLACK ON WHITE ON MATTERS THAT ARE GRAY.. 262 TA’AMEI HAMITZVOS: SHATNEZ ...................................... 268 TA’AMEI HAMITZVOS: MECHITZA .................................... 276 HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY............................... 279 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF RABBI AVRAHAM ELIYAHU KAPLAN ZT"L ................................................................................... 279 ELUL IN SLABODKA: FROM THE DIARY OF RABBI AVROHOM ELIYAHU KAPLAN ZT"L.................................................... 319 DR. NATHAN BIRNBAUM ZT"L, ASCENT AND AGUDAH.......... 334 THREE SEFORIM OF OR ABOUT HARAV YOSEF DOV HALEVI SOLOVEITCHIK ZT"L ....................................................... 348 DR. YITZCHOK BREUER ZT"L AND WORLD HISTORY ............ 365 TELSHE: 120 YEARS SINCE THE FOUNDING OF THE YESHIVA ................................................................................... 389 ZEMIROS.......................................................... 410 YOU DESTINED US / ............................... 410 CREATION WAS AFRAID / ...................... 412 Bigdeh Shesh: The Collected Writings Essays on Hashkafah Facing the Machashavah Challenge Book review of “Facing Current Challenges: Essays on Judaism” by Rabbi Dr. Yehuda (Leo) Levi, Jerusalem, 1998 I once asked the principal of a yeshiva high school why the standard curriculum does not include the study of Jewish thought - excerpts from the Kuzari, Derech Hashem, Michtav Mei’Eliyahu - anything? He answered me quite candidly, saying that the study of such works and issues would likely provoke students to raise significant questions, and there was a real concern that the teachers would not be equipped to answer the questions satisfactorily. Better, he contended, not to raise questions in students’ minds than to raise questions that would remain unanswered. While we may be disappointed with the principal’s response, we cannot deny the reality of his concern. A standard yeshiva education generally does not equip a teacher with familiarity - let alone mastery - of Jewish thought. Systematic study of the "great works" (such as those cited above) is a rarity. Often, the sum total of a yeshiva alumnus’ exposure to Mussar or machashavah is the collective wisdom contained in whatever shmuessen or sichot he has haphazardly attended over the years.1 1 Although beyond the scope of this review, there was a fascinating correspondence and debate between Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Halevi, the renowned historian, and Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, in 1908, concerning the advisability of the incorporation of the study of machashavah in the curriculum of a new yeshiva that Rav Kook intended to found in Jaffa. Rabbi Halevi was stridently opposed to any adulteration of the "traditional" Shas and Poskim based course of studies, while Rav Kook felt that the times made an expanded focus essential. See Igros R’ Yitzchak Isaac Halevi 80-80a and Igros HaRa’ayah 1:146 and 149. 8 Essays on Hashkafah So, indeed, if the educator is not educated, how can he or she educate others? On the other hand, can we consider a yeshiva alumnus adequately equipped to face the challenges of life without a solid grounding in Jewish thought? Situations pose questions, experiences pose questions, others pose questions to us - and, sooner or later, we may well pose questions to ourselves. How can one be a fully functioning Oved Hashem without a solid grounding in Jewish thought? Indeed, it is the pursuit of such grounding that the Mesillas Yesharim demands of us when he opens his work with those immortal words: Yesod ha’chassidus v’shoresh ha’avodah ha’temimah she’yisbarer v’yisames eitzel he’adam mah chovaso b’olamo - the foundation of piety and the root of complete [divine] service is that it should become clear and [understood as] true to an individual what his responsibility is in his world. Clearly, both teacher and student need a curriculum. Prof. Yehuda (Leo) Levi’s book, Facing Current Challenges provides just such a curriculum. Rabbi Dr. Levi is ideally, perhaps uniquely, suited to provide a framework for thoughtful analysis of the great issues that a Jew faces in the world in which Hashem has placed us. Heir to the Torah im Derech Eretz traditions of his German-Jewish forbears, educated to the profound approach to both Talmud and Jewish thought that was the hallmark of Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner zt"l’s Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin, and an accomplished scientist and academician as well, his works possess a remarkable scope of breadth and depth. (I personally make extensive and constant use of his wonderful works on the times of day in Halacha and on Talmud Yerushalmi.) Prof. Levi has taught for many years, also serving for some time as rector, at the Jerusalem College of Technology, popularly known as Machon Lev. Facing Current Challenges consists of lectures that the author gave to students at Machon Lev. Prof. Levi obviously did a great deal of research and prepared extensively for each of these 9 Bigdeh Shesh: The Collected Writings lectures, as they are all rich in varied sources and extensively footnoted. Other important compilations of Jewish thought2 that are helpful in learning and teaching perspectives consist of excerpted material from classic sources or summations with extensive references. Facing Current Challenges, however, preserves the flavor of the lectures that served as its basis. This format allows the inquiring reader to follow Prof. Levi’s logical and methodical development of each piece’s theme.3 Occasionally, a nugget of information is so novel an idea that you momentarily doubt the author is being accurate, but there is an endnote, and you look to the back of the book and find, lo and behold, the precise reference for the statement. For example, upon reading (p. 225) that the Chazon Ish zt"l said: "History and world events do much to instruct the wise man on his way, and on the basis of the chronicles of the past he establishes the foundation of his wisdom" - a statement that we might not quite expect to find emanating from the Chazon Ish - we might want to double check the source - readily given in the endnote (Emunah u’Bitachon 1:8). More often, however, a reader will read straight through an essay, and come out the wiser, educated in a broad array of issues, from: "Zionism: A Torah Perspective" and "Kahanism" to "Organ Transplants" and "Ecological Problems." The gamut of issues spanned by Prof. Levi in 2 Including Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli’s Perakim b’Machasheves Yisrael and Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s Handbook of Jewish Thought. I shall return to the differences between these works below. 3 There is a slight, yet perceptible, stiltedness in the flow of the language that, I believe, is explained by the fact that Facing Current Challenges is translated
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  • Chassidus on the Chassidus on the Parsha +

    Chassidus on the Chassidus on the Parsha +

    LIGHTS OF OUR RIGHTEOUS TZADDIKIM בעזרת ה ' יתבר A Tzaddik, or righteous person , makes everyone else appear righteous before Hashem by advocating for them and finding their merits. Kedushas Levi, Parshas Noach (Bereishis 7:1) VA’ES CHA NAN _ CHASSIDUS ON THE PARSHA + Dvar Torah Deciphered Messages The Torah tells us ( Shemos 19:19) that when the Jewish people gathered at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah , “Moshe spoke and Hashem answered him with a voice.” The Gemora (Berochos 45a) der ives from this pasuk the principle that that an interpreter should not speak more loudly than the reader whose words he is translating. Tosafos immediately ask the obvious question: from that pasuk we see actually see the opposite: that the reader should n ot speak more loudly than the interpreter. We know, says Rav Levi Yitzchok, that Moshe’s nevua (prophecy) was different from that of the other nevi’im (prophets) in that “the Shechina was speaking through Moshe’s throat”. This means that the interpretation of the nevuos of the other nevi’im is not dependent on the comprehension of the people who hear it. The nevua arrives in this world in the mind of the novi and passes through the filter of his perspectives. The resulting message is the essence of the nevua. When Moshe prophesied, however, it was as if the Shechina spoke from his throat directly to all the people on their particular level of understanding. Consequently, his nevuos were directly accessible to all people. In this sense then, Moshe was the rea der of the nevua , and Hashem was the interpreter.