One of the most compelling of the seventy-plus commandments that comprise the compressed compendium of this morning’s portion is the two-verse, life-prolonging mitzvah of “shiluach hakein” (22:6-7): sending away the mother bird if one wishes to take the eggs or young.
         Herewith some avian avant-garde views from the high-flying, wide-winged, and eagle-eyed Rabbi Sorotzkin–at the [...]

David Ben-Gurion likened reading a great work in translation to kissing one’s beloved through a handkerchief.  Likewise, I’d say, for relying on distancing snippets and slight snapshots in lieu of the splendidly picturesque panoply of the original.  Discursive excerpts, however wise, can nowise come close to immersive exploration of the genuine jewel.  So I remind [...]

         The Israeli violin virtuoso Yitzhak Perlman, having contracted polio at the age of 4, has had to wear metal braces on his legs and walk with crutches.  On one occasion, when he began tuning the violin under his chin, one of the strings broke.  Unfazed, he proceeded to play the concerto on three strings, [...]

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends, the English poet Alexander Pope observed.  Our commendable canine comrades fare less well, however, in the category of Kashrut.  Four centuries pre-Pope, the Spanish exegete Rabbeinu Bachya (1263-1340), in his commentary on our portion concerning the non-kosher status of the pig [...]

Rabbi Berger’s Halakhah Refresher Series – Shiur #4 – Hilkhot Shabbat.

 illness and emergencies

Last week, we discussed two halves (when an angel divided the covenantal blood to be sprinkled–on the altar and on the Jewish people); this week, three–in the dimensions of  the Ark of the Covenant, which housed the two Tablets and the Torah scroll.  To wit: 22 cubits (length) by 12 cubits (width) by 12 cubits [...]

Rabbi Berger’s Halakhah Refresher Series – Shiur #3 – Hilkhot Shabbat.

The adverbial Avery is not used very much in the Torah; Avery, very, a veritable rarity.  Thus, famously, God appraises His 6-day Creation as Avery good (ABereishit- 1:31) and the land of Israel is deemed Avery, very good (AShelach 14:7).  While Moses was once recorded as being Avery distressed (AKorach 16:15, Rashi), he was normally [...]

Rabbi Berger’s Halakhah Refresher Series – Shiur #1 – Hilkhot Shabbat (Kitchen).

http://fleetwoodsynagogue.org/video/Halacha_video_1.html