Brief notes, mostly to self, about what we’re currently learning in yeshiva. This is intended to record the ins and outs of our course of study. This is the twelfth year of women’s study at Yeshivat Maharat and my first.
- 11 February 2021:
Hilkhot niddah – chatzitzot 2 Chatzitzot, things which create a separation between one and the mikveh water, thereby nullifying the immersion, are a big topic and this week we covered such questions as medical stitches and dreadlocks.
×0
- 11 February 2021:
Chassidut Another stirring Esh Kodesh (Mishpatim 1942) in which we see a theology of Divine suffering and even Divine vulnerability. ×0
- 1 February 2021:
Hilkhot niddah – chatzitzah We started the subject of chatzitzah, crucially interrelated to our last topic, chafifah. For the first part of our study, we are focusing on two primary determinants - רוב and הקפדה. ×0
- 1 February 2021:
Chassidut In parashat Yitro from 1940, we see a focus on the process aspect of receiving the Torah - in the wilderness. What does it mean to journey towards home? We talked about the complexities of connecting this with the Mishkan. ×0
- 26 January 2021:
Night seder In our continuing discussion of Covid-related halakhah, we read three teshuvot from Iggrot Moshe about the use of microphones for hearing megillah. ×0
- 22 January 2021:
Ramban on Bo A fascinating Ramban in which he works out the (potentially conflicting) accounting of years of the exile/enslavement in Mitzrayim. ×0
- 18 January 2021:
Chassidut The Esh Kodesh on Parashat Bo, 1942: on the power of the teacher-student relationship and the ability of teaching in one's name to revive one even from death. ×0
- 18 January 2021:
Hilkhot niddah – chafifah Today we started the topic of chafifah, or preparing for immersion. Interestingly, there is a machloket Rishonim that can be read back into Chazal, apparently based on experiential factors. ×0
- 13 January 2021:
Practical rabbinics We tackled the fascinating topic of rabbinic/institutional statements on current events by analyzing three different communities' responses. ×0
- 13 January 2021:
Gemara We continued מאי חנוכה with a fascinating foray into Megillah Taanit (and its scholion), 1 & 2 Maccabees and Josephus, as well as the traditional sources. A complex picture emerges of differing emphases in memorializing the historical events. ×0
- 13 January 2021:
Hilkhot niddah – tevilah 2 We have two topics this week, serakh bitah - the idea that a woman cannot immerse during the day lest it mimetically mislead her daughter - and mikvaot. We're going to have a presentation from a Rav who is an expert in the construction of mikvaot. ×0
- 11 January 2021:
Chassidut The Esh Kodesh on Vaera, 1942, is one of the most evocative and haunting we've read. Just days before the Final Solution, it is replete with images of ashes, especially the trumat ha-deshen and the sacredness of taking care of it. ×0
- 5 January 2021:
Night seder Today we began a new study of Covid-era teshuvot and paskening by looking at some fascinating mekorot on a tzibbur that is somehow divided, as well as early teshuvot on the use of the telephone. ×0
- 5 January 2021:
Gemara Today in מאי חנוכה we learned how to use Be'er ha-Golah and encountered a particularly interesting Biur Halakhah citing the Meiri affirmatively. ×0
- 4 January 2021:
Practical rabbinics We started covering the topic of weddings. ×0
- 4 January 2021:
Hilkhot niddah – Tevilah Today we started the subject of tevilah. How does the collapsing of the biblical categories of niddah and zavah affect the timing of tevilah, on the 7th day or after completion of 7 days? ×0
- 4 January 2021:
Chassidut Can Talmud Torah engender a state of sinlessness? On parashat Shemot, Jan. 10, 1942 (ten days before the Nazi's Final Solution). ×0
- 21 December 2020:
Chassidut We read an haunting, evocative Esh Kodesh from Dec. 1941 on Vayegash. He talks about attaining devekut in prayer and how yearning for that connection does not in itself constitute it, but can effect it. ×0
- 20 December 2020:
Hilkhot niddah – chazarah Hilkhot Niddah - Chazarah 1 - Sources (with links to the full sources) - Topics: 1. Niddah de-Orayta; 2. Niddah de-Orayat: Niddah and Zivah; 3. Niddah de-Rabbanan; 4. Dam; 5. Dam Makkah; 6. Hargashah; 7. Poletet; 8. Hefsek Taharah (and 7 Nekiim); 9. Bedikot ×0
- 16 December 2020:
Gemara We're continuing the parshanut on the fascinating question of נר איש לביתו. ×0
- 16 December 2020:
hilkhot niddah – bedikot This week is our last before the chazarah and bechinah, and we're working on bedikot: when, how, with what. Badei ha-Shulchan was especially clear on this. ×0
- 10 December 2020:
Gemara We continued working on the sugya about נר איש וביתו including the מהדרין and the מהדרין מן המהדרין. Here it was particularly clear to see the lomdut analysis, the different views of Rambam and Tosafot, and understand the unusual way the halakhot were brought down by Acharonim. ×0
- 8 December 2020:
Night seder We're working on Kriyat Shema and its brachot; today we read a wonderful Maharal (from Netiv ha-Avodah 7) that include, inter alia, a powerful passage about our inherent incompleteness as expressed in Aravit (doc here). ×0
- 7 December 2020:
Hilkhot niddah – 7 nekiim We read a tricky sugya today on Niddah 68b-69a that dealt with the timing of bedikot - what do we do about the intervening days if one checks on day 1 and 7? What happens if one checks again only on day 8? ×0
- 7 December 2020:
Chanukkah Yom Iyyun I was introduced to the striking thought of the Ishbitzer (מי השילוח) today, framed through a discussion of the distinction between the archetypes of Yosef (perfection, rigidity) and Yehudah (imperfection, flexibility) - we are Yehudim, human and dynamic like Yehudah. ×0
- 7 December 2020:
Chassidut – Vayeshev A particularly powerful Esh Kodesh (Dec 2, 1939) today on the difference between חרישה and אלמות, two kinds of wordlessness that have different internal workings - too-muchness and emptiness, respectively. ×0
- 4 December 2020:
Ramban on Vayishlach See his comments on 32:4, 9 for realia/historical contingencies reflected in the commentary. ×0
- 1 December 2020:
Hilkhot niddah 8 – hefsek taharah Today we started the topic of hefsek taharah with a quick look at Vayikra & Sifra, then the sugya נדה סח. משנה, גמ' סח: "ר' יהודה אומר" – סוף הסוגיא ורש''י שם. ×0
- 30 November 2020:
Hilkhot niddah – poletet 2 We're closing out our study of poletet with situation lehakil on the Ashkenazi 5 min days before 7 nekiim, with ערוה''ש קצו:מ and four teshuvot from Igrot Moshe, אג''מ יו''ד ד:יז:כא-כג, ב:פד ×0
- 30 November 2020:
Chassidut – Vayishlach Today we read the Esh Kodesh's derashot for Vayislach 1939 and 1940. 1939: A moving passage based on Yaakov's struggle for insisting on getting the bracha out of suffering - to not let it be mere survival. 1940: G-d suffers along with us. ×0
- 23 November 2020:
Hilkhot niddah – poletet 1 Poletet - I hadn't realized that the 4/5 days before 7 nekiim had to do with poletet - frustrating but fascinating. Back to Niddah 41b through to 42a, then 33a-b, then an excersus to Shabbat 86a-b and M Mikvaot 8:4, רמב"ם הל' שאר אבות הטומאה ה:ט-י ואיסו''ב יא:יד, רמב''ן הל' נדה ב:ח-ט, Rosh, Terumat ha-Deshen, Bach. Down to the Tur, Sh"A, Rema and comms. ×0
- 23 November 2020:
Gemara We finished the sugyot in Shabbat on which wicks and oils are allowed and forbidden for lighting Shabbat lamps (including some complicated examples of composite candles). We're now onto the Beit ha-Mikdash and then Chanukkah candles. ×0
- 23 November 2020:
Chassidut – Vayetze The Esh Kodesh on Vayetze, 18 Nov 1939: G-d will be there even when you are gone from yourself. ×0
- 19 November 2020:
Core texts We're working on developing a set of core texts we connect with that we can draw upon. ×0
- 16 November 2020:
Chassidut – Toldot The Esh Kodesh on Toldot, 13 Nov 1939 - echoes of the physical violence experienced in the ghetto - acknwledges lack, creates agency through the choosing of intentions. ×0
- 9 November 2020:
Hilkhot niddah week – hargashah Hargashah - a challenging topic, even more so than the rabbinic female anatomy from the sugya on dam - Niddah 57b-58a, רמב"ם איסו''ב ט:א, Sh"A with Rema, teshuvot. ×0
- 9 November 2020:
Practical rabbinics We've started covering the topic of funerals. ×0
- 9 November 2020:
Chassidut – Chayei Sarah Two models of response (1939): Moshe's scribal activism in juxtaposing stories in the Torah, Sarah's possibly taking action against her own life (Sarah's part likely added later, according to scholarship). Stunning expression of the reality of suffering. ×0
- 2 November 2020:
Hilkhot niddah week – dam makkah Dam makkah - I found this question particularly interesting - Niddah 65b, Sh"A, Rema, Pitchei Teshuvah, Tzitz Eliezer. ×0
- 29 October 2020:
Leadership We're hearing from an inspiring lineup of speakers and thinking through what activism does and doesn't mean. ×0
- 26 October 2020:
Hilkhot niddah week 3 Dam - what counts as blood - we're looking at Sifra, Tosefta, Rambam, and then the gemara on Niddah 40a-41b. ×0
- 20 October 2020:
Night seder We're working through the intricacies of Kriyat Shema. We're going deep into the sources, first about the issue of which berachot need to be contiguous. It's more slippery a question than it seems. ×0
- 19 October 2020:
Hilkhot niddah week – niddah de-Rabbanan Niddah de-Rabbanan. This is getting complicated fast. This really illustrates the power of halakhah le-Moshe mi-Sinai. ×0
- 19 October 2020:
Practical rabbinics We start off discussing some complicated issues of conversion based on a recent case. ×0
- 15 October 2020:
Pastoral Torah Our first unit is on the (very) beginning of the life cycle. ×0
- 13 October 2020:
Gemara We're starting off with במה מדליקין (Shabbat). The first mishnah is full of unfamiliar nouns for various kinds of wicks. We're puzzling out how we can know what they are. Lots of Jastrow bingo (that's when you look up the word in Jastrow and your sugya is listed as the example). ×0
- 12 October 2020:
Hilkhot niddah week – niddah de-Orayta Niddah de-Orayta ×0
- 12 October 2020:
5781 – first year begins We kicked off with the Esh Kodesh on the parashah, which means we're jumping around a bit in time to get to the tricky-for-rabbis Tishrei parashot. ×0
- 25 September 2020:
Elul zman 5780 schedule & speakers Note to self: find it here. ×0
- 25 September 2020:
Elul zman 10 Closing out Elul: The Esh Kodesh as a chassidic, historically fraught approach to teshuvah. ×0
- 24 September 2020:
Elul zman 9. The Psychology of Teshuva: Teachings from Reb Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin - focused on questions of identity, memory, and agency as they relate to sin and repentance (in Tzidkat ha-Tzaddik). ×0
- 23 September 2020:
Elul zman 7 We learned the eighth perek of Massechet Yoma about the prohibitions and requirements of Yom Kippur. ×0
- 22 September 2020:
Racial Justice Yom Iyyun Yavilah Mccoy gave us a powerful presentation (I listened to it twice) on antiracism as the deeper work of recovering our humanity. (One of many thought-provoking speakers.) ×0
- 14 September 2020:
Elul zman 6 Third shiur for the week: responses to the Akeidah, with a rich array of intertexts. ×0
- 14 September 2020:
Elul zman 5 Second shiur: we are learning a series of wonderful, colorful aggadot on במעלי יומא דכפורי ×0
- 14 September 2020:
Elul zman 4 First shiur this week: Which Kolot Should We Blow this Year? (in the time of Covid) ×0
- 11 September 2020:
Elul zman 3 L'Dovid Hashem: An Interpretation of Psalm 27 - it's always amazing what happens when you look closely again at a familiar text. ×0
- 11 September 2020:
Elul zman 2 Next shiur: deep dive in Zikhronot. ×0
- 10 September 2020:
Elul zman First up is "Holiness That Destroys: Rav Kook and the Spiritual Challenges of our Time" - with a stunning passage from Orot. I'm def in a Rav Kook period, all complexities considered. ×0
- 9 September 2020:
Elul zman source sheets Note to self: find them here ×0
- 8 September 2020:
Hi. This microblog will serve as a record of what we're learning with brief notes and links to fuller resources. ×0