If Someone Says They Have Wisdom Believe Them

“If, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime.”  

‘If you understand something, you can explain it so that almost anyone can understand it. If you don’t, you won’t be able to understand your own explanation.’ 

Roger Ebert

R. Isaiah Wohlgemuth

"Rabbi Wohlgemuth began his teaching career at the Maimonides School in 1945. As he and some 750 graduates recall, the highlight of his love and warmth in teaching was his Be'urei Hatefillah (A Guide to Jewish Prayer) course, affectionately known as "BH." His philosophy of teaching is simple: "You have to love the child, then the child learns to love you and wants to learn everything from you.""

http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2008/01/rabbi-isaiah-wohlgemuth-ztl.html

Reflecting on his own teaching over the years, Rabbi Wohlgemuth recalled: "I vowed I would never cause a Jewish child any anguish or sorrow," in remarks at a 1990 school banquet in his honor. "I tried in all my teaching career to become a friend of my students - never to punish them, but to encourage them with kindness and friendship, and with a sense of humor, that they may enjoy their studies."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/01/27/isaiah_wohlgemuth_rabbi_guided_generations/


http://beureihatefila.com/files/Rabbi_Wohlgemuth_Third_Yahrzeit_Lecture.mp3

Justice Menachem Elon

"Justice Menachem Elon was a monumental talmid chakham who served on the Israeli Supreme Court from 1977-1993, and as its Deputy President from 1988-93, bringing a deep Torah viewpoint to the highest tiers of the Israeli judiciary."   R. Michael J. Broyde


http://torahmusings.com/2013/02/justice-menachem-elon-%D7%96%D7%A6%D7%9C/

A Frum Off the Derech?

I offer you two simple lines:

Speaker at the siyum haShas: "Torah study isn't just another mitzvah."  - Reform Judaism? Antinomianism? Do we not value mitzvot anymore?

"Everything else in the world is imaginary." - Hinduism? Hashem didn't make a real world where our actions matter? When I was in India I become quite upset by how the Indians ignored all the poor street kids running around in their filth and bare feet. "It's all imaginary," my Indian coworkers assured me. That's how they view the world. It's an illusion so pain isn't really pain, injustice isn't really injustice. Your job is to see how it's imaginary. That's what they'll tell you.

But such are the ways of antinomian outlooks. Torah is different. The Lord is One means that He is not divorced from the world. Rather He cares about it and runs it. Just as He is involved with the world so should we be. We just channel our actions through mitzvot that all. All mitzvot are wonderful. Torah study is one of them. Rabbi Joseph Solvoeitchik explained the meaning of "Talmud Torah c'neged culam" is meaning that Torah study connects you to the other mitzvot by teaching you about them.

Beautiful Thought from Tim Tebow

"I believe everything happens for a reason. I don't know what my future holds, but I know who holds my future and in that there is a lot of peace and a lot of comfort."


http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8865345/tim-tebow-forced-new-york-jets-owner-woody-johnson-ted-sundquist-says

ALL the Mitzvot

Wandering between two worlds, one dead

The other powerless to be born,
With nowhere yet to rest my head

Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.

     Matthew Arnold

In our times, we are divided into groups, maybe as never before. Each group has mitzvot it keeps, those it ignores, and those it rejects. Some ignore tzniut, staying away from the gentiles in their negative ways, seriousness of demeanor, kedushah, marrying young, and dressing with dignity. Some ignore humility, greeting people with a smile, compassion and compassion for all of God's creatures, betzelem elokim in the sense of respect for people's individual minds as God created them, stumbling block in the sense of not giving people bad advice, bearing grudges, and using the seichel. I don't accuse everyone of course just widening swaths of the groups.

Increasingly the right is giving all the impression that Torah study is the only mitzvah. There are 613 mitzvahs. We need them all to become complete people.

Across the Spectrum: Nahum Rabinovich

Nahum Eliezer Rabinovich (born 1928) is a prominent Israeli Orthodox rabbi and posek, and head of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Maale Adumim. Rabinovich began studying with Rabbi Pinchas Hirschsprung at age 14. At age 20, he studied in Yeshivas Ner Israel, Baltimore, where he received Semicha from Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman. He also obtained a masters degree in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. In 1951 he married Rachel Malka Shuchatowitz, the niece of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman. (Wikipedia)

Text and Tradition Entry by Gidon Rothstein  
"he has written extensively, in particular his 14 volume יד פשוטה on Rambam’s Mishneh Torah.  What makes שיח נחום stand out for me is that it gives us a sense of how he, as a rabbi and posek, approaches halachic issues, not only how he goes about interpreting and understanding others’ works. And that sense is extraordinarily pleasant, since it shows us a man in control of significant swaths of Rabbinic literature, who operates with the substance, tone, and tenor of traditional sources to seek their most proper application to the pressures of everyday life. "

on youtube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoLASlOVCwo