Sunday, July 29, 2012

Today, Tisha b'Av, Google Hangout/You Tube Simulcast Streaming Shiur


Today, Tisha b'Av

Google Hangout/You Tube Simulcast Streaming Shiur on Inyana d'Yoma

live from Ohr Somayach
7:00pm EDT
(6:00 pm CDT, 4:00pm PDT)

send me a request for an invitation to the Google Hangout or go to youtube.com/mtajt

(if anyone is interested in a conference call connection, please let me know and I will send it up)

ויה"ר שנזכה לראות בנחמת ציון וירושלים

Wednesday, July 25, 2012


Conference Call/Google Hangout/You Tube Shiur

Thursday, July 25th:
 11:00pm until 11:30pm EDT


Inyana d'Yoma:

Sinas Chinam vs. Devek Tov



To participate interactively via Google Hangout (audio and video),
 please send me your email address so I can invite you. 

To participate interactively via the conference call (audio), dial: (209) 647-1600 at the time of the shiur and enter the access code followed by the pound sign: 435678#   when prompted.

To watch the shiur simulcast on youtube.com, go at the time of the shiur to www.youtube.com/mtajt

A guest post by me on RHM's blog

http://haemtza.blogspot.com/2012/07/yct-and-psycho-social-method-of-psak.html

Friday, July 20, 2012

Announcement from the Talmud Yerushalmi Institute

We are excited to introduce the Talmud Yerushalmi Institute (www.talmudyerushalmi.org). The Institute’s primary academic goal is to research the Talmud Yerushalmi’s redaction – including but not limited to its literary composition and its relationship to other rabbinic texts such as Tosefta, midrashic collections and the Bavli. Towards these goals the Institute has already scoured the Talmud Yerushalmi and accumulated a database able to automatically produce references on phenomena related to its study – a resource which will prove to be essential to anyone researching the Talmud Yerushalmi or related subjects.

To register for Institute updates and activities please send an email to register@talmudyerushalmi.org. It is important to know that you stand behind us!
 
If you would like to take part in an on-going study please consider sponsoring a study (www.talmudyerushalmi.org/sponsor-a-study)
 

Audio and Video: Some short teshuvos of Rav Elyashiv zt"l concerning perspective on history and on public policy

Video:



Thursday, July 19, 2012

Tonight: Conference Call/Google Hangout Shiur l'zecher Rav Elyashiv zt"l

Conference Call/Google Hangout Shiur Tonight l'zecher Rav Elyashiv zt"l

Tonight: 11:00pm until 11:30pm

Some short teshuvos of Rav Elyashiv zt"l
concerning perspective 
on history and on public policy



Since I have on loan from Artscroll a much faster and better computer than my own netbook, besides the option of participating via conference call, I will try to set up a Google Hangout where you can participate visually as well. If you want to join the Hangout, please send me your email address so I can invite you. 

To participate via the conference call: Dial: (209) 647-1600 Access Code: 435678# At the time of the conference call, dial the conference line and enter the access code followed by the pound sign when prompted.

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Conference Call Shiur Tomorrow, Shiva Asar b'Tammuz

Sunday, Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, July 8th live from Ohr Somayach in Monsey

Conference Call Shiur:

Tzom and Tzimtzum

6:45-7:45 pm EDT
3:45-4:45 pm PDT



To join the conference call:
Dial: (209) 647-1600
Access Code: 435678#
At the scheduled date and time of the conference call, dial  the conference line and enter the access code followed by the pound sign when prompted.

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Unprecedented Medical Miracle: 1st ALS Patient to be Cured is Mir Rosh Yeshiva

Unprecedented Medical Miracle: 1st ALS Patient to be Cured is Mir Rosh Yeshiva

Similar to the prior post, but in English. :-)

Reb Refoel Shmuelevitz shlita

I learned Mes. Sukkah morning seder with Reb Refoel when I was in the Mir. He gave me a haskama on my sefer on Bava Basra. When last I went to see him, about a year and a half ago, he had aged shockingly and seemed out of it. Only now do I know why. He is an approachable, warm and engaging person - and a brilliant Gadol b'Torah to boot. May Hashem Yisborach keep him with us for years to come.


COL חב"ד און-ליין | בשער 'ידיעות': ראש-הישיבה שחייו שוקמו בזכות חסיד חב"ד

Rav Breuer zt"l on the Internet

Just substitute "internet" for "television."

Courtesy of Reb Yitzchok Levine via Reb Gershon Seif:

In his essay The Television Scandal that appeared in the Mitteilungen, Vol. 21, December 1959/January 1960 Rav Dr. Joseph Breuer wrote in part

What is deeply disturbing, however, is the indifference with which the general public accepts the obvious fact that one of the most revolutionary technological achievements of our time is being used to poison the spiritual and moral values of the contemporary generation, especially the youth. That which is true for obscene and offensive literature, which inundates the current literary market (we need only refer to the millions of copies of objectionable so-called “comic books”), applies in a much higher degree to the television programs, which parallel the level of smut literature. Or could anyone still be unaware of the acute threat to our children’s moral purity and mental health posed by programs that are of a clearly immoral and sensual character, glorifying brutality, crime and naked materialism?

As long as we do not have effective legislative measures to combat the danger threatening the nation, parents who are anxious to promote the welfare of their children will follow the course necessitated by the situation. The easiest way out would be to forgo one’s personal use of the medium and to forbid the children to watch television. Yet it is more than doubtful whether this would have the desired effect. “Stolen waters taste sweetly and secret bread is pleasant” pronounces Solomonic truth (Mishlei 9:17).

The following course may offer better promise of success. Here, as everywhere, parental example is of decisive importance. Parents who regularly spend their evenings in front of the television set, watching one program after the other, should not be surprised if their children, following their example, feel magically drawn to the lure of television. Why should parents expect of their children a fortitude which they themselves fail to exhibit? If parents in their own viewing habits deal with television in the proper manner, both regarding the limitation of time and the careful selection of programs, children will be ready to accept the kind of nourishment that is adequate and healthy. For children will understand, especially with growing maturity, that nourishment for the mind and soul, like that for the body, must be subjected to a painstaking selection.

Let no one underestimate the influence of literature and television on the minds of young and old. We cannot fully protect our children from coming into contact with the sort of material that has such an unhealthy effect on their imagination and senses. Much will have been achieved if our children, together with us, are determined to reject such material as unbefitting the dignity of moral man. The atmosphere in which our children are reared — nurtured and purified by the common striving of school and home will play a major role in the healthy and protected growth of our youth.

Monday, July 02, 2012

Circus Tent - הירשל ציג'ס בלאג: "ספר "חודש לשנה

Circus Tent - הירשל ציג'ס בלאג: "ספר "חודש לשנה
Flatbush Jewish Journal Seforim Review by Rabbi Yaakov Levitz The welfare and livelihood of our brethren is something that is, and sho...




Haven't seen it yet (asked my son to pick it up for me in Lakewood), but if it is what it says it is, a boon for mechanchim and other klei kodesh who would have been b'aveled by crooked and inept  Battei Din like so many others who have preceded them over the years. Thanks to my long time and dear chaver Rabbi Baruch Kelman for bringing the post to my attention! (I usually read "Tzig" but have fallen way behind in my blog reading and would have missed this.)