Chafetz Chaim on ‘One Who Teaches His Daughter Torah…’

An excerpt from Rabbi Chaim Twerski (in the context of Sotah 20a, which states a clear objection to teaching women Torah: “One who teaches his daughter Torah is as if he teaches her lewdness.”):

I have the following family tradition. Someone once challenged the Hafetz Hayyim for his support for Bais Yaakov schools, basing the criticism on the previously cited passage in Sotah. To this person, the Hafetz Hayyim responded that “today, all types of ‘lewdness’ are taught to girls, and you are concerned with the word ke-ilu (‘as if’)! If the Torah will not be taught to girls, they will have no appreciation of Torah values and will be left only with lewdness!”

See the rest here…

ממשלת בנט מה”ת מנין

ממשלת חמורו של משיח

רמז לחמשה קדנציות לבנימין נתניהו • להודות על הטוב • ממשלת חמורו של משיח • צל צואת ֹא תְ נַ סּ וּ אֶ ת ה’ • עיקר הנסיון בדור האחרון • הממתין לנסים חמורו של משיח • משיח טבעי • איסור ל בכדי לקיים מצוות עובר בלאו • בניית בית המקדש לפני ביאת משיח • ומשיח בדרך הטבע • האם הציבור מוכן לקבל משיח בצורה טבעית • צבא ע“פ תורה • פאה נכרית • ממשלה בתמיכת הערבים • הכרה ברפורמים • צריך לעשות הכל שלא יתקיים גזירת הגאון ר‘ מנדל שפרן שליט“א •”חדש אסור מן התורה”

הרב יצחק ברנד שליט”א:

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Zimri: ‘Shlemiel’ Archetype

Monday, June 28, 2021

Chasam Sofers Joke

The Midrash (פ’פנחס) enumerates the six names of זמרי. and the reason for 5 of the names why he was called by that name.

On the name שלמיאל, the Midrash doesn’t give the reason because this was his original name.

The ליקוטי חבר בן חיים writes, he heard from his Rebbe the Chasam Sofer,

Why was he named Shlumiel?

The Midrash (פ’ בלק) says that 12 ניסים happened to פנחס which enabled him to kill זמרי.

The Chasam Sofer jokingly said, “Wasn’t he a Shlumiel that all the 12 things that had to happen in order for him to get killed,
actually happened.”

From Toras Aba, here.

The Vilna Gaon’s Math – Facts & Fiction

The Vilna Gaon’s Theorem – Fact or Urban Legend?

In the Yeshiva world some people like to attribute the Vilna Gaon’s mathematical expertise (from his publication of a Trigonometry book Ayil Meshulash) and giving him credit to Cramer’s Theorem (his grandfather’s last name was Kremer, hence the derivative). I would like to debunk the bunk.

Firstly, while the Vilna Gaon wrote emendations and corrections on the Talmud based on Mathemics and likely was well-versed, the Ayil Meshulash book was a basic “intro” book to Trigonometry. Most high-school textbooks today cover much more (thanks, Reb Micha Berger) – see here.

Continue reading…

From My Western Wall, here.