Topics covered: First a word about bar Kamtza from Destruction of the Temple story as we leave Tisha b’Av. He was not just some guy who fell afoul of the party host – he was a malicious, self-hating Jew …

  Topics covered: Chapter 22, Mishas 1, 2 Difference between olives/grapes and other fruits in terms of squeezing liquid on Shabbos. Fish brine, pickled veggies and boiled veggies. Digression based on a teaching of the School of Menashe re testimony …

  Topics covered: Chapter 22, Mishna 1 Examining whether fruit that seeps out naturally from pomegranates on Shabbos is permitted for drinking. Answer depends on whether the owner intended the pomegranates to be used for eating or drinking. If the …

  Topics covered: Chap. 21 Mishna 3 Cleaning up on Shabbos. We distinguish between food scraps that are still edible (and thus prepared for Shabbos use) which we may move with our hands, and inedible scraps (whether by human or …

  Topics covered: Chapter 21, Mishnas 1, 2 A person may pick up his baby on Shabbos though the little one is holding a stone. And we may pick up a basket though it has a stone in it (along …

  Topics covered: Chapter 20, Mishna 5 As we complete Chapter 20 with some seemingly unrelated and highly specific rabbinic decrees like moving straw off a bed on Shabbos or clothes off a “consumer” pressing board, let’s take a moment …

  Topics covered: Chapter 20, Mishnas 2,3,4 We may add a raw egg to the mustard strainer even though the egg white will be separated from the yolk. And now that we’re talking about mustard, we enter a big brouhaha …

  Topics covered: Chapter 20, Mishnas 1, 2 The flipside of Jewish exceptionalism is the responsibility we owe God and the world to behave like mensches. When we fail in our mission as Jews, we not only harm ourselves, we …

  Topics covered: Chapter 20, Mishna 1 Though Rabbi Eliezer is often more stringent than his colleagues in matters of Torah law, he more lenient in the case of creating, and suspending a “wine strainer” on a Festival. He even …