Rambam Bekius

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This is the audio of the eulogy I gave for my beloved rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l on Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5782 (May 30th, 2022). For the video, click here . I plan on typing up the transcript of the abridged version of the eulogy (which is the one I gave), as well as the full version of the eulogy (which I haven't yet c...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/26/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we learned through the final halachos in the perek. The first couple of halachos were miscellaneous details in nidui and cherem. The last halachos were about how a chacham should conduct himself with regards to nidui. Ordinarily we would have spent more time on these last halachos, w...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/25/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we tried once more to understand the strange case of "dream nidui" - this time, according to the Rambam. We began by reviewing his basic definition of nevuah and what he holds about the imaginative faculty. We then read part of a chapter in the Moreh ha'Nevuchim where...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/24/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we aimed to explain the perplexing halachos of "nidui in a dream." Halachically, why should we care about the contents of a dream here when we disregard them in all other areas of halacha? Why are the requirements for being released from a dream-nidui different and more str...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/23/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, the plan WAS to move forward in the halachos, but because we had two people in shiur who weren't there last week, we ended up reviewing. I, for one, am glad we did, because we ended up clarifying a number of points and gaining some new insights along the way. In the last 15 minu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/19/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began by taking up a question posed in the introduction to the Chabad edition of the one-volume Mishneh Torah. That question is: What is the value of learning halachos in the Rambam if we don't understand what we're learning? After answering that question, we reviewed AL...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/18/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we started off with a halacha about the odd application of nidui to someone who intentionally takes Hashem's name in vain. This led to an exploration of Hilchos Shevuos and Nedarim which was equal parts fascinating and perplexing. With around 15 minutes remaining, we FINALLY pus...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/17/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began by discussing a "Rambam experience" I had shortly before shiur started. From here we segued into a review of why it's so important to learn the Rambam's Mishneh Torah. We covered a number of points which had covered in the past about the Rambam's org...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/16/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued learning through the Rambam's list of 24 "ban-worthy" offenses (i.e. those for which we impose nidui, which the Rambam still hasn't defined yet). We began with a review of last week with the intent of trying to discern categories within the list. Some...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/12/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began learning through the Rambam's list of 24 "ban-worthy" offenses (i.e. those for which we impose nidui, which the Rambam still hasn't defined yet). Some of these were self-explanatory. For the others, we used the sources cited by R' Makbili as a spring...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/11/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we covered three topics: (1) revising and refining our definition of bizui talmidei chachamim, (2) defining the halachic shiur of "hatred" according to the Rambam, and (3) beginning the halachos of nidui, which will take us into the next chapter. Today we just got our feet...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/10/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we attempted to understand what the Rambam might mean by "bizui" in his discussion of being mevazeh talmidei chachamim. We developed our answer based on how the term is used in Tanach and by Chazal before looking at how the Rambam, himself, uses the term elsewhere. We came...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/9/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we returned to Hilchos Talmud Torah after a two-month "inyanei d'yoma" detour. Today we focused on the halachos about the privileges (rights and exemptions) of talmidei chachamim. We then began the next halacha, about degrading talmidei chachamim, which we'll conti...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/5/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began by reviewing what we covered yesterday in the Hararei Kedem pience, and then finished it. In addition to appreciating the Rav's sevaros, we also had some important methodology discussions about the Brisker Derech and its relationship to the Mishneh Torah. Next week (בג&q...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/4/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah (Ra'avyah bekius chavurah?), we began by reviewing what we covered yesterday (Why, according to the Rambam, don't we say shehecheyanu on sefiras ha'omer?), and read Encyclopedia Talmudit's summaries of several other answers. We then began working on our other questi...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/3/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we tackled the question we raised a few days ago by learning through a piece in Hararei Kedem and weighing in with our own thoughts. The piece begins by examining the "famous Baal ha'Maor" on this question, then shows how his answers are inadequate according to the Ramb...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/2/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we finished the few remaining halachos about harvesting before the omer is brought, and then read the two paragraphs in the Rambam on the mitzvah of counting the omer. Our plan will be to wrap that topic up tomorrow (בג"ה) by attempting to answer some of the questions we've...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/28/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we learned through all the halachos of the mussaf Rosh Chodesh, the mussaf of Pesach, the harvesting of the omer, the bringing of the omer, and some of the halachos about the prohibition to harvest other grains before harvesting the omer. Next week (בג"ה) we'll finish those...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/27/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began yet another side-/inyanei d'yoma topic: the mitzvos associated with the Omer and Shavuos. We began by familiarizing ourselves in a cursory manner with the relevant pesukim in Emor, Re'eh, and Pinchas. We then read through the Rambam's formulation of the four m...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/7/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we had PLANNED to finish Hilchos korban Pesach. Instead, we took up a tangential question we raised yesterday: What's going on in the short episode involving Tziporah and Bris Milah? We were led here by the Rambam's halachos about the prohibition of an uncircumcised person t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/6/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we endeavored to do a deep dive into the topic of "meshumad l'avodah zarah" (apostate to idolatry), in which we'd read through every single source in the Mishneh Torah on that topic. Unfortunately, we had to cut shiur short by 15 minutes, and we didn't make it...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/5/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we were GOING to finish Hilchos Korban Pesach Chapter 9, but Yosef asked a question which was far more important: What is avodas Hashem? Since this is Rambam Bekius, we focused on the Rambam's answer, as expressed in the two places where - to my knowledge - he articulates it the...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/4/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we learned the majority of Hilchos Korban Pesach Chapter 9, about the paramaters of eating the korban Pesach in a chavurah. Tomorrow we'll aim to finish the chapter, and perhaps take up a question about what it means to serve Hashem according to the Rambam (בג"ה). ----------...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/31/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we spent the first half of shiur talking about why we're learning the halachos of Korban Pesach when we don't observe them nowadays. My own answer is near and dear to my reasons for learning the Mishneh Torah in general - reasons which are beautifully expressed by R' M...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/30/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we finished the halachos about the procedure of offering the Korban Pesach, and then we began the halachos about eating the Korban Pesach. We encountered several questions along the way which we were unable to answer - largely due to our ignorance of Kodshim - but I'll try to an...