Rambam Bekius

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/21/21 at YBT) we resumed our Rambam Bekius chavurah after a week's hiatus. We focused on the last two paragraphs in the Rambam about the deah of silence, and arrived at some nice ideas. (FYI, the title of this shiur is a joke based on something we said in the shiur itself.) We started working on 2:6, about geneivas d...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/13/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we INTENDED to finish the next two paragraphs about silence. We began, as usual, by reviewing what we did last time. I even recorded a 60-second recap yesterday to make sure that we'd review efficiently. What ended up happening instead? Basically, we ended up tackling a bun...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/12/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we set out to understand the Rambam's "silent treatment" ... or "treatment of silence." We wasted no time in getting our hands dirty, delving into questions major and minor. It was a real workout, but a very productive discussion which ended up clarifyin...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/11/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we attempted to explain the remaining statements about anger in 2:3, and I think we did a decent job. We continued with the halachos about silence, and since we couldn't figure out how those halachos flowed from the previous ones or how they fit into the perek, we decided t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/10/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finally managed (thanks to the footnote guy, and with Hashem's help, of course) to finally understand how and in what sense haughtiness and anger are exceptions to the "middle path" rule. Additionally, we were able to explain a number of the statements cited by...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/6/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we had one goal: to finish READING the exceptions to the Rambam's rule of the middle path. We had to actively fight against the impulse to start analyzing in-depth in order to make sure that we finished. We did permit ourselves to raise questions, but we tried to keep our sp...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/5/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we took another couple of baby steps in our understanding of Hilchos Deios. We started reading about the two exceptions to the middle path rule, but decided after reading the first one that we'd use the exception to understand the rule itself. This led to a protracted discus...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/4/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we attempted to answer some of the questions we raised last Thursday while making sure we learned at least a couple more halachos. We did manage to clear up some of our terminology issues, while simultaneously getting bogged down in more. All in all, I think it was a productive d...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/29/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we only made it through one halacha, but we covered a lot in terms of our analysis. Broadly speaking our goal was to understand the Rambam's terminology in Hilchos Deios. Specifically, we wanted to understand the differences between different types of deios problems, and we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/28/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished the first chapter of Hilchos Deios. Here the Rambam introduces us to the concept of "the middle path" (or "the middle deah"), and formulates the mitzvah of ve'halachta bi'drachav in those very terms. There were a number of questions we r...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/27/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began a new section: Hilchos Deios! As usual, we began with by reading the Rambam's formulation of the mitzvah in the Sefer ha'Mitzvos and in the minyan ha'mitzvos in the Introduction to the Mishneh Torah, and then we began the halachos with the koseres. Today&...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Thank you to all of my generous Patrons who help support my production and distribution of Torah content! If you have gained from this podcast (and/or others) and would like to support my efforts to make Torah available and accessible to everyone, please consider contributing to my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss --------...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/22/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we continued learning the Rambam's discourse on nevuah in the Introduction to the Commentary in the Mishnah. WARNING: since we were only learning this for the Rambam's new points, I sped-read and didn't translate anything that the Rambam already covered in the Mis...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/21/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah! (Chas v'shalom that we FINISHED finished it! Rather, we completed one reading of it) We began by reading one more halacha about the distinction between prophecies for the good and prophecies for punishment, and then we leared the c...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/20/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began by going over the eighth and ninth yesodos in the Peirush ha'Mishnayos (i.e. the ikkarim that are covered in the last three chapters of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah). After that we began the tenth and final chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah. After making a...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/19/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we started and finished the ninth chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah, which focused on the topic of the immutability of Torah and the commandment to listen to the navi. We began by reading the Sefer ha'Mitzvos on the latter, and then learned through the halachos. בג&q...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/15/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we started and finished the eighth chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah, which focused on the topic of the relationship between the event at Sinai and Moshe's nevuah. In many ways, this was an extension of the topics covered in the previous chapter, especially because n...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/14/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished the seventh chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah. First we learned the halachos about the unique nevuah of Moshe Rabbeinu, which we found surprisingly confusing. We took a brief detour to the first half of the Rambam's formulation of the 8th ikkar in the Pei...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/13/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we continued from where we left off last time. The Rambam begins describing the process of standard nevuah. He pauses to contrast this with the nevuah of Moshe Rabbeinu. We decided at that point to read his formulation of the seventh ikkar in the Peirush ha'Mishnayos, and s...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/12/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we had an unprecedented accomplishment: we set out to review what we did last time (the three paragraphs which comprise 7:1) and we didn't even complete the review (we only covered two paragraphs)! I refer to this as an "accomplishment" because we achieved a level...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/8/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began the next topic in Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah: nevuah. We started off by trying to guess what the Rambam included in his formulation of the ikkar of nevuah. We then read his definition of that ikkar in his Intro to Perek Chelek and tried to make sense of what he was sa...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/7/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we concluded our side-topic of "the Omer." Today we learned about the procedure for preparing and bringing the Minchas ha'Omer in the Mikdash, then we learned some of the halachos regarding the prohibition to harvest produce before the bringing of the Omer, and we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/6/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began a side-topic: the Omer. The Rambam begins with the mussafim of Rosh Chodesh and Pesach. We took a brief moment to discuss ALL the mussafim. The Rambam then goes on to recount the procedure for harvesting the Omer, and the measures taken to refute the view of the Tzedukim...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/22/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we learned another shiur from The Kuntress. This one was about the meaning - yes, the meaning - of the mnemonic for the ten plagues. As expected, the Baal ha'Kuntress showed us a new perspective with far reaching implications. ---------- מקורות: בעל הקונטרס - סברות במשנה תו...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (3/18/21 at YBT) in our evening hashkafah shiur we learned another shiur from The Kuntress. This one focused on the berachah at the end of Maggid, but was really about the nature and purpose of sipur and the hagadah. ---------- מקורות: בעל הקונטרס - סברות במשנה תורה להרמב"ם: גאולה לנו ולאבותינו  ---------- Bekius Disclaim...