Rambam Bekius

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/29/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued our foray into the wonderful world of Korban Pesach. Today we made it through roughly half of the halachos outlining how the Korban Pesach was brought in the Beis ha'Mikdash. We took up a few questions along the way, using the Gemara and meforshim as supplements to...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/24/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we went on a little adventure. In his first mission statement for the Mishneh Torah the Rambam promises that his work will contain the answer to every halachic question that needs to be answered: either he will answer it directly OR he will "mention the foundation from which the...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/23/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began learning Hilchos Korban Pesach. Today's focus was on the halachos pertaining to the actual slaughter, and we (mostly) stayed on topic! Tomorrow we'll learn about the procedure for slaughtering the Pesachim in Mikdash (בג"ה). ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/22/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we read through the koseres for all of the mitzvos in Hilchos Korban Pesach and Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah. As usual, we got sidetracked - again, in a good way! - to various other related topics, including bris milah and kareis. The plan for tomorrow is to start Hilchos Korban Pes...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/21/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we set out to begin our Pesach learning. I say "set out" because the bulk of shiur was spent reviewing a very important methodological point: why the Mishneh Torah must be learned in conjunction with the Written Torah. This led to a discussion of the relationship bewteen th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/14/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we finished the Rambam's Hilchos Megilah v'Chanukah Chapter 2 (after getting a LITTLE bogged down in some other shitos about getting drunk on Purim), and we did most of the halachos of simchah in Hilchos Shevisas Yom Tov. I'm not sure whether we're having Rambam B...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/14/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued our review of Hilchos Purim with the objective of understanding the uniqueness of Simchas Purim. Today's exploration took us ALMOST through the end of Hilchos Megilah Chapter 2, which we will aim to finish tomorrow (בג"ה). ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה ת...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/10/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began this year's review of Hilchos Purim. I wasn't in the mood to just go over ALL the halachos again, so instead, we decided to take up a specific question: What makes the simchah of Purim unique among other joyous days? Today we began going over the basic halachos of...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/9/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, in preparation for a Purim-related topic we'll be starting tomorrow, we reviewed two halachos in the Rambam about taamei ha'mitzvos (the reasons for the commandments). My understanding, based on these two halachos, is that the Rambam holds that there are two TYPES of taamei...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/8/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we took up another side-topic chosen in part because of its Adar-appropriate "ve'nahafoch hu" theme, and in part just because I wanted to discuss it. As early as 1300 people have claimed that the Rambam recanted his philosophy and became a kabbalist at the very end of h...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/3/22), in our slightly-longer-than-usual Rambam Bekius chavurah, we concluded our side-topic investigation of the Rambam's shitah on the status of halachos derived from the hermeneutical principles. Led by Halbertal, we read through the Ramban's objections (which we were originally going to do inside, but skippe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/2/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued our side-topic, taking up the question: What is the nature of the halachos and limudim that are derived through the middos she'ha'Torah nidreshes ba'hen? We familiarized ourselves with the Rambam's shitah inside. Tomorrow (בג"ה) the plan is to let...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/1/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began a side-topic tangentially related to Purim, prompted by my Friday Women's shiur on the nature and scope of Rabbinic authority. Our goal today was to review the Rambam's position on why mitzvos de'rabbanan are not counting in Taryag (in contrast to the Behag&apo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/23/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued in the halachos about non-chacham elders. After reviewing the Rambam and the basics of what we covered yesterday, we finished the Torah Temimah and then moved to the Aruch ha'Shulchan to see what the psak halacha was. What we encountered, in addition, was an elabora...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/22/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued in the halachos about honoring chachamim, beginning the sugya of honoring elders who are NOT chachamim. We started with the Rambam, but because the sugya is relatively localized, we ventured out into a LOT of different non-Rambam sources in an effort to familiarize ourse...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/20/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we did a standalone topic as a follow-up to my Sunday shiur on "Midrashic Embellishment." I was asked a question based on the Rambam's halacha of "judge every person favorably," and I wanted to review it inside before answering. Right before shiur I realized...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/16/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we continued learning the halachos about the kavod chachamim protocols during shiur. We answered a few of the question we raised yesterday and gained some clarity by learning the Rambam's sources in the Gemara. We ended with a halacha on which the Rambam seems to have taken a di...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/15/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began by addressing two (out of three) of the tantalizing leftover questions from Thursday. We may not have succeeded in arriving at well-formulated, crystal clear abstract definitions, but we definitely improved our understanding. After that we moved on to the next couple of hala...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/10/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we had a day of fun conceptual questions. The first was about a machlokess on whether it's BAD or GOOD for a chacham to take a walking route which will cause more people to stand for him. The second was a hava amina and maskanah on whether a chacham who is riding should be treat...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/9/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began with a review of the two halachos we learned yesterday, followed by an attempt to resolve the two difficulties we encountered: one which involved squaring the Rambam's ruling with the Gemara's derivations, and the other which involved a seemingly inexplicable psak....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/8/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began Perek 6 which is about the mitzvah of honoring talmidei chachamim. In truth we've been on this topic for a while, but only now does the Rambam formally present the mitzvah in the Mishneh Torah. Today we focused on trying to understand the basic nature of this "stand...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/7/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we tied up the loose ends from last week. We began by revisiting the machlokess in the Gemara about whether a rav can forego his honor. We learned R' Moshe Feinstein's beautiful (and halachically radical) explanation of that Gemara, and more. I have a feeling this will form...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/3/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we began with an additional point about why a rav has the right to forego his kavod, whereas (for example) a king does not. After that, we began analyzing the last two halachos in the perek, which are about the kavod that a rav should have for his talmidim, and we answered some of our...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (2/2/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we took another swing at attempting to understand the Rambam's definition of "rav muvhak." We decided to read some excerpts from the Encyplopedia Talmudit entry on the subject in order to familiarize ourselves (in a bekiusy way) with ALL the shitos. We then reread the R...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Welcome back! This afternoon (2/1/22), in our Rambam Bekius chavurah, we delved into the Rambam's qualification of ALL the preceding halachos in the perek as pertaining exclusively to one's "rav muvhak." The question is: What does that mean? The Rambam gave us very little to work with, so we had to engage in a little mo...