L’ILuy Nishmas Yaakov Eisenberg

A year or so ago, I drove into Manhattan to pick up my mother’s second cousin from Israel, Motty, and drive him to the airport. I had felt guilty after barely seeing him during his short trip. Even though he is only my mother’s second cousin, he treated me like his own son when I visited with him in Israel some 15 years ago (going out of his way to get kosher food, etc.). So, the least I could do was drive him to the airport.

Earlier that morning I had gone to a gemorah shiur I had been attending at the time and I must have left directly from there since my gemorah was on the back seat of the car. When Motty opened the back door, he asked “David, do you learn Tal-mud Bav-Li?” I responded “I try.” “Oh”, he said “I have something for you”. He explained that an uncle of his, the only living religious member of his family, had recently passed away. Amongst his belongings were many sifrei kodesh. The attorney administering the estate gave them to Motty and told him he should probably throw them away. Motty then said to me “I am not dati (religious) but I know what his kodesh (holy). Also, I come from a family of publishers so all books are important to me. I will send these books to you.” I thanked him as graciously as possible.

Approximately one month later, three large boxes were delivered to my home. They included an entire set of Shas (the Talmud), a set of Mishnah Yachin and Boaz (the six orders of the the Mishnah with commentary) and two sets of Mishneh Brurah (the Chofetz Chaim’s authoritative work on Jewish Law). I carefully placed the Shas and Mishnayos on my bookshelf and sent my brother one of the sets of Mishneh Brurah and donated the other to a Jewish outreach library.

This year, my son has begun learning Mishnayos in school. When we learn together, I try to use this particular set of mishnayos in the hopes that it will be of merit to this distant, distant relative that I never met.

Our sages teach that “Torah mechazeres al achsanya shelah”–The Torah returns to its lodgings–which has been explained to mean that even if the Torah leaves a family, it will return within three generations.

Welcome home, I hope you find us to be gracious hosts.

This week is the third Perek for Pirkei Avos. Here is the link for an English Translation of all six Perakim culled from Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld’s translation and commentary at Torah.org. Torah.org also has some of the Maharal’s commentary for Pirkei Avos, which happens to be my personal favorite which you can purchase here.

The full text in Hebrew can be found here.

Frequent BeyondBT contributor, Rabbi Yonason Goldson has great pieces on Mishna 3.1 – “…consider three things and you will not come to sin…” and Mishna 3.2 – “…Pray for the welfare of the government, for without the fear of it, man would swallow his fellow alive…”.

Read more This Week in Pirkei Avos ›

As we mentioned on Friday, Daf Yomi is learning Arvei Pesachim, which deals with issues of Brochos and whether you have to say a new brocha when you change from one place to another. R’ Moshe Schwerd, the maggid shiur in Congregation Ahavas Yisroel in Queens on Sunday asked the following classic halachic question, “Can a Jew walk and check gum at the same time?”.

Here’s the explanation. The halacha is that if you change to a different location for eating, you have to say a new brocha rishonah (before brocha), if you are eating food for which you don’t have to go back to the place you ate for the brocha achronah (after beracha). This would be the case for all foods over which the brocha achronah is Borei Nefeshos (ie, fruits, vegetables, gum).

So if you say a beracha and begin eating an apple in your house and then go to the park and continue eating the apple, you would have to say a new brocha. But how about foods that you continually eat, like sucking candies and gum? In that case if you said the brocha in your house on the gum and continued chewing it, you would not need to say a new brocha if you walked outside.
Read more Can a Jew Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time? ›

Beyond BT contributor, Ilanit Meckley brings to our attention a website called www.oneg-shabbat.org where people can register to be either be Shabbos hosts or Shabbos guests.

Here’s the link for Rabbi Goldson’s Aish article on Mishna 2.2:

“Rabban Gamliel the son of Rabbi Yehuda the Prince said, Torah study is good with a worldly occupation, because the exertion put into both of them makes one forget sin. All Torah without work will ultimately result in desolation and will cause sinfulness.

All who work for the community should work for the sake of Heaven, for the merit of the community’s forefathers will help them, and their righteousness endures forever. And as for you, God will reward you greatly as if you accomplished it on your own.”

Read more Some Torah Links For Your Pre-Shabbos Reading Pleasure ›