If one had to choose the single institution most directly responsible for the survival of the Jewish people, it would un-questionably be the Shabbat. More than any other Jewish religious institution, it has not only kept us alive and distinct, but it has benefited the entire world. As a social concept structuring the week and allowing the laborer regular respite from his work, it has, by virtue of the Jewish influence on Christianity and Islam, allowed its beneficial effects to filter through to all of Western civilization.The Shabbat is not, as the naive modem sometimes imagines, the invention of a group of bright legislators who were confronted by a social and economic problem at the time of Moses, and decided to come up with a solution couched in religious terms. It is, in Jewish tradition, quite important, the fourth of the Ten Commandments, and the only one of the so-called ״ritual observances״ mentioned in the Decalogue. So important is Shabbat, that Halakhah (Jewish law) con-siders the public desecration of the Sabbath the equivalent of Idolatry — the rejection of all of Judaism, the entire Torah. The Bible oensiderr Shabbat as berit olam, beini u-vein benei yisrael, an ״eternal covenant״ between God and Israel. The observance of the Sabbath is thus a symbolic assent to the terms of the covenant or the special relationship between God and Israel• Sabbath observance, therefore, despite its large-scale contemporary neglect, should never be taken lightly, as merely the vestigial practice of some tradition-bound remnants of the community, because it is indeed the essence of Judaism. A measure of its Importance is the precedence granted to the Sabbath over the Temple in Jerusalem, the Beit Ha-mikdash. The building of the Temple (or the Tabernacle) could not proceed on the Sabbath day. More than that, this idea that the Temple could not be constructed on Shabbat became the model for Sabbath legislation. Which kinds of labor are forbidden on the Sabbath? Specifical…

One of the things mentioned by the Mishnah, in addition to the first ten items that were created erev Shabbat bein hashmashot, is the burial place of Moses – קבורתו של משה. What a strange thought! What the Tanna is trying to teach us, I believe, is how to stabilize our views and our assessments of our fellow men. He is trying to help us avoid succumbing to the danger of extremes in our evaluation of others, especially after they have died. Consider the extraordinary case of Moses. An unbiased reading of the Torah leads us to the startling conclusion that he was probably one of the most unpopular leaders in the history of mankind. His people were afraid of him and had little love for him. He literally had to force them out of slavery and into freedom. No matter what untoward event occurred, they blamed him. Jewish tradition even maintains that they accused him of some of the vilest crimes in the annals of mankind – not excluding adultery. He had to defend himself explicitly against implied charges of graft, bribery, and theft. This holiest of all men, this chief of all prophets, was treated with utter contempt and apparently without a shred of acknowledgement or appreciation of his unparalleled greatness. He was resented, disliked, hated. Yet as soon as he died, the Israelites experienced a sudden and radical change of heart. We are told that God Himself buried Moses and did not allow his burial place to be known – ויקבור אותו בגי... ולא ידע איש את קבורתו. Why so? Because, our Sages tell us, God was afraid that the sudden wave of admiration for Moses by the people would have evil consequences – the adulation might lead to idolatry and worship. God did not want Moses, the great teacher of monotheism and the great enemy of idolatry, to become himself an object of worship. So the feelings of the Israelites for Moses ran from one extreme to the other – from hatred to worship, from contempt to idolization. Before he died, they wished he would; after he died, they were di…

The "Rambam Award" bestowed upon me by Amit Women leaves me both grateful and humbled. One cannot but feel the weight of one's own intellectual, spiritual, and moral inadequacy when his name is linked to the immortal Rambam or Maimonides. Permit me, therefore, to try to overcome this paralyzing inferiority – at least for a short while – by using this special occasion to suggest the relevance to us of Rambam's teaching, specifically in relation to our present holiday, Hanukkah. Here is the cleaned version of the text with all odd characters removed, en dashes with spaces, and typos corrected. Words and phrasing have been preserved exactly as in the original, per your instructions.The Rambam, in his great halakhic opus, the Mishneh Torah, codifies the laws of Hanukkah. The very last of these laws is of special interest:היו לפניו נר ביתו ונר חנוכה או נר ביתו וקידוש היום נר ביתו קודם משום שלום בית... גדול השלום שכל התורה ניתנה לעשות שלום בעולם שנאמר דרכיה דרכי נועם וכל נתיבותיה שלוםRambam is telling us that if one is exceedingly poor, so that on the Friday night of Hanukkah he must choose between buying a single candle for Shabbat or a candle for Hanukkah, or between buying a Shabbat candle or wine for Kiddush on Shabbat, he must choose the Shabbat candle over all else. This is so, the Rambam decides on the basis of the relevant Talmudic text in the second chapter of tractate Shabbat, because the Shabbat candle (unlike the Hanukkah candle whose light may not be used for any illumination or other "profane" purpose) is kindled for the sake of shalom bayit, domestic peace. Without the Shabbat candles, without light in the home on Shabbat, people would fall, trip, get in each other's way, hit into each other, and tempers would flare. A dark home is a home without joy, without peace, without shalom bayit. Even though today we enjoy the kind of affluence which ensures illumination even without the Shabbat candles, their symbolism remains as powerful and relevant as ever. The…

Introd – will give שיעור on fault-line between הלכה ואגדה – in sense that [it is] largely impractical today but [has] serious theological implications [for] philosophy of Halakhah. All this, in addition to its timeliness: נח, מסי סנהדרין, ענייני שבת. (1) עד כל ימי הארץ זרע וקציר וקור וחום וקיץ וחרף ויום ולילה לא ישבותו. (2) סנהדרין דף נח/ב ונט/א – ואמר רש”ל עכו״ם ששבת חייב מיתה שנאמר ויום ולילה לא ישבותו... אמר רבינא אפי שני בשבת. וליחשבה גבי שבע מצות? כי קא חשיב שוא״ת, קום עשה לא חשיב; והא דינין קו״ע הוא וקא חשיב? קום עשה ושב אל תעשה נינהו. וא"ר יוחנן עכו״ם שעוסק בתורה חייב מיתה, שנאמר תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה – לנו מורשה ולא להם. וליחשבה גבי שבע מצות? מאן דאמר מורשה – מיגזל קא גזיל לה; מאן דאמר מאורסה – דינו כנערה המאורסה דבסקילה. מיתיבי: היה ר"מ אומר מניין שאפילו עובד כוכבים ועוסק בתורה שהוא ככהן גדול? שנאמר אשר יעשה אותם האדם וחי בהם – כהנים לוים וישראלים לא נאמר, אלא האדם – הא למדת שאפילו עכו״ם ועוסק בתורה הרי הוא ככהן גדול? התם בשבע מצות דידהו. (3) רמב"ם הלכות מלכים פ"י – עכו״ם שעסק בתורה חייב מיתה, לא יעסוק אלא בשבע מצות שלהן בלבד. וכן עכו״ם ששבת אפילו ביום מימות החול – אם עשאהו לעצמו כמו שבת – חייב מיתה. ואצ"ל אם עשה מועד לעצמו. כללו של דבר: אין מניחין אותן לחדש דת ולעשות מצות לעצמן מדעתן, אלא או יהיה גר צדק ויקבל כל המצות או יעמוד בתורתו ולא יוסיף ולא יגרע. ואם עסק בתורה או שבת או חדש דבר – מכין אותו ועונשין אותו ומודיעין אותו שהוא חייב מיתה על זה, אבל אינו נהרג. (מהרש"א: שהרמב"ם ס"ל שכל מה שאינו מזי מצוות בני נח אין נהרגין עליה). (4) היחיד המעורר תמיהה על גוי ששבת – ספר אור זרוע ח"ב הלכות ע״ש סי' א – משה שכח לומר פרשת שבת שאמר לו הקב״ה. כיון שבאו ואמרו לו שלקטו לחם משנה, נזכר משה ואמר להם [במרה] הוא אשר דבר ה'. הרי למדנו ששבת נאמרה לבני נח [שכל זמן] שלא קבלו ישראל את התורה נקראו בני נח, ונשנית בסיני כדכתיב בעשרת הדברות זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. מעתה י"ל שעכו״ם מוזהרים על השבת, דאמרינן בסנהדרין א״ר יוסי בר חנינא: כל מצוה שנאמרה לבני נח ונשנית בסיני – לזה ולזה נאמרה. וא״כ תקשי – הא בההיא שמעתא אמר רש"ל עכו״ם ששבת חייב מיתה, שנאמר יום ולילה לא ישבתו? אדרבה, מצו…