אנעים זמירות

Note the constant theme in אנעים זמירות of the head and crown:

• וּשְׂעַר רֹאשְׁךָ בְּשֵׂיבָה וְשַׁחֲרוּת
• חָבַשׁ כּוֹבַע יְשׁוּעָה בְּרֹאשׁוֹ
• טַלְלֵי אוֹרוֹת רֹאשׁוֹ נִמְלָא
• לַעֲטֶרֶת צְבִי
• כֶּתֶם טָהוֹר פָּז דְּמוּת רֹאשׁוֹ, וְחַק עַל מֵצַח כְּבוֹד שֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ
• אֻמָּתוֹ לוֹ עִטְּרָה עֲטָרָה
• רֹאשׁ דְּבָרְךָ אֱמֶת קוֹרֵא מֵרֹאשׁ
• ועוד

Consider then the words of R' Chaim Vital that the tefillah of Musaf Shabbat is an aliyah of זעיר אנפין to כחב"ד of אבא ואמא. In which case it being more proper to sing this song after the tefillah of Mussaf and not as per some congregations that sing it immediately after shabbat shachris.

Birkat HaGomel

This blog has had quite a history to it -- many posts, many thoughts, many ramblings, and many rants. I would imagine the casual reader stumbling onto this blog would think of me as anything ranging from a peculiar yeshiva guy with a lot of creative torah thoughts  to a twisted and embittered crotchety old man with  a lot of pessimism and negativity.

I remember once learning with an old friend -- i think it was yerushalmi bikurim but i could be wrong -- how the main function of ברכת הגומל is in expressing one's thanks in public forum thereby making a statement of declaration to the tzibur as to the particular goodness that שמים had bestowed upon him. I remember us asking at the time how then if that's the case could you ever be יוצא the חיוב of ברכת הגומל by answering אמן since there's no way to distinguish the amen of the בר-חיוב (who needs to demonstrate thanks for the kindness done to him) from the regular people in the crowd (who had not gone through any such experience for which they were obligated to be מברך on)... I never got an answer to that...

In any event, it behooves me to make my statement of thanks to all the goodness that הקב"ה has given to me. After all has been said and done, after all the bitter years of difficulty, frustation -- pain, after all the different lives i've lived, and after all the various rants I've given  ---- to be be given the opportunity to get married to a woman kind enough to be my wife and to be blessed with a daughter who brings such joy and hope to my heart -- It behooves me to tell the world my thanks to my Creator for the kindness he has bestowed upon me and blessed me with; it behooves me to let the world know -- to let all those going through their own personal dark years of hell know -- that there can be Hope, there can be an end to the suffering, an answering to their tears and wimpers.

When does it come -- I do not  know unfortunately. To whom does it come -- I also sadly do not know the answer to that. But I'm here to say that it does happen -- that atleast i know, and i'd like to think it would comfort the heart of those who might think otherwise, that it can equally someday happen for them.

I thereby call her אלי-ענה תקוה. May there be hope for us all in a brighter future ahead. Amen.

Angry Man or a Man Who Is Angry?

Very interesting Sifra I came across (quoted below).

[יב] "וישמע משה וייטב בעיניו" -- הודה מיד ולא בוש לאמר "לא שמעתי".

אמר רבי יהודה, חנניה בן יהודה היה דורש כל ימיו:  קשה הקפדה שגרמה לו למשה לטעות.

אחר מיתתו הריני משיב על דבריו:  ומי גרם לו שהקפיד?! אלא שטעה!

It's an interesting way of looking at anger (הקפדה). Chananya sees Moshe's הקפדה as stemming from an innate angry disposition, an instinctive response of opposing and lashing out -- hence being led to make a mistake in judgement. An "angry man".

R' Yehuda on the other hand sees Moshe's reponse as a resultant by-product of a mistake in judgement. Because I deem this is the way reality ought to be  -- I therefore am upset at the fact that it's not. A perfectly valid response -- if only you were right in your thinking. If only your turth was aligned with the Truth that reality ought to be that way. In this particular case it was not and hence in this particular case he was wrong. But Moshe's being a קפדן here then is only tangential to the issue. It's a byproduct of a mistake in comprehension, not a cause. A man who happens  to be angry.

Etymology - Shidduch - שידוך

Interesting to me. The word shidduch (שידוך) coming from the meaning of serenity, tranquility, contentment, etc. See the הגהה in שלחן ערוך יורה דעה רכח סעיף מג.

תורת העולה - צע"ג

Recently through the work I do on wikisource I revisited an issue that I once had --and it seems to be just as disappointing now as it was then.

The רמ"א in תורת העולה writes in (פרק ח):

וכתב הרמב"ם ( פ"ה מהל' בהב"ח ה"ז ) ארבע לשכות היו באמצע מקצעותיה של ארבעים וארבע אמה‏^[1] ..., עד כאן לשונו. ואלו הם הלשכות שביארנו. והיה ארכן ארבעים וארבע אמה שמדת ארבעים וארבע הוא מורה על מספר ארבעים וארבע שהוא מספר ח"י יהו"ה. והעניין שהשם זה הוא חי וממציא כל הנמצאים, לכן בא הרמז כי אף שהשכל הפועל הוא סבה קרובה לאלו המדרגות, מכל מקום גם הוא תולה במי שאמר והיה העולם והוא מדת ארבעים וארבע

The problem being that the גירסא (in the Rambam and in the mishna Midot) is of 40 amot each and not 44. The problem not being that the רמ"א happened to have a mistaken version or simply made a mistake while writing things from memory -- the problem being to me that a גדול ישראל ended up making the mistake, writing on it an entire drush and gematria!!, and bringing the sefer to print. You can't then help but being skeptical as to how much more of the sefer is simly ad hoc drush that was made to "fit-in" to the text. It casts a bad light on the entire sefer as a whole in my opinion (you can argue otherwise though).

( I noted this problem in a footnote on wikisource just now... maybe someone will have a resolution to this issue ).

סנדלר - Cinderella

Just thought it interesting, the close spelling of Cinderella to the hebrew word for shoe and shoesmith -- סנדל וסנדלר, respectively. Cinderella being a story about shoes.

Wonder if that was at all a factor in the person who created the Cinderella story. Probably not though since according to Wikipedia the earlier versions of the story went by different names not very similar to the word 'Cinderella'.