העורך Editor

I was once present at a Friday night meal where I witnessed a lesson in chinuch. The main course had just been served and the children were enjoying their roast chicken. Suddenly the father called out, “Stop eating!” He had noticed that a bone seemed deformed, as if it had broken before the bird had been slaughtered. “We have to go and ask the Rav if this is kosher.” “But Tatty,” pleaded one of the children, “these she’eilos usually end up being okay. Can’t we carry on eating meanwhile? The chicken will get cold by the time you come back.”

The father pulled his chair back and said as follows: “Baruch Hashem, we keep a kosher home. Everything we eat is of the highest standards of kashrus. It doesn’t take us much of an effort. All we have to do is order the right hechsher. Can we really say we deserve great credit for eating kosher? Tonight, Hashem has given us an opportunity to demonstrate that we really are concerned to keep His will – by refraining from eating treif meat, even if it is inconvenient for us. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. How often do we have a chance to actually put aside our own interests for the sake of kashrus? Even if the Rav hopefully will tell us that the chicken is kosher, we will have gained a demonstration that every time we eat a Bedatz chicken, it’s because Hashem has told us to.” The Rav lived near by and within a quarter of an hour, we resumed eating our lukewarm chicken, warmed by the knowledge that we had declared our allegiance.

• Excerpted from “When the Torah Moves (Behaaloscha)” by Rav Avraham Chaim Carmell

An excerpt from Avraham Ben Yehuda here:

Question: The Chassidim say the Maggid paskened they can daven after chatsot is that lechatchila or bediavad?

Answer: The halacha as brought by the R’ma in Orah Hayim 89 is that it is forbidden to pray the morning service after noon, while the unstated opinion in disagreement would feel that shaharith in the afternoon would not count as anything. See the details here. Think about it. If one prays after noon, that’s minha, not shaharith. Real hasidim pray the morning service at sunrise.

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Reprinted with permission.

אודות מדרשת הארץ ומצוותיה:

מדרשת הארץ ומצוותיה (ע”ר) הוקמה בשנת 1989 ע”ש צבי ובלומה לנדאו, וממוקמת בקיבוץ חפץ חיים.

אנו מציעים מגוון רחב של סיורים לימודיים בנושאים תורניים וחקלאיים.

התכניות מועברות בצורה חווייתית ומוחשית המאפשרת לכל קבוצת מבקרים התנסות חד פעמית ובלתי נשכחת.

בין הסיורים התורניים ניתן למצוא: חגיגת חומש, מסיבת סידור,  סיור בתוך דגם ענק של המשכן וכליו, תכנית בני ובנות מצווה ועוד.

בין הסיורים החקלאיים ניתן למצוא (בעונה): קטיף תפוזים, הפקת שמן זית, קציר חיטים ועוד.

מטרת המדרשה היא להעלות את המודעות למצוות היהדות בכלל והארץ בפרט, ולהגיש למבקרים ידע חשוב זה בכלים מגוונים וחווייתיים עד כמה שניתן.

קהל היעד שלנו הוא רחב, והתכניות מותאמות לפי גיל:

• מוסדות לימוד בגילאי גן-יסודי

• קבוצות מאורגנות מהארץ והתפוצות

• השתלמויות מורים למקצועות הרלוונטיים

עד היום ביקרו במדרשה למעלה מחצי מיליון מבקרים מכל הגילאים ומכל גווני האוכלוסייה.

                                                                                                                                 נשמח לראותכם!

Excerpted from here:

What Lithuanian yeshivas do or say makes a difference because they are the gold standard by which everything else is measured. Why do some groups learn? They have to show “we learn Torah too!”  Even Reform and Conservative have to measure themselves by means of the standard set by the Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews). If the Litvaks think something is kosher, that makes it kosher by definition. If they think it is not it makes it not kosher – by definition. Everything has to get past that hurdle. Nothing and no one is exempt, even if they don’t like it. Especially if they don’t like it.

You want to claim something is Jewish? You say the Chazon Ish said it was OK! Or Reb Moshe. Or Reb Aaron Kotler. You don’t say “They learn it in a Breslov yeshiva.” You don’t say some Reform Rabbi says it is OK.

For example when the Na Nach Breslov Chasidim want to show that the “petek” (letter that Reb Odesser thought he received from Reb Nachman) is kosher they go around plastering up copies of the letter of approval (Haskama) that Reb Moshe Feinstein gave to Reb Odesser. Just walk into the synagogue of Reb Nachman in Uman and you will find copies of Reb Moshe’s letter plastered all over the place–and most importantly right in the official notices section. That means if you want to say something is kosher you have to get approval of a Litvak Gadol. Without that nothing can even start.

No one says Reb Moshe is kosher because Breslov learns his books. If you want to say a person in Breslov like Rav Cheshin knows how to learn you say he learns at the Mir yeshiva. You don’t say someone knows how to learn because they learn in Breslov.