Tonight, in the neighborhood in which I now live, there will be bonfires to celebrate the Hilula Derashbi.  As children, we never heard about the Rabi Shimon element of Lag BeOmer. It was all about the talmidei Rabi Akiva and the bow & arrow games. Today ideas of kabbalah and chasidus have become more widely known and as we will become […]

See the picture above. This was Dad’s tefillin bag in an era when they looked like this. Because we share initials, I have begun using it for now.  On the recent Chol Hamo’ed, I davened in a local Brooklyn shul that davens Nusach Aschkenaz (Artscroll) and the Baal Tefilla wars Tefillin. I spent most of Davening counting the percentage of Tefillin wearers ad […]

Elsewhere, we have written extensively about the implications of the closing phrase of the kedushas hayom within the Shabbos Amida.  Specifically, the minhag is described as that of Frankfurt: ” Veyismechu vecho ohavei shimecha”. The firm halachic foundation and history that this nusach stands on was covered in the very first volume of Rabbi Hamburger’s […]

  Recently, I had the great pleasure of reading an anthology of the smaller works of the famed popular historian, Mr. Hermann Schwab z’l. “Hermann Schwab. Historian of German Jewry: His Life and Shorter Works” is distributed by Feldheim Books. For full disclosure, I will mention that for a long time I have had a […]

I have been going through the book “The Shofar”, by our Kehilla’s ba’al toke’a, Rabbi Bentzion Ettlinger. It is a good read and a carefully written kuntres, as he describes it within. It is also comprehensive, and thorough, and bears the mark of years of experience. (I found the discussion about eating before Tekios most fascinating.) He does mention our minhogim, […]

If you are an expatriate Washington Heights person, like me, the times that you can most easily come for a visit are Tisha B’Av, Hoshana Raba, and Chanukah. These are weekday occasions.  In fact, there are several regulars that come only at these times.  While all the tefilos and yomim tovim are special in our tradition, I have long ago made peace […]

  In American Yeshivah circles it is common for the individual to say “Yomar Na Yisroel/Beis Aharon/Yirei Hashem” and not to rely on the chazan. This is the practice described in Mishnah Berura citing Magen Avraham, O.Ch. 422. The Tur, however describes the Hallel as written in the siddur, where the Khal replies Hodu Lashem, and remain quiet for […]

Yesterday I encountered a comfortably familiar explanation of Rashi in Sukkah 51b. In explaining what a “bimah” is, Rashi calls it an “almemar“. The commentary called “Hametargem”  (printed in the rear of every Vilna Shas) explains that this is “an old word used in all places of Aschkenaz, and has roots in the Arabic”. To my […]

This year Rav Schwab’s Yahrzeit falls out on Purim Katan, as it was the year he passed away. I want to share a few ideas, memories, and teachings of the Rav zt’l that come to mind today. Since I was a young boy my father z’l would bring me to the Mishna Berurah shiur of the Rav on Shabbos afternoons. I was […]

A friend alerted me to a post on the website forum.otzar.net that was written this week. I have it translated below and a link to the recording of a sweet and excellently executed documentation of this tune! Enjoy and have a happy Chanukah. Maoz Tzur – an ancient melody for the holy genius Rabbi Yaakov […]