After 1500 years, an index for the Talmud

Check out this great article about a lawyer who just wrote his own index to the Talmud: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/nyregion/an-index-for-the-talmud-after-1500-years.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Are Any Made out of Clay?

Check this out - as extensive a dreidel collection as I can imagine.

Bye-Bye Birdie

In honor of the Ma'ayanot musical production of Bye-Bye Birdie, here is a review of the laws of שילוח הקן.  Hope everyone enjoyed the show.

Jealousy & Hatred - or the Other Way Around

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One more question on Vayeshev before we move forward:  I found it surprising that as Yosef was getting the כתונת פסים and relaying his dreams to his brothers the Torah tells us repeatedly that they hated him and hated him more and more.  Only at the end of the story, after he is rebuked by Yaakov does it say that the brothers were jealous of him.  Wouldn't you think that the emotions would go in the reverse, that jealousy would lead to the hatred?  Any thoughts?  Guidance team?

My Brothers do I Seek

One of the enduring questions which arises when learning about Yosef’s sale to Mitzrayim, and his rise to power within the Egyptian government, is his lack of communication with his father. Why didn’t he use his position and considerable influence to contact his father at all during the 22 years they were separated? Would it have been too much to let him know that he was alive and well? How hard would it have been for Yosef to send a messenger with the good news to his father, after all, weren’t there caravans and merchants travelling back and forth between Mitzrayim and Cana’an all the time?

Rav Yoel Bin-Nun offers a well-known, and somewhat controversial, response to this problem, http://www.vbm-torah.org/parsha.61/11vayiga.htm. He suggests that the reason Yosef did not reach out to his father was because he genuinely thought that his father was in on it with his brothers and that Yaakov gave the go ahead to have him exiled. Yosef had no idea that his brothers dipped his coat in blood and lied to their father about it; after all, how could he have known? As a result, he reached the only conclusion that made any sense to him- my father hates me too! All those years that Yaakov presumed Yosef was dead, suggests Rav Bin-Nun, Yosef was wondering why his father had not contacted him. (Readers might be interested in reading Rav Ya’akov Medan’s critique of Rav Bin-Nun’s thesis here, http://www.vbm-torah.org/parsha.61/12vayechi.htm).

If Yosef’s brothers were able to convince their father to exile Yosef, it wouldn’t have been the first time a member of his family had done such a thing, and Yosef knew that. After all, didn’t Sarah convince Avraham to get rid of Yishmael? Didn’t Rivka force Yitzchak’s hand into choosing Yaakov over Eisav? They all acted l’sheim shomayim thought Yosef- What if Leah and my brothers convinced my father that getting rid of me was also the right thing to do?

Perhaps the strongest argument for this hypothesis, argues Rav Bin-Nun, is the fact that Yaakov sent Yosef to check up (spy) on his brothers in Shechem. Why would Yaakov do such a thing? Didn’t he know that the brothers would not take kindly to Yosef checking up on them? Whatever one’s feeling is about Rav Bin-Nun’s supposition, if you look at the beginning of this week’s parsha you have to admit that Yaakov’s behavior is difficult to explain: Yaakov sends Yosef to Shechem on the pretext that his brothers needed to be watched over, (37:12-14 and Rashi on 37:12). We are told that Yosef ‘s brothers hated him (37:4,8), that they were jealous of him (37:11), and that he had a habit of reporting on their indiscretions to their father (37:2). What good could Yaakov possibly have thought would come from sending Yosef? Did Yaakov send Yosef because he wanted there to be a confrontation between Yosef and his brothers?

It is interesting to note, that in possuk 37:2, we are told that Yosef would bring evil reports back to his father about his brothers and then immediately following this, in 37:3, it say “ ‘v’Yisrael,’ And Yisrael loved Yosef more than all his sons since he was his ben-zekunim…” The word “v’Yisrael” implies that there might be a connection between Yaakov’s love for Yosef and the evil reports he brought back to his father. But why would this be? Was it perhaps for the same reason he sent him to look after them in the pasture on that fateful day?

Raw Vayeshev Thoughts

Today at Parsha Club we discussed a couple of semi-isolated points that I'm hoping will one day become the building blocks of an actual idea, but I'll share them here & see if any of you can help put together the puzzle.

• Note that Yosef's dreams are actually the two ends of his father Yaakov's dream - or that Yaakov's ladder is the bridge between Yosef's two dreams - one about the land and the other about the sky.  In a bizarre twist, about 12 hours after I shared this with my chavruta trying to pick his brain on the subject, he e-mailed me this article by Rabbi Schachter which quoted Rav Aharon Soloveitchik pointing this out and defending his brother, the Rav.  Baruch shkivanti, at least a bit.
• The two dreams also seem to almost parallel the metaphors that Hashem used to promise Avraham that he would grow to be a great nation - as numerous as the sand and the stars.  Again we see the ground and the constellation, but sand is not grain and Yosef's dream expanded to include the sun and moon too.
• Chani Dubin had an interesting and promising thought.  The original vision of the sand and stars were an egalitarian model - almost Korach-esque - of כל העדה כולם קדושים.  Yosef's dreams, in the first generation where this actually became relevant with multiple members of the covenant, illustrates that among the people there needs to be leadership.  This is a chiddush to the brothers, and a potentially offensive one.  Until now they may have thought that they would live as a nation of equals.  If so the dreams set off the chain of events where the brothers vying for the leadership they now know is out there make mistakes that end up doing great damage to themselves and others.
• This wouldn't explain the shift from sand to wheat, except for the logistical problem of having stalks of grain bow.
• My preliminary thought is a lot less ambitious.  Maybe Yosef's dreams took the general symbols of the previous ברכות and transformed them from empty symbolic objects like sand and stars into items of great practical utility like food (wheat), heat and light (the sun).  This ability to draw productivity from what had been mere theory or art is what has everyone else bowing to him.

I know that there isn't much here yet, but that's where you come in.  Thoughts?

A Real Kiddush Hashem

Check this out in the NYT.

Mishmover Schedule

5:30-6:15:        Choice of Vayishlach Shiur:

-A Chasidic Perspective with Rabbi Prince (BK)

-“Everything is Dust in the Wind”

                        -A Modern Approach with Rabbi Besser (MPR)

                                    -“What’s Wrong with Reuven? What’s the Deal with Dina?”

6:15-6:45:        Dinner (MPR)

6:45-8:00:      Challah Making & a Shiur on Hafrashat Challah with Mrs. Schiowitz (MPR)

7:15-7:45:        Chesed Project (MPR-While the dough rises)     

8:00-9:00:      Shiur with Rabbi Eitan Mayer (Menahel Chinuchi, Midreshet Moriah) (BK)  - “Is the Oral Torah Really From Sinai?”

OR:

8:00-9:00:      Material Girls:  An Interactive Demonstration on Sha’atnez

-with Josh Rossman (MPR)

9:00-10:00:     Panel Q&A Discussion with Rabbi Blanchard, Rabbi Cohen, Mrs. Kahan, Rabbi Marder,Rabbi Schiowitz & Rabbi Wolff (BK)

10:00-10:45:    Semi-Formal Schmoozes:

            -Being and Becoming a Yoetzet Halacha            

-With Mrs. Samuels  (MPR-couches)

-If Israel is so Important, What are we Doing Here?

–With Ms. Gordon & Mrs. Cohen (107)

            -The Gilad Shalit Deal

                        -With Rabbi Prince & Rabbi Goldstein (BK)

            -Being Modern Orthodox: Not as Easy as it Looks

                        -With Rabbi Besser (Beit Midrash)

10:45-11:00:     Ice Cream Party – (MPR)

11:00-12:00:     Senior Chaburot – Titles to come

12:00-1:00:      Ms. F’s Famous Midnight Shiur (127)

1:00:    Getting Ready for Bed

            -Allison Alt’s Skype Shiur: Live From the Holy Land (127)

            -Hockey

2:00:    Layla Tov - Curfew

Making Us Proud

A member of the Maayanot family is featured in the Yeshiva University alumni newsletter.  It's a nice write-up, yasher koach.

Parsha Questions - Vayishlach

This Parsha is so packed it's hard to know where to start.

• Take a look at the dialogue between Yaakov and Esav.  What word they seem to be negotiating over?  How does Rashi translate that word?  Is that how you would have translated it?  What happens to that word in the end of the story?  Is that possible?
• The story of Yaakov and Esav's encounter is famously used as a model for dealing with the non-Jewish world in any formal capacity.  Jewish leaders who would go deal with the government or other powerful individuals would review this passage.  In fact, there is a custom to read it every מוצאי שבת to help us deal with the cold reality of חול.  Is this entire line of tradition still relevant in modern day America?  Is there an עשו in our lives?
• The גמרא says that anyone who claims that ראובן sinned is a טועה - mistaken.  This implies that he did not do what the פסוק says he did (וישכב ראובן את בלהה פלגש אביו).  If so, why does the Torah say that he did?

Just Kidding!

So remember when we said that Mishmover was being postponed for reasons of Awesomeness Maximization?  Well, it's not.  We determined that the way to truly maximize its awesomeness is to keep it where it was, December 8 - one week from tonight!  So start get excited now, and bring in the money for the PJ flannels.