KMTT - the Torah Podcast

Mental Health and Halacha - What Kinds of She'elot Arise, special sicha for the Overseas Students, with Rav Yoni Rosensweig Rabbi of the Netzach Menashe community of Beit Shemesh, and founder of Maaglei Nefesh, a center for halacha, community and mental health. Recently published a book in hebrew, נפשי בשאלתי - הלכות בריאות הנפש, Koren Publishers.

Rabbenu Yonah's Four Kitot: How Not to Lose the Divine Presence #2 by Rav Gidon Rothstein This is Week Two, Defining a Letz. What's a Letz? Defining the category from its five types, seeing what all leitzim share.

Lekh Lekha | Vayikra BeShem Hashem: Avraham's Altars Upon his arrival in the Land, Avra(ha)m builds a מזבח; he then builds another one where he sets up his camp and there, he "calls out Hashem's Name"; he sets up another מזבח when he settles in חברון and then, again, calls out in Hashem's name at Beer Sheva, without building a מזבח. How are we to understand the purpose of these altars - which are inherently meant for offerings? We also note that each of these acts is followed by a challenge, a calamity or a threat - until he builds his final מזבח, atop Har haMoriah, and he offers up an animal (in lieu of his son) as the denouement of the Akeida. We analyze these passages in their context and then propose an explanation for Avraham's activity, as well as proposing a reason for the Akeida itself. Source sheet >>

BRAND NEW SERIES, Rabbenu Yonah's Four Kitot - How Not to Lose the Divine Presence by Rav Gidon Rothstein This is Week One, The Four Groups who do not Greet the Divine. This shiur will lay out the broad parameters of four groups the Gemara says will not merit the Divine Presence, and the meaning of that consequence.

Noach | The Rainbow and the Covenant, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom Who are the parties to the first Berit, symbolized by the rainbow? The first ברית made in the Tanakh is between God and...? (People? Animals? The Earth?) in the immediate aftermath of the cataclysmic flood. The rainbow is presented as the "sign of the Berit", which is there so that God will "remember" His commitment to never again destroy the world or its inhabitants. Besides the obvious theological challenges inherent in this presentation, it is also unclear what the role of this covenant is and who the two "sides" of the agreement are and what obligations they have towards each other. We propose that this original Berit be seen through the eyes of the "original audience" of Sefer Bereishit, the nation standing at Sinai, who are entering an eternal covenant with HaKadosh Barukh Hu.

Bereishit | Unravelling a Bereishit Enigma, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom The story of Kayin's descendants concludes with a return to Adam and to the "replacement" son that he had, Sheth and his son, Enosh. The story concludes with a puzzling phrase, אז הוחל לקרא בשם השם, a phrase which has been interpreted in numerous ways, including interpretations which are seemingly diametric opposites of each other. Why is this phrase so confusing and how does it lead to so many different possibilities? We survey the exegetical literature from the 3rd c. BCE through the 19th century CE - and then propose a panoramic approach to the story which puts this verse in a multi-faceted light which allows for this multiplicity of meanings, not as alternative takes but rather as complementary contributions to the larger picture. Source sheet >>

Six Shifts in the "History" of Torah, by Rav Moshe Taragain Shiur given Leil Hoshana Rabba 5783, at Heichal Shlomo, Jerusalem Simchat Torah is a human invention. Source sheet >>

Sukkah Zu al Shum Mah? by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom The Torah commands us to live in Sukkot in order "that your generations know that I made/allowed/enabled (?) Bnei Yisrael to dwell in Sukkot as I took them out of Egypt". As far back as the Tannaitic era, there is an array of opinions as to the referent "Sukkot". Were they clouds of glory, booths in the desert - or the name of a place? The various opinions of Haza"l and the Rishonim are assayed with some surprising approaches shared. Source sheet >>

The Gates of Ne'ila - Harav Amital's Revolutionary Idea, by Rav Moshe Taragin

ובכן תן פחדך - The Unusual Additions to the Third Berakha on Yamim Noraim, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom There are three (or four, or five) paragraphs which are added to every Tefilla on Rosh Hashana and Yom haKippurim during the third berakha -"Kedushat haShem". Each paragraph begins with the word "Uvekhen" and anticipate an epoch when the whole world will recognize God as the Master of the World and will subjugate themselves to Him. It will be a day of great rejoicing for the righteous - and a complete "shutdown" of the wicked. Where do these paragraphs come from? Why were there some customs to only add them on Rosh Hashana? Why do some communities (e.g. the Yemenite Baladi) add them in every Tefilla during Aseret Yemei Teshuva? We explore these issues and more in this shiur, in preparation for the Yamim Noraim. Source sheet >>