Epistle to Yemen - Class # 3

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Maimonides Class: Epistle to Yemen

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Over the course of the next few weeks we will study "The Epistle to Yemen." In the 12th century, a fanatical Muslim movement was forcing the Jews of Yemen to convert to Islam. Maimonides wrote a letter to the community addressing the following questions: (these questions are taken from Abraham Halkin's book)
.1) What was the significance of the community's suffering?
2) How should the community respond to a convert who had become a missionary for Islam and claimed that the Torah itself confirmed the prophethood of Muhammad?
3) What should they make of the claim of another individual to be the Messiah, come to rescue them from their persecutors?
4) Could the date of the Messiah's coming be predicted by astrology?

Rambam Class: The Epistle on Martyrdom

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Epistle On Martyrdom - In the 1140s, an extremist Muslim sect, the Almohads, invaded Spain and North Africa. Spanish and Moroccan Jews were forced to publicly affirm that Muhammad was the Prophet. Many Jews succumbed to the pressure. This letter deals with consequences of this tragic period of time. The study questions are below.

What was the dilemma faced by the letter writer? (1)

What was the first answer that the letter writer received (from one who thinks himself to be a sage!)? (3)

Why is Rambam so upset at the "sage" who offered the first response? What was the basic distinction that the original responder failed to make? (11)

Should one pretend to be an idolater / heretic for self-protection? (12,13)

Can one who worships idols, repent? (17)

How does rambam know that Jews who publicly converted but secretly remain Jews, will be rewarded? (20)

The Triennial Torah Cycle: Not Just for Reform Jews - Sermon Shabbat Bereishit 07

In 1924, the reform movement in America published its first Siddur, The Union Prayer Book. Amongst the many innovations in this Prayer Book was the triennial Torah Cycle. Traditonal Jews, then, now and for hundreds of years divided the Torah into 54 portions. Each portion is called a Parsha and one is read every week. This allows us to begin the Torah this week, parshat bereishit and conclude it on annually on Simchat Torah. But the reform movement decided that each parsha was too long. So they further subdivided the parshah into three, read the first third the first year, the second third – the second year and the final third – the third year. Thus, the triennial cycle. In the 60’s and 70’s a number of conservative synagogues adopted the triennial cycle and the question was brought before the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards in the early 80s. A series of response were written, most notably this scholarly 51 page responsum by Rabbi Lionel E. Moses which endorses the triennial cycle. The responsum was voted on and adopted and the Conservative Movement officially sanctioned the Triennial Cycle. To date, I am not aware of any attempt within the Orthodox community to adopt a triennial cycle.

This Shabbat is Shabbat Bereishit and we are about to begin a new cycle of the Torah reading. I therefore think is a good time to ask if our system is the best way to go. Perhaps the Triennial Cycle might be the most appropriate cycle for all synagogues, Liberal and Orthodox alike.

So first I would like to take a moment with you to brainstorm some of the pros and cons of the triennial cycle. Let us begin with the cons. What are some disadvantages of the triennial cycle?
Decrease in the amount of material learned.

1.) You cannot really celebrate Simchat Torah annually because the entire Torah has not been completed.

OK. Now let us list some of the advantages of adopting a triennial cycle.
1.) Easier to find leiners because the sections are smaller
2.) More time to teach
3.) Easier to concentrate and learn a small section than a large section

It is really this last idea that I would like to focus on. Every year during parshat Yitro when we read the 10 commandments, I always have the same question. The 10 commandments constitute the only sermon that God gave to the Jewish People. Think about it. Every Shabbat rabbis get up and give a sermon, usually about 15 minutes. Then on the high holidays for the really special sermon, most rabbis go on for ½ hour or maybe even 45 minutes. So you would think that God’s only sermon in history, the original Sermon on the Mount, would go on for hours. Yet how long was the sermon? Just 10 short statements. It only took a few minutes to deliver.

I think God was trying to teach a lesson to all future teachers and rabbis – “Brevity is of utmost importance.” (I am not sure if we got the message!) And this is the major appeal of the triennial cycle. It is short, easy to concentrate on and conducive for a serious learning experience.

The question that I have and that I think we need to ask is while the triennial cycle might be more pedagogically sound, it is authentic. Does it follow the dictates of halakha and is it authentic to our tradition?
I mentioned that the reform movement adopted by the Triennial Cycle by 1924 but in reality they were far from the first to adopt such a practice. As early as the 6th century, we find the following statement in the Babylonian Talmud (Meggilah 29b):
בני מערבא דמסקי לדאורייתא בתלת שנין.

The people of Israel would complete the Torah every three years. In other words, they had a triennial cycle.

And then in the very important but relatively unknown Gaonic work called ספר החילוקים בין אנשי מזרח ובני ארץ ישראל – The book that records difference in customs between Bavel and Eretz Yisrael, this custom is once again reported.

בני בבל עושין שמחת תורה בכל שנה ושנה...בני א"י אין עושין שמחת תורה אלא לשלש שנים ומחצה

The inhabitants of Babylonia observe Simchat Torah annually…The inhabitants of Eretz yisrael celebrate Simchat Torah only every three and a half years… (trans. Lionel Moses).

Most scholars believe that this triennial cycle was popular in the Land of Israel and Egypt from about the 3rd century through the 12th or 13th century.

Why this custom died out we do not really know. One theory has to do with the dominance that Babylonian customs had towards the end of the 1st millennium. The death of the triennial cycle might have been one casualty of this trend. A second and more compelling theory is that we have some evidence that people from Israel visited their Babylonian counterparts on Simchat Torah and perhaps, they were so inspired by the Simchat Torah celebration that they too wanted to finish the Torah and celebrate Simchat Torah annually.

And that is exactly where the historical irony lies. In an attempt to adopt the current system that we have which allows us to finish the entire Torah in a year, we end up never finishing the Torah. And that is because each Torah reading, each torah lecture is too long and people get bored, lose focus. We forgot the most basic pedagogical lesson that we should have learned from G-d’s 10 commandment sermon. Brevity is of utmost importance.

Ultimately, what happened is that because the Torah portion was so long, we forgot that it was a lecture, we forgot that the point of it was to learn. It just became part of davening. This point can be illustrated very well with another difference between the orthodox and the liberal denominations. Which way does the Baal Koreh face, towards the Aron or to the people? In many liberal synagogues the Baal Koreh faces the congregation but in Orthodox shuls the Baal Koreh faces the Aron. Which one makes more sense? If the Torah reading is davening then it makes sense to face the Ark which represents the presence of God in our shul. But if the point of Keriyat Hatorah is to learn and the Baal Koreh is teaching then it makes no sense for him to face the ark. Could you imagine if I got up to give this sermon and I gave the sermon facing the ark. It would be pretty ridiculous. Well that is sort of what happens during keriat hatorah every shabbat.

Let me put it another way. There are two things we do in shul; we pray and we read torah. The praying is our chance to speak to God and the Torah reading is our chance for God to talk to us. Every week, we get to find out what God has to say to us. So what do we do, we read the Torah facing God as if it is part of davening as if we are telling the Torah to God. But God’s reaction is, “Don’t tell it to me, I know what it says, I wrote it!!!. Tell it to the people.”

I am not suggesting that we change our custom and have the Baal Koreh read facing the congregation and I am also not suggesting that we adopt a Triennial Cycle. Either of those changes would take away the traditional character of our service. I am however suggesting that we have a paradigm shift in the way we think about Torah Reading. The torah reading should not be thought of as part of davening. It is learning. And we need to learn the Torah portion in order to get guidance for the week ahead.

I would like to conclude with a story. Reb Hershele Riminover was just 21 years old when he became the Rebbe. He was still a single man. One day, a woman in her 20s comes to see him. She says, “Rebbe, you have to help me. I am an orphan and I have not parents to find a match for me. Please help me find a shidduch.” The rebbe looks at the woman, and he studies her a little better and he says, “Let me ask you a question. Would you marry me?” The woman thinks the rebbe is making fun of her and she breaks down crying. She says, “Rebbe, I am so broken, please don’t make fun of me.” And the Rebbe says, “My question was serious. Are you from such and such town. The woman says, yes. And do you have 10 brothers and sisters. The woman says yes, but how do you know that. The rebbe says “and was your father’s name R’ Moshe? She says yes. So the rebbe asks her, do you remember a boy named Hershele. She says, “of course I remember. Hershele was the tailors son and my brothers were very wild and they would always rip their shabbos pants and we would send them to Hershele’s father. On Erev shabbos, Hershele was often come to deliver the pants. The rebbe said, I am Hershele and every time that I would go to your house I saw something so beautiful. Your mother, your father and the your 10 brothers and sisters would sit at the shabbos table and study of the parshah of the week together. I would leave your house and I would start crying because my father was a poor illiterate tailor who did not know how to learn and I so envied your family. And I would cry to God, “Please let me have a family like that. Bless me so that I can marry one of those girls.” And the rebbe looks at the orphan and he says to her, “And now, you have come. It is as if we are soulmates. Please marry me.” Of course the couple got married, they raised a beautiful family, and every shabhos they would sit as a family at the table and study the Parshah of the week.

What a beautiful way to spend a Shabbat. On this Shabbat of Bereishit, of beginning the cycle, we should make a commitment, to really learn the parshah every Friday night at the shabbos table, by ourselves, with our spouses or with our family. And if we do that and we truly make an effort to learn every parshah, then next year on Simchat Torah when we dance and sing with the Torahs, we can be happy, inspired and elated with the knowledge that we did our best to finish the entire Torah. Shabbat Shalom.

"The Heart of Stone" - Yom Kippur Sermon 2007

Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong decade. I am not going to tell you which decade I was born in because I already get enough comments questioning whether I am old enough to be a rabbi!! I will say though that sometimes I wish I grew up in is the 60’s. The 60’s with its free and open culture, its subversive music, and its strong critique of authority. So every once in a while, I go online and listen to music from the sixties. The other day, I was on a Rolling Stones website surfing through some of their song lists and I came across a song called “Heart of Stone.” I was intrigued by the title, so I clicked on the song to listen. The refrain, sung by Mick Jagger, was as follows: “You’ll never break, you’ll never break this heart of stone.”

Each and every one of us knows what it feels like to have a hard heart, a heart of stone. Sometimes the heart of stone is necessary just to keep us emotionally stable and to allow us to go on. But Yom Kippur is the one day of the year that we must not have a heart of stone.
In the next 24 hours we are going to recite the Full Vidui – the confession, 8 times. The second confession reads על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב - “God, we confess before you all of those sins we have committed against you through hardness of the heart.” On Yom Kippur, we cannot have a hard heart. We remove our hearts of stone and we try to soften our hearts. So I have two very simple questions that I would like to focus on this evening:

1.) what does it mean to have a hard heart, a heart of stone?
2.) How, on this evening, can I soften my heart?

What is a Hard Heart?
I would argue that there are actually two types of hardness of heart. The first kind of hardness of heart is what I would call “interpersonal hardness of heart.” A hardness of heart that occurs between one individual and another. This hardness of heart can be illustrated with one of my favorite stories from the Talmud.

The great Rabbi Eliezer son of Shimon, a rabbi from the 2nd century, was riding on his donkey. He was in a great mood because he had just finished an amazing session of Torah Study. He was also feeling a little conceited for he had just discovered some profound Torah insights. So he was riding on his donkey and he chances upon an exceedingly ugly man. The ugly man greets the rabbi. The rabbi is so taken aback by his ugliness. The ugly man might have smelled a bit, he might have been homeless; and the contrast between the rabbi’s dignified torah session and the ugly man’s problems was just too much for the rabbi. The rabbi responds, “How ugly are you, perhaps all the people of your city are as ugly as you?”

The ugly man, without missing a beat, responds, “I don’t know, but go tell the Craftsman Who made me, how ugly is this vessel that You made.”

The rabbi immediately realizes that he has committed a horrible sin. He begs forgiveness for his callousness, for his hardness, for his heart of stone. The ugly man eventually forgives the rabbi and the rabbi enters the study hall to share with his students the profound lesson that he has learned:
“A person should always be soft like a reed and not hard like a cedar tree,” The Rabbi desclares, “For this reason, the reed merited to have the קולמוס the quill come from it to write the Torah, Teffilin, and Mezuzot.”

We usually value the hardness and the strength of the Cedar Tree. It symbolizes strength, confidence, and the will to see something through. But this story teaches us that the softness of the reed is more valued. Flexibility, the ability to move with the wind, to adapt to ugly and difficult situations, to be soft and to be empathetic.
It is certainly a human tendency to have hardness of heart, but on Yom Kippur we say על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב - we confess before You Oh God for those sins that we have committed with a hardness of heart.

The story of the Rabbi and the Ugly Man is one type of hardness of heart, which I am calling “Interpersonal hardness of heart.” But there is a second type of hardness of heart, one that might even be more harmful on Yom Kippur. The second hardness could be called “intellectual or spiritual hardness of heart.” It is often a crime against God and it is always a crime against our own souls.

There is well know example from the Torah of someone who had this kind of hardness of heart. Do you know who I am referring to? Pharaoh. The Torah describes Pharaoh’s heart as being כבד, חזק and קשה. All of these Hebrew terms denote that Pharaoh had a hard heart, a heart of stone. When God sends Moshe and Aron to Pharaoh with the message, “let my people go”, Pharoah’s heart hardened and he did not listen. He was so entrenched in his Egyptian Pagan beliefs, that his heart was not open to hear the word of God. His heart was also not receptive to the moral-abolitionist message of Moshe. His heart was so closed that he could not see an economically viable Egypt that did not depend on the subjugation of the Jewish People.
על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב – Oh God, we confess to you those sins that, like Pharaoh, we have committed through hardness of the heart.

How can we soften our hearts and be more open to God and Jewish Wisdom on this Yom Kippur? There is a powerful story about a Young Jewish man. It was Yom Kippur 1913. The young Jewish man was about to convert to Christianity but before his conversion, he decided to attend one more Kol Nidrei Service. He chose a small orthodox synagogue in the small German town called Kassel. And something happened to him on that night. He was so moved by that service that he decided not only to remain Jewish but to dedicate his life to Jewish studies. That young man was none other then Franz Rosensweig who became not only an observant Jew but, arguably, the most important Jewish Philospher of the 20th century. His major work, “The Star of Redemption” is one of the best explanations of the three most important concepts in Judaism; Creation, Revelation, and Redemption. That Yom Kippur service in Kassel, Germany, not only changed Rosensweig, it changed the course of Jewish intellectual history forever.

The Kol Nidrei Service has the potential to transform us and to help us transform the Jewish People. But are our hearts open to the experience? Have we hardened our hearts so much, like Pharaoh, that we just say, “Ahh, it just another Yom Kippur. I had one last year, I’ll have one next year and they never really change me.”

We need to remove our hearts of stone. We need to remove the cynicism. Its not only about Yom Kippur its about the entire year. How many times do we learn about a new kind of religious experience, a new way to encounter the divine, and we approach it with cynicism. “it will never work, we say, why should I try something new?”

If we don’t soften our hearts, if we do not open ourselves up for new experiences, we will never grow. A heart of stone might be strong, fortified and protected but it cannot expand. It cannot grow. It cannot reach new heights. On this Yom Kippur, we need to promise God and ourselves that we will remain open, just like Rosensweig, to experience something that will transform ourselves and help us transform the Jewish People.
על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב – Oh God, we confess those sins that we have committed against you through hardness of the heart.

There is a beautiful chapter in the book of Ezekiel that powerfully describes the softening of the heart. Ezekiel describes a time when the Jewish People were so ensnared in their sinful ways that they couldn’t even think about doing teshuva. So God takes the first step. And God’s action is described in one of the most beautiful pesukim in Tanach:
(כו) וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב חָדָשׁ וְרוּחַ חֲדָשָׁה אֶתֵּן בְּקִרְבְּכֶם וַהֲסִרֹתִי אֶת לֵב הָאֶבֶן מִבְּשַׂרְכֶם וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב בָּשָׂר:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel Chapter 36:26

It is true that the heart of stone is strong fortified and protected, and the heart of flesh is soft and vulnerable. But we prefer the soft and vulnerable heart of flesh because the heart of stone is dead but the heart of flesh is living. With all of its weakness, it still beats. And with all of its vulnerabilities, it can still grow.

Allow me to conclude with a confession and a prayer:
על חטא שחטאתי לפניך באמוץ הלב
Oh God I confess all of those sins that I have committed against You through hardness of the heart. And I promise you that on this Yom Kippur I am going to try to soften my heart. I am going to try to remove my heart of stone that separates me from other people and the heart of stone that separates me from my own soul and from You. But I ask you Oh God, that if I cannot remove my heart of stone on this Yom Kippur, that You help me out. That You purify me, that You put a new spirit within me and remove my heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh so that I can do my service to humanity and to You.

Please join me in this confession and commit together with me for the next 24 hours to have an open heart.

Pre Yom Kippur Class: "The 13 Attributes of Mercy"

The 13 Attributes of Mercy: A-donai, A-donai E-l Rachum VeChanun....
The reciting of the Thirteen Attributes is the central part of the Yom Kippur and Selichot service. According to the Talmud, G-d promised Moshe that "whenever the Jewish People sin, let them recite the 13 attributes before Me and I will forgive them." In this class, we will study the Biblical background to the 13 attributes.

How does reciting them get us atonement?

Does it work with or even without teshuva?

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"The 25'th Hour" - Rosh Hashana Sermon 2007

This past summer I was in St. Louis and I was walking behind two friends, a man and a woman who were deeply engaged in a conversation. I was trying to mind my own business but I overheard the man ask the woman a question that literally made me stop and think about my entire life. The question was, “if there were 25 hours in a day, what would you do with the extra hour”?
I have really been meditating on this question and I think that it is a question that we should all be asking ourselves on Rosh Hashana. One of the most often used words in the Rosh Hashana liturgy is “HaYom” (HaYom Harat Olam, Hayom Ya’amid Bamishpat). I did a quick search on one of my Torah cd roms to find out how often it appears. The word “Hayom” and its derivations appears an outstanding 174 times. It is almost as if the liturgy is trying to send the message of how important a day is, how important are those 24 hours that never seem to be enough. I would therefore like to ask the question, if you had a 25 hours in the day, what would you do with the extra hour?
I have been asking my friends and family this question and it’s quite amazing to see what happens. When you first ask the question, most people respond, “If I had an extra hour in the day, I would use it to get more sleep. And that is fair answer. After all, we are a sleep-deprived country. According to recent studies more than half of Americans do not get enough sleep. But then if you ask the question again, most people conclude that they would not use the extra hour for sleep. They would use it to accomplish some goal, something that they believe to be missing in their lives but that they cannot accomplish because there are simply not enough hours in the day.
So I have been asking this question and I have been getting some really powerful answers. One of my brothers said that if he had an extra hour in a day he would make sure to exercise daily. One friend said that if she had an extra hour in a day, she would write a book. Someone else said that if he had the extra hour he would study the entire Bible. Another friend said that he would like to do some more social action and provide some support for the homeless in his area but that he can never seem to find the time. Someone else paused, began to choke up and said, “if I had an extra hour in a day, I would spend some time with my kids.
And I started thinking that if only there were 25 hours in a day, this world would be amazing.
Parents would spend more time with their kids
people of conscience would spend more time fighting homelessness, poverty and disease.
People would study more and write important books. Knowledge would spread.
And then all of this good work and amazing ideas would snowball and our world would just be a better place.
But then reality settled in and I realized that I was getting excited for no reason because we do not have 25 hours in a day and we never will. Our world will remain unredeemed.
It will always be a place where parents don’t spend enough time with their kids.
A place where people really want to study some important work but just cannot find the time.
A place where people want to do acts of kindness, but their lives are just too busy getting by.
Our world will never be redeemed because we will never have that 25th hour.
But then I realized, that perhaps I was asking the wrong question. The question to ask is not, “if you had 25 hours in a day what would you do with it,” rather the fact is that “if you had 25 hours in the day, you would probably do something important, something “life transforming” Well if you would do something so amazing with that 25th hour, why not do it now? The question that I overheard asked on that summer day in St. Louis, really asks us to figure out what we think is really important. The question assumes that we do not have enough time to do it but why do accept that assumption? If we really think it is important to become better people, to transform our lives, why can’t we make the time for it in the 24 hour day. Are we really spending all 24 hours engaged in activities that are more important than what we do in the 25th hour? If you had a 25th hour in the day, you would do important things, why not do them now?
If you had a 25th hour in the day, you might spend time learning. With that extra hour you would create a curriculum for yourself. In the first year, you would finish the entire Bible, the second year you would study then mishna, in the third you would master the Talmud. And before you know it, you would be a Scholar of Judaism. You would be able to take our people’s 3000 year wisdom tradition and apply it meaningfully to your life. If you had 25 hours in the day, you would become a Scholar of Judaism, why not do it now?
If you had 25 hours in a day, you would do more social action or chesed work. Think about the possibilities. With an extra hour in a day you can spend a year getting involved in different chesed or social action causes. You would learn what is out there in terms of needs and eventually figure out where your passion lies. Then during the second year you could identify some need that is not being met. And during the third year, you might begin a new organization or partner with an existing one to make your unique chesed or social action contribution to this world. If you had 25 hours in a day, you would make a huge social action or chesed impact, why not do it now.
If you had 25 hours in a day, you might make exercise a priority. We are commanded by our Torah ונשמרתם מאד לנפשתיכם (ViNishmartem Me’od LeNafshoteichem). We are obligated to take care of our health. Yet so many of us cannot seem to find the time. Is that extra hour in the office really more important that our health? Jewish tradition tells us that we do not even own our bodies. They belong to God and they have just been entrusted to us. We owe to God, to ourselves and to our children who count on us so much, to be healthy. If you had 25 hours in the day, you would do more exercise, why not do it now?
If you had 25 hours in the day, you would spend more time with your children. If we take a step back and look critically at our culture of work, work, work; it is so absurd. We work so hard, so many hours, so we could provide the good life for our children. All parents want to take their kids on nice vacations. So we work so hard and never see our kids for 50 weeks of the year and never see our children, so that we can take them on a nice vacation the other 2 weeks. We also want to provide them with a nice house nice things, So we work hard. but then we are never home to spend time with them in that house or to play together with them with those things. I know it is difficult and I am not coming from a place of judgment. But I think we need to reorient ourselves and ask the question. If you had 25 hours in the day, you would transform your family life, why not do it now.
Friends: I believe that we can transform and redeem this world even without the 25th hour. We all know Herzl’s most famous quote: אם תרצו אין זו אגדה – if you will it, its not just a dream. If we will it, we can make it happen. We can do some serious reflection and introspection into the way we spend the 24 hours of our days and I am confident that we can come up with an hour or even a half an hour to become healthier, to learn more, to spend more time with our families.
Perhaps some of you have been inspired by what I have said today. Maybe some of you are ready to make a mental commitment to do more exercise, or to spend more time with your family or another personal commitment. The problem is that research shows that mental commitments don’t really work. I don’t remember the exact statistics but I once heard that when you make a mental commitment there is only about a 10% chance that you will actually follow through. However, if you take that mental commitment and verbally articulate it even to yourself, the chance of follow through goes up 10%. And then If you report your commitment to another human being, your chance of follow through goes up another 10%. Finally if you write your commitment down, your chance of follow through goes up yet another 10%. So I ask you to find a moment before you leave shul today, to verbally proclaim you commitment, at least to yourself. And then sometime after davening but before this day is over, report your commitment to a friend. Finally, after shabbat is over tomorrow night, and we are allowed to write again, please write down your commitment and keep it in a prominent place. You might want to keep it on your office desk, or in your wallet, or your screen saver. If we do not remind ourselves about our commitments, we will not remain committed.
Rosh Hashana is the birthday of the world. It is a day of renewal; a day of hope. We can change ourselves. We can redeem the world. The choice is ours. If we had 25 hours in the day, we would transform our lives and our world, well let us begin to do it now.

Rosh Hashana: To Tremble or to Dance?

"Rosh Hashana: To Dance or to Tremble?" The class will analyze the nature of the day. Should we be be rejoicing on rosh hashana or should we be nervous about the impending judgment? This question obviously has huge ramifications on the tone of prayer. Should the prayer be joyful (with clapping and singing) or should it be solemn and subdued?

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Rambam Class: Why Celebrate the Jewish Holidays?

The next class will focus on the holidays. The central question asked about each holiday is "what is its function." This is a very important question for the Rambam because every mitzvah needs to be logical. The most interesting section of this chapter is a tangential passage (paragraph #11) that deals with the nature of midrash (Did the rabbis really believe that their interpretations of Bible were "correct.") Some guiding questions are below. After each question, I have noted the paragraph number where you can find the answer to that particular question.

1. Shabbat: What is the practical function of shabbat? What is the spiritual/intellectual function of shabbat? (1)
2. Yom Kippur: What is the function of the day? Why do we abstain from bodily pleasures on Yom Kippur? (2)
3. What is the primary function of the festivals? (3)
4. Why is Passover 7 days? (4)
5. If Shavuot is only a day, why isn't Passover also only 1 day? (5)
6. Why, according to Aristotle, would it make sense for Sukkot to take place right after the harvest? (7)
7. What other reason can account for Sukkot taking place at that time? (8)
8. What opinions and moral qualities are inculcated in us through the observance of Sukkot and Passover? (9)
9. How does the rambam define "midrash"? What were the two going theories of midrash that were rejected by the Rambam? (11)
10. Why do we take the 4 species (lulav, etrog, Hadasim and aravot) on Sukkot? (12)

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Rambam Class: Forbidden Sex and Circumcision

Preparation for this Class:
This class will continue with a focus on the Rambam's theory of forbidden sexual activity. The text is the Guide for the Perplexed: Section III chapter 49 (The link to the text is at the bottom of the post). Read from paragraph 13 to the end of the chapter. Below are some study questions. After each question, I will list the paragraph number where you can find the answer.

1. What is the purpose of circumcision? (the men are not going to be too happy with this one!!) (13 - 15)
2. Why is circumcision done during childhood? (16)
3. How does halakha define a "bastard"?
4. Why is a bastard not allowed to marry other jews? (19)
5. How does rambam account for the fact that he cannot give a reason for every single mitzvah? (21)

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