BT Blues

We were taught not to ask questions, to feel shame in having a question. He taught his talmidim that most questions beginning with ‘Why?’ (unless they are in the form ‘Why does Rashi or Tosafos say this?’) are more likely than not to be products of the yetzer designed to deflect from a full Torah commitment. In question and answer sessions, he refused to answer as many questions as he was asked. First the questioner had to acknowledge what was really bothering him and how the information sought was relevant to his life.  Those words are from an article written about the dean about one of the BT schools after he passed away. Strangely, it is meant as praise, but to me and probably to most people, it sounds more like an indictment. You can hear how this man put people on trial for having a question.  The Torah is full of laws that can seem very strange to people in our era or actually any era. Not only that, but Torah literature intentionally phrases many ideas in a strange way ...

by Noel Gallagher Slip inside the eye of your mind Don't you know you might find A better place to play? You said that you'd never been But all the things that you've seen Slowly fade away So I start a revolution from my bed 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head Step outside, summertime's in bloom Stand up beside the fireplace Take that look from off your face You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out And so, Sally can wait She knows it's too late as we're walking on by Her soul slides away But don't look back in anger, I heard you say Take me to the place where you go Where nobody knows if it's night or day Please don't put your life in the hands Of a rock 'n' roll band Who'll throw it all away I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head Step outside, 'cause summertime's in bloom Stand up beside the fireplace Take that look from off your face 'Cause you ain...

  I have been asked about Machon Shlomo. First I'd like to address the myth. Until you get that out of the way, you can't have a normal conversation about the place. The Myth The myth is that it's the "Ivy League yeshiva" for the "best and the brightest." Those words are from their website, so we see the origin of the myth. Here's the full quote: "In a little over ten years, Machon Shlomo became known as the 'Ivy League' yeshiva, a place for the best and brightest to come and rediscover the treasures of their millennia-old heritage." ( https://machonshlomo.org/history/our-history/ ) I feel a little bad addressing this, but people are making life altering decisions based on this kind of talk. We are so conditioned from public school to revere the Ivies, that as soon as we hear the word Ivy we leap without looking. So I believe it has to be addressed.  This Ivy League yeshiva stuff is fantasy for all kinds of reasons. Ivy League schoo...