Rephael Cattan

We are beginning siman 19, which discusses spending money on mitzvos. The Chayei Adam writes that a person must perform a mitzvah even if the mitzvah will cost a large portion of what they own. The Chayei Adam starts by saying that one must spend up to one tenth of their money for a mitzvah, […]

 We are continuing in siman 18, where the Chayei Adam discusses performing mitzvos out of yirah. We will clarify a few points. The concept of yirah is the idea of holding back. When one is in awe, they recognize their limitations, so they pull back. The Maharal points out that we use the phrases ahavas

 We are beginning siman 18, which discusses doing mitzvos out of yirah. The Chayei Adam writes that a person should perform mitzvos out of yirah. Even mitzvos which supposedly make sense logically should be performed out of yirah and not due to a person’s logical conclusions. A person should not perform a mitzvah or refrain

 We are continuing in siman 17, which discusses the concept of doing mitzvos out of ahavas Hashem.   The MIshnah in Pirkei Avos (1:3) teaches us that a person should not serve Hashem for reward, but out of love for Hashem. If a person serves Hashem for the purpose of the reward, they have still fulfilled

  We are beginning siman 17, where the Chayei Adam discusses performing mitzvos out of ahavas Hashem. The Chayei Adam writes that a person should perform mitzvos due to their love of Hashem, and not because of any direction or benefit. In the same way that in the relationship between a parent and child, or

We are beginning siman 16. In siman 15, we discussed the level of responsibility one has to a mitzvah prior to the mitzvah, such as taking tallis and tefillin on a trip even if the trip is not expected to require it. We will discuss other applications of this idea in siman 19, and how

 We are beginning siman 15. The Chayei Adam discusses the concept of anticipating and waiting for the opportunity to perform a mitzvah. Included in this concept is the idea of a person trying to bring themselves to become chayav to perform a mitzvah.  The Chayei Adam writes that a person should anticipate the opportunities to

 We are beginning siman 14, where the Chayei Adam discusses running after a mitzvah. The pasuk says nei’de’ah nirdefa la’daas es Hashem, we should run to gain our awareness of Hashem (Yehoshua 6:3). Another pasuk says derech mitzvosecha arutz, I will run towards your mitzvos (Tehillim 119:32).  The Gemara says that generally, one should not

 We are beginning siman 13, which discusses performing a mitzvah with simcha. The next few simanim all discuss the appropriate manner in which to do a mitzvah, such as running after mitzvos, anticipating mitzvos, spending money for mitzvos, doing mitzvos out of love of Hashem, and doing mitzvos out of fear of Hashem.   The Chayei

 We are beginning siman 12. The Chayei Adam writes that a person should be careful to perform a mitzvah with all of its details. The Chayei Adam quotes the Gemara which discusses the different places in which the blood of a korban must be placed on the mizbeach. For example, the blood of a chatas

 We are continuing in siman 11, discussing the concept of b’rov am hadras melech. Yesterday, we mentioned a psak by Rav Moshe regarding two aveilim who have a chiyuv to daven for the amud. Rav Moshe paskened that they should not separate into two minyanim, and they will split the davening. (If the shul already

 We are continuing in siman 11, discussing the concept of b’rov am hadras melech. We learned that the Chayei Adam considers three people b’rov am, and the Eshel Avraham says that 10 is considered b’rov am. We left off with the question of whether there is an advantage to joining a larger group over a

 We are continuing in siman 11, discussing the concept of b’rov am hadras melech. We left with a contradiction regarding the minimum amount of people considered b’rov am. The Chayei Adam says there must be a total of three people to be considered b’rov am, and the Mishnah Berurah quotes the Chayei Adam but writes

 We are beginning siman 11. The Chayei Adam writes that if a person has an opportunity to perform a mitzvah alone or with a group, they should perform the mitzvah with the group. The pasuk in Mishlei says b’rov am hadras melech (Mishlei 14:28), the larger the group the more kavod for Hashem. Chazal add

 We are continuing in siman 10, discussing the concept of mitzvah habaah b’aveirah. It is important to note that the rishonim and acharonim deal with a Yerushalmi. The Yerushalmi discusses a person who tore kriyah on Shabbos because he heard that one of his seven closest relatives was niftar. The gemara says that he is

We are continuing in siman 10, discussing the concept of mitzvah habaah b’aveirah. We left off discussing the practical application of tzoah. We learned that if one learns or davens in the presence of tzoah, it is a mitzvah habaah b’aveiah. Today, we will clarify the practical halachic issues of tzoah.  The issue of tzoah

 We are continuing in siman 10, discussing the concept of mitzvah habaah b’aveirah. We have learned that the aveirah affects the fulfillment of mitzvah to the extent and that one is not yotzei the mitzvah, even if the situation occurs unintentionally. The poskim discuss an application of this concept. A person is not allowed to

 We are continuing in siman 9, which discusses the concept of mitzvos tzrichos kavana. Today, we will discuss an interesting application of this concept.  One of the primary discussions about mitzvos tzrichos kavana is in Rosh Hashanah, daf 28-29. The Gemara implies that the concept of shomeah (listener) and mashmiah (speaker), where one person is

 We are continuing in siman 9, which discusses the concept of mitzvos tzrichos kavana. Yesterday, we learned that certain mitzvos have additional kavanos delineated by the Torah, besides for the general requirement of mitzvos tzrichos kavana. We also learned that certain mitzvos have kavanos based on the reason given by the Torah for the mitzvah,