Aruch Hashulchan

by R. Gidon Rothstein Almost a year ago, we started summarizing sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan, R. Yechiel Michel Epstein, a towering halakhist. We stopped at Yom Kippur, since most of the sermons were related to repentance and Shabbat Shuvah, but left four for this season, since they were for Shabbat HaGadol. Now that we’ve briefly summarized those as well, ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan, Sermon 13: First, Foremost, and Faith The Torah (Shmot 12;2) tells the Jewish people that the month we now call Nisan should be the first of the calendar. Aruch HaShulchanwonders what Mechilta Bo 1 means when it infers that it’s the first month for Jews and not non-Jews, but also for ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Drashot of the Aruch HaShulchan, Drasha 11: Signs, Covenants, and Where They Lead Us

by R. Gidon Rothstein Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan for Shabbat HaGadol (Drasha 6): Holding On To Hope in the Face of Our Inadequacy

by R. Gidon Rothstein Returning to Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan: Drasha 5, Chametz and the Way Back to Eden My first series on Aruch HaShulchan’s sermons left out four, those for Shabbat HaGadol. Over the next five essays, we’ll see some of how he approached his congregants regarding Pesach and whether those sermons round out, supplement, or complement the ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan, Week 19, for Rosh HaShanah: Rosh HaShanah as a Day of Hashem’s Supernatural Bounty Like last time, the sermon we’ll see this week isn’t part of Derashot Kol Ben Levi, it’s part of an addendum from a sermon collection that happened to have two of Aruch HaShulchan’s sermons. This one, for ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan, Week 18, for Selichot: Learning to Listen to Leaders As Ashkenazim begin saying selichot this Motzaei Shabbat, it works out well that this is the sermon of Aruch HaShulchan’s that we’re up to… The Kinds of People We’ll Heed Amos 7;12-15 presents a conversation between Amatzyah, a priest in Bet El, ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan, Week 17, Sermon 20: Bonds, Unbreakable and Reparable Mixed Signals This is the last from within Derashot Kol Ben Levi that we’ll see now– the rest of the sermons in the work are for Shabbat HaGadol. In the two more Mondays we have until Rosh HaShanah (!!!), I hope to summarize ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan, Week 16, Sermon 17: Uniting the Physical and the Spiritual Entering the Holy of Holies Vayikra Rabbah 21;5 quotes R. Yuden, who fastened on the Torah’s use of the word be-zot, with this, to describe what Aharon brings with him into the Kodesh Kodashim, the inner room of the Mishkan. R. ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Sermons of the Aruch HaShulchan, Week 15, Sermon 9: The Love of Hashem Aruch HaShulchan opens this sermon by declaring something which was obvious to him but is not so today.  I point that out first because I always find it interesting when cultures of Torah change so much that that which was simple to one ...