Rambam Bekius

Length: 20 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/28/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we finished the Hararei Kedem piece we started yesterday and learned more about the kiyum of pouring each of the four cups. We also learned the source (well, a source) for the basis of minhag to pour for each other.
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מקורות:
ר' מיכל שורקין - הררי קדם חלק ב סימן עה
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה ח:...

Length: 21 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/27/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we started learning a piece in Hararei Kedem about the first halacha in the Rambam's seder procedure: mixing the cup. We plan on finishing the piece tomorrow (בג"ה).
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מקורות:
ר' מיכל שורקין - הררי קדם חלק ב סימן עה
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה ז:ט; ח:א
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר א...

Length: 23 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/22/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we learned about the strangely structured mitzvah of charoses, and the botanically ambiguous mitzvah of maror. We concluded by answering a question we raised last week about whether a person would be obligated in sippur if they don't have matzah and maror in front of them. Next week (בג"ה) will be devoted to chapter 8!
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Length: 19 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/22/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we began by going over one more idea about haseivah and another idea about Mah Nishtanah. We then learned the remaining halachos of the four cups, taking some brief detours to see if there was overlap with other halachic cup requirements. Tomorrow we'll aim to finish the perek.
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מקורות:
Rav Yosef Dov ha'Levi Solove...

Length: 16 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/21/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we moved on to the two topics of the four cups and reclining. We covered most of the halachos, with a brief detour into the Rambam's procedure for the obligatory eatings of the night in Chapter 8. Tomorrow we'll continue, with the goal of finishing Chapter 7 by the end of the week.
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מקורות:
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ...

Length: 19 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/20/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we didn't focus  We started off with a halacha we learned last week, but only so that I could make sure that everyone was familiar with the two ways to translate the word "Pesach." This led us to look into the pesukim, the Targum, and some Rashis. We then finished reading the halacha in the Rambam, which prompted me to share m...

Length: 18 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/16/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we took up the classic question of liros vs. leharos in the Rambam. I hope I was able to take it a little further than it's usually taken, thanks to all the resources on AlHaTorah, plus R' Qafih and the Yad Peshutah. I also did teshuvah for inadvertently speaking lashon ha'ra about Rav Nachman.
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מקורות:
רמב&qu...

Length: 22 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/15/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we read through select portions of the Yad Peshutah's commentary which provided insights into the halachos we learned last week, and answered some of our questions.
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מקורות:
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה ז:א-ה עם פירוש היד פשוטה
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר אהבה, הלכות קריאת שמע א:ג עם פירוש היד פ...

Length: 26 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/9/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, our goal was to cover all the halachos which the Rambam collectively refers to as "hagadah," so that we can get the big picture - and we did just that! Next week (בג"ה) we'll either delve into the questions we raised or we'll do more bekius.
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מקורות:
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות חמץ ומצה ז...

Length: 39 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/8/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we kicked off our Pesach-prep by reviewing the Rambam's four formulations of the mitzvah of sippur: (1) in the Sefer ha'Mitzvos, (2) in the Mishneh Torah's minyan ha'mitzvos, (3) in the koseres for Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah, and (4) in the first halacha in chapter 7. We raised the major questions and problems that aros...

Length: 26 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/2/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we had one mission: to gain insight into the idea of emulating the shechinah by increasing our matanos la'evyonim and by giving tzedakah to aniyim in a manner that enlivens their souls. It took us longer than I anticipated to go through the facts, and we didn't have time to develop a full idea, but we did come up with an approach wh...

Length: 21 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (3/1/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we attempted to understand the halachos of matanos la'evyonim, but ended up with more questions than answers. Tomorrow our goal is to understand Yeshayahu 57:15 in context, now that we know it's a universal principle in relating to the poor and downtrodden and not just a particular halacha about Purim.
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מקורות:
רמב&...

Length: 20 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (2/28/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we concluded this year's analysis of the Rambam's shitah on mishloach manos. We finished reading the Yad Peshutah and attempted to answer our remaining questions and tie up the loose ends.
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מקורות:
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות מגילה וחנוכה ב:טו
יד פשוטה שם
מגילה דף ז עמוד א-ב
רמב"ם - מ...

Length: 22 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (2/27/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we continued on in the halachos of Purim with the mitzvah of mishloach manos. We learned through the Rambam, raised several questions, and then began reading the Yad Peshutah.
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מקורות:
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זמנים, הלכות מגילה וחנוכה ב:טו
יד פשוטה שם
מגילה דף ז עמוד א-ב
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The Torah content for the ...

Length: 25 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (2/23/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we spent the first 15 minutes of shiur reading excerpts from Avraham Feintuch's article about the methodoloy of R' Nachum L. Rabonivitch in his Yad Peshutah commentary on the Rambam. We then read his Yad Peshutah on the halacha in the Rambam about the Purim seudah and Purim drunkenness and saw his methodology in action. We were lef...

Length: 17 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (2/22/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we took our first steps into THIS year's understanding of Simchas Purim. We read through an excerpt on the Yad Peshutah's commentary which we used as the basis for understanding the "classic" problem of how the Rambam can hold that drunkenness is antithetical to simchah - yet, still require us to get drunk on Purim. We di...

Length: 20 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (2/21/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we began our review of Hilchos Megilah. Since we only have (בג"ה) seven sessions of Rambam Bekius before Purim, and since we wanted to examine the halachos of the mishteh and matanos la'evyonim, we figured it would be good to start with the halachos about the days of Purim as ymei mishteh v'simchah. Today we read the first hal...

Length: 19 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (2/20/23), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we learned through the Aruch ha'Shulchan on the Rambam's eight levels of tzedakah with the goal of reviewing, refining, and filling in the gaps of some practical questions we had. I'd say we met these goals. Seeing as how we're at a natural stopping point and Rosh Chodesh Adar is tomorrow, we will be taking another break ...

Length: 16 minutes
Synopsis: This afternoon (2/16/22), in our Rambam Bekius mini-shiur, we had one goal: to read through the halachos of the eight levels of tzedakah in order to get the facts - and we succeeded! We raised some questions and posited some ideas along the way, but we'll have to wait until next week to dig in deep (בג"ה).
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מקורות:
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר זרעים, הלכות מתנות עניים י:ח-ט...