Happenings at the Yeshiva

This week we were at full capacity, with all of our students back from their various internships.  Third- and fourth-year students began learning basar bi'chalav, starting with the core question of how Hazal interpreted the Biblical verse (in this week's parasha!) of not cooking a kid goat in its mother's milk to prohibiting eating and deriving benefit from all meat and milk that was cooked together.  In future weeks they will be looking at the Rabbinic prohibitions of not eating cold meat and milk together and even keeping them on separate tables and the need for a waiting period between eating one and the other.

First- and second-year students continued their study of borer, wrapping up all the practical applications of this melakha, and also covering the topic of mishamer, filtering liquids on Shabbat.  Unlike classic borer, when dealing with liquids, one can filter if the liquid is potable in its current form and the person would be prepared to drink it as such (in classic borer of food, the removal of undesired contaminants is forbidden even if the food is edible as it is).  So, most people can use a water filter since they would drink the water regardless.  But for people who will only drink filtered water, or for people that rule that one must filter their water because of concern of bugs, one cannot filter the water on Shabbat, and one must prepare filtered water before Shabbat.

This week, our afternoon tanakh and machshava classes for the Spring zman began.  We are honored to have back with Dr. Marc Shapiro who is teaching his recurring class on an Intellectual History of the Jewish Movements.  This class is required for all students some time during their four year, and his class was packed, with approximately 20 students in attendance.  Dr. Paul Nahme, a current student, also began his new class on "Prophecy, the Future, and the Spark of Holiness in the Writings of Rav Kook" and Rav Nati's two-semester class on Fundamentals of Jewish Thought began its second semester.  We were particularly thrilled that Rabbi Hayyim Angel is teaching here this semester.  His class on "Five Megillot: Content and Methodology" had a large turnout and we are looking forward to being enriched by his scholarship and insight over the coming weeks and months.

Finally, a big Mazal Tov to Shoshana and Shmuly (YCT 2010) Yanklowitz on the birth of a baby girl this last Monday!  Shetizku li'gadlah li'Torah li'chuppah u'li'ma'asim tovim!