Aveilut & the 3 Weeks
Aveilut & the 3 Weeks: Lesson
The weeks of mourning between the fast of the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av are known in Hebrew as “בין המצרים.” In English they are known , rather prosaically, as “The Three Weeks.”
In the three upcoming sessions on the subject of “The Three Weeks” we will discuss the halachot of mourning which apply to these days. But the great Halachic authority, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, said (on more than one occasion) that observant Jews pay more attention to the minutiae of the rules of mourning and lose sight of the big picture. The halachot of mourning are of course not to be trivialized but they are meant to reflect a feeling of loss. We have lost the Temple and we do live in exile and we need to mourn this sad reality.
So in these three sessions, to speak metaphorically, I hope that we will discuss both the forest and the trees.
Aveilut & the 3 Weeks: Lesson
Hello Everyone
In today’s class we will begin the discussion of the laws of mourning that we practice during the “Nine Days” (which begin tomorrow, the first day of the month of Av).
Aveilut & the 3 Weeks: Lesson
Hello Everyone
Today we will discuss the halachot of fasting on Tisha B’Av. We will see how the halacha treats Tisha B’Av in comparison to the other fasts and Yom Kippur. Since we are in the middle of a plague (COVID-19) we will see how the Poskim of the late 19th-early 20th century told people to act during epidemics of cholera.
Rabbi Dr. Stuart Fischman graduated from Yeshiva University in 1980 and the dental school of Columbia University in 1985. In 1989 he began studying and teaching at Yeshivat Hamivtar and now studies and teaches at Yeshivat Machanaim in Efrat. He has rabbinic ordination from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg.