Rabbi Albert Setton hosts classes every morning at 9:00 AM at West Deal Shul.

Day seven of the Selichot series takes up El Melech Yoshev Al Kisei Rachamim, the introduction recited before every reading of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. Rabbi Setton notes how this prayer became a victim of its own success, said so often that we risk saying it by rote, and slows down to unpack it. The class draws on the Midrash of Hashem rising from the seat of judgment to the seat of mercy, and the Rambam's reading of ma'avir rishon rishon, God waiving sin after sin until a person is fully forgiven. It closes with the covenant of the Thirteen Attributes that Hashem Himself taught to Moshe, setting up the Torah story the series will read next.

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(0:00) A victim of its own success
(1:35) From the seat of din to mercy
(2:45) Ma'avir rishon rishon
(4:00) Marbeh mechilah l'chatta'im
(5:00) The covenant of the 13 attributes
(6:00) Vaya'avor Hashem al panav

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Rabbi Ike Hanon hosts classes every day at 6:10 AM at West Deal Shul.

Rabbi Ike Hanon opens Nun Bet Amud Alef still chasing Rabbi Yehuda's cryptic "go and bring it yourself" in the Mishnah on shevi'it fruits. After recapping why Rabbi Yehuda must be read strictly, the class takes up Abbaye's plain reading of the Mishnah - fruits carried from a town where produce has not run out into one where it has, and back again - and Rav Ashi's objection that fruit cannot become forbidden just for traveling "on the back of the donkey." Rav Ashi instead ties the dispute to the pickle-barrel machloket of Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabban Gamliel on when a mixed barrel must be emptied, and Rashi maps each side back onto the Mishnah. The class closes with the practical side: Israel's three regions, public announcements of biur, tracking what has run out in the Shemita year, and whether a bag of mixed fruit counts as a mixture.

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(0:00) What Did Rabbi Yehuda Mean?

(1:50) Abbaye's Plain Reading of the Mishna

(6:30) Rav Ashi's Donkey Objection

(7:55) The Pickle Barrel Machloket

(11:10) Rashi Maps It Back to the Mishna

(14:20) Tracking Biur in the Shemita Year

(15:50) Is a Bag of Fruit a Mixture?

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Rabbi Ike Hanon hosts classes every day at 6:10 AM at West Deal Shul.

Rabbi Ike Hanon continues Pesahim 51b with the question of abstaining from work in a place whose custom is to work, then turns to Rav Safra and Rabbi Abba on keeping only one day of Yom Tov when living close enough to Israel to know the new month, and how to handle that discreetly in settled areas versus the open country. The class reviews Rav Yosef's punishment of Rav Natan bar Asya for traveling on the second day of Shavuot, and the two versions of whether lashes or excommunication is the harsher sentence for a Torah scholar. On 52a the Gemara takes up transporting shevi'it fruits between towns where the produce has or has not run out, working through Rav Sheisha's third-case reading of Rabbi Yehuda and the reversed reading that makes Rabbi Yehuda the stricter opinion. Rabbi Hanon closes with the modern reality of tracking biur deadlines, from the heter mechira to a barrel of mixed pickles.

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(0:00) The Work Custom: Two Answers

(1:18) Rav Safra: One Day or Two

(2:43) Rav Natan bar Asya's Punishment

(4:15) Lashes or Excommunication

(7:10) Shevi'it Fruits on the Move

(9:30) Rav Sheisha's Third Case

(14:45) The Reverse Reading: R. Yehuda Strict

(17:20) Keeping Track of Biur Today

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Rabbi Joseph Dana records a short daily Mishnah class, working through all of Mishnah a few minutes at a time.

Rabbi Joseph Dana opens the series with Masekhet Berachot, mishnayot 1:1-2, on the times for Kriat Shema. He explains why the Mishnah begins with the nighttime Shema: from when the kohanim enter to eat their terumah until the end of the first watch according to R. Eliezer, until midnight according to the sages, and until dawn according to Rabban Gamliel. The class covers Rabban Gamliel's sons coming home after midnight and why the sages set midnight as a fence to keep a person from pushing off the mitzvah. Mishna Bet turns to the morning Shema, from first light according to R. Eliezer and up to three hours into the day according to the sages. The Mishnah closes with the reassurance that one who reads later loses nothing, earning reward as one who studies Torah.

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(0:00) The Daily Mishnah Journey
(1:40) Why Shema Opens the Mishnah
(2:42) Night Shema: When It Begins
(5:30) R. Gamliel's Sons: After Midnight
(7:30) Why the Sages Said Midnight
(8:25) Morning Shema: First Light
(11:23) If You Miss the Time

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Rabbi Albert Setton hosts classes every morning at 9:00 AM at West Deal Shul.

Day six of the Selichot series opens the poem Shevet Yehuda Bedochek Uvtzar, the introduction to El Melech Yoshev Al Kisei Rachamim and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. Rabbi Setton shows how its anonymous author, signing his name Shemaya in an acrostic, rhymes each stanza into a quoted verse shared between the chazan and the congregation. The class traces the poem's cry from the lion roaring in the forest of the exile to the plea that Hashem not stand at a distance while His people reach the gates of death. It closes with the confident call to reveal the sealed redemption and let the cry rise to the King who sits on the throne of mercy.

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(0:00) Introducing Shevet Yehuda
(1:35) The lion roaring in the forest
(2:50) Why do You stand far off?
(4:05) God's dove at the gates of death
(5:00) Can God's hand come up short?
(6:00) Reveal the sealed redemption

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Rabbi Joseph Dana hosts classes Monday through Friday at 6:50 AM at West Deal Shul.

Rabbi Joseph Dana studies Parashat Ki Tavo during Elul, focusing on the promise "U'va'u alecha kol haberachot ha'eleh v'hisigucha" - that all the blessings will come to you and overtake you. He asks why the Torah says the blessings pursue us rather than us pursuing them, and brings three answers. The Degel Machaneh Ephraim explains that Hashem keeps sending opportunities even after we push them away, like the berachah of a year learning in Eretz Yisrael. The Sforno teaches that when we put mitzvot first, berachah arrives without heavy hishtadlut. The Sfas Emes teaches that no prayer or mitzvah is ever wasted: Hashem stores every berachah and releases it at the right time, in this world or the next. The class closes with the story of Nachshon Wachsman hy"d and his family's message that a nation's tefillot were not rejected but stored, protecting the soldiers who went in to save him.

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(0:00) Ki Tavo: Recommitting to the Mitzvot
(2:25) The Blessings for Following Mitzvot
(5:50) Our Simple Relationship With Hashem
(9:45) Degel Machaneh Ephraim
(15:40) Sforno: Blessings Without Toil
(18:45) Sfas Emes: Blessings Are Stored
(24:25) The Story of Nachshon Wachsman
(30:55) Every Tefillah Is Answered

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Rabbi Joseph Dana hosts classes Monday through Friday at 6:50 AM at West Deal Shul.

This class covers a Gemara in Berachot 25a on when a person may recite Kriyat Shema near unclean matter and bad odors. It opens with the dispute between Rav Huna and Rav Chisda over saying Shema with soiled skin or a hand extended into a bathroom, and their proofs from "Kol haneshama tehalel Yah" and "Kol atzmotai tomarna." The class then works through how far to distance from a bad smell that has a source, the baraita supporting Rav Chisda, and Rava's counter-baraita limiting the prohibition to hides tanning in manure. It closes with a smell that has no source, the sleeping mats in Rav's beit midrash, and tzo'ah passing by, where Abaye permits continuing Shema while Rava forbids it under "vehayah machaneikha kadosh."

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(0:00) Shema while unclean: two opinions

(5:15) Distancing from a bad smell

(14:11) Rava's baraita: the tannery

(18:14) A smell with no source

(23:03) Passing tzo'ah: Abaye vs Rava

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Rabbi Ike Hanon hosts classes every day at 6:10 AM at West Deal Shul.

Rabbi Ike Hanon continues Pesahim 51b with one of the rare contradictions the Gemara raises and leaves unresolved: why Rabbah bar bar Chana, who ate a disputed fat in Bavel on the strength of having seen Rabbi Yochanan eat it, would not permit his own children to do the same. The class then learns the baraita behind Rabbi Shimon's story, where Rabbi Shimon permits self-grown cabbage (sefichei kruv) during Shemita while the chachamim forbid it as a safeguard, and works through Rashi's two explanations of what makes cabbage different. Both sides are shown to follow Rabbi Akiva's reading of the pasuk, narrowing the machloket to whether we decree against cabbage lest someone eat other sefichim. The class closes back at the Mishnah: when a traveler from a place that refrains from melacha on Erev Pesach visits a place where people work, Abaye and Rava explain how the stringency of his hometown can stand without causing a fight.

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(0:00) The Contradiction the Gemara Leaves Unresolved

(1:50) Sefichim: Rabbi Shimon's Leniency on Cabbage

(5:51) Both Sides Follow Rabbi Akiva; the Gezeirah Debate

(8:25) Travelers and Local Custom: Abaye and Rava

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Rabbi Albert Setton hosts classes every morning at 9:00 AM at West Deal Shul.

Day five of the Selichot series moves to the series of pesukim that follow Ben Adam Mah Lekha Nirdam, verses of teshuvah drawn from Daniel and across Tanakh. Rabbi Setton explains why Selichot weaves ready-made verses among the man-made piyyutim, and how each pasuk opens with the closing words of the one before it. The class then turns to Rabbi David ben Pikuydah's poem Lema'ancha Elohai, where Daniel's plea becomes a bold claim: Hashem should end the exile for His own name's sake, because Israel's fate among the nations reflects on Him. It closes with the poem's portraits of the suffering of the galut and the quiet loyalty of a people that keeps showing up to pray.

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(0:00) The pesukim after Ben Adam
(1:20) Why we pray in Tanakh's own words
(2:05) The poem Lema'ancha Elohai
(3:00) Do it for Your name's sake
(4:10) The suffering of the galut
(5:10) Still loyal, still showing up

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Rabbi Albert Setton hosts classes every morning at 9:00 AM at West Deal Shul.

Day four of the Selichot series opens the piyyut Ben Adam Mah Lekha Nirdam, the poem at the very start of Selichot. Rabbi Setton shows how the early poets of Spain, including Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, wrote moving introductions to the practice of rising before dawn to pray, giving worshippers the motivation to come out in the darkness. The class draws on Yonah asleep in the storm-tossed boat and the Rambam's reading of the shofar as a wake-up call, urging us to awaken not only for Selichot but in our lives. It closes with the call to take responsibility for our sins before Hashem, who already knows them, and to trust in His mercy as a father's mercy for his children.

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(0:00) The poem Ben Adam Mah Lekha Nirdam
(1:05) "How could you be sleeping now?"
(2:10) Running to prayer and from sin
(3:45) The shofar's wake-up call
(4:35) Taking responsibility for our sins
(6:15) A father's mercy

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Visit: westdealshul.org
Sponsorships: [email protected]