In the late 1920s, a Jerusalem rabbi cited an obscure passage describing a certain Rabbi Moshe’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land, including what appeared to be a visit to the Temple Mount itself. He seized on it as proof that going there was halachically permitted. This sparked a fierce debate over the passage: Was it even credible? Who exactly was this Rabbi Moshe? Did the text actually refer to the Temple Mount? And if a great rabbi really did go there, what would that mean for us today? This is the second installment in a series about going up onto Har Habayis. Did Rambam Actually Set Foot on Har Habayis?

There’s a well-known story about Sir Moses Montefiore going up onto Har Habayis during one of his seven legendary trips to Eretz Yisrael. But once you begin looking into it, you quickly discover that there are several versions of the story, each one telling it a bit differently: when he went up, why he did it, how he did it, and what the rabbinic community’s reaction was. As we’ll see, a great deal depends on who is telling the story. In this class, we’ll return to the sources and try to piece together what actually happened. This is the first installment in a series about going up onto Har Habayis. A Scandal on Har Habayis: The Montefiore Story

Mechiras chametz is today a standard part of observing Pesach. But how did this practice come to be, and how has it evolved over the centuries? In this class, we analyze the relevant sources in Ashkenazic and Sefardic texts, revealing two distinct approaches to this topic. We’ll then find how the more the sale was refined to accommodate the seller, the more complications it introduced, requiring a series of complex adjustments and, eventually, triggering voices of opposition. All along, we’ll wrestle with a central issue—drawing the line between legal creativity and legal fiction. The Controversial History of Mechiras Chametz

The class follows the paper trail in Rabbi Yosef Caro’s Kesef Mishneh to reconstruct how and when this major commentary actually came into being. After examining its printing history and the author’s stated purpose, the discussion turns to a key flashpoint: whether Kesef Mishneh represents Rabbi Yosef Caro’s final halachic word. We work through the evidence—internal cross-references, page numbers, textual features, and colophons—and ultimately arrive at a tentative conclusion. As one of the central commentaries on the Rambam, this investigation is a fitting and meaningful way to mark the start of the new Rambam learning cycle. Beis Yosef vs. Kesef Mishneh: Following the Paper Trail