Purim with a bang!

I was zoche to have purim seudah with my brother's mishpacha in Far Rockaway. I was mikayem the mitzva of Chayiv adom lbsumah bpurya ad dlo Yoda. At the seuda I said over some thoughts on purim. Here is a summary of what I said.

The Baal Shem Tov comments that the mishna says "Hakoreh es Hameglah limafraya Lo Yotzeh Yedai Chovso" (One who reads the migala out of order is not yotzei). One who reads the migaleh "backwards" Back in time as if it is a history book is not yotzeh his chiyuv. One must view the megila as a story to be lived in the present.

The megila says "Ish Yehudi Hayah Bshushan Ushemo Mordichai" Why is mordichai called a Yehudi when he is not descendant from shevet yehuda?

This answer is not as good as the question but we see that when one exibits the personality traits of a great tzadik it is as if he descends from him. Mordichai was called yehudi because he acted like one. He had the power of "HOD" admitance and regocnition of hashems control of the world. He would not bow to haman. He would only bow to hashem. We see elsewhere in the medrash shmuel on avot, that avraham was called a father to those who patterned their life after them. They were his children. Likewise, Mordichai can be called a yehudi because he followed in the path of yehuda. What was the path of yehuda?
To be countinued....

best of the web part 1

Here is a partial list of websites that are torah related.

chabad.org has chassidus

inner.org is one of my favorites

torah.org has a wide range of subjects

kolbrisk.com is a great website that has torah from one of the greatest torah scholars of our generation harav yosef soloveichik shlita.

Next week I will highlight other not well known sites for your learning expereince.

Good Shabbos

Siyum Hashas: The good, the bad.....Artscroll

Much controversy has been surronding the siyum Hashas in the blogsphere. Gil Student, A talmid Chacham of a high caliber, has annonced he is not attending. (hirhurim.blogspot.com).
In addition, Dovbear from dovbear.blogspot.com also will not attend. He linked an article from a rabbi who is boycotting the siyum. SO let's discuss the issues. What are the pros and cons of learning daf hayomi. Here at chassidish.blogspot.com we are commited to spreading out toras chassidus. How does daf hayomi fit in the picture?
It is known that rav nachman of bresslov mentiones that one should be able to even do a cursuryy learning of every portion of torah. Like a traveler who can claim I've been around the world, one can say I've been every place in torah. SO it seems that even daf yomi with its weakness of superficial understanding should be done as per rav nachman.
Let me mention that the lubavitcher rebbe's chitas cycle of can be done on chabad.org This would give a person the background to learn and strenghten the ten sferos along with the ten mivzaim. more details of this on inner.org.
Of course, ideally one should learn shas biyun. Remember that by learning rambam one is learning torah shbal peh.
Lastly, in derech chochma by the ramchal he cites a plan of ones learning. One should learn tanch, mishna, then gemara then nistar.
So, An option is to do rambam cycle first while having an iyun seder along with chitas. Afterwords one moves to daf yomi. The point is daf yomi should not replave iyun and lumdus. It should not replace limud halacha.
If daf yomi supplements other areas of learning its good. If it compromises it it is bad.

A side note: I was not able to post divrei torah in a while. I hope to get back to it shortly.