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Rabbi Yitzchak Kolakowski is the Facility Chaplaincy Program Director at the The State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Waymart, Pennsylvania. The institution is a medium security prison facility housing 1,100 inmates and a 120 bed Forensic Treatment Center, which provides inpatient psychiatric treatment in a secure setting for adult male offenders.Kolakowski is the first Rabbi in the history of the Commonwealth to serve as head chaplain in a state prison.Prior to his present position, he served pulpits and chaplaincy positions in Virginia and Upstate New York.The Rabbi has emerged as a talented speaker in areas of religion, politics, spirituality, popular culture, history, and interfaith affairs. He has created an extremely popular YouTube channel with thousands of followers.Kolakowski unashamedly recounts his personal history. While his mother was raised in a Modern Orthodox home in Queens, his father is a devout Roman Catholic. He had a bris in an Orthodox synagogue but was also baptized in a Catholic church.His maternal grandparents encouraged him to have a bar mitzvah in their Orthodox Shul which spurred the young Kolakowski to adopt a frum lifestyle.At eighteen, he spent a year in a Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, whose environs drew him into Hasidic practice and philosophy .Kolakowski went on to study for and receive semichah at Yeshiva Or Kedoshim Biala in Brooklyn. He recognized the need to obtain a B.A. in psychology from Lander College for Men .Hearing the call to become a communal leader, he matriculated to Touro College for a postgraduate certificate in Advanced Rabbinics and Synagogue Management in conjunction with the National Council of Young Israel and the Young Israel Council of Rabbis.Rabbi Kolakowski's English translation of sefer Seder HaYom by the late Biala Rebbe was published in 2006 in Israel to wide acclaim.He can be reached at josephkolakowski@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today.He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations.Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick.Professor  Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences.Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research.Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective.He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studiesentailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments.Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.Below is a partial list of the journalsto which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles.Many are available on lineJournal of Forensic PsychologyJournal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.International Review of VictimologyThe Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseInternational Forum of PsychoanalysisJournal of Personality AssessmentJournal of Abnormal PsychologyJournal of Psychoanalytic AnthropologyPsychophysiologyPsychology and Human DevelopmentJournal of Sex ResearchJournal of Psychology and JudaismContemporary Family TherapyAmerican Journal on AddictionsJournal of Criminal PsychologyMental Health, Religion & CultureAs Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT.Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.comFor more information on this podcast visityeshivaofnewark.jewishpodcasts.org See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Rischa's second foray into speculative what-if scenarios begins with an elaborate set-up of the Lithuanian Yeshiva -American Monies connection of the 1920's and the major role played by visionaries like Rabbi Dov Revel.Rabbi Kivelevitz provides the salient specifics of the founding and flourishing of Yeshivas Shaar HaTorah in Grodno.Rabbi Bechhofer confirms Kivelevitz's assessment of the unique skillset and persona that combined within Rav Shimon Yehuda Shkop Zt'l that made him the perfect catalyst for growth and quantitative advancement for the motivated Ben Torah of the early 20th Century and why the administration of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan made him their prime candidate in succeeding the tragically departed Rav Shlomo Polyacheck,the Meitscheter Illui.While in the real world,Rav Shimon heeded the calls of the Chofetz Chaim and Rav Chaim Ozer to return to Europe, the Rischa duo sketches the arc of probabilities had he remained.Kivelevitz and Bechhofer disagree if sans Rav Moshe Soloveichick's influential role, would his son, Rav Yoseph Dov , have become the towering influential teacher and philosopher for American generations to come.Bechhofer asks Kivelevitz to complete the fantasy with an alternate landing role for the under appreciated Gaon and Scholar, Rav Zelik Epstein,who as Rav Shimon's disciple and granddaughter's husband, might have wielded a role in Yeshiva University commensurate with his predilections and vision. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a ZOOM Shiur presented by the Young Israel of Sharon, Massachusetts,Rabbi Klapper launches an elaboration built on the Netziv's inventive rendering of Bnei Yisroel as volunteer home aides during Choshech.He moves on to analyze classic stage lighting to clarify how we perceive light and darkness.The episode culminates in a discussion centering on the relationship of the Choshech of the night before Keriyas Yam Suf and of the Choshech laying over the primal moments of Creation.Rabbi Aryeh Klapper is Dean of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership, Rosh Beit Midrash of its Summer Beit Midrash Program and a member of the Boston Beit Din.Rabbi Klapper is a widely published author in prestigious Hebrew and English journals. He is frequently consulted on issues of Jewish law from representatives of all streams of Judaism and responds from an explicit and uncompromised Orthodox stance.  The Yeshiva of Newark @IDT is proud to partner with Rabbi Klapper to help spread his scholarly thoughtful ideas and Halachic insight to as wide an audience as possible .Please visithttp://www.torahleadership.org/for many more articles and audio classes from Rav Klapper and to find out about his Summer programs as well as Rabbi Klapper's own podcast site https://anchor.fm/aryeh-klapper.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.comFor more information on this podcast visityeshivaofnewark.jewishpodcasts.org See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Worch-Co host of the Chavrusa  and acclaimed translator of the Bnei Yessaschar uses the Ohr HaChaim to explain the overly familiar in a novel deep sense.We thank the Illinois Center for Jewish Studies for the use of this materialPlease leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.comFor more information on this podcast visityeshivaofnewark.jewishpodcasts.org See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Listen to the insights and biurim that the Posek HaDor of the late 20th and early 21st centuries brought to these subjects in this week's Torah reading, displaying his unmatched mastery over the whole of Rabbinic literature.You will gain an appreciation of Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv's profound perspectives on the Parsha filtered through the lucid analytic enthusiasm of Rabbi Kivelevitz who has lectured extensively on this Giant of Halacha's life and work. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz has spent the last nine years writing and teaching for Dirshu International's Daf Yomi B'Halacha,In general,every episode of Fine Tuned Halacha delves into an important Halachic text and extracts important nuggets of direction,history and most importantly,an understanding of how the Jewish legal system developed and continues to guide the lives of a committed people.While the learning tends to align with the seasons we find ourselves in,we are confident it will resonate well beyond the calendar into your consciousness.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz has spent the last nine years writing and teaching for Dirshu International's Daf Yomi B'Halacha,In general,every episode of Fine Tuned Halacha delves into an important Halachic text and extracts important nuggets of direction,history and most importantly,an understanding of how the Jewish legal system developed and continues to guide the lives of a committed people.While the learning tends to align with the seasons we find ourselves in,we are confident it will resonate well beyond the calendar into your consciousness.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz has spent the last nine years writing and teaching for Dirshu International's Daf Yomi B'Halacha,In general,every episode of Fine Tuned Halacha delves into an important Halachic text and extracts important nuggets of direction,history and most importantly,an understanding of how the Jewish legal system developed and continues to guide the lives of a committed people.While the learning tends to align with the seasons we find ourselves in,we are confident it will resonate well beyond the calendar into your consciousness.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz has spent the last nine years writing and teaching for Dirshu International's Daf Yomi B'Halacha,In general,every episode of Fine Tuned Halacha delves into an important Halachic text and extracts important nuggets of direction,history and most importantly,an understanding of how the Jewish legal system developed and continues to guide the lives of a committed people.While the learning tends to align with the seasons we find ourselves in,we are confident it will resonate well beyond the calendar into your consciousness.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Yitzchak Kolakowski is the Facility Chaplaincy Program Director at the The State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Waymart, Pennsylvania. The institution is a medium security prison facility housing 1,100 inmates and a 120 bed Forensic Treatment Center, which provides inpatient psychiatric treatment in a secure setting for adult male offenders.Kolakowski is the first Rabbi in the history of the Commonwealth to serve as head chaplain in a state prison.Prior to his present position, he served pulpits and chaplaincy positions in Virginia and Upstate New York.The Rabbi has emerged as a talented speaker in areas of religion, politics, spirituality, popular culture, history, and interfaith affairs. He has created an extremely popular YouTube channel with thousands of followers.Kolakowski unashamedly recounts his personal history. While his mother was raised in a Modern Orthodox home in Queens, his father is a devout Roman Catholic. He had a bris in an Orthodox synagogue but was also baptized in a Catholic church.His maternal grandparents encouraged him to have a bar mitzvah in their Orthodox Shul which spurred the young Kolakowski to adopt a frum lifestyle.At eighteen, he spent a year in a Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, whose environs drew him into Hasidic practice and philosophy .Kolakowski went on to study for and receive semichah at Yeshiva Or Kedoshim Biala in Brooklyn. He recognized the need to obtain a B.A. in psychology from Lander College for Men .Hearing the call to become a communal leader, he matriculated to Touro College for a postgraduate certificate in Advanced Rabbinics and Synagogue Management in conjunction with the National Council of Young Israel and the Young Israel Council of Rabbis.Rabbi Kolakowski's English translation of sefer Seder HaYom by the late Biala Rebbe was published in 2006 in Israel to wide acclaim.He can be reached at josephkolakowski@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Kivelevitz sets the "table" by stating that the Covid Pandemic is keeping many people at home and close to their refrigerators and pantries, making them vulnerable to the enticement of comfort foods.Doctor. Juni outlines the essential features of any comforting stimuli as being linked to familiarity, availability, and a primary association with pleasant feelings. Kivelevitz speculates that in the face of mature adult-type concerns for safety, resorting to eating seems a form of regression to primitive early childhood basics. Juni deepens the idea by indicating the phenomenon as a defensive form for denial, where all issues cease to be relevant with the individual concerning themselves solely with food. The professor believes this denial mindset is the engine for refusal to comply with social distancing and masking as well Kivelevitz moves the conversation to another facet of overeating: the negative reactions from parents and family which is often coupled with “fat shaming” by peers and contemporary society. Correlating these repercussions with a parallel evisceration of self-esteem, Juni argues that these features are the subconscious goals of individuals who see themselves as failures. Beating themselves up, behaving self-destructively, and contributing to the self-demoralization, is a behavioral outcry of defeat. They aim to become the pathetic and helpless child who will elicit salvation from a parental figure of years gone by.The discussants agree that Comfort Food regression is a phenomenon which is linked to the exaggerated value that contemporary Western society places on slimness. Juni comments that in the first half of the 20th century, a plump (zaftig) body was an icon of physical health, economic success, and attractiveness. As such, he concludes, our valuing slimness along with the hounding and humiliation of those who do not or cannot conform to such standards, brings great harm to the mental health of those who are shunned in the process.  Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today.He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations.Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick.Professor  Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences.Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research.Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective.He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studiesentailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments.Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.Below is a partial list of the journalsto which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles.Many are available on lineJournal of Forensic PsychologyJournal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.International Review of VictimologyThe Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseInternational Forum of PsychoanalysisJournal of Personality AssessmentJournal of Abnormal PsychologyJournal of Psychoanalytic AnthropologyPsychophysiologyPsychology and Human DevelopmentJournal of Sex ResearchJournal of Psychology and JudaismContemporary Family TherapyAmerican Journal on AddictionsJournal of Criminal PsychologyMental Health, Religion & CultureAs Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT.Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.comFor more information on this podcast visityeshivaofnewark.jewishpodcasts.org See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The following is a letter from Rabbi Kivelevitz .Shalom Ubracha-    It is quite unnecessary to state here how stressful the last ten months have been.  As Klal Yisroel places an immeasurable value on learning and intellectual growth, many of us have weathered this storm by entrenching ourselves deeper into our rich literary heritage, discovering insight and inspiration and using the pause of hustle bustle activity to savor new texts and articulate probing questions. The tools of teleconferencing have generated the bracha of wide attendance in Shiurim and access to the world's finest Torah teachers. Energized by these positives, I am humbly offering to partner with all of you on a venture of discovery.    Over twenty-five years ago, I listened with rapt attention as Professor Haym Soloveichick eulogized his father. He said the Rambam,Maimonides, was the Girsa DaYankusa of his father, which the prodigy grew up memorizing like nursery rhymes, with all of Mishna Torah etched in his memory and flowing easily from his lip. However,it was in that other Moshe, Nachmanides, that the elder Soloveichick discovered his intellectual approach and soul.    It can be assumed that Rav Soloveichick's flowering as the premier Talmudist of our times was built in great part by contrasting the words of each of these Medieval teachers in areas they had both worked on, or where Ramban levels his often withering criticism of Rambam's position. There are scores of examples throughout Shas,and in particular in the work Nachmanides dedicated to staking his disagreements with his Egyptian counterpart-Hasagos to the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvos. In his classic towering Perush on Chumash,Ramban forcefully attacks many of Rambam's explanations of mitzvos and interpretations of biblical events.       In the coming weeks, we can together discover anew these diamond like gems of codification, inquiry analysis and poetic barbs that issued from these giants.....-armed with the salient texts, and buoyed by an enthusiasm to discover, I relish the prospect of learning with you. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Beginning a new What if series on Jewish topics.With a premise that significant alternate fiction is built on assiduous research and knowledge of the persons and milieu, Rabbi Kivelevitz states that he and Rabbi Bechhofer have to be steeped somewhat in the ideas and personage under discussion. As both of them as teen agers, were exposed to the Torah of Rav Elchanan Wasserman, his hashkofos, and martyr's death ,the speculation as to how America would have been different had he remained here from 1938 onwards seemed a project they could tackle.Bechhofer claims that due to his hardline views as evidenced by his not allowing students to accept visas in 1939 offered by Yeshiva University and H.T.C.,and the harsh rhetoric of the Ikvasa Demeshicha, and his forceful personality he would have constricted the scope of Yeshiva life, and attacked aggressively institutions that would have allowed bochurim to attend college.Kivelevitz describes Rav Elchanan as the prime figure to crystallize the modern concept of Daas Torah,as is apparent in the famous letter of Rav Eliyahu Dessler.As he could claim to be the historical extender of Rav Chaim Brisker in learning,the Chofetz Chaim in Torah Hashkapha and Rav Chaim Ozer in communal leadership,figures such as Rav Aharon Kotler,Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Eliezer Silver would have been rendered less consequential by the alternate reality Rav Elchanan.While Bechhofer might be correct that Rav Elchanan seemed to be one that would ban any unnecessary use of English in Yeshivos, Kivelevitz reveals that the great Rosh Yeshiva actually was proficient in a few languages and kept abreast of scientific advancements of the day.The Rabbis discuss which work of Rav Elchanan can be considered his most important, Bechhofer believes that the Maamar Al HaEmunah has been the most influential, while Kivelevitz quoting Rav Moshe Heinemann,lists the Kovetz Haoros as demonstrating brilliance, the Divrei Sofrim showcases a Rosh Yeshiva treading into unusual territory that plumbed the nature of fealty to Rabbinic law. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rabbi Francis Nataf is a respected educator, writer and thinker, well known for his ability to find new ways of looking at text and tradition.He is the author of the groundbreaking book on the Torah Redeeming Relevance.The Yeshiva of Newark @IDT is proud to partner with Rav Nataf to help spread his important messages to as wide an audience as possible . This episode is all about nuance and those who understood it. Whether in politics, in spirituality or in everyday life, we should not be asking who is the only one in the right, rather to what degree is this one right and the percentage that the other one is.  Please visithttps://francisnataf.wordpress.com/for many more articles and audio classes from Rabbi NatafPlease leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Well crafted insights from one of the United States' most important Jewish educators See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Listen to the insights and biurim that the Posek HaDor of the late 20th and early 21st centuries brought to these subjects in this week's Torah reading, displaying his unmatched mastery over the whole of Rabbinic literature.You will gain an appreciation of Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv's profound perspectives on the Parsha filtered through the lucid analytic enthusiasm of Rabbi Kivelevitz who has lectured extensively on this Giant of Halacha's life and work. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Issur Ben Tzvi Hersh Tshuvos and Poskim Shiur of the Yeshiva of Newark@IDT sponsored a ZOOM presentation recognizing one of America's leading Rabbinical figures who was  the paragon of a Rav-inspirer of masses towards spirituality, impeccable in his interpersonal behavior and heroic in his dedication to Klal Yisroel. Rabbi Yehudah Kelemer Zt"l was brilliant and cogent in his Halachic decisions and scholarshipand served as Mora DaAsra of the Young Israel of West Hempstead.The recording consists of Divrei Torah,Psakim,Chidushim,Appreciations,Tributes and Remembrancesfeaturing Rabbi Doctor Reuven Poupko,former Chief Rabbi Of Curaçaonephew of the Niftar and Rabbi Dovid M. Cohen,Rabbi of Congregation Ohr Torah in North Woodmere, Talmid Muvhak of the Niftar. The program is introduced and moderated by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kivelevitz. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As a public service the Yeshiva of Newark presents Talmud classes for beginners or for those who have been ill-served by their schooling in the past,or in some way jaundiced towards what still remains the definitive Jewish text of scholarship and more.Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz,a teacher with over forty years of experience teaching Talmud to students of all levels,presents in a clear mannerthe flow of the Talmud's discussion,and what are the goals the text wants the reader to achieve.The Rabbi brings his immense erudition to the fore,in indicating who's who on the page,granting the mature reader a historical perspective of the Halachic process.It isn't child's play- and it might make you fall in love with Gemara learningThe page of Talmud connected with this episode can be found  here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.