Just like in every other Jewish home, there is a set of
Mishnah Berurah on the shelves. Its pages are well-
worn. After all, who doesn't devote some time each day to
study halochoh lema'aseh?
But the last volume of the Mishnah Berurah, which
includes the halachos of Pesach, is rarely — if ever
— opened. As we might want to review these halachos
thirty days before the holiday, we are so busy with our
preparations that we simply don't manage to find the time.
And so — again — we review the halachos of the
Seder by looking at the brief summaries printed at the
front of the Haggodoh.
But why is this night — the night of Pesach —
different from all other nights? Why is Seder night
different from all the other holidays? On Rosh Hashonoh, we
know the ins and outs of the halachos pertaining to tekias
Shofar, yet we don't know the halachos of bedikas
chometz. We are fluent in every detail of where and how
to light the Chanukah Menorah, but the only reason we know
when to recite "borei pri hagofen" on the Arba
Kosos, is because it is written in the Haggodoh.
Erev Pesach is one of the busiest, if not the busiest, time
of the year, so we excuse ourselves by saying, "We were
slaves . . . ." We were so busy with our preparations that we
had no time to review the halachos prior to the holiday.
Shonei Halachos, however, has a suggestion that will make
this coming Pesach different. By Nisan 2006, participants in
"The Daily Amud Study Program" will have completed the fifth
volume of Mishnah Berurah, the volume that contains
the halachos of Pesach.
On Friday, 15 Tammuz, they will begin studying the halachos
of Pesach from the fifth volume of the Mishnah
Berurah.
Original Aids
With the commencement of the study of the fifth volume of the
Mishnah Berurah, Shonei Halachos has come up with two
innovative aids for reviewing the material.
Each month, Shonei Halachos will produce and distribute an
audio-disk containing a month's worth of shiurim on
the Daily Amud delivered by a qualified posek. The
shiurim are delivered in easy-to-understand Hebrew.
In addition, participants in "The Daily Amud Study Program"
can review the material through weekly tests taken in the
privacy of their own home. The finished tests are mailed back
to the Shonei Halachos office and looked over by a qualified
posek.
Throughout the Year
Many families are particular to never place seforim on
the table together with food, so that no crumb of chometz
will find its way into the seforim and the
seforim can be used during Pesach.
One of the reasons for this minhag is to observe the mitzvah
of zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim, since whenever a person
is careful about chometz, he automatically thinks
about Pesach, the holiday commemorating yetzias
Mitzrayim.
Similarly, anyone who studies the halachos of Pesach in "The
Daily Amud Study Program" is mekayeim behiddur the
mitzvah of zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim.
Thousands of previous participants in the Daily Amud Study
Program were delighted to discover that with the assistance
of the innovative, new edition of the Mishnah Berurah,
published by Machon Oz Vehadar — the Mishnah
Berurah Hamevoar — they, too, were able to master
the difficult halachos of eruvin. Under the leadership
of Rabbi Yehoshua Leifer, rav of the Skverer community in
Monsey, New York, and with siyata deShmaya and
thoughtful planning, Oz Vehadar is currently publishing its
multi-volume series, the Mishnah Berurah Hamevoar.
With enlightening illustrations and easy-to-understand
explanations on both the Mishnah Berurah and the
Biyur Halacha, the Mishnah Berurah Hamevoar is
fully vowelled and contains hundreds of accurately quoted
sources to facilitate in-depth learning of the material.
Machon Oz Vehadar recently published the third volume,
covering the fifth section of the Mishnah Berurah.
In addition to being published to fit in with the schedule of
the Daily Amud Study Program, each page of the Mishnah
Berurah Hamevoar contains the pertinent dates for the
next five cycles of the Amud Yomi. Opportunities are still
available to dedicate a page in memory or in the merit of a
loved one.
It is hoped that this project will result in the growth of
dedicated Jews studying the Daily Amud, building their lives
on a strong foundation of practical halacha.
To get A Calendar by mail, free of charge call today. IN UK:
0208-802-5050; IN USA: 1718-431-8140; IN ISRAEL 9728-866-
9922.
