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Barry Yaffe

Barry M, Yaffe, MD, Ph.D has been practicing clinical oncology for the past 22 years, and is in the process of shifting his professional emphasis back to his first love, biomedical research. Originally hailing from Memphis, TN, he studied under Rav Meir Belsky at The Yeshiva of the South. For the past two decades he has lived with his wife Jennifer in Atlanta, GA, a place which has developed into a serious makom Torah within a single generation. His passion is to elucidate a deeper understanding of Tehillim through the application of a novel yet ancient system of textual and thematic analysis. He is the proud father of three wonderful children and five grandchildren. He may be emailed at bmy777@yahoo.com.

Redefining Makas Bechoros: NOT Plague of the Firstborn! – Part 1

April 13, 2022, by

  Part 2 MAKAS B’CHOROS TALKING POINTS THAT MAKE THE PLAGUE UNIQUE AND DISTINCTIVE (1) WHY IS IT THE ONLY PLAGUE THAT CONTAINS THE WORD ‘MAKEH’? Since all of the plagues were makos, it would not be unreasonable to name them all as ‘Plagues’—e.g. Makas Dom, Makas Tz’fardei’a, etc. Since the author of the Hagadah […]

A Cryptic Footnote to the Bris Bein Habesarim

April 12, 2020, by

Did you ever notice how bizarre everything about the Bris Bein Habesarim is and how unintelligible is most of the symbolim? Everything about it has a surreal quality. Much of it will remain so after this explanation, however we will employ a fascinating Mechilta from Parshas B’Shalach to help us fill in the symbolism of […]

Esther’s Royal Purim Payback

March 4, 2020, by

At first blush, Megilas Esther reads deceptively simply, but on further scrutiny many of the pesukim are actually quite hard to translate in a way that ‘makes sense’ in English, without being repetitive and cumbersome. In fact, much of the Megilah—in line with the theme of the entire yom tov –is loaded with hidden irony. […]

Tehillim 19 and the Essence of Simchas Torah

October 7, 2019, by

Simchas Torah! Surely near the top of everyone’s list for Most Joyous Holiday, vying only with Purim as serious competition. And that starts when we are very young, too small to understand, but caught up in the excitement of the singing and dancing, each child in turn being given his or her moments in the […]

One Coin—Two Sides

December 13, 2017, by

When we check the weekly sedrah reading for Shabbas Chanukah (ie the narrative of the sale of Yosef, in the weekly Parshios of Vayeishev, Mikeitz or Vayigash) looking for some prophetic hint or link to the holiday, we find to our surprise a whole host of phrases that sound familiar to us, not related to […]