The story is famous but the halacha that is learned from this story is less famous. Rabbi Yosef Caro codifies important rules of jurisprudence from this Haftarah.

Shulchan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat 17:7:

 צריך הדיין לשמוע דברי הבעלי דינים ולשנות אותם שנאמר ויאמר המלך זאת אומרת בני החי וגו' ומצדיק הדין בלבו ואח"כ חותכו

The judge must hear the claims of the litigants and repeat them, for it is written (1 Kings 2:23), The king said, This one says, This (is) my son that lives, and your son (is) the dead, and the other says, Not so, your son (is) the dead, and my son (is) the living, and he makes the case clear in his heart [mind], and then decides it.

I spent this past Monday learning with other women educators as part of Prizmah’s Orthodox Women in Leadership cohort. We were guided in a listening activity where we had to listen to our partner without interrupting and repeat back to them what they had said. We had to do it without forgetting anything, without embellishing their words, and without judgment. Listening is not simply hearing the other person and nodding along in agreement. Listening is hard and it means you are fully focused on the other person. 

The presenter at the conference quoted Rabbi Lord Jonanthan Sacks who says the following: 

“Listening lies at the very heart of a relationship. It means that we are open to the other, that we respect them, that their perceptions and feelings matter to us. We give them permission to be honest, even if this means making ourselves vulnerable in so doing. A good parent listens to their child. A good employer listens to their workers. A good company listens to its customers or clients. A good leader listens to those they are leading. Listening does not mean agreeing but it does mean caring. Listening is the climate in which love and respect grow.”

Unfortunately, this Haftorah is not read often enough to instill in us this message of truly listening to one another. But in reality, it isn’t something you can read about and just do. Perhaps if we practice what became a halachic practice for the judges of listening to the person who stands before us and repeating back what they say thereby entering into a dialogue, we can begin to build closer relationships with those around us. 

Rabbi Sacks concludes with the following:

“In Judaism we believe that our relationship with God is an ongoing tutorial in our relationships with other people. How can we expect God to listen to us if we fail to listen to our spouse, our children, or those affected by our work? And how can we expect to encounter God if we have not learned to listen. On Mount Horeb, God taught Elijah that He was not in the whirlwind, the earthquake or the fire, but in the kol demamah dakah, the “still, small voice” (I Kings 19:12) that I define as a voice you can only hear if you are listening. Crowds are moved by great speakers, but lives are changed by great listeners. Whether between us and God or us and other people, listening is the prelude to love.”

We have many years until we read this Haftorah again. In the meantime, let’s all try to learn to listen to each other better and hope that in return Hashem listens to us and our tefilot. 

Shabbat Shalom,



Mrs. Amy Stein

It was a wonderful week of Chanukah at Kohelet Yeshiva! 

On Monday we had our annual Chanukah learning program, where our high school students learned together with our lab school and middle school students, which was followed by a beautiful and energy-filled K-12 chanukiyah lighting in the gym.

We lit the chanukiyah together with Rav Rotem Shamay, who joined us from Israel via Zoom together with the other soldiers in his IDF unit. As Rav Rotem lit his chanukiyah in Israel while holding an Israeli flag that our students signed and gave him before he left, the Shamay children lit the special Kohelet chanukiyah that was made by a number of our students.

Please click on the link below and watch our video from our amazing schoolwide Chanukah program!

Parents, you should have received in the mail Kohelet parking placards to keep in your cars when you come to campus - drop off and pick up or for an event. If you have not yet received a placard or need an extra one, please email Miriam Morley. For security purposes, it is important that you display the placard in your car when you drive onto our campus.

Please enjoy this musical video, in which our students and faculty sing "Rak Biglal HaRuach" and express solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel who are defending our Jewish homeland.

Thank you to our incredible Bnot Sherut for putting this together!

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 19th, when Kohelet Yeshiva High School will be hosting our Winter Kohelet Cafe!

Please join us at 5:30 for the Girl's Program (women only) and at 7:00 for the General Program (all welcome) and enjoy the performances by our High School student bands. Dinner will be served during the Girl's Program and desserts and snacks will be available during the General Program. We hope you will be able to join us!

Events like these are made possible largely through the hard work of Kohelet students as well as our Musical Directors, Levi Gornish and Josh Burgos. Donations to help offset the cost of the event are greatly appreciated! You can donate by clicking here. Please indicate that the donation is intended for Kohelet Cafe. Donations of all amounts are welcome.  

Thank you for your support of the arts at Kohelet!

Scenes from our annual Chanukah learning program, where our high school students learned together with our lab school and middle school students, which was followed by a beautiful and energy-filled K-12 chanukiyah lighting in the gym.

This past Wednesday was KYHS Chesed Day. Students and teachers took part in a range of activities centered around chesed, including performing yard work and maintenance of the Bala Cynwyd Trail, organizing books for inmates at the Books through Bars warehouse, preparing meals at the MANNA kitchen, organizing and sorting seforim and other books at Kohelet, volunteering at the Cradles to Crayons warehouse, helping to organize and categorize donated books at BookSmiles, organizing donated clothes at the Our Closet warehouse, sewing pillowcases for Ryan’s Case for Smiles, and volunteering at Mitzvah Food Pantry, Lower Merion Synagogue, and Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

KYLS and KYMS students are wrapping up the first mitzvah of the Mitzvah Momentum program. They all learned about the mitzvah of Dan Lekaf Zechut, judging everyone favorably. As a way to conclude the first mitzvah, the middle school is authoring and illustrating books that they will then read to students in K-3. The books that they create will be the first installment to the Mitzvah Momentum library.