Why should every Jew have the Shulchan Aruch at home?

Simply put: because every Jew should have the Shulchan Aruch at home.

And since I am a teacher—both privately and professionally—and today I started a new lecture series, I want to be able to prepare for it at home as well, take notes, and study thoroughly directly from the book.

This is how Jossi Steiner, the last person to serve as a rabbi in Košice, wrote it:

When I open the Talmud and ask Jews what they know about it, I get answers like: one read a book about the Talmud in Czech. Well, okay. Another read a book about the Talmud in Hungarian. And a third watched a movie about the Talmud.

But traditional learning is something else.

A Jew studies because he is supposed to study.

The path of education does not end with graduation; it lasts a lifetime.

In every Jewish home there should be books: the Tanakh (Holy Scriptures), the Talmud (questions of law, ethics, customs, history...), and the Shulchan Aruch (the "Set Table").

There one learns how to behave, which shoe to tie first, what to say, how to pray, how long to wait between milk and meat (six hours).

It is difficult to grapple with the truths in the Talmud, with what people tried to express thousands of years ago.

But it is precisely this perseverance in religion that has become a core attribute of the Jewish character – and that is why Jews have succeeded in all areas.

Whom Will This Help?

Who am I?

My name is Zeev Breiner. When I was 19 years old, I began learning to read Hebrew with Rabbi Zeev Stiefel שליט״א.

After four years of study in Orthodox yeshivot in Berlin and Bnei Brak, I returned to my homeland, where I now spread God's word to those who are interested in it.

If you'd like to know more about me, here’s what a typical day of mine looks like—take tomorrow, for example:

06:00 – Lecture on Isaiah for an online group

07:45 – Morning prayer in the synagogue

08:15 – Online lecture on Shemot – group

09:15 – Private Weingreen lecture

10:00 – In-person Weingreen lecture at the synagogue

11:00 – Study partner from London – Chavakuk

11:30 – Travel to the Jewish Community of Prague

12:15 – My teacher Rabbi Dushinsky teaches me how to read the Torah from a scroll

13:15 – End of the workday

13:30 – Lunch with my family

14:30 – Outing to the playground with my three children

18:00 – Dinner with the family

18:45 – Afternoon prayer at home, alone

20:00 – Putting the children to sleep

And sometime between evening and morning: evening prayer and doing the dishes.

What Exactly Will the Money From This Fundraiser Be Used For?

I am raising funds to purchase the above-mentioned books—which contain endless wisdom and represent an inexhaustible well of morality and truth for everyday life for anyone who desires to have God in their heart.

From the lectures based on these books, which we will hold twice a week (each about 20 minutes), publicly available recordings will be made on my YouTube channel.

There, people will have access to content—in Slovak—that they would otherwise never encounter.

These materials are often not available in Slovak, and sometimes they don't exist in any language at all.

This creates a unique project, unprecedented in its form and language—until now.