Volume 12 Number 76
Produced: Sat Apr 23 23:14:13 1994
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Chazir after Mashiach
[Rabbi Moshe Taragin]
Davening when Making Early Shabbat
[Arthur Roth]
Egalitarian/Mixed Seeting, etc
[Jonathan Katz]
Electric Door Locks
[Rivkah Isseroff]
Kitniyos questions
[Mitchell J. Schoen]
Lashon Hara
[Michael Rosenberg]
Less Dangerous Substances
[Eric Safern]
M&Ms and Skor bars in Canada
[David Sherman]
Tradition
[Seth Magot]
Yom Tov Sheni
[Arvin Levine]
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From: Rabbi Moshe Taragin <taragin@...>
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 15:25:58 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Chazir after Mashiach
Where is the chazal that says Bimharah biyomainu after Moshiach comes,
that Chazir will become mootar? Where is the chazal and what is the
significance of that maamar?? Thank You
Dr. Herbert Taragin Gut Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom
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From: <rotha@...> (Arthur Roth)
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:55:06 -0500
Subject: Davening when Making Early Shabbat
>From Uri Meth (and similar ideas from other posters) in MJ 12:71:
> early during the summer months. I was taught (I forget where it is
> brought down and I don't have my mishna brurah with me) that if one
> wishes to bring in shabbos early, that he is required to daven mincha
> before plag hamincha. Only then is one permitted to bring shabbos in
> early. However, the Minhag Haolam (the custom of the world) is to daven
> mincha even after plag hamincha and still bring in shabbos early. Any
> thoughts?
The basic halacha is as Uri states, i.e., mincha and ma'ariv must be
davened in separate zemanei tefilah (either mincha before plag and
ma'ariv after plag, or waiting until after sunset to daven ma'ariv). My
understanding is, though, that a minyan has the privilege of overriding
this halacha due to issues of tircha d'tzibura (wasting the community's
time) and kavod hatzibur (the honor of the congregation), and that many
minyanim exercise this privilege by davening both mincha and ma'ariv
between plag and sunset on Fridays. On other days this is not possible,
as the earliest time for ma'ariv does not arrive until sunset even if
mincha is davened before plag.
The practical implication of this (paskened for me many years ago by
the LOR of the community I lived in at the time) is that a yachid
(individual who davens without a minyan) may NEVER daven both mincha and
ma'ariv between plag and sunset. This has implications both for
travelers who spend a Shabbat alone and in cases where a planned minyan
does not materialize and there is no other nearby minyan, forcing people
unexpectedly to daven as individuals. At least the traveler knows in
advance that he can avoid the problem by davening mincha before plag.
The "minyan" that falls short can really lead to inconvenience in this
regard. In fact, I can recall one such case many years ago where my
wife was not at all happy about delaying the Friday night meal for quite
awhile after she had expected to serve it.
At any rate, perhaps much of the confusion on this issue is related
to the above distinction between a yachid and a minyan. --- Arthur Roth
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From: Jonathan Katz <frisch1@...>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 15:34:35 EDT
Subject: Egalitarian/Mixed Seeting, etc
This may or may not have come up before, but I'll take my chances and ask
anyway. I was just wondering about various rules concerning egalitarian
and mixed-seating (but no women participation) minyans.
1) Is it allowed for a male to read Torah for a mixed seeting minyan?
2) What exactly is the reason for prohibiting women from
A) reading from the Torah
B) Making the blessing on the Torah reading
(It would seem to me that there are cases where (A) might be allowed; i.e.
the times when boys under bar-mitzva age are allowed to read)
Thank you.
Jonathan Katz
<frisch1@...>
410 Memorial Drive - Room 251B
Cambridge, MA 02139
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From: Rivkah Isseroff <rrisseroff@...>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 18:46:56 -0400
Subject: Electric Door Locks
The recent posts on hotel electric door locks have immediate relevance
to me, since I'm scheduled to be in Baltimore for a meeting next week
that lasts over Shabbos. In requesting door lock information from the
hotel manager (at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel), I was told that the
locks are not "electric" but "mechanical" in that although they are
opened with a hole-punched key card, this activates a magnetic
(battery-powered) lock. There are no indicator green lights (or other
lights) on this door locK (as opposed to others I've seen). The manager
would not (actually said could not, since it was impossible to do)
disable the lock over Shabbos. Additionally, I was told that all the
hotels in the area now use this security system, and a cursory telephone
survey of at least 6 of them shows this to be the case.
So...... I need some help here.
1) is the "mechanical" lock truly non-electrical, if it employs a
battery-powered magnetic mechanism?
2) corollary--can I use it on Shabbos?
3) any suggestions re: "old fashioned" key hotels in the Baltimore
convention center area?
I'm leaving on Wednesday April 27, so if any fellow MJer can email me a
response before I leave, that would be much appreciated.
Rivkah Isseroff
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From: Mitchell J. Schoen <72277.715@...>
Date: 19 Apr 94 11:21:56 EDT
Subject: Kitniyos questions
I'm wondering if someone could do me a favor and be a "mar'eh m'komot"
for me so that I could find an halachik definition of kitniyot. It
seems that the category spans botanically very different
species--everything from peanuts to corn to beans to rice to mustard
seeds, etc. What do these things (halachikly speaking) have in common?
What common features unite these different entities into the set of
"kitniyot"?
I have to admit that I have an ulterior motive: I make a "killer" wild
rice stuffing, and I'd like to know whether wild rice would also be
classified as kitniyot. For those who don't know, wild rice resembles
rice, but is not in fact "rice" at all--it's botanically a grass and
cannot be ground up to prepare a "wild rice flour" such as can be made
from regular rice. Does anyone know of a t'shuva regarding wild rice
that's already been published? Otherwise, I suppose I can always ask my
LOR, but in any case I would still like the m'komot for the definition
of kitniyot.
Thanks!
72277.715@@compuserv.com <Mitchell J. Schoen>
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From: <Michael.Rosenberg@...> (Michael Rosenberg)
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 05:57:50 PDT
Subject: Lashon Hara
I've only been reading Mail Jewish for about 5 months. Last week's
parsha we learned about tzra'at and from the mfarshim that this
spiritual ailment was caused by Lashon ha Ra. In looking at a list of
all the forms lashon ha ra can take I was amazed. It occurred to me
that most (all?) of us are guilty of some or all of these forms. [If
this has been discussed, could you direct me to the archive so I can
retrieve it. If not, here is my question:]
In discussing lashon ha ra with a friend on Shabbat, about one minute
into the conversation he mentioned someone else at shul (in a negative
light) and caught himself. How do you Mail Jewish readers deal with
this subject? How do you control a habit--discussing other people when
almost anything said about anyone could qualify as lashon ha ra--that
seems like second nature to many of us, and happens everywhere we
congregate? Do you feel that this is a very harmful and pernicious
force in Jewish society? And if so, how do we as a society bring about
a new social norm?
Michael Rosenberg Portland, OR
uucp: uunet!m2xenix!dawggon!31.9!Michael.Rosenberg..Portland,
Internet: Michael.Rosenberg..Portland,@p9.f31.n105.z1.fidonet.org
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From: <esafern@...> (Eric Safern)
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 16:25:03 -0400
Subject: Re: Less Dangerous Substances
<david@...> (David Charlap) writes:
>On the other hand, "hard" drugs are often mind altering. They
>completely detroy a person's ability to think straight, destroy a
>person's ability to judge right and wrong, and often leads to violent
>behavior. This poses a danger, not just to the user, but to the
>entire community.
I see two problems here:
1)
You say "hard" drugs 'destroy a person's ability to judge right and wrong.'
This is one of the legal definitions of insanity.
This seems to me a dangerous statement. Under Western jurisprudence, if
this statement is proven in court, this is a big mitigating factor. Do
you believe we shouldn't hold drug addicts responsible for violent
actions?
2)
Some of what you say is true for certain addictive substances which
are illegal in this country. But everything (with the exception of my
point above) is true of alcohol addicts/abusers. Yet alcohol is
permitted by halacha, at least in moderation.
Why should the halachic position on permitted drugs be set by the
sometimes arbitrary schedules kept by the DEA?
Eric Safern
<esafern@...>
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From: <dave@...> (David Sherman)
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 15:05:20 -0400
Subject: Re: M&Ms and Skor bars in Canada
> Re David Sherman's posting about M&Ms and Skor bars in Canada:
>
> The COR sends out regular updates about Kashrus in Toronto. In a
> recent one they wrote that "all Hershey products make under Kosher
> supervision must bear a COR when made in Canada and an OU when made in
> the US."
> On a recent trip to New York City I saw several different Hershey bars
> with an OU.
> For more information call the COR (they are very nice and very helpful)
> at 416-635-9550.
I just called the COR, and they told me to call the OU. I know that
Skor bars have been under OU for a long time; the "kosher" stores
in Toronto have brought in Skor bars from the U.S. for this reason.
And Hershey Canada Inc. confirmed that the Skor bars labelled for
the Canadian market are produced under the same supervision as the
ones in the U.S. Glad to hear that the OU will be appearing on the
packages in the future, but from my analysis it does not appear to be
needed at present.
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From: <MAGOT@...> (Seth Magot)
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 14:01:39 -0400
Subject: Tradition
A little story that I rather enjoy telling that involves
tradition. A new wife makes a pot rost. She carefully cuts off a
1/4 inch piece from the tip. After a couple of times her new husband
asks her "why do you remove 1/4 from the tip, then mumble a few
words? What is the tradition?" Her answer was very simple, "my
mother does it." So they went to her mother, with the same question.
Her answer was simple, "I got it from your grandmother, and I never
question her." Well they went off to talk to the grandmother. Her
answer was very simple. "I never had a pot that was big enough, and
so I had to cut off the tip of the meat so that it would fit the pot.
And the words... 'why can't we get a proper size pot!"
Seth Magot
<magot@...>
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From: <LEVINE_ARVIN@...> (Arvin Levine)
Date: 21 Apr 94 07:45:00 -0700
Subject: Re: Yom Tov Sheni
Danny Skaist asks:
> The question I have is what about t'fillin on the last day of hutz l'arat
> hag, when Israelis wear them and outside of Israel they are not worn?
> If you keep 1/2 day, do you put them on for mincha or after or what ???
When I spent time in Haifa (in an undeterminate American/Israeli
status), Rav Benedict (the LOR of Ahuza suburb) told me to put on
Tefillin without a Bracha on that day. That way, you get the Mitzvah of
Tefillin, but have not denied the Sanctity of Yom Tov.
Arvin Levine
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End of Volume 12 Issue 76