Volume 18 Number 45
Produced: Thu Feb 16 22:03:25 1995
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
2000 Amot on Shabbat
[David Charlap]
2000 Amot on Shabbat - MJ V18#41
[Yehudah Edelstein]
Airplanes
[Adina B. Sherer]
Benny Goodman
[Constance Stillinger]
Medicine in the Gemara
[Micha Berger]
Motivation and ignorant Men...
[Zvi Weiss]
Nefesh HaChaim
[Meir Soloveichik]
Purim Occuring in Adar Sheini
[Moishe Kimelman]
Set-screws for Leiter's sukkahs
[Freda B. Birnbaum]
Steak Sauce
[Lon Eisenberg]
Sunrise, sunset, and altitude
[Akiva Miller]
Two Adars
[Eli Turkel]
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From: <david@...> (David Charlap)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 95 11:25:51 EST
Subject: 2000 Amot on Shabbat
<Keeves@...> (Akiva Miller) writes:
>If one does live further than 2000 amos from a place to which one wants
>to walk on Shabbos, there is a procedure called "Eruv Techumin", which
>will be sure to re-spark the recent MJ debate about loopholes. If I
>understand Eruv Techumin correctly, one places a meal's worth of food at
>a certain location, (between his home and his destination,) and declares
>that location to be his Shabbos "place" mentioned in the above-quoted
>verse. This will allow him to go a distance of 2000 amos from the food
>in any direction, and so it will not be effective unless his home is
>less than 4000 (*four* thousand) amos from his destination.
Yes, but you can't just put the food there. You actually have to eat
one of the three Shabbos meals there as well. So you can't just leave
food in the middle of nowhere and ignore it for the rest of shabbos.
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From: <yehudah@...> (Yehudah Edelstein)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 21:04:23 +0200
Subject: 2000 Amot on Shabbat - MJ V18#41
As mentioned before the source is Exodus 16:29.
Looking in the Sefer Hachinuch:Beshalach:24, it says that D'oreisa (from
the Torah), it is prohibited to walk 3 Parsaot (1 Parsa = 4 Mil = 8000
Amot), outside your place of leaving. Rabanan add a preventive measure
and prohibit us from walking 2000 Amot outside the city. Using 'Eruv
Techumin', still keeps us within 4000 amot, from the 24000 Amot.
Yehudah Edelstein
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From: <adina@...> (Adina B. Sherer)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 95 22:31:02 IST
Subject: Airplanes
Regarding the discussion of saying Bircas Hagomel after flying in an
airplane, in Iggros Moshe (OH 2:59) Rav Feinstein z"l states that the
bracha should be made each time you fly. Although the tshuva was
written in 1963, because it was based upon the fact that the plane does
not travel on land (he compares it to "Yordei Layam") I suspect that he
would not answer otherwise today.
-- Carl Sherer
Adina and Carl Sherer
You can reach us both at:
<adina@...>
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From: Constance Stillinger <cas@...>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 16:06:26 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Benny Goodman
Listening today to a Benny Goodman recording, I was struck as always by
what sounds to *me* like a strong klezmer influence in his swing ---
are there any extant recordings of him playing klezmer? I would also
be interested in biography recommendations.
Regards,
Connie
Dr. Constance A. (Chana) Stillinger <cas@...>
Research Coordinator, Education Program for Gifted Youth
Stanford University http://kanpai.stanford.edu/epgy/pamph/pamph.html
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From: Micha Berger <berger@...>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 95 07:44:27 -0500
Subject: Medicine in the Gemara
I recently glanced at someone else's copy of Divrei Yechezkel -- a
contemporary commentary to the Rambam's Sefer Madah (the first book of
the Mishnah Torah, Knowledge) by a R. Yechezkel Weiss. It's in easy
hebrew, and from the little I've seen I highly recommend it.
He quotes R. Avigdor Miller's opinion (along with about half a dozen
older ones that I didn't read) about medicine in the gemara.
It is Hashem who heals. The only reason why doctors and medicine are
necessary is to convert the healing from a neis nigleh (an obvious
miracle) to a neis nistar (a hidden miracle). Since most of us only
merit Divine Intervention in ways that only subtly show His Hand,
doctors are necessary.
R. Avigdor explains that what this implies is that medicine need not
be accurate, only believable. The role of medicine is not to cure, but
to convince the skeptic that the person can be cured. (Since, without
such proof, the skeptic will be convinced of G-d's existance by Divine
Intervention.)
Therefor, it is quite likely that the medicine in the gemara worked,
even though we currently know the theory to be wrong.
When you take this out of the realm of medicine and into other
sciences and engineering, the argument loses its force. Would we
believe that in olden days machines based on Aristotle's physics of
impetus did work? After all, don't machines too only exist as vehicles
for Hashem's aid? Or is there something distinct about medicine?
Perhaps the subject is addressed, I only had a chance to look at the
sefer (book) bein gavra ligavra (between one man [being called up for
an aliyah] and another).
Micha Berger Help free Ron Arad, held by Syria 3035 days!
<berger@...> 212 224-4937 (16-Oct-86 - 9 -Feb-95)
<aishdas@...> 201 916-0287
<a href=http://www.iia.org/~aishdas>AishDas Society's Home Page</a>
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From: Zvi Weiss <weissz@...>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 14:57:33 -0500
Subject: Motivation and ignorant Men...
Larry Israel raises the question of men dancing w/ the Sefer Torah if
THEY are not fully observant. In addition to the observation that there
are places where only the Talmidei Chachamim (Outstanding Scholars)
dance w/ the Torah... I would like to note that there is a story that
this very question was once asked to an ignorant man who was dancing
with a Torah i.e., what was HIS connection here as he was ignorant.. He
responded that he was "dancing at his brother's happiness" -- that is,
he was happy over the scholarship that the Torah has imparted to
Talmidei Chachamim. In other words, he was not dancing *for himself*
but out of joy that *others* have found so much in Torah.
Additionally, I would suggest that because men have an intrinsic
obligation of Talmud Torah as a stand-alone obligation (not simply
because one must study in order to know what to do), the dancing that
men do is a celebration of that *obligation". This is in clear contrast
to women where the halacha is quite explicit that women do NOT have such
an obligation. Since men are dancing in celebration of their
obligation, the question of motivation does not apply -- just as we do
not inquire into people's motivation (in general) for any obligatiory
acts that they perform.
--Zvi.
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From: Meir Soloveichik <msolo@...>
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 15:00:55 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Nefesh HaChaim
Does anyone now what good studies were done on Rav Chaim
Vilozhin's Nefesh HaChaim, in particular the first shaar?
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From: <kimel@...> (Moishe Kimelman)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 17:30:34 +1100
Subject: Purim Occuring in Adar Sheini
In mj # 41 Akiva Miller writes:
>Megillas Esther points out, in several places, that the incidents
>leading to Purim were scheduled for, and occurred in, "the twelfth
>month, which is the month of Adar." Now, if that year had two Adars, and
>these things happened in the second one, wouldn't we refer to it as the
>*thirteenth* month? -- To me, this is pretty convincing evidence that it
>was in Adar Rishon, or that there was only one Adar that year.
See Yerushalmi Megillah Perek 1 Halachah (7a in the standard edition)
where R' Levi in the name of R' Chama bar Chanina says that Purim
occured in Adar Sheini. His proof - according to the explanation of the
Korban Ha'edah - is from the words that Akiva Miller quotes as a proof
against! Why say "the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar"? Isn't
it repetitive? The meaning must be that normally it would be the twelfth
month, but in that year it was the thirteenth.
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From: Freda B. Birnbaum <FBBIRNBAUM@...>
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 12:34:36 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Set-screws for Leiter's sukkahs
Stephen J. Chapman asked about replacement set-screws for Leiter's
sukkahs. I don't have their address, but when I needed to replace
some set-screws on the one we have (not a Leiter's, as far as I know)
I took a sample of one of them to a good hardware store (the kind where
they sell more than bubble-wrapped cuphooks) and asked for a bunch.
No problem. (I also picked up a couple of extra Allen wrenches of the
proper size while I was at it. "All for the want of a twopenny nail...!)
BTW, in our house we (well, I...) refer to it as the "aluminum tinkertoy
Sukkah with the 24-foot shower-curtain walls" (actually it's a nice green
and white, looks more harvest-dik than the bright yellow and blue... I
digress!)
Freda Birnbaum
<fbb6@...> / fbbirnbaum@cutcv2.tc.columbia.edu
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From: Lon Eisenberg <eisenbrg@...>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 08:44:17 +0000
Subject: Steak Sauce
I don't understand the use of nullification in 60 here; that is normally
applied because the taste is indistinguishable. In this case, what do
we care about the taste? The taste of meat with fish is not prohibited;
their mixing is prohibited since it is unhealthy to eat them together.
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From: <Keeves@...> (Akiva Miller)
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 03:36:39 -0500
Subject: Sunrise, sunset, and altitude
In MJ volume 18, issues 26, 30, and 32, several posters mentioned the
idea of considering (not only latitude and longitude, but also)
*altitude* when calculating halachic times of day.
The Igros Moshe of Rav Moshe Feinstein, Orach Chaim, volume 1, siman 97,
begins like this: "Now, the place where you live is not far from New
York. Nevertheless, sunset changes because of the mountain to the west,
and sunset appears about 20 minutes early. Even within your city, some
places change, according to their depth or according to their distance
from the mountain. How should we judge the beginning and ending of
Shabbos and Yom Tov there?"
This tshuva is almost two pages long, and I am not capable of
summarizing it here. Those who are interested, go for it!
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From: <turkel@...> (Eli Turkel)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 09:53:42 -0500
Subject: Two Adars
I recently heard a nice shiur from Rav Tabory (on loan in Cleveland
from the "Gush" yeshiva).
There are three types of halachot for calendar tracking:
1: time based on months. A typical example is mourning which is kept
for parents for 12 months. These halachot continue based on the
months independent of the existence of a second Adar. Similarly
Kaddish for 11 months has no connection to a leap year.
2: time based on a year. The famous example is "batei arei chomah".
In the days of the Temple one had a year to redeem property sold
in a walled city. This Halacha would be 12 months on an ordinary
year and 13 months in a leap year. Similarly a bar/bat mitzvah
is based on 13 (12) full years and not on months. Hence someone
born in shevat would wait 13 months from the the 12th to 13th
birthday not 12 months (except for a "strange" Magen Avraham that
most achronim don't understand).
3: time based on a specific date: If that date occurs in Adar then
the Vilna gaon states that it is "celebrated" both in Adar I and Adar II.
(the Mechaber and Rama were quoted by Yehudah Edelstein). The Gra
holds that this is halachah not chumrah.
A typical example would be a yahrzeit.
{Purim should fit into this category except that the Gemara learns
from the Megillah that it is an exception. There are 3 opinions
in the rishonim what to do on Purim Katan (14th Adar I).
Ignore it, have a festive meal or have all the halachot of Purim
except for reading the megillah and things connected with that.
Hence someone whose parent passed away this past Shevat would stop
kaddish 11 months later - in Kislev. Would end mourniong twelve months
later in Tevet and would have a yahrzeit a year later in Shevat.
<turkel@...>
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End of Volume 18 Issue 45