Volume 20 Number 35
Produced: Tue Jul 4 11:10:20 1995
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Advice sought on a Tikun
[Jonathan Katz]
Etymology of 'parent'
[Arnie Kuzmack]
No Need for 2nd Day of Yom Tov
[Eliyahu Teitz]
Past Nicht to use Books Written by Females
[Jerrold Landau]
Question about the Haftorah
[Jonathan Katz]
Rav Adda and Calendar.
[Ari Belenkiy]
Two Questions from Camp
[Yitz Etshalom]
Violence in boys only schools
[M.Linetsky]
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From: Jonathan Katz <jkatz@...>
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 95 00:30:28 +0300
Subject: Advice sought on a Tikun
I am looking to buy a new Tikun L'korim (a book which is used in
preparation for reading from the Torah) sometime soon. I am looking for
recommendations from people. I don't really know how much variety there
is available. I have only seen 2 types myself.
If anyone is ware of a Tikun which has either of the following
qualities, please let me know:
1) A tikun which differentiates between a sh'va na and a sh'va nach
2) A tikun which differentiates between a kamatz and a kamatz katan
3) A tikun with a good selection of laws of Torah reading,
pronounciation, etc in the appendix.
Thanks
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From: Arnie Kuzmack <kuzmack@...>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 1995 01:07:59 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Etymology of 'parent'
Mordechai Perlman writes:
> > .... hore 'parent'
> > is derived from heh-resh-heh, 'to conceive, become pregnant', which is
> > the root of 'herayon', 'pregnancy'....
>
> I remember learning that 'hore' parent, 'more' teacher, and 'tora'
> teaching are all related as they are all in the fuction as teachers.
I'm sure you did. The tradition of using technically incorrect
etymologies to teach a lesson goes way back, probably to the text of the
Torah itself. I have no problem with that.
Still, using the rules of Hebrew grammar, how can you derive a noun
'hore' from the root yud-resh-heh? 'More' and 'tora' are
straightforward derivations from the hifil, and 'hore' is easy from the
qal of heh-resh-heh.
Arnie Kuzmack
<kuzmack@...>
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From: <EDTeitz@...> (Eliyahu Teitz)
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 12:52:52 -0400
Subject: Re: No Need for 2nd Day of Yom Tov
Concerning a post recently about not needing a second day of Yom Tov any
more, because of modern tele-communications technology.
A few points:
Our intercommunication is becoming increasingly reliant on satellites.
Nuclear blasts might disrupt this form of communication, as well as
other forms of communication. Hopefully we will never find out, but to
assume that there will always be a method of interaction is not certain.
Likewise, the Soviet Union did a very good job of isolating their
population from the rest of the world when they wanted to. What would
prevent another, more repressive regime anywhere in the world from doing
likewise. Again, an assumption that just because today we have free
communication does not mean it will always be there.
Finally, I recall, though I do not remember where, that the Gr'a asserts
that the second day of Yom Tov outside of Israel is an halacha l'Moshe
mi'Sinai, which would skuttle all attempts to knock it down. I agree
that this makes the relevant g'marot difficult to figure out,
nonetheless, it is a point of view that must be considered. I have also
heard that this was the view of R. Sa'adia Gaon.
To bolster this point of view, look at the situatin in Jordan, which is
surely within a two week radius of Yerushalayim, and yet keeps two days
of Yom Tov.
Eliyahu
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From: <landau@...> (Jerrold Landau)
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 95 09:45:49 EDT
Subject: Past Nicht to use Books Written by Females
At home, I have a book on Bikkur Cholim (the mitzvah of visiting the sick),
written by two women from Jerusalem. It has the haskama (approbation) of
Rav Chayim Pinchas Scheinberg, Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Ohr Yeshiva, and a
well known Posek in Yerushalayim. (I am not even mentioning the Nechama
Leibowitz Chumashim, as I would imagine that there would be those with a
narrow outlook who would frown upon that outstanding set of chumashim.)
Clearly, those who feel that it is 'past nicht' to read a sefer written by
women are not thinking in accordance with one of the most outstanding Poskim
of Yerushalayim.
Jerrold Landau
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From: Jonathan Katz <jkatz@...>
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 95 23:02:34 +0300
Subject: Question about the Haftorah
This past Shabbat, at the Kotel, I saw something which I had never seen
before: the haftorah was read from a scroll, simillar to a Torah scroll
but much smaller (the scroll had all of M'lachim, I believe).
This led me to wonder:
Why is it common practice for the haftorah to be read from any source,
even just a photocopied page with the text? On a simillar note, why is
it common practice to read the haftorah from a source which has the
vowels and Trop printed (as opposed to the Torah scroll where they are
not printed). Is it preferable to read from a scroll?
Any help would be appreciated.
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From: <belenkiy@...> (Ari Belenkiy)
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 12:59:22 -0700
Subject: Rav Adda and Calendar.
>From: Zvi Weiss <weissz@...>
<Without getting into the whole debate abuot Chazal and Science, I would
<like to point out that the Chida in the Birchei Yosef (I think) comments
I'd like a precise reference. Of course, Chida "closed" the whole
problem with incorrect Tekufa.
<that Chazal ALWAYS knew that Shmuel's value for the length of the year
<was less accurate than Rav Ada's.
"Rav Adda"'s value of the Solar year is also manifestly incorrect (7
minutes above the correct value versus 12 minutes of Shmuel).
A question to all:
I am trying to understand our Calendar and the first important problem is
"who was this mysterious Rav Adda"? I failed to indentified him
with any person in Talmud (there are two candidates).
[There are many more than two Rav Adda's in the Talmud. You will need to
find out his fathers name, and then you can check him up in something
like "Toldot Tanaim V'Amoraim" or whatever source you prefer to
use. Mod.]
<However, Chazal CHOSE to follow
<Shmuel's value because the calculations were much simpler.
Of course, it is difficult to make properly a few divisions and
multiplications once a year (a sad joke).
Seemingly Rav Adda did not give any particular value for Solar year at
all. My guess that he made a fundamental assumption that:
"235 Jewish months (125 complete and 110 incomplete) make precisely 19
Solar years" which is good up to 7 minutes per year mentioned above.
It is my understanding that this does not influence any immediate
problems with our Calendar however invisibly shifts our Calendar further
on. (7/60 divided by 24 times 1000 amounts to ~4.5 days to which Arthur
Spier refers that "we celebrate Pesach in average 4.5 days later than in
the time of Saadia Gaon).
<And, -- as long as a Beit Din was relying upon witnesses for Kiddush
<Halevana anyway -- it would be possible to "correct" the calendar
<subtly so that it would not get too "far out of whack". It is
<interesting to add that -- supposedly -- the mathematical model of the
<Luach that we use is
"supposedly"? Could you talk more specificly?
<"reputed" to only go up to the year 6000 -- presumably because by then
<Mashiach will be here and we will not be using the model (at least not
<for anything more than a verification check on the witnesses...).
From the reference I mentioned in JD,20,28, (Arthur Spier) it follows
that a half-second error of Halakhic Lunar month will not influence our
Calendar for at least 15,000 years (when the accumulated error will be
more than a day=24 hours and calculations will tell us about New Moon
whereas we will see the Old one).
Nowadays we sometimes have a Rosh Hodesh a day and half later than
actual Molad happen to be (which is ridiculous but has nothing to do
with that error and stems from another basic assumption about our
Calendar that only three types of the common Jewish year are
permissible: 353,354,355 days).
When both these assumptions were accepted as basis for the whole system
of our Calendar is unclear. Between discussion in Rosh Hoshana,20,
(which can be dated as 250 year CE and indicates that Calendar was not
yet well established and Al-Biruni's confirmation (1000 year CE) of the
existing Jewish Calendar there is a span of 700 years.
I'd like to add that the whole problem with our Calendar (and its
correction) is not easy and I want to see a serious discussion with
references and calculations (and not repetitions of the common places of
Aggadda).
Ari Belenky
P.S. A food for thought: this supposed "collapse" of our Calendar on the
Jewish year 6,000 stems from the following assumption: our Calendar was
known to Adam (Eva's husband) and thus 4.5 days per 1000 years will give
~ a month in 6000 years which might deteriorate our Calendar (it would
be necessary to drop one additional Adar in a leap year).
[You are asking others for sources, what is your source for this
statement? It would appear much more likely to me to be based on the
(possibly incorrectly quoted) Medrash that Moshiach will arrive by 6000
years after creation. Mod.]
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From: Yitz Etshalom <rebyitz@...>
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 15:21:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Two Questions from Camp
In our shiur at Camp Moshava (Wisconsin), two questions were raised to
which I did not have immediate answers - and would like to ask the
mj'ers for their input.
David asked: Since we learned that Moshe's prophecy was of a
qualitatively different sort than any other prophet, (awake, clear etc.)
what sort of prophecy did he and Aharon experience when God spoke to
them together (e.g. Shemot 12, Bamidbar 19) - or to Moshe, Aharon and
Miriam (Bamidbar 12)?
Ami asked: Since we do not pronounce the Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh name properly,
why do we pronounce it "Adonai" - instead of some other cognomen for
God?
Answers are appreciated and will be shared with the shiur.
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From: 81920562%<TAONODE@...> (M.Linetsky)
Date: Sunday, 25 June 1995 9:52am ET
Subject: Violence in boys only schools
In Issue #12 Alana Suskin expressed her deep disdain with my statement that
boys are more innately ennergetic and wild than girls. The fact that I was a
"little vandal" was not due to my gender at all. First of all I would like to
give Alana some lauditary words for realizing that it was I who put vaseline
on the Rabbi's doorknob, I thought no one would ever guess| I am not sure why
she would deny such an apparent observation. I guess she went around kicking
walls in and throwing desks out the window when she was in school if she still
isn't. All girls do, doesn't everyone know that? I wonder how much she bench-
presses? She is wrong in attributing the problem to discipline, as I have
said.We were not allowed to get away with these things and there are more
complicated problems which she fails to recognize. Just for example let bring
another story which, of course will not be funny. When we were assigned a non-
Jewish principal, besides throwing his file cabinet and chair into the pool,
the whole body of students was in protest. We knocked down half the walls in
the school and made public toilets when demolishing the walls of the stalls.
When the school sent a repair man we made sure he did not get too far. He had
a box of nails and plaster in the room which he was trying to repair. When he
left, can't tell you who, spilled the nails in to the plaster. When he
returnedhe started painting the wall and you can imagine what happened. He
must have thought it was very high quality plaster, it comes with nails and
everything. Tell me, should the administration have expelled the whole school?
If they did it would have been another day off. It was a tradition in our
school to have "senior-cut-days". The senior class would not show up one day.
The result was suspension the next. Two days off. Two for the price of one|
These are not simple problems and it was not due to discipline. The students
during the years that I was there all came from fine families and no one
could accuse them of being unrefined. The problem is the confinement. No
matterwhat anyone would tell me, if you confine me to a one area for 12 hours,
I willgo crazy and probably any other male. Perhaps you think that girls do
the same thing too. I do not know what kind of girls you have been dealing
with and I certainly hope I never come accross one of those, I don't like the
idea of my wife holding the door for me saying "ladies first".
Very Sincerely
Michael Linetsky
CSU BETAR/TAGAR
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End of Volume 20 Issue 35