Volume 22 Number 71
Produced: Thu Jan 4 1:07:35 1996
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
A *very* disturbing letter
[Shmuel Himelstein]
Correcting Torah reading
[David Hollander]
Date of late Rosh HaShana
[Steve White]
Dining out with Customers
[Barry Graham]
Length of Haftorah
[Shlomo Katz]
Mussaf - Shabbat Rosh Chodesh
[Yehudah Livneh]
Mussaf on Shabbos Rosh Chodesh
[Jerry B. Altzman]
Number of Haftorah Pesukim
[Jonathan Bailey]
Pinchas/Zimri and Matityahu situations
[Barry S. Bank]
Question: Shamash for Oil Burning Chanukiyah.
[G Michelson]
Shabbos Rosh Chodesh
[Louis Rayman]
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From: Shmuel Himelstein <himelstein@...>
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 1995 15:53:02 +0200 (IST)
Subject: A *very* disturbing letter
This Friday's (December 29) magazine section of the HaAretz daily
newspaper carries the following letter (my translation). Its
implications should be of major concern to every caring Jew in the
world.
<begin quote>
Unfortunately, I cannot be a partner to the optimism of Prof. Bar-Navi
(in the HaAretz magazine section of December 15), who concludes his
article with the following festive proclamation:
"The time has come to cast aside into the trashcan of the short history
of the State of Israel the woebegone metaphor of the Hazon Ish (one of
the leading Torah scholars in Israel until his death in 1953 - SH) of
the laden wagon (religious education) and the empty wagon (secular
education)."
(An aside: the Hazon Ish, in a conversation with David Ben-Gurion, once
told him that the non-religious must yield to the religious, and as a
metaphor he noted that when two wagons approach a narrow bridge from
opposite sides, the one laden with goods must be given the right of way
over the empty one - SH.)
As a secular teacher of literature and as an educator with 35 years of
experience in a State (i.e., non-religious - SH) high school, I have
had the - sad - privilege of being a witness to the changes of great
significance among the secular youth in the last decade. My faith in
the ability of secular education to compete with religious education
has been undermined; I am doubtful about the power of a pluralistic
society, post-modern, post-Zionist, mterialistic and nihilistic, to
fill the wagon which has been emptied of most of its moral baggage.
The popular culture, which is nurtured by the mass media, is primarily
visual, and as such by necessity shallow. The violence among the youth
is reaching new heights. Everything focuses on personal success: the
acquisition of money, power and prestige. The youth has no interest in
advancing the society and it does not have social sensitivity.
The vision of the cultural normalization of our State - what is it?
Films of sex and violence, entertainment shows and games of chance on
television, keeping track of the developments on the stock exchange,
waiting expectantly for the results of the Toto (football gambling pool
- SH) and spending time in pubs, mass rock concerts, and - with the
help of the Lord, soon - roulette as well. Will such a "Hazon" (vision)
fill our empty wagon? Isn't the lot of the students in the Hesder
Yeshivas better, in that they are privileged to be given an education
with values and tradition and are far from materialistic cynicism?
Without diminishing the severity of the radicalization of religious
education, I must admit that in many ways it arouses jealousy in me.
Prof. Bar-Navi will do well if instead of upholstering the
self-confidence of the secular camp with delusions - he would seek a
medicine for his illness.
Minah Steinitz
Ramot Hashavim
Shmuel Himelstein
<himelstein@...>
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From: <David_Hollander@...> (David Hollander)
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 96 10:38:51 EST
Subject: Correcting Torah reading
<irabin@...> (Ira Y Rabin) writes:
>If it is a real mistake you may also need to start the pasuk over.
>Many times Hashem's name appears in a pasuk- if you have already said
>His name and then you make a mistake it is proper to start the pasuk
>over.
Rav Hillel David has told us that if a mistake was made for which the
Baal Kriah has to go back, then there is no point in completing the
pasuk even if a Shem was said, since there is no such pasuk anyway.
Just go back to the mistake and start from there, although the Shem is
repeated.
>Do they realize that many "accent" mistakes such as BA'ah instead of
>ba'AH need to be corrected? Many of us are under the impression that
>if the vowels are said correctly then it's ok, regardless of the
>accent,
Besides the well known example cited which is mentioned by Rashi, I
would add BAnu (in us) Beraishis 37:8 and baNU (they built) Beraishis
11:5. In this example the word has a totally different meaning.
Another one that is tricky because of the Vav Hamihapeches (Vav that
reverses the tense): vasafTA (gather in future) Beraishis 6:21 and
vaSAFta (gathered in the past - not in Chumash).
It is sad that many/most people do not know how to read properly. This
is particularly important for Krias Shma. Why don't the kindergartens
emphasize VahavTA not VaHAFta ? Learn it right the first time ! I once
heard a Bar Mitzva read the Torah Shabbos Mincha before his official
Shabbos Shachris reading. It was Parshas Lech Lcha. He said (first
pasuk Beraishis 12:1) umimoladitcha (shva na then nach) instead of
umimoladticha (shva nach then na). Now I don't see a difference in
meaning here, but I spoke to him quietly after davening and told him how
to say it properly next week when he leins for his Bar Mitzva. He gave
me a blank look and said it wrong the next week anyway...
Thanks to HaRav Hillel David Shlit"a for taking the time to proofread
this submission.
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From: <StevenJ81@...> (Steve White)
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 10:55:55 -0500
Subject: Re: Date of late Rosh HaShana
>From: Michael Shimshoni <MASH@...>
>One should note that this will be *before* the year 6000, which some
>consider the last year for which one should compute calendars. After
>the year 6000, the occurrence of even later Rosh HaShana dates than
>October 6 happen. I got October 7 for the first time in 6070 (2309),
>October 8 in 6431 (2670), October 9 in 6564 (2803), and there I
>stopped.
The general drift of the calendar is one lunar month per 6500 years.
You can see that in a rough way above: two days drift per 500 years ==>
29.5 days drift in 7250 years. But it just turns out on closer
calculation that this is a little too long. (Note 6564 is a leap year;
in any other year, that day is October 10. So this implies we've really
drifted more than 2 days in 500 years; actually, it's 2.25 days per 500
years.) So in the year 12570, Rosh HaShana would be around November 7
or so. This puts Pesach well past the spring equinox, which is the
whole problem with calendar drift in the first place.
BTW, the Mar Shmuel tekufa (and therefore tal u'matar outside Israel)
drifts faster than the regular Jewish calendar ("Rav Adda year"): 3 days
each 400 years, or 3.75 per 500 years, which is 1.5 days per 500 years
faster than the "Rav Adda" Jewish year. That means that in 15755, when
a late Rosh Hashana would fall around Thanksgiving, tal u'matar would
start _90_ days after that, or the last half of February!
Mashiach should come speedily and create a bet din to remedy this problem.
If he tarries, however, we will surely have to do something about this.
Steven White
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From: Barry Graham <74741.2331@...>
Date: 03 Jan 96 18:32:51 EST
Subject: Dining out with Customers
I have decided to increase my level of kashrut observance so that
instead of eating fish/vegetarian in non-kosher restaurants, I will now
only eat in kosher restaurants if I eat out.
However since this is a recent decision, I have not yet had to face the
situation where I need to entertain customers in a city where there is
not a kosher restaurant. Also my manager expects us to eat where the
customer wants to eat. How do others solve these challenges?
Barry
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From: Shlomo Katz <YEHUDA@...>
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 96 21:21:04 EDT
Subject: Re: Length of Haftorah
David Griboff asked in #67 what the requirements for the length of the
haftarah are. The gemara (Megillah 23a) requires 21 verses, paralleling
the seven 'aliyot.' The background is as follows: (1) the minimum
length for an 'aliyah' is three verses; (2) the origin of the haftarah
is that Antiochus (of Chanukah fame) outlawed the Torah reading, so the
Jews wanted to create a remembrance to the seven 'aliyot' (and of course
7 x 3 =21); (3) our 8th aliyah (i.e., maftir) doesn't count.
The gemara then notes that we have at least one haftarah that has fewer
than 21 verses. (The gemara cites one example, the haftarah for Parashat
Tzav, but there are others.) The gemara explains that if the haftarah
is a free-standing section of Tanach that happens to have fewer than 21
verses, that's sufficient. Also the gemara says, in a place where it is
customary to translate the haftarah, ten verses is sufficient.
The Bach (siman 144) explains the first answer as follows: He infers
from Rambam that one should not read two unrelated sections of the Torah
lest he become confused. Since adjacent sections of Tanach are even
more likely to be completely unrelated than are adjacent sections of the
Torah, one should not read them together. Therefore, if the stand-alone
section has fewer than 21 verses, so be it.
As for the second answer, the ten verses of the haftarah plus the ten
translations plus the last verse which is read over by the maftir equals
21. Perhaps our shorter haftarot (or at least some of them) are
remnants of this custom. Certainly they cannot all result from the
first reason, at least the way the Bach understands it. The proof to
this is the haftarot of Re'eh and Ki Tetze, which together are the
haftarah for Noach. If these two adajcent selections are contextually
unrelated, why are they joined for Noach? (According to Bach, this
would be forbidden.) On the other hand, if they are related, why are
they read separately in the summer, considering that each has fewer than
21 verses.
I could go on, but I must leave something for my book, to be published
in the spring of 1994, no 1995, no 1996 (or whenever I finish it) by
Hamaayan/The Torah Spring (the same one as the weekly parashah paper).
I hope that helped.
Shlomo Katz
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From: Yehudah Livneh <tevapat@...>
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 17:43:59 +0200 (EET)
Subject: Mussaf - Shabbat Rosh Chodesh
One of the readers requested a source for Rinat Yisrael's emendation to
of "kadsheinu b'mitzvotecha" to the Shabbat Rosh chodesh Mussaf shmoneh
esreh.
One source can be found in the Aruch hashulchan. (I don't have the cite
with me at work) He strongly recommends make the correction and states
that he dosn't understand why it dosn't appear in the shmoneh esreh.
Yehudah Livneh
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From: Jerry B. Altzman <jbaltz@...>
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 96 12:30:57 EST
Subject: Mussaf on Shabbos Rosh Chodesh
From: Roger Kingsley <rogerk@...>
[...]
The mussaf for Shabbos Rosh Chodesh seems to be the _only_ Shmoneh
Esrei for Shabbos or Yom Tov which does not contain the prayer "Kadshenu
bemitsvothecho vethane chelkanu bethorothecho, sab'anu mituvecho,
vesamchanu bishuothecho, vetaher..."
The Sukkat David siddur (sefardi) indeed has the paragraph "kadsheinu
b'mitzvotekha..." right before Retzei. It may be an ashkenazi thing.
jerry b. altzman Entropy just isn't what it used to be +1 212 650 5617
<jbaltz@...> jbaltz@columbia.edu KE3ML (HEPNET) NEVIS::jbaltz
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From: <JBails19@...> (Jonathan Bailey)
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 09:35:05 -0500
Subject: Number of Haftorah Pesukim
After learning the laws of Shabbat in Mishne Brurah in class, the subject of
the number of pesukim required in a haftorah came up.
On Shabbos, normally require 21 pesukim.
On Yom Tov, normally require 15 pesukim, etc.
The rule is that you need number of pesukim to correspond to the number
of alyot in the torah reading, and you need at least 3 pesukim for each
aliyah. That's how you get 21 pesukim for haftorah on shabbos(7 alyot*3
pesukim), 15 for Yom Tov(5 alyot for torah reading*3 pesukim), Yom
Kippur, 18,(6 pesukim in torah), etc.
If, however, the idea(inyan) is completed before the normal required
number of pesukim are read, then you may have less than the required
pesukim.
Finally put some college education to use,
Jonathan Bailey
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From: <bt492@...> (Barry S. Bank)
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 23:55:34 -0500
Subject: Re: Pinchas/Zimri and Matityahu situations
Several people have responded to my inquiry regarding the Pinchas/Zimri
and Matityahu situations. The former has gone off into an interesting
and erudite discussion of "kanaim pog'in bo," and I thank all those who
have taken the time to clarify that issue. But what of the other part
of my question? Has nobody a defense for Matityahu or is everyone's
silence to be taken as agreement that he acted improperly in killing the
Jew who was going to sacrifice on the altar which had been set up in
Modein?
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From: <michelsong@...> (G Michelson)
Date: 3 Jan 1996 06:17:34 -0500
Subject: Question: Shamash for Oil Burning Chanukiyah.
I've seen various chanukiyahs having nine separate wells for holding
oil, each well with its own wick. With such a chanukiyah, short of
using a pair of tweezers or some similar implement, how does one use the
shamash to light the others? Candles obviously don't present the same
problem, being easy to handle when lit. I suppose the shamash reservoir
might be constructed to be detachable so that one could avoid contact
with the burning oil-soaked shamash wick...
Your comments. are appreciated. G. Michelson
MichelsonG
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From: <lou@...> (Louis Rayman)
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 10:38:51 -0500
Subject: Shabbos Rosh Chodesh
Shlomo Pick (in 22.66) quotes R. Gorelick z"l who...
> quoted a midrash (I think it was a yalkut shimoni and i would
> appreciate the source) that atid lavo (in the messianic age), there
> will be an obligation of aliya leregel (pilgramage to the Temple) on
> Shabbat Rosh Chodesh
I don't know of any midrash, but the very end of Navi Yeshaya (the 2nd
to last pasuk, which we read on Shabbos Rosh Chodesh) says: Vhaya, midei
chodesh bchodsho, umidei shabbos b'shabato, yavo kol basar
l'hishtachavos l'hashem b'har hashem. (my own translation: And it shall
be, on every New Moon, and on every Sabbath, all flesh shall come to bow
to Hashem at the mountain of Hashem.) The last pasuk goes on to explain
the (not pretty) consequences for those who refuse to acknowledge
Hashem`s sovereignty.
Taken literally, it would seem that this pasuk says that on every rosh
chodesh and every shabbos, EVERYBODY (Jews and Gentiles) will have an
obligation to come to the Har Hashem (the Beit HaMikdash).
Kol Tuv
___ | |____
|_ ||____ | Lou Rayman - Hired Gun
.| | / / Client Site: <lou@...> 212/603-3375
|_| /_/ Main Office: <louis.rayman@...>
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End of Volume 22 Issue 71