Volume 34 Number 42
Produced: Thu May 10 9:28:38 US/Eastern 2001
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Administrivia
[Avi Feldblum]
Apology
[Russell Hendel]
Candy at an Aufruf
[Jeanette Friedman]
Dor Revi'i on the Haggadah
[David Glasner]
The Etymology of MESHI-SILK
[Russell Hendel]
Learning
[Frank Reiss]
TVSLBO in Secular Academic Books
[Reuben Rudman]
TVSLBO: Corrigendum (ouch)
[Michael Frankel]
Yom Tov Sheni Book
[Shmuel Himelstein]
Yom Tov Sheni for a visitor to Erets Yisrael (2)
[Rose Landowne, Immanuel O'Levy]
Yomtov Tefillah
[Gershon Dubin]
Request: Summer apt. in Jerusalem
[Yaacov Dovid Shulman]
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From: Avi Feldblum <mljewish@...>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 08:07:23 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Administrivia
Hello All,
Now that I've officially given the baby her name, I can share it with the
list - Sarah Rivkah (Rikki Sarah in English). Carolynn and Rikki are doing
fine and thank you all for your kind wishes of Mazal Tov.
I have also added a link on the mail mail-jewish page where people looking
for employment can send me their info and I will put it there, and other
members of the list who may be able to help with networking, leads,
possibly even job offers can look there and see if they can help. Please
feel free to visit our home page and send me any feedback on it.
Avi Feldblum
mail-jewish Moderator
<mljewish@...>
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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@...>
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 00:29:50 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Apology
In a recent Mail Jewish Posting I stated that
<< A person whose son is sick and who prays for the welfare of other
sick children for purely [SELFISH] reasons (so that his own prayers
should be answered) may come over the years, when he sees that his
prayers are helping people, to pray for the proper reason of helping his
fellow man >>
The word in brackets was originally [ALTRUISTIC]. The correct word is
[SELFISH].
Thanks to the several people who alerted me to this offline (It shows
that people are reading my postings (grin!)
Russell Jay Hendel; http://www.RashiYomi.Com
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From: Jeanette Friedman <FriedmanJ@...>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 00:32:55 EDT
Subject: Re: Candy at an Aufruf
Is throwing toasted wheat kernels the same as throwing rice at a
wedding? And throwing hard, wrapped candy...does that mean you can hit
someone in the noggin? I remember when there were aufrufs in the Agudah
in Crown Heights, they would throw the stuff hard and aim for the head,
especially on Simchas Torah. Never did like that idea very much....
Jeanette Friedman
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From: David Glasner <DGLASNER@...>
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2001 14:12:08 -0400
Subject: Re: Dor Revi'i on the Haggadah
[While this is too late for Pesach this year, I figured I will still
send it out, so if anyone does a search on the archives in the future,
it will be there. Mod.]
Those of you still looking for Seder material may want to visit
www.dorrevii.org or
www.math.psu.edu/glasner/Dor4/Chagim/pesach.html
for four divrei torah of the Dor Revi'i on the Haggadah:
1. avadim hayinu
2. k'neged arba'ah banim dibrah torah
3. v'aphilu kulanu hakhamim, kulanu z'keinim
4. Rabban Gamliel hayah omeir
Also see his divrei torah on the parshiot and other material on the website.
David Glasner
<dglasner@...>
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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@...>
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 00:30:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: RE: The Etymology of MESHI-SILK
A partial answer to Bob Werman (v34n34) who asks about silk
While I cant offer historical information I can suggest an
Etymology for the word Meshi in Ezekial (cited by Bob).
The Hebrew root MooSH means to feel/touch/grope and as such would be a
fitting word to denote material with a soft gentle silky texture.
Russell Jay Hendel; http://www.RashiYomi.Com/
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From: Frank Reiss <freiss47@...>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 07:41:29 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Learning
I have been attending shiurim in my Schule on a regular basis for about 6
years. A few years prior to that, I rejoined the Derech, which I had left
some time in high school. Consequently, my knowledge of things I missed
in Yeshiva high school, or post high school learning that I didn't have,
is very great. I have noticed that in my community, there is an emphasis
on learning Halachos, while I would like to learn Navi, which as I said,
I missed out on. We have a Chabura that comes every week from a Yeshiva,
and the 2 main classes are Halachos; Shabbos, Kashrus, and timely
Halachos before every Holiday. I have asked for a change in this, to no
avail. For example, for Purim, I would rather spend a few weeks on the
Megilla, than going over again, the special laws, for this particular
year, because of Erev Shabbos. I feel that these timely reviews, we get
in one form or another, either via the newspaper (Yated), or
newsletters, that are sent by Yeshivas, emails, this list. Twice I have
asked for classes in Navi in our Schule and got a polite no for an
answer. I know that I am oversimplifying this, but I am getting the
impression that the frum-Yeshiva world prefers to concentrate on Laws,
which become mundane to me after a while, (How many times am I going to
hear about how to eat the Shabbos meals this year, doesn't it become a
little stale after the 5th time?) whereas I am looking to get out of this
emphasis on studying Laws all the time, and prefer to study something for
the enjoyment, for my preference. Is it simply easier to prepare a class
in Halachos, than Navi? In no way, I am intending to be disrespectful of
the Rabonim of my community, or of any community, or of the bochrim who
come to teach us. I understand the excitement of the rare occurance that
we have this year. I love the shiurim anyway, and am a regular
participant, and will not stop attending. I just feel that I am not
getting that much new out of them. I do learn on my own, but I can only
cover so much. My question is, is this the way it is, and should I stop
asking, or do I have a valid point?
Chag Kasher VeSameach,
Frank Reiss
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From: Reuben Rudman <rudman@...>
Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 16:17:32 -0500
Subject: TVSLBO in Secular Academic Books
Many years ago, I looked into this. Yes, there are several other books
with this acronym. Unfortunately, I do not know where I put my notes.
However, I can give you some other approaches.
The Preface to the Second Edition of Prof. Herbert Goldstein's Classical
Mechanics (Addison-Wesley,1980) ends with a pasuk from Daniel (2:23) in
Hebrew. He also reprints the Preface to the First Edition, with the
TVSLBO. If memory serves me correctly, Herb Goldstein told me that he
had some difficulty getting this past his editor in the first edition.
Prof. Leo Levi, who has written several seforim, has a two volume set
entitled Applied Optics (J. Wiley and Sons). The first volume, written
when he was in CUNY, 1968, has a dedication, written in English, "In
memory of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch ...: The second volume, 1980,
written when he was already at the Jerusalem College of Technology, has
no similar comment.
Finally, I wrote a book on Low-Temperature X-Ray Diffraction (Plenum
Press, 1976) while a Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University in
1973-1974. My dedication page reads: This book is dedicated to the
memory of those Israelis who fell in the Yom Kippur War - 5734 , HY"D
(the last acronym in Hebrew). I had no problem with my editor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Frankel <mechyfrankel@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 06:26:16 -0800
Subject: TVSLBO: Corrigendum (ouch)
in my original post, i wrote <..lewis's "two cultures" ...>, that should
of course have been <...snow's "two cultures"..>. my fingers sometimes
go on a separate auto pilot from my brain - and of course people who
substitute two initials for a proper first name have only themselves
to blame when others confuse them.
Mechy Frankel W: (703) 588-7424
<mechyfrankel@...> H: (301) 593-3949
<michael.frankel@...>
___________________________________________________________________
To get your own FREE ZDNet Onebox - FREE voicemail, email, and fax,
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From: Shmuel Himelstein <himels@...>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 11:38:30 +0200
Subject: Yom Tov Sheni Book
Yom Tov Sheni Kehilchato was written by Yerachmiel David Fried and
published in 5748 (1988) by Machon Sha'arei Ziv of Jerusalem. The
author's address (as of then) was listed as HaPisgah 36, Jerusalem, but
I only see a Yerachmiel Fried at HaPisgah 39 in the present Jerusalem
phone book. The book is over 300 pages long.
Shmuel Himelstein
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From: Rose Landowne <ROSELANDOW@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 13:54:29 EST
Subject: Re: Yom Tov Sheni for a visitor to Erets Yisrael
In light of this (post quoted below) one can see that keeping a second
day is not necessarily the machmir position, but exposes one the the problem
of bracha l'vatala.
Rabbi Riskin gave us the opinion that there is no kedusha to the second
day, so therefore one should daven and behave as if it is a chol day, but as
a visitor, one should not do melacha or the issurim of yom tov. as a
reminder that he doesn't live in or own property in Israel.
I've heard of others who are of the opinion that a visitor should keep
the chumrot of both days, ie: not do melacha, not make brachot on the mitzvot
of yom tov, but do them without a bracha.
In both of these half/half approaches, you can benefit from the melacha
of Israelis since they are doing nothing wrong.
Rose Landowne
<< There are different opinions on the matter, but one that is often
overlooked because it's not where you would expect to find it is that of
Shulchan Aruch Harav, in the 2nd edition. Only a few chapters of the
2nd edition are extant, and hilchot yomtov is not among them, but in
Orach Chaim chapter 1 he rules explicitly that one must keep yomtov
according to where one is, and it makes no difference where one is from.
This is because in eretz yisrael, the kedusha of yomtov lasts one day,
while outside it lasts two days. IOW yomtov is an objective reality,
even if most of us cannot perceive it with our physical eyes, not a
subjective state that can vary from person to person; on the second day,
in EY it is simply not yomtov, so there is no point in abstaining from
work, whereas outside EY it is yomtov, whether one realises it or not,
and work is forbidden.>>
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From: Immanuel O'Levy <iburton@...>
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2001 10:46:18 -0700
Subject: Yom Tov Sheni for a visitor to Erets Yisrael
The reason often given for keeping two days Yom Tov outside Israel
nowadays is minhag avosainu beyodainu, i.e. we keep the custom of our
forefathers. Logical analysis of this would, however, seem to suggest
that a visitor to Israel would keep only one day Yom Tov, and that an
Israeli abroad would keep two days.
In the time of the Beis Hamikdosh when the new month was declared by the
Sanhedrin there would have been a genuine doubt outside Israel as to
when Yom Tov was, and so two days would have been kept. An Israeli who
was abroad on Yom Tov would have had as much doubt as the local
population as to when Yom Tov was, and would therefore keep two days.
Conversely, one who was visiting Israel for Yom Tov would know by simply
asking when Yom Tov was and would keep one day. (If one were to suggest
that he would have kept two days, then ask how many Korbonos Pesach he
would have brought...) This, therefore, would seem to be the custom of
our forefathers, and so should be the custom to follow nowadays.
I have met people who have said that a visitor to Israel has to keep two
days because when one visits another place one has to follow the
chumrahs [stringencies] of both one's own home town and the place one is
visiting. The Chacham Zvi highlights a problem with this by saying that
keeping two days is not a chumrah but only a practice arising out of a
safek [doubt]. To say that one is keeping two days of Yom Tov as a
chumrah is akin to saying that one will put an extra string in one's
tzitzis as a chumrah, and is a breach of bal tosif - not adding to the
Torah.
There is an opinion that says that the second day of Yom Tov is a knass
[penalty] for living outside Israel. Is this the right attitude to have
to Yom Tov, namely that its observance is a penalty and something to
impose on people?
The Shul where I daven in England employs a Chazan from Israel for the
Yomim Tovim, and he conducts the davenning on the second day also. My
father once asked the Rov of the Shul how this was reconciled with the
opinion that Israelis abroad keep only one day, and the Rov replied that
the Chazan was keeping two days as he was present in England with his
family, and using the principle of ishto ke'baiso [lit. his wife is his
home] England was his full home for Yom Tov and so he was keeping two
days. If one applies this argument to a married man holidaying in
Israel, then he should keep only one day.
If one says that one should follow the custom of one's home town and so
keep two days in Israel, should one also say the extra paragraph of
Boruch Hashem Le'olam in maariv? And does one wait until 4th/5th
December before starting to say vesain tal umottor, or does one start in
Cheshvan?
Finally, when does a visitor to Jerusalem observe Purim? According to
his home town or according to Jerusalem?
Immanuel Burton.
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From: Gershon Dubin <gershon.dubin@...>
Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 22:51:10 -0400
Subject: Yomtov Tefillah
From: Shmuel Himelstein <shmuelh@...>
<<Why the first three words ("Elokeinu Veilokei Avoteinu") should be
reserved only for Shabbat seems very strange. Phillip Birnbaum, in his
Siddur, gives a logical solution. He believes that the present scheme
is based on a printer's error. >>
Mr. Birnbaum was preceded by Rav Yaakov Emden by several hundred
years. He (RY"E) recommends saying the Elokeinu Velokei Avoseinu".
However, his recommendation has apparently not taken hold among most
communities.
Gershon
<gershon.dubin@...>
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From: Yaacov Dovid Shulman <Yacovdavid@...>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 04:59:03 EDT
Subject: Request: Summer apt. in Jerusalem
Does anyone know of an apt. available for the summer (probably the month of
July) in Jerusalem? Exchange with a house in Baltimore is possible.
Thank you!
Yaacov Dovid Shulman
<yacovdavid@...>
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End of Volume 34 Issue 42
