Volume 42 Number 76
Produced: Fri May 21 5:44:25 US/Eastern 2004
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Guidelines for Tzedaka
[Rosenfeld, Elie]
KosherLamp(tm) (4)
[Heshy Zaback, David Charlap, Stan Tenen, Gamoran, Sam]
R. Chaim Brisker & labor unions/strikes
[Saul Mashbaum]
R' Chaim Soloveitchik and a strike of the local bakers union
[Arieh Lebowitz]
Summer Time All-Year Round (2)
[W. Baker, Yisrael Medad]
Summer Time All-Year Round in Israel
[Michael J. Savitz]
Summer Time in France
[Emmanuel Ifrah]
Tzedakah
[Shlomo & Syma Spiro]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rosenfeld, Elie <erosenfe@...>
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 16:09:44 -0400
Subject: Guidelines for Tzedaka
> There is an excellent book by R. Azriel Rosenfeld Z"L Maaser
> Kesafim at feldheim I think.
The book you mention is by Cyril Domb, not by my father R. Azriel
Rosenfeld, hareni caparos mishkavo. My father did know Professor Domb
through the AOJS, so possibly he is quoted therein; I don't have a copy
myself.
Elie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Heshy Zaback <heshyzaback2@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 13:36:03 -0400
Subject: KosherLamp(tm)
>From: David Lichtman <davidx@...>
>I'm seeing ads and "advertorials" for KOSHERLAMP(tm). Would
>anyone care to comment on this interesting device?
It's a simple yet elegant alternative to buying a gooseneck lamp that
you just turn away from your eyes, or hooking up a timer. The fact that
it's elegant enough to be a table lamp and that it's compact fluorescent
(cheaper to leave on all Shabbos) are pluses as well. And at $30, it's
really a reasonable price for a pin-based compact fluorescent
fixture. It's one of those things where I find myself saying, "Why
didn't I think of this?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Charlap <shamino@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 08:24:27 -0400
Subject: Re: KosherLamp(tm)
Looks like a great invention. According to the description on the web
page, the light is never actually turned out. It is simply covered up,
in much the same way as a bullseye-lantern.
Halachicly, this lamp should be no different from throwing a blanket
over a normal light, but without the likelihood of starting a fire.
I think I'd still prefer timers, to avoid wasting electricity, but this
will definitely be useful in those places where timers are not
practical.
-- David
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stan Tenen <meru1@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 09:27:01 -0400
Subject: Re: KosherLamp(tm)
It constantly amazes me how it's possible to market trivialities that
anyone could arrange (even "make" is too strong a word) for themselves
without any cost, shopping, or research.
Assuming that it is Shabbos-appropriate to cover an electric lamp so as
its light will not get out on Shabbos, there is no need to buy anything
besides some pre-cut aluminum foil.
Pick a lamp whose bulb faces upward, and that has a low wattage -- say,
60 watts or under. When it's time to "turn out the light", just place a
cap made out of aluminum foil over the bulb. Yes, the foil will get
hot. But the aluminum foil cannot burn, and as long as it's not touching
anything but the bulb, it's safe. (But do not touch the bulb with
anything but the aluminum foil, because you could locally cool the glass
unevenly, and that could cause it to shatter -- this is generally only a
problem with bulbs over 60 watts.) BTW, both the covered and uncovered
incandescent bulbs use exactly the same amount of electricity, and make
exactly the same amount of heat, whether covered with aluminum foil or
not. There is absolutely no effect, other than blocking the visible
light.
It is also possible to set up a lamp on a table in a small closet. At
night, close the door to the closet. As long as there's no possibility
of anything touching or falling on the lamp, it's completely safe in the
closet. Or, you could place the light near the door of an unused room --
or even just a cupboard. When you want light, open the door. When you
don't want light, close the door.
However, all of this is based on the assumption that it is not mukzeh to
mess with a lamp as long as you don't touch it or move it. When it comes
to halacha, it's time to CYLOR. <smile>
Even safer than using a 60-watt or less incandescent bulb and covering
it with aluminum foil in order to darken it, would be to use one of the
new energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs (made as replacements for
incandescent bulbs). The equivalent light of a 60-watt incandescent is
available from a small screw-in fluorescent of only about 13 watts. This
means that covered or not, the 13-watt screw-in fluorescent would never
become hot enough to be a fire, or even a burn hazard.
The fluorescent uses only about 1/4 the wattage, and thus costs only
about 1/4 as much to run as an equivalent light-output incandescent
bulb.
6-packs of 13-watt (equivalent of 60-watt incandescent) fluorescent
screw-in lamps are available from BJ's (or maybe Costco, or probably
both) for about $15.00, if I recall correctly. (The same 13-watt
fluorescent is usually about $5.00 retail, and someplace in between at
Wal-Mart.)
One further precaution. If you use aluminum foil (which conducts
electricity), make certain that the foil does not extend into anywhere
near the metal electrical screw-base of any bulb.
And assuming it's all right to shade a lamp on Shabbos, but certainly
not all right to manufacture something (such as an aluminum bulb-cover)
on Shabbos, it's probably a good idea to pre-shape the foil before
Shabbos so that it can simply be dropped over the bulb without having to
deform or shape it.
Best,
Stan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gamoran, Sam <Sgamoran@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 15:07:31 +0300
Subject: KosherLamp(tm)
I haven't ordered one but I did read an advert. As near as I can tell
this is a clever adaptation of the new high efficiency low-power
mini-flourescent light bulbs now available as screw-in replacements for
regular incandescent bulbs.
A 15 watt mini-flourescent is supposed to give the light (lumens)
equivalence of about a 75 watt regular bulb. This means that
approximately 60 watts of heat that are produced by a regular bulb are
no longer being produced and the bulb runs much cooler. This I can
attest to because I replaced all of the bulbs in the lights we regularly
leave on all of Shabbat figuring that the cost would be most quickly
recouped there.
Once you have a bulb that is no longer so awfully hot, it is possible to
put it into a light-tight sealed container with a shutter that opens and
closes. When you want the light you open the shutter, when you want
dark you close it. Since the bulb remains on all of Shabbat there is no
problem with covering it up. Till now a sealed box would have become
dangerously hot - possibly a fire hazard and definitely a burn hazard
for fingers adjusting the light. Now apparently the heat build-up stays
within acceptable levels.
Clever adaptation.
Sam Gamoran
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Saul Mashbaum <smash52@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 22:47:05 +0200
Subject: R. Chaim Brisker & labor unions/strikes
Sarah Elizabeth Beck <beckse@...> asked:
>Does anyone have a good/early/contemporary source for the story in which
>R. Chaim Soloveitchik, zts"l, got involved with a strike of the local
>(bakers'?) union?
The Rov, Rav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik, mentioned the incident
briefly when speaking about R. Chaim Soloveitchik at YU on May 22,
1979. The story appears in "The Rav" by Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff, Volume
I, pp198-199, and in Hebrew in "Divrei Hashkafa" pp104-105. The Rov said
that R. Chaim supported a strike of the workers in the local matza
factory at the turn of the century, and collected money to feed the
people who were on strike. R. Chaim almost lost his rabbinic position
as a result, but did not deviate from his principled support of the
workers.
Saul Mashbaum
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Arieh Lebowitz <ariehnyc@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 15:30:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: RE: R' Chaim Soloveitchik and a strike of the local bakers union
Re the query by Sarah Elizabeth Beck of 18 May 2004 asking "Does anyone
have a good/early/contemporary source for the story in which R. Chaim
Soloveitchik, zts"l, got involved with a strike of the local (bakers'?)
union?"
... in "Glimpses of the Rav," by June Glazer, Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot is
quoted as saying:
"I still remember a comment of his from 25 years ago, which I heard at
one of his Tonya Soloveitchik Memorial Lectures, this one on the
haftaros [supplemental Torah readings] between Pesach and
Shavuot. Lamport Auditorium was full. People were standing in the
back. He was talking about the role of the rabbi in ensuring justice in
society, and mentioned how his illustrious grandfather, Rav Chaim, had
once supported the workers of Brisk [Lithuania] when they went out on
strike. Everyone was hanging on every word the Rav said. Then he
paused^×he had great timing^×and after a moment said, ^ÓBut they didn^Òt
make anything in Brisk.^Ô The whole place broke up. After the laughter
subsided he explained that in fact matzo was made in Brisk, and that his
grandfather had supported the bakers in their job action." SOURCE:
http://news.yu.edu/in_print/_pdfs/articlePDFs/ACFE3.pdf
Not totally off the topic, here is a reference to another rabbi, Rabbi
Dr. Hillel Klein, also involved in a matzoh workers' strike:
"Rabbi Klein was again involved in kashrus matters in the spring of
1911, when the matzah bakers in New York struck against long working
hours and low salaries. With Pesach fast approaching, an acute shortage
of matzos threatened New York and indeed much of the United States,
since most matzah bakeries were in the city. Rabbi Klein organized a
bais din to arbitrate the labor dispute. They resolved the strike and
the Jewish community's matzah supply was assured for the year." SOURCE:
http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/rklein.html
On the concern of Rav Eliezer Gordon, the Rosh Yeshivas Telshe, towards
the welfare of matzoh makers, it is written:
"In Telshe, Rav Eliezer was also deeply involved in communal affairs,
and the amendments he instituted there are indicative of his greatness
of spirit and his mussar nature. At that time, matza bakeries employed
men, women and even children during the day and throughout most of the
night. Deploring this situation, Rav Eliezer issued strict orders to
close all of Telshe's matza bakeries by 11 p.m. His official reason for
the order was that after that time the workers were too tired to
maintain scrupulous kashrus standards. However, he told his family that
his real purpose was to protect the workers from being exploited and
overworked." SOURCE: http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/ravgordon.html
Arieh Lebowitz
Jewish Labor Committee
25 East 21st Street
New York, NY 10010 www.jewishlabor.org
tel: 212-477-0707 fax: 212-477-1918
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: W. Baker <wbaker@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 10:15:52 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Summer Time All-Year Round
> Tangentially, I'm a little surprised that France would adopt a plan that
> would make sunrise so late in the winter. If I'm not mistaken (it was
> before I was born), the U.S. tried out year-round Daylight Saving Time
> in the 1970s, but decided not to implement it permanently, since it
> wasn't safe to have kids waiting for their morning school buses in the
> dark. That didn't make winter sunrise in the continental U.S. anywhere
> near as late as it would be in France under this proposal.
When I was a child, during WWII in NYC we had daylight time all year
round. As I was very young when this started, it just seemed normal to
me. I remember getting us for school in total darkness and walking to
school with the sun just coming up at some short time after 8AM. Always
made me think of the child in the Robert Louis Stevenson poem" IN winter
I get up at night and dress by yellow candlelight..." Summer was double
daylight time. I believe this was done so that people could be home and
not in transit in case there were to be any bombing. We also had a
"brownout" in NYC, with no big lights in Times Square or lit up signs
generally so being home before sundown was a good idea.
I had forgotten this until the oil embargo when I was walking my own
small child to kindergarten. As I walked west we faced into the rising
sun and the earlier time was recalled. I also became intensely aware of
and thankful for, the gift of the sunrise, so often slept through.
Wendy Baker
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Yisrael Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 20:50:02 +0200
Subject: Summer Time All-Year Round
David Cohen <ddcohen@...> wrote:
In any case, I wasn't able to find this proposal anywhere in the
news. What is your source?
HaAretz newspaper, Monday, May 17, 2004 reporting on
a meeting of the Government Ministerial Committee for Legislation.
p. 12, I think, columns 4-5
Yisrael Medad
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael J. Savitz <michael.savitz@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 12:23:28 -0400
Subject: Summer Time All-Year Round in Israel
Why would this "play havoc" with Shacharit? Here in Boston sunrise gets
as late (by Eastern Standard Time) as 7:13 a.m. in the winter, and
plenty of people have to be at work by 8:00 a.m. Weekday shacharit
minyanim typically end (year-round) in the 7:00-7:15 range. Isn't it OK
to daven before sunrise (but after "earliest tallit and tefillin" time,
which is well before sunrise) if you need to in order to get to work?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Emmanuel Ifrah <emmanuel_ifrah@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 10:11:15 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Summer Time in France
In the winter France is GMT+1 and in the summer GMT+2 The latest hour
shabbes ends is around 11 pm.
There was a plan a few years ago to stay on GMT+1 all year long, but it
has been postponed or cancelled, I'm not sure.
To the extant of my knowledge, the situation is worse for Jews living in
Scotland where shabbes can actually end around midnight.
In France, things are still manageable, even though waiting for the
night to make kiddush on the eve of Shavuot, e.g., can be an issue.
Emmanuel Ifrah (Paris, France)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Shlomo & Syma Spiro <spiro@...>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 20:32:38 +0200
Subject: Tzedakah
bh, yom yerushalayim
For those seeking the proper way to tithe for charity, there is the book
Maaser Kesafim, edited by Cyril Domb and published by Feldheim
----------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Volume 42 Issue 76