Volume 43 Number 41
Produced: Mon Jul 12 3:44:29 EDT 2004
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Appropriating other Religions' Ritual Objects
[Aharon Fischman]
Christmas and Xmas
[Mark Steiner]
Esther -- get serious?
[Carl Singer]
Kastner transport
[Jeanette Friedman Sieradski]
Malka Esther Shtussim
[Jeanette Friedman Sieradski]
Meshullachim during Tefilah
[Batya Medad]
Meshullachim interrupting davening.
[Carl Singer]
More Hot Water
[Carl Singer]
Rema and Mikveh Privacy
[Martin Stern]
Water Heater Construction
[Richard Schultz]
Wonder Stories
[Samuel P Groner]
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From: Aharon Fischman <afischman@...>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 08:11:52 -0400
Subject: Re: Appropriating other Religions' Ritual Objects
Shimon Lebowitz wrote:
>Would you be happier with x-mas, x-tian?
Lehavdil, a popular singer is referred to as X-tina - as a shortened
form of her full name. I think it all my rest on intentions.
A cute story on the subject (I can't cite a source):
A father was walking with his son past the American Embassy in
Yerushalayim around December time with a figure of Santa and his
reindeer 'flying' off the roof. The son turned towards his father and
said "Abba! Abba! Eliyahu Oleh Shamayma!" [Father! Father! Elijah is
ascending to the heavens]
Aharon Fischman
<afischman@...>
www.alluregraphics.com
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From: Mark Steiner <ms151@...>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 08:17:34 -0400
Subject: RE: Christmas and Xmas
A short search came up with the following from a website:
The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," later shortened to
"Christ-Mass." The even shorter form "Xmas" - first used in Europe in
the 1500s - is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first
letter of Christ's name: Xristos, therefore "X-Mass."
If you don't, therefore, want to say "Christmas," you'll have to say
"nitl", which is the word used in the poskim.
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From: Carl Singer <casinger@...>
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 07:42:21 -0400
Subject: Esther -- get serious?
> From: Tzvi Stein <Tzvi.Stein@...>
> With regard to Kol Isha, if you want to continue listening to her
> recorded music, it would be best if you never see her perform live.
> It's even better if you're not so familiar with how she looks. You may
> even want to fold over the title card on your tapes or CDs.
The "Kol Isha" was meant to be humorous. I've never listened to her
music recorded or otherwise so I cannot continue to do so. I doubt that
I would purchase media whose graphics, let alone whose music, I find
offensive.
Carl Singer
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From: <FriedmanJ@...> (Jeanette Friedman Sieradski)
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 09:29:10 EDT
Subject: Re: Kastner transport
A. Ben Hecht's book leaves a lot to be desired, historically. For a real
comprehensive history you also have to read Feingold and Morse, Kranzler
and Wyman.
B. Kastner wanted to get his family and friends from Kluj out but
diudn't have enought money. $2 million was paid to buy the train, and
the rest of the money and funds came from the passengers and from a
guarantee for 40 tractors arranged through Recha and Isaac Sternbuch and
the Vaad Hatzalah in Switzerland. My mother was with the Satmar Rebbe,
along with some Halberstams, and yes she was in Budapest after escaping
in the trunk of a car from the Warsaw Ghetto. There were also laborers
on board the Kastner transport, and anyone else who had money could get
on, and the total passenger count was about 1684 or 1784, of whom 300
were released from Bergen Belsen in Aug. 44 to convice Himmler that the
Brand/Jewish Agency deal would go down. But the Jewish Agency wasn't
interested and the British put Brand in jail in Instanbul to prevent a
"wedge" from being driven between the Western Allies and the
Russians. The rest of the train was released to Basel in Dec. 44, around
Chanukah time--and all the passengers were supposed to have visas to go
to Palestine.
In addition to the people on the Kastner transport, the deal also
included, and I rechecked my numbers--17,000 additional Jews who were
held in camps in Austria and not sent to Auschwitz. I thought it was
more, but I was wrong.
The definitive and most correct historian on all of this is Kranzler.
Jeanette Friedman Sieradski
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From: <FriedmanJ@...> (Jeanette Friedman Sieradski)
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 09:12:47 EDT
Subject: Malka Esther Shtussim
With regard to Kol Isha, if you want to continue listening to her
recorded music, it would be best if you never see her perform
live. It's even better if you're not so familiar with how she
looks. You may even want to fold over the title card on your
tapes or CDs.
This is way beyond kol isha, folks, especially if you know that Malka
Esther generally dresses like Esther Hamalka did on the night she
visited Achashveyrosh for the first time! Trust me, Malka Esther has a
lot less tznius. I've seen her perform live more than once...in the old
days when she pranced around like a virgin in a crinoline and bustier at
1018 in Manhattan, and when she did her Blonde Ambition tour at the
Meadowlands. I hear the Bergs come and get rid of all the bad "vibes"
and stuff on the stage by chanting "incantations" and waving burning
sage branches around. What's next? Will she wear a mezuzah made out of
a piece of Reb NANANANANANachman's chair?
Jeanette Friedman Sieradski
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From: Batya Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 14:16:01 +0200
Subject: Re: Meshullachim during Tefilah
I wonder if other posters are becoming as disturbed by the
increasing number of meshullachim who disturb us at inappropriate
points during davenning. I have had "hachnassos kallah" shouted
down my ear when I was
First, pointedly, ignore them until you're finished. Then explain that
they are obviously charlatans, due to their non-halachik behavior;
therefore, no money. If someone is really collecting as a mitzvah, then
he'll quickly learn, if not, then maybe he is a charlatan.
Batya
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From: Carl Singer <casinger@...>
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 07:35:23 -0400
Subject: Meshullachim interrupting davening.
I wonder if other posters are becoming as disturbed by the increasing
number of meshullachim who disturb us at inappropriate points during
davenning. I have had "hachnassos kallah" shouted down my ear when I was
quite clearly saying the first pasuk of the Shema (my hand was covering
my eyes at the time) and I have seen others approached when they had
just put on their tefillin shel yad but not their shel rosh. A few years
ago I wrote at length on this
(http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5762/nitzavim/otzedokoh.htm)
and would be interested in hearing other members opinions.
In general having several groups (carloads?) of men walking around
during davening can be disruptive. Having grown up naive in the
midwest, my eyes were opened when at a Bris (at someone's home) several
meshullachim arrived as we were trying to form a minyan and the Rav of a
local shule who was at the bris was uncertain if they were indeed Jewish
and could be counted for the minyan -- he questioned them accordingly.
Clearly some meshullachim are observant and (should) know that when
you're covering your eyes for Shema or have put on only your shel yad
that you should not be interrupted -- others may not be observant and
only know what a palm up -- wait -- hand gesture means.
Some shules have a gabbai tzedukah (or the Rabbi) who disburses funds
to meshullachim and thus keeps them from soliciting the individual
daveners. I think this is rare today.
Carl Singer
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From: Carl Singer <casinger@...>
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 08:00:00 -0400
Subject: More Hot Water
>>YES -- perhaps it's different on Israeli hot water heaters -- but both
>>intake and outflow on most U.S. water heaters are located on the very
>>TOP of the cylinder.
>
> Presumably the out flow pipe is like a straw, sucking water from the
> bottom. This makes US and Israeli water heaters functionally equivalent.
> Our water heater's outflow pipe goes straight to the ceiling of the
> basement, then to all sinks, etc both in the basement, as well as above.
> Having the outflow on the bottom would mean additional piping to bring
> hot water to the ceiling. As someone else pointed out, this would be
> just that much more piping from which to lose heat.
I was hoping that we had had our fill of hot water. The water is forced
into the outflow pipe by the pressure of cold water entering the hot
water heater. The opening of a hot water tap, provides a relief point
an thus the hot water flows out there. The pipes within the hot water
heater itself are at about the same temperature as the water within the
heater -- and in any case we're only speaking of a difference of a few
feet.
Reiterating my primary point - to presume that turning off the hot water
heater's heat source some time before Shabbos and taking a few showers
(using hot water) before Shabbos is not guarantee that all of the water
within the system is sufficiently cool to be used on Shabbos without
issues of hot / cold water mixing and thus "cooking."
Carl A. Singer
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 11:44:25 +0100
Subject: Re: Rema and Mikveh Privacy
on 8/7/04 10:39 am, Joseph Ginzberg <jgbiz120@...> wrote:
> There's a (perhaps apocryphal) story of how the Ramah came to author the
> annotations to the Shulchan Aruch with all the various customs.
>
> As the story was told to me, he became Rav in Cracow, and at the first
> Shachris saw the shammas go over to several men and say "mazel tov".
> This happened several days in a row, so the Ramah asked about it, and
> was told that this was the local minhag. Since the shammas's wife was
> the local "mikva lady", when she returned home she told her husband who
> had been there and he would give them a "mazel tov" the following
> morning. The Ramah immediately abolished this flagrant lack of tznius.
>
> A few weeks later there was a fight between the shammas and a
> congregant. When the Ramah asked why they were fighting the shammas
> responded " this man has been out of town for several months, and is
> upset with me for not telling him "mazel tov". He is wrong for two
> reasons- the Rav ordered this to stop, and anyway, his wife wasn't
> there!"
The way I heard the story was that there was a dramatic decline in
mikveh attendance and the Rema (not Ramah who was the Rishon, Rabbi Meir
Halevi Abulafia of Toledo, author of the Yad Ramah on Bava Batra and
Sanhedrin) realised from this the value of this apparently objectionable
custom, which he then reinstated. Whether it should be introduced in
places where it was not formerly practised is an entirely different
manner even though it is said that "Uvenei Ashkenaz yots'im beyad Rema!"
(cf. Ex. 14,8)
Martin Stern
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From: Richard Schultz <schultr@...>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 13:31:28 +0300
Subject: Water Heater Construction
Sam Saal <ssaal@...> writes:
Carl Singer <casinger@...> wrote:
:>YES -- perhaps it's different on Israeli hot water heaters -- but both
:>intake and outflow on most U.S. water heaters are located on the very
:>TOP of the cylinder.
: Presumably the out flow pipe is like a straw, sucking water from the
: bottom. This makes US and Israeli water heaters functionally equivalent.
This is backwards -- at least in the U.S. water heaters with which I am
familiar. The intake is on top for convenience (and presumably so that
any leaks that occur will leak on to the top of the water heater rather
than onto the floor). The intake is connected to a pipe that goes down
to the bottom of the tank. I know this for a fact because in one
apartment I lived in, the water heater broke by having that pipe come
detached from the inside, so that the incoming water poured straight
onto the top of the heated water. That explained why I never had enough
hot water with which to take a shower.
: Our water heater's outflow pipe goes straight to the ceiling of the
: basement, then to all sinks, etc both in the basement, as well as above.
: Having the outflow on the bottom would mean additional piping to bring
: hot water to the ceiling. As someone else pointed out, this would be
: just that much more piping from which to lose heat.
It makes much more sense to have the cold water enter the tank at the
bottom since (a) the heating element is usually at the bottom, so you'll
be heating the cold water that has just entered the tank and (b) hot
water is less dense than cold water, so the heated water will rise to
the top of the tank. Your proposed design, with the cold water entering
at the top and the hot water being removed from the bottom, is less
efficient in that it means essentially that you have to heat all of the
water rather than the cold water that's just entered the tank.
Richard Schultz
<schultr@...>
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From: Samuel P Groner <spg28@...>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 09:38:11 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Wonder Stories
Kenneth G Miller wrote:
> I agree, and would go even further. In my personal experience (everyone
> will vary, of course) the most damaging stories are the ones where a
> certain tzadik did a certain thing, and he is held up as a role model
> for us to emulate. So far, so good. But too often, the thing he did is
> not actually required of us. The tzadik went beyond the requirements of
> halacha, and we end up feeling inadequate because we're not strong
> enough to go that extra mile...
I've had a different reaction to some of the "wonder stories" I've heard,
namely, that the behavior being held out as so exemplary was in fact quite
ordinary. For example, I've heard stories of tzaddikim who "said good
morning even to non-jews they passed while walking to shul," or "said good
morning even to the janitor in the yeshiva" or "helped clean up the bus
after a field trip" and the like (those are all real stories I've heard,
by the way). I would think most people would do the same, and never quite
understand why these became "wonder stories." In fact, I think the story
reflects poorly on the community telling it, because by telling it a
person implies that he thinks it is extraordinary rather than ordinary to
have derech eretz.
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End of Volume 43 Issue 41
