Volume 47 Number 42
Produced: Tue Mar 29 6:27:48 EST 2005
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Art Scroll vs Singer
[Boruch Merzel]
Artscroll Siddur (2)
[Eli Turkel, Jack Gross]
Do not put Salt on a Dying Man's Lips
[Jeanette Friedman]
Karaite calendar
[Shmuel Himelstein]
Living Wills, etc.
[Carl Singer]
Rabbi Berel Wein
[R G Green]
Sh'lo assany Nachri
[Jack Gross]
The word "goy"
[Jacob Gross]
Year in Israel
[Aharon A. Fischman]
Yeshivah in Israel after High School (2)
[Aryeh Gielchinsky, Shalom Berger]
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From: <BoJoM@...> (Boruch Merzel)
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:35:42 EST
Subject: Re:Art Scroll vs Singer
Lawerence Myers writes:
> As a long time member of United Synagogue, I heartily agree. I'm very
> upset at seeing our minhagim whittled away. In Shacharit, Singers has
> "Uvinimah kedoshah, kulom" etc, whereas Artscroll inter alia has
> "Uvinimah, kedushah kulom" etc
See B'er Hetev on Hilchos Birkos Krias Sh'ma, 59-s.k.3, where he
unequivocally tell us it is properly read as "uvenema k'dosha" (the
dalet has a cholom as its vowel. On the other hand see Rashi on Y'shiah
6:3 where he reads it as a noun rather than an adjective and tells us
the phrase is:"K'dusha, kulom k'chod onim"
Boruch Merzel
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From: Eli Turkel <eliturkel@...>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 22:39:22 +0200
Subject: Artscroll Siddur
> As a long time member of United Synagogue, I heartily agree. I'm very
> upset at seeing our minhagim whittled away. In Shacharit, Singers has
> "Uvinimah kedoshah, kulom" etc, whereas Artscroll inter alia has
> "Uvinimah, kedushah kulom" etc
To defend Artscroll they have to choose a version. No one wants a siddur
that gives you choices for each phrase. In the siddur Rinat Yisrael
which is very popular in Israel they use "Uvinimah kedoshah, kulom"
I have seen shuls where the siddur used by the Chazan is marked up to
indicate local changes. There is no reason why Singers could not do a
similar thing.
kol tuv
Eli Turkel
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From: Jack Gross <jbgross@...>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 22:19:30 -0500
Subject: Re: Artscroll Siddur
Alan Rubin wrote:
> I read this weekend that the United Synagogue have approached Art
> Scroll for them to produce an Art Scroll version of Singer's Siddur.
I hope they insist that ArtScroll not perpetuate its mistranslation of
Ti'ta'nu (the final word in the Ashamnu confession) as "you have caused
us to sin". (What were they thinking? "Ti'ta'tanu"?)
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From: <FriedmanJ@...> (Jeanette Friedman)
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 08:46:07 EST
Subject: Do not put Salt on a Dying Man's Lips
Determining which patients are merely hopeless, and which are in
the goses category is a very delicate matter, to be determined
carefully by a rabbi in consultation with the doctors. But if that
determination has been made, then there are a number of halachos
which apply. These include the points Bernie made, such as the
lack of obligation to artificially prolong the life of this person
who has already begun to depart. On the other hand, once such
means have been started, it is difficult to say whether "pulling
the plug" is an act of killing the person, or merely passively
allows him to continue dying. It was indeed Rav Moshe Feinstein
who suggested looking at any required servicing of the machine as
a window of opportunity, during which it is allowed to passively
avoid turning it back on.
This is correct in terms of Reb Moishe's thinking--as in the case of my
father, where his system was shutting down. He'd had enough of bieng
"mutch' ed" by the doctors, and told me so. My mother was going to stick
a hyperalimentation shunt into his neck, so I called three people: Rabbi
S.Z. Leiman, Rabbi Moshe Sherrer and Reb Moishe, and within hours, my
mother got the phone call from Rabbi Sherrer, who communicated Reb
Moishe's response. My father was allowed to die with dignity and peace
two or three days later, because he was left alone by the doctors...he
even got to say Viduy with a minyan and give his children a bracha
before he crossed the threshold into the other world.
I called this whole thing the inyan of "do not putting salt on a dying
man's lips."
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From: Shmuel Himelstein <himels@...>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 19:43:13 +0200
Subject: Karaite calendar
Yesterday's (March 25) Jerusalem Post carried the following
advertisement by the Karaite community, which should be of interest:
Passover Starts Tonight, Not Next Month!
Exodus 23:15 says, "Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread ... at the
time of the month of the aviv." What is this "month of the aviv?"
Exodus 9:31, describing the plague of hail, says, "the flax and the
barley were destroyed because the barley was aviv and the flax was
giv'ol." This and other passages (i.e., Leviticus 2:14) show that aviv
is a stage in the development of cereal grains, such as barley. So each
year, the Karaite community of Jerusalem searches throughout the Land of
Israel for aviv barley. When we find it, we declare the next Rosh Hodesh
to be the "month of aviv," and we celebrate Passover on the 15th - 21st
of that month.
This year, Aviv barley was found in the Judean desert on Thursday 10
March, and the crescent new moon was spotted at sunset on Friday 11
March. So Passover really begins tonight! Hag Sameah.
Shmuel Himelstein
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From: Carl Singer <casinger@...>
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 08:51:25 -0500
Subject: Living Wills, etc.
I think an issue of concern is that someone have a medical proxy -- that
is a person who can make medical decisions for them when they are unable
to -- who they can rely on to follow halacha and, if in doubt, seek
Rabbinic advice. <Lawyers -- please step in here with details.>
Worse case scenario -- a single person who is a Ba'al Tshuva (who may or
may not be at odds with their parents / siblings) -- should that person
end up unable to make their own medical decisions the "community" will
have little say vice the parents.
Carl
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From: <rgreen@...> (R G Green)
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 00:36:05 +0200 (SAST)
Subject: Rabbi Berel Wein
How accurate are Rabbi Berel Wein's History Books?
As somebody who has researched Jewish History from the Temple Era until
current, along with a PHD in History, I find many of his writings
fictional. I firmly believe that he should be forced to substantiate his
sources as would any historian in the secular academic world.
Professor R G Green (retired)
Dept of History
University of Leeds
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From: Jack Gross <jbgross@...>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 21:38:02 -0500
Subject: Re: Sh'lo assany Nachri
Carl Singer wrote
> -- nachri is "Christian"
Notzri.
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From: Jacob Gross <JacobBGross@...>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:32:40 -0500
Subject: Re: The word "goy"
In many verses, "ha'ammim" or "haggoyim" (the nations) carries the
connotation of "other": "the [other] nations", to the exclusion of
Yisrael. (So too we encounter "ha'elohim" connoting "the [other] gods",
to the exclusion of the Holy One.)
Familiar examples:
lo merubb'chem mikkol ha'ammim ...;
... lamma yom'ru haggoyim...;
... hu E-lohey ha'elohim
Not so the singular -- the referent will depend entirely on the context.
The only one who could say "baruch ... shello asani goy" in the biblical
sense of the word would be Moshe Rabbenu, whose prayer to defeat the
proposal of "v'e'e'seh ot'cha l'goy gadol" was granted (as we read last
Thursday).
In Rabbinic literature goy of course took on the meaning of "individual
gentile", and that is clearly a back-formation from "Haggoyim".
(Similarly, "Am'min" as "gentiles" is a back-formation from "Ha'ammim")
I recall there is a disagreement, in Yoreh Deah, concerning the proper
B'racha for Hafrashat Challah. The two versions are "L'hafrish
T'rumah..." and "L'hafrish Challah". That hinges on a general
disagreement whether wording of the blessings is to conform to Biblical
or Rabbinic idiom. (The first follows Torah usage, where "Challah" has
no connotation of sanctity; the second follows Rabbinic usage, where
"Challah" is the standard term for the sanctified portion separated from
the dough.) The question of "Goy" vs. "Nochri" sounds quite analogous.
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From: Aharon A. Fischman <afischman@...>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 08:56:03 -0500
Subject: Re: Year in Israel
Personally, I benefitted tremendously from my year in Israel. I was in
a Hesder Yeshiva so we had heavy interactions with Israeli's and Hebrew.
Some Charutas were set up with Israelis, and the dorm set-up was always
a mix of Israelis and Anglos (there were British nationals as well as
Americans). I think that everyone benefitted from seeing another
culture up close and to learn. You could walk into my dorm room and see
the Israelis talking in English to learn English and me and my roomate
A"H talking in Hebrew to learn Hebrew. I also picked up more of a
<i>derech</i> of learning than in the years prior or subsequent that I
can still call on today.
Aharon Fischman
Sha'alvim '90 ; Yeshiva University / SSSB '93
Rutgers Graduate School of Management '00
<afischman@...> ; www.alluregraphics.com
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From: Aryeh Gielchinsky <agielchinsky@...>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 11:02:21 -0500
Subject: Re: Yeshivah in Israel after High School
I am currently a Pre-Engineering student a Yeshiva University who went
for a year to Mevaseret Zion.
>My own, again distant, impression, is that while kids already
>well-rounded returned with from Israel still well-rounded and with more
>Talmud learning, overall the Yeshiva experience is not a rounding one.
I prior to my year in Israel I was shy when meeting new people. In
elementary and high school my class was basically the same group of guys
plus minus a few. When I got to Mevaseret I knew about 2 out of 100 guys
so I was forced to learn how to introduce myself. The yeshivas in Israel
promote a feeling of togetherness so it wasn't too difficult to get
adjusted. If I had gone straight to YU or another university it would
have been much more difficult to learn to meet people because the
environment isn't as friendly.
>If anything, it makes some kids more insular, encourages family rifts
>(as parents are no longer sufficiently "Kosher")
If the child is tactful and respectful when explaining halachos he
learnt, most parents will comply (unless it is a chumra that a young
kollel guy presented to the student as halacha). Any way as a parent,
you should be happy to have a child who is looking out for your own
good.
>and for those spending a second year in Israel makes them less
>academically prepared for college (this we have heard from at least one
>University professor).
Returning from a year in Israel I did forget some calculus, but a small
review brought me back on track. Also a year of studying gemarah
definitely helped my study of literature (in both cases you have to try
to decipher why each word was used, try to relate one section with
another, and try to grasp the overall flow of the text) and computer
programming (in programming you have to keep track different variables,
what they do and how they change as you progress through your program,
similar to a gemarah where you have to keep track of different opinions,
why they hold what they do and how they can interact with each other ).
I also gained a very different outlook on life in general, which has mad
me a more serious student in all my secular studies.
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From: Shalom Berger <lookjed@...>
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 15:37:24 +0200
Subject: Yeshivah in Israel after High School
In response to the query about the effects of Israel study after High
School, I would like to bring to the attention of list readers my
doctoral dissertation "A Year of Study in an Israeli Yeshiva Program:
Before and After" as well as the more recent study by Dr. Dan Jacobson
"Psychological and Religious Change of Orthodox Jewish Boys During a
Post-High School Year of Study in an Israeli Yeshiva". Both can be
accessed on the web at the Lookstein Center website -
Berger - http://www.lookstein.org/articles/sberger_dissertation.pdf
Jacobson - http://www.lookstein.org/articles/dj_dissertation.pdf
If you are interested in more anecdotal reactions, you can find student
comments about their experience on the Orthodox Caucus website
http://www.ocweb.org, where, under each separate yeshiva, there is a
section called "alumni speak".
I encourage parents to contribute their thoughts about their childrens'
Israel experience to the "Parents Speak" section of the site at
http://www.ocweb.org/index.php/israel_school_guide/parents_speak/ .
Alumni who would like to share information about their year of study can
do so at
http://www.ocweb.org/index.php/israel_school_guide/alumni_speak/
Shalom
Rabbi Shalom Z. Berger, Ed.D.
The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education in the Diaspora
Bar Ilan University
http://www.lookstein.org
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End of Volume 47 Issue 42