Volume 52 Number 75
Produced: Tue Sep 19 5:24:47 EDT 2006
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Alarm Clock on Shabbat
[Janice Gelb]
Birkat HaMazon - not guest and not home
[Hillel (Sabba) Markowitz]
Emergency Rally Outside the UN
[Gershon Dubin]
Hebrew on my computer (2)
[Tzvi Stein, Alan Rubin]
luach minhogim livnei Ashkenaz, 5767, available
[Mordechai]
Public and Private Psak Halacha
[Bernard Raab]
Secular Tunes
[Rich, Joel]
Tunes and Personalities
[Stu Pilichowski]
Tunes, Tunes and more tunes
[Carl Singer]
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From: Janice Gelb <j_gelb@...>
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:13:21 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Alarm Clock on Shabbat
R E Sternglantz <resternglantz@...> wrote:
> Since this thread has morphed from heterim that might permit one to
> turn an alarm clock off on Shabbos to ways of avoiding the problem in
> the first place, be warned that not all alarms on personal digital
> devices turn off after a few seconds, although some apparently do.
I generally wake up to a clock radio tuned to a news station. The clock
radio, like most clock radios, automatically turns off after an
hour. For Shabbatot when I want particularly to make sure I get up in
time to walk to shul for the start of services, before Shabbat I change
the station to a classical music station. Not only is it a shinui for
Shabbat but if for some odd reason it were not to turn itself off, I
would at least not be bothered by loud buzzing or other disturbing
sounds.
-- Janice
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From: Hillel (Sabba) Markowitz <Sabba.Hillel@...>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 05:55:50 -0400
Subject: Re: Birkat HaMazon - not guest and not home
I have been told that "kol bnai bris b'makom hazeh" is a valid
formulation.
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From: Gershon Dubin <gershon.dubin@...>
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:57:37 GMT
Subject: Emergency Rally Outside the UN
A MESSAGE FROM AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA
The scheduled visit to New York of the Iranian President - a man who has
described the Holocaust as "a myth" and called for Israel to be "wiped
off the map," a man who pursues destructive nuclear capacity in defiance
of the entire world community, a man who sponsors terror and mayhem in
the Middle East and beyond - should fill every civilized heart with
revulsion.
And it should fill every Jewish heart with something more.
The arrival of this would-be heir to Hitler should remind all Jews how
little has truly changed since millions of Jews were last targeted for
destruction, r"l. And it should remind us, no less, of the uniquely
vulnerable position of Yisroel bein ho'amim, Jewry among the nations,
and of the fact that ein lonu al mi lehishoein ela al Avinu
She'baShomayim - We can depend on no one but Our Father in Heaven.
Therefore, at this critical time, and during this season of
introspection and repentance, we call upon all Jews to return to our
sacred heritage, with tefillah and renewed allegiance to Torah, our
eternal wellspring of life, the source of our strength to withstand all
our enemies.
Along with our supplications, we feel it is our duty as well to express
to the world our deep anguish over the presence in our midst of a
vicious ruler who threatens genocide against Jews.
A number of Jewish groups are planning to gather outside the United
Nations headquarters, at
Dag Hammarskj'ld Plaza (2nd Avenue and 47th Street in Manhattan)
on Wednesday 27 Elul / September 20 at 12:00 noon
to present a collective Jewish expression of outrage at the General
Assembly's hosting of the Iranian leader, of support for Israel's
security and soldiers, and of solidarity in the fight against the global
scourge of terrorism.
Whatever differences may separate us from some of those groups, we stand
united here with all Jews.
Therefore, after consultation with the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and
following the precedent of the previous generation's Gedolim in similar
circumstances, we urge all who are able to do so to participate in the
planned gathering. We have been assured that a special section will be
made available for men and women to gather in separate areas, and we
will lift our voices in tefillah to Hashem, secure in the knowledge that
Bechol dor vodor omdim aleinu lechaloseinu veHakodosh Boruch Hu
matzileinu miyodom.
In every generation, there are those who stand against us to annihilate
us, but Hashem saves us from their hand.
Additional details will be forthcoming.
Gershon
<gershon.dubin@...>
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From: Tzvi Stein <Tzvi.Stein@...>
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 21:23:47 -0400
Subject: Re: Hebrew on my computer
I have gotten several requests to explain how I type Hebrew on my Linux
computer (I'm surprised by how many Mail-Jewish Linux users are out
there!), so I'm sending this to the list. Here's how I got Hebrew to
work on my Ubuntu Dapper (Gnome) Linux system:
On the System menu, click Preferences - Keyboard.
Click on the Layouts tab.
Click Add.
Scroll the list on the left until you see "Israel". Click the arrow to
the left of it to open the list of keyboards.
Choose 1 of the 3 layouts from the choices of si1452, lyx, and Phonetic.
-- "si1452" is the standard Israeli keyboard layout (i.e. the Shin is on
the A key... if you have an Israeli keyboard, or have put Hebrew stickers
on your keyboard to simulate one, you will probably want to use this one)
-- "lyx" is a modified layout that also allows you to type vowels.
-- "Phonetic" uses an interesting approach of mapping the Hebrew keys to
an English letter that sounds similar to it, i.e. A is Alef, B is Beit, T
is Taf, Shift-T is Tet, etc.
When you click on each layout option you will see a picture of a keyboard
showing where all the Hebrew letters are placed relative to the English
keyboard (you may have to enlarge the window bigger to see the keys
clearly).
Once you've chosen a layout, click OK.
(You can add as many layouts as you want... I also added U.S.
International which lets me type accents for French, Spanish, etc.)
Click on the Layout Options tab.
Click the arrow next to Group Shift/Lock Behavior
This will give you many options to decide which keys you want to press to
signal that you want to switch keyboard layouts. I chose "Both Shift
Keys Together Change Group".
Click Close.
Now in whatever program you are in (Email, word processor, spreadsheet,
whatever...) you can switch to the Hebrew keyboard by pressing both
Shift keys (right and left) at the same time. It will also
automatically change the direction from right to left. Once you are
done with Hebrew, just press both Shift keys again to go back to
English.
Hope this helps!
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From: Alan Rubin <alan@...>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:01:00 +0000
Subject: Re: Hebrew on my computer
Tzadik Vanderhoof wrote:
> I have gotten several requests to explain how I type Hebrew on my
> Linux computer (I'm surprised by how many Mail-Jewish Linux users are
> out there!), so I'm sending this to the list. Here's how I got Hebrew
> to work on my Ubuntu Dapper (Gnome) Linux system:
For those running KDE ( I use Slackware 10.2) it is very similar to that
described for Gnome.
Control Centre
Regional & Accessibility
Keyboard Layout
Enable keyboard layouts should be checked.
Israeli should be in the available keyboards in the list on the left and
it can be added to the list of active layouts on the right. There are
three variants: basic, lyx and si1452; I haven't investiagted the
difference between them.
You get an icon on the right of the status bar and clicking the icon
changes the active layout.
Alan Rubin
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From: <Phyllostac@...> (Mordechai)
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 03:25:39 EDT
Subject: luach minhogim livnei Ashkenaz, 5767, available
BS"D
Once again, I am happy to announce, that thanks to the generosity of
Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz (MMA), the 'Luach Minhogei Beis Haknesses
Livnei Ashkenaz - luach liShabbosos uMoadei hashono lishnas taf shin
samech zayin', for the coming year, 5767, is now available upon request,
free of charge.
As I stated in the past, the luach (38 or 40 pages in loshon
kodesh/Hebrew in *pdf format this year) is chock-full of interesting and
detailed information on minhogim, and is therefore of interest, not only
to bnei Ashkenaz ('Yekkes'), for whom it is primarily intended, but also
to Ashkenazim of various backgrounds, scholars, talmidei chachomim,
connoisseurs of minhogim, as well as interested Jews in general.
As last year, it is available in two separate editions - one for bnei
Eretz Yisroel (residents of Israel), and the other for bnei chutz
la'aretz (diaspora residents).To get a copy, drop me a line.
I also have some news/updates re other work of the Machon for those who
may be interested.
Thanks to Mail-Jewish for helping publicize this.
Kesiva vachasima tova.
Mordechai
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From: Bernard Raab <beraab@...>
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 02:41:01 -0400
Subject: RE: Public and Private Psak Halacha
>From: Mark Steiner:
>I have personal knowledge of cases in which R. Moshe Feinstein, of
>blessed memory, allowed women to undergo abortions (and may have urged
>them to do so), despite his staunch public position against abortions,
>as bloodshed. R. Moshe was not promoting "unity" and did not shrink
>from conflicts if he thought he was right, but he did not think that
>the considerations he used in this heter should be made public, since
>it would be impossible for him to set out in final detail the
>guidelines he tacitly used. Publication would inevitably lead to
>misuse of the responsum. (He consistently opposed attempts to
>translate his responsa into English, for a similar reason.)
R. Moshe Feinstein ZATZA"L was unique in his willingness to address
difficult issues and publish his decisions, albeit in Hebrew. For this
he was frequently cited as a "yachid", somewhat disparagingly, by his
contemporaries. (I will not say "peers" since he was peerless, IMHO.)
The case cited by Mark, above, is certainly one that would be tailored
to the specific individual and may not be applicable generally. But the
case which started this thread was the issue of listening to music
during sephira in which an anonymous poster claimed that his Rav
"mutared" (permitted) his (or her) attendance at a live concert of the
philharmonic during sephira. Surely this is not a decision which is
tailored to the individual. (The poster did not indicate that he or she
was a music student, for instance.) I speculated on the reasons why in
individual LOR would not publish such an opinion, which is why, I
claimed, that change must inevitably be led by the educated and
observant lay public. Where R. Moshe was unique was in his willingness
to address such issues, but only AFTER they were "in play". To cite just
one example that comes to mind, was his psak concerning the use of time
clocks on Shabbat. This was addressed only after many observant Jews
were already using such clocks, and was intended to validate their
behavior but also to define the boundaries of their use.
To add another element to this discussion, it is not just the local shul
rabbi who is reluctant to publish heterim. There are countless stories
concerning heterim given to individuals by "The Rav" J.B. Soloveitchik
which would raise numerous eyebrows in the Orthodox world today, which
he refused to publish, lest he be "labeled" by his right-wing
contemporaries who were only too willing to disparage the YU world as
"conservative" or worse.
K'tiva v'chatima tova--Bernie R.
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From: Rich, Joel <JRich@...>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 08:39:36 -0400
Subject: Secular Tunes
Ani Ldodi Vdodi Li
For those who differentiated between current popular tunes and those of
prior generations which don't have a secular connotation to us - Do you
think that those who used them when they still had a local connotation
did so in error but time has now kashered them?
KT
Joel Rich
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From: Stu Pilichowski <cshmuel@...>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:58:08 +0000
Subject: Re: Tunes and Personalities
Frankly, I don't care what tunes are used for tefillah if the end result
is going to make the tefillah more meaningful.
My sense is that the masses are willing to go to any length to add
meaning to their shul / tefillah experience. Hence the popularity of the
Carlebach minyanim. Hence the popularity of women's tefillah
groups. Anything - just give the (dry!) tefillah meaning for me.
Ever notice how on Friday night the parsha sheets are grabbed up in a
flash? Gotta have something to keep me from getting bored during the
davening, right?
Have a meaningful daveing this coming year. Strive to make each davening
a little bit better than the previous one.
Stuart Pilichowski
Mevaseret Zion, Israel
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From: <casinger@...> (Carl Singer)
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:00:49 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Tunes, Tunes and more tunes
I'm one of those people who remembers words and tunes to songs I heard
when I was in Junior High School (45's) -- I guess I should make a
self-effacing remark at this point that I cannot remember where I left
my glasses 5 minutes ago.
Specific to davening and nusach haTefillah I believe the issue (to me)
is familiarity. Some negunnim of tefillah bring back warm memories of
40+ years ago davening next to my Father, ztl, in a hot sweaty shule
without air conditioning. Some negunnim bring back pleasant memories --
even if they are newly familiar tunes (say only 10 years old -- we moved
ten years ago. We have a fine chazan and I've grown comfortable with
his tefillot.)
When it comes to RECOGNIZABLE "popular" tunes the issue (to me) is that
since I recognize the tune I may wander off to the words of the
underlying (source) tune and my tefillah thoughts derail.
Similarly, "strange" (new to me) negunnim have two impacts: (1) they
take me from the familiar / comfortable and (2) I may pay too much
attention to the nigun not the content -- like "wow" what an interesting
tune / adaption.
That said, when we've had Aussie guests for Shabbos I felt it my duty to
use "Waltzing Matilda" for Shiur HaMalos -- just to make them feel at
home - or to raise their eyebrows. -- And yes, I remember all of the
words (to WM & S-ha-M)
Carl
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End of Volume 52 Issue 75
