Volume 53 Number 13
Produced: Fri Nov 24 9:07:02 EST 2006
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Carnivorous Jews
[Mark Goldin]
Congratulations to Bnei Menashe who made aliyah this week
[Jacob Richman]
Kitvei Maharal online?
[Aliza Berger]
LED Flashlight
[Jonathan Baker]
windup LED flashlights and Rabbi Karelitz
[Aryeh Gielchinsky]
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From: Mark Goldin <goldinfamily@...>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 23:03:08 -0800
Subject: Carnivorous Jews
From: Joseph Ginzberg <jgbiz120@...>
>>Yes, farmimg methods may be "tzaar baalei chaim" and so on, but that
>>doesn't change things. Halachically food produced by someone who does
>>it in a forbidden way does not become forbidden (Yes, I know about
>>kilaim and so on, I mean animals). For example, castrated animals do
>>not become unkosher. I don't want to reopen all the old beaten
>>threads, but pate via fattened geese and hunting both are permitted
>>if not encouraged. The same goes for the use of leather.
I would love to know which sources *encourage* this.
I think people will go to almost any lengths to justify the continuation
of their lifestyle.
Even if the food produced is kosher, technically, might there not be
other reasons for not eating it? Perhaps it is forbidden to encourage
on-going cruelty by purchasing the meat? We are not talking about a
case of economic necessity here, but about the difference between
profits and greater profits. The goose liver producers who received a
dispensation relied on this to make a basic living, though IMHO they
should have found another line of work. It is my conviction that Jews
should distance themselves from enterprises that pollute, consume
disproportionate natural resources, harm their workers and inflict
needless cruelty on their livestock. Hiding behind halachic
technicality instead of sowing righteousness and being an or la'goyim is
less than ideal.
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From: Jacob Richman <jrichman@...>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 07:03:17 +0200
Subject: Congratulations to Bnei Menashe who made aliyah this week
Hi Everyone!
Congratulations to Bnei Menashe who made aliyah from India this week.
I posted articles and pictures on my site at:
http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/history/aliyah.htm
May aliyah grow and bring more Jews back to their homeland, Eretz
Yisrael.
Have a good month,
Chodesh Tov,
Jacob
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From: Aliza Berger <alizadov@...>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:24:24 +0200
Subject: Kitvei Maharal online?
Does anyone know if Kitvei Maharal is available online?
Sincerely,
Aliza Berger-Cooper, PhD
www.statistics-help.com
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From: Jonathan Baker <jjbaker@...>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:35:14 -0500 (EST)
Subject: LED Flashlight
From: Michael Mirsky <mirskym@...>
> I said:
> > > As far as creating and breaking a circuit being boneh and soter, this
> > > seems to me to be fairly clear. The same applies to turning on and
> Ari Trachenberg said:
> > I've always had a problem with this logic, because you do the same
> > thing, for example, by turning on your faucet on Shabbat. You are
> > creating a path (through air, assisted by gravity) for water to flow
> > from higher potential to lower potential. For that matter, water can
> > be used to generate work (e.g. light a lamp) as well!
> I think your analogy is faulty. Gravity is natural so letting objects
> (or water) go from higher potential energy (a high location) to a lower
> potential energy (lower location) through gravity is fine. Just like
> picking up and dropping a (non-mukzeh) object - that isn't assur - smae
> with a faucet. But with electricity, you're building a path through a
> wire circuit - something not natural.
Sorry, your distinction between "natural" and "artificial" seems quite
arbitrary. Were it not for the faucet, the water would be running
directly through the water supply and sewer system: the whole water
supply and sewer system being just as manmade as the electrical
generation and distribution system.
Gravity is just as natural as electromagnetic force - both fundamental
forces of the universe. Harnessing them to our use is just as much a
man-made artifice in one case as the other. The distinction you seem to
be drawing might be "what's new vs. what's old" - we've had running
water for 150-200 years, and the Romans had it 2000 years ago, whereas
we've only had electricity for 100 years.
One might make a distinction in that water is visible, while electricity
is not visible, but even that would be an artificial, arbitrary
distinction, because while electricity may not be visible, it certainly
is tangible - or have you never gotten an electric shock?
> > > Another (reason why closing an electric circuit is fobidden is
> > > that it is like) is makeh bpatish (lit. banging with a hammer)
> > > which applies to putting the final touch on some device to make it
> > > usable. This is another melacha forbidden on Shabbat.
> > How could this be an issue in a device that is constantly turning (by
> > design), taking apart and putting together the circuit on a schedule?
> If a circuit is open and closed (on and off) on a schedule you preset
> (like a shabbat clock), then you are not actively involved at the time.
> But with a windup flashlight with a generator with a commutator, *you*
> are turning the crank, which turns the commutator, which opens and
> closes the circuit. So you are directly involved and is no different
> than turning on a light switch in that respect.
Except that it presumes the answer - if you posit that opening and
closing an electric circuit is boneh/soter, then it's a problem.
IIRC, R' SZ Auerbach in his correspondence with the Chazon Ish
demolished every argument that using electric current ipso facto
violates a melacha; he only deferred to the Chazon Ish's authority in
the end, even though it contradicted halachic reality.
It seems to me that today, since both parties are gone, contemporary
poskim could take RSZA's positions and make them into current law.
Halacha kebatrai (following the later decisor) should allow this.
Social pressures alone mitigate against this.
name: jon baker web: http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker
address: <jjbaker@...> blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com
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From: Aryeh Gielchinsky <agielchinsky@...>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:22:49 -0500
Subject: windup LED flashlights and Rabbi Karelitz
>> Michael Mirsky <mirskym@...> wrote:
>> As far as creating and breaking a circuit being boneh and soter, this
>> seems to me to be fairly clear. The same applies to turning on and
>> off a light switch. You are creating a path for the current to flow
>> to deliver power to the bulb, and then you are breaking that circuit
>> and stopping the power. This is one of the prime reasons given for
>> not turning on electric devices on Shabbat.
> Ari Trachtenberg <trachten@...>
> I've always had a problem with this logic, because you do the same
> thing, for example, by turning on your faucet on Shabbat. You are
> creating a path (through air, assisted by gravity) for water to flow
> from higher potential to lower potential.
I don't think that comparison fits exactly. It appears to me that
turning on a facet or opening a valve in a pipe would not be comparable
to connecting two live wires, it would be comparable to changing the
voltage at the gate of a transistor to allow more/less current through
the transistor. If one were to hold the electricity itself is a form of
fire, then I could see someone for biding using a transistor, though
that argument would not apply to the facet because water is not fire. A
more comparable case to attaching two live wires might be attaching two
water pipes, which probably would be boneh or soser. The only problem
with my comparison is that it would probably be boneh or soser by the
pipes even without water flowing through them at the time of attachment,
but I think Rav Shlomo Zalman holds attaching two non-live wires would
not fall into the Chazon Ish's boneh or soser.
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End of Volume 53 Issue 13