Volume 60 Number 43
Produced: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:12:17 EDT
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Additions and changes to the Amidah during the 10 days
[Carl Singer]
Bracha on chocolate
[Gershon Dubin]
Four different daily Mitzvos
[Sammy Finkelman]
Shofar blowing in Elul
[Sammy Finkelman]
Spicy problem
[Martin Stern]
Travel on erev Shabbat
[Martin Stern]
Zerizim makdimim
[Martin Stern]
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From: Carl Singer <carl.singer@...>
Date: Mon, Oct 3,2011 at 09:01 AM
Subject: Additions and changes to the Amidah during the 10 days
The last of the additions in the Amidah during the 9 days is in Sim Shalom
-- where the brocha at the end is normally "Umvaraych es Amo Yisroel b'Shalom"
[Who blesses His people Israel with peace].
During the 9 days this is augmented with B'sefar Chaim .... (In the book of
life ....) concluding with "Oseh Hashalom" [Who makes peace].
The above is per the several Art Scroll Hebrew-English Siddurs that I have
(both Ashkenas and Nusach Sfard, weekday and Shabbos).
Yesterday the Shatz in his repetition included the above augmentation but
ended with "Umvaraych es Amo Yisroel b'Shalom". It turns out that the all-Hebrew
Art Scroll siddur (yes, I know there are many editions) allows for this
alternate ending.
I'd appreciate some more history of the variants.
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From: Gershon Dubin <gershon.dubin@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 2,2011 at 12:01 AM
Subject: Bracha on chocolate
Hillel (Sabba) Markowitz <sabbahillel@...> wrote (MJ 60#42):
> Consider the fact that orange juice (squeezed directly from the fruit) is
> shehakol
Perhaps you should consider that the Chazon Ish held that you should make a
ha'eitz on orange juice.
Gershon
<gershon.dubin@...>
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From: Sammy Finkelman <sammy.finkelman@...>
Date: Wed, Sep 28,2011 at 04:01 PM
Subject: Four different daily Mitzvos
In MJ 60#35 (thread "Davening without talis and tefilin"), I wrote:
> The Mitzvah of Tefillin is separate from that of saying Krias Shemah
> which is separate in turn from that of learning Torah in the first
> third of the day, which, in turn, is separate from making brachahs early
> in the day.
This hasn't been corrected here yet. It is the first quarter of the
day (3 hours), not the first third (4 hours), where there is the
obligation of learning Torah before it expires (and also, probably
Rabbinically, the time limit for Shema).
This got garbled in my mind because it is easy to get lost between 3
and 4, since 3x4 = 4x3 and both equal 12. A fourth of the day is 3
hours, and a third of the day is 4 hours, so especially if you don't
stop to think in detail, and you almost never calculate anything
(whenever you might look up the time, you're using tables), there's
nothing there to catch the error.
There is a time of a third of the day (4 hours). It has to do with the
time of davening the Shemonah Esrei of Shacharis, and also with the
last time for eating Chametz on Erev Pesach.
Although I think davening Shacharis can and does take place later, up
to maybe even half the day - I'm not sure exactly what the reasoning
is there but there's something more to it than just a third of the day
and then it's too late. It's not exactly. Places that have many
minyanim a day do go past one third of the day.
The hours we are talking about here are twelfths of the day and there
are two ways (or maybe more) of counting them. The time that starts
later (actual sunrise and sunset, not counting twilight) with the
shorter hours results in later times for Shema and Shemoneh Esrei.
This is because the middle of the day stays the same, and if the hours
are shorter, counting back 3 hours ends up at a later hour by the
clock. Times for the afternoon, though, are earlier that way.
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From: Sammy Finkelman <sammy.finkelman@...>
Date: Wed, Sep 28,2011 at 04:01 PM
Subject: Shofar blowing in Elul
Is it correct that Sephardim don't blow the Shofar in Elul?
What exacty is the ststus of this blowing? A minhag, or something stronger? In
any case, it is a very good practice.
We don't blow it on the day before Rosh Hashonah unless that day is a
Friday in order to leave at least one day pause between the Shofar
blowing of Elul and the Shofar blowing of Rosh Hashonah so that people
shouldn't confuse what the two are.
The usual custom, I think, is to blow right before L'Dovid Hashem Ori,
but apparently others do after the davening. This year, in the shul I
daven in, we started omitting the extra Kaddish and it didn't work
out so well. You never know when to actually blow the shofar. The
conclusion of a Kaddish is much easier.
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Mon, Oct 10,2011 at 02:01 AM
Subject: Spicy problem
In the Talmudic passage Pitum haketoret (Keritot 6a, TJ Yoma 4,5), included
in the siddur, there is a list of the 11 spices that composed the incense
used in the Beit Hamikdash. They appear basically to be listed in decreasing
weights except for the last two which are reversed. Has anyone seen any
explanation of this apparent anomaly?
Martin Stern
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 2,2011 at 08:01 AM
Subject: Travel on erev Shabbat
Alexander Seinfeld <seinfeld@...> wrote (MJ 60#42):
> One need not take Carl's word for it - see Mishna Berura 249:3 (towards end)
> - he seems too hold it's mamash assur [explicitly forbidden] to make such a
> risky trip erev-Shabbos [Sabbath eve].
> ...
> (Incidentally, see also Shulchan Aruch 266 - what to do with one's mukseh
> items [money etc. that may not be carried on Sabbath] if chas v'shalom [God
> forbid] one finds oneself not yet at destination on Friday at sunset and
> must descend from one's mule and walk the last mile, or to our example, if
> one finds oneself stuck in the airport on Shabbat with mukseh items, may it
> never occur.)
The problem of muktseh items pales into insignificance when compared to the
problem of having gone chutz letchum [outside the area permitted on Shabbat
- 1000 amot, approximately 1500 feet but consult your LOR, from the last
house in town].
Someone who has been transported such a distance, either having been
kidnapped by non-Jewish criminals (the situation considered in the Talmud
and Codes) or as a result of being in a plane that landed late, is stuck
wherever they have ended up and cannot move more than 4 amot from the
building in which they have been deposited.
What is interesting is that the situation discussed in the halachic
literature never seems to have contemplated Jews voluntarily putting
themselves in such a situation.
Martin Stern
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 9,2011 at 04:01 AM
Subject: Zerizim makdimim
There is an old custom to start shacharit 5 minutes earlier on the day after
Yom Kippur in order to show that we are now zerizim makdimim - more eager in
our avodat Hashem [service of the Almighty].
I noticed today (Sunday after YK) that our first minyan was rather depleted
and many of the regular attenders seem to have gone to the later one. Are
they fulfilling this custom because it also started 5 minutes earlier than
its regular time?
Martin Stern
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End of Volume 60 Issue 43