Volume 64 Number 89
Produced: Tue, 05 Jan 21 19:28:08 +0000
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
An opportunity to save lives with a bit of Halachic reasoning
[Sammy Finkelman]
Bracha for taking the vaccine (3)
[Chaim Casper Steven Oppenheimer David Tzohar]
Changes in practice
[Martin Stern]
Keeping one's retzuos straight (was Cold Weather Prayer)
[Martin Stern]
Local custom
[Martin Stern]
Question about bagels (beigels) (2)
[Chaim Casper Steven Oppenheimer]
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From: Sammy Finkelman <sammy.finkelman@...>
Date: Thu, Dec 31,2020 at 10:01 AM
Subject: An opportunity to save lives with a bit of Halachic reasoning
https://www.covidplasmasavealife.com
Originally connected only with convalescent plasma, it now also connects people
to the neutralizing monoclonal antibodies which probably cured United States
president Donald Trump and several other people connected to him.
Under government regulations in the United States, neutralizing monoclonal
antibodies are reserved only for outpatient use, (or else they won't get paid)
It is in short supply but that supply, as of a week or two ago, wasn't being
used very much in many places. The vaccines are also going unused, for example,
in Florida. In the UK they have decided to dispense for now with the second shot
and also authorized a third vaccine, which vaccine will probably be fourth in
the United States and not available till April.
Convalescent plasma is used (mostly or entirely) for hospital inpatients. Only
selected hospitals offer either of them, and they don't all of them offer both.
The situation is constantly changing. Anybody in the New York area who has a
positive Covid test should head to Maimonides Hospital where a doctor's referral
is not needed for the antibodies, but only a test and proof of high risk. High
risk is over age 65, a BMI of 35, a heart condition and some other underlying
conditions. Under the protocols antibodies are not given once someone has
started oxygen.
Maimonides Hospital may not be the best place for inpatient treatment.
There may be another hospital in the New York area in Rockland County (Good
Samaritan) that also has ER walk-in and may not throw out obstacles to the
antibodies.
For more and later information and about other areas of the United States,
email <monoclonal@...>
or call 828-4-PLASMA (Mordechai Serle, founder)
There are physician referral hotlines for several other hospitals.
Considered to be the best inpatient treatment: Includes plasma, blood thinners
and steroids.
Mt. Sinai in NYC gives convalescent plasma. Online registration for that
hospital is covidserum.com/eua-antibodies
If people are praying, bear in mind they are not praying for any miracle. The
refuah is already there. Just not being used.
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From: Chaim Casper <info@...>
Date: Wed, Dec 30,2020 at 08:01 AM
Subject: Bracha for taking the vaccine
Irwin Weiss asked (MJ 64#88):
> Let's say you determine that you'll get the vaccine when it is offered. Has
> anyone seen any suggestion as to whether there is a Bracha appropriate to
> recite upon getting the covid vaccine?
An old friend who now teaches at Bar Ilan U asked this question to his Facebook
friends. Some suggested shehehiyanu ... laz'man hazeh, some said m'hayeh metim.
I pointed to S.A. O.H 230:4 which says "Someone who enters (the doctor's
office?) to have blood drained (In olden times, the theory was that sick people
had "bad blood" in them so they would cut them open to "drain" the bad blood.
They did not realize that this practice actually made a sick person sicker.)
should say, 'May it be Your will Hashem, my God, that this action will heal me
for You are the ultimate Healer.' After the action, one should say, 'Blessed is
He who heals the sick.'
The Mishneh Brurah (s.k. 6 & 7) adds "It is the same law for all types of
medical treatment as one should not think that the healing comes from any other
source other than the Creator. Thus, this [prayer] will increase one's faith [in
God] and one will request from Him a complete healing ... And one should say
'Blessed is He who heals the sick' with Shem v'Malkut (ie. 'Barukh Atah Hashem
Elokeinu Melech Ha'olam who heals the sick' like all other blessings/b'rakhot
and not just 'Barukh is He who heals the sick')."
Rabbi Chaim Casper
17350 NE 12th CT
North Miami Beach, FL
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From: Steven Oppenheimer <steven.oppenheimer@...>
Date: Wed, Dec 30,2020 at 05:01 PM
Subject: Bracha for taking the vaccine
In response to Irwin Weiss (MJ 64#88):
Rav Hershel Schachter said to make the beracha "Hatov vehaMeitiv"
Rav Asher Weiss said no beracha.
Steven Oppenheimer, D.M.D.
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From: David Tzohar <davidtzohar@...>
Date: Sat, Jan 2,2021 at 02:01 PM
Subject: Bracha for taking the vaccine
Before getting vaccinated last week I asked our communal Rav/posek Rav Yitzchak
Tachover two questions:
1-Is there a bracha for getting vaccinated?
2-If you are successfully vaccinated should you make birkat hagomel since
you are no longer "besakkanah"
He replied that "hagomel" should only be said by someone who tested positive and
was actually sick and recovered.
As for the vaccination he heard that R'Shachter of YU said to say HaToV VHaMeiTiV.
R'Tachover said in his opinion this is a "SaFeK' and "Safek Berachot LeHaKeL" He
suggested wearing a new shirt when getting vaccinated and blessing "SHeHeCHeYaNU".
May Hashem grant ReFUaH ShLeiMaH leKoL ChOLeY AMO YiSRaEL.
R' David Yitzchak Tzohar
Machon Meir
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, Jan 3,2021 at 12:01 PM
Subject: Changes in practice
Joel Rich wrote (MJ 64#88):
> The Shulchan Aruch (Y"D 374:6) first reports the practice of contingent
> mourning (e.g. a spouse taking on some elements of mourning when the other
> spouse is in mourning). The Rama then says now (me - didn't they live around
> the same time?) we don't do it anymore, and one who does is "min hamatmihim"
Though the Rema was a younger contemporary of the Bet Yosef, they lived do far
apart (Cracow and Adrianople / Tzfat) that there would have been little contact
between their communities. So a practice may have died out in Poland raised
eyebrows if someone were to do it, while it was common in the Ottoman Empire.
Customs did 'migrate' but only very slowly unless they were propagated by
'missionaries' as was the case with the Lurianic kabbalah.
Martin Stern
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, Jan 3,2021 at 07:01 AM
Subject: Keeping one's retzuos straight (was Cold Weather Prayer)
Art Werschulz wrote (MJ 64#88):
>
> Lawrence Israel wrote (MJ 64#87):
>
>> I noticed that, in our outside shaharith, some people put on their tallith
>> and then put their jackets over them. Others, put the talith on the outside,
>> over the jacket ... Which, if either, is the more proper way to do it?
>
> The kind of jacket you're wearing might also be a factor. The jacket I most
> often wear is made of a slick material, and so my tallit slides right off the
> jacket. Hence, I wear my tallit inside the jacket.
On a tangential point, I have taken to doing up my jacket over the retzuos
[straps] of my tefillin to stop them twisting and nobody has raised any
objection. Is there any problem with this?
Martin Stern
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, Jan 3,2021 at 08:01 AM
Subject: Local custom
Yisrael Medad wrote (MJ 64#88):
> Joel Rich asks (MJ 64#87):
>
>> When the Mishnah tells us that we need to keep local custom (makom shenahagu
>> ... al yishaneh adam mipnei hamachloket) it gives the reason "mipnei
>> machloket [to avoid discord?]". What specific type actions / statements were
>> Chazal concerned about in terms of discord?
>
> Can I ask how are we supposed to even know anything to be able respond? Does
> it mean shouting? Banging on tables? Throwing around chairs? Screaming?
> Beating up the Rabbi, the Gabbai or the Parnasim? Setting up a breakaway
> minyan?
>
> But if I had to answer then it would be: all of the above. And more.
Of course any of these actions would come under the category of "mipnei
machloket [to avoid discord?]" but I suspect Chazal meant much more and wished
to avoid even ill-feeling not accompanied by tantrum throwing. Their primary
concern was that everybody should live together amicably.
Martin Stern
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From: Chaim Casper <info@...>
Date: Wed, Dec 30,2020 at 09:01 AM
Subject: Question about bagels (beigels)
Jack Wechsler asked (MJ 64#88):
> Having just learned daf hayomi Pesochim 37 today, it occurs to me that the
> Gemara is talking about a dough that is cooked in boiling water first of all
> and then baked in an oven. This is exactly the way bagels (beigels) are made.
> The Gemera discusses if this type of bread is considered bread and has the
> mitzvah of challah on it or not.
>
> I was wondering whether anyone knows what the halacha is today about bagels ?
> Do you make a brocha hamotzei? Do you take challah from a large dough or not?
My rebbe, may he have a refuah shlemah, suggested to go l'humrah (strict) on
this issue. Yes, make the brakhah hamozi over it at a non-s'eudat mitzvah and
say birkat hamazon and yes, take hallah from it. But do not use it for lechem
mishneh on Shabbat (or any other public gathering) precisely because of this
safek/doubt; rather, one should make hamotzi on a regular piece of bread on
these occasions (koveah s'eudah/establish a meal) and then eat the bagel.
On the other hand, I had a havrutah (study partner) who grew up on the Lower
East Side of Manhattan when it was still a Jewish neighborhood in the 1950s, 60s
and 70s. He said they used to make the brakhah m'zonot over bagels in his
neighborhood.
B''virkat Torah,
Chaim Casper
North Miami Beach, FL
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From: Steven Oppenheimer <steven.oppenheimer@...>
Date: Wed, Dec 30,2020 at 06:01 PM
Subject: Question about bagels (beigels)
Jack Wechsler asked (MJ 64#88):
> Having just learned daf hayomi Pesochim 37 today, it occurs to me that the
> Gemara is talking about a dough that is cooked in boiling water first of all
> and then baked in an oven. This is exactly the way bagels (beigels) are made.
> The Gemera discusses if this type of bread is considered bread and has the
> mitzvah of challah on it or not.
>
> I was wondering whether anyone knows what the halacha is today about bagels ?
> Do you make a brocha hamotzei? Do you take challah from a large dough or not?
In the Sefer Hakashrut Lema'aseh (page 394), Rabbi Eliyahu Pinchasi writes
regarding American bagels that dough that was boiled in water and then baked
afterwards does require challah to be taken because the bagel is not edible
after the boiling until it is baked. However, if the bagel was left in the
boiling water a long time so that it was fully cooked and edible even without
baking, then it would not require challah to be taken. He quotes Sefer Eglei
Tal who paskens that baking after boiling requires challah to be taken. This is
also the opinion of the Chazone Ish.
Rav Moshe Feinstein has a teshuva regarding bishul akum and bagels (Ig. Moshe,
Y.D. volume 2, siman 33). He paskens that there is no bishul akum and bagels
are considered pat palter.
Steven Oppenheimer, D.M.D.
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End of Volume 64 Issue 89
