Avodah Mailing List

Volume 23: Number 72

Mon, 02 Apr 2007

• 1. Re: candles (Zev Sero)
• 2. kombucha (Yisrael Medad)
• 3. Re: More on Mitzvos and Iyun (kennethgmiller@juno.com)
• 4. Re: Ikkarim redux (Meir Shinnar)
• 5. Fw: waiting 24 hours before libun (Celejar)
• 6. halachik status of siddur (Eli Turkel)
• 7. Russian Roulette (Daniel Eidensohn)
• 8. Re: More on Mitzvos and Iyun (T613K@aol.com)
• 9. Re: More on Mitzvos and Iyun (Micha Berger)
• 10. Re: kombucha (Zev Sero)
• 11. Re: kombucha (Zev Sero)

Michael Kopinsky wrote:

> R. Chaim Twerski of Chicago (my 11th grade rebbe) paskens that you can 
> use a flashlight/torch for bedikas chametz, b/c it fits all four of the 
> advantages listed in the gemara of a candle over an avukah/torch - the 
> light goes forward and not backward (whatever that means in the case of 
> candle vs. torch), it is easy to shine into nooks and crannies, the 
> light doesn't flicker, and I seem to have forgotten the fourth one.

It won't set the house on fire.  It also won't drip on kelim and make
them treif, or on clothes and make them dirty.

I've just finished helping my parents search their house, and while
searching a wardrobe I of course had to be careful not to bring the
candle too close to the clothes.  In order to look under and behind
hanging clothes, I put the candle down at a safe distance, used both
hands to hold the clothes aside, and looked using the room's electric
light.  A torch/flashlight would theoretically have made for a better
bedikah, because there would be no concern about starting a fire.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev@sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas

Can anyone tell me if this is kosher l'pesach?  quick like?


*Kombucha* is the Western name for sweetened
tea<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea>that has been
fermented <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermentation_%28food%29> by a
macroscopic solid mass of microorganisms called a "kombucha colony," usually
consisting principally of *Bacterium xylinum* and
yeast<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast>cultures.
 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kombucha_culture.jpg>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kombucha_culture.jpg>
The kombucha culture looks a bit like a large pancake. A healthy, new
culture is light in color, and will generally darken with age.

 Biology of kombucha *See also: Tibicos<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibicos>
*

The tea contains a symbiosis of yeast
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast>species and acetic
acid bacteria <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid_bacteria>,
mostly *Bacterium
xylinum*. Species of yeast found in the tea can vary, and may include:
*Brettanomyces
bruxellensis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brettanomyces_bruxellensis>*,
*Candida
stellata <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candida_stellata>*, *Schizosaccharomyces
pombe <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizosaccharomyces_pombe>*, *Torulaspora
delbrueckii <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torulaspora_delbrueckii>*
and *Zygosaccharomyces
bailii <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygosaccharomyces_bailii>*. The culture
itself looks somewhat like a large pancake, and is often mistakenly referred
to as a mushroom <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom>.
Kombucha tea

Kombucha is a pleasant tasting, powerfully effective health drink / food
supplement which you can make at home for next to nothing.

The taste can vary depending on how you make it but the basic recipe, which
most people use, will produce a slightly sparkling drink that tastes like an
apple cider or dry white wine.

Though there is alcohol in it, it is normally so low that commercial
producers can sell Kombucha as "non-alcoholic". You can expect less than 1%
by volume alcohol content.

Sugar is used as part of the recipe but it is not used as a sweetener. The
sugar is broken down and converted into different components of the finished
drink.

It has been drunk for many generations. In fact, it has been around so long
that we are unable to tell where it was originally discovered or when.

Kombucha is a fermented drink made from sweet tea and a Kombucha mushroom or
Kombucha culture as it should more properly be called.

The culture is live and is a co-dependant blend of healthy bacteria, yeasts
and other micro-organisms.

Though, it may appear complicated at first, Kombucha is actually very easy
to make.

This website contains all the information you need to start making Kombucha
in your own home and answers many of the questions that you may have.

We should clear up the confusion and difference between Kombucha Tea and the
Kombucha Culture before going much further.

*Kombucha tea*

Kombucha, or Kombucha tea is the actual health drink, which we make from
sweet tea and a Kombucha culture. It is known by a number of different names
around the world including - Cainii Kvass, Kombuchakvass, Tea wine and
Teekvass.

*Kombucha culture*

The Kombucha culture is the live substance which is put into the sweet tea
to ferment and convert it into Kombucha tea. The culture is probably best
known as a Kombucha mushroom, though this is an incorrect definition.

The Kombucha culture has been known as a mushroom, a lichen and many other
things but the best and most accurate definition we have today is a
"symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast".

This is just a scientific term for a co-dependant live mix of bacteria and
yeast. That definition sounds a little complicated, though it is where we
get the more friendly term "SCOBY" from.

The culture has been given many names, G?nther W. Frank, in his book -
"Kombucha, Health beverage and natural remedy from the Far East" lists 70
different names for the culture including - Combucha, Brinum-Ssene (Latin
for miracle fungus), Champignon miracle and tea fungus.



-- 
Yisrael Medad
Shiloh
Mobile Post Efraim 44830
Israel
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RSMashbaum wrote:
> ... an idea I have advanced before: a shiur based on a series
> of "court cases" can prove interesting to many otherwise
> unmotivated high school students.

R' Arie Folger commented:
> However, while that will turn on students, it won't give them
> solid knowledge they can refer back to. They won't have acquired
> first hand knowledge of primary text (Talmud).

Why do you presume that they'd remain ignorant of Talmud? It seems to 
me that this would depend on how the shiur is structured: If they 
simply look at the case, and how Shulchan Aruch sees it, then you are 
correct. But if they continue beyond that, to learn the rishonim 
which the Shulchan Aruch comes from, and then the gemaras which those 
rishonim quoted, wouldn't that be great?

Akiva Miller

On Apr 1, 2007, at 8:20 AM, avodah-request@lists.aishdas.org wrote:

>
> RMS wrote in part:
>
> the  incorporation of piyutim into the siddur was never  a halachic
> process  - it was far more minhag..
>
> However, you conflate two  separate issues.  Do the 13 ikkarim
> summarize in some sense  important Jewish ideas - yes.  Saying them in
> yigdal is a way  of stating them.  Does that mean that they have
> halachic  status, that not believing them  has halachic consequences?
> That is quite a leap - and would need much further proof.....
>
> Do  the ideas of any piyut incorporated into a standard siddur or
> machzor now have legal status that rejecting them is now  problematic
>
RSB
>
> If the above is true, please explain Ramban's ruling that the  
> recitation of
> Krias Shma is a rabbinic mitzvah while the recitation of Emes  
> vYatziv is a
> Torah  mitzvah. Please explain the Nussach HaBrachos of any Birkas  
> HaMitzvah or
> the  Mussaf of any YT, especially RH and YK. Malchuyos, Zicronos  
> and Shofaros
> are  hardly just "ideas or any piyut incorporated into a standard  
> Siddur or
> Machzor."  They represent statements of faith.


RSB, IMHO, mixes up several different issues - the ability of hazal  
to be metaken tefillot, the status of the text of the tefilla (as  
distinct from the idea of the tefilla)and how fixed it is (as per  
other threads re nusach bavel and eretz yisrael) and the status of  
piyutim.  Now, even if one argues that being fixed by hazal gives it  
a status, piyutim don't have that status  Given the fact of who wrote  
them and that they were accepted into the siddur/machzor means that  
the ideas should be taken with some seriousness (although with the  
caveat that the position of rav hai gaon about aggadic statements of  
hazal applies with far greater force to piyutim) - but viewing them  
as binding statements of faith?? somehow, I don't think that, say, if  
i disagree that af bri utat shem sar hamatar that I am violating  
principles of faith....and the ideas of piyutim, even widely accepted  
piyutim, have generated much controversy over the years....(eg, even  
forgetting the fifth ikkar issue, the standard ashkenazi avodah is  
viewed as problematic by many...)

However, his position is represetative of a certan maximalist school  
- that views everything within the mesora as inviolate and not  
subject to questioning - but ignoring the fact that the mesora itself  
views that much is subject to questioning - and therefore this view  
is itself against the mesora...

Meir Shinnar

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Forwarding to avodah at the request of the moderators: 

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:01:25 -0400
From: Celejar <celejar@gmail.com>
To: areivim@lists.aishdas.org
Subject: waiting 24 hours before libun


> Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 18:49:06 +0200
> From: "Dr. Josh Backon" <backon@vms.huji.ac.il>
> Subject: [Areivim] Josh's guide to Pessach cleaning
> To: areivim@lists.aishdas.org
> Message-ID: <200703251642.l2PGg2oW021472@mail1.cc.huji.ac.il>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
> 
> 
> By the way, *I'm* the one who does the oven and refrigerator every year. (Like
> in the army where the captain asks for *volunteers*: YOU, YOU, and YOU :-)  )
> Here is Josh's guide to cleaning the oven and refrigerator:

[snip]

> 11) after waiting 24 hours without using the range or oven, turn oven 
> and all 4
> burners on to highest for an hour, placing thick aluminium foil on the top of
> the 4 burners to get the metal glowing.

Waiting 24 hours from the last use before kashering is only required
for hagalah, not libun. See Hagalas Keilim chapter 6 paragraph 15, and
the sources in note 40. This would seem to apply even to libun kal, and
that's the opinion of the author of Hagalas Keilim, although in note 41
he cites the Siduro Shel Pesah who disagrees about libun kal, which he
dismisses as incorrect.

Yitzhak

Do the ideas of any piyut incorporated into a standard siddur or
machzor now have legal status that rejecting them is now problematic???>>

The halachik status of sayings in the siddur is very unclear.
A famous example is the Brisker psak that one cannot add a day
for the Holocaust based on a kinah for Tisha Ba-av. Other more
haskafic questions are Prayers on Rh-YK that talk about
G-d determining what will happen in the coming year. According to
most rishonim that G-d only decides for tzaddikim this tefilot are
not le-halacha. Similarly prayers on RH-YK that the world was created
on RH are not necessarily psak but it is debated

Chag Kasher vesameach

-- 
Eli Turkel

**
The question was raised about the parameters of danger in earning a 
living. Igros Moshe (C. M. I #104 page 167) deals with this issue. In 
particular Reb Moshe was asked whether it was permitted to be a 
professional baseball player. He cites BM 112 that permits danger in 
occupations if the occurrence of death or harm is infrequent. He also 
discusses the issue of an occupation where there is a possibility of 
harming others. He permits this if it is infrequent as long as the other 
person is aware of the danger.

Daniel Eidensohn

 
 
RMB wrote:
>> Lomdus is Torah lishmah,
knowledge for the sake of  knowing Retzon haBorei.  It has no visible impact 
on the middos  ....<<







>>>>>
I think this is a subtle denigration of talmidei  chachamim in general -- 
saying that their midos are no better than anyone else's  and that learning Torah 
doesn't improve their midos.   Possibly you  feel a bit sour because you have 
been disappointed by certain particular  talmidei chachamim.  But I don't 
think that as a general rule, it is  accurate to say that Torah learning lishma 
has no effect on one's midos.




--Toby  Katz
=============



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
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On Sun, Apr 01, 2007 at 06:18:34PM -0400, T613K@aol.com wrote:
: I think this is a subtle denigration of talmidei  chachamim in general -- 
: saying that their midos are no better than anyone else's  and that learning Torah 
: doesn't improve their midos.   Possibly you  feel a bit sour because you have 
: been disappointed by certain particular  talmidei chachamim.  But I don't 
: think that as a general rule, it is  accurate to say that Torah learning lishma 
: has no effect on one's midos.

Read what the Lithuanian Yeshivos were like. There was a reason a number
of them invited elements of mussar in.

One can be quite learned and not have matching middos.

But my point wasn't about that. It was about there being no rational
connection between lomdus and middos, and thus any benefit would be
metarational -- a choq.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

Yisrael Medad wrote:
> Can anyone tell me if this is kosher l'pesach?  quick like?

I don't see why it should be chametz.  I suppose it may depend on what
it's been fed recently.  I wonder, though, about the kashrut of a clearly
visible collection of living creatures, each of which is individually too
small to be seen.  If there is nothing in this "mushroom" except living
creatures, should it not be treif?

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev@sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas

PS: Unless we consider them to be like plants, and therefore permitted
even if they're visible.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev@sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas


------------------------------


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