Avodah Mailing List

Volume 34: Number 158

Wed, 07 Dec 2016

• 1. minhag shtus (Eli Turkel)
• 2. Opening the Door of a Refrigerator on Shabbos (Professor L. Levine)
• 3. Re: Opening the Door of a Refrigerator on Shabbos (Saul Guberman)
• 4. Re: Opening the Door of a Refrigerator on Shabbos (Micha Berger)
• 5. Yom Kippur Thought (Rich, Joel)
• 6. Yom Kippur Risk/Reward (Rich, Joel)
• 7. Re: Yom Kippur Thought (Zev Sero)
• 8. Re: Yom Kippur Thought (Micha Berger)

Another example of a controversial custom came up in our shul this past
shabbat.
Some of have brought down that the body of a tzaddik doent's have tumah and
so a cohen
can go to the grave of a tzaddik.
One sefer brings a story that he went 27 years ago on Ypm Kippur to daven
at the grave pf Rashbi in Meron and saw that they had birkhat cohanim!!
when he complained that said it was an old custom. He then wrote a teshuva
condemning the practice. R Asher Weiss, ROY, RSZA and others have condemned
the practice.

A cohen friend of mine was really in Tzfat and went to visit Meron. The
local rabbi in Tzfat told him that the local practice today is still that
cohanim go to visit the grave of Rashbi and that  it is OK despite the
objections of many poskim.

-- 
Eli Turkel
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I have posted the latest issue of the OU's Daf HaKashrus at


https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/kashrus/Daf25-2c.pdf


According to an article in this publication "the OU poskim have recommended
using a timer when opening the refrigerator door on Shabbos, to avoid any
concerns of chilul Shabbos."


See the above URL for more.


I doubt that most people are aware of this.  YL
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On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 5:58 AM, Professor L. Levine wrote:
> I have posted the latest issue of the OU's Daf HaKashrus at
> https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/kashrus/Daf25-2c.pdf

> According to an article in this publication "the OU poskim have recommended
> using a timer when opening the refrigerator door on Shabbos, to avoid any
> concerns of chilul Shabbos."

You did not put in the caveat of "modern technological refrigerators"
should be used with a timer. Unless you like Brisker chumras, in which
case all of them should be used with timers. Most people don't need
a timer on their fridge because they do not have this type of fridge.
In another 10 years this percentage will change.

Since I am afraid many won't bother chasing R/Prof Levine's URL
<https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/kashrus/Daf25-2c.pdf>
to see what RSG was talking about, I will take the time to be more
specific...

RYB and yb"l RHS "have recommended" using a timer when opening a
refrigerator door when it has door sensors to control an automatic
defrost system.

In addition to the vague "have recommended" -- does this mean chumerah or
din? -- there is also vagueness about whether this is the only newfangled
constaption that door sensors may be employed for, or if there are other
features that could put my next fridge on the watch list. And then they
add, "Furthermore, even with older refrigerators it is recommended to use
a timer because some of the older models may also have areas of concern."
This is kept separate from "OU poskim have recommended", and is not said
in their name.

Then the article ends with what reads like an ad for one such device,
"designed under the guidance of Rav Belsky zt"l and yb"l Rav Schachter
Shlita. The device is OU certified to ensure proper Shabbos observance."
No explanation about what guidance was needed. Although with indicator
lights and a built in 35 year calendar, it would be easier to use than
just anything you pick up at Home Depot.

Still, it sounds like an equally valid alternative is to do without auto
defrost and block the door sensor. Just like many do for the light switch.
(I just leave the bulb unscrewed all week around.) Even a magnetic sensor
can be blocked, despite having no reachable moving parts, it just means
taping a stip of magnet to the right spot.

I am pretty sure your freezer won't become a block of ice even over a 3
day yom tov. Whereas turning on and off your fridge for three days will
reduce lifespan of the food in it. (Especially given chalav yisrael's
typically shorter shelf-life.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
mi...@aishdas.org        "I am thought about, therefore I am -
http://www.aishdas.org   my existence depends upon the thought of a
Fax: (270) 514-1507      Supreme Being Who thinks me." - R' SR Hirsch

Once upon a Neilah teary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a sin
of forgotten yore, as II read the Art Scroll lists I wondered only this and
nothing more? (Apologies to E.A. Poe)

When you look at the backup lists to the ashamnu's and al cheit's, you may
notice a lot of thought issues (e.g., thinking haughtily). While it would
be great to change oneself to never have a bad thought, are we required to
ask forgiveness for something we haven't acted on?

KT
Joel Rich

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Over Yom Kippur I got to thinking about the Mishna in Yoma concerning
whether an alternate Cohen Gadol or wife is chosen. What are the factors to
be considered? The more I thought about it, the more I realized this
question was a subset of a more general issue of how Chazal viewed
risk/reward tradeoffs.

So what were some of the tradeoffs that the commentaries read into the different Talmudic cases of whether we are concerned for mortality?
 1. What time period are we concerned about? (exposure period) [Zman
 merubeh or aman muat] 2. What's at stake [kapparat klal Yisrael or mitzvah
 b'alma] 3. How do we evaluate alternative scenarios [replace kohain gadol
 vs. using an unmarried one] 4. Is the risk truly random? (Mortality as a
 random variable vs. punishment/destiny)
 5. Is there a materiality threshold or do we need worry about the perfect storm (ruin theory)?
 6. Is the risk to an individual or a group?
 7. Is the risk predictable? Is it sudden onset?

KT
Joel Rich

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On 07/12/16 05:44, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> When you look at the backup lists to the ashamnu?s and al cheit?s, you
> may notice a lot of thought issues (e.g., thinking haughtily). While it
> would be great to change oneself to never have a bad thought, are we
> required to ask forgiveness for something we haven?t acted on?

1. *Having* a thought can't be an aveira, because it's involuntary, but 
*consciously entertaining* it can be one, and often is.  That would 
certainly require teshuvah.

2. Teshuva  is not just for aveiros.  For instance, even tzadikim who 
literally do no aveiros at all need to do teshuvah, because teshuvah 
means turning oneself into a better person, and there's no limit to 
that.  Yesterday's mitzvah can be today's "aveira", so to speak.   So 
even if one dismisses an inappropriate thought the moment one becomes 
conscious of it, and thus has no actual aveira to be punished for, it 
makes sense to do teshuvah for being the kind of person to whom such 
thoughts occur, i.e. to try to turn oneself into the kind of person to 
whom they wouldn't.

-- 
Zev Sero                Winter has officially begun
z...@sero.name

On Wed, Dec 07, 2016 at 10:44:50AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: When you look at the backup lists to the ashamnu's and al cheit's, you
: may notice a lot of thought issues (e.g., thinking haughtily). While
: it would be great to change oneself to never have a bad thought, are we
: required to ask forgiveness for something we haven't acted on?

In fact, gaavah one felt but didn't act on would be an accomplishment.
Although tiqun hayeitzer is a still greater accomplishment than this
kibbush hayeitzer. Fixing the gaavah is better than overcoming it. (See
Or Yisrael letter 30, the beginning of the closing setion.)

But it begins "Al cheit shechatanu lefanekha be..." IOW, we aren't
asking forgiveness for our gaavah. We are asking for selichah, mechilah
and kaparah for all the sins it motivated.

And I think the same is implicitly true for Ashamnu. But that's just
conjecture.

But there is an oft-discussed chiluq between a teshuvah on sins (Hil'
Teshuvah 1:1) and a teshuvah on character (Ibid 7:3). So perhaps vidui
on those middos still awaiting tiqun is appropriate even if not sinful.
I just don't think that's what the vidui in our machzorim is doing.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The same boiling water
mi...@aishdas.org        that softens the potato, hardens the egg.
http://www.aishdas.org   It's not about the circumstance,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but rather what you are made of.


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