Volume 36: Number 92
Mon, 13 Aug 2018
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Message: 1
From: Rabbi Meir G. Rabi
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2018 10:12:05 +1000
Subject: [Avodah] Loyalty to HKBH
Some Torah laws appear inconsistent. Wearing clothing which combines wool
and linen is prohibited, and yet the Cohanim wear such clothing whilst
serving in the Mikdash. Cooking cow, sheep or goat meat with milk is
prohibited and yet we may [by Torah law] cook deer meat with milk. Eating
kidney fats of cows, sheep or goats is prohibited and yet we may eat those
of a deer. We are not permitted to use fire during Shabbos yet we process
sacrifices on that Holy Day.
Chazal ask ? Does HKBH care if we eat meat that was slaughtered as we do
from the throat or just chop from the back of the neck?
Chazal answer ? Observing these instructions does nothing for HKBH [He is
after all perfect without any of our good deeds and He is in no way
detracted by any of our misdeeds] rather these instructions provide us with
an opportunity to become perfected.
Chazal ask, ?Is the aroma of burning feathers truly a ?sweet aroma? for
HKBH? Is this not a stench that makes many people wretch? Rather the ?sweet
aroma? is that His instructions are abided even when it runs contrary to
our own sensibilities.?
All HKBH?s Laws are an opportunity for us to display our loyalty. Sometimes
the greatest loyalty is loyally performing what is counter-intuitive. If it
makes sense we may well be motivated for alternative considerations.
Chazal fought against the Karites ? who argued their fealty to Torah by
insisting on a much closer dedication to the text of the Torah. Our
tradition however fought against this. HKBH has provided us with a
responsibility to interpret the Torah and derive guidelines that might well
be counter-intuitive.
The Karites similarly fought against the notion of Ben PeKuAh, in their
eyes it was Rabbinical over-reach, perhaps an even greater fantasy than
their stretching of the verse to mean ?not to ignite a fire during Shabbos?
although the wording actually reads, ?no fire should burn during Shabbos?
And in this great battle, Rav Hai Gaon, a champion for our traditions who
brilliantly fought the Karites, developed a winning strategy to smash the
Karites: he brought Ben PeKuAh beasts to every public celebration and
processed them as Ben PeKuAh, making a BBQ to feed the assembled crowds.
https://kosherveyosher.wordpress.com/2018/08/10/kol-rabi-sedra-reeih-loyalty/
Best,
Meir G. Rabi
0423 207 837
+61 423 207 837
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Message: 2
From: David Riceman
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2018 21:34:20 -0400
Subject: Re: [Avodah] Was the Rambam really a rationalist?
Could you translate ?rationalist? and ?mystic? into Hebrew?
Thanks,
David Riceman
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Message: 3
From: Professor L. Levine
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 14:44:14 +0000
Subject: [Avodah] To Whom Should One Pray At A Tzaddik's Kever?
The following is from the column Halachic Corner With Rav Hershel Schachter that appeared on page 23 of the 8/10/18 issue of the Jewish Press
We consider kiverei tzaddikim holy locations, so we pray to Hakadosh Baruch
- not to the tzaddikim -that in the zechus of these tzaddikim He should be
kind to us.
The Gemara says you're not allowed to daven within daled amos of a kever
because it's lo'eg larash [mocking the deceased] since the meis is not able
to daven. So you
have to move away. Many people pray right next to the grave in the middle of
the whole cemetery. That, the Gemara says, is not proper. You should daven
from a distance.
Supposing one goes to Meron: If one is so inclined,is one allowed to ask a berachah directly from Rav Shimon bar Yochai?
No, he's not alive. How can he give a berachah? You ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu that He should answer our prayers b'zechus the tanna who's buried here ....
We assume a makom menuchas ha'tzaddikim is a holier site, so it's like
davening near a holy place. But you daven to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The Torah
has a prohibition
not to be doreish al hameisim. You're not allowed to pray to the dead.
Rav Hershel Schachter is a widely-respected posek and rash yeshiva and rash kollel at Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Am I mistaken or don't some of the suggestions and advice in the video at
the URL below contradict what Rav Schacter has written? Ask for a
Bernbach? Ask for advice?
https://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=32181&;alias=guide-to-visiting-the-ohel
<https://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=32181&;alias=guide-to-visiting-the-ohel>
Guide to Visiting The Ohel - collive.com<https://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=32181&;alias=guide-to-visiting-the-ohel>
www.collive.com
A new step-by-step guide explains the customs followed when visiting the Ohel gravesite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Cambria Heights, Queens.
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Message: 4
From: Cantor Wolberg
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 10:17:59 -0400
Subject: [Avodah] "An arrogant laughs at repentance." -- Toba Beta, My
The source for the minhag to blow Shofar is brought by The Tur, citing
the Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer; Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Shomayim to receive
the 2nd set of Luchos on Rosh Chodesh Elul and remained there for 40
days until Yom Kippur. On the day he went up the shofar was blown in
the entire Jewish encampment. Tur 581:1
"Repentance is the renewal of life.
This means we must free ourselves from all our negative traits and turn
toward absolute good.
No sin is unforgivable except the sin of unrepentance."
Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
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Message: 5
From: Zev Sero
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 12:45:18 -0400
Subject: Re: [Avodah] To Whom Should One Pray At A Tzaddik's Kever?
On 13/08/18 10:44, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
>
> Rav Hershel Schachter is a widely-respected posek and rash yeshiva
> and rash kollel at Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
> Theological Seminary
That's all very well, and those who consider him their posek should
presumably listen to him. The rest of klal yisroel do not consider him
their posek, and therefore need not accept his opinion. His opinion on
this subject is not unfounded, but it contradicts an explicit Zohar and
is very much a minority opinion.
> Am I mistaken or don't some of the suggestions and advice in the video
> at the URL below contradict what Rav Schacter has written?
You are not mistaken, they do indeed contradict his opinion. Neither
COLlive nor its readership, nor the rabbonim involved in producing this
video, agree with his opinion, and they are under no obligation to do
so. The poskim they follow, who were far greater than him, starting
with the Zohar and going right through to the LR, held otherwise.
--
Zev Sero A prosperous and healthy 5779 to all
z...@sero.name Seek Jerusalem's peace; may all who love you prosper
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Message: 6
From: Saul Guberman
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 13:27:44 -0400
Subject: Re: [Avodah] To Whom Should One Pray At A Tzaddik's Kever?
On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 12:33 PM Professor L. Levine via Avodah <
avo...@lists.aishdas.org> wrote:
> Am I mistaken or don't some of the suggestions and advice in the video at
> the URL below contradict what Rav Schacter has written?
>
Commentor #2 asks your basic question. Commentor #4 answers him.
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Message: 7
From: Prof. Levine
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 16:45:32 -0400
Subject: Re: [Avodah] To Whom Should One Pray At A Tzaddik's Kever?
At 01:27 PM 8/13/2018, Saul Guberman wrote:
>On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 12:33 PM Professor L. Levine via Avodah
><<mailto:avo...@lists.aishdas.org>avo...@lists.aishdas.org> wrote:
>
>Am I mistaken or don't some of the suggestions and advice in the
>video at the URL below contradict what Rav Schacter has written?
>
>
>Commentor #2 asks your basic question. Commentor #4 answers him.
"#2 Maybe it should say that we ask the Rebbe to intercede on our
behalf so people don't think we are davening to the Rebbe."
Can a dead person actually intercede on anyone's behalf?
"#4 replying to #2, No one thinks we are praying to the Rebbe. The
only people saying such are misnagdim belittling a custom that the
Gra himself endorses, not to mention backed by numerous sources in Tanach. "
Who do they think they are writing letters to if not RMMS? And who
do they think will give them advice as it says if not RMMS?
And does the GRA himself really endorse this "custom"?
Be real. The video certainly makes it seem that RMMS is the one who
will answer.
From https://www.chabad.org/tools/ohel_cdo/aid/36248/jewish/Send-a-Letter.htm
Today people continue to send letters to be placed at the Ohel for
the Rebbe's guidance and intervention On High, in the age-old
tradition of written prayer petitions at our holiest sites.
YL
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Message: 8
From: Simon Montagu
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 22:01:53 +0300
Subject: Re: [Avodah] To Whom Should One Pray At A Tzaddik's Kever?
On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 7:33 PM Professor L. Levine via Avodah <
avo...@lists.aishdas.org> wrote:
>
> Am I mistaken or don't some of the suggestions and advice in the video at
> the URL below contradict what Rav Schacter has written?
>
Breaking news: Litvish Rosh Yeshiva and Hasidim take up different positions.
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Message: 9
From: Micha Berger
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 14:46:41 -0400
Subject: Re: [Avodah] To Whom Should One Pray At A Tzaddik's Kever?
On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 02:44:14PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: The following is from the column Halachic Corner With Rav Hershel
: Schachter that appeared on page 23 of the 8/10/18 issue of the Jewish
: Press
:
: We consider kiverei tzaddikim holy locations, so we pray to Hakadosh
: Baruch - not to the tzaddikim -that in the zechus of these tzaddikim He
: should be kind to us.
RHS's position is typical of the Gra's mesorah.
Not sure why anyone who doesn't follow that mesorah would find this pesaq
particularly compelling.
And that includes Ashkenazim who will be saying "Machnisei Rachamim"
motza"sh in a couple of weeks,
or for that matter, anyone who says the "Borchuni leShalom" verse of
Lekha Dodi.
The Gra didn't say either for the very same reasons -- one can't ask a
berakhah of a mal'akh. And in fact, asking a mal'akh is *more* problematic
than asking the neshamah of a tzadiq. After all, when the same tzadiq
was alive, asking him for a berakhah wouldn't have been an issue.
It would be interesting to learn what RHS himself does with these piyutim.
(My own minhag is not to say either.)
But if you say Borchuni leShalom, how can you question someone else
holding it's okay to go to a qever and asking the niftar to be a meilitz
yosher?
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
--
Micha Berger It is our choices...that show what we truly are,
mi...@aishdas.org far more than our abilities.
http://www.aishdas.org - J. K. Rowling
Fax: (270) 514-1507
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Message: 10
From: Zev Sero
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2018 17:34:18 -0400
Subject: Re: [Avodah] To Whom Should One Pray At A Tzaddik's Kever?
On 13/08/18 16:45, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> ?"#2 Maybe it should say that we ask the Rebbe to intercede on our
> behalf so people don't think we are davening to the Rebbe."
>
> Can a dead person actually intercede on anyone's behalf?
Yes, they can. There can be no question of it. Our traditions
absolutely insist on it, and anyone who denies it has a serious problem.
Not only did Yirmiyahu write that Rachel intercedes for us, but he
personally went to Chevron and to Mt Nevo to ask the Avos and Moshe
Rabbenu to intercede for their people.
Those who object to *asking* for such intercession do so not because
they deny that it is possible or that we need it, but because they
believe the Torah forbids such requests. The dead, presumably, are to
be merely alerted to the situation and then they can decide whether to
intervene without being asked.
> "#4? replying to #2, No one thinks we are praying to the Rebbe. The only
> people saying such are misnagdim belittling a custom that the Gra
> himself endorses, not to mention backed by numerous sources in Tanach. "
>
> Who do they think they are writing letters to if not RMMS? And who do
> they think will give them advice as it says if not RMMS?
Nobody denies that they are writing to him, and asking his advice,
prayers, and intervention. Commenter #4 merely says they are not
"praying" to him. That, of course, depends on what one means by the
English word "pray".
> And does the GRA himself really endorse this "custom"?
No, I don't believe the commenter is correct on that point.
> Be real.? The video certainly makes it seem that RMMS is the one who
> will answer.
Yes. Got a problem with that? R Eliezer b"r Shimon answered people's
questions and adjudicated their disputes for about two decades after his
death. You've quoted RAM as saying that there are enough difficult
things we're required to believe, and there's no need to add more.
Well, that is something you are required to believe. And if you do, then
you should have no problem with the idea that the LR may also be able to
communicate with people, albeit not in so blatant a fashion as REbrSh did.
--
Zev Sero A prosperous and healthy 5779 to all
z...@sero.name Seek Jerusalem's peace; may all who love you prosper
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