Avodah Mailing List

Volume 37: Number 22

Wed, 20 Mar 2019

• 1. What is the reason for the mitzvah of giving Mishloach Manos on Purim? (Professor L. Levine)
• 2. Re: [CC] The Emphasis on Empathy (Micha Berger)
• 3. Re: mishna rishona (Micha Berger)
• 4. Re: Derech psak (Micha Berger)
• 5. Re: [CC] Gripes and Grumbles (Micha Berger)
• 6. Re: What is the reason for the mitzvah of giving Mishloach Manos on Purim? (Micha Berger)
• 7. implicit mechila post death (Rich, Joel)
• 8. In defense of Haman -- NOT Purim Torah (Micha Berger)
• 9. What are the Rules of Drinking on Purim? (Professor L. Levine)
• 10. Re: What are the Rules of Drinking on Purim? (Micha Berger)

From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis


Q. What is the reason for the mitzvah of giving Mishloach Manos on Purim?



A. This is the subject of a well-known dispute. Manos Halevi (Megillas
Esther 9:16-17) explains that the Purim story took place because Haman
maligned the Jews, saying that they engage in personal feuds and do not get
along with one another. This is alluded to in the verse ?yeshno am echad
mefuzar umeforad bein ha?amim?, there is one nation which is dispersed and
scattered among the nations, i.e., lacking unity. To demonstrate the
falsehood of this libelous charge, Mordechai and Esther instituted that
Mishloach Manos should be given to one?s friends and acquaintances, to
foster camaraderie and good will among the Jews. This demonstrates that we
do not engage in personal feuds; on the contrary, we engage in acts of
friendship, by gifting our food to others. Terumas HaDeshen (1:111),
however, explains that the purpose of giving one?s acquaintances Mishloach
Manos is to ensure that poor people enjoy a festive and lavish Seudas
Purim. Although most people are not poor and therefore do no
 t need food given to them for their Seudah, Chazal instituted that
 Misloach Manos be given to wealthy people as well, so as not to embarrass
 the poor (Teshuvos Chasam Sofer OC 196).


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Dear Rabbi Shafran,

(First, note that this email is being shared with the Avodah discussion
group, although I hid your address from them.)

I was quite thrilled with your recent post, The Emphasis on Empathy
<https://cross-currents.com/2019/03/16/the-emphasis-on-empathy>. It
has obvious overlap with Rav Shimon's notion of expanding one's "ani".
Compare your words:

   Being concerned with the wellbeing of an insect is a low rung on the
   empathy ladder. The ultimate and most powerful concern for "the other"
   is for other people.
   ...
   People gauge gadlus ha'adam by many things. But the most essential
   marker of human growth may well be how far one has progressed from the
   selfishness that defines us at birth toward true empathy. The severely
   empathy-impaired, like the young woman on the bus line (and
   psychopaths), are essentially infants.

   For members of Klal Yisrael, the import of empathy is evident in Rabi
   Akiva's statement (quoted by Rashi) that the passuk "Love your fellow
   as yourself" (Vayikra, 19:18) is a "great principle of the Torah." And
   in Hillel's response to the man who insisted on learning the entire
   Torah on one foot: "What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow.
   That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and study it"
   (Shabbos, 31a).

   But dedication to an "other" is, in its most sublime form, expressed
   as selfless dedication to the Other. We are born selfish; and meant
   to strive toward concern for our fellows, but, ultimately, for the
   will of Hashem.

With Rav Shimon's description of the measure of a soul:

    ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ???, ?? ???
    ????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ??????,
    ???? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ?????, ????? ???? ??
    ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ????,
    ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ??????? ??? ??? ???? ???????, ????? ????? ??
    ?? ???? ?????, ?????? ??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?????, ????? ?? ??? ?????
    ??? ?? ???? ???? ????? ????????.
    ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ??? ???????
    ???? ??? ?????? ???, ???? ????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ????, ???
    ?? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?? ?? ?????, ??? ?? ?????? ????.
    ?????? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ????...

And now in transaltion, because the Avodah digest tenst ot mangle Hebrew:
    This means [a person must] have clear for himself and accept the truth
    of the essence of his "I," for with it the statures of [different]
    people are differentiated, each according to their level.
    The entire "I" of a coarse and lowly person is restricted only to
    his substance and body. Above him is someone who feels that his "I"
    is a synthesis of body and soul.
    And above him is someone who can include in his "I" all of his
    household and family. Someone who walks according to the way of the
    Torah, his "I" includes the whole Jewish People, since in truth every
    Jewish person is only like a limb of the body of the nation of Israel.
    In this [progression] there are more levels for a fully developed
    person, who can ingrain in his soul the feeling that the entire world
    is his "I," and he himself is only one small limb of all of Creation.
    Then, his self-love helps him love the entire Jewish People and
    [even] all of Creation.
    In my opinion, this idea is hinted at in Hillel's words, as he used
    to say, "If I am [not] for me, who will be for me? And when I am
    for myself, what am I?"
    ...

But there are two differences. To Rav Shimon, the ladder of empathy begins
with becoming aware that I am more than my body. He doesn't really discuss
compassion for insects beyond its inclusion in "ve'es kol heberi'ah kulah".

But more noted is your last paragraph in my above quote, "But dedication
to an 'other' is, in its most sublime form, expressed as selfless
dedication to the Other."

I think Rav Shimon would argue that our truest selfless dedication to the
Other is climbing up that scale of empathy! As he opens, "?????? ?????
?????? ??????, ???? ???? ??? ?????? ????? ???? ?????, ?????? ?? ??????,
-- Who created us in His Image and in the likeness of His Structure,
and planted eternal life within us, so that our greatest desire should
be to benefit others."

This is the very iqar of the Torah, to empathetically share the RBSO's
Good with others. As Hillel, Rabbi Aqiva and Ben Azzai say. And not that
we climb a ladder of empathy with others on a path to Him.

Similarly, your write that "the most essential marker of human growth
may well be how far one has progressed from the selfishness that defines
us at birth toward true empathy." WIthout the last paragraph, you could
have been saying, as Rav Shimon does, that the measure of a soul is the
number of people you identify with. But as you end, it seems you meant
"marker" as a siman, not the definition.

Of course, Rav Shimon's derekh hachaim isn't the only one by far. But
I was struck how you could say something so similar that yet had
profound differences.

Continuing with thoughts on your next CC post in my next email.

On Wed, Mar 06, 2019 at 03:11:10AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: The Gemara in a number of places (e.g., Shavuot 4a) uses the principle
: "Umishna lo zazah mimkoma" (the [original] Mishna did not move) to explain
: why two mishnayot might seem contradictory...

: 1. What's the purpose of keeping the earlier version?

Wouldn't it serve the same functions as Edios's (1:4-5) why record Beis
Shammai and other rejected opinions in a machloqes among contemporaries?

...
: 3. Who changes their mind these days?

I was going to answer this, but I decided not to.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

On Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 12:56:54PM +0000, Ben Bradley wrote:
: I was thinking of his role as posek for the RCA as a whole rather
: than for individual rabbonim. Those decisions are recorded. I have no
: idea how many Boston baaleibatim asked routine shailos in yoreh deah or
: otherwise in the 60s and 70s. Nor how how he paskened for them.

But obviously as a shul rav for the entire community, he fielded more
question than the dozen or at most 20 RYBS fielded for the RCA.

: Re Yahrzeits, keeping it in both Adars  is a Maharil brought by Rama, so not a Brisk thing.
: In any case, point was being a Brisker lamdan doesn't have to limit decisiveness in pask.

And yet, a shul rav in a place like 1950s Boston would never give such
a pesaq. Your textualist answer is consistent with my point. If you take
mai ama devar our of the formula, you do have a lot more open questions.
And so yes, people from Boston have a very different impression of who
RYBS was than do his talmidim from YU and the RCA do.

Compare the modus operendi of someone who usually engages in lomdus (eg
RYBS-NY), and thus in a style of ameilus baTorah that is for understanding
shitos lehalakhah velo lemaaseh with, for example, the analysis of the
Ahs (YD 402:16). "Ha'iqar lehis'anos beAdar rishon. Vaf al pi sheyeish
cholqin -- kakh hu ha'iqar."

When do you ever hear R Chaim mention the concept of their being an
iqar hadin? Possibly never, because he's not hunting for applicability,
he is hunting for a way to understand shitos.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Time flies...
mi...@aishdas.org                    ... but you're the pilot.
http://www.aishdas.org                       - R' Zelig Pliskin
Fax: (270) 514-1507

Dear Rabbi Shafran,

(Still including Avodah...)

I have a practical idea I want to suggest in respons to the next
CC post, "Gripes and Grumbles"
<https://cross-currents.com/2019/03/19/gripes-and-grumbles>

You write:
   I also have a bimah-full of gripes revolving around shul.

   Talking during davening is wrong. Not just disturbing to others and not
   just impolite. Wrong. Ditto for literally throwing tzedakah literature in
   front of people trying to daven. Double-ditto for those who don't bother
   to turn off their phones before entering a mikdash me'at, treating it more
   like a shuk me'at.
...
   Not only would davening be stopped at the slightest hint of a
   conversation, but I would disallow chazzanus at the amud. Spirited,
   heartfelt singing would be fine, even invited. But "performances" would be
   canceled mid-concert. The tefillos, sir, just the tefillos.
...
   What is more, I would lock the doors once davening began.

   Yes, lock them, so that no one could enter.

There is a real problem when people come late, rush out, some have to
break in the middle for a qiddush to make it through a Shabbos, or check
Facebook or Whatsapp on a weekday.

But I don't think your tongue-half-in-cheek suggerstions will help.
The people who would find the resulting minyan painfully boring will
find fewer occasions to come.

If I were the rav of a shul, rather than stop minyan until the noisy
people stop talking, I would invest my energy teaching what davening
is.

Once I learned it myself. I am too often among the board... Or as one
of my rabbeim would say, "Micha, it's called 'chazaras hasha"tz', not
'chazaras hasha"s!'" Yes, I know lakol zeman va'eis. But...

I would suggest a three pronged approach, feel free to suggest more
prongs (and thus my CC-ing the larger chevrah on Avodah for their ideas):

1- Shiurim in peirush hamilim. The siddur is literally a palimpsest
of meanings, there is something there to connect to and says what
you want to say regardless of mood and how life is going.

2- I think those of us who can't feel like davening  is really talking
to Avinu shebashayim need practice doing Breslov-style hibodedus. Yes,
it feels weird in the beginning, but once I got used to talking to Hashem
in my own words, it was an emotion I can sometimes tap into when
davening.

3- Two words: tefillah behispa'alus. (Why not fuse Rav Nachman and
Rav Yisrael?) Actually, I have much more than two words to say about
this, but I just wrote about this at some length, and it's not really
for an email.  <https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/100826/1570>

But the only way to get out of this hole is to get away from scolding
mispallelim or to impose decorum as a rule, and to give the tzibbur
self-motivation.

We need to teach how to daven, not complain that people boringly go
through the minimal motions.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If a person does not recognize one's own worth,
mi...@aishdas.org        how can he appreciate the worth of another?
http://www.aishdas.org             - Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye,
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef

On Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 03:53:47PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: >From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis

: .... Manos Halevi (Megillas Esther 9:16-17)

R Shelomo al-Qabetz, author of Lekha Dodi.

:                                             explains that the Purim story
: took place because Haman maligned the Jews, saying that they engage in
: personal feuds and do not get along with one another....
: lacking unity. To demonstrate the falsehood of this libelous charge,
: Mordechai and Esther instituted that Mishloach Manos should be given
: to one's friends and acquaintances, to foster camaraderie and good will...
: to others. Terumas HaDeshen (1:111),

R Yisrael Isserlin, one of the Rama's primary sources.

(In the text below I reversed the order; I guess my instinct was to
put the rishon before the acharon.)

:                                      however, explains that the purpose
: of giving one's acquaintances Mishloach Manos is to ensure that poor
: people enjoy a festive and lavish Seudas Purim...

The CS gives this two step thing, we give to the poor, and to the wealthy
so as not to embarass the poor. But IIRC, the Terumas haDeshen just says
"kedei sheyehei lekhol echad dai".

It's not clear just how much Rav Shelomo al-Qabetz is actually
disagreeing with the ThD. Why are we making sure everyone has food
for the se'udah? Beyond matanos le'evyonim? Isn't that to practice
achdus? Especially if we don't assume like the Chazon Ish, and we take
the Terumas haDeshen at face value, the focus isn't on tzedaqah, just
trying to think about everyone.

So to my eye the machloqes is:

The Terumas haDeshan holds the mitzvah is an act of achdus. The point
is the bein adam lachaveiro.

Rav Shelomo al-Qabetz holds the mitzvah is "symbolic" of achdus,
in response to Haman's accusation against us. The point is more bein
adam laMaqom.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "'When Adar enters, we increase our joy'
mi...@aishdas.org         'Joy is nothing but Torah.'
http://www.aishdas.org    'And whoever does more, he is praiseworthy.'"
Fax: (270) 514-1507                     - Rav Dovid Lifshitz zt"l

We generally hold that mechila (waiver) granted by an individual (e.g.,
parent for child honor issue) continues unless specifically revoked. We
also have a concept of it being a mitzvah to listen to the command of the
niftar. Question: What if, in retrospect, one believes the niftar would
have changed his mind had he fully understood the implications of his
waiver. Should one still honor the waiver/request? Even prior to ptirah, if
the individual cannot make his own decisions, do we follow his last wish in
a similar case?
KT
Joel Rich

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So the following line of thought his me this morning, and it makes me
wonder about exactly how much of a rasha Haman haRasha was.

What if:

There is a nation out there that almost a millennium prior took an oath
to wipe your nation.

About 500 years ago they nearly succeeded in doing it.

Your nation has been on the verge of extinction for the past 150 years
by a forced assimilation program imposed by a conquering empire.

You reach a position of power, but one of thsoe guys sworn to genocide
your entire people refuses to show you the respect your office commands.

You had enough. "They want us-vs-them? I got power, no problem!"

So, okay, Haman was indeed a rasha. But he wasn't simply attempting to
exterminate an entire nation -- he was attempting to exterminate an
entire nation that was out to exterminate his own people.

And yet Chazal portray him as some unfathomable monster. "Harasha"
puts him in a pretty select group.



(All of the above assuming "haAgagi" is a genetic statement, and not
describing his ideology. As a follower of Agagi ideology, the whole
thing would explain both his being a rasha, and give him more personal
blame for picking on the Jews.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Feeling grateful  to or appreciative of  someone
mi...@aishdas.org        or something in your life actually attracts more
http://www.aishdas.org   of the things that you appreciate and value into
Fax: (270) 514-1507      your life.         - Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Please see the video at


What are the Rules of Drinking on Purim?<https://kosher.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=47e2b412ceb5d72cd84ae4262&;id=75d25f1c68&e=1df8f46715>
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On Wed, Mar 20, 2019 at 02:54:44PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: Please see the video at
: What are the Rules of Drinking on Purim?
: <https://www.kosher.com/shows/video/469>

Since all of R' Elefant's problems with drinking on Purim have been true
since before the days the chiyuv was created, there is a missing piece
of explanation here.

If we accept his arguments (and as someone who doesn't enjoy drinking, I
wish I could):
How did Chazal create a chiyuv that risks piquach nefesh and chilul
hasheim?

-Micha


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