Avodah Mailing List

Volume 39: Number 13

Thu, 11 Feb 2021

• 1. minhagim change over time (Rich, Joel)
• 2. Personal thoughts on Avodah (Rich, Joel)
• 3. Infestation in figs (L Reich)
• 4. This Year, Purim Falls on Friday. What Time Should I Begin My Purim Seuda? (Prof. L. Levine)
• 5. Re: belief based on personal experience (Micha Berger)
• 6. Special Seudah When Rosh Chodesh is on Shabbos (Prof. L. Levine)

Understanding how certain minhagim change over time:
Imho this is a process which plays out historically without a clear
algorithm. Only through the eyes of retrospection (e.g. the aruch
hashulchan) is the result koshered (see hilchot aveilut as an example)
Thoughts?
KT
Joel Rich

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*	Ari Wasserman,Rabbi Moshe Hauer,Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Lowy,Rabbi
Aryeh Lebowitz,Reb Dovid Lichtenstein,Mr. Charlie Harary-1/2/21 - Show 304
- What halachically is a good (or bad) use of our time?<https://www.podbean.com/site/EpisodeDownload/PBF635F0DSCTZ>
    Someone I know often says, "Time is our most precious and perishable
    asset." OTOH I'm not sure I can agree with Mick Jagger that, "Time is
    on my side, yes it is". You can listen here to the various
    presentations or you can send me $4.95 (plus shipping and handling) for
    Joel's magic elixir algorithm which will cure all your ills and give
    you the proper balance of learning, sleeping, relaxing, eating, etc.
    For an extra $1.05 you'll also get the proper breakdown of learning
    time by subject including Tehillim and gedolim bios!
    Seriously IMHO this our biggest avodah, figuring out how HKB"H wants us
    to spend our time, especially the marginal free minute. IMHO you need
    to think about this throughout life and to talk about it from time to
    time with others to ensure you take into account your blind spots (true
    of life in general).
    For me, having a working basic knowledge of behavioral economics,
    social science, quantum physics, scientific method, legal theory, etc.
    will improve one's talmud torah and avodat hashem. Just be sure you're
    not trying to see everything as a nail because you have a hammer!

    These are my thoughts on our avodah in dynamic time allocation today. What are yours?

    KT
    Joel Rich


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to Avodah forum:

Can anyone reconcile the seeming halachic contradiction regarding figs, 
whether fresh or dry (the latter being known as /Grogrois/ in the Talmud.

All halachic sources stress the severity of consuming insects found in 
figs. Many recent works deal with exhausting requirement of examination 
before consumption.

Yet....

Yet we find many talmudical references to large pressed cakes of 
/Grogrois/, which were sawn apart before consumption. Detailed 
examination of such fig for insects is virtually impossible. Did the 
consumers rely on the pressers to check each fig added to the cake?

Furthermore in dealing with the hazard of /Gilui/ - liquids and soft 
foods left uncovered and possibly injected with snake venom - The Talmud 
Yurshalmi states that one may eat (soft) figs in the dark and not worry 
about venom. What about insects ?

Elozor Reich



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From
https://www.kosher.com/lifestyle/this-year-purim-falls-on-friday-what-time-should-i-begin-my-purim-seuda-1436

[https://www.kosher.com/resized/open_graph/h/a/hamentashen_purim_concept_banner.jpg]<;https://www.kosher.com/lifestyle/this-year-purim-falls-on-friday-what-time-should-i-begin-my-purim-seuda-1436>
This Year, Purim Falls on Friday. What Time Should I Begin My Purim Seuda?
| Lifestyle | Kosher.com<https://www.kosher.com/lifestyle/this-year-purim-falls-on-friday-what-time-should-i-begin-my-purim-seuda-1436>
Written by Rabbis Eli Gersten, Yaakov Luban, and Moshe Zywica of the
Orthodox Union . The Rema (Shulchan Aruch OC 695:2) writes that when Purim
is on erev Shabbat, it is preferable to begin the Purim seuda in the
morning (before midday) so as not to detract from the honor of Shabbat..
The Mishnah Berurah (695:10) cites the Yad Efrayim who writes that if this
will be difficult, one may l?chat ...
www.kosher.com


The Rema (Shulchan Aruch OC 695:2) writes that when Purim is on erev
Shabbat, it is preferable to begin the Purim seuda in the morning (before
midday) so as not to detract from the honor of Shabbat.



The Mishnah Berurah (695:10) cites the Yad Efrayim who writes that if this
will be difficult, one may l?chat?chila postpone the seuda up until three
hours before Shabbat. Bedieved (after the fact), if one is unable to begin
the seuda until later, one must still eat the seuda up until Shabbat. If
one is still in the middle of the Purim seuda at shkia (sunset), when
Shabbat begins, one must cover the food, recite Kiddush, and then continue
the meal. The Mishnah Berurah writes that if this were to happen, one would
recite Retzei in bentching, but not al hanissim. One cannot recite both
retzei and al hanissim, since this would be a contradiction. Since we are
required to recite retzei, this indicates that it is Shabbat and Purim is
over. Therefore, one can no longer recite al hanissim.


YL

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On Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 03:46:39AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
>> On belief based on personal experience:

I checked on TorahMusings, and RJR forgot to say there as well just who
he is quoting, but someone wrote:
>> A pure rationalist would separate himself from his own experience and
>> analyze starting with how many people there are, how many situations
>> similar to his own,..... and determine based on the entire sample space
>> (ex. one person has a dream that someone they know got sick, and they
>> actually did. analysis-how many dreams were dreamt in the world, how
>> many about friends, how many sick, how many did get sick...)

And RJR asked:
> How do we take this into account in our emunah process?

I think that's leaving the personal experience route, trying to use the
idea of personal experience as a data point to build a philosophical
argument.

Kind of like the difference between the Kuzari cheileq 1's appeal to
tradition, and "The Kuzari Principle" trying to make a philosophical
argument out of the impossibility of forging this kind of tradition.


The question is whether you want to philosophically get knowledge about
the Borei, or you want to get to better know Him.

The Rambam, because he believes that a personal relationship of that sort
is impossible, focuses on theological knowledge about G-d.

On the opposite extreme, R Nachman eschewed studying about G-d because all
that intellectualizing gets in the way of knowng Him.


The resolution I pursue in my own life assumes neither of these ends of the
spectrum.

Ever do something you know was the wrong choice? That's because there
is a gap between what we think and what we feel. (R' Elya Lopian --
all of mussar is about moving something just an ammah. Moving an idea
from the head to the heart.)

It is therefore not necessarily true that a pursuit of philosophical knowledge
about Hashem in all His Transcendence has to get in the way of finding a
relationship with Him. This is a case where compartmentalization is a good
thing.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and he wants to sleep well that night too."
Author: Widen Your Tent            - Rav Yosef Yozel Horwitz, Alter of Novarodok
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF

From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis


Q. This Shabbos will also be Rosh Chodesh. We will be eating three seudos
in honor of Shabbos. Is there anything additional that should be served in
honor of Rosh Chodesh?

A. There are two versions of the Talmud. The Talmud Bavli (Babylonian
Talmud) was redacted in the sixth century. The Talmud Yerushalmi was
composed in an earlier period in Israel.

The Tur (OC 419) quotes the Talmud Yerushalmi (Megilah 1:4) that when Rosh
Chodesh falls on Shabbos, the Rosh Chodesh seuda is postponed until Sunday.
(It is not feasible to eat the Rosh Chodesh meal on Shabbos since three
meals already take place in honor of Shabbos.) It is apparent from the
Yerushalmi that a seuda is required on Rosh Chodesh.

In light of the above, the Aruch Hashulchan (OC 419:2) is surprised that we
do not observe this custom of eating a Rosh Chodesh seudah. He speculates
that since this meal is not mentioned in the Talmud Bavli, it was assumed
that the Bavli disagrees with the Yerushalmi. When there is a conflict
between the Bavli and Yerushalmi, we follow the Bavli, and therefore the
Rosh Chodesh seuda was not observed. The Aruch Hashulchan concludes that in
deference to the Yerushalmi, an extra dish should be served at the meal on
Rosh Chodesh. Similarly, when Rosh Chodesh falls on Shabbos, an extra dish
should be added to the Shabbos meal.

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