Avodah Mailing List

Volume 40: Number 36

Mon, 23 May 2022

• 1. Re: When early shabbos is Rosh Chodesh (Akiva Miller)
• 2. Re: Triage (Micha Berger)
• 3. Re: yirei shomaim (Micha Berger)
• 4. Re: Maharsha - YeGiAh KaPeCha Ki Tov - The Superior System by which to Serve HKBH (Micha Berger)
• 5. Re: diaspora psychology? (Micha Berger)
• 6. Re: Is it permissible to make a wedding on Lag B?Omer at night? (Mendel Singer)
• 7. Only Torah Judaism (Prof. L. Levine)

.
In my last post in this thread, I gave examples of how the date is
determined by the calendar and the sun for almost all halachos, but for
tefilah/brachos the date can be changed voluntarily and deliberately. There
are two ways this can be done: If the coming day is subject to the
mitzva of Tosefes Kedusha, a mere acceptance of that kedusha changes the
date for all tefilos and brachos. (Questions about community kabala vs
individuals is not relevant to this thread.)  If the coming day is *not*
subject to the mitzva of Tosefes Kedusha, then the date changes upon
beginning Maariv.

Prior to mincha this evening, I overheard part of a shiur in shul, in which
yet another example of these principles was given. The case is someone who
obtains tzitzis in the late afternoon.

>>> MECHABER 18:1 - Night is not a time for tzitzis, as it is excluded by
the pasuk "Ur'eesem oso." According to the Rambam, whatever one is wearing
at night is exempt, even if it is a daytime garment, and whatever one wears
during the day requires tzitzis, even if it is a nighttime garment.
According to the Rosh, nighttime clothing is exempt even if he wears it
during the day, and daytime or all-day clothing requires tzitzis even when
wearing it at night.

>>> RAMA 18:1 - Safek brachos l'hakel, so don't say a bracha on it, except
when wearing it during the day *and* it is a daytime garment. After Tefilas
Maariv, even though it is still daytime, don't say the bracha. And on Yom
Kippur evening, put it on while it is still day, and say the bracha.

There are several interesting comments to make about this. Most relevant to
this thread, the Rama's reference to Yom Kippur is merely an example of his
previous comment, which is that Maariv - even on an ordinary weekday - is
the end of when one may say the bracha.

MB 7 discusses the very late afternoon of Erev Yom Kippur. He explains that
one might still be able to say the bracha on his tallis during Beis
Hashmashos, and certainly if it is early enough to be merely Safek
Bein Hashmashos. Part of his reasoning seems to be that we have a
Sfek Sfeka in favor of saying the bracha: it might still be daytime, and
even if it is nighttime then the Rosh requires the tzitzis and allows the
bracha. I find this particularly intriguing, because we are talking about
the one day per year (Yom Kippur) when all poskim agree that we are
required to accept Kedushas Hayom *before* Bein Hashmashos. So how can we
allow him to say the bracha, thereby pretending that it isn't Yom Kippur
yet?

Perhaps the answer is that (despite the Rama's psak that on an ordinary day
one may not say the bracha on tzitzis after Maariv) this mitzva really has
nothing to do with the calendar at all. Yes, tzitzis does care about day
and night, but not at all about whether today is Erev YK or actual YK. And
in fact, the MB 7 explicitly says that tzitzis doesn't even care about day
and night - only about how much light we have.

Akiva Miller

After writing all the above, I saw that the Dirshu Mishneh Brurah on MB
18:7 also sees that as a case of "Sfek Sfeka in favor of saying the
bracha", and they point to MB 11:6 for another example of that principle.

Also, see Dirshu 18 #4 for a situation where someone has not yet put on
Tefillin, and the tzibur has already davened Maariv, but he personally did
*not* daven Maariv yet.
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On Wed, Mar 09, 2022 at 10:57:50AM +0200, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> What would halacha say about this triage?:
> 
> The Maryland center is one of several transplant centers that had declined
> to list Mr. Bennett for the chance to receive a human heart because he
> had failed to comply with doctors' orders and attend follow-up visits,
...

I used to semi-regularly get lifts into the city with a nurse who worked
in a heart and lung transplant unit. And we often entertained ourselves
during the trip discussing some of the more interesting conversations
she had with R Dr Moshe David Tendler z"l about her work.

In numerous real-life cases, RMDT supported this kind of triage.

Sadder are cases where the patient is less compliant not because they
are unwilling, but because they aren't as bright as average. Or lack a
supportive family who could help out.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 32nd day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   4 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Netzach sheb'Hod: What type of submission
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF               really results in dominating others?

On Tue, May 10, 2022 at 11:37:22PM -0400, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> A Bar-Ilan search showed less than fifteen times that the Shulchan Aruch
> used the phrase yirei shomaim in the context of taking action to be yotzei
> more than one opinion. It would be interesting to tally how many times this
> approach was used in S"A vs. M"B vs. AH"...


As for the SA, you have to look at other idioms, like YD 113:3 "baal nefesh
raui lehachmir", 114:1 "baal nefesh tzarikh laasos lo harchaqah tefei".

Benjamin Brown ("Soft Stringency in the Mishnah Brurah"
<https://www.academia.edu/4966640>) has these statistics for such chumeros
in the MB.
    - Yeish / tov / raui lehachmir: 458 times
    - ... lachush: 223
    - ... lizaheir / lehizaheir: 104
    - ... limnoa' / lehimana: 36
    - Yarei Shamayim yir'eh (or another verb) lehachmir: 35
    - Ba'al Nefesh yachmir: 24

The MB uses these terms 885 times. The SA -- 104. The AhS - 274 times.

But... The AhS also has cases where he gives the sevara for a chumera
and argues for it as an alternative. As though he is saying "I found
this convincing, if you do too, go for it." It's more specific than a
general "anyone ought" or "someone striving for yir'as Shamayim or to
master their nefesh should..."

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 32nd day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   4 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Netzach sheb'Hod: What type of submission
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF               really results in dominating others?

On Fri, Apr 08, 2022 at 05:03:14PM +1000, Rabbi Meir G. Rabi via Avodah wrote:
> We all take risks. Even getting in the car for a drive to the shops or
> walking along the street carries some risk. So risks fall into a spectrum
> and we all choose the level of risk we consider acceptable or not...

Commonly accepted risks are mutar because shomer pesa'im Hashem.

These things have a sociological aspect, not only a statistical one. An
unlikely event that most people try to avoid anyway is a more problematic
risk than something that happens less often but became an accepted part
of the general riskiness of living.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 02:28:32AM -0400, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> From the Ami Museum (formerly beit hatfutzot)

>> The Jews of Babylonia did not regard themselves as exiles and made attempts
>> to locate sites of Jewish historical importance in their vicinity that
>> would actually testify to their local roots..

>> Against that backdrop various traditions also evolved in Babylonia such as
>> the claim that the synagogue in Nehardea was built out of stones taken from
>> the Temple in Jerusalem...

Didn't Ashkenazim say the same about the Altneuschul (Old-New Synagogue,
or the Al-Tenai Synagogue) in Prague? That the tenai was was they would
take the stones back with them for bayis shelishi.

The very next day Mosaic Magazine sent me a link to this
https://en.qantara.de/node/47351
Djerba one-ups Bavel and Prague with a shul built from stones from
Bayis Rishon!

   Jewish pilgrimage to Tunisia
   Faith meets politics on Djerba

   A Jewish festival at the historic synagogue on Djerba island in Tunisia
   is often touted as a successful example of Jewish-Muslim coexistence.
   Yet, as Kerstin Knipp writes, political tensions still play a role

   For the first time in the more than two years since the COVID-19
   pandemic began, a large number of Jewish pilgrims to the North African
   country are currently taking part in religious festivities on the
   Tunisian island of Djerba. The pilgrimage, which traditionally attracts
   thousands of worshippers from all over the world, lasts for eight days.

   In 2020 and 2021, pilgrimages were cancelled due to the health
   crisis and access was very limited. But this year, Jewish community
   leader Perez Trabelsi is expecting between 4,000 and 5,000 visitors.
   Trabelsi also chairs the pilgrimage organising committee.

   The synagogue on Djerba is one of the oldest in Africa and a site
   of Jewish pilgrimage. This is because, as religious legend has it,
   the 2,500-year-old place of worship -- known as the Ghriba synagogue
   in Arabic -- was built using remnants of the first Jewish temple in
   Jerusalem. The Bible says the temple was destroyed by a Babylonian
   king who sent Jewish worshippers into exile. These refugees are said
   to have brought fragments of the temple with them to Djerba.


Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 33rd day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   4 weeks and 5 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Hod sheb'Hod: LAG B'OMER - What is total
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF             submission to truth, and what results?

On 5/18/2022 2:41 PM, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
>
> Even though by his day chassidim were already making celebrations in
> Rashb"i's memory the night of Lag baOmer.
>
There's no /stira /because chassidim observe the whole sefira period and 
do not need to mourn for part of Lag B'Omer in order to get to the count 
of 33 days.

mendel


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The Rav's (Rav Shimon Shwab, ZT"L) disdain for Sheker was at the core of his thinking when
contemplating the so called "branches of Judaism" against which he
spoke publicly at Agudas Yisrael forums. The following excerpt from his
writings highlights this:

The official version of the Jewish establishment in America has it
that there are three branches within the Jewish religion: Orthodox,
Conservative, and Reform. This is common knowledge.
It looks as if the Jewish religion per se is merely a neutral entity which
has no conscience, no strong convictions, no dogmas. and no absolutes.
It is just a base for three branches. One a Torah branch: one a non-Torah
branch; and one in the middle-Torah, yes, but...

And why not add in the future some additional branches
we can only count up to three? Could not the Jews for J... one day claim
to be a branch of Judaism, since their main objective seems to be to
present a picture of unity to the outside world and to display unlimited
 [love] for all of our fellow Jews?

Let us state here unequivocally that the term "Orthodoxy" is false
and misleading. There is no Orthodox Judaism. There is only Judaism.
Reform and Conservatism is non-Judaism, or anti-Judaism. Without
the fundamental conviction that the whole Torah is handed
down to us from Sinai, there is no Judaism. There is nothing. Nothing
but a stark lie and absolute darkness. Without Torah min Hashamyim
down to us from Sinai, there is no Judaism. There is nothing. Nothing
but a stark lie and absolute darkness. Without Torah min Hashamyim down to us from Sinai,
there is no Judaism. There is nothing. Nothing, but a stark lie and absolute darkness.
 Without Torah min Hashamyim  life to a
Jew makes no sense and has no value. Therefore, Torah Judaism can
never be a branch, Heaven forbid. It is not a sub-division of a neutral
"faith." The Reform or Conservative clergyman or clergywoman is not
a colleague of the Orthodox Rav, as if each one could just put his or
her own ecclesiastical flavor into a nondescript soda water. The Torah-true
kehillah, synagogue, and school must never be an equal among
equals under the same umbrella organization that serves all branches.
Any recognition that the Torah allows the existence of branches or that
the Torah itself is merely a branch is already heresy. The gulf which
separates Torah from the branches is much wider than the distance that
divides the various Christian denominations from each other.

Jewish unity, yes-but between Jews and Jews only, and not between
different "Jewish" religions or philosophies. Any child of a Jewish mother
is part of the Divine Covenant and bound by reason of birth to accept
the Torah in theory and practice. That allows even a sinner to remain a
Jew forever, for the Divine Law ties him to the Jewish Nation, the nation
Jew forever, for the Divine Law ties him to the Jewish Nation, the nation
of G-d, the nation of the Torah. The obligation to live a Torah life makes
him and her our brother and sister, regardless of personal performance.
Torah is the only basis of Jewish unity. It is only because of the Torah
that we rightfully proclaim chaverim kol Yisroel.

But unity between Torah Judaism and non-Torah "Judaism"? Never!

YL
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