Volume 24 Number 10
Produced: Tue May 21 7:14:11 1996
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Cheating
[Michael and Abby Pitkowsky]
El Al Kashrut from Heathrow UK
[Michael Slifkin]
Integration of moral values into Torah community
[Gad Frenkel]
Inviting a Guest who will drive on Shabbat
[Steven Oppenheimer]
Joining Communal Councils with Reform Clergy
[Avi Feldblum]
Name of Yenta
[Yeshaya Halevi]
Shabbat/Email Time Differences
[Janice Gelb]
Vatican Judaica
[Avi Feldblum]
Vatican Judaica and Bat Mitzvah
[Michael and Abby Pitkowsky]
Yenta Usage
[Josh Males]
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From: Michael and Abby Pitkowsky <pitab@...>
Date: Mon, 20 May 96 23:34:06 PDT
Subject: Cheating
Rabbi Chayyim David HaLevi the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yaffo has dealt
with cheating in his Aseh Lecha Rav, vol. 8, pg. 164. He categorically
forbids it and bases the issur on the obligation to speak the truth and
also adds numerous other objections. Among the sources that he brings
are Shabbat 31a where it is written that on the day of judgement a
person is asked whether their dealings were done with emunah, meaning an
upright manner. He sees the essence in the prohibition of lying and
cheating and we are commanded to distance ourselves even from things
which have hints of lies, Ketubbot 95a. In addition he says that when a
student cheats it damages the student and their personality and it will
eventually come back to haunt him/her because the teacher is now unable
to honestly evaluate the student's knowledge. Also when one lets
another copy from them they are guilty of helping one commit a sin.
Name: Michael and Abby Pitkowsky
E-mail: <pitab@...>
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From: Michael Slifkin <slifkin@...>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 11:31:37 +0300 (IDT)
Subject: El Al Kashrut from Heathrow UK
The reason why El Al doesnt offer a choice from Heathrow is that the
kitchens there are under the supervision of the Federation of
Synagogues. This is considered to be a Bedatz hashgochah at least in Israel.
Many Israelis I know are quite happy to order special Kosher here and eat
the London meals on the return journey
Professor M A Slifkin userid: <slifkin@...>
Department of Electronics telephone: +972 (0)2-751176
Jerusalem College of Technology fax: +972 (0)2-422075
POB 16031
Jerusalem 91160 Israel 4Z9GDH
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From: Gad Frenkel <0003921724@...>
Date: Mon, 20 May 96 10:02 EST
Subject: Integration of moral values into Torah community
Elana Fine <ef91@...> wrote:
>This is in regard to Ahron Einhorn's recent posting on the integration
>of moral values into the community and family. It is sad that we even
>must do that. Isn't that what yeshivos are supposed to be doing today?
>In addition to teaching Torah aren't they also supposed to be teaching
>midos?
It's not sad that we are supposed to be teaching our children values -
that's what it means to be parents. What's sad is that Yeshivos have
co-opted the role of the family and most people have bought into it.
Intead of taking the responsibility of raising and teaching our children
ourselves we are relying on an institution to do so. It's questionable
if an institutional approach to teaching Torah really works, and
certainly Torah teachers should be positive role models. But the bottom
line is that as parents it is our responsibility to teach and to enforce
a proper set of values to our children.
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From: Steven Oppenheimer <oppy@...>
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 00:42:45 GMT
Subject: Inviting a Guest who will drive on Shabbat
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch writing in Responsa Tshuvot VeHanhagot Vol. 1 No. 358
permits inviting a guest on Shabbat or Yom Tov even if they will drive.
Steven Oppenheimer
<oppy@...>
Steven Oppenheimer, D.D.S.
<oppy@...>
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From: Avi Feldblum <feldblum@...>
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 07:07:19 -0400
Subject: Re: Joining Communal Councils with Reform Clergy
Micha Berger writes:
> Recently I had an experience that would bear out the majority view.
> [much deleted]
> With all due respect to The Rav zt"l, it seems that history has born out
> the truth of the opposing view.
With all due respect, what you post has nothing to do with "history"
proving out one opinion or the other. This is one data point which must
be integrated with all the rest of the good and bad that would occur if
either opinion is followed. Since we cannot set up the needed experiment
(two universes, one following each opinion and then track all effects)
we clearly cannot "prove" either opinion. However, if one wants to try
and make some sort of "comparison", and I have doubts to what extent it
is possible, then one needs to understand what are the communal
advantages as well as disadvantages of each approach. The feelings of an
individual may likely be batul to the larger picture.
Avi Feldblum
<feldblum@...>
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From: <CHIHAL@...> (Yeshaya Halevi)
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 12:20:04 -0400
Subject: Name of Yenta
Shalom, All:
Shaul Ceder <ceder@...> rightly notes how the name
"Yenta" has been discredited nowadays. I'm not 100% sure, though, that
all the blame should be heaped where he hurled it. He said:
<<The "Yenta" abomination originated during the so-called
Haskala, when writers of secular Yiddish fiction, in their zeal to cast
scorn on the Torah and those who remained true to it, seized upon this
perfectly respectable name, and appropriated it to epitomize their false
stereotype of the Orthodox woman, whom they chose to depict as a gossipy
chatterbox, exemplified by Sholom Aleichem's caricature of the Jewish
matchmaker. >>
I knew a rebbitzen in Cleveland whose first name was/is indeed
Yenta, and I'm pleased to say this rebbitzen was/is nothing like the
stereotypical, lower case "y" yenta. So I was very interested when, a
couple decades ago, I read one elderly writer's recollection of what
changed our attitude towards this once ordinary name.
Approximately 1910 - 1920 (I stress the modifying word
"Approximately") a writer for an American Yiddish newspaper -- probably
the Forward -- invented a humorous character named Yenta Telebenta. And
boy, was she ever.
A yenta, that is.
Each time the writer came up with more outrageously funny
episodes, the name "Yenta" was etched onto our consciousnes as a gossipy
woman who had to poke her nose into your cholent pot.
Further, deponent knoweth not. I think, though, the writer may
have been Jacob Adler, writing under the pen name B. Kovner.
Now comes another question: What is the origin of the name Yenta?
Somebody net-named Aahdi posted on AOL once that <<Yenta comes from the
French word gentille(sp) almost a thousand years ago when Yiddish was in
its formative stages and a center of Jewish population was Southern
France. >>
I have also heard that Yenta comes from the Spanish, via Juanita.
Yeshaya Halevi (<Chihal@...>)
As the Streisand movie demonstrated, Yenta originally was just another
Yiddish-Jewish name.
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From: <Janice.Gelb@...> (Janice Gelb)
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 13:31:25 -0700
Subject: Shabbat/Email Time Differences
In Vol. 24 #08, Israel Pickholtz said, regarding email lists
to which he belongs whose readers are likely to be Jewish but
not Shomer Shabbat:
>I figure that the way to deal with the various Shabbat/Yom tov
>possibilities (avoiding "lifnei iver") are:
> - I do not send anything to the group or to an individual I don't
> know, until Sunday morning.
> - I don't read anything in my inbox dated after Shabbat comes in,
> until Sunday morning.
> - I don't worry about messages to individuals that I send on Friday,
> for I am no more responsible for when they open them as I am for
> something I send on Wednesday - so long as it arrives there before
> Shabbat their time. This is no different in my mind than mailing a
> letter in the US on a Friday and having it arrive on Shabbat.
> - I don't post messages TO THE GROUP after early Friday morning,
> because there is a good chance that by time the moderators get to
> it it will already be Shabbat.
I believe this is seriously confusing Real Time with Internet Time. The
time a message is dated as having been sent or received often bears
little or no relation to when the message was sent or even received at
the actual addressee's mailbox. Routers, servers, and traffic density
all affect the time stamps.
Also, even if a message is dated as having been written after Shabbat
comes in where you are, what about people who live in different time
zones?
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with this
<janiceg@...> | message is the return address.
http://www.tripod.com/~janiceg/index.html
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From: Avi Feldblum <feldblum@...>
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 20:57:49 -0400
Subject: Re: Vatican Judaica
Michael and Abby Pitkowsky writes:
> A number of postings ago there was a discussion of the possible Judaica
> treasures that are in the Vatican's holdings. Last shabbat there was an
> article in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz on this subject. The bottom line
> is that the Vatican has a tremendous amount of Judaica objects. Few
> take seriously the belief that objects from the Beit HaMikdash are there
> because at the time of the hurban Rome was pagan and the Vatican did not
> exist for a few more centuries. The Vatican holds over 800 manuscripts
> of which less than 150 have been catalogued.
Just a quick note, since my information here is sketchy, as I was fairly
young at the time. My mother z"l wrote her doctoral thesis on the
reaction of the American Catholic church to the establishment of the
State of Israel. Doing the research on this clearly required a fair
amount of interaction with members of the Church hierarchy. At one
point, I think it was after the completion of the thesis, the Vatican
asked her if she would like to come to Rome for a period (I think) of
one or two years to work on cataloging the Jewish holdings. As she had a
number of young children, she turned down the offer. If my memory is
correct, it would indicate that the Church has a fairly significant
amount of Jewish holdings, and very likely does not know in any detail
what they have. [Just to clarify, I do not think that there is any
evidence that they have second Temple vessels etc.]
Avi Feldblum
<mljewish@...> or feldblum@cnj.digex.net
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From: Michael and Abby Pitkowsky <pitab@...>
Date: Tue, 14 May 96 23:06:18 PDT
Subject: Vatican Judaica and Bat Mitzvah
A number of postings ago there was a discussion of the possible Judaica
treasures that are in the Vatican's holdings. Last shabbat there was an
article in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz on this subject. The bottom line
is that the Vatican has a tremendous amount of Judaica objects. Few
take seriously the belief that objects from the Beit HaMikdash are there
because at the time of the hurban Rome was pagan and the Vatican did not
exist for a few more centuries. The Vatican holds over 800 manuscripts
of which less than 150 have been catalogued. In addition there was a
ceremony every year in which the head of the Jewish community would give
the pope the most beautiful Torah scroll in the community's possession.
Often the Torah was returned, but it is believed that the Vatican still
holds onto a large number of very old and beautiful Sifrei Torah.
Apparently many of the Judaica objects in their possession come from a
number of Jewish catacombs which existed in Rome, some of them dating
back to the 3-5 centuries c.e. The Vatican gave stewardship of these
catacombs over to the Italian gov. but not until they emptied out their
contents. Most interviewed in the article felt that eventually the
public will be able to view the Judaica which the Vatican holds but none
of them were holding their breath.
Another interesting source for an early quasi bat-mitzvah is the Ben Ish
Hai, parshat R'eh, first year. He discusses the customs of a bar
mitzvah and adds _and also the daughter on the day that she enters the
obligation of mitzvot, even though it is not the custom to make a meal,
seudah, nevertheless it should be a simhah on that day and she should
wear shabbat clothes and if possible she should wear new clothes and
bless shehechiyyanu and also intend for it, the blessing, to refer to
her entering mitzvot._
Name: Michael and Abby Pitkowsky
E-mail: <pitab@...>
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From: Josh Males <jmales@...>
Date: Tue, 21 May 96 13:24:05
Subject: Yenta Usage
In a recent posting <ceder@...> refers to the source of the
term "Yenta":
> The "Yenta" abomination originated during the so-called
> Haskala, when writers of secular Yiddish fiction...
> appropriated it to epitomize their false stereotype
> of the Orthodox woman... as a gossipy chatterbox
Whew! That cleared up a question I always had, why anybody would give
their kid a name that meant "gossipy chatterbox".
The poster later writes:
> use the name "Yoram" (as is sometimes done in Israel)
> to signify an insensitive dolt (and I have no idea why
> so many of these misappropriated names start with a "yud")
Now you've got me going. An insensitive dolt is usually called a
certain body part found on men. Hopefully, this nickname does not
actually come from a real name.
"Yoram", however, is used to signify a nerd or geek. "Zalman" is also
occasionally used. This deviates from the "yud theory". In 1984, when
the campus classic "Revenge of the Nerds" came to the big screen in
Israel, it was called "N'kamat HaYoramim". When it was released later
on video, the name changed to "N'kamat HaMeruba'im". Maybe there was
someone named Yoram at the distribution company.
The common nerd is a popular target for proper noun substitution. The
name "Poindexter" is occasionally used (e.g. The Simpsons episode 'Bart
The Genius'). Poindexter, surprisingly, was a character in "Revenge of
the Nerds".
Not only do character types fall victim to this name substitution, but
actions do too. My sources told me that at Skokie Yeshiva they refer to
a "wedgie" as a "Melvin". Imagine the pain, discomfort, and ripped
waistbands that a misfortunate freshman must endure because his parents
had chosen to name him after a beloved relative named Melvin.
I would like end this posting of "leitzanus" by saying that only if we
can name our children Zalman, raise them without ridicule, and send them
off to Skokie Yeshiva where thay can receive a "Wedgie K'hilchaso", will
we be zocheh to the coming of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Bais
HaMikdash, BB"A.
Joshua D. Males
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End of Volume 24 Issue 10
