Volume 26 Number 58
Produced: Tue May 20 7:15:25 1997
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Chatzitza re: Tefillin straps
[Dr. Steven Oppenheimer]
Email, etc., on Shabbos
[Carl Singer]
Heart / Ervah
[Zvi Goldberg]
Independence Day
[Lon Eisenberg]
Mourning in Silence
[Eliyahu Segal]
Only One Sefer Torah
[Baruch Schwartz]
Plagiarism
[Robert Werman]
Rabbi and his community
[Brandon Raff]
Yibbum
[Menashe Elyashiv]
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From: Dr. Steven Oppenheimer <oppy@...>
Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 20:51:10 GMT
Subject: Re: Chatzitza re: Tefillin straps
[Fron this date and long ago, dug out of my email mbox. Mod]
Rabbi Metzger is asked whether it is necessary to remove one's
wristwatch when wrapping the Retzuot of the Tefillin on one's arm.
Shute Rashba (siman 827) concludes that one may wrap the Retzua shel yad
over clothing, only the Beit HaTefillin has the din of Tefillin and
can't have a Chatzitza. This is based on Menachot 37b. It seems from
his words that one only need to be concerned about Chatzitza on the part
that goes over the muscle, where the actual Tefilah is placed.
Rama (siman 27, 4) paskuns like Rashba. Taz and Magen Avraham question
Rama's pesak since Rashba himself says LeMaaseh one should follow the
minhag to be careful about a chatzitza regarding the Retzuot. Magen
Avraham explains that Rashba only meant that one should be careful
regarding a garment but concerning a Davar Mu'at one need not be
concerned.
Sefer Mordechai and Shute Yabia Omer paskun that there is no Chatzitza
regarding the Retzuot.
Shute Yad Eliyahu says one should only permit Chatzitza in the Retzuot
where there is a need, but for no reason, it should be discouraged.
Mishna Berurah (op. cit. siman katan 16) writes one should not be
lenient regarding Chatzitza of the Retzuot except by the part that is
wrapped. Regarding the area of the knot however, one should be strict.
Since the location of the watch is at the end of the Krichot and is only
Choteitz where the Retzua goes on toward the fingers, there is no Issur
of Chatzitza. This seems to be the position of Yad Eliyahu MiLublin,
Netaei Ne'eManim, and Yabia Omer. Rabi Ovadia Yosef writes that
regarding a watch one need not be strict. A ring may be different
considering the admonition of Yad Eliyahu that one should not have a
davar Chotzetz for no reason. Then again there is the Rashba and Rama.
One may also put the Tefilah shel yad over a cast and make a Bracha as
long as the Bayit is on the skin.
For a more detailed discussion, see Yabia Omer Vol. 2 Siman 2.
I hope this brief review has been helpful. Tizkeh lelabain et Hahalacha
Beharbatzat Torah.
Sincerely,
Steven Oppenheimer, D.D.S.
<oppy@...>
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From: Carl Singer <CARLSINGER@...>
Date: Wed, 7 May 97 20:24:39 UT
Subject: RE: Email, etc., on Shabbos
A number of related -- multi-location situations have been posed.
(Multi-location in that it is not Shabbos where the Jewish person
considering / performing an action is located, but his/her action will
have some impact in a location where (and/or when) it is Shabbos there.)
It was brought to my attention about use of a Mikveh Motzei Shabbos
where a non-Jew heated the water on Shabbos. One is required to wait
until sufficient time has passed for the water to have been heated after
Shabbos ended. I'm not quite sure if the direct relevance to the "email
question" It's been a very long time since I studied Gemorah Shabbos but
the melacha was (ONLY as I recall) done on Shabbos but not at the
request of the person benefiting from it -- the wait is therefore to
adjust (or mimic) the situation as if it were heated motzei Shabbos (it
is not practical to cool & re-heat, etc.) Thus the Jew gets no benefit
(re: earlier availability of the Mikveh) due to this Shabbos work as
opposed to if the work had been Motzei Shabbos. This takes away any
temptation for a circuitous request for heating the mikveh on Shabbos,
etc.
A correspondent wrote me that they send faxes to an area where it is
Shabbos, knowing that the expected recipient will not attend to them
until after Shabbos. What, then if someone comes in on Shabbos (local
time) and tears, cuts, copies, replies, fulfills an order, makes a phone
call, etc., because of the fax -- because it was there? Whether or not
the fax contained a specific request (such as an order form, or a
request for information that would necessitate turning on a computer)
A simpler, more direct case, Erev Shabbos (U.S.A.) , I call up someone
in London (where it's already Shabbos) and ask them to do work (say I
place an order causing them to have to write the order down.)
Am I benefiting from someone working on Shabbos -- (Does it matter
whether the person is not-Jewish, or if the rove of people who are
likely to answer the phone are not Jewish?)
*** Is "Shabbos" determined by where I am or where "THEY" are (or where
the work is being done).
I don't know.
Re: Email (again) email is not as "hands free" as we think. People
maintain systems, may adjust traffic routing, etc. Those people may or
may not be Jewish (the halachos re: a non-Jew working on Shabbos are
often mis-quoted or mis-understood. In general (and I am not Paskening)
I can't have a non-Jew do work for ME on Shabbos. I'd presume the rove
of people using MSN and thus causing maintenance, etc., are not Jewish
which also impacts the equation.
Let's also look at an classic one location case -- in the old days, I
used to run remote programs that had instructions that (might) cause the
computer operator to mount tapes. Could I set one of these to run into
(or on) Shabbos therefore assigning work to my computer operator (The
Av-melocha being turning power on / off for mounting the computer tape)?
What if I didn't know when the job would run (job was put into a queue
and it might run sometime on the weekend depending on various
priorities, other jobs, etc.) What if I didn't know whether the
computer tape mounting instruction would be sent (tape only would be
called for under certain circumstances as determined by calculations
and/or data. What if I knew for sure that if the program ran correctly
is would request the tape? What if the tape would only be requested
upon an error condition?
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From: <zg@...> (Zvi Goldberg)
Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 23:57:10 EDT
Subject: Heart / Ervah
Mr. Rothke asks,
> The gemorah in Brachos 25 & Shulchan Oruch Orech Chaim siman 74 state
> that it is assur to read krias shma without a seperation between ones
> heart and ervah. This is based on the posuk of "machanecha kodesh",
> since ones heart sees ones ervah (meshum d'libo roeh es ha'ervah).
> I have some difficulty understand what is going on here.
> 1. How does the gemorah infer from "machnecha kodesh" that ones heart
> sees ones ervah?
> 2. What does it mean that ones heart sees ones ervah?
> 3. If this is the case, since the heart is internal, how does an
> external factor (a belt, underware, gartel, etc.) take away the heart's
> viewing of the ervah?
The way I understood the gemara was that it is just an
expression; anotherwords, you may not be totally unclothed so that your
chest and ervah are both exposed, in which case your heart "sees" your
ervah. So all you need to do is cover or clothe yourself and the problem
is removed. See Tosfos on 24a - one of his answers is that if one is
lying in bed unclothed, he can stick his head out from the blanket and
recite Shema because the rest of his body is covered by the blanket.
As for "machanecha kodesh" (lit. your camp shall be holy), that
is not referring to "libo roeh es haervah" at all. It is Rava's argument
that you may not recite Shema in front of excretement, even if it is
passing in front of you.
While we're on the subject of Gemara Brachos, maybe one of you
can help me with a difficult piece. On daf 58b, the gemara tells a story
involving Rav Pappa and Rav Huna ben R' Yehoshua *killing* Rav Chanina
ben R' Ika for something he said. Can anyone tell me what exactly R'
Chanina did wrong ? And how could two pious sages *kill* another sage
whom they acknowledged was a true chacham !?
Zvi
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lon Eisenberg <eisenbrg@...>
Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 11:44:43 +0000
Subject: Independence Day
[Fron this date and long ago, dug out of my email mbox. Mod]
I'm beginning to think that perhaps the "religious" celebration of Yom
Ha`azmauth is yet another compromise made by the left-wing religious to
the secular element of the government (like the concept of "minimally
kosher" that has recently been discussed). This consists of "kvetch"ing
what is being done into being correct (notice I didn't say it is
incorrect, but it does seem "kvetch"ed). The secularists decided to
make a holiday on the 5th of Iyyar (there is probably nothing wrong with
that), so it had to be given religious justification (why?).
After reviewing this issue, I have reached the following conclusions,
hopefully based on halakhic (rather than political/emotional) reasons:
1. There is no religious significance to the date "5 Iyyar". The only
significant event that happened that day was the outbreak of the War
of Independence. That hardly is reason to celebrate being saved.
Perhaps if we could put an end date to the war that would be an
appropriate date to chose.
2. Even if we can determine an appropriate date to celebrate a "personal yom
tov" (for being saved) I don't believe there is the concept of saying
Hallel on such a day. I think Hallel is said to acknowledge a
miracle, such as on Hanukkah (and perhaps Yom Yerushalaim). There is
certainly no concept of saying yom tov psukei dezimrah [holiday
psalms] on such a day.
3. I don't see how those of us who lived (or whose ancestors lived) in America
(or another place not in danger during the War of Independence) can
celebrate a personal yom tov on that day or any day chosen for such
celebration.
Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with recognizing and
participating in our government (at least when it doesn't contradict
Torah). Let's have our bar-b-q's, but let's not fool ourselves into
believing that Yom Ha`azmauth is a religious holiday (any more than the
4th of July in the U.S.).
What about Yom HaZikaron (both for the soldiers and the Holocaust victims):
1. Both these dates are somewhat arbitrary. Perhaps better dates should be
chosen (9 Abh, 10 Tebheth?).
2. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to read "mishnayot" [the first portion of
the Oral Law on which the Talmud is based] rather than blowing a
siren (how about a siren for 10 sec. to tell everyone to stop and
listen to the radio)?
Lon Eisenberg Motorola Israel, Ltd. Phone:+972 3 5659578 Fax:+972 3 5658205
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From: Eliyahu Segal <segaleli@...>
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 13:28:13 +0300 (IDT)
Subject: Mourning in Silence
--snipped---
> Traditional Jewish minhagim of saying tehilim and learning mishnaos are
> eschewed in favor of the goyishe minhag of standing for a two minute
> period of silence.
--snipped--
> Shlomo Godick
My teacher, Rav Ackerman, commented on that complaint(tayna)
that you see when Aharon's sons died he was silent and he was rewarded
for that. Perhaps then it is proper for silence to be a way of
mourning. On the other hand maybe you could say that Aharon was
refraining from talking and complaining against Hashem and was rewarded
for that. Where as here you stand silent for the sake of standing
silent? Anyway, he was not saying that as a halachic sevara for it not
being chukas goyim so don't come with a tayna against me(or him:). Also,
standing silent does have a purpose. It unifies (potentially) the Jewish
People. It has a very powerful effect on you if you imagine all the
people standing still at one time. Purpose than is is not a
chok(unexplainable custom)? AYLOR:)
Eliyahu Segal
Write to : <segaleli@...>
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From: Baruch Schwartz <SCHWARTZ@...>
Date: Tue, 20 May 97 11:53:46 IST
Subject: Only One Sefer Torah
We are gabbaim at three different shuls in Efrat, and have been trying
unsuccessfully to solve the following question.
When only one Sefer Torah is available but two (or more) portions need
to be read (such as on Shabbat Rosh Hodesh, or Yomtov), do any sources
deal with the issue of whether hagbahah should be performed between the
two readings, before rolling the Torah to the second reading?
Truth is, all three of us were quite sure that such a procedure is
totally unncessary, and that the Sefer Torah should simply be rolled to
the second reading without first doing hagbahah. But recently one of us
was challenged on the point, by a fairly knowledgeable congregant, and
no one, neither the challenger nor any of us, was able to find a source.
Can anyone cite sources on this?
Baruch Schwartz
Jay Marcus
Aharon Naiman
(Efrat)
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From: Robert Werman <rwerman@...>
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 13:14:46 +0300
Subject: Re: Re: Plagiarism
Hasagat Gvul has been correctly noted to be a technical term for
plagiarism in rabbinic literature. This use of the term is medieval at
the earliest and does not, as far as I know, appear in HZ"L.
Hasagat gvul is a much broader term, seems to me, including invasion of
privacy, inappropriate social behavior, etc. [see Responsa Maharashda"s
254; Responsa Maharasha"l Luria 69:2.
__Bob Werman
<rwerman@...>
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From: Brandon Raff <brandon@...>
Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 23:53:34 +0200 (GMT+0200)
Subject: Rabbi and his community
Hi
I would like to get all the laws concerning the relationship between the
Rabbi and his community.
Thanks
Brandon
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From: Menashe Elyashiv <elyashm@...>
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 08:49:55 +0300 (WET)
Subject: Yibbum
I would suggest reading HaRav O. Yosef teshuva in Yabia Omer part 6 Even
Hezer #14. He disagrees with the Rabbanot Harashit's pesak not allowing
yibum even for Sefaradim. He holds that they did not have the right to
cancel yibum. The Aruch HaShulhan & Ben Ish Hai hold that if one does
yibum with intention of money or beauty but also as a Misvah that this
is o.k.
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End of Volume 26 Issue 58