Volume 36 Number 26
Produced: Mon Apr 29 22:27:46 US/Eastern 2002
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Amalek's Remembrance
[Yisrael and Batya Medad]
Comforting Mourners
[Janet Rosenbaum]
Dishes ok next Pesach?
[Arthur Roth]
Fifty Years
[Yisrael and Batya Medad]
Interruption to the Beracha
[Yisrael and Batya Medad]
Omer on Second Night of Pesach
[Eli Turkel]
The Rav and the Rebbe
[Paul Shaviv]
Rav Soloveichik and Lubavicher Rebbe
[Jack Levenstein]
Reason for (not) allowing Minors to Lein
[Janet Rosenbaum]
Shoah and Birth Rate
[Arieh Lebowitz]
Shomea Ke'oneh
[Israel Rosenfeld]
veSein Brocho
[SBA]
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From: Yisrael and Batya Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 11:54:37 +0200
Subject: Amalek's Remembrance
Re: Russell Jay Hendel's posting on Remembering AMALEK once a Year
and his remark that
> The requirement of INTENTION comes from the Biblical requirement of
> REMEMBERING.
Did I miss something (quite possible) but did someone not mention the
six daily "rememberings", one of which is Amelak, that people say?
Yisrael Medad
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From: Janet Rosenbaum <jerosenb@...>
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2002 21:37:22 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Comforting Mourners
Is there a time limit to comforting mourners?
It seems like, although someone is a mourner for a full 11 months,
there is a time after which approaching them and reminding them
of it by giving your sympathies might be worse than not. Is this
reflected at all in the halacha? Or maybe I'm totally wrong on
the psychology.
Janet
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From: <AJROTH@...> (Arthur Roth)
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 23:03:55 -0500
Subject: Dishes ok next Pesach?
Shaya Potter <spotter@...> asks the following question in
reference to people who eat certain foods on the 8th day of Pesax that
they do not eat on the first 7 days):
> I've been wondering about people that say since the dishes wont be used for
> a year, it will be ok. The jewish year is not constant ... and beyond that,
> the start of pesach next year will be under a year (the 8th day of pesach is
> the 22nd of nissan, so if we had to wait for a full year we couldn't use the
> same dishes till the next year's 8th day)
I personally eat the same things on the 8th day as on the other 7, but
the explanation I have always heard for the abovementioned practice has
nothing to do with waiting a year. Xameitz on Pesax is not bateil
b"shishim (nullified if it's less than 1 part in 60) during Pesax, but
it IS bateil b"shishim when the mixture is made BEFORE Pesax (or at
least, before the time xameitz may no longer be owned on Erev Pesax ---
not sure exactly when the relevant time period begins). That's why, for
example, most poskim permit certain items such as milk without a Pesax
hechsher if purchased BEFORE Pesax but not during Pesax. The minhag to
refrain from certain foods for the first 7 days is based on a concern
that it might contain a very tiny amount of undetected xameitz (far less
than 1 part in 60). That would be a concern for THIS Pesax, but it
would become bateil b"shishim long before NEXT Pesax, eliminating
concerns about the dishes the following year.
Arthur Roth
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From: Yisrael and Batya Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 12:02:43 +0200
Subject: Fifty Years
Regarding Carl Singer's comments:
> First we have two factors, the second one stated is that you did not
> personally know the relative. The other is the 50 years.
> Since WW-II is more than 50 years ago, (55+) there are many people who
> today say Kaddish for relatives (parents, siblings, children) who were
> killed over 50 years ago -- I think this is, therefore, a most sensitive
> and emotional topic.
I can only agree.
I saw Rav Elchanan on Yom Ha'tzmaut (for those who know Shiloh, as I
live up-the-hill, I don't see him that often) and he repeated his
opinion and said that he would locate the source after I impressed upon
him the thoughts to which Carl gave expression.
Not lax myself, I utilized the davening of Mincha in a synagogue in
Neveh Ne'eman near Hod Hasharon, to leaf through Rav Yosef Yosef's
Halachic compendium, Yalkut Yosef, Vol. 7, Mourning and found on page
203, Para. 21, that he quotes the Ari z"l that one must keep the
Yahrtzeit (Yom Pekudat HaShana) for his father and mother "even for 100
years". The reference is from Responsa Sod Yesharim of the Gri"ch
(?). [gimmel-reish-yud-chet]
Now, if the Ari had to say this, it may be that someone said otherwise,
so it seems there really may be a minhag out there to stop after a
period of time considered long.
Yisrael Medad
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From: Yisrael and Batya Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 23:05:15 +0200
Subject: Re: Interruption to the Beracha
Regarding this section of Joshua Hosseinof:
I am perplexed by those who say that saying BHBS is an
interruption to the beracha,
I myself am always jolted when davening in Sefaradi minyanim, notably
the Zoharei Chama across from Machaneh Yehuda, when the Shmoneh Asreh is
being repeated and there are numerous, 4-5, responses by the
congregation to certain parts of the T'filah like when mentioning the
Three Avot, or other parts, to say "bivracha" or such. For me, this
definitely does take the concentration away, I must admit.
Yisrael Medad
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From: Eli Turkel <turkel@...>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 16:31:18 GMT
Subject: Omer on Second Night of Pesach
<There are few reasons why one should recite the 1st night's omer
after the seder and several reasons why not to do so. One conceptual
reason why to count after the seder is that the Sefirah is supposed
to be counting the days from leaving Egypt until getting the Torah.
How can you count the first night's omer and then go back and "leave
Egypt" (i.e. have the 2nd seder) all over again?
Reasons against saying it after the seder include:
1. You might forget (very possible after 4 cups of wine)
2. You're not supposed to eat anything before reciting the omer
3. The principle of requiring the Sefirat Ha'omer to be 7 complete
weeks. We are very strict about the first night of Shavuot of not
saying kiddush until nightfall so that the counting of the omer will
be 7 complete ("temimot") weeks. We should likewise be strict on the
second night of Pesach to recite the Omer as early as possible at
night, so that it will be 7 complete weeks from the beginning end as
well - although in practice this should mean saying the 1st night's
omer at twilight - which most Ashkenazic shuls will not do because
they will not daven Maariv for the second night of Yom Tov before
nightfall.>
When one davens a late maariv one usually counts sefira after maariv
though one has eaten and doesn't worry about forgetting. Again almost
no one is particular about counting at the first possible moment for
temimot.
In Peninei HaRav the reasons brought down are
1. For after the seder - counting the sefirah is contradictory to
considering it a chag. Hence, to count sefirah and then hold a seder
is self-contradictory
2. For before the seder - tadir ve-eno tadir - tadir kodem
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From: Paul Shaviv <pshaviv@...>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:53:01 -0400
Subject: The Rav and the Rebbe
Information on the ongoing relationship between Rav Soloveitchik ztz"l
and the late Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz'l-- perhaps not quite as close as a
previous correspondent implies -- may be found in the somewhat
controversial, but fascinating biography of the Rebbe - "Larger than
Life", by Shaul Shimon Deutsch, Vol. 2, pp. 107-119 and elsewhere in the
book (see the index).
Paul Shaviv, Toronto
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From: Jack Levenstein <levenste@...>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 15:47:29 +0300
Subject: Rav Soloveichik and Lubavicher Rebbe
David Cohen <bdcohen@...> wrote in Vol. 36 #18:
> According to the bio of the Rav by Rav Aaron Rakefet-Rothkopf (sic),
> the Rav and the Rebbe met for the first and only time since their
> Berlin days in 1980 when the Rav attended the fabrengen in honor of
> the Rebbe's 30th anniversary as head of Chabad. (end quote)
I checked the source in Rav Rakeffet's book "The Rav" and found on p.
27 of Volume 1 that Rav Rakeffet did not write "the first and only
time". Rav Rakeffet told me the following from memory.
The Rav and the Rebbe met at least three times after leaving Berlin.
Rav Rakeffet knows of the following three times. There could have
been more.
1. On June 14, 1942 the Rav was the main speaker at a dinner for
Lubavitcher yeshivahs. Rav Rakeffet has a photograph of the head
table where, among others, are seated Rav Yosef Dov Halevi
Soloveitchik, Rav Yosef Yitzchak Shneersohn (the Sixth Lubavitcher
Rebbe), and Rav Menachem Mendel Shneersohn.
2. When the Rebbe sat shivah for his mother the Rav came to be
menachem avail. To determine the date of this visit one can check
within the Rebbe's letters (published by Chabad) the correspondence
between the two Rabbanim soon after this meeting. The issue they
discussed was as follows. The Rebbe was an onain over Shabbat and the
question discussed was whether aninut applied on Shabbat.
3. The Rav attended the farbrengen in honour of the Rebbe's thirtieth
anniversary as the head of Lubavitch.
4. When the Rav was sitting Shivah for his mother the Rebbe send
Rabbis Gordon and Jacobson to be menachem avail. At this point in the
Rebbe's life he no longer left 770 except for the visits to the kever
of the sixth Rebbe. When the two shelichim of the Rebbe entered the
only one present with the Rav was Rav Rakeffet. It was early in the
morning, thus there was no one else there other than Rav Rakeffet who
came to be menachem avail the Rav before beginning teaching his shiur
that morning. When the two Rabbanim walked in the Rav's face lit up.
After they left the Rav spoke to Rav Rakeffet most fondly about
Chabad.
Shalom Uvrakhah,
Jack Levenstein
Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh
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From: Janet Rosenbaum <jerosenb@...>
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2002 22:10:07 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: RE: Reason for (not) allowing Minors to Lein
Russell Jay Hendel wrote:
> A related but different question is e.g. if a minor or woman
> read would the community have fulfilled its obligations (Would
> we have to reread again).
OC 282:3 says that women can have aliyot, and presumably this would
extend to reading.
Some obligate women to hear the public reading (Magen Avraham 282:6,
Birchei Yosef 282:7) --- the latter which derives it from the extra
aliya on Rosh Chodesh. I have also heard that it derives from hakhel.
Janet
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From: <ARIEHNYC@...> (Arieh Lebowitz)
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:38:48 -0500
Subject: Re: Shoah and Birth Rate
Someone brought up a possible earlier query, i.e., if anyone knew of a
link between loss of Jewish lives in the Shoah and a conscious act to
procreate more Jewish lives as a result.
In a number of conferences and reports at the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington DC, it has been noted that there was quite
an upsurge in pregnancies among Jewish women in Displaced Persons' camps
in Germany and elsewhere in Europe some 9-10 months after the liberation
of the death camps.
The best place to secure additional information would be the Center for
Advanced Holocaust Studies of the USHMM, as well as the Museum's
research/reference library.
I can't help but think that aditional material on this question could be
found at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem as well as the Study Center of the
Ghetto Fighters' House at Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot and at the Moreshet
Archives named in memory of Mordechai Anielewicz, located at Givat
Haviva [D.N. Menashe, Israel]
Arieh Lebowitz
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From: Israel Rosenfeld <israel.rosenfeld@...>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 15:05:18 +0200
Subject: Re: Shomea Ke'oneh
> From: Joshua Hosseinof <jh@...>
> I think we have to look and understand the meaning of the principle
> "Shomea Ke'oneh" (one who listens is the same as one who answers) - it
> is interesting that the principle is not called "Shomea Ke'omer" -One
> who listens is the same as one who says. This seems to counter the
> above argument that by answering "Amen" it is as if we said the entire
> berachah ourselves, and the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch that both state
> that you only need to listen and concentrate for "Shomea Ke'oneh" to
> work - with the Amen being a reinforcement of the principle, and a way
> for people to apply the principle without the rigorous concentration
> that might otherwise be necessary.
IMHO, "oneh" means to repeat (Shemot/Exodus 15:21).
Behatzlacha raba.
Yisrael
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From: SBA <sba@...>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 23:21:04 +1000
Subject: veSein Brocho
From: Perets Mett <p.mett@...>
> With regards to the ruling of the poskim not announce veSein Brocho on
> the first weeknight of Chol hamoieid,
Huh? Why not?
And which poskim?
It's a chiddush to me (but of course there's a lot more that I don't
know...)
SBA
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End of Volume 36 Issue 26