Volume 37 Number 04
Produced: Wed Sep 4 5:11:30 US/Eastern 2002
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Coming soon to Drisha...
[Judith Tenzer]
Eiruvin
[David Ziants]
Gedosha
[David Lefkowitz]
Hotel Keys on Shabbat
[Dani Wassner]
looking for a minyan in yenimsville?
[Sid Gordon]
Mi Shebeirach
[David Fox]
Moses Mendelssohn
[Yitzchok Kahn]
MyJewishLearning.com
[David Rosenthal ]
Purchasing Religious Candies
[Aharon A. Fischman]
Reason for a Mitzvah
[Stan Tenen]
Restaurant announcing "Seating for men only."
[Anonymous]
starting a Shomer Boy Scout troop
[Jack Reiner]
What have we come to? Continuation
[Shmuel Himelstein]
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From: Judith Tenzer <jtenzer@...>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 15:53:03 -0400
Subject: Coming soon to Drisha...
High Holy Day Minyan
If you have not yet made your reservation for Drisha's High Holy Day
Minyan, you may still do so. Information about the services, the schedule
and registration form can be found at the following website link:
http://www.drisha.org/events/minyan.htm
Once again, Drisha is planning a series of High Holy Day Lectures:
The Stanley Rudoff Memorial High Holy Days Lecture Series includes two
lectures:
Becoming Human: What's in a Name? - Shera Aranoff Tuchman -
Wednesday, September 4, 7:30 p.m. Free
The Drama of Avodat Yom HaKippurim:
Halakha and Jewish Thought - Nathaniel Helfgot - Tuesday, September 10,
7:30 p.m. Free
For more information, check the website:
http://www.drisha.org/programs/community.htm#stanley
The Renee and Alexander Bohm Memorial Lecture
The Scapegoat and the Jews - Martin Lockshin - Thursday, September 12,
7:30 p.m. Free.
Additional information is on the website:
http://www.drisha.org/programs/community.htm#renee
Daytime High Holy Day Lectures include:
Reaping the Fruits of the Garden: The Dynamic Interaction of Man and God -
Zvi Grumet - Tuesday, September 10, 9:30 a.m.
Confronting Truth: Does it Have a Place in the Teshuva Process? - Zvi
Grumet - Thursday, September 12, 9:30 a.m.
Information and a pre-registration form is available on our website:
http://www.drisha.org/programs/community.htm#grumet
The Fall Semester for Continuing Education will begin on September 30th.
The catalogue should arrive in your home before Rosh HaShana and will be
on the website by September 4th. We have courses in many areas of study --
ranging from the Dead Sea Scrolls to Stem Cell Research -- for students at
all levels. If you'd like a sneak preview, please email
<jtenzer@...>
All of us at Drisha wish you and your families a healthy, happy and
peaceful New Year.
Judith Tenzer
Drisha Institute for Jewish Education
131 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024
(212) 595-0307
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From: David Ziants <dziants@...>
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 19:06:35 +0200
Subject: Re: Eiruvin
Thank you for your response and I will retract my comment: "as happens
most of the time outside Israel"
I was speaking from my experience as someone who lived in the UK before
19 years ago, now lives in Israel but occasionally visits.
The first eiruv in England, which will be in NW London, is only now at
its first stages in being erected.
Concerning handkerchiefs and "kavod habriot", am still interested to
know if there is anything to say on the issue. I am certainly not
looking for a leniancy for myself for when I visit England but just
interested in knowing for the sake of it.
David Ziants
<dziants@...>
Ma'aleh Adumim, Israel
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Lefkowitz <Dovid107@...>
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 09:37:40 -0400
Subject: Gedosha
I have found two sources.
One is the Otzar HaTefillos siddur which brings the alternate text of
"gedosha".
"Baruch SheAmar", a book on tefillah, says that the real text is
gedosha. We read it "kedosha". The switch is not that dramatic, since
both the gimmel and koof are letters whose pronunciation uses the same
part of the throat.
Dovid Lefkowitz
<Dovid107@...>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dani Wassner <dani@...>
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 14:39:02 +0200
Subject: re: Hotel Keys on Shabbat
Even when a hotel gives a mechanical key as a substitute, one may well
encounter many other Shabbat difficulties.
We were recently on holiday in a large hotel in Eilat. It was explained
to me that when a guest registered for a "shabbat key" (ie a mechanical
key rather than the card used on a weekday), the hotel also switched
your room onto "shabbat mode". The most important thing that this
accomplished was to disable the "sensors" in the room. These sensors
detected body heat in the hotel room. When there was no body heat for a
period of a few minutes, the lights and airconditioning were
automatically turned off. They only turned back on when you entered the
room.
Apparently these sensors a common feature in many hotels across the
globe. In Israel, most hotels will disable them for Shabbat upon
request.
(Note: I was told that covering over the sensors does not work).
Dani Wassner,
Jerusalem
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sid Gordon <sid.gordon@...>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 21:21:51 +0200
Subject: looking for a minyan in yenimsville?
Every now and then someone on the list asks where they can find a minyan
in such and such a place. Since no one else seems to have pointed it
out on this list, I just wanted to inform the readers of a very useful
website called www.GoDaven.com (that's "go daven", and need not be
entered as G-daven), self-described as "the worldwide orthodox minyan
database". You can search for minyanim by city, country, zipcode, or
name of minyan, and you get information such as davening times, nusach,
name of rabbi, address, and even a map how to get there.
Kol Hakavod to the purveryors of this service...
Sid
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From: <dfox@...> (David Fox)
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 10:22:54 -0400
Subject: Mi Shebeirach
Shalom,
Is it appropriate to make a Mi Shebeirach for ones wife during pregnancy ?
Are there other prayers/tehillim that are appropriate ?
Thank you,
David Fox
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Yitzchok Kahn <mi_kahn@...>
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 00:45:02 -0400
Subject: Re: Moses Mendelssohn
Someone wrote-
>This view has already been set forward by Moses Mendelssohn...
With no meaning of disrespect to the poster, I feel Mendelsohn should not be
quoted in a forum which accepts the validity of hallacha. Mendelssohn, at
least in part, started the erosion of hallachic observance among Klall
Yisroel. The Chasam Sofer already said, "Ubasifrai Ra"Mad (Reb Moshe
Desau-his place of birth) Al Tishlachu Yad," "Don't touch
Mendelssohn'sbooks. I hope I don't spawn a debate on Mendelssohn's
legitimacy.
Yitzchok Kahn
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Rosenthal <davidr@...>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 06:00:41 -0400
Subject: MyJewishLearning.com
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Aharon A. Fischman <afischman@...>
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 08:09:08 -0400
Subject: Purchasing Religious Candies
Many organizations use candy sales as fund raisers - by either having
members sell candy door to door, or having a display at work. Is there
a problem making a purchase if the organization raising funds is a
church?
Thanks,
Aharon A. Fischman
<afischman@...>
www.alluregraphics.com
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From: Stan Tenen <meru1@...>
Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2002 17:55:26 -0400
Subject: Re: Reason for a Mitzvah
There is an easy way to understand huqim and mishpatim from the
perspective of mathematics.
In general, huqim are what mathematicians (and/or physicists) call
"boundary conditions". Boundary conditions are _givens_.
Mathematically, they're like postulates. We put them on the table, and
consider them, so as to see their logical implications, and thus their
usefulness.
There never is an explanation for a postulate.
The boundary conditions that we have to live with are very simple. We
are strung between the boundaries set by the geometry of the meaning of
the Name Hashem, and the geometry of the meaning of the Name Elokim. We
exist within the Echod of the Sh'ma.
Thus, this is a postulate, and we do not ever question the Oneness of
Hashem, the all-inclusive Wholeness of Elokim, nor the utter Singularity
of Hashem-Elokim. Thus, the first commandments are "boundary
conditions."
We are also bound by the spacetime we find ourselves in. We exist in
three orthogonal (independent) spatial dimensions, which extend inside
and outside, as left-right, up-down, front-back. These three spatial
dimensions are boundary conditions. They shape our embryology _before_
DNA chungs in with cell differentiation. If it weren't for the
3-dimensional boundary conditions of the egg sac, cell differentiation
could not take place as it does.
We are bound in time also. We are forced forward. This is our
maturity, and our evolution.
In the language of mathematics, mishpatim are like correllaries that
follow from the postulates. They are provable, demonstrable, inexorable,
_logical_ consequences of the huqim they follow from. This is why we
can (and do) find reasons for mishpatim. They are deducible from huqim.
They are secondary, albeit inexorable, qualities of our consciousness
and our world.
We can never understand postulates, because they are stated without
predicates. They're givens. Once we _define_ the big bang as before
time, for example, we can never question "when it happened" or "how long
it took" or "what came before it". Thus, if huqim are like postulates,
we should not expect to understand why they are so. We just find that
they are so, and that they are intrinsic to the reality we live in.
But even though we can't understand the "source" of huqim, or boundary
conditions, because they're postulates/givens, we can understand their
logic, their consequences, their effect on us, and their inexorable
descent from the utter Singularity of Hashem-Elokim.
L'shana tova,
Stan
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From: Anonymous
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 09:10:17 +0200
Subject: Re: Restaurant announcing "Seating for men only."
Russell Jay Hendel says there are 2 sides to most legal...
"Suppose that Meah-Shearim men will not eat in a restaurant where some
couples sit together... THEN if the storeowner does not cater to these
people he will lose business.
"My point is not to give in to the owner or to the women--my point is
that there are two sides in this case. They should both be addressed..."
Substitute "Christians" or "Aryans" for "men" and consider whether the
two sides might be "right" and "wrong."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jack Reiner <jack@...>
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 11:02:47 -0500
Subject: starting a Shomer Boy Scout troop
Hi All,
We are starting a shomer Cub Scout pack here in New Orleans, with the
intent of growing into a shomer Boy Scout troop in a couple of years.
I would love to hear anecdotes, experiences, advice, etc. from those who
have shomer Scouting experience. I personally have a great deal of
Scouting experience, though not as a shomer Boy Scout.
A shomer Girl Scout troop is also in the works, though I will probably
not be involved except as a parent.
Please email <jack@...> or, if the moderator feels this
topic is appropriate to the list, then post to the list. Thank you.
Kol Tuv,
Jack Reiner, Cubmaster, Pack 0180
<jack@...>
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From: Shmuel Himelstein <himels@...>
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 08:20:21 +0400
Subject: What have we come to? Continuation
I'd like to clarify my comments (and repugnance) at the Meah Shearim
sign of "seating for men only."
I have no problem with having separate tables for men and women - or no
tables at all, if that is a practical option, or even a small curtain
between the two (which is a practical option in that particular place).
My objection is the blatant disregard for women implicit in the sign.
Incidentally, I find it hard to believe "kol kvodah shel bat melech
penimah" is to be construed as meaning that women may not go out of
their home, or - alternately - are not allowed to eat outside their
home. After all, the women of the species also do get hungry on
occasion....
Why is it that this sign elicits in me the same abhorrence I found in
the Deep South and its "whites only" signs, which made it impossible for
African-Americans (in those days they were "negroes") to eat out?
Shmuel Himelstein
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End of Volume 37 Issue 4
