Volume 38 Number 34
Produced: Tue Jan 21 6:20:11 US/Eastern 2003
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Ahar
[Elazar M Teitz]
Confiscation Of Items By A Teacher
[Yair Horowitz]
Disney/Orlando-kosher/shabbat
[Leah S. Gordon]
Golem of Prague (was: Rabbi Lau's statement on cloning and the
[Alex Heppenheimer]
Kollel
[Michael Kahn]
Looking for Tehillim lists
[Freda B Birnbaum]
Miketz
[Nachman Yaakov Ziskind]
On a Boat on Shabbos
[Gershon Dubin]
Tuxedos
[Carl Singer]
A Tzedukkah Portfolio
[Perry Zamek]
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From: Elazar M Teitz <remt@...>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 00:21:42 -0500
Subject: Re: Ahar
> It is written in many places that certain people will come back before
> the general Resurrection, including Moshe and Aharon, who will come back
> immediately upon Moshiach's arrival, or even perhaps slightly before it.
> ...
> The gemara Yoma 5b says that Moshe and Aharon will be present at the
> installation of the Cohanim for the 3rd Bet Hamikdash, and able to tell
> us how it is to be done (it's not clear why such an installation should
> be necessary, but that's not the point).
The g'mara does not say that live kohanim will require
dedication; only those who have passed away (such as Aharon and his
sons) will require rededication upon resurrection (apparently, because
their sanctity lapsed upon death), and at that time Moshe will also have
been resurrected and will be able to teach what needs to be done.
> Similarly, Tosefot Pesachim 114b, dh Echad Zecher Lepesach, says that
> Moshe and Aharon will be present at the very first Erev Pesach after
> Moshiach comes, and will direct which korbanot should be brought.
This quote, too, is not quite accurate. Tosafos state that
Moshe and Aharon will be present at the first Erev Pesach after the Beis
Hamikdash will be rebuilt. Perhaps Tosafos are of the opinion that
t'chias hameisim (resurrection) will precede the rebuilding of the Beis
Hamikdash. In any event, there is no claim made for a partial
resurrection preceding the general one, and certainly not before
Moshiach's coming.
Parenthetically, the Tosafos quoted presents a difficulty, since
it presumes that korbanos (sacrifices) cannot be brought until after
Moshiach comes. The Talmud explicitly states that sacrifices can be
offered at the site of the Beis Hamikdash, even though it is not
standing (Zvachim 62a).
Elazar M. Teitz
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From: <Ggntor@...> (Yair Horowitz)
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 23:27:02 EST
Subject: Confiscation Of Items By A Teacher
Shimon Lebowitz writes:
>On the other hand he says that Haza"l did allow a teacher to use
>corporal punishment, and striking another Jew is as prohibited (in
>general) as stealing their property.
In general Chaza"l agree that a student may strike a pupil (even the
student is inadvertently killed [a topic recently covered in Daf-Yomi,
Makkot 8a]). But this allowance comes with its limitations. The Gemara
in Moed Kattan 17a states that hitting one's mature son violates the
commandment of "Lifnei Iver
Lo Titen Michshol" - "Thou shalt not place a stumbling block before the
blind" (Vayikra 19:14) because the son might strike back at his father
or curse him (Ritva, see Shach YD 240 19,20). Certain types of severe
discipline are Rabbinically prohibited, because they could "cause a
child to rebel against his studies and harm himself even to the point of
suicide" (see Semachot 2:6, Shach YD 240: 20, Sotah 47a - Rashi on
"yatzar", Sanhedrin 107b rashi - "tinok veisha", Kiddushin 30a - rashi
"misheyastir").
It seems as if confiscation would have to be analyzed on a case by case
basis if the only allowance for confiscation is the permission granted
to a teacher to chastise his student.
-Yair Horowitz
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From: Leah S. Gordon <leah@...>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 19:09:42 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Disney/Orlando-kosher/shabbat
We were recently at Disney in Orlando, including a shabbat.
We stayed at the "Contemporary Resort" and had a wonderful experience
with shabbat meals at the steakhouse in the hotel. No, we did not eat
treif steak. They (like all official Disney eateries) were able to get
the frozen entrees, soups, rolls, etc. and warm/serve them. But they
went above and beyond to give us a new bottle of kosher ketchup, cups
for the grape juice that we brought for kiddush, even a pitcher of warm
water, empty basin, and napkins for washing at the table. Not only
that, but they let me come down before they were open, at
candle-lighting, and light tea-light shabbat candles on the table that
we were going to use (I brought my own candles).
I am sorry to say that the other eatery there, "Chef Mickey's," was
hostile to us, including asking "what's wrong with the elevator" when
our stairs' exit went through their back area (we had desk permission to
be there).
There are minyanim at a local Chabad, I think, and there are a number of
places that you can buy/order kosher food. You can also pre-order
kosher imported meals (these aren't "airline" meals, but they are only
one or two rungs above those on the quality scale, unfortunately) at any
Disney restaurant for any meal. You have to call the same number you
call for "priority seating" and ask about kosher meals, 24 hrs in
advance.
There are kosher snacks in the parks, such as many hechshered ice cream
bars and Super-Pretzels with the OU made in their own ovens, and
foil-wrapped baked potatoes. BUT, everything is very expensive (a can
of coke costs $2.50).
We came from Boston and brought a suitcase of food, which I was really
glad to have done (even though I felt a bit silly). I packed loaves of
kosher bread, PB, jelly, yogurt, hard cheeses, cereal, soy-chicken, etc.
To keep everything cold, I interspersed frozen bottles of water (so we
also had these to carry in the parks each day). Our trip, including
until we could unpack into the room fridge ($10/day), was about 10
hours. The waters were still frozen, so I was confident about the
yogurts etc. I figure we saved hundreds of dollars on food by
bringing/buying groceries.
--Leah Gordon
p.s. The whole time, I was reminded of that passage in the Pesach "frum
book" where the author satirizes a seder at DW, "Donald Duck himself
asks the four questions."
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From: Alex Heppenheimer <aheppenh@...>
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 12:09:13 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: Golem of Prague (was: Rabbi Lau's statement on cloning and the
In MJ 38:28, <Gevaryahu@...> (Gilad J. Gevaryahu) wrote:
>The Golem of Pargue, you are referring to was invented by Rabbi Yudel
>Rosenberg (1859-1935) about 100 years ago. See an article about the
>whole story by Sid Leiman. Shnayer Z. Leiman, The Adventure of the
>Maharal of Prague in London: R. Yudl Rosenberg and the Golem of
>Prague, TRADITION, Vol. 36, No. 1, Spring 2002, p. 38, fn. 8.
>
>One can read the biography of Rabbi Rosenberg at:
>http://www.rabbiyehudahyudelrosenberg.com/biography.htm
>
>"The Maharal was one of Rosenberg's favourite protagonists and appears
>in several of his books. In fact, Rosenberg (who apparently believed
>himself to be a descendant of the Maharal) is responsible for inventing
>the one detail about the Maharal with which most people are familiar;
>the famous "Golem," the artificial monster allegedly created by the
>Rabbi to save the Jews of Prague from anti-Semitic plots. So popular
>did this "super-hero" become that we find it difficult to believe that
>the story had no basis in either fact or legend before Rosenberg
>introduced it in a book published in Warsaw in 1909!" Source:
>http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/910823_Breastplate.html
I haven't read Leiman's article, so I can't comment on it. The quote
from Segal, though, is somewhat irrelevant to this issue: he is
referring to one specific Maharal/Golem story, about the Kohen Gadol's
Breastplate supposedly being in the British Museum, not to the whole
corpus of Golem stories. Indeed, the article on "Golem" in the old
Jewish Encyclopedia
(http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=334&letter=G) notes
that various 19th-century collections of stories mention the Maharal's
Golem, so at any rate the basic idea was not an invention of R'
Rosenberg's.
More to the point, I have heard a story where R' Yosef Yitzchak
Schneersohn (the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe), on a visit to Prague in 1907
with his father R' Shalom Ber, ventured to go up to the attic of the
Altneu Shul to see the Golem's remains, and that R' Shalom Ber rebuked
him sharply for this and stated that he had had to expend great
(spiritual) efforts to shield R' Yosef Yitzchak from the consequences of
his action. If this story is true - and admittedly, I have no idea
whether it is, and I don't recall the source - then it would indicate
that there is indeed more than a kernel of truth to the idea of the
Maharal having created a Golem, though this kernel has been overlaid by
a lot of legendary and fictional material.
Kol tuv,
Alex
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From: Michael Kahn <mi_kahn@...>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 21:04:35 -0500
Subject: Re: Kollel
Emmanuel Ifrah writes:
>More often than not, defenders of the Kollel system
>quote a text in Megilla according to which what defines a city is the
>presence of 10 "batlanim" and interpret the word "batlanim" in its
>modern yeshivish meaning: people who do not work but rather dedicate >all
>their time to learning Tora.
I'm actually one of the "defenders of the kollel system" yet in my post
I didn't feel that asarah batlanim is a source for the Kollel idea since
Rashi in Megila 3b defines these batlanim as those who "are batal from
their work so that they should be found constantly in the beis Medrash
for shacharis and arvis" thus, acording to Rashi, these people are
assuring a minyan, not necessarily learning.
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From: Freda B Birnbaum <fbb6@...>
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 14:43:58 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Looking for Tehillim lists
Someone on another list I'm on asks:
Shalom everyone:
Does anyone know if there is any kind of Tehillim list consortium on the
web? I'm trying to compile a list of Tehillim lists for a page on my
site, but I'm having trouble finding lists that are not packaged with a
lot of graphics and tons of links on the same page as the names. Could
anyone help? Thanks.
[IIRC, the person who posted this is blind, hence the preference for
plain text re the software she uses to access her email. -- FB]
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From: Nachman Yaakov Ziskind <awacs@...>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 21:17:58 -0500
Subject: Re: Miketz
> From: Eliezer Wenger <ewenger@...>
> Sam Saal <ssaal@...> asked <Why did Yakov send his sons to Egypt
> to buy food rather than send servants? > An excellent and legitimate
> question. But based on how the Yalkut Me'am Loez explains the events
> the answer is very clear cut. When the hunger began, Yosef knew that
> eventually Yaakov's family will need food and come to Egypt to purchase
> same. He wanted to make sure that he will meet his brothers, so he
> instituted a number of regulations that will ensure that they
> come. Amongst those regulations were that only heads of households may
> come to purchase food, not any slaves, servants or workers. Neither were
> they allowed to come with more than one donkey to take back the
> food. This was to prevent overbuying. In this way, each of the brothers
> would have to travel to Egypt. Since the regulations disallowed the
> sending of servants, Yaakov had no other choice but to send his sons.
An excellent rejoiner to those who ignore the regulations of their host
country. For Yaakov *could have* sent servants who claimed that they
were head of households, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, and who would have
known better?
But he chose to follow the laws of Mitzrayim instead.
Nachman Yaakov Ziskind, EA, LLM <awacs@...>
Attorney and Counselor-at-Law http://yankel.com
Economic Group Pension Services http://egps.com
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From: Gershon Dubin <gershon.dubin@...>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 01:00:03 -0500
Subject: On a Boat on Shabbos
From: Frank Reiss <freiss47@...>
<<Can someone tell me the parameters of being on a boat that arrives at a
port on Shabbos (morning). Can you walk outside while not carrying
anything?>>
No, because the prohibition is techumin, which restricts even movement
without carrying anything. This is completely independent of the
prohibitions of carrying which may or may not apply depending on where
you land.
Gershon
<gershon.dubin@...>
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From: <CARLSINGER@...> (Carl Singer)
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 23:20:35 EST
Subject: Re: Tuxedos
From: <Joelirich@...> (Joel Rich)
This may be a suburban US question but what are the
halachik/sociological reasons why pulpit Rabbis seem not to wear
tuxedos to black tie smachot?
I don't know about weddings, but at some synagogues such as the Spanish
Portuguese Synagogue in Manhattan the President / Sexton (Gabbai) wear
Morning Frocks (striped pants, top hat, etc.) The Rabbi wears robes.
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From: Perry Zamek <jerusalem@...>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 08:36:31 +0200
Subject: Re: A Tzedukkah Portfolio
In MJ 38:28, Raphi Cohen wrote:
>One additional complication is tax refunds.
As far as I recall, there is a teshuva in Igrot Moshe (I don't have the
reference here) in which he discusses the status of the money refunded by
the income tax authorities for charitable donations. He rules there that
the donor may keep the refund money, i.e. it is not deemed as money
belonging to tzedaka. I don't recall the logic he used there. Maybe someone
can check and summarize for us.
Of course, in that case, there is nothing to stop you from recycling this
money as maaser from the current year's income.
With best wishes
Perry Zamek
Visit pizzaidf.org
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End of Volume 38 Issue 34
