Volume 38 Number 38
Produced: Wed Jan 22 23:00:40 US/Eastern 2003
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
College vs. Kollel
[Bernard Raab]
Cooking for Shabbat (3)
[Gershon Dubin, David I. Cohen, Gershon Dubin]
Eclipse
[<Aronio@...>]
Kosher in Orlando
[<Aronio@...>]
Lack of Job Training
[David I. Cohen]
looking for text -- Maimonides "Discourse on Martyrdom"
[Ginsburg, Paul]
Making of a Gadol
[I Kasdan]
Name of Months
[Bernard Freedman]
Naming Children
[Meir Possenheimer]
Old article
[Sophie Wilzig-Garcia]
Orlah
[Joel Wiesen]
Orthodox Singles Groups
[Michael Kahn]
Shabbat Shirah (tu bi-shevat)
[David Glasner]
Tuxedos
[<Asherben@...>]
Woman Gadol
[Cohen, David A]
Women Gedole Torah
[Solomon Spiro]
Yeshivish
[Bill Bernstein]
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From: Bernard Raab <beraab@...>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 14:01:23 -0500
Subject: Re: College vs. Kollel
Chaim Mateh writes:
>IAC, there will always be (and there MUST be) some Jews who will indeed
>devote their entire lives to Torah, who will be the shevet Levi of the
>generation. There will always be Torah scholars who will not reach
>upper (or lower) middle class. I will continue to support (as best I
>can) those Torah scholars.
The operative word above is "scholars" who "sit and learn". The
community should support true scholarship, which means "sitting"
(e.g. really working at it) as well as "learning" (e.g. making serious
progress). But when was the last time a Rebbe told a talmid: "Yosele,
you are serious enough or talented enough; you will have to leave the
Kollel."? Not very often, I'd guess.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gershon Dubin <gershon.dubin@...>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 21:58:15 GMT
Subject: Cooking for Shabbat
From: <bdcohen@...> (David I. Cohen)
<<Carl is correct that raw meat which will no way be ready for eating
before the next day (cholent, for example) can be put up right before
Shabbat, but then you have to prevent the "midnight cholent eaters" >>
Why? If you can put the cholent up to cook and it will not be ready for
the night meal (note, it does not have to not be ready until the next
day, only not ready for the night meal), you can do so. If someone
wants then to eat it later, what's the problem?
Gershon
<gershon.dubin@...>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <bdcohen@...> (David I. Cohen)
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 17:07:57 -0500
Subject: Re: Cooking for Shabbat
The late night eaters might "stir the coals" in order to have the
cholent ready for eating by then, rather than by lunchtime the next
day. (That's why the food put on the blech for eating Friday night must
be at least partailly cooked i.e. edible to a certain extent.)
David I. Cohen
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From: Gershon Dubin <gershon.dubin@...>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 22:15:22 GMT
Subject: Re: Cooking for Shabbat
<<The late night eaters might "stir the coals" in
order to have the cholent ready for eating by then>>
There is no such gezera. The gezeros that Chazal made referred to the
two meals only. (In addition to making sense, I heard this explicitly
in a shiur)
Gershon
<gershon.dubin@...>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Aronio@...>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 11:02:29 EST
Subject: Eclipse
At one time I did research into whether or not to make a bracha on an
eclipse.
I think that the answer was that there is no bracha on an eclipse.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Aronio@...>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 11:07:44 EST
Subject: Kosher in Orlando
Please note the following notice in the January 2003 Young Israel of
Hollywood, FL shul bulletin:
"Jerusalem Restaurant located at 8255 International Drive in Orlando,
Florida is not certified kosher by Florida Kosher. Any publicity or
statements by the restaurant management to the contrary is false. The
restaurant displays various expired kosher certifications. Cusomters,
please be aware!! Jerusalem Kosher Restaurant is NOT under the
supervision of the ORB or any of the rabbis affiliated with the ORB
(Orthodox Rabbinical Board of Broward and Palm Beach counties.) They
are also NOT under the supervision of the Florida Kosher Services (Rabbi
Dubov) or the Chabad of South Orlando (Rabbi Yosef Konikov)."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <bdcohen@...> (David I. Cohen)
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 15:05:46 -0500
Subject: Lack of Job Training
Chaim Mateh wrote:
<<No marketable skills in hi-tech perhaps. But he does have marketable
skills in the Torah profession (Magid Shiur, Mashgiach, Sofer, Kashrus,
school Menahel, and various other Chinuch areas). >>
What makes you think (and I would add that what you say is a very common
attitude) that just because someone can sit and learn he has any ability
whatsoever in areas of chinuch, or anywhere in the educational field?
The sorry state of what passes for Jewish education today is in no small
part due to such an attitude. Just because one can learn, doesn't mean
one can teach.
David I. Cohen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ginsburg, Paul <GinsburgP@...>
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 07:25:00 -0500
Subject: looking for text -- Maimonides "Discourse on Martyrdom"
Does anyone know where I can find the text of Maimonides
"Discourse on Martyrdom" on the internet?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Paul W. Ginsburg
Rockville, Maryland
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: I Kasdan <Ikasdan@...>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 09:43:29 -0500
Subject: Re: Making of a Gadol
For Dr. Marvin Schick's view on the ban re The Making of a Gadol, see
http://www.jlaw.com/Commentary/bookbanning.html
taken (with permission) from his Rjj Newsletter.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <JFreed515@...> (Bernard Freedman)
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 04:56:15 EST
Subject: Name of Months
The Torah does not name the months of the jewish calendar. The names we
have given our months are derived from the Babalonian, which are based
on the Babalonian dieties or g-ds. So isn't the names we assign to our
months a form of forbidden avodah zorah? Similarly, the civil names
January, February, etc are based on Greek mythological g-ds, so isn't
this also avodah zorah? Has there ever been any thought to giving our
months truly authentic Jewish names?
Bernard (Chaim) Freedman
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Meir Possenheimer <meir@...>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 23:58:23 -0000
Subject: Re: Naming Children
> With regards to Leah naming her children, it does indeed seem that the
> wife decided her children's names. However, we see in Parshat
> Vayishlach (Genesis 35:18) that Rachel gave the name Ben Oni to Binyomin
> as she was dying, but Jacob gave the name Binyomin instead, thereby
> over-ruling Rachel's decision.
> Immanuel Burton.
If you look in Ramban (ibid) you will see that Yaakov did not in fact
change the name given by Rachel, just its interpretation. The word Oni
can also mean "my strength", as used in Reishis Oni, the "first of my
strength" when Yaakov blessed Reuven in Parashas Vayechi (Genesis 49:3).
Likewise, the term "yemin" also denotes strength (see the examples
brought). Hence Yaakov called his son Ben-Yemin (=Ben-Oni). In this
way, explains Ramban, Binyomin did not differ from his brothers who were
all named by the wives of Yaakov.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sophie Wilzig-Garcia <swilzig@...>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 21:24:16 -0500
Subject: Old article
Hi! I am trying to obtain a copy of an article in the February 1964
edition of Jewish Digest. It was written by E. Rivosh and is titled
"Between Life and Death: Notes from the Riga Ghetto." It is in volume 9,
no. 5, (Feb., 1964), pages 34-36. Would you know where I could find it
or how I could obtain a copy?
Sophie Wilzig-Garcia
<swilzig@...>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joel Wiesen <Wiesen@...>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 23:34:00 -0500
Subject: Re: Orlah
Can anyone help me understand why orlah is calculated based on Rosh
HaShana if Tu B'Shevat is the new year for trees?
Thx., Kol tuv,
Joel P. Wiesen, Ph.D., Director
Applied Personnel Research
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Kahn <mi_kahn@...>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:52:10 -0500
Subject: Orthodox Singles Groups
While there are orthodox singles groups that get together for
recreational activities they are generally coed and thus inappropriate
for single frum men who don't socialize with women (other than in
shiduchim). I am looking to start a recreational group (or one other
person for that matter) for single frum men in the NYC area so that we
can get together for bowling, biking (in better weather) to have some
fun. Feel free to email me if you are interested.
Thank you.
Yitzchok Kahn
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From: David Glasner <DGLASNER@...>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 12:39:22 -0500
Subject: Shabbat Shirah (tu bi-shevat)
A translation of an essay by my grandfather, R. Akiva Glasner, son and
successor of the Dor Revi'i, on Shirat Moshe (with a tie-in to Tu
bi-Shevat) has just been posted on the Dor Revi'i website
<www.dorrevii.org>
David Glasner
<dglasner@...>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Asherben@...>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 10:46:07 EST
Subject: Tuxedos
Joel Rich asked:
>>This may be a suburban US question but what are
thehalachik/sociological reasons why pulpit Rabbis seem not to wear
tuxedosto black tie smachot?<<
I personally do not know the answer, but I once heard R. Gedaliah
Anemer, a pulpit rabbi in Silver Spring, Maryland, give a sermon in
which he spoke of those who wear better clothes to a simcha than they do
in shul. The implication was that one ought not to wear better clothes
to a simcha than one would wear in shul.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cohen, David A <davidaco@...>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 16:21:59 -0500
Subject: RE: Woman Gadol
I too would certainly agree with the characterization of Nechama
Leibowitz as a gedola. I also think it is certainly possible for a woman
to be a gedola, and i think in coming generations, with the growth of
women's learning, that may become an increasingly found. But I would
like to qualify that with this: When we wonder why there are no women
gedolot, we should at least take into account that in the Jewish world
(and in the modern world as well, no matter what some would have you
believe), the female clearly has a different role than the male. One
obvious distinction is in the chiyuv (obligation) of learning Torah,
which is incumbent upon males and not upon females. That, for me, is
certainly a valid explanation for the rareness of the female gedola
phenomenon. This is not to put down women in any way, but to recognize
different roles in the family and in society as a whole.
~David A. Cohen
<david.cohen@...>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Solomon Spiro <spiro@...>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 15:40:39 +0200
Subject: Women Gedole Torah
Theoretically, there should be no reason why a woman cannot be a gedolah
batorah. R. Meir's wife was such and I remember in my youth some of the
rabbanim ( from Agudat Harabonim) whose wives were reported to know
whole masekhtot and sections of the shulhan 'arukh by heart.
But it seems that nature ( or heaven?) also has a hand in the selection
of gedolim. Except for a few such as Nehama Leibovitch z''l in our day,
and a few women cited by aharonim of previous generations, our torah
tradition was and is formed by men.
But this should not surprise us, because there are other areas in life,
science and art where there is a paucity of great woman. Not because
they are theoretically not capable, but that nature seems to have
decreed it so.
There are very very few great woman musical composers. There are very
very few great woman playwrights, or great mathematicians or great
architects or great astronomers. There are very very few great woman
chefs. We could also add military leaders-- Jean of Arc excepted.
Perhaps women are meant to be superior in certain areas which nature
seems to have chosen for them and not in others.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bill Bernstein <bbernst@...>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 10:51:40 -0600
Subject: Re: Yeshivish
Several posts have cited the book Frumspeak by my friend Chaim Weiser.
While a little off-topic I'll say-over his story of how he came to write
the book.
Soon after the Steinsaltz English Talmud came out some documentary film
maker was making a film on Talmud study in America. He went to Yeshiva
of Philadelphia and filmed a shiur. He called Chaim, who had a degree
in linguistics and also taught English at the yeshiva, for help
translating. Chaim asked him, what language is the shiur in? Is it in
Hebrew?
"No, not exactly."
"Is it in Yiddish?"
"Well, not really."
"So what language is it?"
"You'd better come listen for yourself."
He went and listened to the tape. The rebbe was saying,
"I'm gonna bring a Reb Chaim from the inside and I mamesh hold that the
oilam will have hanoah from it." (Trans: I will quote an insight by
Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik and I truly believe the class will enjoy it).
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End of Volume 38 Issue 38
