Volume 42 Number 70
Produced: Mon May 17 7:14:56 US/Eastern 2004
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Free Electronic Siddur (vowelized)
[Seth & Sheri Kadish]
mini-peppers, Kashrus problem?
[.cp.]
More on Dogs
[Daryl Vernon]
Rambam on Har Habayit
[Yisrael Medad]
Sheitle and Avoda Zarah (4)
[Mark Steiner, Martin Stern, Batya Medad, Martin Stern]
Sheitle and Avoda Zarah: URL for NT times article
[Avi Feldblum]
Summer Time All-Year Round
[Yisrael Medad]
Throwing into the Dead Sea
[Yisrael Medad]
Vocalization in Megilat Ruth 2:2
[Daniel Katsman]
Vocalization of Mordechai
[Jack Gross]
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From: Seth & Sheri Kadish <skadish@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 17:34:00 +0200
Subject: Free Electronic Siddur (vowelized)
Hi. Not so long ago someone asked about a free siddur with nikkud for
download. Last week a friend sent me the following link to "Otzar
Sifrei Kodesh":
http://server17.totalchoicehosting.com/~chassid/sifrei_kodesh/?mode=list
Save the text that appears as an html page as text and then open in
Word. It's not the absolute greatest, but it works.
Seth Kadish
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From: .cp. <chips@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 11:47:24 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: mini-peppers, Kashrus problem?
I bought a bunhc of small peppers, variuos colors. I just bit into one
wich was whole, complete, no holes. For some reason I looked at the
pepper before chewing. In the part still in my hand, the pepper had a
big bug in it. I re-checked the outside of the pepper. There were no
holes or slits anywhere, not even by the stem. Anyone else have this
situation? Are we supposed to cut and inspect mini-peppers?
-rp
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From: Daryl Vernon <ck872@...>
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 22:40:10 -0400
Subject: More on Dogs
Wouldn't it be useful to have a dog, pefererably the non-barking
basenji, around one's household at least around Pesach, as the honoured
halachic determinant that it is?
Lehavdil, but an interesting Ontario legal case of not too long ago
pitted a blind woman & her guide dog versus the priest of a Greek
Orthodox church, the latter losing & fined for barring her
dog-accompanied entry into the building as participant in a ritual. The
Ontario Blind Person's Rights Act was applied, but there was an appeal,
on religious freedom grounds, I think, of which I know not the
result. This would relate somewhat to what's discussed at
http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/english/halacha/jachter_1.htm, referred to in
a previous post.
In my occupation of the past decades, I have encountered many dogs,
mostly benign & even a pleasure. But not long ago while dutifully on
delivery, & in a reverie doubtless related to feeling quite poorly at
the time, a large regularly encountered dog greeted my approach with the
usual vocal force, enough this time though to jar me sufficiently that I
felt internally endangered. Its owner I chastised, my words invoking the
danger of provoking heart attack, & the dog (I'm grateful) was never
again seen at my approach.
I mention this episode to attest to what I feel are serious issues
regarding danger of miscarriage from barking dogs. Women bearing
children in utero are rightfully halchically accepted as being in a
particularly vulnerable state of heart-mind (as the Chinese concept is
often translated), thus subject to protections & exceptions. Any of us
might be at times prone to not dissimilar states of mind(-heart), & it
is not at all being too subtle to be concerned about such
vulnerabilities.
The issue to underline is that of "heart". It is certainly no accident
that the very Hebrew word for dog can be read as including such
reference. Likewise do I see it as not merely coincidental that the dog
is selected as detector of edible chamets. Dogs were recognized for
their being emphatically in their tongues, as it were, with propensity
to love to taste all. Pesach is thus a good corresponding time, the
only time we ourselves are commanded to taste. That required flavour,
bitterness, is considered the flavour of correspondence for the "heart",
among the pattern of organ systems in Oriental medicine, as is the
"heart" the governor of taste function.....There is a great deal more
indeed that can be said in application of such correspondence theory,
bringing home to the world of Torah & mitsvot what's been lost for so
long yet kept alive elsewhere for rediscovery (&, one hopes, renewed
application). I believe the cited Hasidic tendency to avoid dogs might
well be rooted in appropriately seeing the dog as allied to danger
regarding issues of heart, & not merely in avoidance of gentile
affectations. Although I was afforded neither type of reasoning to
justify my recent & ongoing rejection, with sympathy, of the youngest of
our household's request for just such companionship.
D. Vernon
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From: Yisrael Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 21:19:09 +0200
Subject: Rambam on Har Habayit
Nathan Lamm <nelamm18@...> writes:
>about the Rambam's letter: Was it written in Arabic and then
>translated into Hebrew by someone who didn't know the Arabic name of
>Jerusalem, and thus placed the Rambam in the [site of the] "Beit
>HaMikdash" itself, while he never actually went there? I don't have a
>volume with the original letter that might explain this.
Rav Shlomo Goren, among many, discusses the matter in his book Har
Habayit, starting on page Shin-Gimmel. The visit is described in Sefer
Charedim written by HaRav Elazar Azikri who quotes from the letter. It
took place on Vav Cheshvan 4926, a Thursday. The Rambam writes that
they left Acco and arrived in Yerushalayim and "nichnasnu labayit
hagadol v'hakadosh v'hitpallalti bo" - we entered the great and holy
building and prayed there.
> What does the Rambam call Jerusalem (there it
> is) in his Arabic (or Judeo-Arabic) writings?
Yerushalyaim
The other book I would suggest is Kumu v'Na'aleh compiled by Rav Yehuda
Shaviv
Yisrael medad
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From: Mark Steiner <marksa@...>
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 10:29:04 +0300
Subject: RE: Sheitle and Avoda Zarah
Today there was an article in the Jerusalem Post, purporting to clarify
R. Eliashiv's changing position on Hindu hair. I take NO reponsibility
for the factuality of this, but the article stated that what changed was
the Hindus. The "primitives" today who cut off their hair in honor the
the avoda zara, do (today)intend the hair as an offering, whereas in the
past they did not.
Mark Steiner
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 16:07:43 +0100
Subject: Re: Sheitle and Avoda Zarah
on 16/5/04 4:17 am, Avi Feldblum at <mljewish@...> wrote Re:
Sheitle and Avoda Zarah about an incident reported in the Wall Street
Journal on 21 Aug. '03.
The problem about Indian hair has been known for a long time. A friend
of mine, who passed away a few years ago, dealt in hair and I remember
that he told me at least 25 years ago that he had stopped buying hair
from India for this reason. Perhaps it was not entirely clear whether
the hair was offered as an idolatrous practice but I find it difficult
to understand why there should suddenly be a panic over the
matter. Perhaps we should all follow the call of the message being
texted around the world to say tehillim lirefuah sheleimah for "Shayne
Shaytle bas Hinda"!
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From: Batya Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 17:21:45 +0200
Subject: Re: Sheitle and Avoda Zarah
My sister-in-law in Kiryat Sefer tells me that all the women in
her Haredi city have stopped wearing the human hair wigs, but are
also not throwing them out just yet - they're hoping for some
authoritative word that will somehow allow them to preserve their
considerable investment in human hair wigs.
My great-great grandfather in Poland objected to wigs and made his
daughter, my great-grandmother swear a neder that she'd only wear cloth,
and by his zchut and syata dshmaya, without knowing the story, I, named
after her, follow that psak. The full story in the Hair Hiding book,
Urim Press.
Batya
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 16:15:04 +0100
Subject: Re: Sheitle and Avoda Zarah
on 16/5/04 2:49 pm, Moshe Kranc <mekranc@...> wrote rather
facetiously:
> IMHO, we have a unique situation here - an entire city where every house
> has avodah zarah in it. Perhaps we should declare Kiryat Sefer an Ir
> Hanidachat, and start buying marshmellows for the public bonfire?
Is he not aware that we cannot benefit from the burning of an Ir
Hanidachat and so there is no point in getting excited and buying
marshmellows at present!
Martin Stern
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From: Avi Feldblum <feldblum@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 17:16:42 -0400
Subject: Sheitle and Avoda Zarah: URL for NT times article
URL for NT times article on Wigs from India and the Orthodox Jewish
Community in Brooklyn:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/14/nyregion/14WIG.html
Avi
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From: Yisrael Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 00:22:49 +0200
Subject: Summer Time All-Year Round
This news just in.
Anyone have thoughts on possible Halachic considerations.
In France, I think, there is double Summer Time.
Panel okays bill enforcing daylight saving time all year long
The ministerial committee on legislation approved Sunday a bill
proposal enforcing daylight saving time throughout the entire
year... According to the proposal, winter time will not go into
effect on September 22 this year, and instead summer time will
continue all year long.
In the summer months, the clock will be moved forward an
additional hour.
Yisrael Medad
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From: Yisrael Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 20:53:20 +0200
Subject: Throwing into the Dead Sea
Mark Steiner <marksa@...>, in discussing the Sheitel issue
mentions:-
> As Hazal put it, "throw it into the Dead Sea."
Just for the interest of the listmates, Volume 12, 2003 collection of
lectures present at the annual Ariel College Eretz Yisrael Studies Day
contains an article with pictures of items that were actually thrown
into the Dead Sea and due to the evaporation of its waters are now
visible. There are thousands of coins which served as the barter for
items.
Yisrael Medad
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From: Daniel Katsman <aleph21@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 22:19:46 +0200
Subject: Vocalization in Megilat Ruth 2:2
> From: Jeremy Nussbaum <jeremynuss@...>
> I was asked about ruth 2:2, the word va'alaqeta. It seems that it is
> vocalized with a chataf kometz under the kuf in the Koren tanach, and
> with a shva in many other editions. Can someone explain why this is so
> and how it should be pronounced? This is the case as well with
> Mordechai in megilat Esther, with a chataf kometz under the dalet.
> Again, why is this so, and how should it be pronounced?
IIRC, twenty years ago I was told by Rabbi Israel Riess of Washington
Heights that any chataf under a letter other than alef, he, chet, or
ayin should be pronounced as a sheva na. The chataf is there to
emphasize the na, which might otherwise be read incorrectly. An
additional example is in yesterday's parasha, Va-yikra 25:34, "u-sede".
I don't know why a chataf-patach is used in some cases and a
chataf-kamets in others.
I recall that in the siddurim in Breuer's the word "b-r-kh-u" is
vocalized with a chataf-patach under the resh, and the chazzanim are
careful to read it "borakhu" (in Ashkenazis). If the above is correct,
it should be read "borekhu". Does anyone know the source for the chataf
and the pronunciation?
Daniel Katsman
Petach Tikva
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From: Jack Gross <ibijbgross2@...>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 19:54:41 -0400
Subject: Re: Vocalization of Mordechai
> From: Elazar M Teitz <remt@...>
>> <R. Mordechai Breuer discusses this in appendices to his editions of
>> Tanach. It simply indicates that the schwa is not silent, and is to be
>> pronounced as the reader would pronounce a schwa (na`).>
>
> Why should such an indication be necessary? It is the second of
> consecutive sh'va'im, which is automatically a sh'va na.
I believe the MSS predate the Medakdekim who formulated those rules.
Some years ago I was privileged to sit in on lessons that a gentleman of
Temani extraction gave his sons each Shabbos morning after Hashkama
minyan, in which he taught them how to pronounce and intone pesukim
according to his mesorah. He would pronounce Shva Na in a variety of
ways -- corresponding essentially to "our" pronunciation of Shva Na,
Hataf Patah, Hataf Segol and Hataf Kamatz -- depending on factors that
he was able to formulate but I, frankly, was unable to grasp. If the
sofrim of these kisvei yad had a similar mesorah of how to pronounce
Shva, they might here and there have inserted the Tnuah Hatufa to
indicate _which_ way to pronounce the Shva in a particular word.
Which would leave "us" to simply apply our homogenized shva na, the same
as if a simple shva appeared in the text. That is the justification
Breuer gives for printing these as a simple shva -- except, with some
reluctance, when the MSS are unanimous in presenting a tnuah hatufa.
(See Gen 10:3 and Num 32:35 for example.)
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End of Volume 42 Issue 70
