Volume 48 Number 15
Produced: Fri May 27 5:49:07 EDT 2005
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Chometz after Pesach (2)
[Eli Turkel, Carl Singer]
Eating at Other Homes
[Eli Turkel]
The Great Divide
[Ari Trachtenberg]
Heinz Baked Beanz
[Carl Singer]
Kaddish and women
[Robert Israel]
Nullifying halakhic decisions [was "Bloodshed, Courts, and Minyan"]
[Ira L. Jacobson]
Pesha, Pessia
[Kenneth H. Ryesky, Esq.]
Qaddish by mehallelei shabbat
[Ira L. Jacobson]
Quinoa
[Jonathan Shaffer]
Shul hopping -- supporting shuls
[Edward Ehrlich]
Women on Shul Committees
[Eli Turkel]
Women with Small Children
[Ben Katz]
Yeast on Pesach (was Quinoa and Yeast)
[Francine Glazer]
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From: Eli Turkel <eliturkel@...>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 11:59:56 +0300
Subject: Chometz after Pesach
I was recently in a shiur in the shul in Ramar Elchanan in Bnei Brak.
Normally crackers are served in the shiur. In this shiur the rabbi
explained that no crackers would be served since it was only a few weeks
after Pesach.
I was completely amazed by this. Anything brought into the shul has the
severest charedi hasgacha. The store where it would have been bought
would be owned by religious people from Bnei Brak. What is the problem?
Eli Turkel
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From: Carl Singer <casinger@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 07:34:59 -0400
Subject: Chometz after Pesach
Re: eating in someone's home where there is a question of whether they
sold their chometz for Pesach.
The construct for an eruv tavshilim in many communities includes the
community Rabbi making the eruv tavshilim and including those who may
have forgotten make their own eruv tavshilim.
It may be a bit far-fetched -- but is there any similar construct re:
selling chometz -- realizing that one cannot sell someone else's
property.
Carl Singer
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From: Eli Turkel <eliturkel@...>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 11:53:31 +0300
Subject: Eating at Other Homes
> I was told that if anyone from a home which he(R. Simcha Wasserman)
> had helped to kasher would invite him to eat in it, he would do so -
> and would not have them run the gauntlet of answering questions
> regarding what products they used.
Friends of ours were hosts to R. Simcha Kook (of Rechovot) on an old
visit of his to the US. He also ate in their house without any questions
of where the food came from.
OTOH there is a story that some family moved into Washington Heights and
called R. Herschel Schacter and his wife with various questions about
kashrut. When RHS's wife invited them over for a shabbat meal the
reaction was to ask where RHS bought his meat! He was good enough to
answer shailot but not good enough to eat by without further
verification!
Eli Turkel
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From: Ari Trachtenberg <trachten@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 10:20:57 -0400
Subject: re: The Great Divide
> If the person is aware of the prohibition of Shabbos and violates it
> publicly, whether for spite or for personal benefit, his shechitah is
> not kosher, the wine he touches is prohibited, and he does not count
> to a minyan.
This makes nice theory but is practically almost impossible to know
unless a person is clearly violating the Shabbat out of spite. In all
other cases, I would imagine that kaf z'chut (benefit of the doubt -
maybe the person was driving his daughter to the hospital, G-d forbid;
or maybe a person is in the category of tinok shenishba - a captive Jew
raised outside of Judaism) would apply.
Best,
Ari Trachtenberg, Boston University
http://people.bu.edu/trachten mailto:<trachten@...>
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From: Carl Singer <casinger@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 07:30:39 -0400
Subject: Heinz Baked Beanz
Today Heinz Vegetarian Baked Beans (sic) have an O-U hechser. Although
"food science" or sanitary production practices would have likely
precluded the use of uncleaned vessels that produced "pork & beans" from
being used for the "vegetarian" line, years ago the issue with many
products was a lack of supervision. In general people did not have the
assurance that, indeed, products were as they were both re: (trace)
ingredients and processing.
Re: Bishul Akum -- it seems today that as long as the cooking flame is
lit by a Jew (even remotely via some contrived telephone hook-up) that
many (most? all?) deem it sufficient.
Here's a question -- would someone please site (with sources) re: botul
be shishim -- whether this applies only to an ACCIDENTAL mixture or to
any such mixture (by a Jew or a non-Jew.) For example, if someone uses
a recipe that calls for 1 cup of milk with 61 cups of meat (so to
speak.)
Carl Singer
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From: Robert Israel <israel@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 11:29:32 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Kaddish and women
Ben Katz wrote:
| We have medieval paytanim who praise their wives as "great weavers of
|tzitzit". They couldn't have woven them if they weren't wearing them.
I don't get it. Why couldn't they weave tzitzit for somebody else?
What's the connection between weaving and wearing (other than changing
"v" to "r")?
Robert Israel <israel@...>
Department of Mathematics http://www.math.ubc.ca/~israel
University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada
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From: Ira L. Jacobson <laser@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 15:25:18 +0300
Subject: Nullifying halakhic decisions [was "Bloodshed, Courts, and Minyan"]
It takes only three Jewish men to make a beit din (ecclesiastic
court). Instead of metaphorically shedding Jewish blood, shouldn't
we convene a beit din on the spot and permit all Jews to be
counted in our minyan?
If we were of greater stature than the Mishna Berura, which forbids such
a thing, then perhaps we could.
I know that I am not, and I suspect that you would also admit not to
being on that level.
IRA L. JACOBSON
mailto:<laser@...>
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From: Kenneth H. Ryesky, Esq. <khresq@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 21:15:49 -0400
Subject: Pesha, Pessia
Batya Medad writes in 48:7:
> A few weeks ago, I had a ride with one of our local rabbis, who's a bit of
> a linguist. In "making conversation" he mentioned to me that the name
> Pessia is really Batya, derived from Bassya and considering the close
> relationship between p and b and the vowels.
This is consistent with my great aunt Betty, whose matsevah has engraved
upon it the Hebrew name "Pesya."
-- Ken Ryesky
East Northport, NY 11731
E-Mail: <khresq@...>
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From: Ira L. Jacobson <laser@...>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 12:05:30 +0300
Subject: Qaddish by mehallelei shabbat
Apropos of two discussions we have ben conducting lately on Mail
Jewish--who may be counted for a minyan and who may recite qaddish:
In Yalqut Yosef, Harav Ovadia Yosef declares that if the only person or
persons who would be saying mourners' qaddish are people known to
desecrate the Shabbat, then the sheliah tzibbur should say the qaddish
along with them.
Others recommend that someone from the congregation say qaddish with
them. I have witnessed the latter in Sefardi minyanim.
IRA L. JACOBSON
mailto:<laser@...>
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From: Jonathan Shaffer <Jshaffer@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 12:29:49 -0400
Subject: Quinoa
Assuming Quinoa is not Kitnios, is it nonetheless prohibited when it is
sold from an open bin in a line of bins that contain other products that
are kitnios? I have been in several natural food stores that sell
products in this fashion. The same scooper is often (or at least may) be
used for more than one product. I would be surprised if the Quinoa bin
did not contain small amounts of Kitnios. It was my (admittedly
unlearned) thought that in this type of store even if a particular
product is marked kosher, one should assume that there has been some
mixing and it is not ok to use.
Jonathan
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From: Edward Ehrlich <eehrlich@...>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 13:32:11 +0300
Subject: Re: Shul hopping -- supporting shuls
Annice wrote:
>We belong (pay dues) to two shuls here in Rehovot. However, for daily
>services and Shabbat mincha/maariv, my husband davens several other
>shuls in the area because of various factors, including davening times,
>proximity to our home and insuring that a minyan exists for that
>particular service. (It's often a struggle to get 10 men.) His
>approach is to give tzeduka on a regular basis to those shuls in which
>he davens, but is not a member. (Not to say that we don't give tzeduka
>to the shuls where we are members.)
I found myself in a similar situation while I was on a business trip in
Tokyo that lasted 3 months. I didn't think it necessary to become a
member of the synagogue for such a short period and the synagogue's
rabbi suggested that I make a contribution to the synagogue's tzedakah
box, which I did.
But a while later, I mentioned this to someone from the synagogue's
membership committee who explained that the synagogue was having
financial difficulties (what synagogue doesn't?) and any sort of
contribution directly to the synagogue would also be welcome. I suggest
that when davening at a synagogue on a semi-regular basis for more than
a few weeks it might be appropriate to make a contribution for the
synagogue's upkeep along with the usual tzedakah.
Ed Ehrlich <eehrlich@...>
Jerusalem, Israel
[Note: I would interpret Annice's statement of "give tzedakah to the
Shul" as meaning making a contribution to the shul, not putting money in
the shuls tzedakah box, which I would describe as "give tzedakah at the
shul" and does not go toward the shul, but the shul gives out to other
tzedadah situations. Avi]
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From: Eli Turkel <eliturkel@...>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 12:03:36 +0300
Subject: Women on Shul Committees
> When there's a shul building committee for an Orthodox shul,
>are women usually consulted about the "sanctuaries?" The famous Mishkan
>Shiloh shul here in Shiloh has a nice big Ezrat Nashim. There's one, or
>two major problems for women who want to doven. It's over the lobby and
>open on both sides, so the noise floating up, by Musaf is impossible.
Why are you worried about women on a shul building committee. I know of
communities that had fights over women being on a committee for building
the woman's mikvah!
Eli Turkel
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From: Ben Katz <bkatz@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 11:06:06 -0500
Subject: Re: Women with Small Children
>From: Leah S. Gordon <leah@...>
> >is no longer so common. Incidentally, Yizkor does not require a minyan
> >and women with small children would be well advised to say it at home
> >rather than bring them to shul to disturb everyone else, or run wild
> >unsupervised outside.
> >
> >Martin Stern
>
>Or, of course, the fathers of those children should be caring for them
>during that time...particularly if, as you say, a minyan is not
>required. I am quite irritated to read of these ubiquitous "women with
>small children" as though the father (who must exist in at least a few
>cases) is a non-entity. Don't any fathers out there feel the same way??
>Surely, the correct phrasing is, "families with small children".
I remember once when we lived in New Haven, my middle daughter,
who was under 2 at the time, got seperated from me in shul and cried out
"daddy!". Our Rabbi, who encouraged small children in shul, he should
live and be well, without missing a beat, said from the pulpit "It's
nice to hear a child cry out for his father once in a while!"
Ben Z. Katz, M.D.
Children's Memorial Hospital, Division of Infectious Diseases
2300 Children's Plaza, Box # 20, Chicago, IL 60614
e-mail: <bkatz@...>
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From: Francine Glazer <fglazer@...>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 21:57:20 -0400
Subject: Yeast on Pesach (was Quinoa and Yeast)
Orrin Tilevitz wrote:
> 2. Yeast. Someone asked about keeping yeast over Pesach. Yeast is,
> of course, not itself chametz (se'or, mistranslated as "yeast", actually
> means something like sourdough starter), but I understand that in the
> U.S. commercially-available yeast is grown on chametz nutrients.
> Therefore, I was told that this yeast may not be used on Pesach, but may
> be kept over Pesach.
>
> Yeast could be grown instead on a non-chametz medium. If it were, a
> kashrut organization could, in theory, give it a pesach hechsher."
Isn't this similar to chickens and eggs? My understanding of why we
have a minhag to buy all our eggs before Pesach is that the chickens are
fed chametz, so by buying the eggs prior to Pesach any chametz "in" the
eggs would be nullified.
Wouldn't the same thing be true of yeast - since the yeast is not itself
chametz, buying it before Pesach would be sufficient?
Fran
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End of Volume 48 Issue 15
