Volume 50 Number 85
Produced: Mon Jan 2 5:18:05 EST 2006
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Administrivia
[Avi Feldblum]
An explanation of "Who did not make me a woman" (3)
[Shimon Lebowitz, Ken Bloom, Ira L. Jacobson]
Havel Havelim #51 great articles
[Batya Medad]
Hoiche Kedusha Question
[Nathan Lamm]
Latecomer's "Hoiche Kedushah" (2)
[Stephen Phillips, .cp.]
Perushim (non-Chassidim) and the Shtreimel
[Mordechai]
Requiring seperate phone lines (2)
[Tzvi Stein, Asher Grossman]
Shea'sani Kirtzono
[Nathan Lamm]
Tricorn hats
[Joseph Ginzberg]
tricorns (three-cornered hats) and Jews
[Ben Katz]
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From: Avi Feldblum <mljewish@...>
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 04:57:02 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Administrivia
Hello All,
A number of you noticed that there was a gap in the numbering or two
missing issues. I've now learned a new detail in (I assume) the anti-spam
filters built into Shamash, have corrected the problem in the two issues
and they have just gone out. I will now work on the new issues, which
start with number 85.
Avi
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From: Shimon Lebowitz <shimonl@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:21:14 +0200
Subject: Re: An explanation of "Who did not make me a woman"
> R. Baruch Halevi Epstein in his book Baruch She'amar [page 30] suggests
> that women should not say the "she'asani kirtzono" with beracha [beShem
> umalchut] since there is a rule, which is brought up by R. Yona to the
> Alfasi [Berachot 6] which says: any blessing which is not mentioned in
> the Talmud one should not add Shem umalchut to it. Accordingly, since
> this berach is nowhere in the Talmud we should instruct the women to
> bless only "Baruch ata sheasani kirtzono."
>
> It is evident that this is not followed.
My daughter the sefaradiya who follows the decisions of Rav Mordechai
Eliyahu, does not say shem umalchut in that beracha.
Bechavod,
Shimon
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From: Ken Bloom <kbloom@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 11:08:26 -0600
Subject: Re: An explanation of "Who did not make me a woman"
Sephardi women do indeed say "Baruch sheasani kirtzono" (where does your
"ata" come from?), but it's nevertheless evident that this opinion
[about berachot not mentioned in the talmud] is not followed, as
"hanotain layaef koach" is first found in the Tur, and we do indeed say
it with shem u'machut.
--Ken Bloom
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From: Ira L. Jacobson <laser@...>
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 10:48:15 +0200
Subject: Re: An explanation of "Who did not make me a woman"
In this particular case, at least, that blessing appears without shem
umalkhut in the siddurim of Rav Ovadya Yosef.
IRA L. JACOBSON
mailto:<laser@...>
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From: Batya Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:50:14 +0200
Subject: Havel Havelim #51 great articles
For the past week I've been busy putting together the 51st edition of
Havel Havelim, the Jewish-Israeli Bloggers Carnival.
Take a gander.
http://me-ander.blogspot.com/2006/01/havel-havelim-51.html
Batya
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From: Nathan Lamm <nelamm18@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 05:30:34 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Hoiche Kedusha Question
The question raised brought another one I've had to mind:
Chazarat HaShatz was introduced (way back when) for people who didn't
know Shemonah Esrei by heart, siddurim being rare to nonexistent in the
times of Chazal. They could listen to the Shatz and be yotze with that.
That presumes that at some point, there was no Chazarat HaShatz. What
was done then for Kedusha or Birkat Kohanim? Were they said afterwards,
or did everyone wait at certain points to say them together, much as,
say, Nusach Sefard waits to hear the shofar during the silent Musaf?
If the former, there might be grounds for someone to stand up after
everyone else is done and say Kedusha. Of course, I'd presume it's
still invalid- he'd need at least six people davening with him and so
on.
Nachum Lamm
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From: Stephen Phillips <admin@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:25:26 +0000
Subject: Re: Latecomer's "Hoiche Kedushah"
> From: Shmuel Himelstein <himels@...>
> No doubt all men have experienced this. They daven Minchah with a
> Minyan, and after it's all over, some latecomer gets up and starts
> reciting the Shemoneh Esrei aloud, so that he can "get in " the Kedushah
> he missed. Of course, everyone present has to stop what he's doing, in
> order to answer. Or does one have to?
I have never ever come across this, but if I did I know what I would do;
I'd walk out.
This is not Tefilla B'Tzibbur. It's one person trying to make his own
personal Amidah into a public one. Apart from the Tircha D'Tzibbura
aspect, everyone else has davened and there is therefore not the minimum
requirement of "Rov Minyan" [the majority of a minyan, namely 6 men who
haven't davened].
I'm not even sure that one should, or even is permitted to, respond to
his Kedusha.
Stephen Phillips
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From: .cp. <chips@...>
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 22:38:47 -0800
Subject: Latecomer's "Hoiche Kedushah"
I never saw this and don't understand how anyone would be *allowed*
to answer. A minyan is not just 10 men, it is also at least 6 who have
davened yet.
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From: <Phyllostac@...> (Mordechai)
Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2006 00:35:26 EST
Subject: Perushim (non-Chassidim) and the Shtreimel
> From: <DTnLA@...> (Dov Teichman)
> .........By the way, the Shtraimel is considered a Shabbos Levush not
> only among Chassidim, but it is also Minhag Yerushalayim among the
> Prushim, the students of the Gra who made Aliya 200 years ago. It is
> recorded that even the Chazon Ish wore a Shtraimel when visiting
> Yerushalayim. Rav Elyashiv shlit"a, Rav SZ Auerbach zt"l both wear/wore
> Shtraimels. Neither is Chassidic.
I think that Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer z"l might belong on that list too.
Nevertheless, I wonder how many non-Chassidic streimel wearers there are
today, even in Yerusholayim, as well as in branches of that perushim
kehilla elsewhere (I believe they exist elsewhere these days as well). I
get the impression that it is quite a small number. It seems that even
though some perushim wear/wore the shtreimel at times, nevertheless,
they didn't accord it the supreme importance that some Hassidic groups
have granted it. Can anyone shed some light on this ?
Additionally, the question seemingly can be asked, where did those
perushim get such a custom from ? I don't believe that was the custom in
Vilna. Even though some there wore fur hats, I believe it was not the
same since 1) the fur hats were of a somewhat different style, and 2) I
think such headgear was basically limited to people of means and
influence - e.g. the rabbinical and communal elite, rather than being an
obligation among all mature males, as among certain Chassidim. I suspect
that similarly today, it is not seen as a universal obligation or custom
among that group.
The perushim community is actually heterogeneous - while some are
descended from talmidei haGR"A, others are from other backgrounds, such
as Chasam Sofer followers and fervently orthodox others, who found the
group to their liking. As I touched on in a recent post, this community
was/is not totally immune to other influences in their minhogim, as can
be seen in some of their davening which shows some Sephardic influence,
as well as some of them adopting a controversial custom of the mustarbim
(arabized middle-eastern Jews) to cut the hair of their male children
only at three years of age, with a special ceremony. This custom is not
Ashkenazic in origin and has been questioned and opposed on various
grounds. Maybe I will post more on it in a subsequent post, iy"H.
Mordechai
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From: Tzvi Stein <Tzvi.Stein@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 08:31:51 -0500
Subject: Re: Requiring seperate phone lines
> From: <FriedmanJ@...> (Jeanette Friedman)
> I am in receipt of a recording made, ostensibly in Kiryas Yoel, which I
> translated into English, that essentially says that if a male makes a
> phone call to a house and a woman answers, then it is like the fire of a
> menorah that sets the world on fire and is a lewd "schreck" on the
> world.
> [snip]
> THIS IS SICK and it always filters into the rest of the Orthodox
> community in one form or another.
I used to have a reaction like yours to that type of thing. I came to
the conclusion that having that attitude was very harmful to my spritual
health. It was taking me away from Hashem big time... it was the yetzer
hara trying to make me angry at Judaism, Jews, and Hashem. I had to put
some distance between myself and what other frum people are doing and
thinking. Although being part of a community is important, I had to
make a decision that the most important relationship is between me and
Hashm. It also helped that I moved and became part of a community /
shul where the types of attitudes that used to upset me were much less
likely to be found. When I must confront an attitude like that, I call
on my reserves of tolerance. Just as I try to be tolerant of Jews less
observant than me and non-Jews believing and practicing anything under
the sun, I need to be tolerant of Jews that believe and act in
"super-frum" (for lack of a better word) ways, no matter how strongly I
disagree with it. Every person has freedom of choice, and they are
responsible for their beliefs and actions. I can't change them, but I
*can* try to prevent them from affecting my own closeness to Hashem.
Look out for number one! It should go without saying that I don't
always succeed in following my own advice!
Hope my psycho-babble is not too off topic.
> Even my chassidic mother is appalled at the way men and boys treat women
> and girls today.
Just to be fair to both sexes, coming from the male perspective, I have
been mistreated by women and girls in the same way... ignored when I say
Good Shabbos, etc. See above! :)
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From: Asher Grossman <asherg@...>
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 01:27:03 -0500
Subject: Re: Requiring seperate phone lines
Jeanette Friedman wrote:
> If this is a joke, it is not funny--and belongs in the trash bin along
> with people who base their shidduchim on whether or not the shabbos...
If it belongs in the trash bin, which it definitely does, then you're
not helping much by publicizing it and spreading it around. People who
make these kind of stupid inflammatory comments actually rely on the
indignation of others to help spread their garbage. I'm not saying
"ignore it and it will go away". What I'm saying is: "don't give them a
larger microphone".
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From: Nathan Lamm <nelamm18@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 05:45:19 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Shea'sani Kirtzono
Gilad Gevaryahu mentions a halakhic position of R' Baruch Epstein
regarding this bracha. We shouldn't mention his name in this connection
without mentioning something he writes in another sefer, his memoirs,
Mekor Barukh. His aunt, Rayna Batya, first wife of the Netziv, recounts
to her young nephew the pain she, a learned woman, feels when some
unlearned boor says "Shelo Asani Ishi" loudly in front of her.
The history of this bracha, and those before it, is somewhat
fluid. There's a well-known variant, "Sheasani Yisrael," that replaces
all three in some older texts. The Jewish Theological Seminary Library
has on its website a copy of an Italian women's Siddur from the late
1400's which actually reads "Sheasani Isha V'lo Ish." (See it at
<http://www.jtslibrarytreasures.org/sidur/sidur.html>.) It also uses
the words "Amah V'Shifcha" instead of "Aved" and "Nokhrit" instead of, I
presume, "Nokhri." (The Rinat Yisrael today uses "Goya" and "Shifcha"
here as well. They also replace the two "Modeh"s with "Modah," for that
matter.) (This would relate back to a discussion we've had here about
Biblical vs. Mishnaic Hebrew in the Siddur- apparently the use of the
Biblical "Nokhri" does not date only the Haskallah.)
Someone raised the question here a few months back as to why there's
such frustration with Artscroll. Well, here's one: A Woman's Siddur
would be a logical and appropriate place to discuss this
history. Artscroll has just released such a siddur, and there's not one
word about this.
Nachum Lamm
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From: Joseph Ginzberg <jgbiz120@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 10:56:56 -0500
Subject: Tricorn hats
>Does anyone have any more information about the history of the tricorn
>among Jews ?
I have a very old book called "Ceremonies of the Jews" which has
illustrations by Bernard Picart (ca 1700), and it shows both Portuguese
and German Jews wearing tricorns at religious services of all types.
In general, his etchings are very accurate and detailed, so I would
trust his observations as accurate. The few errors are so blatant that
they make the rest seem very reliable, i.e. he shows the tefillin shel
yad as being tubular.
Incidentally, he also shows stunning succahs with domed and peaked roofs
made of interwoven s'chach.
Yossi Ginzberg
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From: Ben Katz <bkatz@...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:32:54 -0600
Subject: Re: tricorns (three-cornered hats) and Jews
>From: <Phyllostac@...> (Mordechai)
>I recently read an interesting dissertation on the Noda Biyehuda by
>Rabbi Dr. David Katz. In it (p.533-4) he cites a report re the headgear
>of Prague Yeshiva students circa 1800. The more traditional students
>wore three-cornered hats, while the adherents of haskalah wore cylinder
>hats.
>I have also seen Jews depicted in such hats in old pieces of art.
>Does anyone have any more information about the history of the tricorn
>among Jews ?
Jews are often depicted in unusual headgear to differentiate
them from non Jews in medieval art as a mild form of anti-semitism.
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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End of Volume 50 Issue 85
