Volume 56 Number 76
Produced: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:32:59 EDT
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Being called a Rabbi (3)
[Jeremy Conway Orrin Tilevitz Mordechai Horowitz]
Gabbai's prerogative
[Arie Weiss]
Kosher Meal on a Plane
[Frank Smiles]
Limitations on G-d
[Ari Trachtenberg]
Medieval Jewish Women's Prayers
[Leah S. R. Gordon]
Napolean and the Chassidim
[Yisrael Medad]
Not Treating Fellow Jews like a slave? (3)
[Shmuel Himelstein Yitzchok Zirkind Mordechai Horowitz]
Two Pairs of Tefillin at the Same Time (2)
[Shmuel Himelstein Ben Katz]
What triggers a Kaddish
[Menashe Elyashiv]
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From: Jeremy Conway <jeremy.conway@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 06:01 PM
Subject: Being called a Rabbi
B"H
In MJ56#74, Mordechai Horowitz refers to a popular Orthodox online
smicha programme.
As a graduate of the Hilchot Shabbat programme and a student on the
issur v'heter programme, I think that Mordechai's comments are unfair.
It is true that the Website indicates that no prior knowledge of
Hebrew is required, but the aim of the organisation is to encourage
people to learn halacha and to increase people's commitment to
Yiddishkeit.
The smicha programmes are very rigorous, and the issur v'heter tests
have been described as "brutal". It would be extremely difficult, if
not impossible, to pass the issur v'heter tests simply by reading the
shiurim in English without looking at any of the sources.
Anyone who has obtained a recognised Orthodox smicha (and I choose my
words carefully) is entitled to call himself "rabbi" and to be called
up to the Torah as "HaRav", but he should not pasken halacha (issue
decisive rulings on matters of Jewish law) without first undertaking
shimush (apprenticeship for a signifcant period of time to a rabbi who
does issue decisive rulings on matters of Jewish law).
In the final analysis, the learning is the main thing, not the title.
Kol Tuv,
Yechiel Conway.
Leeds, England.
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From: Orrin Tilevitz <tilevitzo@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 07:01 PM
Subject: Being called a Rabbi
> I have a friend who received semicha via a popular Orthodox online
> program, which brags [that] it trains people for semicha without a need
> to know Hebrew.
>
> He can't learn a daf of Gemora with Artscroll but he's an Orthodox Rabbi
> now ...
Not limited to online. About 10 years ago I interviewed, for the
rabbi position at an Orthodox shul in New York, a musmach of a
Brooklyn yeshiva whose name you'd recognize, a career psychologist
looking for a pulpit. I then called one of his rabbinical references,
who scoffed "he barely knows the alef-beis".
So let me ask my question again: why exactly can't a woman get one of these degrees?
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From: Mordechai Horowitz <mordechai@...>
Date: Wed, Jun 10,2009 at 01:01 AM
Subject: Being called a Rabbi
Yechiel Conway wrote:
> B"H
> In MJ56#74, Mordechai Horowitz refers to a popular Orthodox online smicha
> programme.
> As a graduate of the Hilchot Shabbat programme and a student on the issur
> v'heter programme, I think that Mordechai's comments are unfair
> ...
> The smicha programmes are very rigorous, and the issur v'heter tests have been
> described as "brutal".
> ...
> In the final analysis, the learning is the main thing, not the title.
All I know is my friend passed the test on Aveilut and is now
entitled to represent himself as a Rabbi.
He is not able to read a single daf of Gemora and has never looked at
the Shulchan Aruch on the inside.
He was allowed to take his test open book with all his English
materials in front of him and passed.
He's a nice guy, means well but shouldn't have the title of Rabbi.
Thankfully he isn't planning on working in the field but I shudder
that he could.
I like the idea of the program. I learn myself through the online
webyeshiva.org program. But with no promise or offer of semicha. You
can't go from no knowledge of Hebrew and 9 months to two years later
(depending on the program) and know enough Torah to be a Rabbi. Most
yeshivot won't give their students semicha after full time learning of
at least 4 or 5 years. Yet we expect someone to be able to make
halachic decisions as a Rabbi in less than half that time learning
part time.
I wish the program I did had tests to measure my learning. Indeed
when I was in my Baal Teshuva yeshiva 20 years ago I was always sorry
we were never tested to see if we were really learning anything. We
need more and better organized way for people to grow in their
learning. I hope one day to develop my skills so I can legitimately
do a program like the one in question, learning in texts in the
original even is supplemented by shiurim in English, like if I were in
yeshiva in the US.
Yes the learning is what is important, but we can't give away semicha
as a prize for spending a year or 2 learning part time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Arie Weiss <aliw@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 06:01 PM
Subject: Gabbai's prerogative
Stu Pilichowski wrote:
> Concerning one practice that I've tried to further is giving a mourner
> the final aliyah before kaddish so he can say the kaddish - and not
> the baal koreh or the shachrit chazan.
To my best knowledge, the baal kriah does not have to be the one to say
kaddish.
In our shul we often have an aveil go to the bimah and say kaddish after
shvi'i on shabbat instead of the baal kriah.
arie
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From: Frank Smiles <fsmiles@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 06:01 AM
Subject: Kosher Meal on a Plane
A kosher meal (the hot part) was delivered in a plastic bag.
Inside the plastic bag there was a single wrapped in foil meal with chicken, so it
was double wrapped. However the plastic bag was full of hot liquid. The plastic
wrapping was one cover with all kinds of kosher stickers on it. I guess the
juice from the chicken got out so the plastic bag was sealed but full of hot juice.
So there was hot juice (only sealed with one cover - the plastic bag ) and
then a meal (with one covering of aluminum foil on it). I figured this is not
called double wrapping because the the juice was only wrapped once. This never
happened before. Usually the second wrapping is over a dry piece of tin foil.
So was I right not to eat the chicken. I do need to lose weight anyway. Has this
happened to anyone else.
be blessed
fs
ps , this was not an OU meal.
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From: Ari Trachtenberg <trachten@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 12:01 PM
Subject: Limitations on G-d
> Ben Katz <BKatz@...> wrote:
>
> Most medieval Jewish philosophers agreed that even God cannot do
> that which is
> logically impossible (eg making 6+1 = anything but 7).
This raises an interesting issue that I have been struggling to
explain to my sons. What does it mean for G-d to be "kol yachol" (omnipotent).
Clearly, it seems that He may impose upon Himself restrictions (e.g. not sending
another flood, the covenant with Abraham, not giving us a different Torah) ...
but what prevents Him from changing these restrictions later on?
I'd appreciate any suggestions for how to present halachically-valid
answers to kids about this.
Thanks,
-Ari
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From: Leah S. R. Gordon <leah@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 09:01 AM
Subject: Medieval Jewish Women's Prayers
Stu Pilichowski wrote:
> I was going to respond with a blasphemous answer about our Rabbonim
> not being very in touch with women's life cycle events and therefore it
> didn't even dawn on them to offer Asher Yatzar as a bracha or "rite" after
> childbirth.
>
> But then I read Leah's posting below. I'm ignorant of the "medieval
> special prayers that women used to say."
Stu,
Thanks for your thoughts! Blasphemous though it may be, I agree
with you that there is significant room for consciousness-raising
around women's experience and the Rabbis of yore, perhaps also of present.
I am not in any way an expert on this subject,
but I did buy a copy recently of a book of Jewish Women's Prayers,
re-constituted from an Italian Jewish man's gift to his wife in the 1700s:
_Out of the Depths I Call to You_ [edited by R. Nina Beth Cardin].
I have also heard of "techinas" (sp?) i.e. little things women used
to say as prayer in the course of their daily lives like while
making beds, cleaning the house (!), etc. that pre-dated this collection.
(Hence "medieval" as opposed to my Renaissance-era book.)
I have posted before on M.J about saying shehechiyanu after each child
was born, and I was generally supported in this though some had [claimed]
it was a wasted bracha.
Certainly I do not know in my community anyone who knows these
prayers, much less says them daily.
--Leah S. R. Gordon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Yisrael Medad <ybmedad@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 07:01 AM
Subject: Napolean and the Chassidim
"The Chozeh was supporting Napoleon and working to make the Poles go with
Napoleon against the Czar"
a) I don't think Napolean was aware of his "support", and that the "support"
was working on behalf of heavenly intercession.
b) I think the Koznitzer was more active and perhaps even in touch with
military officers. I may have seen a reference in Glenn Dyner's book, Men of
silk. But read pps. 189-190 of David Assaf:
http://www.tau.ac.il/~dassaf/articles/The_Fall_of_the_Seer_of_Lublin.pdf
c) From Chabad:
During the French invasion of Russia, while many Jewish leaders supported
Napoleon or remained quiet about their support, Rabbi Shneur Zalman openly and
vigorously supported the Tsar. While fleeing from the advancing French army he
wrote a letter explaining his opposition to Napoleon to a friend, Rabbi
Moshe Meizeles. Some argue that Rabbi Shneur Zalman's opposition stemmed from
Napoleon's attempts to arouse a messianic view of himself in Jews, opening
the gates of the ghettos and emancipating their residents as he conquered. It
should be noted that Rabbi Yisroel Hopsztajn of Kozienice, another Hasidic
leader, also considered Napoleon a menace to the Jewish people. However, Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson identifies Rabbi Yisrael as the Chasidic leader who
preferred that Napoleon defeat the Czar.
and also:
the Alter Rebbe prayed constantly for Napoleon's downfall. But there were also
rabbis and Chassidic Rebbes who eagerly awaited liberation by Napoleon's armies.
No longer would the Jewish people be locked into ghettos and deprived of their
means of earning a livelihood; no longer would the state be allied with a
religion hostile to the Jewish faith. Liberated from the persecution and poverty
that had characterized Jewish life on European soil for a dozen centuries, the
Jewish people would be free to deepen and intensify their bond with G-d in ways
previously unimaginable. Indeed, there were those--such as the Chassidic masters
Rebbe Shlomo of Karlin; Rebbe Yisrael, the Maggid of Kozhnitz; Rebbe Levi
Yitzchak of Berditchev; and Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Riminov--who believed that
a French victory would ready the world for the coming of Moshiach and the final
redemption.
Since these tzaddikim disagreed about who should win, Chassidim relate that the
Heavenly court decreed that whoever would blow the shofar first on Rosh Hashana,
his opinion would prevail. The contest was between Rebbe Schneur Zalman and the
Maggid of Kozhnitz, and it would decide the outcome of Napoleon's war against
Russia. According to Kabbalistic tradition, the sounding of the shofar on Rosh
Hashana effects G-d's coronation as King of the Universe and the Divine
involvement in human affairs for the coming year; each of these two Rebbes
therefore endeavored to be the first to sound the shofar in the fateful year of
5573 (1812-1813) and thereby influence the outcome of the war.
The Maggid of Kozhnitz arose well before dawn, immersed in the mikveh, began his
prayers at the earliest permissible hour, prayed speedily, and sounded the
shofar; but Rebbe Schneur Zalman departed from common practice and sounded the
shofar at the crack of dawn, before the morning prayers. "The Litvak
(Lithuanian, as Rebbe Schneur Zalman was affectionately called by his
colleagues) has bested us," said Rebbe Yisrael of Kozhnitz to his disciples.
d) from
http://mentalblog.com/2008/04/did-messianic-tikkun-burn-chozeh-of_08.html
There is no evidence that Holy Jew or Koznitzer killed themselves.
It wouldn't make sense that they did, because they both opposed Hoze's
attempt to do the Tikkun, but were forced by him to take part in it on
Seder Pesach. There are indications that the Holy Jew defied Hoze's
attempt. Strictly speaking, the three didn't die within a year, however
chronologically it is clear that their fates were determined within a
year around that Tikkun. The chronology of events is as follows:
1. The Holy Jew died at the age of 48 without any apparent illness
causing that, half a year before the Tikkun, on 3d day of Chol Hamoed
Succoth, October 13, 1813. He emphatically refused to participate in
the upcoming Tikkun that was planned to take place on Seder Pesach that
year.
2. The fateful Tikkun during Seder Pesach took place on April 5,
1814.
3. Rabbi Israel Hopstein, the Maggid of Koznitz, who participated in
the Tikkun by order of the Hoze, died half a year later, on Erev
Succoth, September 28, 1814.
4. The Hoze of Lublin "fell" (jumped?) off the window few days after
the Koznitzer's death, on Simchas Torah (October 7, 1814), got bedridden and
died ten months later, on 9th of Av, August 15, 1815.
Yisrael
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From: Shmuel Himelstein <himels@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 08:01 AM
Subject: Not Treating Fellow Jews like a slave?
> I once heard a shiur that said that there's a prohibition against treating a
> fellow Jew like a slave. The example given was that you shouldn't leave
> something for someone else to clean up (in a restaurant for example), just
> because they're an employee.
>
To the best of my knowledge, this statement is based on a mis-hearing or
misunderstanding. A Jewish slave may not be given any demeaning,
"slave-like" work. On the other hand, a Jewish employee, who is paid for
performing such work (even if it is demeaning) may be given such work. The
logic is that an employee has the right to refuse to any type of work and
not get paid, whereas a slave does not have such an option.
In the circumstances, if it is customary for diners to leave their plates
for employees to remove, there cannot be any prohibition.
Shmuel Himelstein
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From: Yitzchok Zirkind <yzkd@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 05:01 PM
Subject: Not Treating Fellow Jews like a slave?
David Curwin wrote:
> I once heard a shiur that said that there's a prohibition against
> treating a fellow Jew like a slave...
>
> Is anyone familiar with this concept? Do you know where it is
> mentioned in the halachic sources?
See Vayikra 25:46, Rambam Hil. Avodim 1:6-7 (note end of 7), Sefer Hachinuch
Mitzvah 346.
Kol Tuv,
Yitzchok Zirkind
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From: Mordechai Horowitz <mordechai@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 08:01 PM
Subject: Not Treating Fellow Jews like a slave?
David
> I once heard a shiur that said that there's a prohibition against
> treating a fellow Jew like a slave. The example given was that you
> shouldn't leave something for someone else to clean up (in a
> restaurant for example), just because they're an employee.
You aren't treating him like a slave but like an employee. If you do
his job then his boss can fire him.
Then he doesn't have a job.
That's why I try and avoid self checkout at the stores because if they
become popular the cashiers will be fired.
The greatest form of tzedakah is to provide someone a job. Nothing
someone does to support themselves and their family honestly is being
like a slave. Too many of us who have had the good fortune to have
professional careers have a tendency to sneer at those with "slave" jobs
in the service industry like the guy who cleans up after you in the
restaurant. Whether by choice or circumstance that job is his or her
financial support, his or her dignity. We dare not demean it.
Mordechai
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From: Shmuel Himelstein <himels@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 09:01 AM
Subject: Two Pairs of Tefillin at the Same Time
The Gemara specifically states that there is enough room on the head for two
sets of Tefillin shel Rosh. That obviously does not include the very large
Tefillin that some people use.
I understand that in order not to arouse curiosity, some of those who wear
two sets of Tefillin cover one with their hat or cap. The giveaway, though,
are the four straps.
Shmuel Himelstein
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From: Ben Katz <BKatz@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 02:01 PM
Subject: Two Pairs of Tefillin at the Same Time
From: Avraham Friedenberg <elshpen@...>
> I recently saw a Sefardi gentleman in my shule wearing two pair of
> Tefillin at the same time.
> ...
> Is anyone familiar with the whys and wherefores of this minhag?
I have heard of it. People who wear 2 sets I was told use very small tefillin
batim so they can both go in the right place.
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From: Menashe Elyashiv <Menashe.Elyashiv@...>
Date: Tue, Jun 9,2009 at 06:01 AM
Subject: What triggers a Kaddish
Kaddish is said for 2 reasons: as passing between 2 parts of prayers
or ending prayers, or after communal study. Saying Kaddish for the
sake of saying Kaddish has no benefit for the deceased. I have seen
some that mumble to themselves a Mishna and then say Kaddish - the
Kaddish itself is a Yatom.
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End of Volume 56 Issue 76
