Volume 63 Number 64
Produced: Sun, 05 Nov 17 01:55:28 -0500
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
A further clash of cultures?
[Martin Stern]
A strange order of verses in Hallel Hagadol (2)
[Sammy Finkelman Ira L. Jacobson]
For a sick gentile friend
[Carl A. Singer]
Giving an honor in shul to someone who may possibly not be Jewish (3)
[Orrin Tilevitz Joel Rich Isaac Balbin]
Pikuach nefesh and stigmatizing gays (was: The Dweck affair)
[Yitzchak Scott-Thoennes]
Simchat Torah on a Friday
[Martin Stern]
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 29,2017 at 08:01 AM
Subject: A further clash of cultures?
Frank Silbermann wrote (MJ 63#63):
> With respect to the unmarried nursery school teacher fired for living with a
> man, I note that a Chabad school my children attended in New Orleans twenty
> years ago had a policy prohibiting Jews from teaching there unless they were
> frum. There were very few frum Jews in the community, so gentiles taught most
> of the secular subjects.
As it happens, the nursery in the present case was also reported to be run
by Chabad.
> The reasoning was that teachers were expected to be general role models for
> the pupils (there was a general presumption that gentile teachers essentially
> obeyed the Noahide laws).
>
> So an unmarried Jewish teacher living with a man would probably be presumed
> not to be frum, just as if she didn't keep kosher. OTOH, I don't know whether
> it would have been a problem if an unmarried gentile teacher discreetly lived
> with a member of the opposite sex.
AFAIK the latter should not have been a problem since a non-Jewish woman is
halachically considered to be married, under the Noahide dispensation, to a
man with whom she lives on an exclusive basis ['common law marriage'] while
they are doing so.
However the school might take a more stringent attitude shema yomru [lest
people say that she is 'living in sin'] but that might depend on her being
discreet.
The couple can terminate their 'common law marriage' status simply by
separating and living apart. Halachah takes no note of civil marriage and
divorce for these purposes so the non-Jewish woman only commits adultery if
she cohabits with another man before such separation.
Martin Stern
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From: Sammy Finkelman <sammy.finkelman@...>
Date: Mon, Oct 30,2017 at 03:01 PM
Subject: A strange order of verses in Hallel Hagadol
Martin Stern wrote (MJ 63#63):
> Rabbi Elazar Teitz wrote (MJ 63#62):
>>
>> The m'lachim g'dolim are Sichom and Og.
>>
>> Just as "l'osei orim g'dolim" is the general, and then is followed by the
>> specifics "es hashemesh l'memsheles hayom, es hayareiach v'chochavim
>> l'memsheles halaila," so too "l'makei m'lachim g'dolim" is the general,
>> followed by the specifics:"l'Sichon melech haEmori, ul'Og melech haBashan."
> May I thank Rabbi Teitz for his explanation. I am, however, not entirely
> convinced by it since the main nachalah was in Eretz Kenaan not in Ever
> Hayarden.
They were both Nachalahs, and the victory over Sichon and Og was greater cf
Yehoshua 13:32
"These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab,
beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward."
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0613.htm
> Also why are there two verses with the general terms l'makeh...and
> veyaharog...?
Saying things twice, with different words, is very common in Tehillim and in
Mishlei, and sometimes later too.
> Finally the previous psalm does mention the Kenaani kings before the
> inheritance:
>
> "LeSichon melekh ha'Emori ule'Og melekh haBashan, U'LEKHOL MAMLEKHOT KENAAN.
> Venatan atrzam lenachalah, nachalah le'Yisrael amo."
>
> So why is this omitted in Hallel Hagadol?
In Hallel Hagodol Dovid Hamelech is talking only going out of Egypt, and he adds
about the desert: L'Molech Amo Bamidbar [Tehillim 36:16]
It was getting a little bit long, anyway. So he only goes up to events that
happened before crossing the Jordan in that Psalm. Till the crossing of the
Jordan can all be considered part of Yitzas Mitzraim. cf: Devorim 4:45-46:
These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses
spoke unto the children of Israel, when they came forth out of Egypt... in the
land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the
children of Israel smote, when they came forth out of Egypt.
This is so, even though, in Parshas Pinchas, that time (after they had occupied
the land of Sichon and Og) is distingushed from the time when they came forth
out of Egypt.
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0426.htm
where a Gezarah Shaveh by Eleazar the Kohen and Moshe Rabbeinu is written into
the Torah at 26:4
'[Take the sum of the people,] from twenty years old and upward, as the LORD
commanded Moses and the children of Israel, that came forth out of the land of
Egypt.'
because there was a special way of counting that resulted in round numbers,
almost always rounded to 100. (2 times out of 24 it was rounded to 50)
But in Devorim a few months later is called "when they came forth out of Egypt:
It's all relative.
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From: Ira L. Jacobson <laser@...>
Date: Thu, Nov 2,2017 at 02:01 PM
Subject: A strange order of verses in Hallel Hagadol
Rabbi Elazar Teitz wrote (MJ 63#62):
> Just as "l'osei orim g'dolim" is the general, and then is followed by the
> specifics "es hashemesh l'memsheles hayom, es hayareiach v'chochavim
> l'memsheles halaila,
Just to point out what I hope was a typo: the moon and stars take a
plural verb--lememshalot.
And at the same time to wonder why Hallel does not take the definite
article in "Hallel Hagadol," as it does in the blessing before Hallel
Hagadol. >:-}
IRA L. JACOBSON
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From: Carl A. Singer <carl.singer@...>
Date: Mon, Oct 30,2017 at 06:01 AM
Subject: For a sick gentile friend
May one add "John son of Jane", for example, to a tehillim list or for a
mi shebairach?
Carl A. Singer
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From: Orrin Tilevitz <tilevitzo@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 29,2017 at 09:01 AM
Subject: Giving an honor in shul to someone who may possibly not be Jewish
Martin Stern writes (MJ 63#63):
> IMHO one can assume that anyone who comes to shul is Jewish unless one has
> reason to suspect otherwise and it is not usually necessary to make any
> enquiries.
My rav, Rabbi Jacob Kret, Zt'l of the Old Broadway Synagogue in New York City,
famously used to give aliyot, not just gelila, to all visitors to his shul.
I once asked him, "how do you know they're Jewish?"
He responded "You ask them: 'are you Jewish?'"
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From: Joel Rich <JRich@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 29,2017 at 02:01 PM
Subject: Giving an honor in shul to someone who may possibly not be Jewish
Martin Stern wrote (MJ 63#63):
> IMHO one can assume that anyone who comes to shul is Jewish unless one has
> reason to suspect otherwise and it is not usually necessary to make any
> enquiries. Also giving him gelilah is hardly problematic - after all, it is
> not as if they will be able to marry a Jewish person on the strength of it.
> In fact, I believe that the poskim have ruled that one can do this even for
> people whom one might not wish to give an aliyah because of their
> non-Orthodox 'religious' affiliation when they attend a simchah of a
> relative - mipnei darkhei shalom [to avoid ill-feelings].
This view is related to Igrot Moshe O"C 2:51, 3:21 but it seems certainly not to
be preferred.
KT
Joel Rich
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From: Isaac Balbin <isaac@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 29,2017 at 06:01 PM
Subject: Giving an honor in shul to someone who may possibly not be Jewish
Martin Stern wrote (MJ 63#63):
> In fact, I believe that the poskim have ruled that one can do this even for
> people whom one might not wish to give an aliyah because of their
> non-Orthodox 'religious' affiliation when they attend a simchah of a
> relative - mipnei darkhei shalom [to avoid ill-feelings].
I believe it was Psicha - definitely not Gelila - and the one place I saw such a
Psak was in the Igros Moshe.
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From: Yitzchak Scott-Thoennes <sthoenna@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 29,2017 at 03:01 PM
Subject: Pikuach nefesh and stigmatizing gays (was: The Dweck affair)
Susan Kane wrote (MJ 63#54):
> From a practical point of view, there are at least five paths that a religious
> gay person can take.
>
> (1) The first is celibacy which most people acknowledge as not a particularly
> Jewish approach. Mr. Stern is sure that HKBH has made the world in such a way
> that all people are fundamentally heterosexual. That tells us a lot about his
> theology but in my opinion, nothing about gay people.
>
> Those who agree with this reasoning are saying: "Because of my theology, I am
> sure that you are lying about your experience of your body."
>
> Okay. What can one say? I respectfully disagree with your understanding of
> my body?
>
> (2) The second option is heterosexual marriage. While this solves some
> problems for both the community and for the individual, it does create
> problems of its own. Deception has been the working rule on this issue. The
> more closed the community, the fewer other options available, the more
> deception there is. Also, a good marriage from a Jewish point of view
> includes the fulfillment of sexual desire.
>
> (3) The third is to put on the dark cloak and go to a city where you are
> unknown and to do what your heart desires.
>
> I guess this might sound thrilling to some. After all, it's basically the
> opposite of frum life. To live WITHOUT RULES! To do WHATEVER YOU WANT! To
> answer to NO ONE!
>
> (4) The fourth path is to try to create a relationship and a life that has as
> much kedusha as possible, given that there are some mitzvot you cannot fulfill
> and some injunctions you may violate.
>
> (5) Leave the frum world and all of the issues created by 1,2,3 and 4.
There is, of course one other possibility:
(6) Die, especially after attempting 1, 2, 3, or 4, whether by suicide, violence
(I would want to say not such an issue for our communities, but whether that is
just wishful thinking is outside my personal knowledge), or just toll on the
body from being a square peg in a round hole.
Some research shows
"there is a shorter life expectancy of approximately 12 years (95% C.I.: 4-20
years) for sexual minorities living in high-prejudice communities".
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3818511/
What should our reaction to this finding be, as individuals and institutions?
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From: Martin Stern <md.stern@...>
Date: Sun, Oct 29,2017 at 08:01 AM
Subject: Simchat Torah on a Friday
Haim Shalom Snyder wrote (MJ 63#63):
> This can never happen in Israel. As a result, the only 3 day holiday/Shabbat
> is Rosh Hashana, another reason for making aliya.
As Menashe Elyashiv wrote (MJ 63#61):
> Of course no Simhat Torah cannot fall on a Friday in Israel, but we can have
> it on Shabbat. Shofar does not push out Shabbat, 4 minim do not push out
> Shabbat, but hakafot and endless aliyot do push out the Shabbat day meals.
> How many eat the Shabbat morning meal on Simhat Tora? Kiddush with junk food
> and without bread is not a Shabbat meal.
These would appear to be much more serious concerns than those consequent on
Simchat Torah falling on a Friday. In any case, when Mashiach comes, bimhera
veyameinu, the Sanhedrin will be re-established and we will revert to fixing
Rosh Chodesh by observing the New Moon so it may still be possible for
Simchat Torah to fall on a Friday even in Israel.
Martin Stern
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End of Volume 63 Issue 64
