Top that chumrah!

In class tonight we played an impromptu round of Top that Chumrah. For the last several weeks I've been bringing in objects to the Hilchot Shabbat class to illustrate questions and/or solutions we had come up with for several different questions about cooking food on Shabbat.

Tonight I brought in a black knitted scarf to return to one of the class members. Naturally everyone wanted to know what sort of bishul (cooking) b'shabbat question I had that I could illustrate with a knitted scarf.

I explained that in his comments on siman 318 of Orach Chayim the Magen Avraham says that as a penalty for intentionally illegally cooking on Shabbat (Bishul Shabbat b'issur b'mazid) the pot in which the food was cooked is considered treif until it is kashered by libun gamur (high intensity heat, most commonly a blowtorch or the self clean cycle of an oven.)

I pointed out that if this scarf were wet and was draped over a radiator on Shabbat, it would technically be a violation of the laws of cooking on Shabbat. I asked if this meant that if that happened, would it mean I could no longer drape the wet scarf over the radiator even on a weekday, since it would involve cooking something treif.

One classmate piped up and said that the scarf wasn't the pot, the scarf was the food(*). The radiator was the pot, and therefore the radiator would have to be kashered. Another person said even the radiator wasn't really the pot, the real pot was the main unit of the boiler, and thus the hot water tank would have to be kashered. I mentioned that in my house we don't have a separate hot water heater - we have a coil that runs through our oil furnace. It was immediately suggested that I would have to use a blowtorch to kasher the oil furnace. One person said he'd really like to see that, but after due consideration agreed that he would be better off having a camera in the basement and watching remotely.

(*) Under that interpretation the scarf cannot be used by any Jew ever again, although one may sell it or give it to a non-Jew.

Shameless link forwarding

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road? (Jewish version).

Study too hard and your mind starts to wander

(Sung to Maria from West Side Story

The laws of a pot placed before Shabbat
Shehiya
Fully cooked is ok, partially is not
Sheihya

Shehiya - Shehiya Sheiyah Shehiya

Sheiya!
I've learned all the laws of Shehiya
And suddenly I've found
how a cholent can be browned
indeed
Shehiya
If its raw then its OK staying
Fully cooked and its ok remaining

Shehiya
I'll never stop learning shehiya

The Kofer Card

Via The Curious Jew

Shulchan Aruch and Technical Writing

When I first started studying Talmud, I thought it made a lousy technical manual. I fairly quickly understood that wasn't its purpose. The codes - the Mishneh Torah, the Shulchan Aruch, the Mishna Berura - that is where I would find decent tech writing, I decided. The memories I had of studying the Mishneh Torah just post bar-mtizvah reinforced this impression.

Years past, and I finally began to study the Shulchan Aruch. My first thought was - wow! the craft of tech writing has really advanced since this book was written. But eventually I came to the conclusion that one of the major problems was the way revisions to the SA were handled.

This is how it would go, IMO, if we did software manuals the Shulchan Aruch way.

The Microsoft Word 1.0 manual would be made by consulting the manuals for WordPerfect, Wordstar, and Notepad. Majority would rule, except where it wouldn't. Shortly after the first edition came out, some tech writer for one of the computer magazines would produce a fisked edition which would quickly become the standard. Other people would take this now standard text and hyperlink their commentaries to it. When new releases of the software came out the old text would be left unaltered, but new hyperlinks would be added. It would like like this:

Shulchan Aruch To exit the program, press Alt F4 Rema: And there are those who say that it is better to press Alt F and then Alt X and this is the custom and should not be changed

[Tons of other commentaries here]

[6 hyperlinks from the Shach which point to earlier comments in the Shulchan Aruch]
Shach It is best to save before exiting, but if one did not do so when the program asks if the text should be saved one should reply yes. In a case of great need, for example if one has completely screwed up shortly before the deadline one may exit without saving.


[On the other side of the page in a different font]
Taz The M"A has an alternate method of closing, which is preferred.




[To be really accurate this reference should be on another page entirely, but I'll spare you]
Magen Avraham: Hitting Ctrl Q requires fewer keystrokes to exit and hence is preferred.

An apt rejoinder

Rabbi Avraham Sherman is at it again, questioning the motives of all potential gerim in Israel, who are overwhelmingly Russian. My favorite response to the article was in one of the comments: Dear Rabi Sherman: In Olam Habah, gerim nullify you.

Purim Torah 5769 - 1

If not for the feminist impulse, no woman would attend shabbat services, study practical halachot, or teach their children good middot.

In the 1970s the gedolim prayed for the feminist impulse to be taken away. It was only removed from them, and with its removal common sense vanished and they issued chumrah after chumrah as without the feminist impulse they also lost their rachmones.

Forests and Trees

Rabbi Chaim Rapoport author of Judaism and Homosexuality: An Authentic Orthodox View was scholar in residence at my shul this past Shabbat. In a drasha he gave on Chumrot, he told the following story:

The Gemara in Brachot makes it clear that one must be very careful to pronounce the words of the Shema clearly and correctly, not slurring any of the words together or mispronouncing them. It lists several cases where the risk is particularly acute. One of these is in the 3rd paragraph of the Shema, where one must be carefult say tiZkaru rather than tiSkaru. When we pronounce the word correctly, we are saying we must remember the mitzvot. If we mispronounce it, it appears we are saying we must be rewarded for the mitzot. Pirke Avot makes it clear we should be like servants performing without expectation of reward, rather than those who only work to receive their reward.

Once when he was in a shul in Jersualem Rabbi Rapoport heard a man who was reciting the Shema with great concentration and attention. Sweat was literally pouring down his face as he continued. When he tried to say l'man tiZkaru, he wasn't happy with his pronunciation. 3 times he repeated the word, before finally saying in Yiddish "Lord, you know what I mean" and finishing the prayer.

Afterwards, Rabbi Rapoport walked over to him and asked him why he put so much effort into it. Surely there was no reason to work so hard at saying the prayer? The gentleman replied "But think of the schar (reward) I will get for doing this!".

Alphonse and Gaston with Mitzvot

Everyone knows the old Alphonse and Gaston routine, right? Two guys trying to go through a door, but the keep deferring to one another rather than one of them just going through already?

Well, I see that happen at my shuls all the time, and there often is some creative jockeying for position. One morning I was walking into shul. Someone was holding the door already, and Avi and I were about to pass through. I gestured to Avi to go first, and he handed me his siddur. As soon as I took it, he said "You're holding a sefer, you go first." Point to Avi.

This past Shabbat at Shalosh Seudah I was trying to go through a door after washing before eating bread, and Yaakov was trying to pass through the door the other way. He smiled, backed out of my way and said "You're doing a mitzvah, you take priority." Point Yaakov. On the way out after benching, we got tangled up in the door again and I told him "You're the zaken (elder, wiser one), you go first." He looked a little hurt and said something about "I'm not sure that was fair" but he went through anyway. Point me.

A Joke and A Serious Question

First the Joke:

Back in the 30s Sheinar Shendle was a new immigrant to the US from her shtetl in Poland. She quickly found a neighborhood fool of landsmen and found a rabbi to consult for her shailas. She had one peculiarity - every Friday morning she took her chicken to the rabbi to check that it was kosher. Week after week she came, the rabbi looked, and pronounced it kosher. Finally, after many months, the rabbi asked her "Why are you bringing these chickens to me to check every week? You should only come if you see something that makes you doubt it is kosher." Sheinar Shedle replied "I knew it! But the other ladies in the community insisted that A&P grocery store chickens were treif!"

The serious question:

If I bring home a chicken today from a shochet, rather than buying it at the store, is there any kind of inspection that can be done to reveal that the chicken is actually treif? Obviously we can't review the knife, or whether the shochet said the blessing, but what can be done? On the one hand, there are lots of stories about women taking their chicken to a rabbi when they aren't sure it is kosher. On the other hand, once the feathers are off and the internal organs removed, what is left to inspect?

Yom Kippur humor

Last minute tickets on youtube.