Thursday, April 14, 2011

simchas torah in nisan

Last Thursday night I celebrated Simchas Torah.

No, I did not get the months of my calendar mixed up -- my wife can testify that I have been helping with the massive pre-Pesach cleanup. Last Thursday night about 20 boys from my son's yeshiva (my son included) finished learning Bava Kama -- again. The yeshiva learned the masechta last year, but the boys carved out time in their day this year to learn through the masechta yet another time (for many it was the third time) and make a siyum. So at 11:00 at night I found myself among a nice turnout of bachurim, rebbeim, and parents enjoying the siyum, cholent, kugel, and dancing (how one can have an appetite for cholent at that time of night is beyond me). This was a true "simchas Torah" -- who says you can't celebrate more than once a year?

The Midrash on last week's parsha tells of a peddler who went town to down yelling, "Who wants to buy the elixer of life?" Rav Yanai was amazed when the peddler pulled out a sefer Tehilim and read the famous pesukim, "Mi ha'ish he'chafetz chaim... netzor leshoncha mei'ra... bakesh shalom v'rodfeihu." Surely Rav Yanai knew these pesukim before the peddler read them -- why was he so amazed? (We've discussed a few answers here in the past.)

The Ksav Sofer writes that it was the end of the pesukim which caught Rav Yanai's attention. If you want to sell goods, you can open a store, sit behind a counter on a nice, comfortable chair, and wait for customers to arrive. To some people, "peddling" shalom means waiting for an outbreak of machlokes to arrive at your door and then trying to mend the breach. But that's not what shalom is all about. "Bakesh shalom v'rodfeihu" -- you have to constantly seek shalom = shleimus, you have to take the initiative and be proactive -- mend walls in advance and constantly strengthen them so they never run the risk of breaking (see Maharal in Nesivos Olam who develops this same idea.) The peddler who travelled from town to town looking for new business embodied this proactive, take the initiative type approach and that's what caught R' Yanai's attention.

It's a relief from the general depression caused by what there is to be seen in the world to know that there are boys who are true "mevakshim," eager to gobble down the next masechta and the next masechta and review them again and again. They are not waiting for their Rebbeim to coax them into learning, but put in the effort to go above and beyond what the yeshiva even expects.

I meant to post this last weekend, but then day after day of work and more work have piled up, and here we are almost at Shabbos hagadol, but I thought it worth mentioning anyway.

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:16 AM

    I can't believe your house needs cleaning. I'm sure food never leaves the kitchen/dining room, and not a crumb escapes after a meal.

    I wish you continued nachas as you watch your children aspire to what you represent to them.

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  2. You have a link to Rabbi Aviner's psakim. I happened across one today, and there's a story behind it. A friend asked me if his host could invite a non-Jew to the Seder. I told him, no chidush, that it's assur to invite a non-Jew for any yomtov meal, seder or not, as paskened in 512. I told him that heterim are possible in a shaas hadchak, but if he wants a kula, he should ask someone else. He did. The other man told him he could rely on the Meiri on that sugya that is mattir on the basis of our goyim not being the goyim the Gemara refers to. Daas yachid? Incomprehensible? Not my problem. But I googled the question and found that Rabbi Aviner is mattir, also on the basis of very flimsy svaros, as follows:

    ש: מותר להזמין גוי לליל הסדר?

    ת: אמנם אסור להזמין גוי ביום טוב, שהרי אסור לבשל ביום טוב עבור גוי, וגזרו שלא להזמין שמא ירבה (שו"ע או"ח תקיב א ומשנה ברורה). מכל מקום חכמים התירו באופנים שונים שברור שלא יבשל עבור האורח, כגון שבא מאליו אחרי שכבר מוכנה הסעודה. וקל וחומר בימינו שהכל מוכן מראש וכלל לא מבשלים אחרי כניסת החג. ועבור עובדת זרה בודאי אפשר, שדומה לעבד ושפחה (ע רמ"א יו"ד קיג ד). וכן גוי בתהליך גיור שלגבי כמה ענינים הקילו (שו"ת מנחת אלעזר ג ח). ועיין הגדת הריעב"ץ שמסביר כל דכפין לגבי הזמנת גוי. ועיין מועדי הראי"ה (עמ שכ) שמושל ירושלים סעד בליל הסדר אצל מרן הרב קוק. אך כמובן יש להזהר מנגיעתו ביין (שו"ת אגרות משה יו"ד ב קלב).

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  3. Tal Benschar8:26 AM

    "The other man told him he could rely on the Meiri on that sugya that is mattir on the basis of our goyim not being the goyim the Gemara refers to."

    This sounds like Purim torah to me. The Meiri is discussing the halakhos that Chazal instituted to keep us away from idolators. It is that which the Meiri stated does not apply to our goyim today.

    The halakha here is a din deoraysa, that the hetter of okhel nefesh does not apply to cooking for a non-Jew. AFAIK, that means any non-Jew. Even a non-Jew that piously keeps every one of the 7 mitsvos Bnei Noach, is still not included in this hetter. (Presumably because they have no mitzvah of simchas yom tov.)

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  4. Tal, you didn't look at the Meiri inside. Beitza 21b DH ממה שכתבנו. Your presumably is very likely the shitta of rov rishonim, but not of the Meiri. Odd, but true.

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  5. I haven't had time to even check my e-mail lately much less to read R' Aviner, but just FYI I once e-mailed about something else he had written and got a response, so you may want to do the same to see if he can clarify.

    >>>The halakha here is a din deoraysa

    Ho'il would knock it down to a derabanan. And on that same note, to be mitztaref another shita to the Meiri you can add the Ba'al haMaor who holds the whole issur of inviting an aku"m is only aliba d'Rav Chisa who does not hold of ho'il -- we pasken like Rabbah, so no problem. See Tzitz Eliezer 8:17 (the tshuvah is in reference to mumar dino k'aku"m with respect to this din, which can be even more problematic at a seder.)

    I did a quick google search and am surprised at the number of people who want to invite aku"m to their sedarim. I guess it's a multi-cultural experience. I would love to hear them explain "Shefoch chamoscha al ha'goyim..." Kind of takes the wind out of the sails of brotherly love.

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  6. there would seem to be an issur of lo sechonem

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  7. I think one could argue that lo sechoneim doesn't apply where you're endeavoring to create a more civil society, in which mutual respect rather than xenophobia is the rule. A goy you invite to the seder is less likely to spread an alilas dahm. Ultimately, this benefits us at least as much as the neighbor, besides cases where there's hakaras hatov involved, which is why Tosfos says that where you know the goy, there's no issur.

    Problem is that this concept applied too liberally will render lo sechoneim moot.

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  9. The fact that Chazal had to make a gezeirah not to invite an aku"m on Y"T shows that ordinarily there is not a d'oraysa violation in extending such an invitation. Whether this is due to pragmatic considerations, i.e. we ultimately benefit from having positive civil interaction with out neighbors, or whether it reflects some broader apprecition of civility as an ethical ideal, can be debated (I believe R' Walter Wurtzburger has an article on the matter), but either way my impression is that lo techaneim tends to be construed very narrowly.

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  10. I wrote that Tal's presumably was not the shita of the Meiri. I didn't read carefully what he had written. Of course a goy doesn't have a mitzva of simcha yomtov. But what I meant was that it is possible that the hetter of ochel nefesh might apply when giving food to a nochri.

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  11. Tal Benschar2:39 PM

    The fact that Chazal had to make a gezeirah not to invite an aku"m on Y"T shows that ordinarily there is not a d'oraysa violation in extending such an invitation.

    I don't understand what you are saying here. This gezeirah is like every gezeirah -- Chazal forbade one activity which could (or often does) lead to a second activity which is deoraysa, although it does not have to. E.g., don't ride a horse on Shabbos lest you pluck a twig to use as a stick to hit the beast. Riding a horse it itself not ossur min ha Torah, but it can lead to a melachah.

    So too here. One could invite a non-Jew to one's Yom Tov meal, and either pre-cook the food, serve some raw foods, or cook a single large quantity enough for the Jews and the non-Jews (e.g. roast a 10 pound roast beef, enough to feed some 25 guests) -- or a combination of these eitzos. All these avoid the deoraysa. Still, depending on the menu, there is a good chance you (or at least some people) might end up cooking an individual portion for an individual guest -- including guess who.

    Ho'il would knock it down to a derabanan. And on that same note, to be mitztaref another shita to the Meiri you can add the Ba'al haMaor who holds the whole issur of inviting an aku"m is only aliba d'Rav Chisa who does not hold of ho'il -- we pasken like Rabbah, so no problem.

    Interesting point. Acc. to the other Rishonim, what is the basis of the gezirah acc. to Rabbah? For that matter, how does Rabbah understand the derasha of lachem v'lo le nochri?

    (I guess if you cooked non-kosher food on Yom Tov for a non-Jew, that would clearly violate the deoraysa acc. to all opinions, since such would not be fit for Jewish guests.)

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  12. >>>This gezeirah is like every gezeirah -- Chazal forbade one activity which could (or often does) lead to a second activity which is deoraysa,

    But if you hold an invitation is lo techaneim forget the chashash that it may lead to a d'oraysa -- the invitation gufa is a d'oraysa.

    >>>Acc. to the other Rishonim, what is the basis of the gezirah acc. to Rabbah?

    Perhaps it is a gezeirah againt violating a derabbanan (see Milchamos to Pesachim 47) or maybe l'tzorech aku"m overrides ho'il and mitoch (see Biur Halacha -- this may mean the issur of cooking for an aku"m is d'oraysa).

    Yesh lachkor whether "lachem v'lo l'aku"m" is mafki'a the heter of mitoch/ho'il, or whether the heter remains in place and "lachem v'lo l'aku"m" is a new issur.

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