Monday, April 25, 2022

catching up on a few things

Catching up on a few things from Pesach:

1) We bought a few different brands of shmurah matzah and one of the boxes had this printed on it:



For those like myself who are unfamiliar with this teshuvah of the C"S, it is a letter to the Jewish community of Trieste in Northern Italy (historical background here) in which the C"S bemoans the fact that their standards have fallen when it comes to matzah production.  C"S then mentions some of the hakpadot that he has, among them this point of not leaving the dough alone for more than 2-3 min.  

Is this now a thing?  IDK.  I do know that long before the C"S lived there was a chumrah from the Geonim not to leave the matzah unworked for even a minute (see Rosh Pesachim 3:6).  Perhaps that will make it onto a matzah box next year.

2) On the same box I found the following:



I have no idea what the "last date of consummation" means with regards to matzah, but it gives new meaning to  

האוכל מצה בּער״פּ כאילו בּועל ארוסתו בבית חמיו

(that's a bad joke, isn't it?)

3) My daughter is an olah chadasah, officially a citizen of Israel, but was by us in chu"l for Pesach.  She was thinking of cooking string beans for herself for the 8th day, Shabbos, which for her was no longer Pesach.  My wife objected.  The gemara (Pes 47) has a machlokes why one is allowed to cook on Y"T for Shabbos: either because צרכי שׁבּת נעשׂים בּיו״ט, or because הואיל ואי מקלעי לי׳ אורחים, if guests were to come on Y"T they could eat the extra food, so the cooking is really a tzorech of Y"T.  My wife pointed out that if guests were to come, they could not in fact eat the string beans because it was still Pesach.

This issue is an old argument between heavy hitters.  The custom in Pozna, R' Akiva Eiger's hometown, was not to eat dried fruits on Pesach (see Rama in OC 467) except on the last day.  R' Akiva Eiger thought it permissible to prepare such fruits in advance for the 8th day if it fell on Shabbos, but sent the question to his son-in-law, the C"S, to get his opinion.  C"S disagreed, and argued (Shu"T C"S OC #79, second to last paragraph), as my wife did, that you cannot apply ho'il because the food cannot be eaten on the day it is prepared.  The fact that a choleh is allowed to eat it is irrelevant, as even if one argues that there being some choleh in a large city is not "lo shichiach," but who says the choleh wants or needs to eat string beans?  

(Take a look at the last paragraph of the teshuvah as well for some nice derush).

4) Another issue that came up regarding a ben E"Y in chu"l: could my daughter, who only needed to hear kiddush for shabbos, be yotzei with my kiddush on Friday night, which included insertions for Y"T?  Or would those insertions be a hefsek?

The Bikrei Yosef (OC 213) deals with a similar issue: can someone who has a safeik whether they said a bracha achrona on mezonos (al hamichya alone) be yotzei with the bracha achrona of a friend who ate both mezonos and fruit (al hamichya + al ha'peiros)?  

He quotes a teshuvah of Radbaz who writes that a person who missed maariv can be yotzei their tefilas tashlumin by listening to chazaras hashatz of shacharis.  Radbaz was not concerned that kirkas kohanim added in shacharis (in EY and Sefard) but not maariv would be a hefsek.  Birkei Yosef adds that based on Radbaz, in our case the Y"Y insertions do not count as a hefsek either.

An issue that comes up far more frequently but that involves the same safeik: many women recite she'hechiyanu when they light neiros for Y"T.  When their husbands recite kiddush, they add she'hechiyanu in between the kiddush and drinking the wine.  Are those added words a hefsek for the women who are being yotzei through shome'a k'oneh?  Can you pick and choose which words you want to be yotzei with when you relying on shome'a k'oneh?

There are other examples as well...

5) Chazal say that "az yashir," in future tense, alludes to techiyas ha'meisim.  Why did the Torah couch such an allusion davka here?  

We started Shmos with the words  וְאֵ֗לֶּה שְׁמוֹת֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הַבָּאִ֖ים מִצְרָ֑יְמָה.  When we read the shirah,  אָ֣ז יָשִֽׁיר־מֹשֶׁה֩ וּבְנֵ֨י יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל אֶת־הַשִּׁירָ֤ה הַזֹּאת֙, it's the conclusion to the story.  It's the same  בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל, the same children of Yaakov Avinu, who are now singing shirah!  These great souls came down to become one with their children and share in the simcha of finally leaving Egypt.  And so too, adds the Sefas Emes, whenever we experience such simcha, the souls of our ancestors come down to be one with us in celebration.  

That's the yesod of techiyas ha'meisim.  Souls will come down to the world once again in order to experience and rejoice in the hisgalus of Hashem.

A beautiful Sefas Emes to take out of the chag, esp for those saying yizkor on the last day and thinking about those no longer here.

6) This is an amazing piece by a NYU Law School student (see here for some background if you are not familiar with the controversy).  Read the whole thing.  Her concluding paragraph:

All of you have done more than I ever could to convince my fellow Jews that the left doesn’t just have a Corbyn problem or a Tlaib problem or a Farrakhan problem. It has a big, fat Jew-hatred problem right in its ideological core. This time it happened to rear its head at one of the best law schools in the country. One where the name Steinhardt adorns the buildings and about a quarter of the students are Jews. Yes, even here. Especially here. 

Yes, thank you to NYU's students for letting the cat out of the bag.  But is it enough to convince our fellow Jews?  Are any members of our community listening?   

15 comments:

  1. can u please point out where this Sefas Emes is

    Thanks

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    1. https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14526&st=&pgnum=67

      5642. last paragraph, second column. (I added the link to the post)

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    2. Where does it say "whenever we experience such simcha, the souls of our ancestors come down to be one with us in celebration"?

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    3. Cant find it. Maybe I saw it in a different piece, but I would have to look back through. That's what I get for writing from memory instead of looking it up again.

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    4. If Mr. Parnell is looking for the makor in general that the souls of our ancestors join us at celebrations, the source is the Zohar in Pinchas, as follows:
      וּמְנָלָן, דְּאִית לוֹן לְיִשְׂרָאֵל לְשַׁתְּפָא לְּקוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא וּשְׁכִינְתֵּיהּ בְּחֶדְוָה דִּלְהוֹן. (בגין דלאו איהו חדוה, אלא בשותפות דיליה מאלין) דִּכְתִּיב, (שם קמט) יִשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעוֹשָׂיו. הַהוּא חֶדְוָה דְּיִשְׂרָאֵל לָאו אִיהוּ, אֶלָּא בְּעוֹשָׂיו. בְּעוֹשָׂיו, בְּעוֹשׂוֹ מִבָּעֵי לֵיהּ. אֶלָּא אִלֵּין קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא וּשְׁכִינְתֵּיהּ, וְאָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ, דְּאַף עַל גַּב דְּמִיתוּ, קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא אַעְקַר לוֹן מִגַּן עֵדֶן, וְאַיְיתֵי לוֹן עִמֵּיהּ לְהַהוּא חֶדְוָה, לְנַטְלָא חוּלָקָא דְּחֶדְוָה עִם קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא וּשְׁכִינְתֵּיהּ. כְּמָה דְאַתְּ אָמֵר (איוב מ׳:י״ט) הָעוֹשׂוֹ יַגֵּשׁ חַרְבּוֹ.
      ומאין לנו שיש לישראל לשתף את הקב"ה ושכינתו בשמחתם הוא כי כתוב ישמח ישראל בעושיו שמחה ההיא של ישראל אינה אלא בעושיו בעושיו והרי היה צריך לומר בעושו אלא אלו הם הקב"ה ואביו ואמו שאע"פ שמתו הקב"ה עוקרם מגן העדן ומביא איתם עמו לאותה שמחה לקחת חלק בשמחה עם הקב"ה ושכינתו וכו' כי למדנו בשעה שאדם משתף את הקב"ה בשמחתו בא הקב"ה לגן העדן ולוקח משם את אביו ואמו שהם שותפים עמו ומביאם עמו לאותה השמחה וכולם נמצאים שם ובני אדם אינם יודעים אבל בצרתו של אדם נמצא הקב"ה אצלו בלבדו ואינו מודיע לאביו ואמו וכו'
      Recruiting the Zohar improves the vort, whether the Sfas Emes had it in mind or not.

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    5. I know of this Zohar, but this Zohar specifically only references ones "Father & Mother" as they are the "Shitfim with HKB"H". The other important point in this Zohar is that there is a condition here as well, you have to include HKB"H in the simcha (basically by giving charity or inviting the poor to the meal), as this is what it says
      בשעה שאדם משתף את הקב"ה בשמחתו בא הקב"ה לגן העדן ולוקח משם את אביו ואמו שהם שותפים עמו ומביאם עמו לאותה השמחה

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    6. True, and Rav Eliashiv is quoted as saying that there is no need to invite deceased grandparents.
      I never thought of it as you said, that you invite the Shechina by "giving charity or inviting the poor to the meal." Makes perfect sense. How else are you mishatef HKB"H? Your own, or did you see it somewhere, or is it the generally accepted pshat? I know that in Ksuvos 8a Rashi says that the bracha lichvodo is for kvod hashchina because people are gathered to do chesed with the ch and k just as Hashem did for Adam. Maybe that's the same.

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    7. Its not my own, i remember seeing it in one of the zohar commentaries.

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  2. 1. So the C'S was not noheig like the Geonim brought in the Rosh.
    2. Considering the many dei'os that there are sheva brachos before Achilas Matza, and who argue seriously about exactly which brachos count, it's not a bad joke at all. It is a very good joke. I saw the box at the store, and showed it to a son in law, and neither of us thought of that Gemara.
    3. Sfardim are not schiach? Maybe in those towns where people didn't "mish," or in families that see a guest and roll up the sidewalks and lock the doors, you could toss the whole eiruv out the window. Ella mai, you have to be a little more flexible when it comes to something that b'etzem is muttar anyway.
    5. I wish I knew that one a few days ago. We discussed the question at the table, nobody had anything beyond "Krias Yam Suf was also a life after death experience." And I got sandakaus at a bris Wednesday chol hamoed partly because I was the most photogenic in the crowd, but also partly because my parents zichronam livracha and the grandparents of the child's mother and father were like brothers and sisters. If I had known that SE, I would have insisted on speaking.
    All I can bring to the table is the fantastic observation from R Y Hutner that by Krias Yam suf, Moshe had to lift his staff to bring the waters back together. But by Krias Yarden, as soon as the bare feet of the Kohanim Nosei Haaron were out, the water came back automatically. It has nothing to do with techiyas hameisim, I just don't want to schnorr good torah and give nothing in return.

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    1. At least the box doesn't say that the matza was made so fast it was כאילו כפאו שד.

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    2. >>>Sfardim are not schiach?

      I saw afterwards that Tzitz Eliezer (https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14513&st=&pgnum=114) 14:54 quotes Sdei Chemed that if you are in place where there is a significant # of ochlei kitniyot, then even the C"S would be modeh. I am not sure how you measure that (by shul? neighborhood? city?) but certainly in E"Y, the point is a valid one.

      >>>Maybe in those towns where people didn't "mish," or in families that see a guest and roll up the sidewalks and lock the doors, you could toss the whole eiruv out the window.

      My son asked the kashe in 2020 when everyone was told not to invite any guests due to corona, so how does the eiruv tavshilin work? There is no ho'il? At the time I wrote b'dochak that it seems from the Ah"S that m'ikar ha'din we pasken tzorchei shabbos naasin b'YT, which renders the whole discussion moot.
      https://divreichaim.blogspot.com/2020/04/notes-from-underground-eiruv-tavshilin.html?_sm_au_=iVVRkJW8W48jSqLNNQ618K6JkGVkq

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    3. The same issue was to make gbrokts on Friday, and the reason its allowed is because there are still people who eat gbrokts, but what about in places that probably no one eats gbrokts, like in Monroe?

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    4. That is just slightly different in that those who have accepted the minhag to not eat gebrokts could theoretically be matir neder and eat it bo ba'yom, but in principle, the comparison is correct.

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  3. Regarding 4., I was in the USA for Shavuos תשנ"ו, when Shabbos was YT2. Rav Simcha Kessler ztz"l, the Rov of Kiryat Sefer, told me to say Kiddush myself on Shabbos.

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  4. Re #4 -
    some mekoros about this from Chicago Community Kollel sheet by Rabbi Langer:
    Amen to Shehechiyanu is hefsek for a woman who already made Shehechiyanu - R' Tzvi Pesach Frank Har Tzvi 154.
    Is OK for woman - Igros Moshe IV 101:1 and R' Shlomo Zalman in Minchas Shlomo II 58:2
    Usually Hefsek but Pesach night OK because shechiyanu is also for other mitzvos - Shevet HaLevi III 69 and Rav Alyashiv in Shvus Yiztchak Pesach 7:3

    Shasdaf

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