Avodah Mailing List

Volume 05 : Number 074

Wednesday, June 28 2000

• Re: Nevi'im and Kesuvim
• mesorah
• Re: marranos
• marranos

Gil.Student@citicorp.com wrote:
>> *WITHIN THE ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE*, how and by whom were the books of 
>> nevi'im and kesuvim written and edited. ...

RAZ Zivotofsky wrote:
> The classic work on this is by Prof. Leiman.

Anyone want to take a stab at answering my question based on R. Leiman's book?

Gil Student
     

> Looking up something about techeiles in R' Herscel Schachter's Nefesh haRav,
> I found his discussion of RYBS's position on a related question: recreating
> lost masorah through scientific means (pp 52-54). He gives four instances.
...
>    RMS explains that there is a difference in kind between the original
>    knowledge as to which side of the middle the vuv is on and the same
>    knowledge if recreated through counting. The first, being part of masorah,
>    is Torah, the latter is a clever trick.
...

Though this is the opinion of RYBS it is disagreed by many.
There is a book (I believe by YU press) on techelet with more
details. In particular

1: The opinion of the Beis Halevi is not clear. In the version brought
   by the Razhiner the objection is that the proofs were not strong
   enough and no reason was given for the disappearance of the
    chilazon was brought.
   The implication was that if the objections could be answered there
   was no fundamental problem.

2. Similar problems arise in eating buffalo and other animals that
   don't have a mesorah. The majority viewpoint is that the meat is
   kosher.

3. The question of maggots is a major argument between achacronim.

4. R. Akiva brought proof to the word totafot from the Africans.

5. The question of the middle vav is not much a of a proof.
   The vav of gachon is too far off from the middle to justify by
   a few malei and chaser since the days of Chazal.
   Numerous answers as to what the gemara means have been suggested.

Eli Turkel

RE Turkel wrote:
>>Does anyone know what is done today if a descendant of 
>>marranos wants to get married?
>>i.e. what proof that he has to bring that he is Jewish etc.
     
I'm pretty sure he has to convert.

Gil Student
gil.student@citicorp.com

I have found a site http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~schalevy/sch/anusim.html that
deals with the problem of Marranos (annusim).
In particular there is a letter from R. Eliyahu that paskens that they need
full conversion.
There is also a letter from RA Soloveitchik that is less clear. He says
that they are to be treated as full jews in terms of aliyot etc. but when
they want to marry they need a conversion (without a bracha). I interpret
this to mean that that the conversion is only le-chumra.

Eli Turkel

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