Avodah Mailing List

Volume 18: Number 4

Monday, August 28, 2006

• 1. virtual ona'ah (David Riceman)
• 2. Whether a super-rich person may give more than 20% to charity (Moshe Feldman)
• 3. Re: Swimming (Rich, Joel)
• 4. RYBS and chazakah tav l'meitav (Moshe Feldman)
• 5. BLC (RYG Bechhofer)
• 6. AishDas - Yavneh Shabbaton Sept. 15-16 (Jonathan Baker)
• 7. Re: swimming in der alter heim (Arie Folger)
• 8. Re: Rhyming in Tanach (Dr. Josh Backon)

My son plays an online game which includes an economic component:
people make virtual things and buy and sell them for virtual money
(no real money ever changes hand). These things do have market prices,
since the game has official (virtual) storesites at various locations,
but often it's easier to trade with other players. Is there an issur of
ona'ah to give someone the impression that a thing is more valuable than
the market price? The rules do prohibit certain antisocial behavior, but
this is clearly permitted by the game rules. Would we say that there
is implicit consent since everyone has agreed to play buy the rules,
or is there a general issur of deception even in a game that encourages
deception (would that make it assur to play "Diplomacy"?).

David Riceman 

According to S"A YD 249:1: One should not give more than 20% of
his earnings, lest he become poor and dependent upon the community.
However, he is permitted to give away as much as he wishes at the time
of his death, because at that point, that fear no longer exists. (This
is also implicit in Kesubos 67b.)

A number of achronim have written that a super wealthy individual
("ashir muflag") is not bound by the 20% limit, because he has no fear
of becoming poor. See Chochmas Adam (244), Chofetz Chaim (Sefer Ahavas
Chesed 20:1), Minchas Yitzchak 5:34 (par 2), and others cited in Shu"t
Ateres Paz, chelek rishon, krach beis, YD, he'aros siman 10 he'ara 4.
The only one who argues with this is Igros Moshe YD 1:143. IMHO, Minchas
Yitzchak addresses the arguments of the Igros Moshe quite convincingly.

Kol tuv,
Moshe

> AFAIK they didn't. I know that my zeide never taught my father to swim,
> and nor did my elter-zeide teach my zeide, and I'm pretty sure that goes
> back many generations, and nobody seems to have raised an objection from
> the gemara in kiddushin, probably because it's not brought down
> lehalacha.
> Zev Sero

But why wasn't it? It appears as a yesh omrim in the braita which is
brought down in the rosh and rif? Shouldn't it be at least a very good
eitzah to be choshesh for?

KT
Joel Rich

R. Rakeffet has a lecture entitled "the Rav and R. Rackman"
(http://www.yutorah.org/showShiur.cfm?shiurID=709654). Soon after the
Rav said that chazakah tav l'meitav tan du m'lmeitav armelu is eternal,
R. Rakeffet asked RALichtenstein that R. Shmuel Glasner in his work Tel
Talpiyot (published in Hungary at the end of the 19th cent.) as well as
RMFeinstein say that the chazakah ein adam oseh be'ilaso be'ilas znus
no longer applies today.

RAL answered (27:40 on the MP3) that not all chazakos of chazal are
eternal and that RYBS spoke merely about this sort of chazakah, which
describes how Hashem created women (i.e., it is ontological). R.
Rackman had argued that the modern woman doesn't need her husband's
material support and feels that she can live w/o him. RYBS believed that
every woman has the internal need to be married (R. Rakeffet emphasized
this in the case of a woman whose biological clock is running out, though
AIUI the chazakah is applied even to woman who already had children).

Kol tuv,
Moshe

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                                    Teshuvah

     the strength to acknowledge wrongs......the wisdom to reqret the past
the honesty of true, full confession ....................... the will to change
          burning with a passion for Gd, His Torah, and all of Israel
                               *       *       *
                     AishDas and Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush
                     -------     ------ ------ -- --------

                          present a Shabbaton on

                         Teshuvah:  Returning Home

            September 15-16, 2006, at the Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush
            1277 East 14th St, Brooklyn, NY - in the Shulamith School
                               *       *       *
             Self-work...Mussar...Panels ...Intense Prayer and Song
          Regret, confession, resolve - how do I bring myself to change?
                               *       *       *
    The Shabbaton will feature: 
          * kabbalat Shabbat with  singing davening
                  * delicious Friday night dinner with kumsitz
                        * talks and discussion groups, Shabbat evening and day
                               * melave malka with panel discussion

            AishDas, the Passion of Torah, is participatory.  
                Bring and enrich your life experience.

Featured Speakers: (subject to change)
  R' Moshe Sokol: Rav, Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush; Dean, Lander College.
  R' Micha Berger: founder, AishDas Society, lecturer on Mussar.   
  R' Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer: writer, editor, educator, Rosh Yeshivah.
  R'n Shoshannah Bechhofer, educator, former principal, Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov
  R' Gil Student: author, founder, Yashar Books.  

Topics:
  Lo Sisna: do not hate your brother in your heart
  How do I change my life? - Reflections on the yahrzeit of 9/11
  Keeping Gd before me
  Transforming sins into merits - repentance from love

Prices:
  Full program (includes Dinner and Melave Malka): $65; $50 for Yavneh members.
  Melave Malka only                                $25; $18 for Yavneh members.
  Children's Dinner price (ages 12 and under, not including Melave Malka):  $15

         AishDas: Inreach, to live the Torah with passion, not by rote

RSVP by September 8th, 2006
Note:  Dinner seating is limited, so respond early!
Limited home-hosting available, make your own local arrangements if possible.

Send responses to: 
  Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush / 1412 Avenue M - PMB 2322 /  Brooklyn, NY 11230

                           For more information: 
          Jonathan Baker:  (718) 376-5402;  programming@yavnehminyan.org

 http://www.yavnehminyan.org/                            http://www.aishdas.org/

For a printable response form, see http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker/ymfad66.pdf
Note: legal size paper.  You can print it reduced, and send it back.

R'n CL wrote:
> > Without mechitzed swimming (and how was that arranged with the local
> > authorities?) how did any of the rabbonim in Europe (and previously,
> > including as far back as Chazal) arrange for this to happen?

In The Making of a Godol, RNK quotes his father reminescing about his 
childhood swimming. In Dolhynov, there was a river with a bridge passing over 
it. The bridge acted as a miechitzah between the sexes. I assume that from 
the bridge one didn't have a clear view of the riverside (tree, etc.).

Arie Folger

R. Moshe Yehuda Gluck asked:

>Is rhyming ever used in Tanach?


Think of the alliteration in Ha'Azinu and in V'Zoht ha'Bracha.
[likchi - imrati; k's'irim - v'chirvivim; kanecha - vayechonenecha;
yesovevenhu - y'vonenehu - yitzrenu; tumecha - v'urecha - chasidecha; 
etc.] Think of Shirat Devorah (Shoftim 5) [chadashim - she'arim;
mashabim - la'she'arim; lakachu - nilchamu. Also Shmuel Bet 22
(sal'i - um'tzudati - u'mfalti). Then of course most of Yeshayahu
and in Trei Asar. [e.g. Yeshayahu 1: petza - v'chabura - u'maka tri'a;
3 (ha'avasim - v'hashvisim - v'hasaharonim; ha'machalatzot - v'hama'atafot-
v'hamitpachot).


While not rhyme, there is also extensive use of acrostics (Tehillim 9, 10,
25, 34, 37, 119; Mishlei 31:10-31; Eicha).

Just as a reminder to readers:

The halachic requirements for studying start with: Hebrew grammar
(see: Chavot Yair 124, R. Yaakov Emden in Migdal Oz 16d-17a,
Introduction of the GRA on Shulchan Aruch ORACH CHAIM), followed by all
of Tanach (Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim) (see: Rosh Hagiv'a 11a, R. Chaim
of Volozhin in Keter Rosh 58, and the Netziv in the beginning of his
Ha'emek Davar 5). Only after one masters Hebrew and Tanach does one start
with Mishna and Gemara.

Those who stress thorough mastery of all of Tanach include: ROSH on Bava
Metzia 2 toward the end; R. Yaakov Lipman Heller in his Introduction to
the Maadaney Yom Tov to Bava Kama; the Maharal in Gur Aryeh to Devarim 6:7 and
in his Tiferet Yisrael 56; the SHELAH at the beginning of Shavuot; Vavey
Ha'Amudim, Amud Hatorah 5; the Meharsha on the gemara in Sanhedrin 24a;
Yosif Ometz 270, 284; the Amudey Shesh 24; the Bach on TUR Yoreh Deah 245
d"h haya minhag; R. Yaakov Emden in his Siddur Beit Yaakov in Hilchot Talmud
Torah; the Pri Megadim at the beginning of Orach Chaim; the Even Sheleima
8:2; Toldot Adam 3; Shulchan Aruch HaRav Hilchot Talmud Torah 1:1; SHU'T
Zera Emet Yoreh Deah 107; the Netivot Hamishpat; R. Shimshon Refael Hirsch in
Chorev 551.


KT

Josh



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