Avodah Mailing List

Volume 25: Number 428

Sun, 21 Dec 2008

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Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Message: 1
From: T6...@aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:34:26 EST
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] Yosef Kappara


 
 
From: "Meir Rabi" _meir...@optusnet.com.au_ (mailto:meir...@optusnet.com.au) 

>>Aside  from going to his Kever with a Minyan, the obvious answer, there is  
an
implied understanding that even many generations later some type  of
reconciliation can be achieved. Does this mean that the old enmities  were
still being maintained? All the way down to the 10  Martyrs?<<





>>>>>
By the time of  the asarah harugei malchus the tribes that descended from 
Yosef were long since  gone, most of them lost among the nations with the Aseres 
Hashevatim and the  rest assimilated into Yehudah, so there  wouldn't have 
been any  Yosef-descendants around still harboring anger against the descendants 
of  the other brothers.

 


The suggestion is not that there might be ancient enmities  still existing 
between the brothers, but that in Heaven there might still  be a kitrug against 
them for the wrong committed by their ancestors,  the sons of Yakov.  If some 
bit of the original jealousy and sinas  chinam that led to mechiras Yosef 
still adhered to the actions of their  descendants, then the original sin of the 
brothers would not be completely  atoned for, even after centuries.  
 
Then of course you get into the mystery of misas tzaddik mechaperes -- how  
does that work?  Why should the righteous die for the sins of the  guilty?  But 
that's another thread.






--Toby Katz
=============
"If you  don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper  you are misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




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Message: 2
From: T6...@aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:14:47 EST
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] Did RSRH Write LH about Shimon and Levi


 
 
From: Yitzhak Grossman _celejar@gmail.com_ (mailto:cele...@gmail.com) 




RYG:  >>[We are discussing the question of the tenability of  the suggestion
that Dinah was seduced, rather than, as conventionally  assumed, raped.]

RnTK brought to my attention the comment of Rashi to the  verse
(Bereishis 34:7) "ve'chen lo ye'aseh":

"le'anos [lamed ayin nun  vav tav] es he'besulos, she'ha'umos gadru
azman min ha'arayos al yedei  ha'mabul"


....She argued that this implies that Rashi interprets the  episode as
rape.  <<
 
TK:   I still read Rashi this way and find it very hard to read  into Rashi's 
words any suggestion that Dinah was seduced.  But I do  appreciate your 
honesty in attempting to check it out and acknowledging that  many (most?) 
meforshim understand the story as I do.
 
RYG:  >>I promised to check the super-commentaries, and I have  done so.
Although there certainly are those who understand Rashi this way,  most
notably Rav Eliyahu Mizrahi, I also found the super-commentary  Nahalas
Ya'akov, who says *exactly* what I've been saying all along:  <<


 
 
TK:  I believe that Mizrachi is far more commonly read and accepted  than 
Nachlas Ya'akov (and I am going to admit my ignorance and tell you that I  never 
heard of NY before now)


RYG: [quoting Nachlas Yakov]: >>  "And even though the  Rav [i.e. Rashi] 
wrote "le'anos es ha'besulos",
which implies, that  everything depended on that which he [Shechem]
oppressed her against her  will, which is theft, we can say, that it is
not so [lav davka], first, for  it is not evident from the text that he
raped her, but on the contrary  "va'ye'daber al lev ha'na'ra",  <<
 
TK:  The pasuk FIRST says he raped her and only the pasuk AFTER that  says 
"va'ye'daber al lev ha'na'ra."  Normally seduction works by first  courting the 
girl and obtaining her consent.  It would be a  highly unusual form of 
seduction in which you first have relations with the girl  and then have the 
flirtation and seduction afterwards.  
 
Instead, the pasukim clearly imply that after he raped her, Shechem was  
taken by her and belatedly had remorse for what he had done, or even if he  didn't 
have remorse, he fell in love with her and wanted that feeling to be  
reciprocated -- he wanted to make the relationship permanent and romantic.  
 
I don't remember where I saw it but somewhere I saw (maybe somebody quoted  
here on Avodah) that Shechem typically took girls against their will, 
exercising  his right and power as a prince to take any girl he wanted for a night.   
Dinah's case was unusual in that after violating her, he was actually taken 
with  her on an emotional and maybe even spiritual level.  Normally he did not  
care if the girls he violated loved him or wanted to stay with him after the  
rape (which he probably didn't even think of as rape but just as a normal thing 
 for a prince to do) but Dinah was unusual.
 
RYG: [still quoting NY]:  >> "...and also,
if we assume that  he raped her, how did the Rav know to interpret
"va'ye'a'ne'ha" - "shelo  ke'darka", perhaps "va'ye'a'ne'ha" means,
"ke'darka" but rape, against her  will,..."  <<
 
TK:  That's what Ramban says -- that "vayishkav osah vaye'aneha" is  one act 
of forcible intercourse.  But Rashi takes the two words "vayishkav"  and 
"vaye'aneha" as two different actions, and therefore has to explain the  difference 
between the two -- which he takes as "kedarka" and "shelo  kedarka".  However 
it seems clear to me that he does not mean  "kedarka" to mean "with her 
consent."
 
 
 
RYG [still quoting NY]:  >> "...and certainly according to  what
the Shas says (Yoma 77b) "she'inah mi'bios aheros", implying that  she
became desirous of him and he withheld further intercourse from  her,
and it is implausible ["dohek"] that first he had intercourse with  her
against her will and afterward she became desirous of him...."  <<
 
TK:  This Gemara is very difficult to reconcile with the actual  pesukim -- 
which do not at all imply that Dinah went willingly with  Shechem.  However, it 
is -- surprisingly -- not uncommon for a captive to  develop feelings for her 
captor.  It is a psychological defense mechanism,  especially when the 
captive is not released right away but is forced  to  remain with her captor and to 
remain dependant on him for her survival.   This even has a name -- the 
"Stockholm Syndrome."  
 
Some of the older chaverim here may remember the famous Patty Hearst case  
where a lovely young heiress was kidnapped and violated by a gang  of radicals 
and subsequently fell in love with one of her captors and  remained with the 
gang willingly even when she had a chance to escape -- and  even participated in 
a bank holdup with them.  When she was arrested and  tried for that crime, 
her lawyer cited the Stockholm Syndrome in her  defense. (The court didn't 
accept that and she served time, but most people do  accept that she wasn't really 
culpable and shouldn't have gone to jail.)
 
An exceptionally surprising case that I read about was the autobiography of  
a Jewish woman, a dwarf, who was kept alive by Mengele through the war years  
because of his fascination with dwarves.  Despite her cognitive knowledge  
that he was a cruel monster, she found herself drawn to him and -- to her own  
dismay -- cried when she heard that he had died.

RYG: >> He  [Nachlas Yakov] leans toward seduction based on a close reading 
of the  text, and
inclines toward interpreting Rashi's comment accordingly, although  he
does admit the possibility that Rashi assumes rape. Baruch
she'kivanti.  <<
 
TK:  My close reading of the text leads me to exactly the opposite  
conclusion, and I interpret Rashi accordingly.  There was kidnapping and  rape and if 
there was any seduction involved, it was AFTER the crimes had been  committed.  
(And even then the crimes were still ongoing, because she was  still being 
held a captive in his palace and not released back to her father's  home.)





--Toby Katz
=============
"If you don't read the  newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper you are  misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




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Message: 3
From: T6...@aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:34:37 EST
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] RSRH on Consoling Someone


 
 
From: Yitzchok Levine _Larry.Levine@stevens.edu_ 
(mailto:Larry.Lev...@stevens.edu) 

[quoting  RSRH]: >> But why didn't any of them attempt to sprinkle soothing 
balm  upon
the wound? Why didn't they reveal to him: "Yosef is alive!"? The  answer:
because that would have been the greatest cruelty of all. In the  minds
of parents, a child who was torn by wild beasts is never lost, but a  child
who is wicked is worse than lost. Therefore, he who would not  aggravate
the father's grief a thousandfold would have to remain silent until  the
day when Yosef would return and the joy of the reunion would  mitigate
in the father's mind even the crime that had been committed by  his
other sons. Had they told Ya'akov at that time the truth about  what
had been done to Yosef, Ya'akov would have felt as though he had  lost
not only one son, but ten sons at one time. <<


 
>>>>
There is some support for this reading in the words  of Rivkah to her son 
Ya'akov when she told him to run away because Esav was  plotting to kill him.  
"Hineh Esav achicha misnachem lecha  lehorgecha....LAMAH ESHKAL GAM SHENEICHEM 
BEYOM ECHAD?" (Ber.  27:42-45)
 
IOW, if one of her sons kills the other one, she will be bereaved of both  of 
them, because a murderer cannot be any son of Rivkah's anymore.
 
Rashi understands this pasuk differently, saying that Rivka will be  bereaved 
of both sons on the same day because if Esav attacks Yakov, Yakov will  
defend himself and they will end up killing each other.  But it seems to me  that 
an equally natural (if not so literal) reading of "bereaved of both sons"  is 
one that understands bereavement to be an emotional state, in which one son  is 
lost to his mother because of his death and the other is lost to  his mother 
because of his unforgivable crime.  (He would not be lost to his  father, 
because he explicitly stated that he would not kill Yakov  while their father was 
still alive.)



--Toby Katz
=============
"If you don't read the  newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper you are  misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




--------------------------
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Message: 4
From: T6...@aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:55:21 EST
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] Only One Interpretation, The Right One - (Was


 
In a message dated 12/21/2008, llev...@stevens.edu writes:

At 06:51 PM 12/20/2008, Rn T. Katz  wrote:


>>>>>
I find it  hard to take that medrash seriously because there is simply no   
textual support for the notion that Dinah was sent away or that she had  a  
daughter or that "Asnas bas Potiphera" was really "Asnas the  daughter of 
Dinah  and  Shechem" or that Eishes Potiphar adopted a  daughter.   It's all  
based on  what?  And explains  what? [--TK]

>>I think the comments of RSRH on Bereshis  40:5 can be used to back up your 
contention. ...


An intelligent person can discern the precise  explanation of a dream,
without being able to guarantee the dream?s  fulfillment.... 
RSRH does not  use midrashim to explain pesukim all that often. To me it 
seems that the above  comments explain why.<< 

 

YL 


>>>>>
I was not claiming that every medrash has to  "come from within the pesukim" 
but a medrash usually answers some obvious  question in the pasuk or adds 
information based on something that is at least  implied or suggested in the 
pasuk.  To take a very obvious example, why  does the medrash say that Kayin and 
Hevel were born with twins?  The pasuk  doesn't say it, but the fact that they 
had children certainly suggests that they  had wives and the obvious textual 
question is, where did those wives come  from? 

When the medrash answers an obvious question or fills an obvious hole, then  
Rashi often cites it and Hirsch often does, too, sometimes explicitly 
following  Rashi.
 


--Toby Katz
=============
"If you don't  read the newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper you are  misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




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Message: 5
From: Yitzhak Grossman <cele...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:01:23 -0500
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] Did RSRH Write LH about Shimon and Levi


On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:14:47 EST
T6...@aol.com wrote:

> From: Yitzhak Grossman _celejar@gmail.com_ (mailto:cele...@gmail.com) 

...

> "le'anos [lamed ayin nun  vav tav] es he'besulos, she'ha'umos gadru
> azman min ha'arayos al yedei  ha'mabul"

> TK:   I still read Rashi this way and find it very hard to read  into Rashi's 
> words any suggestion that Dinah was seduced.  But I do  appreciate your 

I never said that there's a suggestion that she was seduced, just that
there's no unambiguous indication that she was raped.

> honesty in attempting to check it out and acknowledging that  many (most?) 
> meforshim understand the story as I do.

What's your basis for suggesting 'most'?


> TK:  I believe that Mizrachi is far more commonly read and accepted  than 
> Nachlas Ya'akov (and I am going to admit my ignorance and tell you that I  never 
> heard of NY before now)

He certainly is, and I too had never heard of the NY before, although
it does seem to be a distinguished and important work on Rashi.  But
again, if we're going to argue from authority, then remember that I
have quoted explicit *Medrashim* that she was not abducted (although I
believe that there are also statements from Hazal to the contrary).

> RYG: [quoting Nachlas Yakov]: >>  "And even though the  Rav [i.e. Rashi] 
> wrote "le'anos es ha'besulos",
> which implies, that  everything depended on that which he [Shechem]
> oppressed her against her  will, which is theft, we can say, that it is
> not so [lav davka], first, for  it is not evident from the text that he
> raped her, but on the contrary  "va'ye'daber al lev ha'na'ra",  <<
>  
> TK:  The pasuk FIRST says he raped her and only the pasuk AFTER that  says 
> "va'ye'daber al lev ha'na'ra."  Normally seduction works by first  courting the 
> girl and obtaining her consent.  It would be a  highly unusual form of 
> seduction in which you first have relations with the girl  and then have the 
> flirtation and seduction afterwards.  

Agreed.  I, too, did not find this argument compelling.
  
> Instead, the pasukim clearly imply that after he raped her, Shechem was  
> taken by her and belatedly had remorse for what he had done, or even if he  didn't 
> have remorse, he fell in love with her and wanted that feeling to be  
> reciprocated -- he wanted to make the relationship permanent and romantic.  

They imply nothing about rape; that's conjecture.  The fact that he
engaged in subsequent persuasion may simply have been, as I have
suggested before, an attempt to convince her to remain with him.  It
would be quite natural for a young girl to feel remorse for a sin
committed in the heat of passion, especially after realizing in a
cooler moment what a really bad idea the relationship is and how upset
her family would be about it.

> I don't remember where I saw it but somewhere I saw (maybe somebody quoted  
> here on Avodah) that Shechem typically took girls against their will, 
> exercising  his right and power as a prince to take any girl he wanted for a night.   
> Dinah's case was unusual in that after violating her, he was actually taken 
> with  her on an emotional and maybe even spiritual level.  Normally he did not  
> care if the girls he violated loved him or wanted to stay with him after the  
> rape (which he probably didn't even think of as rape but just as a normal thing 
>  for a prince to do) but Dinah was unusual.

This is all pure speculation, and without basis in the text.

> RYG: [still quoting NY]:  >> "...and also,
> if we assume that  he raped her, how did the Rav know to interpret
> "va'ye'a'ne'ha" - "shelo  ke'darka", perhaps "va'ye'a'ne'ha" means,
> "ke'darka" but rape, against her  will,..."  <<
>  
> TK:  That's what Ramban says -- that "vayishkav osah vaye'aneha" is  one act 
> of forcible intercourse.  But Rashi takes the two words "vayishkav"  and 
> "vaye'aneha" as two different actions, and therefore has to explain the  difference 
> between the two -- which he takes as "kedarka" and "shelo  kedarka".  However 
> it seems clear to me that he does not mean  "kedarka" to mean "with her 
> consent."

You *still* have given no compelling reason for this 'clarity';  you
just keep declaring it to be so, without giving any logical basis for
your view.

> RYG [still quoting NY]:  >> "...and certainly according to  what
> the Shas says (Yoma 77b) "she'inah mi'bios aheros", implying that  she
> became desirous of him and he withheld further intercourse from  her,
> and it is implausible ["dohek"] that first he had intercourse with  her
> against her will and afterward she became desirous of him...."  <<
>  
> TK:  This Gemara is very difficult to reconcile with the actual  pesukim -- 
> which do not at all imply that Dinah went willingly with  Shechem.  However, it 

Again, your preconception.  There's no textual basis for the assumption
that she did *not* go willingly with him.

> is -- surprisingly -- not uncommon for a captive to  develop feelings for her 
> captor.  It is a psychological defense mechanism,  especially when the 
> captive is not released right away but is forced  to  remain with her captor and to 
> remain dependant on him for her survival.   This even has a name -- the 
> "Stockholm Syndrome."  

[snipped discussion of Stockholm Syndrome.]

Again, certainly plausible, but nothing more than conjecture.

> RYG: >> He  [Nachlas Yakov] leans toward seduction based on a close reading 
> of the  text, and
> inclines toward interpreting Rashi's comment accordingly, although  he
> does admit the possibility that Rashi assumes rape. Baruch
> she'kivanti.  <<
>  
> TK:  My close reading of the text leads me to exactly the opposite  
> conclusion, and I interpret Rashi accordingly.  There was kidnapping and  rape and if 
> there was any seduction involved, it was AFTER the crimes had been  committed.  

You have given very little detail of the basis of your "close
reading".  It seems to be mostly your preconception, repeated over and
over.

Again, I'm not sure you appreciate the fundamental issue here.  I'm not
claiming that the text implies seduction; I'm merely claiming that it
is fascinatingly silent on the basic question of Dinah's role in the
episode, and that it easily supports such a reading.  You have given
virtually no evidence from the Biblical text for rape.  You have quoted
extensively from Ramban, who does interpret it as rape, but you have
yet to make a clear argument, which, again, does not mean merely
vigorously repeating your views and insisting on their correctness, for
rape.

I don't need to make any such argument for seduction, since I'm merely
arguing for possibility, not necessity.

Yitzhak
--
Bein Din Ledin - http://bdl.freehostia.com
A discussion of Hoshen Mishpat, Even Ha'Ezer and other matters



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Message: 6
From: Yitzchok Levine <Larry.Lev...@stevens.edu>
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:47:49 -0500
Subject:
[Avodah] Bringing Torah Im Derech Eretz to Lithuania


 From an interview that I conducted with 
Rebbetzin Etel Miller 
("<http://personal.stevens.edu/%7Ellevine/miller_2.pdf>Rebbetzin 
Chana Ettel Miller, a"h" The Hamodia September 
24, 2008, page C35.) as well as from Dr. Rivka 
Teitz Blau's biography of her father, Rav 
Mordechai Pinchas Teitz, Learn Torah, Live Torah, 
Love Torah,  I was aware that there were 3 Yavneh schools in Lithuania.

However, from Ish Yehudi, the biography of Rav 
Joseph Tzvi Carlebach, I recently learned that 
TIDE was brought to Lithuania after the Germans 
occupied this county not long after the start of 
WW I in 1914. This was done by German Orthodox 
rabbonim. Rabbi Joseph Tzvi Carlebach played a key role in this.

I have posted almost all of Chapter 14 from Ish 
Yehudi at 
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/carlebach/tide_lita.pdf 
(There are two pages of pictures that I left 
out.) This material describes how TIDE schools 
were set up in Lithuania and their success.

The following is from this chapter. Note second 
paragraph that says that the TIDE schools were 
established in consultation "with the local 
rabbinical authorities, including some of 
Lithuania's foremost Torah scholars."

Also note the final paragraph given below and who 
Rav Reuvein Grozovsky credits with saving the 
Slabodka Yeshiva. See the link above for the entire chapter.

The lack of proper schooling for Jewish 
youngsters was a matter of great concern to the 
Occupation authorities. The traditional cheder 
provided schooling only at the elementary level; 
there was no organized educational system for 
high school and beyond. To address that need, Dr. 
Rosenak was asked to recommend an experienced 
educator who combined Jewish and secular 
scholarship, to establish and direct a school in 
Lithuania's capital city of Kovno.

Dr. Rosenak could not think of anyone better 
qualified for such an assignment than his 
brother-in-law, the Rav [Rabbi Joseph Tzvi 
Carlebach]. The educational experience of his 
years in Jerusalem and at the Margareten Lyceum 
in Berlin, had the Rav's status as a first rate 
educator firmly established. With doctorates in 
mathematics and philosophy included in his 
resume, he received the call. Reporting to the 
High Command -North East, he was promoted to 
captain with the title of advisor on educational 
matters, and invested with full authority to 
proceed with the schooling plan. Following 
extensive consultations with the local rabbinical 
authorities, including some of Lithuania's 
foremost Torah scholars, the Rav laid the 
foundations for a gymnasium-type school, based 
upon the principles of Torah im Derech Eretz, 
combining Torah lessons with secular subjects. 
Since the German authorities limited the number 
of weekly hours of instruction for religious 
subjects, the Rav introduced Hebrew as a foreign 
language, thus doubling the hours available for 
limuday kodesh, including Talmud for the boys and 
Tenach (Bible and Prophets) for the girls. The 
Rav was able to persuade a number of highly 
qualified teachers from Germany to join him, in 
his pioneering effort on behalf of the 
chinuch-deprived Jewish youth in the occupied 
territories. Notable among them was Dr. Leo 
Deutschlaender, whose name became famous, some 
years later, for his enormous contribution to the Beth Jacob school system.

Known locally as the Carlebach Gymnasium, the 
school began with fewer than a hundred students, 
as many parents were reluctant to entrust their 
children to the new educators who wore German 
army uniforms. The more religious-leaning among 
them were afraid that the new school might 
secularize their children, while the more secular 
minded were afraid of religious indoctrination. 
The Rav went from house to house to introduce 
himself and his program, winning over the parents 
of potential candidates. The enthusiastic 
reaction of the initial student body further 
dispelled any doubts about the quality of the 
education and the spirit in which it was guided. 
Ultimately, the whole-hearted endorsement of the 
community leadership, both religious and 
communal, soon made enrollment in the gymnasium a sought-after prize.

This additional aspect o? the Rav's blessed activities during World
War I remained unreported for decades, until a number of years after
World War II. At that time, the gaon and tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Y. Finkel,
dean of the world famous Yeshivat Mil' of Jerusalem, came to New
York to raise funds for the rebuilding of his Torah institution. He visited
the gaon, Rabbi Reuvein Grozovsky, a former talmid of Slobodka
Yeshivah and eminent Lithuanian Torah leader, who had already
established himself as one of the outstanding Torah personalities in
the U.S. Among Rabbi Finkel's entourage was the Rav's younger son.
Upon being introduced, Rabbi Grozovsky became very excited. Turning
to Rabbi Finkel he exclaimed, "I can bear witness that if not for
the intervention of this young man's father, the gaon Rav Joseph Tzvi
Carlebach, may HASHEM avenge his blood, Slobodka Yeshiva would
have ceased to exist. And not only Slobodka, but all the great T()rah
institutions in Lithuania, were saved through his intervention, and his
strenuous efforts to provide for their sustenance."



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Message: 7
From: Zev Sero <z...@sero.name>
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:46:04 -0500
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] mesorahReb Moshe responded re wearing modern


kennethgmil...@juno.com wrote:
> R' Eli Turkel wrote:
>> RMF also was against nusach sefard (chassidic) as it was a
>> change from tradition although that happened some 300 years ago.
> 
> R' Zev Sero asked:
>> Where did he write this?
> 
> Igros Moshe O"C 2:24

So how does that show that he was against Nusach Sfard?  Permission to
switch away from it doesn't mean that he's against it.  And in this case
he wasn't even being asked for permission to change to Ashkenaz; the
asker was already davening Ashkenaz, but worried that perhaps he had an
obligation to switch back to Sfard because it was his family minhag. To
this RMF answered that this family minhag was only a few generations old,
and before that the family had davened Ashkenaz, so he shouldn't feel
obliged to switch.  He didn't forbid it, or indicate disapproval of Sfard.
(He did write that he didn't quite understand the grounds on which the
previous generations had used for switching to Sfard, but he accepted that
they did indeed have valid grounds.)

BTW, RMF couldn't possibly pasken any other way, since his own father had
switched from Sfard to Ashkenaz as a condition of his shiduch.  If for
some reason he couldn't pasken that the switch was permitted, he would
have had to decline to pasken at all.

I recall seeing elsewhere in IM that the differences between NA and NS
are so trivial that switching between them doesn't really count as a
change in nusach, and when we talk about an issur on changing it must
be talking about much more radical changes than these.  I don't recall
exactly where I saw this, though.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
z...@sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                                                  - Clarence Thomas



Go to top.

Message: 8
From: T6...@aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:21:53 EST
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] mesorah


 
 


From:  "Eli Turkel" <elitur...@gmail.com>
Subject: Reb Moshe responded re  wearing modern
American clothing that were a variation  from the traditions.

>>RMF also was against nusach sefard  (chassidic) as it was a change from
tradition although that happened some  300 years ago. Evidently his
opinion is that it makes no difference how  long ago a mesorah was
changed it is still considered a change  today.<<







>>>>>
Litvishe poskim say you do not change from Nusach  Ashkenaz to Nusach Ari or 
Sfard, because you should keep your family  mesorah.   And if  you want to 
change from Nusach Ari or Nusach  Sfard to Nusach Ashkenaz, that is OK, and even 
desirable, because it is changing  back to your family's original mesorah.
 
Chassidishe poskim say that you /can/ and maybe even /should/ change from  
Nusach Ashkenaz to Nusach Sfard or Nusach Ari, because you are rising in  
madreiga from a lower nusach to a higher nusach, but you should not change the  
other way because that would be going down to a lower nusach.
 
This may apply to a recent thread in which the question was discussed,  could 
a computer be programmed to just look at all precedents, weigh them up and  
come up with a psak?  Could a computer be a posek?
 
In answer, it appears that you would have to specify in  advance whether you 
wanted a Litvishe or a chassidishe computer.  
 
(Ashkenazi or Sephardi -- same thing)

 


--Toby Katz
=============
"If you don't  read the newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper you are  misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




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