Avodah Mailing List

Volume 36: Number 21

Sun, 18 Feb 2018

• 1. Fascinating Gematria (cantorwolb...@cox.net)
• 2. Re: Haetz and Shehecheyanu (Arie Folger)
• 3. Re: Haetz and Shehecheyanu (Akiva Miller)
• 4. Trump on Segulos and Superstition (Prof. Levine)
• 5. Re: Haetz and Shehecheyanu (Micha Berger)
• 6. Re: Haetz and Shehecheyanu (Micha Berger)
• 7. shtarei hedyotot (Rich, Joel)
• 8. Tetzaveh (cantorwolb...@cox.net)
• 9. Talking During Torah Reading (Professor L. Levine)
• 10. Re: Talking During Torah Reading (elazar teitz)
• 11. Haman's yahrzeit (Akiva Miller)
• 12. Kashrus Advisory - Tevilas Keilim (Professor L. Levine)

If you take the word Chochma which applies to the wisdom of God, it is spelled chet, chof, mem, hey. 
Now if you spell each letter as it is with its numerical value: chet is spelled chet, yud, tav = 418, chof is 
spelled chof, peh = 100, mem is spelled mem, mem = 80 and hey, which can be spelled hey, yud which = 15.

If you add all of the letters of the word Chochma: 418+100+80+15, they equal 613.
It is brought down that the Chochma of God equals the Torah (taryag mitzvot).
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180213/70a6f1d9/attachment-0001.html>

RAM cited the Arukh haShulchan:

"The earlier Generations were temimim. They had simcha at seeing the new
fruit, and they gave heartfelt thanks to Hashem for the good that He gives
to the whole world. So *they* were able to say the bracha on seeing. But
us? The simcha and gratitude is not noticeable by us, except when the body
enjoys it at eatingtime. That's why it's not possible for us to say the
bracha on seeing. They (Rama 225:3) did write that 'one who says it on
seeing doesn't lose', but that only means that one should NOT say that for
us it would be a bracha l'vatala, because it wouldn't be."


Me: Perhaps we're missing a little obvious fact. Could it be that the joy
of seeing fruits is particularly felt by farmers, and that back when
everyone was a farmer of sorts, even if only in their garden (remember,
before the advent of refridgirators, either you had your own vegetable
garden or didn't eat them fresh). In the egalitarian vision of ish ta'hat
gafno veta'hat te'eno, everyone would indeed be a farmer, so this applied
and would apply to all.

Nowadays, hardly anyone is a farmer, and therefore we do not feel much joy
upon seeing the new fruits, hence we switched to blessing upon eating the
fruit. It has now been many hundreds of years that Jews became very urban.
So 500 years ago, in teh time of the Ramo, we were already not necessarily
rejoicing upon the mere sight of a new fruit, but the joy still lingered.
Meanwhile, we do not even necessarily feel the seasons in the grocery
store, therefore there are a bunch of fruits for which we no longer recite
shehe'hiyanu.

The above approach also solves RAM's question why we have less compunctions
delaying the onset of the berakha of leisheiv basukka for the sake of
waiting until we actually eat. These are very different berakhot that are
subject to different kinds of considerations.

Kol tuv,
-- 
Arie Folger
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180214/f29e9df8/attachment-0001.html>

.
> And that the shift from an agrarian society's excitement that
> a new crop came in to what we do today is a much bigger change.
> One that I wonder whether shehechiyanu really is appropriate
> altogether.
> ...
> ... There is no experience of a new season. Whether or not you
> wait to actually eat it.

Yes, I can totally agree with this. It is an important question; maybe
we should drop this Shehecheyanu entirely? My suspicion is that it may
simply fade away of its own accord, simply from a lack of relevant
situations, exactly like the Shehecheyanu on seeing someone again
after a long while. Truth be told, I have made Rosh Hashana several
times without a new fruit, because despite my going to the market, I
simply didn't see any fruit that was both new and tasty.

BUT - do not lose sight of this question being a different one than
we've been discussing so far. Namely: *IF* the Shehecheyanu is going
to be said, is it before or after the Haetz?

Akiva Miller

Please listen to the talk at

https://goo.gl/5o3SoU

Speaker <https://www.yutorah.com/rabbi-ya-akov-trump/>Rabbi Ya'akov Trump


Description (from the web page)

A survey of some of the different perspectives of Segulos, the 
prohibition of superstition and a few examples.


YL






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180215/9602d43c/attachment-0001.html>

Sorry, I shouldn't have approved RAM's email, as it's a reply to something
I wrote him privately. No context!

Well, here's the exchange, my email and his, starting with my quote
of RAF:

On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 04:00:09PM +0100, Arie Folger via Avodah wrote:
: Perhaps we're missing a little obvious fact. Could it be that the joy
: of seeing fruits is particularly felt by farmers, and that back when
: everyone was a farmer of sorts, even if only in their garden (remember,
: before the advent of refridgirators, either you had your own vegetable
: garden or didn't eat them fresh)...

Me:
> The refigerator comment is a distraction, since (as you make clear below)
> you're talking about a change that was at least 500 years ago.

RAF, continuing:
: Nowadays, hardly anyone is a farmer, and therefore we do not feel much joy
: upon seeing the new fruits, hence we switched to blessing upon eating ...
: So 500 years ago, in teh time of the Ramo, we were already not necessarily
: rejoicing upon the mere sight of a new fruit, but the joy still lingered.
: Meanwhile, we do not even necessarily feel the seasons in the grocery
: store, therefore there are a bunch of fruits for which we no longer recite
: shehe'hiyanu.

Me, continuing:
> I did mention that the whole taqanah of making shehechiyanu on new fruit
> was not about looking for a dragonfruit or a gooseberry, or some other
> exotic fruit you never otherwise would have spent that kind of money
> on. And that the shift from an agrarian society's excitement that a new
> crop came in to what we do togay is a much bigger change. One that I
> wonder whether shehechiyanu really is apporpriate altogether.

> Ironically, you can get an imported apple today at a time when it's
> out-of-season in your part of the world for less money than that
> dragonfruit. And for those of us in many parts of the world, the more
> local one isn't so local that it's noticably fresher in taste. There is
> no experience of a new season. Whether or not you wait to actually eat
> it.

I thought I was just  repeating myself, so I didn't send to the list:

On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 06:40:11PM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: Yes, I can totally agree with this. It is an important question; maybe
: we should drop this Shehecheyanu entirely? My suspicion is that it may
: simply fade away of its own accord, simply from a lack of relevant
: situations, exactly like the Shehecheyanu on seeing someone again
: after a long while. Truth be told, I have made Rosh Hashana several
: times without a new fruit, because despite my going to the market, I
: simply didn't see any fruit that was both new and tasty.
: 
: BUT - do not lose sight of this question being a different one than
: we've been discussing so far. Namely: *IF* the Shehecheyanu is going
: to be said, is it before or after the Haetz?

Chodesh Tov!
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If you won't be better tomorrow
mi...@aishdas.org        than you were today,
http://www.aishdas.org   then what need do you have for tomorrow?
Fax: (270) 514-1507              - Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 06:40:11PM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: BUT - do not lose sight of this question being a different one than
: we've been discussing so far. Namely: *IF* the Shehecheyanu is going
: to be said, is it before or after the Haetz?

I am still satisfied with my earilier answer.

The berakhah isn't really on eating, it's on the excitement (assuming the
emotion's existence for the moment) of having a new fruit. And it's not
a chiyuv, it's a reshus, so we are nohagim to wait until we eat the fruit.

But even with this minhag, the shehechiyanu is still not on the
eating. The din was made about seeing, even with the minhag, it's still
a berakhah about seeing. We just utilize it being a reshus rather than
a chiyuv not to make the berakhah on the first re'iyah. So why do we
have to wait until the exact moment before eating -- without even the
berakhah as a hefseiq?


To my own mind, therefore, the question of the parenthetic comment above
is really more determinant. We're trying to understand which joy the
berakhah is on without necessarily feeling real joy at all!

Chodesh Tov!
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When one truly looks at everyone's good side,
mi...@aishdas.org        others come to love him very naturally, and
http://www.aishdas.org   he does not need even a speck of flattery.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Rabbi AY Kook

On the topic of shtarei hedyotot, I wonder why the reading of newspaper
advertisements on Shabbat is rarely addressed. If there is no general
heter, is this just a case of mutav sheyihiyu shoggegin?(I'm thinking
specifically of all the weekly divrei torah publications) My suspicion(and
that's all it is so I am really wondering if anyone has clarified this) is
that like a number of gzeirot that according to the algorithm should not be
able to be undone, common practice has recognized the reality that perhaps
their application today is less clear?	Any insights into current rabbinic
thinking would be very much appreciated.
KT
Joel Rich

THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE 
ADDRESSEE.  IT MAY CONTAIN PRIVILEGED OR CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION THAT IS EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE.  Dissemination, 
distribution or copying of this message by anyone other than the addressee is 
strictly prohibited.  If you received this message in error, please notify us 
immediately by replying: "Received in error" and delete the message.  
Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180216/f764663f/attachment-0001.html>

Moshe's name is conspicuously missing from this sedra. What is interesting is
that this mirrors the omission of God's name in the entire Megillas Esther; 
and Tetzaveh always falls right before Purim in a non leap year 
(and before Purim Katan in a leap year). Also, it falls around Moshe?s yahrzeit, 
the 7th of Adar and when Moshe tells God that if He doesn?t forgive the Jews for the Golden Calf, 
then erase his name from the Torah. So right at his yahrzeit, his name has been erased only from this Sidrah. 
(The GR"A says that Hashem foresaw that Moshe would die on the seventh of Adar).

 
The following is most fascinating:  Ch. 1, v. 1: "Va'y'hi" - This first
word of the Megillah and the last word (10:3) "zaro" equal "Mordechai
ha'Y'hudi" [gematria 314] (Roke'ach).  Now it gets even more fascinating
regarding an insight into the first and last words of the Megillah. We know
that Hashem kept a low profile in the Megillah, orchestrating every event,
but not having His name mentioned even once. Hashem's name which embodies
this concept of constriction, "tzimtzum," is Shin-Dalet-Yud, Shadai. The
first and last words of the Megillah equal 314, the numerical value of the
name Shin-Dalet-Yud. We thus see in a mystical sense that from the first
word until the last word, everything that happened was controlled behind
the scenes by Hashem in the constricted form of natural occurrences. 
Likewise, though Moshe's name is not mentioned in Tetzaveh, he was still
God's right hand man and the greatest prophet ever to live. His temporary
absence merely underlines his overall p
 resence.
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180217/e179a86b/attachment-0001.html>

Yesterday in shul when I asked someone not to talk during Krias Ha Torah he
asked me for a source that says one is not allowed to talk between the
aliyahs.  I quick google search turned up the following.  YL


From https://goo.gl/WG5w2e

The congregation is not permitted to talk while the Torah is being read,
not even about matters of Torah study. (The need to be silent begins once
the Torah has been opened to recite the blessings over it - Mishnah Brurah
146:4.)This is true even between aliyos. (There may be room to be lenient
regarding Torah study between aliyos - MB 146:6.) One may not leave the
shul while the Torah is being read (even if he already heard the Torah and
even if there's still a minyan without him - MB 146:1). One may, however,
exit in-between aliyos if necessary.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180218/0709d935/attachment-0001.html>

RDYitzchok Levine wrote:

On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 12:14 PM, Professor L. Levine <llev...@stevens.edu>
wrote:

<Yesterday in shul when I asked someone not to talk during Krias Ha Torah
he asked me for a source that says one is not allowed to talk between the
aliyahs.  I quick google search turned up the following. (From https://goo.
gl/WG5w2e)

<"The congregation is not permitted to talk while the Torah is being read,
not even about matters of Torah study. (The need to be silent begins once
the Torah has been opened to recite the blessings over it ? Mishnah Brurah
146:4.)This is true even between aliyos. (There may be room to be lenient
regarding Torah study between aliyos ? MB 146:6.) One may not leave the
shul while the Torah is being read (even if he already heard the Torah and
even if there?s still a minyan without him ? MB 146:1). One may, however,
exit in-between aliyos if necessary. ">

     Google is selective in its psak. The Aruch Hashulchan,cites the Beis
Yosef (the source of the MB), and says that his reason for prohibiting is
not the speaking per se, but because it might continue into the aliya. He
adds that the Bach and The Magen Avraham permit brief conversations,
especially nowadays when lengthy breaks occur because of mi shebeirachs.

     I think this a classic example of "heter meiah rabbonim" -- there are
more than 100 rabbonim who talk bein gavra l'gavra.

EMT

>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180218/e142676b/attachment-0001.html>

.
I am trying to figure out when Haman was hanged.

Rashi on Esther 4:17 says that the three days of Esther's fast were
Nisan 14, 15, and 16. Perek 5:1 tells us that Esther's first meeting
with the king was on "the third day", which I presume to mean the
third day of the fast, Nisan 16.

That night, Motzaei Nisan 16 was the famous "sleepless night"
documented at the beginning of Esther 6. Subsequent events -- the
Mordechai parade, Esther's second meeting with Achashveirosh, and the
hanging of Haman -- must have taken place no earlier than Nisan 17.

So why do I find many sources saying that Haman was hanged on Nisan
16? Several such sources include
https://www.ou.org/judaism-101/bh-yom-yom/nissan/
http://www.torahtots.com/timecapsule/thismonth/nisan.htm
http://www.mayanyisroel.net/templates/blog/post_cdo/aid/2792698/PostID/60619

I suspect that the confusion might stem from exactly which three days
were the fast. Above, I quoted Rashi that the three days were Nisan
14-16, but ArtScroll's Megillas Esther, on 5:1 says the following.
(The parentheses and brackets are theirs; I did not note their use of
italics:

1. Bayom hashlishi - Third day [of the fast (M'nos Halevi)]. It was
the first day of Passover (Rashi).

It seems to me that if the three days of the fast were Nisan 14 15 and
16, then the third day was Nisan 16. And on my calendar, Nisan 16 is
the *second* day of Pesach. Why does ArtScroll say that the third day
of the fast is the first day of Pesach?

I do concede that IF the third day of the fast was the first day of
Pesach, then the correct date of the hanging would have been Nisan 16,
like other sources seem to say. But that would not be consistent with
Rashi on 4:17. Am I looking at the wrong Rashi? Are there variant
texts of this Rashi?

Thanks!
Akiva Miller

From

https://goo.gl/PtWVjN

Kashrus Advisory - Tevilas Keilim

February 15, 2018 from the OK<http://www.ok.org/consumers/kosher-alerts/type/alert/>:

Please be advised: gift trays may need to be toiveled if they will be further reused for food use.
According to Jewish law, the proprietor is not required to perform tevilas keilim but the consumer may be obligated to do so. Please consult your personal Rav.


YL

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180218/3aaf7fc8/attachment.html>

------------------------------



_______________________________________________
Avodah mailing list
Avo...@lists.aishdas.org
http://www.aishdas.org/lists/avodah
http://lists.aishdas.org/listinfo.cgi/avodah-aishdas.org


------------------------------


**************************************

Send Avodah mailing list submissions to
	avodah@lists.aishdas.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://www.aishdas.org/lists/avodah/avodahareivim-membership-agreement/


You can reach the person managing the list at
	avodah-owner@lists.aishdas.org


When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Avodah digest..."

A list of common acronyms is available at
        http://www.aishdas.org/lists/avodah/avodah-acronyms
(They are also visible in the web archive copy of each digest.)