Avodah Mailing List

Volume 37: Number 88

Fri, 15 Nov 2019

• 1. Dreams (mco...@touchlogic.com)
• 2. Re: mechila (Ben Bradley)
• 3. Being Sekptical About Skepticism (Micha Berger)
• 4. women/mlacha (Rich, Joel)
• 5. spending money on a mitzvah (Rich, Joel)

From: "Rich, Joel" <JR...@sibson.com>...Chazal seem to have mixed feelings
about dreams but clearly there was a strong belief in some dream
interpretation. Does this still exist within orthodoxy? Any current
experts/publications in this area?

Many years ago (after reading the section in R Dessler on dreams) I had the
same question.

At the time, I asked R Wolbe z'l how much time/effort I s put into
interpreting my dreams.

He told me that when he was younger, he had a reoccurring dream and he went
to the Chazon Ish to ask its significance and what he should do.

He told me that the CI told him that today we not on the madregah that
Hashem sends us msgs thru our dreams, and that he should ignore it.

Mordechai Cohen

'An old question of mine- Why is the minhag haolam (common practice) to ask
for mechilla (forgiveness) during asseret ymai tshuva (10 days of
repentance) rather than before Rosh Hashana (when the initial judgment is
written down)?'

Isn't that the same question as why we have the aseres ymei teshuva after
RH, not before? After all, the purpose of asking mechila is that we can't
have mechila or kapara on mitzvos bein adam l'makom until we've had mechila
from those we've trespassed against (with apologies to external liturgy).
So the minhag haolam re mechila and the teshuva of aseres ymei teshuva are
all part of the same process and issue.
The question of why the order of of RH/AYT/YK is what it is has been asked
and has a number of approaches. But your question seems just part of that
bigger question.
Ben
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From
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/11/when-atheists-stole-the-moral-high-ground/

> The Spectator
> Nick Spencer
> 9 November 2019

> When atheists stole the moral high ground
...
> Most of us like to believe that we believe what we believe because
> rigorous reasoning and reliable evidence have led us there. Most of us
> are wrong. It isn't that reason and evidence play no role in our religion
> or lack of it; rather that they are saturated with deeper emotional,
> social and practical concerns. As Julian Barnes writes in The Sense of
> an Ending: 'Most of us... make an instinctive decision, then build up an
> infrastructure of reasoning to justify it.' Du Perron was no doubt very
> devout. Today he may well have been devoutly sceptical. But in neither
> case is he likely to have been led to his dis/belief through reason alone.

> That the emotions matter is well established in the case of religious
> belief, as Stephen T. Asma's fine recent study Why We Need Religion
> explains. But it is less well recognised when it comes to unbelief, and
> particularly the history of unbelief. Here we are still wedded to the
> romantic fable of fearless sceptics hacking their way through obscurantist
> bigotry, armed with nothing more than their trusty sword of reason.

See epigram in signature.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 The mind is a wonderful organ
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   for justifying decisions
Author: Widen Your Tent      the heart already reached.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF

Anyone aware of any women who do not do mlacha after shkia during the period between Pesach and Shavuot? Men? (see S"A O"C 493:4)

KT
Joel Rich

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The chavot yair (252) was asked by a talmid chacham (TC) about the
following circumstances: The TC's cousin vowed to provide the TC with
weekly wine for Kiddush. The TC would rather use his own wine as he doesn't
want to have a freebie with which to do a mitzvah (see Samuel 2.24:24) He
fears however it would be stealing to use the provided wine as the cousin
would not have given it to him if he knew he wasn't using it for Kiddush.
The chavot yair provides a detailed analysis of whether such a condition is
truly binding [the whole less than 100% free and clear sale topic is an
interesting one - is it not a sale if the condition isn't met or is there a
separate obligation] What caught my eye however was his endorsement of the
TC's preference to pay for his own kiddush even if the wine wasn't as good!
It's not based on the passage from Samuel [I suspect since that case was a
purchase from a non-ben brit) but rather because "tfei hiddur v'dikduk
mitzvah havi im koneh ladavar mkiso dlo havi msitca d'chinam dmistra milta
yesh lanu od rayah mhazohar" it's more of a beautification and
scrupulousness in mitzvoth if he buys it himself so it's not free and even
though this is clearly logical, we have a proof from the zohar.]
My question is why is this so clearly logical? The usual "hiddur" is in the
mitzvah itself, which in this case would be accomplished with the better
donated wine. In addition, the TC would now have funds to secure additional
mitzvoth (e.g. tzedaka).
My meta guess would've been soneih matanot yichyeh (it's better not to take
gifts) but that would require not taking the donated wine at all - which
didn't seem up for grabs. Any thoughts other than behavioral economics? (we
value our own things more)
KT
Joel Rich

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