Avodah Mailing List

Volume 39: Number 79

Thu, 09 Sep 2021

• 1. Re: Which foods should one avoid eating on Rosh Hashana? (Micha Berger)
• 2. Re: TRADITION High Holiday Reader 2021/5782 (Micha Berger)
• 3. Sistine chapel (Rich, Joel)
• 4. Re: Correct Pronunciation of Hebrew (elazar teitz)
• 5. Re: bechira? (Akiva Miller)
• 6. Is it a proper warning, or is it lashon hara? (Akiva Miller)
• 7. Machnisei Rachamim redux (Michael Poppers)

On Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 05:19:58PM +0100, allan.engel--- via Avodah wrote:
> Judging by the quasi-seder style 'simanim' publications that have
> proliferated in recent years, if the name of a food (in any language)
> appears to have negative associations, one just wishes those attributes
> on 'oyveinu' or 'soneinu'.

We don't eat nuts because agoz is 17 in gematria and cheit is... 18,
But the Zohar, around Bereishis 3a or so, says that Hashem rejected
ches and tes because they represent cheit. So you see you don't need
the alef -- ches+tes alone is sin. Or maybe the usual gematria +1 for
the word itself.

But you wouldn't daven for your enemies to sin, because odds are that
sin would be to harm us!

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Man is equipped with such far-reaching vision,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   yet the smallest coin can obstruct his view.
Author: Widen Your Tent                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF

On Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 01:51:27PM +0000, Prof. L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> [TRADITION]

The link wasn't usable. Try this one:
https://traditiononline.org/2021-high-holiday-reader

> TRADITION shares this year's High Holiday Reader dedicated to the thought
> of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z l. Rabbi Sacks masterfully integrated The
> BEST of Western thought with the timeless message of Torah to create
> a hopeful message for the Jewish people and for all humanity. We have
> dedicated this year's reader to Rabbi Sacks' bookshelves. Rosh Hashana
> is a time to think broadly of Hashem's world and our place within it
> and Rabbi Sacks' model is a most worthwhile framework for such thinking.

:-)BBii!
-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

I know there were some tours under Jewish that t ravel there. Is anyone aware of any published opinions that allow entering it?
Kvct
Joel rich
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[I had to change letters to translitrations of their names for the
digest to get anything but collections of "?". REMT may not agree with
my transliterations of those names. -micha]


I find it ironic that RDYLevine cites as a proof of the probable
correctness of the Ashkenazic pronunciation the fact that "It has
the difference between beis and veis, sof and tof," since the sof
pronunciation of the last letter of the alphabet is demonstrably an
error.

As we know, the letters are divided into five categories, depending on
which part of the mouth is used to pronounce them: guttural (alef hei,
ches, ayin), labial (pei, mem vav, beis), palatal (quf, kaf, yud, gimel),
lingual (tav, nun, lamed, tes, daled) and dental (zayin, samech, tzadi,
reish, shin). Since the sof is from a different part of the mouth than
the sin and the samech, they obviously cannot represent the same sound. I
think it is obvious that the sof pronunciation is a result of German
not possessing a th sound, either that of the word "think" or that of
the word "that," which accounts for the mispronunciation, respectively,
of a tav rafa and a daled rafa.

(Despite the above, I pronounce the letter as sof in davening and leining
because [minhag avosai beyadai] (or should I say [befi]?) )

EMT

.
R' Joel Rich asked:

> So would you say that R'ED holds that one is not held responsible
> for cases where it's beyond the nequdas habechirah?

I would think that, l'shitaso, one is not responsible for failures that are
beyond one's nequdas habechira (nor does one get credit for successes that
are within his nequdas habechira). But one IS held responsible if he
doesn't make a sincere attempt to move his nequdas habechira upwards. (This
might be the same idea as what R' Micha already posted.)

"The choices that you make today
are all that's gonna last.
The train is moving down the tracks
and it's moving awful fast."
("Ride the Train", Journeys)

We are not responsible for any of what we do or don't do. Our choices are
all that matters.

Akiva Miller
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.
Someone wrote the following: (I will not say who wrote it, nor how they
know me. It's even possible that I'm the one who wrote it.)

> A rabbi who I know, and who is involved on the highest level
> with the kashrus for a very large organization, wrote to me
> the following. He said that he had been in meat plants in [a
> certain area] and elsewhere, while shechita was done under
> supervision of [a certain hechsher]. He said, "That hechsher
> does not really care if the meat is kosher or not."

I'd like to hear from other people. What is your opinion? Does the above
paragraph constitute a fair and proper warning for people to avoid that
hechsher, or is it lashon hara? Or might you describe it in some other
manner?

Thanks in advance,
Akiva Miller
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> 1- It's not "just" the Gra and R Chaim Volozhiner <
And, AFAIK, it's not in the *nusach* of many *eidos*, whether Mizrach (e.g.
if you can, please point out where "Machnisei Rachamim" is in Yitzchaqi's
*machzor*, https://hebrewbooks.org/51105) or Ma'arav (e.g. KAJ/"Breuer's",
so presumably minhag FfdM).

> The Chasam Sofer said he would spend a long time on Nefilas Aparyim so
that he was busy during the piyut. (OC #166) <
As an *aveil* for most of 5781, I had the *z'chus* to often lead my *minyan*
in *S'lichos*; and I'm not saying "Machnisei."  My Shul's Rav, well-aware
of the issue w/ it, asked me why I was skipping it when it's in *nusach
Lita* (which Elizabeth, NJ follows) -- in response, I noted, *inter alia*,
that most of the *minyan* was already awaiting Qaddish when I was done w/
"Va'anachnu lo neida" (and of course re generally skipping paragraphs, we
certainly skipped a number of *piyutim* today [erev Rosh haShanah])....

> Why assume we are referring to mal'achim?  The Be'er Yaaqov (a commentary
on Selichos by R Chaim Tzevi Font)
explains the following:

Avraham was "av rachaman", Yitzchaq was "yatza ... lacuach basedeh",
Yaaqov -- "haqol qol Yaaqov", and David writes about his own crying,
"sim'ah dim'asi benodekha".

They are the Makhnisei Rachamim, Makhnisei Tefillah, Makhnisei Tze'aqah
and Makhnisei Dim'ah, respectively. <
OK, but other commentaries insist we indeed are praying to *malachim* (e.g.
see https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=45016&;st=&pgnum=28), so is
what you're quoting really an explanation of the writer's intent or just an *ex
post facto* rationale/defense?

Best wishes to all for a
*k'siva vachasima tova*! from
*Michael Poppers* * Elizabeth, NJ, USA
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