Avodah Mailing List

Volume 40: Number 51

Fri, 29 Jul 2022

• 1. I left an open package of hot dogs in my car with the doors unlocked. (Prof. L. Levine)
• 2. Waiving Aveilut (Joel Rich)
• 3. Re: Waiving Aveilut (Micha Berger)
• 4. When Rosh Chodesh Av occurs on Erev Shabbos, as it does this year, are there any restrictions on taking a shower? (Prof. L. Levine)
• 5. It Is Neither Dispositive, Nor A "Xumra" (Jay F. Shachter)
• 6. May I go swimming or canoeing during the Nine Days? (Prof. L. Levine)
• 7. [WICT] Liberator > Creator (Micha Berger)

From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis


Q. I left an open package of hot dogs in my car with the doors unlocked. If
someone would have taken my hot dogs and exchanged them with similar
looking non-kosher ones, I would have no way to know. Is there any issue
with eating these hot dogs?

A. The hot dogs are fine. The requirement to seal kosher packages applies
only when food is entrusted to someone who is not kosher observant.
However, in this case, the hot dogs were not given to anyone to watch.
Although the meat was not well protected, and theoretically could have been
taken by anyone, we can assume that if a person would steal the hot dogs,
they would not bother to replace them. The concern that the meat might be
replaced with non-kosher is relevant only for a watchman or a delivery
person. Since they are responsible for the food, if they would be hungry
and take a portion of meat, they would be compelled to replace what is
missing, and might do so with non-kosher product. In our case, since no one
is in charge of the hotdogs, there is no reason to suspect that it was
switched with a non-kosher variety.

YL
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There?s a difference of opinion as to whether a parent can waive the twelve
month aveilut for their child. What are the arguments  for doing or not
doing so? (From the parent's and the child's point of view)
She-nir?eh et nehamat Yerushalayim u-binyanah bi-mherah ve-yamenu (may we
see the consolation of Jerusalem and its rebuilding speedily in our days ),
Joel Rich
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On Tue, Jul 26, 2022 at 05:44:29PM -0400, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> There's a difference of opinion as to whether a parent can waive the twelve
> month aveilut for their child. What are the arguments for doing or not
> doing so? (From the parent's and the child's point of view)

According to RYBS, the additional 11 months of aveilus for a parent after
sheloshim are more about kibud av va'eim than directly about aveilus.

The gemara (Qiddushin 32a) allows a parent to be mocheil their kavod.

So... Leshitaso, that would be an argument in favor of it being allowed.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Rescue me from the desire to win every
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   argument and to always be right.
Author: Widen Your Tent                 - Rav Nassan of Breslav
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                 Likutei Tefilos 94:964

From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis


Q. When Rosh Chodesh Av occurs on Erev Shabbos, as it does this year, are there any restrictions on taking a shower?

A. During the Nine Days, a person may not shower or bathe (Rama OC 551:16)
but may wash his hands, feet and face with cold water (Mishna Berura ibid.
94) without soap or shampoo (Magen Avraham ibid. 41).

In warm climates, where one tends to perspire, some poskim allow a brief
shower in cold or lukewarm water, and when necessary soap may be used as
well (See Piskei Teshuvos 551:48 and Moadei Yeshurun p. 132:14 and p.
156:80).

This year we have two Arvei Shabbosos during the Nine Days. The first
occurs on Rosh Chodesh Av and the second is the one which falls on Erev
Tisha B?Av. On the first Erev Shabbos, for one who always honors the
Shabbos by bathing on Erev Shabbos, the mitzvah of kovod Shabbos overrides
the restrictions of the Nine Days and one may wash his whole body in hot
water (Mishna Berura551:89) and use soap (see Dirshu MB, Beurim 551:104 in
the name of Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach, zt?l) even when not required for
hygienic purposes.

On the second Friday, Erev Shabbos Chazon, one may wash hands, face and
feet with hot water. Nowadays, since people shower daily, Rav Moshe
Feinstein,zt?l allowed bathing the entire body as well (Moadei Yeshurun p.
133:21 and Kitzur Hilchos Bein HaMitzorim p. 13:7).

Professor Yitzchok Levine
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(Discussion moved to Avodah from our sister mailing list Areivim)

>
> Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2022 12:08:50 -0400
> Subject: Re: [Areivim] First US case of polio in nearly a decade is an Orthodox Jewish Man
>
> .... But then, we already discussed this WRT metzitzah be[f]eh.  If
> one does not hold it is actually required for the milah to be
> kosher, I do not see how a poseiq can recommend it as a chumerah.
> Because the poseiq isn't talking about the risk to any one baby boy,
> but to the whole population of them.
>

You are not thinking clearly, because there are more than 2
possibilities.  Metzitzah (whether that means bfeh or not is a
different discussion) is not required for milah to be kosher; that
does not mean, as you imply above, that it is a "xumrah".  It is not a
xumrah; it is mandatory, lkhatxilla; bdi`avad, if you don't do it, it
is not m`akkev.  I believe this is a distinction that you understand.
I assume that you do not say that for public-health reasons, to avoid
contagion, there should be no benediction over wine at an engagement
or at a wedding, even though, if there is no wine, erusin and nisuin
are both valid.  If there is wine, it is obligatory to recite the
benediction over wine; if there is not, or if there is, and you do
not, it is not m`akkev.  And so for many other things.

               Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
               6424 North Whipple Street
               Chicago IL  60645-4111
                       (1-773)7613784   landline
                       (1-410)9964737   GoogleVoice
                       j...@m5.chicago.il.us
                       http://m5.chicago.il.us

               When Martin Buber was a schoolboy, it must have been
               no fun at all playing tag with him during recess.

From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis


Q. May I go swimming or canoeing during the Nine Days?

A. Since bathing and showering one?s entire body are prohibited during the
Nine Days, the same restriction applies to swimming as well (Aruch
HaShulchan OC 551:35). Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt?l prohibited canoeing during
the Nine Days because the unstable canoe might overturn and one would fall
into the water (Moadei Yeshurun p. 136:41 and p. 161:164). It has been
mentioned in a previous Halacha Yomis that dangerous activities should be
avoided during the entire period of the Three Weeks, it is apparent that
Rav Moshe, zt?l did not consider canoeing a dangerous activity and
therefore he allowed canoeing until the Nine Days. Rabbi Moshe Perlowitz,
zt?l suggested that canoeing down roaring rapids is in fact dangerous and
should be avoided the entire Three Weeks.


Professor Yitzchok Levine

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Taken from https://whatiscalledthinking.substack.com/p/liberator-creator
by Zohar Atkins

His argument is a modern take on a point made by R Yehudah haLevi. The
Dibros command us to believe in the One Who took us out of Mitzrayim.
Not the One Who created heaven and earth. Leshitaso (and leshitas
Existentialism and all / nearly all? of the more recent schools of
philosophy) Emunah begins with our encounter with the RBSO, and not with
philosophical reasoning.

-micha

    What Is Called Thinking?
    whatiscalledthinking.substack.com

    Liberator > Creator
    Religion Begins with Encounter, Not Metaphysics

    Zohar Atkins

    If you only read one sentence read this: "Religion Begins with
    Encounter, Not Metaphysics."

    The Biblical God never says to the people, "I am the Lord your God
    who created the world," but rather, "I am the Lord your God who took
    you out of Egypt." Ok, yes, God does ask Job, "Where were you when
    I created the world?" But it's a rhetorical question, addressed to
    an individual prophet. And, moreover, the point of the question is
    to silence Job. You weren't there, so shut up. In the Five Books of
    Moses, God wants human participation and so the appeal is to the
    Exodus. You were there, therefore get involved. Love the stranger
    because you were a stranger. When God addresses the people as a
    people it's as the God who redeemed them, not as the God who made
    humanity in general. Why should ex-slaves care whether plants were
    fashioned by God ex nihilo, or came ready-made with the pre-fab earth?

    The Torah does link Shabbat/Sabbath to Creation, but on the whole
    the most common reason for following the law is "Because you were
    slaves in Egypt." God doesn't introduce Godself at Sinai as the God
    who made heaven and earth, but as the Liberator from slavery.

    The above point stands alone, but also profound is that Jews never
    say over everyday things, "Blessed is the Lord our God who took us
    out of Egypt," but rather "Blessed is the Lord our God who creates X."

    I'm aware that there are some exceptions, but the point is they
    are exceptions. The commandment to keep Shabbat is connected to God
    creating the world and then resting bears a direct link to Creation.

    But consider this: Does God say, "Love the stranger, widow, and
    orphan because I created the world"? No. God says do it because I
    took you out of Egypt. The national moral fabric is grounded in the
    Exodus event, not in Creation (with the exception of Sabbath).

    When God reveals Godself at Sinai in commandment 1 it's not as the God
    who made heaven and earth, but as the God who liberated from slavery.

    There are many teachings we could take from this observation, and
    I leave them to you.

    Here's one take: People want to know God in terms that are relatable.
    God's role as Creator is not as personal or compelling to people as
    God's role as Redeemer.

    In therapy, Irvin Yalom makes a similar point. The job of the
    therapist is not to impress the client with brilliant insights but
    to establish a connective relationship.

    If the therapist has an insight, but shares to show off or to
    self-gratify rather than to establish connection it backfires. A
    less insightful therapist who is better at establishing connection
    will be a more healing presence for the client.

    So too, God, doesn't lead with God's identity but with the aspect
    that establishes maximal connection. In Hegelian terms, it's not God
    in itself, but God for itself that concerns the meaning of covenant,
    law, morality, peoplehood.

    The other point, and this is really not mine, but rather common
    (we find it in Heschel, Sacks, Wyschogrod, Levinas, Buber,
    Heidegger, et al.) is that the Biblical God is a far cry from
    the God of medieval philosophy, which is chiefly focused on God as
    Creator. The reason medievals focus on Divine Creation is because of
    their debt to Aristotle and the need to show that God is causa sui
    (self caused). But as Heidegger writes, the God to whom people bow,
    the God before whom people sing and dance and sacrifice is not the
    God of philosophical metaphysics.

    Yes, God creates the world in Genesis. But God doesn't say to Moses,
    "I am the God who created the world." God says, "I am the God of
    your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." In contemporary parlance,
    God is very good at reading the room. It is the appeal to ancestors,
    not to metaphysics, that compels Moses to leadership.

    This essay (which started as a twitter thread) is my philosophical
    companion piece to today's theological-essay-sermon
    <https://etzhasadeh.substack.com/p/a-culture-of-narcissism>
    which reads the Lamentations and Numbers through the prism of
    Christopher Lasch's A Culture of Narcissism.

    (C) 2022 Zohar Atkins
    
    7. https://whatiscalledthinking.substack.com/subscribe?simple=true&;next=https%3A%2F%2Fwhatiscalledthinking.substack.com%2Fp%2Fliberator-creator&utm_source=paywall&utm_medium=web&utm_content=66279537
    8. https://substack.com/sign-in?redirect=%2Fp%2Fliberator-creator&;for_pub=whatiscalledthinking&change_user=false
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    10. https://whatiscalledthinking.substack.com/privacy
    11. https://whatiscalledthinking.substack.com/tos
    12. https://substack.com/ccpa#personal-data-collected
    13. https://substack.com/
    14. https://enable-javascript.com/

    Hidden links:
    16. https://whatiscalledthinking.substack.com/p/liberator-creator/comments
    17. javascript:void(0)
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    -Micha

    -- 
    Micha Berger                 Zion will be redeemed through justice,
    http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and her returnees, through righteousness.
    Author: Widen Your Tent
    - https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF


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