Avodah Mailing List

Volume 44: Number 37

Tue, 07 Jul 2026

• 1. yichud hashem (Joel Rich)
• 2. Re: Shehecheyanu on Mitzvoth (Jay F. Shachter)
• 3. parshanut (Joel Rich)
• 4. obligated to return (Michael Poppers)

I always understood the use of the different names of HKBH similar to the
understanding of HKBH gets angry ? it?s simply our perception. But what
raised the question to me was thinking about Christianity and the claim
that it?s not monotheistic because of the father-son Holy Ghost thing. I
don?t know enough about their theology but it sounded like it could be a
similar kind of concept as the sfirot.

I really do know I wonder how many people in our generation who don?t have
a solid footing and study kabbala are nichshol on the yichud hashem
principle because of sfirot?
Thoughts?

KT
Joel Rich
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>
> ... he explains that "Since pidyon haben is a mitzvah that is
> performed only once in a great while and it is an occasion of great
> joy, Chazal required the father to recite a shehecheyonu prior to
> performing the mitzvah." (Immediately after, he writes about saying
> shehecheyanu at a bris milah. I get the impression that in theory,
> the same halacha would apply, but in practice there are some
> contra-indications involved.)
> 
> ..........................................
> 
> My question is: What makes Pidyon Haben different? Why can one
> definitely say shehecheyanu on Pidyon Haben, but all these other
> mitzvos are problematic?
> 
> In footnote 75, he cites Gemara Pesachim 121b about saying
> shehecheyanu at a pidyon haben. I suppose it is possible that this
> is the only mitzva for which the Gemara explicitly says to say
> shehecheyanu, and that's why all others are questionable. But that
> answer would make sense only if there were a similarly explicit
> gemara about shehecheyanu at a bris milah, and I did not notice that
> mentioned.
> 

My answer, based on my assumption that everyone in the world resembles
me, is that it has to do with the phrase that you quoted but did not
subsequently refer to: "it is an occasion of great joy".  All my life
I have been imagining how I would, one day, fulfil the mitzvoth of
brith milah and pidyon habben.  I have gone over the details in my
mind (for example, since I have daughter but do not have a son, I
imagine serving sirloin steak at the s`udath brith milah, thereby
fulfilling, on a single occasion, all the mitzvoth in Sefer Bresheeth).
I also imagine pausing for a long time when the priest asks me at the
pidyon habben ceremony whether I prefer to give him the money or my
son, until my imagined wife finally yells at me to answer him, and I
say to her "I'm thinking it over" (of course, I would rehearse this in
advance with her).  I do not have similar thoughts about other
mitzvoth.  I have not been imagining and re-imagining my whole life
the scene in which I fulfil for the first time the mitzvah of
slaughtering a chicken, or freeing my nonJewish slave after knocking
out his tooth.

               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.

I often wonder how much of any torah commentary was based on tradition and
how much was based on the combination of the commentator?s DNA and life
experiences. In my mind whenever I pictured Joseph trying to get Jacob to
switch his hands in the blessing of the grandchildren, I thought of Joseph
thinking that Jacob had gotten a little old and was making a mistake and
that Jacob?s response was, my dear, dear son. I really do know what I?m
doing.

This year when I read it, I wondered whether it?s possible that. Joseph saw
it as Jacob favoring the younger over the older and perhaps Joseph was
concerned that this would start another round of the troubles that he
himself experienced as the favorite son. I take comfort in what I once
learned - that how you read something tells more about you than the author
or the story ?

Thoughts?
KT
Joel Rich
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> Not required- but what would his rav advise the ani to do? <
Acting *lifnim mishuras hadin*, I would think, is not subject to *p'saq*/asking
a *sh'eila*; and if one needs/feels the need to ask, the *p'saq* is
now *halacha
p'suqa* for the *shoeil* and no longer  *lifnim mishuras hadin*.

Sincerest condolences to R'Micha and family.  *HaMaqom y'nacheim eschem
b'soch sh'ar aveilei Tziyon viYrushalayim*.

All the best from
*Michael Poppers* * Elizabeth, NJ, USA
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