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Kosher mammals are primarily vegetarians. Kosher birds will eat insects, worms, and some sea life. When man tried to get mammals to eat meat parts that were mixed into their feed, they brought forth Mad Cow Disease.
My middle son participated in a Seed program when he was single. Neither he nor his Chaverim were stained with any schmutz from any source by this program. He is now starting his fifth year learning in Kollel. The best way to run any Kiruv program is to take really Stark men, whether married or single and have a Mashgiach or Shoel uMeshiv with them to monitor their involvment.
The reality in Israel is a bit different from reality in the USA and most of Europe. Here in the USA it is quite normal to find Charedi Jews with decent Parnassah. Many of us have university degrees. And obviously, many of us are on the internet, otherwise we would not be able to comment here. Also, the lines in America are not as cleanly cut as lines in Israel. Many men may were Chassidic Levush on Shabbos but far less than that on weekdays. Notice where the Agudah’s minyan map has minyanim. We can find plenty of very nice and frum men (and women) at every major bank and brokerage (what’s left of them) in New York City.
Daniel and his wife may want to consider their options, including returning to the Golus. He very likely might find what he wants somewhere outside of Israel.
Forgive me, I don’t have an Ig. M. where I am at the moment and it’s been many years since I last read the Teshuvos, but I don’t remember Reb Moshe saying that it was only bshas hadchak. I further remember seeing cholov stam in Reb Moshe’s fridge. I also remember that the second Teshuvah was basically, “Yes, I did say it and I meant it.” So, if it were an issue why did R’ Moshe permit the Rebbitzen to drink stam and why did he bother to include a Teshuvah the emphasise his heter?
While I don’t understand how anyone would buy cholov stam in Brooklyn (or Monsey, Lakewood, or any Yiddishe Stadt), I certainly understand that many in out-of-town locations people are hard-pressed to find milk and dairy products that are chalav Yisrael and not spoiled. Let them know that there is nothing wrong with drinking “company milk” as per Reb Moshe’s Heter.
To Feivel – is not a question of some hold one way and some hold the other way. The Litvish (Yeshivish) community is lenient. The Hungarians and Lubavitch are strict. Only when it comes to others, such as the Polish Chassidim some do, some don’t.
America and Israel have each become a Bavel with new minhagim and chumras in both. It is very important to understand what is a chumra and a hiddur versus what is required so that consider others to be erring.
When I travel out of the NY area, I see how many BTs try hard to keep Mitzvos properly. They have it much harder than we do. Let us not throw another chumra at them without telling them that it is a chumra.
btw: Entenmanns (sp?) is very salty. We eat too much salt as it is and therefore we should all avoid it.
I’m going to throw in my two cents even what I have to say is not news to anyone.
Reb Moshe z”l used three Teshuvos to make the point that “Company Milk” should not be considered “Cholov Stam”. The facts speak for themselves.
The Litvishe Velt never considered milk powder or cheese to require Cholov Yisrael. Thus, all baked goods made with powdered milk are still within Cholov Yisrael no matter what their source it. Of course, Lubavitch and Hungarians required even these to be Cholov Yisrael. Thus, if a Yeshiva Bochur eats a cake that is made with powdered milk or freeze-dried whey, he is still within the Cholov Yisrael definition.
Reb Moshe’s own wife ate food that was made with non-cholov Yisrael. If he were to feel that strongly about Cholov Yisrael, he might have told her not to eat these. And I was there, I saw them in the fridge.
Not eating Pas Paltar is a chumra. It was a chumra in the days of the Mishnah. I am often amazed when people consider the eating of pas paltar a kula. It’s fine to be machmir but you should know that you are keeping a chumra rather than consider someone else to be very mekil.
B”H I live in Brooklyn. Most of my family lives in Torah communities. It is easy for me to be makpid when it comes to chalav yisrael, pas palter, and chodosh (the only of the three that could be d’oraisa). However, somem of us must travel to places that are not Torah communities (and I am not talking about taking vacations) and must rely on lenient opinions, kulas, and heterim. Some people may be BTing in places were chalav yisrael is not availalbe or may not be the best choice because it is usually sour by the time you get it home. Some may rely on pas paltar because there is no frum bakery in town. Let us understand that chumras are beautiful, but there are times when making a chumra into a sine qua non results are not what we want.
It would be nice if a database could be started, with limited information such as
– Name
– Otherwise known as
– Location
– Derech (Litvish, Brisk, Chassidish, BT, MO, etc.)
– Contact information
A few additional thoughts. I have YU Semichah. I passed five tests in Halachah to get the Semichah and none included even one question on Mikvaos. It would have been a very good idea to require all Musmachim to learn Mikvaos as well as Ksamim which I did learn even though they were not part of the required curriculum.
There was one time when the Rav spoke for 25 minutes at a public meeting in which he took extreme exception to the derech of Dr. Belkin. I recorded it and typed it out. Unfortuantely, I lost it many years ago.
The Rav was very flexible. He tried to stay far away from the university politics and any other Machlokes that he could avoid. Dr. Belkin was a big Talmid Chochom and could give a Shiur. But his funciton was that of University President and only held an honorary title of Rosh Yeshiva. The Rav gave his derech of learning to thousands. Unfortunately, the Rav found himself in many machlokos because of his YU position and some ideas that were attached to him by default.
I remember a Talmid going up to him and asking him if his wife should wear a Sheitel. He responded, “At all times.” When asked about the Rebbitzen, he shrugged his shoulders but did not answer. He held that a shul without a mechitzah had no kedusas beis knesses. He held that one should not etner it, yet he did hold that one may enter near or even in it to hear the shofar if there were no alternatives. Most of the other Gedolim held that one may not enter it even if one would otherwise not be able to hear the shofar. Many of his Talmidim took synagogues without Mechitzos. Therefore many assumed that he permitted it. I only know of a few whom he permitted to take these pulpits and he placed rather difficult requirements. One was that they draw no pay, directly or indirectly from those synagogues. Another was that they had to daven at home, before entering those synagogues. And the third was that there had to be an agreement up front to vote in six months to install a mechitzah and that if the vote was not for the mechitzah, then the rabbi had to leave. This is a far cry from what most think his opinion was.
I was there. I heard The Rav speak up against YU policy. He did not do so very often, but he did when he felt that he had no other option. Dr. Belkin was the university president and he set all policies. His policies were executed by his minions, such as Harav Israel (Heb. name Ozriel) Miller and others. The Rav came, gave his Shiurim, and returned home. We can see from the fact that his talmidim, such as (yibadlu l’chaim) Harav Herschel Schachter’s and Harav Aharon Kahn’s examples that his derech was much to the right of Rabbi Dr. Belkin.
One should be carefull when trying to apply YU policy with the Rav. He did not write YU policy and was not usually part of the policy making group. He came and gave his Shiurim. Dr. Belkin and his staff created YU policies, including rabbinic placement. They were more lenient than the Rav. I once heard him speak and practically chastise Dr. Belkin.
I am a contemporary of many of the younger talmidim. Rav Ilson is an Iluy, not only in his own ability to learn but also in the ability to see greatness where others were unable to do so. What he could read into the words of Rav Alpert z”l was pure genious.
R’ Yoshe Ber z”l was not as lenient as many portrayed him to be. There were times when you had to try to pin him down to explain the sevara of a psak and understand how he thought before many of the apparently contradictory piskey halachah made sense.
I know that he was not in favor of permitting his Talmidim to take mixed-pew synagogues. Those who asked him were told that they may NOT receive any salary as long as the synagogue lacked a mechitzah. They were also required to daven elsewhere but he did say that they must answer Kadish and Kedushah when they heard these in pasul synagogues. I would have to write paragraphs to explain his exact logic.
I would add Rabbis Aharon Kahn, Mordechai and Dovid Willig, Parnes, Chaim Ilson, Meiselman, and Meir Fulda.
A minyan in Florida has a site where the gabai’s wife lists her menu for the week. http://davenwithdov.org/5.html she often includes recipes. Note: he doesn’t eat fleischig, so all the items are parve or milchig. I especially reccomend her salmon en croute, preferring the onion and pepper version (my youngest son prefers her spinach version).
I also like her variety of soups.
Let’s start with the easy. Rabbi is an English-language title. The Hebrew version was used only for those who had the authentic Semichah. It is now applied when speaking English to all who claim any form or rabbinic certification.
Rav and Harav (as well as their alternates in spelling) should be used only when referring to those who posess Yore Yore or Yadin Yadin ordination. There is an additional ordination of Rav u Manhig that is used in America differently than it was used in Europe (and Israel) where it was actually a masters degree. Now, many American rabbis have this in lieu of the more traditional Yore Yoreh.
In Germany (and several Central European countries) there was a title of Chaver which implied one who was a scholar but had not [yet] qualified for Semichah.
In places where there are many, many rabbis with various qualifications, it is nice to have a title that can be used to denote a rabbi of eminent status. Hagaon is one such title.
Maran is Aramaic for “our lord” and is also a title that implies more than a mere rabbi, one who is considered as a spiritual father by other rabbis. While it might sound a bit stuffy to an American, it would sound perfect to a Briton, where you have Mr., the Honourable Mr., the Right Honourable Mr., the Reverend Mr., the Right Honorable Reverand, and the Right and Most Reverend….. to apply different levels of their secular and religious nobility.
Regarding both Shacharis and Mussaf, I can think of two reasons, assuming that you are in Chutz Laaretz, as in Israel most places will duchan at both.
— the Rheinland (as in Franfurt) custom is to always duchan at Shacharis and Mussaf both. On Yom Kippur, we duchan three times, also at Neilah.
— The Shul planned to duchan at Shacharis but at least one Kohen who wanted to duchan was not available, he therefore requested a Mussaf duchan and as no one was drunk, the Rav permitted it.
It has been several years since I’ve davened in a place that permitted any drinking on Simchas Torah. As a rule, I attend an early minyan where there is no kiddush, one where they duchen during Mussaf. I make kiddush after davening and walk to various Shuls where the Rabbonim are my friends and winsch (wish) them a Gutten Jahr, with or without a jigger of schapps.
There is a Stiebel near my house with a rather large Kiddush and plenty of alcohol. There are two minyanim for Mussaf. The Gabbay kicks anyone who is drunk out of the main shul before Mussaf begins. Those who are drunk are then free to perform whatever laytzonus they want on their own. No laytzonus is permitted in the real minyan.
It is wrong to call an item that is written in black and white in the Shulchan Aruch and mentioned in the Gemara “zealous”. That is like saying that we are kanyoim for not permitting chazir in our shuls or our homes. The problem might be that some people follow the Gemara too closely when it says, “One who sins and repeats, it become permissible to him.”
I would suggest switching to decaf a few days before Yom Kippur
I’m pretty sure that you know that the first Avinu Malkenu was recited by Rabbi Akiva at a fast day for rain. They prayed and were not answered. After the service, Rabbi Akiva descended to the Biman and said Avinu Malkenu, and immediately the sky darkened and it started raining.
In Avinu Malkenu we declare that we speak to Hashem who is both our Father, loving and caring, and Malkenu, our King whose power is endless and who can act based solely on His desires. We ask Him to combine these attributes of love and majesty and to deal with us using His infinite mercy.