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mybat- as always, ask your rabbi. In the thread mentioned by “i can only try”,this isuse was discussed extensively by various posters. There certainly are poskim who allow it ,regardless of what they are made off. as you can see from some other posters, there are even some that have a hechsher. Good luck.
oomis1105- you are IRISH??
has any of you heard todays crop- like moshe schulhoff- alberto mizrachi, the hershtik’s of course,moshe muller (from antwerp- not to be confused with ben zion) and others. I love schulhoff- no koussevitzky but a beautiful sweet voice.
well, in all the postings till now, I have not seen mentioned any of the classic whiskys- johhny walker red (and black), Dewars white label, ballantine’s, even Grants. is it just an ommission or are they- according to you- also in the mix of the problematic opnes?
wow-just reading the comments….in truth, i never analyzed the chazzonim and their singing like these contributors do…from the few recordings i have heard, berele chagy must have sounded awesome in real life and, of course, moshe koussveitsky in his unparalleled high tenor….any of the commentators appreciate any of today’s chazzonim?
sherry cask- i still owe you an answer on our correspondence in a differetn medium…too much work…but thank you for all your work…. and thanks to jothar too….I’ll try to look over the sources mentioned….after all the above discussions, maybe I’ll go back to the early favorites like Red lable, ballanatine’s , white label…etc..are they ok?
mezonos maven- gavra at work-ben melech- the mishneh (avos 5-25) says; ” at five, you teach a child mikroh, at ten, mishneh, at thirteen mitzvos, at fifteen gemoro, at eighteen marriage, at twenty “lirdof”-to pursue a livelihood (yes- work)”
although today times have changed and the way of learning too(we certainly teach mishneh and gemoro much earlier, although the MaHaral was very unhappy about this), the general idea of the misheh is still with us. You learn till you become eligible for marriage (then eighteen,possibly a bit later today)and then he learns for two years and then, the young man should go out to work!!!!
this correct way of living is repeated many times in shas. kiddushin, of course, with the chiyuvim on the father, berochos- showing that you MUST work to feed yourself and other ways are NOT succesful and , of course, kesubos, where it is crystal clear that the husnad has obligations to his wife, that include feeding her and clothing her.
There are no chyuvim on the wife in that realm at all.
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rwndk1- ‘ashrechu”. you hit it on the head. tell people to- DO NOT DO ANYTHING THAT YOU DON”T FEEL YOU CAN DO- either by spending a fortune on a chassuno or thinking that you have to buy an apartment and mortgage your life for it. This is unconsionable and should be avoided.
This is how I acted within my own family,regardless of what was offered to me.
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jothar- no one has ever denied the actual fact of a kollel. It is the acceptance that EVERYONE has to be in kollel that is being disputed.
mezonos maven- you are welcome to do this mitzvah any way you want to. My point is that you are buying a major asset for people with money from people who do not have it themselves. Why not buy a house for couples HERE in the USA? Thye could us it too! I think it is highly dishonest to collect money for couples in Israel from people who will NEVER have the same house or apartment!
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Many of these people who may be giving oney for “hacnossas kallaH’ that geos to buy an apartment, do NOT have any apartment themselves. Why should they buy an asset for someon else when they don’t have one themselves???
jothar- as a matter fact, if I would have my druthers, I would eliminate 90% of the kollel positions. I don’t see where the status of a rabbi (for all you know, mt screen name may be a nickname) obligates one to accept a way of life that was never , ever part of our tradition and a way of life that stands squarely against a slew of gemoros, mitzvos, rishonim and more. Just start from mishpitom, go through kessubos,kiddushin and berochos and check the rishonim and you will see that what is happening now is absolutely wrong.
I did not want to get into another discussion of whether there should kollel or not….but your question needed an answer.
BTW- what does WIC have to do with being a talmid chochom?
Everyone agrees that there should be a LIMITED amount of people who are learning ,so as to prepare the next dor. What is objectionable is the fact that everyone ends up relying upon the rather stretched means of the klal.
jothar- your comments from the mishneh are commedable…..is this why every bochur from lakewood wants to marry a rich girl?? (and his rosh yeshiva encourages him to do so…)
anon for this- is thsi the way a ben torah should live- with WIC and food stamps?
In a few lines, this is going to revert to the debate about kollel or no kollel.
All I want to point out to jothar is the fact that, even with the stipends for bnai yeshiva in eretz yisroel and some welfare help here in the US, the vast majority of these families live in the most impoverished circumstances, are a too-heavy buren on theri paretns and families and sned their wives out to work in multiple jobs. To my humble estimation, this is NOT the way Torah meant it to be. To be really effective, cut the number of Kollel-guys by ninety percent and give the remaining ten percent a living wage.
mezonos maven- what you are writing is preposterous and stands the truth on its head. There were PLENTY of reports about camps and killing fields. Polish refugess went through Hungary by the hundreds, maybe thousands. Prominent rebbes (belz, Bobov) came from the ghettos and passed through Hungary in 1944. Everyone knew that they were killing jews and many heard of the camps. A nice drawing oh Auschwitz would not have made an iota of difference.
Two things happened; the jews of hungary, by and large, just could not believe in the horror and two- there was precious few places to flee.
It is preposterous to say that,had they seen the Vrba report, they suddenly would have left their towns en masse or they would have grabbed guns and resisted. This is a stupid argument. (I also point out that the only few jews tht resisted ith arsm were the secular ones)it is made of total fabrication.
You have fallen prey to the post-war chareidi(mainly satmar) myth that the Zionists were all-powerful and that everything was their fault. Kasztner became the convenient poster boy for this historical invention.
The truth is totally different, because every person made mistakes and the real culprits are the damned NAZIS-JEMACH SHEMOM.
mezonos maven- I ‘googled’ Kurt Becher. From the little information on that website, it seesm to me that Becher was indeed a real criminal-from his days in poland and russia- but when he came to hungary, he knew the end was near and he tried to feather his nest AND to protect himself.Many criminals do that all the time.
i have not seen the actual depostion of Kasztner but I think he thought he owed becher a debt of gratitude in facilitating the train that saved many jews. I think he was clearly mistaken in this matter . What is more problematic is why Becher was acquitted. It cannot be that the ONLY witness was Kasztner and if anyone knows the whole depostion, have him quote it.
squeak- I agree with you totally. No-one realy knew what was going to happen and certainly , Hungarian jews did not believe the polish refugees who told them about the camps and the like,
This is why I say that you should not condemn anyone- not Gedolim ,who did not foresaw what would happen ,not zionist leaders who begged people to move to israel but also did not see the catastrophe coming and certainly not individual people (like Kasztner) who tried their best to protect whomever they could.
As you write- Judge the real ‘reshoyim”- the nazis and allow all the Kedoshim to rest in peace.
mezonos maven- I will indeed do that.
to truthsharer- i found the original letter (on a different website). It is not clear when he wrote this, It must be either May 1939 or 1940. Probably 1940, as he is talking about leaving for the US-and before the invasion of Poland, this was not yet a priority.
However, there is one aspect fo the letter not quoted and showing a different perspective. He continues and advises the addressee of the letter (not sure who it was) to contact R’Shlmo Heiman- then rosh yeshiva of Torah Vodaath about this. Clearly, R’Elchonon was not sure what to do and he left it up to the addresse to make other arrangements. I am not sure what to make of this, except to thunk that R’Elchonon himself was not sure what to do. he was conflicted about the impending dangers but was still torn between staying in Poland and leaving for the US.
What I learn from this is that no one is a “navih” not even a great Godol and that everyone can err, and the gedolim of that generation tragically erred.This is not to accuse them-chas vesholom-of anything just to observe that no one is infallible.
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To say that ‘ only a prophet kew that there would be a war’ flies in the face of all that we know and knew. The Nazis had been in power for seven years and the expulsion of jews from germany and Austria was going on without stop. it would have been very prudent for people to look at alternatives in leaving Europe and indeed many did. Virtually everyone was expecting a war.
No one has ever accused rabbonim and Roshey yesihiva in being-G-d forbid- complicit in the Holocaust, but also, you cannot make them infallible and know-all. Thye do NOT know all and they sureyl CAN maker mistakes. This is the essence of the difference here and in the world. R”elchonon was overly worried about the spiritual danger of the US and this was his right, regardless when he wrote this letter. This was also the position of many other gedolim but they did NOT foresaw what as to come and this is the rux of the matter.
gedolim are NOT infallible, rabbonim are not know-all and they should be treated as such. They can err.
As far as Kasztner geos ,enoug has been written about this and there is little to add. Maybe the nazi he defended was indeed good to him and to others? there were a few,very few who did not participate in the murder of the jews. maybe he was one of them?
I say to cantoresq; ‘a brocho of dein kopf”. or, as they say in tennis, point, set and match.
The real fact is that virtually everyone in Hungayr knew about the impending danger of the germans and their plans (who took over the government in early 1944). There were plenty of polish jews who fled and told their stories of the murders and camps. It just is that people either could not believe the whole truth ( like many of jews in the world).
Many of jews streamed across the romanian border to save themselves (this I know from personal experience). The problem in Hungary was that there was very littel room for any escape.
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Kasztner did save well over one thousand jews, most of them who had absolutely no connection with zionism. This is the FACT.
No one accuses wallenberg of hiding the truth (which he knew) and everyone praises him for saving thousands of jews.the same with Schindler.
Kasztner’s accusers were bitter and despondent and there is plenty of guilt to go around.
It is absurd to accuse kasztner and exonarate other people who could nto see what was happening.Allow them all to rest in their final resting place.
I must say that “truthsharer” copy of the letter -which I never knew-send a chill down my spine. I cannot elaborate on this, but the thougths in the letter are very disturbing.
Generally, I decided long ago not to comment on the Kasztner story, as there are too many people who have no idea what really happened. But “mezonos maven” gratuitious swipe at Kasztner convinced me to add my own few words.
One FACT is incotroveertible: A train containing well over one thousand jews left Budapest and ultimately reached Switzerland in safety. On that train were the Satmarer rebeb (no zionist, for sure), Rav Jonassan Steif, the Rav of Pest and his whole family and many other jews who had no connection to Kasztner.
Few,if any, other Jews were able to save anything like this number of jews in the war. ALL the stories about saving jews were about non-Jews (Schindler, Wallenberg, the japaneses and swiss consuls). if this train would have been negotiated by a non-jew, we would today put him amongst the “tsadikei umos haolam” and he would be immortalized amongst the righteous gentiles.No one would aks if he kept quiet about other things, no one would aks if he did not tell other jews about the impending catastrophe.he would be universally praised and lauded as a great man.
The ONLY reason why Kasztner has been attacked and is still being attacked today is because he was a Zionist and the guilt lays heavy on all the frum jews who did not see the catastrophe coming.
So, they use him as a scapegoat to condmen Zionism because they cannot admit that Zionism ultimately saved many more jews and gave them all shelter. Simply, it is a lack of “hakoras hatov”.
mezonos maven- in your eyes, are all Gedolim infallible?? You mean to say that no Godol EVER had a certain “negiah” to an issue?? Do you mean to say that no godol EVER succumbed to public pressure??
I would have a belly laugh at this posting if it did not indicate the (truly) dangerous way in which some jewish circles (mainly chareidi) are drifting. To find evil intent and dubious motivations in every act of someone is totally NOT torah-dig.clearly, “heve dan es kol odom lekaf zechus”
If you feel that it is inappropiate to invite couples because of the possible inferences, then it should be across the whole spectrum. People’s inclinations do not stop when they have children or as they grow older. Mayb even qite the opposite.
The fact is that this has never been mentioned in halacah, it surely goes against the grain of one of the biggest mitzvas (hachnsos orchim) and it brands (unfairly)every person.
Jsut for the record: tsitis are NOT a ‘dvor shebekedusah”. This only applies to tefillin, sefer torah and the like. A neged with tsitis is a “dvar mitzvah”. When the tsitis become possul , you can throw them away , also the actual begged. Not the case with ‘dovor shebekedusha”
to says who; actually, there were differences of opinion even amongst the chassdim. I imagine you are referring to a “gezeirah” in the 1850’s (that is EIGHTEEN hundred and fifties-in the secualr calendar)by the then russian governemt no to wear certain clothkng (I cannot quite remember the actual details)if my memory serves me correctly, the chidushei Harim (gur) was for stadning fast while other rebebs were for compromise. Maybe someoen can check in on google or elsewhere.
mybat- actually -yes, you can tell the difference between these differetn bottles-aged differently. Johnny Black is the best for the money and blue is totally overpriced (about 150) green is good but not great, although they market it as single malt. I’ll take glenfiddich anytime.
the only whiske that resembles your description is “royal salute’ by crown, about 75 bucks. Otherwise, I just don’t remember any other similar shaped bottle.
I can only try- I used to drink instant coffee in my youth, many years ago – until I found brewed coffee. I just cannot drink instnt anymore ,unless it is shabbos or yom tov. it is truly excarable, the acidity, the aftertaste- YECH ! so, when I drink, it is in only brewed coffee ! try it once- you may never go back-after all- you dub yourself ” I can only try”.
on a more sober notion- how can the element-when not used- be considered aish?? this would mean that any stove or oven is considered as lit- clearly not the case.
to squeak- “zli’ can be both- as you indicated, roasting over an open fire or “zli kli” which is actually frying in a skillet. Interestingly, I have seen coffee beans roasted in a pan over fire- this is they way ethiopians do it (maybe all africans but I only saw ethiopians do it). the skillet is heated but dry and the beans are roasted in it. They don’t burn because the beans actually have a little bit of fat in them, like all beans. Halachacally, it makes no differecne to our discussion because coffe making is clearly bishul and “jesh bishul achar afyah” and also “achar zli”
squeak- thanks for your comments. I am pretty sure you just cannot make coffee with cold water- in other words, putting the ground coffee in cold water. try it- it tastes terrible, even if heated . somehow, chemically, the ground coffee must come into contact with hot water- NOT boiled water. Any of the usual methods-drip,french(with a plunger), even turkish coffee, all of them deal with hot water. If you google coffee making, I am pretty sure it will tell you all about it.
As far as the difference of “afyiah’ and ‘zli”, I always associated ‘zli’ with frying in oil-a liquidp- whereas ‘afyah’ is without any liquid. Roasting coffee beans happen without liquid. In any case, it makes very little difference in halacha, as there is ‘bishul achar afyian’ and “bishul achar zli”. Incidentally, i daresay, yo ucna oast coffee beans in an oven and you will nto be able to ‘fry” it in oil.
squeak- the water must be heated- never boiled- BEFORE they drip over the ground coffee.There is no way of making fresh coffee- in a machine- with cold water. Possibly in the old times , they just threw ground coffee into a pot of water and then boiled it-ech!!! there is very littel worse than bolied- burned coffee! unless it is instant coffee….
BTW- ground coffee is more like “ofui” (baked-roasted) and hence it is “bishul achar afyiah”.
I briefly looked over some of the halochos concerning “shehiah’ , “chazoroh” and “bishul”. BTW- the fear is not to stir the pot (that would be “meigis”, toldoh of bishul) but the fear is that you would shake the coals (or other combustible) under the pot (“mechate es hagecholim)to allow the food to cokk better or quicker.
I am not sure whether any of the halochos mentioned can be applied to a coffee maker. Simply, because, there is no fire at present, at the minimum it must be considered like “gerufo uketumoh” , an oven whose coals have been taken out with all its subsequent “kulos”. I don’t know how it could be “shei’eh” (allowing the food to stay on the fire) or ‘chazoroh’ (returning ther food over the fire) maybe it comes under the heading of “chazoroh’ by a non -jew and see whether this applies to an inamite object. Thanks to all the contributors.
sammygol- i concur with you about johnny walker ‘green’. It is advertised as a “blend of single malts” and i did not find it that great. I have never seen famous grouse 18.
I do love all single malts, more than the blended ones because they have a much more intense taste- smoky,tangy…etc- and they are also much smoother, especially the older ones.
my thanks to “I can only try’ for the exhaustive analysis on this subject. So, by and large, it seems that you may very well be allowed to set the coffee maker for shabbos and , even if yo uwant to “machmir’ on that, on yom tov, it clearly cna be done!
also, my kudos to ‘haifagirl’ on her correct assumption of cholent. allow me to add that with raw food (or cholent) technically the “oven’ must be sealed so as to avoid the temptation of stir it or to adjust the fire. I am not sure whether our ‘blech’s’ are considered “sealed”.Again, my thanks to all the contributors.
oomis- who says we are not permitted to have fresh-cooked food on shabbos? Per actual de’oraisa” if you cook eggs on a hot pavement- it is muttor- because it is not toldo de’esh- obviously miderabbonon it is ossur but you cannot just say that we are not aloowed frsh-cooked food on shabbos.
as per your assertion that we can have lights on shabbos- yes, but we cannot actually LIGHT on shabbos- so i do see an analogy bewteen timers for light and coffee makers.
Lastly- what happens if you put UNCOOKED food in the oven and adjust the timer? As a matter of fact, ‘cholent” is cooked mainly during shabbos, as long as it is fulyl covered, etc.
if my memory serves me right, this was Rabbi Heineman s hetter for new stoves.
i don’t know why a coffeem aker should be prohibited. please bring sources
mdlevine- in my days in yeshiva there was a big debate about scotch whuky-especially blended (as most were)The maskonoh was that whisky is “muttor’ and there was no problem with any additves and-if i remember correctly- there is a teshuva from R’Moshe that there is no problem with the sherry casks, as there is no real sherry in it , no “mamoshes’ and hence no issur of “stam jenom”. don’t rely upon fully uopn what I said because I don’t have the teshuvo handy.
I don’t know why the kashrus organization you mention would single out whisky aged in sherry casks as not permissible. please indicate the source.
cherrybim- you also CANNOT benefit from any melocho that a GOY does on shabbos if it is done EXCLUSIVELY for the jew and told to do so by the jew. when , sometimes, one hints to a non-jew that is ‘dark in the room” to have the lights put on- the non-jew also benefits from this as he needs the light too.
whatever the rule is for non-jews, it is not comparable to the question at hand.the coffee-maker is an inert thing and is much more comparable to the sprinkler mentioned or to the light timer. I welcome anyone out there who knows about any teshuvos on this.
enlightened…..the fact of it being ‘bishul” is neither here nor there. If you have your lights on a timer, then when they come on,the lights/lamps are also doing “mav’ir” (or whichever of the different “melochos’ you suscribe to)
Instant coffee has no question of ‘bishul’ because it is ALREADY boiled and there is no “bishul achar bishul”.
squeak- actually, sprinkling water is not IN ITSELF a melocho (just think of sprinkling water on your floor, for example) it is the fact that the water is sprinkled ON GRASS that makes it a toldo of “zorea”.Hence, the “kli’ is not making a melocho,although the result is certainly a “melocho”
When you boil the water/coffee, it is intrinsically having your “kli’ make the melocho. a better analogy would be a timer for lights- as indicated by “wolfish” and there we clearly allow it. Stay tuned for mroe of this issue.There may be some teshuvos out there on this.
squeak- your question was posed some time ago where I daven- and , truthfully, as of now, I am not sure you can find an issur, but trust the “chumro brigade” they’ll find one soon.
there may be an element of ‘shvitas keilim” here but i am not sufficiently versed in this sugya now to give you a clear answer.
jothar- thank you for your elucidation. I will try to google the relevant articles nonetheless.
this posting is getting rather insane- those weird examples that are mentioned (by cherrybim and joseph)about the two jobs make no sense at all. i don’t believe for one moment that they are true. for the rest, I did not bother reading this long megillah.
mybat and also to jothar- if you read my postings, you will see that I do NOT insist that women should dance. Quite the contrary, I specifically said that I do not take any sides on this. All I said was that HALACHACALLY, there is ABSOLUTELY no issur for a woman -at any time, even during her time- to touch (or read) a sefer torah. This is EXPLICIT in the gemoro, the rambam and the shulchan aruch. AND= on that se’if (joreh deah 282) no one argues and there is no “hagohoh’ from the Remo. This clearly indicates that-HALACHACALLY- it is “muttar” and everything else is a ‘minhag”.
I am not minimizing minhagim but there is a world of difference beteen a “halcha’ and a “minhag”
the only people who are still trying to re-write the history of the Holocaust (teheran, neturei karta…some bloggers here..) are the ones who feel threatened by real history…”oif dem ganef brent dus hittel” (check with your yiddish speaking relative…)the “evil” zionists have moved on long ago and are trying to make TODAY and TOMMRROW a betetr day- free of any future catastrophe, chas veshomom…
mazca- do you say “ledovid hashem ori”? do you keep the hakofos on simchat torah? do you say the brocho of “velamashinim”? do you say the lengthy Pyutim on jom kippur/rosh hashana? do you wear a yarmulka (if you are a man)? all of these and countless others had “never been done before’ yet they have become a part of our mitzvos….
jothar- please elucidate your comments. What are/were the problems with women’s prayer groups?
why did R’Joshe ber zz’l have a ‘negative view’ about women dancing with the torah? it cannot be that this is the halocho- I quoted the shulchan aruch (282) that EXPRESSLY allows women (afilu niddos) to touch the torah and to read from it.
If this is because it ‘has never been done before’, well, there are many things that had never been done before and then became the norm ( one little known example is the mizmor of le’dovid hashem ori-now virtually said everywhere but only became as such a couple of hundred years ago…)
additionally- there is no ‘chiyuv’ hakofos for ANYONE. it is a minhag that has developed in the last few hundred years….
Again- I am not siding with any side here but just to say- “it has never been done before’ is not enough of a reason….half of our halochos and mitzvos had never been done before till it became part of our tradition…
to haifagirl: I have difficulty believing that they poured water on the shliach tsibbur during the tefilla of geshem. if you are lving in “chutz la-aretz” it is doubly difficult to accept this. tefillas gesehm is said with the niggun of “ne’ilah” and wearing the kittel- i just cannot beleive that anyone would dare yo do what yo ujust said. if this is eretz ysroel- (where eveything is done on one day)i still have difficutly belivieng THAT. as far as tiying up on simchat torah- yes , it has been done and clearly it is wrong.
joseph- you always select the quotes and omit the quotes that yo udon’t like.
The remo (siman 17-2) starts by saying that ‘noshim and avodim’CAN puton a talis and make the borcho and this is the shittah of a slew of rishonim. he then adds and says “Mechze ke’jehura” from one possek (the oggur) ,advising not to do it. Its translation is not ‘arrogant’ as you define it but that the person tries to show “‘ too much heigtened spirit’a and maybe the person is not qualified ot do it. we do lots of things that “mechze ke’jehruo’ yet we still do it (rabbeinu tam’s tefillin come to mind”. Anohter is eating in the sukoh while it rains (the expression in the shulcahn aruch is more damning). whatever the fact, people sometiems try too much. Thye should not be pilloried for this.
Lastly- R’ Moshe’s quote clearly indicates hat he is talking about women whose sole intention is ‘feminism”. I have met many who are very sincere and want to do mitzvas and it has nothing to do with feminism.
jothar- how do you recognize intent? how would anyone know why a woman wants to do certain mitzvahs? I met women who were aboslutely scrupulous in their mitzvha observation and felt that they needed (for example)to learn gemoro to feel fullfilled. Are you going to read their minds?
mybat- my point about ‘shenas betzors’ was that minhagim are NOt set in stone. (even halochos are not necessarily set in stone). hence, if there was a minhag -in certain quarters only- about women not entering the shul,ec…in the time of their “niddha”, it is only a minhag for some. One can safely ignore or change it, if need required.without being branded a “sinner”. Obviously, women who have put on tzitsis or danced with the torah have a spiritual need to do this. I certainly don’t condone anything to be done for “feminist purposes” but it is the height of male chauvinistic arrogance to think that women have no spiritual needs and that they do not derive spritual satisfaction from doing mitzvas. they run to shul to listen to the shofar-although exmpt from it-they sahke the lulav (and the hoshana) religiously. Why would they not derive any satisfaction from putting on tsitsis?
Again, I do not take sides on the mentioned issues but male chauvinism is alive and well in some of our quarters.
briefly- a fw answers.
mazca- you may have “grown up” with your ideas but they are absolutely wrong. A woman can touch (and read) from a sefer torah (and certainly tefillin) any time, even if she is a “niddah”. This is an OPEN halocho in joreh deah 282. No one has any doubts about that, as it is based on the gemror and them rabam and other poskim.
we are only discussing “minhagim’ here and it is also clear that there was a wide range fo minhagim in the ashkenazic world- this has been the subject of our discussions.
mybat- minhagim are mihagim and are not necessarily binding. your example of rice is an erroneosu one because , in the recent past ,in “shenas bezores’ (years of famine)the poskim have allowed to eat “kitnyos’ in spite of the minhag by ashkenazim not to eat it. Clearly, they would not have allowed chometz chas vesholom, but in times of dire need, they have ignored minhagim.
As per your point of which mitzvos women have or not, it is simple. they are “obliged’ for mitsvos she’ein hazman geromo”- mitzvas that are not dependent on time but are pottur-free (by and large) of mitzvos that are time- oriented. Yet, they can do these mitzvos also and will be “mekabel sechar’ (receive a reward) Women listen to shofar, shake the lulav and do other mitzvas that they are NOT obliged to do yet still do it. Same with tzitzis. tefillin are a different matter, although the gemoro mentions michal bas shaul and I have heard that rashi’s daughters als put on tefillin.
I am not taking any sides on the issue whether women “should’ dance, only to point out that, halachically, it is permitted.
jothar- I don’t know R’moshe teshuvo on women and tzizits but it is well-knwon that chassidic rebbetzins did wear a talis koton,because they wanted to be “mekayim’ the mitzvah.
to joseph—I’ll refrain from commenting on this becuase i don’t have R’Joshe be’er direct words. You quted one talmid, yet there are others who do differently, so, unless one has direct written sources, I’ll refrain from drawing any conclusions on that.
to “mybat”: if you look through the mishneh berurah (fom se’if 5 onwards) and other “nos’ei keilim’, you will see that there is a number of different minhagim, so there is no obvious rule for all. Thye ALL agree,however, that this is ONLY a minhag and it is not the actual “halocho”. (see mishneh berurah se’if 6, be’er heitav also).
The conclusion of all this is simple: halachacally, “divrei torah einom mekablim tumeh” , the words of torah are not subject to any tum’oh and hence, women, even niddos, can touch and read from the torah (joreh deah 282) and it only became a minhag in various european places to put certain restrictions on what a woman can do during her time as a “niddah”.
minhagim clearly have their place and are important but halachacally, there is no issur in entering a shul ,davening, touching a sefer torah ,etc.for a woman anytime.
Rav Forhand zz’l was called the “Prager Rov” after Prague, czech republic.
His son is now running the shul.