rebdoniel

If I attack certain shitot on the grounds that the underlying methodology resembles Conservative heresy, how would that make me Conservative? I oppose any efforts which claim that changing circumstances override Talmudic gezerot. Halakha doesn’t change with the times, as many liberals among us claim (Tosafot explicitly say that whenever the reason of a rabbinic

There must be a beit din hagadol with the proper authority to implement changes of the magnititude that we see with things like people not washing mayim achronim, people carrying in invalid eruvin, clapping on Shabbat (many among us are then mechallelei shabbat, albeit be shogeg), some people making tea on shabbat improperly (Shabbat 40b s.v. U’shma claims that there is no bishul in a kli sheni) and even lifting commercial restrictions between Jews and idolatrous Christians, ignoring classic definitions of avodah zarah. When the Conservatives impose any of their innovations, in most cases, they claim to be falling back on Tosfos. Whether it be mayim achronim, cheese, instruments, or whatever the issue is. The consensus among most Orthodox Jews, thankfully, is not to rely on these leniencies.

You’re not allowed to shave or wash clothing on Tisha b’Av, but when Tisha b’Av falls on Thursday, Tosafot allows Jews to shave and to wash clothing in the afternoon to facilitate the preparation of the Sabbath (Taanit 30a sv Ve tarveihu).

Stop and think a moment. If you’re such Tosafists, then why don’t you do things that Tosafot permits that are seen as improper among most Orthodox Jews and by scores of poskim? Do serious Orthodox Jews really ever do things like this? Do you clap on shabbat, do laundry on Tisha be Av when it falls on a Thursday, carry in communal eruvin, make tea in a kli sheni, believe Christianity is not avoda zarah (most poskim nowadays say that shituf is forbidden even for gentiles, contra Tosafot), eat microbial rennet cheese made by goyim, etc.?

Marriages where one party thinks they can redeem another are doomed to fail. It is very important for people to be on the same page religiously in a marriage.

They have a racket on the market that has some sort of electric current in it that works well in killing flies.

You’d be hard pressed to find people that don’t snoop around in medicine chests. Such is human nature.

That’s how these people think. Of course, logically, it would make no sense to us, but this is just the nature of things.

There was more achdut and respect among gedolim back then.

Waterbury is behind the Shas Illuminated project. It seems like a great, affordable community not too far from NYC, and if they can help kids who have challenges or other impediments to growth, how is that a bad thing? Not everybody has to become a great lamdan. The goal of our system ought to be to give young people the tools to live meaningful Jewish lives where they’ll take joy in keeping the mitzvot and opening a sefer, and become pillars of their communities regardless of what profession they enter.

Every one should have rabbanim who they’re comfortable with and whose ideas are compatible with their own. People may denigrate certain rabbis whose approach differs from their own, but nobody is asking you to become their talmidim. I would be very happy, for instance, if more people accepted Hakham Yosef Faur’s ideas, but it is possible to disagree with someone’s ideas without attacking them in an ad hominem manner. A famous Sephardic rav, whose approach and responsa I typically think are highly sensible and reasonable, for example, attacked someone of a different political affiliation as evil and with an entire host of verbal attacks. This is wrong, and very much goes against the spirit of the Rashi the OP cited. As a rabbinical friend of mine wrote (As a title of his book), “You don’t have to be wrong for me to be right.”

I’m suprised such a law isn’t being challenged by those who want freedom from religion in Israel, like Meretznikim. While a law enforcing sabbath observance does promote one aspect of Jewish identity for the medina, it is also obviously at odds with religious freedom and can be seen as coercive.

In Tel Aviv, commerce, transportation, etc. are notorious for operating on Shabbat.

They should have been direct: Orthodox women who wear pants are Modern, Bais Yaacov is very much opposed to Modern Orthodoxy, and therefore, there is no fit. They want teachers to model and embody the type of values they want to instill in their children. It’s for that reason that you generally wouldn’t see someone with semikha from YCT, let’s say, being offered a rebbe job in a school like Torah Vodaas or Tiferes Elimelech. We live in a world where ideological lines are often fiercely upheld, and frankly, to put myself in their shoes, if I were the type of parent who was sending my daughter to a BY camp, I wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t share those values (no TV, no university, no movies, no computers, no pants, etc.) to have a hashpa’ah on my kid.

People that are suspicious on that level are creepy. What a shame that they’d have such a lack of trust for another Jew.

Someone going into the master bedroom hardly seems like being violated.

The poster is conveying his experiences on a shabbos where the news said it was as hot as meah v’esrim. You don’t have to read these posts if you don’t care.

I don’t know of one Reform or other non-halakhic rabbi offering kashrut supervision in this country. Ii’ve actually started compiling a list of items with a K where the K is actually indicative of rabbinic supervision.

Why was it considered acceptable to rely on reading ingredients 40-50 years ago by very frum people, but not so much anymore? Is it because of the huge array of items with a hechsher available nowadays?

I should add that the sources I presented in defense of R’ Abadi’s views are not heterim I personally allow in our home. As the article I paraphrased from Kashrut Authority Australia points out, the position that is taken in other countries with kashrut lists is not something we should avail ourselves of in America, since we have the most exhaustive kosher food available outside of Israel.

That being said, since cheese is often difficult to procure outside of major Jewish areas with a strict hechsher, the mozzarella issue ought to be probed further. However, we’re fortunate that the Polly-O company has gone under the OU. Cabot and all the brands with the Luhot is another matter entirely.

It’s very distressing. The same type of sectarianism that led to Hurban haBayit is what we have nowadays, except instead of Tzedukim, Essenes, and Perushim, etc. nowadays, it’s Reform vs. Conservative, Habad vs. Litvishe gedolim, Sephardim vs. Ashkenazim, women who wear tallitot versus the police, YU vs. YCT, the odious game of playing my rabbi versus your rabbi, one rabbi rejecting and defaming other rabbis, etc. People struggle to express mahloket in a respectful manner; to quote a rabbinical friend of mine, “you don’t have to be wrong for me to be right.”

I’d take a head or two of garlic, cut the top off to expose the cloves, put a little olive oil on it, wrap it in foil, roast it 20 minutes at 350 until soft, and I’d squeeze the roasted garlic out into a bowl with some mayonnaise. Mix well.

It may be different than the type of garlic dip they sell in the stores, but I frequently have roasted garlic with hallah, and it’s delicious.

For whatever it’s worth, I even read that there’s a minhag among some Hasidim to have garlic cloves and olive oil on shabbat.

The Nodah Be Yehuda (YD Mah. Tin. 56) was asked about the kashrut status of a certain alcoholic drink that used non-kosher animal meat as part of the production process. He paskened that as the non-kosher ingredient was totally insignificant in the final product and did not add to the taste of the same – the ingredient was considered nullified (batel) and the final product kosher. As to the prohibition of purposefully nullifying a prohibited product- Noda Be Yehuda ruled that as the drink was manufactured by non-Jews for non-Jews – there could not be placed on a non-Jew any prohibition and one only had to look at the final product. If however the product was being manufactured by Jews then the product would be considered not kosher. The Nodah Be Yehuda rules that anything that is permissible be diavad in a Jewish home is permissible le chatchila if produced by a non-Jew for non-Jews.

Many centuries earlier the Rashba dealt with a similar problem. It involved a particular food that used miniscule amounts of non-kosher vinegar in the course of production. The Rashba ruled that the product remained forbidden. He argued that the laws of nullification apply only when an ingredient falls into a product accidentally. If however it was put in on purpose then regardless of the amount and regardless of whether done by Jew or non-Jew the product remains not kosher. Indeed the Nodah Be Yehuda acknowledges the Rashba – but dismisses him. He argues that the Halakha is not like the Rashba but rather like the Rambam(whom the Nodah Be Yehuda posits disagrees with the Rashba.)

Rav Henkin, IIRC, said that this Rashba is the basis for much of the kashrut business nowadays.

In America, though, he said that when you have one brand of an iten under hashgaha and one not under hashgaha, you must buy the one with the hashgaha. The Ktav Sofer said that one may rely on this leniency of the Rambam/Noda beYehuda only when there is no equivalent product available at the same price – but if there is an equivalent product available then one should be machmir and purchase a product that has not relied on this leniency.

If a company is producing a product for the general non-Jewish market, and the company does not request certification nor does it pay for it – but rather allows the kashrut agency to investigate the product and list it as kosher – then Halakhically one may rely on nullification and other leniencies that would normally be allowed only post facto in the home of a Jew, according to Kashrut Authority in Australia.

In other countries, they rely on these kashrut lists. R’ Abadi does exactly that- he investigates items to see if they are really kosher. Furthermore, R’ Shimon Efrati, a top Rabbanut kashrut official, authored an article in Pardes 40: 3 (pp. 12-13) endorsing the same viewpoint as R’ Abadi. In other countries, R’ Abadi’s approach seems to be accepted more or less, as evidenced in the fact that there are companies that consider the kosher market as totally insignificant in places like the UK, Australia, etc. – and they give permission to have their products checked. They expect no significant increase in turnover whatsoever. In such cases nullification may be employed, or at least a less thorough sub ingredient check, as well as some other leniencies mentioned in the poskim, according to an article by Kashrut Authority Australia.

I had a discussion regarding a “K” appearing on items with someone the other day, and it turns out that in a few cases, the K actually indicates some form of rabbinical supervision, but that depends on each company involved. Kellogg’s cereals with a K/KD are really KVH, ShopRite’s kashrut guide lists R’ Dov Hazdan, R’ Sheldon Goldsmith, R’ Benjamin Weinblatt (Plaza Torah Center/Bais Yechezkel in Queens), and even R’ Nota Greenblatt as those who supervise specific items produced by ShopRite. A few gelatin brands even post such letters on their websites (R’ Goldsmith supervises Royal Bbrand gelatin, which relies on the heter of the Ahiezer, which is also how the Rabbanut holds).

A person not reciting the blessing Shelo Asani Isha is problematic on the grounds that this was something directly instituted by Hazal. Granted, the Nusah Italki doesn’t include this braha, and it may upset our modern sensibilities, but nonetheless, it is not something that can be abrogated. Such an individual who objects ought to read the Rambam’s hakdama to the Mishneh Torah, for starters.

His claim that Haredi Judaism is Classical Judaism is outright intellectual dishonesty.

JF: Seriously?

Neither a conscious decision to remain ignorant of ma’aseh bereshit and the social and natural sciences, nor an attitude of blind obedience to human authority are religious ideals with any basis in Talmudic Judaism. Da’at torah is a relatively recent phenomenon, partially inspired by Roman Catholic teachings on papal infallibility (See Jacob Katz’s research on this issue). Hazal, the Rambam, Rav Hirsch, Rabbeinu Bechaye, etc. all attest to the great need to be schooled in all areas of higher knowledge. Sanhedrin 17a even attests to the need for education in comparative religion.

My thoughts on the Brisker derekh are summarized by an analogy- there are two kinds of people in this world. Those that make false dichotomies and those that don’t.

It fascinates me how people who justify overturning conversions will cite the Langer Case. Poskim historically have bent over backwards to avoid agunot and mamzerim; what is done in these cases cannot be extrapolated to general psak.

Science is not “prost.” If people think using anatomically-correct terms instead of krepel or schmeckie is inferior, then that is simply an insult to any intelligent, mature person who has ever studied Anatomy and Physiology, or taken a health or sex ed class. It also reflects how little many of our ilk reject science or any kind of higher learning. It is not “prost” for male doctors and health professionals to learn about gynecology, just as there is nothing inherently wrong or improper about rabbis delving into niddah and the complex issues surrounding it. Better to be mature about niddah than view it as the Karaites did.

R’ Henkin, zt”l, felt that if a couple got a civil marriage or even cohabitated and lived as a married couple would, they would need a get.

1 cup lukewarm water

6 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer + 8 Tbs. water

4 cups flour (all-purpose, whole wheat pastry, or a combination of both) + more for dusting

Poppy seeds or sesame seeds (optional)

Place the dough on a floured surface. If you are making a double batch, divide the dough into 2 equal parts and continue with the rest of the steps. Cut the dough (or each half) into 3 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, and then roll each ball into a long strand. Let the strands rest for 5 minutes. Transfer the strands to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Join the 3 strands at the top by pinching them together and turning them under. Braid the strands (cross the outer right strand over to the middle position, cross the outer left strand over to the middle position and repeat until you reach the end) and join the ends at the bottom, pinching them together and turning them under. Brush the dough with olive oil. Cover the dough again and let it rise for another hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the dough with olive oil again, sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds, if desired, and bake for 35 minutes. The challah should be golden brown with a firm crust. It should sound hollow when you tap it. Let cool before slicing.