ChadGadya

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  • in reply to: Chaveirim, Yidden, and Lomdei Toirah, be malveh me your Oznayim #2099787
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Why do you want me to “accompany you my ears”, whatever that means?

    in reply to: Still bothered by the Hagada #2079655
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    It’s a יתור. If it would only say בעבור זה perhaps we could understand that it refers to the time of קרבן פסח during the day. But it already says ביום ההוא from which we could know that. The extra בעבור זה after already saying ביום ההוא comes to teach us that the time being referred is different from that which we could have understood from either on its own.

    in reply to: Favorite herring flavors? #1977187
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Red.

    in reply to: I realized my mistake, did you realize yours? #1809075
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Actually, Reb Eliezer and Knaidlach, just saying yidemu with a sheva na doesn’t help. Just changing the type of sheva does not change the meaning.

    The main point that actually changes the meaning from the incorrect “being similar to” to the correct “being silent” is the dagesh in the dalet, as this is to represent the missing nun from the root “nadam”. This means that you have to pronounce the dalet as double length – “yiddemu”.

    Whlie we’re on the subject, the mishna berura at the beginning of siman 62 paskens that if you miss out a letter of keriyas shema, you are not yotzei the mitzvah. This is unfortunately much more common than many people think. One place many people slip up is where there is a “hei” in the middle of a word. For example the words “vihyeesem” and “lihyos” at the end of the shema. The “hei”‘s have a sheva nach and must be pronounced with an aspiration (breathing out, like a “mapik hei” at the and of a word). Many people say “viyeesem” and “liyos”, and they are not yotzei according to the mishna berura since they missed out the hei.

    in reply to: Havara or Havoroh #1801286
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Have a look at the sefer “Sfat Emet” by R’ Bentzion Hakohen (availabe in otzar hachochmah) where he goes through every letter and vowel explaining the pronunciation of all the different communities, and explains which is authentic (based mainly on sources from the gaonim and early medakdekim).

    in reply to: I got my flu shot today, did you? #1787077
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    I got my flu shot. I was playing with my rifle and accidentally peppered my central heating furnace.

    in reply to: In Chad Gadya – HKBH was “wrong” #1719272
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    LerntminTayrah, please share your source for that most interesting version!

    in reply to: In Chad Gadya – HKBH was “wrong” #1718482
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Only HKBH is allowed to intervene. So He is the only one who’s right. Everyone else is wrong for not minding their own business, which is why they all got punished by the next one in the chain.

    Oh, and I was innocent too – No kidding!

    Chad Gadya

    in reply to: Waiter’s finger was in my my soup! #1713531
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Meno, I had a similar story too. I said “excuse me, the end of your tie is in my soup”. He replied “that’s okay, it’s washable.”

    in reply to: Waiter’s finger was in my my soup! #1713528
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Why is the waiter’s finger more of a problem than your own? Have you never touched something hot before eating it? Come to think of it, what about your own mouth?

    in reply to: Blech material question #1712927
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Solid gold would be the best conductor. At current prices a slab 60 by 60 cm and 2mm thick would only be about $30,250.

    in reply to: Wife/Mother sitting at head of shabbos table? #1710760
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    A round table is certainly best for the pesach seder, so that no knight should be different from any other knight!

    in reply to: Grape Juice Light #1706962
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    I always thought that the reason bottled grape juice tastes much sweeter than freshly squeezed grapes is because they add concentrated grape juice (this rather than sugar so that they can still call it 100% grape). Can anyone here who knows more about it either confirm or deny this? If it is true then perhaps light grape juice is just plain juice without the added concentrate. (Anyone who has eaten a cupful of fresh grapes can immediately feel that it is much lighter and less sweet than a cupful of regular grape juice.)

    in reply to: Stealing the Afikomon #1704427
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    loweryourtuition:

    At 18 minutes for a mil (2000 amos), 22 amos comes to just under 12 seconds. I am sure most people are not makpid on that on a regular basis. That said, most certainly no one should allow their kids to cause a major hefsek by stealing all the matzos, that is just ridiculous and certainly against halachah.

    in reply to: Karpas – is any ha’adoma ok? #1703613
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Any ho’adamah is acceptable, but it’s silly to use something that doesn’t taste good dipped in vinegar or salt-water!
    For me, that means anything sweet like pineapple, watermelon, banana, and strawberry are out.

    in reply to: Winning Lottery on Shabbos #1699739
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    If the draw is done by non-jews what could the problem be? (Also, the money isn’t yours until they give it to you.)

    in reply to: Hodaas baal din kmeah edim dami #1683924
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Unless you are a shoiteh, which you clearly are if you do something like that.

    in reply to: Is visiting Paris safe? #1672846
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Just be careful not to go in seine . . .

    in reply to: Artificial sweeteners aren’t so bad. Right? #1671123
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Since you asked nicely: It’s okay to have a Splenda packet a day.

    Seriously though, it’s all relative. If you are obese or can’t have sugar for other reasons, then artificial sweetener will do less harm than sugar. If you are as thin as a pencil with a high rate of metabolism, then avoid the sweetener just in case, and have the sugar.

    The most delicious coffee of all is one with neither. I used to have sugar in my coffee, until one day a few years ago when I just quit. It took only a few days to get used to, and now even a single spoonful in a big mug makes it taste sickly sweet to me. Try it for a week to see if it works for you, its worth it.

    in reply to: How would you reply? #1671118
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    As I understand it, Hashem allows Himself room, so to speak, to modify His plans in response to human conduct. This is how a person has free bechira to choose to murder someone in cold blood, or not to.

    But this applies to premeditated deaths by other people, not to accidental deaths. Accidental deaths are entirely decreed by Hashem, except for cases where a person puts himself into an unusually dangerous situation, in which case it is kind of their fault, and Hashem might decide to let “nature” take its course unless they have extra zechusim to allow them to beat the odds.

    However, the definition of “unusually dangerous” is relative to current societal norms, so if it is considered normal in society to go about one’s daily business in the streets, then this is fine even if the rates of traffic accidents are relatively high.

    Thus if the traffic engineer’s scheme will only prevent accidental deaths, then the other person is correct that it is all up to Hashem who decrees who will die, and the scheme is pointless. But if the scheme will also prevent deliberate deaths, such as terrorists mowing down pedestrians, then it is worthwhile.

    in reply to: I want hot water! To drink! #1667563
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    I have toivelled six or seven electric kettles during my adult life, as well as numerous toasters. I have never had a problem. A week to dry is overkill. In summer you need at most a couple days, in winter a little more.

    in reply to: Removing burn stains from glass oil cups #1639629
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    What kind of wick/supports do you use? I use the metal tubes with a base that keep the wick in the center of the glass and have never had problems with burn stains at all. Also, don’t put a layer of water under the oil as the sputtering also causes stains. And floating wicks especially are a recipe for disaster.

    in reply to: “Lehovin” has the highest respect for Rav Chaim Kanievski #1630514
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Toi:
    Actually, the suggestion in the article/piece of trash is not that R’ Kanievsky is dumb enough to be led by the nose by Lieberman. The rav is so immersed in his learning 24/7 that he would certainly not know Lieberman by face, and only knows of his policies what he has been told. The suggestion is that R’ Kanievsky is c”v dumb enough to be led by the nose BY HIS GABO’IM who surround him and tell him what his happening, who let Lieberman in to gain his political favor, while hiding from the rav his anti-religious views, and that this must be the case because if the rav had known the kind of person he was he would certainly have refused to see him.

    in reply to: Anim Zemirot and Shabbtai Tzvi #1625485
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Anim Zemirot is said to have been composed by R’ Yehuda Hechassid, who predates Shabbatai Tzvi by some 450 years. It certainly already appears, word for word as we have it today, in a machzor printed in Venice in 1599, about 27 years before Shabbatai Tzvi was born.

    in reply to: Is there a word in davening that you always mispronounced? #1622533
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Thanks laskern.

    However, a shuruk, also known as a kubutz (the three diagonal dots underneath) can sometimes be a tenuoh gedoloh as well, in lieu of the melopum, as in the word mezuzos in the shema. The clue is that it is an unstressed open syllable.

    A chirik without a yod can also sometimes be a tenuoh gedoloh. This occurs for example when the word “im” in a posuk has a cantillation mark, as opposed to being hyphenated (makaf). This is similar to the difference between “es” and “eis”. For example in hallel “im nedivim im nedivei amo” – the first im is hyphenated and is a tenuoh ketanoh, while the second is accented and is a tenuoh gedoloh, and should properly be pronounced “eem” – slightly longer than “im”.

    in reply to: Is there a word in davening that you always mispronounced? #1622543
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    WinnieThePooh, I can personally confirm that I was bought, not sold, and thus the correct pronunciation is “dizvan”.

    Kind regards,

    ChadGadya

    in reply to: Is there a word in davening that you always mispronounced? #1621920
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Mispronouncing a segol or a sheva as a chirik, as in “SHI-hakol” or “asher kidEEshanu” seems to be a uniquely American mistake – I have never heard an Israeli or a Brit say it like that.

    Another bad mistake leading to an opposite meaning similar to “bal gevuros” is “oyev amo yisroel”, missing out the heh in oyHev.

    in reply to: What Kind Of Headline Is “Chareidi Murderer” #1609594
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Schlissel certainly believed he was following in the footsteps of Pinchas and doing a good deed. He was not wantonly killing to willfully indulge his yetzer hara to murder someone. He may have been misguided and wrong, and if so it is certainly his fault that he did not better educate himself, but how does this mistake make him not Chareidi?

    It sounds like it is obvious to most of the posters here that there is no comparison between Schlissel and Pinchas, yet do any of you have a source which explicitly says that the halacha of “kana’im pog’im bo” does not apply nowadays? If not, what kind of acts would you agree do warrant someone killing the perpetrator of? If a prominent Jewish leader were to publicly and willfully have relations with a non-jew (exactly what Zimri did), and someone who is genuinely motivated leshem shamayim would kill them, would that be wrong? If so, how is that different to what Pinchas did?

    in reply to: Which World famous people post on the CR? #1592113
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    I’m very famous. I am a hot topic among Jews throughout the world each year on pesach night when I get eaten by a cat.

    in reply to: How much to tip the barber for a haircut? #1585047
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Depends on the haircut. If he does a bad job, I usually tip him at least 90 degrees.

    in reply to: If you love fish then why do you eat them? #1581532
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Of course with fish “love” is just a figure of speech. But if another human being, especially a yid, makes me feel good and happy through their music, surely some of that gratitude and appreciation can manifest itself as love. An amplification of the veahavta lereacha kamocha that we should be feeling anyways towards every yid.

    in reply to: Gedolim Yartzeits: Add yours here #1576711
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    “Add yours here”.
    Although a great godol, thank G-d I am not dead just yet. I’ll be sure to let you know the date of my yartzeit just as soon as I know it myself.

    in reply to: Rav Chaim: A Nebach Apikorus is also an Apikorus #1574894
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Joseph, if it’s one of “many many” what made you decide to pick this one to bump?

    in reply to: Lashon Hara in the CR? #1573531
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    The mods might have their real name.

    in reply to: Can One Ride in a Self-Driving Car on Shabbos #1564433
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Gadolhadorah,

    An entirely electric car might conceivably be able to be programmed to work like a shabbat elevator, i.e. automatically without the occupant having any effect other than increasing the electricity consumption, which is muttar according to many poskim, but an internal combustion engine automatically adjusts to extra weight by increasing the rate and/or size of the internal explosions, and would therefore be assur due to “hav’arah”.

    Akupema,

    A non-jew driving is considered the person doing the melacha, and therefore getting him to do it is a rabbinical prohibition of amirah le’akum, with its attendant leniencies, but in an automatic machine anything the jew causes it to do is attributed to him (unless it is done via gramah, the parameters of which are subject to much debate).

    in reply to: Symptoms in the days after a fast #1564130
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Laskern,
    On erev and motzei yom kippur it is a mitzva to eat meat. This has never caused me any poblems.

    in reply to: What Brocha Are Strawberry’s? #1560720
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Strawberrys are “Blessed art thou, O original poster, who creates new plural forms.”

    Strawberries are ho’adomoh

    ChadGadya
    Participant

    It’s shehakol.

    ChadGadya
    Participant

    CTLawyer,

    If it is true (as claimed in the story) that the use of these radios was endangering lives, then we good Jews who follow what is right according to the Torah need no sanction from secular law to confiscate them.

    If someone is drowning, and for some reason the only way I can save them is by stealing your car and driving it off a cliff, I am required to do so. (It is possible I would have to compensate you afterward, although I seem to remember that in some cases even this Is not necessary, perhaps there is a machlokes about this.)

    in reply to: music ringtones during the 3 weeks?! #1552746
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    What about doorbells?
    Or PA announcements preceded by that lovely arpeggio?
    Or (rachmana litzlan!) starting up and shutting down your old Windows XP computer?

    The yetzer hara is drowning us in unwanted music! Help!

    in reply to: bishul akum #1552611
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    A microwave is not usually used to cook food from raw, but for reheating, in which case there is no problem.

    In any case, microwaved food is not oleh al shulchan melachim, as any chef will tell you. On the other hand, some poskim hold that if the general type of food is oleh al shulchan melachim than it makes no difference if this particular preparation of it is not. I believe there is a relevance here to the debate about chips/fries/roasted/cooked potatoes.

    in reply to: Weak password?! #1552610
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    You should never use the same password for more than one site. If one gets hacked, everything else will be compromised too. Use a password manager to generate and remember different random very long multi-symbol passwords for each site.

    in reply to: when’s the last time for kiddush levanah? #1552161
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Uh, ubiquitin, did you notice that a posted another whole reply since you wrote that?

    in reply to: when’s the last time for kiddush levanah? #1552115
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Participant, I actually suspect from ubiqitin’s “shetikah kehoda’ah” over the last couple days that he does finally understand me. When two people understand things differently it is difficult for each to put himself into the other’s paradigm and see things from their point of view in order to know exactly which points to elaborate on and how.

    in reply to: Is it muttar to block illegal driveways? #1551002
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    To ZD and all others discussing dina demalchusa,

    I’m sorry to have to break it to you, but actually dina demalchusa according to most opinions only applies to thing the government raises revenue from, like taxes. It is not a violation of halacha at all to blow a stop sign or red light simply because the law says you can’t.

    Of course there is still the halach of venishmartem lenafshoseichem, but in situations where there is no danger (a quiet road in the middle of open country with full 360 degree visibility perhaps?), there is no need to follow such laws.

    in reply to: when’s the last time for kiddush levanah? #1550777
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    Eli Y’

    Obviously the time taken to become chametz does not depend on the time of year! Chazal meant 1/80 of the average day, which was then slightly shorter then than is now measured by 18 of our minutes.

    in reply to: when’s the last time for kiddush levanah? #1550098
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    ubiquitin,

    Although I said I wouldn’t be posting anymore on this, the recent signs of progress in your understanding are encouraging, so I’ll give it one more shot. PLEASE, PLEASE, read slowly and carefully.

    Let’s go to your meaty/milky example. If I redefine my seconds as only five sixths of the length of a real second, AND HAVE MY CLOCK TICK THESE NEW SMALLER SECONDS, then surely you agree that I may not yet eat milky when 6 hours are up on my clock, as in reality only 5 hours have passed. The fact that I have changed my second does not affect the halacha.

    What I would need to do to in order to fix my problem (so that the true time I can eat milk will indeed be when six hours have passed as indicated on my new clock), would be to add a leap second every five seconds. Every time five seconds are up on my clock (which are only 5*5/6 = 4+1/6 real seconds), I would have to wait an extra leap second (of my kind of second, 5/6 of a real one) before ticking on again, in order that five real seconds should have passed while my clock still indicates “five seconds”.

    This is exactly what is happening with the real leap seconds. The second since antiquity, and certainly the second of chazal, is defined as 1/86400 of a day, whatever the length of the day may be. Then scientists discovered that the length of the day is slowly changing, so they redefined the second to be a certain fixed amount of time. This redefinition does not affect the halacha, which still uses the old definition even though it isn’t exactly constant as compared to nuclear radiation. Since the length of the day has continued to change, the new second as defined by the scientists is now LESS than 1/86400 of a day. THIS IS THE NEW SECOND THAT OUR CLOCKS NOW TICK. Our clockfaces still have 86400 seconds to 24 hours, so with the redefinition of the second comes the redefinition of a day too! If we didn’t add leap seconds, in about 20000 years average midday would be at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on our clocks! Obviously this would be uncomfortable for people, so they add leap seconds every so often to keep atomic time in line with solar time. The time AFTER the addition of the leap second is the true halachic mean solar time that chazal meant.

    When chazal said that molad to molad is 29.5 + 793/(1080*24) days, they meant halachic days, not the new days which are slightly shorter. The answer to the question at the end of your post is ABSOLUTELY YES. No matter how many leap seconds have been added over the 140 years, the time to say kiddush levana will be at 12:17:03 on my internet-connected clock. This is because the rules are that leap seconds are only added as necessary to keep atomic time in line with solar time. When we add a leap second, it means that the accumulated error of our clocks ticking the new atomic seconds, over a true solar clock, has reached a second, and we are CORRECTING for this. Please say you understand now!

    (I won’t go back into the other tzad, as you seem to be having enough trouble with this one.)

    in reply to: when’s the last time for kiddush levanah? #1549950
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    ubiquitin,

    I think this will have to be the last time I respond, as we seem to be getting nowhere.

    Steps 3 to 4 are wrong.
    If the seconds are the correct length, then of course you are right that if the government decides to add 27 leap seconds, the true time of sof zman kiddush levana will read on my clock 27 seconds less than it would have.
    But the seconds have changed since the new definition, and leap seconds bring them back to where they should be. This is what I mean that you have it backward.

    As a concrete example, let’s say that half the molad period is exactly 1275722 seconds. If I redefine my seconds as each being 27/1275722 of a second shorter than they should be (shorter than chazal had in mind), then after 1275722 seconds as read on my clock, we will still be 27 seconds short of the zman, and on the contrary we need the extra 27 leap seconds to bring my clock reading back into line.

    This is exactly what has happened with the redefinition of the second, except that instead of being redefined as shorter by a factor of 27 in 1275722, it is only shorter by 27 in about 45 years worth of seconds.

    We add a leap second every time the discrepancy between atomic time and mean solar time adds up to a whole second. To reiterate, this discrepancy is caused by the fact that we have redefined the second to be somewhat less than 1/86400 of the current mean solar day (the second that chazal had in mind), and the leap second FIXES this discrepancy.

    This was my second tzad. The first tzad was that chazal didn’t mean 29.5 + 793/(1080*24) of each generation’s contemporary solar day, but of their solar day always, in which case we are about three hours out.

    I don’t know Rabbi Heber and I haven’t seen his sefer, but if he says what you say he says, then he is making the same mistake as you.

    For your information, this is a subject that I have been interested in for many years, and what I am telling you here is not “google ben yomo”, but things that I have known for a long time.

    in reply to: when’s the last time for kiddush levanah? #1549896
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    adocs,

    3 hours would be the accumulated gain over the centuries of a clock ticking fixed seconds equal to 1/86400 of chazal’s days, over our clocks. The actual difference in the length of the day between chazal’s time and ours is only about 35 – 40 milliseconds!

    If you are looking for a “practical” consequence lehalacha from this difference, consider the 18 minutes it takes unworked dough to become chametz. This is defined by chazal in maseches pesachim to be 1/40 of 12 hours or 1/80 of a full day. However, due to the changing length of the day, dough would become chametz on our clocks at about half a millisecond before the 18 minutes are up. You can see why I put the word practical in quotes!

    in reply to: when’s the last time for kiddush levanah? #1549860
    ChadGadya
    Participant

    ubiquitin,

    Your latest dissertation has added nothing to my already perfectly complete understanding of everything you have been saying. Unfortunately you still haven’t understood what I am trying to say. And in additiion, you have the concept of leap seconds EXACTLY BACKWARDS. I am apparently a worse teacher than you. I will try to improve. On your side please try to read slowly and carefully.

    Chazal said that molad to molad is a certain time interval, equal to 29 and a half and 793/(1080*24) days or 2551443.3 seconds. The second then was defined as 1/86400 of a day. The days in their time were a certain length. But the length of the day has been changing due to the slowing of the rotation of the earth, while the molad to molad time has presumably remained constant – 2551443.3 of chazal’s seconds. Our clocks and watches have had their second hand tickings constantly adjusted throughout the centuries to stay 1/86400 of the current day. This is equivalent to sneakily adding thousands of leap seconds smeared out through the years, and has accumulated to about 3 hours.

    What happened from the mid 20th century onwards (sort of, more or less, cutting through the confusion of various ideas and scales that were put forward), is that the second was redefined as a fixed amount of time based on a certain frequency of radiation from cesium atoms. Since the earth’s rotation continues to change, a fixed length of second comes with the disadvantage that mean midday will start to slowly move through the clockface to all kinds of ungodly hours. Thus leap seconds were introduced to keep clocks that are ticking with the new fixed second in sync with the sun.

    Thus leap seconds do not, as you seem to think, adjust the natural mean solar time to conform with some arbitrary scale that the scientists came up with, on the contrary, it adjusts the arbitrary fixed second to conform with mean solar time.

    So we come to the crux of the argument, which I’ll put in the form of a “mimah nafshach”:

    If the factors affecting the rotation of the earth do not affect the molad to molad time, which remains a fixed 2551443.3 seconds of fixed length, then these seconds can only be those of the time of chazal, in which case 27 seconds are the least of our worries, as we have about three hours to consider.

    If on the other hand we are not to take account of this discrepancy, either because lo nitnah torah lemalachei hashareis (it is impossible to know the discrepancy exactly without a large margin of error), or because some mysterious cosmic forces have been slowly changing the molad to molad time to keep it equal to chazal’s measure in contemporary days and seconds, THEN LEAP SECONDS ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT EITHER.
    This is because leap seconds do the exact opposite of what you think. If chazal meant us to stay with mean solar time even though it is slowly changing, then the reforms in the definition of the second of the mid 20th century would mean that without leap seconds our clocks would slowly drift away from the correct time scale of chazal. The leap seconds actually bring the new fixed time scale of our clocks back to mean solar time.

    So to recap, leap seconds are irrelevant, either we are three hours out, or we are right on time.

Viewing 50 posts - 1 through 50 (of 90 total)