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Purim is not the only time we give gifts. Afikoman presents, anyone?
And although Mishloach monos is customarily food-items only, that is because it is a machlokes if one can be yoitze with other items. There are poskim who hold that is need not be food related. See Pri Megadim 692;1, who is mistapek. Derech Hachaim (Hil. Purim) allows, and Turei Even (avnei Shoham 7b) mashma also that he OKs it.
The Chashmonoim were certainly not the first to mint coins. Although there are many proofs of earlier coins, the earliest example i can think of is Avrohom Ovinu who minted coins. See Bovo Kama 97b for details of what they looked like. An elderly couple on one side, and a young couple on the other side.
There is actually a halachic necessity for minted coins. Maaser Sheni can Revoi can only be redeemed onto minted coins. Nothing else. If the entire world turns to digital banking exclusively, we will be in big trouble. (Any country that stops will be in trouble, because you can only use local currency. but the issue is mainly in Eretz Yisroel where there is fruit with keduasha.)
berel: When I get mad at you, u never fight back. How do u control ur anger?
wife: I clean the toilet.
berel: How does that help?
wife: I use ur toothbrush.Out of the whole shiur, it was the bochur who everyone thought that he could not get married…
davka he ended up marrying the most times!!A rov and a bus driver came to shomayim, the bus driver was given a seat in Mizrach and the rov somewhere near the back.
The rov was upset so he asked the malach why does the bus driver get mizrach and not me?
When you darshened during daveingn everyone fell asleep. When the other fellow drove his bus everyone started davening….Well, Bill,” said The Malach, “I’m really confused on this one. I’m not sure whether to send you to Heaven or Hell! After all, you helped society enormously by putting a computer in almost every home in the world and yet you created that ghastly Windows. I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to let you decide where you want to go!”
Mr. Gates replied, “Well, thanks, Malach. What’s the difference between the two?”
The Malach said, “You can take a peek at both places briefly if it will help you decide. Shall we look at Hell first?” “Sure!” said Bill. “Let’s go!”
Bill was amazed! He saw a clean, white sandy beach with clear waters. There were palm trees and deck chairs.The sun was shining and the temperature was just perfect!
Bill said, “This is great! If this is Hell, I can’t wait to see Heaven!”
To which The Malach replied, “Let’s go!” and off they went. Bill saw puffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky with angels drifting about playing harps and singing.
It was nice, but surely not as enticing as Hell. Mr. Gates thought for only a brief moment and rendered his decision.
“The Malach, I do believe I would like to go to Hell.”
“As you desire,” said The Malach.
Two weeks later, The Malach decided to check up on the late billionaire to see how things were going. He found Bill shackled to a wall, screaming among the hot flames in a dark cave. He was being burned and tortured by demons.
“How ya doin’, Bill?” asked The Malach. Bill responded with anguish and despair.
“This is awful! This is not what I expected at all! What happened to the beach and palm trees?”
“Oh, THAT!” said The Malach.
“That was the screen saver!”One day I decided to go to McDonald’s. There, I saw an old couple sitting at a table with just one hamburger and one drink. I watched from my table and saw that the husband had cut the hamburger in half. He gave one half to his wife and began to eat his half. His wife didn’t eat her hamburger but just sat there and waited. Occasionally, she would take a few sips of the drink, but she never touched the hamburger. I thought to myself, “Oh. They must be poor. That’s why they can only afford one burger.” Out of curiosity, I got up and asked the wife, “Ma’am? Would you like me to buy you another hamburger so that you won’t have to share?” “Oh, no thank you.” She replied with a smile. “My husband and I always share everything.” “Oh. Ok.” I went back and watched them again. The husband kept eating, and the wife still waited there with a few occasional sips. I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Ma’am? Please let me buy you another hamburger. I really don’t mind at all!” She laughed. “It’s alright. My husband and I always share everything.” She said again. “But then why aren’t you eating your half then?” I asked.
She smiled and said, “I’m waiting for the teeth.Hashem is Kol Yochol
There was only one reason voters voted for Biden. To keep Trump out of office.
So I think one can safely say that, for four years, he succeeded 100%.Truth be told, he does get credit for his standing with Israel since Oct 7th, at least initially. ( Not sure where he is now).
No pets at the moment (we’ve had chickens and goldfish – and plenty mice but wouldn’t exactly call theose pets…)
At the moment we just have a bunch of vilde chayos.
No, just cute ‘kids’.
(i was just kidding)I used to hit my kids (for serious things, like playing with fire) but I saw that it does not work, so I stopped.
Now, I only hit when i’m angry (just kidding!!).Withholding a privilege is far, far more effective, less treats on Shabbos or something like that… boy do they remember for a long time! One of the reasons is because they think about the punishment from when you tell them, until you carry it out.
They would gladly trade a potch and get the privilege back – which shows what is more powerful!!The only time i hit is for a little kid (eg. 2 year old) who plays with the gas-stove / electrical / runs in the road. At that age even a small smack is VERY effective, to associate a certain behavior with punishment.
(Often, it does not need to hurt the kid, it’s more the embarrassment, or they fact that they’ve let you down.)zushy- yes being oiver a lav d’oiraisa can warrant malkos, but when something is muter mideoiraisa and midarabonon they assered it (eg. arayos) they cannot put a chiyuv missa but can make malkos – it’s called makkos mardus.
ROcky: It’s not a new thing that only a fraction of all those learning come out with a clarity and an ability to pasken. That is how Torah is studied, a huge group learn, [all of them are doing the highest possible mitzva – learnign Torah, and keeping the world going] and of all only a few get to the level of Halacha.
במדרש (ויק”ר ב’ א’) אדם א’ מאלף מצאתי אלף נכנסים לבית הספר יוצאים מאה למקרא עשרה למשנה וא’ להוראה
But all those were 100% needed
In fact, if the one person of each thousand would have been learning on his own, he would not have reached the level of Halacha. And if only those 1 in a thousand talmidei Chachamim would have learnt – we would only have ended with 1 of all of them being capable of paskening.Anyway, the point you are airing should be kept internal. You make it sound like the Yeshiva system is failing, when in fact it is achieving unbelievable results. Could there be room for improvement? Possibly. Maybe even, probably, but overall it is producing talmidei chachamim of various levels, some who know a lot of everything, some who specialise in Lomdus, some in agada, some in halacha, some in bekius, and some are just ‘ merkava lishchina’ people who Torah is their bread and butter, it is their oxygen, it’s their life. Some go on to make wonderful rebbis. Some who bring up toradik families. But everyday that they are in the beis hamedrash, every hour they spend analyzing a point in Rambam or a lashon in Rashi, is Kodesh Kodoshim, they are being בונה עולמות, they are being משמח הקב”ה, they are the tachlis habria.
It says in תנא דבי אליהו
אפילו אין בידו של אדם לא מקרא ולא משנה, אלא יושב וקורא כל היום, ‘אחות לוטן תמנע’ שכר תורה בידו
even if a person simply repeats the same ‘boring and simple’ posuk all day, he still has the tremendous reward of learning Torah. He won’t know any halacha as a result, but he is – learning Torah!!!I dont have the time or koach to address each point, but one thing that keeps coming up that needs addressing –
learning ‘only’ 8 blatt or wa’ever, as if it’s too little.
I am not condoning this and there is certainly room for improvement in that area, Rav Shach spoke about it a lot and so did other Roshei Yeshiva
BUT
the way the baalei batim and others look at the ‘problem’ they are not seeing the issue with the same view as Rav Shach and the others.
A bochur or Yunerman who learns only 1 daf over two weeks is not stuttering, he is not checking the Artscroll for the translation (or transliteration) of every word, and he is not wasting time either.
He is carefully being madayek every word, contempalting every sevoro, and getting clarity in umpteen shitos, delving into the Rashi, the Tosafos, the Rashba, the Ritvo, the Ketzos, the Nesivos, the Shmayste, Rev Akiva Eiger, R’ Boruch Ber, Reb Chaim and the Brisker Rov etc. etc. (do you really want me to write another 20 names?)
He comes out with chiddushim based on nuance in the Rambam, he comes up with three tirutzim to the Ran’s kasha, and with a different Halachic ramification to each answer. He gets the the root of the sugya and does not just ‘read it superficially’.
At the end of the day (or zman) they are specialists, in the sugya that they learnt. No one would have any qualms about a professor who spent 20 years analyzing a specific enzyme or a strain of cancer.
No one complains that the doctors dont know mathematics, and no one expects a skin doctor to be knowledgable about heart diseases. Todays doctors all specialize in their specific fields, and so do the yungerleit. It is oftten more beneficial to be more focused on less subjects, and to get more of an encyclopedic knowledge of one subject, than to be a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none.
It’s a decision that only the ones involved (aforementioned Roshei Yeshiva) who could decide how much bekius versus how much iyun.
Even the most basic learner knows a fantastic array of subjects, from Shtoros to Eidim, to Gittin and Kiddushin, to Kinyonim, Shevuos, Nedarim, etc. etc. etc. etc.
So yes, he might be clueless about the milky spoon, but he is not ignorant.
Also, his years of learning give him the keilim to know how to go about asking a shaila, looking it up, what to ask, and the ability to get into the sugya. They can apprecaite what is a machlokes, and the whose who, how to dissect a nosei and how to be machria.All the above is true, but BESIDES all that, is the main fact. Learning Torah is the highest mitzva and should be done at every available minute, second and moment.
This is not a machlokes haposkim or even depending on Hashkofos – this is universally accepted.The only room for discussion is the definition of ‘available’.
A working man who has a day off is 100% obligated to spend that day learning. If his responiblities do not require him to work, he is not potur from Talmud Torah just because he is not a learning person. He might not be capable of learning gemora, or not for 12 hours straight. But he has to learn. kitzur Shulchan Oruch, Chumash rashi, Shanyim Mikra, sifrei mussar, nach, ein yakov etc. etc. He could use english seforim, listen to shiurim, the choice is his, but he must learn.
Of course, at the point when health (mental of physical) does not allow, one may pause. If family obligations, or other issues do not allow, one is not expected to learn, but the rule learn, everything else are the exceptions to the rule.
Even is ones mental capabilities only allow for repeating the same posuk countless times, one is doing the mitzva – the greatest mitzva – with every word.
If someone dedicated his life to bringing korbonos in the Beis Hamikdash, he is the ‘PA’ of Hashem, every would understand that he is doing something amazing with his life. Learning torah, even if one retains nothing whatsoever, is better than bringing korbonos.
Chazal are full of what Torah does for the neshomo, how much it supports the world, how much shefa it brings to all the oilomois.OK, i’d better stop here or i’ll go on forever….
he wanted to save the lab fee for doing the test.
Seriously speaking, the ‘mother’ would just claim that the DNA test results were rigged, like the election results. He wanted to be able to prove it to the lady herself in front of everyone.
Just treat him like a human or better still, ignore him. He’ll soon enough discover that he’s become a human again. These things happen!
menachem – there is something wrong about your nusach, ‘based on halocha’. I think you mean that for Halachic purposes, or somethnig like that?
Either way, we rely on it even for when we don’t usually rely on rov, like אין הולכין בבמון אחר הרוב and also we can kill based on this, otherwise if you were mezane with your father’s ex wife or his sister, you could would still be killed. We
I think the achronim say that once it is paskened for other issues, we then use it for everything.
either way, the whole issue is only really halachic. Statistically the probabilty that you are a mamzer is almost 0, You rely on that sort of probabilty to fly airplanes without worrying you are going to die. so the whole shaila is only in Halacha, and in Halacha anyway we rely on the Rov, so really it’s quite theoretical.For practical purposes you can check the DNA, nowadays many poskim trust DNA testing to a large extent. Ask your local OR. But even if you have proof that your father is indeed your father, you still can allow yourself the pleasure of speculating that you are a mamzer – maybe your grandmother was mezaneh, or one of your great great grandmothers….
coffee (and cheescake) addict: even though Menachem’s mother has a chezkas Kashrus, and she no doubt deserves her kesuba, it still does not mean that Menachem is not a Mamzer – maybe she was raped b’oines, in which case she would still qualify for kesuba but Menachem would be a mamzer if he was conceived from the rapist.
Even if an oines can daven after sof zman tefilla, (and too many people have stretched the definition of oines….) one can NOT say Birkas Krias Shema. In other words, that means that after Yishtabach, one must skip straight to Shemone Esrey. Quite a guilt-ridden experience….. certainly not one worth repeating!
common saychel:
It just sounded suspicious…. it sounds eerily like you’ve spent some time in the one place where a person could meet a bunch of probation officers at any given moment….
2) I learn full day but I own a bunch of small properties, and run a side business in finance. My limited knowledge of the English language notwithstanding, I have been regularly writing articles (mainly Hebrew but also in English) which have been printed in a wide spectrum of publications.
‘Funnily’ enough, my spellchecker (Microsoft Office) changed ‘funnilly’ to ‘funnily’. So either my English is not all that bad, or else is is as bad as Bill Gates. The second option doesn’t worry me – rumor has it that Bill manages to make ends meet, and that he pays all his bills on time…..BTW, I’ve never been to Lakewood in my entire life…
commonsaychel: you got me wondering how you got to meet so many probation and correction officers…. funnily, I don’t think I’ve met that many probation/correction officers, even counting all the non-jewish ones…..
n0mesorah; You GotAGoodPoint!
Sorry I couldn’t reply until today – we just, just finished, and I could not type or do any melocho before saying Havdolo
Sorry about the delay. i Just saw what you asked.
I hear, you have a good point. Maybe this is different, because the official job description was teaching girls, you are under scrutiny and have to behave. In the case of the gemoro there was no official interaction between the boy and the mothers so they could have got away with some mischief….
The tirutz is a Doichak.
I think your best bet would be to ask one of his sons themselves –
R’ Todros Miller edited R’ Eliyahu Eliezer Miller editedSkydiving for sport may possibly be osur, the stats are between 1 fatality for every 100,000 jumps to one in 500 K. Need to ask a shaila if that is considered a risk.
However there is a big mekor in the gemoro and poskim to allow a much higher danger wehn done for parnosso.
ויעוין בנודע ביהודה (מהדורא תנינא יו”ד סימן י) שנשאל האם מותר ליהודי להתעסק בציד חיות. והשיב’ הציד לשם שעשוע יש בו [נוסף לשאר האיסורים] איסור מצד מה שנאמר בתורה ‘ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם’ (דברים ד טו). ומי לנו גדול ובקי בצידה יותר מעשו שהכתוב מעיד עליו ‘ויהי עשו איש יודע ציד איש שדה’ (בראשית כה כז) ובכל זאת אמר על עצמו ‘הנה אנכי הולך למות’ (שם לב), ופירש הרמב”ן שהכוונה הפשוטה במלים אלו היא שעשו סיכן עצמו כל יום בין גדודי חיות. ומעתה, איך יכניס עצמו איש יהודי למקום גדודי חיות רעות.
אלא שצייד עני העוסק בצידה למחייתו התירה התורה, כמו שמותר לסוחרים לעבור אורחות ימים בגלל הפרנסה. והתורה אמרה ‘ואליו הוא נושא את נפשו’ (דברים כד טו). ואמרו חז”ל בבבא מציעא דף קיב ע”א מפני מה זה עלה בכבש ונתלה באילן ומסר את עצמו למיתה, לא על שכרו?. אבל מי שאין עיקר כוונתו למחייתו, ומתאוות לבו הוא הולך למקום גדודי חיות, עובר על ‘ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם’.
So even bull-fighting might be permitted if done strictly as a career, not as a sport.
וכעין זה מבואר גם בשו”ת אגרות משה (חו”מ ח”א סימן קד) שדן האם מותר להתפרנס ממשחק זריקת הכדורים, וכתב שם להתיר מסוגין דאמרינן ואליו הוא נושא את נפשו, מפני מה עלה זה בכבש ונתלה באילן ומסר את עצמו למיתה, לא על שכרו? וכתב לפרש דאיירי בסכנה רחוקה, והותרה לצורך פרנסה. והוסיף, שבזה מותר לא רק לסכן את עצמו, אלא גם לסכן אחרים. שהרי גם להרוג את עצמו אסור משום ‘לא תרצח’, וכמו שהותר בו כך גם הותר באחרים, ובתנאי שהם יודעים שהם בסכנה והסכימו לזה.
So skydiving, deep-sea-diving and mercenary are all fine honest professions, but personally, I prefer to live off lottery winsGolden Middle Way. You are amazing! You should have much nachas from your kids, now, AND when they grow up. May you somehow manage to ALSO have spiritual, inspirational Yomim Tovim. Wishing you much koach at every single stage.
I love you! xxxxxxxxxOne year we were running so late that we missed the first Alos and only drank the fourth before the Second Alos! (Which is a problem of drinking wine before Shacharis but I guess the Mitzva of 4 Kosos is very chomur so it’s better to be err on that side and be soimech on the second shita – I hope!)
Any way i think the main halacha is like the second Alos.
I must admit that we made a Tenai and ate Afikoman before chatzos and then had Shulach Orech after Chatzos.147 – You are 100% right to be noheg like the Rema. but I think he only said it to be choshesh for the Shita that it must be by Chatzos. It is however a machlokes Rishonim whether the halacha is like R’ Akiva or R’ Eliezer and therefore you should still be מספר ביציאת מצרים after the fourth Kos.
Mod – could he send it via you? you have my real email address
yes, i would like to challenge it, because there are rayos that the original takono was also specifically i poder to have 4 cups of wine, like the gemoro says אַרְבַּע כָּסֵי תִּיקְּנוּ רַבָּנַן דֶּרֶךְ חֵירוּת, כֹּל חַד וְחַד נַעֲבֵיד בֵּיהּ מִצְוָה
but i do not have the sefer מה נשתנה on my version of Otzar Hachochma (16) or could you just send me a PDF – i’ll give you an adress that i never useedited, sorry
דרך פיקודיך על עניני המצות לבעל הבני יששכר
Shlomo 2:
the 4 cups are much more than just kiddush, bentching and Hallel, and this manifests itself in many way: Kiddush, you can do on Bread (um, matza) but not on Leil Pesach. Birkas Hamazon is btter with a kos, but it is not an absolute obligation. Any kos shel brocho can be drunken by a third party (like we do in the nine days. etc) but daled kosos must be drunk by everyone. There is no obligation to sell ones clothes for Kol Shel Kiddush but yes for 4 cups. The lists go on and on, so if it was simply 4 things that ended up, there would be none of this. Chazal specifially wanted us t drink 4 cups.AAQ – not sure what you are getting at? The shaila is quite complex and needs serious research in the Halochos of Tinok Shenishba. Perhaps you know the halochos cold, or maybe you are OK with passing an opinion without too much thought, but to any balanced Posek, this is a comlex question – until what stage does the Kula of Tinok Shenishba apply? How far can one go and still be considered a Yid for all intents and purposes just because they were born into an ignorant family/community/culture.
The way i see it, that is the shaila we have with regard to Zelensky, is he a Yid who nebbech never knew anything, after 70 years of Soviet rule. Or, has he crossed a red line and is now Halachically defined as a mumar.
Any comments?You gotta admit it – Putin deserves credit for one thing.
He ended the entire Covid pandemic in just 24 hours!