The Boughs Of Goodly Trees
Rav Shlomo Eliezer Alfandri (the “Saba Kadisha”) remarkably holds that lemons and other citrus fruits (perhaps even oranges!) are all subsumed under the rubric of פרי עץ הדר. He explains that the...
View ArticleTerminally Ill Animals and Dead Horses
Rashba and Rivash A celebrated assertion of a conclusive presumption in Halachah is the position of Rashba and Rivash that Hazal’s declaration that a טריפה cannot live more than twelve months is...
View ArticleThe Rebellious Elder
S. asks: It is my understanding that the Satmar Rav believes and taught that one must not show hakaras ha-tov to the Medinah (to be fair I think he also taught that one should not benefit from them,...
View ArticleNaming G-d In Der Israelit
Mississippi Fred MacDowell recently posted about a fascinating episode recorded in the pages of R. Marcus (Meyer) Lehmann’s newspaper Der Israelit. This is as good an occasion as any to note a...
View ArticleDays That Live In Infamy
Rav Shabsi b. Meir Ha’Cohen (the Shach), in the course of justifying the choice of the Twentieth of Sivan for the commemoration of the massacres of the Khmelnytsky Uprising, claims that the date can...
View ArticleHasam Sofer As Bible Critic
Prof. Marc B. Shapiro, citing and explicating a provocative idea of Rav Kook: כבר מפורסם למדי שהנבואה לוקחת את המשלים להדרכה האנושית, לפי המפורסם אז בלשון בני אדם באותו זמן, לסבר את האוזן מה שהיא...
View ArticleFixing Cleopatra’s Nose
A couple of years ago, we discussed the question of the permissibility of plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes, and we noted R. Chaim Jachter’s characteristically excellent discussion of the topic,...
View ArticleThe Cities Of Bistan
My friend M.W. recently consulted me about an obscure geographical reference in Hida’s שם הגדולים: וכבר ידוע דבארץ הצבי וארץ מצרים וערי ביסתא”ן דמשק וארם צובה וערי פרס וגלילות טורקיא”ה וערי המערב קבלו...
View ArticleAnonymous Gifts To the Poor
A couple of years ago, I came across an “amazing chiddush of R’ Yosef Engel regarding matanos la’evyonim”: The gemara (Shabbos 10b) quotes Rav as teaching that if you give a gift to a friend, you have...
View Articleלחמי במזרח ואני בסוף מערב
Kikar Shabbat reports: הרב פסק: הקונים נכשלו באיסור חמץ מספר אברכים שרכשו במוצאי החג מוצרים באחת המאפיות המוכרות בארץ נכשלו באיסור חמץ, כך פסק הרב שריאל רוזנברג. הסיבה: בעל המאפייה שהה בחו”ל במהלך...
View ArticleThe Dextrocardian, Or the Man Whose Heart Was Not In the Right Place
A remarkable, albeit grotesque, example of Polish halachic man: a young man is hospitalized, and the doctors discover that he has dextrocardia (it is unclear whether we are dealing with dextrocardia...
View ArticleWell, At Least They’ll Make Good Programmers
In honor of C.S. and all the righteous women of Israel (and S.C., who helped1). A provocative, albeit cryptic Yerushalmi: הכל נאמנין על ביעור חמץ אפי’ נשים אפי’ עבדים. ר’ ירמיה בשם ר’ זעירה לית כאן...
View ArticleIn Praise Of Folly
Disclaimer: The following incident took place a number of years ago, and my account is at best only roughly accurate: I was observing Rav Nissim Karelitz’s קבלת קהל. A very earnest and pious looking...
View ArticleOnce More Unto the Tower Of Ensisheim
“The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity.” – Abraham Lincoln This can be a problem with dead tree media, too. A couple of day ago, on Tisha Be’Av, I...
View ArticleExploring and Colonizing The Final Frontier
For my friend Dr. Jeremy Schnittman (obviously.) Is the Torah positive, neutral or negative toward the exploration and colonization of outer space? R. (Dr.) Nahum Eliezer Rabinovitch, in a brief...
View ArticleMocking Maharaz
My friend Eliezer Brodt observes: One last small point of interest to me in about the Oz Ve-Hador [edition of מגילת תענית] was that they seem to have no problem with the Maharatz Chayes as they quote...
View ArticleMore Mocking Of Maharaz
Our previous post considered R. Dr. Meir Hershkowitz’s analysis of Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson’s savage criticism of Rav Zvi Hirsch (Maharaz) Hajes; in this post we consider the even more intemperate...
View ArticleCopying Cruciform Churches, Campanas, Circuses and Colosseums
We recently mentioned in passing Rav Zvi Hirsch (Maharaz) Hajes’s prohibition of bell ringing to gather the populace for prayer; here is his discussion in full. He begins by prohibiting the deliberate...
View ArticleOnce More Unto the Tower Of Ensisheim
“The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity.” — Abraham Lincoln This can be a problem with dead tree media, too. A couple of day ago, on Tisha Be’Av, I...
View ArticleExploring and Colonizing The Final Frontier
For my friend Dr. Jeremy Schnittman (obviously.) Is the Torah positive, neutral or negative toward the exploration and colonization of outer space? R. (Dr.) Nahum Eliezer Rabinovitch, in a brief...
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