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May
14
comment Finding Kosher Fruit Flavored Snacks
Is this what was described on oukosher.org?
May
13
comment The silence of the Rabbis — Should they have defended Bar Kamtza?
Perhaps "the rabbis" should not be viewed as a monolith. The rabbis at the party were silent, but the greatest rabbis of the generation (probably including those whose names are actually recorded in the Talmud) might not even have attended. Consider the b'raisa (Sanhedrin 23a): "כך היו נקיי הדעת שבירושלים עושין ... ולא היו נכנסין בסעודה אלא אם כן יודעין מי מיסב עמהן." Would the greatest sages have therefore attended the party of a wicked person? (Also consider P'sachim 49a, which lambasts Torah scholars who party to excess).
May
13
comment Do you have to listen to the mikveh lady?
@nikmasi Are you talking about a פשוטי כלי עץ stepladder built into the wall, on which גזירת מרחצאות של כלים could apply (YD 198:31)? Otherwise, if she got her hands wet from the mikva before she touched the wall, and she wasn't pressing hard against the wall, is the custom to still be machmir for גזירה שמא לא ירפה as well as treating hadacha as b'dieved?
May
13
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
@msh210 I know, I was using it colloquially.
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
(See more discussion on this here).
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
Note that the Rambam in Hil. T'shuva 10:1 writes that "a person should not say, 'I will do the command of the Torah and study its Wisdom... in order that I merit life in Olam Haba'." Perhaps (similar to the distinction made by R' Tzadok MiLublin in Divrei Sof'rim, 4) the Rambam would say that if someone wants Olam Haba as an opportunity to love and cling to HaShem, that intent itself would be a fulfillment of the mitzva of ahavas HaShem. In any case, perhaps R' Chaim would disagree with the Rambam and follow another rishon.
May
12
comment What do Sephardic sources have to say about women wearing t'filin?
Regarding wearing a tallis, see the last paragraph of the footnote on p. 104 of Women & the Mitzvot: Serving the Creator.
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
This highlights the importance of performing mitzvos, but it doesn't suggest that this is the ideal intent someone should have when performing the mitzva. I.e. it doesn't suggest that someone who does mitzvos for that purpose is doing them lishmah.
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
... Perhaps a similar machlokes would exist regarding performing mitzvos with the intention that they increase the "extent of the revelation of G-dliness" in the world.
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
+1, especially for "the 'fruit' itself includes the ability to do more mitzvos, much like... 'learning in order to perform'"; if done with that intention, it might not be considered al m'nas l'kabeil s'char. | Aside from that point, it seems that this is related to a key point of disagreement between the Alter Rebbe and R' Chaim Volozhiner on the topic of lishmah in Torah study; R' Chaim wrote that lishmah requires learning simply because that is the mitzvah, and the Alter Rebbe wrote (IIRC) in the Tanya that learning to achieve d'veikus is also considered lishmah.
May
12
comment Do the Gemara and the Rema prohibit, or encourage, women putting on talit and/or tefillin?
See Women & the Mitzvot: Serving the Creator, pp. 95-105, which discusses this at length.
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
@msh210 This begs the question of whether someone can do a mitzva lishmah and also have some other specific intention, or whether any other objective detracts from lishmah.
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
@msh210 ...So it's a special case of the generalization described in my comment?
May
12
comment Korbon tomid whilst Jews were travelling (as opposed to camping) in the desert
The gemara (Chagiga 6a-b) describes a machlokes regarding whether the olos brought at Mount Sinai were t'midim. R' Akiva takes the position that the korban hatamid was brought at Mt. Sinai, and that it never ceased being brought from then on. The Ibn Ezra takes a middle position, that the korban hatamid was brought as long as the Jews were encamped at Mt. Sinai, but it was not brought the whole time the Jews were in the desert (Ibn Ezra, Sh'mos 29:42).
May
12
comment Do the Gemara and the Rema prohibit, or encourage, women putting on talit and/or tefillin?
@DoubleAA Are you referring to that targum in general ("Targum Pseudo-Jonathan"), or are you referring to something about the targum on this specific verse?
May
12
comment Do the Gemara and the Rema prohibit, or encourage, women putting on talit and/or tefillin?
@IlyaMelamed The gemara does mention Michal wearing tefillin (not a tallis, if I recall), though the Talmud Yerushalmi maintains that the sages did object to her actions. I don't know of a source for Bruria wearing tefillin, though I've heard a lot of people mention that she did. The Rema did write that a woman who wears a tallis should recite a blessing, but he said that women may not wear tefillin. (The Rema and some other poskim seem to disregard the Targum Yonasan's rationale regarding cross dressing).
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
To clarify: Is your question about whether one's kavana in performing mitzvos should be outcome oriented (in the sense that the merit should bring about a specific outcome) or lishmah?
May
12
comment Do a mitzva for mashiach?
It is not clear that calculating dates is equivalent to doing mitzvos with a mind towards the future redemption.
May
12
comment May the Sotah take the bitter waters intravenously?
The question would be improved if you added your basis for thinking that, either in general or in this specific case, an IV might be halachically comparable to drinking.
May
10
revised are bionic abilities legal for shabbos
added 3 characters in body