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Jun 10 |
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What is the original halachic source for a woman covering her collarbones out of modesty (tznius)? @SAH: seems that it applies across the board - Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 90:26 states that the same rules apply to Shema and to prayer. |
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Jun 10 |
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Kevias Ittim Vs. the General Mitzva of Talmud Torah R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, in his Hilchos Talmud Torah (3:4), seems to be saying that they are the same obligation - based, as you said, on והגית בו יומם ולילה - and that therefore, "in extreme circumstances, when one is extremely preoccupied and doesn't have free time to study even one chapter," then the morning and evening Kerias Shema are enough to fulfill that injunction. |
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Jun 8 |
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Mesorah exchange between communities Indeed, too, see Chullin 62b-63a for a list of such pairs - though perhaps there the similarity is in names rather than appearance. Also note that there the Gemara endorses variant customs as to whether to eat certain birds, depending on whether the peres and ozniyah - which they resemble - are local species. |
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Jun 8 |
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Mesorah exchange between communities @DoubleAA: and what happens if in the new location there is a species that resembles one from the old country but is in fact unrelated? The Wikipedia article on "convergent evolution" gives a bunch of such examples, and it's not too farfetched to suppose that in some such cases one member of the pair is kosher and the other is not. (continued) |
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Jun 8 |
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Mesorah exchange between communities It is possible that the reason may indeed be that the mesorah from one area isn't necessarily transferrable to another. Consider the statement in the Gemara (Chullin 62a) that a bird having one kosher characteristic (and which is not dores) is kosher, because the only non-kosher birds of which this is true are peres and ozniyah, and those "aren't in settled areas." Now, suppose that a Jew winds up in one of those places, sees a peres or ozniyah, doesn't recognize them as such, and eats them on the basis of his mesorah! |
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Jun 8 |
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Why did Pharaoh try to kill Moshe? Not only that, but it meant that Moshe was thereby siding with the Jewish slaves against the king (where the original state policy of enslaving them was precisely because the Pharaoh of that time feared that they might revolt - Ex. 1:10). It's even quite possible that Pharaoh had realized by that time that Moshe was of Semitic stock (albeit perhaps not that he was Jewish), which would make him all the more dangerous an enemy. |
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Jun 7 |
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Eclipse of the moon, bad sign for the Jews @DoubleAA: I don't know that sunspots were all that well known either (though Wikipedia says that they are mentioned by Theophrastus). |
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Jun 7 |
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Why is there so much stuff? @bcholbeisineeman: my point was that if those Jews had lived, they would have had descendants who might have been tzaddikim. Anyway, though, ultimately צדיק ורשע לא קאמר - Hashem doesn't decide in advance who will be a tzaddik and who a rasha; so He may well have had to create 310 worlds for each potential Jew (or perhaps even every potential human being). |
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Jun 7 |
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Why is there so much stuff? @bcholbeisineeman: what about if you consider all of the potential tzaddikim? For example, suppose that all of the Jewish people had wanted to leave Egypt, instead of 4/5ths of them deciding to stay behind (and end up dying during the plague of darkness)... |
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Jun 7 |
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Understanding discouragement of converts @MonicaCellio: I forgot to link to my answer - it's here. I also once suggested, in an old related discussion on Mail-Jewish, that there may indeed have been other Jews available in Moav to serve as an ad hoc beis din - tradespeople, employees of Elimelech's, etc. |
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Jun 7 |
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Shiv'im - mi yodeya? Correspondingly: 70 verses in the Megillah from Haman's ascension (3:1) to his hanging (7:10). |
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Jun 7 |
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Understanding discouragement of converts +1. Note, too, about Naomi and Ruth, that my suggested answer to a related question (in a nutshell: Ruth originally underwent conversion while still a minor) would explain why Naomi took on the responsibility of trying to dissuade her - this was right around the time when she had attained legal majority. |
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Jun 7 |
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How can people who dress in “only” black lead tefillah, the Mishna warns us against those “machmir” about colors? In your point 2: "all"? Certainly not during the week, and not even necessarily so on Shabbos (there are lots of people who wear suits of other colors). |
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Jun 7 |
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Eclipse of the moon, bad sign for the Jews @DoubleAA: maybe things like variable stars (Cepheids and the like)? |
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Jun 6 |
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Kabala in Halacha Anyway, though, see the post in @Menachem's link, which cites Halachos Gedolos as saying that tefillin shouldn't be worn on Chol Hamoed - and that is for halachic reasons rather than kabbalistic ones. |
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Jun 6 |
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Kabala in Halacha @DoubleAA: Beis Yosef, Orach Chaim 545 (ד"ה כתב סמ"ק). |
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Jun 6 |
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Question about a 'Jewish proverb' @AdamMosheh: I've heard it over the years, and it's printed in Daf Al Hadaf to Kiddushin 40b (citing Yalkut Divrei Assaf). But no, I don't know its ultimate source. |
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Jun 6 |
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When did Rus bring a korban? I don't think this is correct. Wherever in the period of the Shoftim the story is placed (besides for the most well-known opinion - from Bava Basra 91a - that identifies Boaz with the shofet Ivtzan, there are a couple of others), during that entire era the Mishkan was in Shiloh - and bamos were prohibited during that time (Zevachim 14:6/112b). So -1. |
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Jun 4 |
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How was Rabbi Yochanan allowed to walk with his son's bone? @DoubleAA, it looks like there's a dispute about this point. R. Chanoch (Heinrich) Ehrentreu of Munich (grandfather of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, יבלח"ט) argued that indeed Rashi is implying that a fragment of bone this small doesn't require burial; R. Meir Lerner of Altona took sharp issue with this, and argued that indeed even larger pieces (short of a complete skull and most of the rest of the body) may not require it. |
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Jun 4 |
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How was Rabbi Yochanan allowed to walk with his son's bone? The "R. Yochanan" there is actually the Amora of that name (full name: R. Yochanan ben Napcha, though he's rarely called that), not R. Yochanan ben Zakkai, who lived a couple of centuries earlier. |
