Questions tagged [shiurim-measurements]
measurements relating to the performance of different Mitzvot
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Waiting after a small amount of meat [duplicate]
If somebody ate less than an olive-bulk of meat, do they have to wait the standard 6 hours before dairy consumption? Or could they be lenient and wait only several hours? Is it the same law regardless ...
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Meaning of "emunah shlaima"?
The Rambam's 13 Articles of Faith begin with the statement: "אני מאמין באמונה שלמה" - "I believe with complete faith...", words that then go on to express our faith that God "creates and guides" all ...
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Minimum measure for שריטה/גדידה
I was learning about cutting/scratching. This is a pagan practice of cutting oneself in mourning, and is forbidden in the Torah.
The halachot for this are in משנה תורה, הלכות עבודה זרה וחוקות הגויים ...
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Dollar Value of Sela
In the ceremony of Pidyon HaBen, the father needs to give the Kohein who is involved, 5 Selaim.
How much is a sela in US dollars?
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Measurement of Cherubim in the Mishkan
Our son would like to bring in a model to school of the Aron, and cherubim (ark of covenant, and cherubim) that was in the mishkan. I found a box with the exact size of the ark. We would like to make ...
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How to understand quantity in terms of prohibitions and the affect that this has on interacting with that quantity of issur?
Do all issurim have a shiur and how is that quantified?
An example of what inspired the question. In my taaruvos shiur the rav told us that on yontiff if wood that was muktza such as branches that ...
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Can someone fulfill his Shabbat meal obligation through his family if they eat a k'betza and he eats just a bit?
Suppose someone for health reasons can't eat a full k'betza of bread but can eat a crumb.
He wants to l'chatchila (or bedi'eved) fulfil the standard Shabbat obligation of seuda and lechem mishna for ...
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Size of an amah (אמה)
One of the our measurements is the אמה ("cubit"), for which the most usual value is 24 אצבעות. My question is, What information do we have from earlier sources (Rishon or Acharon, say, ...
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Rabbinic weights and measures in primary source
Where can I find a concise presentation of the full system of rabbinic weights and measures, in a primary source?
Meaning X tefachim in an Amah, etc.
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In what time period must Pas Habaa Bikisnin be eaten?
If enough Pas Habaa Bikisnin (e.g. cake or crackers) is eaten at once (according to some opinions as little as four beitzim Mishna Berura 168:24) then the blessing is Hamotzi instead of mezonot.
In ...
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Why is Aramaic "tlasah" used for wine in ketoret, where spices are counted in Hebrew "shlasha"?
In Talmud Keritot 6a, read in the siddur, it states,
קילופה שלשה וקנמון תשעה בורית כרשינה תשעה קבין יין קפריסין סאין תלתא קבין תלתא
Why is the Hebrew שלשה used for "three" (hin) in ...
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Shortest/longest halachic hours
Chabad's article explains the “halachic hour” like this:
The hour has a special meaning in Jewish law. "The third hour of the
day" doesn't mean 3:00 a.m., or three sixty-minute hours after
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Is there a halachic time limit for sending an organization its charity box money?
Many Jewish organizations distribute tzedaka (charity) boxes. A few that I know tell people, "collect the money and at some point, empty the money and mail us a check."
Let's say someone leaves this ...
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Apparent contradiction in Bamidbar 35:1-5
I am aware that Sotah 27b and Rashi do not not regard these verses as self-contradictory, although they point to the apparent contradiction.
The verses in English:
The LORD spoke to Moses in the ...
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How large is an issar coin in halacha?
The Shulchan Aruch OC (648:2) writes
אתרוג שניקב נקב מפולש כל שהוא פסול ושאינו מפולש אם היה כאיסר פסול ואם
חסר כל שהוא פסול ויש אומרים דגם בנקב מפולש בעינן חסרון משהו ושאינו
מפולש בחסרון כאיסר - An ...
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Giving Tzedakah Less than a Perutah
The consensus among poskim is that a prutah is 1/40 of a gram of silver, which is usually more than 1 cent but less than 5 cents. So if a person only gives a penny to tzedakah (let's say that is all ...
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How would you practically measure the volume of a matzah?
So assuming a Kezayit is measured as volume, how would one calculate the volume of a matzah? Water displacement probably wouldn’t work, because it’ll get soggy!
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What is the absolute minimum length for peyos?
I have often heard that 1/4th of an inch is the minimum length of the hairs in the peyos area. For example, that is mentioned in an answer to a previous question:
How to advise your barber
My ...
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Amah, tefach, and pi
I have a question on Eruvin 14a bottom which says that Shlomo's pool was round, had diameter of 10 amot and thickness 1 tefach, and circumference 30 amot (we learn from this that halachically pi=3).
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Sotah 34a se’a as unit of weight?
In Sotah 34a, the weight of the stones at the Jordan from Joshua 4:3 is given as “about forty se’a.” Some (for instance Steinsaltz) use this in the discussion of the cluster of grapes brought back by ...
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What precisely are the differences between היתר מצטרף לאיסור and טעם כעיקר?
Learning maseches nozir around daf 35, I encountered two concepts:
היתר מצטרף לאיסור (HML)
and
טעם כעיקר (TK)
HML
The Gemoro 35b indicates that HML is derived from Bamidbar 6(3)
מִיַּ֤יִן וְשֵׁכָר֙ ...
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Operating a mechanical calculator on Shabbos
Are mechanical calculators Mukzte on Shabbos? Would it be considered a form of measuring?
Mechanical calculators have no electric parts. Everything is purely mechanical:
If it is considered measuring,...
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Pouring wine into a pagum/used cup in order to reuse the wine inside
I heard that after drinking from the kiddish cup, in order to reuse the wine left over which is pagum, we pour some wine into the cup from the bottle it before pouring the wine in the cup back into ...
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Why are there different versions of what Chazon Ish says is the size of an Amah?
Different sources have different information regarding the size of an Amah (all measurements are attributed to Chazon Ish):
Halachipedia - 24 in. / 60.96 cm
Dafyomi.co.il - 22.72 in. / 57.72 cm
Daat....
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Must a kazayit be eaten immediately?
In order to recite an after-beracha —- take bread, for example —- must the full kazayit be eaten right after making the opening-beracha, or could one taste the bread and wait a period of time before ...
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The angle of heseiba and derech cheirus
Heseiba (reclining) is a Rabbinic ordinance of the Passover seder intended to invoke the style of derech cherut ("the way of freedom" - associated with luxury/aristocracy). Some Rishonim (medieval ...
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Teaching halacha to children with halachically invalid "props"
The Talmud (Sukkah 2b; cited also here) implies that chinukh (educating children in halacha observance) necessitates that the mitzvah be fulfilled according to its halachik details (at least with ...
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How much is "k'dei l'chametz"?
How much is "enough sourdough to ferment"? Orla 2:6 refers to it as a qualitative measure, independent of the 200:1 ratio which is the quantitative measure that would render the sourdough indelible ...
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What is the finest measurement in the Talmud?
The standard Talmudic measures of length include, for example, Amah, Tefach, and Etzbah. But those measures are pretty loose, around 20% of freedom.
What object or usage, in our Halacha, requires the ...
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Tzitzit length after knots
Once the Tzitzit have been tied, is there any requirement about their length?
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Additional examples of measuring length in 'whole people in Halachah
אמר ר' יוחנן: סוכה העשויה ככבשן, אם יש בהקיפה
כדי לישב בה כ"ד בני אדם כשרה ואם לאו פסולה.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: With regard to a sukka that is shaped like a furnace and is completely round, if ...
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Eating out Friday night of Chanukkah
If one is lighting Chanukah candles inside (for whatever reason) relying on the publicizing to himself and his family, then what should he do on Friday night if he is eating out? Must he make the ...
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Source of the idea of "enough to square" - "כדי לרבע"
IIRC the idea of "to square" addresses two main issues - measuring a minimal Succah and a minimal house for Mezzuzah (I'll focus on the first but the discussion on the later is similar).
IIRC the ...
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How much should Rosho Verubo be for Succah measurements?
The Gemmorah (Succah 3 and Mishna on 28) states that the requirements for a Succah are that a person can fit it "ראשו ורובו" - the head and most of the body.
IIRC the average body is 3 Amot (18 ...
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Shouldn't the minimum Succah size be 6x7 Tfachim?
According to Bartenura on Mishna Sukkah 1:1, the calculation for the minimum Succah footage is the footage one man occupies (1 Ama x 1 Ama), i.g. 6 by 6 Tfachim and 1 Tefach for his table:
שהסוכה ...
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Why the minimal footage of a Succah is not mentioned in the Mishnah?
The first Mishnah in Succah discusses the height of Schach but not the measures. Subsequently, the Mishnah does not deal with it at all (Mishna 2.7 discusses the placement of the table independently ...
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Fitting the Sanhedrin (150) into Lishkat Hagazit (10x15 feet chamber)?
Here's the Tifferes Isroel's plan of the Temple drown to scale (on the bottom), which aligns with the plan of the Second Temple on the WIKI,
According to those plans, the size of the whole Lishkat ...
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Sechach supported partially by metal
For those who are careful to only support their sechach on sechach-eligible materials, how much does it matter if a small amount of the sechach inadvertently rests on non-sechach-eligible materials?
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Does the Holy Ark weigh 4 tons?
I did some calculations, based on the following measures:
The Aron was 2.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 Amahs
The gold was 2.5cm thick (a finger) for the ark and 10cm thick (a Tefah) for the Kapores, at 19.3 g/cm3
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Have the measurements for tumah changed throughout the ages?
There is discussion among poskim whether we measure a kezayit (and other measurements) using contemporary olives/eggs/etc, or whether we use some larger measurement based on a perceived historical ...
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Halachic measures
Why did the rabbis of the Talmud use approximate weights and measures, such as k'zayit, k'betzah, revi'it, k'dei achilat pras, amah, etc. [1], which caused disagreements among later Sages as to what ...
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Measuring Levi's cities
The Torah says that the cities of Levi'im must have surrounding areas of either 2000 or 3000 Amahs. However, I didn't see how those cities' sizes were determined in the first place.
How Levi tribe (...
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Is there a minimum field size for peah to apply?
I know that peah applies to fields of food crops (not other produce) and that halacha is to leave at least 1/60 of the field unharvested for this purpose.
What I haven't found is whether there is a ...
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The minimum amount of water a Sotah must drink
I was wondering if there is a minimum amount of water a Sotah must drink in order for the water to take effect.
The closest I found to this being addressed was Rashi on Bamidbar 5:13 who quotes a ...
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Why Temples' dimensions were different from the Mishkan?
After asking "why-did-the-mizbeach-grow-40-times", I realized (thanks JoelK) that both measurements were dictated by G-d (it's unclear to whom: Moses, David or other prophets). See also Yalkut Shimoni ...
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Why did the Mizbeach grow 40 times? [duplicate]
The main, Bronze Altar in the Mishkan was 5 Amos wide. It was also portable.
In the Temple(s), it grew to 32 Amot wide - 6.4 time in width and 41 times in footage1.
EDIT: according to JoelK's answer,...
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Measuring the universe in G-d's cubits (Eruvin 21a)
In the following passage (Eruvin 21a in William Davidson edition) the sages try to determine the size of the Torah scroll that Zachariah saw in his prophecy:
In order to determine the measure of ...
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Aruch Hashulchan's moon-distance estimate
Aruch Hashulchan (1829–1908), Orach Chayim 397:1, says that a מיל is the same as a Russian верста (verst) or 500 сажен (sazhen), which comes to 1066.8 meters. In 426:2, he says the distance to the ...
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Where can we assume that time refers to Shaot Zmaniot?
For many daily activities, the time frame for completion is dependent on the proportional hours (sha'ot zmaniot). But is there an extension of those hours to proportional minutes and seconds which ...
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