15
My best guess is that it's the policy of the kosher dining hall to not allow outside food or drink to cut down on the amount of non-kosher food which comes in. To my knowledge, there's nothing wrong with water or water bottles (even when in the possession of a non-Jew) and that the person who told you that it was not permitted to bring the water bottle in ...
14
The Shulchan Aruch (OC 40:8) rules that אכילת עראי temporary eating is permitted while wearing Tefillin. Drinking water would seem to fall in this category.
14
Ibn Ezra said that only the above ground water (such as in the river) turned to blood, but water that was underground before the plague stayed water.
"And all of Egypt dug around the river to find water to drink" (7:24)
Thus , when the Egyptian magicians needed water to emulate the plague, they dug a new well See Ibn Ezra on Vaeira 7:22
ויש שואלים: ...
12
In a book I own called שער העין - Shaar HaAyin by a Rabbi Eliyahu Ariel in Chapter 7 Footnote 14 he says that this does not qualify for the special blessing on a rainbow as that was only for rainbows in clouds which are similar to the one by Noah. However, he suggests that it qualifies as an amazing natural wonder (similar to lightning) and would therefore ...
12
Please see "The Segal Guide to Fasting For Yom Kippur (from a Medical Perspective)," written by a physician. The very first point he deals with is the thirst issue you raised.
Most people think the difficulty about fasting is feeling "hungry". However, avoiding thirst is much more important for how you feel. Not only do you avoid the discomfort of thirst ...
11
Dr. Leiman writes on the mouse that is 'half-mouse-half-earth" that, (p.452):
"... it comes as no surprise that the rabbis discussed the status of a creature they had never seen, and one that modern scholarship would label as imaginary. The greatest scientists and historians of their day took its existence for granted. If so, its halakhic status needed to ...
11
Regarding #1:
If it is likely to melt, I assume it would be a problem using this to begin with, as the walls are not steady.
Not sure what you mean here. If the walls don't sway in the wind, then they are halachically steady. (And see #3)
Regarding #2:
What if there is a high likelihood of heavy snow on a nearly daily basis. Enough snow to cover the ...
10
Hacham Ovadia Yosef discusses this issue in Yabia Omer Helek 7 Siman 44 in terms of the kinneret, which supplies water for most of israel. Kibbutzim along the coast are KNOWN for dumping hametz into the water. He answers that hametz dumped before pesach is nullified in 60. During pesach, he applies the concept of "tzonen bitzonen". Since the hametz and water ...
10
From a personal perspective, I have found that the easiest fasts I have had, came when Yom Kippur was on a Monday, and Sunday morning I did a 3-4 hour run (training for a fall marathon).
My theory is that knowing how dumb an idea it is to do a 3-4 hour run, mere hours before a 25 hour fast, I try to compensate by drinking the rest of the day, every 10-20 ...
10
The Talmud (Sotah 18a) records the following question:
בעי רבא: השקה בסיב, מהו? בשפופרת, מהו? דרך שתיה בכך, או אין דרך שתיה בכך? תיקו.
Rava asked: If they had her drink [the waters] through a tube, what is the ruling? through a reed, what is the ruling? Is that the manner of drinking or it is not the manner of drinking? The matter remained ...
10
Without being able to ask the staff who sets the standards for your "kosher cafeteria", we can only speculate if it was truly not allowed to bring a water bottle in, or why.
However, this is my best guess based on what you described and based on my experience with kosher supervisors in the past.
If someone is allowed to bring in foreign food into the ...
9
I learned that it is because there is not a direct connection between your flush (or use of the tap) and the pump; you're just part of an aggregate that collectively leads to the pump running. [citation needed]
9
The reason not to water an animal is that it was banned by rabbis because it takes too much time and effort (tircha) (e.g., Aruch Hashulchan 324:1). They built exceptions into the ban in cases of need (such as, usually, when the animal depends on you for food) (e.g., 324 passim). The reason not to water a plant is because God said you can't make a plant grow ...
9
R. Yitzchak Abadi has told me that it's no problem, at any point in the prayers.
There is also no need to make a shehakol if one is drinking the water for the sole purpose of lubricating one's throat. Shehakol is only recited on water when the drinking serves the purpose of quenching one's thirst (see Shulchan Aruch OC 204:7).
9
The following explanation is in a footnote at torah.org
22 For unknown reasons, Tosfos, Moed Katan 11a (quoted by Reb Akiva
Eiger Y.D. 116 and by Kaf ha-Chayim 170:79), advises against drinking
water [or soda] after fish. She'arim Metzuyanim B'halachah 33:2 (2)
suggests that for this reason whiskey - and not water - is customarily
drunk between ...
8
What you are talking about is combining grama (indirect effect, which is NOT pemritted by most, even for rabbinic prohibitions, with certain exceptions) and safek (uncertain result, i.e., we don't know if your water use will trigger the resupply loop).
Safek is generally permitted for rabbinic or grama situations, so long as there is a reasonable potential ...
8
As Ephraim already mentioned, HaRav Menashe Klein discusses this in משנה הלכות חלק ב.
He brings a Chazon Ish in חידושי חזו"א מקואות תנינא סי' יו"ד ס"ק י"א which talks about using condensed steam for a Mikva.
The Chazon Ish says it should have the same status as melted ice and it definitely doesn't make the Mikve Pasul, even if the condensation dripped in ...
8
The Shir Maon writes they turned blood into "water" (looked like it) and then turned it back into its original state which is blood. Magic cannot work on water (see Sanhedrin) but could on blood.
8
R. Yosef Bekhor Shor (Tosafist) uses this as a proof that the water only turned into blood for long enough to kill the fish, then the fish polluted the water rendering it undrinkable.
He is in turn quoted by Hizkuni, Moshav Z'keinim, Riva al Hatorah, and others.
This is the wording of Hizkuni (Exod. 7:20):
לא נעשה היאור דם כי אם לפי שעה ומיד מתה הדגה ...
8
Sefer Otzar Palos HaTorah pg.161 brings down that no birkas hanehenin is said on Sotah water since it has a bad flavor.
Rav Chaim Kaniefsky rules that one does not make a birkas hamitzvah on Sotah water. He brings a proof from Berachos 51b which says "one does not make a bracha on calamities".
It is also noted that the Sotah who knows that she is ...
8
Yechave Da'as 1:30 rules that one may make ice cubes on Shabbos
Shmiras Shabbos K'hilchoso 10:5 footnote 15 in the name of the Tchbiner Rav says it is forbidden because of Nolad, however in 10:4 footnote 14 mentions that others permit it.
However even according to those that permit making ice on Shabbos, one may only make ice if it will be used on that ...
8
The OU says water does not need supervision. My guess is that it is not expensive to obtain the hekhsher and perceived as adding value so the manufacturers do it anyway.
Aish has a nice explanation for why manufactured products are really more complex than we think and even "simple products" need to be supervised.
It says regarding water
In the U.S., ...
8
R Aryeh Kaplan in his beautiful book Waters of Eden (also part of his Anthology vol. 2) writes this is a chok and cites Bamidbar Rabbah 19:8
By your lives, a dead person doesn't make things impure, and the
water doesn't make things pure. Rather, God said: I have engraved a
rule, I have decreed a decree (chukah chakakti, gezeira gazarti), and
you ...
7
Yerushalmi Terumot 11:2 states:
רבי יוחנן בשם ר"ש בן יוחאי אם יאמר לך אדם שמנה משקין הן אמור לו הרי טל ומים מין אחד הן ומנו אותן חכמים שנים:
Rabbi Yochanan [said] in the name of R Shimon ben Yochai: if someone tells you there are 8 liquids [which can cause fruit to be susceptible to impurity], tell him that dew and water which are one thing, yet ...
7
No. The Kaf HaHaim 181:10 rules that one isn't required to use a Keli that is proper for Netilat Yadayim (see Levush and Kol Bo Siman 23).
7
Shulchan Aruch HaRav 336:9 (My translation) -
ולפיכך מי שאוכל בגינה צריך ליזהר שלא ליטול ידיו על העשבים מפני שמשקה אותם...אבל מותר להטיל עליהם מי רגלים או יין ושאר משקים מפני שהם שורפים אותם ואין מצמיחים אותם אלא מים בלבד וראוי ליזהר אף במשקין
Therefore one who eats in a garden must be careful not to wash his hands on the grass since he is ...
7
Another name for it is Isarusa Dilesato אתערותא דלתתא, An arousal of below. It's when we work hard to achieve an inspiration to connect with and serve Hashem. It's called מים נוקבין mayim nukvin because the giver (Hashem) in chassidus is considered male and the recipient (us) is considered female. Our אתערותא דלתתא can cause an אתערותא דלעילה, also called ...
6
This answer is going to need some background knowledge of bittul (nullification). This will be very much oversimplified, but enough for our purposes, I think.
Two Types of Bittul
Min BeMino - a mixture of the same types of food. In this case the prohibited substance (the 'issur') is batel if it is in the minority (rov). The rabbis enacted a restriction (...
6
It's important to notice that there IS a verse for Miriam in the Hoshanos that we all said (or mumbled) just a day before Tefillas Geshem, and we must remember that Tefillas Geshem and Hoshanos were written by the same author, R' Elazar Hakalir. So clearly R' Elazar Hakalir valued Miriam's role as it relates to water and mentioned it in our prayers for water,...
6
It's not a matter of a chatzitzah - anything liquid wouldn't be a chatzitzah, because the water will wash it away (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 161:2).
It's rather that the water from the first washing becomes tamei by touching your hands (which themselves are tamei - that's why you have to wash them), and the second washing then renders the hands, and the ...
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