Monday, November 19, 2012
בירושלייייםםםםם
Just in case you couldn't make it for the R' Shlomo Yahrtzeit at Binyanei Hauma, here it is.
Torah For Unity
Torah for our people here
I thank my most beloved friend S.G. for sharing. I always tell him that he was born on my 20th birthday [unbeknownst to me at the time] and I couldn't have asked for a better present....:-)
I thank my most beloved friend S.G. for sharing. I always tell him that he was born on my 20th birthday [unbeknownst to me at the time] and I couldn't have asked for a better present....:-)
Mixing Drinks
לכבוד ידידי אהובי החתן ר' יהודה יעקב בן דינה חאשע וכלתו המיוחדת חנה רחל
There is often great confusion at a sheva brachos when it comes time to bentch. How many cups are filled when, what brachos are made on each and how do you mix them?
So here is the story. The Shulchan Aruch [62/9] says that one should bring two cups and the mezamen bentches on one and six brachos are made on a second cup and then the mezamen makes borei pri hagoffen on the first and drinks. He then cites an opinion that all of the brachos can be made on one cup. The Rema rules like the first opinion that two cups are necessary. The reason for this is that we have a rule [Pesachim 102, Sotah 8, Brachos 49] אין עושים מצוות חבילות חבילות - "We don't do mitzvos in bunches" which is why we don't make a bracha with two subjects at the end [Blessed is Hashem who builds Jerusalem and saves the Jewish people], we don't make both kiddush and bentch on the same cup [see the gemara in Pesachim] and we don't purify two metzoras at once or give to sotahs to drink at once. In the same vein, we shouldn't both bentch and make sheva brachos on the same cup of wine. The reason is that it shows that the mitzvos are a pain for us so we try get rid of them easily [Rashi].
The custom is then to take the two cups and mix them together into two separate cups and the chosson and kallah are each given a cup from which they drink.
There is a oft-cited opinioin of the Brisker Rov who learns from the Rambam that the sheva brachos are an extension of bentching. This being the case the second cup on which the sheva brachos are made should be poured before bentching so that bentching is being said on both cups. According to this opinion, if one didn't eat he should not make one of the sheva brachos. If the sheva brachos are an extension of bentching and this person didn't eat, he has no right to make one of the sheva brachos.
Got it? Great. So next time it comes up, you will be the mayveen. If you are still single and there are girls there, add the idea of the Brisker Rov, thus impressing them with your scholarship and ensuring yourself a wife [or at least a date or two]. If you want more lomdus on this - I can give it to you. Anything to help a Yid get married....:-)
There is often great confusion at a sheva brachos when it comes time to bentch. How many cups are filled when, what brachos are made on each and how do you mix them?
So here is the story. The Shulchan Aruch [62/9] says that one should bring two cups and the mezamen bentches on one and six brachos are made on a second cup and then the mezamen makes borei pri hagoffen on the first and drinks. He then cites an opinion that all of the brachos can be made on one cup. The Rema rules like the first opinion that two cups are necessary. The reason for this is that we have a rule [Pesachim 102, Sotah 8, Brachos 49] אין עושים מצוות חבילות חבילות - "We don't do mitzvos in bunches" which is why we don't make a bracha with two subjects at the end [Blessed is Hashem who builds Jerusalem and saves the Jewish people], we don't make both kiddush and bentch on the same cup [see the gemara in Pesachim] and we don't purify two metzoras at once or give to sotahs to drink at once. In the same vein, we shouldn't both bentch and make sheva brachos on the same cup of wine. The reason is that it shows that the mitzvos are a pain for us so we try get rid of them easily [Rashi].
The custom is then to take the two cups and mix them together into two separate cups and the chosson and kallah are each given a cup from which they drink.
There is a oft-cited opinioin of the Brisker Rov who learns from the Rambam that the sheva brachos are an extension of bentching. This being the case the second cup on which the sheva brachos are made should be poured before bentching so that bentching is being said on both cups. According to this opinion, if one didn't eat he should not make one of the sheva brachos. If the sheva brachos are an extension of bentching and this person didn't eat, he has no right to make one of the sheva brachos.
Got it? Great. So next time it comes up, you will be the mayveen. If you are still single and there are girls there, add the idea of the Brisker Rov, thus impressing them with your scholarship and ensuring yourself a wife [or at least a date or two]. If you want more lomdus on this - I can give it to you. Anything to help a Yid get married....:-)
Be Calm
Calmness comes from within. It is the peace and restfulness of the depths of our nature. The fury of storm and of wind agitate only the surface of the sea; they penetrate only two or three hundred feet; below that is the calm, unruffled deep. To be ready for the great crises of life we must learn serenity in our daily living. Calmness is the crown of self-control.
Source: The Majesty of Calmness, p. 8-9
MICHIGINNA
I am writing from Dearborn, Michigan [I attended the wedding of Yehuda and Rachel Spindler]. To give you a picture of the scene... Dearborn is a city with a large Arab population. The hotel I am staying at has no Arabs but I am sitting in the lobby and am surrounded by Christmas paraphernalia; wreaths and huge trees with little idols hanging from it [the mitzva to smash graven images comes to mind. Think they'd like it if I tried??:-)]. There are also Christmas "nigunim" being played on the loudspeaker. I am drowning that out with the holier noise emanating from my computer. This place is also a shrine to the infamous Nazi sympathizer Henry Ford. Last night a father of a close friend from Detroit explained to me that Ford was very nice to individual Jews [like this man's two uncles] and only became anti-Semitic because his friend Thomas Edison convinced him that Jews are bad people. Edison was sore because he was a great inventor but a poor businessman and some shrewd Jewish made big money off of his inventions.
The jury is still out.
Anyway - a little bit of Torah from the Rebbe Shlita on Parshas Toldos bi-kitzur.
How is it possible that Yitzchak Avinu had a son like Esav?? Such a great man with such an evil son! There is the famous comment of Rav Hirsch but we prefer not to be critical of the Avos unless we have to. They WERE human and did make mistakes but if their actions can be read two ways we'd rather read them positively and not critically.
The meforshim teach us that עשו was born עשוי. He was already "done", beard and teeth included. He skipped the impressionable stage of being a baby. Even today, psychology teaches that the formative years of a persons life are his earliest. The later years are merely building on the foundations of what was already determined. Esav never had passed through this critical stage because he was born more 'mature'.
The Rebbe Shlita illustrated this idea with a true story. There was once an old non-Jewish woman who was lying in her bed in an old age home sleeping. Oddly, she kept repeating in a sing-song "Tanu Rabbanan, Yoooohhhh". They couldn't decipher her words until they called a Jew who explained that she was saying "The Rabbis taught, yeahhhhhhhh" which is an ancient Talmudic phrase with an attendant confirmation [yeaaaaaaahhhh]. Which yeshiva did she attend??
No yeshiva at all. She related that when she was a baby her mother was a housekeeper for a religious family and would take her to work. She had obviously heard the man of the house learning and his oft-repeated words left an indelible impression on her.
The lesson is to try to give our children a strong spiritual foundation, particularly in their most impressionable and formative years.
The jury is still out.
Anyway - a little bit of Torah from the Rebbe Shlita on Parshas Toldos bi-kitzur.
How is it possible that Yitzchak Avinu had a son like Esav?? Such a great man with such an evil son! There is the famous comment of Rav Hirsch but we prefer not to be critical of the Avos unless we have to. They WERE human and did make mistakes but if their actions can be read two ways we'd rather read them positively and not critically.
The meforshim teach us that עשו was born עשוי. He was already "done", beard and teeth included. He skipped the impressionable stage of being a baby. Even today, psychology teaches that the formative years of a persons life are his earliest. The later years are merely building on the foundations of what was already determined. Esav never had passed through this critical stage because he was born more 'mature'.
The Rebbe Shlita illustrated this idea with a true story. There was once an old non-Jewish woman who was lying in her bed in an old age home sleeping. Oddly, she kept repeating in a sing-song "Tanu Rabbanan, Yoooohhhh". They couldn't decipher her words until they called a Jew who explained that she was saying "The Rabbis taught, yeahhhhhhhh" which is an ancient Talmudic phrase with an attendant confirmation [yeaaaaaaahhhh]. Which yeshiva did she attend??
No yeshiva at all. She related that when she was a baby her mother was a housekeeper for a religious family and would take her to work. She had obviously heard the man of the house learning and his oft-repeated words left an indelible impression on her.
The lesson is to try to give our children a strong spiritual foundation, particularly in their most impressionable and formative years.
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