Enjoy Yehudah Green Singing a Carlebach Havdala

Here.

A New Threat to Gefilte Fish (Oiy Vey)

Reported:

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in his 51st volume of Responsa, and deals with the Ashkenazi tradition of eating gefilte fish on the Shabbat.

He explains that

...one of the reasons behind the invention of the gefilte fish was a stiffening of the "borer" law (one of the 39 labors prohibited on Shabbat involving the separation of two or more food items that are mixed together [actually separating “Pesolet” (refuse, or undesirable substance) from “Ochel” (food)]). The preparation of gefilte fish involves finely mincing carp, including its fine bones. "The cheap and abundant carp has small spiky bones and many Ashkenazi arbiters found the gefilte fish cakes to be a simple solution" to the "borer" prohibition of removing the small bones...

The Rabbi's solutution? Simple - cancell out the problem:

In the book, the rabbi permits the removal of the carp's small bones on Shabbat, explaining that this does not institute a violation of the "borer" law. This means that Shabbat may be stripped of its weekly dose of gefilte fish, in favor of whole fish.

Actually, we Ashkenazim love gefilte fish so there is no way we're giving it up. Not for all the Sefaradi pilpul in the world.

^

Quiz - Has She Just Lit Shabbat Candles?

Leave your answer in "comments":-

Oh, and the lady is who?

^

Hands-free in London

CR alerted me to the new Shabbat observance novelty in London:

Britain is to get its first ‘hands-free’ pedestrian crossing – so that devout Jews do not have to break a religious law that prohibits them from using electricity or operating machinery on the Sabbath.

The crossing is near a busy synagogue, and pressing a button to operate it is considered a breach of the strict rules that apply to Orthodox Jews.

Traffic will be held every 90 seconds from Friday evening until nightfall on Saturday, covering the Jewish Sabbath period.

...Transport for London, which is responsible for maintaining main roads in the capital...says the ‘hands-free’ green man has not added to the cost of improvements...The crossing (not pictured) is near a busy synagogue, and pressing a button to operate it is considered a breach of the strict rules that apply to Orthodox Jews...

But the real stroy is in the comments.

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My Comment on The Shabbat

Here at the NYTimes.



- - -

My Wife's From Great Neck - She'll Love This

For Sabbath on Saturdays, Fewer Open Shops
By LINDA F. BURGHARDT
GREAT NECK

FOR Elizabeth Allen, it started when she needed a box of nails on a recent Saturday and the Great Neck hardware store she had patronized for years was closed. It hit Bruce Kerievsky when he went to his favorite barbershop in the Old Village and found it shuttered. For Jean Pierce, it was finding the neighborhood liquor store with the great selection of kosher wines closed.

Three Saturdays, three Great Neck stories, one worry: Is Great Neck going the way of Cedarhurst and seeing business shut down on the Jewish Sabbath?

“It seems that way to me,” said Richard Deem, the nuclear engineer who served as mayor of the Village of Great Neck for four years, finishing his last term a year ago. “Businesses can’t make enough money here anymore. There’s pressure from the religious community to close on Saturdays, and that’s the big shopping day for most people.”

More than a decade ago, the Village of Cedarhurst on the South Shore went through a demographic and cultural shift similar to what some say Great Neck is experiencing now, when a large influx of observant Jews, many of them members of the Orthodox Hasidic tradition, moved in and persuaded storekeepers and restaurant owners to close up shop on Saturday.

“On a Saturday now you could bowl down Central Avenue, Cedarhurst’s main shopping street,” said Linda Tsuruoka, who for many years ran a picture framing store there. “One day a man came to my store and said, ‘We’d prefer that you closed on Saturday.’ And I smiled and I said, ‘That’s nice,’ and I moved my business to Woodmere.”

Read on...

Hair-Covering? And What About the Ears?

I don't usually deal with matters of Halacha, Jewish ritual law, except, perhaps, when it pertains to 'political' issues that I deal with like the Temple Mount and the sanctity of the Land of Israel.

But, as they say, there's always an exception.

Recently, there have been a spate of postings and discussions on matters of women's modesty, tzni'ut. This includes MailJewish - a few postings are here and also here as well as here among many other entries along that thread there; and DovBear (here, for example or also here); and Hirhurim (here's one), for starters. You can go to forums like this one if the subject has, er, gripped you.

Anyway, I thought to myself if haircovering is a major discussion issue (and my wife has a chapter contribution in this book - Hide and Seek: Jewish Women and Hair Covering) - why not raise another issue of covering/uncovering.

The Shulchan Arukh, the major 16th centruy compilation of everyday law, deals with the matter of carrying on the Shabbat, which, unless certain restrictions are followed, is prohibited.

Chapter 303 deals with women walking about in the public domain with jewelry which is problematic.

For example:-

May one wear jewelry?

Background: although jewelry and ornaments are not ‘clothing’ nevertheless they serve a function and wearing them on Shabbos is not considered carrying, provided that they are worn in the regular manner. [2] Chazal however were concerned that one would remove one’s jewelry to show to a friend and carry it in a reshus harabim (a public domain) and transgress the issur of carrying. They therefore prohibited wearing most jewelry.

Most jewelry and ornaments may be worn nowadays because the Rama writes [3] that women do not remove their jewelry to show their friends and therefore the major concern is removed. The explanation being that in former times pieces of jewelry were not common and women would wear them only on Shabbos, thus they would show their trinkets to friends. As jewelry is much more common nowadays and worn all the time, this no longer applies.

[2] Based on many se’ifim in simonim 310 and 303. See also SS”K 18:12.

[3] Simon 303:18.

[4] Bi’ur Halacha simon 303:18 ד"ה כי בזה, Shulchan Aruch HaRav simon 303:23, SS”K 18:12.

If, however, we delve a bit into the sources, we can find something interesting.

Here's the original Hebrew for sub-paragraph 10 of 303:-

שג דיני תכשיטי אשה

לא תצא בנזמי האף שמא תשלפם להראותם אבל יוצאת בנזמי האוזן מפני שאזניה מכוסות בקישוריה וטורח הוא לה לגלותן לשלוף מהן הנזמים להראותן ובמקומות שנוהגין לגלות האזנים אסורה לצאת גם בנזמי האוזן

My translation:-

A woman shall not go out [into the public domain] with nose rings for perhaps she may undo them to show them off; but to go out with earings [is permissable] because her ears are covered [my emphasis] with her ornaments and it would be too much of a bother to uncover them in order to slip them off for display; and in places where the ears [are in any case] uncovered, it would be then prohibited to walk about with earings.

As I am not a Rabbi, well, a diplomaed one, please, if you have any questions, consult your local Orthodox Rabbi but two observations:-

a) Jewish women had nose rings.

b) Jewish women seemingly had to cover not only their hair but their ears as well (only on Shabbat?)

Interesting.