Avodah Mailing List

Volume 43: Number 45

Sun, 27 Jul 2025

• 1. Re: Cruelty to animals (Danny Schoemann)
• 2. Re: mutav sheyihiyu shoggim (Akiva Miller)
• 3. Re: My Current Futile Life Project (Akiva Miller)

You could add Eglo Arufo to the list.

Somebody pointed out that the only concrete complaint the angel had against
Bilam was "how dare you hit your animal". Proving that cruelty to animals
is a Torah prohibition.

To your point, it seems to be one more example to show that the Torah is
Gcd-given by instructing on seemingly contradictory Mitzvos.

Kol Tuv

- Danny
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.
R' Joel Rich asked:
> If a rav says there must be a heter because everyone does it (eg
> reading Jewish newspapers with ads on Shabbos and not worrying
> about shtarei hedyotot) may one rely on that and read the newspaper
> or is it another way of saying mutav sheyihiyu shoggim? if the
> latter should one avoid it or would that be gaava?

The devil is in the details. There's no way to answer your question without
knowing more context, and exactly how HE phrased that which you quote as
"there must be a heter because everyone does it". He may have said that as
a humble psak ("It must be okay even though I don't yet understand why") or
he may have been referencing an unknown lenient opinion (as you wrote
"mutav sheyihiyu shoggim"). A lot probably depends on exactly who he meant
by "everyone". You can probably get more info from R' Micha Berger, and his
analyses of when the Aruch Hashulchan justifies the common practice, vs.
when he rails against it.

If he indeed meant "mutav sheyihiyu shoggim", the meaning seems obvious to
me: Better for THEM to be shogeg, but YOU know what the halacha is.

Regarding your question of gaava, I once asked this of our revered departed
listmember Rav EM Teitz z"l. I was doing something a certain way, and I
asked him if it smacks of yuhara. His answer was that if I had been doing
some sort of chumra, then showing off would be a real concern; but in the
case I was asking about, I was doing the lechatchila and they were relying
on b'dieved, so I had no need to worry.

(The exact case concerned absenting myself from my usual shacharis minyan
during the winter, when Hanetz would be so late that my regular minyan
would already have said Shmoneh Esreh. People from the regular minyan
sometimes asked why I've been absent, and my question to REMT was how I
should respond.)

Akiva Miller
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.
Y'all had some pretty good ideas, but MY Current Futile Life Project is to
find a Chumash publisher who will give reasonable instructions for unusual
haftaras. I'm just a guy in shul. I might remember whether this is a leap
year or not, but without a luach in my hand, I have no idea whether *next*
week is a double parsha or not.

There's no such thing as "Haftara for Parshas Mattos". If Divrei Yirmiyahu
would be labeled as "Haftara for the first Shabbos of the Three Weeks", it
would not need any other instructions at all. But if you look in your
Chumash you'll probably find several sentences describing leap years, and
whether Matos and Masei are read together or not.

Likewise, "Haftara for Pinchas" should be renamed as "Haftara for Pinchas
when it is before 17 Tammuz" or "... before the Three Weeks".

Similarly for Vayelech and Haazinu. Even if someone is a Mechalel Shabbos,
if his Judaism is strong enough to bring him to shul on Shabbos morning,
then he almost surely knows whether Rosh Hashana was last week or next
week. Rename "Shuva" as "Haftara for the Shabbos between Rosh Hashana and
Yom Kippur", and be done with it.

There are many other instructions which can be similarly simplified. I'd
gladly produce a full list - for free! - if I thought any publisher would
actually use it.

Akiva Miller
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