Avodah Mailing List

Volume 38: Number 107

Mon, 14 Dec 2020

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Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Message: 1
From: Prof. L. Levine
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:16:50 +0000
Subject:
[Avodah] Chocolate Production


Please see

https://oukosher.org/content/uploads/2020/12/Daf-Hakashrus-Chanukah-2020.pdf?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&;utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=shsh%20Vayeishev%205781%20(1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=32856667&spUserID=MjM3MTAxNzY3NzIS1&spJobID=1843505080&spReportId=MTg0MzUwNTA4MAS2

for an article by the OU regarding this topic.

YL
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Message: 2
From: Prof. L. Levine
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 01:35:25 +0000
Subject:
[Avodah] Bitachon


What is the relationship between bitachon, hishtadlus, and emunah?

Rav Shimon Schwab in his lecture titled Bitachon deals with this.  You can read the entire lecture at

https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/bitachon.pdf

The following is a small selection from this talk:

The Will of G-d is that a Jew should go to work and earn
a parnassah, and go to a doctor when he is sick, like every
other person on earth. What, then, makes the baal bitachon
different? He believes-he knows with certainty-that every
penny he earns, and every cure he receives-indeed, every
success he enjoys or failure he endures--comes directly from
Hashem. It may come about through an earthly agent like a
doctor, but its source is Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It is He who
grants the physician the skill and ability to heal others; it is
He who ensures that a business venture will be profitable or
disastrous. One who looks beneath the surface and realizes
this is the true baal bitachon.

<Snip>

There is no conflict, then, between the concepts of bitachon
and hishtadlus. On the contrary, we must display a combination
of the two. When we earn a living, we must do all we can
in an honest way to support our families, but we must always
recognize that Hashem is the source of our well-being. And
when we fly in an airplane, we should believe b'emunah
sheleimah that the pilot and the air controllers gain their
skills from the Ribono Shel Olom. Furthermore, the plane is
held together through the mercy of Hakadosh Baruch Hu
alone. If one maintains and displays this attitude, one can
effect a great kiddush Hashem.
Bitachon, then, is a major component of kedus"hah; but
there is also something else: emunah. The Rambam wrote an
entire sefer on it, and at the beginning he states that there can
be no bitachon without emunah. However, it is very often
possible for a person to have emunah without having bitachon.
How is this so, and what is the difference between the two
ideas?

See the above link to the pdf file for the entire essay.

YL
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Message: 3
From: Prof. Levine
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 06:41:22 -0500
Subject:
[Avodah] What is to be considered more important


What is to be considered more important regarding Chanukah - the 
small flask with only enough oil to burn for none day that burned for 
8 days or the military victories of the Hashomayim?

Since the military victories are mentioned in Al Hanissim and there 
is no mention of the oil,  it seems that the military victories were 
considered more important.

YL









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Message: 4
From: Prof. L. Levine
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 13:40:56 +0000
Subject:
[Avodah] Can One Use Candles and Oil in the Same Menorah at


From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis


Q. I realize that I am almost out of olive oil and I don?t have time to go
shopping. Is it better to light one candle with olive oil, and the
remainder with wax, or it is better to use wax for all the candles?

A. The Mishnah Berurah (673:2) writes that all the candles must be made
from the same material. If the first candle is oil, the second one must be
oil as well. If oil is not available, all candles should be wax. If the
candles are dissimilar, it will appear as though half the candles were lit
by one person and the others by someone else. The Mitzvah of Mehadrin min
Ha?Mehadrin (lighting the amount of candles that correspond to the day)
will not have been fulfilled. However, each person in the family can light
a different type of candle. One can light all wax, and one can light all
oil. The Beir Heitev (673:1) cites a disagreement as to whether one may use
olive oil for one candle and other types of oil for the rest. Some view
even a change in oil as a perceptible difference that would give the
appearance that there are multiple people lighting. However, other poskim
do not differentiate between types of oil. They even advocate using olive
oil for the first candle and using less expen
 sive oils for the rest if it is too expensive to purchase olive for all the candles.

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Message: 5
From: Prof. L. Levine
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 21:57:29 +0000
Subject:
[Avodah] More on What is Considered More Important - the Oil


Rabbi Dr. Ari Zivotofsky sent me a link to an article he wrote dealing with this topic. It may be read at

https://mizrachi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HaMizrachi_Chanukkah_Israel_2020_48.pdf

YL
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Message: 6
From: Micha Berger
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 19:01:04 -0500
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] What is to be considered more important


On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 06:41:22AM -0500, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> What is to be considered more important regarding Chanukah - the small flask
> with only enough oil to burn for none day that burned for 8 days or the
> military victories of the Hashomayim?

I theorized that it depends when.

The first Chanukah, according to Seifer haMakabiim, was simply satisfying
the need for aliyas haregel, and had echoes of Sukkos. Still present in
Beis Shammai, who pattern the number of lights lit each night after the
parim of the Mussaf of Sukkos -- one less each day.

When they established the holiday, it was about the rededication of the
BHMQ and restoration of autonomy in Judea.

Not about the military victories, but the aftermath. Chanukah isn't on
the date we won. (For that matter, neither is Purim; it's the day after.)
See the Meshekh Chokhmah on Shemos 12:16 "uveyom".

Also, not about the oil. Think about it -- how many people could have
witnessed the neis? Even if they took the menorah out for a public
lighting, who was watching them the whole time to know they weren't
refilled on the sly?

(The phrase "hidliqu neiros bechatzros qodshekha" could mean a lot of
things. Including the possibility that they lit the menorah in the Azarah,
and then put it in place -- hanakhah oseh mitzvah. Or maybe that they
lit lamps in the courtyard, like a Simchas Beis haSho'eivah.)

But then was Churban Bayis and then the Hadrianic Persecutions. Everything
Chanukah was about was gone. OTOH, you couldn't eliminate Chanukah when
the rest of Megillas Taanis was retired, because it has a mitzvah enacted
by the Sanhedrin in the Lishkas haGazis -- there was no one authorized to
repeal it.

I suggested that this was what Chazal mean when the gemara asks "Mai
Chanukah?" What is Chanukah to us, today?

And so they took out the neis shemen and gave it new emphasis. Celebrating
light amid darkness, and the small signs that Hashem is still with us,
fits the tenor of the question.

An enlightening and enjoyable Chanukah!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You are where your thoughts are.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp           - Ramban, Igeres haQodesh, Ch. 5
Author: Widen Your Tent
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF



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Message: 7
From: Micha Berger
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 19:01:04 -0500
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] What is to be considered more important


On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 06:41:22AM -0500, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> What is to be considered more important regarding Chanukah - the small flask
> with only enough oil to burn for none day that burned for 8 days or the
> military victories of the Hashomayim?

I theorized that it depends when.

The first Chanukah, according to Seifer haMakabiim, was simply satisfying
the need for aliyas haregel, and had echoes of Sukkos. Still present in
Beis Shammai, who pattern the number of lights lit each night after the
parim of the Mussaf of Sukkos -- one less each day.

When they established the holiday, it was about the rededication of the
BHMQ and restoration of autonomy in Judea.

Not about the military victories, but the aftermath. Chanukah isn't on
the date we won. (For that matter, neither is Purim; it's the day after.)
See the Meshekh Chokhmah on Shemos 12:16 "uveyom".

Also, not about the oil. Think about it -- how many people could have
witnessed the neis? Even if they took the menorah out for a public
lighting, who was watching them the whole time to know they weren't
refilled on the sly?

(The phrase "hidliqu neiros bechatzros qodshekha" could mean a lot of
things. Including the possibility that they lit the menorah in the Azarah,
and then put it in place -- hanakhah oseh mitzvah. Or maybe that they
lit lamps in the courtyard, like a Simchas Beis haSho'eivah.)

But then was Churban Bayis and then the Hadrianic Persecutions. Everything
Chanukah was about was gone. OTOH, you couldn't eliminate Chanukah when
the rest of Megillas Taanis was retired, because it has a mitzvah enacted
by the Sanhedrin in the Lishkas haGazis -- there was no one authorized to
repeal it.

I suggested that this was what Chazal mean when the gemara asks "Mai
Chanukah?" What is Chanukah to us, today?

And so they took out the neis shemen and gave it new emphasis. Celebrating
light amid darkness, and the small signs that Hashem is still with us,
fits the tenor of the question.

An enlightening and enjoyable Chanukah!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You are where your thoughts are.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp           - Ramban, Igeres haQodesh, Ch. 5
Author: Widen Your Tent
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF



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Message: 8
From: Micha Berger
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 18:23:54 -0500
Subject:
Re: [Avodah] Unusual Halacha


On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 12:29:03PM -0500, cantorwolberg via Avodah wrote:
> There is an unusual law in the observance of Chanukah which is unique
> among mitzvos. The Shulchan Aruch rules that one who doesn't have the
> opportunity to kindle Chanukah lights or to have someone lighting on
> his behalf in his home becomes obligated, upon merely seeing Chanukah
> lights anywhere, to recite the blessing "She'asah Nissim," "Who performed
> miracles" (Or ch.676.-3, in accordance with Rashi's interpretation of
> the text in Shabbos 23a).

I think it's because the mitzvah isn't about the lighting of the menorah,
but about pirsumei nissa. Therefore, while there is a mitzvah to light the
menorah, one can accomlish a major aspect of the mitzvah by witnessing the
fact that someone else did, and then acknowledging the neis. And notice
you don't actually say the berakhah "asher qidishanu bemitzvosav". You
say the one acknowledging the neis.

Simiilarly, there is a huge debate -- too many sources for me to keep
track of -- whether one says "She'asah Nissim" when seeing a menorah
when someone else is lighting for you back at home, but you're not there
to see it. The MB (676:6) tells you not to, because safeiq berakhos
lehaqeil. (Meaning, he gave up and couldn't definitively pick a side.)

The other mitzvos you mention -- matzah, lulav or shofar -- aren't about
spreading news. And they don't have a parallel 2nd berakhah.

I know, it's not as poetic as your derashah:
> Chanukah imposes an obligation upon Jews to see things in a special
> light, to apprehend reality in a unique manner....
But it's the given reason.

An enlightening and enjoyable Chanukah!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "As long as the candle is still burning,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   it is still possible to accomplish and to
Author: Widen Your Tent      mend."
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF        - Anonymous shoemaker to R' Yisrael Salanter


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