Abba Segal

02:59 pm - Aviner on Mitzvot on the Moon

This came through one of the email lists I am on (Rav Shlomo Aviner), and for some reason I thought of mabfan ... ;-)

The original is available at:
http://ateret.org.il/UserFiles/File/OntheAir108.pdf

Man on the moon
Q: Is one obligated to observe the mitzvot on the moon?

A: This question is discussed in the book "Man on the Moon" by Ha-Rav Menachem Kasher (pp. 51-55). It is clear that a person is obligated to perform the mitzvot on the moon. The Torah preceded the world, and not only are we obligated to observe it in Eretz Yisrael and everywhere in the world, but everywhere in the Universe as well. If there were plants of the moon they would obviously not obligated in Terumot and Ma'asrot. It is outside of the Land, but one is obligated in the mitzvot there. How to calculate the times on the moon is a serious question. The halachic authorities have already discussed this issue regarding the North and South Poles, and solved it by using extrapolation, i.e. we can calculate the times there by using the times from place where we do know the times. B ut the moon is outside of time. The Rabbis therefore rule that a person should continue to follow the time from the place from which he departed. Based on this, it is possible that different people in a space station or on the moon who came from different places will be observing different times. This question has also already been discussed regarding the international date-line. As is known, during World War Two, the students of the Mir Yeshiva escaped and went to Shanghai. There was a dispute when Shabbat should be observed: Saturday, Sunday (because it was over the date-line) or on both days because of the doubt (Ha-Griz of Brisk and the Chazon Ish ruled it should be observed on Sunday and Rav Tikochinsky said that it should be on Saturday). The dispute is whether the International Date-Line is 180 or 90 degrees east of Eretz Yisrael. It is thus possible that different people on the moon are observing different times whether for Shabbat or for day and night.

Rav Kasher also writes that one loses performing the mitzvah of Kiddush Levana on the moon. How can one recite it if he is standing on the moon? Ha-Rav Menasheh Klein in Shut Mishneh Halachot (6:259) was asked: Is it permissible to recite Kiddush Levana when people are standing on the moon since it may appear as if you are saying a blessing to them? He answered: Yes, there is no difference (but he writes that it is forbidden to travel to the moon since there is no suitable air and it is dangerous). And it is written in Nefesh Ha-Rav (p. 79 note #7) that one Rabbi said that after man landed on the moon the words "I dance before you [the moon] but cannot touch it" in Kiddush Levana should be changed, but Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik said that the intention is that one cannot touch it during th e recitation of the blessing since one is on the earth and it certainly should not be changed. Rav Kasher was also asked: Is it even permissible to step on the moon since we say Kiddush Levana and the moon is thus used for a mitzvah (Tashmishei Mitzvah) and it is forbidden to denigrate an item used for a mitzvah? He answers that the moon was not only created for the sake of saying Kiddush Levana. It has an independent value. One can also ask: Is it permissible to step on Eretz Yisrael, since it is a mitzvah to live in Eretz Yisrael and it is thus used for a mitzvah? I see people walking on the Land of Israel since that is also part of the mitzvah, as it says: Anyone who walks four amah (6 feet) in the Land of Israel is ensured on life in the World to Come (Ketubot 111a).

Shabbat Shalom!

12:24 am - An Old-Fashioned Kiddush Ha-chodesh

This evening R's school had a wonderful event celebrating "kiddush hachodesh," or the sanctification of the new month.

Background:  In the time of the Temple, the calendar was not fixed, and the first day of a new month was determined by witnesses seeing the new moon, and then reporting this to a Bet Din (court) in Jerusalem, who would interrogate the witnesses, and if two witnesses' testimony was validated, a new month would be declared, and signal fires would be lit to notify the country of the new month.

At the event at her school, students from the 3rd grade put on presentations acting out scenarios described in the Mishna about the process.  (My favorite was the skit illustrating those people whose testimony was automatically invalidated -- gamblers, loan sharks, pigeon racers, etc.). 

We then went to a lookout point (her school is located on a hill in Rosh Tzurim), where we looked westward over the beautiful Judean valley (looking just south of Beitar), and everyone looked out for the first showing of the new moon.  After the sighting, there was another presentation, modelling the Bet Din interviewing witneses, and then declaring a new month.  One of the teachers then waved a signal-fire torch (it was dark by now), and we all saw someone on the next hill see the torch, and wave his signal torch back.  Then, of course, food was served (a good meal was actually part of the enticement for witnesses in Temple times).

R (along with most of her first-grade cohort) was admittedly a little tired and may not have fully appreciated the event (it was after 9 by the time food was served, and we left promptly so I could bring her home to bed), but for the older kids (and the parents!), this seemed an instance of experiential learning at its best.   It was especially moving realizing that the hill we were on could very well have been a signal hill for relaying the news of the new month, way back when.

Current Mood: happy

08:36 pm - Headline: "Israeli Guards Thwarted Pirates"

I saw the headline "Israeli Guards Thwarted Pirates" and I admit the first thing I thought was "Why would an Israeli be guarding thwarted pirates -- shouldn't he be trying to catch them?"

In fact of course it was the guards from Israel who thwarted the pirates.

11:08 pm - It felt like Disneyland®!

Today we went to the US consulate to apply for those new baby things -- report of birth abroad, passport, social security number.  The way they handled lines and kept it hidden that there was more waiting to come was quite impressive (and thus the reference to Disneyland):

1) First, we had to book an appointment on-line, at least several weeks in advance.
2) When we got there, outside there was a line to wait in to get a number from a clerk behind a window.
3) Still outside, once we got the number we had to wait before they let us in (one group at a time) to the security check (where we had to go through a metal detector, and check in our cell-phones)
4) After the security check, we had to wait in a waiting room, where they called groups in one at a time, through a second security check!  (this one they X-rayed bags)
5) Yet another waiting room, where we had to wait to check-in (at "window 5").  At check-in, they looked at the forms to ensure we filled them out completely and had all the necessary backup documentation (e.g. birth certificates, marriage certificates, proof of citizenship, etc.)
6) After we checked in, we had to wait (same waiting room) for them to call us by name.  When called up (to "window 3"), I was given a bill, and told to go to the cashier to pay and to go "upstairs and to the right" to get the courier's envelope.  I was told I should come back to window 3 with the receipt and envelope from the courier.
7) Line to pay at cashier ("window 1")
8) Line to pay at courier's station ("upstairs and to the right")
9) Wait for window 3 cashier to be free, so I can give her the envelope and the receipt that I had paid.
10) Now wait to be called by the Consular agent ("Window 4"), who would actually approve the application.  For this step he actually needed to witness our signatures and see the baby. 

Total time with consular agent: about 1 minute.
Total time with any agent: about 3 minutes
Total time waiting: 2 hours

The whole time I was looking at the clock, since we needed to be home about 2 and a half hours after our appointment time to pick up kids from school (of course, the days our kids have "long days" at school are days where the consulate either isn't open or doesn't do reports of birth abroad).

Baruch Hashem, all came out well in the end, and we made it home with about 5 minutes to spare before our eldest came waltzing in off the bus.

P.S. I shudder to think what it must have been like before the on-line reservation system -- I gather many people would show up and wait for hours before being sent home unable to do what they needed.

Current Mood: relieved

03:38 pm - Bovine Daf

Someone (Alan Yaniger, to give full attribution) posted this on the Efrat Chat list, and I thought at least some of you would find this amusing:

Today's Daf Yomi contains the first Mishnah in Bava Kama which mentions cows ("an ox which gores a cow").

And it's daf 46.

And mem-vav [מו, the Hebrew representation of 46] in Hebrew spells "moo".

01:31 pm - Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday dodajen !
Happy Birthday shimshonit !


!

10:53 am - Happy Birthday Ludwig!

Happy Beethoven's Birthday!

(Note -- the background music is from http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Curiosites/HappyBirthday.html).

Current Mood: calm

02:52 pm - Belated Sukkot post

Oops. I though I had posted this during sukkot, and just discovered it in my draft folder. Here goes:

This year we learned a new minhag for Sukkot -- on the first night of Sukkot, the kids go "sukkah hopping" around the neighborhood and are given candy at the various sukkot they visit. (The givers are entitled to ask the children to produce something first: a dvar torah, a song, a factoid about sukkot, etc.).

Nobody told us about this minhag, so we had some disappointed visiting kids, but they were all good sports about it... Our kids, needless to say, were thrilled when they discovered what awaited them after some new friends invited them to "hop" with them!

As far as I can tell, this particular minhag is limited to Efrat -- in Bet Shemesh this did not happen, but our neighbors tell us it happens all over the city (and not just in our little neighborhood of "Lev Efrat").

Perhaps, though, we missed it before now because our kids have been too young -- have any of you seen this before?

It certainly fills the niche of Halloween. I must, though, admit I like the Purim way better -- kids go out and *give* away treats, instead of collecting them.

And have I mentioned how lovely Sukkot is in Israel? We can walk around our neighborhood, and virtually every house has a sukkah (or often more than one -- many multi-floor houses have an eating sukkah in the yard, and a "sleeping sukkah" on a balcony). Our kids slept several nights on our covered balcony, which wasn't technically a sukkah, but was close enough for their needs. (At some point when they are older I am sure they will start asking me to make it a real sukkah, but for now they were happy enough just to be outside...).

Moadim L'simchah!

11:31 pm - Shower Mollism

We have been stressing how we need to conserve water, since the Kinneret (the main resevoir in Israel) is now officially beneath the "red line". To this end, we have started giving Moll showers instead of baths (if you keep turning the water off when you don't actively need it, a shower can use significantly less water than a bath). Anyway, the other day, shortly before her Birthday, Moll said

"Hey, I'm only 4 and I'm taking a shower! Isn't that cool!?!"

12:27 pm - That ever-exciting topic: Retirement planning

I have finally gotten around to rolling over my 401k from my previous employer to an IRA, so I have been thinking and doing a fair bit of web research about retirement planning. There are numerous financial planners who will help you manage your money (for a fee), but the preponderance of literature out there points out that fees are a big killer, and that the vast majority of funds don't even do as well as the markets. I have therefore decided to manage my own portfolio, and I want to share a couple of resources I have found.

There is a great guide to ETF investing written by David Jackson (who is the brother of a Shaareinik) that is freely available on the web at http://seekingalpha.com/article/15134-the-seeking-alpha-etf-investing-guide. ETFs are "Exchange Traded Funds" and are really just a basket of stocks you can trade all at once, like a mutual fund, but they tend to be cheaper than standard mutual funds (especially if you buy the "index" funds he recommends, and he goes into more detail as to what they are).

His general thesis is that ETFs are the most cost effective way to invest, and moreover if you come up with a simple portfolio of between 5 and 11 broad-based index funds, and rebalance once every year or two, your portfolio will do as well as any one a portfolio manager can do up for you, but since you'll be paying much less in fees you'll be much better off in the end.

One of the links I found on his site points to a very interesting tool to help model your portfolio. Rather than do what many retirement calculators do and base your results on "average returns", you give this tool a sample portfolio, and some general assumptions (e.g. if you want to be conservative or optimistic about how the market will be over the next 20-30 years until retirement, how much per year you will be saving, and how much money you will be drawing down in retirement), it will

1. download historical data to seed its models,
2. do Monte-Carlo simulations of what is likely to happen in the future based on those models plus some extra financial theory, and will
3. present you a table saying things like "there is a 20% chance you will run out of money at age 84, a 50% chance that it will last until 104" or, if you aren't saving enough money or are investing in the wrong mix: "there is a %20 chance you will run out of money by age 75, a 50% by age 80, and a 90% by age 85".

01:53 pm - Passover Mollism

Talking about the shankbone on the seder plate, and what it represents:

Me:  When the malach hamavet (Angel of Death) was coming before Pharaoh let us go, what did the Jews put on their doorframes to keep it away?
Moll: Blood
Me:  Where did the blood come from?
Moll:  Their noses?

10:40 pm - Where a 4 year old's mind will wander

Our 4 1/2 year old is asking some profound questions.  Yesterday she asked the following pair in quick succession:

How did Hashem create the world?
How does Hashem create blu-tack?

 Thought I'd share that... ;-)

12:06 am - Buffalonian

This reminds me of some of gnomi's polls...

12:26 am - Vat meat

A couple of years ago, in a discussion with mabfan , I was introduced to the concept of "Vat meat" (artificially created meat, grown in a vat as opposed to removed from an animal) and its potential halachic implications. In particular, if, say, the animal it came from was still alive would it be "ever min hachai" (limb from a living animal, which is forbidden)? Or if the meat was only grown from just a few cells, would that count as "ever (limb)?" Would it even count as meat?  If it didn't count as meat, then would vat-grown pork be kosher, since it was just some substance made in a lab, started by something (a few cells) that had no halachic categorization as food?  A whole series of questions come from this, that Jewish law has not had to deal with before.

Anyway, I just came across someone else who is beginning to think about it, so the idea might be getting some traction. He didn't have any answers, either, but this is the first time I've heard anyone outside of mabfan's sphere of influence mention this. 

Current Mood: thoughtful

08:05 am - Hebrew/Music Gotcha

For those of you who are both musically and Hebraically inclined, I will share what I discovered after a rather confusing conversation I had with an Israeli musician:

The textbook translation of "key" (i.e. the thing with which one unlocks doors) in Hebrew is "mafteach" מפתח. Now, it turns out that both of these words have meaning in the musical realm, but the kicker (and what led to my confusion) is that they mean different things in Hebrew! In particular, the musical mafteach (מפתח) refers to what in English we call the "clef" (which in turn comes from the French for key, so one can see the connection). The word for the musical key in hebrew is "tone" (טון) presumably from the English word with the same sound.

Now imagine someone trying to explain transposing instrument to somebody, but from the correct explanation replace the word "key" with "clef", and you can imagine how I must have sounded to the musician (especially if you heard the asker ask about different clefs and then receive that confused answer!).

After the musician insisted to me several times that Viola and Violin were often in different keys, I realized "maybe this word mafteach/מפתח doesn't mean what I think it means," let the topic drop, and went home and consulted my trusty dictionary where I learned the above.

Oops!

You are hereby warned.

09:40 am - Great quote from Thomas Friedman

"Some things are true even if George Bush believes them."

From http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/opinion/01friedman.html

11:11 pm - Al haNissim for Yom ha-atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim

A while back, 530nm330hz asked about a nusach for Yom Ha-atzmaut. I just found out about this one:

http://machonshilo.org/PDF/Machon_Shilo_Al-HaNissim_YA_YY.pdf

Unfortunately I was a bit late for Yom Ha-atzmaut this year, but there is still time for Yom Yerushalayim.

I am sure this is not universally accepted in the Orthodox world, though the rabbi who is distributing it is Orthodox (if a bit controversial, as he is the same rabbi who has ruled that Ashkenazi Jews who move to Israel are allowed to drop the minhag of not eating kitniyot on Passover, and this ruling has apparently not endeared him to large segments of the population).

Current Mood: contemplative

12:25 pm - Bdikat Chometz/the perils of having a clever 3 year old

As part of the pre-passover routine, we do a "search for chometz" where we look around the house to ensure we have found all of the leavened products that we need to rid ourselves of for Passover.  To ensure that when we say a blessing over the search, that the blessing is not in vain, it is customary to "stack the deck" and plant some chometz (10 pieces, well wrapped -- I use tin foil) to find.  This is a also a fun thing for the kids to do -- to help find the hidden chometz.

Anyway, I planted some chometz, but before I got the family gathered together to do the search, my middle daughter (the 3 1/2 year old) happened on one of the foil balls and asked what it was.  When I explained, she said "Oh, I'm going to hide it again!" which she promptly did.  Boy did she have fun when we had found the 9 other pieces and she kept giving us "hints" as to where she hid the 10th that were somewhat "less than accurate."

The story does have a happy ending in that we did finally find that last piece, and this was a good indication that she really understood what was going on!

It was really neat the next morning wandering around the neighborhood and seeing all the mini fires where people were burning their chometz from the search the night before.  We joined in with some friends, and the big kids had a blast!

For those of you who celebrate Passover, Mo'adim l'simchah!

Current Mood: cheerful

07:18 pm - Kitniyot for Ashkenazim in Israel

Interesting news.  There is a Bet Din that has poskened that, in Israel, all Jews (including Ashkenazim) are allowed to eat kitniyot.

The English press release can be read at http://machonshilo.org/content/view/70/1/,
The psak can be found at http://machonshilo.org/PDF/Machon_Shilo_Pesaq_Qitniyoth_2.pdf (or if, like me, you have trouble with that link, there is an rtf version at http://www.tora.us.fm/tokxot/xmc/qtnyot.rtf)

We have friends who think that within 5 to 10 years all Jews will be eating kitniyot in Israel.  I don't think J and I are trailblazers enough to be the first ones on our block to do so (even if we were the first ones on our block in Newton to come to Israel), but we certainly wouldn't fight against the idea if it seemed to be gathering traction...

( Background for those who don't know from kitniyot )

Current Mood: contemplative

04:46 pm - Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary introverte  and 530nm330hz !

May you have many more!