Turning the other cheek to Amaleq- POSITIVE RESENTMENT

27th of Cheshvan, 5771

Last week we explained the prohibition of hatred, and the ways to free our hearts from resentment by communicating our feelings to our offender and finally, forgive him.

There is one instance, however, in which we are not allowed to forgive/forget.

Let me explain:

The Torah explicitly indicates to not forgive/forget Amaleq (LO TISHKACH…)

The Torah mentions many enemies of the Jewish people. For example, the old Egyptians, who enslaved us for centuries! In an incredibly display of emotional magnanimity, the Tora instructs us to harbor no resentments toward them: “Do not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as an alien in his country”.

But Amaleq was a different kind of enemy altogether. Amaleq were nomads. There was no land the Jewish people could take from them. Amaleq had no reason to feel threatened by the Hebrews. Israel never sought to attack Amaleq. Amaleq was not defending itself, as Moab was. Amaleq attacked the Jewish people for ‘no reason’.

Amaleq is not the conventional enemy who is after your land or your possessions. Amaleq goes after your life, just because he can’t tolerate your existence. He uses the excuse of the ‘land’, but he aims to destroy you.

Amaleq represents a very special kind of enemy, which, as far as I know, it is the Jewish people exclusive ‘fate’ to have: an existential or national enemy.

In this case the Tora says: do not forgive, do not forget.

Obviously,it is a practical reason of self-preservation what triggers this rule.

But there is more.

B’H next Thursday I will explain the moral reason behind LO TISHKACH.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024



Is smoking Kosher?

In previous weeks we mentioned the rabbinical prohibition of eating fish and meat together. We explained that this wasn’t a ritual prohibition (isur) but a rabbinical proscription, based on health considerations (sakana).

The Jewish people are commanded in the Torah to take care of their physical well being. The Torah (Debarim 4:9,15) states explicitly that one must keep a close watch over his health. Maimonides (Hilchot Rotseach 11:5 – 6) writes that one who engages in unhealthy activities and declares that he has the right to do as he wishes to his own body deserves a punishment. The Talmud (Hullin 9a) states explicitly that one must treat dangerous activities with greater stringency than one would treat Halakhically prohibited activities.
In modern days, most (if not all) Orthodox rabbis consider smoking cigarettes as a Halakhically forbidden activity.
Why?
Cigarette smoking causes a variety of life-threatening diseases, including lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. An estimated 400,000 deaths each year in the U.S. are caused directly by cigarette smoking. Smoking is responsible for changes in all parts of the body, including the digestive system. This fact can have serious consequences because it is the digestive system that converts foods into the nutrients the body needs to live.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef points out that just as we rely on the wisdom of doctors to permit doing otherwise forbidden activities on Shabbat or eating on Yom Kippur, so too we are required to listen to them and distance ourselves from those activities they deem dangerous, like smoking.

For a full Halakhic discussion and a modern Rabbinic ruling on smoking, click here.



How NOT to honor our parents

24th of Cheshvan, 5771

Actions and attitudes

Keeping our parent’s dignity while performing the Mitzvah of Honoring our parents, is learned from a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud, which states that it is possible to feed one’s parents succulent hens and still be considered a wicked son, while it is also possible to force one’s parent work on a grindstone and be considered a righteous son.

The Talmud illustrates these two cases with two real stories:

First case, a son gave his father succulent luxurious food, but when the father asked where the food came from, the son answered “Quiet, old man. A dog eats quietly, so you should eat quietly.” This son, the Talmud says ‘inherits hell’.
The second case involved a son who worked at the grindstone for his father. One day, the King summoned grindstone workers to the palace to endure back-breaking work. The King expected one worker per family. The son decided to tell his fatherto take his place at the family’s grindstone and to work, so that the father would not suffer or be treated in an undignified manner before the king. The son goes to do back-breaking work for the King instead of his father. This son, the Talmud says, ‘inherits paradise’.

Many times honoring our parents depends mainly on our attitude.

When we take care of our parents, we should do our best so they should never feel they are a burden for us. They should never feel humiliated while we attend their needs.

Adapted from The Jewish Encyclopedia of Moral and Ethical Issues (Rabbi Amsel)


Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024



Cooking vs. Warming (Last part)

21st of Cheshvan, 5771

We explained that in Shabbat it is forbidden to cook food, however, if the food is already cooked we are allowed to warm it.

There are a few conditions to allow warming food on Shabbat.

1. The source of heat. 2. The type of food. (see previous HOTD).

Our Rabbis distinguished between solid food (rice, bread, chicken, etc.) and a liquid food (water, soup, milk). While solid foods get cooked only one time, ‘cooked’ liquids, once cold will ‘boil’ over and over again.

So, it is permitted to place a solid cooked food from the fridge on the Electric Shabbat Plate (or Plata) but not a liquid food.

There are foods which belong to an intermediate status, like a stew (choresh, choulent, ma’ude) typical for Shabbat. These foods are composed of solids (meat, potatoes, vegetables, etc.) and liquids (soup, sauce, etc.).

For Sephardic Jews, including our community members, if you assess that the majority of that food is solid, then you can reheat it.

When the food or most of it, is liquid, like a soup, then you can place that food on the Plata only if that food is still hot (a liquid is defined as hot if it cannot be drank at once, but sip by sip).

For Ashkenazi Jews, to be considered solid, a food needs to be completely solid.

Ashkenazi Jews, however, are more lenient in the issue of liquids food (Ram’a follows Maimonides) and allow to reheat previously cooked liquids, if they are still warm.

However, if the liquid food is completely cold, it is forbidden.

Candle Lighting in NY: 5:37
Shabbat ends in NY: 6:44

SHABBAT SHALOM

 

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024



The formula for a hatred free life – PREVENTING HATRED

20th of Cheshvan, 5771

Last week we explained the prohibition of hatred and how to become free of resentment by communicating to the offender our feelings and emotions.

The best antidote to ‘prevent’ hatred, however, is the fulfillment of a very important Mitsvah. ‘Giving the benefit of the doubt’ (betsedek tishpot amitekha).

Illustration: I’m coming out the supermarket with a many shopping bags. I don’t have a car. When, I’m about to cross the street to take the bus, I see my next door neighbor (who knows I don’t have a car!) driving by, and to my disappointment he does not stop to offer me a ride…

My first impulse is to think “What a bad guy!”. That thought naturally triggers feelings of hatred (Torah prohibition # 1), resentment (# 2), seeking revenge (#3) and eventually will lead me to comment on his terrible behavior to my friends and family! (# 4).

Judging with the benefit of the doubt consists on stopping ‘negative’ thoughts in my mind before they become hatred, resentment, revenge and Lashon haRa.

How? I must force myself to have a second positive thought, a ‘possible’ reason which would excuse his behavior. Why didn’t he stop?May be he didn’t see me. Or may be he wasn’t going home, but to the doctor or to pick up his son. I must focus my mind to advocate my neighbor!

Giving the benefit of the doubt aborts the whole negative emotional process: hatred/revenge/Lashon haRa before it becomes unstoppable.

MUST READ for PARENTS! (from Aish):

http://www.aish.com/ci/w/beauty_industry_vs_modesty_105241523.html

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024



FISH and milk

19th of Cheshvan, 5771

The Torah explicitly prohibits the mixing and consumption of meat and milk. The Rabbis extended this prohibition to include not only red meat but white meat (fowl) as well.

Last week we also explained the prohibition of mixing meat with fish, which the Rabbis forbade for a completely different reason: health concerns (see HOTD Wednesday Cheshvan 12).

What about fish with milk?

The Talmud (Chulin) states explicitly that fish and milk is a permitted combination.

However, Rabbi Yosef Caro (1488-1575), the famous author of the Shulchan Arukh, indicated in his book ‘Bet Yosef’ the custom to refrain from eating fish and milk.

There were two explanations given by later commentators as of why Rabbi Yosef Caro would prohibit milk and fish.

1. Health considerations, similar to meat and fish. Keep in mind that milk and fish are two common animal food allergens. (Newly discovered health considerations would, in principle, override an explicit ruling of the Talmud)

2. Most Ashkenazi Rabbis and some prominent Sephardic Rabbis, however, considered Rabbi Yosef Caro’s statement as a ‘misprint’ on the text of the Bet Yosef, where a copyist confused between ‘milk’ and ‘meat’.

As of today most observant Jews, including our own community members, would not refrain from mixing fish and dairy.

Some Sephardic Jews, mostly from Syrian communities, and some Chassidic Jews, would still avoid eating fish with milk. However, even they would acknowledge that the problem only exists in mixing fish with ‘fresh milk’, and not with dairy products.

So they wouldn’t abstain from consuming, for example, fish with butter, cheese with salmon, etc.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC | 130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024



How to honor our parents?

17th of Cheshvan, 5771

‘Honor your father and your mother… ” (Shemot 20.12)

This is the Fifth of the 10 Commandments.

It is the first of the 10 Commandments that deals with our responsibilities toward others.

Unlike ‘respecting’ parents (‘to obey them’, see previous HOTD) this commandment is primarily directed to adults – not to children.

Honoring parents refers to the care and attention we should provide our parents when they are old and need our assistance. Normally, this commandment takes place after the children become husbands, wives and parents themselves and their parents become dependents.

The rabbis explain that this Mitzva consists in helping and assisting one’s parents in practical ways, as much as we can.

If they are sick or weak and need help to eat, we should feed them. If they need help to get dress, or to clean themselves, or to walk, or to go to the doctor, etc., we should assist them.

Think about it: feeding, getting dress, walking, going to the doctor: those are precisely the things our parents did for us when we were children.

Now, when they depend on us, God Almighty commands us to take care of them and help them. It is very important to remember that Kabod means ‘dignity’. Thus, this Mitzvah means to dignify one’s father and mother, to keep their dignity. Therefore, when assisting the parents one should be very careful and mindful to preserve their dignity and never become what the Talmud critically calls ‘a parent to his own parents’.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How did Rabbi Tarfon honor his elderly mother? [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=jp7o69dab&et=1103827239583&s=705&e=001ZUpcO4R0wYkj6062GsVDNWDJ2LCn32cQ2hzrRXbz71mThK-GdxDwNGVqBw0CtzHKCKLcQ3m44HKWMTKFApBr0M0mJQWVIu3FmKzBPjTWDodUStbtCGjHoiSfFB3CWbvRuH67CflEEB_xmEBrKdT4IAKtlyZu21zH

DJ2LCn32cQ2hzrRXbz71mThKGdxDwNGVqBw0CtzHKCKLcQ3m44HKWMTK

FApBr0M0mJQWVIu3FmKzBPjTWDodUStbtCGjHoiSfFB3CWbvRuH67CflEE

B_xmEBrKdT4IAKtlyZu21zH]

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024



Cooking vs. Warming (Part 2)

14th of Cheshvan, 5771

Last Friday I explained that in Shabbat we are forbidden to cook food . However, if the food is already cooked we are allowed to warm that food. There are a few conditions to allow warming food.

1. The source of heat. It cannot be a ‘live’ fire.You could use an electric heat like a Shabbat plate, activated before Shabbat or on Shabbat by an automatic timer. (See the link for last week’s HOTD).

Today I will explain a second element: the type of the food.

Our Rabbis distinguished between solid foods (rice, bread, chicken, etc. ) and liquid foods (water, soup, milk). They explain that since solid foods undergo the process of ‘cooking’ only one time , once a solid food is cooked, heat will not ‘cook’ it again, it will only warm it. (en bishul achar bishul beyabesh. Think about a hard-boiled egg…). ‘Cooked/boiled’ liquids, however, once cold, they will ‘boil’ once again in contact with heat: every time you reheat water, it boils again.

In principle then, if you have a bowl of rice in your refrigerator, cooked from before Shabbat, you are allowed to warm that rice in a Shabbat Plate, but you cannot take a soup, even though that soup was completely cooked before Shabbat, and place it on a Shabbat Plate, because it will ‘boil’ again.

Next week B’H I will clarify two points:

1. The status of ‘stew’, an intermediate category between solid and liquid and
2. What happens when the Shabbat Plate won’t reach a temperature that will ‘cook’
the foods.

IN THIS PARTICULAR SUBJECT I MUST ASK THE READER TO CONSIDER WHAT HE/SHE READS TODAY EXCLUSIVELY AS EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL, WHICH SHOULD NOT BE APPLIED UNTIL HE/SHE KNOWS ALL RELEVANT DETAILS, WHICH OBVIOUSLY CANNOT BE COVERED IN THESE FEW WORDS.
B’H I WILL EXPLAIN THE OTHER RULES OF ‘COOKING VS. WARMING’ IN THE COMING FRIDAYS.

 

Shabbat Shalom!
Candle Lighting in New York: 5:47.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024



Damage control on hatred – What is Love?

13th of Cheshvan, 5771

Last week we explained that the Torah commands us to ‘love’ our fellow men as we love ourselves. ‘Love’ means to take care of others when they need and advocate for them in our mind when they make a mistake.

The Torah also warns us against a serious issue, the other side of the coin of ‘love’: Hatred. lo tisna et achikha bilbabekha… ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart’. This Mitzvah does not refer only to a baseless hatred (sinat chinam) but even when somebody had offended us, the Torah forbids us to harbor hate in our hearts.

But how can God expect us to control an emotion? The feelings of our heart?

Maimonides explains in Mishne Torah (deot 6,6) that ‘hatred’ could be controlled:

“When somebody wrongs to you, you shouldn’t keep your resentment quietly inside.
Because that is a symptom of ‘hatred’ (Maimonides quotes the case of Abshalom and the silent treatment he gave to Amnon for years… Shemuel II, 13). Instead, you are required by a the Torah to approach the offender and respectfully ask him:
Do you realize what you did to me? Why did you do this to me? And if the offender regrets his offense and ask your forgiveness, you should forgive him.”

The silent treatment is defined by Maimonides as minhag hareshaim. ‘A habit of the wicked ones’.

Communicating our feelings, directly to those who offended us, mitigates the hatred in the heart of the victim and constitutes the best first step toward a healthy reconciliation.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024



FISH and meat

12th of Cheshvan, 5771

Mixing fish and meat together is not restricted by Biblical law.

However, the Rabbis of the Talmud considered it a harmful mixture, and they forbade it for health considerations. The Gemara Pesachim (76b) teaches that one may not eat fish and meat together since this combination is considered sakana (harmful). Still, the Gemara is not explicit about what particular health hazard (dabar acher)meat and fish would trigger.

Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 116:2-3), following Rashi’s opinion, identifies this danger as tsara’at, traditionally understood as a type of leprosy. By the way, and public opinion notwithstanding, Maimonides explicitly mentions that sara’at should not be identified exclusively as leprosy. He hints that sara’at was more a category of a (infectious?) disease (T. Tsarat 16, 10) than a particular disease.

Modern Rabbis also disagree about the specific health issue involved in mixing fish and meat.

“The combination of these two foods [fish and meat]can have negative health effects that are not readily apparent. Even if modern medicine does not recognize these health concerns, we can never be sure that the concerns are outdated” .

It could have been allergy or even, as I’ve heard from one of my teachers, the risk of swallowing a fish bone hidden in a piece of meat.

In any case, the prohibition of eating fish and meat together remains intact today.

The Rabbis sentenced “Chamira sakanta me-isura”, when it gets to preserving one’s health (sakana), we should be stricter and more careful than when we are dealing with a religious prohibition (isur).

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

FISH and milk

19th of Cheshvan, 5771

The Torah explicitly prohibits the mixing and consumption of meat and milk. The Rabbis extended this prohibition to include not only red meat but white meat (fowl) as well.

Last week we also explained the prohibition of mixing meat with fish, which the Rabbis forbade for a completely different reason: health concerns (see HOTD Wednesday Cheshvan 12).

What about fish with milk?

The Talmud (Chulin) states explicitly that fish and milk is a permitted combination.

However, Rabbi Yosef Caro (1488-1575), the famous author of the Shulchan Arukh, indicated in his book ‘Bet Yosef’ the custom to refrain from eating fish and milk.

There were two explanations given by later commentators as of why Rabbi Yosef Caro would prohibit milk and fish.

  1. Health considerations, similar to meat and fish. Keep in mind that milk and fish are two common animal food allergens. (Newly discovered health considerations would, in principle, override an explicit ruling of the Talmud)
  2. Most Ashkenazi Rabbis and some prominent Sephardic Rabbis, however, considered Rabbi Yosef Caro’s statement as a ‘misprint’ on the text of the Bet Yosef, where a copyist confused between ‘milk’ and ‘meat’.

As of today most observant Jews, including our own community members, would not refrain from mixing fish and dairy.

Some Sephardic Jews, mostly from Syrian communities, and some Chassidic Jews, would still avoid eating fish with milk. However, even they would acknowledge that the problem only exists in mixing fish with ‘fresh milk’, and not with dairy products.

So they wouldn’t abstain from consuming, for example, fish with butter, cheese with salmon, etc.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC | 130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024

No comments:

Labels: Kashrut of Fish

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

FISH and meat

12th of Cheshvan, 5771

Mixing fish and meat together is not restricted by Biblical law.

However, the Rabbis of the Talmud considered it a harmful mixture, and they forbade it for health considerations. The Gemara Pesachim (76b) teaches that one may not eat fish and meat together since this combination is considered sakana (harmful). Still, the Gemara is not explicit about what particular health hazard (dabar acher)meat and fish would trigger.

Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 116:2-3), following Rashi’s opinion, identifies this danger as tsara’at, traditionally understood as a type of leprosy. By the way, and public opinion notwithstanding, Maimonides explicitly mentions that sara’at should not be identified exclusively as leprosy. He hints that sara’at was more a category of a (infectious?) disease (T. Tsarat 16, 10) than a particular disease.

Modern Rabbis also disagree about the specific health issue involved in mixing fish and meat.

“The combination of these two foods [fish and meat]can have negative health effects that are not readily apparent. Even if modern medicine does not recognize these health concerns, we can never be sure that the concerns are outdated” .

It could have been allergy or even, as I’ve heard from one of my teachers, the risk of swallowing a fish bone hidden in a piece of meat.

In any case, the prohibition of eating fish and meat together remains intact today.

The Rabbis sentenced “Chamira sakanta me-isura”, when it gets to preserving one’s health (sakana), we should be stricter and more careful than when we are dealing with a religious prohibition (isur).

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024

No comments:

Labels: Kashrut of Fish

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Buying Kosher fish from a local fish store

5th of Cheshvan, 5771

Can I buy fillet from a local fish store, which is not under rabbinical supervision? To answer this question, there are two issues we should bear in mind.

  1. Recognizing the fish/fillet as a Kosher (tahor) type.
  2. The knife.
  3. Recognizing a kosher specie is a Mitzva Min haTora.

However, modern rabbis discussed if and when is possible to recognize a fish fillet.

I quote here two opinions.

1) According to the standard Ashkenazi custom (as written in the CRC web, under rabbi Gedalia Shwartz, Shlita) fish fillet can only be identifiable if it still has the skin. When the fillet does not have any skin left, you cannot identify the fish, therefore, you cannot buy it. This is for fresh or frozen fillet.

2)According to Sephardic custom (as taught by rabbi Eliyahu Ben Hayim , Shelita) if a person can recognize the fish fillet as a kosher specie, if he/she would be able to recognize this fish among ten other fillet, then is permitted to purchase that fillet, even though the fillet does not have any more skin. This is for fresh or for frozen fillet.

  1. The knife.

1) Some authorities require to take your own knife to the fish store and to make sure they use that specific knife to cut the fish, in order to avoid any ‘contamination’ (noten ta’am) between Kosher and non Kosher fish by means of the knife.

2) Rabbi Ben Hayim allows using the sellers knife, provided:
a) The seller washes the knife with water from any eventual solid vestiges or traces (isur ba’ayn). The knife does not absorb (so there is no particles’ ‘contamination’ ta’am) because the fish is cold.

and

  1. b) at home, the fish must be washed with water to make sure there is no solid vestiges or traces of a non Kosher fish.

When buying frozen fillet from Costco or other reliable stores we can assume that the knives were clean.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024

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Labels: Kashrut of Fish

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Some common NON-Kosher fish

24th of Av, 5770

Besides shellfish (shrimps, oysters, lobsters, etc) what other ‘popular’ fish are non Kosher and why?

Examples of non-kosher fish:

Catfish – it lacks scales entirely. Interesting for the kosher consumer to note, catfish (not Kosher!) is reported to have a similar taste to the increasingly popular tilapia (kosher!) Catfish and tilapia fillets look almost identical, though catfish is notably cheaper. It is therefore quite possible that an unscrupulous fish retailer might switch the two!

Basa or Tra (also called “China sole”) – (family Pangasiidae) are currently the subject of both nomenclature debates and antidumping litigation. Vietnamese importers were marketing them as catfish, to which they are nearly identical. Whether they are in fact catfish or not, they are not kosher.

Examples of NON-Kosher fish with ‘scales’

Swordfish has scales but they are embedded to such an extent that it is impossible to remove them without making a hole or that its scales would fall off during its development, rendering swordfish as non-kosher.

Sturgeon definitely has scales, but it is not kosher. Its scales are classified as “ganoid”, which means that they are covered with ganoin (similar in texture to fingernails) and cannot be removed without tearing the skin.

Burbot has cycloid scales (one of the types often referred to as “always kosher” ) yet because they are embedded, this fish is not kosher.

Sand lances may have tiny scales, but since they are not visible, this fish is not kosher.

Adapted from www.kashrut.org and www.ou.org

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Labels: Kashrut of Fish

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

What makes a fish ‘Kosher’?

17th of Av, 5770

The Torah says that fish or any creature that lives in the water must have both scales (kaskekset) and fins (senapir) in order to be considered Kosher. The rabbis of the Talmud teach us that all fish that have scales also have fins, so in practice Kosher fish are identified simply by their scales. Obviously, crustaceans (such as lobster) and other shellfish (such as clams) are not Kosher because they lack scales.

Not all scales are considered Kosher by Jewish Law. It must be removable without damage to the skin of the fish. Sturgeon, although it has primitive bony plates on its sides, is not considered Kosher because the scales cannot be removed without damaging the flesh. Sharks are similarly not Kosher, because their skin is covered with tiny teeth-like armor, which are not considered scales at all.

Jewish Law requires only a minimum number of scales to accord a fish Kosher status. Tuna, for example, have very few scales, yet are nevertheless considered a Kosher fish.

There are a few more factors that complicate this determination. For example, a given species of fish may be known by five or more names, some of which are common to known Kosher species. “Rock Salmon”, for example, is a non-Kosher fish (otherwise known as Atlantic Wolfish), and bears no relationship to the common Kosher species of true salmon.

For a list of Kosher and non kosher fish see: http://www.kashrut.com/articles/fish/