10th of Cheshvan, 5771

For example, it is forbidden to wake up one’s parents from their sleep. Unless the son knows that waking them up will be for their own benefit-if they have to take an important medicine- or if the parents asked the son to wake them up, he should not disturb his parents’ sleep.

The Talmud illustrates this rule with the story of Dama ben Netina, a gentile:

‘It happened once that one of the precious stones fell out of the High Priest’s breastplate, and was lost. Seeking a replacement, the sages were referred to Dama ben Netina who had the exact jewel they sought. They offered him 100 dinar (gold coins), and Dama accepted their offer. When he went to fetch the jewel, he discovered that he could not access it without waking his father up. So he returned and informed his clients that he could not provide them with the expensive jewel. Assuming that he was trying to renegotiate the price, they increased the offer until they reached a sum of 1000 dinar. When his father finally woke up, he brought them the jewel. When the sages gave him the 1000 dinar Dama refused, and he only took 100 dinar as they had initially agreed, saying: “Do you think I would sell the honor of my father for gold coins? I refuse to derive any material benefit from having honored my father!”.

Dama ben Netina is both, an example of respect for his parents, because he refused to wake him up, and an extraordinary example of honor and integrity, because he declined to extract a material benefit from honoring his father.

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

7th of Cheshvan, 5771

There are 39 melakhot (creative activities) which should not be done on Shabbat. One of them is cooking(bishul). ‘Bishul’ includes all related activities, such as: boiling water, baking bread, frying an egg; broiling meat ; cooking a stew, etc.

The prohibition of cooking is independent from the prohibition of lighting a fire or any other source of heat. So, even if you have a fire or another source of heat, active from before Shabbat , you still cannot use it to cook.

The most important distinction you need to bear in mind to understand the rules of ‘bishul’ is that you cannot cook on Shabbat, but you are allowed to warm up foodon Shabbat.

The Halakha deals extensively with all the casuistics of ‘cooking vs. warming’ food.
Today I will write a first principle, which is, the source of heat.

The source of heat.
You can’t light a fire or activate any other source of heat on Shabbat. But if you have a source of heat activated from before Shabbat, it is permitted to warm food on it. For example, you can use a Shabbat Plata (aka Shabbat hot plate, aka electric blech) to warm upcold cooked rice or a cold
bread on Shabbat.

However, the Rabbis forbade using a live and visiblefire, even if it was lid from before Shabbat, and even when intended to be used just to warm up food (mechaze kemebashel) and not for cooking.

Today, most people would use then a Shabbat Hot plate to warm up food. But before it was invented, people had to use a mecham (heater, with no visible fire); an oven or they had to a cover the live fire with a metal sheet, plate, etc.

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

1. Recognizing the fish/fillet as a Kosher (tahor) type.

2. The knife.

1. 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.

2. 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

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

The second berakha (blessing) of the Amida, is called Geburot (God’s powers). This blessing describes God’s infinite (leolam) might, which He employs to nurture, support those who fell, cure the sick, deliver captives, make rain descend, etc.

God’s might is about blessings, not destruction. Teaching us too, how to use our own powers to help.

The highest point of God’s power mentioned in this berakha (3 times) is techiat hametim, ‘the resurrection of the dead’.

Resurrection (do not confuse with ‘reincarnation’!) is a core belief in Judaism which affirms that at some time in the future, God will bring life back to the dead.

techiat hametim defeats all physical and biological laws known to us.

Even today, 2010, when humans have decoded the DNA, no scientist can create life from atoms in a lab, even though they assert life appeared ‘randomly’ millions of years ago…Creation of life is God’s exclusive power.

techiat hametim in a sense, parallels ‘Creation’. The ‘living soul’ (nefesh chaya, in Bereshit, a.k.a. 21 grams) is not a chemical but a ‘divine’ entity.

To understand the essence of techiat hametim think of a modern scientist provided with the legs, head, wings and body of a simple fruit fly. Can he assemble a living fruit fly in a lab?

Make it simpler: we give the scientist a fruit fly which died 1 minute ago of natural causes. Every part of its body is still in its right place. Could the scientist make it fly even for one minute?  Can a human recreate, not the body, but  just one minute ofautonomous life in a laboratory?

That is techiat hametim.  haShem’s exclusive power.

3rd of Cheshvan, 5771

It is really challenging to swallow that we are ‘commanded’to love… After all, love is probably the
noblest of all ‘feelings’. A naturalbond we experience toward certain people. Right?

Love is ultimately a feeling. But not just a spontaneous feeling. It is a feeling we can acquire when we do certain things and we develop a right attitude.

Let me offer two examples.

1. Love is ‘care’.

The Torah would not order us to feel in certain way. But it can command us to ‘take care’ of others, as we take care of ourselves. When we actively care for others, we fulfill this Mitzva. Which comes with some extra points. When we take care of others, in return, we feed our own positive feelings. As Rabbi Dessler explained: We naturally ‘take care’ of those we ‘love’, but we also develop deep feelings of ‘love’ for those we take care of.

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

The first berakha of the Amida is known as ‘abot‘ (ancestors) and it refers to God’s protection of the Jewish people.   In this berakha we don’t ask for protection: we praise God stating that our miraculous survival as Jews, is due to His eternal divine protection.

We mention that haShem Almighty protected Abraham, Ytzchak and Yaakov (E-lohe Abraham, etc). We also describe with a few words what we can ‘humanly’ grasp of God’s protective power (hagadol, hagibbor, etc.),  a power that God uses to bestow kindness (gomel chasadim tobim).

We state that because of the merit of our ancestors (zokher chasde abot), God grants us His present and future salvation (umebi go’el). God protects us because He so promised (lema’an shemo)our ancestors, and because He loves us (beahaba). To understand these last concepts you must read the Pasuk Debarim 7, 7.

Finally we state that God is our King (melekh), but a special kind of king: not the king that demands for his own sake, but a King ready to help when we ask (ozer) and to rescue us when we are in trouble (moshi’a) and a king who covers us with His invisible shield (magen) against harms and hazards we are not aware of.

Magen is indeed the highest level of divine protection.

The protection responsible for the survival of the Jewish people since the time of Abraham Abinu (baruckh ata hasem magen Abraham).

26th of Tishri, 5771

HONORING ONE’S PARENTS:The difference between ‘respect’ and ‘honor’.

Two Mitzvot regulate children/parents relationship. The first one is kabbed et abikha ve-et imekha “Honor your father and your mother”.
This important Mitzva is the fifth of the Ten Commandments. There is a second Mitzva (vaikra-Leviticus- 19, 3) ish immo veabiv tira’u “A man should fear/respect his mother and his father”. These two Mitzvot are different from each other and actually supplement each other.

‘Honoring‘ includes all what we must do for our parents: watch them, and if necessary feed them and help them to get dress; take them out; drive them to the doctor, etc. In other words: take good care of them. ‘Honoring’ is a function of ‘love’.

‘Respect’, on the other side, is about what we are not allowed to do to our parents: we can’t call our parents by their name, we can’t sit in their seat; we can’t contradict them, etc. ‘Respecting’ our parents is a recognition of their ‘authority’.In a practical sense, the Mitzva of ‘respect’ applies mainly when we are young and we depend on our parents. A Jewish child observes a system of discipline and behavior which trains him to accept a higher authority.

The second Mitzva applies mainlywhen our parents are older, and (or when) they depend on us. We have a direct obligation to take good care of them. This Mitzva emphasizes the duty of gratitude and payback for those who fed us, dressed us, and took care of us when we were children.

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