Opuscula היקר Essence

 

This morning the rabbi's short dvar Torah centered around affixing a mezuzah (לקבע מזוזה).

The Ashkenazim do it on a slant.

The Sefardim and Mizrachim do it straight up.

Mostly, but not always.

היקר The important thing is that there is a mezuzah

Likewise the tallit.

Moroccan tradition - and I'm sure others - hold that the blessing on the tallit is recited and then the tallit is let fully out and placed over the head and down the back.

Some men, with a tradition other than Moroccan (not everyone can be so fortunate) fold the tallit in half or thirds, say the blessing and then drape the tallit over their head and shoulders for a moment before allowing it to fall open.

Some tzittzit are tied with 10+5+6+5 knots (representing one HaShem's names); others are tied with different combinations.

היקר - the important thing is that they don the tallit.

Ditto tefillin.

Aside from the Rashi-Tam issue - a Rashi-Tam issue allegedly is the reason the Ashkenazim slant their mezuzot; Rashi followed Sefardi tradition, Tam wanted the mezuzah to be horizontal, so to accommodate both grandfather and grandson, they affix the mezuzah on the slant - there are a multitude of correct ways to "lay" the hand tefillin.

But, היקר, the important thing is that tefillin are worn.

There also is debate about the head tefillin.

Are both hand and head tefillin necessary? Yes, unless for some reason one or the other cannot be worn - as examples, a bandaged head or the tefillin arm in a cast. In either case, whichever tefillin can be worn should be worn.

There is a debate among Sefardi and Mizrachi rabbis about when to say the blessings over the Shabat candles. Hakham Shalom Messas said to light, cover the eyes, then uncover the eyes and bless the Shabat lights. The late R. Ovadia Yosef said bless and then light on the theory that blessings should proceed actions.

היקר that the Shabat candles are lit.

There are supposed to be 613 commandments - things we are to do and things we are to avoid doing. (I've never counted them, but the rabbis say …)

Can anyone comply with all 613 mitzvot (commandments)? Impossible,

Even if you live in Israel it's impossible.

Some commandments are for cohenim (priests) only; some for levi'im only.

Some only can be performed by a man; others only by a woman. (Some can be performed by either in the absence of the other, e.g. Shabat and Hanukah candles.)

היקר - the important thing is that each of us try to perform as many mitzvot as we are able, and when we can, to add to the number.

I have seen a number of Jews who decided to "become religious." In their enthusiasm they try to take on all the mitzvoth at once.

Then they find out that it's too big a load for a novice to handle.

היקר, the important thing is that they start with mitzvot they can manage. Maybe walk to and from services on Shabat morning, but still do other things they did before. It's tough for smokers - I know, I used to be one - but seeing that tobacco can be avoided for 25 hours, after a few Shabatot maybe it can be avoided for two then three then … days in a row until the smoker is a former smoker. (Caveat: That does NOT mean there won't be an occasional desire to smoke, but consider the health and financial benefits gained by not smoking.) Friday night candles and kiddish Friday night and Shabat. Bless the children. No, it doesn't have to be in Hebrew.

For what it's worth, this scrivener thinks Bet Shamai was correct more often than not, but I think even R. Shamai himself would agree that in the end.
היקר, the important thing is to perform the mitzvoth according to your tradition.

היקר

What's the big deal?

 

Women and their place

 

Understand this scrivener stands with Bet Shamai on most issues, see http://yohanon.blogspot.com/2011/09/shamai-that-you-never-knew.html.

If you never learned more about Shamai than the few words in Pirke Avot (פרקי אבות) - in which he is horribly given short shrift in comparison to his peer, Hillel, than "you don't know Shamai."

One of the current "tempests in a teapot" in Israel is "Women of the Wall," or "WoW" for short to appease hed (headline) writers.

As I understand it, these women go, monthly on Rosh Hodesh, to pray at the kotel, the Western Wall where the second Temple once stood - and where the abomination al-Aqsa now stands. Again, it is my understanding that they stand on the women's side of the mehitzah (מחיצה).

So far, no problem.

Trouble is, some of these women insist on a wearing tallit , and others both tallit and tefillin.

This troubles the haredim.

Women are not allowed these accouterments. They are the sole purview of males, and males older than 13 years and a day. The rabbis said so. Tallit and tefillin are "men's wear" and therefore, according to Torah (תורה שבעל-פי), forbidden.

The question, of course, is "when" did tallit and tefillin become strictly "men's ware?"

We are given to understand that (at least) one of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki's 3 daughters wore tallit and tefillin. Rabbi Shlomo is better known as Rashi. (According to a Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi, "While some women in medieval Ashkenaz did wear tefillin, there is no evidence that Rashi's daughters did so.")

Of course, it must be admitted that Rashi's grandson, Rabbi Yakov ben Meir Tam, contested many of his grandfather's decisions; to this day, Ashkenazim and some Sefardim/Mizrachim attach mezzuzot at a slant ( \  ) to satisfy both Rashi, who stayed with the tradition of his time and fixed the mezzuzot upright ( | ) and Tam who wanted the mezzuzot horizontal (  - ). Many men - both Ashkenazi and Sefardi/Mizrachi - don two sets of tefillin, sometimes at once, to meet both the traditional/Rashi order of klaf and to meet Tam's revised order. (See http://ott.co.il/tefillin/tefillin-of-rashi-and-rabbeinu-tam/ for an explanation of the differences.)

In my mixed congregation - we have people following Egyptian, Moroccan, Syrian, and Turkish traditions (minhagim) - we have several Ashkenazi bachelors. None of there people wear a tallit except when they have a Torah honor. This begs the question: Is the tallit required at all? Among Sefardim and most Mizrachim, boys start donning a full (albeit boy-) size tallit early on; exactly when varies by minhag.

AN ASIDE: My wife - a Moroccan - likes the idea of unmarried men praying sans tallit; she also likes to see unmarried women sans hair covering. To her, this advertises who is "eligible" and who is not. Are all women match-makers at heart?

Shabat Rosh Hodesh Tamuz (Shabat Korah) 5773 saw the WoWs at the wall along with other observant women. There were no reports of conflicts among the women.

The haredi men, on the other hand - and I make a distinction between "haredi" and "observant" Jews - once again came to harass the women . . . women on their OWN SIDE OF THE FENCE. That smacks of hutzpa and it also tells me the men only insist on the mehitzah (מחיצה) when it suits them.

Unfortunately, the haredi men seem to think they ARE Israel and only what they want must be followed; they have become the ayatollahs of Israel. In the process, both at the Wall and elsewhere throughout Israel, these men are alienating "regular" Jews - observant and heloni (non-observant) to the point that the haredim are beginning to be held in contempt, and with them, the institutions they control.

Rather than arrange a marriage via the local rabbinute, Israeli Jews (continue) to marry outside of Israel or marry in a civil ceremony in Israel. It is not a matter of marrying a person with "questionable" Jewish bona fides, it's a matter of how the people applying for the rabbinical "stamp of approval" are received. In short, many are received in a manner foreign to Shamai as he is quoted in Avoth. For the record, I am fully in favor of proving Jewishness of both partners before a wedding. I don't care how each partner became Jewish - "accident of birth" or kosher-by-Rambam conversion - just that both are Jewish.

Personally, I do NOT like to see women in tallit and tefillin. I can't find anything that prohibits a woman wearing these accouterments, but being a "traditionalist" I simply am "uncomfortable" around women thusly appointed.

The reason women are exempt - critical word, "exempt" vs. "forbidden" - from tallit and tefillin is because both are "time sensitive"; that is, the related mitzvah must be performed after and before certain (proportional) hours. The rabbis of old, in their wisdom, believed that a woman with a baby cannot be expected to put down the infant or ignore a child while she is wearing tallit and tefillin, so they exempted women from such "time sensitive" mitzvoth. Makes sense to me.

My suggestion to the haredi - ignore the WoW. They won't "go away," but you won't get an ulcer and you might even find non-haredi start to appreciate you and your convictions. They still might not agree with you, but at least some sinat henam can be avoided.

Comments in English or Hebrew to: Yohanon dot Glenn at gmail dot com