What would you do if you found out you were not Jewish?

If you were suddenly told that you were adopted as a child, a non-Jewish child, and converted to Judaism, you are given a choice whether to accept that original conversion performed in your youth or to reject it and live on as a non-Jew. What would you do?

It happened to someone my wife knew a long time ago and she (17 years old at the time) decided to reject the conversion and live as a non-Jew.

I never really understood why people convert to Judaism. People can continue to live their lives as gentiles and still live meaningful lives. They can change their ways and habits if they are unhappy with the circumstances within which they find themselves. They can change all sorts of things, but to change and convert to Judaism is something I never really understood. Of course there are exceptions where someone is specifically drawn to Judaism and then it seems like an obvious change, but that is not usually the case, especially in today's world of assimilation and intermarriage. The Baleboostah wrote a nice write-up a while back about why she and her family are converting to Judaism and I wonder whether most converts have similar reasons.

I do not know what I would do in that case. A non-Jew could be a wonderful person and righteous and merit a portion in The World to Come, all without converting to Judaism. And he would do that without all the restrictions Judaism would place on him as a convert, let alone the societal (not necessarily halachic) restrictions.

The situation is different, I think, with Baalei T'shuva. Hirshel wrote about how he does not understand why people become frum and how many more are leaving the path than those joining (I am not familiar with the statistics so I do not know if that is accurate or not).

Hirshel is getting a lot of flak because people misunderstood his point. People think he is saying that living a frum lifestyle is not worthwhile or valid. That is not what he meant and while I do not agree with his conclusions, I understand his point.

I think I understand the Baal T'shuva better than I do the convert because the Baa' T'shuva is already Jewish. The Baal T'shuva sees religion as the correct path within Judaism and has decided that he wants to live according to the correct path. It will not be easy making the change, but he is willing to go through the hardships in order to be honest with himself and his beliefs.

I would wish that our society would be more open and accepting of Baalei T'shuva than it currently is. There are countless stories of schools that refuse entry to children of Baalei T'shuva and the like. We seem to want people to become Baalei T'shuva but then don't want to associate with them once they do.

Head on over and start nominating your favorite bloggers or even just your favorite posts even if you normally do not like the blogger.

The point of this is to raise awareness and provide exposure to all the great blogs that deserve it. There is pretty much a category for every type of jblog to fit into, so everyone can participate.

Go give the bloggers the exposure they deserve!!

It is that time of year again.

You know - the time of year when everybody (at least in the religious/yeshivish communities in Israel) picks up a certain crazy chumroh that has little basis in halacha but has gained strong social standing. The kind that if you do not keep it, people try to make you feel as if you are less religious, not trustworthy, a meikil, someone in whose house they would not eat, etc.

you ask - what could this guy possibly be talking about? Pesach has already passed with its crazy chumrohs so what could be such a crazy chumroh now in the quiet sefirah season?

You had to ask, didn't you? Now I will have to tell you.

Flour ground after Pesach. That's it. That's the chumroh.

People do not want to purchase flour or chametz that had been sold over Pesach to a goy and insist on only purchasing flour and chametz products that are labelled that they are from wheat ground after Pesach.
They then add to their personal preference of buying such products the idea that if someone else does not they must be relying on a mechiras chametz which is a big kula, if it is valid at all, and therefore they must not be reliable people or frum enough. I might add that I have not yet heard of a child being thrown out of cheder because the parents were caught buying chametz that had been sold over Pesach, but I would not be surprised if it did happen.

A Mother in Israel wrote about this trend and suggests people support the storekeepers who do sell their chametz. I totally agree.

The chumroh has little basis in halacha. It is mostly based on the idea that some people consider the sale of chametz fictitious and on that assumption, any chametz sold to a goy should not be eaten after Pesach.

I personally feel that if we force storeowners to sell their chametz, and we do as we will not patronize a restaurant or supermarket that does not have a "sold chametz for Pesach" sign up, then we have no right afterwards to tell them that now that you sold your chametz I cannot eat that chametz. What right do we have to force them (the ones who do not want to) to do so if we will not support them afterwards?

Much ink has been spilled over the years regarding the issue of whether the sale of chametz is fictitious or real. Most poskim are of the opinion that it is real and the sale is valid. Based on that one is allowed to eat chametz that had been sold for Pesach. I will note that this chumroh is not sponsored by any kashrut organization. Even the most machmir organizations such as the Badat'z Eidah Charedit gives hechsher to food products of chametz that had been sold for Pesach. The chumroh is insisted upon by the yeshivish public and is almost baseless.

I will also add that many organizations that provide the hechsher for such a chumroh (including the Badat'z among others - just because they do not insist on it does not mean they will not offer the hechsher for such products that do fit the chumroh) have said in the past (I read an interview last year with a rep from the Badat'z) that even if someone thinks he is being machmir and refraining from eating chametz that had been sold, he is only fooling himself.

One who really wanted to adhere to such a chumroh would only eat matza and butter until Shavuos, he said. He added that after Pesach everyone is up in arms over this and loud about it and insistent on not buying flour unless is says "ground after Pesach" and all that jazz, but, he added, the companies are not willing to take the unnecessary loss on those products they sold for Pesach. So, he said, they might shelve the products that had been sold for Pesach for a while, but after a month or so when everything quiets down and people stop looking at the labels, they will bring all those products back to the shelves and you will be buying the same things you refused to buy a few weeks earlier.

It is rumored that Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l was supposedly machmir on this chumroh not to purchase chametz that had been sold for Pesach. When discussing this with someone they showed me something from the newest volume of the sefer Halichos Shlomo that is written by a student of Rav Auerbach's about the psakim of Rav Auerbach. They showed me that he writes there that this chumroh is one that if someone wants to adhere to he should do so privately and not insist on other people doing so. As well, this chumroh is only relevant for actual chametz (like bread) and not flour.

-----
Update: My son called me a little while ago from school. His rebbe had purchased some wafers to distribute among the class. The wafers have the hechsher of the Badat'z Eida haCharedit. The package said it was made from flour that was ground after Pesach, yet the date of manufacture was from a week before Pesach! You tell me there is not some fake chumroh happening!
------

Another factor is the appearance. By insisting on such a chumroh we are being "motzi laaz" to a certain extent on previous generations of frum jews who sold their chametz and bought it back after Pesach and ate such chametz and did not adhere to this chumroh. We are, in a sense, saying we are better than them. We are saying they did not behave properly in eating chametz that had been sold for Pesach.
Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach refused to pressure the kashrus organizations to implement a labelling system by which one would be able to understand from the codes which foods were from after Pesach and which had been sold for Pesach. His reasoning for not playing along with this scheme, he writes, is that he does not want to be a part of something that puts the validity of the sale of chametz in doubt when all the gedolim of previous generations relied on such sales and somebody who wishes to be machmir for himself should figure out on his own which foods are acceptable to him.

It is time to advocate for a return to a simple Judaism.

Get ready! Here they come! The jblogging event you have all been waiting for!

The JIB (Jewish and Israeli Blogging) Award process is finally starting.

The JIBs will be open for nominations starting this Friday morning, Israel time and Thursday evening US time.

Let all your favorite jbloggers know about it and get ready to start nominating them!

There has been this whole debate in the press about the Winograd Committee's interim conclusions and their being made public. They were supposed to be made available to the public before the Pesah holiday.

After much pressure from the Prime Minister, the Winograd people decided not to release the information. This is despite a court order that legally forced them to do so. They appealed on some technicality (called state security which had already been dealt with) and were given an extension.

The debate is still raging. They are looking for more extensions and other ways to delay releasing their interim findings to the public, and others are trying to force them to release the info they already have right away.

Personally, I do not think it matters whether they release the information now or not. Or even ever. PM Olmert originally formed the committee with the specific intention that it not be able to do anything. He gave them no legal standing and they have no teeth to force anyone to resign. He refused, at the time, to appoint a State Commission of Inquiry. Such an investigative body would have been able to force change. Whether by forcing resignations of those deemed responsible or by forcing implementation of new procedures. Yet Olmert did not want to appoint any body that would have the authority to bring him down. So he appointed the Winograd Committee to investigate.
Legally nobody was able to force him to select the higher body of investigation, as it is solely the Prime Minister's choice.

So it really does not matter whether the Winograd Committee releases its findings now or ever. Rumor had it that they were going to come out with reports critical of Olmert and Peretz. That is when Olmert's spin machine started working overtime criticizing them for leaks and whatnot.

But it really does not matter. Whenever the findings are eventually going to be released, Olmert will continue walking around as if nothing interests him. he is above it all. He will say they have nothing to say about him and cannot make him resign. he will say he is busy coming to work and looking at freeing Marwahn Barghoutti or the Saudi Peace Initiative, or whatever makes him look good in the news that day.

None of it matters. Olmert runs the show and has protected himself. He will not let anything so benign as an investigation bring him down.

So none of it matters. We need to get that through our heads. Drop the arguments. It does not matter anyways.

1. Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz is moving to force the Labor Party to back out of the Olmert government. Pines-Paz is running for leadership of the Labor Party. While I do not support the Labor Party, as I do not agree with its actions or beliefs, I do wish that Pines-Paz would win the upcoming Labor primaries and so support him in the race. Pines-Paz has showed himself to be one of the only politicians left in Labor who conduct themselves based on their beliefs and try to remain true to the party platform. What he said and did then, is what Amir Peretz is saying now in order to try and score some points before the primary.
Even though I do not agree with his political philosophy and outlook, I do believe in supporting politicians who show some sort of integrity and I believe Pines-Paz might be one of the few left in Labor who have shown such integrity. Unfortunately, his chances of winning against the party heavyweights are slim, but I still believe that he should be supported for leadership of the Labor Party. Even though I would never vote for Labor.

2. On March 21, I wrote my prediction that Meir Sheetrit would eventually be appointed Finance Minister after Hirschson steps down or is removed. I did mention then that Sheetrit would be appointed in my opinion, unless Olmert goes with an outsider.
At the time I had not taken into account that the courts would remove any moral issues from Haim Ramon's conviction of sexual misconduct (what is wrong with sexual misconduct and forcing yourself on a member of the opposite sex if not moral grounds?) which allows him to re-enter the Israeli political life. Now that Ramon is back in the picture, it seems likely the Finance Ministry will be given to him.

For a number of years now I have been diligent to go to the Kotel once or twice during Hol Hamoed to daven "vasikin".

This Pesah, I succeeded in going twice, though I probably could have worked out going a third time had I not been lazy.

I went this morning, the last day of Hol Hamoed. The place was packed with people and it was hard to find parking. I got there a few minutes early and there were already no chairs available. There were a lot of minyanim, but I davened in the central vasikin minyan that I usually daven in when I go to the kotel. In that minyan alone there was easily over 200 people...

PLAY BALL!!

I always say that baseball (and softball too) was created to be played during the day....

Today we played the team from Eilat in the Israel Softball League (fast pitch). We beat them 14-1 on fabulous defense and great hitting by everybody on the team. Because it was Hol Ha'Moed, plenty of fans came out to watch and cheer us on (guys brought their kids and wives....)

The video of the elephant murder has been uploaded to YouTube, and I bring it to you here...

WARNING: This video is not for the faint of heart...

The butler did it.

Actually that is not true. Yossi did it.

Yossi is an elephant. Yossi, a 33 year old, 7 ton elephant went, in full public, and murdered Atari, a 46 year old 5 ton elephant. He smashed into Atari a number of times until Atari collapsed and died.

Yossi is being held for questioning and is pending the investigation. According to this article, Yossi will be allowed conjugal visits.

After speaking to Yossi's lawyers asking for a statement, it seems the insanity plea will only be used as a last resort. Anybody who has information that might exonerate Yossi is being asked to step forward and shed light on the matter.

I am hoping the visitors who filmed the incident will soon upload them to Youtube and I will try to locate them for you... Unless the video cameras have been confiscated as evidence.

There goes the neighborhood.

We were on our way home after yomtov tonight and we were listening to the radio. Radio Kol Chai to be exact.

They had a program in which children called in and sang the Mah Nishtana and got some sort of prize. They had children calling in from all over the country, each with different backgrounds. Sephardic, ashkenazic, hassidic, haredi, dati leumi, and everything else.

What I found interesting was that every single child, bar none, sang the Mah Nishatana to the same exact tune. We did not hear even one sing it differently.

The Mah Nishtana tune is universal. Where we find other customs and tunes changing over regions and locations, while we find in the range of our liturgy no uniform tune in one neighborhood let alone from amongst sephardic and ashkenazic communities or from different parts of cities, countries, continents, the Mah Nishtana stands alone in the fact that it cuts across all regional divisions, all cultural divisions and all custom divisions and is uniform among everybody.

I do not know what it means, but it was interesting to note.

The common custom is not to eat matza from Rosh Hodesh Nissan until Pesah night. The purpose of this minhag is in order to increase ones desire for matza at the seder and he will enjoy it that much more. If he has been eating matza prior to Pesah, the matza is nothing special and he will enjoy it less at the seder.

Having grown up in the yeshiva world, that custom is universally accepted and I kept it as well. Since leaving my parents house, I, over time, have picked up many "customs" that I did not know about prior. Most of my minhagim I kept over time, some I dropped and have come back to as I got older, some I dropped and never thought about - just assuming we did it wrong before out of ignorance. I have since realized, and been told so in discussion with various Rabbonim, that the yeshiva world is the greatest destroyer of minhagei yisrael, as everyone tries and feels the need to fit in and conform they all too often drop their own minhagim and adopt foreign minhagim...

I looked into the custom of not eating matza before Pesah. I did not do a completely comprehensive search, but enough to come to a conclusion.

The Rama in 471:2 of the shulchan aruch says Matza that one can fulfill his obligation with at the seder is prohibited from eating the whole day on the 14th of Nissan.
The Mishna Brura 11 says the reason for this prohibition is in order to differentiate between the eating of pre-Pesah and Pesah. Meaning, if one eats matza straight through with no break, one cannot tell on Pesah that he has done a mitzva of eating matza. So we take a day off of matza to delineate when the mitzva is a mitzva and when eating matza is just for your enjoyment.
The Mishna Brura in 12 says there are those whose custom it is to not eat matza from Rosh Hodesh Nissan.

That custom has taken root in the yeshiva world and most people who are products of the yeshiva world refrain from eating matza from Rosh Hodesh, myself included.

I have a number of books of customs of the German communities. I searched through all of these books and have not found any mention of such a custom of refraining from eating matza from Rosh Hodesh Nissan.

I am now convinced that Jews of German descent do not have such a custom and we simply should adhere to the prohibition of not eating matza on the 14th of Nissan. That is not a custom, but an actual Rabbinic prohibition.

The thing is, it is bad enough we have to eat matza for 7 days. Who desires to eat matza before Pesah when you don't have to? But I now know that I do not have to be so careful and refrain when I could "nosh" on the matza...

An interesting custom I just found: I found in the compilation of minhagim by Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz a minhag to eat kneidlach on pesah. By calling it a minhag it means it is not just a common food eaten, but there is an actual minhag to eat kneidlach (matza balls). They write that "A Pesah food that been accustomed to eat throught all the German communities is Kneidlach made from matza meal. The Ashkenzaik gedolim were not concerned about matza shruya (a.k.a. gebrokdts), especially on our thin matzas which have no crumbs of flour. And furthermore, the opposite is true. One who refrains from eating any desirable food that has been accustomed to eat from earlier times has annulled simchas yom tov m'd'oraisa .

So when you are eating your kneidlach (if you eat gebrokdts), you are not just eating a great Pesah food, but you are continuing an actual custom and fulfilling your mitzva of simhas yom tov.
B'Teavon and Hag Sameah

My brother Shaya wrote in the comments of a previous post an experience he had in the supermarket. I nominate this for this months Humra of the Month Award!

He writes:
A lady in front of me in the grocery refused to unload her cart onto the checkout lin. the cashier offered to wipe it down with cleaner and she said no.

Every item had to be handed to the cashier and scanned, and put directly into the bas. She claimed it was because the counter has chometz on it.

I said, what about the cart? what about the people who picked up the box before you? what about the fact that its wrapped and sealed and you could just wipe it off? what about all the people in line behind you now having to wait extra time for your nareshkeit?

she said - sorry, it's halacha - no chametz in MY house!

Do you not listen to music during the period of sefiras ha'omer? Why not?


The reason is obviously based on the death of the students of Rabbi Akiva. Because of that we have certain customs of mourning.

However, I was reviewing the halachos today of sefiras ha'omer and, lo and behold, it says nothing about music or entertainement. As a matter of fact, the only things discussed as things you should not do are; get married, get haircuts and shave.

I could find nothing about music. Nothing about not buying new clothes items. Nothing about refraining from things that bring about simha (joy or happiness).

We do find this discussed in the laws of the Three Weeks of mourning, so you cannot say it was obviously included, because otherwise it should not have been said there either (it should have been left to "obvious").

So why are we so strict about not listening to music and not buying new things? Is there a source for it or did we make it up?

Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, has composed a special tefilla on behalf of the captured soldiers. This tefilla is meant to be said at the seder, after the portion of Avadim Ha'Yinu (We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt...).

The tefilla consists of two chapters from Tehillim and then a mi sheberach which he composed.


תְּפִילָה לְהַצַּלָתָם שֶל הַחַיָּלִים הַשְּבוּיִים הי"ו.
לִקְרֹא מִזְמוֹר שִיר לַמַעֲלוֹת אֶשָֹּא עֵינַי, וְשִיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד לוּלֵי ה' שֶהָיָה לָנוּ

תהלים פרק קכא
שִׁיר לַמַּעֲלוֹת אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי אֶל הֶהָרִים מֵאַיִן יָבֹא עֶזְרִי:
עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יְהֹוָה עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ:
אַל יִתֵּן לַמּוֹט רַגְלֶךָ אַל יָנוּם שֹׁמְרֶךָ:
הִנֵּה לֹא יָנוּם וְלֹא יִישָׁן שׁוֹמֵר יִשְׂרָאֵל:
יְהֹוָה שֹׁמְרֶךָ יְהֹוָה צִלְּךָ עַל יַד יְמִינֶךָ:
יוֹמָם הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לֹא יַכֶּכָּה וְיָרֵחַ בַּלָּיְלָה:
יְהֹוָה יִשְׁמָרְךָ מִכָּל רָע יִשְׁמֹר אֶת נַפְשֶׁךָ:
יְהֹוָה יִשְׁמָר צֵאתְךָ וּבוֹאֶךָ מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם:

תהלים פרק קכד
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד לוּלֵי יְהֹוָה שֶׁהָיָה לָנוּ יֹאמַר נָא יִשְׂרָאֵל:
לוּלֵי יְהֹוָה שֶׁהָיָה לָנוּ בְּקוּם עָלֵינוּ אָדָם:
אֲזַי חַיִּים בְּלָעוּנוּ בַּחֲרוֹת אַפָּם בָּנוּ:
אֲזַי הַמַּיִם שְׁטָפוּנוּ נַחְלָה עָבַר עַל נַפְשֵׁנוּ:
אֲזַי עָבַר עַל נַפְשֵׁנוּ הַמַּיִם הַזֵּידוֹנִים:
בָּרוּךְ יְהֹוָה שֶׁלֹּא נְתָנָנוּ טֶרֶף לְשִׁנֵּיהֶם:
נַפְשֵׁנוּ כְּצִפּוֹר נִמְלְטָה מִפַּח יוֹקְשִׁים הַפַּח נִשְׁבָּר וַאֲנַחְנוּ נִמְלָטְנוּ:
עֶזְרֵנוּ בְּשֵׁם יְהֹוָה עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ:


תפילה לשלומם של החיילים

יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ ה' אֶ-לֹ-הֵינוּ וְאֱ-לֹ-הֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, שֶיַּעֲלוּ לְרָצוֹן מִזְמוֹרֵי תְּהִלִּים אֶלוּ שֶקָרָאנוּ הָיוֹם, כְּאִילוּ אֲמָרָם דָוִד הַמֶּלֶךְ עַבְדְךָ מְשִיחֶךָ ע"ה. וַעֲשֶֹה לְמַעַן שְמוֹתֶיךָ הַקְּדוֹשִים הַכְּתוּבִים בָּהֶם, וְהָרְמוּזִים וּמְצוֹרָפִים בָּהֶם, וּתְקַבֵּל ְּרַחֲמִים וּבְרָצוֹן אֶת תְּפִילָתֵנוּ וּבַקָּשָתֵינוּ, וְתָבֹא לְפָנֶיךָ תְּחִינָתֵנוּ, וְתָחוֹס וְתַחְמוֹל וּתְרַחֵם עַל שְבוּיֵינוּ

זְכַרְיָה שְלֹמֹה בֵּן מִרְיָם בַּאוּמֵל
יְקוּתִיאֵל יְהוּדָה נַחְמָן בֵּן שָֹרָה כַּץ
צְבִי בֵּן פְּנִינָה פֵלְדְמַן
רוֹן בֵּן בַּתְיָה אָרָד
אֵהוּד בֵּן מַלְכָּה גוֹלְדְוָוסֶר
אֶלְדָד בֵּן טוֹבָה רֶגֶב,
גִלְעָד בֵּן אֲבִיבָה שָלִיט
גַיא בֵּן רִינָה חֶבֶר

וְתוֹשִיעֶם בִּיְשוּעָה וְרַחֲמִים, יַחַד עִם כֹּל הַשְּבוּיִים וְהָאָסִירִים מֵעַמְּךָ יִשְֹרָאֵל.
מוֹצִיא אָסִירִים בַּכּוֹשָרוֹת, יַצִּילֵם מִשִּבְיַם, וְיוֹצִיאֵם מֵעַבְדוּת לְחֵירוּת, וּמִשִיעֲבּוּד לִגְאוּלָה, וּמֵאֲפֵילָה לְאוֹרָה, וְיִרְפָּאֵם רְפוּאָה שְלֵמָה, רְפוּאַת הַנֶּפֶש וּרְפוּאַת הַגּוּף, וְיְאַמְצֵם וְיְאַזְרֵם בְּשִמְחָה וּבְגִילָה, אַז יִתְחַזְּקוּ וְיִתְרַפְּאוּ וְהַיְתָה לָהֶם שִֹמְחַת עוֹלָם.

וּזְכוּת תְּפִלַּת רַבִּים וְצַעֲקָתַם וְנַאֲקָתַם, הַמַּעֲתִירִים בַּעֲדָם בְּכֹל אֲתָר וְאֲתָר, תַּעֲמוֹד לָהֶם לְמָגֵן וְצִינָה, וְיִקְרַע רוֹעַ גְּזַר דִּינָם, וְיִקַּרְאוּ לְפָנָיו יִתְבָּרָךְ זְכוּיוֹתֵיהֶם וְכֹל אֲשֶר פָּעֲלוּ וְעָשֹוּ לְמַעַן עַמֵּנוּ וְנַחֲלָתֵנוּ. וְיִקְרַע גְּזַר דִּינָם בִּזְכוּת הַשֵּם הַקָּדוֹש הָרָמוּז בְּרָאשֵי תֵּיבוֹת קַבֵּל רִנַּת עָמֶךָ שַֹגְבֵנוּ טַהֲרֵנוּ נוֹרָא.

וִיְקַיֵּים בָּהֶם מִקְרָא שֶכָּתוּב:
וּפְדוּיֵי ה' יְשוּבוּן וּבָאוּ צִיּוֹן בְּרִנָּה, וְשִֹמְחַת עוֹלָם עַל רֹאשָם,
שָֹשוֹן וְשִֹמְחָה יַשִֹּיגוּ וְנָסוּ יָגוֹן וַאֲנָחָה. בִּמְהֵרָה בְּיָמֵינוּ. אָמֵן.