Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Ki Sissa

The following is a brief summary of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In Shemos 33:18-23, there is an exchange between Hashem and Moshe where Moshe asks Hashem to show him Hashem's greatness and Hashem responds that he can only see from behind. The Gemara in Berachos states that Hashem showed Moshe the knot of the Tefillin which is worn on the back of the neck. Rashi in other places states that Moshe did not understand the knot of the Tefillin of the head because Moshe did not understand it. 

R' Frand asked - why is it that Moshe only had a problem with the knot of the Tefillin of the head? What about the way the boxes looked? What about the knot on the hand? Did Moshe understand these elements?

R' Frand answered by quoting R' Ferrer (sp?) who notes that Hashem complained to Moshe three times in the parsha that the Jews are "am k'shei oref" - a stiff necked people - at Shemos 32:9, 33:3 and 33:5. 

The Jews were rebellious and argumentative and contentious. Moshe did not understand this and Hashem had to show him that although the Jews are argumentative, there are times that this middah is positive so as to allow the Jews to withstand pressure brought by their enemies. 

R' Frand explained that Moshe wanted to know where to tie the Tefillin of the head because he wanted to know when it was appropriate to be an am k'shei oref. Hashem responded, when they act in a way that rejects and argues with religion that is a negative use of this middah. But when the Jews use it to stubbornly for perseverance and adherence to the the religion it is positive. 

R' Frand then noted that Hashem had complained to Moshe three times that the Jews were an am k'shei oref. But later in the parsha at Shemos 34:9, Moshe says to Hashem - stay with the Jews because they are an am k'shei oref. He then follows with the statement - forgive your nation! After all the complaining that Hashem had articulated to Moshe, why did Moshe turn around and use the same language to influence Hashem not to destroy the Jews? This is counter intuitive!

R' Frand answered that Moshe had learned the secret - it all depends on how they use their stubbornness. Moshe was saying to Hashem - stay with them because they will use their middah of k'shei oref in a positive way to stubbornly stick to their religion.

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Sunday Night Suds - Leinenkugel's Big Eddy Wee Heavy Scotch Ale

After a week's hiatus, Kosher Beers returns with a review of Leinenkugel's Big Eddy Wee Heavy Scotch Ale.

[Due to many issues which arose over the past week including what I will call "the Esther Project" as well as an incredible family simcha in Baltimore, I was unable to post to the blog after Sunday of last week. I can't blame my inability to post yesterday's beer review on anyone, but we can just chalk it up to my following the old adage, never blog while inebriated].

I picked this beer up in a Total Wine superstore in the Towson area. Those who live in New York are terribly deprived because there is no Total Wine outlet in this state. Having visited three Total Wne outlets over the last six weeks, I can attest that there is no store which is in any way comparable. They have aisles upon aisles of beer (at least eight in each of the stores that I visited) and they have two long aisles which are dedicated to just single bottle purchases. The upcharge on buying single bottles is a bit high (as much as 40%!) but the selection is unparalleled and the prices on six or twelve packs is competitive.

The Big Eddy line is a recent addition to the Leinenkugel family of beers and represents an initial foray into the "big beer" market. The Wee Heavy Scotch Ale is sold in four packs at prices starting at $10 per pack of 12 oz bottles. The beer has a 9.5% abv, which underscores the attempt to move beyond macrolike brews.

The Leinenkugel Wee Heavy Scotch Ale is the second kosher certified Scotch Ale which I have come across. The only other kosher Scotch Ale I saw was produced by Saranac in 2008 as a limited edition (it was the subject of the very first Sunday Night Suds review - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/02/sunday-night-suds-saranac-scotch-ale.html). Although Samuel Adams has produced a Scotch Ale, it was never approved as kosher by the Star-K.

The Wee Heavy Scotch Ale poured a dark coffee brown with a little bit of amber foam. Before I had my first sip, I smelled the sweetness of the brew, but this is not a product of any additives or flavorings. Instead, the beer's sweet/toffee flavor is a product of the basic four ingredients and an extra long boil in the brew kettle. 

This beer is not for pairings with a meal as it is more in the line of a barleywine - something to be sipped after a meal.

Leinenkugel's Big Eddy Wee Heavy Scotch Ale is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, but like most Leinenkugel brews, it does not have an OU on the label. If you would like a copy of the LOC please contact me via email. 

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Leinenkugel's Big Eddy Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/710/78261. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable). 

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Purim 2013 Kosher Beers List

As a community service, Kosher Beers publishes a list twice a year of the beers which are known to be certified kosher. The list will be updated periodically until the next edition (Labor Day 2013). For the Purim 2013 edition, I will again be using scribd to upload and maintain list. All newly added beers are in bold.

Kosher Beers List Purim 2013

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Maple Pecan Porter

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams Maple Pecan Porter.

As winter ebbs slowly away, Samuel Adams has rolled out its spring mix box which it calls the Spring Thaw Beers. The box includes the flagship Boston Lager, last year's spring seasonal - Alpine Spring (  ), the occasionally hard to locate Irish Red and three new brews (all with a Star-K on the label!) - White Lantern, Double Agent IPL and the Maple Pecan Porter.

My first look at the Spring Thaw box came when I was in Costco. I was reluctant to purchase the box, based on the price and also since I did not know anything about the kashruth of the new varieties. Fast forward to last week and I was on my way home from work on Friday and needed to pick up some Saranac Diet Root Beer (a staple of our Shabbos table since 2009). I stopped in at my favorite local beer store - Beverage Barn on Jericho Turnpike in Garden City Park to pick up a six pack and saw that they were carrying six packs of the new Double Agent IPL and White Lantern so I picked up a bottle of each. But I still did not know the status of the Maple Pecan Porter, until...

This past Friday Night, Sarah & I were zoche to attend a shalom zachor being hosted in honor of our friends Shaun and Michelle Z's new son. After arriving at the shalom zachor and giving a warm mazal tov to Shaun and receiving a fist bump from Hunter, I was offered my first up close look at the Maple Pecan Porter. Sure enough it had a Star-K on the label, so I opened a bottle and poured some into cups for Mrs KB and me.

My first reaction to this beer is - boy is this sweet. They brew the Maple Pecan Porter with Maple Syrup and you really would need to have a severe cold to miss it. After a few sips, I started to detect a little of the nuttiness from the pecan, but it was a struggle with all the sugary maple which dominated the brew. By the time I had finished my cup, my teeth felt sticky from the maple syrup and I was sure of two things: (1) this was not a beer to have with any type of substantive meal and (2) I was glad that I had not bought the Spring Thaw box so that I did not need to find a way to get rid of multiple bottles of this pancake syrup masquerading as beer.

The Samuel Adams Maple Pecan Porter is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K and has a Star-K certification mark on the label. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/88427. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable). 

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Terumah

The following is a brief summary of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

This week's parsha begins with an instruction from Hashem to Moshe that he should speak to the Jewish people and collect terumah from whomever's heart inspired him to give. The collected funds were used in the construction of the Mishkan.

R' Frand quoted the Yalkut Shimoni who states that the use of the words speak to ("Daber el") are similar to the use of the words Dabru al lev Yerushalayim which appears in the Haftorah of Shabbos Nachamu. In the context of the Haftorah, Hashem speaks to the Jews in a language of peeyus - of appeasing or mollifying.

It is difficult to comprehend why the Jews needed to be appeased in the context of this week's parsha. In the Haftorah of Nachamu, the Jews had just endured the destruction of the Beis Hamkidash, a blow from which the Jews still have not recovered to this day. It is obvious that the Jews needed some uplifting talk. But in this week's parsha, the Jews had just said na'aseh v'nishma in the end of Parshas Mishpatim. The Jews were on cloud nine and had just left Egypt, why would they need to be cajoled?

R' Frand answered by saying that the parsha is teaching a truth - it is very difficult to get people to part with their money. This is the pasuk in Mishlei that it is better to have a poor man than a wealthy man with desires (not a great paraphrase on my part). Many times a person makes plans about what he will do if he wins the lottery. R' Frand gave a personal example where he said that if won the powerball and it was $350 million he would spend some money on a jet to avoid the hassle of the TSA and maybe an apartment in the Old City of Jerusalem and give the rest of the money away. But many times after a person has the money, he no longer follows through with his plans of  giving charity and he rationalizes away giving less and less.

The Jews in the midbar had no expenses as their clothes never wore out, they had the manna so there was no need to buy food. The Jews had no rent or mortgage and had money which came to them by the cartload when they left Egypt. But still they did not want to part with their money.

R' Frand told a story about how the Chofetz Chaim received 500 rubles in cash in the mail. The Chofetz Chaim was confused - why would someone trust the post office enough to mail such a fortune in cash to the yeshiva, instead of sending a money order or check? The Chofetz Chaim instructed his assistant to track down the sender and find out why the money had been sent in cash.

After some searching, the assistant was able to track down the sender and he asked the question. The donor replied that he had made a promise to himself that if a particular business deal went through, he would give 500 rubles to the Yeshiva. The deal came together towards the end of a particular day and it was too late for the man to go to get a money order or bank check. The man felt himself beginning to rationalized that the Yeshiva really did not need the full 500 rubles and that it would be OK to send 50 rubles. The man knew that if he waited until morning, it might only be 5 rubles that he would send. To guard against this possibility, the man quickly put the cash in the envelope and mailed it to the Yeshiva.

This is the meaning of the "daber el" in this week's parsha. Because Hashem knows that when a person has money, it is often times hard to get him to part with it. Therefore, Moshe is told to appease and speak nicely to the Jews when asking for donations to the Mishkan.

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Monday's Musings on Sports - Derek, Tommy and R' Moshe Feinstein

Over the weekend I read a piece on Yahoo's excellent baseball blog (Big League Stew) which reiterated a story that ran in the New York Times about the lengths that adults will go through to get Derek Jeter's autograph. (To see the blog post on Big League Stew, please click here).

The article detailed how grown men would get in line at 3 AM for a chance to possibly score the Yankee captain's autograph. If Jeter decided that this would be day that he would sign autographs, those waiting for the "magical moment" were told by a Yankee underling named John Johnson to "keep in line" and not to engage in any conversation with Jeter as  "he doesn’t want to hear about your personal life, so don’t ask him about his!”

The piece also had a humanizing side of the Yankees involving Tyler Austin, a prospect who is trying to make the team. Austin related that when he was eight years old, he attended a Chatanooga Lookouts (AA) game after which some players refused to sign autograps. Although he was only in grade school at the time, his mother told him "One day you’re going to be there, and I swear if I ever see you walk by anybody and not sign a thing for them, I will come and personally slap you right across the face."

The Jeter/Austin article reminded me of a story from one of Tommy Lasorda's books about his interaction with Buster Maynard. When Lasorda was in grade school, he volunteered as a crossing guard because he heard that the nuns would take them to a baseball game as a reward at the end of the year. When the day finally arrived, Lasorda visited Shibe Park for his first major league game. He had prepared an autograph book and approached the major leaguers, but was brushed off by a member of the other team who Lasorda did not recognize. Lasorda checked the scorecard and learned that the players name was Buster Maynard.

Years later, Lasorda was a minor league pitcher for the Dodgers and was pitching in a game in the South Atlantic League. When the announcer gave word that Buster Maynard would be the next batter, Lasorda knew what he would do. Lasorda threw the first pitch at Maynard's head. Then he threw the next pitch at Maynard's head. After he threw the third pitch at Maynard, Maynard charged the mound. 

After the game was over, Maynard sought Lasorda out in the locker room. Maynard said to him - I never faced you in a game before, so why did you throw at me. Lasorda told him the story of how he went to Shibe Park as a kid and Maynard brushed him off. Maynard left the locker room, shaking his head.

In contrast to Maynard and Jeter's actions, I would like to briefly reiterate a story that R' Frand told a few weeks ago about R' Moshe Feinstein, zt'l. One summer, R' Moshe and his family went to a bungalow colony for a planned vacation. After a few days, R' Moshe told his family that they needed to go home. He did not tell them why they were going home and they did not ask why. Instead, they called R' Yaakov Kaminetsky zt'l and asked why R' Moshe had moved his family back to the city. R' Yaakov called R' Moshe and learned that an almanah (widow) was living next door to their bungalow. The widow's daughter would come and sing for her and this created a kol isha problem for R' Moshe. Rather than tell the woman of the problem created by the singing, R' Moshe moved his family back from the country to the Lower East Side, so that the woman would not feel uncomfortable.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Norse Legend Sahti

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams' Norse Legend Sahti.

Through sporadic contact with the Star-K, I have learned that some of the 22 oz bottles of Samuel Adams "limited" beers are in fact certified kosher, although like many Samuel Adams brews, there is no Star-K on the label. When I learned that the Norse Legend was among the select "limited" beers under hashgacha I was intrigued as I was completely unfamiliar with the style of beer known as Sahti.

[Speaking of contact with kashrus agencies, I learned last week from the Va'ad of Kansas City that many brews from well regarded Boulevard Brewery of Kansas City, Missouri have recently become certified as kosher. Although Boulevard is not available in NY, I hope to purchase some when I make my way down to Baltimore in a few weeks for a simcha. I have been hearing for some time about how awesome Boulevard brews are and I can't wait to try some.]

As always, my first stop in learning about Sahti was the BA website which defines the style as:

[A] farmhouse ale with roots in Finland. First brewed by peasants in the 1500s, mashing (steeping of grains) went down in wooden barrels, and then that mash would be scooped into a hand-carved wooden trough (a kuurna) with a bed of juniper twigs that acted as a filter. The bung at the bottom of the kuurna would be pulled to allow the sweet wort (liquid infusion from the mash) to pass through the twig filter, followed by wort recirculation and a hot water sparge (rinsing of the grains), all of which created a juniper infusion of sorts.

Sahti is also referred to as being turbid, because the wort isn’t boiled after lautering (separation of spent grain and liquid), leaving loads of proteins behind, thus providing tremendous body. A low-flocculating Finnish baker’s yeast creates a cloudy unfiltered beer, with an abundance of sediment. Traditional Sahti is not typically hopped, so the task of balancing is left up to the juniper twigs, which impart an unusual resiny character and also act as a preservative. Some have compared Sahtis to German Hefeweizens, though we find them to be more akin to the Lambics of Belgium due to the exposure to wild yeast and bacteria, and its signature tartness.

The Samuel Adams Norse Legend takes the Sahti one step further than the description above as they do not only brew the beer with juniper twigs, they introduce juniper berries in the brew process as well. The resulting brew has some hoppiness and floral notes but also some heat and spiciness which I had never experienced in a beer before.

After having kept this beer in the fridge for the better part of three months, I opened it this past Friday evening and shared it with a few friends who had come to join our Friday night table. The beer was well received by R' Yitz and R' Yossi but the one who enjoyed it almost as much as me was Mrs KB. When I told her that it was brewed with juniper berries she said that it must be her love of gin (who would have thought!) that made her like this beer so much.

The spiciness and heat in the beer went exceptionally well with Mrs KB's chicken with peppers and  spicy tomato sauce. It probably would do well with spicy Chinese food, but since this was my only one (and they run about $6 a bottle) that is an experiment which will need to be put off for another day.

The Samuel Adams Norse Legend Sahti is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label. To see the LOC for Samuel Adams which certifies this beer as kosher click here - http://www.star-k.org/loc/LetterOfCertification_PEFQZ4N3.pdf.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/80554. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable). 

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Mishpatim

The following is a brief summary of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In this week's parsha the Torah teaches the law of "eved ivri". The Torah states that a person who becomes a slave because he cannot repay an item he stole, may stay as a slave for up to seven years. If after seven years the man still wants to stay as a slave, his master takes him to a doorpost and pierces his ear. Rashi quotes the Mechilta who explains that the reason that the ear is pierced is that the slave had just heard the ten commandments wherein G-d said do not steal and he stole anyway.

A famous question that is asked about this law is - why do they wait all these years before the ear is pierced? The man stole years ago, so why do we only pierce the ear after six years when the man says that he wants to stay!

R' Frand answered by quoting the sefer Anfei Erez by R' Aryeh Leib Gurwitz of Gateshead Yeshiva (a relative of Mrs KB!). He quoted a pasuk which states that in the future, Hashem will flatten the mountains and raise the valleys. The Yalkut Shimoni explains that the pasuk is metaphorical. In the future, Bnei Yisrael will want to do teshuva. A person has peaks and valleys in his avodah and sometimes falls into the valley. The person will say to  Hashem, I am reminded by these places where I have done wrong and I am embarrassed  Hashem responds - don't worry about the valleys - I will remove the places and incidents that you are embarrassed about. The man will respond - there are still witnesses that I have done wrong! Hashem said, I will remove them as well.

R' Frand explained that the true meaning of the pasuk is that a person wants to do teshuva is pained by his past acts. Hashem responds to the person - I will wipe out the reminders of your past bad acts.

R' Gurwitz explains that the person who stole was not a thief by nature. Instead, the man stole in a moment of weakness because he needed the money. When this person stole, we could not pierce his ear as he was not a career thief. But now six years later, the man has become accompanied to his lifestyle as a slave. His whole life and family reminds him that he is a thief. But still in all, he does not mind that he is being called a thief because he is comfortable in his current life. This teaches us that the man does not regret his prior bad acts. Since we now see that he is OK with his label as a thief, then he should have a permanent reminder that he did not listen.

R' Frand then made reference to the Haftorah of Parshas Mishpatim (which is read when the parsha does not coincide with Shekalim). This Haftorah comes from Yirmiyahu and contains a pasuk where Hashem tells the Jews when they are leaving Egypt that a slave must go free after seven years.

R' Frand asked - was this the most important topic that needed to be taught on the day that the Jews left Egypt? R' Frand answered yes - it was important to learn this now because of the principle - strike while the iron is hot. The Jews were leaving Egypt and slavery and they remember what is like to be slaves. Now is the time that they should learn that the slave should not stay more than seven years.

R' Frand closed the vort by quoting a story from the Volozhin Yeshiva. There was a boy who was sitting and eating when another student came over and asked him a question which he could not answer. Another boy who was present said - how do you not know the answer - its a Tosafos in Gittin. The boy was embarrassed and he got up and went back to the study hall and swore to himself that for the next seven years he would sit and learn day and night. And so he did. For the next seven years the boy sat and learned day and night, stopping only to sleep and eat.

There was only one problem - the boy did not bench before he got up and made his commitment to learn.

They asked R' Chaim Volozhin - did the boy do the right thing by going to learn for seven years, but not benching before he started to learn? R' Chaim answered no, the boy should have benched first. But if he would have done something before he got up to make the committment, he would not have sat learned for the next seven years.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Redd's Apple Ale

This week's (belated) Sunday Night Suds looks at Redd's Apple Ale, one of the newest brews from Miller/Coors.

[Due to the ineptitude of American Airlines and their lame excuses and failure to properly   communicate with their passengers, I was unable to post this review last evening. My apologies to those who looked for the review in its regularly scheduled spot].

Late in 2012, I received word that Miller/Coors was test marketing two new beers - the Redd's Apple Ale and Third Shift Lager. Since I am a sucker for apple infused beers, I set out to look for the Redd's Apple Ale, but was unable to locate any in my area. After a few months I gave up hope of finding it, but recently I began to hear commercials for Redd's on the Internet broadcast of 98.7 ESPN Radio (formerly 1050). As my local stores were still not carrying it, I went to the Redd's Apple Ale website and was able to locate it near where we were spending a few days during yeshiva week. I picked up one bottle (the last one in the store) along with some others kinds of beers which I iyh hope to review in the coming months. Yes, Mrs KB is a true aishes chayil as she accompanied me on the beer scouting trip and helped me to pack it so that the eight bottles of various brews would not break on the trip home.

It was hashgacha pratis that the Redd's Apple Ale has come along because the most widely available apple infused beer - the Angry Orchard brand of hard apple ciders are no longer certified kosher. I was first tipped off to this fact by a blog reader who posted a comment that the CRC was listing Angry Orchard as not recommended. I found this odd since the beer was still listed on the Star-K LOC from December. However, the most recent version (January 2013) of the Star-K LOC for Samuel Adams made no reference to the Angry Orchard. I then contacted the Star-K and they confirmed that the Angry Orchard is no longer certified kosher, but those remaining bottles with Star-K on the label may be consumed.

Please note that although I mention the Apple Ale in the same post as hard apple cider, there are very few similarities between the two. The Redd's Apple Ale is not as sweet as hard apple cider, but it does not taste much like beer either. The beer has no foam to speak of and the carbonation is on the mild side. What one does taste is tart apple without much attempt to artificially sweeten the brew. It is very drinkable and without any noticeable alcohol after taste. It just does not taste like beer.

Redd's Apple Ale is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union like nearly every beer produced by MillerCoors and there is an OU on the bottle.  For the experts take on the Redd's Apple Ale, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/105/87280. 

 As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable). 

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!