Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Summer Brew

This week's Sunday Night Suds beer review looks at Saranac Summer Brew.

There are many hackneyed expressions which generally demonstrate the point of "every dog has its day." None of the expressions applies to the Saranac Summer Brew, which proves the point that every brewery will produce at least one undrinkable beer (i.e. a failed experimental brew).

The concept behind the Saranac Summer Brew is not a bad one - combine the tartness of lemonade with a cold lager have a slightly tangy beer. This has worked well for Blue Moon which produces Rising Moon in the spring - a beer with the slight tang of lime zest. I have never had Mike's Hard Lemonade as it has NOT been under a known hashgacha, but it seems from the constant questions that I get from people, that some must like its combination of tart and alcohol as well.

The combination did not work for Saranac which produced a beer with the pale yellow color and a flavor reminiscent of yellow lollipops. Would this be tolerable as a sucking candy? Yes, if you had a sore throat. As a beer, it just can't get any worse.

As I said at the outset, every brewery will produce a dog here or there. For Samuel Adams, its the Cranberry Lambic. For Lakefront, its the Fuel Cafe (Coffee flavored beer?). For Saranac its this lemonade lager which will hopefully retired after its one and only summer.

To paraphrase the eminent Dr Seuss - I would not drink this from a can (yes I know it comes in a bottle) I would not drink this with some lamb, I would not drink this in my house, I would not serve this to a louse, I would not have this if I was dying from thirst (maybe a small exaggeration) I would not have this in a Hearst, I will not ever again drink the Saranac Summer Brew, I would not drink this if I was you.

Saranac Summer Brew is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit as is every other beer produced at the Matt Brewery plant in Utica, NY. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Summer Brew, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/49614.

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).

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Beha'aloscha

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand in his shiur this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort 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 Parshas Beha'aloscha (9:1-14), the Torah discusses the Pesach offering brought by the Jews in the second year in the desert. The Torah then tells over the story that men who were tamei meis came to Moshe and asked why they should be less than other Jews ("Lama Nigara") because they could not offer the Korban Pesach. In response, Hashem tells Moshe that these people can have a do-over, as they are permitted to bring a Pesach sheni.

The Sifri relates that these men were k'sheirim (pure) and tzadikim, who were "chareidim" on the mitzvos.

Rabbi Frand then asked - what is the true meaning of chareidim? In modern Israel that is a term used to describe the "ultra orthodox", but what does it mean?

Rabbi Frand answered by making reference to a vort from R' Yitzchak Zilbershtein. He related that a man once came before R' Yitzchak and told him that the doctor had insisted that he must eat on Yom Kippur. The man was distraught and wanted to know what to do. R' Yitzchak then sat down with the man and taught him the rules of eating on Yom Kippur and how to eat the pachos mikishiur so that he would not violate the proscription against eating.

The next day the man returned and apologized to R' Yitzchak. He explained that he had forgotten the rules and wanted to know whether R' Yitzchak could review them with him again. R' Yitzchak agreed. However, the following day and the day after that, the man again returned and asked R' Yitzchak to review the laws with him. The man finally explained to R' Yitzchak that he was "nervous" about eating on Yom Kippur and the stress from thinking about it had caused him to forget the rules after R' Yitzchak taught them to him.

R' Yitzchak said to the man - its good that you are nervous about this. We see from Devarim 29:3 that Moshe says to the Jews that Hashem has not given them a heart to know or eyes to see or ears to hear until this day. Rashi explains that on this day, Moshe gave a sefer Torah that he had written to shevet Levi. The rest of the Jews then came to Moshe and said - we also stood at Har Sinai and accepted the Torah, why did you only give this to Levi? Moshe then became very happy and said to the Jews, today you became a nation (Devarim 27:9) - today I see that you cling to and desire Hashem.

R' Yitzchak said to the man, I see that this eating on Yom Kippur is very important to you. It so goes against your fiber to eat that it makes you nervous in that you want to make sure that you perform everything properly. This is merely a sign that it is important to you and of course I have no problem reviewing the laws with you.

R' Frand then compared it to a person who buys an esrog and takes it to a Rav to check. The Rav looks at it for a few moments and says "mihudar." The following day, the man returns to the Rav and says are you sure you saw this spot? The Rav again looks at the esrog and says "mihudar." The man returns another day to show another dot on the esrog and gets the same response.

R' Frand said that this is the true meaning of chareidim. It does not mean someone who is trembling in fear. A charedi (in the positive sense) is someone whose complete being is tied up in trying to make sure that he is doing the right thing l'shem shamayim.

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Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Bava Metzia 45

Midway through Bava Metzia 45b, the Gemara leaves behind the discussion of whether coins (or fruit) can be exchanged for gold coins to be brought to Yerushalayim to buy fruit and begins a discussion of kinyan chalipim.

As one of the members of my daf yomi group reminded me this evening, the issue of kinyan chalipim is first developed by the Gemara in Kiddushin which discusses whether it can be utilized to effectuate a marriage.

However, the concept of kinyan chalipim actually draws its origin from Megillas Rus (4:7). Today, the kinyan is most widely seen in traditional transactions such as buying/selling chametz. The mechanics are simple - the buyer and seller are essentially trading objects - the seller takes an object from the buyer and by so doing, the buyer acquires the item which the seller wishes to sell him. Rashi notes that this can even effectuate the sale of real property.

On today's daf, Rav and Levi have an interesting machlokes about whether a coin can be used as kinyan chalipim. This seems like a roundabout way of saying that an item is "bought", but the gemara explores the issue. Under this scenario the seller sells the item in exchange for an item (the coin) which is acquired as an item and not as a unit of money. R' Papa explains that the reason why one de'ah holds that money cannot be the subject of kinyan chalipim is because the one who is acquiring the money does not acquire a complete item (like a cup or handkerchief) since in the times of the gemara the money was only good for the realm of the current monarch and the coin which was acquired today might be valueless tomorrow.

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Sunday Night Suds - Lakefront Brewery Cream City Pale Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds review looks at Lakefront Brewery's Cream City Pale Ale.

As explained on the side of the bottle, Lakefront Brewery called its Pale Ale "Cream City" after the color of the bricks used to build Milwaukee (home of Lakefront Brewery).

The beer itself is typical of pale ales as it has a distinct hop flavor. However, the beer is balanced by some citrus flavor which is not an additive or adjunct and takes some of the bite off of the beer. For those looking for heavy IPA flavor, I would not recommend this brew. But if you like hops in a beer that you can easily drink more than one of (with an abv of 5.68%, on the light side for American Pale Ales) this beer is for you.

The Lakefront Brewery web page for this beer recommends the Cream City Pale Ale with salads as well as "full fat cheeses and other rich, fatty food." I did not try the Pale Ale with "rich fatty foods" but I did find that it went well with chicken wraps and taboule. More research is definitely required...

Lakefront Brewery Cream City Pale Ale is under the kosher supervision of the Star-K. Although the LOC on the Star-K site http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_8197_lakefrontbreweryinc.pdf says that this (and about 15 other varieties) are kosher, but only with the Star-K on the label, I was unable to find a Star-K on the label of any of the varieties that I purchased. This seems common with the Star-K as many of the Sam Adams beers that are listed as under the Star-K do not have the symbol on the label. Concerned that I had wasted my money, I contacted the Star-K last year and they confirmed that Lakefront brews are permissible without a Star-K on the label.

For the experts' take on the Cream City Pale Ale please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/741/2222 . As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

Finally, 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 such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Nasso

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand in his shiur this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort 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.

Parshas Nasso begins with Hashem telling Moshe to count the sons of Gershon. These are the descendants of Levi who were counted separately from the rest of the Jews. The children of Kihas (also one of Levi's sons) were counted in Bamidbar and now Moshe is commanded to count the sons of Gershon. Later in the parsha, Moshe was commanded to count the children of Mirarri (Levi's third son).

The Abarbanel asks - why did the Torah split up the Levi'im into two parshios? Either put all the counting of the Levi'im in Bamidbar, or start Nasso with counting Kihas and then continue with the rest of the sons?

The Da'as Zikenim points out an anomaly. By Kihas, the pasuk says "al pi Hashem b'yad Moshe. "Similarly, by Mirrari, the pasuk states "al pi Hashem b'yad Moshe." However, by Gershon it just says "al pi Hashem." Why? Because the bnei Gershon counted themselves and just told Moshe the number without Moshe getting involved. But why was Moshe not involved?

Says the Abarbanel - Levi had three sons. In most circumstances, the bechor (in this case Gershon) would have gotten the most, including the most kavod - honor. However, by the bnei Levi, the second son Kihas got the most kavod positions. The Abarbanel writes that whenever the bechor is not given the honored position, one still must show some deference to him. Thus Nasso starts with the counting of Gershon "gam hem" to show that they are important as well and make them feel good. The Abir Yosef explains that this is why the counting was done by the bnei Gershon by themselves. This makes them feel important - they can do it by themselves.

This theme is also seen by the brachos which Ya'akov gave to Ephraim and Menasheh. Although Menasheh was the bechor, Ephraim got the better bracha. However, when the boys came for the bracha, they were not in the order which Ya'akov needed as Menasheh was on the left. Ya'akov did not make the boys switch places, although he could have asked them to do so. Instead Ya'akov showed some deference to Ephraim's role as bechor and crossed his hands so that his right hand was placed on Menasheh.

Rabbi Frand indicated that this has practical applications as well. Occasionally, boys will come to him who are dating and have been out 3,4,5 or more times with a girl and then need to say that they don't think its practical. Rabbi Frand tells the boys that you don't break up with a girl on the phone. No's are painful, so you do it in person so that you at least show the person that they are important, even if they are not for you. Even if this means that the boys have to pay for the gas and tolls to drive a distance to see the girl, you show respect by doing it in person.

Rabbi Frand said one other vort as well. He said in the name of his lifelong friend Rabbi David Twerski whose son saw a vort in the sefer Shiftei Ka, by Rabbi Vollei, a talmud muvhak of the Ramchal (author of the Messilas Yeshorim - Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato). The vort relates to the pasuk - "Ko Sivarchu es Bnei Yisroel, Emor Lahem."

The brocha of Bircas Kohanim has the actual details and mechanics of the activity being performed. This is in stark contrast to most Brachos which don't have any details of what is being done. The lashon of the Bracha includes the fact that the Kohanim have kiddusha from Aharon and were commanded to bless the Jews "b'ahava." Why "B'ahava"? Because the Kohain has to love the kahal and bless with a full heart and if not, he should not duchan.

The Shiftei Ka says that there is even a proof from this in the language of the pasuk because it says "emor lahem" and "emor" means love in Italian and French. The Shiftei Ka then says, don't be distressed that this is a language other than Hebrew, because we see this in other places in the Torah (like Totafos which the Gemara in Sanhedrin says is common language as well). The reason is that lashon Hakodesh is the mother of all languages and there is no word that cannot be found with a root in Hebrew.

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My Monday Musings on Sports - Washington and the Western Wall

As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post was usually devoted to sports with highlights and analysis of the Max Kellerman show which formerly aired on 1050 ESPN Radio. As Max has resigned from 1050 and has not yet resurfaced on the NY area radio waves, I have decided to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.

Although not very widely followed by casual football fans, this week marked the continuation of OTA's. These are "optional" off season workouts where players come in and work on drills and meet with their coaches. While these work outs are optional in name, those who don't participate are always worried that they will not make the team or lose their starting roles if they do not join the "optional" workouts. I caught a snippet of a story today about how the Cleveland Browns and Coach Eric Mangenius encouraged players to not only participate in OTA's, but also to take a ten hour bus trip to Connecticut to attend Coach Eric's football camp as "volunteers."

In Jets land, the Jets two regular running backs - Leon Washington and Thomas Jones, both sat out of most of the OTA's because of contract issues. Jones, who is in starting the third year of a four year contract, is upset about the amount of money that he will earn this year. Washington is in the final year of his rookie contract and is looking for the Jets to sign him to a long term deal. Altough both players are under contract, they are hoping that by staying away from most of the OTA's they will pressure the team to renegotiate the deals which they happily signed a few years ago. As such, Jones did not show up for OTA's until last week and Washington only came to camp today.

In stark contrast, recent draftees and free agents usually play their hearts out at these camps in the hopes that they will impress the coaches enough that they will catch on with the team. Since Washington and Jones did not show for the beginning of the OTA's, Danny Woodhead from football powerhouse Chadron State, had most of the carries in the beginning of the OTAs. The articles about these OTAs had quotes from Woodhead where he (predictably) said that he was glad to be getting the work and hoped that he was impressing the coaches.

The issue of salaried players in the midst of a contract who hold out for more money than they were previously happy with, reminded me a story which I recently heard from Rabbi Naiman in Baltimore, MD. The story involves an eighteen year old boy who was visiting Israel and wound up at the Western Wall. While at the wall he met one of the unheralded tzadikkim of our generation - Rabbi Meir Schuster who after speaking with the boy, suggested that he talk with R' Noach Weinberg zt'l. The boy agreed.

During their conversation, R' Weinberg asked the boy whether he wanted wealth or happiness. The boy responded, "both." R' Weinberg then asked the boy to choose one and the boy answered "happiness." R Weinberg told the boy that he had a two week course available at Aish Hatorah which was free and would teach the boy about true happiness. The boy responded that he had a plane ticket the following day and could not stay. R' Weinberg told the boy to call the travel agent and rebook the flight. The boy then countered that he had to start college the following week. R' Weinberg told the boy to write to the school and tell them that something had come up and that he would be a week late. The boy then said - its my grandmother's birthday next week and she paid for this trip. R' Weinberg told him to call her and explain that he wanted to stay a little longer.

Seeing that the boy was still on the fence, R' Weinberg then said to the boy - there is a $10,000 grant available to those who finish the course and there is no exam. The boy immediately said that he would take the course. R' Weinberg responded - when I asked you whether you wanted wealth or happiness you said happiness, yet as soon as I mentioned money you changed your tune, why?

The boy then said to R' Weinberg - you tell me why. R' Naiman said that R' Weinberg explained - when I asked you about wealth vs happiness, your guf did not feel challenged, so it allowed your neshoma to answer "happiness." When there was an issue of money, the guf suddenly felt a need to get involved. This is the constant internal struggle within the person where the guf seeks to get in the way of what the soul desires.

The boy elected to stay for two weeks and then an additional two years.

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