Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Matos

Normally, the Thursday night parsha post on this blog slot contains a thought said over by R' Frand in his Thursday Night shiur. Since the shiur is now on hiatus through Elul, I have reprinted my summary of a prior year's shiur that R' Frand gave on Parshas Matos. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Parsha Matos begins with Moshe telling the heads of the tribes about nedarim. This is out of the ordinary as a parsha usually begins "and Hashem told Moshe to say [to the Jews]." However in this parsha Moshe speaks directly to the roshei matos without the Torah specifying that the source was from Hashem. The language of roshei hamatos is also unique as the Torah usually describes the people as nesi'im, not as roshei hamatos.

Rabbi Frand quoted R' Alpert who cited the Rashbam in Chukas about the maa'aseh meriva. In this parsha, Moshe is told to pick up the mateh and then later told to talk to the rock. Ultimately, Moshe is punished for using the staff, rather than speaking to the rock. But why is he told to pick up the staff in the first place? The answer Rabbi Frand gave is that Hashem was trying to teach Moshe a lesson about how to interact with the Jewish people. Hashem instructs - there are two ways to interact and influence the Jews, either by speaking to them or by hitting them. This time, the lesson is that the pen (or in this case the spoken word) is mightier than the sword.

When Hashem tells Moshe to take the staff, Hashem is saying take the staff, but then go and talk to the Jews. Hashem attempts to teach Moshe a lesson that every leader and Rebbi or Rov must know - you don't need the stick. You can have as much impact by speaking.

Matos is a parsha about speech - nedarim. A person can have a Rabbinically certified kosher meat sandwich, but if he has sworn that that he will not eat meat, then it is as great a sin to eat the sandwich as if he has eaten not kosher food. This is the power of speech. Therefore the parsha begins with Moshe telling the roshei hamatos, because Moshe has learned the power of speech and he can then instruct the leaders of sticks that they can lead with power or with speech, but leading with speech is much more effective.

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Monday's Musings on Sports - If James is a King, is Melo Gold?

For the last two weeks, basketball fans were waiting to see which way the ball would bounce. Two all world players - Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony had become free agents and the potential suitors were lining up. Meanwhile, there were many other good players who had also become free agents, but teams were not jumping to sign them as the league was waiting to see where James and Melo would land.

On late Friday afternoon, James announced that he had decided to go back to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, even though he was "leaving money on the table" since the Miami Heat could have paid him more money had he stayed in Miami. But for Lebron, this was not about the money alone. In announcing his decision to return to Cleveland, Lebron penned an article for Sports Illustrated wherein he explained his need to return to his hometown. One of the more poignant statements he made was:

When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission. I was seeking championships, and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn’t had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.

I always believed that I’d return to Cleveland and finish my career there. I just didn’t know when. After the season, free agency wasn’t even a thought. But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl. I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.

In sharp contrast to Lebron James is the story of the ultimate me first player, Carmelo Anthony (why do the Knicks seem to be a magnet for these types of players). Melo has never won a championship and has not even gotten out of the second round in the three years that he has been a Knick. Yet when faced with a chance to leave for the Chicago Bulls, a team with a real possibility of reaching the NBA Finals, Anthony opted to take the team offering the most money (the NY Knicks) even though they may not even make the playoffs next year.

The idea of making choices based on ideals vs money is hardly a new concept. But at some point, one needs to ask - when is it enough money? When can the player make a sacrifice in order to join a team which has a chance to win the ultimate prize?

The concept of making tough choices, even with the possibility of losing financial status is a central concept in Torah thought. I recently heard a shiur from R' Mansour on learntorah.com wherein he observed that Yocheved had the most nachas (loosely translated as pride in the acts of one's children) of anyone in the Torah. Indeed, Yocheved saw her children become the leader of the Jews, the Kohain Gadol and a significant prophetess. Why did Yocheved merit this reward? Because she risked her life to deliver babies in Egypt. But the question can be asked - what kind of life could the children have if they were born into slavery? The answer could be that even though the life ahead for these children was tough, the selfless act of delivering the children in the face of certain punishment and giving the children the chance to live as Jews and do Hashem's will merited a great reward.

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Sunday Night Suds - New Belgium Summer Helles Lager

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at New Belgium's Summer Helles Lager.

As has mentioned here before, the style of beer known as Helles is actually short for Munich Helles Lager. The experts at BA explain that Helles arose:

When the golden and clean lagers of Plzen (Bohemia) became all the rage in the mid-1800's, München brewers feared that Germans would start drinking the Czech beer vs. their own. Munich Helles Lager was their answer to meet the demand. A bit more malty, they often share the same spicy hop characters of Czech Pils, but are a bit more subdued and in balance with malts. "Helles" is German for "bright."

The American Summer Helles which I have tried have uniformly lacked the hop character of a Czech Pils, but do have some other similarities to pilsners as they are bright yellow in color with a crispness which cleanses the palate. The New Belgium Summer Helles Lager follow along this track as it poured a pale yellow, almost straw in color. The beer lacked much in the way of bite (hop and/or alcohol) but was crisp and refreshing.

I enjoyed the New Belgium Summer Helles with a bag of NoTatoes Cassava Tortilla Chips. The beer meshed well with the salty cassava chips and provided the perfect late snack following an intense zimriyah at Camp M.

New Belgium Helles is under the Kosher Supervision of the Scroll-K of Colorado. Although the beer does not bear the kosher symbol on the label, I have verified its kashruth with the Scroll-K and it is listed on the LOC. Often times, a kosher symbol can be found on the bottom of the six pack holder for New Belgium products. Unfortunately, I did not buy a six pack of this beer, so I could not verify that it is found on the bottom of the Helles Lager six pack holder.

Please note that not every brew produced by New Belgium is under kosher supervision. For a list of the New Belgium brews currently under supervision, please click on the link on the left side of my home page for my latest Kosher Beer List.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about New Belgium Helles Lager, please follow this link beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/116586. 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).

Finally, 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 Pinchas

The following is a brief summary of some of the 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.

Those who are familiar with the general format of R' Frand's Thursday Night Shiur are aware that there is usually a 40 minute halacha portion followed by 20 minutes of parsha vorts. Tonight R' Frand began his shiur with the 40 minutes of halacha, but then introduced two stories from the shiva for Naftali Frankel o'h before R' Frand spoke about the parsha. I have summarized the stories below following the parsha vort.

R Frand quotes Bamidbar 25:17 which states that the Jews should take revenge against the Midyanim. The Medrash observes that a person who causes a person to sin is worse than killing him. A person who kills causes the victim to lose his life in this world, but the victim keeps his reward in Olam Haba. A person who leads another to sin hurts the victim both in this world and in Olam Haba.

The Medrash observes that there are two sets of enemies who are treated differently. Egypt and Edom are subjected to punishment but are not banned because they attacked the Jews physically, but there is no requirement to hate them. However, Amon and Moab are on the permanent enemies list and they are rejected by Hashem because they attempted to seduce the Jews.

The Medrash then says that a person who has mercy on an Amoni or Moabi will be pained and suffer as a result. (R' Frand remarked - don't be frummer than the Torah). The Medrash notes that David went against the rule and was mencachem aveil by Chanan ben Nachash, an Amoni. David was later punished and his emissaries attacked by Amoni. The lesson was - don't make your own decisions to go further than the Torah.

R' Frand closed this part of the vort by making reference to a story a told in Otzros HaTorah about when R' Moshe Feinstein ztl was living in Luban in Russia. There was a man in the city who was a moser and would routinely turn Jews over to the communist government. When the man died, he left a letter which contained a request that the burial society not give him a proper Jewish burial. He wrote that he felt bad about how he acted during his lifetime and that the lack of proper burial would be a way to atone for his acts.

The members of the burial society came to R' Moshe and asked what they should do. He responded that the Torah requires that all Jews receive a proper burial. The members of the society protested that this man was evil and that he did not deserve the burial and that if he wanted this to be an atonement they should do as he requested. R' Moshe stood firm and said that you cannot go against the Torah.

A few days after the burial, the Russian government sent representatives to the cemetery and asked to have the man exhumed. The cemetery complied and the man's body was removed, studied and then reburied. 

It was later learned that the man had left a letter for the Russian government wherein he wrote that the Jews have no respect for the government and that they would be punishing the man by not giving him a proper burial.

But R' Moshe prevented this action by following the tried and true rule - you don't go against halacha. 

The levaya stories follow below:

R' Frand read an email that he received from someone who had been present at the shiva and heard  the following story. When the boys were still missing, someone suggested that they perform the Goral Ha'Gra in order to locate the boys. A Rav Elyashiv (possibly R' Elyashiv's grandson) was selected and he performed the goral and it landed on Sefer Shoftim 15:9. The pasuk there says that the Philistines came up to the land of Judah and they spread out in a place called Lechi.

Now that they had the location they needed to find the place called Lechi. Unfortunately, no one knew where Lechi was. Mr. Frankel contacted a tanach authority - R' Yoel Ben Nun. Rabbi Ben Nun said that he checked his tanach and he had a question mark next to the place Lechi, and that he did not know where it was. Mr. Frankel then said, "now sadly we know where Lechi was."

R' Frand also told a story which was heard from Mrs Frankel during the shiva. Mrs Frankel related that their son had always been vigilant to daven daily and to always wear proper tefillin. Mrs. Frankel said that during the 18 day period that the boys were missing she was very upset. Once the boys had been found and she learned that the boys had been killed immediately, she had a nechama as her son died without missing a day of davening with tefillin.

Hashem Yinkom Dameihim.

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Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Ta'anis 27

On Ta'anis 27b, the gemara discusses the Torah reading for the people of the ma'amad who would read daily from Ma'aseh Bereishis during their turn as anshei ma'amad. Within this discussion, the gemara indicates that the Torah portion would be broken up into three parts - one each for the Kohanim, Levi'im and Yisraelim.

The gemara asks - but what about the first day of creation? The Torah portion cannot be broken into three as the first portion of the reading is fiver verses and there is a rule that there can never be less than three verses per aliyah. The gemara offers answers from Rav and Shmuel wherein they suggest that a verse from the first aliyah be repeated in the second portion or that the third pasuk be split in two.

In discussing Rav's proposal of using a pasuk from the first aliyah in the second reading, Tosafos (d'h Rav) observes that this is the system which we use for Rosh Chodesh, wherein we commence the second aliyah with a repetition of the last pasuk from the first aliyah. (This was my thought as well and I wondered why the gemara did not expressly address the question). 

Tosafos asks - why do we repeat the verse? Couldn't we just start reading the first aliyah a little further back in the parsha? The question is quite timely as we will read Parshas Pinchas (where the reading for Rosh Chodesh is found) this coming Shabbos.

Tosafos reinforces the question by noting that on Shabbos Chol Hamoed, we being the reading from Parshas Ki Sissa by going back to Moshe's conversation with Hashem in 32:12 wherein he asks Hashem about His direction to take the Jews up. Tosafos opines that the reading related to Chol Hamoed should have started from the discussion of Moshe being told to form new tables which is found in pesukim starting at 33:1.

Toasfos answers by stating that the prior portion in Ki Sissa is connected with the reading for Chol HaMoed as it is the same story. However, the prior pesukim in Parshas Pinchas are unrelated to the Tamid and Rosh Chodesh, therefore there is no option but to start with the proper reading and repeat one verse.

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Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Dry Hop Lager

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Dry Hop Lager.

The Saranac Dry Hop Lager is one of the inserts in this past spring's mix box which also includes the new Prism IPA (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2014/03/sunday-night-suds-saranac-prism-white.html), Red IPA (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/12/sunday-night-suds-saranac-red-ipa.html), Forbidden Dry Hop Lager (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2014/05/sunday-night-suds-saranac-forbidden-ipa.html ) and old standards Irish Stout (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/01/sunday-night-suds-saranac-irish-stout.html) and Pale Ale (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/03/sunday-night-suds-saranac-pale-ale.html).

The Saranac Dry Hop Lager simply tastes like no other lager. There are strong hop notes and a creaminess that makes you ask how is this a bottled beer? The beer pours a deep gold with great lacing that forms rings after each sip. The beer does not have the backbone of an IPA as the deep hop flavor does not last beyond the opening sip, but it is a very interesting combination and flavor profile. Its almost like a lager that wants to be a IPA.

I would pair the Dry Hop Lager with spicy chinese food or other light spicy dishes. If you have enjoyed this beer with other types of food, please leave a comment below.

Saranac Dry Hop Lager 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. Keep in mind, Saranac brews some of its High Peaks series off site and these bottles do not have kosher certification from the Va'ad of Detroit.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Dry Hop Lager, please follow this link www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/90332.

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!