My Monday Musings on Sports - No Nos and the Ayin Hara

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.

While driving home this weekend, I heard an announcer talk about how the Mets had been one hit in a game pitched by AJ Burnett. The announcer mentioned that the hit came in the sixth inning and was not a "cheap hit." It made me think back to a story which ran earlier this month about Cliff Lee, a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. On June 14, 2009, Lee was pitching a no-hitter in the eighth inning when the Cleveland scoreboard operator put up the trivia question - who pitched the last no-hitter for the Indians? [For those of you not from Cleveland it was Len Barker in 1981]. Well, the next batter that Lee faced hit a double and Lee finished with a three hit shutout. After the game, Cleveland manager said that the Indians' scoreboard operator "had no feel for the game." Meanwhile, the pitching coach was more direct as he said, "There are some things that are taboo and you don't do."

For baseball players there is a certain feeling of "jinxing" a no-hitter by even talking about the fact that it is on going. As a pitcher gets deeper into a no-hitter or perfect game, the players on the team will not sit near him for fear of "jinxing" him. The team's announcers who are calling the game for radio/TV will also not mention the no-hitter (until its broken) also for fear of "jinxing" the player. While a certain friend of mine will call this a "kin'ahara" (his version of an ayin hara) I wonder whether this is truly applicable.

The general concept of ayin hara is that bad things can befall a person or their possessions if they are ostentatious. The reason for the bad thing is that others who see the person or their possessions will be jealous and their negative thoughts or even prayers could be the cause of the injury. The gemara in Pesachim 50(b) is replete with examples of ayin hara which can result when one flaunts his good fortune.

But is this applicable to the baseball taboos about no hitters? To the extent that the announcers don't mention it on the air, maybe a case could be made that mentioning it while jealous fans of the opposing team are listening, could be a cause of ayin hara. However, players who avoid talking to the pitcher or sitting near him, to avoid "a jinx" would not implicate ayin hara. To my mind, the avoidance of the pitcher may be recommended for other reasons, since mentioning the no-no to him would undoubtedly add to the stress level of the pitcher (this is my own personal feeling about what happened to Cliff Lee).

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Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Pale Pale Ale (not a typo)

Tonight's Sunday Night Suds beer review looks at Saranac's Pale Pale Ale (no, that's not a typo).

This year, the good folks at Saranac included two bottles each of its four newest brews in their Beers of Summer Mix box. I picked up the Beers of Summer box on Friday and brought it "home" but did not have time to fully peruse its contents. On my way out to shul, I asked my aishes chayil to put a few in the fridge for me so that I could have one with my daf yomi after dinner Friday night. When I opened the fridge later that evening and saw the Pale Pale Ale, I knew that I had to try it.

As I mentioned in a prior Sunday Night Suds review of Saranac's Pale Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/03/sunday-night-suds-saranac-pale-ale.html) the Saranac Pale Ale is a perfect gateway beer for those looking to start on something with a little more hop flavor than a macrobrew. It also happens to be a great cholent brew (for drinking with, not making cholent).

The Pale Pale Ale takes the concept of an American Pale Ale a little further by lightening the color of the brew and mixing the hop balance to add a citrusy flavor to a Pale Ale (think Blue Moon meets IPA). The beer itself pours a light golden, nearly pilsner color and has the trademark excellent Saranac carbonation. I greatly enjoyed mine by itself with aizehu neshech, but fully expect that it would go well with steaks, stews and other savory meat dishes.

Saranac Pale Pale Ale is under the kashruth supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as are all other beer produced by Saranac. For the experts take on Saranac Pale Pale Ale, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/48544.

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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Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Bava Metzia 59

Bava Metzia 59 reads more like Pirkei Avos than a page from Seder Nezikin. Within the discussion of being careful about ona'as devarim, the gemara offers real advice as to how to properly deal with one's spouse.

Some of the pearls on the daf include Rav telling us that a man should be careful not to speak in a mean fashion to one's wife, since she cries easily and Hashem will punish you quickly if you unnecessarily hurt her feelings. I refer to this as the screen door rule.

The gemara then quotes Rav who seemingly states a contradictory rule that one who follows his wife's advice will wind up in gehinnom. The gemara asks about this seeming conflict with another expression that the man with a short wife should bend down to hear what she has to say. The gemara resolves the contradiction by stating that when a woman tells you how things should be done in the home, you should listen to her.

One final interesting statement about dealing with one's family comes from R' Yehuda, who states that one should always be careful to have enough produce in the home, since fighting generally revolves around produce. R' Papa then comments that this is the root for the colloquialism that when the produce is gone, the fighting begins.

A gentleman who was not a native English speaker who was present at my daf yomi group asked, what does the above statement mean. We explained it to him using modern terminology - always make sure that there is money in the checking account, because the fighting begins when you start bouncing checks.

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Sunday Night Suds - Shiner Kosmos Reserve

This week's Sunday Night Suds review looks at another of the finer Shiner brews - Shiner Kosmos Reserve.

The interesting thing about buying a variety box of beer is that often times you get a brew which is completely unexpected. I remember about three years ago buying a mix Saranac box and coming across the Caramel Porter which I found quite delicious. After being unable to locate any sixes of the Caramel Porter in my area, I emailed Saranac and inquired about the brew. To my surprise, they shipped a case of it to one of my local stores.

On the flip side, I have occasionally bought mix boxes and been stuck with 2-4 of a type of beer which I could not stomach. My personal nemesis is the Sam Adams winter box which for reasons known only to the Beantown brain trust contains the perfectly undrinkable Cranberry Lambic. Since I crave some of the other limited editions which only come in the winter mix box, I continue to buy it and then try to pass off the Cranberry Lambic bottles on "friends."

The mix box of Shiner which I purchased had one of those pleasant surprises - the Shiner Kosmos Reserve. The box actually contains 2 of six different varieties and since I knew that I liked quite a few of them (and that all were under the Va'ad of Detroit) I figured that it would be worth my while to pick the box up.

The Kosmos Reserve was quite a catch. It bills itself as a lager, but is decidedly not an American Macro Lager or even a Heineken. This quality brew has the lager body, but with a generous amount of hops. I enjoyed it with Chinese food this evening (Gan Eden - great kosher takeout in Great Neck, just make sure they give you everything that you ordered). I wish I had more of this quality brew so that I could try it with other dishes.

Shiner Kosmos Reserve is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, although the brew does not bear the Va'ad symbol on its label. If you would like me to e-mail you the Va'ad LOC for Shiner Kosmos Reserve, send me an e-mail and I will gladly oblige.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Shiner Bock, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/143/47465 . 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 Shelach

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 Shelach is perhaps most well known for the story of the meraglim - the "spies" who went to look at the land of Canaan and returned with a negative report. Once the nation began to cry about what they had heard, Hashem became angry with them. Moshe then pleaded with Hashem to spare the Jews and in so doing invoked two tactics. First, Moshe mentioned the embarrassment which would be cause by the killing of the Jews by stating at Bamidbar 14:15-16 "V'amru hagoyim asher sh'mu es sh'macha laymor, m'ibilti yecholet Hashem l'havi es ha'am hazeh..." - the nations of the world will say that Hashem lacked the ability to bring the Jews to the land He swore to give them...

Next, Moshe invoked the 13 middos of Hashem by stating at 14:18 "Hashem, erech apayim..." -Hashem slow to anger... Then Moshe asked Hashem at 14:19 to forgive the Jews in the words we replicate in selichos "S'lach na Hashem k'godel chasdeacha..."

Hashem responds to Moshe that he has forgiven the Jews as per Moshe's wishes "Salachti Kidvarecha." Following this statement, Hashem says the cryptic phrase at 14:21"V'ulam cha Ani, V'yimaleh k'vod Hashem es kol ha'aretz" - But as I live and the glory of Hashem shall fill the entire world.

The Netziv in the Ha'amek Davar states that David in Tehillim 126 fills in the gaps from Bamidbar 14:21 to explain what Hashem is saying. In Tehillim 126:2 David states that when Hashem brings the Jews back from exile, the nations of the world will say Hashem has done great with the Jews. The Netziv explains that when Hashem took the Jews out of Egypt, He wanted to bring them straight to Israel to show a Kiddush Hashem. When the Jews sinned by following the meraglim, Hashem could no longer take them straight to Israel. Instead, Hashem decided that he would scatter them around the world in exile and that the nations of the world would see the Kiddush Hashem -- that despite thousands of years of exile, the Jews still have maintained their Jewish identity.

R' Frand then mentioned R' Ya'akov Emden's introduction to his siddur where he asks - would a philosopher be able to say that a nation which has been exiled and scattered for 2,000 years could be able to maintain its national identity, though removed from its homeland? The fact that the Jews continue to identify themselves as Jews is a greater miracle than the exodus from Egypt and the longer it continues, the greater the miracle.

R' Frand then mentioned some of the stories of how the Mirrer Yeshiva was saved during the holocaust and miraculously made it to Shanghai, before stating in the name of R' Hatzkel Levenstein that the miracle of the Yeshiva making it out of Europe and crossing Russia and China was a Nes Nigleh and a greater miracle than the Purim story.

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Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Bava Metzia 52

Bava Metzia 52 begins with the continuation of a mishna from 51b, dealing with fraud in relation to currency. The mishna offers a dispute as to how much of the coin must be missing before the coin is not acceptable for use in commerce.

As part of its discussion of the mishna, the gemara asks what can be done with the coin which has now worn down beyond use in commerce. The gemara then brings a beraisa on Bava Metzia 52a which states that the coin cannot be sold to a merchant, but can be pierced and hung on a pendant for one's son or daughter. Later on 52b, the gemara questions this beraisa as another beraisa indicates that the owner of the coin cannot pierce it for jewelry for his child. The gemara resolves the contradiction and states that the coin cannot be pierced from the side and used for jewelry, as an unscrupulous person might grind off the pierced edge and attempt to pass it in commerce. However, where the piercing was in the middle, the coin could be used for jewelry.

The gemara brought back memories of a belt buckle that my father had when I was a child which contained old coins and a watch which had been made from an old coin. I wondered how this could be done as I thought that US law forbade defacing currency.

I did a little research and found that under 18 USC §331, whoever "fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States" is subject to penalty. In 1882, the Supreme Court of the United States in U.S. v. Lissner, 12 F. 840 (1882) ruled that a coin which was punched and mutilated, and an appreciable amount of silver removed from it before being refilled was illegal, but where the hole was punched with a sharp instrument, leaving all the silver in the coin, the act was not forbidden.

The Lissner decision tracks the logic of the gemara and explains why people are able to make the jewelry from old coins. The gemara bars the use of worn down coins and prevents making jewelry from them when the recipient could easily pass them off as legitimate. However, when the coin is properly punched and is obviously not going to be recirculated, the act is permissible.

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