Pre Pesach Wishes

Although I was not planning on posting to the blog until after Pesach, I cannot help myself from sharing the following satirical news story which I saw on the Free Republic blog (original link here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2479096/posts)(Thank you Rabbi M for tipping me off to this "article").

Passover Hagaddah conclusion “Next Year in Jerusalem” deemed “unhelpful” by Obama administration March 23, 2010 By The Associated Press Shana Habbab (AP White House Correspondent) (AP) — An unidentified Israeli official has confirmed that private discussions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu included a strong request from the President that the upcoming Passover holiday not include the familiar refrain of “next year in Jerusalem”, citing the passage as being provocative and unhelpful for future peace talks. The Administration suggested replacing it with “next year in peace” or “next year in Israel”, but leaving the final wording up to both the Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu is said to have balked at the request, indicating that the refrain dates back well before the UN Partition of 1947. The Prime Minister reportedly attempted to diffuse the situation by noting that the declaration lacks any political significance, adding that most people living outside of Israel just “say the words without having a real desire to live anywhere in Jerusalem.” He further explained that, “at most, they would like to come for the Passover holiday, but only staying at one of the hotels located in western part of the city.”

Sheer brilliance. May we be zocheh to next year in Jerusalem, with or without the blessing of the President who once stated "America does not presume to know what is best for everyone" but who makes a special exception to this rule for Israel.

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Tzav and Some Matza Crumbs

Traditionally, R' Frand does not give the last Thursday night shiur before Pesach. As such, I have attempted to reproduce a thought said over by R' Frand in his parsha shiur a few years ago. Same ground rules as always apply. Any perceived inconsistencies are the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

This week's parsha continues the discussion of the various sacrifices that are brought. One of the sacrifices mentioned is the mincha (meal offering). In Vayikra 6:7, the Torah begins a discussion of the mincha and specifies details of the process. In the middle of the discussion, the Torah states that the mincha offering is kodesh kodashim (most holy) like the chatas (sin offering) and asham (guilt offering).

The Klei Yakar asks - why does the Torah only compare the mincha offering to the chatas and asham, when there are many other holy sacrifices. The Klei Yakar then answers his own question, stating that the chatas and asham come as atonement offerings and are elevated to most holy status. By example, a person who is righteous is considered holy. However, a person who becomes a baal teshuva - i.e. he returns to the fold and repents for his sins, is considered most holy. Indeed the Talmud teaches us that baal teshuva reaches a level that righteous people cannot hope to attain as all of his sins are converted to righteous acts (Mitzvot).

I was reminded of a story that R' Frand told at the Siyum Daf Yomi in 2005. There was a boy who went away to yeshiva to learn. When he returned, he used to sit at the dining room table learning Talmud. Meanwhile, his father would sit in the living room and watch the fights on television.

One night, the father asked the son if he could learn Talmud with him. The son agreed and over the course of the next few months they were able to learn one page of Talmud together. When they completed the page, the father indicated that he wanted to make a party to celebrate his accomplishment. The son was skeptical as such parties are usually reserved for finishing a volume of Talmud, not a page. Nonetheless, the son went and asked R' Moshe Feinstein ztl. R' Moshe answered him that his father should make a party and furthermore R' Moshe said that he wanted to speak at the party.

Not long after the party, the father died. When R' Moshe heard, he said that he wanted to speak at the man's funeral. In the eulogy that R' Moshe gave at the funeral, he made an allusion to the concept that certain people can achieve eternal heavenly reward by a single act. [Usually this concept is applicable to people who are killed for being Jewish or who take other singular great actions]. R' Moshe explained that this father had achieved eternal heavenly reward through the act of learning one single page of Talmud.

We can see from the Torah's discussion of the mincha offering and the story involving the yeshiva boy's father who chose to learn Talmud late in life that the actions of those who return can entitle them to incredible rewards, merely because they chose to act.

Finally, for those looking for crumbs for the seder, I offer some Haggada vorts of my own. I learned these in the Haggadah Otzar Midrashim and have attempted to reproduce them to the best of my ability.

The question is asked yearly - why do we wash our hands for urchatz without a brocha while making a brocha when we wash for rachtza later on? R' Moshe Feinstein explains that the seder is a night of song and praise to Hashem for taking the Jews out of Egypt. Much as one washes his hands without a brocha before praying, on this night we wash our hands without a brocha before starting the praise of Hashem at the seder.

Another vort I saw asked the famous question - how is avadim hayeenu an answer to the Ma Nishtana? The Shibalei Haleket answers that avadim hayeenu answers the last question - why on this night do we recline? By saying avadim hayeenu we answer the question - because we were previously slaves and have been redeemed from Egypt on this night - thus we are celebrating our freedom.

One more quick vort involved the fourth son at the seder - the sheayno yodayah l'shol - the one who does not know how to ask. The Be'er Mayim asks - how do we know that he is unable to ask? Maybe he knows all the answers and therefore does not need to ask any questions. The Be'er Mayim answers - if he was truly a chacham he would be asking questions as the ba'al Haggadah wrote - v'afilu kulan chachamim - even if we are all chachamim there is a mitzva on us to tell over the story of yitzias mitrzayim.

I wish all my readers a chag kasher v' sameyach. KosherBeers will return (i'yh) on Thursday April 8, 2010.

Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Sanhedrin 39

On the very last line of Sanhedrin 38b, R' Yochanan states that R' Meir had three hundred parables about foxes, but we have only retained three of them. On the top of Sanhedrin 39a, the gemara states that the three remaining parables (which are in reality only one) relate to three pesukim - one from Yechezkel, one from Parshas Kedoshim and one from Mishlei. However, the gemara does not state the actual parable(s).

Rashi (d'h Avos) fills in the gap from the daf and tells the following story. A fox tricked a wolf to enter the Jews' camp by telling the wolf that the Jews wanted to cook with him on Friday so that they could eat the Shabbos meal with him. When the wolf entered the camp, the Jews beat him with sticks. The wolf then wanted to kill the fox. The fox told the wolf that he was beaten because the wolf's father once tried to help the Jews cook and then ate all the best cuts of meat. The wolf asked - should I be punished because of my father? The fox replied by citing the first pasuk from Yechezkel which states that the fathers will eat unripe grapes, but the sons will have their teeth blunted.

Rashi states that the fox then told the wolf - come with me and I will show you a place to eat and be satiated. He took the wolf to a well which had a beam across it and a rope hanging down from the beam. Each end of the rope was attached to a bucket which was suspended inside the well. The fox jumped in one bucket and was lowered to the bottom of the well, while the other bucket rose. The wolf then said - why did you go down? The fox replied - there is meat and cheese here and then the fox showed him the moon reflected in the water which looked a cheese wheel. The wolf asked - how shall I get down there? The fox replied - jump into the upper bucket. The wolf complied and he was lowered to the bottom of the well, while the fox was raised out of the well. The wolf then asked - how do I get out of here? The fox replied by quoting the pasuk from Mishlei - A tzaddik will be saved and the rasha will take his place. Besides said the fox - (quoting the pasuk from Kedoshim) one should have righteous weights and righteous scales.

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Monday Musings on Sports - Cinderellas, Sweet Sixteens and What's in a Name?

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. Although Max resigned from 1050 almost one year ago, I have tried to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.

The past eight days has been the start of the annual tradition known as "March Madness." (For an interesting look at the origins of that trademarked term, click here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/03/wednesdays-weird-but-true-cases-vol-iii.html). Commencing with the growing holiday known as "Selection Sunday" and running through the championship game on the first Monday night in April, much of the country becomes involved with rooting for any combination of: their alma maters; teams from little known schools which have garnered national attention; or teams that they have picked in their brackets to go to the final four.

The tournament itself is not without controversy. On Selection Sunday (the day teams find out whether they have made the NCAA tournament and if so, which seed they received) there are always interviews with coaches who express disappointment over their team's seeding or their relegation to the NIT (aka the Not Invited Tournament).

Following Selection Sunday there is a mad scramble to learn as much as possible about the 65 teams in the Tournament in the three plus days before the first real games are played. Then the real magic starts. Games begin at noon on Thursday and Friday and run until late into the night. Fans at sites around the United States watch two game sets and invariably a lower ranked team from one of the aforementioned small schools will upset a large college from a major conference. The media then anoint these schools "Cinderellas" since they were not expected to advance at the dance. If one of these Cinderellas manages to win a second game it becomes a media darling for having advanced to the sweet sixteen.

Looking past the emotion of a David upsetting a Goliath, the question needs to be asked - is the lower ranked team properly ranked. In certain situations there truly is an upset, such as where a major power which has lost a handful of games is beaten by a school with many losses which just happens to have a hot game. But more often than not, the Cinderella team also has very few losses. For example, this year Cornell was deemed a Cinderella for beating higher ranked Temple and Wisconsin. However, Cornell only had four losses this year (less than Temple and Wisconsin) and two of Cornell's losses were to top 10 teams Syracuse and Kansas which together had five losses. So why was Cornell ranked so lowly by the NCAA Tournament committee? Because they came from the Ivy League and do not have a national presence.

In fairness, there are teams which come from small conferences which while playing other small schools do receive national recognition and higher rankings. Some recent small schools which have achieved high rankings are Butler and Gonzaga. However, these schools have earned their recognition by upsetting higher ranked teams in many consecutive NCAA tournaments.

The question as to whether a team is fairly ranked or even gets into the NCAA Tournament can easily be linked to Torah thought. A number of weeks ago, R' Frand taught a ma'amar which states that a person has three names - the one he is given by his parents, the one that his friends give him and the one that he earns. R' Frand explained that this is not merely an issue of semantics or nicknames. The three stages are indicative of the impact and influence of various groups in one's life. For the first stage of life, a person's actions are largely impacted by one's parents. Thereafter, as an adolescent, the influences are more from the child's friends. During the ultimate stage, the name that the person earns is based on the persons actions as an adult and he is judged based on the person that he has become. Somewhat similarly, while these teams quibble about the height of their rankings or their selection to the Tournament, the issue truly is what name they have earned during their regular season lifetime.

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Sunday Night Suds - Kirkland Signature Amber Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at another of the Kirkland beers - Kirkland Signature Amber Ale.

The Amber Ale style of beer is an interesting category as it has developed as a general term for ales which are not quite dark. Having said that, the beers in this category have little in common other than the fact that they are deep red in color. As explained by the experts at Beer Advocate, the Amber Ale category is:

Primarily a catch all for any beer less than a Dark Ale in color, ranging from amber (duh) to deep red hues. This style of beer tends to focus on the malts, but hop character can range from low to high. Expect a balanced beer, with toasted malt characters and a light fruitiness in most examples. The range can run from a basic ale, to American brewers who brew faux-Oktoberfest style beers that are actually ales instead of lagers.

Over the last few months, I have sampled (and reviewed) a few of the beers which fall in this vast category including the Fat Tire Amber Ale (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-night-suds-new-belgiums-fat-tire.html ) and Killian's Irish Red (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/10/sunday-night-suds-killians-irish-red.html). However, the Kirkland Signature Amber Ale was completely different than the very good Fat Tire and the quite average Killian's.

The first thing that struck me when I tried the Amber Ale was the balance between the hops and the malt. The beer has a great deal of caramel maltiness, but at the same time there is a bitterness from the hops. In some ways it evokes a little Bass, almost like it was a distant cousin of the great red triangle.

I tried the Amber Ale with a cholent on shabbos and by itself this evening (yes I do drink the same beer on back to back nights on occasion). The Amber Ale stood up well to the cholent which was rice based (instead of barley) this week. While both the cholent and the Amber Ale were quite good, the flavors did not meld the way I would have thought. I believe that the Amber Ale would be excellent with charred meat, but I expect that I will have to wait for after Pesach to give that combination a shot.

Kirkland Signature Amber Ale is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit and bears the Va'ad logo on the bottom right corner of the front label. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Kirkland Signature Amber Ale, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/21516/48556.

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 Vayikra

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 the 5th perek of Parshas Vayikra, the Torah writes about a person who is obligated to bring a karban chatas based on committing one of numerous types of sins. If the person has means, the Torah commands that he bring a female sheep or goat as a karban (Vayikra 5:6). If the person cannot afford the animal, he may bring birds. However, the Torah instructs that the person must bring two birds - either doves or pigeons and that one bird serves as chatas while the other becomes an olah (Vayikra 5:7). Finally, the Torah instructs that if the person cannot afford birds, he should bring a flour offering (Vayikra 5:11).

Rabbi Frand then asked, why is that there is an extra korban if one brings birds instead of animals? Rabbi Frand answered by citing to the Ibn Ezra who says in the name of R' Yitzchak that the reason that the extra korban is brought is that the person in category two is no doubt blaming Hashem for his embarassment and inability to afford the sheep or goat and is in effect asking - why has Hashem put him in the position that he can't bring a proper karban. Since the person is questioning G-d, he must bring an additional karban to atone for this sin.

The Chida (in his sefer Pnei Dovid) explains why this does not apply to the flour offering. The Chida writes that the absolutely destitute person who cries out against Hashem is not punished as Hashem says that although he may have complaints that he is so poor, Hashem gives him slack. When a person is in such pain, Hashem does not hold him accountable. There is a proof from Job that when a person is in such pain, Hashem does not hold him accountable.

The sefer Bei Chiya (R' Elisha Horowitz) applies this to a pasuk in Tehillim which states "Al tizkar lanu avonos rishonim, maheir yikadmunu rachamecha ki dalono me'od." The Bei Chiya explains that the first part of the pasuk (avonos rishonim) are the evil thoughts - the complaints against Hashem, we ask Hashem to quickly apply mercy and not hold us responsible because we are poor (dalono me'od).

Rabbi Frand then told a story which was said over by the Gerrer Rebbi (Beis Yisrael) that there once was an incident where R' Kook was speaking publicly and someone got up and started yelling at him in the middle of the speech. R' Kook ignored the man, but it was clearly inappropriate. Months later, right before Pesach, R' Kook had a list of people to give money to as ma'os chitim. When R' Kook's assistant noted that this man's name was on the list, he balked at giving him the money. R' Kook then said, if you don't bring him the money, then I will. R' Kook explained - the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam - hatred for no reason. The only way to make up for this is through ahavas chinam - love for no reason. R' Kook further explained that loving a Jew and helping him without connection to that person is not ahavas chinam - because we are commanded to love all Jews anyway (V'ahavta L'rayacha Kamocha). How does one accomplish ahavas chinam - by being nice to someone who has wronged you and you have a real reason to hate him - thus I am giving him this money.

R' Frand then theorized that this might be the reason why R' Kook waited until Pesach to give the man money. It states that we were redeemed from Egypt in Nissan and in Nissan we will be redeemed again. By giving this money and being mikayaim ahavas chinam, R' Kook added another act to the scale towards being redeemed.

R' Frand linked this to the seder as well. The Ben Ish Chai writes that the ma nishtana includes the question why do we dip twice on Pesach night? The Ben Ish Chai answers that one dip is in recognition of the brothers having dipped Yosef's coat in the blood of the goat (Bereishis 37:31) and the other for the agudas eizov (Shemos 12:22) which was taken and dipped in the blood of the goat in Egypt before being painted on the door posts. If we want to atone for dipping Yosef's coat, we need to become a bundle all tied together to prepare for Pesach. If we want to be redeemed we need to come together and forget our petty difference so that we can cause the Beis Hamikdash to be rebuilt.

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