Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayera

The following is a brief summary of some 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 the beginning of this week's parsha, we read about Avraham's encounter with the angels on the third day after his bris millah. In Bereishis 18:5, the Torah recounts part of the story in which Avraham says that he will give the angels bread since the angels have passed through his way. The angels respond, so shall you do just as you said.

R' Frand said - you can hear and learn the parsha for fifty years and then suddenly you have a question about a pasuk you have reviewed many many times before. He quoted Rashi on this pasuk, wherein Rashi explains that the dialogue between Avraham and the angels was that Avraham said to the angels, since you have passed through here, I am asking you to eat by me. The angels respond, yes as you have said.

R' Frand said this would be akin to a person saying to another "because you are here, come eat by me." To this the angels respond, OK we will. Would a person invite someone to come for a meal because they are in the neighborhood and the guest responds, "Ok I will"?

R' Frand explained that what Avraham was saying to the angels was, there is no coincidence in this world. Its hot outside and no one is walking around. The reason that you are here is because Hashem wants you to be here, so eat by me. The angels respond, you are right - things don't happen by accident - we are here and you can see us, so it must be that we should eat by you.

R' Frand remarked that this is also the central theme of Megillas Esther. (He prefaced this by saying that he is not crazy in talking about Purim right after Sukkos). Mordechai tells Esther - you need to go to Ahasverus even though you were not asked and it is with a danger to your life. 

R' Frand said parenthetically that he saw a medrash this week which said that Esther passed through seven chambers before she got to Ahasverus and when she got to him, he said to her - Vashti never did anything like this.

Mordechai's says to Esther in 4:14, "who knows if this is the reason that you were made queen." In so doing, Mordechai in effect says to Esther - you did not become queen by accident, there must be a reason for this.

R' Frand closed the vort by telling a story about Gerrer Chassidim in pre-World War II Europe. There was a custom among the Gerrer Chassidim that if someone could not pay his rent and he was about to be evicted, the community would take up a collection to pay so that he would not be out on the street.

There was an incident in Lodz, Poland where a man and his landlord were both Gerrer Chassidim. The tenant could not pay his rent, so the landlord went to the Imrei Emes (Gerrer Rebbi) and said what do I do - I need to pay my expenses? The Rebbi said - you can't evict him. The landlord responded - then the community needs to pay his rent to me. The Rebbi responded - no, its your burden. The landlord said to the Rebbi - its not fair, if I was not a Gerrer Chassid, then I would get paid. The Rebbi responded - you are right, its not fair. But you are in this position for a reason and Hashem wants you to be charitable to this man.

This the upshot of the story between Avraham and the angels. Avraham says the angels - you wound up here on this hot day for some reason, it must be because Hashem want me to give you a meal. The angels respond, you are right, this is from Hashem.

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Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Pesachim 117

On Pesachim 117b, the gemara discusses the structure of prayer and kiddush. Within the context of this discussion, the gemara recites the opinion of R' Acha Bar Yaakov, who states that we must remember the geulah from Egypt when saying Kiddush. 

R' Acha proves his point this by contrasting two pesukim, both of which use the word "remember."

The first pasuk cites was from Devarim 16:3 which states that "you should remember leaving Egypt, all the days of your life." The second pasuk is from the Aseres Hadibros in Yisro (Shemos 20:8) which states "remember the Shabbos day to make it holy."

Tosafos (d'h L'maan) quotes a medrash which adds additional proof to the limud. Tosafos states that while the Jews were in Egypt, the Egyptians enslaved them with avodas parech. (This term is also mentioned in the haggadah). Tosafos writes that using the "at bash" exegetical tool, we see that parech is equal to Vav, Gimmel, Lamud, which together are 39. Tosafos explains that while the Jews were in Egypt, they were forced to do parech work. Once they were redeemed from Egypt, the Jews were told to observe the laws against doing the 39 melachos of Shabbos.

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Sunday Night Suds - Gordon Biersch Marzen Lager

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Gordon Biersch's Marzen Lager.

 

Although the word Marzen would sound like a beer best consumed in the winter, its actually an Octoberfest which was brewed in March so that it could be ready for the fall. As explained by the experts at BA:

 

Before refrigeration, it was nearly impossible to brew beer in the summer due to the hot weather and bacterial infections. Brewing ended with the coming of spring, and began again in the fall. Most were brewed in March (Märzen). These brews were kept in cold storage over the spring and summer months, or brewed at a higher gravity, so they’d (sic) keep. Märzenbier is full-bodied, rich, toasty, typically dark copper in color with a medium to high alcohol content.

The common Munich Oktoberfest beer served at Wies'n (the location at which Munich celebrates its Oktoberfest) contains roughly 5.0-6.0% alcohol by volume, is dark/copper in color, has a mild hop profile and is typically labeled as a Bavarian Märzenbier in style.

 

I picked up this beer in the remainder aisle of a store which will remain nameless. I say this because when I drank this tonight, I realized that the beer had been brewed in April (true to the style) but that the April was April 2012! While some higher alcohol beers can keep for a year or two and even three (the Sixth Glass I reviewed last week had a best before date of March 2016!), a mass produced lager like the Gordon Biersch has an outside freshness of about nine months. As this beer was eighteen months old, the beer had begun to turn and tasted more like apple cider than beer.

 

The Gordon Biersch Marzen Lager is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit and has their certification mark on the label. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link - beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1551/16254. 

 

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 Lech Lecha/Hesped for R' Ovadia Yosef ztl

The following is a brief summary of some thoughts said over by R' Frand this evening. The vorts have some connection with the parsha, but were mostly geared towards being a hesped for R' Ovadia Yosef ztl. I have attempted to reproduce these thoughts 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.

R' Frand began the parsha portion of this week's shiur by making reference to a pasuk in Bereishis 15:5 wherein Hashem tells Avraham to look at the sky and see the stars. The basic explanation for this direction is that Hashem is promising Avraham that his children will be numerous as the stars in the sky. However, R' Frand quoted Rabbeinu B'Chayei who explains that the direction to look at the stars was actually meant to advise Avraham that the same way that each star differs from all the other stars in the heavens, so too the Chachamim/Gedolei Yisrael are each unique and different from each other.

R' Frand then stated that this would be a proper vort to use as a starting point for the hesped of R' Ovadia Yosef ztl. But before beginning the hesped, R' Frand gave an interesting introduction. R' Frand noted that times have changed. No longer when a person visits his doctor, does the doctor take notes and a history on a pad. When taking clothes into the dry cleaner, the dry cleaner no longer uses carbon paper. When a car has problems, it is taken to a mechanic who hooks up a diagnostic tool to see the problem.

R' Frand remarked that now when he prepares his shiur, he makes reference to computerized collections of seforim. But before he had the computer programs, R' Frand had his own computer - the Yabia Omer, written by R' Ovadia Yosef. R' Frand said that when he used to prepare his shiurim in the pre-Bar Ilan library times, if he could find a reference in the Yabia Omer to the particular question, he knew that he would be OK. The two most important sources in the early days of the shiur were the Yabia Omer and the Tzitz Eliezer. Having given that introduction, R' Frand remarked that he and anyone who has ever come to his shiur and anyone who has ever listened to a tape of his shiur, are all talmidim of R' Ovadia Yosef, because R' Frand could not even count how many times he has referenced R' Ovadia Yosef.

R' Frand told a story about how years ago, there were only six volumes of the Yabia Omer, but R' Frand could only get the first and sixth volume. R' Frand tried and tried to get the complete set, but they were out of print. But a student in the yeshiva from Brazil had a complete set. So R' Frand sent the talmid down to a copy shop so that he could photocopy every page of those missing volumes. R' Frand said that he kept them in boxes so that he could refer to them, because they were so invaluable to him and no one had them. R' Frand remarked that the encyclopedic knowledge in these seforim was mind boggling.

R' Frand then stated that one could remark that the biggest talmid chacham in the world died this week. And whether you agreed with every psak is irrelevant, because everyone who learns halacha needs to be aware of R' Ovadia Yosef's psak.

R' Frand said that 32 years ago, R' Ovadia Yosef came to Baltimore to give a shiur. One of those attendees was R' Shternhill who was a great talmid chochum in his own right and a chassid who was anti-zionist. But when R' Ovadia Yosef came to Baltimore, R' Shternhill put this aside and went to see him, because R' Ovadia Yosef was a great talmid chochum. When they were introduced and one person told R' Ovadia Yosef that R' Shternhill was the author of a sefer, R' Ovadia Yosef knew of the sefer and was able to discuss one of the teshuvas with the author.

R' Frand next said that R' Ovadia Yosef was a transformative figure, much like the Ba'al Shem Tov, R' Yisrael Salanter and R' Aharon Kotler. R' Ovadia Yosef was a transformative figure because he transformed Israel by resuscitating Sephardic Jewry in Israel. Where the Yeshivos in Israel used to be all Ashkenaz, now there are tens of thousands of Sephardic boys learning. But more than that, R' Ovadia Yosef reached out to non-frum Sephardim as well. This is attested to by the fact that nearly 1 million people came to R' Ovadia Yosef's funeral - 15% of the Jews in the entire country came to the funeral.

R' Frand talked about how there was a live broadcast of the funeral and you could see that there were Ashkenazim and Sephardim, but also people who came who even did not wear kippot, because they felt connected to him. R' Frand said that everyone felt connected to R' Ovadia Yosef, because he cared for them and went to them, he gave them money and prayed for them. And they knew how he felt.

R' Frand told a story which had been said at the funeral. 14 years ago, R' Ovadia Yosef had suffered a heart attack and needed a bypass procedure. He told the doctors that he needed to go home for three hours before the surgery. Why? Because he was in the middle of writing a teshuva that would allow an agunah to remarry and he was concerned that if he did not make it through the surgery, the woman would be unable to remarry.

R' Frand then called R' Ovadia Yosef the father of the Sephardic world. He remarked that although there are sayings at funerals about how people have lost their crown, or the ship has lost its captain, this time it was true and not an exaggeration. Because this was a gadol who comes along once in three hundred years.

R' Frand closed by quoting from Koheles 12:9 and in so doing, R' Frand compared R' Ovadia to Shlomo HaMelech. The pasuk states that more than being wise, Koheles taught the people - he made the Torah accessible. R' Ovadia Yosef made the Torah accessible to the people and he listened and helped and assisted.

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Sunday Night Suds - Boulevard Sixth Glass Quadruple Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Boulevard Brewery's Sixth Glass Quadruple Ale, one of the beers in Boulevard's Smokestack Series.

Picked up a few different Boulevard Smokestack Series brews at C Gasbaro's in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Stopped in at Gasbaro's based on reviews on Beer Advocate and the sale ads on their website. Neither turned out to be accurate, but they did have a decent (yet overpriced) selection of Boulevard beers.

The Boulevard Smokestack series features some extreme beers which are normally sold in 22oz bottles, but are also available in 12 oz versions. One of the advantages to buying them in 12oz versions is that you can try out specialty styles without spending $6-10 and potentially being stuck with beer that outkicks your coverage.

The Quadruple Ale is a style of beer that I never tried before. As defined by the experts at BA:

A Quadrupel is a Belgian style ale of great strength with bolder flavor compared to its Dubbel and Tripel sister styles. Typically a dark creation that ranges within the deep red, brown and garnet hues. Full bodied with a rich malty palate. Phenols are usually at a moderate level. Sweet with a low bitterness yet a well perceived alcohol.

Mrs KB and I tried this brew one YT evening and were struck by the complexity of the flavors of the brew. The beer poured a dark brown and was thick and had an almost velvety mouthfeel. The alcohol flavor was prominent (10.5% abv) and caused me to sip, rather drink the brew. There are strong dark flavors with some phenols, but also some plum and even brandy tones in the brew.

I could not see drinking this regularly, or trying to consume an entire bottle on my own. But it was a nice special treat which I would recommend sharing with friends.

Boulevard Brewery Sixth Glass is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Kansas City, but the bottle I purchased did not have the certification mark on the label. If you would like the LOC from the Va'ad, please let me know and I will email it to you.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link -http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/423/39621.

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 Noach

The following is a brief summary of some 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 the end of Parshas Noach the Torah tells the story of the Dor Haflagah - the people who built what is colloquially known as the Tower of Babel. Prior to telling the story of the Dor Haflagah, the Torah recites the children and grandchildren of Noach. Among these generations were the children of Cham, which includes Chush who was the father of Nimrod who was a might hunter and who established kingdoms in many lands including Bavel. 

After describing these generations, the Torah writes that Ashur left these lands and he built many cities including Nineveh. (Bereishis 10:8-11).

R' Frand quoted two Rashis on these pesukim. The first Rashi on 10:9, states that Nimrod was a mighty trapper, who would ensnare people's minds with his mouth and lead them astray to fight Hashem. The second set of Rashis on 10:11-12 state that when Ashur saw that his children were listening to Nimrod and rebelling against Hashem, Ashur picked up and went with them. He then built Ninveh, the great city. Rashi underscores the greatness of the City by citing to a pasuk from Sefer Yonah which states that Nineveh was a great City for Hashem.

Where did the people of Nineveh learn how to be great? Indeed, it is a wonder that the City was able to do teshuva! Where did this strength come from?

R' Frand answered that the people of Nineveh were influenced by their ancestor who walked away from Nimrod with his family and built his city so that his children would not be corrupted by Nimrod. Since Ashur was a role model and he sacrificed to take his family away from Bavel and build his own city on the countryside, the people of that city, many, many generations later, were able to use that power to take the incredible and inspirational steps towards teshuva.

R' Frand observed that there are people who are exceptional, even though their parents may seem to be plain people. Although when looking at the family, one does not see greatness, the person still has greatness in their genetic code. Because when a person's ancestor takes incredible steps and sacrifices to serve Hashem, the result is imprinted in their DNA and passed on for future generations.

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