10-5771 Mitzvah N-105

Torat Emet

10-5771 Mitzvah N-105

12/20/10

Negative Mitzvah 105– This is a negative commandment: eat no fruit of a tree in the three first years since its planting

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “three years it shall be as forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten” (Lev. 19:23). Even what is doubtfully (not certainly) orlah, fruit of the first three years, is forbidden. In lands other than Israel, there is a law given to Moses orally at Sinai that what is certainly orlah is forbidden, while fruit that is doubtfully orlah is permissible. Over certain, indisputable orlah in the Land of Israel, whiplashes are deserved; while in other countries one should be flogged with whiplashes of disobedience.

This is in force everywhere, in every time , for both men and women.

I see this law of “orlah” as similar to the eight day waiting period for Brit Milah, and for the time a calf can remain with the mother before being eligible for sacrifice. Just because we have something, does not mean that we can do what we please. These perhaps are “first born fruit” that belong to God just as the firstborn of the herd and the first born of the flock belong to God. In any event, the Torah is explicit that the first fruits cannot be eaten. But that is only one level of this Mitzvah. The Hafetz Hayim gives us much more to ponder as he explains orlah.

The first difference is between orlah in Israel and orlah outside of Israel. In both locations we cannot eat the fruit of a tree in the first three years after planting. But three years is a long time. We can forget exactly when we planted the tree or whether this was the new tree or if it was a completely different tree. We could be doubtful if we are holding fruits from the new tree or if they are mixed up with fruits from older trees. What happens when we are not sure that the fruit we have is orlah or not?

If we are in the Land of Israel, we treat fruit that we are unsure of as if they are orlah and we refrain from eating them. This is a strict law that only applies to the Land of Israel. Outside of Israel, fruits that are certainly orlah cannot be eaten, but fruits that are doubtful, can be eaten. The rules about fruit outside of Israel is not in the written Torah but is claimed to be a law from the Oral Torah, the law that Moses was taught while he was up on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and nights. This Oral Torah eventually will become the Mishna and the Talmud. The Rabbis see both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah as having equal standing under the law. Yet here, the punishment violating the law differs between Israel and the diaspora. When one is certain about the status of orlah, and uses it anyway, in Israel such a person is flogged as one who violated a biblical command. Outside of Israel, the biblical command is not in force, but the Rabbis commanded that the person be flogged for disobeying a rabbinic ordinance. This is a different kind of flogging, one that is not the formal punishment of the court but one that is used to insure compliance with rabbinic law. These whippings are not tied to the same formal rules as the biblical flogging but were still limited to 39 lashes in most cases.

9-5771 Mitzvah N-104

Torat Emet

9-5771 Mitzvah N-104

12/12/10

Negative Mitzvah 104– This is a negative commandment: do not eat Hametz (food with grains that are leavened) on the day before Passover, after noon.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall eat no leavened bread over it.” (Deut. 16:3). This means at the time of the Pesach sacrifice. The Pesach sacrifice was performed beginning in the seventh hour of the 14^th day of Nisan. Whoever eats Hametz on the day before Passover after six hours from the day's beginning should receive whiplashes; and the Sages of blessed memory forbade eating it, or having any benefit from it, from the beginning of the sixth our; while in the fifth hour eating is forbidden but benefit from it is permissible.

This is in force everywhere, in every time , for both men and women.

There are some Rabbis today who claim that Passover is really two different holidays. Pesach was celebrated with a symbolic dinner featuring roasted lamb and it was eaten at the end of the 14^th day of Nisan, after dark (the very beginning of the 15^th of Nisan.) From the 15^th of Nisan on, was the Festival of Unleavened Bread which was observed by eating only Matzah for seven days. These two festivals eventually merged into one holiday beginning with a Seder and lasting seven days in Israel and eight days in the lands of the diaspora.

The Talmud records that on the 14^th of Nisan, beginning in the seventh hour from sunrise the Kohanim would begin the long process of sacrificing everyone's paschal lamb for the dinner that night. Basically this pressed every Kohen into service that day, creating long lines of people with lambs and goats bringing them to the Temple for sacrifice. The lamb would be killed, the blood spilled properly and the lamb was then given back to the family to be roasted whole for their Pesach Seder.

The Rabbis measured hours by dividing the daylight and nighttime into 12 equal segments. As the days got longer, the daylight hours were longer and the nighttime hours were shorter. In the winter, the daylight hours were shorter and the night hours were longer. Since Pesach was near to the vernal equinox, the days and night are pretty much the same and we can identify the seventh hour from sunrise as 1:00 pm. Clearly the Torah does not want us to mix Hametz with our Paschal lamb so the last time we can eat Hametz is the beginning of the sixth hour from sunrise or Noon. After than time, a person could not eat Hametz nor could that person derive any benefit from it. That is he can't sell it for money nor use it to feed animals or any other way that might benefit the person. The Rabbis then extended the time back to the fifth hour, 11:00 am as the time when one could no longer eat Hametz lest they err and mistakenly eat it after noon. One can derive benefit from it from 11:00 am to Noon.

Today, we make it only a little more complicated. Since we cannot own or derive benefit from Hametz, it has become the custom to sell unused Hametz to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday. While it remains in our homes, it is locked away as the property of someone else and not only would eating it be a sin on Pesach, but it would be stealing as well. This sale of Hametz is often done by signing a document at your synagogue stating that you are appointing the Rabbi to act as your agent to sell your Hametz on your behalf to a non-Jew. It requires your name and all the addresses where your Hametz can be found. This must be done by the end of the fourth hour (10:00 am) so that the Rabbi has the time to find the non-Jew and sell all the Hametz he or she has been authorized to sell. This means that by 11:00 am, whatever Hametz you still own has been sold and is now the property of someone else. You would be stealing to use any of it after that time. A small amount of Hametz is usually pulled from that stash the night before and used for “bedikat Hametz” the “Search for Hametz,” to insure that all Hametz has been used up or put away for sale. The last bit is then searched out and finally burned the following morning after 10:00 am and before noon. In this manner we are sure that all Hametz has been removed by the proper time and we can then concentrate on preparing for our Seder.

I should also mention that when you appoint the Rabbi to sell your Hametz on your behalf, it is customary to give a small donation which usually goes to charity. On the sale of Hametz you will have to go back into the archive and see Positive Mitzvah 22.

8-5771 Mitzvah N-101,102,103

Torat Emet

8-5771 Mitzvah N-101,102,103

12/06/10

Negative Mitzvah 101,102,103– This is a negative commandment: do not eat bread from the new crop of grain before the Omer offering [was brought to the Sanctuary]. It is likewise a negative commandment to eat no kali (grains from one of the five species mentioned in the Bible that were roasted in fire) from new grain, before the Omer offering. And it is also a negative commandment not to eat karmel (grains that were crushed by hand and not roasted in fire) from new grain before the Omer offering.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “And you shall eat neither bread nor kali (parched grain) nor karmel (fresh grain) until this very day” (Leviticus 23:14). All this applies to grain of the five species alone which are wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye; that is forbidden. If someone eats bread, parched grain, and karmel – an olive's amount of each – he violates three prohibitions. When the Sanctuary was in existence, it was forbidden on the sixteenth of Nisan until after the offering of the Omer. At the time when the Sanctuary is not in existence, it is forbidden the entire day of the sixteenth of Nisan, by the law of the Torah. And in the Diaspora, where two festival days are always observed, it is forbidden by the law of the Sages on the entire day of the seventeenth as well. As long as planted grain took root before the Omer, even if it ripened after the Omer, the Omer makes it permissible.

          This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

There are some early authorities who hold that the law on new grain in lands outside of Israel is only by the enactment of the Sages, as a protective measure; and they decreed it nowhere but in areas bordering on the Land of Israel. Therefore most of the world of Jewry is not careful about it. Even though it is not in our power to oppose the ones who are lenient, nevertheless,every scrupulously observant person should be strict for himself in everything possible for him; because according to many great early authorities it is a prohibition by the Torah in all respects.

The Law of the Omer is that new grain cannot be used until the first sheaves are “waived” at the Sanctuary on the Second day of Passover, the sixteenth of Nisan. There was some controversy between the school of Hillel and the School of Shammai about if the date was the second day of Passover or the Shabbat of Passover. That was finally resolved by following the ruling of the school of Hillel that established the date as Nisan sixteenth. The effect of this law was to see an increase in the price of grain and flour (made from last year's grain) in the days preceding Pesach and a sharp drop in prices as the new grain hits the market after the ceremony in the Sanctuary. Basically you can't use new grain in any form until after the Omer is waived. The Omer is waived every day from the second day of Pesach, seven weeks until the day before Shavuot. We still count the days and weeks of the Omer each evening. A sheaf was “waved” every day during the 49 days of “Sefira” (counting).

The difference between the teachings of the “early authorities” is: some who say that we should keep the laws of the Omer because they are Torah laws, and the others who maintain that, like the other harvest laws in Judaism ( like the Sabbatical laws and the laws about leaving the corners of the fields), it applies only to the land of Israel. Outside of Israel, the Torah law is not in effect and anyone who would keep these laws anyway would be stringent in keeping a Rabbinic law, which may be important, but it is not as important as a Torah Law (which we say comes from God). Clearly the Hafetz Hayim would have us keep these laws but he has to admit that there are many good authorities who do not require it. He promotes a strict interpretation of this law, but admits that one who does not keep the law and follows the lenient authorities, have not violated these prohibitions. “Protective measures” refer to enactments of the Sages that prevent Jews from accidentally violating a Torah Law. In our case, some of the Rabbis felt that if the Jews of the diaspora did not have the habit of keeping the laws of the Omer, they might, when they travel to Israel, make a mistake and eat new grain before the Omer is offered.

I see the observance of this law in the Diaspora today as an unnecessary stringency. We no longer separate the new grain from the old grain and we no longer “wave” the sheaf of grain as an Omer offering.

7-5771 Mitzvah N-97-98-99-100

Torat Emet

7-5771 Mitzvah N-97-98-99-100

11/29/10

Negative Mitzvah 97– This is a negative commandment: do not eat swarming creatures of the ground

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “And every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth is an abomination; it shall not be eaten” (Leviticus 11:41). “Swarming creatures of the ground” means snakes, scorpions, beetles and worms. Whoever eats of them a whole creature should be given whiplashes. And if it was not complete, then if he ate an olive's amount he should receive whiplashes. All swarming creatures eaten are reckoned together to add up to an olive's amount.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Negative Mitzvah 98– This is a negative commandment: do not eat worms of fruit or seeds

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “even all the swarming things that swarm upon the earth, them you shall not eat.” (Leviticus 11:42).

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Negative Mitzvah 99– This is a negative commandment: do not eat swarming creatures of the water.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not make yourselves detestable with every swarming thing that swarms.” (Leviticus 11:43) and swarming water creatures are included: for example, frogs, crabs, and so forth; or worms and leeches; or sea animals and the sea dog. Whoever eats an olive's amount from them should receive whiplashes.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Negative Mitzvah 100– This is a negative commandment: do not eat creeping things.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “neither shall you defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls, upon the earth .” (Leviticus 11:44). The creatures called “remmes” are what come from molds, not deriving from male and female creatures. Whoever eats an olive's mount of them should receive whiplashes.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Since the Torah is very specific about what animals cannot be eaten, each kind of an animal has its own special prohibition lest you think that one forbidden animal is not included in the general prohibition of swarming things. Other than locusts, which we no longer eat because we are unsure which may be kosher and which are not, all insects are forbidden, including those that swarm in the air (flies, dragonflies, etc.) those that swarm on the earth (worms, scorpions, ants etc.) those that swarm in the water (crabs, frogs, leeches etc.) and those found inside fruits or grains (weevils, larvae etc.)

The sea animals that are included here are also the sea mammals. A sea dog is what we call a seal and includes walrus, whale and porpoise. There is a fish that is called “dolphin” or Mahi Mahi that is kosher. The bottle nose dolphin is a mammal and is forbidden.

Again, the only way to violate these laws is to eat them intentionally. When eaten in error or accidentally, there would be no punishment. So if you eat an apple and find that you have also eaten a worm by mistake, then you may feel sick but you have not violated a law of Kashrut. (The only thing worse than finding a worm in an apple is finding half a worm!)

While many of these creatures are not a regular part of a Western diet, they are eaten in other parts of the world and in some places are considered delicacies. Frog, crab, shrimp and lobster are all forbidden but are considered in this country to be normal sea food. Other insects and sea animals are eaten in other cultures all the time. These laws in no way should be considered as reasons to forbid them from eating what is their custom. These laws do not apply to other cultures; these creatures are forbidden as food for Jews.

6-5771 Mitzvah N-95-96

Torat Emet
6-5771 Mitzvah N-95-96
11/22/10

Negative Mitzvah 95– This is a negative commandment: do not eat non-kosher fish.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “And they shall be an abomination to you; of their flesh you shall not eat” (Leviticus 11:11). Whatever does not have fins and scales is non-kosher, and if anyone eats an olive's amount from it, he should receive whiplashes.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Negative Mitzvah 96– This is a negative commandment: do not eat winged swarming creatures.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “And all winged swarming creatures are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten” (Deut. 14:19). These are non-kosher kinds of grasshoppers, flies, gnats, bees, wasps, and so forth. If someone eats an olive's amount of them, he should be given whiplashes. If he ate a whole creature, even if it did not comprise an olive's amount, he should receive whiplashes. Pure (kosher) kinds of grasshoppers however, are allowed to be eaten. They have three signs of purity: whatever has four legs, and four wings covering most of the length and most of the circumference of its body, and two jointed legs with which to jump.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

As far as fish is concerned, fins and scales are the universal signs of kosher fish. This leaves out most bottom dwellers that do not have fins (shrimp, lobster, crab) and most large sport fish that do not have scales (shark, marlin) as well as others that do not fit this description (catfish and certain other fish without scales). There are two fish that start out life with fins and scales but the scales fall off as the fish matures. These are sturgeon and swordfish. Since these species are in doubt, there are many who just refrain from eating them but the Conservative Law and Standards Committee has ruled that these fish are kosher and can be eaten. This rule applies only to these particular kinds of fish that shed their scales as they grow. The roe of kosher fish is also kosher. The roe of non-kosher fish is not kosher. Shellfish have neither fins nor scales and they are all forbidden (oysters, clams, scallops, mussels). Fish sold as Dolphin or Mahi Mahi is not the mammal (porpoise) and is a kosher fish. This is NOT a complete list of kosher and non-kosher fish. One should consult such a list if the species of fish is unfamiliar.

Current issues with fish involve cross breeding to create a larger stock of fish to bring to market. For example, Salmon is a very popular fish and is kosher, but there is a program taking place to find a fish that would be similar in color and taste to Salmon, but the fish being used does not have scales. For this reason, many kosher fish markets now sell fish with their scales so that one can easily see that the fish is kosher. Frozen fish is also a problem because often these fish are processed at sea, in huge blocks as they are netted in the open waters. Often non-kosher fish are also caught in the net and are not properly separated from the rest of the fish. Since there is no rabbinic authority to supervise this freezing process, there are many who do not eat frozen fish or fish sticks that are not supervised by a reliable authority.

In the case of insects, there is note in the Hafetz Hayim that the Shulchan Aruch requires a fourth sign of a kosher grasshopper. It must be called “Hagav”. I do not know of any authority who actually has identified by species which grasshoppers are kosher and which are not. As far as I know, we no longer eat insects of any kind at all. This will really only be a problem if one is traveling to China where roasted insects are popular. I am told by non-Jewish people, that scorpions and ants (fried or chocolate covered) are actually tasty, but they are treyf, so what can I do? I also believe that the worm in a Tequila bottle not only is treyf but makes the Tequila treyf as well. My best advice is to not eat any insects.
Eating a whole insect that may not be an olive's amount on purpose is to be liable for punishment. If you are riding a motorcycle, or standing outdoors and you swallow an insect accidentally, there is no punishment other than your own gag reflex. I can’t say that I have seen everything, but I have never seen grasshoppers sold under Rabbinic supervision.

5-5771 Mitzvah N-94

Torat Emet

5-5771 Mitzvah N-94

11/15/10

Negative Mitzvah 94– This is a negative commandment: do not eat non-kosher fowl.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “And these you shall hold in abomination among the fowl; they shall not be eaten” (Leviticus 11:13); any bird that divides its feet when a string is stretched for it [to walk on, placing] two talons on one side and two talons on the other, or that takes in food from the air and eats in mid-air, is a bird of prey, and is non-kosher. Whatever dwells with non-kosher birds and resembles them is non-kosher. If someone ate an olive's amount from a non-kohser kind of bird, he should receive whiplashes. The eggs of a non-kosher species of bird are forbidden to be eaten, by the law of the Torah.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

There are many different ways that Kosher and non-kosher birds are identified. I am not an expert on kosher birds so I will quote here from Rabbi Isaac Klein [Guide to Religious Jewish Practice: JTS Press; p. 304-5] “The Torah does not prescribe any identifying marks for birds; instead, it enumerates the species that are forbidden – a total of twenty-four according to the reckoning in the Talmud (Hulin 63b). The implication is that those not listed are permitted. The rabbis of the Talmud, however, deduced four distinguishing marks of birds that are permitted. A permitted bird has a crop; the sac in the gizzard can be peeled off; it has an extra toe – i.e. in addition to the three front toes, it has another toe in the back; it is not a bird of prey. According to one opinion, a bird that divides its toes when it rests, i.e. two toes in front and two in the back, is not permitted (Mishna Hulin 3:6) Despite these identifying marks, it has become the accepted practice that only those birds that have been traditionally accepted as permitted may be eaten (Shulchan Aruch: Yorah Deah 82: in Rema). They are: chicken, turkeys, ducks, geese, and pigeons. Pheasants have been considered permitted in may places.”

The problem with all of this is that the Torah does not list any way to determine a kosher bird from a non-kosher bird. The rabbis try to find some distinguishing marks on the non-kosher birds but as you can see from Klein, they pretty much have given up on this. Today we only eat birds that have a tradition of being eaten. This is particularly interesting in the case of turkey and pheasant. Turkey is not in the Torah and was not discovered by Europeans until they came to the “new” world. I am not sure why turkey was eventually put on the list but it definitely is on the list of permitted birds today. Pheasant was a bird that was not domesticated and was only hunted. Since a hunted bird is not killed properly, according to the laws of shechitah, it could not be eaten. Because it was so tied to the hunt, Jews never ate it and so there is not a strong tradition of eating pheasant. In some places, where pheasant are raised on farms and slaughtered according to the laws of shechitah, they are permitted to be eaten. In places that did not have a tradition of eating pheasant, they still do not permit it.

If you are unsure that the bird you want to eat is a kosher bird, you have no recourse but to show it to a rabbi for a ruling on if that bird is permitted. Or you can just shop at a kosher butcher where only accepted kosher birds are sold.

The Talmud also notes that since birds do not produce milk for their young, they should not be considered meat but in fact they are meat and NOT parve. The sages were concerned about people eating fowl and thinking they were eating meat and get confused. Fowl is considered to be Meat today.

4-5771 Mitzvah N-93

Torat Emet

4-5771 Mitzvah N-93
11/07/10

Negative Mitzvah 93– This is a negative commandment: do not eat meat from a non-kosher domestic or untamed animal.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “But these you shall not eat, etc....” (Leviticus 11:4); and whatever does not chew its cud or does not have a parted hoof is non-kosher. If anyone eats an olive's amount from a non-kosher animal, whether domestic or untamed, he should receive whiplashes. Human flesh is under a prohibition derived from a positive commandment since it not within the scope of the instruction, “These are the living things which you may eat …” (Lev. 11:2) [The Torah did not include it among the permitted kinds]. Whatever comes out of the forbidden kinds, such as milk from non-kosher domestic or untamed animals is forbidden to be eaten by the law of the Torah. However, honey from bees or wasps is permissible since they do not emit it from their bodies. Human milk is permissible: but a grown person is forbidden to suckle at the breast. If there is milk in a heathen's possession and no Jew saw him doing the milking, it is forbidden, since he may have mixed into it milk from a non-kosher kind of animal. The cheese of a heathen is permitted by the law of the Torah, because we are not apprehensive that perhaps it came from a non-kosher animal, since the milk of a non-kosher animal cannot be made into cheese. Only the Sages of blessed memory forbade the cheese of a heathen for many reasons.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

The Hafetz Hayim is all over the place in this lesson and there is a lot to cover. Non-kosher animals are different from kosher ones for a number of reasons. In the category of large four legged mammals, kosher animals must have both a fully split hoof and must chew its cud. In the category of fish, the kosher fish must have fins and scales. Kosher birds have no sign if they are kosher or not. We don't eat birds of prey and the kosher birds appear on a list in Leviticus chapter eleven. Reptiles cannot be eaten and only kosher locusts can be eaten but since we don't know which locusts are permitted, we just don't eat them anymore. (Most people are happy about this!) These rules apply to both domesticated animals and wild animals. [There are also rules as to how the animals are slaughtered but that is not part of this Mitzvah]

If the animal is not kosher, then the products of the animal are not kosher. You can't use the milk from non-kosher animals and you can't eat the eggs from non-kosher birds. Bees are not kosher but you can use the honey since the sages did not consider honey to be in the same category as eggs and milk. I am not sure if they are correct in this assessment of bee anatomy but I am not going to be the Rabbi who declares honey treif.

Human flesh is not listed in these categories and so we are reminded that human flesh cannot be eaten because of a different Mitzvah. Just because it is not listed here should not tempt you to give human flesh a try. Human milk is permitted for everyone to drink but simple morality tells us that grown human beings have no business suckling at the breast. This should be obvious but I guess it has to be stated somewhere and here, in the laws of Kashrut, it can be found.

As usual, Kosher laws prohibit us from buying milk from a non-Jew if we don't know where he got his milk. It is possible that he may have milked a non-kosher animal and mixed it in with the other milk. Since milk today is regulated and must state where it is from, we don't usually have to worry about this prohibition. I am not an expert in cheese production so I can't vouch for the fact that cheese cannot be made from the milk of non-kosher animals. I have never heard of horse cheese or pig cheese, only cheese from cows and sheep and goats. If any of my readers know of cheese from non-kosher animals, please let me know.

Cheese today is or is not Kosher because of the use of rennet as a catalyst for cheese making. Rennet comes from the stomachs of animals and if those animals are not kosher or slaughtered in a kosher manner, the rennet is not kosher and in any event it can't be used in milk to make cheese. There are other ways to make cheese that does not involve rennet that are used in kosher and vegetarian cheeses. There are some authorities in Conservative Judaism who see rennet not as a meat byproduct but as a refined chemical and therefore can be permitted in all cheeses. There is not a lot of uniformity in our movement about this so one should check with your Rabbi as to whether or not non-hekshered (unsupervised) cheeses are permitted. In any event, the problem with cheese is not the source of the milk but the process of making the cheese.

3-5771 Mitzvah N-92

Torat Emet

3-5771 Mitzvah N-92
11/01/10

Negative Mitzvah 92– This is a negative commandment: do not eat meat that was cooked in milk.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.” (Exodus. 34:26); For eating an olive's amount of the both, one should receive whiplashes. He is punishable even if he has no enjoyment in eating it: for example, if it was so unduly hot that it burned his throat when he ate it, or he put something bitter into it with the result that he had no enjoyment whatever in eating it. Nevertheless, he should be given whiplashes. If meat and milk were prepared not by cooking but by steeping (soaking), or they were salted together, it is forbidden to be eaten by the law of the Sages, but benefit from it is permitted. If the meat of an untamed animal or a fowl was cooked with the milk of either a domestic or an untamed animal, the ban on eating it is only by the law of the Sages. It is permissible to cook fish or locusts with milk, and permissible to eat them.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

There is not much different here than in last week's lesson. In fact, the only real difference is that the quote is from a different chapter of Exodus. This tells us that there is another law being taught, one that is different enough from last week that it needs to be taught separately.

Here, the difference seems to be in the way the food is cooked. The law applies even if there are good reasons not to eat it. If the food is too hot to be eaten or has been prepared so that it tastes terrible, the fact that it is being eaten still warrants flogging. If the mixture was not “cooked” but mixed in another way, then one is still in violation of the law but not by Torah law, but by the extension of the Sages. Since the law refers to “its mother's milk”, untamed animals that one cannot milk or poultry that has no milk might be understood to be exempt from the law. The Sages have ruled that these too are prohibited and the mixture must not be eaten. The reason for this prohibition by the Sages is because both of these are “meat like” and if they permitted it, it would be too easy to make an error and think that other meats could also be eaten with milk. This kind of an extension of Torah law is common in rabbinic literature where it is considered a “fence” protecting us from getting too close to violate a Torah law. Fish and locusts clearly are not meat and therefore there is no prohibition of eating these if they are cooked in milk.

I should note here that not all locusts are permitted to be eaten and we are not very sure today which locusts the Torah permits and which it prohibits. For this reason we don't eat locusts anymore. (I know that will make you feel better!)

The rules of the Sages prohibit eating these kinds of meat with milk but it does not extend to deriving benefit from them. One can sell these food, cooked improperl,y to those who are not bound by Torah Law.

2-5771 Mitzvah N-91

2-5771 Mitzvah N-91
10/26/10

Negative Mitzvah 91– This is a negative commandment: do not cook meat in milk.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.” (Exodus. 23:19); If someone cooks meat in milk using an olive's amount of the both, he should receive whiplashes, even if he does not eat it. It is forbidden to have any benefit from it, and it requires burial, and it is even forbidden to have any benefit from its ash if he burns it. This applies, however, specifically to meat of a kosher animal in milk from a kosher animal, even if it was n'velah(see 90 & 86); then whiplashes should be suffered for cooking it. But if it was meat of a kosher animal in the milk of a non-kosher animal or meat from a non-kosher animal in the milk of a kosher one, or it was the meat of a kosher untamed animal or fowl in milk, cooking it and having benefit from it are permitted , but not eating it.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

This is all pretty straight forward except for one thing. The assumption in all of this is that the punishments for cooking meat in milk are only valid if the cooking was done with intention. None of these punishments applies if the cooking was done in error or by mistake. While there is no punishment for the person caught cooking meat and milk together by mistake still, the utensils used do become trayf and need to be re-kashered in most instances. You can see this in the halacha above when you note that there needs to be at least an olive's amount (about 45 cubic cm.) of one or both the meat and the milk in order to merit the punishment. Less than that was considered an error. Later the rule of 1/60th came into play that if the amount of milk in meat or meat in milk was less than 1/60th of the volume of the other, then it was considered as if nothing had happened.

In general, if something is forbidden, then any use of it at all is forbidden; in our case, even gaining any benefit from anything that results from the cooking: the dirty pot could not be used to feed animals, the ashes could not be spread in the garden and you certainly can't sell the trayf food to a non-Jew and pocket the money (or even get a tax deduction). In cases where there may be doubt about if the animal was cooked in its mother's milk, that is an untamed kosher animal (where we don't usually get milk from them) or fowl ( who have no milk)then we can benefit from the cooking; that is we can sell it to non-Jews even if we can't eat it. There was a time when fowl could be eaten with milk but the Talmud expressly says that since there could be confusion between the two kinds of meat, from mammal and from fowl, then we don't allow anyone to eat either meat with milk.

I should note here that, in cases of error, the dishes used are not kosher until they are re-kashered. There are some exceptions. If both the milk and the meat are mixed cold, then neither can be eaten and the plate that held the mixture needs only to be washed and not used for the rest of the day. If hot meat was placed on a cold dairy plate or hot milk placed in a cold meat bowl, the food may not be eaten but the plate or bowl needs only to be washed thoroughly. If cold meat is placed on a hot plate, or milk is put into a hot bowl, then cooking can take place and a full re-kashering, if possible, needs to be done. This means either immersion in boiling water or passing through flame. Ceramic dishes cannot be kashered and can no longer be used.

There is a common misconception that if you bury the utensil in a flowerpot or in the back yard overnight, this will re-kasher the utensil. This is just not true. If it needs to be re-kashered, then it must be heated beyond the temperature it was at when the violation occurred either through immersion or passing through a flame. If this is not possible, then the item can't be re-kashered. I suggest, however, before any item is thrown away, a Rabbi should be consulted; since there are often many exceptions and exemptions. While our neighbors may be very kosher in their home and we may have many friends who are strict in their observance of Kashrut, it is best to consult a Rabbi with any questions since there are many people who rely on “stories” rather than law in dealing with violations of Kashrut. When it comes to the rules of milk and meat, it is always best to verify what we are doing with a reliable authority.

1-5771 Mitzvah N-90

Torat Emet

1-5771 Mitzvah N-90

10/11/10

Negative Mitzvah 90– This is a negative commandment: do not eat a limb or any part taken from an animal while it still is living.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not eat the life with the flesh” (Devarim . 12:23); and by the Oral Tradition it was learned that this is an admonition not to eat a limb or part that was cut from a living creature. If someone ate an olive's amount from a living animal, he should receive whiplashes. Even if he ate a whole organ or limb, if it contained an olive's amount he should be whipped; and if it did not contain an olive's amount, he would be free of penalty. Yet if he ate an organ or limb from a living creature and also some flesh from a live animal he would violate two prohibitions, This commandment and (#87 – You shall not eat any flesh in the field that is trefah [Ex. 22:30])

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

While the Hafetz Hayim takes this law from Deuteronomy, it is also part of the “Seven Commandments of Noah” which were given right after the flood and are considered, under Jewish Law, to apply to all human beings, not just Jews. Jews have 613 commandments to follow according to tradition, but non-Jews are only obligated for seven, and this is one of them. We should understand that any person who would tear a limb from a living animal in order to eat it, by this act is showing that he or she has no basic compassion or humanity. The unspeakable pain to the animal by this action should be considered as evidence of the heartlessness and cruelty of the human who acts is such a way. The punishment is lashes and we can see that the pain of the whip is in direct measure to the pain that person caused the animal. If any other part of the animal besides the limb or organ is consumed, it is a double violation of cruelty and eating trefah. I have to assume that the reason the law is mentioned is because at one time this was the practice in some locations. I like to think that the only “people” who do such things today are psychopaths.

The underlying assumption here is that animals have feelings. Perhaps they are not “sentient” creatures as human being are but there is increasing evidence that human beings are not as unique as we would like to believe we are. In fact, anthropologists are having an increasingly hard time drawing the line where human beings begin and where animals end. To say that animals don't have the same feelings as we do, is just not true. We can site many laws in Judaism that take into account the feelings of animals; sending the mother bird away before taking her eggs; not boiling a goat in its mother's milk; permission to violate Shabbat to save the life of an animal. These are just a few examples.

But even if you don't like to admit that animals have feelings, there is also the damage that such acts of cruelty have on people as well. There is plenty of evidence that those who have tortured and murdered other people, started out torturing and killing animals. Judaism took the killing of all animals out of the hands of most Jews, regulating the killing of animals by assigning one class of people, those trained in the laws of Shechita, of ritual slaughter, as the only ones given permission to kill animals. Most Jews do not kill animals even for their own food. Hunting is not a Jewish sport. Neither is cock fighting, dog fighting, bear baiting or other forms of animal cruelty that seem to plague society even in our modern times.

I don't think that Judaism would have a problem with training animals to perform tricks for public amusement, as long as the training did not involve inflicting pain and suffering on the animal. A reward for proper actions is permitted, but the punishment involved must take into account the feelings of the animal. An animal trainer must not be heartless.

Animals who are guilty of cruelty to humans can be put to death. If an animal who never harmed anyone suddenly turns and wounds or kills a human being, such an animal must be restrained and kept away from the public. If the animal should escape and attack again, not only will it be put to death but the owner is also liable for not properly restraining the animal.

28-5770 Mitzvah N-89

Torat Emet 28-5770 Mitzvah N-89
08/09/10

Negative Mitzvah 89– This is a negative commandment: do not eat any blood at all.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not eat blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal” (Lev. 7:26). Untamed animals are included under the term “b'hemah” (animal). If someone ate an olive’s amount of blood deliberately, he would deserve “karet” (Divine severance of existence); if it was unwitting, he would have to bring a sin offering. Human blood is forbidden by the law of the Sages, but only if it left the person. The blood of kosher fish and locusts is permissible.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

In the first chapter of the book of Genesis, God commands human beings to eat what grows in the field and on trees. It seems to be implying that humanity was created to be vegetarian. And yet, almost from the beginning, humanity has shown a very violent side, with killings, homicide and war that seems to date back into ancient history. It is only after the the great Flood, that God gives Noah permission to eat meat, as long as the blood of the animal is spilled on the ground. Blood is the life of an animal and we are told, from the very beginning that we are not allowed to eat blood. The exceptions noted above for fish and locusts, I think reflect the status of these creatures that “swarm” rather than normal animals that may flock together but are not considered “swarming”. (Certain locusts are considered kosher for eating as long as they have specific attributes. We are no longer clear about which locusts fall into the kosher category so we don't consider locusts kosher anymore. I am sure that many of you will be happy to learn this).

Leviticus details what we are to do with the blood of sacrifices. Again, it is spilled at the base of the alter. We are not to use it in any way since it is the essence of life. Later, when it is permitted to eat meat that is not sacrificed on the alter, the same rules of slaughter and draining the blood still apply.

The essence of Kosher Slaughter (Shechita) is to kill the animal painlessly and quickly in a manner that will make draining the blood easier. The double cut across the throat (and the quick beheading of fowl) allows most of the blood to drain out quickly. But “most of the blood” is not enough. We are not allowed to ingest any blood whatsoever. Therefore, kosher meat and fowl must be soaked and salted prior to being cooked in order to draw out the last of the blood in the meat. Meat that is to be broiled does not have to be soaked and salted since broiling will remove the blood as long as it is cooked enough (if you like your meat rare, it is best to soak and salt it first). Two organs, the heart and the liver are considered to be so blood soaked that soaking and salting will not be sufficient for removing the blood. These two organs can be “kashered” only by broiling these organs.

There is an important detail here that also must be mentioned. The prohibition against eating blood includes only blood that is ingested. Jews are allowed to have blood transfusions of human blood drawn from another human being without any question whatsoever. Not only is it permitted, it is required if needed for health reasons. One is not allowed to endanger one's life or health. There are some people of other faiths that read this passage in Leviticus and do not permit blood transfusions. This is NOT the Jewish view of this law.

27-5770 Mitzvah N-88

Torat Emet
27-5770 Mitzvah N-88
08/02/10

Negative Mitzvah 88– This is a negative commandment: do not eat forbidden fat.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not eat 'helev' (forbidden fat) of ox, sheep or goats.” (Lev. 7:23). If someone ate an olive's amount of helev from one of these three animals, if it was deliberate he would deserve Karet (Divine severance of existence); and if he did it unintentionally, he would be required to offer up a sin offering. The helev of the fat tail (of a ram) is permissible; because not all that is connected with an offering is called helev, only such as the fat on the entrails, the kidneys and the loins. Sinews in helev are forbidden; the helev of untamed species of kosher animals is permissible.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

This Mitzvah is not about cholesterol reduction or weight loss. This is about a special kind of fat called “helev” which is never permitted for use as food. It was only used as part of a sacrifice when the animal would be shared, some of it being burned on the alter, some given to the officiating priest and some returned to the family to be eaten as a symbolic way of joining God for a ritual dinner. In most instances, the animal was killed, cut apart and divided into sections; parts no suitable for food were sent to the scrap heap. The blood was poured out at the base of the alter. The rest was “cooked” on the alter; some of the cooked meat would be given to the priests, some given to the family who donated the animal to share as a sacred meal and the helev and some organs were burned to ashes on the alter. Helev was never to be eaten by anyone, it was always burned on the alter. The Hafetz Hayim notes that anything in the helev was also forbidden but the fat tail of rams, while that fat was also called helev, it was not forbidden to be eaten.

Let me use this time to comment on some of the other technical terms that we have not discussed in a while. To violate a food law, the usual measure is an olive's bulk. Less than that was considered too small to bother with. An olive's bulk, according to Phillip Blackman, in his Mishna commentary, is equivalent to 91.6 cubic cm or 5.59 cubic inches. That is a pretty good bite of food.

Karet is a rather difficult punishment to define. We define it above as “Divine severance of existence”. As usual, when we are talking about divine punishments, we really don't understand what God has in mind. Most Rabbis take this punishment to mean that one does not merit heaven (Gan Eden) after death, but that person's soul is exterminated and for that soul there is only oblivion. What exactly does that mean? That the punishment of karet is in God's hands and we human beings do not get involved.

The punishment of bringing a sin offering is usual for violating the Torah unintentionally. Since we no longer offer sacrifices, the punishment would only apply if the Messiah comes and rebuilds the Temple. Until that happens, we don't worry anymore about sin offerings.

I actually hesitated before including this negative Mitzvah because it really is a Mitzvah only for those involved in ritual slaughter. I don't include information here for the training of a “Shochet,” one who performs ritual slaughter. We have included some details about “Shechita,” the kosher method of slaughter for large animals, but I have refrained from getting too much into detail. Anyone who is reading these lessons and wants to learn how to train as a Schochet, should train under a qualified Rabbi or Schochet, and be reading more technical writings. My expertise in Jewish law would not be sufficient to train for a career in ritual slaughter.

25-5770 Mitzvah N-87

Torat Emet
25-5770 Mitzvah N-87
07/27/10

Negative Mitzvah 87– This is a negative commandment: do not eat trayfa

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not eat any flesh in the field that is trayfa, torn of beasts” (Ex. 22:30). The term trayfa stated in the Torah means an animal which a wild beast of the forest has torn, and so likewise a fowl that was clawed by a bird of prey, such as a falcon or anything similar, in such a way that the animal or fowl cannot survive, because of that attack. Even if a person acts in advance and ritually slays it with a proper kosher shechitah, it is forbidden as trayfa. This is called d'rusha (clawed). Then there are seven other kinds of trayfa animals, which are forbidden by a law given orally to Moses at Sinai. These are: a creature with a perforated vital organ; one with an internal organ removed; one that fell from a height; one with an internal organ, etc. missing originally; one with a severance of the spinal column; one with the flesh covering the stomach torn; and one with most of its ribs broken. Whenever an animal or fowl develops a wound, such that it cannot live another twelve months because of this wound, whether it received the wound from a wild beast or a human being or by the hand of Heaven [natural causes] or it fell from the roof – it is forbidden. So too, flesh from a living creature is likewise called trayfa; and whoever eats an olive’s amount of it should receive whiplashes by the law of the Torah. If an embryo put out its forelegs from the womb of the animal, that limb is forbidden, in the category of flesh that has gone out of its bounds.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

As I wrote in the last lesson, dietary laws are a big part of Judaism. We are not permitted to eat anything we want at anytime we want. We can only eat kosher food and only after it has been prepared properly. Trayfa is one of the categories of food that Jews are forbidden to eat.

Let me first deal with the technical definition of trayfa. Jewish Law defines meat as “trayf” if it has a major defect or has a major injury that makes it unlikely to be able to survive on its own. If the animal has been attacked by another animal, a predator or even another animal of the same species in some kind of territorial or mating conflict, or if the animal had a wound from an accident, and so the animal is so injured that it will not heal of its own, or that it dies, that meat is forbidden to be eaten because it is “torn” [trayfa]. We are permitted to eat meat only if we kill it ourselves according to the laws of shechitah [ritual slaughter]. Road kill or any other injured or dying animal is not allowed. (Becoming a vegetarian is beginning to look better all the time, isn't it?)

Further, even ft the animal is killed properly, there needs to be an inspection of the carcass to make sure that there are not any hidden reasons the animal might not survive. Deformed or missing organs, hidden injuries etc. all make an animal not permitted for human consumption.

I need to pause here to reflect a moment on the issue of “oral law given to Moses at Sinai”. Tradition from the Rabbinic period tells us that there are two Torahs. One was a written Torah that, as described in Exodus, was given to our ancestors at Mt. Sinai. The other Torah is an “oral” Torah, also given by God to Moses during the 40 days Moses was on Mt. Sinai. This Oral Torah fills in the obvious gaps in the Written Torah. Both of these law codes are therefore divine and binding. Modern scholarship, however, tells us a different story. After the return of the Jewish Exiles from Babylonia during the time of Ezra, the Torah was redacted into its final form and read to the people for the first time in public. That made the text of the Torah fixed for all time. From that moment on, Sages and Rabbis began to explain the law, fill in the missing details and adapt the Torah to fit with current legal and social needs. These discussions and rabbinic pronouncements were codified in the Mishna, and later in the Talmud. The authority for these adaptations and changes in the laws of the Written Torah was then declared to be as old as Written Torah and that both came from God at Sinai. (Since there are parts of both the Written and Oral Torah that were ancient even in ancient times, this seemed like a good way to frame both laws as authoritative because they were the word of God.) When you see this phrase, “oral law given to Moses at Sinai” you can either believe this as true or you can understand this as referring to a law that was added by later Sages.

There is a third category of trayfa that forbids us to eat any limb that is taken from a living animal. This applies to baby animals once their forelegs have emerged from the womb of its mother. It does not matter if the removal causes the death of the animal or not, the meat is forbidden.

In the modern world, trayfa has come to mean any food that is not kosher. It has gone far beyond meat, into every aspect of food preparation. Any food item that cannot be certified kosher, is thus trayf and forbidden to be eaten by Jews. The difficult part is that the qualifications of what is permitted, what is certified Kosher, have become so strict that foods that were once permitted, are now declared trayf. Sometimes this makes a lot of sense, for example, nobody will certify Kosher a hot dog bun that has milk in it. The milk does not make the bun trayf, but since its purpose is to be eaten with a meat hot dot, it just does not make sense to permit the buns to be kosher. Sometimes things get absurd, when one authority declares food by a rival authority trayf. Sometimes a food company will put an unauthorized kosher mark on food that was not certified, and sometimes one authority will refuse to permit a perfectly kosher food to carry certification because of a dispute over pay or benefits. This is not to say that Jews should just give up on keeping Kosher, it just means that those who keep kosher should be prepared to do some homework. In some cases, there is no other alternative for a vendor to charge more for food that has been certified kosher. In other cases, there is no functional difference between how the two foods are processed and there should be little difference in price. Sometimes, the costs of production of a food item changes so that the foods being produced have to change to a cheaper ingredient that may not meet Kosher standards. Many food additives are functionally dairy or from trayf sources. Today it is almost impossible to keep up with the rapidly changing food industry.

This is why it seems everyone has his or her own standards of what they will accept as kosher and what they will not eat as trayf. No matter how kosher your home may be, you will always find someone that is more strict than you and who will not eat in your home. It is impossible to please everyone. So don't try. Keep a level of Kashrut that you and your family can live with and if that is not enough for everyone, well, you are off the hook for serving them dinner. Never let anyone, other than YOUR rabbi, take control of what you serve in your kitchen.

Finally, while food may be Kosher, we also have to look at the ethics of how food is produced. It is one thing to say that the laws of Kashrut have been followed and the food is not trayf, and permitted to be eaten by Jews. It is another thing to turn a blind eye to food processors who mistreat employees, violate secular laws and cut corners on the production line, who hire illegal immigrants and treat them like slave labor or engage in deceptive advertising or not giving the consumers what they are paying for. The food may be permitted, but the ethics of the owner/manager may not be kosher at all. That is why we are seeing a new area of Kashrut called “Magen Tzedek” where the business practices are as kosher as the food being produced. This new certification should be coming to a store near you soon.

24-5770 Mitzvah N-86

Torat Emet
24-5770 Mitzvah N-86
07/18/10

Negative Mitzvah 86– This is a negative commandment: do not eat N'velah

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not eat anything that dies of itself” (Deut. 14:21). The term N'velah denotes any domestic or wild animal or fowl, that dies of itself or that was not given proper shechitah (ritual slaughter). Whoever eats an olive's amount from it should receive whiplashes. If someone eats an olive's amount of the flesh of a stillborn kosher animal, he violates the prohibition on N'veah. It is forbidden therefore to eat the newborn young of an animal until the start of the night of the eighth day, when it is no longer in doubt of being able to survive. If it is know that its months or gestation have been completed, it is permissible immediately at birth.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Dietary laws are a big part of Judaism. We are not permitted to eat anything we want at anytime we want. We can only eat kosher food and only after it has been prepared properly. N'velah is one of the categories of food that Jews are forbidden to eat.

On the one hand, we already have an aversion to eating something that is already dead. If we did not do the killing, humans have an assumption that there is something wrong with the dead animal. We know, for example, that other animals mostly only kill the damaged or sick animals from the herd, leaving the healthy animals to live to breed again. That is all part of the law of evolution. Human beings, however, are not to be scavengers. Animals killed by another animal (see the next mitzvah) or animals that die from disease or accident, are not permitted as food. This, as the Hafetz Hayim points out in his summary, is the direct law from the Torah.

The difficulty comes when we don't know if an animal is in the process of dying by itself from a disease. The case cited above is of a newborn animal. We don't have any way of “knowing” the reason behind a stillbirth of an animal. We have to assume that there is something wrong with the fetus and therefore the fetus would be N'velah and forbidden to be eaten. If the animal gives birth and the birth is normal, we wait eight days to make sure that the newborn is viable before we slaughter it and eat it. If the animal has any serious birth defects, it will, by the eighth day, be apparent and we will know if we can eat it or not. Most of the time we really don't know when an animal will give birth because we usually are not there at the moment of insemination. We can only guess as to when the proper time for birth will be so we don't really know if the animal is born premature or not. In the rare instance, when we know exactly when the animal should give birth, and we therefore know that the newborn is “full term” then we no longer have to wait the eight days, since we can assume that all is normal.

(OK, I will pause here to acknowledge the irony that we are worried that a calf or lamb etc. is viable and disease free so that we can immediately kill it for food. If we want to use the milk from the mother animal after she gives birth, we will need to use the offspring for food so that we can continue to milk the mother and use her milk for other purposes. If you did not really know this, it is because we have become so good at removing ourselves from the reality of farm life. If you are a vegan, I am sure that you know this and have become vegan exactly because you do not support this kind of animal husbandry. If you are a vegetarian, you may not know all the details as to why we kill young animals for food, but you are opposed to killing animals in all cases. As we explore the details of the kinds of animals, the rules of slaughter and the preparation of Kosher meat, I understand that some of my students may want to consider alternative meatless lifestyles. Judaism does permit this but I will deal with those issues at a future date.)

I also should add to the Hafetz Hayim, that even grown animals that are slaughtered for food, must have their lungs and liver inspected after Shechita (Kosher slaughter) to determine if they were already “dying” from some disease prior to the Shechita. This must be done by a qualified Rabbi so that abnormal spots and defects in these organs can be distinguished from normal spots and thus the “fitness” of the carcass is determined. There are certain defects, especially in the lungs of large animals, that do not cause it to be rejected as Kosher meat. However, there are some extra pious Jews who do not trust anyone with the inspection of the lungs, and who insist that the lungs of the animals they use for meat should be smooth, without any defect. This is obviously a higher standard and would cause Kosher meat to be more expensive. The Yiddish word for “smooth” as in “smooth lung” is “glatt”. A “glatt” Kosher animal has to pass a more rigid examination of its lungs than a “normal” Kosher animal. Most Kosher meat today is inspected with the glatt standard, and is more expensive than regular Kosher meat (which often is more expensive than regular non-Kosher meat.) Please note, that the “glatt” designation should apply only to large Kosher mammals. Chickens, fish and eggs cannot be “glatt” and if you are paying more for them, you are being ripped off. One can make a case that the entire “glatt” standard should be rejected and we should return to a simple Kosher standard, but the super pious and fundamentalists seem to have cornered the Kosher slaughter market and standard Kosher meat is becoming harder and harder to find in stores.

We will speak more about this super-Kashrut standard when we talk, in the next lesson, about Treif.

23-5770 Mitzvah N-85

Torat Emet

07/05/10

Negative Mitzvah 85– This is a negative commandment: do not encroach beyond a neighbor's boundary, specifically in the Land of Israel.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not move your neighbor's landmark … in your inheritance which you shall inherit” (Deut. 19:14). which means taking some of his land. If a person entered his neighbor's domain even by the breadth of a finger, even outside the Land of Israel – if it was by main force, he is thus a robber; if it was by stealth, he is a thief.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

When we purchase a piece of property, no matter if we are financing the purchase or paying cash, a survey of the property is always required. It only makes sense that when we purchase property, we know the exact dimensions of what we are buying and the exact location of the property boundaries (where my property ends and someone else's property begins).

In the days before modern surveying, landmark stones were put in place at the corner of private property and sales contracts were written concerning the land between these marker stones. Once these stones were in place, it was forbidden to move them. After all, as we see in the Torah and in the Mitzvah above, moving the stone was tantamount to stealing a neighbor's land. If you were to purchase an adjoining field, you might, together with your neighbor, move the stones to the new property line, but if you do it by stealth, you are a common thief. If you take the land at gunpoint (or sword point) you have committed an act of armed robbery. I should also note that in Deuteronomy 27:17, there is a special public curse recited by all the people assembled between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim directed at anyone who would move his neighbor's landmark.

Clearly landmarks were easy to move and the temptation to move them and gain a bit more land for free was strong. The system of property markers required a bit of personal honesty among neighbors to prevent boundary disputes that even with our modern surveys, we find all too often still can sour the relationship between neighbors. Since these landmark stones could be moved and the other party none the wiser, this was considered a seriously nefarious criminal act and ancient society had only its most severe disdain to enforce what was basically an honor system.

22-5770 Mitzvah N-84

Torat Emet
22-5770 Mitzvah N-84
05/09/10

Negative Mitzvah 84 – This is a negative commandment: Do not have in your possession any short (or defective) measure.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not have in your bag two kinds of stone weight … two kinds of measures, great and small” (Deut. 25:13-14). even if he does no weighing or measuring with them.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

This Mitzvah seems so simple that the Hafetz Hayim does not even bother to explain it. If we stop to think about it, there really is no good reason to have in our possession a set of weights and measures that are not true and accurate. It does not really matter if we plan to use them or not, or if we actually desire to use them or not. Just having them in our place of business, in our truck or car, in the place where we conduct our affairs, is still a sin and the consequences of having them could be terrible.

I think that there are two reasons for this prohibition. First if we own them we might be tempted to use them. After all, we have a customer that is always trying to squeeze a harder bargain with us and it would be easier to just give him the price per pound he wants and then use our bogus set of weights to get the money we deserve. Of course there is the small problem that if we start down that road, we will find that we begin to think all of our customers are stingy and cheap and we are entitled to the extra money from the false weights. And then, it is only a small step to think that if our customers are so stupid that they can't figure out that the weights are false, then they deserve to be cheated. Therefore, it is important that the only weights we should have in our possession are weights and measures that are correct and true. The temptation of greed can only be overcome if we put away all possibility of corruption.

The other reason we should only have correct weights and measures is because just having false weights in our shop could become evidence of our criminal intent. Why would we have false weights if we were not planning to use them or had used them in the past? They testify by their presence that we are up to no good and therefore we are not to be trusted. Once word gets out that we have in our business a set of false weights we will be shunned by the public and our reputation will be ruined. Maybe we think that just owning them but never using them will not hurt us, but we see that, even if they have never been used, they will still ruin us and our livelihood.

21-5770 Mitzvah N-83

Torat Emet
21-5770 Mitzvah N-83
05/02/10

Negative Mitzvah 83 – This is a negative commandment: Do no wrong with any weight or measure

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall do no wrong in mishpat, in size, in weight or in m'surah” (Lev. 19:35). and the Sages of blessed memory interpreted (Sifra on this verse) “mishpat” means the system of standards “in size, in weight” - that nothing should be lacking from the [standard] size and weight as the people of the country have agreed upon it; and so likewise not to mislead one's fellow-human being in the measurement of land. “or in m'surah” - the Torah was particular even about a small quantity like a m'surah, which is a thirty-sixth part of a log.
If someone transgresses this, he disobeys a positive commandment (Just balances … and a just hin shall you have... Lev. 19:36) and he violates this prohibition. Even if he gives a heathen a short measure or weight, he violates this, and is duty bound to return [the amount lacking]. It is forbidden to mislead a heathen in an accounting: This is included in the scope of the verse, “For all … that do wrong are an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deut. 25:16)
The court has a duty to appoint officials to make the rounds among the stores and shops to correct the scales, weights, and measures, and to establish market prices. If someone's measures, weights, or scales are not accurate, they are to take them away from him and are to penalize him with a fine. If someone charges above the going prices, they are to compel him to sell at the market prices. The punishment [by Heaven] over weights and measures is more severe than the punishment for immorality; he [the guilty person] is as one who denies the exodus from Egypt.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.



This prohibition, together with the positive Mitzvah stated above, forms the core of all business ethics in Judaism. It is just wrong to cheat someone in business. The saying that somehow business is something different from morality and fair play (after all “business is business”) clearly does not apply in Jewish Law. Judaism believes in capitalism, but it does not leave it unregulated. In this sense, our Mitzvah might as well be taken out of the current news. The unfair and unregulated dealings on Wall Street that led to the financial crisis that we are enduring, has its roots in those who would seek an unfair advantage over other investors. Our Mitzvah insists that all business dealings be fair for both the buyer and the seller. There are no exceptions to these rules.

We must also note that these weights and measures, were not, in the time of the Hafetz Hayim, “standardized”. There were different measures in different places. This is why one has to go by the standards of weight used in the location where the business is being conducted. These things may be determined by local custom but that does not give us the right to “adjust” them to suit our idea of what is fair. Whatever the local custom might be, pounds, kilograms, stones etc. we use what is the standard for the local jurisdiction. [For the record: a “log” is about 506 cubic centimeters of solid, dry volume]. Note also that we are very particular when it comes to the smallest measure. Here it is so easy to cheat, since the amounts are so small that who can tell if something is missing? We learn that in the small measures, we must all the more so be careful that we measure correctly.

There is a Midrash about the “sin” of Sodom and Gomorrah. When a person came to town to sell corn in the market place all the people of the city would come and take away one single grain of corn until at last the entire stall was empty. If the seller complained, how could he prosecute everyone since each citizen only took one grain? We have an obligation to pay for what we want and need, and we must always be prepared to purchase it at the going market rate.

The “market rate” is another standard that has to be regulated as well. While the price of goods was not “fixed” in ancient days, there was no one price that a seller had to charge; the seller was still forbidden to charge a price that was too far out of line from the average price in the market. It was expected that a seller would charge a “markup” in the price to cover his expenses and to provide a profit for the seller and his investors. The rule however, is that there is a limit as to how much of a markup one can take. Price gouging, where a higher price is charged depending on how bad the seller needs the item and how difficult it might be to procure the item, is prohibited. One must not profit excessively at the expense of a buyer who does not know the market rate, or just because local conditions might be driving the prices up. The Sages set up limits as to how much profit a seller might be able to claim. Any attempt to defraud a buyer because he is uneducated or desperate, or because one is using false weights and measures, requires that the seller return to the buyer the amount paid that was overpaid.

Contrary to popular belief, these laws also apply to transactions between Jews and non-Jews. There are some so-called pious Jews who think that it is forbidden to cheat a Jew but it is permitted to cheat a non-Jew. The Hafetz Hayim takes great pains to show that this is not true. We have the same obligations to just weights and measures for both Jews and non-Jews. If we wish to bring blessing to God's name, we treat non-Jews fairly in business. There is a Midrash about Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, who purchased a donkey with a halter and saddle from an Arab merchant. His students handed over his money and brought the donkey back to the Rabbi with joyful news. When they took off the halter, they found a precious stone hidden there. According to the law, the sale was final and the Rabbi was entitled to keep the gem. The Rabbi asked, “Did the Arab know he was selling the stone with the donkey?” Clearly the price was for a donkey, not for a precious stone. The Rabbi insisted his students return the gem to the Arab. The Arab, when he got the gem back was overjoyed. He said, “Blessed be Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, Blessed be the God of Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach” The Rabbi held himself to a higher standard and brought to himself and to God a blessing from the Arab.

To insure that all are measuring uses the same standards, the Rabbinic Courts are required to appoint honest agents to check the scales and weights used by venders in the market place, fining and punishing anyone caught with illegal weights or charging illegal prices. These laws of business are more important than the laws of morality. Moral laws are between just a handful of human beings. Business laws can affect an entire community. We need to be very careful about how we read Jewish Law in these matters and not disregard them because they are complicated, unfamiliar and, in our opinion, not needed. Our reputation and God's reputation depend upon us only holding the highest standards in business. When we have honest weights and measures, we sleep better at night knowing that all of our actions, personal and business, are being conducted with justice, honesty and holiness.

20-5770 Mitzvah N-82

Torat Emet

20-5770 Mitzvah N-82
04/18/10

Negative Mitzvah 82 – This is a negative commandment: do not refrain from rescuing one's fellow man from danger.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “neither shall you stand idly by the blood of your brother” (Lev. 19:16). For example, if someone sees another person drowning in the river, or in any other perils, he is duty-bound to save him in any way possible. Included in this is the duty to save one's fellow-man from a monetary loss: for example, if he knows that a heathen or a bandit wishes to attack his fellow, and it lies in his ability to pacify him [the outlaw], he has a duty to pacify him.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Just so there is no question, the law requiring us to save a life refers to all lives, men, women, children, Jews, non-Jews, all races and all social classes. We have a primary responsibility to save any human life that is in our power to save. The reason we have to save non-Jews is not one that I am especially proud of; we save non-Jews for the sake of peace. So that there will not be enmity between Jews and non-Jews. I would have preferred that we do it out of a sense of shared humanity but the net result is the same, we must save all human beings from danger.

There is only one limitation on this Mitzvah. We are not required to endanger our own life to save the life of another. If we do not know how to swim, or even if we do but we are not trained for lifesaving in the water, we are forbidden to endanger our lives to save another person. We can choose an alternative path, we can get a long pole to reach the person in danger, we can go out in a boat to effect the rescue or we can call a trained lifeguard to save the person. We can't just stand there, but we must do everything we can to help.

Other rules of Judaism are suspended so we can save a life. If the person is drowning on Shabbat, we violate Shabbat to save a life. If the person is famished and needs to eat, the rules of Kashrut are suspended if that is all there is to eat. If stopping to pray will endanger your life or the lives of those with you (from bandits, weather etc.) you are not to pray until it is safe to do so. We are to “live” by the Mitzvot, and not to die by them. Our first priority is to save our own life, then we have to save the lives of others. A Jew can not turn the other way and say “This is not my problem” or “I don't want to get involved”.

It is also the rule that we must try to protect the property of others as well. If we can, we must warn them of danger and do what we can to prevent a situation where one could lose his or her property.

I should also say that this rule of saving life also applies to animals as well. The only difference is that we are not to violate any other Mitzvot on behalf of animals. We can save a horse from drowning but not on Shabbat. We can help to prevent the death of the animal but not perform work to save the animal's life. The rule to prevent pain and suffering to animals is a separate Mitzvah.

I have to admit that I am a bit surprised to see this as a negative commandment rather than a positive one. We have a obligation to save a life, yet here, the obligation is not to stand idly by when a person is in danger. I suspect that it is here because of the way the verse from the Torah is worded. (“you shall not...” )

19-5770 Mitzvah N-81

Torat Emet
19-5770 Mitzvah N-81
March 28, 2010

Negative Mitzvah 81 – This is a negative commandment: do not harbor hatred in your heart toward your fellow-man.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “nor shall you bear any grudge” (Lev. 19:18). Bearing a grudge means that one harbors hate in his heart: for instance [in the example from last week’5s lesson] if he tells him (the man who once refused to lend an ax but now is asking to borrow something from the man whom he refused) “Here, I am lending it to you; I am not paying you back as you acted toward me, refusing to lend me something.” This is bearing a grudge where he nurses hate in his heart. Instead, he has to lend it to him wholeheartedly; there should be no ill will whatever in his heart, but he should rather erase the matter from his heart, and not retain it or remember it at all. These two qualities [revenge and hatred] are extremely bad. For all the matters and concerns of this world are vapid nonsense and triviality, and it is not worth taking revenge or bearing a grudge about them.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

This week’s lesson and last week’s lesson (18-5770) are almost always taught together; partially because the example used to teach the lesson is the same, One day a man refuses to permit a neighbor to borrow his ax, the next day that same man goes to his neighbor and asks to borrow some other item. If we harbor revenge, we might say, “You wouldn’t lend to me, why should I lend to you?” If we harbor a grudge, we might say, “You wouldn’t lend to me but I am better than you, I will lend something to you even though you would not lend something to me.”

When I was a child, my parents told me that two wrongs don’t make it right. When we act with hatred or grudges, we prolong the healing between two human beings. When we realize, as the Hafetz Hayim suggests, that the world is filled with nonsense and triviality, we understand that such pettiness between neighbors undermines the great possibilities of human interaction. We could be creating harmony, justice and peace; instead we are allowing petty slights to isolate us from our neighbors.

I do understand that when a human being gets angry at another, the issue quickly seems to grow beyond the trivial. There is our pride that has been damaged, our feelings have been hurt, and our dreams may have been shattered. How could we ever imagine we will talk to that person again? How could we ever consider that person a friend? It is so very easy to harbor hatred in our hearts and seek revenge for the damage or hold the grudge inside as it corrodes all of our good will. The problem here is that, more often than not, the person who has offended us has no idea that we were offended. That person is going on his or her merry way and has no idea of the pain and anger in our heart. The hurt feelings and the corrosive effects of the hatred affect our heart and soul, and has no effect on the object of our hatred at all.

18-5770 Mitzvah N-80

Torat Emet
18-5770 Mitzvah N-80
March 22, 2010

Negative Mitzvah 80 – This is a negative commandment: Do not take revenge on one’s fellow-man

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “you shall not take vengeance” (Lev. 19:18). Revenge means repaying a person who has harmed someone, according to his own act: for example, if one asked his neighbor, “Lend me your axe,” and he would not lend it to him; and the next day his neighbor has to borrow something from him, whereupon he tells him, “I will not lend it to you, just as you refused me when I wanted to borrow from you.” This is revenge, whereby he exacts vengeance from the other, repaying him according to his own evil action.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Compare the example of the Hafetz Hayim to this Midrash from the Talmud (Shabbat 82a): Once a man from Galilee hired himself for three years to a man in the south. On the afternoon before Yom Kippur he said, “Give me my hire; I will go and nourish my wife and children.” His boss said, “I have no money”. The hired man said, “Then give me produce.” And the boss said, “I have none.” “Give me land.” And the boss said, “I have none.” “Give me cattle” And the boss said, “I have none.” “Give me mattresses and coverlets” And the boss said, “I have none.” Then the hired man put his possessions on his back and left in despair. After the fast, the boss took the man’s wages and three donkeys laden with food, drink and all manner of delicacies, and went to the hired man’s home. After they had eaten and drunk, and he had given him his wages, he said to the man, “ when you asked me for your wages, and I said I had no money, in what suspicion did you hold me?” The man replied, “I thought you had bought goods cheaply, and had so used up your money.” “And about the cattle?” “I thought perhaps you had hired them all out.” “And about the land?” “I thought that you had rented it all out.” “And the produce?” “ I thought that it had not yet been tithed. “And the mattresses and coverlets?” “I thought that perhaps you had consecrated all your property to God.” Then the boss said, “And so it was. I had vowed away all my property, because my son does not occupy himself with the study of the Law. But I went to my colleagues, and they freed me from my vow. As you have judged me favorably, so may God judge you.”

It is one thing to judge a person favorably. Even when things do not go as well as we want them to, we have a choice. We can believe that the whole thing is a plot against us and the other person is a scoundrel, or we can judge that person favorably and assume that there is some perfectly valid reason for his actions. In the case of our Mitzvah, perhaps there is a reason that the man cannot lend out the ax. I am sure that we can think of many good reasons he might want to lend the ax but can’t do it right now. Perhaps he has already rented it to someone else. Perhaps it is broken and in need of repair. Perhaps it is collateral on a loan and he cannot let it out of his possession. We could think of many other reasons that the person may not be able to lend out the ax right now.

Now we can understand why this kind of revenge is not permitted. When the tables are turned and the neighbor comes looking to borrow a different tool, our angry man gives a reason why he will not lend it to his neighbor. There is no assumption that there might be a reason that the tool cannot be borrowed; he has given his reason; that he is angry over the incident of the ax the previous day and is punishing the neighbor in a measure for measure manner that may be uncalled for. This is how a feud between neighbors begins, all over the need for revenge over a slight that may or may not be warranted.

The entire issue is contained entirely in our mind. We can be angry over the refusal of the ax and carry it with us, determined to get even some day in the future, or we can judge our neighbor favorably, assuming that there must be a reason he can’t lend the ax today, and let the incident go, so as not to carry the anger forward. I can add that even if we know that the neighbor is stingy and never will lend a tool, we should still not seek revenge; we should lend out our own tools if asked, so as to teach that person, the right way to act as a neighbor. We have to do this with our actions and without any malice, since if we say, “I will do for you what you refused to do for me” we will be in violation of the next Mitzvah.

17-5770 Mitzvah N-79

Torah Emet

17-5770 Mitzvah N-79

March 15, 2010

Negative Mitzvah 79 – This is a negative commandment: Do not shame another person.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “and you shall not bear sin because of him.” (Lev. 19:17) – and all the more certainly so in public. It is a great wrong; the Sages of blessed memory said “Whoever shames his fellow man in public has no share in the world-to- come.” (Talmud; Bava Metzia59a) We must therefore take care not to disgrace anyone, be he of low or high stature. Nor should we call him by any name of which he is ashamed. This applies, however, specifically to a matter between one man and his fellow-man. In matters of Heaven, though, if a person [sinned and he] did not repent when he was rebuked in private, he is to be shamed  publicly, and his sin is to be made known in public, until he returns to the good path.   

     This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Shaming another person, according to the Sages is similar to killing that person. The Hebrew term for embarrassment implies that his face has turned pale, that all the blood has rushed out of his face. That is why they compare embarrassment to shedding blood. What actually constitutes shaming another person may depend on who that person is, what they are doing and their status in the community. And yet, all of these differences are not relevant to our discussion. If it is embarrassing to another person in any way, we should keep as far away from it as we can.

If someone once had a nickname that he or she has outgrown or if there was a school yard name or street name that he or she was once known by but now does not use, these names should not be used anymore lest you shame the person who was once called by that name. We all outgrow our childhood/adolescent nicknames, and they should not be a source of embarrassment when we mature beyond them.

The restriction on this law has to do with a person who ignores a ritual law (law between one man and Heaven). The rule is that when a person publicly violates a ritual law, it is assumed that he or she did it in error and should be advised, privately, about the error and given a chance to repent and to correct their action. If, after being advised privately, and rebuked privately, he or she continues to ignore the ritual law, it is then permitted (according to the Hafetz Hayim and other sages) to publicly shame that person into compliance. For example, if a person were to violate the laws of Shabbat and make purchases on the holy day, that person should be privately advised that spending money, making purchases and conducting business is all forbidden on Shabbat. If after this, that person continues to go shopping on Shabbat, he or she can be publicly admonished in synagogue that this behavior is not permitted, and this person can be disqualified from communal office and the reason, violating Shabbat, can be given as the reason for the disqualification.

In our modern era, I find this last restriction disturbing. In a world where Jews lived together, worked together and prayed together, this kind of public chastisement might have made a lot of sense. But today, when there are so many options for Jews to find community and to operate in the free open market, such a tactic to promote “conformity” in ritual seems to be counterproductive. It will not draw a Jew to reconsider ritual observance; it seems to me such a stance will drive that Jew farther away from his faith. Perhaps in insulated communities public embarrassment may work, but in the modern world of self-directed faith, such public embarrassment will not motivate anyone to change their behavior and may, instead, in the realm of public opinion, embarrass Judaism as a religious way of life.  

16-5770 Mitzvah N-78

Torah Emet
16-5770 Mitzvah N-78
March 8, 2010

Negative Mitzvah 78 – This is a negative commandment: Do not hate in your heart any decent Jew.
Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart.” (Lev. 19:17) – and should one man sin against another, he should not bear hatred for him in his heart and keep silent. Instead, it is a religious duty for him to inform the other person and tell him, “Why did you do thus-and-so to me?” And he should erase the hatred from his heart. If, however, he saw the other person committing a sin, whereupon he warned him, but the other did not turn back, it is then a religious duty for him to hate the other one (since he does not conduct himself as “your brother”).
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

When human beings live in proximity to one another, there is always the danger of conflict, sometimes serious conflict. Our news is filled with men and women who go berserk in their hatred and their need for vengeance and who open fire on the people they hate and on innocent people as well. Since it seems to take some time for anger to grow into murderous rage, this Mitzvah is designed to cut that possibility off before it can begin.

It is impossible to pass a law that forbids Jews from hating each other; that would be too hard for any person to bear. The fact is that we get angry at others all the time and the hatred is just a byproduct of that anger. The trick here is to cut the anger off from the beginning. This is best accomplished, says the Hafetz Hayim, by asking questions and getting an explanation of what has occurred from the point of view of the other person. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people jump to terrible conclusions when there were easier and more logical explanations of what had occurred. When we stand before the one who has made us angry and ask for an explanation, in the vast majority of cases, we will find that it is all a misunderstanding and that there was no real reason for the anger and the hurt. Even if the explanation is not enough, the fact that there is an alternative way of seeing the incident will help end the animosity and cut off the hatred. It is important to cut off the hatred in your heart before it can amplify into something far more dangerous.

I am not sure I agree with the second part of this Mitzvah. A Jew who sins is still a Jew. It does no good to harbor hatred against him, even if he is a sinner and has ignored attempts to bring him back to the right place. No matter if he (or she) is a good Jew or a bad Jew, we must not hate a fellow Jew in our heart. I just can’t see how we could ever consider a fellow Jew NOT to be our brother, for even an instant. There is always the possibility of repentance and change.

While I know that there are non-Jews who hate Jews so much that they are dangerous to know and too dangerous to ignore, we must indeed fight against them on every front and at every opportunity. This is not a matter of hatred; it is a matter of the survival of our faith and the preservation of our lives. I also know that much of what passes for hatred of Jews today, is based mainly on ignorance of what Judaism is and what it stands for. Here too, asking the question, “Why did you do thus-and-so to me?” can go a long way to help educate a bigot and thus change his or her mind. It really does no good for any Jew to really harbor hatred in his or her heart. Hatred will not cause someone else to change for the better, we can only work toward making others think before they do or say something rash, and work hard to let others know the pain and hurt that hate causes. Love is more powerful than hate, and we need to work to help remove hatred from our hearts against any other human being.