HALACHA OF THE WEEK:Bikat HaMazon In Memory of Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, ztz”l here are some halachic questions he was asked and answers he offered (excerpted from Kuntres Yad Dodi pp.28-30)
Q. If someone ate less than a kezayit of bread and more than a kezayit of mezonot (e.g., cake) would one have to recite birkat hamazon? A: No. Make a bracha achrona (i.e. al hamichya) on the other mezonot. Mezonot does not add to the bread to require birkat hamazon.
Q. If six people ate bread at a meal and four ate mezonot: May “elokeinu” be added to the zimmun? A: No. When the Shulchan Aruch refers to seven people who ate “dagan” [grain] it means bread made from grain (and not cake) May sheva brachot be said? A: The halacha for sheva brachot is the same as for birkat hamazon (therefore get a seventh person to wash)
Q. Is it necessary to pass around the cup of wine for each harachaman in birkat hamazon at a bris? A: Since there is no real reason to pass the cup, it isn’t done if there is even the slightest bother. (But it is not considered a disgrace to do so, and it is permitted.)
Q. Is it necessary to hold a cup of wine used for a bracha from the bottom? A: No. (The bottom and the side are the same as long as you use all five fingers)
Q. Is the piyyut of divai haser (which introduces the zimmun of sheva brachot) said on Shabbat? A: Our custom is to say it (Even though there are those who disagree, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein reported that one Shababt, the Noviminshker Rebbe, ztz”l at the Friday night sheva brachot omitted divai haser, and in the day time Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, ztz”l said divai haser.)
Q. If three women are making a zimmun, and one or two men are present should they answer? A: Yes. (Even those who haven’t eaten answer to a zimmun.)
DVAR TORAH In Memory of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, ztz”l, here is a dvar Torah he offered:
The first sentence of this week's parsha of Chayei Sarah, is: “Sarah’s lifetime was 127 years: the years of Sarah’s life.” Rashi makes a strange comment on the seemingly unnecessary and extra phrase, “the years of Sarah’s life.” He says, “The word ‘years’ is repeated and without a number, to indicate that all her years were equally good.” How could anyone say that the years of Sarah’s life were equally good? She had so many challenging episodes in her life.
Twice, first in Egypt, then in Gerar, she was asked by Avraham to say that she was his sister rather than his wife, and was then taken into a royal harem, a very difficult and dangerous situation. There were many years when, despite God’s repeated promise she would have many children, she was infertile, and couldn't have even a single child. There was the time when she persuaded Avraham to take her handmaid, Hagar, and have a child by her so that he could be a father, which caused her great emotional pain. Her life was one of uncertainty and decades of unfulfilled hopes. How can Rashi then say that all of Sarah’s years were equally good?
The Torah is similarly puzzling with its description of Avraham. Immediately after he buys a burial plot for Sarah, the Torah says, “Avraham was old, well advanced in years, and God had blessed Avraham with everything” (Bereishit 24:1).
Seven times, God had promised Avraham the land of Canaan. Yet when Sarah died, he did not own a single plot of land in which to bury her and had to go through an exhausting and humiliating negotiation with the Hittites to buy a small piece of the land. How can the Torah say that God had blessed Avraham with everything?
Equally confusing is the Torah’s description of Avraham’s death at the end of the parsha: “Avraham breathed his last and died at a good age, old and satisfied, and he was gathered to his people.” Avraham had been promised that he would become the father of many nations, and that he would inherit the land. But he did not live to see these promises fulfilled. So how can we imagine that he was “satisfied” at the end of his life?
The answer, for both Sarah and Avraham, is that to understand a death, we have to understand a life.
Friedrich Nietzsche (a nineteenth century German philosopher) said: He who has a why in life can bear almost any how. It was Sarah and Avraham's sense of destiny and calling that gave their lives purpose and allowed them to survive the difficult times and even the unfulfilled goals at the end of their lives – because they had faith that the journey was not yet over. They died satisfied that they had played an important part and taken the first steps for their future family.
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MAZAL TOV * to Simmy and Talya Warso on the birth of son Jack (Yaakov Yitzchak). Mazal Tov to grandparents Jim and Terri Rosenwasser.
* to Ephraim and Aviva Vilenski on the engagement of their daughter Lottie to Avrumi Brimm. Mazal Tov to grandparents Rabbi Baruch and Judy Zimmerman.
* to Sonia Goldberg on the birth of a great-granddaughter. Proud parents are Yakira and Gili Shai.
REFUAH SHLAIMA * to Etai Rimel who is recovering in rehab * to Shifra Yehudis Orlian who is recuperating at home * to Jack Maryles who are recuperating at home
A Donation to the Online Learning Fund was made by Alan & Jodi Gershman in commemoration of the Yahrtzeit of Alan’s father Rabbi Bernard Gershman, z”l.
Rabbi Matanky’s Sunday morning Navi shiur is sponsored by: Ira and Rivkah Rabin, thanking our Morah D’Asra, Rabbi Matanky for his guidance and Torah leadership over the years as well as for his invaluable assistance with our Aliyah process.
BIRTHDAYS Mr. Ira Rabin (11/17) Rabbi David Rosenberg (11/17) Amichai Heifetz (11/18) Eliyahu Landsman (11/19)
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