From the virtual desk of the OU VEBBE REBBE

The Orthodox Union – via its website – fields questions of all types in areas of kashrut, Jewish law and values. Some of them are answered by Eretz Hemdah, the Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, founded by HaRav Shaul Yisraeli, zt"l to prepare rabbanim and dayanim to serve the National Religious community in Israel and abroad. Ask the Rabbi is a joint venture of the OU, Yerushalayim Network, Eretz Hemdah... and the Israel Center. The following is a Q&A from Eretz Hemdah... 

Question: Pursuant to your recent discussion on hatmana (insulating food) before Shabbat, is it permitted to put a "cooking bag" inside the chulent pot to cook rice or the like separate from the rest of the chulent? 

Answer: As we mentioned, hatmana is forbidden even before Shabbat in a medium where energy is being added to the system (mosif hevel). Thus, if placing the cooking bag inside the chulent is considered hatmana, it will be forbidden. However, usually there is either no issue of hatmana or it can be easily avoided. 

Firstly, it should be clear that cooking one food directly in another is not hatmana. The issue of hatmana arises when a food is not being cooked with the rest of the pot but is placed in it to become or remain hot, as a separate unit. Even this is only a problem when it is separated from the rest of the food by a utensil or at least a significant covering (Shmirat Shabbat K'hilachta, 1:72). 

Cooking by putting cooking bags in boiling water in a pot is considered a manner of cooking, not hatmana, and is permitted (based on Minchat Yitzchak VIII: 17). If one intends to have the foods’ tastes interact by heating them together, even if they were previously cooked (i.e. matza balls in soup), this is considered cooking together and permitted. The fact that they are in a bag is not a problem, especially if that is done to prevent the food from falling apart or dispersing. Using a porous bag or making holes in the bag are signs of the desire to have the foods interact (Shmirat Shabbat K’hilchata 42:63 and footnote 242). 

Even when none of these criteria are met, we pasken that hatmana applies only when the food is insulated on all sides (Rama 253:1). Therefore, one may warm a securely wrapped kugel by placing it before Shabbat in the chulent pot if a reasonable portion of the kugel protrudes above the surface of the chulent. 

Ask the Rabbi Q&A is part of Hemdat Yamim, the weekly parsha sheet published by Eretz Hemdah. You can read this section or the entire Hemdat Yamim at www.ou.org or www.eretzhemdah.org. And/or you can receive Hemdat Yamim by email weekly, by sending an email to lists@eretzhemdah.org with the message: Join Hemdatya - Please leave the subject blank. 

Ask the Vebbe Rebbe is partially funded by the Jewish Agency for Israel 

Hasidic Wisdom from the book by Simcha Raz (Elkins/Elkins) 

Recommended that you read this one carefully and a couple of times over in order to get the point... 

If I am who I am because I am who I am, and you are who you are because you are who you are, then I am who I am and you are who you are. But if I am who I am because you are who you are and you are who you are because I am who I am, then I am not I nor are you, you. 
- Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk 

When I exhort and admonish my congregation it is not directed towards anyone specifically. Yet, if some think that I am directing my words towards them, then indeed, I am.
- Rabbi Noah of Lechovitz 

Rite and Reason by Shmuel Pinchas Gelbard

Before Pesach it is customary to collect funds for KIMCHA D'PISCHA (flour for Pesach) or for Ma'os Chitim (money for wheat) to distribute to the needy and the indigent to purchase matza and other Festival provisions. 

REASON In accord with the statement in the Hagada: Whoever is hungry come and eat. We learn from this that it is particularly important on Pesach to be concerned for the poor and hungry. 

Some people add a wooden spoon to the burning of chametz on Erev Pesach. 

REASON We burn the chametz on Erev Pesach to satisfy Rabbi Yehuda's view that chametz must be destroyed by burning. (As opposed to just getting rid of it, eating it up, throwing it to the birds, verbally nullifying it, etc.) Rabbi Yehuda derives this from the laws of NOTAR (the leftovers of sacred meat of korbanot). Just as NOTAR is burned in a wood fire, so also we must burn the chametz with wood. 

It is customary to abstain from eating matza from Rosh Chodesh Nissan (or Purim). 

REASON To increase the enthusiasm and appetite for the mitzva. 

ArtScroll Series • Mesorah Publications Ltd. WORDS OF WISDOM WORDS OF WIT • by Shmuel Himelstein 

The Gerrer Rebbi laid down stringent rules for his cassidim, designed to prevent the poorer among them from having to spend inordinate amounts of money. For example, he made a rule that young married couples are not permitted to buy an apartment with more than two bedrooms in Jerusalem, where the price of housing is high. Only if they are willing to buy in another, cheaper area may they buy a larger apartment. Another rule specified the maximum number of guests families may invite to a wedding. 

The story is told of a wealthy chassid who said to the Rebbe, “Rebbe, you know that I'm a wealthy man. I have many friends and would like you to waive the rule limiting the number of guests to a wedding.” 

“If you're that wealthy”, replied the Rebbe, “maybe you can buy yourself another Rebbe.” 

Excerpted with the permission of the copyright holder 

G'matriya Match 

PARA ADUMA, the quintessential chok and HAR SINAI, the symbol of the whole Torah - have the same G'matriya (335). 

Instead of making this into a TTriddle, if you are reading this before friends or family have had a chance to, then you can "test" them. We know ZOT CHUKAT HATORAH from this week's maftir. Where else is it used? Ans. - Elazar said it to the soldiers who fought against Midyan. He was talking about the kashering and purification of vessels among the spoils of war. 

MIDRASH P'LI'A (wondrous` midrashim): “When G-d dictated to Moshe, LO T'VASHEIL G'DI BACHALEIV IMO (don't cook a goat in its mother's milk, Sh'mot 34:26), and explained to him the details of Meat-in-Milk, Moshe asked G-d for permission to write (Don't cook/eat) meat in milk. G-d said to him: You write these (exact) words.” (Sh'mot 34:27) Although these are consecutive p'sukim, there is an open-parsha break between them, indicating that the command to write these words wasn't specifically referring to Milk & Meat. Rashi says that it refers to the general rule forbidding the formalizing in written form that which is part of the Oral Law. It is the juxtaposition of the two topics that prompts the Midrash to apply the insistence of writing what is supposed to be written, and not writing that which supposed to be orally transmitted to the issue of Milk & Meat. In doing so, the Midrash is emphasizing to us that G-d has His reasons for what is in the Written Torah. And that includes choice of words. With the Maftir-focus on the famous example of a CHOK, we should see the Milk-Meat mitzvot and practice in that same enigmatic category of CHUKIM. 

What is said of Para Aduma applies to other CHUKIM. As G-d's words, we are committed to following them, reason or not, logic or not. Our commitment is to the whole package of Torah and Jewish Law & Tradition. Written, Oral, Biblical, Rabbinic. 

From the Desk of the Director 

Parshat Ki Tissa begins by describing the correct way to conduct a Jewish census: Every male member over twenty is duty bound to give a half shekel for the upkeep of the Mishkan, “as a portion to Hashem.” These coins, which were then counted, were also called “Kofer Nefesh” – ‘Atonement for the Soul.’ 

In describing the Jewish way of conducting the tally, the passuk repeats the expression “Bifkod Otam” – ‘When counting them.’ According to the Ohr HaChaim the phrase indicates that this unique manner of counting was decreed for all time. Clearly, the Torah does not favor the simple numbering of Jews. Indeed, according to the Ramban, King David paid a high price for ordering a head count without a compelling reason for doing so (Shmuel II, 24, 1-15). 

Not surprisingly in our post Holocaust era we are caught up with questions of Jewish demography. The Torah reminds us, however, that strength does not lie purely in numbers. For numbers, per se, dehumanize us. 

The half shekel connotes that strength lies in unity of purpose and deed. For whereas an individual rarely survives divine scrutiny, the combined effort of a people seeking atonement not only elevates the community but also serves as a zechut for each one of us (cf. Avot 2:2). 

Shabbat Shalom, Menachem Persoff, Director, Israel Center

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