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 communityin 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...

Q What’s the story with using a hot plate on Shabbat?
A This answer will refer to the laws of SHEHIYA and HACHZARA (leaving on and returning to the fire). In order to solve the problem of cooking, not only must the food be fully cooked, but if the food has cooled off, it must also be dry, because the re-heating of liquid food is considered like cooking.
We now have to determine what you mean by Shabbat hot plate, as there are different types, which solve different problems. There are two major problems to deal with when heating up food on Shabbat. One is classically referred to as SHEMA Y'CHATE (lest one stoke the coals), with the modern application being, adjusting the flame. The other is MICHZI K'MEVASHEL (placing food on a flame on Shabbat looks like one is cooking).

If the hot plate has only one setting, then SHEMA Y'CHATE should not be a concern, at least in regard to leaving the food on the flame before Shabbat. If it also does not get hot enough to use for cooking food, then it should not be deemed MICHZI K'MEVASHEL and is probably permitted to return cooked food to it on Shabbat (Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, as brought by Rav S. Eider in his Hilchot Shabbat, footnote 564, in contradiction to Shemirat Shabbat K'Hilchata 1:(72)). There are some "Shabbat hot plates" which meet only the first requirement (non-adjustable). Therefore, the certification (of at least one certifying organization, with whom we spoke) was intended only in regard to placing food before Shabbat without a blech, not for re-heating in the morning (according to the mainstream view).

Regarding the circumstances under which one can return food on Shabbat morning, there is too much discussion to summarize in this forum. Let us just point out that if the food is put in a place where no area of it would reach 45°C even if left there all day, it is certainly permitted. If it is placed on top of a pot which is sitting on the flame, it is permitted (Biur Halacha 253:3). If it is placed on top of an overturned, empty pot, many permit it. In the latter scenarios, the leniency is stronger in a situation where there are halachic remedies to the possibility of stoking the coals (such as a blech or a non-adjustable heat source).

The Shabbat clock can be used and may even be preferable in the following way. We have mentioned that returning things to the heat source (CHAZARA) is more stringent than having the food just be there when Shabbat starts (SHEHIYA). The question then arises if placing food on Shabbat in a place which is not a heat source at the time you place the food but will be in the future (when the Shabbat clock turns it on), is like SHEHIYA or CHAZARA. The Rama (OC 253:5) allows a non-Jew to put food on a cold furnace, which would subsequently be lit by another non-Jew (as was permitted in the cold of Poland, without automatic heaters). The Chazon Ish (OC 37:21) discusses why a problem of CHAZARA doesn't exist by the situation which arises after the furnace is lit. According to the more convincing one of his suggestions, the stricter laws of CHAZARA do not apply when the human intervention was done at a time that the heat was off. Therefore, there is room for leniency to put the food on a non- adjustable Shabbat clock before it turns on, certainly if there is a situation where there are other grounds for leniency.

Much of these ideas are based on the analysis of Rav Mordechai Willig of Yeshiva University in an article in Beit Yitzchak, vol. 29.

Hasidic Wisdom from the book by Simcha Raz (Elkins/Elkins)
Just as the Evil Impulse tries to entice humans to sin, so does it try to entice them to be overly righteous.
- Rabbi Yechiel Michal of Zlotchov

People are very careful not to swallow an insect, but they are not careful about devouring a person.
- Rabbi Baruch of Medzibuz

Rite & Reason by Shmuel Pinchas Gelbard
Some communities are scrupulous in requiring the Shaliach Tzibur who leads the congregation for Slichot to be at least 30 years old (RAMA)
Reason: Prayer today comes in place of the service in the Beit HaMikdash. We find that the Levi’im began their duties in the Beit HaMikdash at the age of thirty (Mishna B’rura).
[Ed. note: Also, at 30, a person is often weighed down with family responsibilities and the burden of seeking a livelihood. This makes his davening more mature and emotion-filled.]
It is customary that the Shaliach Tzibur for Slichot (and the davening on the Yamim Nora’im) be married.
Reason: Since prayer is now a substitute for Beit HaMikdash service, and the Kohen Gadol who officiated on Yom Kippur had to be married, so too, our Shaliach Tzibur. [The part about being more serious is also associated with a married Baal T’fila.]
[None of the above is requirement, just minhag, when feasible.]

ArtScroll Series • Mesorah Publications Ltd.
WORDS OF WISDOM WORDS OF WIT by Shmuel Himelstein
R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk was asked, “Rebbe, what did David HaMelech mean when he wrote in T’hilim, ‘You shave have no strange god’? After all, the Torah already tells us that ‘You shall have no other gods.’”
"What David HaMelech meant to teach us”, said R’ Menachem Mendel, “is that HaShem should not be a stranger to you, but should be within you always.”

A chassis told R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk that he wanted his sons to study Torah regularly. “If your children see you studying Torah regularly”, said R’ Menachem Mendel, “they too will study Torah regularly. Otherwise, they will grow up to be adults who want their children to study Torah regularly, without doing so themselves.”

MA RABU MA'ASECHA HASHEM KULAM B'CHOCHMA ASITA MAL'A HA'ARETZ KINYANECHA • GIRAFFES
Giraffa camelopardalis is the biggest ruminant (with a 4-chambered stomach) and the tallest mammal. Very long neck with short, upstanding mane... Males weigh 2420-4250 lb (that’s one to two tons!), height to top of horns up to 18 ft (5.5m); females weigh a few hundred pounds less and are about two feet shorter. Giraffes are brown to rich chestnut (even black), dissected into intricate tapestry by patches and blotches of lighter hair, pattern unique in each giraffe.

There is a single species of giraffe, subdivided into eight recognized races.
The 18 inch tongue and a modified atlas-axis joint that lets the head extend vertically, further increases the height advantage. Narrow muzzle and flexible upper lip, along with the prehensile tongue, enable this animal to harvest the most nutritious leaves in the quantity (up to 75 lb per day) necessary to sustain its great bulk. Giraffes spend about 12 hours a day browsing. Giraffes drink water if it is available but can go weeks without it; they rely on the morning dew and the water content of of their food. Their neck veins contain valves and a network of tiny veins to prevent blackouts when the animal lowers its head to drink.

Height and excellent eyesight enable giraffes to maintain visual contact at long distances.

Giraffes have 2 gaits, walk and gallop (up to 37mph).

Female giraffes become pregnant in their fourth year, gestation 14 to 14.5 months. Males begin competing for matings at 7 years. Calves are born from a standing female, thus dropping some 6 feet to the ground. They can stand on wobbly legs about five minutes after birth and begin to feed about 20 minutes later. Offspring begin browsing in their first month and are rarely observed to suckle after they start eating leaves. Life expectancy is 25 years.

The idea that giraffes are mute is a myth. Though normally silent, calves bleat and make a mewing call, cows seeking lost calves bellow, and courting bulls may emit a raucous cough. Giraffes also give alarm snorts, and moaning, hissing...

Fights between giraffes are effected by neck wrestling and head banging; defense against predators is characterized by striking out with the forefeet.
Being a ruminant (cud chewer) and having split hooves means that the giraffe is a kosher animal. There is a popular misconception that it is not slaughtered because it is not known where on the neck to perform the shechitah (ritual slaughter). In fact, the makom sh’chita (region of the neck in which ritual slaughter is valid) on a giraffe is precisely defined by halacha, just as it is for all animals, and the only impediments to shechting giraffe are cost and practical considerations. (They are among the most difficult animals to restrain.) A giraffe’s neck has 7 vertabrae, as do cows, humans... There is also a historical record of the giraffe being accepted as kosher. The ZEMER, listed among the ten types of kosher animals in D’varim 14:5, is identified as the giraffe by Rav Saadia Gaon, Rabbenu Yona, Radak, and many others
[Thank you, Rabbi AZ, for this last paragraph]

In being objective, we surrender a great deal of ourselves that would be extremely valuable to us in our analysis, if we could employ it without bringing the purely personal factors with which it is involved into the picture. From A Candle by Day by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein

There are 7 pairs of sedras that are read separately sometimes and combined in other years. Nitzavim-Vayeilech take care of one specific issue: Is there a Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, or not? If yes, then they are separated. If not (as is the case in 5763), then they are combined. That’s the sole job of the Nitz.-Vayeilech pair. Most of the other pairs deal with the extra month in a Shana M’uberet. <more>

FYI: In the year 5762 we will have read Parshat Vayeilech TWICE.

The coming year 5763 is the longest possible in our Calendar - 385 days!

As we know, the Ashkenazi custom is to begin Slichot on a Motza’ei Shabbat. This produces an uneven number of days we say Slichot before Rosh HaShana. We might have expected to say Slichot for a certain number of days before RH. However, on Motza’ei Shabbat, we still are filled with the Shabbat mood and the spirituality it has instilled in us. These are “helpful” conditions for us to begin the difficult process of Slichot and T’shuva. Without Shabbat’s help, we might find ourselves unable to face the challenges of the mental and emotional processes that should accompany Slichot.

From the Desk of the Director
As Elul draws to a close let us revisit the famous passuk associated with the month, namely, "Ani Ledodi veDodi Li" - 'I am for my friend and my friend is for me'. Here is described a relationship between two betrothed individuals; and inferred is a singular connection between God and the Jewish people.

This relationship is symbiotic. Each of the partners is dependent on the other; each gains from the caring attitude of the friend. Moreover, each one, entering into the relationship from a position of love, bears responsibility for the actions of his or her beloved. For what people do affects not only their own persona but also that of those surrounding them.

The Or Hachaim offers a similar observation on the opening verse of Nitzavim which describes all the people standing before Hashem, from the most distinguished to the lowliest. This inclusivity, he notes, is indicative of the ethical concept of "Kol Yisrael Areivim Ze Lazeh". Says Rashi: The distinguish- ing factor of the new covenant, expressed by Moshe on the threshold of his death, was the concept of communal responsibility (especially with respect to public transgressions).

This covenant with Hashem also incorporates mutuality. For the people entered into a covenant in order to, "establish you today as a people to Him [in order] that He be a G-d to you." As Rosh Hashana approaches, we tend to look towards Hashem as King and Master, and as our caring Father. Yet we can also perceive G-d as our beloved Friend for whom we cannot do enough. Hashem, we pray, will respond in kind.

Shabbat Shalom, Menachem Persoff, Director, Israel Center

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