Special Features
for Sh'mini

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... 

Q What does one do about training children in a Jewish school to make berachot when many of them will be eating non-kosher food?

A [We do not refer, in this response, to the educational challenges which educators in such a sensitive situation must deal with, but this factor is taken into consideration.] The mishna (Berachot 45a) says that people who eat non-kosher food together do not make a zimun. The Ra'avad (Berachot 1:19) sees this as a specific rule pertaining to zimun, an act which adds prominence to joint eating and blessing. However, the Rambam (ad loc.) interprets the mishna broadly, that one does not make a bracha on forbidden food, neither before nor after eating. Thanking Hashem for enabling us to do something which He told us not to do is blasphemy, not a blessing (Rashi, Berachot 47a). Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 196:1) rules in favor of Rambam that one does not make brachot on forbidden foods, unless it was permitted to eat (i.e. pikuach nefesh) (ibid.:2).

Regarding children, the laws of forbidden foods fully apply, to the extent that one who feeds a child forbidden foods violates a Torah prohibition (Yevamot 114a; Shulchan Aruch, O. C. 343:1) even though the child is not personally culpable. Therefore, they, too, must not make a bracha on such food (see BemarehHabazak II, p. 17). We do not train children in mitzvot in such a way that if they were adults, their actions would be improper. This applies even when the action is neutral (see Biur Halacha on Shulchan Aruch 657:1), all the more so when it pertains to a forbidden action. 

Even when a Jewish school cannot convince the children to eat only kosher food, it is still able to train them to make berachot properly. Make sure that the children have been given some kosher food and have them make the berachot on it. Even if the children get so used to making berachot that they will do so at home on non-kosher food, that is not a reason for the educators to refrain from teaching their students the important mitzva of berachot. Furthermore, even if at the same meal, non-kosher food will be eaten, as long as the bracha was said on the kosher food, the bracha was proper. Thus, if you give the children bread and they say hamotzi and bircat hamazon together, you cover almost all beracha issues. If a food other than bread is given out, the joint beracha would be on that food. If the majority of the children are eating kosher, then one should encourage the group to make the berachot in any case. Even when a minority are eating kosher, a teacher can still make a bracha out loud on his food and have the children say "amen." 

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) 

"To be for you your G-d."

(Vayikra 11:45, Sh’mini)

Even the material acts that you perform "for you", should be performed for the sake of G-d.
— Baal Shem Tov

Is it really such a big deal to be a great person? Anyone, no matter what their standing, can mix heaven and earth! But to be a good person... that is a great deed indeed!
— The Seer of Lublin

When our ancestors were wandering in the desert, eating manna from Heaven, everyone received an equal portion of food: one measure per head. So how were they able to fulfill the mitzva of giving charity?

Our ancestors contributed know- ledge for charity. The learned gave charity to those less knowledgeable.
— Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

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

In his youth, R’ Avraham Mordechai of Gur was once gravely ill. The doctors had given up all hope, and R’ Avraham Mordechai’s spirits were very low. His father, the Chidushei HaRim, approached his bed and whispered to him, “Know, my son, that it is a mitzva to want to live”. He added his own prayer that his son recover and produce a worthy son.

R’ Avraham Mordechai did indeed recover and have a son. That son was the Sefas Emes.

R’ Yosef Yosel Horowitz of Novarodok would say: “A yeshiva is not measured by how many good students and how many bad students it has, but by how it defines “good” and “bad”.

Excerpted with the permission of the copyright holder

From the Desk of the Director 

Parshat Shmini introduces us to sweet sorrow. In the parsha we share the elation of Aharon and his sons as they are finally consecrated as Kohanim. We share the joy as Aharon performs the Chatat, Olah, and Shlamim offerings in rapid succession as an enthralled crowd looks on. 

All the offerings are accepted. Aharon then blesses the people. A fire descends and consumes the Olah. And then Kavod Hashem appears to all of Bnei Yisra’el. At this peak, “the people saw and uttered cries of exaltation and fell upon their faces.”

Suddenly the parsha takes a dramatic twist as Nadav and Avihu bring an alien fire and are consumed “before Hashem.” Many reasons are posited for this morbid turn of events. Of import to us today is the message that Moshe imparts to Aharon following the tragedy: “Hashem [says] - I will be sanctified by those who are nearest me; thus I will be honored before the entire people.”

G-d, it appears, is truly honored when He exacts strict justice - especially upon the righteous, of whom so much is expected. Aaron, now cognizant of the quintessential meaning of Kiddush Hashem, remains silent. As a tribute Hashem later addresses him directly in the matter of not offering sacrifices under the influence of drink. Perhaps Aharon is learning the difficult lesson that for Jews fulfillment is not an intoxicating episode. It is rather a function of authentic service - and sometimes the gruesomely ultimate sacrifice - to Hashem. 

Shabbat Shalom, Menachem Persoff, Director, Israel Center

Melachim Alef 6:1 gives us another name for Iyar, the second month of the year. The Beit HaMikdash was built in the 480th year from the Exodus, the 4th year of the reign of Shlomo HaMelech, in the month of ZIV.

Memo from the Chief Statistician of Torah Tidbits

Last week we raised the question of the discrepancy between the middle of the Torah in words and letters as often printed in Chumashim and the midpoints as determined by computer-assisted counts of the Torah's text. Amiel Naiman responded to our request for information by pointing us towards an article by Prof. Eli Merzbach of Bar Ilan's math department that appeared in the DAF SH'VU'I, a weekly Parsha sheet, for Sh'mini, 5760. Working with earlier sources, Prof. Merzbach explains that "middle of the Torah in words" refers not to all the words, but to the 89 pairs of word-twins (with the same roots), such as ZOREI'A ZERA, NO'ACH NO'ACH, HAGEIR HAGAR. (Pairs such as LECH L'CHA are NOT included in this count.) DAROSH DARASH is the 45th double - the middle. He also explains that this kind of count was probably a Sofer's "trick" to quickly check through a Sefer Torah, without having to actually count almost 80,000 words. It's not a perfect way to count, but it can quickly catch some problems.