April 2006 Archives

Shalom Uvracha Meha'aretz! Things are good over here and thankfully there haven't been any major incidents. Just a few things worthy of bullet points:

• Security going to Israel went by much quicker than I thought it would. Perhaps this is an Iberia Airlines thing. We'll see about going back.
• The airport in Madrid is stunning with its mountain views, but is far too large and inefficiently built.
• I sat across the isle from someone I dated and had absolutely no recollection of her. None. Complete black out. Normally I can remember at least one quirk or minimally a name or I could remember actively repressing a memory. Totally blanked on this one. I'm either getting too old or I've dated too many people. Possibly both. Thankfully I blamed lack of sleep
• Walk The Line was a decent but thoroughly overrated movie (as was Reese Witherspoon's performance)
• Despite the changing planes in Madrid, Iberia did not lose the luggage. Yes, this deserves a bullet point
• I need to start a new series here called You Make the Pesak for all those times where you need to make a halakhic decision on the spur of the moment. More on the impetusfor this when I get back.
• Ben Gurion's new airport is nice and all, but frankly I do miss holding on for dear life as bus traverses the tarmac. It was part of the charm
• Israeli Moment 1: Despite the new and improveness of Ben Gurion, the luggage conveyer belt broke. Rather, the belt which goes around in that big oval broke. The belt which drops the luggage on the larger one was working fine, as evidenced by the major backup and avalanche of luggage onto hapless passangers. Of course the best way to solve this problem was not to fix the larger belt or even to switch to a different one, but to mill about and send more bags on top of each other. Gotta love Israel.
• Amazingly, the Orange Big Talk phone I bought when I was in Gruss, *still* works (though they added a random 4 to the number), had 75 shekel left on it from the last time my parents were there, and the phone book was still intact including several people I dated when I was in Gruss (most of them married - one just got engaged last week). On the down side, it now has a battery life of roughly 7 minutes.
• I really miss talking to Haham Faur.
• Raising kids is easy - just give them food and make sure they don't kill themselves. It's raising *good* kids that's difficult, but a whole lot more worthwhile.

I'm planning on being in Alon Shevut for Shabbat and yes I'll send generic regards to random strangers. In the meantime, Hag Kasher V'Sameach again, and enjoy your sedarim!

Heh. Sedarim.

One quick halakha before my ride to the airport gets here. This one come from Shulhan Aruch O.C. 461:5:

אם אפו חמץ עם מצה, לא נאסרה אא"כ נגעה בחמץ ונוטל ממקום שנגעה כדי נטילת מקום, והשאר מותר

Rough translation: Matzah baked with hametz is only problematic (i.e. considered hametz itself and thus prohibited on Pesach) if they touched, in which case, cut off from the matzah at the point of contact and the rest is fine. Lest you think this is some Sephardi leniency, here's the Ramo:

מצה שנתכפלה בתנור ודבוקה עד יא שאין שולט שם האש, אוסרים אותה תוך הפסח אבל שאר מצות שבתנור מותרים וקודם פסח אין לאסור רק מקום דבוקה

And just to be sure, the Mishnah Berurah:

כדי נטילת מקום - היינו כעובי רוחב אצבע אגודל בינוני ויש מאחרונים שמחמירין בנעשה תוך הפסח לאסור כולו ולפי מש"כ הגר"א בסקי"ז יש להקל גם בזה

If you'd like to make sense of all this, I recommend looking over the entire siman as well as the Bet Yosef or you could hock your local Rabbi.

Hag Kasher V'Sameach!

As some of you may know I'm going to be in Israel for Pesach. It's my first vacation in just about ever, since for several years I have either had the time or money to travel, but not both. So I figure since I might not have the time or access to post over Pesach, I can address something for which I have recently been getting a lot of flack.

Despite my staying in Israel for roughly two weeks, I will be keeping one day of Yom Tov this Pesach.

There was a big kerfuffle a few years back about kohanim flying on airplanes and passing over cemetaries and one of the wackier proposed solutions involved having the Kohein wrap himself up in a bodybag. While this didn't go over well at the time, it was probably due to lousy marketing. Had they called it an "airline sleeping bag not only would it have become trendy, but they could have even charged $99 for it.

Ok so we'd need to make a more "modest" sleeved version, but it's basically there.

After a long protracted search I'm finally back iin Washington Heights and pretty much set in the new apartment give or take a few things.¹ In honor of this auspicious occasion, I'd say the following is in order:

Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.

Welcome back,
To that same old place that you laughed about.

Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.

Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya)
Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)

Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've hot him on the spot, welcome back,
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

1. And just in time to head out to Israel for Pesach

A bunch of fun stories from this edition from my old stomping grounds in this edition of YU's Commentator. Some may be old news to you insiders, but those of us out of the loop take what we can get.

• The university offers its response to charges of discrimination. Apparently this case was thrown out once before.


• There really is someone new heading YCDS meaning of course, Dr. Anthony Beukas has actually retired.


• And speaking of retiring, so has Dr. Haym Soloveitchik. This is a major announcement with ramifications affecting YU's entire Judaic Studies department in terms of philosophy, faculty, and future students.

The increased visibility of Jews and Judaism in the mainstream media should be obvious to most people who actually partake in secular culture. On this blog we've recently discussed a new movie on competitive bar-mitzvahs and further back we noted a Comedy Central special titled Heroes of Jewish Comedy.

While these examples cover only the most superficial aspects of cultural or ethnic Judaism¹ we are also noticing a more overtly religious Judaism being portrayed. Many blogs are covering the Orthodox Jew(s)² on NBC's The Apprentice, and the of course, there's everyone's favorite Lubavitch rapper Matisyahu who recently played MSG.

I'm bringing this up because just the other day I heard Matisyahu's King Without a Crown (Stubb's version) on Z100 in the middle of a party mix featuring your standard trance music and Reggaeton. But as odd as that cultural placement was, it *still* wasn't the most bizarre I have seen.

That honor goes to MTV's Real World Season 7 (Seattle). Cast member Stephen³ demonstrated his connection to Judaism⁴ in the casting special by lighting Shabbat candles. While such choreographed displays of ritual are commonplace, MTV did have chutzpa to play Just One Shabbos in the background.

MBD on MTV. It doesn't get much better than that.

Still I'm curious if anyone out there can top it. Open question: what is the most surreal interpolation of Judaism in mainstream culture you've personally seen?

1. Also see Seinfeld and to some extent Jon Stewart.
2. As of this post, one of two was eliminated.
3. You know, the guy who slapped Irene.
4. I forgot if he actually converted or just hung out with Jews in college.