Jewish: March 2004 Archives

Huge thanks to Jacob Sasson for sending me the link to SoftMaza.com. Strange as it might seem, the Sepharadic matzot are not the wholesome crispy goodness most of us are accustomed to. Instead, their matzot might resemble pizza dough's malleability.¹

Why the difference?

Jewish law defines two types of blessings for grain products: "Hamotzi" for actual bread and "Mezonot" for everything else. Berachot 41b-42a identifies a type of bread called "pat habah b'kisnin" and classifies this as mezonot, not hamotzi - unless one is kove'a seudah establishes a meal, in which case it would be hamotzi as well.

What is this "pat habah b'kisnin"? As always, it depends on whom you ask. Shulhan Aruch 168:7 provides two main definitions. One possibility is that this bread was made with additional flavorings or sweeteners such as honey, sugar, nuts, or fruit juices.² Then there is the opinion of R. Hai Gaon that kisnin refers to bread that is dry and presumably hard.³ Shulhan Aruch rules that the definition follows both opinions.⁴

Following this ruling, the typical "matzah" we all know and love should really be mezonot since it's dry and hard. R. Ovadia Yosef addresses this issue directly in Yehave Da'at 3:12 and as always, quotes just about every relevant source. He concludes that Sepharadim would tread matzah as mezonot during the year, Ashkenazim would say hamotzi, and both have sources on whom to rely.

At any rate, it does seem odd that the same food would have different classifications at different times of the year. Either matzah should be hamotzi or it should be mezonot! The solution of course, would be to have matzah which is in fact soft, and thus wouldn't come under the category of pat habah b'kisnin.

Another support for the soft matzah is in the haggadah itself. At the Seder we remember Hillel's korech sandwich; he would eat the korban pesach (passover sacrifice), the marror (bitter herb) together with the matzah. As my father points out each year at the Seder, the word "Korech" means to "fold." In order for Hillel to have been able to fold his matzah, it couldn't have been the hard wafers we see today, but most probably was the soft matzah of the Sepharadim.

I have no idea how the soft matzah gets made, but they do have pictures of the baking process. You can also conveniently order your soft matzot and even get pre-checked rice!

1. No, pizza dough is NOT matzah. Calm down - it's only an analogy.
2. Though not mentioned by the Shulhan Aruch here, eggs would also be included in this category. This is why many Jews are strict on having "water hallah" for Shabbat as opposed to the more common hallot which are made with eggs.
3. Note that the Star-K follows a stricter interpretation of this criteria, stating that the hardness must be "predicated on the intention of the producer when the product is baked or manufactured."
4. Rambam (Hilkhot Berakhot 3:9) additionally requires that have the appearance or shape of bread.

I'm surprised this one wasn't caught by The Juggle Zone. TES, purveyor of fine Jewish software, is running a sale on the popular Bar Ilan CD-ROM. Why is this blogworthy, you may ask? The sale creates an unusal pricing plan:

• Cost to purchase new: $529.00
• Cost to upgrade from v. 5: $599.00

So if you own Bar Ilan Version 5 and you want to upgrade, don't tell them about it. It'll cost you $70.

Rabbi Adam Mintz of the Lincoln Square Synagogue recently made a questionable statement to the New York Times:

Rabbi Adam Mintz, who describes his congregation of 900 families at the Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side as "modern Orthodox" and is president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said he doesn't think the world will end if a bris is postponed for the sake of the party. "Any mohel will tell you Sunday is the most popular day, and even among the Orthodox, people are choosing the date that's most popular," he said. "We have an in-house caterer, so 90 percent have it at the synagogue and 10 percent have it at home."

This seems to imply that bris may be postponed until Sunday out of convenience. Dr. Manhattan correctly notes that a bris may only be postponed for health reasons. However, Protocols posts an e-mail sent by R. Mintz clarifying his position:

I proceeded to explain to her [interviewer Alex Witchell] when we allow for the delay of brises and the fact that the custom has developed, at least in certain circles in America, to be more flexible when rescheduling a delayed bris. Therefore, Sunday is often the day in which these brises take place.

This is an interesting statement by Rabbi Mintz. Most Orthodox Jews would not think of postponing a bris purely for the sake of the part. However, sometimes the baby is sick, and the bris cannot be performed on the eighth day. In such cases, many people are under the impression that once you're postponing the bris for health reasons, you can delay the bris until Sunday or a more convenient day.

The seemingly flippant presentation, "he doesn't think the world will end if a bris is postponed for the sake of the party," is accurate to some extent. There is a special commandment to have the bris on the eighth day. Once that day passes, the baby must still be circumcised as soon as possible - either by the father, or by the court. However, since there is no "official" time limit, people will not distinguish between a bris performed on the tenth day or a bris performed on any given Sunday.

However, this understandable assumption contradicts Jewish law. If a bris has to be delayed for health reasons, it must be preformed as soon as soon as possible. (See Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah 262 :2) The only exception to this rule is that if the earliest time after the eighth day is a Shabbat, the bris is postponed until Sunday.(Rambam Hilkhot Milah 1:9) Time does matter, and a bris should not be delayed any more than it has to be.

Nibling Eli was born with jaundice, and his bris was delayed. Despite the problems coordinating out of state family members, the bris was held in their apartment on the earliest day. And yes, some family members were not able to be there.

Actually, this let to one of the most amusing conversations I had in R. Tendler's shiur:

Me: We don't know when the bris will be yet. It depends on the Bilirubin numbers
R. Tendler: What are the Bilirubin numbers?
Me (innocently): Oh, those are the numbers that tell you how much jaundice the kid has.

It is at this time that I'd like to point out that R. Tendler has a PhD in biology, teaches bio in the college, and lectures extensively on medical ethics.

R. Tendler: I know what the Billirubin numbers are, I want to know what the Billirubin numbers are.

At any rate, the bris was performed as soon as we had the doctor's ok, and everyone seems to be doing fine 6 years later.

I'm trying to work on shticks, but my blogging time has been getting filled up with halakhic questions. And yes, Torah takes priority over Purim shticks.

Today is the Fast of Esther, which is observed a few days earlier than usual because of Shabbat. Around fast days, Rabbis constantly get asked what time the fast ends. When I give my answer, I usually hear the follow-up question, "Why are you 30 minutes (or more) earlier than everyone else?"

In Ta'anit 12a R. Hisda says that any fast which doesn't last until sunset is not considered a fast. Logically then, a fast that does end at sunset is considered a fast, and sunset is therefore the minimal time for ending fast.

Rosh (Ta'anit 1:12) explains that sunset here doesn't mean the beginning of sunset, but rather the end of sunset - called tzeit ha-kochavim the halakhic definition of nightfall. However, Rosh doesn't provide any reason for this stringency.

Tosafot (Avoda Zara 34a s.v. Mit'anin L'shaot, Zevachim 56a s.v. Minayin L'dam, Menachot 20b s.v. Nifsal B'Shekiat) admit that the gemara in Ta'anit does mean the beginning of sunset, since elsewhere "sunset" means the beginning of sunset, but the practice developed to be stricter and to wait until nightfall. Sefer Kolbo (61) cites the Rif¹ as saying that many people end their fast immediately at sunset, following the gemara in Ta'anit. Despite this, Sefer Kolbo follows the custom of the Tosafot on the grounds that we are not experts in determining the conclusion of sunset, and is therefore strict to wait until nightfall.² Finally, Tur (Orach Hayim 562) and Beit Yosef (Orach Hayim 562:6) both define this instance of "sunset" as "nightfall"

The Vilna Gaon (OH 562:1) references Pesahim 54b where there is a debate as to whether fast of the 9th of Av ends at sunset, implying that it is certainly permitted on every other fast day. I have been told from several that the Vilna Gaon does rule the fast ends at sunset, but I have not seen the source inside.³

R. Ovadia Yosef acknowledges the inconsistent definitions of sunset - sometimes meaning the beginning of sunset, but here meaning the end.(Yehaveh Da'at 5:22) He concludes that the generally accepted custom is to wait until nightfall, but those who wish to end earlier have on whom to rely.(Yabia Omer 6 O.H. 31)

My sense is that the Bavli clearly defines a fast ending at sunset, not at nightfall. This is the most consistent reading of the Talmud; even Tosafot agree with this reading of the gemara in Ta'anit. Sometime between the Rif and Rosh, the custom changed and interpretations changed to match the custom.⁴ At any rate, the halakhic end for the fast is at sunset. The later stringency is not based on halakha, but on minhag (custom). This isn't to say that minhagim could or should simply be ignored, but the talmud defines objective rules for how customs work within the halakhic system. Thus, the laws of fasting post-sunset are not inherent to the laws of fasting, but the laws of observing customs. At some point I'll write more about that in detail, but until then see my shiur on minhagim and of course Rambam's Introduction.

To find the exact times in your area, see the OU's or kashrut.com's zemanim calculators.

1. Kolbo doesn't cite a source for this Rif, and a Bar Ilan search didn't find it.
2. Rabbeinu Yerucham (Toldot Adam 18:1:163c), Tashbetz Katan (1), Sefer Yirei'im (274), Maharif (6), and a whole slew of others follow the stringency of Tosafot and Rosh.
3. Neither Bar Ilan nor the UC Library have been helpful.
4. I have no time to do a full History of Halakha report on this, but if you want to, I'd love to see what you find.