Michael el Chayil

One of the many pleasures of being a grandparent is doing homework with your grandchildren. After listening to my grandson's reading homework (he did amazing, thank you), we went outside to have supper (week before Pesach; you understand). After washing, he started drying his hands on his shirt. I told him that he shouldn't do that, because he doesn't want to forget his learning (Mishna Brura 158:45). His older brother burst out with, " That  explains why I have stains on my clothes and keep getting low grades!" He does  have stains on his clothes, he most certainly does not get low grades; so says the proud grandfather. I also thought it was right clever to turn a bit of mussar into a way to shed responsibility for his actions. They grow up so fast. But, really; who doesn't like shortcuts?  J. Pierrepont Finch had his book, " How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. " We have our  סגולות... don't we? Having trouble finding a shidduch ...

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Sha...

Shortly after signing on to live a Torah lifestyle, my family made a birthday party for me. Very nice. They even invited our rabbi. Very nice. He even came to the party. Really very nice. He agreed to speak. Very nice and  a z'chus. He started by saying, "Well, Michael, the only place in the Torah where we find a birthday being celebrated was for Paroh...." I don't remember anything he said after that; it was nice, he has always spoken very well... none the less I was sort of stuck on the implied comparison -- wholly unintentional, of course -- with Paroh. One may also consider: if a condemned man was on a train that had 70 stops from the court house to his final destination, he most certainly would not be celebrating the arrival at each new station with, "Yay! One more stop along the way!" Anyways (sic), birthdays (if you don't think too deeply, anyway) are lots of fun. Each celebration, of course, must have a cake. And what, I ask you, is a birthday ...

The say a story about a fresh off the boat European rabbi who was asked by his relatively modern congregation if bananas were permissible during Pesach. The rabbi had never seen one, so they brought one to show him. A picture may be worth 1000 words, and the real-McCoy-holding-it-in-your-hands must be worth oodles and oodles of words and pictures; but to no avail. The rabbi, looking a bit flummoxed, turned to his new flock and said, "Can't you do without this for a week?" I don't believe it actually happened, but its a cute story. Even with all the choices and hechsharim, Pesach can still feel like that. On the other hand, R' Heinemann feels that a person should only accept a stringency after serious deliberation. One noteworthy point is that Simchas Yom Tov is a Torah obligation. If accepting a new stringency would disturb your enjoyment of the holiday, then perhaps it is the wrong thing to do. Ask your rav. The truth is, though, Pesach is  different and obse...