Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Psak Halacha and Reality

The reaction I got to my TftD: Psak Halacha Regarding Protection that Beats Firearms was much, much different than what I expected. By way introduction to my surprise, allow me to relate a story regarding my father, Yaakov ben Yosef, alav ha'shalom whose yahrtzeit is approaching; 13th Adar (he was niftar a month before Purim, but in a straight year like this one, it is Ta'anis Esther).

Several years ago, approximately 13 years before my father's p'tira, I received a distressing phone call: my father had suffered a major heart attack and was just now being air lifted to the closest cardiac intensive care unit. In fact, the heart attack had started the night before, but because of misdiagnosis and generally incompetent medical staff at the small hospital near his home, he had been left suffering all night being treated for indigestion! Baruch HaShem, I was able to get there right away and again three weeks later when he had his triple bypass surgery. Baruch HaShem, the surgery was a success. I asked the doctor during recovery how my father -- who was overweight and a cigar smoker -- had survived that horrendous night of his heart attack. The doctor replied, "Because he exercised his whole life."

My father and I both got the message. My father lost weight, quit smoking completely, and upped his exercise game. Within a year he was off all of his medications. I also upped my exercise regime and became even more conscious of keeping my weight appropriate. I have told this story many times. Never, not even once, has anyone exclaimed: "What!? You just exercise and watch your weight!? You didn't have a bypass surgery just as precaution!?" Nor even, "What?! Your father's doctor told your father that he didn't need the meds anymore, so he just stopped taking them?! I mean, heck, exercise and weight control are nice, but at least also take the meds!!"

Nope, not even once. Frankly, I don't think it even entered anyone's mind. Yet, some did have the reaction, "Sure, sure... not talking in shul during davening is certainly nice, but don't you think there should also be gun wielding congregants?"

Nope.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

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 Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more