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Thought for the Day: Olives, My New Rosh Chodesh Treat

If you like olives and you don't care about forgetting your learning, then you may want to stop reading now. Take your time; I'll wait.

Ok, so either don't care for olives or you do care about remembering your learning (or both). I like olives. Growing up I only ate pitted, black olives. They were also a fun food, as the fit quite neatly over the tips of child sized fingers. I did not like green olives. Then I grew up and discovered martinis; which contain a pitted green olive -- filled with either an almond or pimento -- as garnish. Quite tasty end to the martini. More recently, I have discovered spiced and pickled Mediterranean whole olives; they come in an assortment of sizes, colors, and tastes; quite delicious. Then I went to R' Fuerst's shiur yesterday; Sunday, July 14, 2024. A day I shall not soon forget.

The shiur is entitled: Interesting Shailos: Haircut/Shave/Shower Before Shacharis, Shaking Off Dust from a Beged on Shabbos and more. It is available on TorahAnytime.com. That word "more" in the title is what changed my life.

Chazal tell us (Horiyos, 13b) that eating olives regularly can cause one to forget his Torah learning. There are several other things that also adversely affect one's memory: eating leftovers from an animal (I mean... he only ate half that hamburger!), wiping your hands on your clothes (pay attention to that one, kids), using your clothes as a pillow. There are others, see this nice article by the OU: Forgetfulness.

Where was I? Oh, yes... olives. While olives are a problem for one's memory, the same Gemara says that olive oil is good for one's memory. R' Fuerst started by mentioning that R' Yaakov Emden says that olives are only a problem straight off the tree, but pickled are fine. R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach says that if you dip the olives in olive oil (or make olive dip, seems to me), then the negative effects of eating the olives is counteracted by the positive benefits of the olive oil. Whew; safe.

Then R' Fuerst concluded with the p'sak of R' Chaim Kanievsky: olives in all forms. R' Chaim says that he never saw a Chazal that gave the advice of pickling or mixing with olive oil. It says olives, it means olives; finished. I asked how we hold. He said the halacha is like R' Chaim. After all, there is an actual Torah prohibition for a man to do anything that could cause him to forget his Torah learning, so one must be stringent.

Note that olives are a problem for Torah learning. Eating olives won't make you forget math. Also, olives are only a problem if eaten regularly, but once every 30 (or, according to some, 40) days is no problem. Olives can also cause women to forget their learning, but they do not transgress a Torah prohibition by doing so.

I spoke to R' Fuerst later in the day and he told me that he has a leniency that he didn't want to say in public. You can ask him yourself, if you like. However, R' Fuerst concluded his comments to me, "But why would you want to take a chance on forgetting 70 years of learning?!"

Hence, olives are now a rosh chodesh treat for me.

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