A Positive Side to Loshon Harah?

 Recently, I saw the following article on gossip on CNN
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/18/gossip-may-have-social-purpose-study-says/?hpt=hp_c3
describing the social value of gossip. I wondered what this says about loshon harah.

The fact is that this article actually just points to the inherent complexity of the laws of loshon harah and the problem in the modern day desire to simplify this complex halachic area. Gossip per se is not loshon harah. The latter is a very specific form of gossip that is forbidden. There are times where gossip, although I would not use this term, is not only permitted but mandated.

Maybe the problem is with this word gossip -- for that implies saying something just for the purpose of saying it. The reality is that information about a person that it would be necessary for another person to know -- as this lack of knowledge could be harmful -- should be shared. A hard rule never to talk about another is simply wrong. What this article may show is that that the motivations for gossip that may be inherently human, like many other human drives, has its place. Halacha just demands of us to know it.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

Atheists At It Again

Remember the Battle of the Tunnel from 2010...
see http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/2010/12/battle-of-tunnel.html
and 2011
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/2011/11/battle-of-tunnel-part-2.html


well the Atheists are at it again, this time with a twist, targeting Moslems and Jews.

See
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/01/atheist-group-targets-muslims-jews-with-myth-billboards-in-arabic-and-hebrew/?hpt=hp_t3

I really don't know what to say. YKVK on the billboard clearly bothers me but how to respond?

Rabbi Ben Hecht

P. Zachor: Zecher/Zeicher

Parashat Tetzaveh - Yosef Peretz

http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/tetzaveh/peres.html

To sum up:

* R. David Kimhi mentions two methods of pointing which he observes in Sephardic manuscripts: zekher and zekher

* The disciples of the Vilna Gaon disagreed about how their Rabbi used to read this word in Parshat Zakhor, whether with a tzere or a segol.

* Because of uncertainty as to which was correct, the Mishnah Berurah ruled that z-kh-r Amalek should be read twice, once with tzere and once with segol.»

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What does your shul do?
What makes more sense to you - to repeat or to NOT repeat?


Shalom,
RRW

Gesher Ha-Chaim Available On Line

Weekly Freebies: Gesher Ha-Chaim | Hirhurim – Torah Musings

http://torahmusings.com/2012/02/weekly-freebies-gesher-ha-chaim/

« I asked him whether he preferred Gesher Ha-Chaim or Pnei Barukh, which was later translated and published by Artscroll. He liked Gesher Ha-Chaim better because it doesn't just give multiple opinions (some say this and some say that) but tells you which you should preferably follow. »

Shalom,
RRW

The Dating Game - 2

Previously we wrote in
NishmaBlog: The Dating Game
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/dating-game.html


How Daniyyel claimed that 490 years will transpire from Mikdash to Mikdash. Subtracting 70 years for the Babylonian exile, that leaves 420 years. We have a firm Tradition that Bayyit Sheini lasted 420 years.

Scientific Historians tell us that about 586 years transpired

The first Temple was destroyed by
N'vuchadnezzar in 586 BCE
2nd Mikdash was erected 70 years later in 516 BCE
And
2nd Mikdash was destroyed in 70 CE

So how can 420 = 586?

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Response -

Here is a cute model to help explain how we may view the "dichotomy" with greater flexibility

L'.mashal -
In football 60 minutes takes 3 hours

In basketball 48 minutes takes 2.5 hours

Nimshal
I'm guessing here too - that 420 of Bayyis Sheini took 580 years because it was counting ONLY the years it actually [fully] functioned. EG when the Greeks occupied it, it was a "time-out" and the clock stopped

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There is also a hypothesis that the 480 years in M'lachim, from Exodus to Sh'lomoh's Mikdash, was about 200 years too long and had to be made up some how.


Shalom,
RRW

Love Your Students - Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran

A young teacher described this episode which occurred early in her teaching career:

"One beautiful Spring morning when I arrived at school, I was surprised to see a youngster waiting at the door. 'It's locked,' he said sadly. His expression brightened as I began to fumble for my keys. 'You're a teacher!" he exclaimed in obvious delight.

"As I slipped the key into the lock and opened the door, I looked at him and smiled. 'What makes you think that?' I asked him, amused and pleased in no small measure by his reaction.

"He looked directly into my eye and spoke softly but with respect. 'You have the key.'»


Teacher! Love Your Students! - Judaism - Israel National News

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11300


Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran serves as vice president of communications and marketing of the Orthodox Union's Kashruth Division. His most recent book is "Mediations at Sixty: One Person, Under God, Indivisible," published by KTAV Publishing House. He is the author of "Kos Eliyahu – Insights into the Haggadah and Pesach" which has been translated into Hebrew and published by Mosad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem.

Shalom,
RRW

Massorah and Beit Din Hagadol

The power of Torah sheb'al Peh [TSBP]


הלכות ממרים פרק א

א בית דין הגדול שבירושלים--הם עיקר תורה שבעל פה, והם עמוד ההוראה, ומהם חוק ומשפט יוצא לכל ישראל, ועליהם הבטיחה תורה: שנאמר "על פי התורה אשר יורוך, ועל המשפט אשר יאמרו לך--תעשה" (דברים יז,יא), זו מצות עשה. וכל המאמין במשה רבנו ובתורתו--חייב לסמוך מעשה הדת אליהם, ולהישען עליהן

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R Akiva was in Yavneh. Was he on "Beis Din Haggadol"?


מסכת מכות פרק א


א,יא סנהדרין נוהגת בארץ, ובחוצה לארץ. סנהדרין ההורגת אחד בשבוע, נקראת חבלנית; רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר, אחד לשבעים שנה.

רבי טרפון ורבי עקיבה אומרים, אילו היינו בסנהדרין, לא נהרג בה אדם לעולם; רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר, אף הן מרבים שופכי דמים בישראל.

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Apparently not

Hypothesis

Only after the Hurban and the dissolution of BD Hagaddol did the need for a direct chain of individuals become important to our M'sorah. Before that it was perpetuated by the anonymous 70 Z'keinim of each generation.

EG See Iggeres deRabbenu Sh'rirah Gaon for further elaboration.

Shalom,
RRW

The marriage crisis and why singles today don't want to commit. - by Rabbi Benjamin Blech

«The simple truth seems to be that people just don't seem to want to commit. And I have my own theory for this contemporary sorry state of affair.

I know my research is only anecdotal and I have no proof to back up my claim but I think that rather than a new cultural aversion to the state of matrimony there's something else going on here.»

Too Many Options
http://www.aish.com/d/w/Too_Many_Options.html?mobile=yes

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IMHO - This is the Nissayon of Affluence. A more depressed or repressed society would need to depend more upon marriage and companionship to make do.

Shalom,
RRW