HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: murray.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: L'Chaim
Date: 2 Sep 92 14:14:50 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

***********************************************************************
   L'CHAIM               ISSUE  #  230  PART                  4   OF  8
***********************************************************************   
  
                              WHAT'S NEW?
***********************************************************************
 
RENAISSANCE FAIR
 
   It  started out 14  years ago  with 500 people  and has grown  to an
annual event for NY metro area Jews with over 10,000 people. The Jewish
Renaissance Fair, sponsored  by the  Rabbinical College  of America  in
Morristown, New Jersey, is a full  day of Jewish fun and excitement for
the whole family. Located on the College's 15-acre campus at 226 Sussex
Turnpike, the fair boasts  live entertainment, including singer Avraham
Fried and "Shlock Rock," a working shtetel complete with artisans and a
petting farm, food, mitzva bumper  boats and lots more. The fair  is on
Sunday, Sept. 6. Rain date is Monday, Sept. 7. Tickets are available at
the entrance, through Ticketmaster,  or at locations throughout NY  and
NJ. For more info call (201) 267-9404.
 
NEW IN ENGLISH
   In an effort to make the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, shlita,
available to the English-speaking public, Sichos in English was founded
over a decade ago. Recently, it began publishing three new series: Seek
Out  the Welfare  of Jerusalem,  about Jerusalem  and the  Holy Temple;
Timeless Patterns of Time on the holidays; and From Exile to Redemption
about Moshiach and  the Messianic Era. To receive copies  of any of the
above call Sichos in English at (718) 778-5436 or write to them at  788
Eastern Parkway, Bklyn, NY 11213.
 
---
 *Origin: L'Chaim BBS - KESHERnet NYC node2 (718-756-7201) (1:278/610)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Headaches during major fasts (was: Smoking ...)
From: dcs@witsend.tnet.com (D. C. Sessions)
Date: 23 Aug 92 04:57:31 GMT
Organization: Nobody but me -- really
X-Mailer: TMail version 1.03

In <86696@netnews.upenn.edu>, weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)  wrote:
# In article <765198d3122173t83@witsend.uucp>, dcs@witsend (D. C. Sessions) writes:
# >  It could also be blood sugar.  Avoiding sweets for a few days in
# >  advance seems to help; the meal before fasting should be more
# >  oriented towards protein than carbs.  (I could have this wrong;
# >  check competant MEDICAL, not Rabbinical, authorities.)
# 
# You'd be surprised how much rabbis know.  Chicken anatomy, who's a good
# dentist, and all that.  Caffeine withdrawal is the cause of most bad fast
# headaches.  I almost never touch the stuff myself, but I've heard that
# you can withdraw the day before, take painkillers the day before the
# fast when the headache hits, and then go into the fast without too much
# difficulty.  I'll never know for sure.

  Decongestants also help with caffeine withdrawal, BTW.  Oral,
  not nasal administration.  DON'T do this if you have hypertension,
  but then you shouldn't be using caffeine either.
---
--- D. C. Sessions                            Speaking for myself ---
--- Note new network address:                    dcs@witsend.uucp ---
--- And if that doesn't work:                dcs@witsend.tnet.com ---
--- There never was any correspondence between my views and SCI's ---
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet)
Subject: Re: Not a Charm?
Reply-To: ask@cblph.att.com
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories,  Columbus, Ohio
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 23:16:52 GMT

>>>   The mezuza is not a charm or amulet  and should not be considered as
>>>one.  Yet it does  offer protection. As  explained in the  Kabbala, the
>>>mezuza provides  G- d's  protection from  the time we  leave the  house
>>>until the time we return home.
>
>>I wonder  why this  function of the  mezuza does not  make it  what is
>>commonly called a  charm or amulet? Where is the  difference? Is it in
>>that one believes that it is a charm which invokes God?

Well, if it's not clear whether a mezzua is a charm or not,
or whether it provides protection or not, how about tfillen?

The usual "English" translation for tfillen is phylacteries.  Not
that anyone has the slightest idea what phylacteries are, except
that they are tfillen, but the word phylacteries has the same root
as prophylactic, which means protection.
-- 
Art Kamlet  a_s_kamlet@att.com  AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
From: sg04@ploni.gte.com (Yechezkal Shimon Gutfreund)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Woody and Soon Yi
Date: 31 Aug 92 15:40:00 GMT
Reply-To: sgutfreund@gte.com
Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham MA

In article <2478@israel.nysernet.org>, warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein) writes:
|> However, after conversion, incest is only forbidden d'rabbanan.
|> Perhaps the prohibition against incest with the adopted children of a
|> non-Jewish wife is also only a d'rabbanan and after conversion there
|> is no prohibition at all?

After reading today's RamBaM (1 perek a day cycle), I think Woody
has only one possible out: The din of a Yafes Toar, which the
RamBaM states was only given because of the Yetzer HaRah.
He goes on to state that only one biah is allowed, after which
she has to convert. 


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Yechezkal Shimon Gutfreund		 		  sgutfreund@gte.com
GTE Laboratories, Waltham MA			    harvard!bunny!sgutfreund
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Organization: Doctoral student, History, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Date: Wed,  2 Sep 1992 22:05:48 -0400 
From: Etan Shalom Diamond <ed16+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Unsolved Mysteries 9/2

I just saw a rerun of NBC's Unsolved Mysteries tonight that was about
some murder of a yeshiva boy on Long Island.  I only saw the tail end of
the report, so I do not know the details.  Does anyone know anything
about this?  Has anyone seen this episode? 

Thanks.

-------
Etan Diamond
Dept. of History
Carnegie Mellon University
ed16@andrew.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: lazer@intacc.uucp (Lazer Danzinger)
Subject: Re: Facts and Opinions: Insights on American Jewish Thinking(?)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 05:26:18 GMT
Organization: Inter/Access' Matrix BBS

Herman Rubin wrote:
	The recodifying has not been done by anybody.  The last recodification
	of a code of ritual and taboo was done in the Shulkhan Arukh...

I responded:
  	I beg to differ. Some notable recodifications include the
  	Aruch HaShulchan and the the Shulchan Aruch HaRav.
  	As works of codification, there objective is not to document
  	the Halachic process of at arriving at the law, but to simply
  	explain what the law is.

Herman Rubin replied:
>I was explicitly mentioning this codification.  But the point which many
>have made, from the prophets on, is that the observance of a detailed law
>code is not the essence of any religion, and Judaism in particular.  Nor
>is the learning of the details of a law code particularly helpful in
>understanding the reasoning behind the code.

	Yes, Herman, you did indeed explicitly mention one particular
	codification. But you mentioned it when you asserted erroneously
	that it was "the _last_ recodification." And as I stated, the
	Shulchan Aruch was not the last recodification.

	With regards to your claim concerning what constitutes the
	"essence" of any religion, you make a broad generalization
	offering no support. To have meaning dialogue about this issue,
	though, would require establishing a common basis of understanding
	on what the definition of essence is. The early classical
	Jewish philosophers argued this very point. I would highly
	recommend you read Sefer HaIkkarim, by R. Yosef Albo.

----
Rabbi Lazer Danzinger
Mashiach -- Be a Part of It!
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: warren@itexjct.jct.ac.il (Warren Burstein)
Subject: any interest in a fund-raising group?
Originator: scj@israel.nysernet.org
Reply-To: <warren@itexjct.jct.ac.il (Warren Burstein)>
Organization: Nysernet
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 23:22:42 GMT

I've gotten one response to my JEM message saying that a group
to discuss fund-raising for shuls and Jewish orgs would be a good
idea.  If there are a few more people, we can set up such a list.
From: janiceg@marvin.Eng.Sun.COM (Janice Gelb)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Egg Creams
Date: 26 Aug 92 16:51:08 GMT
Reply-To: janiceg@marvin.Eng.Sun.COM
Distribution: world
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: marvin

In article 23500@speedy.aero.org, nadel@attatash.aero.org (Miriam Nadel) writes:
>
>Egg creams are pretty much unknown outside the greater NY metropolitan area,
>though some of us have worked to remedy that.  

Hey, I grew up in the sixth borough (Miami Beach) and we had egg creams 
there, too, thanks to all the NY refugees.

(Glad I managed to start a thread that avoids any possibility of O-C-R 
debates.  I think we needed the break!)


********************************************************************************
Janice Gelb                  | (415) 336-7075     
janiceg@marvin.eng.sun.com   | "A silly message but mine own" (not Sun's!) 
********************************************************************************
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: Michael Shimshoni <MASH@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL>
Subject:      Organ Transplants
Originator: scj@israel.nysernet.org
Reply-To: <Michael Shimshoni <MASH@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL>>
Organization: Nysernet
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 22:56:01 GMT

One of  the important discussions going  on these days in  the Israeli
Halakha world  is about conflicting decisions  about organ transplants
which were handed down on one side by two of the most important posqim
of the Haredim  in Israel, Rabbis Aui'erbach and Elyashiv,  and on the
other  side by  Rabbi  Goren the  former Israeli  Chief  Rabbi of  the
Israeli Army and later the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.

The discussion  is essentially  on the definition  when a  person (the
potential donor) is  considered dead.  The Haredi  Rabbis decided that
as long as  the heart beats a  person is alive, even if  that heart is
artificially  kept active  and the  Brain stem  (?) (geza  hamo'ah) is
declared dead by the physicians.

Rabbi  Goren  determines  death  by  Brain death,  and  if  the  heart
continues to beat, it is no longer a "real heart", the center of life,
but  just an  ordinary organ.   In the  case of  a brain  death, organ
donation for  saving a life (piq'uah  nefesh) is not only  allowed but
actually a  must, as  saving life  is (in almost  all cases)  the most
important mitzva putting aside also  laws like honouring the dead body
etc.

The  practical difference  between those  two conflicting  opinions is
enormous,  as  the  Haredi  view  would  make  all  heart  transplants
impossible, and most other ones so much more difficult.

Although  I personally  do not  live  according to  the halakha,  this
halakhic  discussion is  of enormous  consequences also  for me  as an
Israeli.   If the  Haredi view  will influence  the behaviour  of many
families of potential donors, fewer and fewer organs will be available
for transplantation,  with the result  of many lives being  lost.  For
that reason, and  not because I consider myself even  in the slightest
way competent  to express an  opinion on  the halakhic aspect,  I have
brought this issue to the attention of this forum.

Michael Shimshoni
From: friedenb@egr.msu.edu ( Gedaliah Friedenberg )
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Hebrew fonts for Banner Mania available
Date: 25 Aug 92 22:38:17 GMT
Reply-To: friedenb@egr.msu.edu ( Gedaliah Friedenberg )
Organization: Michigan State University
Originator: friedenb@frith.egr.msu.edu

I got 5 Hebrew fonts for Banner Mania, a very popular banner making
program for PCs.  They are all very nice.  I was given these fonts
(and the program for that matter) for free (a copy).  

If it is legal (copyrights again!), I can send these fonts to whoever
wants them.

If anyone knows whether it is legal to distribute the program or its
fonts, please let me know!

Gedaliah Friedenberg
-=-Department of Mechanical Engineering
-=-Department of Metallurgy, Mechanics and Materials Science
-=-Michigan State University
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: ayf@pruxp.att.com (Avi Feldblum)
Subject: Re: wedding on Saturday??
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 02:55:28 GMT

In article <92239.113903CFRQC@CUNYVM.BITNET> ToraByte <CFRQC@CUNYVM.BITNET> writes:
> Kiddush is a type of sanctification. However, it's not the same. Hashem was
>the one who sanctified the day (see Bereishis 2:3). In a sense, our 'kiddush'
>is an acknowledgement and recreation of that kiddush that Hashem made. The
>type of 'kiddush' that is not permitted is originating a 'kiddush' that didn't
>exist before.

Could you supply a source for the above explanation. I'm pretty sure
the reason that I learned had to do with the kinyan nature of kidushin,
as mentioned by several other posters. 

Avi Feldblum
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: re: wedding on Saturday??
From: ToraByte <CFRQC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Wednesday, 26 Aug 1992 01:17:10 EDT
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center

When a man takes a woman as his wife, he says "Harei at MEKUDESHES li ..."
The man is sanctifying, separating and designating the woman to be his
wife. This is the problem. One isn't allowed to sanctify and separate
something (i.e. Mekudash, Mekudeshes) on shabbos. Thus weddings are not
done on shabbos.
                     Zev
-------
                       ____________         ___*___
    T o  B o l d l y  (____________)       (_______)  G o  W h e r e  N o
       Y i d  H a s               \\      //   v        G o n e  B e f o r e
                                   \\    //
            /////                ___\\__//_
       *       //               (__________}                           *
      * *      //         // //                                       * *
   * * * * *  ///////// // // /////// //////// /// /// /// //////  * * * * *
    *     *          // // //      //       //  //  //  //   //     *     *
   * * * * *         //            /        //  // //  //    ///   * * * * *
      * *            //                     //  ////  //      //      * *
       *         /////                ///////// ///////       /        *
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: mark@fenris.albany.edu (Mark Steinberger)
Subject: Re: Woody and Soon Yi
Organization: State University of New York at Albany
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 05:03:34 GMT

In article <5479@shum.huji.ac.il> aplebaum@shum.huji.ac.il (Hillel Applebaum) writes:
>First, I'd like to see Woody convert ...
>(he doesn't act/talk like a jew)

Only in that one scene in Annie Hall. :-)


Does this business show that even in family life, Woody can only
play the one role we always see him in?


--Mark
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: mer@zurlvm1.bitnet
Subject: Re: Unsolved Mysteries 9/2
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 92 12:27:45 GMT
Organization: IBM T. J. Watson Research

In  <4edL=wC00WBO091l18@andrew.cmu.edu>  Etan Shalom Diamond <ed16+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
> I just saw a rerun of NBC's Unsolved Mysteries tonight that was about
> some murder of a yeshiva boy on Long Island.  I only saw the tail end of
> the report, so I do not know the details.  Does anyone know anything
> about this?  Has anyone seen this episode?
>

Can't watch NBC around these parts of the world, but Chaim Weiss was an honors
15 year old student at the Mesifta of Long Beach, and was killed in what
appears to have been some kind of ritualistic killing one late Friday night
in his bed. The case was never solved.  HY"D.

Moshe Rappoport
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: "Mitchell Faust - Adroit Systems -Dayton, Ohio."
Subject: VCR's Israeli Import Duty
Originator: scj@israel.nysernet.org
Reply-To: <"Mitchell Faust - Adroit Systems -Dayton, Ohio.">
Organization: Nysernet
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 16:49:24 GMT


  My wife wants to take a dual compatable VCR to her parents when
  she visits Israel this winter.  I know all about the different
  video standards between the US and Israel.  What I'm looking for
  are recomendations on a brand of dual compatable VCRs.  I'm
  paying particular attention to the NTSCs various recording and 
  playback speeds.  (We once sent them a tape recorded at the 6hr/tape
  play speed (SP?) and they had a hard time finding anyone with a
  VCR that could play it back!!)  ALSO, what will the import duty be
  on one of these babys.  My inlaws tell me that it is still cheeper
  to bring a VCR into Israel and pay the import duty than to buy
  one there.   Thanks in advance.


Mitchell O. Faust
mfaust@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil   

"one of those evil contractors you've been warned about" :-)

-------------------------Silly discalmer here-----------------------
"These opinions and views expressed here are strictly my very own 
 and do not reflect the official position of either the U.S. Air 
 Force, its contractors, staff, management or sponsors."  In fact,
 if asked they will deny my exsistance.
 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
From: warren@nysernet.org (Warren Burstein)
Subject: Re: On Qadish
Reply-To: warren@nysernet.org
Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
Date: 31 Aug 92 19:12:45 GMT

ms = MASH@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL (Michael Shimshoni)
jg = goldberg@techunix.technion.ac.il (Jacques Goldberg)

jg: The leader of the congregation though, who KNOWS what Qadish means and
jg: why orphans recite it, announced that he requests that HE (the leader)
jg: ALONE would recite QADISH rather than a crowd, which INDEED is exactly
jg: how QADISH should be recited, by ONE Shaliach Zibur.

ms: I  find  the words  "exactly  how  QADISH  should  be recited"  a  bit
ms: puzzling,  as  I know  of  many  Orthodox  congregation in  which  all
ms: mourners recite Qadish aloud at the same time.  I wonder if there is a
ms: reference for the claim of Y.  Y.?

In most shuls that I have been at, the practice is as Michael says,
e.g. everyone saying Kaddish recites it together (well, sort of).  In
Chug Hanoar Hadati, a shul in Tel Aviv, which followed customs of the
German Jewish community, only one person would say Kaddish at a time,
as Yaakov says should be done.

The way it works is that the Gabbaim know who is saying Kaddish for
eleven months, and anyone who has Yartzheit that day tells the
Gabbaim, and the Gabbaim go around and tell everyone when it's their
turn.  Of course it is possible that there would be more people with
an obligation to say Kaddish than the number of Kaddishes available,
or that a visitor to the shul would say Kaddish when it is someone
else's turn.

In another shul that I used to go to there was the custom (I never
asked the Rabbi where this custom was from) that anyone having
Yartzheit would get the Kaddish after Alenu all to himself (this was
signified by someone banging a siddur on a bench - yes, I know - and
shouting "Yartzheit Kaddish").  I don't recall if this was done only
at Maariv or also at Shacharit.  At Maariv, since the only Kaddish is
the one after Alenu (except during Sefira or when "L'David Hashem Ori"
is said), the Rabbi would quickly say another perek of Tehilim
(usually the Shir shel yom of Sunday) and the people who were saying
Kaddish for eleven months would say it together with the person with
Yartzheit.
-- 
/|/-\/-\       The entire kitchen		Jerusalem
 |__/__/_/     is a very Czarish mathom.
 |warren@      But the chef
/ nysernet.org is ***.
From: aryk@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (A.J.S. Nusbacher)
Subject: Re: Another Wedding (was Re: weddings on Saturday???)
Organization: University of Toronto -- Hart House
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 18:08:52 GMT

In article <2476@israel.nysernet.org> warren@nysernet.org writes:

>I suppose we'll start seeing wedding programmes here in Israel in a
>few years.  I've seen sheets of explanations of what is going on, but
>never a programme.  Do they look like Playbills?  Ads from, well after
>a play people go out for drinks or dinner, what do the guests do after
>the wedding that might be advertized there?  Gift shops for people who
>haven't bought them a present yet?

The invitation included a card identifying the caterer.  I assumed this
was some sort of advertising, but one of my New York-based friends told
me that this was to enable me to make inquiries as to the hashgachah on
the food.

Some wedding programmes are intended to inform the non-Tribespeople and
non-traditional people at a traditional wedding.  Some, this one included,
are intended to aid in the identification of a large wedding party.  And
they look like the playbills from an amateur dramatic society.

I have written a wedding programme intended to convey a real familiarity
with the event for thinking people who are not traditional Jews.  An uncle
of mine wants to use it for his daughter's wedding, but I thought I might
pass it around to interested wedding aficionadoes.  Anyone who wants a
review copy by wire (and who promises not to distribute it further) should
drop me some email.

Aryk Nusbacher
Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
Date: Tuesday, 1 Sep 1992 20:12:30 EDT
From: <CARIAN@auvm.american.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Oldest Culture?

In article <1992Sep1.231401.10801@cmcl2.nyu.edu>, memco@cns.nyu.edu says:
>
>        The person posting asserted that the Chinese culture was
>the oldest still around. Wouldn't that actually be either the Jewish
>or Zoroastrian cultures?
>
Actually the poster is probably right. If Jewish culture was older than
Chinese culture, that would mean that the earliest Jews had to get
along without Chinese food.

This, of course, is clearly impossible, as a visit to any Jewish neighborhood
will readily make apparent.
From: jis@panix.com (Jack Szwergold)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Violent antisemitism?
Date: 4 Sep 92 02:54:53 GMT
Organization: Panix, NYC

Pardon me.  If this discussion is about Poland being anti-semetic, I have
to say yes.   My parents lived their during WWII and after WWII.  Before
the war, the Polish government treat Jews lower than scum.  After the war
(and even today) Poles don't like Jews.  My brother just came back from a
trip to Poland and visited the old neighborhood he grew up in.   In a poll
taken in a local paper asking what people thought of the jews, the
breakdown was along the lines of %5 openly hated them %15 don't like them
%30 wouldn't mind if they left the country etc... etc... I think you get
the picture.
The majority of Poles are NOT lovers of judaism.  I have a hard time
dealing with it myself, since my background is Polish.

Jack
jis@panix.com

PS: The Poles DID welcome Jews to Poland at one time, but when things
turned bad, the jews became another scape goat.   The socialist partis in
Poland before the war did more to accelerate anti-semetisim than even the
Nazi's......  I have no love for them.

PPS: I am not a scholar, nor a debator, so please excuse the lack of hard
names and figures to substatiate my position.  It's my opinion that those
who think the Poles are NOT anti-semetic are people who don't delve deeper
than the surface.

PPPS:  If Poland is/was such a great placefor Jews, please explain why the
Jewish population fled th country in drove.....
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish