ASK THE RABBI VOLUME III A Sampling of Real World Halachic Questions that Were Sent to the Eretz Hemdah Beit Midrash Headed by Harav Moshe Ehrenreich and Harav Yosef Carmel By The Eretz Hemdah Students and Faculty Ask the Rabbi ,Volume 3 Eretz Hemdah Institute © Eretz Hemdah Institute 2017 Additional copies of this book are available at Eretz Hemdah: 2 Brurya St. P.O.B. 8178 Jerusalem 9108101 Israel (972-2) 537-1485 fax (972-2) 537-9626 [email protected] Also available at the Eretz Hemdah website: www.eretzhemdah.org Editor: Rabbi Daniel Rosenfeld Cover design: Renana Pinis הוצא לאור בהשתתפות המשרד לשרותי דתות All rights reserved. However, since the purpose of this publication is educational, the copyright holder permits the limited reproduction of sections of this book for non-commercial educational purposes. ISBN , 978-965-436-029-6 hardcover Printed in Israel It is our privilege to present the third volume of Ask the Rabbi. Each year, Eretz Hemdah, through its partnership with the Orthodox Union’s “Ask the Rabbi” program, receives thousands of questions. The questions are sent from rabbis and laity in Israel, America, and across the world. In Eretz Hemdah, a small group of extraordinary graduates from the finest National-Religious yeshivot learn to prepare for the Israeli Rabbinate’s rigorous Yadin Yadin examinations. We believe that true greatness in Torah can never be disconnected from involvement with the needs and concerns of the broader Jewish community. Therefore, we require our young rabbis to devote some of their time to teaching and answering questions. As part of that vision, our young rabbis help answer some of the “Ask the Rabbi” questions we receive. The “Ask the Rabbi” questions cover all imaginable issues. In this volume, we bring together some of the select questions and answers from the most relevant areas of halacha. We hope and pray that this book will be used to teach and enlighten. That it will help people observe halacha, while giving them a sense of the impressive and infinite world of the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch, which serve as the basis and context for our halachic practice. With Torah Blessings, Rabbi Yosef Carmel Rabbi Moshe Ehrenreich Rabbinical Deans of Eretz Hemdah ASK THE RABBI III CONTENTS THE LAWS OF SHABBAT: 1. Running for pleasure on Shabbat 2 2. Asking a non-Jew on Shabbat to do a Psik-Reisha 4 3. Umbrellas on Shabbat 5 4. Shehecheyanu upon beginning to light Shabbat candles 6 5. Lactose pills on Shabbat 7 6. Questions regarding Muktzah 8 7. Causing Melacha to be performed in a time zone 9 where it is still Shabbat 8. Communicating with someone when it is still Shabbat 10 in his time zone 9. Keeping a website open on Shabbat and having a non- 11 Shomer Shabbat partner 10. Properly operating a website on Shabbat 13 11. Working as an airport security officer, on Shabbat 16 12. How to pay a babysitter on Shabbat 19 13. Pushing a baby stroller on Shabbat 20 14. Opening a refrigerator on Shabbat 21 15. The proper time to have the Friday night Shabbat meal 22 16. Alternatives to wine for Kiddush and Havdalah 23 17. Havdalah on milk 24 18. Going through a hospital’s metal detector on Shabbat 25 19. Opening and closing portable cribs and strollers on 26 Shabbat 20. Moving a chair wedged in a front door, on Shabbat 27 21. Participating in a lottery that is drawn on Shabbat 29 22. Motion sensors on Shabbat 30 23. Adjusting a Shabbat clock (timer) on Shabbat 31 24. Unplugging a Plata on Shabbat that is connected to a 32 Shabbat clock (timer) that is set to off 25. Whether non-kosher foods are Muktzeh on Shabbat 33 26. Chemical heating on Shabbat 34 27. How to prepare a crockpot for use on Shabbat 36 ERETZ HEMDAH INSTITUTE 28. Status of microwave cooking on Shabbat 39 29. Using poultry shears on Shabbat 40 30. Removing bottle caps on Shabbat 41 31. Silver foil/tin foil cut by a non-Jew on Shabbat 42 32. Cutting through letters on food, on Shabbat 43 33. Follow up, cutting through letters on food, on Shabbat 45 34. Proper times for Shabbat meals and placing a rug 47 down on Shabbat 35. How to properly use a Shabbat belt 49 36. Pumping mother’s milk on Shabbat, in a case of need 50 37. Flushing ants down a drain on Shabbat 51 38. Returning dental implants on Shabbat, using an 52 elevator on Shabbat 39. Entering a nursing home on Shabbat where one must 54 get “buzzed in” 40. Using perfume for Besamim in Havdalah 55 41. Saying Shir Hamaalot at a meal on Motzei Shabbat 56 THE LAWS OF YOM TOV: 42. Guidelines for an Israeli in Chu”l for Yom Tov Sheni 58 43. Having a non-Jew attend a business show on one’s 60 behalf, on Yom Tov 44. Blowing the Shofar on the left side of one’s mouth 62 45. How to properly wash hands on Yom Kippur 63 46. Using mouthwash on Yom Kippur 64 47. Using a pergola for a Sukkah 65 48. Washing before bread in the Sukkah 67 49. Women making Brachot on the 4 minim (and on 68 optional Mitzvot in general) 50. Freezing and then reusing an Etrog 69 51. Whether one should put a Torah back early so that it 71 can be used by a different Minyan on Simchat Torah 52. Mincha and Chanukah candle lighting on Erev Shabbat 73 53. Where to light Chanukah candles if one will be on a 74 cruise over Chanukah, and what to do with leftover ASK THE RABBI III wax from Chanukah candles 54. What to do if one can’t attend Shul to hear Parshat 76 Zachor 55. The timing of Pesach and the Spring Equinox 77 56. Using a hot water urn for Pesach 78 57. Timing of the Fast of Bechorot when Pesach begins on 79 Shabbat 58. Guidelines for selling and using food mixtures and 80 cosmetics on Pesach 59. Whiskey that wasn’t sold for Pesach 82 60. Burning Chametz found on Pesach in a situation where 83 the Chametz was sold 61. Scope of the principle of “Achshevai” 84 62. How the sale of Chametz interacts with Bitul Chametz 85 63. Reasons for the custom to not eat Kitniyot on Pesach 87 64. Cooking Kitniyot in Pesach dishes 89 65. May an Ashkenazi who is diabetic eat Kitniyot on 90 Pesach 66. Why Shir Hashirim is read on Pesach 91 67. Halachot of Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim 92 68. Background to Tikkun Leil Shavuot 94 69. Is it permissible to go to the gym during the Nine Days? 95 70. Reading Shir Hashirim on Tisha B’Av (when one 96 committed to read Shir Hashirim for 40 days) 71. The status of someone who drinks water with pills on a 97 fast day THE LAWS OF MOURNING: 72. The Mitzvah to watch over the deceased before burial, 99 and seeing the body before burial 73. Who may perform a Tahara 101 74. Delaying a funeral in order to enable relatives to 102 attend 75. When is one required to attend a funeral? 103 76. Source for the expression “HaMakom Yenachem…” 105 given to mourners ERETZ HEMDAH INSTITUTE 77. Aveilut for an adopted parent 106 78. Aveilut: Showering during Shloshim and attending a 107 Kiddush, after Shloshim 79. Aveilut and Birkat Kohanim 109 80. Home repair renovations during the 12 months of 110 Aveilut 81. Being a Chazan on Shabbat during the year of Aveilut 111 82. Having an Avel lead the Tefillah on Saturday night 112 83. Nusach of Kaddish for an Ashkenzai Davening in a 113 Sefardi Shul 84. How long one recites Kaddish for a child 114 85. What day one finishes saying Kaddish 115 86. Length of recital of Kaddish during a leap year 116 87. Saying Kaddish on behalf of someone one is not 117 related to 88. Yahrzeit date when the death occurred during Bein 118 Hashemashot 89. Mourning for a first spouse while remarried 119 90. When to observe Yahrzeit for a non-Jewish parent 120 91. Sources regarding fasting on a Yahrzeit 121 92. Attending a Simcha on a Yahrzeit 122 93. Source for the expression “may the Neshama have an 123 Aliyah” 94. Custom of placing stones at a gravesite 124 THE LAWS OF KASHRUT: 95. Using silverware at a non-kosher meal 126 96. How to Kasher a non-kosher oven 127 97. Oven for Meat and Milk 129 98. Status of a dairy spoon that was found with the meat 130 dishes and then mixed again into the dairy dishes 99. Parve food that had been cooked in meat dishes, being 131 heated up in dairy dishes 100. Non-Jewish help in regards to Kashrut and Bishul Akum 133 101. Cooking kosher and non-kosher foods in a toaster oven 135 ASK THE RABBI III at the same time 102. Using non-Parve spoons in a Parve food container 136 103. Buying sliced fruit or fruit juice without a kosher 137 supervision 104. Buying fish at a fish store that does not have kosher 138 supervision, & the status of raw meat that fell into milk 105. Whether Chalav Akum affects the dishes it is in: 141 106. Is grape juice, from grapes crushed by non-Jews, 146 Kosher? 107. Permissibility of milk nowadays 147 108. Waiting 6 hours between hard cheese and meat 149 109. Kashrut of blood in animal before and after Melicha 150 110.