Page Zero of Torah Tidbits 847 Lead Tidbit cont. from page 1 (below) And, the WOW kind of miracles • especially the Splitting of the Sea • are powerful enough, impressive enough, convincing enough to bring the people to VAYAAMINU BASHEM UVMOSHE AVDO, and they believed in G•d and in His servant Moshe. Up to a point. One of the most sobering passages in the Torah is the one right after the Song of the Sea that tells us what happened a mere three days after having witnessed the spectacular events at the Sea. We complained and we yelled. What happened to VAYAAMINU? Okay, thirst can do things to a person, but • as people say: BEH•EMET! Really... WOW miracles are... WOW • but we aren't supposed to live by them. It's the NOW miracles by which we live. It's the NOW miracles that we must believe in, appreciate, and thank G•d for. We don't wake in the morning with MN scattered all over, there for the collecting. We plant and cultivate, tend and reap and we perceive G•d's hand in every stalk of wheat, every grape, every blade of grass. We don't get the sun and the moon to stand still • a magnificent one•time event. We get a sunrise every morning and a sunset every evening • and we appreciate them and try to teach our children how to appreciate the miracles of nature. He created the world once • but He continually renews the work of creation day after day. It takes a more sophisticated level of belief, but it's the NOW miracles that mean so much to us. WORD of the MONTH from p.2 A weekly TT feature to help clarify practical and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby enhancing our appreciation of G•d's gift to us of HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem... 10:56pm Israel Time. There are a few things we need to review about this kind of situation. First of all, the times for beginning and ending KL are often from a specific night and until a certain night, all night. This is so because the actual beginning and/or ending times often are in the daytime, so they are not relevant. When one or both times are at night, they are very relevant. Second, the times must be adjusted to local time. If we in Israel can say KL on Monday night until almost 11:00 o'clock, in NYC, the deadline is 4:00pm in the afternoon, which means that their last op for KL is all night Sunday. This was just an example. Each month has its own numbers to deal with. If we have room, this will be cont. elsewhere... We did have room, so look below on page 3 for more Word of the Month H2O 0 H2O The WOW kind and the NOW kind Miracles come in at least two flavors • more, actually, but let's focus on two kinds; as the title indicates, the WOW kind and the NOW kind. Parshat B'shalach, together with Va'eira and Bo before it and Yitro following it, definitely show us the WOW kind. We can only imagine • and probably none too successfully • what the MAKOT were actually like, and the Spitting of the Sea with its miracles within miracles, and the MN (manna). And, of course, Revelation at Sinai and Matan Torah. All of these miracles are part of the Jewish Consciousness throughout the generations. We hear about them every year via our Torah reading; we learn about them in depth via Torah study. We relive them on the Chagim. We tell our children and grandchildren about them. H2O 1 H2O Ranges are 10 days, WED•FRI 10•19 Shvat (Feb 4•13) Earliest Talit & T'filin 5:39•5:32am Sunrise 6:31•6:24am Sof Z'man K' Sh'ma 9:11•9:08am (Magen Avraham: 8:26•8:23am) Sof Z'man T'fila 10:05•10:03am (Magen Avraham: 9:35•9:33am) Chatzot 11:53•11:53¼am (halachic noon) Mincha Gedola 12:23•12:24pm (earliest Mincha) Plag Mincha 4:08½•4:15pm Sunset 5:20•5:28pm (based on sea level: 5:15•5:23pm) Word of the Month By the time you are reading this, KL could have already been said according to all opinions. The last opportunity is MON Feb 9 only until cont. page zero, above Orthodox Union OU ISRAEL OU Kashrut • NCSY • Jewish Action Seymour J. Abrams • Orthodox Union • Jerusalem World Center NJCD / Yachad / Our Way • Kharkov OU Israel Center programs• Makom BaLev • Lev Yehudi Synagogue Support Services • IPA Pearl & Harold M. 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Nor do we endorse the email: [email protected] • website: www.ouisrael.org kashrut of hotels, restaurants, caterers or food products that are Torah Tidbits and many of the projects of OU Israel are advertised in TT (except, of course, those under OU•Israel hashgacha). assisted by grants from The Jewish Agency for Israel We recommend that readers check with the advertisers themselves to clarify kashrut and shmita details of their services and products.H2O 2 HFounders2O and initial benefactors of the Israel Center: George z"l and Ilse Falk WORD of the MONTH Starts on page 2, continues on page zero, and then concludes here... We're up to... Thirdly, The deadline for KL is the NIGUD, which is the time halfway between the molad of one month and the molad of the next. Once the NIGUD comes, the Moon starts to wane, to diminish in size, and it is not appropriate to say Kiddush L'vana anymore. The problem with this is that our KL times are based on averages, not on reality. Which means that often, the deadline for KL is before the posted deadline and the Moon is still waning. Nonetheless, we stick to the traditional calculations, not the actual moment of the NIGUD, opposition. Whichever side of the real NIGUD our deadline for KL is, we must stick to our timing. And then there is another factor. After the real, astronnomical Full Moon (remember, NIGUD, opposition), the Moon still looks full for many more hours. There are opinions that we can pass the calculated NIGUD deadline at least to 15 full days from the molad (rather than our 14d 18h 22m, which is the way we calculated the deadline for KL). There are a few different opinions, all of which allow a little more time. YET... we (TT) have held firmly to the opinion expressed by many poskim, that because of the problems of SAFEK BRACHA, doubt as to whether a bracha should be said or not (remember that the essential part of KL is the bracha) • in which case we opt for not saying the bracha. (Only a doubt for Birkat HaMazon works differently • since we are then dealing with a Torah mitzva.) Tachlis... if one has not said KL until the "official" deadline, ask your Rav as to whether you still have more time to say it. And finally, remember that Kiddush L'vana is considered a very special bracha, one that is likened to "welcoming the Divine Presence of HaShem • the SH'CHINA. Therefore, all of the times that we have focused on KL in these columns and pages have been with the motive of encouraging others to "take KL seriously", to not only say it but to understand and appreciate KL and all that it represents. If our "hocking you a chaynick" (as my mother, a"h was wont to say) has raised some reader's awareness of KL or has gotten some reader to say KL on a more regular basis... then it has been worth it. It is one of the ways that we have of focusing on our mundane miracles. Bonus SDT for readers of the PDF version of TT: The name MOSHE occurs 764 times in Tanach, including 724 stand alone, 16 UMOSHEs, 17 L'MOSHEs, 4 B'MOSHEs, 1 K'MOSHE, and twice UVMOSHE. It's the occurrences of UVMOSHE that raise the eyebrow. In B'shalach, we find the word in a glorious description of the highest level of EMUNAH, belief: And they believed in G•d UVMOSHE, and in Moshe, His servant. The context of the other time is quite different.