Table of Contents Abstracts ........................... iii The Porto Synagogue of Mantua’s Yizkor Prayers for Medieval Jewish Scholars / Rav Aryeh Leibowitz ................. xiii Opening Remarks: The 200 th Issue of ‘HAMA’YAN’ / Rav Yechezkel Yakobson .................... 4 Editorial / Rav Yoel Catane .................... 5 The Kiss Within the Miracle / Rav Nathan Tzvi Finkel ZT”L . 6 Upon the Passing of Our Guide and Teacher, the Revered Rav Nathan Tzvi Finkel ZTvK”L , Head of Yeshivat Mir / Rav Avraham Yaakov Goldmunz ....................... 8 The Mitsva “with the shoulder they shall carry” at that time and for all generations / Rav Israel Meir Lau............. 10 ‘And they kept alive the women’: Abortion for the Purpose of Saving Lives in the Shoah [Holocaust] / Rav Aryeh Hendler..... 13 Concerning the Time of Halakhic Twilight and the Circumcision (Berit Mila ) of a Child Born Near the End of the Sabbath: Hatam Sofer’s Interpretation of the ‘Exposition on Twilight and Nightfall of Rabbenu Tam’ / Yaaqov Loewinger, Eng........ 23 ‘Modest Behavior’ and ‘Proclaiming the Miracle’ / Rav Yehuda Shaviv. 51 From the Desk of the Rav / Rav Yitzchak Weiss........... 55 ‘The King in his Beauty’ to Petah Tiqva: the Saga of the Appointment of Rav Yehezkel Abramsky ZT”L as Rav of the Colony / Rav Uri Redman ....................... 61 The Color of Techelet according to Maimonides / Prof. Zohar Amar... 77 Circumcision (Mila )– Mitsva Which is a Covenant (Berit )/ Rav Ohad Fixler ....................... 88 → B”H, Tevet 5772 • Vol. 52, 2 [200] Table of Contents (contiuned) Rav Mahalalel Hallelyah (or: Halleluyah) of Civitanova and his Response in the Matter of Cancelling an Excommunication (Herem ), with the Approbation of the Emissaries of the Land of Israel Rav Shlomo haLevi, Rav David Carigal and Rav Moshe Yitzchak of Lvov / Prof. Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel .................. 97 About Selling Land to Non-Jews and the “Open Letter of the Rabbis” / Rav Eitam Henkin ...................... 111 ‘The Chronicles Were Presented for No Other Reason Than to be Expounded’/RavYaakovKorzweil............... 122 Clarification in Maimonides’ Introduction to the ‘Helek’ Chapter / Rav Itiel Amitai ....................... 135 Definition of Cooking and Similar Processes / Rav Dr. Israel Meir Levinger .................. 139 Refraining from the Mitsva of Visiting the Sick / Rav Yisrael Danderovitz .................... 147 The Relationship between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah According to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch / David and Elyasaf Neustadter ................. 155 A Note in the Matter of a Tinok sheNishba (‘Captive Infant’ lacking Jewish upbringing) / Rav Tuvia Katzman.......... 159 The Reasoning of Rav Kook and Rav Herzog in the Matter of the Third Redemption / Rav Ari Yitzchak Chwat; Rav Eli Gorfinkle ... 162 Memorial The Mashgiah rav Gedalya ZT”L /MosheOren . .168 On Books and Their Authors The Book Parshegen on Targum Onkelos (Aramaic Bible translation) / Rav Yaakov Laufer ...................... 170 On the New Edition of the Shu”t Tashbetz (Responsa) / Dr. Abraham David ...................... 174 “It is Appropriate for Those Who Hold Fast to the Law of the Lord (Torat Hashem ) to Know Its Great Personalities in Their Genuine Character”: Rejoinder to Critical Review / Dr. Benjamin Braun; Response / Rav Yehoshua HaLevi Levine............. 177 II Abstracts Rav Aryeh Leibowitz: The Porto Synagogue of Mantua’s Yizkor Prayers for Medieval Jewish Scholars Rav Aryeh Leibowitz, Deputy Director of the Moty Hornstein Overseas Program in Yeshivat Sha’alvim, presents a page from an unpublished manuscript of a prayer manual of the Porto Synagogue in Mantua, Italy. The page contains a unique series of memorial (Yizkor ) prayers recited by the community on behalf of great Rabbinic figures (Gedolei Yisrael ) from the Medieval period (Rishonim ). As an introduction to the text, Rav Leibowitz provides an analysis that explains why the particular Rishonim mentioned in the prayer were chosen by the Mantua community to be memorialized. Rav Yechezkel Yakobson: Opening Remarks: The 200 th Issue of ‘HAMA’YAN’ The issue opens with remarks from the Rosh Yeshivat Sha’alvim, Rav Yechezkel Yakobson Shlit”a , in honor of the 200 th Issue of ‘HAMA’YAN’. He writes, inter alia , that very few publications can boast such longevity, variety of authors and Torah topics, so wide a readership coupled with a strict adherence to publication schedule over a period of sixty years. Rav Yoel Catane: Editorial Rav Catane, Hama’yan Editor, pays tribute to the memories of the periodical’s founder, Prof. Mordechai Breuer Z”L , and the longtime editor, R. Yonah Emanuel Z”L . He prays that he may continue to disseminate Torah in Hama’yan for many years. Rav Nathan Tzvi Finkel ZT”L: The Kiss Within the Miracle The late Rav Nathan Tzvi Finkel ZT”L , said, in a talk he gave some III years ago about Hanukkah: at times, the miracles of the Holy One, Blessed be He, are like “kisses”, which express his love for us. Signs of affection, more then anything else, draw the student closer to his teacher, so too G-d`s “kisses” draw the people of Israel closer to the Master of the universe… thus spoke the Rav ZT”L . In this spirit, Rav Avraham Yaakov Goldmunz pays tribute to his departed master. Rav Israel Meir Lau: The Mitsva “with the shoulder they shall carry” at that time and for all generations Rav Israel Meir Lau shlit”a , former Chief Rabbi of Israel and currently Rabbi of Tel-Aviv, discusses the Mitsva of carrying the Sanctuary implements with the shoulder, and the distinctions which pertain to this Mitsva through the course of the generations. He explains the error of King David in instructing that the Holy Ark be taken in a wagon – thinking that when the Holy Ark is not located within the Tabernacle or the Sanctuary the rule to carry exclusively with the shoulder does not apply, and it is permissible to take it on wagons. He, however, erred – this distinction holds for all other implements, but not for the Holy Ark. In accordance with this Rav Lau also explains that the rule of covering the sacred implements was only in the time of the journey in the desert, and therefore this rule was not decreed for all generations. Rav Aryeh Hendler: ‘And they kept alive the women’: Abortion for the Purpose of Saving Lives in the Shoah [Holocaust] Rav Aryeh Hendler, assistant Head of Yeshivat Shaalvim, investigates what is the ruling when the fetus endangers the mother not because of complications in pregnancy or birth, but because of the wicked`s intention to harm any pregnant woman. In such a case is the fetus considered to be attempting murder, or is it only the potential murderer who is the wicked person, in which case there is no permission to kill the fetus in order to save oneself, as it is not at all the real murderer? He bases his words on true stories which took place during the Shoah, where pregnant women had to abort the fetus in order to be saved – otherwise they would have IV been selected to be killed under extreme torture. A woman who was party to these ‘rescue abortions’ wrote a book about it, and Rav Hendler’s conclusion is that in the view of most halakhic authorities, abortion in this instance was permissible. Yaaqov Loewinger: Concerning the Time of Halakhic Twilight and the Circumcision (Berit Mila ) of a Child Born Near the End of the Sabbath: Hatam Sofer’s Interpretation of the ‘Exposition on Twilight and Nightfall of Rabbenu Tam’ Yaaqov Loewinger, native of Hungary, a Holocaust survivor who studied in Zürich, Switzerland and a resident of Tel-Aviv for over fifty years, is a retired structural engineer, who has been writing, discussing and lecturing extensively on halakhic times and practical astronomic- halakhic issues. In this issue he writes about a decision of Hatam Sofer (HS=Rabbi Moshe Sofer–Schreiber 1762-1839, 1797-1806 Rabbi of Mattersdorf, at that time in Hungary) to allow the Mila on Shabbat of a child born on the previous Saturday in Eisenstadt (near Mattersdorf) half an hour after astronomical sunset there, in contrast to the current general practice. HS claims to follow the aforementioned Exposition of Rabbenu Tam (=RT). This decision of HS is analyzed in detail. The author argues that HS bases his decision on nightfall times in Frankfort on the Main, given to him by his mentor Rabbi Nathan Adler in 1785. These times were found by the author to be the result of sunset times in Hanover, calculated accurately by the astronomer Raphael Levi of Hanover in 1766 for that city. These times were not recalculated for their new places of implementation, but were applied respectively by Rabbi Nathan Adler and HS to their subsequent locations, without any change. HS’s interpretation of RT is very different from the way RT has been generally understood in recent times. Rav Yehuda Shaviv: ‘Modest Behavior’ and ‘Proclaiming the Miracle’ Rav Yehuda Shaviv, veteran Ram (teacher) at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, writes on the theme specific to Hanukkah of making known V (pirsum ) the mitsva, in comparison to the usual requirement of fulfilling mitsvot in a modest fashion (‘hatznea lekhet’ ). He explains the implication of the ‘door latch’ and the ‘ox horn’ decrees as expressions of the extent of publicity with which the Hellenists wanted the Jews to openly proclaim heretical positions (‘we have no share in the G-d of Israel’), and hence commensurately we are charged with an unusual, sui generis Mitsva whose performance entails the obligation of advertising in the public domain. Rav Yitzchak Weiss: From the Desk of the Rav Rav Yitzchak Weiss, a posek (arbiter of Jewish law) who functions on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem, writes on his personal viewpoint as a posek regarding the well-known principle that “A judge must consider only what he sees”.