Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
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- Tzav
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
Why did the Torah wait for these contexts to teach about laws that are so important in maintaining a kosher kitchen? On a halachic note, it is actually unclear if hechsher keilim is so critical on a Torah-level perspective. The gemara (Avoda Zara 76a) says that according to the opinion (which we accept) that non-kosher taste that spends 24 hours in the walls of a utensil does not prohibit food that was subsequently cooked in it, Torah law requires kashering only if one wanted to use treif utensils within 24 hours of their last use. Thus, before the Rabbis made things stricter, one could avoid most kashering, including for Pesach.
The Torah, though, requires kashering for holy utensils and discusses it regarding keilim acquired from non-Jews. Why is it noteworthy in these contexts? Perhaps the Torah is hinting at the following lesson. Keilim can technically have absorbed problematic substances, in which case, technical solutions (including waiting) suffice to solve the problems. However, utensils can also represent the activity with which they were involved. The Midyanite idolaters’ utensils represent their heathen lifestyle and the lack of concern for the purity of what they eat. They should be cleansed, both through hagala and tevilla (immersing) before we can use them for our activities. Just as the meat of kodashim needs to be dealt with diligently and not allowed to become stale and stagnant, so too its keilim need to remain fresh, thus requiring switching of klei cheres and renewing other keilim.
We live in a world with tools that can promote sanctity, impurity, or some combination thereof. We must ensure that ours are being used in a manner consistent with the desired result.
Rabbis in Midrash
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
