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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
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It is a custom in many places for only the person reciting Havdala to drink from the cup; this may be to insure that one has drunk enough wine - 3 oz. - so as to justify saying a Bracha Achrona, and this is why some actually extinguish the Havdala candle by placing it in the cup. In other places, the cup is shared with guests.
The man of the house, rather than the wife, usually says Havdala, in part because some maintain that this is a time-bound positive Mitzva upon which women are exempt. But if the woman is alone, then she should say the Havdala herself - at least according to Ashkenazic custom - though most authorities say she should recite the bracha on the fire only after concluding Havdala and drinking the wine. As for the mysterious belief that if women drink Havdala wine they will grow hair in unwanted places? That is a classic "Bubba Meise" (old wives' tale) that has no basis in Halacha. (With thanks to Rabbi Ari Zivotofsky)
Rabbi Stewart Weiss
Was ordained at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, and led congregations in Chicago and Dallas prior to making Aliyah in 1992. He directs the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra'anana, helping to facilitate the spiritual absorption of new olim.
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
