The Halakhic Controversy over tiny insects! Do We Really Have to Be Machmir ? ..... Maybe Not!

The Question of Tiny Insects

 In order to understand the entire scope of the prohibition of shratzim (worms and insects) and the extent to which one must make an effort to check food for them, it is necessary to explain the basic dispute regarding tiny bugs.

Ordinary Torah students think that the law of tiny shratzim is simple: what a person can see is forbidden, and what he cannot see with his naked eyes, but only with the help of a magnifying glass or a microscope, is permitted. 

This is indeed what several Achronin wrote (Binat Adam 34:49; Aruch HaShulchan 84:36; Igrot Moshe, Y.D. 2:146; Yibeah Omer 4, Y.D., 21).

According to this, presumably, one needs to know how small an object a person can see, and in view of that, determine the halakha. However, this definition is not sufficient, because eyesight varies from person to person, and also depends on the color of the insect and the background on which it is situated. A person with good eyesight can see on a white background large black bacteria the size of five hundred microns (0.5mm), however, when the color of the insect is similar to the background on which it is situated, even if it is ten times larger, one will not be able to see it, and only laboratory workers will possibly be able to see it.

People with good eyesight cannot always detect even a two-millimeter insect, however, when it is pointed at, they are able to see it. In other words, seeing the tiny insect depends on several factors: a) its size, b) the quality of one’s eyesight, c) the color of the sheretz (insect) and its background, d) recognition of shratzim,  and e) how it is situated, for if it is crawling, it is easier for it to be seen.

Mass Grave of Murdered Jews by Nazis to become luxury apartment complex

A Nazi-era grave containing the remains of nearly 2,000 Jews was discovered in Belarus two months ago — but that’s not stopping officials from forging on with plans to turn the site into a luxury apartment complex, according to a report.

Soldiers combing through the soil have pulled out the blackened remains of 1,900 people murdered during World War II since bones were first found by builders on the site in January.

“You see the results of this horrible war and of a genocide,” the commander of the search battalion, Major Pavel Galetsky, told DW. “History speaks for itself here.”

Before World War II, almost half of the 50,000-strong population of Brest were Jewish, according to the BBC.

Arab Pressure Get NYC Councilman Yeger Kicked Off Of Immigration Committee

A city full of Jews, and the busy "askanim" are quiet! 

Where is the "capo" Ezra? 

Bunch of cowards!!!

Less than a week after a tweet denying the existence of Palestine, City Councilman Kalman Yeger has been removed from his seat on the council’s immigration committee.

Yeger’s tweet resulted in a public outcry and The New York Times (https://nyti.ms/2YAs6W2) reported that he was removed from committee after a council leadership meeting that lasted over an hour.  Participants said that Yeger’s remarks were incompatible with the committee’s mission.

“I do not believe that someone who engages in the type of rhetoric we heard from Councilmember Yeger belongs on the immigration committee which is supposed to welcome and support immigrants in our city,” said Speaker Corey Johnson.

 Mayor Bill de Blasio had said on Friday that Yeger should either apologize for his remarks or be removed from the committee.  Yeger had categorically refused to rescind his statement, even as he found himself in the center of a sea of controversy and criticism, still sticking to his guns tonight, even after news of his removal broke.

“I respect the Speaker’s right to run the Council as he sees fit,” tweeted Yeger.  “It’s unfortunate that political correctness takes precedence over objective fact. Of course, there are Palestinians.  However, the fact remains that there is no Palestinian state.”

A jubilant tweet posted by Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour announcing Yeger’s removal from the committee received nearly 1,000 likes in just over an hour.

Skulener Rebbe Passes At 95 .....

Petira of the Skulener Rebbe, Hagaon HaRav Yisroel Avrohom Portugal. He was 95.

The Rebbe was Niftar on Monday afternoon at John Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore where he had been hospitalized for nearly two months.

The Levaya will be held on Tuesday morning at 11:00AM at the Skulener Bais Medrash on 13th Avenue and 54th Street, and the Kevura will be in Monsey at the Vishnitzer Bais Hakvaros. 

Day Yoimie Snippets ... Chullin Dafim 110,111, 112,113,114,115, & 116

A great opportunity for the entire family, to share some thoughts on the daf ...  the  family feels united by discussing what the head of the house is studying.
I try to break it down so that everyone can understand it .... 

You can copy and print this without my consent, since Torah belongs to all of us..... 

See  previous Daf Yoimie Snippets 

This week's "Daf Yoimie Snippets Sponsored For the Refuah Shliemah of 

צארטל בת אסתר מלכה 

''דף ק''י ''תבשיל בשרי

Page 110  Mesectas Chullin  

''A Meat Dish"

The Talmud relates on this daf, that Ravin and Rav Yitzchok bar Yosef  visited Rav Pupei and he offered them a meat dish from meat that came from a part of the animal (the udder) that the rabbis dispute whether it is permitted to consume!

Rav Yitzchok bar Yosef went ahead and he ate it while Ravin declined the dish. 

Said Abaye: "Why didn't Ravin eat?" Didn't the wife of Rav Pupei prepare the dish, and wasn't she the daughter of Reb Yitzchok Nafcha who was very meticulous in his actions?

There is no way that she would go ahead and prepare a dish from meat  that her father would object to?

A related story from this daf:

Rami bar Tamri arrived in the town of Sura on Erev Yom Kippur with no food, he was obviously very poor.

In the town of Sura they had a custom that they wouldn't eat the udder, and  they would dispose of it .

Rami bar Tamri who did have the custom to eat the udder, and so he went around town to collect them and ate them.

When the residents noticed that Rami ate something that they wouldn't eat, they brought him before Rav Chisda.

Rav Chisda asked him , "why do you eat the udder when you know that we in this town do not eat it?"

Rami answered that he lived in the same town where Rav Yehuda lived who permitted it, and was therefore  careful not to eat it in the town of Sura proper, but made sure to eat it on the outskirts of the town, to be sensitive of the town's minhagim.

Press "read more" immediately below to continue to the rest of the dafim!

Monsey Anti-Vaxxers Chassidim Don't Like Ed Day's "Barring Unvaccinated Children From Public"

I can't for the life of me understand these crazies who are ready to wipe us all out because of their uneducated ignorant stance not to vaccinate !

This is one huge Chillul Hashem! 

An executive order pulled close to 6,000 unvaccinated children out of schools. Nearly 17,000 doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (M.M.R.) vaccine were given in 26 weeks. There was a public health campaign in which community officials, doctors and rabbis testified to the importance of immunizations.

None of those efforts stemmed the severe measles outbreak that has been plaguing Rockland County in New York since October.

So on Tuesday, in an extraordinary step, the county executive, Ed Day, declared a state of emergency, effective at midnight, that would bar children and teenagers who are not vaccinated against measles from public places.

Dayanim rush a divorce deal to allow a Chareidie Man marry another man!

The man had just 'come out' but has already met his new life partner and wanted to join him abroad quickly; Rabbinical judges were torn between indirectly supporting gay marriage, and leaving the man's wife a 'chained' women as her husband flies to Italy to unite with new lover.

Rabbinical judges were baffled by a recent case they had to rule on, when a man asked them to quickly grant him a divorce from his wife — so he can go abroad and join his new male partner.

The man, who is religious and a father of several children, walked in to the Netanya Rabbinate office in early March and asked for an urgent divorce — “right this instance.”

Neturei Karta Beat the Hell Out of Monroe Satmar Chassid ......

One thing I can say about Neturei Karta, at least they are consistent, whereas the Monroe Satmars are a bunch of hypocrites .....

Satmar Rebbe yells and barks that Israel antagonizes their Arab neighbors by provoking them, annexing the Golan Heights etc, while at the same time Satmar  themselves are annexing land in Monroe bordering Kiryas Yoel causing needless hatred from their gentile neighbors!

One of the men organizing a proposal to create a new village next to Kiryas Joel was assaulted outside Monroe Town Hall on Thursday morning by two fellow Hasids who oppose those plans and who grabbed the revised petition he came to file.

Moshe Hirsch The 2nd Tzaddik Who Beat Wagschal 

2,600-year-old seal impression and stamp bearing names from Tanach found in public building destroyed during destruction of First Bais Ha'Mikdash

A rare and exciting discovery: A bulla (seal impression) and a 2,600-year-old stamp bearing Hebrew names were uncovered in the City of David. 

The artifacts were discovered inside a public building that was destroyed during the destruction of the First Temple and were uncovered in archaeological excavations of the Givati Parking Lot in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem.

The dig was conducted by archeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University.

According to Prof. Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Yiftah Shalev of the Israel Antiquities Authority who were responsible for the dig, these special artifacts were found inside a large public building, that was destroyed in the sixth century BCE - likely during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. 

Ohr Ha'Chaim's Handwritten Torah Notes Being Auctioned Tomorrow : $300,000.00 Opening Bid

On Monday, April 8, there will be a special auction with collectors' items the likes of which have almost never been seen in recent years. Chief among them is a precious manuscript by the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh.

The lot is the Rosh Mashbir authored by the great sage Moshe Birdugo ztz"l, written in manuscript by him and his great disciples, with the Ohr HaChaim most prominent among them. The volume was written after 1721, as evident from the content of the eulogies contained in the work. The manuscript opens with a title page and an introduction by the author. At its conclusion, the author praises the Ohr HaChaim's father-in-law. Leaves 16-37 feature a compilation of the author's Torah handwritten by Rabbeinu Chaim Ben-Attar, the author of Ohr HaChaim, the author's great disciple.