Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site zeppo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!zeppo!mmc
From: mmc@zeppo.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Speaking of fences ... - (nf)
Message-ID: <1071@zeppo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Mar-84 09:55:43 EST
Article-I.D.: zeppo.1071
Posted: Thu Mar  1 09:55:43 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Mar-84 00:21:41 EST
Sender: mmc@zeppo.UUCP
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany
Lines: 49

#R:ihuxr:-93200:zeppo:59500001:000:2434
zeppo!mmc    Mar  1 09:48:00 1984

I must take issue with Andy on several points.

I do not know of any traditional (i.e., Orthodox or Conservative) code
which permits cooking of smoking on Shabbat.  The only thing which
comes close is the permissibility (under extremely restricted
circumstances) of keeping food warm os Shabbat, providing the process
was initiated on Friday before candle-lighting time.

The position with respect to Yom Tov is considerably different, since
work (m'lachah) associated with the preparation of food is explicitly
(BIBLICALLY) permitted, including the lighting of a fire (though
preferably the fire in question should be lit from an already burning
flame).  The lighting of a candle (or even a cigarette) is permitted
even by the most stringent authorities -- also from an already burning
flame.

Where differences of opinion occur is in the question of extinguishing
a flame on Yom Tov.  The more stringent traditional authorities
prohibit this.

	PERSONAL NOTE: My grandfather was a Rabbi and a descendent of a
	major Chassidic "dynasty".  He smoked at the Seder table, as
	did his father.  His father, however, rolled his own cigaretttes
	during Passover to avoid the possibility that the glue used in
	the factory-made cigarettes might contain a grain product
	(e.g., wheat paste).

More generally, I believe that mainstream Judaism, while based on the
Torah, rests on interpretation and development of the Biblical concepts
(not only of the Pentateuch but of subsequent material).  I suspect
that the principal difference among the three or four major movements
in Judaism lies in the extent (both in time and in substance) over
which such interpretation is valid.  I therefore take strong exception
to the charaterization of well-reasoned and compassionately promulgated
ordinances as "wimpouts".  Many such are designed to make living in
this world possible (e.g., the eruv and the evasion of the Biblical law
against usury) or humane (e.g., the prohibition of polygamy and of
divorce without the consent of the wife), or in an attempt to preserve
Judaism (e.g., the Conservative relaxation of the prohibition against
driving to Synagogue on Shabbat).  One may questions the validity of a
particular halachic development, but I believe that one must start with
the assumption that those who initiate and adopt such developments are
acting from understanding and in good faith.

	Mark Chodrow	AT&T BL  WH 2C-3444A  (201) 386-6804