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