Kosher Flavored Crab Chips YUM!!!!!!

Keeping Kosher and Maris Ayin: What is the Issue with Maris Ayin?

This picture raises an interesting question in halacha (Jewish law) known as ‘Maris Ayin.’ The concept of maris ayin is that we can be doing something permissible according to Torah and halacha, but to the onlooker, we may be doing something wrong.

For example going into a McDonald’s to use the toilet is fine but someone may see us and think we are going into McDonald’s to eat and conclude that it’s okay to eat there.  Today because going into a McDonald’s and similar non-kosher restaurants to use the toilet is a common practice, Rabbis have ruled that there is no problem with maris ayin. However, sitting down at the table to drink a soda there would cause a problem.

In recent years there has been an explosion of fake dairy and fake meat products. You can now make a sandwich with fake meat and fake cheese that looks like the real thing.

When these products first came out it was a serious issue of maris ayin, but today it’s common practice to eat these; for example to have pareve (non-dairy) ice cream after a Shabbat meat meal. We no longer worry about this being maris ayin. It is still a good idea to bring the ice cream container and put it on the table so people can see that the ice cream is not dairy.

According to halacha it would be fine to drink fish blood, but because people would see us and may think we are drinking animal blood, it is forbidden to drink the fish blood. But say you lived in an Eskimo village where it was common practice to drink fish blood, or comes a time when drinking fish blood is a daily health ritual performed by everyone, it is possible to say that it would become permissible to drink the fish blood.

Kosher Crab Flavoured Chips for Sale

The key question in maris ayin is what will someone think? With this bag of chips, at a distance someone could see the large image of the lobster but not the little kosher symbol. If I were eating these chips, I’d either put them into a new bag or eat them from the existing bag with the picture facing me. This way I don’t need to worry that people may think Crab Flavored chips are kosher, because this could lead someone to buying a brand in the future which is not kosher.

Do We Make a Blessing/Berocha When Giving Charity/Tzedaka?

This morning after I gave some charity I thought about this. Normally we make a blessing on any mitzvah we do. Like making a blessing/berocha on lighting the menorah, eating matzah, and blowing the shofar. So if giving charity is a mitzvah, why than no blessing?

The Rashba, who is a commentator on the Talmud, says that in order to make a blessing/berocha a on a mitzvah it must be entirely 100% in our hands. When we give tzedaka it is not totally up to us. We can make the blessing, and then try and hand over the money but there is no guarantee that the person we are giving to will take it. True that this is highly unlikely as most people collecting charity will gladly accept it from you, but nevertheless we can only make a blessing/berocha on that which is 100% in our hands to complete.

For example when we make a blessing on food, the food should be in our hand and at the least in front of us. More than once, when I was younger, I recall making a blessing on water and then pushing the water fountain button and no water came out. With a water fountain it is important to first push the button so we see the water and then make the berocha.

Riding a scooter in the rain around Bali. My back pack is in the plastic bag in the front. It was an amzing trip but it rained a alot and made the roads slippery. I stayed sometimes in guesthouses and other times in villages. Bali is a beautiful place if you can get away form the main tourist spots.

A Blessing for rain in Shmoneh Esrei

The shmoneh esrei, also known as the Amidah, is recited three times daily. In one of the blessings we ask Hashem to bless the year along with the produce of the land. Because the blessing refers to things growing from the ground we change the blessing slightly from winter season to summer season to reflect what the ground needs.

In Israel starting on the seventh day of the month of Cheshvan (this year Nov 2011) they begin to say ‘V’sein Tal Umatar’ (asking for rain). However we only begin to say this insertion outside of Israel on December 4^th or 5^th.

Say one is in Israel now but plans on flying outside of Israel. What should he or she say?

There are two main opinions. 1) Say it like wherever you are according to the custom of the place. 2) If you are planning to return to Israel within the year, continue saying like they do in Israel even if you have left the country.

It is best to ask your local Rabbi to find out what you should do in this situation.

Wine plays a big role in Judaism… it features prominently in Jewish festivals from the weekly Shabbat celebration to wedding ceremonies and, of course, the rowdy Purim parties.  One of my favorite wines is called Malbec and the most delicious Malbec wines in the world come from Mendoza, Argentina.  So during my time in Argentina, I took a trip to Mendoza to ride horses, go white water rafting, and, of course, to check out the wineries!

Anybody who’s been to a wine store has seen that there are many more non-kosher wines than kosher wines.  However, if you look into your foreign kosher wines (basically any of those not produced in Israel), you’ll find that those same wineries are producing non-kosher wines also.  How is this possible?  Most wineries will do a “run” of kosher wines once a year.  When those bottles are ready, they’re sent to the distributor who stores them for sales throughout the year.  This saves wineries a lot of money because since only Sabbath-observant Jews can handle the grapes and wine in order for the wine to be kosher. In places like Mendoza, where the small Jewish population is reform only, this means they have to import employees specially.

It happened that when I went to Mendoza there were still snow flurries, so it wasn’t exactly wine-making season.  When I did the rounds of the wineries, none of them had kosher wines on hand and so I wasn’t able to taste-test any.  Which makes me want to ask the next question: Why is it so important for wine to be kosher?

The laws regarding kosher wines are in place to prevent Jews from deriving any benefit from idolatry. Wines are often used in religious ceremonies for idol-worshiping religions and often a blessing is made over them or they are made for this purpose specifically.  I used to think this sounded ridiculous because, looking at the secular American society around me, I couldn’t imagine anyone using wine for idol worship.  But when I went to Mendoza, I noticed a giant life-sized statue of an idol sitting among the barrels in one winery.  And in another place, I saw lots of painting of non-Jewish dieties on the casks of wine themselves.  So next time you’re thinking of drinking a non-Kosher wine, please keep this in mind!

Today is a very exciting day in Australia. In Melbourne many people won’t go to work as they have a day of festivities leading up to the Melbourne cup which is an annual horse race. For those who do still go to work, most offices will have a party of some sort, were people wear a funny, dressy, or weird hat, have a few beers and bet on the horse races with their co-workers. It’s mostly all done in good fun. For those going to the races, it can be an event. Some will get dressed in their finest clothes and may bet a sizeable amount of money on the horses.

So what’s the Jewish take on all this?

For starters: According to Jewish Law, gambling in all its forms was either forbidden by the Rabbis or seriously frowned upon. According to the Talmud, taking money won in gambling is a form of stealing, because the loser does not want to give up his money. Professional gamblers according to rabbinic law were forbidden from giving testimony in a Jewish court of law. The gamblers as witnesses were not trusted. During the temple times it seems pigeon races were the in thing, and the Rabbis used one who bets on pigeon races as an example.

Secondly: The Torah and Judaism are against cruelty to animals. Overall racing animals raises some serious questions on how the animals are treated. It is important that we distance ourselves from any possibilty of partaking in what could be considered cruelty to animals. I took the following from this website: http://www.idausa.org/facts/racing.html

“Around 800 racehorses die each year from fatal injuries suffered on US racetracks. An additional number of approximately 3,566 sustain injuries so bad that they cannot finish their races. Several breeding and horse handling abuses contribute to the great risk of death and injury that horses face.

Breeders often race horses as young as two. These horses lack fully developed bone structure, and are more likely to suffer injury.

To keep horses racing through pain, handlers administer Lasix and Bute. These pain relievers numb pain, but do not treat the injuries that cause pain. Consequently, these injuries get worse. Horses that suffer severe injuries as a result of drug induced racing get sold to slaughterhouses, a more profitable venture for breeders than euthanization. These horses suffer long cramped rides to the slaughterhouse without painkillers, in unfit trailers. Handlers also use Lasix to mask the presence of illegal substances such as steroids.

A horse that fails to win also faces death in a slaughterhouse, where operators sell the horse’s flesh overseas for human consumption, or provide horsemeat to glue factories.

While horse racing is no longer legal in Belgium, it is a sanctioned event in many other places in the world. Work to end horse racing by: Refusing to patronize tracks and by encouraging others to do the same. Lobbying against the construction of new tracks. Educating the public about horse racing industry’s cruelty to horses.”

 Taking all this into account people should judge for themselves how they view the Melbourne Cup and any animal racing for that matter.

As an interesting note: the profit from the lottery system in Israel goes to fund medical expenses. Thus a religious Jew may still buy a ticket because he knows should he lose, the money is going to a good cause anyway and he’s happy to give the money. It is the same when buying charity raffle ticket where even if we don’t win we don’t care much because the money still goes to charity.

This little boy dressed up as a kohen gadol (high priest) for Purim. Instead of dressing up and pretending to be a ghost or demon, he dressed up like the spiritual leader of the Jewish people. This is a much better message to send our children!

Halloween is upon us and many Jews are probably asking, can I or should I (and my children) celebrate Halloween?  I remember being a kid and celebrating Halloween and loving dressing up and collecting pillowcases full of candy by running from house to house in our neighborhood.  Could there be any harm in this fun pasttime?

Actually, yes, there could be.  There are actually many, many problems with celebrating Halloween.  Here are some of them:

1. Halloween is a pagan holiday.  Halloween comes from the Celtic holiday of Samhain, still celebrated by some pagans in the world.  It is an actively practiced pagan holiday, just as X-mas and Easter are actively celebrated Christian holidays.  Judaism teaches that we cannot participate in something that is part of a pagan ritual or celebration, for any reason.  And this cannot be justified by saying that Halloween as it is celebrated today is not the same as the traditional celebration – it is actually very similar.  The ancient Celts believed that on October 31st, the worlds of the living and the dead would mix.  They believed that by dressing up as evil spirits, they could fool the real evil spirits.  They also lit bonfires that attracted bats.  And the tradition of going door-to-door collecting goodies was a way to merge Samhain with the November 1st holiday of Hallowmas, where beggars went door-to-door collecting food in exchange for praying for the dead on the November 2nd All Saint’s Day.  And although this was a Christian holiday, not a Celtic one, it still isn’t ok for Jews to observe it. It isn’t Jewish!
2. Halloween teaches children the wrong morals and values.  Halloween is a holiday about getting.  It’s a holiday where children go door-to-door demanding candies.  If no “treat” is given, then a “trick” could be played on the poor house owner.  This is still done today, with children and teens wreaking havoc in neighborhoods by playing “tricks” such as covering a house in toilet paper or throwing eggs at it.  To teach your children to demand things of others is contrary to Jewish values, as is the act of threatening or seeking vengeance on someone who doesn’t give you what you want.  Furthermore, Halloween focuses on dressing up like “scary” things, like demons, ghosts, or zombies.  None of these are things we should want our children to emulate.  We should never glorify scaring others and we should never glorify anything contrary to service to Hashem, such as demons.
3. We simply don’t need Halloween – we have Purim instead! Purim, a holiday occurring in or around the month of March/April, is a holiday where we celebrate the Jewish people’s deliverance from the hand of the evil Haman who wanted to destroy us.  We celebrate by dressing up in costumes as heroes and by having parties.  We take our children to visit others, to bring them gifts of food and to cheer them up and make them happy.  We make donations of money to the poor.  And there is plenty of wine for the adults.  A good time is always had by all.  In contrast to Halloween, Purim is a holiday focused on giving.  We give gifts of money, food, and happiness to others and expect nothing in return.  We use Purim as an opportunity to make peace with old enemies by giving them gifts (peace offerings, if you will) without any fear of embarrassment.  We can use Purim to teach our children good values and to allow them to emulate their favorite heros, such as Mordechai or Esther (the heroes of the Purim story), or to dress up as princes and princesses or doctors and nurses.  We do not need Halloween as an excuse to have a costume party when we have our own party planned in just a few months’ time.

This little girl chose to dress up as a princess for Purim. From her smile, you can tell she is really enjoying herself. She doesn't need Halloween - she has Purim instead!

If you are worried that your child might not understand why he/she cannot participate in Halloween when all their neighbors and non-Jewish friends are, you can use it as an opportunity to talk to them.  You can explain to them what it means to be a leader.  Help them learn to stand up against peer pressure.  (After all, if a bag of candy is all the persuasion it takes to succumb to peer pressure now, imagine what will happen when their peers are trying alcohol and drugs! It is much better to talk to them now.)  Teach your children to be leaders and show them the reasons why they should love their Judaism and soon you will find they are proud not to be celebrating holidays like Halloween, X-mas, and Easter!