Sukkah q&a

Chag Sameach Rebbe, I hope you enjoy Succot and may we all be in Yerushalaim to see the Beit HaMikdash bm"b. Also, my cousin raised a question; we sepcifically sit in a succah now becasue it's nots so nice at as opposed to nissan when it is nice out. But when it rains, which is a norm for this time of year, it is a siman rah and we are patur from sitting in the succah. So why do we celebrate Succot now at the beginning fo the rainy season if we are putting orselves at risk of encountering this siman rah?


It's a good question, to which I never really paid any attention. I think that the logic is that the lack of rain is thus clearly indicative of Hashgocho, as would not be the case at another time of year.

KT, GYT!
YGB

Spicing your cholent on Shabbos

This came up recently at our table. So I looked around a bit and found in Yesodei Yeshurun, p. 96,that the Zekan Aharon (2:21) was asked if one can pour cold soup onto hot potatoes in a keli sheni, and he wrote that the Maharshal (Shach, YD 105:5) who paskens that a davar gush is in a mevashel in a keli sheni is not oisgehalten l'ma'aseh - and especially not b'makom Oneg Shabbos. Moreover, he says, even the Maharshal only meant that it is mavli'a and maflit in Issur va'Heter, but not that it is actually mevashel, so it is not relevant to Hilchos Shabbos in any event!

Numbers and Letters on Bottlecaps

I've been wanting to see this psak for a while, and finally looked it up today. In Yalkut Yosef Hil. Shabbos vol. 2 p. 519 ROY paskens that if letters are printed on a bottlecap so that when one opens the bottle one rips the letters it is nevertheless permitted to open the cap on Shabbos! He says it is Middas Chassidus to open it prior to Shabbos, but that if one forgot to do so he may do so on Shabbos itself. His rationale (note 21) is that since he does not intend to erase the letters, even though it is a pesik reisha, since he has no hana'ah from the mechikah, and since this mocheik shelo al menas liktov is only assur me'd'Rabbanan, it is permitted. He refers to Tosafos in Shabbos 103a and Yoma 34b, to the Rashash to Kesuvos 6a, and to the Netziv, the Divrei Malkiel, and R' Yitzchok Elchonon in Be'er Yitzchok #15.

Another tidbit, from Y-mi Sotah 34a (7:8)

The Yerushalmi (according to the Ridbaz) assumes that one must make Havdalah on Shemittah! It concludes that the Havdalah of Rosh HaShanah serves as the Havdalah for Shemittah as well!

Tidbit from the Korban HaEdah to Yerushalmi Sotah 33a

The Yerushalmi states that in Yavneh, the Sanhedrin at the end of the Second Temple period asked Hashem to exempt them from the responsibility on Nistaros that Yehoshua had compelled the nation to take when they crossed the Yarden. The KhE posits that this took place when the Sanhedrin went into Galus 40 years before the Churban. Accordingly, when R' Yochanan ben Zakkai says to Vespasian: "Tein li Yavneh v'chachameha," he is referring to the Sanhedrin that had already been there for years.