Ask The Rabbi
9 March 1996
Issue #99
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This Issue Contains:
1.  Wheat Futures
2.  Kabbalah
3.  Yiddle Riddle
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GANZ <75671.3605@compuserve.com> wrote:

>Dear Rabbi,
>
>As usual I enjoyed another one of your responses, this time to Philip
>Americus about `Scalping Tickets.' [Ask the Rabbi #96] Your logic is
>commendable. However, could you reconcile for me your advice of not using
>tricks to get around a law, with the practice at Pesach of selling one's
>chametz -- or even more astute -- locking them up in a cupboard  and
>selling "futures" to someone who will never pick them up.
>
>Confused in California

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear Confused,

Selling your chametz before Pesach is not a trick, but a legally binding
sale.  When you sell your chametz it belongs to the buyer who has every
right to use it.

In a certain community, all the chametz -- including the kosher pizza shop
-- was sold to a police officer.  During Pesach, a burglar broke in to the
pizza shop.  The policeman, who happened to be on duty at the time, entered
the pizza shop, arrested the robber, and exclaimed, "You're robbing MY
business!"

And it's told of a whiskey producer in Europe who sold his entire business
for Pesach.  After Pesach, the buyer decided he wanted to own the business
permanently, and so he refused to sell it back.

But you're right.  Both buyer and seller should take the sale seriously and
realize that it's not a `trick.'  I know of a Rabbi who, in order to show
his congregants that the sale is no joke, told the buyer to enter a home
during Pesach and ask for his chametz!

Sources:
o  Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 448:3

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Binyomin Altman <bsalt1@penfold.cc.monash.edu.au> wrote:

>I recently read the following statement of the Vilna Gaon:  "The ultimate
>redemption of the Jewish People (Geula) will come about only through
>learning Torah; And primarily through learning Kabbalah [Torah's deep
>secrets].  Since I don't learn Kabbalah, is my Torah study insignificant
>with respect to bringing about the final redemption?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear Binyomin,

Kabbalah certainly has `redeeming' qualities.  But it has dangers as well.
On his death-bed, the Arizal (preeminent Kabbalist, 16th century Safed,
Israel) told Rabbi Yitzchak Hakohen: "Tell the disciples in my name that
from today they are to stop studying Kabbalah."  He warned that they might
misunderstand it and thus come to harm.

I spoke to Rabbi Shlomo Fisher, shlita, about this statement of the Vilna
Gaon.  He explained it as follows:  Learning Kabbalah requires an
exceptionally high spiritual level.  The Geula will come when the people at
that high level learn Kabbalah.

As far as the `significance' of your studies in bringing the Geula, the
Talmud says that Torah study helps us survive the exile.  And were the
whole Jewish people to learn Torah, the Geula would come immediately!

Sources:
o  Even Shleima 11:3
o  Shivchei Rabbi Chaim Vital pp. 25b-26a

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Yiddle Riddle
(Based on a riddle sent in by Shlomo Steinhart)

Triplets and their cousin are born within a 2 hour period, yet the brit
milah for each of the four takes place on four consecutive days.  They are
all healthy -- i.e., no jaundice or other health problems.
How can this be?
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