Ask The Rabbi  
30 January 1999 
Issue #224 
Parshat Beshalach 
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This publication is available in HTML format at  
http://www.ohr.org.il/ask/ask224.htm  
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Researched at Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem  
This Issue Contains:  
1. Who's on First? 	5. Noons 
2. The First Steps 	6. Yiddle Riddle 
3. Prince of Israel	7. Public Domain 
4. Do Chickens Have Lungs?  
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____Who's on First?____ 
 
Deborah Ambrose from Toronto, Canada <ambrosed@smh.toronto.on.ca> wrote: 
 
Dear Rabbi, 
 
How can the principle of believing in the Resurrection of the Dead be  
reconciled with the concept of transmigration of souls.  Both are Jewish  
beliefs but I have a hard time understanding how, when a soul has so many  
bodies, we are all resurrected.  Whose body gets the soul? 
 
************ 
 
Dear Deborah Ambrose, 
 
	Kabbalistic sources teach us that the main reason for reincarnation  
is for the soul to fulfill its role in the creation and achieve the  
spiritual level for which it is destined.  If a soul does not manage to do  
this in its first life, it is given another chance, and another.  If the  
soul did not succeed in three times, it will have to settle for whatever it  
has gained in the everlasting afterlife.  Another reason for reincarnation  
is to repay a soul for its deeds in a way parallel to its sins; for  
example, a rich miser might be reincarnated as a poor beggar and be  
disregarded by a rich man, who was himself one of the paupers disregarded  
by the rich miser in his previous life. 
 
	The question arises, if a soul can be reincarnated into several  
different bodies, which body `gets' the soul in the time of the  
resurrection?  The answer is that the soul will be in the body in which the  
soul achieved its nearest completion, the last body. 
 
 
____The First Steps____ 
 
Andrew Spencer from UK <white.star@lineone.net> wrote: 
 
Dear Rabbi, 
 
Although I was born a Jew, the circumstances of my childhood and schooling  
have left me all but ignorant of my religion.  I have tried to study on my  
own but to little avail.  Can you suggest any study materials or  
correspondence course which will help?  If this is not the kind of help you  
can give me here I will understand.  With all my thanks, and G-d bless you. 
 
************ 
 
Dear Andrew Spencer, 
 
	First, let me say how impressed I am with your dedication and  
determination to become a more informed Jew. I suggest that you look at the  
Ohr Somayach Interactive Web site at http://www.ohr.org.il  -- if you use  
the web. Also, if you get in touch with Rabbi Danny Kirsch of Ohr Somayach  
/ JLE London at < jle@jle.org.uk >, I'm sure he will be of great  
assistance. 
 
 
____Prince of Israel____ 
 
Martin Kleiner from Tampa, FL <martin@insytecorp.com> wrote: 
 
Dear Rabbi, 
 
Shalom.  The Tampa Tribune gave a very good review of the film "Prince of  
Egypt" and said that it was very biblically correct.  After seeing the  
movie, I went back and reread the story in Exodus.  The text is very short  
covering  the time Moses was born until the Hebrews left Egypt.  As far as  
I can tell, most of the story is not taken from the Scriptures.  Question:   
Is this story referenced elsewhere; either in Scriptures or on the walls of  
the ancient ruins of Egypt? 
 
************ 
 
Dear Martin Kleiner, 
 
	I've never seen the film "Prince of Egypt," so I can't vouch for its  
accuracy.  However, the account of the Exodus is greatly expanded upon in  
the Talmud, in many Midrashic texts, and in the Haggada which we read on  
Passover Night.  These texts supply tremendous amounts of description and  
detail which were left out of the Torah text. 
 
	For example, the Midrashim tell us that Pharaoh actually apprehended  
Moses and tried to kill him, but that Moses' neck miraculously became hard  
as rock upon which the executioner's sword could have no effect. 
 
	But even if some of the film's details are accurate, it's hard for me  
to imagine that a Hollywood cartoon would accurately portray the  
personality of G-d's holiest prophet. 
 
Source: 
 
* Devarim Rabba 2 
 
 
____Do Chickens Have Lungs?____ 
 
Daniele Kurzweil, NYC wrote: 
 
Dear Rabbi, 
 
Why don't you have to check a chicken's lungs as you would a cow's to  
ensure that it's kosher? 
 
************ 
 
Dear Daniele Kurzweil, 
 
	We check only for frequently existing problems.  A lesion on the  
lungs of a cow is quite common, while in a chicken it is uncommon. 
 
	It's interesting to note that there is a Rabbi in Jerusalem who  
maintains that the percentage of problems in chicken lungs has grown  
lately, and he therefore supervises a special line of kosher chickens in  
which the lungs are checked. 
 
 
____Noons____ 
 
Mimi Katz from Chicago, IL <GeveretK@dls.net> wrote: 
 
Dear Rabbi, 
 
If, in Hebrew, "good morning" is "boker tov," "good evening" is "erev tov,"  
and good night is "lailah tov," then why is "good afternoon" said in the  
plural "tzohorayim tovim?" 
 
************ 
 
Dear Mimi Katz, 
 
	The word for noon in Hebrew, tzohorayim, is plural.  Why? 
 
	Nachmanides in his commentary on the Chumash addresses this question.   
He explains that the singular, tzohar, means "light" (compare the word  
zohar which means "shining").  Noon is called tzohorayim, "lights," in the  
plural for the following reason:  In the morning when the sun is in the  
east, there is a shadow on the west side of objects.  In the afternoon when  
the sun is in the west, there is a shadow on the east side of objects.   
Only at noon, when the sun is directly overhead, is there no shadow,  
neither to the east nor to the west of objects.  Both sides are light,  
hence, noon is called "tzohorayim" in the plural to indicate a time of  
total light. 
 
Sources: 
 
* Ramban's commentary to Chumash Shmot 12:5 
 
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Yiddle Riddle 
 
Last week we asked: 
 
One Friday evening recently, I said the first paragraph of shema five  
times, and each time it was for a different reason.  How did this occur? 
 
Answer: 
 
	We accepted Shabbos early, praying the evening service before three  
stars appeared in the sky.  We read all three paragraphs of shema as a  
preface to the silent prayer.  Even though one does not fulfill the  
obligation of saying the evening shema before the stars appear, it is  
customary to read shema with its blessings in order to say the "redemption"  
blessing immediately before the silent prayer (somech geula l'tefilla) and  
to pray amidst words of Torah study. 
 
	When the three stars came out, we repeated all three paragraphs of  
shema, this time in order to fulfill the mitzvah to recite the evening  
shema in its proper time, night time. 
 
	When I put my son to sleep, I said the first paragraph of shema with  
him.  This time I was fulfilling the obligation of teaching Torah to my  
son, as it says in the shema itself, "you shall teach them to your  
children." 
 
	That week's Parsha was Parshat Vaetchanan.  As part of the custom of  
completing the Parsha before reading it in shul, I read the entire Parsha,  
which includes the first paragraph of shema. 
 
	Before going to sleep, I said the first paragraph of shema a fifth  
time during the bedtime -- kriat shema al ha'mita -- as protection for my  
soul during sleep. 
 
* Riddle submitted by Benjie Gerstman <gerstbpg@netvision.net.il> 
 
=========================================================================== 
 
The Public Domain 
Comments, quibbles, and reactions  
concerning previous "Ask-the-Rabbi" features 
 
 
Re: Many Thanks!: 
 
	Your publications are so useful for me!  They really help me a great  
deal to widen my Jewish knowledge and to answer more accurately to very  
interesting questions.  I also help to write a weekly choveret newsletter  
for our kehila  congregation Sucat David and I find that your material  
gives me a better understanding of the weekly Parsha, as well as of all the  
different Jewish matters that are so clearly explained in your "Ask the  
Rabbi" column. Thank you and tizku lemitzvot for your precious material  
that I receive every week via e-mail (I do not have internet). 
 
* Malka Armoza, Buenos Aires <shseider@criba.edu.ar> 
 
********** 
 
Re: Kashrut for Sefardim (Ask #217): 
 
	In a recent Ask the Rabbi column you said:  "Pareve food -- i.e.,  
food that is neither dairy nor meat -- cooked in dairy equipment may not be  
eaten together with meat, but it may be eaten immediately after eating  
meat."  Please note that the source is Yoreh Deah 95:2 Rema which dictates  
the Halacha only for non-Sefardim.  The Sefardim follow the halacha that it  
is indeed permitted.   
 
* Samuel Cohen <SamuelC@ackerstein.co.il> 
 
 
Re: Circumcision with Anesthesia (Public Domain, Ask #220): 
 
	As a physician who has done circumcisions and witnessed many a bris,  
two points:  First, an average circumcision done on a baby in the hospital  
from the time the doctor begins to end is only a couple of minutes.   
Second, some Rabbis maintain that you must use local anesthetic, such as  
one of the anesthetic creams on the market today, because it is a violation  
of Torah law to cause pain when there is an alternative; in fact, some will  
not allow a bris in their shul if the mohel doesn't use anesthetic. 
 
* Steven Luger, M.D.  <Swluger@aol.com> 
 
 
Re: Ohrnet Insights: 
 
	I publish Ohrnet's "Parsha Insights" along with community notices,  
along with "Yossi & Co." Parsha cartoon that you post on the Web (for the  
kinderlach), for two synagogues in Cape Town.  The pages are so well  
accepted that there are various members who pay for the photo-copying.   
B'virchas haTorah. 
 
* Dovid Jubiler, Cape Town, S. A. <d-jubiler@usa.net> 
 
 
Re: I'm My Own Grandpa (Yiddle Riddle, Ask #218): 
 
	Another response to Dovid Solomon's Riddle, "who in Tanach has a name  
which makes him sound as though he's his own uncle:"  David (as in David  
Hamelech), spelled daled-vav-daled, can also be pronounced dod which means  
"uncle." 
 
	Along the same lines, there is also a person named Savta, which means  
grandmother.  (Bereishet 10:7).   
 
	In a different approach, Dishon (Bereishet 36:21) is the uncle of  
Dishon (Ibid. 36:25).  Regarding your  question "whose name makes him sound  
like his own grandpa," Nachor's grandfather is Nachor (Bereishet 11:24-26). 
 
* JJ and Livia Levine <jjlr@erols.com> 
 
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