העורך Editor

Why Support the ‘Override Clause’?!

Quoting a letter to the editor in Mishpacha:

One of the features of the “override clause” is that the legislature can override any ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court with a simple majority vote in the Knesset.

But what is so confusing to the American chareidi community is the introduction of this override clause. This is because introducing an equivalent of the “override clause” in the US judicial system would basically mean that popular opinion would override the law, and we would have nowhere to appeal rulings issued against our values when protected by the law.

…

Potential laws regulating bris milah, shechitah, the curriculum in chadarim and Bais Yaakovs, the definition of marriage and death, and when our yeshivos, camps, and shuls can be opened will not be drafted based on true science and medicine, but will be driven by the moment’s popular opinion. So the Supreme Court is the address for citizens and groups to appeal these new laws, and where the latest trends in popular opinion are held in check with the land’s Constitution.

Read the rest here…

Both Chametz and Shmitta: The Fake ‘Mechira’ Ruins the Whole Mitzva

We have written and curated against each one of them. Of course, we know the one historically led to the other.

The criticism is often made that even if the Shmitta “Heter” were actually valid (Bediavad or in some cases or in some opinions or in our time), not that it is, it should still be avoided because the Torah wants Shmitta to “look” a certain way (a point made with countless examples in this book).

Vayikra Rabba 1:1:

גבורי כח עושי דברו במה הכתוב מדבר א”ר יצחק בשומרי שביעית הכתוב מדבר בנוהג שבעולם אדם עושה מצוה ליום א’ לשבת אחת לחודש א’ שמא לשאר ימות השנה ודין חמי חקליה ביירה כרמיה ביירה ויהבי ארנונא ושתיק יש לך גבור גדול מזה וא”ת אינו מדבר בשומרי שביעית נאמר כאן עושי דברו ונאמר להלן (דברים ט”ו ב’) וזה דבר השמיטה מה דבר שנאמר להלן בשומרי שביעית הכתוב מדבר אף דבר האמור כאן בשומרי שביעית הכתוב מדבר עושי דברו.

Translation (Sefaria):

“Powerful ones who fulfill His word, etc.” – about what is the verse speaking? Rabbi Yitzchak said, “The verse is speaking about those that observe the sabbatical year. It is customary in the world that a man will fulfill a commandment for a day, for a Shabbat, for a month, but for the rest of the days of the year? And this one watches his field empty, watches his vineyard empty and he gives his purse and is silent – is there one more powerful than this one? And if you would say that it is not speaking about those that observe the sabbatical year, here it states, ‘who fulfill his word’ and later it states (Deuteronomy 15:2) ‘This is the word of the Sabbatical.’ Just like regarding the word that is stated later on, the verse is speaking about those that observe the Sabbatical year, so too the word stated here, – it is about those that observe the Sabbatical year that the verse is speaking.

Well, just like the fake Shmitta “Heter” has uprooted the “face” of the mitzva, with work proceeding almost normally on the fields and availability and prices almost the same due to the many who rely on the Mechira (assuming even that much was done!), the fake Chametz “Heter” means the bakeries and factories work full-blast until the last second, people skip Bedikah in many areas, Pesach hotels (!), no one ever needs to think about Chametz which passed over Passover (flatly contradicting Chulin 4a-4b and the implied difficulty of לא תשחט על חמץ דם זבחי), and no one ever finds it hard to obtain whatever Chametz he wants, whether before or after Pesach (and for Meshumadim, perhaps even during), and see this.

Find Rabbi Yitzchak Brand’s [remastered] opus against the current “sale” of Chametz here…

Rabbi Brand also makes the point that since it’s impossible to predict consumer demand with perfect accuracy, without the phony-baloney “sale”, the days before Pesach would likely remind us of an approaching famine (to a degree)!

See Gittin 56a:

… קמו קלנהו להנהו אמברי דחיטי ושערי והוה כפנא.

מרתא בת בייתוס עתירתא דירושלים הויא שדרתה לשלוחה ואמרה ליה זיל אייתי לי סמידא אדאזל איזדבן אתא אמר לה סמידא ליכא חיורתא איכא אמרה ליה זיל אייתי לי אדאזל אזדבן אתא ואמר לה חיורתא ליכא גושקרא איכא א”ל זיל אייתי לי אדאזל אזדבן אתא ואמר לה גושקרא ליכא קימחא דשערי איכא אמרה ליה זיל אייתי לי אדאזל איזדבן.

הוה שליפא מסאנא אמרה איפוק ואחזי אי משכחנא מידי למיכל…

Translation (Sefaria):

In order to force the residents of the city to engage in battle, the zealots arose and burned down these storehouses [ambarei] of wheat and barley, and there was a general famine.
With regard to this famine it is related that Marta bat Baitos was one of the wealthy women of Jerusalem. She sent out her agent and said to him: Go bring me fine flour [semida]. By the time he went, the fine flour was already sold. He came and said to her: There is no fine flour, but there is ordinary flour. She said to him: Go then and bring me ordinary flour. By the time he went, the ordinary flour was also sold. He came and said to her: There is no ordinary flour, but there is coarse flour [gushkera]. She said to him: Go then and bring me coarse flour. By the time he went, the coarse flour was already sold. He came and said to her: There is no coarse flour, but there is barley flour. She said to him: Go then and bring me barley flour. But once again, by the time he went, the barley flour was also sold.
She had just removed her shoes, but she said: I will go out myself and see if I can find something to eat…