There is a case in the Talmud known as "when A benefits from B without B incurring a loss." The exact case is when A lives in an apartment owned by B without B's knowledge. B suffered no loss by A's mere usage of the apartment. May B sue for rent? (In the end the Talmud says A really damage B since just living in an apartment causes the walls to get dirty etc...)
Now, if A piggybacks on B's wifi, does B suffer a loss?
Rabbi Josh Flug at http://www.scribd.com/doc/62775/YU-ShavuotToGo-5767 takes a look at piggybacking on a wifi from a different angel. He is concerned with the benefit A is deriving from the ISP provider. Because of A's use they must now provide more bandwith at a cost to them. Rabbi Flug actually wrote an entire ebook on the issue of hi tech and Jewish law. He discusses issues of intellectual property rights etc... too. When I have time I will look it more of what he wrote.
I am going to Lakewood NJ for Shabbos (the Sabbath.) Lakewood has the countries second largest Orthodox Jewish community (after NYC) and I went to yeshiva there for a year and a half. Wishing everyone a great Shabbos and weekend.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Does Jewish Law permit piggybacking on a wifi?
Does Jewish Law permit piggybacking on a wifi?
Google gave me 90 hits for piggybacking on wifi in halacha. This is the link:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=piggybacking+on+wifi+in+halacha
For piggybacking on wifi in Jewish law it gave me 95,400 hits! Goes to show how you phrase the question changes the results as we learned in class!
Future post-so is it permitted?
Google gave me 90 hits for piggybacking on wifi in halacha. This is the link:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=piggybacking+on+wifi+in+halacha
For piggybacking on wifi in Jewish law it gave me 95,400 hits! Goes to show how you phrase the question changes the results as we learned in class!
Future post-so is it permitted?
Hasidism Reappraised
How did the Hasidic (chasidish) movement begin?
First a few basics:
Chasidus means piousness. The new group was mocked by its opponents by being sarcastically called the pious ones.
The founder of Chasidus was Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. According to Wikipedia, he lived from 1698-1760.
Chasidim live throughout the world today. They are outwardly identifiable by their sidecurls (payos) long black coats (bekeshes) and fur hats (shtreimals) they wear on Shabbos and Yom Tov (the Sabbath and holidays.)
Lets return to our original question. How did they begin?
The following reasons have all been suggested by different historians and often fiercly debated.
Hasidism was a populist movement that was fueled by the masses. The scholarly elite had the economic and intellectual capability to study the Talmud. The poor ignorant masses had neither and felt ignored. Thus they went looking for a movement that emphasized the prayer of the common man over the Talmudic study of the scholar. This is the way chasidus was explained to me when I was a kid a sense it denigrates Chasidim since it describes them as poor ignoramuses. Who wants to be poor and ignorant?
Hasidism Reappraised, the book I recently bought, rejects the above explanation for chasidis’ rise. He argues that the facts show that the founders of chasidus often came from scholarly elite families themselves. Another book I once read, Men of Silk, (Chasidim wear silk on the Sabbath) points out that some of the earliest supporters of chasidus were rich Jews. Lets face it, a movement needs money to survive, especially when it had the opponents chasidus had.
Hasidism Reappraised makes another salient point. When chasidus started, the Lithuanian rabbinical establishment waged a campaign to wipe out the new movement. Hasidism Reappraised argues that it was the early anti Hasidic polemical tracts that served as the sources which subsequent historians relied upon to write chasidus’ history. No wonder the Chasidim came out looking ignorant and poor. Maybe they knew more than we have thought and were richer too.
First a few basics:
Chasidus means piousness. The new group was mocked by its opponents by being sarcastically called the pious ones.
The founder of Chasidus was Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. According to Wikipedia, he lived from 1698-1760.
Chasidim live throughout the world today. They are outwardly identifiable by their sidecurls (payos) long black coats (bekeshes) and fur hats (shtreimals) they wear on Shabbos and Yom Tov (the Sabbath and holidays.)
Lets return to our original question. How did they begin?
The following reasons have all been suggested by different historians and often fiercly debated.
Hasidism was a populist movement that was fueled by the masses. The scholarly elite had the economic and intellectual capability to study the Talmud. The poor ignorant masses had neither and felt ignored. Thus they went looking for a movement that emphasized the prayer of the common man over the Talmudic study of the scholar. This is the way chasidus was explained to me when I was a kid a sense it denigrates Chasidim since it describes them as poor ignoramuses. Who wants to be poor and ignorant?
Hasidism Reappraised, the book I recently bought, rejects the above explanation for chasidis’ rise. He argues that the facts show that the founders of chasidus often came from scholarly elite families themselves. Another book I once read, Men of Silk, (Chasidim wear silk on the Sabbath) points out that some of the earliest supporters of chasidus were rich Jews. Lets face it, a movement needs money to survive, especially when it had the opponents chasidus had.
Hasidism Reappraised makes another salient point. When chasidus started, the Lithuanian rabbinical establishment waged a campaign to wipe out the new movement. Hasidism Reappraised argues that it was the early anti Hasidic polemical tracts that served as the sources which subsequent historians relied upon to write chasidus’ history. No wonder the Chasidim came out looking ignorant and poor. Maybe they knew more than we have thought and were richer too.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
what I bought at the recent YU book sale
Boy am I tired. But the blog marches on.
Yeshiva University holds its annual famous book fair in February every year. This year I finally went. Their website, http://www.soyseforim.org/ says they are "the largest Jewish book sale in North America."
I spent about $150 (that belongs on my librarian resume to prove how I like books) and got the following books.
Hasidism Reappraised- Reappraises the historical understanding of the history of hasidism. Hasidism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism.
Pious and Rebellious- by Avraham Grossman. He's a really big name in Jewish history. The book is a history of the status of medieval Jewish women.
Khal Israel- The history of Jewish autonomy.
(Rabbi) Yom Tov Lippman Heller- A bio of a 17th century rabbi and commentator. I've studied his works so I wanted to read a bio about him.
Analysis of the development of Jewish liturgy.
The Book in the Jewish World 1700-1900- This is a great book for library students as it deals with books!
In future posts I'll go into more depth about what I learned from what I read.
If you went to the YU sale I'd love to hear about your experience and what you bought.
Take care,
Yitzy
Yeshiva University holds its annual famous book fair in February every year. This year I finally went. Their website, http://www.soyseforim.org/ says they are "the largest Jewish book sale in North America."
I spent about $150 (that belongs on my librarian resume to prove how I like books) and got the following books.
Hasidism Reappraised- Reappraises the historical understanding of the history of hasidism. Hasidism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism.
Pious and Rebellious- by Avraham Grossman. He's a really big name in Jewish history. The book is a history of the status of medieval Jewish women.
Khal Israel- The history of Jewish autonomy.
(Rabbi) Yom Tov Lippman Heller- A bio of a 17th century rabbi and commentator. I've studied his works so I wanted to read a bio about him.
Analysis of the development of Jewish liturgy.
The Book in the Jewish World 1700-1900- This is a great book for library students as it deals with books!
In future posts I'll go into more depth about what I learned from what I read.
If you went to the YU sale I'd love to hear about your experience and what you bought.
Take care,
Yitzy
Monday, February 25, 2008
Jewish law and last week’s lunar eclipse.
As everyone knows, last week we witnessed a lunar eclipse. I actually saw it as I was leaving college.
There are many wondrous things that happen in the sky upon which a bracha (blessing) is recited. We recite a blessing upon seeing a rainbow, hearing thunder, seeing lightening, a comet and others. All these blessings remind us how Hashem (G-d) runs the world.
How about eclipses? I didn’t hear anything about making a bracha on the eclipse?
I asked Rabbi Google and was directed to the archives of mail Jewish. There I found it claimed in the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and others that no blessing is recited upon lunar eclipses because the gemara (Talmud) says a lunar eclipse is a bad omen. I found this at http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=E . http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/index.shtml is an archive of halachik (Jewish law) discussions that have taken place on mail-jewish’s listserv.
There is another halacha (law) that relates to lunar eclipses. Every month Jews recite a blessing thanking Hashem for “renewing” the moon. This blessing, kiddush lavana, can be recited until the moon is full. The Beis Yosef (author of Shulchan Aruch, the authoritative Code of Jewish Law) argues that a lunar eclipse is proof that the moon is full and the time for kiddush lavana ends. (Taken from http://weeklyshtikle.blogspot.com/2007/03/eclipses-in-halachah-and-hashkafah.htmlThursday, February 21, 2008
What does a cataloger do when an author wants to stay anonymous?
A fine fellow student felt I should post a little more so here goes:
I subscribe to Hasafran the Listserv of the Association of Jewish Libraries. (Sefer is book in Hebrew. A safran is a librarian.) They have dealt with the following issue. Some seforim (books, plural for sefar) are writing by people who want to stay anonymous. Why? Sometimes out of humility ("who am I to write a commentary on the Talmud...) or because they want to avoid getting credit for their work in order to avoid the honor that comes with religious authorship. Another reason for anonymity is when an author takes a radical stance and fears communal disapproval.
On the other hand, the Jewish National Library's cataloguers want to record the name of every author whose book is in their library. Thus they can find cataloguing such books challenging.
I started wondering if other cataloguers ever faced the same problem. Lets talk about the Cold War since my professor, Professor Supernant lived through that. When anti Communist tracts were snuck out of the Soviet Union, did their authors always want their identities revealed? Did the Library of Congress catalogue such works without entering their names? If anyone knows more about this I'd love to hear.
Yitzy
I subscribe to Hasafran the Listserv of the Association of Jewish Libraries. (Sefer is book in Hebrew. A safran is a librarian.) They have dealt with the following issue. Some seforim (books, plural for sefar) are writing by people who want to stay anonymous. Why? Sometimes out of humility ("who am I to write a commentary on the Talmud...) or because they want to avoid getting credit for their work in order to avoid the honor that comes with religious authorship. Another reason for anonymity is when an author takes a radical stance and fears communal disapproval.
On the other hand, the Jewish National Library's cataloguers want to record the name of every author whose book is in their library. Thus they can find cataloguing such books challenging.
I started wondering if other cataloguers ever faced the same problem. Lets talk about the Cold War since my professor, Professor Supernant lived through that. When anti Communist tracts were snuck out of the Soviet Union, did their authors always want their identities revealed? Did the Library of Congress catalogue such works without entering their names? If anyone knows more about this I'd love to hear.
Yitzy
Hi everyone
Welcome to my blog. I hope to post about the following things on my blog:
Jewish history
discuss posts on other Jewish history and book review blogs
issues of Jewish and general interest
my life (and I'd love to hear about your life too).
Whatever
I'd love to hear your comments.
Yitzy
Jewish history
discuss posts on other Jewish history and book review blogs
issues of Jewish and general interest
my life (and I'd love to hear about your life too).
Whatever
I'd love to hear your comments.
Yitzy
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