by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on December 17, 2010
Taste transfers in complex ways according to halakha. When a forbidden food gets mixed up directly with a permissible one – they are blended together, or cooked together so they all become one mass, there is no question that the forbidden food is present, and that the mixture will be forbidden unless the forbidden food is less than 1/60th of the whole. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on December 10, 2010
Previously we discussed the principle of ta’am lifgam – when the addition of a forbidden food to a mixture makes the mixture taste worse. In such a case, the mixture may be eaten, because while the forbidden food itself, even if it has an off-taste, is forbidden, when we are only dealing with the taste of such food, and not the food itself, this bad taste is not forbidden. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on December 3, 2010
In Yoreh Deah we learn about ta’am ki’ikar, the prohibition to eat a mixture of food that has in it the taste of a forbidden food, as we addressed the major exception to this principle: ta’am lifgam, when the forbidden food imparts a bad taste to the mixture. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 18, 2010
The Gemara rules that a davar she’yesh lo matirin, something that is forbidden now but will be permissible later – like an egg that was born on Yom Tov, and is nolad (a type of muktzah) and cannot be eaten on Yom Tov, but can be eaten the following day, is not batel.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 12, 2010
Among the things that cannot be nullified when they exist in a mixture are things that are considered a biryah, or “whole entities”. The Gemara in Hullin (99b) states this in reference to the gid hanashe, the forbidden sinew, in just two words – biryah shani – an entity is different (and not batel, nullified). …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 22, 2010
If there is a mixture of kosher and non-kosher food, how are we to determine whether the non-kosher food can be tasted? The Mishna and Gemara speak of two ways to measure this – one, by actually tasting – te’ima, and the other, by a quantitative approximation – the standard of 1/60th. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 15, 2010
While in our previous study of Kashrut we studied the concept of yavesh bi’yavesh – mixtures of distinct entities, here we address the more common case of lach bi’lach -mixtures in which the forbidden food is totally intermixed with, and whose taste is completely dispersed within, the permissible food. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 8, 2010
The underlying principle of almost the entire field of practical Kashrut is that of bitul – the ability of a food to be considered “nullified” when it is mixed with other foods, assuming that it does not impart any taste, that it is not noten ta’am.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 19, 2010
While we rule that it is a mitzvah d’oraitta to eat matzah on the seder night, it is far from clear as far as the simple sense of the verses are concerned. It is interesting to see how Hazal interpreted the verses to come to this conclusion.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 12, 2010
There is good evidence that the practice of a pseudo-korban pesach existed – not on bringing it on Har HaBayit without a Beit HaMikdash, but outside of the environs of the Beit HaMikdash and Jerusalem. The Tosefta in Ohalot (3:9) tells of a burial that took place in Beit Dagan on erev Pesach.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 5, 2010
Parshat Parah, a special maftir read before pesach, is read to remind us of the period of purification that preceded the bringing of the korban Pesach on the 14th of Nissan. While for most of us, this is a reminder of a thousands-year-old practice that became obsolete with the destruction of the Temple, this is not true for all.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 19, 2010
There is a debate in the gemara (Ketuvot 10a) whether the ketuvah is mi’di’orraita, Biblical, or mi’di’rabanan, rabbinic. The position that ketuvah is Biblically-based is an individual one, that of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, and he even states this position somewhat tentatively – mikan samkhu li’ktuvat isha min haTorah, from here the Rabbis found support to the institution of the ketuvah from the Torah.…
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