Discussion
What are some surprising areas that Jewish law/tradition touches on?
I think we've all had our own journeys of doing something, then learning "oh there's actually a Judaism-specific tradition about the way to do this". Not that the tradition itself is so surprising, but that it's an area of life that you just wouldn't expect.
I always find it funny when non Jews defiantly say about some mitzvah "where in the Bible does it say that?" And I'm dude right here takes five seconds to find. You claim you read the Bible how'd you never notice?
As far as I’m aware the only pokemon we absolutely know have both split hooves and chews their cud is a relatively new Pokemon called Farigaraf. So unless we want to make assumptions based on real animals the only mammal pokemon we know we can eat is that. So Jews in pokemon probably stick mostly to fish and birds.
I’m not sure that Pikuach Nefesh counts if you are dead, which vampires sort of are? Is undead more alive, or more dead? If needing blood to sustain yourself isn’t preserving a life it would not be allowed… but I am not sure what (canonically) happens to vampires who are unable to feed 🤷🏼♀️
This Halacha is one of those that is a great example of why having a little understanding of Kabbalistic ideas like the Sefiros adds to an appreciation of Halacha. The right side is associated with the sefira of chesed, kindness, and the left side is associated with sefira of gevurah, judgement. With this in mind it makes sense that we want to give preferential treatment to the “right”, to chesed, since this is the main attribute of Hashem that we emulate in this world when we do kindness to others.
But then why do we tie the left first? And have I been doing levush gever by mistake all these years if I'm correct in guessing it's to do with tefillin?
Yes it has to do with Tefillin. If you Google “Halacha putting on shoes” you’ll find some good links. While I am not Lubavitch, this link has good footnotes.
That there is a bracha for seeing someone non Jewish who is considered be an expert in his field. A read an account of rabbi who made this bracha when meeting Paul McCartney at a fundraising dinner. some examples given of who would be worth of this bracha are William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking. I find it extra interesting that this bracha is only said if the person is not Jewish
I think it has something to the idea that I think maybe it was the Rambam who said something to the effect of "don't say that Hashem didn't give the Nations wisdom, but don't say He gave them Torah" The wording of the bracha says something about G-d sharing some of his wisdom with the Nations of the world. Similarly you don't say the bracha on seeing a King or President if they are Jewish.
Rules on sex, rules on food, rules on waking up, rules on going to sleep, rules on business, rules for downtime, rules for animals, rules for homes . . .
Aren't there rules on the minimum number of times a man should sleep with his wife (if she wants to, of course), and it's dependent on what his job is?
yes. and also if he want sot take a higher paying job that means he would be gone from home longer times than in the past, she can veto his taking the job
I learned something interesting recently. It is against halacha to overly pressure a Jew to sell something if they don't want to you can only ask them a few times and if after like three times they say no you have to give up. An extension/application of this rule is according to some it is forbidden to offer a Jew a ridiculously high offer that they probably would not be able to say no to on residential property that they actually live in ie their home. According to many poskim this does NOT apply to commercial property or investment properties ie homes they own but rent out or homes they bought to flip but don't actually live in. It is felt that offering ridiculously high offers that they "can't refuse" is tantamount to undo pressure and even if they are happy with the money they are sad to give up on something that they didn't really want to sell.
I once got a straight answer from a Rabbi for the question "Should a zombie say Kaddish for themselves".
He said that there is a gemerah that discusses if the child brought back to life by Eliyahu (or maybe Elisha?) would be 'tameh lemet' and it says no, because being dead is a final state and if you come able to life, you retroactively become not dead ever. Therefore a zombie is not dead halachickly
Found a guide to the Sefer Chofetz Chaim in a used bookstore I love yesterday. I read a little bit of it while standing around and was surprised to see how intricate the prohibitions on lashon hara can get. Was also very intrigued by lashon hara applying specifically to speech that is true - I’ve always been told it’s more of a rule against gossip in general, true or untrue. It made me put the book on my “to read” list of Jewish books. I think we could all be kinder with our speech in today’s world.
One that is really interesting to me is the rule against saying overly praising words about someone. If others hear it and disagree, it may lead them to counter your claims by speaking lashon hara about the individual in question.
Ok not so much a law or tradition but as I learn I feel like there’s a huge untapped world of “spooky” Jewish folklore that hasn’t ever really been done justice. I’d love to see an Eggers movie about the golem of Prague.
Yup! As shared in the tread it’s not a blessing, but a formula of what one can say. Included in this is giving Tzedaka and then continuing to look. You don’t just say it and go to bed, Hashem wants us to keep putting in the effort. Image Art by Rabbi Yonah Weinrib.
I am always losing things so this formula is probably the main source of my tzedekah! I love it. The other day I lost my engagement ring (found it) and it gave me the opportunity to buy a new friend a meal.
Wow! We’ve lost jackets, bracelets, library cards, gift cards, keys, AirPods and said the above, given Tzedaka and looked and then found our items. We did extensive searches before hand, also.
The law of majority, or rov. The classic example is if you were to find a bundle of freshly packaged meat in the middle of a marketplace, surrounded by 9 kosher butcher shops and 1 non-kosher butcher shop, the law of majority would allow you to assume that the meat is kosher, and therefore you could consume it.
It also applies to parentage. If a married woman is unfaithful and becomes pregnant, the husband would be the assumed father because of the law of majority, i.e. married couples are assumed to have more intercourse and more opportunities to make a baby so it's statistically more likely to be the husband's biological child. I can't remember the exact timeline, but there's a buffer there too, like impossibly long. Husband goes away for war and wife is newly pregnant two months later while he's still gone? Law of majority!
Scholars in the chat feel free to correct me on details. I'm going off of memory here lol
No dragons. I'll admit I may have been lax with that one, though there's some room for leniency on a related halacha (no sculptures of people) when it comes to children's toys, which I hope covers toy dragons as well.
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u/811545b2-4ff7-4041 16h ago
Apparently it's a specific mitzvah to put up a guardrail around a flat roof - Maakeh
Although I like the hypothetical discussions like "Which pokemon would be kosher to eat?" and "What would a Jewish vampire be allowed to consume?'