Rejewvenate!

My wife opined a few months ago that the New York Times has a terrible habit of being about a year behind on major trends, be it in fashion, technology, color printing, or popular culture. While not quite so far behind this time, I did enjoy their article on the “kosher for Passover” gasoline story that I posted about in this space near Purim.

In This Town, Talk Turns to Putting the Volvos on a Kosher Diet - New York Times

I’ve just kashered my kitchen, but there’s always more to do! Chag Kasher V’Sameach.

Oh, by the way, I asked earlier about why we have this story about having no time to bake bread because we were in such a rush to leave Egypt when God clearly commands Moshe weeks earlier to prepare the Jews to bring the Korban Pesach, and to eat it with Matzah and Marror. So go look at the pesukim, and you’ll find that Moshe never passes the command to eat Matzah to the Jews. Interesting, no? It seems like Moshe sets it up so that the Jews will end up with Matzah. I don’t get it, but I plan to ask about it at my seder!

Last week, I wrote a post about the sale of Kosher-for-Pesach gasoline in Teaneck. The article I cited was, of course, not factual, and was simply making the rounds for Purim. I confess that at the time I posted it I suspected, but was not certain, that this was the case. Besides, I figured it would make for good fun in either case. After all, on its face, the prohibition on gasoline seemed no more or less farcical than the prohibition on water from the Kinneret (because fisherman fish in it with bread or other chametz), or the prohibition on Brooklyn water because of non-kosher organisms that needed to be filtered out.

Since then, the article, ostensibly published in the non-existent Bergen County Jewish Times, has made its way out of the small Jewish pond. I encountered it today at one of the most popular economics blogs on the web, Marginal Revolution. It appears that they too, were taken in, as they quoted the fake article in their ‘Markets in Everything’ feature.

How did MR get wind of this? They credit Brendan Nyhan, who runs a fine political blog, but I could not find any mention of this article on his blog - Brendan, if you see this, do you mind posting in the comments about how you got the article, and what made you send it on to MR? In any case, Marginal Revolution was eventually clued in to the humorous nature of the article, and to their credit, they posted a link to Rabbi Mark Ankorn’s debunking of the story.

I don’t know if this story comes with a moral, but its worth noting how quickly our meshugas reaches outside of the walls of our parish and into the broader world.

When I said I was going to post about Pesach this isn’t what I had in mind.

The Bergen County Jewish Times (no link to the original, couldn’t find one - hope this isn’t a hoax… or maybe I hope it is a hoax, I’ll let you decide) is reporting that a local gas station owner will be selling Kosher-For-Pesach gas!

Yaniv Ban-Zaken, a local gas station owner, will be selling Kosher for Passover gasoline during the holiday this year. The move, Ben-Zaken says,has become necessary due to the increased ethanol content in gasoline required by the government. The ethanol is typically derived from corn, which is a forbidden food for Jews on Passover. And, according to Ben-Zaken, underJewish law, it is also forbidden to derive any benefit from corn.

Interested? It’ll cost you. A gallon of chametz- (or rather, kitniyot-) free gas will set you back a staggering $9.69 per gallon. Still, compared to a pound of hand-made shmura matzah, a gallon of chametz-free gas is pretty cheap - a pound of shmura will go for about $18, and all you get is some hastily-baked flour and water! I wonder what’s more expensive, feeding matzah to your family of eight, or driving them all to Great Adventure on Chol HaMoed in your Suburban, Navigator, or Odyssey.

But why take psak from a non-observant yored? Rabbi Mordechai Silver of Yeshivas Torah Ohr in Englewood says:

[W]hile it might technically be acceptable to use mass-produced gasoline, those who can afford to purchase the new alternative should. “In Jewish law, we have a principle of lifnim mshuras hadin–going above and beyond the basic requirements of the law,” he explained in an email. “Thank G-d, many people in the area can afford to do so in this case.”

A cynic might argue that there’s no chiyuv to line the pockets of your local gas-station owner on Pesach, but Mr. Ban Zaken claims that he won’t turn a profit on this venture at all, and that he’s just providing a community service.

In fairness, not everyone thinks this is such a great idea:

Rabbi Shalom Silver, of Congregation Ohel Emeth in Teaneck , has recommended to his congregants that they not buy the gasoline. “Although Jews of Ashkenazi descent are not permitted to eat corn on Pesach, they are permitted to derive benefit from corn byproducts, such as gasoline with ethanol additives,” he said.

And to think, if I was only born a Sephardi I could have been sitting on the sidelines and laughing about all this!

Hat tip to Torn

Some interesting links I’ve stumbled across recently:

Should you set up a not-so-observant-but-Orthodox guy with a really frum Conservative girl? As much as I enjoyed the question, I think the best part was the disconnect between admitting that the Conservative girl was more religious than the Orthodox guy and this paragraph:

That there are so many Conservative Jews who are serious about their observance should be seen as a challenge to us. It is all too easy to say that our Kiruv efforts should be geared to those whose knowledge of Torah Judaism is negligible. That’s what the NCSYs and Aish HaTorahs do. But what about this young woman and others like her? Can we afford to just leave them alone? Should we perhaps be interacting more with them? Can we entice them away from the heresy that is the Conservative movement into the Emes of an Orthodox one? Is there Kiruv for them? And how would we do it? Is there anyone or any group doing it?

I fully agree that the existence of frum Conservatives challenges Orthodox assumptions and positions. But what’s funny is that Harry Marlyes (the author) completely misses that the person needing kiruv is not the frum Conservative, but the disaffected Orthodox!

[From Emes V'emunah]

Best Fatwah Ever!

Reconstructive hymen surgery for women who lost their virginity before marriage is halal (religiously permissible), said to Aly Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt.

Gomaa, the highest authority with the power to issue a fatwa (religious edict), appeared the popular terrestrial Channel Two’s talk show El Beit Beitek, where he condoned the controversial fatwa, released by Soad Saleh, the ex-dean of the faculty of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar University and noted scholar.

Shiekh Khaled El Gindy, an Al-Azhar scholar and member of the Higher Council of Islamic Studies told The Daily Star Egypt that he agrees with the new fatwa.

“Islam never differentiates between men and women, so it is not rational for us to think that God has placed a sign to indicate the virginity of women without having a similar sign to indicate the virginity of men,” El Gindy said.

“Any man who is concerned about his prospective wife’s hymen should first provide a proof that he himself is virgin,” he added.

[From the Daily Star Egypt]

The Rebbe’s partying with Elvis, but 770 lives on - check out this exhibit of various 770-clones around the world. There was an exhibit of many of these photos at the Jewish Museum a year or two ago, but it’s gone now. [Hat tip - Kottke.org]

Supposedly, there’s a native Jew who is blogging from Mogadishu, Somalia. I hate to sound cynical, but I have my doubts as to whether it’s the real deal or not. In some places the writing sounds juvenile, while in others it is strangely fluent. Dunno. I leave it to you to to judge.

—

A question to ponder: The Torah tells us, and the Haggadah repeats for us, that the Jews made matzah on their way out of Egypt because they had no time to allow their bread to rise:

Exod. 12:39

However, a few verses prior, in the very same chapter, God tells Moshe that the Jewish people should select a lamb for slaughter on the 10th of Nisan, and that they will eat it five days later with Matzah! If there was enough time to prepare a lamb barbecue with matzah and marror, surely there was enough time to bake some bread for the journey out of Egypt! What gives?