Administrator, Baltimore Bais Din

Reviewed By Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Head of the Baltimore Bais Din

In a previous article, we discussed some fundamentals of the prohibition of ribbis, interest. To summarize, ribbis is a prohibition that applies when someone takes a loan, and then returns the principal amount of the loan to the lender and adds on some extra as payment for the loan. We discussed that the most common case of ribbis is for a loan of money, where the borrower spends the money and then returns the principal amount with interest. However, the prohibition of ribbis applies to anything that is consumed. The most common example of this is lending food. For example, if the lender gave a loan of one pound of flour, and the borrower returned two pounds of flour, that would be a prohibition of ribbis. If the interest of the extra food was stipulated at the time of the loan, that would be prohibited by Torah law. This is called ribbis ketzutzah, stipulated ribbis. However, if the borrower returns more on his own because of the loan, this would be prohibited by rabbinic law, called ribbis me’ucheres, ribbis given by the borrower on his own, and is discussed in the Gemara Bava Metzia 75B.

Are you a young person thinking about the kind of work you want to do, but you don’t want to go to college? I can certainly understand. A recent article in the Washington Post showed that colleges are rife with academic dishonesty, mental health issues, difficult peer relationships, alcohol and substance abuse, and safety issues – and most recently, antisemitism!

Thankfully, there are many work options that can be meaningful and satisfying and are predicted to have plentiful job openings in the foreseeable future. Many of these work options pay as much as or more than college-required positions. Please note that the salaries stated are ranges, depending on your experience. Your starting salary depends on how well you convince your interviewer that you can offer what the organization needs.

One interesting and hopeful trend is that some employers – having discovered that college does not make a difference in employee performance – have recently dropped their college degree requirements! Among them are IBM, Accenture, Okta, Dell, Bank of America, Google, and Delta Airlines; many others are expected to follow.

Shabbat, Shmini Atzeret, October 7, 2023, is a day that will not soon be forgotten by Jews worldwide. The story of the brutal attack and the ensuing bloodbath is well known by now. So, too, are the heartening actions taken by Jews around the world, who joined in unity for prayer, rallies, fundraising, and volunteer missions to show support to our Israeli brethren in distress. One of the less obvious outcomes of the Gaza war has been the massive downsizing and closures of businesses, medical centers, and a dearth of manpower on farms and kibbutzim as a result of most of the young work force being called up to military duty. In response, organizations mobilized volunteers from around the world to travel to Israel and help in any way possible, from picking ripe fruit off trees to packing supplies for soldiers. Those with emergency medical skills and healthcare training were invited to sign up to be activated when and if the need arose. One such organization is the Emergency Volunteer Project (EVP), a disaster relief and rescue organization whose primary mission is to recruit and deploy international volunteer teams to Israel in times of crisis. Baltimorean and Pikesville volunteer firefighter Captain Scott Goldstein is EVP’s director of medical and civilian recruitment. It was through EVP’s Baltimore connection that I heard about the dire need for physical rehabilitation personnel in Israel. In fact, many hospitals were short-staffed, some down by 50% due to the army call-up of necessary military personnel.

When illness strikes, so much is at stake, yet a person feels like he is lost in a forest with no way out. Thankfully, our wonderful Jewish community has many organizations to help people who find themselves in that situation. There are a number of organizations in the NY/ NJ area that help people with everything, from expediting appointments to getting insurance coverage to running to a pharmacy for an unusual medication. They include Echo, Refuah Health Line, Chaim Medical, and RCCS. Our Baltimore organizations also help people with advocacy and referrals. All the organizations in both cities work together and assist each other serve the people who need their help. 

The dust is swirling in the air, the Pine-Sol is dripping down the cabinets, and the fake brownies are baking in the oven. While all of these are definitely the harbingers of our most intense Yom Tov, if there is one thing that says “Pesach is here” it is potatoes.

As each generation has become increasingly vege-phobic, limiting their weekly intake of green foods to pickles and mint chocolate chip ice cream, families feel lost without flour to fill in most of their meals. During this challenging time when pantries are bare and restaurants are closed, the community faces the threat of starvation, whether real or imagined. After all, there is a limit to how many nights in a row you can eat corned beef. (So I’ve heard; I have not personally reached that ceiling.) Nothing is readily available except baby fingers (which must be somewhat traumatizing for the children) and macaroons, which we buy every year, despite the fact that no one likes coconut. My theory is that we are so disoriented from the late-night arguments with our ovens and the exposure to toxic cleaning chemicals that, by the time we do our shopping, we honestly think that those macaroons will taste like the much-more-fashionable macarons. (They won’t.)

Rav Mendel Gettinger, zt”l, was a mammoth talmid chacham, in the image of those trained in the glorious days of the greatest Lithuanian yeshivos – yet he was born (in 1925), raised, and educated in Brooklyn. He was a rav of a very American-style shul in Manhattan, did post-graduate work in mathematics and engineering at Columbia University, and researched the heavens with his own telescope. His father was a Stuchiner chasid, but if Rav Gettinger had any chasidic influence in his life, I am unaware of it. Although few of his contemporaries in Brownsville received any serious Torah education, Rav Gettinger was sent to yeshivos.

He became a talmid of Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l, at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, through whose influence he dedicated his life completely to Torah. Rav Gettinger completed Shas the first time at the age of 17! Not bad for an American boy of his generation. Rav Gettinger received much of his shimush (apprenticeship) in psak halacha from Harav Eliyahu Henkin, the preeminent posek of America in his era.

Dear Shlomo, 

I come from a family of high achievers, and I don’t seem to be able to do what they do. I always fall short and then get angry at myself. This makes me really tense and anxious, and I end up sleeping a lot because I am so worn out from being so angry at myself.

Yaakov

Everyone enjoys a shidduch story, and the Where What When has asked me to start off their new column with a few of my shidduch experiences over the past many years. The new column, “Dating Perspectives,” will take the place of “Ask the Shadchan” and will feature a different writer each month.

The couples in the stories below may recognize themselves, but readers will not. They will, however, hopefully be entertained.

by Talia Beyidna

The Chayei Adam[1] teaches, “If one has had a miracle performed to save him, and even more so, if a city has had a miracle that saved it, they have the right to institutionalize a Purim for that city and to authorize a festive meal that would become a mitzva, in order to memorialize the wonders of Hashem.”[2] In fact, the author himself decreed on his family a day of prayer and celebration after the Vilna fort’s gunpowder magazine exploded in 1803.[3] A significant part of the neighborhood (and his house) was leveled, and yet, with Hashem’s kindness, his entire family pulled through and survived. This has become known as the Gunpowder Purim.

The Jews of Egypt commemorated an event in 1524, when the governor of Egypt threatened to massacre them because they refused to join him in a revolt against the Sultan of Turkey, who at that time ruled Egypt. On the day he vowed to murder all the Jews in Cairo right after he had finished taking his bath, he was stabbed to death in the bathhouse by one of his junior officers, and the massacre was averted. A megilla was written to tell the story and is read in Egyptian synagogues on what is known as Purim Cairo on the 28^th of Adar.

When I moved to Baltimore in 1979, you could count the number of shuls on one or two hands. If a fellow congregant didn’t show up for a minyan, you worried. I venture to say the number of shuls have quadrupled, at least, are bursting at the seams. Many of them have expanded or are in the midst of expansion. Nowadays, there is no need to worry if Tom, Dick, Moshe, or Miriam are not in shul. No doubt, they are at another local shul enjoying a simcha!

In this multi-part series, I’ve polled local shul-goers and asked, “What is your favorite shul and why?” Here are some of their answers.