To Be A Jew: A Guide To Jewish Observance In Contemporary Life

350 Pages·1991·101.51 MB·English

by  Hayim Halevy Donin

JEW
SELECTED AND COMPILED
FROM THE SHULHAN ARUKH
AND RESPONSA LITERATURE
AND PROVIDING A RATIONALE
FOR THE LAWS AND
THE TRADITIONS
..
RABBI IIA.Y IM IlALEVY BONIN
Basic Books
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Copyright © 1972 by Hayim Halevy Donin
Foreword copyright © 1991 by Norman Lamm
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-89175
ISBN-I0 0-465-08624-1 (cloth)
ISBN-13978-0-465-08624-5 (cloth)
ISBN-lO 0-465-08632-2 (pbk.)
ISBN-13978-0-465-08632-O (pbk.)
Manufactured in the United States of America
DESIGNED BY VINCENT TORRE
LSC-C
DHSB 50 49 48 47 46
To Our Children
Haviv4, David, Rena, and Miriam
whose lives, we pray, will always
be guided by Torah and Halakha
and to my revered teacher
Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin,
President of Yeshiva University
without whose understanding, kindness, and warmth
during the days of my youth
this book would never have come to be
(;ONTENTS
,\I ,
FOREWORD xiii
PREFACE xix
INTRODUCTION 3
..
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THE UNDERLYING CREED
CHAPTER 1 / The Cornerrtona of Tud4i8m 7
Israel-The People 7 Israel-Its God 18
Israel-Its Land 12 Israel-Its Torah 14
CHAPTER % / HalakhfJ: The Tewi8h Way %8
CHAPTEll 3 / The Reasons fOT the Commandments 33
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THE DAILY WAY OF LIFE
CHAPTER .. / Kindness: A Meflns and an End 41
Acts of Kindness Kindness to Animals 56
Laws of Charity Acts of Justice 57
Laws Relating to Slander, The Middle Road 59
Revenge, and Deceit
i..aws Pertaining to Work
and Wages 55
CONTENTS
CIIAPTEll 5 / The SIlbbath: An Is14nd in Time 61
Preparing for the Sabbath 70 Concluding the Sabbath
The Sabbath Eve 7'1. THE ENDING OF THE DAY
TIlE SABBATH CANDLES 7'1. HAVDALAH
THE SABBATH TABLE 74 Tasks Forbidden on
THE EVENING SEaVICES 74 the Sabbath
THE HOME RITUAL BY BIBLICAL LAW
AND KIDDUSH 75 BY RABBINIC LAW
Leisure Activities for the SABBATH RESTRICTIONS AS
Sabbath 81 APPLIED TO CHILDREN 93
The Sabbath Day 8'1. A WORD ABOUT THE
THE MOaNING SERVICES 8'1. AUTOMOBILE 93
SABBATH MORNING SUSPENSION OF
I:lDDUSH 83 SABBATH RULES
THE THREE SABBATH
MEALS 84
CHAPTER 6 / The Dietary lAws: A Diet fOT the Soul 97
The Forbidden Foods 104 The Role of the Shohet and
Requirement of Shehitah 106 Kosher Butcher III
"Koshering" Meat 107 On Meat and Milk Mixtures III
PROHIBITION OF BLOOD 107 Miscellaneous Prohibitions 116
I:OSHERING BY BROILING 108 Kosher Food in Non-Kosher
I:OSHERING BY SOAKING Vessels: On "Eating Out"
AND SALTING 109 Methods of "Kashering"
CHAPTER 7 / Family Life: A Key to Happiness 1'1.1
Honoring Parents 1 '1.8 Sexual Discipline in Marriage 136
The Education and Upbringing Modesty 139
of Children 1'1.9 Abortion and Birth Control 140
Relationship of Husband ABORTION 140
and Wife 133 BIRTH CONTROL 141
Divorce 135
CIIAPTEll 8 / Signs of the Covenant: Love and Reverence
Te611in BLESSINGS WHEN CALLED
Mezuzah TO TORAH
Tzitzit and Tallit BLESSINGS FOR VARIOUS
Prayer FOODS AND OCCASIONS
SHEMA
CONTENTS
SELECTED FOIlMS OF A Word about the Prayer Book 179
GIACE AFTER MEALS On Wearing a Headcovering ISo
SELECTED MORNING Personal Grooming 181
PRAYERS
CHAPTER 9 I The Synagogue: Where Jews Assemb~ 183
The Synagogue As Institution 186 THE C.\NTOR 195
Responsibility of Synagogues THE SEXTON 197
Today 188 THE GABBAI 198
Behavior in the Synagogue 191 Role of the Kohen 198
The Worship Services 191 Ceremony of Priestly
The Ritual Items 193 Benediction 200
Synagogue Personnel 195
THE IABBI 195
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THE SPECIAL OCCASIONS OF THE YEAR
CHAPTER 10 I The Major Fertivals 209
The Second Festival Day of klDDUSH FOR FESTIVALS 213
the Diaspora 210
CHAPTER 11 I Passover 218
Laws of Hametz and Matzah 219 Conducting the Seder 229
Preparing for the Passover 223 Counting the Orner 236
Fast of the First Born and
Pre-Seder Practices 228
CHAPTER 12 I Shavuot 239
The Custom of Eating Dairy
Food on Shavuot
24°
CHAPTER 13 I The Days of Awe 24%
How the Years Are Counted 242 Rosh Hashana 244
Why the First of Tishrai Is Yom Kippur 246
Celebrated As the New Yeal 243
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is
CONTENTS
CRAPTEll 1+ / Succot
Dwelling in the Succah ~51 Shmini Atzeret and
Construction of the Succah ~ 53 Simhat Tomh
The Four Species ~54
CRAPTEll 15 I The Post-Biblical Holidays and Fait Days
Hanukah LAC B'OMER
Purim YOM ATZMAUT
Tisha b'Av YOM nRUSHALAYlM
Other Special Days MINOR FAST DAYS
TU B'SHEVAT
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gJrn/f$NHl
THE SPECIAL OCCASIONS OF LIFE
CHAPTER 16 I Birth
Naming of Children Pidyon HaBen: Redemption
Bris: The Covenant of of the First Bom ~76
Circumcision
CHAPTER 17 I Adoption and Conversion
Adoption of a Jewish Child ~80 Conversion
Adoption and Conversion-of
a Non-Jewish Child
CHAPTEIl 18 / Bar-Mitzvah and Bat-Mitzvah
CHAPTER 19 / Marriage
The Wedding Ceremony Prohibited Marriages
CRAPTEll 20 / Divorce Proceedings
Halitzah-The Ceremony
of Release ~94
CRAPTEll 21 / Death and Mourning
Burial and Autopsies Comforting the Mourner
Mourning Periods Special Rules for the Kohen
CONTENTS
Kaddish Selected Memorial Players
Setting Up a Tombstone The Yahrzeit
, , "
BPILOGUE / Til. Muning of Return 313
~ 317
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUllTBEll JlEADINC AND mJDY: A SBLBC'l'ZD LIST 319
INDEX 3~5
FOREWORD
LERE
is a fascinating custom in scholarly rabbinic circles that is,
I believe, not found elsewhere: an author is called by the title of his
most famous book. Thus, to take two examples from this century,
Rabbi Israel Meir Hakohen is known as He Who Loves Life, his
immortal treatise on the evils of gossip, and Rabbi Abraham Isaiah
Karelitz is referred to universally as the Vision of Man, an encyclopedic
work on Halakhah (Jewish law). Imagine if this were the practice in
secular life: Shakespeare would be called The Merchant of Venice,
Stendahl would be known as The Red and the Black, and Dostoevsky
as The Idiot. What this implies is that there exists a deep and
indefinable bond between author and oeuvre, between creator and
creation. Such an idea may not be popular in this age dominated by
the deconstructionist school, but it is self-evident in Jewish sacred
literature. The author "reveals" himself in his book, even as God
reveals Himself in His Torah.
It is in this sense that the republication of To Be a lew by my late,
dear friend and classmate, Rabbi Hayim Halevi Donin, represents an
affirmation of his immortality. That yet another generation of Jews
some ten years after his untimely death and nineteen years after this
book first appeared-will be taught and inspired by Hayim Halevi
Donin means that his influence has not waned and that his life will
be continued. For surely the contents of this volume were not of
passing interest to the author but his dream, his passion, the meaning
of his very existence. Rabbi Donin was, in a real sense, To Be a lew.
But is this work still relevant? Does it still speak to a new generation
with the same cogency it did nearly twenty years ago? To be sure,
much has happened since Hayim Donin's work first' appeared-some
of it positive and some negative.
On the positive side, there has been a continuing blossoming of the
baalei teshuvah, or returnees-to-Judaism phenomenon; a plethora of
publications of all sorts on almost every aspect of Judaism, both popular