The blessing on the moon the night of Rosh Chodesh
Rosh Chodesh Gathering
Our next RCG will be the 1st of April at 7:30pm, For directions contact us
Lunar Eclipse-Blood Moon
On sunday, April 15th at 3am we will witnessed an amazing phenomenal that takes place every 30years in average
Rosh Chodesh Gathering
Rosh Chodesh Iyar with a talent show
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First Jewish Synagogue Was Dedicated in the United States December 2, 1763
Many settlers traveled to the American colonies for freedom of worship. Quakers, Puritans, Jews, and people of other faiths arrived to create communities in what would become the United States. On December 2, 1763, members of the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island, witnessed the dedication of the Touro Synagogue, the first synagogue in the American colonies. The synagogue was named for Isaac Touro, its first officiating rabbi. Touro became the center of a thriving Jewish community.
The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, photographed in 1971
Organized Jewish community life in Newport dates to 1658, when 15 families arrived from overseas to establish a congregation in the growing seaport. For more than 100 years, the community relied on correspondence with rabbis in Europe to sustain their religious traditions in the New World. As a commercial center, Newport thrived, with merchants active in the sea trade.
An 1878 map of Newport Rhode Island
Many famous people have visited Newport over the years. In 1790, the Hebrew congregation of Newport welcomed George Washington to their city. A hundred years later, Newport was welcoming wealthy vacationers to its shores. It became a favorite holiday spot for the rich, with its temperate climate and scenic views. The town is filled with "cottages" such as The Breakers, built for the wealthy Cornelius Vanderbilt. You can still visit lovely Newport and the Touro Synagogue today.
The Breakers is the Vanderbilt "cottage" in Newport, Rhode Island
Archaeologists in Venezuela have unearthed a old mikveh dating back to the 18th century. The colonial-era Jewish ritual bath was discovered under the foundations of an art museum during renovation work.
A Venezuelan press agency released an announcement by the Ministry of Culture, stating that archaeologists in Falcon State found “a structure in which adherents of the Jewish faith ceremoniously used to immerse themselves."
The mikveh was found in the city of Santa Ana de Coro on the country's Caribbean coast. Founded in 1527, Coro is one of the country’s oldest cities. Anthropologist Carlos Alberto Martin said that “excavations were started recently in a house which was built in 1772 and later purchased by a Jewish family named Senor.”
Records from the period show that David Abraham Senor was a Jewish merchant of Spanish origins, who settled in Coro after arriving there from the island of Curacao. Some believe he was a descendant of the convert Abraham Senor, treasurer to the Catholic Queen Isabella of Spain who expelled all Jews from the country in 1492. Some members of his families were conversos or marranos, who secretly continued practising Judaism.
“We checked with people in the Jewish community in Caracas," Martin said, “and from what we understand this is the only old mikveh of its kind to be discovered in South America.” He added that there were 3 constructed layers, with a 5-centimeter gap between them, making up a conduit system that brought in rain from the roof without help of people and without any seepage through the ground. The mikveh was dug into the ground of the building’s cellar, with narrow steps leading to it. Over the years it became covered soil. The staircase got blocked and the mikveh was eventually forgotten.
The house originally belonging to the Senor family is a today an art museum. When an old structure was discovered during recent renovation work, archaeologists were summoned. The city’s old synagogue from the 19th century, known as one of the oldest on the continent, stands next to the museum. The Venezuelan government renovated the synagogue 15 years ago, turning it into a cultural heritage site with the label “Hebrew prayer house.” Now the Venezuelan Culture Ministry is planning to preserve the mikveh as well and open it to visitors.
Nissan: (Knocks on door of the Ben Naim family) Yaakov, Nurit! Happy Purim! I prepared you a mishloach manot.
(Words flash on screen) Every family has a secret.
Yaakov Ben Naim: Happy Purim! Thanks so much. Just a moment, we’re going to bring you the mishloach manot that we prepared for you…
(Words flash on screen) A secret that they cannot permit themselves to reveal.
Nurit Ben Naim: Yaakov! You know that we didn’t prepare him a mishloach manot!
(Word flashes on screen) Never
Nurit: No, Yaakov, we’re not going to give him the mishloach manot that we received from the Spiegel family!
Yaakov: Nurit, there’s no choice. He’s at the door! He’s at the door! (Hands over the package to Nissan) Happy Purim!
Yaakov (to wife): How is it possible that we didn’t prepare one for Nissan Waldman?! How?!
Nurit: (prepares another mishloach manot) We’ll move on…We can’t fall apart, right? We’ll prepare another mishloach manot, and another mishloach manot.
Yaakov: Right, we’re strong. What should I wrote on the note for the Cohens’ package?
Nurit: I don’t know. Look at what the Spiegels wrote for us.
(Husband and wife look at each other in horror)
Nurit: The note.
(Close up of Nissan walking with the mishloach manot that the Ben Naims gave him, which reads “Happy Purim to the Ben Naims from the Spiegel family.” Voiceover says “Every mishloach manot has its address…”)
(Nissan and Bentsi meet on the street and shake hands).
Bentsi: Nissan
Nissan: Bentsi
Bentsi: Happy Purim
Nissan: Happy Purim
Bentsi: Nissan! You saved me the drive to your house…I have a mishloach manot for you
(Nissan’s face falls)
(Voiceover: an address that it’s forbidden to change.)
(Flashback to Nissan going over his list of people to bring mishloach manot to, and crossing out Bentsi’s name).
Nissan: (handing over the Spiegel/Ben Naim mishloach manot to Bentsi) Here, I just made you a mishloach manot.
Bentsi: Thanks Nissan!
Voiceover: The brave decision of one man
Yaakov: (Accepts mishloach manot from wife) That’s the replacement mishloach manot that you made for Nissan?
Nurit: Yes. Yaakov, I’m worried.
Yaakov: There’s no choice. I have to make it to Nissan in time.
Nurit: Be careful
Yaakov: You be careful too. It’s going to be OK
(Slow motion of Yaakov running with the replacement mishloach manot to Nissan)
(Voiceover: One man who chooses to change his destiny)
Yaakov: Nissan, there is something I must tell you! It’s about the mishloach manot I gave you…
Bentsi: Happy Purim, Yaakov! You’re saving me a drive over to your house, I have a mishloach manot for you…
(Flashback to Yaakov crossing Bentsi off of his mishloach manot list)
Yaakov: We also made you a mishloach manot (hands over the new mishloach manot they made for Nissan to Bentsi instead)
Bentsi: Thanks Yaakov
Spiegel: Hey, guys! Happy Purim
Everyone: Spiegel!
Spiegel: Nissan, Bentsi, how fun that I’m meeting both of you now…You saved me the drive to your houses.
(Bentsi and Nissan’s faces fall)
(Flashbacks of Bentsi and Nissan going over the mishloach manot lists with their wives, and crossing off Spiegel).
Bentsi: I also made you a mishloach manot, Spiegel.
Nissan: It’s from both of us.
( Yaakov watches on in horror as Bentsi hands Spiegel the mishloach manot with the note that says “From the Spiegel family for the Ben Naim family.”)
(Voiceover: A heartbreaking human tragedy. This coming Purim. Receive your package. )
Spiegel (sitting on bench and eating from mishloach manot) Isn’t this the mishloach manot that I gave Ben Naim?
(Words on screen) An Unpleasant Purim at the Pleasant Family
We should start saying every day to our families how much we love them, how important they are for us, the need to feel us, and we have to show them we will be there for them...ALWAYS
Question: May one continue to use silver vessels or utensils, such as a Kiddush goblet, on Pesach after they have been used all year round?
Answer: All vessels used all year round with cold foods or beverages may be used on Pesach after having been thoroughly washed beforehand, for none of a cold food’s flavor is absorbed into the wall of the vessel and there is therefore no concern that any Chametz flavor will later be released into a Passover dish.
Thus, regarding silver vessels, they are certainly used only for cold purposes, such as a silver Kiddush goblet or a silver serving dish and the like in which it is certainly uncommon to place boiling hot foods or beverages in such vessels. It is therefore sufficient to thoroughly wash these vessels in water (three times) and they may then be used on Pesach, even for the Mitzvot of the Seder night.
On the other hand, the Mordechi (Chapter 2 of Pesachim, Chapter 574) quotes the Ra’avaya and writes: “Regarding silver goblets, one must be concerned that wine and spice are sometimes boiled in them next to the fire and they therefore require Hag’ala in a Keli Rishon.” This means to say that since it is conceivable that one has placed hot Chametz in the goblet once or twice, one must perform Hag’ala (i.e. immersing it in boiling water heated in a pot on the fire) in order to kosher it for Pesach.
Nevertheless, the Rashba (Volume 1, Chapter 372) writes regarding vessels used with cold food or beverages but “sometimes” hot bread is placed in these vessels that thoroughly washing such vessels is sufficient to make them permissible for use on Pesach and one need not perform Hag’ala on them, for the koshering process for each vessel is determined based on its “majority use”. This means that if a vessel or utensil is usually used in a cold manner, even if this vessel was used with hot foods sometimes, merely washing this vessel is sufficient and one need not be concerned that it absorbed Chametz from this one time (or several times). Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch (Chapter 451) rules in accordance with the Rashba’s opinion.
Hagaon Rabbeinu Menachem Azarya of Pano (in his Responsa Chapter 96) likewise rules in accordance with the opinion of the Rashba and rules that as long as the usual usage of the vessel is in a cold manner, such as silver vessels, even if such a vessel absorbed Chametz, one need not perform Hag’ala on it, since a vessel is judged based on a majority of its usage.
However, Hagaon Harav Yosef Chaim Zonenfeld questions the Rashba’s opinion, as follows: How can we determine a vessel’s status based on its majority usage? It is sufficient for the vessel to absorb Chametz that single time it was used with hot food and it will then release it while in use on Pesach. What then is the logic behind the Rashba’s ruling that we follow a vessel’s majority usage?
Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef zt”l explains that since the Rashba’s words apply only to a vessel which has not come in contact with hot food for at least twenty-four hours (which is indeed how Rabbeinu Menachem Azarya explains the Rashba explicitly), there is no longer any Torah prohibition to use such a vessel, since any Chametz flavor absorbed in this vessel becomes completely putrid after twenty-four hours. Only our Sages forbade using such a vessel even after twenty-four hours. These same Sages who forbade using such a vessel after twenty-four hours ruled that a vessel’s status is determined based on its majority usage.
Thus, halachically speaking, any vessel used with cold food or beverage, such as silver vessels, may be used on Pesach after having been thoroughly cleaned. Even if one is concerned that this vessel was sometimes used with hot Chametz, this poses no concern at all and one may nevertheless use it on Pesach (see Chazon Ovadia-Pesach, page 148).
All the Halachot on this site are written based on the rulings of our leader, glory of the generation, Hagaon Harav Ovadia Yosef zt”l
Some Detailed Laws Regarding Kitniyot (Legumes) on Pesach
In the previous Halacha we have briefly discussed the primary laws of Chametz and Kitniyot (legumes) on Pesach. We have explained that according to all opinions, legumes such as rice and chick peas are not actual Chametz, for only grain products can be considered Chametz. However, Ashkenazim customarily banned eating Kitniyot on Pesach because it used to be common for grains of Chametz to become mixed with Kitniyot. They therefore customarily abstain from eating them.
“Annulment of Vows” in Order to Eat Kitniyot Ashkenazi communities who customarily prohibit Kitniyot have no recourse to permit consuming Kitniyot on Pesach. Even if they perform the order of “Annulment of Vows,” this does not make it permissible; they are still bound by the custom of their community and they may not discard their custom by eating Kitniyot on Pesach.
Included in this prohibition is the consumption of soy sauce, rice, and the like.
However, Sephardic communities who have acted stringently until this point and abstained from eating rice and now have a certain need to eat rice, such as due to illness and the like, may be permitted to eat it as long as they perform the “Annulment of Vows” as prescribed by Halacha for the custom they have followed thus far. This is because the level of the prohibition that these Sephardic communities accepted upon themselves is not on the same level as the prohibition which the Ashkenazim accepted upon themselves. The Sephardim never accepted an actual “decree” upon themselves banning Kitniyot; rather, they customarily abstained from eating them as a precaution because Chametz would sometimes mix into the Kitniyot. Maran zt”l rules likewise in his Responsa Chazon Ovadia, Volume 2, page 55.
Vessels which have Absorbed Kitniyot We have already explained that vessels which have absorbed actual Chametz may not be used on Pesach. This is because when vessels contain boiling hot Chametz foods, the walls of the vessel absorb some of the Chametz in them. Afterwards, when Pesach foods are cooked in the same vessel, the walls of the vessel release Chametz flavor into the food. For the same reason, we are always meticulous to separate meat and dairy dishes in order to avoid vessels absorbing from one another.
However, the prohibition of Kitniyot on Pesach is not as stringent as actual Chametz, for it is only an enactment which some customarily accepted due to Chametz concerns. Based on this, Hagaon Rabbeinu Yishmael Ha’Kohen writes in his Responsa Zera Emet (Volume 3, Orach Chaim, Chapter 48) that if an Ashkenazi individual is being hosted by a Sephardic individual and the host prepares foods for the guest that are Kitniyot-free, the Ashkenazi may eat in his home without hindrance.
Although the Sephardic host’s vessels have absorbed some flavor from his own Kitniyot foods, this poses no issue, for this custom is only as an extra precaution and Ashkenazim never accepted it upon themselves as an actual prohibition. (This is especially true if we can assume that Kitniyot were not cooked in this vessel within the past twenty-four hours. Additionally, the Ashkenazi individual need not ask the Sephardic host if Kitniyot were cooked in this vessel within twenty-four hours.)
Summary: Ashkenazim customarily prohibit consuming Kitniyot on Pesach. They cannot be lenient regarding this custom even if they have performed the order of “Annulment of Vows.” Sephardic individuals who have thus far customarily abstained from this as well but now have some special need to eat Kitniyot, such as due to illness and the like, may indeed be lenient regarding this matter by performing an “Annulment of Vows.”
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