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Purim Torah
A Purim Spiel for Three Characters
The following is presented in the hope that it will serve to enrich your Purim Seudah and give deeper meaning to your enjoyment of this joyous event.
| Sam: |
There is a well known question raised by the RaShMoff, Rabbi
Shimoff. The question is, of course, why hamentaschen have four
corners. The answer is based, curiously enough, on halachic issues.
The original sources report a disagreement over whether hamentaschen should have four corners or three. But here is the core of the issue. If the hamentasch has four corners, it requires tzizis. So far so good, but if the four-cornered hamentasch requires tzizis, which do we do first-put on the tzizis or recite the blessing on the hamentasch. The answer is obvious, and derives from the halachic principle of tadir v'sh'eno tadir, tadir kodem-when there is a frequent mitzvah and an infrequent mitzvah, the frequent mitzvah takes priority. In the present case, the mitzvah of the m'zonot blessing on the hamentasch is clearly more frequent, so one obviously first recites the m'zonot blessing. Having recited the blessing, however, a second halachic principle comes into play: a bracha must be over l'asiyato-that is, the act and the bracha must come at the same time. So as soon as I say the m'zonot bracha, I am obligated to eat the hamentasch. But now, having taken a bite (at least a k'zayit) from the hamentasch, I have almost certainly taken off one of the corners, so it no longer has four corners, and is thus no longer suitable for tzizis! To avoid the entire issue, the tradition has been handed down from father to son, and from mother to daughter to make hamentaschen with three corners l'hat'hila (to start with).
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| Avi: |
Oy! Now we are really in trouble, because after we take the
first bite, eating one of the corners, we are left with a four
cornered hamentasch. As we have already made the bracha of
m'zonot, there is no problem with tadir v'sheano tadir (again,
frequent versus infrequent), and we must stop the seudah and
put tzizis on the hamentasch.
What is clearly required is that one is strictly forbidden from eating a hamentasch by eating off one corner. One must be strict (yizaher me'od) always to bite a full side, so two corners are eaten, and the remaining piece still has three corners.
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| Chevrusa: | What happens when you reach the part of the seudah when you have fulfilled ad lo yadah, when you are no longer able to clearly count the number of corners. |
| Avi: | This would seem to depend if the chiyuv (requirement) is a chiyuv gavrah (requirement on the individual) or chiyuv cheftza (requirement on the object). If the logic is that a four sided object must have tzizis, then you may no longer eat hamentaschen if you can't count the number of sides. If however the logic is that you must put tzizis on something that has four corners, well you don't know if it has four corners, so you are not obligated. |
| Sam: | Hmmmmmm.... This is only the case if there is a hefsek (interruption) in the eating. If, on the other hand, the entire hamentasch is eaten within k'dei achilat pras (about seven minutes), then the entire eating is considered one ma'aseh (action), and thus the chiyuv tzizis is never chal (the requirement for tzizis never starts), since there is no 4-cornered entity bif'nei atz'muta (by itself) at any time. A question arises, however, if one breaks the hamentasch; in such a case it is unclear whether or not the breaking is considered tafel (secondary) to the eating, and thus part of the ma'aseh achilah (act of eating), or if it is a separate ma'aseh (action), in which case the hamentasch would be chayav in tzizis. |
| Avi: |
Actually, we should worry about what is the oaffee (nature) of
the chiyuv of putting tzizis on the four cornered hamentash.
Does the chiyuv exist such that when you eat the four cornered
hamentash there should be tzizis on it; or is the chiyuv such
that when you are about to eat the four cornered hamentash
there should be tzizis on it? According to the first way, maybe
we put tzizis on the three cornered hamentash so when you bite
it, the chiyuv is chal and there are already tzizis on it-so
you fulfill the mitzvah. Actually we now run into problems of
Ta'aseh mean ha'assooy (making something versus the object
already having been made). This remains a tzorech iyun
(question).
Yesh Omrim (some say) that even if it is a chiyuv cheftzah, it is still a s'fek sfekah (doubt on a doubt), the first safek (doubt) coming from not being sure how many sides there are, and the second safek coming from not being sure if you're not sure how many sides there are (ad lo yadah applies to itself, after all!). Thus, even though it is a d'oraita (Torah requirement), since it is a sfek s'feka, and there certainly is a chiyuv d'rabbanan (Rabbinic requirement) to eat hamentaschen, the only safek on that being on whether they actually are hamentaschen, it is incumbent upon us to eat them. |
| Chevrusa: | Avi, your suggestion that one might still be permitted to put tzizis on hamentaschen creates yet another absurdity. First, given the tzizis, one would probably not be permitted to eat the hamentasch-a major busha (embarrassment) for material used in fulfilling the Biblical commandment of tzizis. But then, what could one do with the tzizis-ized hamentaschen? Not to eat them puts you in violation of ba'al tashchit (one is not permitted to waste food). What is apparently the only acceptable action given (heaven-forfend) a four-cornered hamentasch would be to save them until Pesach, and burn them with the hametz. (This bizarre possibility may explain the etymology of the term ``hamentasch''-originally it was hametz-tasch-that is, a pocket of hametz.) |
| Sam: | Avi raised questions about my concerns about the best way to eat hamenstasch. After presenting Rabbi Shimoff's reply to his suggestions of halachic difficulties, I realized there was a RaShMoff with a simple and even more elegant, halachically acceptable, solution that will avoid all problems: Eat TWO hamentaschen at a time! |
| Chevrusa: |
Rabbi Yosie bar Rubin has two solutions for having four
cornered hamentaschen on Purim that won't require tzizis.
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| Avi: |
Actually this is not really a problem. The reason for the
chiyuv of tzizis is that you are wearing the hamentasch. If so,
the simple solution is to eat it from the inside, i.e., the
hole through which you put your head. Eventually you will eat
so much that it no longer covers the required portion of your
body and it becomes patur (exempt) from tzizis. At this point,
eating the corner would no longer make any difference.
The question is, what does one do if the corner is bitten off by mistake while there is still the required shiur (required minimum size), e.g. if one doesn't know the law, either out of ignorance, or because he has reached the stage of lo yada? In this case, the apparent remedy would be to take it off and give it to someone else, and then put it back on, having in mind not to make a kinyan (a transfer of ownership). This solution, however, entails three hitches:
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| Sam: | But there is no such thing as converting out of Judaism! We can make anything Jewish, but not the other way around. |
| Avi: | Chas v'sholem! But actually, that's not what I'm talking about. Look. What is the ikkur (fundamental aspect) of the hamentasch? Flour... That's why we make a m'zonot. Now all we have to do is think. The flour was most probably sold to a non-Jew last Pesach. So all we have to do is retroactively convert that non-Jew, and the crust becomes hametz sh'over alav ha Pesach (hametz which was owned by a Jew during Pesach), which is assur be'hana'ah (forbidden to derive benefit therefrom). This makes the hamentasch forbidden to wear, and thereby exempt from tzizis. |
| Chevrusa: | Isn't there also a side problem, namely that the beged (article of clothing) cannot be worn or eaten? |
| Avi: | Not a problem at all.... |
| Chevrusa: | And the more difficult question, how do we convert that person? We don't necessarily know who he is, and he doesn't necessarily want to convert. Also, who ever heard of a retroactive conversion and how can we be sure he'll observe the Torah when we convert him? And what about mikveh, and milah, and beit din? |
| Avi: | These problems can be addressed via a simple but sweeping question. How do we know he is really a non-Jew? What right do we have to take it upon ourselves to decide who is Jewish and who is not? Who the heck do I think I am anyway? Furthermore, it says in Pirkei Avot: heve dan kol adam lekav z'chut. (judge every person favorably. Give him the benefit of the doubt). It doesn't say ``every Jew'' rather adam, ``person.'' If so, why do we have to presume that any person is not one of ours? Now you'll ask, ``But historically halacha always presumed that a non-Jew was not Jewish!'' The answer is, that's when Jews were downtrodden. Judging someone favorably meant presuming that he was not downtrodden. Now that we are allowed to join country clubs, he may be married to a Jew. If your cousin introduced him as her husband, the favorable presumption would be that he's Jewish. So we convert him by converting the presumption! |
| Sam: | Now the only remaining question is how one can wear or eat the hamentasch if it is forbidden to derive benefit from it, which, as you recall, is the basis of the exemption from tzizis. |
| Avi: | The answer is that it says somewhere in the Bible ve'chai bahem (and thou shalt LIVE in them). If someone goes through all of this trouble to convert a person in order to eat and wear the hamentasch, and then is unable to do so, he might die of embarrassment. Therefore, it is a mitzvah of ya'avor v'al ye'horeg (transgress and avoid death) to wear and eat it. |
| Chevrusa: | Now a question for you out there: Why don't we make a she'he'cheyanu the first time we wear a hamentasch? |
| All: | Happy Purim, Chag Kasher V'sameach, and have a Freilicher Purim, |