Question: Is there any issue of ta’aroves chametz with flavoured nargila (hookah) tobacco? Should these items be sold or disposed of before Pesach? Answer: There is an old dispute between the Maharam Shik and the Divrei Chaim with regards to snuff tobacco. The Maharam Shik holds that ingredients added to the tobacco to enhance the smell [...]
Read More achshevei, bittul, chametz, Divrei Chaim, Health, hookah, Maharam Shik, nargila, passover, pesach, sale, taaroves, Tobacco, Tobacco smokingQuestion: A person who absolutely can not eat bread because they are allergic to gluten, what do they do for Shabbos meals? Is there any reason to wash? I know the Shulchan Aruch holds that if one really suffers from eating he doesn’t need to have a seuda. Is our case comparable to that case [...]
Read More bread, celiac, celiac disease, challah, gluten, kezayis, kiddush, matzo, oat, oats, seuda, shabbos meals, Shulchan Aruch, spelt, wheat, wheat allergy, yom tovQuestion: If someone lives alone, even though there’s a machloket Shiltei Giborim and Magen Avraham whether he can recite a bracha on the candles of Channuka without any pirsumei nisa (publicizing of the miracle), what if he did it over skype when someone else saw his lighting? Would the Magen Avraham agree that he can [...]
Read More channukah, lighting candles, living alone, magen avraham, pirsumei nisa, Shiltei Giborim, skypeQuestion: Is there any reason not to take a haircut on Asara B’teves? It is permissible to take a haircut both on the night preceding and on the day of one of the minor fasts (i.e. Asara B’teves, Tzom Gedalya, and Ta’anis Esther). There is a little known stringency however regarding this matter, brought down in [...]
Read More asara b'teves, baal nefesh, haircut, minor fast, Mishnah Brurah, Rav Moshe Feinstein, Shulchan Aruch