Shailos for Rabbi Willig

Conference Call #14

  1. May a son in law call his step father-in-law by his first name?
  1. A majority of the community wants an Eruv built according to the highest standards of Halacha; however, a sizeable vocal minority feels that an Eruv should not be built. If building an Eruv would cause such machlokes should the majority refrain because of the minority?
  1. A) This coming Shabbos Rosh Chodesh, if you are in a camp/hotel to what level does the camp/hotel need to go to attain a second sefer Torah? Could they just roll from Chukas to Pinchas while making mi shebeirach for Cholim?

B) If there is only oneTorah, do you do hagbah on that Torah and only then start with Maftir?Or just roll the Torah and continue?

  1. What are the parameters to allow a Levaya (for a shul member) in the shul sanctuary? Last session we discussed about a shul that made a t’nai to allow a Kiddush in the shul, must a t’nai be made to allow for Levayas?
  1. My shul recently purchased karka, my two Kohanim are asking about a location that their Kohein sons could go visit them. Are there halachically acceptable ways to allow Kohanim to visit their parents?
  1. Perhaps Rav Willig can address parameters for Tevillah Ba-Yom - what constitutes adequate extenuating circumstances to allow Tevillah Ba-yom shevii or yom-shemini, and if it is permitted, what other conditions are required - such as the couple will be separated until dark. What happens if the couple will be eating with others, e.g. Friday night seudah before it gets dark?
  1. As a follow-up to last week’s question regarding issues of Lashon Hara found on blogs and websites regarding living leaders, rabbanim, music personalities, etc. Rebbe said there are limited circumstances in which one can utilize such information towards being careful, but not actually to believe it.

would rebbe feel the same way about posthumous reports/accusations written about Jewish personalities and/or rabbanim? Should we be meichash for this and therefore not to utilize the person's Torah, communal,or musical contributions?

  1. Regarding the issue of early Shabbos and it including the entire קהל when the רוב is making early Shabbos. Several unrelated questions.

A. How do we define a רוב? Meaning, most of my congregation doesn't come to Shul at all on Friday night... Not that they just daven at another Shul or time?

In fact, most of the Jews in the neighborhood, come only rarely to Shul.

How do we arrive at the total amount of people to calculate a majority?

B. How far does the רוב extend? For example, let's say I normally daven at minyan in Brooklyn and that minyan makes early Shabbos, and I go to Queens for Shabbos (within the techum), am I bound by my normal minyan? How about if it is all in Brooklyn but I live in Flatbush and am in BoroPark for Shabbos? How about within Flatbush but I'm eating dinner at a friend's house who makes late Shabbos?

C. Also, Rav Moshe writes in a teshuva that if the minyanim are making early Shabbos for convenience, not for kavod Shabbos or chumra of issur melacha, then it is צריךעיוןלדינאif one is bound by the shul/minyan that he normally davens at. But, Rav Moshe leaves it as צריךעיון. Do we say that it is a shailah on a דאורייתא? How does rebbi rule? (This, in theory, could make moot much of the other questions).

D. In the שו״תשבטהלויhe seems to write that this would also apply in ha vacation spot. Let's say you have a caterer who is making a dinner for a minyan that made early Shabbos, and then he wants to drive back to his own community right before late Shabbos. So his intentions are not to be with them for Shabbos. Let's say it is outside of the תחום?

  1. My Shul has been noheg for many, many years to only allow people who are shomer Shabbos to daven for the amud on Shabbos and yom tov. While this practice served the Shul well for quite some time, over the past 20 years the number of shomer Shabbos members has decreased so much that each Shabbos we now have at most 2-3 people who are both shomer shabbos and able to lead davening, myself included in that number. This not only puts a major burden on the very few people who can daven, but it also creates a somewhat "stale" environment wherein no one else is being encouraged to be active in the minyan - proof of which, perhaps, is that shabbos attendance has been steadily declining for years (though we are not there yet, we may not get a Shabbos minyan in a few years). Would it be permissible to start allowing people who are not shomer Shabbos to daven?
  1. During a Q&A session a few weeks ago, in discussing a question about Kohanim, a woman in the audience said, nonchalantly, that her husband only found out 10 years ago that he was a Kohen. Ten years ago the Kohen's aunt said to him, “of course your father is a Kohen”. That was the only information he had. No other proof existed that he was a Kohen.The father was not frum, and this particular Kohen isn't very frum himself (works on Yom Tov).

How should one proceed with this Kohen's status? Asking him directly may cause him to be offended.

  1. What is the Halacha regarding transporting Sifrei Torah, many travel camps are transporting Torahs by Plane, Train, Bus and Automobile. Our camp wraps the Torah in a Talis and then in a duffle bag and carries the Torah onto the plane.

1. Can the Toraha) be put in the overhead bin?

b)be placed under the plane/bus as luggage?

c) be put in the trunk of a car?

2. Should a seat be purchased for the Torah and strapped into a seat on the plane?

3. at the hotel/motel/camp site, where should the Torah be stored, may it lie flat or only standing up?