#Machmir

[theskydoesgreatthingsnow]

My grandfather had to circumcise a dead man who’s Bris was in question after a long consultation with the man’s rabbi—who turned out to be Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the founder of Chabad.

[ofpd]

im trying to have my period end through willpower alone do you believe in me.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Anyway I'm not a Reform Jew and I fundamentally disagree with the Reform movement's approach to halacha, and yet I still respect Reform Jews (yes, including the converts) and will fight people who don't.

The first shul I went to was Reform and people were so nice and so welcoming and so willing to teach me even though I was shaking like a leaf with anxiety. I would absolutely have been utterly overwhelmed in a traditionally observant space at first and the shorter services, English translations, abundant transliterations, and frequent explanations really helped me find my feet, even though I ultimately meshed better with a halachic egalitarian approach.

The congregation in my town that does the absolute most in terms of advocacy and solidarity and on-the-ground work for marginalized people is Reform.

The rabbi and shul that was willing to not just marry my non-Jewish partner and I, but was actively excited to host that simcha was Reform.

The people I know who are the most machmir about the ethical mitzvot are mostly liberal Jews and left-leaning orthodoxim, including (and perhaps especially) Reform Jews.

In this house we respect Reform Jews, no matter how strenuously we disagree on issues of halacha and mitzvot.

[hachama]

Image transcript:

Jack Abramowitz  Dec. 13, 2018  New York, New York Okay, let’s review the laws of eating Chinese food on December 25th.

Beis Shammai say that one must eat both an appetizer and an entree; Beis Hillel say an appetizer or an entree.  Others say that one fulfills his obligation even with won ton soup alone.  The halacha follows the others.

There is a machlokes as to whether one can fulfill his obligation by eating fortune cookies.  Our practice is to be machmir in this matter.

The mitzvah is to eat Chinese food on Christmas Day.  If one ate Chinese food on Christmas Eve, he has not fulfilled his obligation until he eats from his leftovers the next day.  The leftovers need not be reheated but one who does so is praiseworthy.

If one ate sushi, Indian, or Thai, he has fulfilled his obligation after the fact (b’dieved).  If one ate pizza, burgers or Mexican, he has not fulfilled his obligation.  Rabbi Meir says that one fulfills his obligation with Mexican because it is exotic.  B’shaas had’chak, a shaila must be asked.

End transcript.

Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel were schools, one could say are schools of thought, named for their founders.

Machlokes (machloket): a dispute or disagreement about Jewish law

Machmir: exceeding the bare minimum requirement

B’dieved: after the fact (in an acceptable but not ideal manner)

B’shaas had’chak: in extenuating circumstances

Shaila: a question

[fromchaostocosmos]

u went to bais yaakov?

yup, I did. From pre-1a all the way to 12th grade

I graduated it and everything.

I didn't do the seminary thing though.

Anon does it surprise you to find out that I did? I'm curious.

I grew up frum and my family is frum. My dad is Yeshivish/Black Hatter type. He real got more machmir over time which was weird for me growing up.

Because I was used to certain minhagim for most of my life and then suddenly my dad was like switch up going for a machmir minhag now. Which was not my thing, at once I was an older teen (as in H.S) I was kinda of like yeah no thank you.

For anyone who does go look up what a Bais Yakkov is I know the internet says that they are Haredi/Hassidic schools for girls, but that is not accurate. It would be more correct to say to they are Orthodox schools for girls.

Depending on the school you can more of one type and if is a specifically a school that is set up to be for specific sect of Chassidim then yes that would be true in that case.

My school had a mix of backgrounds so had variety, but my school called itself a Bais Yakkov and did do meets ups with other Bais Yakkovs, which when I was High School I was very thankful for how relatively normal our uniform looked in comparison.

I do know that is has changed drastically since I left and moved more to religious right I suppose is how I'm gonna word for lack of better term.

Like when I was in Pre-1a you could wear pants and now they don't allow them to wear pants which is bizarre to me because those a little tiny babies. (The kinder-garden and pre-1a don't wear the uniform it starts in first grade, I didn't go there for kinder-garden)

A lot of the change also happened when the son of the person who started the schools (elementary and H.S) started to take over.

But basically yeah I went to a Bais Yakkov it was an experience.

[fromchaostocosmos]

Also Hassidic is not the only type of orthodox Jew.

Orthodox Jews tend to refer to themselves as frum not orthodox and that is an umbrella term.

You have Yeshivish, Black Hat'ers, just frum, (while there is overlap in many ways between yeshivish and black Hat'ers most make a distinction between the two), and of course Chassidim.

And within Chassidim you have many diffrent groups.

Also modern orthodox tends to group into modern orthodox and modern orthodox machmir.

The reddit page for Judaism has a in depth break down on the various denominations of Judaism.

I personally prefer to call them branches not denominations because like the branches of a tree and menorah they all come from the same source.

I also want to share this article that I found that found while researching that was written by a rabbi.

The prophet Yechezkel tells us that there were twelve gates in the Beis HaMikdash.  According to Rav Chaim Vital (Pri Eitz Chaim, Shaar ha-Tefillah), correspondingly, each of the twelve tribes had its own nusach ha’tefillah, its own liturgy, and its own heavenly gate through which its prayers would ascend.  Almost two hundred years later, the Maggid of Mezeritch (Maggid Devarav le-Yaakov 141) added that if someone doesn’t know his or her tribe, there was a thirteenth gate.  He suggested that when it comes to davening, this corresponds to the nusach of the AriZal, which the Maggid called the “Sha’ar Hakollel,”the universal gate. What is true for nusach is true for life. There are those who are confident about what hashkafic tribe they come from.  They walk in and out of one narrow gate.  But I believe there are many of us, maybe even most of us, who see ourselves as part of the Sha’ar Hakollel of life, drawing from the richness of the Torah world, uncomfortable and unwilling to lock ourselves into a narrow gate, but instead embracing a vast and expansive entrance.  We don’t alternate between hashkafas or practices, we integrate them.

sometimes people forget that there are like. actual living breathing orthodox jews still around.

also weird when folks that otherwise are fairly knowledgeable straight up don’t know about modern orthodoxy. “wdym there are people that fully observe shabbat and also have hair dye and read ya fantasy and don’t look obvious chasidic??”

[rotzaprachim]

That comment about conservadox Declan’s purim party it haunts me. Have not stopped thinking about it

[ofpd]

i still haven't actually given it proper thought so im not sure how long i want to wait between meat and milk so im just being machmir about it... but this is a pressing issue rn bc i want motzei shabbos pizza

[jewishconvertthings]

Hello! I am learning more about Judaism, and considering potentially converting. I assumed Judaism is monotheistic, but I've met someone who is a Jewish monolatrist (monolatry meaning they believe in the existence of multiple deities, but choose to only worship G-d). So that led me to wonder, could one be a polytheist and be a religious Jew?

I've tried searching for an answer, and everywhere I've looked says that Judaism is a monotheistic religion, but I haven't found anything that specifically addresses monolatry or anything like that. I want to try asking my local rabbi, but I have a lot of anxiety around talking to people, so I was wondering if you could maybe share your thoughts.

I apologize for wasting your time if this isn't the kind of question you're comfortable answering, and I appreciate you reading through this regardless. Thank you and I hope you have a good day!

Hi anon,

The short answer is, no. You should not convert to Judaism if you are a polytheist, because that violates the very premise of Judaism. If you are already a religious Jew, you will know this from your study of Torah and halacha.

As for monolatry? I'd ask a rabbi. My gut instinct is that you're in dangerous territory re: the possibility of idolatry, but if you are machmir about avodah zarah it might be fine? Yes, some form of monolatry appears to have existed for the early Israelites, but then again, if you know that, you know how much of a struggle there was against idolatry.

A rabbi will be able to give you a better answer (*after* the High Holidays) so I would definitely do so if you have not already.

[dismalpizza2]

When you want to go camping on the second round of Pesah Chag days, but you need to figure out if you can use your campstove. None of the camping stuff was taped shut as chametz because I am machmir about keeping food out of the tent/sleeping bag all year round.

[mysticmachmir]

Get to Know Me Tag

I got tagged by: @will-o-the-witch !! thank u sm! Name: Ezra

Hogwarts House: uhh i think hufflepuff.. idk read another book yall

Time: 10:19 AM!

Cats or Dogs: I own two dogs but cats are my favorite lol

Favorite Animal: Ocelots... honestly any big kitties

Dream Job: I want to be a Rabbi!

When This Blog Was Born: 2020 lol, pretty new

Reason For My URL: its a play off my main, which is @queermachmir , machmir means “strict” in Hebrew religious language, and thats my main gay jew blog, and this is strictly my mysticism and such blog 

Followers that I’d like to know better: Only if you want! @tekheletmoon @liminalblessings @makhsheife-yagishna and whoever would like to do it!

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Sorry to harp on the pdf thing, but reflecting on my own behavior....would you use a pdf if you already owned the book but a friend was borrowing it? Or if it was out of print/not in a local library & obtaining a copy would cost $100+ (Jewish book for class in that case)? Or rather that what would you do, what are you thoughts on those cases? I do genuinely align with you that piracy is stealing but also realized (elul mood) reading your post I'm not as machmir as I could be...

I can see that you intend this for genuine reflection and aren’t just interrogating me, so I’ll answer this one, but after this I’m done with the topic because I suspect that others with less genuine intentions will continue hunting for a gotcha moment if the conversation continues.

I wouldn’t use a PDF if my friend was borrowing the book, because I feel like that’s tacitly supporting the behavior of whoever created the illegal PDF and because I bought 1 book, not 2 - I could have bought 2 if I wanted to have multiple copies available to me (I own like 3 copies of LOTR for example, and in my parents’ house I have from back in the day 2 English copies of Twilight as well as a Spanish copy, so this is not hypothetical). If I needed to just quickly reference a small part of the book, I would check if it was viewable on Google Books or the Amazon preview of the book, or see if my friend could look up that part for me. And I probably wouldn’t lend out a book that I was likely to need/want in the near future.

For the other situation, I’m surprised that a teacher would assign a book that could only be obtained illegally or for an exorbitantly inflated price (I’m assuming $100+ is much more than the typical value of the book in question and we’re not talking about a textbook that always costs that much). How would they expect the entire class to get it if that was the situation? I would probably start by asking the teacher if they had a suggestion as to where to get the book, because maybe it’s for sale somewhere that they know about, and go from there.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

I think you’d also have to look at it from a marit ayin perspective; if an observer read the post and thought it referred to a particular person, you’d have problems. And this would be true, I think, regardless of whether or not that observer was right about who it referred to, because the observer would still come away with the false impression that saying those things about a specific person is permissible. So from this perspective as well, I think it would be best to be machmir.

does Lashon Hara prohibit vagueposting

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Being really machmir to make a point is today's Mood(tm)

[starlightomatic]

Since a girl becomes bat mitzvah at 12 and a boy becomes bar mitzvah at 13, when does a nonbinary person become bnai mitzvah?  Twelve and a half?  Or are we machmir and say 12 so that we can make sure that someone who is obligated in mitzvot is keeping them?  Or maybe we are machmir in a different way and say 13 so we don’t count someone in minyan who isn’t countable?  Or do we say that at 12 they must start keeping mitzvot, but they can’t be counted in minyan until 13?

[challahbeloved]

Jewish asks:

8, 12, 21 🙏🏻

8. Favorite Minchag

I’m a BT, and my family doesn’t really have minchagim, so I’m still trying to put together my own minchag. My Jewish journey has brought me through multiple communities (Chabad, modox, trad egal — in that order), so there’s bits that I think I’ve probably picked up from each, and I think that is quite cool (despite also being lonely at times). I also haven’t really had a community since graduating college, so there’s not that continuity of learning and adopting my community’s minchagim.

I’m sure a lot of people would frown upon me taking these minchagim upon myself in this way, but there’s a couple things I do because my best friend does them, and he’s really important in my life and Jewish journey. He’s Sephardic, so he eats kitniyot on Pesach, and wears a tallit gadol while unmarried. Those are two things I’ve mostly adopted (although I keep other things Ashkenazi), and we’ve discussed that it feels justified to us because we’re kind of like a platonic married couple. We’ve even talked about getting genuinely married (platonically) and growing as a “non traditional” queer family together. There are times that I feel guilty about eating kitniyot on Pesach, but then I’m reminded it connects me to my friend, who’s the most consistent community I have, and then it becomes a meaningful minchag, rather than laziness or a reminder I live too far from a kosher to get other proteins.

12. Favorite Judaica

I have a Magen David necklace pendant from my grandmother that she got when she was a girl. I would say Bat Mitzvah age, but she definitely didn’t have a Bat Mitzvah celebration as it wasn’t traditional for girls to have them back then. It means a lot to me both because it was my grandma’s, and because it’s a wearable expression of my Judaism. I’m afraid to say I don’t know where it is right now though because the original chain broke (after like 5 years of me wearing it), and then the new chain I got broke within a week. Hopefully it’s a safe place I’ve just forgotten.

In terms of new Judaica, I splurged and bought myself a gorgeous wooden seder plate (with glass bowls) that is carved into the shape of a Magen David. I had my own fully KLP kitchen for the first time this year, so I took full advantage.

21. Head/Hair Covering

I really like wearing a full hair covering, it’s so comforting and makes me feel even more connected to Hashem. I wear a scarf in standard tichel ties or hijab-wrap styles a lot when I’m davening, making challah, or lighting shabbat candles. I also sometimes wear the tichel-tie out. I like that physical presence of spirituality as I’m going about my “mundane” daily tasks. It makes everything feel holy. It can also feel empowering to feel more visually Jewish, and reminds me of all the other Jewish people who do, and have in history, worn hair coverings. I love that eternal sense of community. Downside is that I do live in a very Republican Christian area, and that empowerment is sometimes overridden by my fear, and not always re-overridden by spite.

Back in like December, I bought a bunch of wide headbands, and was going to start wearing that or a tichel every day, but then I didn’t keep it up for several reasons: I viewed them like kippot and they kept getting accidentally pulled off while I was at working (nannying) and didn’t want to explain why I was kissing my headband before putting it back on; I felt anxious about the possibility of someone asking why I suddenly started wearing a headband every day; the headbands started looking wrong when I looked in the mirror (maybe gender related); Or my daily outfits were getting too casual athletic for my floral cotton headbands.

For a while I hated the idea of wearing an actual kippah. But I’m trying to work through if that’s a genuine aesthetic choice, or if I’m still compulsively trying to be a machmir orthodox woman. I was going to buy a kippah online a couple weeks ago, but wasn’t sure what style would look good, and wished I could buy a knit one from Etsy but worried about messianics. I definitely also had the physical barrier of having long hair that I usually kept up in a bun or ponytail, which would prevent kippah wearing. But I just cut it much shorter, so that’s not a problem anymore.

I don’t know, we’ll see how I grow into my different covering-wearing habits over the next few months as I transition to a different job and location.