November 25, 2000 / 27 Cheshvan 5761; Issue #293

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• Good Times
• Foot Care
• Yiddle Riddle
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Dear Steve Horowitz,

By praying, you change yourself. Thus, G-d's "decision" about what is good for you changes. It now becomes good, for example, for Bob to have a child, or to have health, or money or whatever, whereas before, it was good for him not to have those things.

Why change from one good to another? There are different levels of good. For some people, chemotherapy might be good. But being healthy is a better good.

Bad times can prompt a person to pray and develop a greater awareness of, and relationship to, G-d. Imagine a mother of two teenage daughters. The mother senses that the older daughter will benefit greatly from a close relationship to the mother, while the younger daughter will benefit from more "space." What does she do? To the younger daughter she gives a car, a credit card and a gas card, and to the older daughter she gives none of these. Which daughter do you think she will end up spending more time with?

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Dear Lucille G. Maloney,

Caring for the sick is certainly a mitzva. Regarding foot care for the sick, I'm not aware of any particular Jewish customs, and I'm not familiar with the items you mention.

We Jews do make a special daily blessing that thanks God "for giving me all my needs," and our commentaries explain that this especially refers to one's shoes! Why are the shoes called "all our needs?" The shoes allow a person to go out and thus interface with the world at large, and thereby acheive all his other physical and social needs.

More than one holocaust survivor has reported that breaking a shoelace in the concentration camps was like a death sentence, because the shoes would not stay on. A person could survive barefoot during forced marches and slave labor for only a few weeks, at most.

So, feet are certainly something to take care of, and to be thankful for.

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What Torah mitzvah (mitzva d'oraita) is it that, if done one way, one blessing is said, and if done another way a different blessing is said?

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Riddle: I was eating a snack when I had a sudden urge for some bread. I asked my Rabbi, "Should I wash my hands in the special ritual way which is usually required before eating bread?" "No," said my Rabbi. "Should I say the 'hamotzi' blessing usually said before eating bread?" "No," he said. After eating, I asked, "Should I say the 'birkat hamazon' -- the 'Grace after Meals' -- which is normally required after eating bread?" "No," said my Rabbi. Can you explain what's going on in the above story? Why do the "usual" halachot (Jewish Laws) seem not to apply?

I had the urge, but there was no bread to be had. So, no washing, hamotzi, or bentching.

The snack consisted of bread, therefore he does not have to wash because he already did. He does not have to say another hamotzi for the same reason. The reason he does not have to say birkat hamazon is because he threw up and is exempt from bentching.

He craved bread not made from one of the five grains -- rice bread, for example --then it wouldn't halachically be treated as "bread."

He's an onein. (An onein is a mourner before the burial, who is exempt from saying blessings, etc.)

I've enjoyed accessing your site, OHR.EDU, for years. Thank you and all your people for the wonderful job you do so faithfully, year after year. You have no idea how much your readers look forward to your weekly publications. Shalom.

Shalom to you from Mumbai, India. This year I plan to give your Jewish IQ questions in our ORT Religious Issue magazine to the community of India. For this I request your permission. I would also like to include few paragraphs from your "Kinder Torah" portions of each week's Parsha. You are helping us do the mitzvah of Kiruv (Jewish education and outreach). With your help, our last years' issues were very educational for our community members, and I thank you for having given me permission to use your "Seasons of the Moon" articles. Thanks and Shalom.

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