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If Someone is Eating a Treif Salami, Should He Make a Bracha?

21/2/2019

8 Comments

 
I subscribe to an e-newsletter that sends out transcribed Q&As from Rav Avigdor Miller's ztz"l lectures.

This week featured a particularly interesting question that I believe many people wonder about.

Rav Miller's answer is equally interesting (even shocking at times) and inspiring.

GREAT Torah hashkafah and guidance.

​Here it is:

Tape #463: Still Not Observant...and the Paradox Within

This email is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
QUESTION:
 
On the way into orthodoxy, if somebody is eating non-kosher salami, should he make a bracha?

I'll paraphrase the question, we'll forget about the salami. We have many people today who are still not observant, but they are definitely on the way in.

Should we consider their behavior as non-consequent, which means that they are contradicting themselves, that they are committing a paradox?

​Or shall we say that despite the fact of their non-observance, these people still are on the way to success, and they should be encouraged?
ANSWER [from Rav Miller]:

I recall a boy who worked on Shabbos.

This boy never rode the train, he always walked all the way across town to his job, and he walked back.

Now the question is, did it make any sense? In his place where he worked he did all lamed tes melachos, he did every kind of work, and still he refused to ride?

That man is doing a tremendous thing, the man is leaving one area where he is protesting his love for the Shabbos, and anybody who is going to ridicule him is demolishing something that's precious.

There used to be Jews who worked on Shabbos, but didn't smoke on Shabbos. There were a lot of Jews like that; now don't ridicule them. If you use that as a leverage, if you don't smoke on Shabbos, then you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that either, that's good, but don't tell them what good is it not to smoke on Shabbos.

Therefore there are lots of Jews today who are coming back, and you must be patient with them, because some of them will turn out to be the best idealists, and I'll tell you a little anecdote:

Reb Yisroel Salanter zichrono livrocho, who lived a long time ago, a hundred years ago, he visited the German town of Memel; it's right near Lithuania.

In Memel all the stores were open on Shabbos. So when he went there for a Shabbos, he asked if there were any Lithuanian Jews present.

They said yes, some Lithuanian Jews are visiting there for business, so he didn't say anything.

He waited for another Shabbos when no Lithuanian Jews were present, and then he got up and made a speech, and listen to what this great man said:

To keep your stores open on Shabbos, that's something that you cannot help yourself. But is it necessary to go to the port and to take the merchandise from the ships that are brought in for you? (Memel was a port city) That you could do on Monday!

That was his speech. It had an effect. Then he waited for another Shabbos, he didn't want any Lithuanian Jews to be present, because the Lithuanian Jews all kept Shabbos then, a hundred years ago, he didn't want them to hear.

The next Shabbos when no Lithuanian Jews were present he said:

If you keep your stores open on Shabbos that's your parnosso, but do you have to write? Can't you get away without writing on Shabbos?

And he spoke about the importance of not writing, and he gained his point.

The end was, a number of German Jewish families in Memel became not only shomrei Shabbos eventually, but they became Torah aristocrats, and that's the way we have to deal with people.

When a man comes into the Shul and he doesn't observe much, don't shame him; you have to treat him delicately, because you can never know.

And I want to tell you something, that these people many times have more idealism than people who are in it all their lives.

People who are in it all their lives, many times are on the way out, and this man is on his way in.

It's the truth.

And even those who don't think that they are on the way out, they're hankering to be out, they are prisoners of the in, and you see it in their children.

Therefore, this question is a serious question, an important question, should a man make a blessing over a piece of treifa salami?

So in practice you don't make any blessing, but I'll tell you what he should do, he should say words equivalent to a blessing in English.

​He should express his gratitude to the Almighty who has given him food, and eventually that man will say birchas hamazon over a kosher meal, I guarantee you.
 

Good Shabbos To All

Amazing.

With thanks to A Moment with Rav Avigdor Miller Z"L for generously permitting me to use their material.

You can also sign up for these enlightening once-a-week newsletters here:
http://rmillerqa.com/
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8 Comments
devorah link
22/2/2019 01:58:38

I think this is so true, because the commandment is to REMEMBER the Sabbath day and that is exactly what they are doing, even if they are not observing it entirely.

Reply
Myrtle Rising
22/2/2019 10:56:55

Good point. Thanks, Devorah.

Reply
Hava link
22/2/2019 14:37:22

MR,

Thank you for posting this! I am so happy that R' Miller and my first real rav, Yeshuah Toledano, both ztz"l, are in agreement regarding people who are "on their way in." R' Toledano used to say that if you're working on Shabbat, at least take a piece of hallah or other Shabbat food with you to remember that it's Shabbat.

That had a lot to do with my making my way "from the middle of the Pacific Ocean," so to speak, to where I am today.

Shabbat shalom umevorach!

Reply
Myrtle Rising
22/2/2019 15:27:44

Wow, that's great to know, Hava.

And thanks for sharing your validation of the approach of Rav Toledano ztz"l & Rav Miller ztz"l.

Shabbat Shalom!

Reply
bracha
24/2/2019 17:00:43

Very good advice and good comments. The only thing I want to add is about the treife salamii sandwich. Obviously, it is about a person who is on his way to doing teshuva so he understands eating treife wrong (second to not observing Shabbat because it is something we do daily, eating) so making a bracha would be extremely insulting (so to speak) to H'. and unless he is somewhere in the world where there is nothing to eat but treifus, there is no excuse eating it and then thanking H' for the treifus seems to be a slap in the face, so to speak.. If he eats it, that's one thing, but then to make a blessing for it is ridiculous. As you suggest makes more sense by just saying 'thank you' to the Creator for giving him sustenance..

Reply
Myrtle Rising
24/2/2019 17:36:57

Hi - thanks for this, Bracha.

I agree that the distinction mentioned by Rav Miller and emphasized in your comment is crucial here.

It seems that's why Rav Yisroel Salanter refused to give such encouragement when solidly frum Jews were in the store for fear of giving the wrong impression.

Tachlis, Bracha is correct that one should not make a bracha over unkosher food - which is why Rav Miller suggests doing so in English so as not to make the actual Hebrew blessing in vain.

*If anyone wants to know a bit more about this halacha, please see:
http://dinonline.org/2011/07/07/making-a-berachah-on-non-kosher-food/

Reply
SW
24/2/2019 17:19:57

These are very expedient and humane answers re possibility of temporarily allowing breaches of halacha (Shabbat and Kashruth) for certain individuals. So, to my mind, it does beg the question why similar 'condoning' leniences for eg taharas mishpacha, Yom Kippur, Pesach etc do not likewise exist.

Reply
Myrtle Rising
24/2/2019 17:57:21

Hi, SW,

I think there's a bit of misunderstanding here?

There are no allowances for breaches of halacha or leniencies mentioned above.

Just to clarify:

In one case, the question is regarding someone who is starting to observe more mitzvot & how he should handle the issue of making brachot over food when he hasn't YET started keeping kosher completely.

In another, it concerns someone who doesn't keep Shabbat, yet keeps aspects of it (i.e., don't discourage him from the one aspect he does keep).

And in Memel, Germany, the rav spoke only to those Jews who were not frum in an effort to get them to start keeping Shabbat a little bit at a time. In direct contrast to allowing any transgression of Shabbat, the rav's goal was to increase observance of Shabbat.

How to apply "increasing observance" to individual mitzvot in individual situations (like the ones you mentioned) demands the expertise of a real talmid chacham.

(I will add, however, that taharat hamishpacha affects more than just one person as far as sin goes -- and it's a pretty bad sin as far as sins go. And in the case of conception: Whether one is tahor or not affects the kind of soul pulled down...in other words, the territory of taharat hamishpacha is a bit more complicated & really needs expert guidance.)

Thank you.

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