Kosher Beers

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Bo

2012-01-26T23:34:00.002-05:00

Monday's Musings on Sports - The Passing of Paterno

2012-01-23T22:03:00.003-05:00

When I was growing up on Long Island there were not many options for college football. Hofstra and St John's had teams, but neither were very good. If you wanted to become a college football fan, you needed to look beyond the NYC metro area. My close friend Lonnie O became an Ohio State fan, for reasons that I cannot remember. When I was looking around, I decided to become a Penn State fan, largely because of the icon which was Joe Paterno.

Since players rarely spend more than two or three (or at most four) years in school, college football fans can't lock their affections onto a particular player. Most college coaches are as transient as their players. They may spend two or three years on a team, but soon the lure of the pros or a larger or more prestigious college program comes calling and the $$ are hard to resist. If a college coach does manage to stay for more than five years, he must produce or face the calls for firing by alumni who return for a game or two each year. These booster/donors root for their alma mater, not the players or coaches. As such, they owe little allegiance to the current coach or AD.

One of the few exceptions to the above was Joe Paterno. For those who did not attend a college with a Division I football program, its hard to understand the persona who was Joe Paterno. Nicknamed "Joe Pa", Paterno was always viewed as fatherly figure who managed to get the best out of his athletes. It never mattered that he dressed like it was still the 70s as the PSU football players also dressed in what could be kindly called "throwback" uniforms and had reputations to match. Traditionally, PSU graduated intelligent ballplayers to the NFL. For a time, Penn State was most well known for its linebackers, but at times they did send offensive players to the pros as well. Again, the constant was the lack of scandal or controversy, which most attributed to Joe Pa being at the helm.

And then came the scandal which hit in November. There is no way to sugar coat it and to his credit, Paterno did not try to make excuses. When he was interviewed last month (the first time that he was allowed to comment) he admitted that he did not know how to handle the accusations which were made against his (then) assistant coach. He passed the report up the pipeline to his athletic director and President and left it for them to act. While I would have liked him to have done more, its not hard to understand how a (then) 75 year old man would not know what to do with allegations of this kind against his assistant.

I do not write this post to comment on, or justify, Paterno's actions ten years ago or earlier this year. I am just struck by what happened after Paterno was ignominiously removed as head coach a few months ago. Although Paterno had a history of health problems, his passing came as a shock. A man who was well enough to stand and coach on the sidelines earlier this year, was diagnosed and succumbed to cancer inside of three months. But was it the cancer, or a broken heart due to the realization of what had transpired, which felled this icon.

The gemara in Avoda Zara tells a story of Elazar Ben Dordaya who sinned and was mocked by his paramour and told that he could never receive repentance. He asked the hills and mountains, the sun and moon, heaven and earth and the stars and constellations to pray for him, but was turned away by all. He then placed his head between his knees and cried until his soul departed.

I do not mean to equate the Elazar Ben Dordaya story with Joe Paterno, but the realization that one has made a major error with far reaching ramifications and the swift way both departed with broken hearts struck a chord with me. Feel free to comment with your thoughts...

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Va'era

2012-01-19T23:27:00.002-05:00

Monday's Musings on Sports - Rooting for or against and R' Zera

2012-01-16T23:39:00.003-05:00

Although this post is generally devoted to sports with a link to Torah, I heard a vort in a R' Mansour shiur on Parshas Shemos (downloaded from www.learntorah.com) which actually made me think back to sports from Torah.

The gemara in Megilla 28a contains numerous discussions between illustrious Rabbis and their students, wherein the students asked - why did you merit to have a long life. Each Rabbi responded to the questioner about his own particular middah or middos (attributes) which he felt was the reason that he was zoche to long life.

In answering the question that was posed to him, R' Zera responded that he was zoche to long life, in part due to his not rejoicing at the downfall of his friends.

This concept was foreign to the Rabbi who was giving the shiur. He posited - how can anyone be happy when something bad happens to someone else? He answered that what it must mean is that the person was genuinely happy for others and felt bad when something bad happened to the other person. This is the sign of a "gadol" - one who feels a sense of community responsibility and does not think solely about himself and his needs.

While R' Mansour could not conceptualize being happy when another fails, a sports fan finds this fairly routine. As a Jets fan, I could never root for the Patriots and actively hope they will fail when playing. Although the Mets have been non-competitive for the last two years, I still find myself happy when the Phillies fail. And don't get me started about the NY Islanders, even though they have not had a decent season since before my 13 yr old was born...

Back to the vort, -- R' Mansour tied the vort into the phrase said at the bris that the small child will grow to be a gadol. It is fairly obvious that the child will grow to be big, so why is there a need to say it? He answered that the baby is the ultimate "taker" or selfish being. When a baby wants to eat, it wants to eat. If the baby wants to be picked up - it must be done NOW! A baby does not care that the parent does not feel well, or just got home from work or was up all night. But when the baby grows to be a gadol it becomes aware of the needs of others and abandons its selfish activities.

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Sunday Night Suds - Keystone Ice

2012-01-15T23:05:00.001-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Keystone Ice

I have two general rules when it comes to beer sold in oversized cans. Rule #1 - If the beer comes from from large domestic breweries (such as Coors) don't expect much flavor. Rule #2 - If the beer is priced at less than $2 per can, be prepared for the look you will get from the sales clerk when you buy just one can. When I purchased the Keystone Ice, I avoided Rule #2 by using the self checkout line at the supermarket (although I think that I may still have gotten a look from the kid manning the help desk). The first rule still applied...

When opening the Keystone Ice, I was immediately hit with the aroma of corn or adjunct lager. It brought me back to my early beer drinking days when I used to prefer Bud Ice which came in 12 pack bottles with little penguins that turned blue when the beer was cold enough to drink. At that phase of my beer career, I was not looking for hops, I just wanted something cold to go well with the cholent on shabbos and the Bud Ice fit the bill.

The Keystone Ice poured a pale, almost straw colored yellow. There was some foam on top of my glass from the initial pour, but it quickly dissipated. The taste was macrolager, as could be expected, but not as bland as Budweiser or MGD.

Of note, the beer does have a relatively high alcohol content for a domestic macrolager (5.9% abv according to the can), so drinking a 24 oz bottle would be the equivalent of three standard beers. Of course given the taste, you might need to be tipsy already to even consider drinking the whole can...

Keystone Ice is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union like nearly every beer produced by MillerCoors and there is an OU on the can. For the experts take on the Keystone Ice, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/2947.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Shemos

2012-01-12T23:14:00.002-05:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

The second perek of this week's parsha introduces Moshe as a persona in Jewish history. However, the allusion to Moshe is without fanfare, as the Torah states that a man from the house of Levi went and married a woman from the house of Levi. It is not until Parshas Va'era that we learn that Moshe's father is Amram and his mother is Yocheved.

The Ramban explains that the reason that the Torah does not mention the names of Moshe's parents was pragmatic. Had the Torah written Amram, it would have needed to list his lineage going all the way back to Levi. To avoid having to list the entire genealogy, the Torah merely states that Moshe came from the house of Levi.

R' Frand next quoted R' Sorotzkin in Aznaim L'Torah who explains that the reason that Moshe's parents are not mentioned was to show that anyone can have a son like Moshe. R' Frand explained that the anonymity of Moshe's lineage demonstrates that a person does not need to come from a family of gedolim in order to succeed and become a leader in Klal Yisrael.

R' Frand also quoted an explanation from R' Ya'akov Kaminestky, who explains that the Torah intended to teach that Moshe was a mortal and came from mortals - a regular guy and a regular girl. In so doing, the Torah alludes to the foundation of the Jewish faith -- that the physical and spiritual can be united for a positive purpose. A person has a body which is infused with a soul which can be used for a positive purpose. This stands against other religions which believe that the soul is compartmentalized and the body exists to do evil.

R' Kaminetsky also referred to a pshat in Sefer Bereishis (2:4) about creation. The medrash recites a dispute between R' Eliezer and R' Yehoshua as to the nature of things in the heaven and on Earth. R' Eliezer explains that everything in shamayim was created in heaven and everything on Earth was created from the Earth. R' Yehoshua explains that everything (both the physical and in the heavens) was created in shamayim.

R' Kaminetsky explains that the dispute is actually about the nature of humanity in this world. R' Eliezer states that the spiritual is created from above and the physical remains on the Earth. R' Yehoshua disagrees and states that both physical and spiritual aspects of man come from above.

R' Kaminetsky linked this dispute to another dispute recorded in Gemara Beitzah about the proper activities for yom tov. R' Elazar states that yom tov is either for learning Torah and davening or eating and having a good time and enjoying the yom tov. R' Yehoshua states that the day can be split, the first half in davening and the second half enjoying the yom tov. R' Kaminetsky states that the dispute follow the prior dispute as to creation. Since R' Eliezer believes that spiritual and physical are distinct, then on yom tov one must choose one course of activity. R' Yehoshua says that everything came from above and the day can be split so that the physical enjoyment can be elevated to a spiritual level.

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Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Winter Lager

2012-01-08T23:55:00.003-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams Winter Lager.

As mentioned in the November 27, 2011 edition of Sunday Night Suds (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/11/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-black.html), this year's Samuel Adams Winter Collection box included two relative newcomers to the Sam Adams stable of beers (Black and Brew Coffee Stout and the dairy Chocolate Bock) along with some of their usual winter limited editions - Old Fezziwig, Holiday Porter and Winter Lager. As I have been drinking this beer for many years, but inexplicably never reviewed it, the time has come for a review.

The Winter Lager is truly a spiced beer as the bottle label (and the radio commercials flooding the airwaves in the NY area) proclaims that the beer is spiced with ground cinnamon, ginger and orange zest. When drinking the beer, I don't pick up any of the individual flavors, but it does make for an interesting brew. The beer pours a very dark orange with little to no lacing. The first taste is a bit dry, but the beer grows on you quickly and the malt starts to come through. After a few sips, the flavors start to hit and even the hops come through. I could drink a few of these and thankfully, SA has cooperated and releases these in six and twelve packs. Now if they could only do the same with some of the other winter classics like Old Fezziwg and Black and Brew...

Samuel Adams Winter Lager is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label. The kashruth can be confirmed by clicking on the link to the Star-K LOC here -- http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_6635_bostonbeercompany.pdf.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Winter Lager, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/101.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayechi

2012-01-05T22:37:00.002-05:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In this week's Parsha, Yaakov gives the brocha to Ephraim and Menashe and used the words "v'yidgu larov b'kerev ha'aretz." Rashi comments that this means that Ephraim and Menashe should be like fish who are not influenced by the ayin hara. The gemara in Berachos explains that fish which are under the sea are not seen by the eyes and therefore they are not subject to the ayin hara. As such, Yaakov's brocha to Ephraim and Menashe was that they should be like the fish - uninfluenced by the ayin hara.

R' Frand then said that there was another aspect to why fish are not subject to ayin hara. The Chizkuni states that there are no names of fish mentioned in the Torah. The Paneach Raza explains that various animals have names mentioned, be they kosher or non kosher and even the shratzim have names. Meanwhile, the fish are not named at all. The Paneach Raza explains that because the fish are anonymous, they are not subject to ayin hara.

R' Frand extrapolated this to people by quoting a Rashi in Sanhedrin. He explains that yes, it is true that people have names. However, Rashi in Sanhedrin writes that if a person has the ability to stay out of the public eye and not put himself in front of others and draw attention to himself, he can avoid the impact of ayin hara. He further explained that humility can be a protection against ayin hara. The Chida writes that a person who truly has humility is protected from the ayin hara. The gematria of ayin is 120, the gematria of anava (humility) is 121. The Chizkuni writes that if a person has humility, the person is above the ayin hara and will not be subject to its impact.

R' Frand next discussed the brachos that Yaakov gave to his sons. He quoted a mehalech of R' Yaakov Kaminetsky about the brachos given to Shimon and Levi. Yaakov tells them that they will be scattered among the shevatim. Rashi explains that Levi was not given any land and they had to be dependent on others for their livelihood. The tribe of Shimon were given the jobs of being itinerant teachers.

R' Kaminetsky asked - if these people are the melamdei tinokos and the sofrim which are very important jobs, how can this be a curse? R' Kaminetsky answers that it is not a curse - it is a very special kind of person who can be a teacher or sofer. Shimon and Levi were very special people and showed this through their kannaus. Everyone was aware of what happened to their sister, but Shimon and Levi were the only ones who acted.

But what happened to their kannaus? Levi refined their zealotry and perfected it, so they were able to act after the cheyt ha'egel. This is why they are given great brochos from Moshe in V'Zos Habrocha.

Shimon never refined or channeled their zealotry, which is what allowed them to be involved in the Zimri/Cuzbi story. R' Kamientsky explains that kannaus which is not tempered or directed by halacha will end up eradicating the people from the world. Only the gedolei yisroel can determine when its right to use this middah.

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Monday's Musings on Sports - Santonio, Larry and Ryan (Not that Ryan)

2012-01-02T19:52:00.002-05:00

At the tail end of the Jets final game of the season, the cameras focused on WR Santonio Holmes who was sitting on the bench while the rest of the starting offense was trying to salvage the game. Soon thereafter, CBS showed a replay of what appeared to be a fight in the huddle between Holmes and some other player, but the camera angle did not reveal who he had been fighting with. As the game wound down, CBS continued to cut away to Holmes, looking as if he was pouting while he was sitting on the bench. However, the announcers did not have much information as to why Holmes was relegated to the bench.

Today, more of the story about Santonio's activities were revealed. ESPN Radio reported that last week Mark Sanchez held meetings with the wide receivers to try to work through problems with the passing game. According to the report, Holmes was uninterested in attending the meeting. Additional reports indicated that Holmes had been expressing his displeasure over the last few weeks and had called out his coaches and teammates in various meetings. All of this childish behavior culminated with the fight on Sunday, after which the offensive coordinator had Holmes pulled from the game.

In contrast to Santonio's juvenile behavior, there was a story on Sunday about a different highly paid wide receiver who played for another under performing team. When the season began, there were high expectations for the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals had traded for highly regarded QB Kevin Kolb and it was thought that WR Larry Fitzgerald would justify his massive eight year - $120 million contract. Although the Cardinals won their first game of the season, they lost their next six games in a row. Although the streak was partly due to QB injury (twice during the season, the Cards were forced to use Richard Bartel from college juggernaut Tarleton State at QB), the stretch of games was disheartening to a veteran player like Fitzgerald. Rather than publicly complain or sit out games or practices, Fitzgerald continued to work hard and finished the season with 1400+ yards (fourth best in the NFL). However, the most startling contrast was how Fitzgerald approached the final game of his season. Although the Cardinals had been eliminated from possible post season play, Fitzgerald refused to stay out of the game after he was seen coughing up blood on the sidelines. Indeed, it was learned today that Fitzgerald had suffered a bruised lung, yet he played the entire game and made three catches for forty-six yards during the overtime drive that won the game for the Cardinals.

Our third player being contrasted in this post is Ryan Clark, a free safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Clark is infected with the genetic defect, sickle cell anemia, which he has been able to overcome when playing at normal altitudes. However, during Clark's last game at Denver, the combination of exertion and the sickle cell trait caused him to become so ill that doctors were forced to remove his spleen and gall bladder. Despite the history of illness and possible dangerous repercussions, Ryan may still play this weekend in the Steelers' road playoff game at Denver.

The contrast of Clark/Fitzgerald's determination and Holmes' juvenile activity was particularly ironic to me. Having read the conclusion of the Joseph story this past shabbos in Parshas Vayigash, we had seen numerous instances where Joseph could have given up and not continued in the path of Torah. Starting from the beginning of the saga, Joseph knew that his brothers hated him and that the errand that his father had sent him on to find his brothers was fraught with danger. Yet Joseph willingly went looking for his brothers and wound up in a pit. In the following parsha, Joseph resisted the advances of Potiphar's wife and wound up in jail. Later, having interpreted the butler's dream, Joseph remained in jail for another two years, until he was summoned to Pharaoh to interpret his dream. In each of these instances, Joseph could have simply given up on life, or at the very least, could have decided that there was no point in staying on the derech. However, Joseph chose not to sulk or abandon hope and ultimately became the second in command in Egypt.

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Sunday Night Suds - Brooklyn Brewery - East India Pale Ale

2012-01-01T22:57:00.002-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Brooklyn Brewery's East India Pale Ale.

The Brooklyn Brewery East India Pale Ale is one of the oldest styles produced by Brooklyn Brewery. It has a well earned reputation as a quality English IPA. As it has been a number of years since I posted on the definition of this style of beer, I have reproduced the BA definition below:

First brewed in England and exported for the British troops in India during the late 1700s. To withstand the voyage, IPA's were basically tweaked Pale Ales that were, in comparison, much more malty, boasted a higher alcohol content and were well-hopped, as hops are a natural preservative. Historians believe that an IPA was then watered down for the troops, while officers and the elite would savor the beer at full strength. The English IPA has a lower alcohol due to taxation over the decades. The leaner the brew the less amount of malt there is and less need for a strong hop presence which would easily put the brew out of balance. Some brewers have tried to recreate the original IPA with strengths close to 8-9% abv.

Although Brooklyn sells this beer in multiple forms including 12 oz bottle, draft and cask, I have only tried this brew in 12 oz bottle.

The beer pours a bright amber, almost brass like in color and the hops and malt are equally present and appreciated. The resulting balance is a beer with some dry hoppiness and some notes of pine and a little citrus.

The English IPA is on the high end of the alcohol spectrum with a reported 6.9% abv. The brewers of the East India IPA recommend pairing it with spicy food such as Chinese, Mexican or Thai. I had mine on its own, but I could see how it would stand up nicely to Chinese or other spicy fare.

Brooklyn Brewery East India Pale Ale is under the kosher supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit as are all 12 oz Brooklyn beers which are brewed in the Utica plant.

For the experts' take on the East India Pale Ale please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45/147.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayigash

2011-12-29T23:40:00.002-05:00

Monday's Musings on Sports - Napoleon, Joseph and the NBA

2011-12-26T18:07:00.004-05:00

Sunday marked the return of the National Basketball Association. To some, this was a matter of life and death, like the two high school freshmen who host the 1050 ESPN Radio midday show on weekdays who were deeply depressed at the prospect of no basketball for the year.

To others, the possibility of a season without professional basketball was not all that scary. Some pundits have professed that they would not miss the NBA, as college basketball offers all of the action and skill and without all the strutting and showboating.

[I must confess that other than the NCAA Tournament or when I am sitting in the car and need a sporting event to listen to, I have very little interest in basketball - professional or college. This was probably the result of growing up in a home where the big sports were hockey and baseball, but I digress...]

As a result of the lockout and the long delay before labor and management came to an agreement (which was virtually the same offer made by management many weeks earlier), this year's NBA season has been shortened to sixty six games. Most opinions that I have heard on sports radio programs have not lamented the loss of approximately 20% of the season. Instead, these sports jocks have opined that the NBA regular season games only start to matter after New Year's, since the first part of the season is like an extended training camp when players are still learning how to play with their new teammates.

Personally, I don't understand why the shortened season would eliminate this feeling out period. Drawing a parallel to the NFL season, many teams suffered at the beginning of the NFL season as players (especially rookies) lacked a training camp where they would learn the coaches' systems. Similarly, coaches suffered from not having a period to evaluate their players' strengths and draw up schemes to accommodate their talents.

The debate as to whether the lockout and the shortening of the season was a positive or negative made me think about a story about Napoleon that I heard in a R' Mansour shiur. When Napoleon conquered a certain region in Eastern Europe, the local dignitaries came out to greet him and sing his praises. After the program ended, Napoleon asked -- how come no Rabbi had come out to meet with him. The local politicians began to look for a Rabbi and found one in a small shul. They brought him to meet with Napoleon, who asked the Rabbi to address him. The Rabbi said - I am not a man of words, I only know the Torah. Napoleon said to him - I have had enough false flattery, please tell me words of the Torah. The Rabbi responded with a vort about Yosef and the butler.

The Rabbi said to Napoleon - after Yosef interpreted the butler's dream, he said to the butler - Ki im zechartani - because you will remember me, you will be returned to your position of power. The Rabbi then asked rhetorically - what was the connection between the interpretation of the dream (that the butler would be returned to his position of authority) and the statement that the butler will remember him?

The Rabbi explained that Yosef was telling the butler - you were rightfully imprisoned for serving Pharaoh a cup of wine with a fly in the cup. You are now getting a second chance, but it is because of me that you are being returned to the king's court. Your second chance at serving comes so that you may remember me and cause my release from prison.

The Rabbi said to Napoleon - why do you need Eastern Europe? This land is poor and lacks the natural resources and culture of Western Europe. It must be that the reason that you have conquered this region is because the Jews were being oppressed and could not freely worship Hashem. As such, you have been sent to liberate the Jews of this area so that they can freely worship.

And it was known that Napoleon was good towards the Jews and allowed them to live their lives without government interference.

As to whether the lockout shortened season will be good or bad for the quality of basketball being played or the NY teams, I cannot hope to predict. But everything happens for a reason and it is only at the end of this season or possibly two seasons down the road, that we will be able to see who ultimately benefited from the lockout shortened season.

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Sunday Night Suds - Blue Moon Spiced Amber Ale

2011-12-25T22:50:00.006-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Blue Moon's Spiced Amber Ale.

When I was in my early twenties, Snapple came out with an iced tea called Snapple Apple Pie. It was spiced with cinnamon and tasted like a cross between iced tea and apple pie. I recall driving around the South Shore of Long Island looking for convenience stores which carried it, before finding a store in Island Park which had a cooler with a dozen or so bottles in it (yes, I bought them all).

So what does Snapple have to do with beer? Not very much, but my first sniff of the Blue Moon Spiced Amber Ale brought flashbacks of the Snapple Apple Pie. The beer has a sharp cinnamon aroma which carries through to the first sip. However, the brew is not overly sweet to the point that it loses its character as a beer.

American Amber beers can vary from hoppy to mild, but they generally have a good amount of malt and this beer is no exception. The malt mixes nicely with the hops and blends with the cinnamon to produce an excellent dessert type beer.

I would recommend this beer with apple pie, apple kugel muffins or maybe some vanilla ice cream. Mrs KB gives her thumbs up as well and feels that it rivals Saranac's Maple Porter as a dessert quality brew.

The only negative about this beer is that you can't buy it on its own. It is a limited edition winter release and comes packaged in a 12 pack which contains three Spiced Amber Ales, three Winter Moon (also quite delicious), three standard Blue Moon (can't go wrong with those) and three Pale Moon (I am not too fond of those).

Blue Moon Spiced Amber Ale is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union. For the experts take on the Spiced Amber Ale, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/75358.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe Stout

2011-12-18T23:16:00.001-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Lakefront Brewery's Fuel Cafe Stout.

A number of months ago, I was approached by a friend who was looking for a coffee flavored brew. At the time, I was unaware of the (yet unreleased) Samuel Adams Black & Brew, so I pointed Dan L. in the direction of the Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe Stout, which at the time was the only coffee flavored brew which I knew to be under kosher supervision. While Dan L. was unable to find the Fuel Cafe Stout, I noticed it on the shelf at Beverage Barn in Garden City Park and I picked up some up for a refresher course in this coffee flavored brew.

The Fuel Cafe Stout poured a deep black color, to the point that one is unable to see anything through the brew. There was some tan lacing after the pour which was mostly dissolved within ten minutes of pouring in the glass.

Although the color of the beer is dark, the beer itself is light for a stout. I did not notice much body in the brew and the one note is the heavy coffee flavor which hits you the moment that you bring the glass to your face. Although the beer claims to be close to 6% abv, its alcohol flavor is more akin to a light beer.

If you are looking for iced coffee served in a six pack holder, this brew is for you. However, if you are looking for a traditional stout with a little coffee flavoring, you would be better served with the Samuel Adams Black and Brew or even just drinking a Guinness (which Mrs KB thinks tastes like coffee anyway).

Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe Stout is under the kosher supervision of the Star-K (there is even a Star-K on the label).

For the experts' take on the Fuel Cafe Stout please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/741/2870. As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site such, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayeshev

2011-12-15T23:40:00.002-05:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Rabbi Frand quoted a Rokeach who explains that Parshas Vayeshev has 112 pesukim and Tehillim chapter 92 which we say on Shabbos morning and Friday Night (Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbas) has 112 words. Rabbi Frand asked - what is the connection?

Rabbi Frand began his answer by quoting a Ramban on Vayehsev 37:15 which states that Yosef was looking for his brothers and was "found" by a man in the field. The meforshim teach that this was an angel. The Ramban states that when Yosef got to Shechem and could not find his brothers, he could have returned and said to his father - I looked and I could not find them. However, the Ramban writes that the gezera of Hashem will happen and all the efforts of man will be meaningless. [R' Frand then used the Yiddish expression - man thinks and G-d laughs]. The Ramban explained that while logically Yosef should have gone back, Hashem wanted this to happen and this why the word "ish" appears three times, because Hashem used three malachim to make sure that Yosef would meet the brothers - this was Hashem's plan.

R' Frand then used a l'havdil analogy to a puppet show. Hashem is the puppeteer and Yosef, Yaakov and the brothers are the puppets.

In this week's parsha, Yaakov makes the cardinal parental mistake of treating his children differently. Yaakov gave Yosef the multicolored coat and the brothers became insanely jealous. How can Yaakov make this mistake? The brothers also make a mistake as they think that Yosef wants to kill them. How could they be so far off the mark? Yosef also makes a mistake as he wrongfully suspects his brothers of eating from live animals. How?

How did all this happen - Hashem has his plan and these seemingly irrational things can happen so that the plan can be put into effect.

The Torah also writes at Vayeshev 37:14 that Yosef was sent from the valley of Hevron. Rashi notes that Hevron is on a mountain, not in a valley. He explains that this is a code for the one who is buried in Hevron - Avraham who had the vision that the Jews would be in galus - the Jews needed to go down to Egypt.

The questions continue with Yosef living in Egypt. Yosef manages at the age of seventeen to withstand the enticement of the wife of Potiphar. What is Yosef's reward? He winds up in jail for twelve years. One who views the story asks - why did this happen? The answer is that if one sees the whole story, he is aware that Yosef needs to meet the servants in prison so that he can rise to assist Pharaoh in interpreting his dreams. The story needs to be seen completely to understand it.

This is the connection to Tehillim 92. Adam HaRishon was shown the entire world - 6,000 years of history and how everything fits in. So in writing Tehillim 92, Adam writes that the fool will not understand this - how the wicked prosper and are successful while the righteous suffer. The answer is that I see it all. Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbas has the same theme as Parshas Vayesehev - things need to be seen from the outside to understand the whole picture. The message of Tehillim 92 - is me'od amku machsivosecha - how deep are Your thoughts.

R' Schwab in writing on Job, a story of Tzadik v'ra lo, explains that to understand, one must take the long view of history, because if one takes the short look they will not understand it.

This is how Tehillim 92 ends - there will be old people who will have all their faculties and will be vigorous and vital in their old age. If a person lives long enough they can say - now I understand why this happened.

R' Schwab writes - imagine if a person died in the middle of the Yosef story and did not see the end. A person needs to see the end of the story to realize that Hashem is just and that things do all work out for the best.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock

2011-12-11T18:40:00.004-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock.

The Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is a sophomore offering from the Boston Beer company. The Chocolate Bock was first introduced by Samuel Adams last winter and it has been included again in this year's Winter Classics box. Similar to last year's version, this season's Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is kosher DAIRY (chalav stam).

Some beer styles have names that make one think that there might be dairy in the brew process. By way of example, there are cream ales, which BA explains were "spawned from the American light lager style, are brewed as an ale though are sometimes finished with a lager yeast or lager beer mixed in. Adjuncts such as corn or rice are used to lighten the body. It is no uncommon for smaller craft brewers to brew all malt Cream Ales. Pale straw to pale gold color. Low hop bittering and some hop aroma though some micros have given the style more of a hop character. Well carbonated and well attenuated."

Then there are milk or sweet stouts which BA defines as "stouts that have a larger amount of residual dextrins and unfermented sugars that give the brew more body and a sweetness that counters the roasted character. Milk Stouts are very similar to Sweet Stouts, but brewers add unfermentable sugars, usually lactose, to the brew kettle to add body and some sweetness."

The Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is not one of the above beer styles which can typically contain dairy. I am unaware of what specifically was added to the brew which makes the beer dairy, but the Star-K has confirmed to me by e-mail that the Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock is dairy and that the Star-K will not be including the Chocolate Bock on their LOC.

So once I became aware that the Chocolate Bock was dairy, I needed to wait until I had a proper dairy meal to share the brew with. You can't pair a bock with pasta or eggs or cereal, so I saved the brew for a night that Mrs KB was making tilapia. While I can't say that the Chocolate Bock melded with the fish, it was quite tasty. The beer was silky smooth and the chocolate flavor was very pronounced. To quote Mrs KB, this is one of those beers that can be served over ice cream. I wished that I could serve this after dinner on Friday night to friends, but alas it cannot follow a meat dinner.

The Star-K has indicated that the Chocolate Bock is kosher dairy, but there is no Star-K on the label and it does not appear on the LOC.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Chocolate Bock, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/14309.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayishlach

2011-12-08T23:41:00.002-05:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In this week's parsha there is a discussion in Bereishis 32:25-33 of the story of Yaakov's battle with the angel of Esav. The Torah relates that Yaakov and the angel fought all night, until the angel struck Yaakov in the thigh and that as a result Jews may not eat the gid hanasheh.

R' Frand related that there are many perushim on the story and there is much symbolism found in the events. Having said that, R' Frand stated that he recently saw an explanation of the story that he had never seen before.

R' Frand quoted the Chizkuni who explained that the punishment of not eating the gid hanasheh is a punishment that applies until today (as Jews cannot eat the prime cuts of meat such as the porterhouse or sirloin). The Chizkuni explains that it is only right that we cannot eat the gid hanesheh because Yaakov's sons allowed him to go unattended, even though they were strong boys. Because the sons did not provide an accompaniment to their father, they are prohibited from eating the gid hanasheh.

R' Frand said that similar statements are also made by the Rosh and the Sefer Chasidim.

R' Frand then quoted a sefer called the Shabbas U'Moadim which provides a deeper understanding of the events involving Yaakov and the angel. He notes that Yaakov went back alone to retrieve the pachim k'tanim and was struck by the angel. He quoted the Drashas HaRan who explained that the reason that Yaakov was struck by the angel now was because the angel wanted to reclaim the bechora at this juncture. Why now?

The Derashas HaRan answers the question by first referring back to the story of the day that Yaakov bought the bechora. Avraham had died and Yaakov prepared a meal for his father who was mourning for Avraham. Where was Esav at this time? He was out in the field and was not distressed by his father Yitzchak's mourning. Esav then came in from the field and saw that Yitzchak was in mourning. However, Esav did not sit down and console his father. Instead, Esav demanded food.

When Yaakov saw Esav acting this way he said to Esav - you are the bechor? The bechor should be acting like the father. You see that your father is in mourning, yet you are thoroughly unmoved? You are not like your father, so sell me the bechora!
You have not showed your father any respect and have neglected him. I can show proper respect and will be like my father, so sell the bechora to me.

Now in parshas Vayishlach, the angel says to Yaakov - you may have respected your father, but you have not passed this on to your kids. Look! Your children have neglected and abandoned you! Your rationale that you should have the bechora was because Esav was not like Yitzchak and showed no respect - your kids are not respecting you, so I should be able to reclaim the bechora for Esav.

This manifested in a shot to the thigh. The gemara calls descendants - yotzei yereicho - those that come from the thigh. They are also called the supporters of the father - like the thigh supports the person. The Jews are punished that they cannot eat the gid hanasheh, because we must pay the price for failing to properly support and respect Yaakov.

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Belated Monday Musings on Sports - Santo and Saying Thank You

2011-12-06T22:40:00.004-05:00

[Its been more years than I can count since Mrs KB and I went to a hockey game. As we were treated to tix to last night's Rangers Maple Leaf game, I was unable to post a Monday Musings on Sports post last evening. Rather than leaving the week without Sports+Torah, I have posted this evening instead.]

This morning, news broke that former Chicago Cubs 3B Ron Santo had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The news was truly bittersweet, as Chicago area baseball fans had been advocating Santo for the Hall of Fame from the moment that he became eligible. During his career with the Cubs, Santo was selected to the All Star Team nine time and won five gold gloves. After Santo retired from baseball, he continued his service to the Cubs and to endear himself to Cubs fans by joining the broadcast team as WGN's color commentator.

Despite Santo's accomplishments, he was not elected to the Hall of Fame during his initial period of eligibility. Thereafter he was "eligible" to be voted in by the Veterans Committee, but he also failed to gain the necessary percentage of votes required for entry to the Hall. Although Santo was finally selected to the Hall of Fame today, the ceremony will be held without him as he passed away last December.

While driving to work this morning, I heard a piece on the Mike & Mike in the Morning Show on 1050 ESPN Radio in which they discussed the posthumous induction. Greenberg recollected his time working as a journalist in Chicago and how beloved Santo was by the fans. He also talked about how year after year, the media would descend on Santo for comment as to what he felt about the present year's Hall of Fame voting and his prospects for election in the following year.

Golic on the other hand ranted about why players take 10-15 years to get voted into the Hall. His position was - if the player is deserved of induction, he should be voted into the Hall in his first couple of years of eligibility. After all mused Golic, what about his statistics or accomplishments changed over the next ten years which would make the player now worthy of admission to the Hall?

The question of posthumous honors and the proper way to say thanks made me think about a vort that I heard on a R' Mansour shiur that I downloaded from www.learntorah.com. In last week's parsha, Leah names her fourth child Yehuda as now she can thank Hashem. The gemara states that Leah's action was the first time in Chumash that someone had shown thanks to Hashem. However, the gemara requires explanation as it is inconceivable that others did not thank Hashem. By example, Avraham & Sarah certainly must have thanked Hashem after being blessed with a son at advanced age.

R' Mansour answered the question on the gemara by quoting a vort from R' Paam ztl. R' Paam explained that thanks can be fleeting and easily forgotten, even if the gift or act was meaningful when received. Leah did not want to forget that Hashem had blessed her by giving her a fourth son which was more than a proportional 1/4 share of the 12 tribes of Israel. In order to remember this, Leah named her son Yehuda, so that every time she called or referred to him, the boy's very name would remind her of how thankful she was to Hashem.

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Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Chocolate Lager

2011-12-04T22:03:00.004-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at the newest Saranac brew - Saranac's Chocolate Lager.

To my knowledge, the Saranac Chocolate Lager is the first new beer introduced by Saranac in about two years. The Chocolate Lager has been included in the beers of winter box which also includes the superior Big Moose Ale and Lake Effect Lager, along with the India Copper Ale, Bohemian Plisner and Vanilla Stout.

Not to be confused with a prior Saranac offering called Saranac Chocolate Amber Lager (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/06/sunday-night-suds-saranac-chocolate.html) the new Chocolate Lager is more of a bock then a lager. The beer pours a rich copper color with a fair amount of foam which disappears soon into the brew. The first smell of the brew was actually reminiscent of a macrolager, but that soon dissipated as well. When I tried my first sip I was struck by the chocolate flavor additive, but it was not overpowering and rendered the beer quite drinkable. Perhaps this is because they (according to the Saranac website) added cacao nibs, rather than pure chocolate flavoring.

Because the Saranac Chocolate Lager is more of a bock than a lager, the alcohol content is a little higher than one would expect (6% abv). Having said that, the alcohol flavor is not noticeable.

Saranac Chocolate Lager is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as is every other brew produced by Saranac. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Saranac Chocolate Lager, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/75739.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayeitzei

2011-12-01T23:04:00.002-05:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

This week's parsha begins with a summary of Yaakov's travels. The Torah recounts that Yaakov left Be'er Sheva and went to Charan. However, not long after Yaakov gets to Charan, he turns around and travels back to Yerushalayim. The Medrash explains that Hashem did a chessed for Yaakov and folded up the land so that he could expeditiously return from Charan to Yerushalayim.

R' Frand quoted the sefer Machat Shel Yad (R' Frankel) which asks - why did Yaakov get all the way to Charan before he remembered that he had passed Yerushalayim without davening there? The distance between Beer Sheva and Yerushalayim is quite short, whereas the distance from Yerushalayim to Charan is many hundreds of miles. Why did he wait until he got to Charan before he suddenly remembered he had passed Yerushalayim.

Before answering the question, R' Frand quoted R' Kaminetsky to further expand on the vort. We know that after Yaakov left Beer Sheva he did not go straight to Charan. Instead, Yaakov spent 14 years learning in Yeshivas Shem V'Ever. But why did Yaakov need to go learn there? He had spent 15 years learning by Avraham and then another 45 years learning from Yitzchak. What was he missing in his education that he needed to learn at the Yeshiva Shem V'Ever?

R' Kaminetsky answered that there was something that Yaakov needed to learn in the yeshiva. Shem was a product of the Dor Hamabul while Ever was a product of the Dor Haflaga. Despite their toxic surroundings, Shem and Ever were able to stay true to their learning.

When Yaakov was learning by Avraham and Yitzchak, he was learning in a pristine environment. The Beis Medrash and the people there were not distractions and Yaakov was able to learn without distraction.

However, Yaakov was aware that the land of Charan was anything but stable and pleasant. Therefore, Yaakov wanted to learn in the Yeshiva of Shem V'Ever so that he could withstand the populace in Charan.

R' Frand then quoted a Rashi on next week's parsha which discussed the Torah taught by Yaakov to Yosef. Rashi explains that the Ben Zekunim present was the Torah that Yaakov learned in Yeshiva Shem V'Ever. Yaakov knew through ruach HaKodesh that Yosef would be in a dangerous environment. Yaakov did not know the details, but he was concerned, so he taught Yosef what he learned in the Yeshiva.

But returning to the original question - why did Yaakov go back to Yerushalayim. R' Frand answered by giving a mashal about a man who lives in the sticks and wants to visit NY City. The man studies and prepares for the trip, but when he gets off in Times Square he is assaulted by all the noise and lights and bustle.

When Yaakov got to Charan he was overwhelmed. He had learned in the Yeshiva, but was still very concerned that he would be unable to resist the insanity of Charan. At that point, Yaakov said to himself - I need more than Shem V'Ever. I need the tefillos where my fathers davened. It was for this reason that he went back to Yerushalayim.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - How to Avoid Shooting Yourself in the Foot

2011-11-28T23:13:00.003-05:00

In the fall of 2008 I wrote at least two posts which were critical of Plaxico Burress for his personal conduct which led to his arrest and ultimately his two year prison sentence. After serving his time in prison, Burress rejoined the NFL and currently plays for the New York Jets. Two stories from this weekend's NFL games demonstrate how far he has come.

In Thursday's second NFL game, the Detroit Lions took on the Green Bay Packers. During the game, Lions' Defensive Lineman Ndamukong Suh, pushed a Packer player's head into the turf, before attempting to stomp on him. Suh's infraction was caught by the referee and he was ejected from the game. After the game, Suh attempted to apologize to the fans, but did not seem contrite about his actions. [He has since been suspended for two games by the NFL].

Suh has not been a player above controversy. In his short time in the league, the former 2nd pick overall has earned a reputation as a dirty player. After being fined numerous times by the league, Suh asked for and received a meeting with the league president earlier this year so that he could learn the proper way to conduct himself. Evidently, he did not learn very well and now he faces the prospect of missing important games during his team's playoff drive.

Another interesting event occurred during the NY Jets - Buffalo Bills game on Sunday. After scoring a touchdown, Stevie Johnson pretended to shoot himself in the leg, before mimicking the Jets touchdown celebration and diving to the ground. Johnson earned himself a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which (when added to a poor kickoff), gave the Jets a short field and resulted in the Jets scoring a touchdown.

[Johnson's misdeeds in blaming G-d for his inability to catch a potential game winning pass were highlighted in this post last year - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/12/mondays-musings-on-sports-little-stevie.html].

After the game, Burress was interviewed and asked whether he had any reaction to Johnson's attempt to make fun of Burress' self shooting which led to his incarceration. Burress responded that the "old Plaxico" would have met Johnson in the parking lot after the game, buyt he was not like that anymore.

The gemara in Shabbos (105b) teaches that one who become angry is akin to worshipping idols. The reason given for this comparison is that one who becomes angry is challenging or expressing displeasure for Hashem's decision that things should turn the way that they did. Through Suh's unchecked anger, he has hurt his team and himself and has earned the ire of the league and the fans. In contrast, Burress' maturity which came at the expense of his freedom has allowed him to accept the events as they happen and earned him respect of the fans.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Black and Brew

2011-11-27T22:33:00.003-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams Black and Brew Coffee Stout.

Every year, breweries use their winter boxes as a means to introduce beers which they have deemed experimental. Occasionally, breweries will use the winter mix boxes to gauge the public's interest in possibly having one of these new beers become a regular member of the breweries lineup.

This year, Samuel Adams mixed together some of their most loved winter classics including Old Fezziwig and Holiday Porter along with its trademark Boston Lager and the underrated Winter Lager. To this predictable mix, Samuel Adams added last year's newcomer - Chocolate Bock and this year's experimental beer - Black and Brew Coffee Stout.

[Ed. Note - Last year the CRC published on their website that the Chocolate Bock was kosher dairy - chalav stam. The Star-K did not include the Chocolate Bock on last year's LOC, but they did verify in an email that the 2010 Chocolate Bock was kosher and was in fact dairy. This years Star-K LOC does not list the Chocolate Bock as certified kosher. I have e-mailed the Star-K and am waiting to hear back from them. Obviously, once the issue has been clarified, I will post the resullts here].

Much like its name (aka k'shmo kein hu) the Black and Brew is a stout which has been infused with coffee. The resulting beer is not as heavy as Guinness, but the added coffee flavor is noticeable. In the past I have tried beer with coffee additive, specifically the Lakefront Fuel Cafe Stout and have not been impressed. However, the Samuel Adams Black and Brew has balanced the beer so that the coffee does not clash with the hops. The result is a beer that went exceptionally well with our turkey dinner. Here's to hoping that the Sam Adams people will someday give this beer its own run in six packs.

Samuel Adams Black and Brew is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label. The kashruth can be confirmed by clicking on the link to the Star-K LOC here -- http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_6635_bostonbeercompany.pdf.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Black and Brew, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/74390.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Toldos

2011-11-24T23:55:00.004-05:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand began by quoting a gemara in Makkos 24 which states that Yaakov was reluctant to trick his father in order to get the bechora. R Frand then made reference to a gemara in Sanhedrin which states that lying is akin to idol worship. So why did Yaakov do this? Rashi in Makkos states that Rivka told Yaakov that Hashem told me that you must do this. This was the reason that Yaakov did it.

This begs the question (as asked by R' Yaakov Kaminetsky) - since Hashem wanted Yaakov to get the berachos, couldn't He have found another way for Yaakov to get the brachos, short of lying? Yaakov had the middah of truth, surely there must have been a way for him to get the bechora without challenging his nature.

R' Kaminetsky explained that each of the avos symbolized a different middah. Avraham was chessed - he looked at Hashem and saw that the world reflected Hashem and he brought people to recognize G-d by emulating the chessed he saw. But Avraham's tests were opposed to the middah - he was told to leave his father. He was required to send away Hagar and Yishmael. At the top of the pyramid was being told to slaughter Yitzchak. After spending a lifetime doing chessed, he was told to sacrifice his son. This is why it was a test - Hashem was saying - if you want to prove your devotion, then go against your nature and leave your father, send away Hagar and sacrifice your son. If you do these acts, I will know you are doing them because you are devoted to Hashem.

Yaakov saw a similar type of test. Yaakov's midda was emes - truth. Hashem said to Yaakov, I want to see if you are devoted, so I will test you by challenging you to go against your natural inclination of emes.

R' Kaminetsky asked - what is Yitzchak's test? It can't be the akeidah because his midda was gevura and he used gevura to follow his father to the akeidah! Rather the source can be seen in a gemara in Shabbos 89b, where R' Shmuel Bar Nachmeni states that in the future Hashem will come to the Avraham and say - your sons sinned and Avraham will respond - punish them. Hashem will come to Yaakov and he will react similarly. But when Hashem comes to Yitzchak and says your sons sinned, Yitzchak responds - are they only my sons and not Yours? When they said na'aseh v'nishma you called them Your sons - now they are only mine?

The gemara then goes into an analysis of people's lifetime wherein it gets parsed down to only 12 years that a person could have sinned. Yitzchak says to Hashem - I will split them with You - You take 6 and I will take the other 6 years.

R' Kaminetsky explains that this is Yitczhak's test. He is forced to against his midda of din and save the Jews. Although his natural inclination is justice, when the Jews need it, Yitzchak will go against his nature and save the Jews.

R' Frand closed by saying that all of us have our nisayon, our own akeidah. Our souls according to the Gaon have gone through a gilgal process and we have returned to fix the errors of the past. How do we know what we should be fixing? What we find difficult is the prior error and this is what we must work on. Be it a problem with anger or freely spending on tzedakah. Now that a person is here a second time, he should review his deeds and see where he stumbles - this must be what is needed to pass our nisayoin, our akeidah.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Lake Placid Hefeweizen

2011-11-20T23:21:00.003-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Lake Placid's Hefeweizen.

I know that summer is long gone, but sometimes I get a craving for a summer type beer. So looking at my beer shelves before shabbos, I eyed the Lake Placid Hefeweizen that I had bought during the summer at Beverage World in Peekskill. I put the Lake Placid in the fridge with the intention of having it shabbos afternoon and then promptly forgot about it. Midway through shabbos, Mrs KB reminded me that we were invited out for a birthday party by a friend who likes good beer, so I mixed a sixer of the better beers from my refrigerator and brought them over to P&P.

Which brings me to this evening when I sat down to review the Lake Placid Hefeweizen, only to discover that I had given away the brew I had intended to sample over shabbos or this evening. After triple checking the fridge, I remembered that I had given the beer away, but I did not panic because Hefeweizen are equally good cold or room temperature (no I am NOT British).

As an intro to Hefeweizen, I present the style definition at BA, which explains that it is:

A south German style of wheat beer (weissbier) made with a typical ratio of 50:50, or even higher, wheat. A yeast that produces a unique phenolic flavors of banana and cloves with an often dry and tart edge, some spiciness, bubblegum or notes of apples. Little hop bitterness, and a moderate level of alcohol. The "Hefe" prefix means "with yeast", hence the beers unfiltered and cloudy appearance. Poured into a traditional Weizen glass...

Often served with a lemon wedge (popularized by Americans), to either cut the wheat or yeast edge, which many either find to be a flavorful snap ... or an insult and something that damages the beer's taste and head retention.

The good folks at Lake Placid (OK, the Saranac people, since all the 12 oz bottles of Lake Placid beers are brewed at the Matt plant in Utica) have kept a firm hold on the traditional Hefeweizen style. The beer has an instant snap of banana/clove which lasts through every sip. Unlike some other "doctored" Hefeweizen brews, the Lake Placid version is not overwhelmingly spicy and holds its dryness well - perhaps another reason why it can be consumed equally well when served at room temperature.

Lake Placid Hefeweizen is under the kashruth supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit and bears a kosher certification on the bottle. For the experts' take on Lake Placid Hefeweizen, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1888/11786.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Chaye Sarah

2011-11-17T23:28:00.003-05:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

This week's parsha discusses the first burial in the Torah. Although we know that Adam and Chava are buried in Ma'aras HaMachpeila, this week's parsha is the first time that the concept of burial is discussed.

R' Frand asked a question - why do we show respect for the body after death? The body is only holy while the person is alive, when the body possesses a neshama. After the person dies, the body is an empty vessel - so why do we care about the niftar? However, the halacha requires that the deceased be treated respectfully.

R' Frand quoted a sefer called Machat Shel Yad which answered the question by drawing a distinction between tashmishei kedusha and tashmishei mitzva. Tashmishei kedusha are items which have holiness due to their proximity or use in conjunction with holiness. These are items like the mantel on the sefer torah or the boxes of the tefillin.

On the other hand there are tashmishei mitzva such as a lulav or esrog or tzizis. These items are used to accomplish a mitzva, but do not retain holiness. We may have minhagim to destroy them in conjunction with another mitzva (such as using the lulav to burn the chametz) but there is no obligation to destroy them respectfully.

What is the difference between these two items? Since the tashmishei kedusha were used in conjunction with Torah, they are forever imbued with Torah, even after they are no longer being used to support Torah. In contrast, the esrog was only used to accomplish a mitzva and when the mitzva is done, it can be disposed.

The body of a Jew has the same holiness. At one point it was used to speak words of Torah and say words of praise to Hashem. Although the soul has left the body, the body still has holiness because it was previously used for Torah.

R' Frand then connected this concept with a gemara in Sotah which asks - why are women zoche to reward? The gemara answers - because they assisted their husbands to learn Torah and brought their children to yeshiva to learn.

The Chafetz Chaim asks on this gemara - don't women have merits on their own? Women give tzedakah, and daven and do many other mitzvos - why is their reward only from the acts in support of their husband or children?

The Chafetz Chaim answers that the gemara is not talking about olam haba. Women will absolutely merit olam haba based on their own actions. However, the gemara was talking about Techiyas Hameisim. In order to merit Techias Hameisim one needs Torah. Lulav and esrog will get a person to olam haba, but to get to Techias Hameisim one needs Torah.

With this insight we can ask - what is the gemara's question? The gemara is really asking how can women get olam haba if they don't sit and learn. The gemara answers that the women get olam haba because they are enablers of Torah and as such they should receive a greater reward. R' Frand remarked that the men learning Torah and the kids in school are enjoying, but there is no enjoyment in driving car pool or staying up late to wait for the husband to come home from learning. The reward for their actions is derivative of the Torah learned by their husbands and children and as such they merit olam haba by being a supporter of Torah.

And if you have ever met my aishes chayil, you will know what a true selfless enabler of Torah is. Or in the words of R' Akiva - what is mine and what is yours, is truly because of her...

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Monday's Musings on Sports - What Happens When No One Keeps Their End of the Deal?

2011-11-14T21:27:00.004-05:00

Well before I met Mrs KB, I was a big fan of Mike Ditka. When he was a coach of the Chicago Bears he always seemed to give great quotes and his image as a coach was larger than life. Once Ditka retired from coaching (the first time) he began to dabble in broadcasting and thus had a greater venue for airing his unique views on sports and life. After making the mistake of returning to coach the Saints in 2001-2003, Ditka retired from coaching for good and became a network fixture and earned the nickname "America's Coach."

One of Ditka's regular weekly appearances is on the Mike & Mike in the morning program on Monday mornings. The hosts have joked on more than one occasion that on Mondays the show should be renamed the Mike & Mike & Mike in the morning show. During the Monday morning spot, Ditka usually comments on the previous day's NFL games and opines as to the outcome of the Monday Night game.

During this week's morning spot, Ditka was asked about the Eagles' benching of WR DeSean Jackson. For those unaware of the story - the thirty second version is that Jackson missed a team meeting, so the team left him off the active roster in their game against the Arizona Cardinals. While the game was expected to be a cakewalk for the Eagles, they wound up losing the game to the Cardinals. Adding injury to insult, they lost other WRs for part of the game and really could have used Jackson.

Ditka speculated as to the real reason that Jackson was suspended. He mentioned that Jackson was unhappy with his contract and that Jackson may have been vocal or disruptive in an attempt to force the Eagles to renegotiate or extend his deal. After giving this opinion, Ditka explained that when he played football (Ditka was also a HOF Tight End in the 1960s), players had one year contracts and if they performed well the contract was renewed. Ditka opined that if someone signs a contract they should honor the contract. To quote Ditka "Once the contract ends, you can go in there with guns in both hands and hold them up for a better deal...but when you are under contract you need to honor the deal."

My problem with Ditka's take on the scenario is that the owners often times do not honor the contracts. Unlike many other sports, most NFL player deals are not guaranteed. As such, often times a team will cut a player before the contract expires so that they can save the team from having to pay a bonus or a few years of contract on a player who has seen better days.

The fact that an owner can terminate a player at will while the player is vilified and punished for holding out or "faking" an injury is an interesting study. I have heard countless commentators pontificate about why most fans sympathize with the NBA owners and feel that players are greedy. I have no answer as to why fans favor the NBA owners, (although this may be due to the fact that personally I would not really care if the season was cancelled).

The owner vs worker scenario plays out in a story in a parsha we will read in a few weeks. Yaakov wants to marry Rachel and asks Lavan to permit the marriage. Lavan agrees and Yaakov works for seven years, but Lavan backs out on the deal and gives him Leah instead. Yaakov is then forced to work another seven years for the right to marry Rachel. However, Yaakov is not left defenseless in his battle with Lavan. As part of their deal, Lavan agrees that Yaakov would have the right to all spotted sheep, while the pure unblemished sheep would go to Lavan. Yaakov manipulates the scenario with the tools available to him by placing spotted sticks in front of the sheep while they drink so as to influence them to give birth to spotted sheep. Once Lavan sees that the spotted sheep population has increased, he reverses the deal, but Yaakov then withholds the spotted sticks and the sheep only have pure unblemished sheep. Each side attempts to work the leverage they have available to them and everyone (or no one) is truly happy with the result.

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Sunday Night Suds - Leinenkugel Red

2011-11-13T21:17:00.004-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Leinenkugel Red Lager - one of the four beers in their Autumn Sampler Pack.

I am generally leery of beers which are named after colors. This is largely an outgrowth of a bad experience with Laker Red (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/08/sunday-night-suds-laker-red.html) another beer which was simply named "Red." I initially thought the Laker Red was "OK" is served coled enough, but I soon learned that even when cold, it was less than passable fare.

The Leinenkugel label states that the the Red Lager is a Vienna style lager. The Leinenkugel website indicates that the Red Lager won awards in 1998 and 2002 in the Vienna Style Lager category. Having only reviewed a Vienna style lager once before (excellent Saranac Winter Lager - reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/02/sunday-night-suds-saranac-winter-lager.html) I thought it appropriate to once again define the style. As explained by the folks at BA:

Named after the city in which it orginated, a traditional Vienna lager is brewed using a three step decoction boiling process. Munich, Pilsner, Vienna toasted and dextrin malts are used, as well wheat in some cases. Subtle hops, crisp, with residual sweetness.

Although German in origin and rare these days, some classic examples come from Mexico, such as: Dos Equis and Negra Modelo. A result of late 19th century immigrant brewers from Austria.

The Red Lager was an easy drinking beer, with very little foam on the pour and a minimal amount of carbonation. There is some caramel in the first part of the sip, but the flavor is light and almost watery. I tried the Red Lager tonight with wings and it was not really up to the challenge. I would recommend this beer to those who are looking for something a small step up from a macrolager, but not too heavy on taste.

Leinenkugel Red Lager is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, although the product currently in the marketplace does not yet have an OU on the label. If you would like a copy of the LOC please contact me via email.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Leinenkugel Red Lager, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/710/2355.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayera

2011-11-10T23:16:00.004-05:00

Monday's Musings on Sports - Discipline, Messier and Shoelaces

2011-11-07T21:28:00.006-05:00

This morning I did something that I normally do not do. As regular readers of this blog know, I am a big fan on Mike & Mike in the morning and my radio is usually locked into ESPN radio most mornings so that I can catch the show on my way to work.

This morning, I was sitting at a traffic light about five minutes before the hour and the ESPN guys made it sound like they were going to commercials and the next guest would be after the hour's update. So I switched my radio to WFAN (660) a station which I usually avoid in the morning as the Boomer and Carton show is usually too off color for my tastes.

Upon switching to 660 I heard the tail end of an interview with former NY Rangers captain Mark Messier. The fifty year old former hockey player was being interviewed about the NYC marathon which he had run on Sunday. The interviewer drew out information including that Messier had to be treated at the medical tent after the marathon and the details of the treatment.

What really caught my interest was a series of questions about Messier's attendance at the Ranger game on Sunday night. One of the hosts asked Messier why he was wearing a suit and tie at the Ranger game just a few hours after he had completed the marathon. Messier responded at first with one word - discipline. He quickly followed this with the explanation that the Rangers require all staff attending the game to wear a suit and tie and that although he was sore from the run, he wanted to follow the team's dress code for employees.

Listening to this interview, I could easily picture Messier giving these answers. With his shaved head and intimidating glare, Messier always gave the image of being determined and singularly focused on his goal. Although he has been retired for seven years, he does not sound any less determined or focused. If the Rangers require a staff member to be dressed in a certain manner while at the Garden, the rule needs to be followed.

Messier's response made me think about a halacha that we learn from last week's parsha and a story told by R' Frand. After Avraham assists the four kings in defeating the five kings, he is offered a share of the plunder, but declines. In so doing, Avraham states that he will not even take a shoelace from the spoils of war. From this we derive the halacha that when putting on shoes we are to tie our left shoelace before our right shoelace.

R' Frand told a story last week about a boy whose father took him out of day school because of the shoelace rule. The boy's father had been in a rush and wanted to leave, but the boy insisted that he first needed to retie his shoes. The father asked why and the boy said that he had learned in day school that shoes must be tied left and then right. The father was incensed and pulled the boy out of Jewish day school.

Years later, the boy had grown up and was engaged to marry a non-Jewish woman. The morning of the wedding, the man was tying his shoes when he flashed back to the conversation with his father. The man thought to himself - do I really want to give up my religion and history? He called his fiancee and told her that he could not go forward with the wedding because his Judaism was more important to him.

The man then moved to Israel and began to learn in a Yeshiva. Years went by and the man continued to learn, but was unable to find a proper shidduch. One day, his Rebbi came to him and told him that he had a girl for the man. There was only one catch - she was a convert, would this be OK.

Of course, the girl was the fiancee that he had left behind. She decided that if Judaism was so important to him, she needed to know what it was all about. The girl went to classes and eventually converted, before going to school in Israel to continue her studies and meet her "sole mate."

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Sunday Night Suds - Sprecher Black Bavarian

2011-11-06T21:41:00.003-05:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Sprecher Black Bavarian.

As the weather gets colder, the beer served gets darker and darker. But merely because the beer is dark in color, it does not necessarily mean that it is a heavy brew. A beer can be dark because of its malts, but it does not mean that the beer has the heft of a Guinness or other quality stout.

With this introduction, I turn to Sprecher Black Bavarian, a very dark beer which still bills itself as a lager. The label of the brew (besides bearing a Wisconsin K) indicates that it is a Kulmbacher style lager, but this is not a style of beer that I am familiar with. I did a little googling and learned that Kulmbacher is a brewery in Germany (their website indicates that they are the secret capital of beer), but this really did not help me.

The experts at BA have labeled the Black Bavarian as a Schwarzbier, which they define as:

[S]imply German for black beer. It doesn't mean that it's necessarily heavy or light in body, although they tend to lean towards light. Unlike other dark beers, like porters or stouts, they are not overly bitter with burnt and roasted malt characteristics that the others tend to depend on. Instead, hops are used for a good portion of the bitterness. Very refreshing and soul lifting beers, they also make a great alternative for the Winter. Especially when you are looking for a lighter beer, but one with depth of colour and taste.

The Black Bavarian fit some of the definition provided by BA, as it was not overly bitter, but I did not detect hops in the brew. It went extremely well with the barbecue beef that Mrs KB served Friday night as the roasted malt and the beef meshed very well.

The Specher Black Bavarian is one of the more widely available versions of Sprecher which can be found in New York. I have seen it in DeCicco in Westchester and in a few Brooklyn beer stores as well.

Sprecher Black Bavarian is certified kosher by Wisconsin Kosher and there is a kosher symbol on the top label on the individual bottle. For the experts' take on the Sprecher Black Bavarian please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/144/96.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Lech Lecha

2011-11-03T23:10:00.003-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Towards the end of this week's parsha, Hashem tells Avraham at Bereishis 17:16 that Avraham will have a son with Sarah. Avraham then responds that Yishmael should also live. Hashem then says to Avraham in Bereishis 17:20 that Yishmael will be fruitful and he will increase and that Yishmael will father twelve "n'seim."

While n'seim is usually translated as princes, Rashi takes a different approach and says that the neseim will disappear like clouds, quoting a pasuk from Mishlei 25:14 which calls n'seim clouds. R' Frand explained the reference - during the summer there may be dark clouds and wind, but there is no rain. Rashi is telling us that the n'seim of Yishmael will dissipate like clouds.

R' Frand then quoted the Tolner Rebbi who asked - Rashi teaches the pshat - the simple, concrete explanation. Why is he explaining n'seim as clouds?

R' Frand noted that the question asked by the Tolner Rebbi had also been asked by other meforshim, including R' Eliezer Mizrachi who said that Rashi is telling us that this is pshat. Had the pasuk intended to mean the head of a tribe it would have used rashei shvatim or sarim. However, the answer of the Mizrachi does not clarify the pshat, since had the pasuk used sarim, we could have similarly asked - why not write n'seim?

R' Frand then quoted the Tolner Rebbi who said that the reason why n'seim is used can be learned from a Medrash Tanchuma in Parshas Vayechi. At the end of Ya'akov's life, he blesses the brothers. The Torah uses the words in Bereishis 49:28, "cal aleh shivtei yisrael shneim asar" -all these are the tribes of Israel, twelve. The Medrash Tanchuma then contrasts the description of the tribes as shivtei with the language in our parsha of the 12 n'seim of Yishmael.

But why is this opposite? R' Frand answered that the key is from the pasuk by Yishmael where it says that he will father/give birth to the n'seim. A person does not give birth to a nasi, the nasi earns the title. So why does it say it by Yishmael? Because it means that the nasi had a lot of potential at birth, but the potential needs to be developed. R' Frand gave the example of a child prodigy who needs to be channelled to the proper schools to develop the talent.

By using the words n'seim, Hashem says to Avraham, you want a blessing for Yishmael? Fine, he will have 12 n'seim, but lets see if he develops their talents. This is the point of the medrash, Yaakov had 12 sons by his deathbed - they were not perfect and Ya'akov was giving them musar there - because you need to keep developing. Yishmael had talent but did not work to develop it.

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Monday's Musing on Sports - Tip Your Cap to Pop

2011-10-31T21:15:00.003-04:00

This past motzei shabbos, I turned on my computer and saw that the St Louis Cardinals had won the World Series on Friday night. From all reports, it seems that the final game was anticlimactic as the true drama played out in Thursday night's game six.

Although I was aware of the final score of Thursday night's game and the multiple times that the Cardinals crawled back from the brink of elimination, there was a story that I only first became aware of Saturday night. At the end of Thursday night's game, just after 12:30 Friday morning on the east coast, St. Louis Cardinals Third Baseman David Freese hit a walk off home run. In so doing, the Cardinals earned the right to host a game 7 and the baseball season continued for one more day. However, the call of the home run by Joe Buck made the event ever more special.

There are some announcers who when I hear them speak, even about mundane topics, I am immediately reminded of their signature sports. For many years, Pat Summerall, John Madden (on TV) and Howard David (on the radio) meant football to me. Similarly, Marv Albert and John Davidson (on TV) and Mike "Doc" Emeric (on radio) made me think hockey.

But no sport has announcers like baseball - legends like Tim McCarver, Vin Scully and Mel Allen narrarating This Week in Baseball, were the voices of my childhood, be it TV on a Sunday afternoon or listening under the covers on a school night.

While many sportscasters tried to bridge from one sport to another, quite a few failed miserably and sounded completely out of their element. But there were a precious few who could be at home in many sports such as Al Michaels and the late Jack Buck, who both rank among my all time favorites.

In the late 90s, I became aware that Joe Buck (son of Jack) had begun to call baseball games. While his voice at times can be monotone like, his descriptions of the games, much like his late father are pure magic. I can remember a beer commercial that aired a number of years where Joe Buck is sitting in a bar, talking sports and people come up to him to tell him their memories of sport. The commercial has a sports game audio on in the background and you can hear the late Jack Buck's call of the game. If anyone can find a link to the commercial available online, please email me or post it as a comment.

Which brings me to the end of Thursday night's game. As the game ended on Freese's extra inning home run, Joe Buck intoned the words "we will see you, tomorrow night." This was a tribute to his father's call of the end of the Minnesota Twins - Atlanta Braves game twenty years and one day earlier where he called Kevin Mitchell's home run and announced "and we'll see you, tomorrow night." [For a great video comparing the two calls and mixing father and son, click here - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Video-Buck-8217-s-8216-We-will-see-you-tomor?urn=mlb-wp25699 ]

Many people are lucky enough to go into a profession where their parent or parents have earned a reputation of greatness. Some succeed in the field because of the head start that they received from their parents, while others fail because they cannot live up to the parental legacy. Whether or not Joe Buck will ever be Jack Buck is still in doubt, but his tribute was touching and in the words of Mrs KB - ma'asei avos siman l'banim.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Leinenkugel Oktoberfest

2011-10-30T21:07:00.003-04:00

As mentioned in the October 9, 2011 SNS which reviewed Shiner's Oktoberfest (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/10/sunday-night-suds-shiner-oktoberfest.html), over the course of the three plus years that I have been blogging KB, I have had the pleasure and/or the privilege or perhaps just the pride to blog on various Oktoberfest beers such as Brooklyn Brewery's in October 2008 (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/10/sunday-night-suds-brooklyn-brewery.html); Saranac Brewery's in October 2009 (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/10/sunday-night-suds-saranac-octoberfest.html); New Belgium's Hoptober Golden Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/09/sunday-night-suds-new-belgium-hoptober.html) and Joseph's Brau's Oktoberfest in 2010(http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/10/sunday-night-suds-josephs-brau_31.html).

As the calendar is telling me that October is nearing its conclusion, there is time for just one last Oktoberfest review - Leinenkugel's Marzen Oktoberfest.

The Leinenkugel version of Oktobefest is unlike many other beers of this variety. The beer poured a very light orange with a small amount of foam. The malts in the Oktoberfest were prevalent, but there was very little else to the beer. The beer lacked any whisper of hops and had very little body. I guess that if there was a light version of Oktoberfest, this would qualify, but the brew is not even true to this moniker either. The Leinenkugel Oktoberfest has 170 calories and is 5.1 %abv, so it truly would not qualify as a light beer, but it seems like they just removed the taste from the beer and left the calories and alcohol.

I tried the Leinenkugel Oktoberfest with sushi and (Mrs KB made) Chinese food and the beer was simply not strong enough to stand up to these mild flavors. By this I mean, the alcohol and malt came through the food, but there was no melding of the beer with the various flavors of the food.

Leinenkugel Oktoberfest is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, although the product currently in the marketplace does not yet have an OU on the label. If you would like a copy of the LOC please contact me via email.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Leinenkugel Oktoberfest, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/710/5757.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Noach

2011-10-27T23:24:00.002-04:00

Monday's Musings on Sports - Rex, Norv and Video, or why LH is relevant

2011-10-24T23:24:00.002-04:00

An interesting side note to this Sunday's NY Jets - San Diego Chargers game was the press coverage of NY Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan's interaction with San Diego Chargers Head Coach Norv Turner.

Last week, a reporter asked Rex Ryan whether he would have been more successful with the Chargers team than Norv Turner has been. Ryan responded that he would have won a few championships, but this was said in jest. The story made its way back to Turner who remarked something to the effect of - how many championships has Rex won with the Jets?

The "back story" to the dueling media barbs is quite interesting. Ryan had been considered for the San Diego head coaching position before it was given to Turner in 2007. After becoming head coach, Turner took the Chargers to the playoffs three times, but was unable to get his team to the Super Bowl. [Meanwhile, Ryan would wait another two years before getting the Jets job]. This continued a pattern of playoff ineptitude as the Chargers of the 2000s often won their division but never tasted playoff success. Much like previous HC Marty Schottenheimer, the Chargers fans blamed Turner for their team's failure to reach the big game.

Another interesting angle to the story is that Turner and Ryan are good friends and have been for some time. The answer that Rex gave was most likely Rex being Rex, but it apparently opened old wounds for Turner.

When Ryan and Turner met on Sunday prior to the start of the game, Ryan gave Turner a bear hug and the two seemed to have "made up." However, the damage was already done as Ryan's jest had exposed Turner to old criticism.

The Ryan and Turner story made me think of the rhyme we used to sing as children - "loshon harah lamed heh, go to hell the easy way." The Torah's prohibition of loshon harah bars a person from speaking about another, be it positive or negative. Unlike the trite expression - "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it", loshon harah bars all speech about another, except under certain limited circumstances.

Had Ryan simply refused to comment about his friend Norv Turner, the story never would have gotten off the ground. Indeed, under the rules of loshon harah, Ryan should not have given his thoughts about Turner. However, Ryan needed to be funny (or perhaps wanted to deflect attention from his team) and he answered the question in a way which wounded his friend.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed - Vol V

2011-10-23T22:17:00.002-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds takes a final look at the Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed series and reviews the Zeus variety.

As mentioned in my July 31, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Hallertau Mitterfreuh (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/07/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html), the August 14, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Simcoe (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/08/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html), the September 11, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - East Kent Goldings (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/09/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html) and the October 3, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Ahtanum (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/10/belated-sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams.html), one of the best new IPAs introduced during the last few years is the Samuel Adams Latitude 48. The name of the beer draws from the five types of hops used in the brew process which all grow along the 48th latitude within the "hop belt" of the Northern Hemisphere. Earlier this year, Samuel Adams introduced its limited edition Deconstructed Box which features beers brewed with just one of the five hop varieties used in the Latitude 48.

For this week's post I sampled the Zeus version of the Latitude 48. The back of the bottle indicates that the Zeus hops grow in the Yakima Valley in Washington State. The label further provides that the Zeus hops "contribute bitterness and an intense, pungent resinous pine flavor." The label further states that brew "leans strongly toward the hop character, but is softened by the malt's sweetness."

I tried the Latitude 48 Zeus on its own in a Samuel Adams tulip glass that I purchased at the Samuel Adams brewery a few years ago. I did not have this with dinner so the review is based solely as a stand alone brew.

The beer poured a rich copper with a fair amount of lacing that coated more than half the glass. The hop flavor was quite intense, even a little too intense for me. I did not find that the hops were balanced by any malts. I guess that you could say that the pine/resin is prominent but since the beer lacks balance it just stays bitter without any redeeming qualities.

In grade school our teachers ingrained the concept - acharon, acharon, chaviv - last is the best. Having tried the Latitude 48 which combined all the hops and the various single hops versions, I can honestly say that this version which I tried last was the poorest effort from Sam Adams. Oh well, even a solid brewery can have a skunky brew once in a while.

The Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Zeus is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this version of Latitude 48, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/68403.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - There's Always A Choice

2011-10-17T21:05:00.001-04:00

In the days leading up to tonight's Monday Night Football game, there was an interesting story which broke about Dolphins WR Brandon Marshall. Marshall is a highly talented and yet high strung athlete who essentially forced his way out of Denver due to his antics. Since leaving the Broncos, Marshall has never regained in his All Pro form. This could be in part due to: (1) his having a better quality QB in Denver; (2) Denver being a better run organization than the train wreck Miami Dolphins or (3) Marshall's overall inability to focus on being part of a team.

This season, Marshall had been having what could best be described as (for him) a sub-average season. Plagued by drops and an inability to score when it counts, Marshall became frustrated with the state of the 0-4 Dolphins. As such, Marshall informed a number of reporters that tonight he planned on having a big game for the first quarter and a half and that he intended to do something to get ejected from the game in the second quarter. What Marshall intended to do and why he was planning this was not revealed. However, Marshall was outspoken that something would occur.

[Ed Note - I write this post with the game not yet decided. As such, I am unaware of whether Marshall has or has not followed through on his threat].

Given that Marshall is easily the most talented WR on the Dolphins, one has to wonder whether Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano had a sit down with Marshall to perhaps talk some sense into him. Indeed, Sparano himself is coaching for his job as the Dolphins have been regressing under his watch. I could imagine the conversation going something like - Brandon you don't need to make a spectacle out of yourself just to make a point. If you get thrown out of the game you could be suspended by the NFL without pay. You have a choice to prove your worth on the field instead of being thrown off of it.

The Brandon Marshall saga made me think about a story I heard in a R' Zev Cohen derasha over sukkos. R' Cohen told a story which he heard from a Rabbi who is the brother of R' Paysach Krohn (I can't recall the brother's first name). R' Krohn had been called to go to Israel to talk to a boy who was considering leaving orthodoxy. Together, R' Krohn and the boy went to see R' Grossman. The boy told R' Grossman that he had been having doubts and was considering going off. R' Grossman responded to the boy with the following story:

A number of years prior, R' Grossman had traveled to a city in Israel with his family. After Friday Night dinner, R' Grossman went for a walk with his son. They passed a disco where Israeli boys and girls were dancing. The boy who at the time was 12 became very upset. He said to his father - we need to tell the mayor. R' Grossman tried to dissuade the boy, but was unsuccessful. So at midnight the two went to knock on the door of the mayor's home.

When the mayor eventually came to the door he was quite upset. The boy responded to him - Mr. Mayor there is a fire. The mayor asked where it was and the boy said that there is a spiritual fire. The mayor became enraged and began to berate both R' Grossman and his son until the mayor's wife came downstairs. She recognized R' Grossmam and said to the mayor - don't you know who this is? Its the famous R' Grossman.

The mayor calmed down and began to tell R' Grossman his story. He explained that he had been raised in a frum home and had gone off the path. He had two children, a daughter who married a non-Jewish boy and wanted nothing to do with the mayor. His son went to play soccer overseas and was involved in a serious injury which resulted in an amputation. The son would not speak to the mayor as he was upset that the mayor was not there for the surgery.

The mayor concluded - my siblings have stayed frum and I am envious of the weddings and bar mitzvas they make. I wonder what would have happened if I stayed frum.

R' Grossman then turned to the boy and said - I am a great grandfather with more than a hundred grandchildren - all frum. You have a choice in front of you to follow the path or to chart your own course away from religion. Which end result would you prefer?

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Belated Sunday Night Suds - New Belgium Belgo

2011-10-17T20:39:00.005-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds comes direct from the very windy city of Chicago, Illinois and looks at New Belgium's Belgo, a Belgian Style India Pale Ale.

As per our family custom, we spend Sukkos in Chicago with Mrs KB's family. It was in that very sukkah fifteen years ago that I began my beer education and I continue to return year after year. Although the beer of the house tends to be Heineken, they have warmed to my experimenting with the various brews which can be found in Chicago, but nowhere on the East Coast. What can I say, there truly is no beer town like Chicago.

[In all fairness, I can't really rip the Heineken this year. It was served from the Heineken Home Keg and it gave the beer a smoothness you just don't get from a bottle].

Now that I have gotten the TMI out of my system, lets talk a little about the New Belgium Belgo.

New Belgium describes this beer as a Belgian Style India Pale Ale - a combination of terms and flavors that I had a hard time comprehending before I tried the beer. I am well schooled in IPAs - frequent readers of this blog know that its one of my favorite style. They are clean and hoppy, with a nice bite. Belgian style beers on the other hand are notorious for their spice - whether added to the brew process or naturally emanating from the hops or yeast.

The New Belgium Belgo taste truly is a combination of the Belgian and the IPA, although the spice from the yeast does overwhelm the hops in the beginning. As I tried a few more sips, I started to feel the hops, but the spice melds with the citrus to make an interesting flavor mix.

New Belgium Belgo is under the Kosher Supervision of the Scroll-K of Colorado. Although the beer does not bear the kosher symbol on the label, it can be found on the bottom of the six pack carrier. Please note that not every brew produced by New Belgium is under kosher supervision. Please click on the link on the left side of my home page to see my latest Kosher Beer List.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about New Belgium Belgo Belgian Style India Pale Ale, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/73864. As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - Not Giving Up

2011-10-10T23:27:00.002-04:00

Yes, I will admit it. As a long suffering Jets fan, I drew some solace from yesterday's 30-21 loss to the Patriots. I saw a team that was confused and bewildered on offense against the Ravens take some concrete steps forward. I watched a team which was humiliated by the Raiders hold one of the top QBs in the league to one passing and two rushing touchdowns on eleven possessions. I saw the continued development of a player who had been largely written off last year (Joe McKnight) and the emergence of a low round draft pick from this year's draft (Jeremy Kerley).

Its not a great feeling to experience a moral victory and it certainly does not show up in the standings, but its nice to be able to see your team play competitive football after losing two games in which they were dominated on both sides of the ball.

So it was with great consternation that I read the transcript of Rex Ryan's post games comments and listened with dismay to some sound bites where he called the Patriots the better team and sounded thoroughly defeated and deflated. I could hardly believe my ears -- was this Rex Ryan, the ultimate cheerleader? The coach who year after year claimed that this was the team that was going to the Superbowl?

My thoughts wandered to a great pre-neilah drasha given by R' Michael Merrill at our minyan on Yom Kippur. R' Merrill asked one of those questions that when you hear it you wonder - why didn't I ask that question. He asked - why didn't Hashem give up on Jonah? Hashem had asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people to do teshuva. Jonah was uninterested in bearing the message and instead ran away to sea. Hashem made a great storm which pitched the boat, but Jonah went below to sleep. The captain came to Jonah and asked him to pray, but Jonah refused, saying -- I know that its my fault.

Which prompted R' Merrill's question - why didn't Hashem just "wash his hands" of Jonah and appoint another prophet to go to Nineveh? R' Merrill answered that the message of Jonah is that Hashem does not give up and that as we sit at the end of the long teshuva period which began in Elul and continued through Rosh Hashanah, the ten days of Teshuva and culminates with Yom Kippur, we should not feel - we are beyond help and there is no use. We need to understand that the same way that Hashem did not give up on Jonah He is not giving up on us and we can do Teshuva.

While I can't draw a true parallel between Hashem not giving up on us and a coach not giving up on his players, it would have been nice to hear that Rex had not thrown in the towel...

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Sunday Night Suds - Shiner Oktoberfest

2011-10-09T23:32:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Shiner's Oktoberfest.

As my good friend Charlie H. says, "fall is a great time for beer." Personally, I think that any season is a good time for beer, but I must admit that fall is a particularly good time because of the crisp Oktoberfest brews that the market.

Over the course of the three plus years that I have been blogging KB, I have had the pleasure and/or the privilege or perhaps just the pride to blog on various Oktoberfest beers such as Brooklyn Brewery's in October 2008 (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/10/sunday-night-suds-brooklyn-brewery.html); Saranac Brewery's in October 2009 (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/10/sunday-night-suds-saranac-octoberfest.html); New Belgium's Hoptober Golden Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/09/sunday-night-suds-new-belgium-hoptober.html) and Joseph's Brau's Oktoberfest in 2010(http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/10/sunday-night-suds-josephs-brau_31.html).

For 2011, I hope to i'yh review two more Oktoberfest brews, one from Texas and the other from Wisconsin. As you can see from the banner above, this week's SNS reviews Shiner's Oktoberfest.

The Shiner Oktoberfest poured a bright copper with a small amount of foam. Having been properly chilled the first sip was malt with a small amount of hops. Successive drinks revealed a little more floral hops, but the beer was mostly crisp without too much bite. By the end of my glass (Boddington's pint glass) I was ready for another of this crisp, easy drinking beer. The Shiner went well with our family burger night, but it would easily stand up to more complex meat dishes such as cholent or winter stews. If you can find them near where you live, I would recommend trying a few in the sukkah with various YT meals.

Speaking of finding Shiner - slowly but surely, Shiner has been making its way into the New York Metropolitan area. Although it is still not available in New York state, it can now be found in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. If you are a fan of it like I am, e-mail the company to let them know you would like it in your state. Never underestimate the power of the consumer.

Shiner Oktoberfest is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit although there is no symbol on the the bottle. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Shiner Oktoberfest, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/143/60642.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Friday's Final Pre Yom Kippur Chizuk

2011-10-07T16:58:00.002-04:00

Thursday Night our local shul played the R' Frand Teshuva Derasha which was recorded on Tuesday night in Brooklyn. I have attempted to summarize the beginning of the derasha in a late night post last evening and will post a little more of the derasha here. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the derasha to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand next stated that this year we had two yom kippurs. Because if Yom Kippur is about bringing everyone together, then Laiby Kletzky brought a Yom Kippur by bringing everyone together.

R' Frand then asked - is this what it takes to bring us together? Do we only come together when there is a tragedy? R' Frand opined that is this is what it takes to bring everyone together then it is a sad commentary on the state of our people. Because after 3000 years we still have not learned how to disagree without being disagreeable.

R' Frand cautioned that this does not mean that everyone's position is correct or that we must accept other people's positions who are wrong. But it also does not mean that we should rudely call out and show disrespect for other people merely because we think they are wrong.

R' Frand next discussed the cherubs which sat on top of the aron in the kodesh hakadashim. The Torah writes that the cherubs faced each other and also that they faced the kapores. R' Nosson Adler asked - which one is it - did they face each other or the kapores? R' Adler answered that they represent talmidei chachamim who were trying to learn the truth, so they faced the aron. However, even when trying to learn the truth they did not show disrespect by turning their back on one and other.

R' Frand digressed to talk about how boys in beis medrash may yell at each other and argue about their learning, but they don't hate each other. People who are outsiders may not understand that they are yelling while they search for truth, but they still deeply respect one another.

R' Frand repeated a story told over by R' Noach Weinberg about a ba'al teshuva whose mother walked into the beis medrash and saw the boys vociferously arguing in Torah. She asked why do they hate each other - but they did not - they argued but still deeply respected one another.

I hope I'YH to complete the summary of the derasha after Yom Kippur.

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Extra Erev Yom Kippur Chizuk - The R' Frand Teshuva Derasha Vol I

2011-10-06T22:49:00.003-04:00

Tonight, our local shul played the R' Frand Teshuva Derasha which was recorded on Tuesday night in Brooklyn. I will attempt to summarize the derasha in two posts, but cannot hope to replicate R' Frand's powerful delivery. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the derasha to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand noted that some years his teshuva derashos are influenced by world events. He gave the example of the shiur that he and perhaps all Rabbanim gave after 9/11/01. He also made reference to the shiur that he gave in 2008 after the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. This year, two events influenced his thinking on Teshuva - the tragic Jew on Jew killing of Leiby Kletzky and R' Abuchatzeira in Israel. R' Frand said that he never thought he would need to speak about murder before Yom Kippur, but the situations demanded it.

R' Frand said that if the audience thought that he was going to explain why these tragic events occurred they are sadly mistaken. He stated that he is not a prophet and has not been given insight into these events.

Before reaching the actual issues, R' Frand asked -- why does the service on Yom Kippur start with Kol Nidrei? This is a technical tefilla that merely annuls vows. Furthermore, we do hataras nedarim on erev Rosh Hashana and it is not moving at all. Yet on Yom Kippur when the chazan says Kol Nidrei, a shiver runs down R' Frand's back. But why do we start with this tefilla?

A second question R' Frand asked was - why does the end of Kol Nidrei have the sentence "V'nislach l'chol adas b'nei yisroel ..." This sentence is written in the Torah about a community where everyone accidentally worships avodah zarah as directed by Beis Din. This scenario never actually happended ever. So why is it part of the davening on Yom Kippur?

R' Frand answered the question by making reference to the Tollner Rebbi who says that Yom Kippur is about becoming one group, one nation. This does not come solely from tefilla, it must be a communal feeling for all of us. This comes on a day when we divorce ourselves from the physical - we are all hungry, we are all thirsty, all our feet hurt, and we are all together as one group. R' Frand cited the Rokeach who states that we are like angels on Yom Kippur - there is no physical comfort because it is about our souls which all come from the same place and are all the same.

R' Frand remarked that this coming together as one group happened during the time that Leiby Kletzky went missing. Jews came together from many locations, from many backgrounds to look for the boy. Why? Because we were all parents or the children of parents, united by the goal of trying to avert tragedy, without caring about the external trappings of the person who was searching with you.

R' Frand cited the Tollner Rebbi as saying this is why we start Yom Kippur with Kol Nidrei - because we should not come into Yom Kippur thinking that we are better than other people in the tzibur. We are all the same. This is why the chazan begins with the phrase - al da'as hamakom - that we are all praying together, even with people who we would not normally associate during the year. Once we are a group we can get kapparah, because it is for the entire kahal.

R' Frand explained that with this mindset we can understand a medrash on the pasuk in Acharei Mos which described Aharon's coming in to do the avodah. The pasuk states - b'zos yavo Aharaon el Hakodesh - with "this" Aharon came in to the Kodesh. What is the "zos"? The medrash states that there were four "zos": (1) the z'chus of the Torah for which it says - V'zos HaTorah; (2) the z'chus of Bris Mila as it is written "v'zos brisi"; (3) the z'chus of Shabbos about which it is written "Ashrei Enosh Ya'aseh zos" and (4) the z'chus of Yerushalayim as it says "v'zos Yerushalayim."

R' Frand stated that he understands the first three zchusim which come from the "zos" of Torah, Bris Milla and Shabbos. These are zchusim which understandably should stand in Aharon's corner. But why Yerushalayim?

R' Frand answered the question by making reference to the Yerushalami in Chagiga that says that Yerushalayim is a city that joins everyone together. How? Because all year long a chaver (one who strictly adheres to the rules of tumah/tahara) cannot eat off the same plate as one who is an am ha'aretz. However, during the Shalosh Regalim when Jews all come up to Yerushalayim, everyone can eat off everyone else's plate because we accept all Jews. This joining together was the z'chus that Aharon got from Yerushalayim on Yom Kippur.

I hope I'YH to complete the summary of the derasha in tomorrow's post.

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Thursday's Thoughts on Teshuva - The Rabbi Mansour Derasha Vol II

2011-10-06T19:22:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, on Tuesday night, Mrs KB and I went to see R' Mansour give a teshuva derasha in Far Rockaway. Due to the length of the derasha and my lack of time, I was only able to post half of the derasha summary last evening. This post will attempt to complete the summary of the derasha, although I caution that I cannot hope to replicate the awe inspiring delivery. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the derasha to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Mansour.

To answer the question as to what "interest" Hashem has in us, R' Mansour made reference to a Zohar which discusses man's creation. The Zohar writes that when Hashem made man, it was a creation without life. In order to bring Adam alive, Hashem blew into Adam's nostrils. In so doing, a piece of Hashem was implanted into Adam. Similalrly, when we blow into a balloon, a small piece of us is injected into the balloon. The Zohar uses the term "Bas Melech" - daughter of king to describe the neshama - as if Hashem is saying - you have a the daughter of the king inside of you and when you sin, you impact on your soul and the daughter of the king. The sin causes dirt or damage to the soul which must be cleaned.

R' Mansour then digressed to tell a story about his young son who came home from school and told him that he had learned that the Torah forbids tattoos. The boy told his father that he knew which pasuk in the Torah proscribed tattoos and R' Mansour thought to himself that this was incredible as the pasuk on kesoves caca is not a very well known pasuk. He asked the boy to repeat the pasuk to him and the boy said that it was prohibited under V'lo Tatturu! After the laughter in the audience died down, R' Mansour explained that this is the same concept as the soul - Hashem gives us a body but it is not ours. We did not purchase it in a store - it was a gift. We must return the body and soul and do not have permission to damage them.

R' Mansour next made an analogy to a woman who goes to a wedding and checks her long black mink coat with the coat check room. When she is leaving the wedding, the woman returns and presents her ticket and asks for her coat back. Instead of receiving the coat she expected, she is given a short brown jacket. She asked the coat check lady - where is my coat? The lady answers - brown is much more in style this year and no one wears long coats - only short jackets. So we changed the coat so that you would be stylish. The same way that the attendee at the wedding would be upset with a change to her coat, Hashem is unhappy when we alter our bodies to conform with the current style.

Similarly, Hashem gives us neshamos to watch for a short period of time, but they must be returned in the form that they were given to us.

R' Mansour next made reference to a story about the Chafetz Chaim who told the boys in yeshiva that he wanted to tell them a secret that night after night seder. That night, the beis medrasha was packed with people waiting to hear the "secret." When the time arrived, the Chofetz Chaim told them the prayer of Elokai Neshama and made specific reference to the line that Hashem will one day take our neshamos away and then return them to us. He said this is the secret - one day the neshamos will be returned.

The Chofetz Chaim then explained that Gehennim is when Hashem returns a misshapen or dirty neshoma to a person who must then wear that neshoma for eternity. The person is embarrassed and there is no escape from the shame over the state of the neshoma. Therefore, we must fix or clean our neshamos now while we are still in this world so that they will be clean when Hashem takes them away at the end of our mortal lives and we will be happy with their state when the neshamos are returned to us for eternity.

R' Mansour made reference to the game of musical chairs. Everyone knows this game - when the music stops all the children must be in a seat. The child without the seat when the music stops is out. We don't know the moment that the neshoma will be taken from us, but if we are not ready for it, we will be stuck with the neshoma in the state that it is forever, without a chance to clean it.

Crossover alert! R' Mansour next made reference to a story that he said that he had heard from R' Frand a yeshiva boy who played the drums in a club at night after yeshiva. One night, the boy was approached at the club by a promoter who told him that he could get the boy a gig at a big club in New York City. A short time later, the boy heard again from the promoter who told him that he got him a job playing at the largest club in NY. However the event would be held on Shabbos. The yeshiva boy told the promoter that he would get back to him.

The boy went back to his yeshiva and spoke with his Rebbi about the situation and asked for advice. The Rebbi told him - take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle and make a list. On one side write the pros of going to play at the club and on the other side write the cons.

A few days later, the boy returned to his Rebbi with his list. The side of the paper with the positives of playing at the club was filled practically to the bottom of the page. On the other side there was only one word - eternity. The boy explained that if he went to play at the club on shabbos in NYC he would never be able to take it back and it would be a smudge forever. The Rebbi asked - so what will it be? The boy cried and said I will not play.

The upshot of the story is that we need to know that a sin can leave a mark on the soul which if left untreated in this world will stain the soul forever.

R' Mansour remarked that Yom Kippur is not a sad time like Tisha B'av - it is a happy time. We need to view Yom Kippur as the day that the neshoma is clean and be happy about it, much like the good feeling that a person has when they get a crisp suit back from the cleaners or a car that is freshly washed -there is a sense of happiness with getting our possession back clean.

R' Mansour then asked - why is there a mitzva to eat on the day before Yom Kippur. He offered two answers, one from Rashi and one from R' Yona. Rashi explains that the mitzva to eat is Hashem's way of insuring that we will have strength to fast on Yom Kippur - much like a mother would prepare her child before he goes away on a trip. R' Yona answers that Yom Kippur is a happy day and we should be eating on Yom Kippur, but we are commanded to fast. Therefore our seudas mitzva for Yom Kippur occurs the day before.

R' Mansour closed the shiur by wishing everyone a good yom tov and that when the music stops they should be blessed with having a chair.

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Wednesday's Thoughts on Teshuva - The Rabbi Mansour Derasha Vol I

2011-10-05T20:37:00.004-04:00

Last night, Mrs KB and I went to see R' Mansour give a teshuva derasha in Far Rockaway. I will attempt to summarize the derasha in this post, but cannot hope to replicate the awe inspiring delivery. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the derasha to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Mansour.

R' Mansour began the derasha by making reference to Devarim 30:12 wherein the Torah states (I paraphrase) that the Mitzva which Hashem is commanding today is not far away or in the heavens or across the sea, as it is very near.

R' Mansour observed that while the Torah talks about how the mitzva is at hand and accessible, it does not actually tell the reader which mitzva it is speaking about. However, the Ramban explains that the mitzva is teshuva.

R' Mansour then asked why does Hashem tell us that the mitzva of teshuva is easy to accomplish, when we are not given similar encouragement as to the mitzvos of keeping Shabbos or Pesach?

Before answering the above question, R' Mansour analogized the mitzva of Teshuva to dieting. A person who starts a diet will be enthusiastic in the beginning, but then may lose interest as time passes. Similarly, a person who accepts to do Teshuva may start off very gung ho, but may lose his enthusiasm as time passes. Also, much like dieting, once a person gets to his level of observance that he has strived to reach, he may have issues maintaining the level of frumkeit.

R' Mansour next made reference to the Ari who discusses the mitzva of wearing a tallis at Kol Nidrei. It is accepted that men should come to shul early, specifically before sunset so that they can put on a tallis and make a brocha on it before shekiya. This is a sign that we are trying to observe as many mitzvos as we can before Yom Kippur. However, there is another opinion that on Yom Kippur eve we never make a brocha on the tallis, even if we arrive early, as the tallis is not ours, it belongs to Hashem.

With these introductory remarks in place, R' Mansour then began a novel development of the mitzva of teshuva. He quoted R' Pincus (I assume to be R' Shimshon Pincus) who states that Hashem appears to people in different "forms." Sometimes Hashem is the G-d of mercy, while other times He may be kindness or of judgment or war. But what is his "form" (R' Mansour said that k'viyochol it can be analogized to hats) for Teshuva? R' Pincus answers that Hashem comes to us in the form of a mother.

R' Mansour then digressed to discuss the roles of father and mother. A father will pick up a child and want to play with him and take him out. However when the child spits up or soils himself, the father will return him to the mother, saying - you clean up the baby. The mother then comes and cleans the baby and is not the least bit bothered by the child's stench or appearance.

This is the role that Hashem plays when a person comes to do Teshuva. The sins that a person commits soil the person's soul. R' Mansour said that there is a prayer said by Sefaradim on Yom Kippur called "Keili Meshukadi" (if I wrote it down correctly) which contains a phrase that if our neighbors could truly "smell" us they would run away from us.

R' Mansour next quoted R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach who explains the principle that a person who attends a bris has his sins cleaned. R' Shlomo Zalman explains that Eliyahu Hanavi comes to the bris and sees or smells the sins of the audience. In order to prevent Eliyahu from becoming angry, Hashem cleans the stench of sin so that Eliyahu will not strike. Once Eliyahu leaves, the smell returns, however for the moment that he is there, we benefit from having our sins removed.

R' Mansour remarked that if Hashem came to us as a father, He would not clean us from our sins. However, if He comes to us as a mother, He cleans us and then returns us like a baby from its bath - wrapped in a fresh towel.

R' Mansour explained that this too is why losing weight is difficult since Hashem only helps us do Teshuva, not diet. R' Mansour gave numerous examples of the help that Hashem gives to one who wants to do Teshuva including the Gemara in Yoma which praises the Jews because of who they become pure in front of and who purifies them. He also referenced the statement of - open for me an opening the size of the eye of a needle.

R'Mansour gave the following eye opening analogy. Think of a person who goes to a hotel and when he gets to the room he notices the room is dirty. The hotel guest calls the front desk who says that they will send someone up to clean the room. When he hears a knock at the door, he opens it and sees ... the owner of the hotel. The guest is of course shocked and asks - don't you have an employee to do this for you? However, the owner of the hotel answers, I want to do it myself - this the role of Hashem as the mother on Yom Kippur.

R' Mansour then returned to discuss R' Pincus' thought and asked - how does the mother know the child needs to be cleaned? Because the child cries when it is uncomfortable sitting in its own stench or soiled clothes. Similarly, we must cry out to Hashem so that He knows that we want to be cleaned. This is accomplished through the sobs of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Normally, a musical instrument is used to play a tune, but this horn makes noises which sound like sobs and the ba'al tokeiah on behalf of the community to ask Hashem to come and clean us.

R' Mansour next observed that in listening to the portions of the Avinu Malkeinu which are read aloud, the sentence said the loudest involves asking for the sick to be healed, followed by requests for help with parnasah. Meanwhile, the request that Hashem cause us to return in Teshuva is not said with as much fervor.

R' Mansour next asked a philosophical question - if everything is in Hashem's hands except fear of Hashem, then why does Hashem help us do Teshuva? R' Mansour answered that He helps us because He has an interest in us. He told a "story" about a man who came to shul for Krias HaTorah and asked the gabbai to make a mi shebayrach (prayer for healing) for Frank Ben Mary. The gabbai said to him - is Frank Jewish? The man said no, he is not? The gabbai then asked - why do you want us to pray for him? The man answered - because he owes me money and I want him to live so that he can pay me back. So too, Hashem has an interest in us, but what is His interest?

I hope I'YH to complete the summary of the derasha in tomorrow's post.

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Belated Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed - Vol IV

2011-10-03T23:23:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at another of the Samuel Adams Latitude 48 varieties - the Ahtanum version.

[I apologize for the belated posting of this week's SNS. As Sunday was a fast day, we broke our fast on dairy and the Latitude 48 would not have been an appropriate beverage with dinner for far too many reasons. Instead I had a Dunkin Donuts Iced Apple Cider, but since it lacks alcohol and is not beer it will not be reviewed here].

As mentioned in my July 31, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Hallertau Mitterfreuh (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/07/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html), the August 14, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Simcoe (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/08/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html) and the September 11, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - East Kent Goldings (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/09/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html), one of the best new IPAs introduced during the last few years is the Samuel Adams Latitude 48. The name of the beer draws from the five types of hops used in the brew process which all grow along the 48th latitude within the "hop belt" of the Northern Hemisphere. Earlier this year, Samuel Adams introduced its limited edition Deconstructed Box which features beers brewed with just one of the five hop varieties used in the Latitude 48.

For this week's post I sampled the Ahtanum version of the Latitude 48. The back of the bottle indicates that the Ahtanum hops grow in the Yakima Valley in Washington State. The label further provides that the Ahtanum hops "contribute a balanced and typically "American" orange peel, piney and floral flavor and aroma to the brew, balanced by a slight sweetness and full body from the five different malts."

I tried the Latitude 48 Ahtanum on its own in a Samuel Adams tulip glass that I purchased at the Samuel Adams brewery a few years ago. I did not have this with dinner so the review is based solely as a stand alone brew.

The beer poured a rich copper with a fair amount of foam that stayed on top even twenty minutes after I poured the beer. The flavor starts off with malts, but the hops are present and accounted for and linger nicely after I have swallowed my sip. The aftertaste is piney and slightly citrus, although not over the top like the Uinta Wyld. Even though the beer is slightly on the high end of abv for an American Pale Ale (6%), the alcohol taste is relatively mild.

Having tried this beer on its own, I am wishing that they sold it in six packs as I am enjoying this beer and wish that I could pair it with foods to experiment with melding flavors.

The Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Ahtanum is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this version of Latitude 48, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/68399.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Mini Vort on Rosh Hashanah

2011-09-26T22:28:00.002-04:00

As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post is usually devoted to sports with a link to a Torah moral or value. With Rosh Hashanah around the corner, I have skipped the sports thought (no, it is NOT because the Jets lost to the Raiders yesterday) in favor of a mini vort which I heard from R' Mansour recently.

R' Mansour asked the following question which seems logical, but I never heard or thought to ask - why is it that there is no mitzva to go up to Yerushalayim for Rosh Hashanah? There is a mitzva of aliyah l'regel for Sukkos, why not just come up two weeks early for Rosh Hashanah as well?

R' Mansour answered the question by quoting the Sfas Emes. The Sfas Emes quotes a gemara in Rosh Hashanah which asks - how do we get a favorable judgment on Rosh Hashanah - by saying pesukim which form the malchios and zichronos and shofros and with the shofar. However, the shofar cannot come from a cow as it would be a reminder of the golden calf, and the shofar cannot be a prosecutor and defense attorney at the same time.

The gemara in Rosh Hashanah then asked what about the clothing of the kohen gadol? The kohen gadol does not wear golden clothes in the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash as it is a reminder of the golden calf. However, for some of the avodah he does wear golden clothes, albeit outside of the inner chamber of the Beis Hamikdash - how can this be? The gemara answers that the gold clothes are only removed when outside of the kodesh kodashim so that there is no reminder of the golden calf.

The gemara then asks - but what about the shofar? It is also not blown in the kodesh kodashim, so why can't we use the cow's horn? The gemara answers that when the shofar is blown it is as if the one listening is in the holy of holies. Regardless of where a person is, at the moment of tekiyas shofar a person is transported before Hashem.

The Sfas Emes explains that this is the reason why a person does not need to be oleh regel on Rosh Hashana. On Pesach a person needs to go to Yerushalayim to be oleh regel, but on Rosh Hashana we are transported by merely hearing the shofar.

R' Mansour stated that this underscores the value of listening to the shofar. The kohen gadol had to prepare for seven days before doing the avodah. We must be prepared to hear the shofar and to be transported to the Beis Hamikdash.

R' Mansour brought a gematria to support his point - the gematria of Beis Hamikdash is 861. The gematria of Rosh Hashanah is also 861. The two are equal and this is the secret of Rosh Hashanah.

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Sunday Night Suds - Sprecher IPA2

2011-09-25T22:40:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Sprecher's Ipa2 (aka IPA sqaured or Double IPA).

Another beer that was brought in from the Midwest for me at a family simcha in MD (thanks again Jake!). This was not a beer that I knew was available on the market and did not see on the Binny's website. However, after I phoned in an order to have ready for pick up, I got a call back from Binny's about this brand new beer which they had just gotten in.

As regular readers of this column are aware, I am a big fan of IPAs as I love the hoppiness and crisp flavor of an American IPA. When Binny's told me that Sprecher had made a double IPA, I jumped at the opportunity and had it added to my tab. Little did I know that this was a seder beer. What is a seder beer? Its a beer that is different than all other beers, sometimes for good and sometimes for the drain.

By way of explanation, I had tried quite a few Sprecher beers before putting in an order for the Double IPA and I had found that they ranged from slightly above average to outstanding. Additionally, while Sprecher only sells their beer in 4 packs - the bottles are usually true pint bottles (16 oz). However the Double IPA was a four pack of traditional 12 oz bottles.

By now you can probably see where this is going ... the Sprecher IPA2 was not a typical IPA. The beer itself was exceedingly bitter, but not in a traditional IPA manner. I had started with a little floral flavor but by the end it was just a dry, slightly flat beer. It almost seemed like they were trying to create a barleywine type flavor, but even if I had tried the beer with the expectation that it was a barleywine, I still would not have thought that it was true to style. I may try one more of the four pack, but if I don't like it I will probably try to give away the other two.

Sprecher IPA2 is certified kosher by Wisconsin Kosher and their is a kosher symbol on the four pack holder, although not on the individual bottles. For the experts' take on the Sprecher IPA2 please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/144/37308.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Motzei Shabbos Pre Selichos Special - The Shofar That Would Not Blow

2011-09-24T22:40:00.006-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand this past Thursday night on Rosh Hashanah. I had actually heard a slightly different version of the vort earlier in the day as I had downloaded it from the www.yadyechiel.org site earlier in the day. As I was listening to it in my car, I was thinking about trying to transcribe it on Motzei Shabbos. When I heard R' Frand say the vort again (and in my opinion more powerfully) at the close of the Thursday night shiur, I knew that it would be worth sharing on the blog. As always, have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand quoted the Magen Avraham in Shulchan Aruch 585 who writes about a story that occurred once when the shofar could not blow. After the ba'al tokeiah tried and tried, he whispered the pasuk V'yihee Noam Hashem Elokeinu Aleinu into the wide end of the shofar and then the shofar was able to blow.

R' Frand quoted the Tollner Rebbi who asked three questions on the Magen Avraham:
(1) Why is the Magen Avraham telling us stories about the shofar? The Magen Avraham was generally terse and did not waste words.
(2) Why did the person say the pasuk V'yihee Noam? It would have been understandable if it was Tiku Bachodesh Shofar or some other pasuk related to Rosh Hashanah and Tekiyas Shofar, but why this pasuk?
(3) Why was the pasuk whispered into the wide end of the shofar? The Livush explains that we blow from the narrow side because Min Hameitzar Karasi Ka. If we want the shofar to sound, it needs to come from the narrow side.

R' Frand quoted the Tollner Rebbi who answered the three questions. He explained that the Magen Avraham was not telling us a story - he was telling us the foundation of Rosh Hashanah, the foundation of teshuva and the foundation of life.

The pasuk of V'yihee Noam was first said by Moshe after the completion of the mishkan. Once the Jews completed the construction, Moshe said these words of bracha. The reason Moshe said this after completion of the building of the mishkan was because the Jews came out of Egypt with no knowledge of construction or artistry and they still were able to build the mishkan anyway. The message to the Jews by being asked to build the mishkan was - it does not matter what your background is, you have to try. Thus the end of the pasuk of Y'yihee Noam - may Hashem establish our handiwork for us.

Indeed, the question can be asked - if Hashem wanted a mishkan, why did He not build it Himself like the third Bais Hamikdash which will come down from shamayim. The answer is - Hashem wanted them to try. This is the message of the Magen Avraham - the Ba'al Tokeiah was unable to blow the shofar, so he said to Hashem I tried - now You help up please.

This is also why he said the pasuk into the wide side. The Ba'al Tokeiah said the pasuk into the wide side because he had already done his part of trying from the narrow side. In effect he was saying min hameitzar karasi - I called out from the narrow end, now, annani bamerchav - answer me please from the wide end - Your end.

R' Frand explained that this is the avodah of Rosh Hashanah - we blow shofar to ask Hashem to leave the kisei hadin and sit on the kisei rachamim. Why can't He do this on his own? Because we have to act and give Him a reason to do it.

This is how we should approach Rosh Hashanah and teshuva - we need to put our effort in and then He will help us. Of course this applies to all efforts in life (R' Frand stressed that this includes raising children) - we need to act and Hashem will help us.

R' Frand then quoted a Medrash in Shir Hashirim which tells of how R' Chanina was jealous that others were going up to Yerushalayim. R' Chanina was upset because he had nothing to bring up. He went into the forest and saw a beautiful stone. R' Chanina polished the stone and shaped it and wanted to bring it up, but it was too heavy. R' Chanina went looking for workers to help him bring the stone up, but they wanted 100 gold pieces for their troubles. R' Chanina was despondent and turned away, but then five angels who were disguised as people approached and offered to help. They said that they would bring it up for only 5 sela'im - a small amount of money. But there was one catch, R' Chanina had to help carry the stone.

R' Chanina agreed to the requests of the "workers" and together they carried the stone up to the Beis Hamikdash. When they reached the Beis Hamikdash and the stone was placed in the heichal, R' Chanina turned to pay them and they had vanished.

The message of this Medrash is not that if you have a flat tire, five angels will appear and offer to change it for a nickel. Instead, the message is that we have to try and then Hashem will help us. This is the message of the Magen Avraham and the words of V'yihee Noam.

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshios Nitzavim & Vayelech

2011-09-22T23:30:00.004-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand quoted the Maharal who noted that while the Tochacha in Parshas Bechukosai has words of nechama (comfort) after the Tochacha,the Tochacha in Parshas Ki Savo does not have words of nechama at the end.

R' Frand quoted R' Yosher Ber Soloveitchik who explains that the Tochacha in Bechukosai is aligned with the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdash and galus bavel. Since the first galus was very brief, the divrei nechama come soon after the Tochacha. However, the Tochacha in Ki Savo is aligned with the destruction of the second Beis Hamikdash and galus Edom. Although this is a long drawn out galus which we are still experiencing, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and nechama at the end of the galus. R' Yosher Ber explains that the divrei nechama comes in Parshas Nitzavim at Devarim 30:1-2, where the Torah writes "V'haya ki yavou alecha ..." that it will be when these things come on you, the blessings and the curse, that the Jews will return to Hashem.

The Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva writes that the Nevi'im promised us that the Jews will do teshuva at the end of galus and they will be immediately redeemed. R' Yosher Ber explains that this is the nechama, knowing that there will be teshuva and the galus will end.

R' Frand mentioned that he was always bothered by this Rambam. There are so many people who are not keeping the Torah and do not even know that they are sinning because they lack the basic knowledge of the Torah laws. How will these people do teshuva?

R' Frand said that he heard a vort from the Shem Mishmuel which answered the question. The Shem Mishmuel quoted Devarim 30:3 which states that Hashem will bring back "shevuscha" - translated as your people in captivity. However, the Targum Yonasan Ben Uziel translates shevuscha as your teshuvos - Hashem will gather in all the teshuvos from all the generations and use them to redeem the Jews.

The Shem Mishmuel referenced the line from the Rosh Hashanah davening - Ma'avir Rishon Rishon - the Gemara in Rosh Hashana 17 states that this means that if a person is equally weighted with sins and mitzvos, Hashem will take away one aveirah so that the scale tips to life. However, the sin is not erased completely. If later a person piles on the sins, Hashem will add this sin back to the pile.

The Shem Mishmuel states that if Hashem will store away an aveirah to be added in at the appropriate time, than He certainly is saving the less than perfect thoughts or acts of teshuva that were done for centuries so that they can be added togther at the appropriate time and bring the geulah. The Shem Mishmuel states that this explains how a person can do teshuva at the end of his life and it will be accepted. The teshuva certainly cannot be an acceptance to change for the future since the person will die in short order. The Shem Mishmuel explains that this person had many thoughts or acts of teshuva over his lifetime which did not come to fruition. However, at the end of his life when he has a genuine desire to teshuva, Hashem brings back all these thoughts and deeds and togther they cause the person to become a true ba'al teshuva.

The Shem Mishmuel further states that this collection of imperfect teshuvas applies not only to individuals, but also to groups. Hashem has collected our improper teshuvos over thousands of years and geula can happen in our days by adding just a little bit to the scale to put us over the top. This is the answer to the question that bothers people - if we did not merit geulah when we had greater leaders, how can we possibly merit the Moshiach today? The answer is that all those teshuvas have been building up and if we on our lower level can somehow add the final piece through our teshuva, we can bring the geulah and be the nechama.

[Ed note - Rabbi Frand actually said a second vort on Rosh Hashanah after completing this vort. I will b'n attempt to post the Rosh Hashanah vort on Saturday Night].

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Monday's Musings on Sports - Fantasy, Realty and Football

2011-09-19T23:58:00.001-04:00

Over the course of the last dozen or so years, the TV world and the United States in particular has become fascinated with the concept of reality TV. From the early days of Survivor to American Idol (or is it Idle) to the recent uptick in cooking shows such as Hell's Kitchen and Chopped, viewers can't seem to get enough of watching every day people competing with one and another.

[Personally, I believe that the rise in popularity of reality TV is a manifestation of the every man's fantasy to be famous, be it competing in an office setting or trying to perform superhuman feats of survival, but I digress].

By virtue of succeeding in these shows, the winning contestant is supposed to reap a reward which changes his life. In some shows it might be a dream job, while in others it may be a relationship or a cash prize. One of the more interesting rewards was on a cable TV show called Fourth and Long. The show challenged former college athletes to compete for a chance to be invited to the Dallas Cowboys training camp and possibly make the team. The reward was viewed largely as symbolic, since NFL training camps involve players who are: returning to their team; were drafted by their team or are free agents who were signed off another team's roster. Besides these marquee players, the teams will bring in twenty to thirty undrafted players, one or two of which will be lucky enough to make the practice squad (cue the Rudy music).

The winner of the Fourth and Long program in 2009 was Jesse Holley, who at the time was working as a security guard and selling cell phones on the side. Although Holley participated in training camp in 2009, he was cut by the Cowboys and signed to their practice squad where he remained for the season. In 2010, Holley again was one of the final cuts, but he was later signed to the active roster and was on the team for twelve games in 2010. Although Holley did not catch a pass that year, he did return one punt.

Two Sundays ago, star Cowboy received Dez Bryant was injured in a game against the NY Jets. After Bryant was declared out against the 49ers, the Cowboys added Holley to the active roster and he repaid the favor by making a 77 yard reception in overtime which set up the Cowboys' game winning score.

The fascination with "reality TV" and the way that people view and root for the common man to do something which they deep down wish they could do reminded me of a vort that I once heard about the questions which will be asked when a person finishes his time on this earth. I can't remember specifically who the Rav was who posed the question, but the vort goes something like this. When a person gets up to shamayim (heaven) he will be asked a series of questions including did you make regular time to learn Torah, were you honest in business and did you anxiously await the Moshiach. One of the questions that will not be asked is why were you not Moshe Rabbeinu. The reason is simple, we cannot be Moshe as he was a very special man who lived in a different time. But the question that we will be asked is why were you not (fill in your own name). Every person has the ability to be something special and improve the world. If we can accomplish the tasks that we are capable of doing, we will have no problem answering the question.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Uinta Wyld

2011-09-18T23:17:00.002-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Uinta's Wyld, an organic Extra Pale Ale.

As discussed in a post earlier this summer, Utah based Uinta Brewing Company is the most recent brewery to obtain kosher certification. Uinta brews a number of beers under its Uinta label, but it also has a creative/quirky division called the "Four+ Beers." The Uinta website explains that "four" refers to the four primary ingredients: hops, water, yeast, and barley, whereas the plus is "[t]he magical combination of elements to create an exceptional beer requires the alchemy of the brewer's art: skills, palate, and creativity. This is a key component of the "plus", but not all of it. There's always an element that defies definition."

All of the Four+ beers have interesting names and descriptions such as Monkshine - Belgian Style Pale Ale, Rype - Orange Tinged Wheat Beer, Hyve - Honey Stung Ale, Sum'r Organic Summer Ale, Punk'n - Harvest Pumpkin Ale and the Wyld Organic Pale Ale.

The interesting thing about the Wyld Organic Pale Ale is the incredible citrus flavor. Unlike the Shiner Ruby Redbird which is flavored with grapefruit, the Wyld is not a flavored beer, but I could swear there is some citrus juice in the brew. I received this beer as part of a Chicago care package that Binny's packed up for my BiL to deliver to me at a family simcha last weekend (thanks Jake!). I enjoyed this beer on its own and was able to appreciate it without blending it with food. Since I only have a few more to work with I will cautiously experiment with some APA friendly foods.

Uinta Wyld is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union and bears an OU on the label. For the experts' take on the Uinta Wyld please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1416/48873.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Ki Savo

2011-09-15T23:34:00.002-04:00

Monday Musings on Sports - MLB, Uniformity and When They Just Don't Get It

2011-09-12T23:12:00.005-04:00

As everyone is well aware, yesterday was the anniversary of one of the most tragic days in American History. 9/11, a day which will forever burn in our nation's collective consciousness. The day that American innocence was lost and we came to understand that 1/5th of the world hates the United States for being a free society.

In the days following September 11, 2001, I can recall feeling overwhelmed by the sense of loss, even though I did not lose anyone close to me. The morning of September 12, 2001, I lay in bed with Mrs KB listening to the radio, without the desire to do anything other than to hear about the tragic events and to hope that good news about survivors would be forthcoming. However, the longer that I listened to the radio, the more depressed I became until I finally forced myself to get out of bed and to go to minyan.

Over the next few days, the news was constantly about the events of 9/11 and at times I was forced to turn the radio off, just so that I could escape from the depressing stories. And then things began to change and the world started to emerge from the ash gray dust of ground zero. For me, this emergence began with baseball and then the NFL starting to play games again.

However, the sporting events were not played in a vacuum. The players showed their respect and admiration for the first responders and those who were going off to fight the Taliban. Most poignant to me were the players who wore the hats of those who had been to ground zero and suffered losses - the NYPD, FDNY and PAPD.

So now, on the ten year anniversary of that tragic day, sports was again attempting to salve the nation's collective spirit. Countless professional and collegiate sporting events featured tributes to those who had fallen and patriotic displays for those who went off to war. Wanting to do their part, the NY Mets asked Major League Baseball for permission to wear NYPD, FDNY and PAPD hats rather than their league issued hats. However, the league (acting through Joe Torre) refused to grant the Mets permission. It was ironic, as the Mets had worn those hats (albeit against the MLB rules) back in 2001 as a sign of respect and now they were prevented from paying tribute. It could hardly be argued that MLB was unaware of the meaning of the game being played in NY on September 11, 2011, since MLB had moved the game to 8 PM so that it could compete with Sunday Night Football (which also featured a NY team playing in New York).

MLB's refusal to allow the technical violation of its uniform rules can hardly be defended and the articles that have run about the decision have been largely critical of MLB. Indeed, at least one story has suggested that MLB is upset that the Mets even asked for permission to wear the hats.

The decision not to allow the Mets to wear the non-conforming hats makes me think about the Torah's concept of hora'as sha'ah - dictates of the time. Occasionally, the law may state that something is forbidden, but the particular circumstance may be outweighed by some communal or humanitarian concern. The ability to act against the general legal rule is not to be taken lightly, however a proper Rabbinic authority will look at the scenario and rule that a particular course of action is permissible. I can recall hearing about a particular Rav who was visited by a sick young girl who was looking for a bracha. Although halacha does not generally allow a male to touch a female non-relative, the Rabbi reached out to touch her shoulder to reassure her that she would recover. Was this technically improper under halacha? Yes. But the reassuring physical contact was more important to this young lady.

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Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed - Vol III

2011-09-11T23:53:00.004-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at another of the Samuel Adams Latitude 48 varieties - the East Kent Goldings version.

As mentioned in my July 31, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Hallertau Mitterfreuh (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/07/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html) and the August 14, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Simcoe (found here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/08/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html), one of the best new IPAs introduced during the last few years is the Samuel Adams Latitude 48. The name of the beer draws from the five types of hops used in the brew process which all grow along the 48th latitude within the "hop belt" of the Northern Hemisphere. Earlier this year, Samuel Adams introduced its limited edition Deconstructed Box which features beers brewed with just one of the five hop varieties used in the Latitude 48.

For this week's post I sampled the East Kent Goldings version of the Latitude 48. The back of the bottle indicates that The East Kent Goldings hops grow in East Kent in the United Kingdom. The label further provides that the East Kent Goldings hops were first used in brewing in the 1700s in East Kent, England and "contribute a mellow bitterness to this brew, along with earthy, floral and apricot notes, balanced by a slight sweetness and full body from the five different malts."

The Latitude 48 East Kent Goldings variety was definitely the most mellow of the deconstructed versions that I have tried. I tasted some of the hops and citrusy flavor, but wished there was a little more bite in the brew. I completely missed the apricot notes, but that might be due to my being spoiled by my friend Daniel R's homebrew version of a certain Magic Hat variety which was heavy on the apricots.

The Latitude 48 East Kent Goldings was a good accompaniment to Friday night roasted chicken, but it might have gone ever better with a honey barbecue chicken. Of course, I did not know this until I tasted the two together on Friday night and it was too late to ask Mrs KB to make a different kind of chicken...

The Samuel Adams Latitude 48 East Kent Goldings is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this version of Latitude 48, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/68397.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Ki Seitzei

2011-09-08T23:21:00.002-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In Devarim 26:6-7, the parsha discusses the mitzva of shiluach haken - the commandment to send away the mother bird before taking the eggs or hatchlings from the nest. The Torah states that one who keeps this mitzva is rewarded with a lengthened life.

R' Frand noted that there is one other mitzva which we know the reward is a lengthened life - the mitzva to honor one's parents. R' Frand quoted a Yerushalmi in Pe'ah which states that Hashem presented the reward for both mitzvos so that both can be properly kept. The Yerushalmi further states that the two mitzvos are both the easiest and the hardest mitzvos in the Torah. While shiluach haken can be viewed as easy since there is no cost and it is done without effort, the mitzva of kibbud av v'aim can be difficult.

Why are these two linked together? R' Frand answered by quoting the mishna in pirkei avos which says that a person should be careful with easy and hard mitzvos because we don't know the reward for mitzvos. Since these easy and hard mitzvos have the same reward, we should not be quick to dismiss certain mitzvos because we mistakenly believe that the reward for doing them is minuscule.

R' Frand also offered a second answer to the question - based on a Vilna Gaon. The Gaon explains that our natural inclination is to believe that both mitzvos are built on compassion - if the Torah tells us how to act with little birds, it should also carry over to our actions towards people. Similarly, the showing of respect to parents when they age also appears to be based on compassion. This school of thought follows the Rambam and the Ramban who view the mitzvos as based on rachmanus.

However, there is another way of looking at the mitzva. The Gaon quotes the Zohar who explains that the mitzva shows the quality of aczarious - loosely translated as cruelty or lack of compassion. Although the mother bird is sent away, it eventually returns and sees that its nest is essentially gone. It has no hatchlings in the nest or eggs and it cries. The Zohar explains that the tears provoke Hashem's mercy and we too hope that he will have mercy on us and rebuild our nest from which we have been exiled (the Beis Hamikdash).

Under this approach to shiluach haken, the two mitzvos are from opposite ends of the spectrum - one is compassion and one is cruelty. The Gaon explains that this is why the rewards are specified - because we must know that whether the mitzva is easy or difficult or involves compassion or cruelty with a purpose - the reward is the same.

This concept equally applies to mitzvos of other kinds. A person may be predisposed to act a certain way, however to keep a mitzva, the person might have to act against their nature. A person may be shy and introverted, but the mitzva of hachnasas orchim - welcoming in guests, requires him to go against his nature.

The Gaon explains that a person who goes far to show respect for his parents may be doing so because he is a nice guy or a rachaman. Therefore, he must go against his nature by acting cruelly and send away the mother bird, only to return to the empty nest.

R' Frand tied this together by referencing the Torah reading for Rosh Hashanah when we read that Hashem said after Avraham showed that he was willing to sacrifice Isaac - now I know that you are G-d fearing. Why is this the moment? Because at this tenth test, Avraham was required to go against his nature of being a rachman and sacrifice his son. By doing this, he was able to demonstrate that he acted because Hashem commanded him to, not just because he was a nice guy.

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Labor Day 2011 Kosher Beers List

2011-09-05T21:00:00.002-04:00

As a community service, Kosher Beers publishes a list twice a year of the beers which are known to be certified kosher. The list will be updated periodically until the next edition (Purim 2012).

For the Labor Day 2011 edition, I will again be using scribd to upload and maintain list.

Kosher Beers Labor Day 2011

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Shoftim

2011-09-01T23:53:00.002-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In this week's parsha, the Torah discusses the exemptions which are available for men who are unable to serve in the army engaged in a milchemes reshus (voluntary war). As enumerated in Devarim 20:5-8, the exceptions include a man who has built a new house but has not begun to live in it, a man who has planted a new vineyard but has not yet brought bikkurim from it or a man who has recently become engaged and has not yet married his wife. The final exemption listed is for a man who is afraid of battle. After the above exemptions have been read to the group of potential soldiers, those with an excuse were permitted to leave.

R' Frand quoted a mishna in Sotah 44a which discusses a dispute between R' Akiva and R' Yosi Haglili in relation to the "fear" exemptions. R' Akiva stated that the fear exemption is for one who is afraid of going to war. R' Yosi Haglili said that the exemption is for one who is afraid of potentially being killed in battle as punishment for the sins he has committed. R' Yosi further explained that the reason for the other exceptions is solely to protect this type of person from embarrassment. Indeed, there is no logical explanation for the draft exemption status of one of who built a new house or planted a new vineyard. As R' Yosi explains, the Torah added these categories to protect the man who was afraid of punishment so that it will not be obvious why he is not going to battle.

R' Frand then quoted the Tolner Rebbi who linked this dispute to another seemingly unconnected argument. The gemara in Gittin discusses a dispute as to the acceptable reasons for divorce. Beis Shammai stated that the only reason a divorce may be given is if the wife committed adultery. Beis Hillel stated that a man may divorce his wife for any reason, even if it is because she burned the soup.

R' Frand quoted a R' Moskowitz who asked why Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel had taken positions contrary to their usual methods (wherein Beis Shammai was usually machmir and Beis Hillel was usually meikil).

R' Frand answered this question by quoting a R' Taub who was a Modzitz Chassid (there was a longer name but I did not get it). R' Frand explained that if the only permitted ground for divorce was adultery, a divorced woman would never be able to get remarried as she would be forever branded an adulteress, regardless of her acts of teshuva. By allowing a husband to give a divorce for more mundane reasons, the woman is no longer pigeonholed as an adulteress and she stands a better chance of getting remarried, since the general public will not assume that she has committed any terrible act. As such, Beis Hillel's actions protect the woman's dignity and are in reality more maykil than Beis Shammai.

R' Frand closed the vort by stating that we should take a lesson from these two scenarios and be more cognizant of other people's dignity when he act or speak about them.

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Motzei Shabbos Special - Second Half of the Hurricane Irene Vort

2011-08-27T22:23:00.002-04:00

Boruch Hashem, Shabbos went well in West Hempstead and we still have power! It was wonderful to see the kiddush Hashem of people here opening their homes to those who were required to leave their homes in the mandatory evacuation zones. As mentioned in the Friday vort, I heard a great shiur from Rabbi Mansour (available on www.learntorah.com) linking water, Sukkos and Parshas Re'eh. Unfortnately, with all the pre-hurricane and erev shabbos preparations, I was unable to summarize the whole vort in the pre-Shabbos post. As such, I have attempted to provide more of the shiur in this vort. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to the maggid shiur.

R' Mansour also mentioned another mitzva that Jews do which appeased the water from its complaints. In Parshas Vaykira it states - "al kol karbancha takriv melach" - all sacrifices must contain salt (which is derived from water).

The Zohar further links the water's complaint about being separated to another important concept - machlokes l'shem shamayim. People can get into arguments which are negative or detrimental. But there are also arguments which are l'shem shamayim - arguments for the sake of heaven. The Zohar states that the first argument l'shem shamayim was the water complaining about being separated from Hashem. This is hinted to in the word shamayim - it can be broken down to be sham mayim - there is water there which the waters on the earth wanted to rejoin.

Once the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, the Jews were expelled from the Land of Israel and were exiled to Babylonia. When they arrived in Bavel they sat on the banks of the river and lamented. This is recorded in the mizmor - Al Naharos Bavel. In this mizmor it is written "sham yashavnu, gam bachinu" - there we sat and we also cried. R' Mansour asked - what does it mean that we also cried? He explained that the water was crying because the connection which it had to Heaven was severed when the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed. As such, the Jews joined the waters in crying for the destruction of the temple.

I would like to touch on one last point that R' Mansour made in this shiur about water. He mentioned that in Tishrei, Jews go to the water to do Tashlich. R' Mansour then mentioned a different angle on the age old question of why we go to the water to do Tashlich. He explained that the waves are constantly rising up before they come crashing down to the shore. The reason the waves rise up is that they aspire to be close to Hashem again like they were before the waters were split. When we go to the water to do Tashlich, we should be motivated by the water to want to rise up and be close to Hashem.

May we all be blessed with all the water and motivation we need as we stand on the precipice of Chodesh Elul.

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Pre-Hurricane Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Re'eh

2011-08-26T18:45:00.003-04:00

Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Chullin 58

2011-08-23T23:50:00.003-04:00

Much of Chullin 58 is devoted to the topic which dominates the perek - which defects will render an animal or bird a tereifah. However, following the clarification of the halacha that a male animal must live for twelve months after the traumatic event in order to leave the category of (safek) tereifah, the gemara digresses to discuss the life span of gnats and flies. Within this brief discussion, the gemara relates a "contemporary" saying which demonstrates to me that (at times) everyone gets into a row with their spouse.

After stating that a gnat cannot live for more than a day, the gemara asks - what about the story of the female gnat which for seven years turns down its spouse and would not mate with him. The male gnat had earned the ire of his mate by observing a man emerge from swimming in the river and had feasted on the man (i.e. sucked blood) while the man was towelling off, all without letting the female gnat know that there was a feast available.

The gemara uses this story to challenge the one day life span statement, before concluding that the "seven years" is relative to the length of time that a gnat lives. Rashi explains that in reality, the female gnat stayed away from the male gnat for only a few minutes. Still, the story made me smile and I am sure that there is a lesson out there for someone. Perhaps the "moral" is that any couple can fight, but the key is making sure that it only lasts for a few minutes and not seven years.

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Monday's Musings on Sports - When Up is Down, Down is Up

2011-08-22T23:18:00.005-04:00

As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post was usually devoted to sports with highlights and analysis of the Max Kellerman show which formerly aired on 1050 ESPN Radio. Although Max resigned from 1050 more than a year ago (he has recently resurfaced on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles), I have tried to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.

Last week a story broke about the NCAAs which demonstrates the utterly absurd and arbitrary nature of the NCAA player eligibility rules. The story involved efforts by collegiate athletics to change the permitted post practice snack given to college athletes. As boosters and unscrupulous administration members in college sports have ruined sports for everyone, there are specific rules as to what can be provided to players after a practice is over. As was reported in the media, players can be given bagels but without spread or toppings. The NCAA is now considering revising the rule to allow for cream cheese or other spreads to be provided with the bagels (just don't call the shmeers). In an industry where colleges make millions of dollars on their athletic programs and the athletes only receive scholarships to attend the school without any monetary payment, it seems to me that at the very least the team could provide its players with a decent post practice snack. However, this is the very same NCAA which fined coaches for having their players over for dinner or g-d forbid taking a player out to eat to connect with the player.

On the other end of the responsibility scale for the NCAAs is the topic of whether the student athletes really need to be students. Under the current rules, players can leave for professional sports such as basketball after one year in school. If the player is really good, he knows that he will be leaving after the first year and he obviously does not concentrate on school. The NCAA post season tournaments only add to the distraction from academics since the conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament require the athlete to miss weeks, if not months of classes while the team travels the country.

The twin stories made me think about a mashal from the Ben Ish Chai which I heard on a Rabbi Mansour shiur (available for download at http://www.learntorah.com/). The mashal involved an employer who told his employee that children were coming and he was afraid that they would try to climb onto the roof. The employer asked his employee to disassemble the ladder so that the children would not be able to climb to the roof. The employee climbed on to the second rung of the ladder and then removed the first rung. He then climbed to the third rung before removing the second rung. Eventually, the employee reached the roof and was unable to get down. The employee screamed for help and the employer helped him down. When the two men reached the ground the employer told the employee - its important when you disassemble ladders that you start from the top and work your way to the bottom.

Months later, the employer again was expecting children to visit his home and was worried that the children might climb down into the well. The employer asked the employee to disassemble the ladder which led to the bottom of the well. This time the employee started at the top and rung by rung, disassembled the ladder until he reached the bottom. Of course at this point he was stuck at the bottom of the well and again needed rescue. When the employer came to save him, the employee protested - but I started at the top. The employer responded - you need to be aware of where you are -sometimes you must start at the bottom and work your way up.

Unfortunately, the NCAA administration too often suffers from a lack of perspective as to what is important. Instead of focusing their attention on whether the athletes have received an "improper benefit" of cream cheese or even (heaven forbid) lox with their bagels, the NCAA administration should be trying to find ways to guarantee that the student athletes have a fighting chance to get a quality college education. After all, only a select few college athletes will make it to the professional leagues.

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Sunday Night Suds - Lake Placid Winter Lager

2011-08-21T22:33:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Lake Placid Winter Lager.

On my last trip up to Camp M, I made my annual summer trip to Peekskill Beverage World on Main Street in downtown Peekskill. Beverage World is one of those beer stores that prides itself on carrying a wide selection of brews ranging from macros to local craft brewers to the best of the domestic micros.

The one minor problem with a beer store like this is the turnover or lack thereof. While some city based beer store have a great deal of foot traffic, you need to know that Beverage World exists or stumble across it in order to find this place. The result is that the stock can be old and dusty and you need to pay attention to what you are picking up. I came very close to buying an Octoberfest which I thought was getting a jump on fall beers before I checked the Gregorian bottle ID and saw that the beer was left over from fall 2010.

Of course, this is not to say that all the beer in the store was past its prime. I picked up a six pack of fresh Lake Placid Hefeweizen and was on my way up to the register when I saw the Winter Lager. Although I knew that it was made in late 2010, I had to mix one of them into my Hefeweizen six pack. I was glad that I did.

The Lake Placid people (OK the Saranac people) may call this a Winter Lager but in truth its really more of a Bock, which is just another reason to seek out this brew. The beer poured a dark amber with a little lacing that stayed on the glass for longer than I could have expected. The first taste was bready and the refined sweet but dry flavor of the brew stayed with me well after the swallow. I would even consider ranking this up towards a dubbel as the alcohol content (6.5% abv) and the alcohol flavor push in that direction.

Lake Placid Winter Lager is under the kashruth supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as it is bottled at the FX Matt plant in Utica. For the experts' take on Lake Placid Honey Rye, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1888/64328.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Eikev

2011-08-18T23:38:00.003-04:00

Since there are no Rabbi Frand shiurim on the Parsha until Elul, I would like to substitute a vort from other Rabbanim each week, rather than leaving the blog without a vort for shabbos. This week, I am attempting to repeat a vort heard from R' Eli Mansour as recorded on www.learntorah.com. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to the maggid shiur.

Parshas Eikev begins with a list of tremendous berachos that Moshe tells the Jews will come to fruition if they will listen to Hashem's commandments. Among the berachos is the promise that Hashem will remove all illness from the Jews (Devarim 7:15).

The gemara asks - what kind of sickness is this? The gemara answers in the name of Rav - it is the ayin hara which will be removed.

R' Mansour asked - what is ayin hara. He answered by making reference to a gemara in Berachos 20 which talked about R' Yochanan who was asked why he was not concerned about ayin hara. R' Yochanan answered that he was from the tribe of Yosef who cannot be touched by ayin hara. But why are they exempt from ayin hara?

R' Mansour answered by quoting rabbanim who offered the following explanation. If a person sees another person's wealth he should recognize that it is from Hashem. However, if the person is impressed with the object, he detaches the item from Hashem as he gives the recipient the credit for the object instead of recognizing it as from Hashem. At this point, the ayin hara can attach to the object unless the object can be reconnected with Hashem. How is this accomplished? By saying baruch Hashem - by attributing the success or the item to Hashem and not the owner of the object.

R' Mansour then quoted from Parshas Ekev again where it states that a person may have great wealth and think that he himself is responsible for it (Devarim 8:12-17). The pasuk immediately says thereafter that the man must remember that it all comes from Hashem.

Yosef had mastered the art of recognizing Hashem and reconnecting items with Hashem. When Pharaoh had Yosef brought down to him to interpret the dream, Pharaoh tested Yosef. He told Yosef (Bereishis 41:15), I had a dream and no one can interpret it, but I heard that you can. While a normal person would accept the praise (especially when seeing the king), Yosef does the opposite - he tells Pharaoh its not from me, its from Hashem (Berishis 41:16).

Pharaoh then tells the whole dream to Yosef and then tries to test him again by saying that none of his advisers can interpret the dream. Yosef passes the test by responding to Pharaoh in every pasuk that it comes from Hashem. (Bereishis 41:24-25).

When R' Yochanan responds that he is from Yosef (which he clearly is not since he descends from Yehuda) he is saying -- I learned from Yosef's ways and much like one who teaches Torah to another is like his father, so too I am Yosef's son.

R' Mansour then asked - where did Yosef learn this from? He answered that it was learned from Yaakov. When Yaakov came to meet Esav, Esav observes Yaakov and asks who are these women and children who are here with you. Yaakov resists the urge to say they are mine, instead he says these are what Hashem has graciously given me (Bereishis 33:5).

This is the lesson to us, that when someone comes and praises you for your possessions, give credit to Hashem and you will avoid the impact of the ayin hara.

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Monday's Musings on Sports - NFL Tidbits - Lovie, Osi and The Whole World

2011-08-15T23:08:00.002-04:00

As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post was usually devoted to sports with highlights and analysis of the Max Kellerman show which formerly aired on 1050 ESPN Radio. Although Max resigned from 1050 more than a year ago (he has recently resurfaced on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles), I have tried to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.

One of the pleasant side benefits of doing the long drive back and forth to Camp M is the time that I spend listening to interesting things on my car stereo while doing the three plus hour drive each week. For the trip up, its R' Mansour parsha shiurim which I download from www.learntorah.com. For the trip home from Camp M, I listen to almost the entire Mike & Mike in the Morning program on satellite radio (with the exception of 7-8 AM when I am at minyan in Monticello).

As NFL preseason has officially begun, the guys had a lot to say about the slate of games which were played this past weekend. While I was intrigued by many stories, I would like to highlight just two of the topics of discussion.

The first item relates to the Chicago Bears. As avid sports fans may know, the NFL has recently changed the rules for kickoffs. Although kickoffs had been traditionally from the 30 yard line, the NFL has moved up kickoffs to the 35 yard line in an effort to avoid injury due to the fierce collision which occur during kickoff returns.

Bears coach Lovie Smith had decided that he did not want to kick off from the 35 and had his team kick off the first two times from the 30 yard line. The guys explained that Lovie did this so that he could better assess his kick coverage unit. After a few kickoffs, one of the NFL executives called down to the referee and instructed him to warn Coach Smith that he would be penalized if he continued to kick off from the 30 instead of the 35. The remaining Bears' kickoffs all were made from the 35 yard line.

Speaking of kickoffs, its humorous to me that the dysfunctional Oakland Raiders managed to mess up the opening coin toss and wound up having to kick off to start both halves. Apparently, after the Raiders won the coin toss, the Raider player did not defer (which allows the other team to decide whether it receives the ball to start the first OR the second half). Instead, the Raiders player said that the Raiders elected to kick off. As this was a decision on the first half kick off, the Arizona Cardinals were allowed to decide what would occur at the second half kick off. Predictably, the Cardinals elected to receive.

The other intriguing story which I wanted to discuss involved Osi Umenyiora, the NY (football) Giant player who was unhappy about his contract and held himself out of practice due to a supposed injury. As reported in numerous media outlets, Umenyiora is unhappy that his contract has not been renegotiated/extended and asserts that he has earned the right to a new contract based on his performance over the last few years. Umenyiora is scheduled to earn $3.125 million in salary this year and $3.975 million in salary next year, which is the final two years of a six-year, $41 million extension he signed in December 2005.

After Umenyiora's complaints began to publicly surface, the team announced that it was giving his agent the right to negotiate with other teams, provided that the teams would give the Giants a first round pick in return. After no team was willing to pay Umenyiora's asking price, the team revoked the permission and he was required to report to training camp, however after he reported, Unmenyiora "developed" a knee injury which prevented him from practicing and caused him to miss the first preseason game.

Yesterday, Umenyiora announced that he would begin practicing with the team. In so doing, Umenyiora rejected contract incentives which were offered by the team, stating that "I will play under my current deal because I love and respect my coaches, my teammates, the fans, and myself...Not for those incentives."

Umenyiora's statement that he was willing to play for "myself" brought to mind an interesting hashkafic thought about the meaning of bishvili nivra ha'olam - because of me the world was created. The concept that one should consider that the world was created for him is at first quite puzzling. Judaism is about doing things for others and rarely must one put himself first. A person must honor his parents, visit the sick, assist in burying the dead, return lost objects, etc... Furthermore, Judaism shuns hedonism and the concept of "living for today" as we are taught that this world is merely a conduit to the world to come and one should use the opportunity here to do good deeds which we will be rewarded for in the next world. How can a person do all of the above (and more) and still consider that the world was created for him.

I heard an interesting take on this in a Rabbi Mansour shiur (available for download at www.learntorah.com). He explained that the concept of bishvili nivra ha'olam does not mean that I am more important than everyone else. Instead, a person should consider that everything he does has an impact on the world and that the world's continued existence depends on his doing mitzvos. R' Mansour connected this to the concept of tikkun olam - that Jews are charged with the responsibility of fixing past misdeeds by doing positive corrective acts. When a person does a mitzva in a specific location he does more than just a good deed, he corrects a flaw in that spot. By realizing that we are responsible for the world and that the world depends on our acting properly, we can understand how the world was created for (us).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed Vol II

2011-08-14T20:31:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds review looks at another variety of the Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - the Simcoe Hop.

As mentioned in my July 31, 2011 post which reviewed Samuel Adams Latitude 48 - Hallertau Mitterfreuh (to see the post, please click here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/07/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-latitude.html), one of the best new IPAs introduced during the last few years is the Samuel Adams Latitude 48. The name of the beer draws from the five types of hops used in the brew process which all grow along the 48th latitude within the "hop belt" of the Northern Hemisphere. Earlier this year, Samuel Adams introduced its limited edition Deconstructed Box which features beers brewed with just one of the five hop varieties used in the Latitude 48.

For this week's post I sampled the Simcoe version of the Latitude 48. The back of the bottle indicates that Simcoe hops grow in Yakima Valley, Washington and contribute "a profound bitterness and dramatic grapefruit peel and pine resin notes to this brew, with the slight sweetness and full malt body balancing the concentrated hop character."

I was intrigued by the Simcoe hop so I did a quick check on BA and found that this version of Latitude 48 is one of seventy beers which identity themselves as Simcoe hopped brews. [I would publish the names of some of these beers, but past experience has taught me that based on the arbitrary nature of search engines and search queries, people may believe that merely because I mention a type of beer in the blog it must be kosher or even certified kosher].

When trying the beer last evening with Mrs KB, I was (thankfully) unable to taste any pine resin. To me, pine belongs in cleaning solution or air fresheners, not beer. However, there was a nice citrus bite which balanced the malt and made this a great beer to have with charred rib eye steak.

The Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Simcoe is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this version of Latitude 48, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/68400.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vaeschanan

2011-08-11T23:52:00.002-04:00

Parshas Va'eschanan begins with Moshe recounting his plea to Hashem that he be permitted to enter the land of Israel and Hashem's denial of his request. The Vilna Gaon teaches that Moshe had learned from the Malach HaMaves the secret to having prayers answered and that therefore Hashem had to tell him, "not a word more!"

The Vilna Gaon explains that Moshe had been taught that the use of the word "na" (please) twice in the same request is a formula for having prayers answered. The Vilna Gaon gives the example of the prayer that Moshe said when Miriam was sick "Kel na refah na la" - Hashem please heal her please. Of course we know that Miriam did recover.

In the same way Moshe sought to invoke the double "na" in Devarim 3:25 where he pleads "Ebra na v'ereh es ha'aretz hatovah" - can I please cross over and see the good land. The Vilna Gaon explains that Moshe wanted to add the word "na" a second time after the word v'ereh. However, (as related by Moshe in Devarim 3:26) Hashem told him to stop - "Al tosef daber eylai" - do not continue to speak to Me about this.

The Gemara in Sotah 14a brings a Medrash that explains the conversation between Moshe and Hashem. The Gemara asks - why did Moshe plead so insistently to go into the land of Israel? Did he need to eat its fruits and be satiated by its goodness? Rather Moshe said to Hashem - You have given the Jews many mitzvos which can only be fulfilled in Israel. Let me in so that I can observe the mitzvos. To this Hashem responds - since you wish the reward for keeping the mitzvos, I will give you the reward for having fulfilled them.

The Gemara's question and answer are difficult to understand. Why would Hashem think that Moshe's request was to simply eat the fruits of Israel? R' Chayim M'Volozin (as cited to in the Yalkut Lekach Tov) is bothered by the question and answer on an even deeper level - he asks whether Moshe only wanted the reward for the mitzvos (as opposed to doing the mitzvos themselves) and why is the answer that he will get the reward a sufficient response to Moshe's request?

R' Sorotzkin in his sefer Azanyim L'Torah suggests a thought which neatly ties up the questions raised above. R' Sorotzkin writes (mipi kabballa) that eating the fruits of the land of Israel has the power to deepen a person's devotion to Hashem. With this yedi'ah we can easily answer the above questions. Moshe did actually want to eat of the fruits of the land, because he wanted to attain this higher spiritual level. R' Chayim's question is answered in this way as well, Moshe did really want the result of the mitzva - it was not that he wanted to taste the fruits - he wanted to eat them in order to get the reward that came from eating them (the higher level of devotion to Hashem). As such, Hashem's answer to him was sufficient - although you will not make it into Israel to eat the fruits, I will give you the reward as if you did.

We can see the lesson of Moshe in our daily lives as well. In a shiur that I was listening to earlier today (available on http://www.learntorah.com/), R' Mansour discussed how there was a gentleman who was a regular at the early minyan. Everyday like clockwork, the man would show up to shul and be one of the first ten for the minyan. One day the man came very late to shul and was in obvious distress. R' Mansour came over to him and asked why the man was late. The man explained AM and PM - he had needed to reset his clock and when he did so he accidentally set the alarm to go off in the afternoon. Since the alarm did not wake him at the proper time, he was unable to get to shul on time and he was quite upset about this. R' Mansour consoled the man and explained - there are times that we seek to do something but for whatever the reason we are prevented from doing so. If we think to ourselves - OK I guess I can't do the mitzva that I wanted to do, we are not given a reward for our actions. But when a person tries hard to do the mitzva and is prevented from completing the task through no fault of his own and he is disappointed, the person is credited as if he performed the mitzva.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Shiner Old Time Alt

2011-08-07T23:18:00.004-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Shiner Old Time Alt. [I apologize for the lack of picture, but as discussed below, the one bottle we had was tossed out before I thought of taking a picture of it].

This past Friday Night, one of our friends brought over the Shiner Reunion Family Pack after shabbat dinner and we sat and sampled two of the varieties along with some divrei Torah on the parsha. I was familiar with all the varieties except the Old Time Alt so that was one variety that we tried. The other beer that the three of us split was the black lager which is one of my favorites. (To see my review of the Shiner Bohemian Black Lager, click here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/08/sunday-night-suds-shiner-bohemian-black.html).

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Yosef S. had found Shiner in Hackensack, New Jersey as it meant that the great beer of Texas was gradually moving closer to New York. I had heard rumors that Shiner was being offered for sale in NJ and had emailed the company, looking for who might be carrying its brews.

Before getting into my thoughts on the Old Time Alt, I think that it would be prudent to define the style Altbeer as it is not a very common brew. For this I turn to the experts at BA, who explain that:

A Düsseldorf specialty, an Altbier is a German style brown ale, the alt literally translates to "old" in German, and traditionally Altbiers are conditioned for a longer than normal periods of time. Other sources note that "alt" is derived from the Latin word "altus," which means "high" and refers to the rising yeast. Take your pick, but the extended conditioning mellows out the ale's fruitiness and produces an exceptionally smooth and delicate brew. The color ranges from amber to dark brown, medium in carbonation with a great balance between malt and hops.

As Mrs KB and our friend noticed, I was having a very difficult time with the Shiner Old Time Alt. This was not due to a defect in the beer, it was my inexperience with the brew style and my palate's attempt to link the beer with my expectation or other brew style that I was familiar with. The beer had some maltiness and a spice that I just could not put my finger on. The beer was not very heavy (it rates at 4.20% abv which is on the low end of the spectrum of Altbeer). I would have liked to have tried two or more to see if I could get used to the flavor, but alas we only had one bottle which we split three ways before throwing the empty bottle away (again apologies for the lack of a picture).

Shiner Old Time Alt is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, although the brew does not bear the Va'ad symbol on its label. If you would like me to e-mail you the Va'ad LOC for Shiner Old Time Alt, send me an e-mail and I will gladly oblige.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Shiner Old Time Alt, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/143/64657.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Devarim

2011-08-04T23:57:00.003-04:00

Since there are no Rabbi Frand shiurim on the Parsha until Elul, I would like to substitute a vort from other Rabbanim each week, rather than leaving the blog without a vort for shabbos. This week, I am attempting to repeat a vort heard from R' Eli Mansour as recorded on www.learntorah.com. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to the maggid shiur.

R' Mansour observed that Sefer Devarim is called Mishne Torah and is essentially a repetition by Moshe of events which occurred previously. The gemara brings this point home when it asks why the parsha begins - Eleh Hadevarim "these are the things that Moshe said..." The gemara asks -- are these the only words of Moshe, hasn't Moshe been speaking for the last three seforim? The gemara answers that the previous speech was Moshe repeating what Hashem had told him to say. From this point on, Moshe was giving his own thoughts.

The first set of statements made by Moshe to the Jews was a rebuke. Moshe learned this from Ya'akov who waited until he was on his deathbed in Parshas Vayechi to tell his sons what they had been doing wrong. While a person is still alive and well, such statements could engender harsh feelings. Ya'akov's lesson which Moshe learned, is that when a person gives tochacha at the end of his life, it will generally be much better received.

R' Mansour noted that Moshe's rebuke to the Jews was very "pareve", meaning that it was mild and not meant to embarrass anyone in particular. The first pasuk of the parsha contains numerous places or landmarks which on the surface are meant to identify where the speech took place. However, if one were to review Parshas Matos, it would become evident that none of these places exist. The pasuk identifies places such as Lavan, Chatzeiros, Di Zahav and Mul Soof, but these locations are not found elsewhere in Chumash.

R' Mansour explained that Lavan was meant to remind the Jews about their complaints about the manna which was white. Rather than lacing into the Jews and telling them in detail about how wrong they were to complain about the manna, Moshe just says "white."

The use of the term Di Zahav (enough gold) was also meant to be a subtle reminder of sin. The Jews had enough gold, but they did not save it for a positive purpose. Instead, the Jews used the gold to construct the egel - the golden calf.

Another term used by Moshe was Mul Soof - you were by the splitting of the sea. However, this was meant to remind the Jews that they cried and complained and wanted to go back to Egypt before the sea was split.

R' Mansour then hypothesized that Moshe's oblique and respectful manner of rebuking the Jews might be the reason that Devarim is read before Tisha B'Av. The second temple was destroyed for not treating fellow Jews with respect. Moshe's lesson to the Jews is to not publicly rebuke others in a way that will embarrass them (unlike the Kamtza/Bar Kamtza story).

R' Mansour then made reference to two stories from Chumash which demonstrate the respect required in rebuking. When the Torah tells the story of Bilaam, the donkey who embarrassed Bilaam plays a central role in exposing to Bilaam the error of his ways. However, when the Bilaam story ends, the meforshim explain that Hashem commands that the donkey be killed. Why should the donkey be killed if it showed how evil Bilaam was? It should be put on a pedestal or in a museum! R' Mansour answered that the donkey had to be killed because everyone who looked at the donkey would remember the story and Bilaam's image will be tarnished. To avoid this embarrassment, the donkey had to be killed.

R' Mansour also related this concept to the story of Korach. After Korach and his followers challenged Aharon with their own attempts at offering Ketores, two hundred and fifty people were killed. After the story ended, Hashem commanded Elazar to clean up the mess. R' Mansour asked - why Elazar and not Aharon? R' Mansour answered that if Aharon had cleaned up the mess, it would have looked like he was gloating - I lived and you died! Therefore, Elazar was commanded to clean up after the others were killed.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed Vol I plus Bonus Nine Days Havdalah Guide

2011-07-31T23:07:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds begins a survey of the Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed Box and also includes a Nine Days Havdalah guide.

As mentioned in last week's SNS post, I have been in touch with the Star-K and have been advised that all five of the limited editions of the Latitude 48 IPA are in fact kosher. I'yh I will be reviewing them in various SNS columns over the next month or so.

One of the best new IPAs introduced during the last few years is the Samuel Adams Latitude 48. The name of the beer draws from the five types of hops used in the brew process which all grow along the 48th latitude within the "hop belt" of the Northern Hemisphere. Earlier this year, Samuel Adams introduced its limited edition Deconstructed Box which features beers brewed with just one of the five hop varieties used in the Latitude 48.

For this week's post I sampled the Hallertau Mitterfrueh version of the Latitude 48. As noted on the back of the bottle, the Hallertau Mitterfrueh is a traditional variety of Bavaria's Hallertau hops. These hops are added at three points during the brew process - bittering, late kettle and dry hopping. Hallertau Mitterfrueh hops contribute a soft bitterness, along with delicate lemony citrus and resinous pine notes, balanced by a slight sweetness and full body from the five different malts.

From the moment that I opened the bottle and well before I poured it into my Samuel Adams glass, I could smell the hops in this brew. However, the dark amber beer was not as bitter as I expected and was quite drinkable. The beer held its lacing for a long time and the aftertaste lingered, even after I snuck a piece of Sarah's chocolate cake.

As discussed above, Samuel Adams Latitude 48 Hallertau Mittelfrueh Kolsch is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this version of Latitude 48, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/68396.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Bonus section - 9 days Havdalah Guide

In years past, my email and cell phone have begun receiving messages prior to shabbos chazon (the Saturday within the summer nine days mourning period) with questions as to what would be a good choice to make havdalah on. By way of introduction, on Saturday nights after the evening prayer is said, Jews have a special set of blessings that are said by which we separate between the holy shabbos and the rest of the week. There is a custom to say this prayer on a cup of wine, however this custom needs modification when the Saturday falls during the nine days of mourning.

As noted by the Orthodox Union on their website:

Meat and wine are prohibited during the Nine Days, except on Shabbat. Meat and wine are associated both with joy AND with Temple service. Both reasons combine to explain this prohibition.Even though havdala is officially after Shabbat, one is permitted to drink wine. It is preferable to give the wine to a child who is old enough to understand brachot but not yet old enough to understand the concept of "mourning for Jerusalem". Alternately, some authorities recommend the use of a substitute beverage for havdala such as fruit juice, beer, etc. Other authorities insist on wine as usual.

Should your local Rabbi direct you to utilize non-wine in your havdalah, there are multiple options to use to fulfill the havdalah requirement. Indeed, my father in law will use diet soda (or as he says "diet pop"). I recall as a child seeing my father on one occasion use hard alcohol for havdalah (and then burn the decorative plate my sibling made when he tried to put out the candle).

To me, the simplest answer to the havdalah dilemma (and one that is widely recommended by rabbinic authorities) is to use beer, which in the time of the talmud was called chamra d'medina - the wine of the masses. This brings us to the reason I get more summer phone calls and email around this time every year - which beer would I recommend?

The number one problem with the question is that most people who ask it don't generally drink beer, so they need to have something to use for havdalah that won't have them making faces in their attempt to drink the halachic minimum level for the blessing. The second problem is that since the havdalah cup is imbibed on its own (i.e. without the benefit of food) people who might be inclined to have a beer with a meal will still have problems finishing their cup when the beer is consumed on its own.

The easiest solution is not to have beer, but instead to make havdalah on what is commonly called alcopop. These are malt beverage drinks with some similarities to beer and a beer-like 5% alcohol content by volume, but do not have the beer taste. Some examples are the Boston Beer Company (aka Sam Adams) Twisted Teas or the Smirnoff Twisted V/Twisted Ice line. Please be aware that not every flavor of Smirnoff is certified Kosher. Indeed, the last time I looked at the CRC list, only the following flavors were certified kosher: Green Apple, Mango, Passionfruit, Raspberry Burst, Watermelon and Wild Grape (I am unaware of whether there is actual grape in this beverage). For the complete list of those Smirnoff products and other alcopops approved by the CRC, please click here http://www.crcweb.org/kosher/consumer/liquorList.html#Beer .

If you do like beer, or would like to drink something that is more manly than alcopop, the next step up would be an American wheat beer or some of the better Summer Ales. Many of these beers have been reviewed on the pages of this blog and you can search through prior Sunday Night Suds reviews to find one that might appeal to you.

If you are a beer aficionado, you obviously won't need this post to tell you which ale or lager you should crack open for havdalah.

May the world have a tikkun from our three weeks/nine days observances and may tisha b'av soon be transformed to the holiday that the gemara tells it will be in the times of moshiach bimheira biyamenu.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Masei

2011-07-28T23:52:00.002-04:00

Normally, the Thursday night parsha post on this blog slot contains a thought said over by R' Frand in his satellite shiur. Since the shiur is now on hiatus through Elul, I will be substituting with divrei torah found in other sources. This week I have attempted to summarize a vort from R' Mansour which can be found at www.learntorah.com and have tied it into a thought I wrote on years ago. As always, if the p'shat appears to be incorrect, it is a result of my efforts to convey the thought that I found in the sefer or shiur.

R' Mansour noted that there are 42 stops which are enumerated in Parshas Masei. He explained that each of the stops has significance and gave the classic example that the 25th stop was in Chashmona. Hundreds of years later, the Chashmonaim would lead the Jews in a rebellion against the Yevanim and miracles would occur on the 25th of Kislev.

R' Mansour then began a fascinating discussion wherein he connected the Jews travails in Egypt and the desert to the four exiles. R' Mansour tied each of the exiles to the first four words of the parsha - Eleh Masei B'nei Yisrael: Eleh begins with an Alef which signifies Edom; Masei begins with a Mem which signifies Maddai; B'nei begins with a Bet which signifies Bavel and Yisrael begins with a Yud which ties to Yavan.

R' Mansour then explored this concept more deeply by looking at the trup on the first pasuk. The word Eleh has an (azla) geresh - showing that the Jews would be exiled. The word Yisrael has a revi'i, signifying that the Jews would be exiled four times. However, the Jews also pray for the redemption from galus on a daily basis in shmoneh esreh. We say three (and sometimes four or five) times per day - u'mavi goel l'vnei b'neihem - mavi is spelled Mem Bet Yud Alef - Hashem, the goel will redeem us from the galuyos of Madai, Bavel, Yavan and Edom.

R' Mansour also tied his discussion into the exile of Egypt. We mention yitzias mitzrayim in our prayers in the morning and evening and have many mitzvos to remember the leaving of Egypt. Although Egypt is not listed among the four exiles, it actually was the paradigm of exile and each of the four exiles are an offshoot of the exile in Egypt. R' Mansour explained that on the night of the seder we drink four cups, to signify one of the four exiles. It is well known that the four cups connect with the four languages of redemption which appear in chumash. On the surface the words all appear to be similar - you took us out, you saved us, you redeemed us from Egypt and you brought us. However, these l'shonos are not merely redundant - they are symbolic of the four exiles that we will be in - each very different and the four times that we will be saved from exile (bsd).

R' Mansour quoted the Belzer Rebbi who noted that we went down to Egypt four times and we left four times. The brothers of Yosef went to Egypt to get food, then they went back to get Binyamin, they then came down again with Binyamin and left again to get Ya'akov, they went down a third time with Ya'akov and left to bury Ya'akov. They came back from burying Ya'akov (the fourth trip down) and left the fourth and final time when Hashem redeemed the Jews from Egypt.

Leaving the vort said by R' Mansur, it is worth noting that Masei also discussed personal exile which is required by an unintentional killing. In Masei 35:9-34, the Torah discusses the establishment of "Arei Miklat" - cities of refuge where people who killed b'shogeg (translated for our purposes as unintentionally) would travel to escape the goel hadam - the avenger of the blood of the deceased. The Torah devotes a great deal of time to the discussion of the establishment of the cities and to which types of acts would qualify as unintentional and allow for the killer to seek refuge.

Prior to actually detailing the laws of the Arei Miklat, the Torah alludes to their establishment. In Masei 35:6, the Torah indicates that Hashem directed the Jews to set up six cities which will be Arei Miklat and that the levi'im will have an additional forty-two cities in addition to those six cities. The sefer Ohev Yisrael (as brought in the Ma'ayana Shel Torah) teaches that the six cities are in accordance with the six words which comprise the Shma Yisrael. The Ohev Yisrael then says that the words "V'aleihem Titnu" that on those six cities you should provide an additional forty-two cities (totalling 48 cities) are in accordance with the forty-eight words of the V'ahavta portion of the Shma. The Ohev Yisroel explains that the six words of the Shma and the forty-eight words of the V'ahavta are our cities of refuge, providing a place for all the Jews to seek protection, even if they committed an evil deed. By accepting Hashem through the recitation of the shma, the Jew will gain the protection from the goel hadam - the negative angels that are created as a result of his act.

The Chidushei Harim (also brought down in the Ma'ayana Shel Torah) explains the manner in which the city of refuge functioned. He states that if a person killed unintentionally and is so guilt wracked that there is nowhere that he feels comfortable due to his bitterness and self loathing over the killing, then Hashem says to the person - I have a place for you, the city of refuge will take you in. On the other hand, if the person is not distraught over the killing and is comfortable where he resides, the city of refuge will not take him in and he will not have a place in the ir miklat.

The Ma'ayana Shel Torah then brings the Sfas Emes who analogizes this concept taught by the Chidushei Harim to the high holidays. If a person feels true guilt over his misdeeds during the year and pours out his heart on Yom Kippur and accepts on himself to repent from his sins which cause him to feel that he has no place in this world, then Hashem says to the person - I have a place that can take you in -- the walls of the Sukkah will envelop you and protect you from evil.

I once heard a similar thought from R' Zev Cohen of the Adas Yeshurun in Chicago. He talked about how after the person has gone through Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and poured out his heart, he enters the Sukkah which is Hashem's way of giving the Jews a big reassuring hug.

I would like to discuss one additional point. The Rambam in Hilchos Rotzeach 8:5 writes that the Beis Din must prepare paths to the ir miklat and widen them as required. They must also smooth out the path and prepare bridges. If the way to the ir miklat requires one to take a road that forks, the Beis Din must set up a clear sign so that the person can swiftly get to the ir miklat and escape the goel hadam.

I feel that the acts that the Beis Din does are precisely like what Hashem does for us before the High Holidays. The chazal teach us "Haba Litaher Misayin Oso" - one who wants to repent, Hashem helps him to do so. The same way that the Beis Din set up the road to allow access to one who truly agonizes over his acts and wants to seek refuge in the ir miklat, so too Hashem makes our way to teshuva accessible before Yom Kippur so that we can be enveloped in the protective hug of the sukkah.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - Of Men, Motivation and Memories - Baseball Hall of Fame Edition

2011-07-25T23:54:00.003-04:00

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams - East-West Kolsch

2011-07-25T21:37:00.004-04:00

This week's belated Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams' East-West Kolsch.

[I would like to apologize to the loyal kosher beers fanatics for my inability to post the Sunday Night Suds column in its regular slot. Although there are weeks where I will miss some posts, I have been endeavoring to always post a weekly Sunday Night Suds column so as to broaden the kosher market's understanding and appreciation of good beer. Unfortunately, due to some travel and technology restrictions, I am unable to post the SNS column on Sunday. Rather than skipping the post for the duration of the summer, I will be posting it on Mondays instead. I hope to return to the regular format of Sunday posting by late August].

Although I have reviewed a Kolsch twice before (to see my July 2010 review of Joseph's Brau Summer Brew click here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-night-suds-josephs-brau-summer.html; to see the August 2008 review of the Saranac Kolsch, click here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/08/sunday-night-suds-saranac-kolsch-ale.html), I have never defined the Kolsch style. As such, I reproduce below the definition of the style from the gurus at BA:

First only brewed in Köln, Germany, now many American brewpubs and a hand full of breweries have created their own version of this obscure style. Light to medium in body with a very pale color, hop bitterness is medium to slightly assertive. A somewhat vinous (grape-y from malts) and dry flavor make up the rest.

The Samuel Adams Kolsch poured the characteristic pale yellow, with a small amount of foam which stayed with the beer for a long period of time. The beer had some hop bite, but also a very interesting flavor and scent from the Jasmine Sambac - a Southeast Asian flower which was added to the brew process.

The beer is quite drinkable and one would be hard pressed to identify that the beer is around 5% abv (its actually 5.1%) as the alcohol is hardly noticeable. The beer would go well with spicy poultry dishes and if they ever sold this in a sixer, might go very well all by itself. Unfortunately, it is only sold as part of the Beers of Summer mix box so there is no chance of that at the moment.

Samuel Adams East-West Kolsch is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label. The kashruth can be confirmed by clicking on the link to the Star-K LOC here - http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_6635_bostonbeercompany.pdf.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the East-West Kolsch, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/67040.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

***NOTE*** I have been in touch with the Star-K in relation to the Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA Deconstructed Special Edition Box and have been advised that all five varieties in the Deconstructed Series are kosher. It is my understanding that an updated LOC will be issued by the Star-K which will explicitly mention each of the five new versions. I hope iyh to review them over the next few months.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Matos

2011-07-21T23:08:00.002-04:00

Normally, the Thursday night parsha post on this blog slot contains a thought said over by R' Frand in his satellite shiur. Since the shiur is now on hiatus through Elul, I will be substituting with divrei torah found in other sources. As always, if the p'shat appears to be incorrect, it is a result of my efforts to convey the thought that I found in the sefer.

In Matos 31:2, Moshe is told by Hashem to take revenge against the people of Midyan. Rashi brings the Sifri who explains the reason the Jews were told to take revenge against the people of Midyan and not the people of Moab. The Sifri explains that the people of Moab had a reason to go to war against the Jews, since they were concerned that the Jews were going to make life difficult for them. Meanwhile, the people of Midyan got involved in a feud that had nothing to do with them, so Hashem instructed the Jews to go to war against them.

The Yalkut Lekach Tov cites the Orchos Chayim (by way of the sefer Zichron Mayir) to explain the lowliness of of someone who gets involved in someone else's argument. When people fight, it is usually in relation to a specific item or problem. If down the road they resolve the issue, the relationship can be similarly mended. On the other hand, if there was never a basis for involvement in the feud there is no easy way to resolve the dispute, as we cannot say that now that the problem is solved, go back to the way things were.

This problem of fighting or hating for no reason (sinas chinam) is viewed as a destructive force. The gemara in Shabbos 32a writes that because one hates for no reason, a person will then have feuds within their own home, one's wife will have miscarriages and children will die.

The Yalkut Lekach Tov brings another proof to how seriously sinas chinam is viewed. In the Yom Kippur davening, after Modim we say a prayer that begins "Avinu Malkeinu Z'chor Rachamecha" (our father, our king, remember your mercy). As part of this prayer, we ask Hashem to remove an exhaustive list of problems from our midst, including pestilence, war, destruction... The last item in the list is sinas chinam. It is known from the gemara in Bava Basra 8b that lists generally go from light to heavy - thus showing how seriously sinas chinam is viewed.

In order to remedy the problem of sinas chinam, the sages instruct us to engage in ahavas chinam, to love one's neighbor - not because you admire any one of his qualities, just because he is a fellow Jew. Occasionally, you will meet people who radiate ahavas chinam - the person that comes to mind as the modern day icon of ahavas chinam is R' Meir Schuster of the Heritage House, who should have refuah sheleimah. (To read more about R' Schuster, click here http://rebmeirschuster.org )

The interplay of sinas chinam and ahavas chinam can be seen in the Shoshanas Ya'acov prayer read after the megilla on Purim. The Yalkut Lecach Tov discusses how the prayer contrasts opposites - but in so doing seems to be terse. Within the prayer we say cursed is Haman who sought to destroy us, blessed is Mordechai the Jew. Why does the prayer augment Haman while merely praising Mordechai for being jewish? The answer is that even to hate a Haman (like the Midyanites in the parsha) there needs to be a reason - because he sought to destroy us. On the other hand there is no specific reason needed to justify blessing Mordechai - we should do so simply because he is a Jew, notwithstanding his admirable feats.

In this time of sorrow (as we have commenced the three weeks of mourning) we can learn from the way that Midyanites are treated and try to engage in ahavas chinam.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - The Strike is Over, But What Happens Next?

2011-07-18T23:08:00.004-04:00

Sunday Night Suds - Redhook Mudslinger Spring Ale

2011-07-18T21:15:00.004-04:00

This week's belated Sunday Night Suds looks at Redhook's Mudslinger Spring Ale and at the same time bides farewell to an old friend.

[I again would like to apologize to the loyal kosher beers fanatics for my inability to post the Sunday Night Suds column in its regular slot. Although there are weeks where I will miss some posts, I have been endeavoring to always post a weekly Sunday Night Suds column so as to broaden the kosher market's understanding and appreciation of good beer. Unfortunately, due to Frontier Communications' unreliable service at Camp M, I was again unable to post the SNS column on Sunday. I hope to return to the regular format of Sunday posting by late August].

When I was beginning my journey from macrobreweries to craft brewers, I came across the bi coastal Redhook Brewery. I can still recall being in a beer store on Jericho Turnpike in Bellerose in 2004/2005 when I noticed a beer with an OU on the bottle neck. I picked up a six pack of Redhook ESB and soon thereafter a six pack of Redhook Blonde and my infatuation began to bloom. A few months later I found myself in the walk-in cooler in Walton, NY, trying to figure out how many six packs of different Redhook I could justify bringing back to the car under the watchful eye of Mrs KB. I began to look for Redhook in off the beaten path beer stores and even browsed their website looking for the golden Redhook beers - seasonal limited editions. The fruits of my labors found their way onto the pages of this blog with reviews of Expedition 8-4-1 and my favorite Redhook seasonal - Trippel.

With the above introduction in mind, I regretfully announce that Redhook has been decertified by the Orthodox Union as of March 31, 2011. I have confirmed with the OU that any remaining stock of Redhook which bear the OU is acceptable, however future production runs will not be under the kosher supervision of the Orthodox Union.

The Mudslinger Spring Ale pours a light brown with a small amount of foam. The first taste of the ale brings a surprising richness of flavor, reminiscent of the Expedition 8-4-1. The second and third sips revealed some caramel and a bit of chocolate. Sarah and I enjoyed this beer by itself after Friday night supper and truly savored its richness.

Redhook Mudslinger Spring Ale bearing the OU is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union. For the experts' take on the Mudslinger Spring Ale please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18134/55264.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Pinchas

2011-07-14T23:34:00.002-04:00

The following is a brief summary of two thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand began by quoting a pasuk in Tehillim which states Vaya'mod Pinchas Vayipallel. The gemara in Sanhedrin 44 states that the pasuk does not use the term Vayispallel (meaning that he prayed) and instead uses the term Vayipallel which the gemara interprets that Pinchas argued with Hashem and presented legal arguments to save the Jews. In so doing, Pinchas argued to Hashem - why kill 24,000 people because of the acts of these two insignificant people?

R' Frand quoted R' Albo in Sefer Ha'ikrim who asked - how does prayer help us? Indeed, if Hashem has decided that a person should be sick, how does the prayer help him recover? R' Albo explains that prayer changes the person and makes him into another individual. He further explains that while person x may have been the subject of the gezeirah, this person is no longer person x.

R' Frand then noted that the word for prayer - mispallel - is reflexive as it connotes doing an action to one's self. The reason for the conjugation is that a person's prayer works a change in that person and therefore he is doing an action to himself.

Pinchas did not pray for himself as he did not need to change and he himself had not sinned. As such Tehillim states that Pinchas was arguing - Vayipallel - arguing that Hashem should save the Jews.

Another vort said by R' Frand this evening related to Pinchas' lineage. The Torah explains that Pinchas was not a Kohen prior to his actions in killing Zimri and Kozbi. Rashi on Bamidbar 25:13 explains that even though the kehuna had been given to Aharon and his sons, Pinchas did not receive the kehuna because he was already born at the time and could not inherit it by birth. Furthermore, since he was under the age of majority he was too young to be anointed. As such, Pinchas (until the 40th year in the desert) lived his life as a non-kohen, even though his father and brothers were kohanim.

R' Frand quoted R' Gedalyah Shore in the sefer Ohr Gedalyahu who explained that Pinchas' life without kehuna was part of Hashem's master plan. Had Pinchas been a kohen when he killed, he would have lost his capacity to act as a kohen, since (according to the Zohar) a kohen who kills is forbidden to serve as a kohen. Therefore, Hashem did a favor for Pinchas by not giving him kehuna so that when he killed he did not lose his position.

R' Frand then added in the name of R' Shore that if Pinchas was a minor when he lost out on kehuna and was six at the time, he then spent forty years thinking that he had lost out. Indeed, because of an accident of birth he was not a kohen, even though his relatives had the title. Pinchas went around for forty years thinking - what does Hashem have against me?

However, Pinchas learned later that Hashem was doing him a favor by not making him a kohen early in life, thus permitting him to act against Zimri. The lesson he learned was that although he did not understand the reason that he was deprived of kehuna - this happened for a reason. Pinchas was lucky enough to learn the lesson and understand why this occurred while he was still alive.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Chullin 16

2011-07-13T09:20:00.003-04:00

Due to some time pressures, I have been unable to regularly post the Tuesday's daf post, but a story that I heard in a Rabbi Rosner shiur on the daf (available at www.projectsinai.org/dafyomi/) made me feel compelled to write this week's post.

The gemara on Chullin 15b and 16a discusses whether a proper shechita can be accomplished through the use of a machine. As explained in the gemara, there was a mechanism by which a knife could be driven back and forth to cause the cutting the simanim. The gemara originally permitted this when the mechanism was driven by human force (a potter's wheel) but not when the force was the result of water power. The gemara then hypothesized that even when water power was utilized, the shechita still may be permissible if the cut was made by the first release of water by a person.

Following his recitation of the gemara's discussion, R' Rosner took a sidebar to talk about other machines in halacha. One of the machines he discussed was the one used to make machine matzas. R' Rosner then told a story involving the maggid of Yeushalaim who found himself abroad close to Pesach. Since R' Schwadrun was concerned that he would not make it back home in time for Pesach, he had brought some machine matza with him. When it became certain that he would not make it back to Israel for Pesach, he began to look for a place to stay for Yom Tov. As part of these conversations, he mentioned that he had his own matza and that he would be less of a burden to his hosts. As related by R' Rosner, R' Schwadrun was turned down two or three times by people who did not want machine matza in their homes as they deemed it chametz. Finally, R' Schwadrun found a place to stay, but still they wanted him to promise that he would use precautions when eating his machine matza so that the crumbs would not mix with Pesach products.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - Jeter's 3000th Hit and Whose Ball Is It?

2011-07-12T00:28:00.004-04:00

All of this was forgotten when Jeter went 5 for 5 including a home run which put him at the magical number of 3000. The fact that the 3000th hit was a home run complicated matters for Jeter as the ball left the field of play and landed in the hands of a fan. As regular baseball watchers know, when a player has a momentous hit, the baseball is usually taken out of play and brought to the dugout for the player to add to his trophy case. Had Jeter only gotten a base hit, the ball would have been given to him with no added intrigue. However, since this ball was caught by Mr. Lopez, negotiations were required in order to obtain the ball.

To his credit, the 24 year old cell phone salesman who caught the home run ball did not attempt to sell the ball at auction, or demand a king's ransom in exchange for the ball. The news reports indicate that Lopez said that Jeter deserved the ball as he had earned this feat and that Lopez only wanted to meet him. The Yankees arranged the meeting and "compensated" Lopez by providing him with signed bats, balls and special seats at Yankee Stadium for the remainder of the season.

Lopez' actions were the topic of hot debate following his magnanimous gesture, as pundits and fans argued over whether the ball actually belonged to the player and whether they would have given up the "lottery ticket" ball. I heard an interview with former a big leaguer on the Mike & Mike show (I can't recall his identity) who agreed that the ball belonged to the fan and not the player. Still, Lopez was lauded for his action in giving up his quite valuable souvenir.

The conversation made me think about what the Torah perspective would be about the controversy. There is a mitzva in the Torah of hashavas aveidah - returning lost objects to their rightful owner. However, this object never belonged to Derek Jeter, it was a regular major league baseball which had the "luck" of being struck at a particular time. No one would argue that a foul ball should be returned by a fan, yet there is really no difference between the two balls.

So if halacha did not require the return of the ball, was there any reason for Lopez to return it. In my opinion, the answer may lie in the concept of hakaras hatov. There is a general principal of giving recognition for the good done for you by others. If Lopez wanted to show Jeter his appreciation for Jeter's years of service to the Yankees and Lopez' enjoyment of watching Jeter play, he could return the ball as a gesture of hakaras hatov. While this may not have been Lopez' motivation, it can't hurt to imagine that it played a role in his thought processes.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Belated Sunday Night Suds - Sprecher Hefe Weiss

2011-07-11T23:48:00.004-04:00

This week's (belated) Sunday Night Suds looks at Sprecher's Hefe Weiss.

[I would like to apologize to the loyal kosher beers fanatics for my inability to post the Sunday Night Suds column in its regular slot. Although there are weeks where I will miss some posts, I have been endeavoring to always post a weekly Sunday Night Suds column so as to broaden the kosher market's understanding and appreciation of good beer. Unfortunately, due to some travel and technology restrictions, I am unable to post the SNS column on Sunday. Rather than skipping the post for the duration of the summer, I will be posting it on Mondays instead. I hope to return to the regular format of Sunday posting by late August].

As it has been more than a year since I have reviewed a Hefeweizen in this column, I have set forth below the BA definition of what a Hefeweizen should be:

A south German style of wheat beer (weissbier) made with a typical ratio of 50:50, or even higher, wheat. A yeast that produces a unique phenolic flavors of banana and cloves with an often dry and tart edge, some spiciness, bubblegum or notes of apples. Little hop bitterness, and a moderate level of alcohol. The "Hefe" prefix means "with yeast", hence the beers unfiltered and cloudy appearance. Poured into a traditional Weizen glass...

Often served with a lemon wedge (popularized by Americans), to either cut the wheat or yeast edge, which many either find to be a flavorful snap ... or an insult and something that damages the beer's taste and head retention.

With the above definition in mind, I turn to the Sprecher Hefe Weiss and try to compare it with its class of beer and fall flat on my face. Contrary to every Hefe Weiss that I have ever tasted, this beer poured a clear amber without a single floater anywhere in the glass. I was very surprised by this development and checked the label, but the copywriter has indicated that the Sprecher Hefe Weiss is coarse filtered. Evidently, all the coarse pieces must have gotten stuck in the filter when they bottled the Hefe Weiss that I drank tonight.

Getting past the appearance of the beer, the Sprecher Hefe Weiss did have some banana and clove like flavor, but they were light in comparison with some of the more authentic banana bread like Hefeweizen beers such as Brooklyn Brewery's Weisse Beer or Shiner's Hefeweizen.

I would not generally recommend this beer as it really is rather weak and is not representative of the class of brews whose name it bears. Still, if you are looking for a gentle introduction to Hefeweizens, maybe this beer is for you.

Sprecher Hefe Weiss is certified kosher by the Wisconsin K. There is a logo on the four pack holder as well as the bottle label. For the experts' take on the Sprecher Hefe Weiss please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/144/802.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Balak

2011-07-07T23:38:00.002-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand noted that Parshas Balak contains the berachos/klallos that Bilam was hired to give the Jewish people. Chazal teach that Bilam was a prophet, and in fact was on the level of Moshe Rabbeinu based on his level of nevius. Rashi explains that the reason why Hashem gave Bilam superior powers of prophecy (without Bilam possessing the qualities which justify receipt of nevuah as listed in the Rambam) was to preempt the other nations' potential claim that if they had nevi'im they would have reached the level of the Jewish people. Therefore, Hashem gave them a navi, but they used Bilaam to allow them to be mafkir their women for znus to seduce the Jews.

The question that remains is - how is this a level playing field? Moshe was a tzaddik, so people listened. Bilam was not on the same level of demanding respect as Moshe as he was on a low moral level. How can Bilam = Moshe to make the situation equal?

R' Frand answered the question by quoting R' Ya'akov Galinsky who theorized that a navi is never greater than the people he preaches to. If there is a high level of society - they will get a high level prophet. However, if the society is depraved, they will get a depraved prophet like Bilam. This can be seen by the sin of the golden calf - Moshe is told to go down and see the Jews. But Rashi explains that this means that Moshe should go down from his high level - because when the people fall, the navi falls. Similarly, by the kohen it says in Vayikra that the one who is annointed will fall if the people fall.

R' Frand next brought a proof by citing to the story of the battle between the Jews and Amalek. The mishna in Rosh Hashana asked on the story - did the fact that Moshe's hands were raised cause the Jews to succeed in battle? The answer is that no, it was not Moshe's hands. Rather, when the Jews were doing Hashem's will, then Moshe was able to raise his hands and they would succeed in battle. When the Jews faltered, then Moshe lost some of his strength.

R' Frand then stated in the name of R Galinsky that Moshe and Bilam had the same potential. Bilam did not need to become a degenerate. Rather, Bilam became what he was as a reflection of the people.

R' Frand then quoted a medrash which states that Hashem showed Moshe all of the generations of the Jews. This included the tzadikim as well as the thieves and criminals of each generation. Why does Moshe need to know this? Because Moshe asked, why were there no prophets after the destruction of the second Beis Hamikdash? To this Hashem responded - look at this generation! The navi is dependent on his generation to achieve his potential. In the potential, Bilam could have been Moshe, but he was restrained by his audience.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - A Tale of Three Managers

2011-07-05T23:58:00.001-04:00

Belated Sunday Night Suds - Milwaukee's Best Premium Beer

2011-07-05T23:26:00.004-04:00

This week's belated Sunday Night Suds looks at the Miller Brewing Company's Milwaukee's Best Premium beer.

[As regular readers of this blog are aware, every summer Mrs KB and the kids go away to summer camp at Camp M and I do the drive up and back every weekend. As the local phone company monopoly has still not done the install of Mrs KB's Internet, I am unable to post to the blog until I return to my home. As such, posts such as the instant one can be posted one or even two days late. My apologies for any inconvenience.]

As discussed in last week's Sunday Night Suds, I made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing some of Miller's Milwaukee's Best at a gas station when I chose quantity over quality. Having reviewed the "Best Ice" last week, this week's post examines the second of the two for $2 24 oz cans - Milwaukee's Best Premium beer.

Although the top of the beer can says that this beer is "brewed for freshness and classic taste" I would suggest that much like the rest of the packaging, there is no truth in advertising. The beer does not have a classic taste, unless you are comparing it to other macrolagers such as Budweiser. However there is a bright side as the lack of beer taste/aroma means that if you leave a can of the Milwaukee's Best Premium open, your can won't attract flies.

As I wrote the above paragraph I winced and thought to myself that maybe I was being a little too harsh in my review. Then I took another sip and was reassured in my original assessment.

Milwaukee's Best Premium would be a good beer to have around if you have neighbors who you don't care for who like to hit you up for freebies. However, since I like my neighbors I will not be picking up anymore of this brew.

Milwaukee's Best Premium is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, although like many of the Miller family of beers, there is no kosher certification on the label. If you would like to see the OU's letter of certification, please e-mail me at your convenience.

For the experts take on Milwaukee's Best Premium, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/105/1286.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Chukas

2011-06-30T23:54:00.004-04:00

In Bamidbar 21:4-10, the Torah recounts the story of the Jews' complaint about the manna and the Jews punishment for speaking out. The Torah states that the Jews complained that there was no food or water and their souls were disgusted by the "lechem haklokel" - the insubstantial food. As a result of their complaints, Hashem sent the snakes which bit the people and many Jews died. When the Jews ran to Moshe to save them, Hashem told Moshe to make a copper snake and put it on a high pole and that anyone who looks at it will live.

R' Frand asked a series of question about the above story. His first question was - why did the Jews complain about the manna? The manna tasted like whatever the consumer wished it to taste. If he wanted meat it would be meat and if he wished for dairy it would taste like dairy. The medrash explains that the manna's miracle also included that it would not become waste in a person's body. So why did the Jews complain about the manna?

R' Frand's next question was --why did Hashem punish the Jews with snakes? Why not have them struck by lightning or drop dead immediately?

R' Frand's final question on this point had to with the treatment for the plague. Why were the Jews saved by looking up at a snake atop a pole?

R' Frand answered the questions by citing to his son Ya'akov who said in the name of R' Bukspan that the answer lies in a gemara in Yevamos. The gemara asked - why is is that the manna fell daily and not once a year? The gemara answered by way of a mashal about a King who needed to provide for his son. The king would give his son an allowance once a year. Not coincidentally, this was also the only time that the king would see his son. The king changed his habit and began to give his son his needs on a daily basis. As a result, he would see his son much more often.

R' Frand then connected the mashal to the Jews in the desert. Since the manna fell daily and would spoil if kept an extra day, the Jews needed to go out and gather manna every day. Thus a man with a family would worry on a daily basis as to whether there would be manna the following day. The Jews complained about the manna because they did not want to be beholden to Hashem and need to seek him out for sustenance on a daily basis.

R' Frand then cited to the Sfas Emes who observed that the snake in Bereishis received a curious punishment. Hashem tells the snake that he will crawl on his stomach and eat dirt. On the surface, this appears to be a blessing as the snake will never want for food. However, on a deeper level it is apparent that it was truly a punishment. Hashem in effect said to the snake - I don't want to see you ever again. You can eat eat all the dirt you want, just don't come back to me.

R' Frand explained that it was for this reason that the snake was chosen as the method of punishment. Hashem was saying to the Jews - you don't want to depend on Me on a daily basis for food? Well, if you want to be like the snake, then I will send the snakes after you.

R' Frand concluded the vort by stating that the cure for the plague of snakes was more than just looking at a copper snake. It was looking at a snake which was raised up on a pole. Hashem was thus hinting to the Jews - if you look up and recognize that it all comes from Me, then you will be saved.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Postscript - I have been contacted by Rabbi Bukspan and he has graciously allowed me to post his vort which Rabbi Frand quoted. The link to the complete vort is here https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1k3KVOHH1DPR5x4xZSG1yFXgkMxpFE-HJ1XNkcWO3vlCrxFU-2IBp_dezuNlP&hl=en_US

Belated Sunday Night Suds - Milwaukee's Best Ice

2011-06-27T21:16:00.004-04:00

This week's (belated) Sunday Night Suds looks at Milwaukee's Best Ice.

[Ed note - apologies for the late posting sans photo. As discussed below, we only arrived at Camp M after 11 on Sunday Night and I accidentally tossed the only can of the beer reviewed without thinking about taking a picture].

As yesterday was move up day for staff at Camp M, I engaged in my usual move up day activity of taking my younger children on a day trip so that Mrs Kosher B and my oldest could unpack at camp without needing to supervise the other three.

This year our trek took up to Dorney Park in Allentown, PA. The park is much smaller than Great Adventure, but it was the perfect size for us and offered enough diversity to satisfy my six, nine and eleven year old.

When we finished our day at Dorney, the next stop was Dougie's BBQ in Woodbourne, NY. After a few false starts (things being on the menu but not available for order and then things being ordered but not packed in our bag) we left Woodbourne for the trek up to Camp M. With a dinner bag filled with burgers, spicy fries, fire poppers and chili, I knew that I needed to make a stop to pick up cold beer for Mrs Kosher B and me. Since my usual beer haunts were closed at 11 PM on a Sunday, I went into the local gas station on Rte 8 in Sidney, NY to see what they had in the cooler. I decided to for quantity over quality and picked up a 24 oz can of Milwaukee's Best Ice and a 24 oz can of Milwaukee's Best Premium (on sale at 2 for $2).

As the adage goes, quality is better than quantity. Although the 24 oz can provided us with enough beer to go with our Dougie's dinner, the beer would have been better off staying in the gas station cooler. The Milwaukee's Best Ice (talk about deceptive advertising) was completely devoid of taste and only resembled beer based on its smell. This was particularly surprising given the fact that it claims to b 5.9% abv. However, the beer did not have any kick or bite and any flavor seemed to have been washed out in the ice brew process. The beer did not clash with the full flavored Dougie's bbq fare, but it no more blended with it than water.

Milwaukee's Best Ice is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, although like many of the Miller family of beers, there is no kosher certification on the label. If you would like to see the OU's letter of certification, please e-mail me at your convenience.

For the experts take on Milwaukee's Best Ice, please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/105/1484.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Korach

2011-06-24T00:07:00.003-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Rabbi Frand characterized Parshas Korach as having one of the most troubling incidents in the Torah -- when Korach challenges Moshe. After Moshe attempts unsuccessfully to appease Korach, Moshe tells the Jews at Bamidbar 16:30 that there will be a test. If the earth opens up and swallows up Korach and his cohorts, then you will know that Hashem chose Moshe to be the leader.

Rashi on the pasuk states that the opening of the earth will be a form of death that has never happened before and will never happen again. Rabbi Frand asked on this Rashi, why is it that the form of death had to be that the earth would open up? Couldn't the death have been a lightning strike or snake bite? Why did it have to be a form of death which never happened before or after?

R' Frand quoted the Margolies Hayam on Gemara Sanhedrin 109b who states in the name of the Belzer Rav (1913) who himself stated in the name of his father that this form of death was a way to show mercy to these people. Since the death was not instantaneous, the people had an opportunity to do teshuva before the earth closed over them. The gemara states in Bava Basra that people who have walked by this place heard people saying Moshe Emes V'Soraso Emes and this only came because the people had an opportunity and did do teshuva before they died.

R' Frand then quoted the Tolner Rebbi who stated that the way that Korach got people to buy into his argument was by selling the concept of equality - everyone is holy, everyone is the same. Korach had his own special form of communism - "Korachism" - everyone is equal and why should Moshe be the leader or Aharon the Kohain Gadol?

The Zohar states Korach took his concept of equality to the extreme and had a problem with the concept of shabbos. Korach said that all days are the same, so why do we act differently on shabbos?

Hashem's response to Korach is that there are differences in the world including differences between people, between shabbos and the weekday and holy and impure. Hashem shows these differences through the earth. The earth gives forth different fruits and vegetables - they are not all the same. The earth supports different animals - they are not all shaped nor fed the same way. The earth shows that Hashem wants symphony - different things that work together well. This is the concept of people - we are all different but can work togther to a common goal. Hashem then says to Korach - this is My earth and you can walk on it as long as you subscribe to My theory that there are differences. But if you argue with My theory and say that things all should be the same - you can't walk on My earth anymore.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Laker Ale

2011-06-19T22:46:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Laker Ale.

As the summer draws closer the beers turn lighter and lighter. We had a family over for lunch this past shabbos and as usually happens after the gefilte fish course, the topic turned to beer. (Of course the reason for this is that at this point I usually start to serve the beer). My friend Dan S asked me for a recommendation of a summer ale to bring to a father's day barbecue that he would be attending today. I asked whether his host had given him any guidance as to the kind of beer that he liked and Dan mentioned that his host like wheat beer. Well, this made my job relatively easy since one of my favorite summer beers is a wheat beer - Blue Moon's Honey Moon (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/05/sunday-night-suds-blue-moon-honey-moon.html).

But what if you want an ale with some hop bite but without a heavy alcohol content? I would recommend Laker Ale, a Canadian beer which has more than mild hop flavor, but is still easy enough to drink on a hot summer day.

The staff at BA have labelled this beer an American Blonde Ale, but I feel that the beer has more character to it than a mere American Blonde (I hate to say it but this category has some elements of k'shmo ken hu, which is why I feel that it is unfair to label the Laker Ale as an American Blonde).

The Laker Ale pours a dark gold - akin to apple cider. The beer has a fair amount of carbonation without being too overly effervescent. There is some hop bite in the first sip with fruitiness also in the taste. It goes well with shabbos summer lunch fare, but will never be confused with an IPA or the like.

Laker Ale is certified kosher by the COR (aka Kashruth Council of Canada). For the experts' take on Laker Ale click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/416/51570.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Shelach

2011-06-16T23:12:00.002-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

The parsha portion of tonight's shiur focused on the story of the meraglim - the spies.

Chazal tell us that the meraglim were tzaddikim when they were chosen. Furthermore, R' Frand explained that the fact that the meraglim chose to be spies shows that they were tzaddikim. Indeed, the job of spy was a dangerous job and still the men accepted the mission.

R' Frand quoted the Zohar which states that the reason that the spies came back with a bad report on the land of Israel, was because they knew that they would lose their job as leaders when the Jews emigrated to Israel. However, even though they knew that they would be fired, they still accepted the mission.

R' Frand then posited - if you knew the mission was dangerous and that you would be fired at the completion of the job - why would you accept the mission?

R' Frand answered that the reason they took the mission was because they thought that they could overcome the issues. Moshe Rabeinu had his doubts that the meraglim would come back all right. We see that Moshe gave Yehoshua a beracha to save him and the Kalev went and prayed by the graves of tzaddikim. However, the meraglim believed that they would be able to look past the potential problems. Unfortunately, the meraglim were unable to separate from their agenda and their report was colored by their understanding that when the Jews would come to Israel, the meraglim would lose their position of power.

R' Frand then further explored the meraglim's speech. He noted that the beginning of the report was all true - the people are very mighty there. Kalev then attempted to quiet the spies by telling them that they were wrong - Hashem will help us overcome.

At this juncture, the meraglim began to give editorial comments and they started to speak ill about the land and to make up facts. Why? Because the desire to win and be right is an incredibly strong yetzer hara. When Kalev told them they were wrong, their immediate reaction was to want to show Kalev they were right and to "win" the argument. So they began to lie in order to "win."

R' Frand then quoted a Chidushei Harim who notes that the haftorah of Shelach also involves spies - the ones sent by Yehoshua. The haftorah refers to the spies as pottery (cheres) which we learn meant that they went around as "pottery salesman."

Why did the spies chose the cover of pottery saleman? We know that pottery differs from metal in that pottery can only become tamei if the tumah enters the object. However, metal vessels can become tamei just by contact with the outside of the object.

The Chidushei Harim ties the two points together by explaining that pottery has no intrinsic value other than its ability to retain what is stored in the pottery. On the other hand, metal has a value in and of itself. By choosing a cover of pottery salesman, the meraglim were reminding themselves that their mission was the only thing of importance and that their personal sense of self worth could not be allowed to infere. As such, it should not be surprising that these spies were successful.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - Lebron Haters, a Torah Perspective

2011-06-13T23:57:00.002-04:00

As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post was usually devoted to sports with highlights and analysis of the Max Kellerman show which formerly aired on 1050 ESPN Radio. Although Max resigned from 1050 more than a year ago (he has recently resurfaced on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles), I have tried to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.

Last night, the Dallas Mavericks completed an unlikely run to win their first NBA championship. In so doing, the Mavericks swept the defending champion LA Lakers in four games, before going five games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and then taking down the heavily favored Miami Heat in six games.

An interesting side note to the series was the nation's strong and perhaps unhealthy rooting interest against the Miami Heat. Prior to the current NBA season, the Miami Heat were not a "hated" sports team as they had no strong rivalry with another team and had not done anything controversial in their NBA history.

And then came last summer's "the decision", Lebron James' television special where he revealed that he was signing as a free agent with the Miami Heat. There has been much debate about whether James had ever intended to resign with Cleveland or even consider offers from the New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets or other potential suitors. Regardless of James' motives, much of the rest of the country (other than parts of South Florida) became Lebron "Haters" and by extension, began to root against the Miami Heat.

Fast forward to the NBA championship finals. The Heat had just dispatched the Chicago Bulls in five games, after beating the Boston Celtics in similar fashion. Most prognosticators projected that the Heat would beat the Mavericks in five or six games and take home the title. After winning the first game of the series, the press became louder in their touting of the Heat to win the championship. Dirk Nowitzky was playing with an injured hand and it looked like there was nothing between the Heat and glory. And then the Mavericks changed the way they were playing defense and James began to falter late in games. Suddenly, everyone on talk radio, in the newspapers, online and even people in the street began to express their hope that the Heat would lose. These expressions were not based on a love for the Mavericks or a dislike for the City of Miami (which has not engendered hatred like Boston or New York). It was pure, unadulterated loathing of Lebron James.

[For a great piece on Braylon Edwards, a former native son of Cleveland who was also hated when he left the City, and his efforts to give back to Cleveland, even though he has been gone for years - click here http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Braylon-Edwards-keeps-his-promise-awards-100-sc?urn=nfl-wp2484].

After the Mavericks finished off the Heat, there was a predictable series of interviews with Miami players and specifically Lebron James. One quotable thought from an interview which was picked up by the national media involved the following statement:

"[A]t the end of the day, all the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today,” James said. “They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that."

While James was lambasted in the press for making this statement, I can see the logic in his words and indeed there is a Torah perspective which backs his thought. The sifrei mussar speak against the concept of jealousy and explain that when a person is jealous he is rejecting Hashem. The reason behind this concept is simple - if a person is jealous of another, he is not only expressing his displeasure with another person having something that he does not possess. A greater problem with this concept is that the person is actually rejecting Hashem's choice in giving the other person something which that person does not have. Every morning when the unhappy individual wakes up and hates the other person, he is actually saying, I hate you G-d for not giving me what he has. If the person then acts on his hatred, he will require Hashem to rebalance the equities in order to return each party to the level that he belongs on. It is for this reason that we are taught to be happy with our own lot, as it is taught in Pirkei Avos - who is wealthy, one who is happy with his lot.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Sprecher Special Amber Lager

2011-06-12T23:28:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Sprecher Special Amber Lager.

This past week has been nothing short of a "scorcher" on the East Coast of the United States. Having spent Shavuous in the sauna known as Baltimore followed by a drive North to New York where everyone and their grandmother was on the side of the road selling bottles of cold water, it has been weather which even an outdoorsman would seek the shelter of air conditioner.

Once we returned to New York for shabbos, I knew that whichever beer I would choose to accompany Friday night dinner must be something which could be served ice cold, without losing any of the taste factor. This knocked out many of the macrolagers which whether cold or room temperature still don't taste like much. (I passed a great billboard for Heineken on my way up - it took a shot at Coors and Budweiser's gimmick cans by saying something like - you have ten ways to tell if our beer is cold enough - they are called fingers).

Since the hot weather and hot food combination dictated that I stay away from stouts, porters and heavy ales - I chose the Sprecher Special Amber, a Vienna style lager which had received good reviews on BA.

The beer poured a richer amber than I was expecting with a great deal of foam and lacing. The first sip gave me more hop bite then I would have expected, while still staying true to the malt balance of a lager. I took a few more sips and began to appreciate this brew, even though I am usually not a lager fan. I quickly poured some for Mrs KB and she agreed that the beer was a quality brew. I again lamented that I had only bought one four pack of this solid Midwestern beer. Hey, at least the beer comes in 16 ounce bottles (as opposed the usual 12 ounces).

Sprecher Special Amber is certified kosher by the Wisconsin K. There is a logo on the four pack holder and on the top label on the bottle.

For the experts' take on the Sprecher Special Amber Lager please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/144/97.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Rustic Saison

2011-06-05T23:23:00.003-04:00

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams' Rustic Saison.

I first got tipped off to this beer when I was in Costco after Pesach and I got an e-mail from my buddy Dan R who saw me and wanted to know about the two new beers in the Samuel Adams Beers of Summer mix box - Rustic Saison and East West Kolsch. Since the LOC for Samuel Adams posted on the Star-K website at the time was from September 2010, these were obviously not on them. But thanks to a quick set of emails back and forth with the Star-K, a new LOC was posted to their website (http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_6635_bostonbeercompany.pdf) which included these two newcomers, along with some other beers which were new to the approved list. With this green light, I went out and bought a 12 pack.

So what is a Rustic Saison? I can honestly tell you that I have no idea. The beer label says that it a "Belgian Style Farmhouse Beer Brewed With Honey." This was also not helpful to me as farmhouse beer sounds like something made in a barn, not a brewery.

I went to the Beer Advocate website which had this to say about the style:

Saisons are sturdy farmhouse ale that was traditionally brewed in the winter, to be consumed throughout the summer months. Not so long ago it was close to being an endangered style, but over recent years there's been a massive revival; especially in the US.

This is a very complex style; many are very fruity in the aroma and flavor. Look for earthy yeast tones, mild to moderate tartness. Lots of spice and with a medium bitterness. They tend to be semi-dry with many only having touch of sweetness.

The Samuel Adams Rustic Saison poured a pale yellow with a good deal of foam and some lacing on the glass. The banana like phenols were prominent and the dominant taste in the brew. If there was honey in this beer it was lost on me as I tasted a lot of spice, but not very much sweetness.

Samuel Adams Rustic Saison is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label. The kashruth can be confirmed by clicking on the link to the Star-K LOC above.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Rustic Saison, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/67044.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Nasso

2011-06-02T23:49:00.002-04:00

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Rabbi Frand noted that Parshas Nasso is the longest parsha in the Torah at 176 pesukim. He recalled being happy that Parshas Nasso was not his bar mitzva parsha because of its length. However, R' Frand explained that as he got older, he realized that Parshas Nasso was an easy parsha to prepare and lain because it is very repetitive in its discussion of the sacrifices of the nesi'im.

Rabbi Frand then asked the obvious question (in the name of the Ramban) - why does the Torah need to repeat all twelve sacrifices of the nesi'im? Why couldn't the Torah just recite the first karban and then say that all other were the same?

Rabbi Frand answered the question by making reference to a story. During the time of the Czar in Russia, boys were drafted into the Russian army to serve for a period of twenty-five years. There was an incident where the star pupil of R' Yitzchak Elchonon Spector was drafted into the army. The boy applied for an exemption from the draft, but did not get a quick response. Many of those in the yeshiva were very worried, so they began to daven for the boy.

During this period, R' Yitzchak Elchonon and anoher Rav were involved as dayanim on a very intense case in beis din. Through their efforts, the parties came to an agreement and the dayanim began to iron out the terms of the agreement. Suddenly, one of the boys from the yeshiva burst into the room and told R' Yitzchok Elchanan that the star pupil had received his exemption. R' Yitzchok heaped much praise on the boy for telling them the news about the exemption.

A few moments later, there was a knock on the door and another student entered the room. The student also told R' Yitzchok Elchanan that the star pupil had received his exemption. R' Yitzchok gave identical praise to this student for telling them the news about the exemption.

Tne story repeated itself four more times with different boys from the yeshiva coming in and disrupting the beis din to tell R' Yitzchok Elchonon about the exemption. Each time, R' Yitzchok Elchonon praised the messenger in the identical fashion and did not tell the messenger - enough, I know already.

Why did R' Yitzchok Elchonon give each of the messengers such high praise? Because it was important for each boy to know that he was important and that he had done a great thing by bringing the good news.

R' Frand cited to R' Shach who said that this was the reason that each Nasi's karban was mentioned in detail in Parshas Nasso. Although each letter in the Torah can teach many halachos, the repetition of the nesi'im was important so that each one of them could feel special about their involvement in the process.

R' Frand explained that this was the purpose behind Nasso being the longest parsha in the Torah - to show that if Hashem could go out of His way to make each person feel special, then we should do the same.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - To Everything There is a Season even at 128 MPH

2011-05-30T21:36:00.002-04:00

Belated Sunday Night Suds - Yankee Jim Ice

2011-05-30T21:01:00.005-04:00

Since this is a patriotic holiday weekend, Sunday Night Suds reviews a beer with a "patriotic" bend by looking at Yankee Jim Ice.

Although Yankee Jim bears an American sounding name, it is not available for purchase in the lower United States. However, if one visits America's neighbor to the north, he could procure the Yankee Jim in the LCBO or the Beer Store.

The story itself is not uncommon, often times a store in a given location will seek to associate itself with another geographic area to lend credence to the product that it sells. By example, a store may call itself xyz's New York Bagels or xyz's Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Of course, the pizza in the store is not made in Chicago, any more than the bagels are baked in New York. Still, the geographic description may be enough to get people in the door and that's all that a good restaurant would need.

The odd thing about the Yankee Jim beer is that it is sold in Canada, a country known for its beer (and hockey). One would not expect a "Wyoming Style" pizzeria to succeed in Chicago. So why attempt to market a beer with an American sounding name (it is truly brewed in the U.S. as it is bottled by the "Big Hole" Brewing Company of Utica, NY).

I can't really explain the rationale for trying to sell American beer in the beer mecca of Canada, but I can tell you that having tried the brew, there is no reason for a Canadian to go out and purchase it. As you can see from the picture above, the beer poured an extremely pale yellow (I needed to take a couple of pictures so that the color could be seen at all). The flavor is macrolager with no hops and "lite beer" taste quality. Although this is partially related to the beer being an ice lager, it still has significantly less flavor than Icehouse or even Bud Ice.

I would not turn down this beer if I was at a sporting event, but would not choose this if I had other beer available.

Although the Yankee Jim Ice is not certified kosher, it is produced at a brewery which only maintains kosher ingredients on premises. As such,the mashgiach in the brewery assures me that the Yankee Jim can be assumed to be kosher.

For the experts' take on the Yankee Jim Ice please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1602/30168.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!