Who is our Rabbi?

Rabbi Yehudah Black and his wife Yehudit have been Rabbi and Rebbetzin of Kenton Shul for the past seven years. Rabbi Black has previously been the Rabbi at Newcastle United Hebrew Congregation for over nine years and Staines District Synagogue for five years.

“My role as Rabbi has always been to look after and tend to the spiritual and physical needs of my community- the important thing is that everybody counts”

Yehudit was educated and brought up in Paris and received a Teaching Diploma from Yerres Beth Rivkah Seminary. She married Rabbi Yehudah in 1992 and since then has been a great support to her husband. She is renowned for her tasty Challot on Shabbat and her fabulous entertainment with Tunisian, Algerian and Ashkenaz delicacies.

They live in Kenton with their eight children: Aryeh, Sheina, Shemariyahu, Yossi, Chani, Mendy, Devorah Leah and Aron Shlomo.

His blog can be reached by clicking on his link:

http://machshavot-ruminationsofarabbi.blogspot.com/

Eruv Tavshillin-what’s it all about?

This year the festivals of Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret fall on a Thursday, Friday followed by Shabbat. On all three occasions, people living in the diaspora need to make an Eruv Tavshillin on Wednesday afternoon; Erev Yom Tov. The purpose of this article is to clarify what is an Eruv Tavshillin, why we need to make one and how to make it.

The Torah is clear that hachana- preparation from a festival to a weekday is prohibited. We know also that preparation from a Shabbat to a weekday is also prohibited. In both cases the festival and Shabbat is a day of holiness, and it would be wrong to prepare from a day of holiness to another day of lesser holiness-even if no actual “work” was done. For example: I am prohibited to set the table on Shabbat for a meal that I was going to have after Shabbat. Indeed, this law would apply also if I would want to prepare from one day of Yom Tov for the next day. We need to wait till the night time, after the onset of the second day of Yom Tov, to start preparation for that day.

On Shabbat we are not allowed to do any cooking or baking whatsoever. However, on Yom Tov, one is permitted to cook and bake and light candles from an existing flame, but one is allowed to cook food only for what one needs on that day of Yom Tov, not for what one might need for another day of the week .

What about preparation on a Yom Tov for Shabbat?

On a Biblical level everybody agrees that one is permitted to prepare and cook food on Yom Tov for Shabbat. However, the Rabbis said that it is possible that people might reason that if we allow people to prepare food directly on a Yom Tov for Shabbat, people might say: if I can prepare on Yom Tov for Shabbat – I am allowed to prepare and cook food on Yom Tov for a weekday which is biblically proscribed. We therefore only permit food to be prepared from a Friday Yom Tov for the Shabbat if we utilise the Eruv Tavshillin which is made from Erev Yom Tov.

Laws of Eruv Tavshillin: 

• The Eruv is made on Erev Yom Tov- on Wednesday afternoon. By making it on Erev Yom Tov you are completing on the Friday what has been started from before the festival.
• Each household should make their own individual Eruv Tavshillin.
• Two foodstuffs are used. One which is baked, the other is cooked.
• The Minhag is to take a challah loaf and an egg.
• If one forgot to make an Eiruv Tavshillin- a competent Orthodox Rav should be consulted.

The Order of Eruv Tavshillin:

When a Yom Tov falls on a Thursday or Friday it is required to make an Eruv Tavshillin on Erev Yom Tov in order to enable us to prepare from the Friday for the Shabbat. This is done by taking a baked food such as a loaf or a matza together with a cooked food such as a boiled egg or a piece of cooked fish or meat. Whilst holding them the following bracha is recited:

Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has made us holy through His commandments, and has commanded us concerning the mitzva of Eruv.

Following this we say:

Through this Eruv may we be permitted to bake, cook, insulate food, light a flame and do everything necessary on the festival for the sake of Shabbat [for us and for all Jews living in this city.]

The Eruv is eaten on Shabbat afternoon at Seudah Shlishit.

(For the Hebrew text please consult a Siddur or Chumash)