Rosh Yeshiva Responds
Rabbi Linzer answers halakhic questions from rabbis and community members
May a women hold one of the two sifrei Torah during Kol Nidrei? Neither person is on the bimah and they will be 8 or so feet away from the bimah, for Covid-19 reasons.
Should be fine, but I would make sure that there is a third man standing in front or whatever, and it’s clear that the three men are the beit din.
We have two outside minyanim starting at 7:30 Yom Kippur morning. I’m worried about having a minyan at both right away. The two tent areas are only about 50 feet apart. If people stand in the middle, can they count for both minyanim?
What an interesting question. I don’t know if it’s ever been dealt with. Why not just count it as one minyan and have one Shaliach Tzibur until more arrive? (Which is probably why it’s never been dealt with before.)
As a halakhic matter, do you have any thoughts on using an aerosol asthma inhaler on Yom Kippur? Not life threatening requirement. Also, for what it’s worth, taste is disgusting.
It should be totally fine. It’s just medication. And it tastes bad. Not אכילה or שתיה.
Just for clarity – “It’s just medication” does not mean one can chew good tasting vitamins or the like. This is just directly putting the medicine into the lungs and can in no way be
Can we recite Kol Nidrei on Zoom without a beit din in one place?
Not ideally. But if you need to it really doesn’t do anything halakhic. If you do it, I would say the nusach that is future oriented – עד יום כיפורים הבא. Then it’s clearly not a heter nedarim, just a מסירת מודעה – making an announcement.
לגרסה העברית לחצו כאן /Read this teshuva in Hebrew This teshuva is part of a series. To read Rabbi Ysoscher Katz’s response to this teshuva in Hebrew, click here. To read Rabbi Katz’s response in English, click here. To read Rabbi Linzer’s response to Rabbi Katz, click here. To read Rabbi Katz’s response to Rabbi Linzer’s response, click here.
May a woman lead selichot if she does so with a minyan of men present, and from her side of the mechitza?
For the purposes of this teshuva, I will bracket the larger discussion of partnership minyanim. I will also bracket any discussion of kol isha, as there is
Rosh Yeshiva Responds
Rabbi Dov Linzer will be answering shailas from YCT rabbis and community members on video each week.