Shaimos is one of those not-so-obscure Jewish laws that no one really knows much about, especially Baal Teshuvas. I discovered this recently while helping a friend clean out their apartment. I had stacked up a bunch of those photo-copied torah sheets ranging from Pirkei Avos to the parshas shavua. He said he didn’t want to save them and was going to throw them out until I stopped him. Dude, you cant throw those out I stated with some air of FFB authority. Why not? They are just photo-copies after all he surmised. This point was moot because aren’t all siddurim and chumashim merely photo-copies with only old editions being hand printed.
This event led to the classic barrage of crazy BT questions that you yourself would never think of, but probably should. Do I have to save all Jewish books. Lets say they are sort of Jewish, or maybe kabala. How about pictures of Rabbis, or toy Torahs? What about articles about Jews or Torah? Along with millions of others that had me flustered and frustrated.
It did cross through my mind to take my infamous and offensive post on the best ways to mess with BT’s to heart and proceed to mess with my friend. But I thought better of it, I could have just told him to save everything with the word God mentioned, since God is an ambiguous term and may be talking about Hashem. I could have said that all things written by Jews should be saved, regardless of whether it was written by Alan Dershowitz, Noam Chomsky or the Steipler. I could have told him to save the door panels that the mezuzas are attached to since they are holy objects, and I could have said that Jewish newspapers should be saved. (Wait do papers with torah like the Yated and Jewish Press need to be saved- serious question)
But I withheld and tried to be a ghetto posek and answer as many questions as possible. Maybe you guys help out, because shaimos is one of those things that is seldom talked about, maybe its some conspiracy or something. It is also one of those things that I know nothing about, save for the dude in the Woodbourne Seforim Store telling me that tzitzis could in fact be thrown away, but that it’s not politically correct to do so.
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Shaimos is best described as one of those burdens everyone tries to shift onto others. Kind of like when you borrow a car you try to give it back when there’s an ounce of gas left in the tank. Shaimos is “accidently” left in shuls, mikvas, other people’s houses, and subsational.
Thats right, piles of gemara handouts in my yeshiva ended up in this huge overflowing box that never seemed to be emptied.
“Kind of like when you borrow a car you try to give it back when there’s an ounce of gas left in the tank.”
Thats horrible. You should always return a car with the same amount of gas in as when you borrowed it.
Yeah, and you should also not dump shaimos on other people’s property. But the same type of person won’t care about either one.
nice of you..
supposedly newspapers can be wrapped neatly, like in a plastic bag etc. and then thrown in the garbage.
ha ha i messed with a bt once with havdalah. so girls have this superstitious thing that if you hold your candle too low your husband will be shorter than you, right? so i jokingly told it to a girl who was at her first havdala ever. poor kid was holding it way over her head. and refused to put it down through the whole thing. and it was a carlebachian havdalah, replete with lots of singing and dancing.
and about the bubba’s thing, by the time i figured out why you looked familiar, you had dashed out clutching the yellow menu in your hand and were long gone
The trick is to fill up a big bag with shaymos in it. It doesn’t matter if it really is or isn’t shaymos so long as it’s biodegradable. Then look on your fridge for the next garbage (I mean shaymos) pickup and give it to the poor “bian Ha zmanim” Yeshiva Buchur that is doing the collections. Toss it into the truck and don’t look back.
Well so much for bubbas, I’ll be back- I work right up the block.
Oh and Monsey Chick- hiking and biking is not culture to me. I mean museums, night life, live music, galleries, poetry jams, open mics.
I have also been going nuts with the hiking- if you ever wanna go- I go out every day.
Ok, so my comment didn’t post. Here it is in a nutshell:
“Ghetto Poseik” I love that!
You could tell him to sell it with the Chametz. At least in Monsey we have Shaimos trucks at certain times a year parked in different places around town. Tzitzis are not necessarily supposed to be buried like Shaimos–people get confused about that. Call HALACHA on your phone for easy Halacha Shailos. That’s a Monsey thing that actually helps with straightforward Kashrut and Shaimos-like questions. I think I got the letters right. Also, try Piermont. Beautiful views and I think they have a club down there. Now, magic posting fairy, post this!
i deleted half of my post. the part about the rainy sundays spent on museum row…
my friends think i’m a freak that i chose to go to the metropolitan museum of art instead of sleeping late, going out to eat, and shopping with them
This is why I always leave handouts at the synagogue. I still have mimeographs of Shemot and Rashi from second grade (anyone here remember what a mimeograph is?) While 99% of conservative Jews probably have no idea what Shaimos are, the official committee on Jewish Law and Standards does address this in a responsa which is basically to not put shaimos on anything (how helpful).
This was a great post. Also, Hesh, even your imaginary messing with people is funny, no need to actually do it.
So Monsey chick- what do you say to doing lunch, it does get lonely in the office, well no I have 4 women to contend with but…
Conservative- I would never do this to the extreme mentioned, but as you said its funny to think about it. There are so many ways.
I believe the gemara about shaimos is in Megillah 26b? (maybe 25b/27b). I was shocked when i read you can throw away tzitzis. What did the guy mean that it’s not politically correct?
I just threw that in there, he said that most people wont throw them away because it doesn’t feel right- and its true, I have stacks of old posel tzitzis lying around, but am bothered at the thought of throwing them away, maybe I’ll burn with the chometz or something.
Shaimos are supposed to be buried with the niftar (dead). You could drop some off at your local funeral home.
Shaimos are supposed to be buried with the niftar (dead). You could drop some off at your local funeral home.
GG I was told that is not how it goes. I was told that there is a shaimos plot in Jewish cemeteries.
is this a repost?
This has never been posted, I have written a huge messing with BT’s post- see the link in this post, but I never expounded like this.
Well looking it up, thing like tefillin should be wrapped and buried so there should be a section of the cemetery set aside for them. However, things like that should probably also be repaired and kept in good condition and handed down. I’m pretty sure G-d would value recycling of holy things between generations instead of jettisoning to a landfill for the dead which is what cemeteries are in the end.
A Jewish cemetery is not just “a landfill for the dead”, chv”sh. Especially that with graves of tzaddikim, but even without. I don’t know about G-d caring about “recycling” of holy things — the only reason I could think of is if it was used by a tzaddik. Because their avoida is bechol moidechoh, even the things they use become holy (not just their bodies, thoughts and actions).