Question by Maria Lisette: Are there levels of “sin” in Sephardic Judaism at Passover?
Please help us to resolve this little family squabble. (SEPHARDIC JEWS ONLY–if you are Ashkenazi, then your answer won’t help because my in-laws will automatically disregard it.) ANYway, we are Orthodox (but *NOT* ULTRA–we keep a Kosher home, but outside the home we will eat non-Kosher meat and even mix milk and meat, but no pork. We also work, use electricity and even drive a car on Shabbat, etc.) and we have been having a little squabble about history, tradition, and degree of sin. Yesterday on the day of the First Day of Passover, I had a gift certificate to a local restaurant for my birthday and even though I had read on the internet that I am supposed to begin to observe the super-Kosher rules of the Passover season beginning at 11AM the DAY OF the Seder, I still ate a steak (non-Kosher, I’m sure) at the restaurant AND I ate mashed potatoes with cheese. (I am also *4* months pregnant 
) ANYway, my husband and in-laws gave me this big speech about respecting the Jewish religion and tradition and how I was NOT supposed to “eat out” the week of Passover and all. I understand that I did something I wasn’t supposed to and that it was a sin, but to me, the sin is between G-d and myself, not my husband and in-laws. Anyway, then, last night at the Seder, my husband and in-laws only did HALF of the Haggadah. They ended the Haggadah *after* the Seder meal. My mother-in-law refused to eat the Afikomen and got up to start washing the dishes after we ate and my father-in-law began to get ready for bed as my husband and I were starting to read the prayers after meal and do the blessing for the third cup of wine. We never got any further and didn’t bless the cup of wine or open the door for Elijah or anything else AFTER the eating of the celebratory meal. They said that they were “tired” and that they don’t do that part of the service and that it’s not important and that they “do what they can”. In addition, during the “naming of the plagues”, my mother-in-law asked G-d to curse all the Arabs of the world. (She is 74 and originally from Algeria where she saw horrible atrocities and now she hates *all* Arabs.) For me, the sin of NOT finishing the Passover Seder Haggadah AND asking G-d to curse another race of people no matter *what* your personal history is is just as bad if not worse than eating a non-Kosher steak with mashed potatoes and cheese on the afternoon before the Seder. Doesn’t G-d command us in the Torah that it is a grave sin to “speak evil of another man”? Doesn’t G-d command us in the Torah to complete the *entire* Seder and not just half? And yes, doesn’t G-d command us in the Torah to eat only Kosher meat and not mix milk and meat? So, my final question is, who is correct about what is a worse sin? Is it a “worse sin” to not comply with a dietary food law in the Sephardic Jewish faith on the afternoon before the Seder or is it a worse sin to not complete the Haggadah and to “lashon harah”–evil speak about another group of people?
(For me, a sin is a sin is a sin, but according to my teachings as a convert to the Jewish faith, there are “levels” of sin, and theis is really what I am trying to understand.) Thanks everyone!
I know that “lashon harah” is talking negatively about someone and I also know that the penalty for that is “death” if the person doesn’t apologize. What I should have said is that my mother-in-law talks VERY NEGATIVELY about Arab people as a group and even Arabs as individuals almost everyday. (in grocery stores, at the market, wherever) and I am SURE that what she does qualifies as “lashon harah”.
Best answer:
Answer by דָנִיאֵל
There are different levels of sin. Just like in secular law, murder is worser then shoplifting. Not finishing the hagada and cursing all of the Arabs is not lashon hara. Lashin hara is talking negativity about someone. Cursing them is different then talking negativity about someone. To answer your question, one of the ways to tell the level of a sin is to look at the punishment. The punishment for talking lashon hara is leprosy, for eating non kosher food the punishment is lashings (up to 39 if you can handle them), for not finishing the hagada I am not sure but it is not that severe, and for cursing the Arabs there is no punishment because cursing them like that is useless.
What do you think? Answer below!
Please read other answers to this question at the very bottom of this page, below you will find a video and related articles that will try to answer the question, if you have a proper answer please post it at the bottom.
Tires Are Fuel Efficient?
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Most people would say that Fuel Efficient Tires aren’t that new; & they’re right. The most common Fuel Efficient New & Used Tires are made by Bridgestone Ecopia & Bridgestone Used Tires – you can buy them at your local Used Tires Warehouse that’s probably down the street from your house, right?
Anyway, mostly all manufacturers – like Bridgestone Used Tires – have been installing new & used tires that can improve fuel-effiency ratings on all types of cars .. even if you have an old one like me ! The only thing is that when car buyers were looking for these specific new & used tires, they were basically out of luck. New & Used Tire Shops didn’t sell them – at all, they didn’t even sell new & used tires that came close to what the customer was looking for.
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Sure we all like new & used tires that are safe & reliable, but we want to try & get everything in one package – including the good gas mileage. There are new & used tires with some sort of low-rolling-resistance that are now widely available for most passenger cars that are on the market today. If you didn’t know, Rolling Resistance is the measure of “force at the axle in the direction of travel needed to make a tire roll”. That definition is basically an exact way of saying that rolling-resistance determines how much effort the car has to make in order to make the new & used tires roll on the pavement. I think that one was a little easier to understand; don’t you think? Both new & used tires with a low rolling resistance use different tread designs and new materials to lessen the amount of energy needed to move the car.
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There was an experiment done by a National Research Council and they found that fuel economy says that about a 10% reduction in rolling resistance actually increased fuel economy by a good 1.5% – even if it was something like stop-and-go driving. If it came to highway driving, that same 10% meant a 2.1% better fuel economy.
Most of the major new & used tire manufacturers like Michelin Used Tires & Continental Used Tires are starting to offer fuel saving, low-rolling-resistance new & used tires at their local shops. When they make these new & used tires available to the people that are looking for them (like me & you), it just means that we can all basically keep the mileage on our cars much closer to the EPA fuel economy estimates; we can possibly do a little better if we drive the right way.
Don’t you love when you learn new ways on how to save money?
Article from articlesbase.com
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I am a Sephardi Jew. I don’t know what you mean by sins. The sins in the Torah are kept in the same way by Sephardim, and Ashkenazim. The tradition, and law is different, but the judgment is the same.
There are worse sins than others, for example violating Shabbat would be a way worse sin than eating a drop of pig. So if your question is about the laws of Kashrut then here I answered it here-Orthodox- It must have proper Schitah. Some examples of Kasher ones are: Cow, Lamb,Sheep, Giraffe(Nobody eats Giraffe, since it was not passed down to). Any animal that chews its’ cud, and has split hooves is Kosher. There is only one Kosher bug, that I don’t know the name of. You cannot have meat with milk. According to Maran Beit Yosef(Who follows the Ro”sh)- You have to wait 6 hours between meat, and milk. According to Rambam-You have to wash out your mouth between meat, and milk. Between milk, and meat I think everyone agrees that all you have to do is brush out your mouth, very well. The reason for waiting time between meat ,and milk for the Rambam is that the meat gets stuck into your teeth. The reason for the Ro”sh, is that it takes a while to digest. The real Torah prohibition is, not cooking meat, and milk as it says three times. But the Rabbis derive that the three prohibitions: 1)Means for cooking. 2)One for getting benefit. 3)Means for eating. There is a concept of Glatt Kosher-It means the animal has smooth lungs, most Orthodox Jews follow that, but modern Orthodox Jew are not so Machmir-stringent. Then there is the Kashrut of milk. The Kashrut of milk is that it must come from a cow. Then there is a concept of Chalav Yisrael. Chalav Yisrael if I’m not wrong- Means that a Mashgiach(supervisor,Jewish) watched the milk go from the cow into the bucket. Then there is bread. There is not to much restriction on bread other than Kemach Yashan(old flour). This concept is I think-It means that the flower came from before Pesach. Then there is Matzah-Matzah can not have any contact with water. The Chabad have this restriction calle Gibruchtz-You cannot dip Matzah into water, even after it is cooked. The Matzah cannot rise for more than 18 minutes, if it does it is Chametz, and may not be used on Pesach. The reason gatorade used to not be Kosher was, because they used to use beetles blood in it.
Edit: Then there is Bishul Acum-non Jew cooking food disqualifying it. The only way to have a non Bishul Acum, is if a Jew turned on the fire. If you have a butler(non-Jewish), and you have no-Mevushal wine then you cannot drink the wine he poured. However if it was Mevushal, then you can. The reason for this was because Goyim, used to make Avodah Zarah out of the wine.Back to meat, The Torah prohibits us from eating milk and meat, but is chicken meat? From the Torah some say it isn’t. My father says it is, because when the Jews asked for meat, what did Hashem give them? Bird, chicken is bird. So that is my fathers Rav’s p’sak on this issue. According to othe Poskim chicken is not meat. But you FOR SURE cannot eat with milk. Then there is the issue of eating fish with meat, everyone agrees that we don’t eat milk, and fish together. But you don’t have to wait, or wash your mouth out between them. According to Sephardim you cannot eat fish, with milk. According to Ashkenazim you can. So the question is aren’t Ashkenazim more Machmir? In the Shulchan Aruch it says you cannot, the Ram”a, relies on Ashkenaz Poskim, and says you can. The Ta”z(Toreh Zahav) says there was misprint in the Shulchan Aruch, but the Sephardi poskim don’t agree, and we are Mamchmir. Fish, must have fins, and scales to be Kosher. Back to meat again, Meat must be Shechted in the proper way, by a certified Shochet. My fathers Rav, doesn’t eat meat, unless he Schected it himself. [Random fact- If there is a food that is not edible, and you eat it on Yom Kippur you are not Chayav.] Medicine, some poskim allow non-Kosher, and some don’t (of course if it terminal illness, or very dangerous you can), you can rely on the ones that say you can. Vitamins(unless they are vital) if they are non-Kosher, they are not really supposed to be eaten. Again you can rely on those that say you can. [Random fact- It is stated by Chazal, that if someone eats non-Kosher foo it is not only physically bad for, him but spiritually.]