#yontiff

[ask-jumblr]

A word I saw a lot here and I couldn't understand- what is "yontiff"?

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[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Towards the end of yontiff I was reading books to my shluchim’s older kids while my shlucha put the baby to bed (my shliach was at shul). I said that each kid could pick a book. One of them brought me a book in Hebrew. At first I asked her if she could pick something in English, but she insisted on this one and it was simple Hebrew and had nekudos, and it’s not like these kids are Israeli, so they can deal with my terrible accent.

I read the first page and the girl who picked the book looked up at me quizzically. “What does that mean?”

And that’s how I got roped into reading and translating a Hebrew book for a 4.5-year-old who doesn’t speak Hebrew. XD

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Is it "good yom tov" or "good yontiff" when you're talking?

Me personally? Yontiff. In general? Either is correct.

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

I spent a really long time playing pretend with a 4-year-old and a 2.5-year-old this afternoon. We went to the store, we went to school, we went to shul, we went to New York, we went to EY, we escaped from the Egyptians (actually we put them in, and I quote, "pretend jail," but that didn't work, so then we put them in "time out forever" and Moshe Rabbeinu helped us seal them in, but then Paro said he was going to get out, but he couldn't, so we danced to thank Hashem), we listed to a Tanya shiur in the car, we went to sleep, we argued with a bus driver who didn't want to let us on the bus, and we went to a wedding and danced. Which, it turned out, was MY wedding. Hope that kid has some ruach hakodesh on that front.

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Hi, could you please explain the rules for cooking on a Yom Tov?

To be honest the full practical details are far beyond the scope of a single post; first you have to understand what you can’t do on Shabbos, and then you have to understand which of those prohibitions are waived and in what way on Yom Tov. This is also one of my weaker areas of halacha for the simple reason that I myself am never cooking on yontiff, because I’m always eating at someone else’s house (G-d willing I will get married soon and that will change). So I’ve learned it all in theory, but without the opportunity to experience it in practice, it’s not as easy to retain all the details. If this is a topic you want to learn about fully I would really recommend finding a rabbi, rebbetzin, or other knowledgeable person in your local community who might be willing to learn with you (I’m sure your local Chabad shluchim would love to help!).

But a few basic things -

Fire may only be kindled from an existing flame on yontiff. This means that while you can cook on your gas stove on yontiff, for example, you can’t turn the flame on on yontiff itself, but would rather need to have left it on from before yontiff (please take safety precautions if you do this). You also cannot turn off the flame on yontiff, as extinguishing a flame is not involved in the process of cooking food.

You can only cook food that will be used that day (where a day is defined as sundown to sundown). So if it’s a 2-day yontiff, you can’t cook anything for the 2nd day until after it gets dark that night. If there is a 3-day yontiff (2 days of yontiff followed by Shabbos) you must make what’s called an eruv tavshilin before yontiff in order to be allowed to cook for Shabbos on yontiff (since you can’t cook for Shabbos on Shabbos).

You may only do things on yontiff that could not have been done before yontiff (either because the food would not last at all that long, or because it would notably diminish its quality to cook it that far ahead of time).

This article provides some further details, although it is still not nearly an all-encompassing source for the details of the relevant laws.

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Proof that I love Hashem: there was a gigantic house centipede on my wall this afternoon and I did not kill it or trap it and now I am going to be afraid every time I lift anything in my room up for the next week or so that that bug is going to be on it.

I’m actually not usually that bothered by bugs...but house centipedes. No. Cannot.

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Sara (age 2): Bye bye!

Sara's tatty (putting on his kapote and gartel): Yes, bye bye, Sara, I'm going to shul!

Sara: No, I'M going.

Sara's tatty: Where are you going?

Sara: Shul!

Sara's tatty: Ok, goodbye Sara, see you later!

Me: *sees Sara disappear, when normally I would still be able to see her standing just inside the front door from where I'm sitting, and jumps up to see where she is*

Sara's cousin: *had left a couple minutes before and left the door wide open, unbeknownst to myself or Sara's tatty*

Sara: *is halfway down the sidewalk running on little toddler legs towards shul*

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

IS [WENEVERGOTUSEDTOEGYPT] AWAKE? NO, SHE'S SLEEPING! [WENEVERGOTUSEDTOEGYPT] IS ASLEEP IN BED! [WENEVERGOTUSEDTOEGYPT] IS SLEEPING! [WENEVERGOTUSEDTOEGYPT] IS SLEEPING!

Children ages 3 and 5 directly outside my room at 6:30am yontiff morning. I was not sleeping...after that. (But tbh they're too cute for me to be mad.)