Notes & News
NOTE & NEWS Kibbutz Company Sues Industrial Giant Over Hair Remover A iiiiutt-owned factory is embroiled in a lawsuit against a U.S. manufacturing giant for stealing the factory's idea. The Mcpro...
...A woman whose husband is impotent asked if she is obligated to go to the mikvah...
...Are adopted children supposed to mourn for their adoptive parents...
...Questions relating to Shabbat come up often...
...Can a microwave oven be used for both dairy and meat (not at the same time, of course...
...She wanted to know how to deal with them on Shabbat...
...The numbers are (212) HALACHA, or (718) 963-1236...
...Kibbutz Hagoshrim subcontracts business to other kibbutzim, employing nearly 1,000 k\bbutzn\ks and giving poorer kibbutzim a much needed financial boost...
...We had to call a rabbinic tribunal and have witnesses come so we could figure out what happened...
...People call with weird questions," Wohlendler admits...
...Now the telephone reference service, renamed "Halacha Hotline," receives an average of 100 calls a week...
...Its most valuable asset was an art collection that featured English portraits, nautical scenes and horses, with occasional cocker spaniels, foxes and pheasants thrown in...
...The office is located at 255 Division Avenue, Suite 3C, Brooklyn, NY 11211...
...It's not below our dignity to say to a caller, 'This is the first time that we've come across this question and we cannot give you an answer right away—we'll have to look it up.' If a caller is given a compliment that he or she has raised a challenging question, the person almost always calls back to hear the answer...
...Remington came out with its own hair removal device—called "Smooth and Silky"—a year after Remington personnel saw- Mepro's confidential material...
...The rabbis draw on their own knowledge, research precedents set by other rabbis, and come to conclusions about each case...
...Despite the competition from Remington, Epilady has sold more than 2 million units in the Unites States, earning more than SI00 million in retail sales in the United States alone this year...
...Before holidays, the hotline answers as many as 1,000 calls a week...
...Could she carry them...
...The only time a call is not taken is on Shabbat or Jewish holidays...
...Mepro has to compete with the Israeli army to purchase metal springs necessary both to Epilady and the army's rides...
...Appropriately enough, one of the toniest law firms in New York—Mil-bank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy—is representing the trustee in bankruptcy to preside over the disposal of the bankrupt's assets...
...Can a Jewish man be a sperm donor...
...That was in 1984...
...Then we have a lot of questions about the kitchen...
...One of our callers cross-examined me about divorce—whether it was demeaning to the woman, whether the rabbis treated the woman fairly...
...As founding partner Steven Kumble put it, it was "Think Yiddish, Dress British" at Finley Kumble...
...In fact, there was...
...According to a recent report in the New York Times, founding partner Leon Finley was born Leon Finkelstein...
...Remington approached Mepro in the fall or 1986 with a proposition to distribute Epilady in the United Slates...
...We had one kohen— they are not permitted to marry divorcees—who wanted to know if he could remarry his divorced wife...
...I had one case where a mother called up and said that a man in her daughter's office jokingly took off his ring and put it on the daughter's finger, saying harai at mikudeshet li k'dal Moshe v'yisrael [what a groom says to effect a marriage...
...A woman had a neighbor give her a gift of a couple of puppies...
...service is provided free of charge to callers...
...The hotline is not a commercial enterprise—no donations are solicited, and callers may remain anonymous...
...Two years ago, the Mepro Company of Kibbutz Hagoshrim began manufacturing a hair removal device called Epilady...
...People ask regarding rulings on birth control—whether it's allowed, not allowed, which type is preferable, which is used in what situation...
...Is artificial insemination allowed...
...A man asked whether he could go to a funeral of a non-Jew that took place on Shabbat...
...Within the firm, the pictures were known as 'The Finley Collection...
...In less than six months, once word spread that anyone could call up and speak to a rabbinical authority, questions came in throughout the nation on any subject of Jewish interest you can name...
...There is a limited supply worldwide of the wire from which the springs are made as well as of machinery to convert the wire into springs...
...I wouldn't want you to print answers to these questions I'm telling you," Wohlender told MOMENT, because rabbis sometimes must take special circumstances into account in their judgments...
...We would also like to acknowledge Jeffrey M. Green, translator into English of The Immortal Bartfuss by Aharon Appel-feld (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988...
...So we gave them this resource...
...Remington attorneys say the Mepro suit will not succeed because the U.S...
...Rabbis Answer Jewish Law Queries Over the Phone May a blind person carry a cane outdoors on Shabbat under Jewish law?* Is a married woman who has undergone a hysterectomy obligated to go to the mikvah...
...So was the circumcision of the doctor sufficient as a bris or do they have to do something extra...
...The financial success of Kibbutz Hagoshrim is seen in small ways—an upgrade in the quality or kibbutz Tood, says Baruch...
...Corrections The following credit was inadvertently omitted from our November 1988 article "M-M-M-Mammy's Boy" by Herbert G. Goldman: Adapted from Jolson: The Legend Comes to Life by Herbert G. Goldman, ©1988 by Herbert G. Goldman, published by Oxford University Press...
...A couple had a child who was circumcised by a doctor in a hospital and then the couple became more observant...
...In 1987, Mepro began exporting Epilady to 40 countries, including the United States (where it retails for about ?60 . and was encouraged by sales totalling 130 million...
...Calls to the Halacha Hotline are routed to the homes of the rabbis when no one is in the office...
...patent office issued a patent to Smooth and Silky, and thai Smooth and Silky is significantly different From Epilady because i< causes less pain...
...I asked her what inspired these questions and she said she had read an article about it in MOMENT Magazine" (see Honey Rack-man's article, "Getting a Get: How Some Husbands Are Blackmailing Their Wives—And Getting Away With It," May 1988...
...We felt that these were some areas where a woman may not have gone to a rabbi in her community because of embarrassment or because she wanted to keep a low profile," says hotline founder Rabbi Yehoshua Wohlendler...
...The mother wanted to know 'Does this have any validity in Jewish law?' It was a very complicated question—and very serious...
...Designed by two Israeli engineers, the appliance uses a rotating spring to tear hair out at the root, leaving the skin clean of hair for a period of weeks...
...While Remington was considering the venture, it was privy to confidential material relating to the manufacture or the device, Mepro says...
...Finley Kumble's SI 50 million debt will be apportioned among its former partners after being reduced by the proceeds of an auction sale of everything the firm owned...
...She wanted to know whether she is allowed to carry it with her on Shabbat...
...The Mcpro Company of Kibbutz Hagoshrim is suing Remington, Inc...
...Should the parents mourn for adopted children...
...No Bagels in the Board Room Finley Kumble, the nation's fourth largest law firm with 684 lawyers, went bankrupt last January...
...Are there loopholes...
...These are some of the questions answered by the Halacha Hotline, a Brooklyn-based telephone information service that advises all callers on questions of halacha, Jewish law...
...Originally called "Hotline for Family Life," the service was staffed by rabbis who answered questions relating to marriage, remarriage, divorce and family purity laws...
...They are volunteers and the * According to Jewish law, it is forbidden to carry anything outdoors on Shabbat unless one is in a walled city or an area surrounded by an eniv, a boundary specially erected to permit carrying within it...
...If a microwave oven is used throughout the year, can it also be used during Pesach...
...Smooth and Silky works on a similar principle to Epilady, and Mepro, believing that Remington stole their idea, is suing for damages...
...Is or isn't kaddish said in these situations...
...Another person wanted to know if there was a special prayer to say over Halley's comet...
...An excerpt from The Immortal Bartfuss appeared in the October 1988 issue of MOMENT...
...A few individuals support the enterprise, but overhead is low—only a small office in Brooklyn and an occasional publicity brochure, says Wohlendler...
...Remington withdrew its offer to work with Mepro, claiming that the idea was too risky, according to Menachcm Baruch, president of Mepro's Epilady International division in an interview in the .V«t York Times...
...Could she prepare food for them...
...For a time, however, bagels were banned from the firm's posh private cafeteria...
...Five rabbis regularly take calls for the hotline...
...One woman had a certain piece of parchment with a blessing written on it, given to her by a kabbalist who told her to keep it with her always...
...Epilady quickly became popular in Israel, with more than 200,000 devices sold during its first year on the market...
...They ask, 'Can we go to an astrologer or a card reader?' Someone called up and wanted to know whether a tattoo is permissible...
...But lawsuits are only some of the problems that challenge Mepro...
...One of our principles is that we don't have to give an answer on the spot to every question...
...Whether he may, if asked, carry the casket—what is allowed, not allowed...
...Baruch estimates thai Mepro spends more than S2 million a year battling infringement suits...
...Many of the questions we are asked can be very complicated...
...Despite its problems, Epilady is the most profitable non-military electronic export in the country...
...Still, we get a lot of questions about divorce...
...for violation of a confidential agreement, patent infringement and unfair competition...
Vol. 14 • January 1989 • No. 1
