Rabbi Leib Goldberg of the Choshen Mishpat Kollel was a
speaker at the 15th Annual Yarchei Kalloh of Ziv HaTorah
(Manchester). His topic was the famous case that occurred
several years ago when a well-meaning person threw out the
contents of a neighbor's freezer that had decomposed due to a
power cut, not realizing that he was throwing out his
neighbor's life savings. Rabbi Goldberg analyzed the case
masterfully in the light of the laws of mazik and
shomrim.
The three-day event took place in the Stenecourt Beis
Hamedrash during the December bank holidays and was attended
by sixty people. An idea of the event's popularity can be
gauged from the fact that a solicitor from Sheffield made the
eighty mile round trip each day in order to attend. On the
last day the time he had to travel was doubled due to
inclement weather.
The main theme of the three-day event was the sugya of
Chanukah in masechta Shabbos. Shiurim on the Daf were
given by Rabbi Moshe Santhouse (principal of Ziv HaTorah),
Rabbi Doniel Orzel (rosh kollel Pinto) and Rabbi Efraim
Hochhauser (maggid shiur Yeshivas Ohr Torah). Rabbi
Shlomo Hoff (rav of Ohel Torah) discussed medical procedures
on Shabbos. The shiur on the parsha was
delivered by Rabbi Shlomo Angel (mashgiach of Yeshivas
Ezras Torah). Rabbi Mordechai Steinberg, Rabbi Shimon Kaplan
and Rabbi Avigdor Roth spoke on Chanukah themes. The first
two spoke on the moral lessons to be learned and the latter
spoke on halachic issues.
Rabbi Chaim Rapoport, principal of Machon Mayim Chaim, came
especially from London to address the gathering. In his first
shiur he discussed the pros and cons of adopting
chumros in both personal and communal areas. In his
second shiur, entitled "Whose body is it anyway?" he
developed the theme that the basis of Jewish bio-ethics is
the axiom enunciated by the Radvaz and Shulchan Oruch HaRav
that a person's relationship to his body is one of custodian
rather than owner.
Dr. Avraham Meyer, kashrus consultant in food
technology and head of European Operations for the Orthodox
Union in America spoke on technical problems in
kashrus.
