Rabbi Yisroel Casen Gives Labor Day Shiur at LINK Kollel

Rabbi Yisroel Casen, Assistant Rav at Congregation Adas Torah and Magid Shiur at LINK’s YPLA program, gave a masterful shiur on the complicated subject of when and if to bentch gomel after flying on an airplane. The shiur was on the legal holiday of Labor Day, September 7th, and was part of LINK’s ongoing Legal Holiday series of Halachic presentations.

Rabbi Casen addressed the question of how we define a “Matzav of Sakana” (situations of danger) as it relates to flying. Does it matter if the flight is only over land, or is the danger only when flying over a desert or an ocean? He also discussed whether that flight was one of necessity (e.g., for business) or discretionary (for leisure)—i.e., does one’s voluntary entrance to a Matzav of Sakana affect the need to bentch gomel? He also discussed whether a “near miss” that a person is saved from constitutes grounds for bentching gomel.

Rabbi Casen’s cogent presentation was well attended as people used their day off for Limud HaTorah. Rabbi Casen spent many years learning in the yeshiva and Kollel of Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn and has been a popular Maggid Shiur in various locations in LA for the past 15 years.