[Avodah] sheimos

[Steven J Scher]

ok.  so, as I usually do when I get into my office, I picked up a copy of 
the student newspaper, and retreated to the rest room.

imagine my surprise when I opened the paper and saw the editorial cartoon 
about israel.... no, I wasn't surprised that it was about israel, what i 
was surprised about was that it included correctly drawn hebrew 
characters.

upon closer look, I realized that among the characters were 
yud-key-vav-key...

this raises several halachic dilemmas (dilemmae??):

1) what do I do about the fact that I now have sheimos in a bathroom?  I 
couldn't exactly get up and walk right out.

2) what is my obligation with this paper and, more importantly, with all 
the other copies that I see lying around?  Do I have to try and pick up as 
many as I can to dispose of properly?  Do I have to seek them out, or can 
I just get the ones I happen to see in improper places (e.g., the floor, 
etc) and dispose of them properly...

and, for a question without torah emphasis: does the chevra think its 
worth writing a letter to the editor to the paper to complain about this?

- steve


ps - I did a quick search on the cartoonist.  he is israeli born, american 
educated, getting a master's in art here at eastern illinois university. 
that explains his command of hebrew, but raises other questions about his 
position vis-a-vis the war.

***************************************************************************
Steven J. Scher              sjscher at eiu.edu         Listen to WEFT 90.1FM
Department of Psychology     217-581-7269            www.weft.org
Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, IL 61920         I would discuss the holy books with the learned
USA                          men seven hours every day.  That would be the
                              sweetest thing of all...