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27 Ellul 5760 - September 27, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
The Maharil Never Heard of Potatoes

To The Editor:

With regard to "Meoros Daf Hayomi - 15 Elul":

When the Maharil wrote about tapuchei adomo he did not mean potatoes.

As your feature states, potatoes only came to Europe after Columbus discovered America. That was in 5252 (1492). The Maharil was niftar on 22 Elul 5187 (1427), 65 years earlier.

My late father, R. Yosef Halpern zt'l, used to say that the lack of knowledge of these dates was a factor in the consideration of all those poskim who quote the Maharil, and that in his opinion the Maharil may have been referring to the kohlrabi which is of a similar shape to the apple.

Yours faithfully,

D. M. Halpern


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