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and this is the first time you heard about the goyim being dumb racists?
Mazel Tov is this was since you were so busy learning Torah and doing mitsvos (for the few millennia) that you haven’t noticed what the real world is like
Pilpul aside, the “folk” explanation is that to a man the hardest part of becoming a father is to sponsor a kiddush and/or a Shalom Zachar, as opposed to what a woman has to do to become a mother (and remember that until recently, the chance of a woman surviving childbirth was similar to the chance of a soldier surviving a war). All the proper explanations pertaining to men have more mitsvos would sound better if being male didn’t make for a much easier life.
Gadolhadorah: Yes, but most of those things that make Tel Aviv famous are not things we can discuss in public
Yidden in Tel Aviv? Last time I heard, it is most famous for the sorts of things we can’t discuss on YWN.
It probably won’t have that much of an impact on babies getting killed, since rather than hold that the 14th amendment bans abortion (to protect the rights of unborn citizens), they will hold that it is a matter for the states (under the 10th amendment). Since nothing would stop women in pro-life states from going to pro-abortion states, and since most abortions at very early and are increasingly non-surgical (done with, as has been the case for all abortions until modern times), it won’t have that big an impact. Potentially it could mean that in states like New York, infanticide might be legalized while in many “red” states abortion will be limited to situations where the mother’s life is in danger (meaning a woman in those states will have to come to New York, in the immediate pre-Roe period, travel agencies offered combination abortions/Broadway plays for out of state women seeking New York abortions).
Whether we want the 14th amendment weakened and the 10th amended strengthened is a new issue. If you trust your local government (mayors, governors, etc.) to be friendly, you favor a strong 10th, but if you don’t trust your local leaders, then a strong 14th is good for our community (even if it results in goyim able to killing their own kids).
We probably should define a “Jew” as someone who at the least in Shomer Shabbos and Shomer Kashrus (and just those two sets of mitsvos more or less preclude being part of “normal” American life). If you throw in things such as dressing frum or a man having a beard and pe’os, you will discover that there are almost no Jews in political office outside of low level positions serving districts that have a high percentage of frum Yidden.
It is probably in out interests to let the (increasingly non-Jewish) descendants of Jews identify with the Jewish aspects of their heritage since that precludes the “racial” anti-semitism that led to the holocaust.
That non-frum Jews celebrate Hanukah is amusing, since the holiday celebrates a war in which the frum Jews defeated the secular Jews (there was no racial anti-semitism back then, the Greeks loved assimilated Jews,it was only frum Jews who were persecuted). But we should probably not say that when the secular Jews are listening (why pick fights when you don’t have to).
The idea of a woman changing her name on marriage is clearly a non-Jewish custom. Traditionally a woman would be known as “Pilonis bar [father’s name]” for her entire life. The goyim started to force Yidden to adopt family names a few centuries ago (the better to tax and conscript us), which explains why Jews have been very unattached to their surnames and frequently change them (by way of contrast, many western European goyim have surnames that have been in use for thousands of years, and are critical in researching ancestry). Rabbanim have allowed women to adopt the husband’s surname even though it is a goyish minhag (as are inherited surnames).
While there are no “Jewish” arguments on change of surname, there are practical reasons for the wife to adopt a husband’s name, especially if they expect to have children and if they are going to be on the same health insurance.
As long as you stayed with the tehum (roughly a kilometer) it would probably be okay as long as you don’t use any sort of engine (assuming you could manage to grow powerful wings, but that might raise the problem of mixed breeding with other species). The major problem is that Ha-Shem created gravity, and gave us relative heavy bodies, and those whose bodies are designed for flight have very small brains. This might be a shailoh if Yidden ever manage to get into space or on other planets.
People dress and groom in all cultures. Humans are like that. Ha-Shem made us that way. Enjoy the diversity. Don’t get so anxious that everyone in the world isn’t a clone of yourself.
Some people can’t cope, and perhaps that is an attraction to joining the military where everyone dresses the same, and cuts their hair the same, and are supposed to think the same (assuming they are of a high enough rank where thinking is encouraged). We aren’t like that.
Up to know the government rabbanut was controlled by a mixture of strictly frum modern Orthodox and quasi-Hareidim. Many Hareidim regarded government kasrus as being dubious at best, and preferred private hareidi kashrus (best know was that of the Badatz of what was originally the pre-zionist frum community during the Ottoman period). To many Hareidim, saying something had a medinah hecksher meant it was probably not kosher. The current “reform” will give people who are less that strictly Orthodox a say in what is kosher, so those who in the past never took state hecksher as being reliable, get to say “I told you so”.
DYNASTIC??? How many of today’s “rich” were affluent 75 tears ago?
Defining “poverty” is a problem. Some people (using Brooklyn as an example) consider poverty to mean they can’t afford to go to the mountains for the summer. Many Americans would consider inability to own a house or a car to indicate poverty. Many people are officially considered to be in poverty, yet also suffer from diabetes (consider that to have type 2 diabetes, one almost certainly needs to be overweight, which implies more than adequate food).
One should ask what percentage of Israelis lack housing (and in particular lack housing with running water and indoor plumbing), lack the ability to afford Torah education for their children, lack enough to eat, are unable to afford sufficient clothing and are forced to wear rags or go barefoot. A good reference point is to examine the standard of living most Jews had in the 19th century (whether in the Russian Empire or the Ottoman Empire) and compare it to today.
1. One side would argue that it is similar to the “King’s birthday”, for which frum Jews in the past did join in the celebration (especially if we liked the king in question). What make’s Thanksgiving different is the President’s tradition of declaring that it is a quasi-religious holiday .
2. The origins going back to colonial times were that days of Thanksgiving were religious holidays, though never tied to a specific religion or denomination (always careful to avoid anything to insult any specific religious group, while probably insulting atheists though that isn’t an issue for us). If one holds that when Christians talk about the “creator” references in Breishis they are talking about Ha-Shem rather than a pagan diety, that eliminates some of the objections. One should ask if a frum political leader could call for a day of Thanksgiving for some national deliverance and ask Christians and Muslim (but not atheists) to join us. It should be noted that the connection to Plymouth in the 17th century in declaring a day of Thanksgiving is ahistorical. (at most a precedent, but more of a gimmick).
3, Unlike some non-Jewish holidays (particularly the one based on the Roman Saturnalia, which includes the pagan custom of having a tree in one’s house), eating a turkey or playing flag football do not seem to have religious meaning. Honoring the the 17th century colonists in Plymouth (who were quite anti-Semitic) seems problematic (though accusing them of genocide is a stretch since most of the locals were killed be infectious diseases that neither side understood how they spread). There is prohibition of imitating goyim
It seems reasonable to provide kosher food, tefillin, sefarim, etc.
We can probably offer to keep him under control (to the extent that’s legal). Depending on the country, agreeing to house arrest (in yeshiva), and full cooperation with the police, might work in more developed countries.
We also should look into whether the kid is really guilty.
Exactly what is money needed for? Was the kid arrested in a country where bribery is the accepted method of dealing with the authorities? Is it for a local lawyer? Few countries offer cash bail, and in any event, if you skip bail you lose the money and become an international fugitive.
Would our response be different if the kid were caught shoplifting or selling contraband within our own community?
Because they learned Tanach as children.
The parts they haven’t learned have little practical value, as one doesn’t decide halacha based on Tanach.
It’s fun, so studying Tanach in yeshiva would be like having ice cream for dinner (by analogy Talmud is similar to meat and vegetables).
From a legal perspective, he was innocent. Self-defense is a valid legal defense in almost all legal systems (except in fascist countries where private citizens aren’t allowed to be armed). For a parental perspective, one’s child should not be running around with a semi-automatic weapon confront an armed mod that was engaged in riot, and where the police had fled. Seventeen year olds, are their own, are not supposed to put down armed mobs. In general, when children are put in situations where they might be shot at (e.g. in the military), they receive significant training and there are grownups in charge. (by the way, under international law, children his age aren’t even allowed to be in situations where they might be shot at).
You can always pump water into it (the matter has been discussed, with the idea being to get hydroelectric power as the water falls from sea-level). Much of the water that had been flowing into it has been (and is) being diverted for agriculture and human consumption. This is hardly something worthy of a prophesy (i.e. if you divert rivers from flowing into a lake, the lake dries up – happens elsewhere as well).
One should remember that Aramaic (still a living language) has been around, based on literary records, for at least 3000 years, and the texts Yidden are likely to encounter cover a period well over 1000 years – AND LIVING LANAGUAGES EVOLVE OVER TIME. Compared to English over the millenia, Aramaic is relatively consistent. While Daniel could probably chat with the Amoraim, they would have sound very strange to each other. Do not be shocked in one encounters greater variety in Aramaic than is the case of Lashon Kodesh, since the importance of Tanach tended to slow down the natural tendency of languages to evolve over time.
Gerrymandering has been a tradition of the Democratic party since their opponents were the Federalists. Republicans have picked up on it as well (annoying the Democrats who thought they had patented the idea, and didn’t want to share). The only restriction is gerrymandering in order to keep Blacks (or at least, those Blacks whose ancestors were slaves in the antebellum period of American history) from getting elected. The alternative system would involve proportional representation (such as in Israel), which you never have your “own” legislator, and individual legislators ignore voters since staying in office is totally dependent on winning favor from party leaders (who write up the lists).
Remember, Donald Trump running in 2024 may be the Democrats only hope for winning.
The best way to look good (“cool” if you prefer) is to hand out with someone bad (“uncool”). That probably explains why the politicians tend to hang out with each other. Normal, rational people could look much better if they hung out with the politicians, but they are too busy working and raising families, and probably couldn’t stand the odor.
Nusachs are constantly evolving, and as people migrate and new shuls are created, and people end up going to a shul for reasons that have nothing to do with family traditions. Note how many zionist shuls, especially if they are funded by the zionist state, ended up adopting Nusach Sfard since it was a mixture of traditional the Ashkenazi and Sefardi nusach. If you had a DVD of your ancestors davening, and compared the nusach from the time of the rishonim to today, you would find radical changes that have crept in over the centuries. That’s normal
Philosopher: The DNA of Ashkenazim shows that while there were a fair number of converts a long time ago, and then a steady trickle (which matches all historical records), but remember that we are 100 generations since the Churban Bayis Sheini, and that is a very long time for a trickle to become noticeable. In addition, light skin and blond hair had a survival advantage for Ashkenazim since they would have an easier time hiding during pogroms . Also remember that Ashkenazim were for the most part living in areas where the goyim tend to have much lighter skin and blonder hair than was the norm in the middle east. When someone, such as the original poster, complains that Ethiopian Jews are “too dark”, he/she/it should realize that from the point of view of Jews who stayed closest to Eretz Yisrael, most Ashkenazim are “too light”.
1. All Jewish communities had many converts, which usually required forgery of yichus records to conceal they were converts since conversion to Judaism was usually a capital offense (considered to be heresy which was related to treason). How do you think Ashkenazim got to be so light skinned with many blonds among us?
2. There has always been substantial migration between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. And Yemen has had a well documents Jewish community. It should also be noted that the Ethiopian goyim have many customs that appear to be of Jewish origin, and that Jews in adjacent regions (Egypt and Yemen) were aware there were Jews in Ethiopia. The Ethiopean Christians knew there were Jews in their county and persecuted them.
3. If a Jewish community doesn’t emphasize learning Torah, their observances are likely to become corrupted over time. A Jewish community of Baal ha-Batim that doesn’t support a community of “batlanim” will mess up a lot. That would explain the halachic errors of Ethiopean Jews (and many others isolated Jewish communities – you really can’t be properly frum without a strong commitment to learning Torah).
No national has ever had a registry of Jews, though some local communities might have had a list (probably to show who had full rights in the community, and who didn’t).
While some countries have national registers that indicate ethnicity or religion, none of these were based on halacha. In effect, the zionists use a similar system: anyone whose arguably believable claim to have Jewish ancestry and does not claim to be a member of any religion other than some from of Judaism, is considered Jewish for immigration purposes; to the Israelis, it is not relevant that the the individual is an atheist from a long line of atheists and the mother and maternal grandmother were not Jewish.
Cost of living is not uniform in any country. Being unable to afford a nice apartment in a “good” neighborhood in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv doesn’t mean you are closed out of the entire country. Unlike golus, where rural areas and smaller cities are not realistic options from frum Jews (no Jewish schools, no shul, no mikva, limited availability of kosher food), in Eretz Yisrael there are many more housing options that don’t require living in the most expensive metropolitian areas. When you take into account the premium paid in golus for Jewish education, kosher food and housing in expensive urban areas, Eretz Yisrael starts looking much more affordable for a frum Yid.
The idea of zionism is to create a homeland for non-Chareidi Jews, and either to “convert” or drive out the Chareidim. Based on your complaint, would you have been shocked if the Gestapo was being rude to Jews????
You can reasonably be certain that if it is run by the dominant organizations of the Jewish community in either Eretz Yisrael or Golus, it will NOT be operated according to Torah. Most Jews in both Israel and Golus are not frum, and the richest and politically best connected are not frum. As a small, frequently discriminated against (at best, persecuted has historically been the norm), we can hardly create an “official” anything,
The best solution is to assume that anyone who is not Shomer Shabbos is a putative non-Jew (at least for marriage purposes, not for whether he/she can be a Shabbos Goy or buy our hametz over Pesach), and unless the person can reliably trace maternal ancestry to someone who was frum, they should expect to need to convert if they want to part of the frum community. The high rate of intermarriage began over two centuries ago, and given the custom in western countries to identify children by their father’s surname, one should assume, unless proven otherwise, that anyone whose family is not frum and has Jewish surname is not Jewish. It should be noted that in situations where a Baal Tseuvah (i.e. someone not frum who has decided to become frum) discovers he/she is not Jewish, since the person is already shomer mitsvos, conversion is very uncomplicated.
If you are married, the crisis is over.
If you are single, the crisis is not over.No hiddush. It always has been that way. It always will be that way.
We hold this is the world of Sheker. People shouldn’t get so up tight about the goyim. We have much bigger fish to fry.
I thought that Jewish men were supposed to be learning and teaching Torah, leaving all the other stuff for women. If it is okay for a man to be bitul Torah in order to do things like play soldier, work in sports and entertainment, construct things, sell things, practice medicine, why shouldn’t women. Indeed, many jobs the goyim consider to be “male” can just as easily be done by women, and often better. Why should halacha look at what the local goyim (in our cases, Euro-American Christians) consider to be a gender role (note that many goyim consider it to be “unmanly” for a male to spend all his time reading books, learning, etc. – to them, those are female traits).
The world has never been normal. Why do you think we call it the false world (world of Sheker)? Remember this in only some place we are spending time in in, it’s not real.
If you want to live like an upper middle class American, and limit yourself to the most exclusive (i.e. expensive) neighborhoods, you will definitely need a six figure income.
If you are content with a working class lifestyle and/or living outside of the high priced metropolitan areas, you can probably manage for a lot less.
I suspect any Republican other than Trump has a good chance of winning provided that 1) Trump is enthusiastically supporting the ticket; 2) the candidate is an experience politician who knows how not alienate people and does know how to build coalitions; 3) the Democrats don’t dump Biden for a “moderate” who can put the “woke” in their place (on the sidelines) without alienating them
Without Trump’s base (primarily working class, disproportionately of European descent) the Republicans have a problem. Even if you add up the “Tea Party” and the “Neocons” and the “Country Club Republicans” and the “Wall Street Republicans”, they don’t have a majority. Bush only got in since the earlier version of today’s “Progressive Democrats” stabbed Gore in the back and voted for Nader. Reagan only got in since Jimmy Carter was a clear failure and the Democrats in the 1970s were pushing a radical agenda very similar to today’s “progressives”.
Unless they can convince the Democrats to run a socialist or a fool, the Republican best chance to win is to find a way to unite their factions in a way that includes Trump’s base. If winning was more important than ego, Trump would settle down to be a “Senior Statesman”, and become a good party man (instead of someone who was recently a Democrat, and always focused on himself rather than party). Getting Trump to settle down to retirement as a “wise elder” is a challenge.
1. First, Facebook has gotten a bad reputation (e.g., the only thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on, is that Facebook is evil). A change of name is called for.
2. The “metaverse” programs have been around for a long time (e.g. “Second Life” which is about 20 years old). What Facebook wants to do is to upgrade the programming to make it more useful so that is passes for “virtual reality”.
I am amazed that housing costs the same in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as it does in less urban places. That happens no where in the world. In general, if one has trouble making ends meet, it is advantageous to move to a less urban area (in the USA, one can leave New York for places such as Baltimore, but in the USA moving to any metropolitan area with no large cities, or to a rural area, is not practical for frum Jews).
For a non-hareidi frum person, finding a job is much easier in Israel, whereas in America many if not most jobs are closed to anyone who is at all frum (defined as Shomer Shabbos, Shomer Kashrus) either because the job requires work on Saturday, or the job requires living in an area where there are no frum shuls or schools). Also note, that if you are a zionist, Israel for all purposes has free public education, whereas in golus one has to pay rather expensive tuition and needs to live in a community with a Jewish school.
Israel is now officially considered to be a developed country, and for frum Jews, depending on profession, there is probably no economic hardship in moving to Israel, especially. For Hareidim, the issue is trickier, since if you oppose the medinah and refuse to serve in their army, the equation on which country is better becomes harder to evaluate.
Why should the teachers (or rather the teacher’s union) decide what school’s teach. That should rest with the board of directors, which for a public school, are the parents (or the voters at large). The WOKE movement is attempting to define its own class of self-proclaimed exerts as an aristocracy, that will rule without regard to what the people want. Its very similar to England in the early Middle Ages (e.g. 13th century) when the Lords were the only decision makers, and the idea of a commons had yet to be born.
The idea of zionism, from its origins in the 19th century, was to establish a place where Jews would be free from the yoke of Torah, and to accomplish this they wanted a sovereign state (note that “sovereign” means higher than any king, whether on earth or in shamayim). Zionism is by definition opposed to frumkeit. This is no secret. It is even part of their anthem (“to be a free [from the yoke of Torah] nation”)
Fixed or negotiable prices are matters of commercial custom, and that has always been the case. If you answer the question with a “yes” or “no” answer, you are in error.
It depends on context. In a situation where bargaining over price is the norm, failing to do so is foolish and the person selling the item will be pleased to rip you off. In a situation where prices are fixed, if you attempt to bargain you will be perceived very negatively and in some cases, you may be violating criminal laws (e.g. trying to bargain with a transit driver over fares, or trying to cut a deal with a policeman giving you a ticket).
The American (and before that “German” reparations, even if they were paid by the USA) makes things easier for Israel. On its own, the Israelis would probably have to respond more forcefully which could lead a bigger war with devastating consequence (especially if the Israelis were forced to use non-conventional weapons). The pre-Biden policies seem to have been working as more Arab countries are recognizing Israel, and the level of violence has been contained. The WOKE Democrats are likely to sabotage the movements towards peace since they want to see Israel destroyed, even if the consequence could be a mass destruction (e.g. instead of launching retaliatory raids when Gaza takes pot shots at Israeli cities, the Israelis could do to Gaze what the US did in World War II, level the cities and cause massive civilian deaths which, but result in the loss of American aid – that aid is a bribe for the Israelis not to go for a military solution).
Compared to many other things that Yidden can turn to in order to find a way to be bitual Torah, organized sports are relatively harmless. And actual participation in sports can even be positive.
P.S. I was going to discuss the other things to to to waste time and divert energy from Torah and Mitsvos, but other than posting on YWN, they are all things that the “mods” would object to.
It will probably lead to Democratic support for repealing the law that grants social media immunity from being sued for what user’s post (much to the tech world’s consternation).
If you eliminate the “moderating” process from social media, you will end up content many users find objectionable, and you end up as an accessory to crimes committed by criminals using the social media (e.g sale of stolen or banned goods). Facebook has this as a major problem.
Hiddush?????
It is quite rude to make fun of our nation’s leaders (especially the last few). There is no proof that any recent presidents are/were fully sentient, and in any event, the one to blame are those that elected them
Other than having to work out how we measure time (there already have been some tseuvahs on the subject), and the problem getting water for a mikva (if you had an artificial site big enough to have rain form, would that count?), what are the halachic issues that would prevent Yiden from moving off-world?
Socialize medicine, and that’s what you have. Health care rationing doesn’t work if individuals can go out of system. If the government decides some sort of care is not covered, in a socialist system, you are in effect ordered to be put to death. If the Republicans mess up in the next election, we’ll probably have the same system in the United States. We are one “blue wave” away from having “Death Panels” in America.
If the goyim get annoying enough, that may be the way to go. There will be some interesting shailohs on calculating zmanim once you emigrate from this planet, and arranging “Mayim Hayim” (for mikvos) will be challenging, but I’m sure we’ll come up with a way. If moving to Israel is Plan B for Yidden in America, perhaps “the next frontier” might figure as Plan C.
It was “stolen” by Donald Trump. The results for offices other than president appear to indicate that 2020 should have been a good year from the Republicans, but the man at the head of the ticket managed to “steal” defeat from the jaws of victory by his own incompetence as a politician.
If the Democrats were stuffing the ballot boxes, there would have been a massive blue wave, since election cheats never split their ticket.