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Home made food is supposed to be better. However store bought is cheaper and easier. That applies to almost anything, not just hummus. So there’s really no hiddush in the original posting.
For centuries, Jews did not have the right the bare arms (consider the complications of having a pogrom if the Jews could defend themselves). In fact, since Jews couldn’t use swords in many countries, there were books in Hebrew on how to fight without a weapon (and you think the zionists invented Krav Maga – the hareidim were doing in 600 years ago). Note that when the Germans elected the National Socialists, one of the first laws was to revoke the right of Jews to bear arms. Indeed, it is an obvious sign that a dictatorship fears armed citizens.
In the English speaking countries, the right to bare arms was limited to the politically and religiously correct, and was sharply curtailed after the militia called itself up and twice overthrew the lawful king in the 17th century (not that about half the American colonies were founded by the losers in that civil war). To a large extent, the Democrats desire to disarm conservatives and deplorables follows a similar logic.
It should be noted that traditionally a criminal who used a gun in a crime faced certain death, and perhaps they should make use of the deterrence in discouraging gun crime, rather than disarming law abiding citizens.
Joseph: For a frum woman to not have an “outside” job she has to have tremendous economic resources (inherited wealth, a rich husband which probably indicates he isn’t a Ben Torah since one doesn’t get rich by sitting and learning, etc.). The choice is between doing semi-skilled work in a store or office, or being an underpaid functionary in a frum non-profit, or being a lawyer.
Also note that “best of frum women who work outside the home” is compared to “best of frum men” (who by definition don’t go into professions, leaving the money-making to the second raters) and “best of other types of women” (who have tremendous problems finding child care since in their communities few women they would associate with are stay-at-home mothers).
If a frum woman is going to get a job outside the home, and goes to law school, she enters the career tract that can result in one becoming a judge. The same holds true of frum men, but many frum men prefer to concentrate on learning, which reduces those likely to end up becoming judges.
Indeed, since the “best” of the frum men focus their vocational energy on learning (e.g. teaching within the Torah world), and the “best” of the frum women who choose to work outside the home are not so distracted, one should expect to find increasing number of hareidi women doing well in professions. They have an added advantage over non-chareidi women in that they are in a community in which many women stay at home, creating a large pool of reliable child-care opportunities.
ubiquitin and joseph: The “town crier” didn’t do news. It was more for public service announcements (remember to pay taxes this week, remember to make an eruv tavshillin, etc.). People wrote books, sometimes works of art (the famous Bayeux tapestry), letters were sent. The “new cycle” took years but word got through. The Chinese probably were unaware of western Europe, in part since the area was a bit too primitive to interest them (though the Chinese routinely were in contact with the Muslims and to a lesser extent with the remaining Romans in whatg we call the Byzantine Empire). England and France were well connected, and for much of the medieval period the “big story” was one trying to conquer the other (Jews were illegal aliens in both countries, and we stayed out of politics as best we could).
The 24 hour news cycle took a bit longer, but yes, the Norman Conquest was well known. It was big news.
He obviously knew of the existence of England. England had a significant Jewish community at the time, and one that produced Torah literature, and whose Jews spoke the same language (Judeo-French). It is less likely he visited it as Rashi was not know for travelling (unlike some Torah scholars), and it appears he spent his life in the area that is the border between France (which existed at the time) and Germany (which did not exist at the time).
Technologies change. Hazakahs disappear. At one time, Jews routinely ate non-Jewish bread if there was a local hazakah they didn’t use animal fat or milk.
Today we have hecksherim for anything, including hard liquor. Why rely on a probably obsolete hazakah that a product is inherently kosher, when we can get the same product with certification from a proper kashrus agency.
zahavasdad: In that case no one would have heard of him for a while. The first people only reached New Zealand in the time of the Rishonim and the first Europeans only in the time of the Achronim. We would have had prolonged peace and quiet, except for gigantic (but not meat eating) birds. Of course, when the Europeans arrived (and remember, they would probably be worshipping their ancestral dieties), tghey would have gunpowder and we would still be as well armed as the Jews were in the Midbar. Isolation results in backwardness.
Seriously though, the fact that Ha-Shem didn’t send us to an isolated uninhabited island suggest a deliberate reason for us to have a homeland at the cross roads between Africa, Asia and Europe, “in the thick of things”.
Is the initial question asking when one would want to live (probably not very far in the past, the modern standard of living gives us a vastly higher quality of life than our ancestors) or, when would you go to alter history (to benefit the Klal Yisrael, I would suggest preventing World War I (preserving the stable era of the “Proud Tower” and avoiding the rise of Socialism, Naziism and Islamic Natinalism which have not been good for us) , or perhaps preventing the breakdown of relations with Rome which led to a several wars that were disasterous for us) or perhaps Bayit Rishon (some sage advice and a bit of gunpowder and there wouldn’t be numbers after Bayit), or (being sarcastic) going to Avraham Aveinu or Moshe Rabeinu and telling them about New Zealand and Madagascar which were both totally free of goyim (i.e. uninhabited) at the time.
A newborn clone will be a baby that it exactly you were when you were a baby. if you are human, so will the kid be. Since we allow test tube babies, and a clone has fewer shailohs , what will the problem be?
I’m comparing American college students to yeshiva students. As far as I can tell, Baal ha-basim never got off for “Bein ha-zmanim” unless they were employed by a yeshiva. Note that some Americans, particularly teachers, do routinely get three months of vacation every year.
By the 19th century, they had railroads. It dates back earlier to when they often had to walk.
Actually the vacations are relatively short. The Americans get off from Memorial Day to Labor Day, three complete months.
BTW – I’ve been looking at some pictures from Syria and Iraq, and they have done a good job on reducing obesity. And lets give credit where credit is due, 73 years ago the Germans did a fantastic job on reducing obesity among European Jews. (in fact most Europeans were quite thin by the spring of 1945, and would you believe, they were complaining about it).
Be happy to live in time where being too fat is considered a problem. Baruch ha-Shem we have more than enough to eat.
So we are a bit overweight. Looks at some typical pictures of frum Jews from, say, 73 years ago. Be happy. It is a bracha to live at a time when obesity is considered to be a public health problem.
And if someone doesn’t want the convenience of prepared foods and restaurants, they can go back to what was done in the past – buy the ingredients, and the fruits and vegetables,and prepare your own. It isn’t like one has trouble finding kosher potatoes.
Homeschooling limudei kodesh is a problem for most families. Assuming that both parents are Bnei Torah (the father learned in a yeshiva after high school, the mother went to seminary), the boys Torah curriculum by late middle school includes subjects that the mother can’t teach (in particular gemara). And usually the father is employed and doesn’t have adequate time.
Remember that the home schooling parent has to give up tremendous time, resulting in opportunity costs. If the mother (as it typically is) has a college degree and the option to earn somewhere between $50K and $100K (which is normal), then the cost of home school is the money she gives up by staying home.
Also remember that the goyim have well developed networks to assist parents, and we do not.
However if one is seriously “out of town” in a place with no day school, or if one wants to home school for “English” only, this probably makes it more reasonable.
Large amounts of currency create a risk of theft, whereas “plastic” (in its various forms) have reduced risk of theft (in the case of credit cards, a $50 cap, debit and payment cards are a bit different). One should also note that large payments in cash can be illegal in some places, and in general appear questionable and get the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Which “state” do you refer to. If you mean Medinat Yisrael, the obvious answer is “NO”. Israel is a secular state whose stated goal is to build a country free from the yoke of Torah. That, alone, is the raison d’etre.
If you mean a “generic” state, the answer is “perhaps indirectly” is in a given country they have entitlemenet policies that benefit frum Jews such as American food stamps and medicaid that benefit the Torah world even though that was not the government’s intention.
Corn and wheat were genetically modified in prehistoric times (i.e. before there were written records), the same goes to dogs and cattle. While unmodified dogs still exist (wolves), unmodified cattle became extinct. None of the basic foods exist in pre-modified form.
So now they can do it faster. Big deal. If mass sterility is a problem caused by GMOs, you would see it among groups such as Mormons and Orthodox Jews, but in fact both groups have close genetic cousins with whom they share diet (both eat GMOs), but only the seculars have falling fertility, somewhat proving that the well documents fall in fertility is caused by religion and culture, not diet.
Abusing small rodents with disgusting experiments designed to get tenure for professors proves very little. Such experiments in the past have proved whatever the professor thinks will get him tenure. A century ago, they proved that Jews and Blacks were inferior, since at the time that was a politically correct view (which is how democratic governments enacted the holocaust in Europe and Jim Crow in America – relying on best science).
Your hypothesis that GMOs cause infertility is easy to test, and the evidence is pretty overwhelming that GMOs are safe.
Paleontologists have found clear evidence of humans engaging in genetic modification of plants and animals since longer than there has been writing. If your grandfather was one of the first to dabble in creating GMOs, he must have known Noah personally, if not Adam ha-Rishon himself.
All that happened in the last cenutry was an improvement in technique. No reputable scientist claims GMOs have been proven to be “bad” – however in many countries (particulary in Europe) they have a rule that something must be proven to be “safe” (though in all fairness, the rule is designed primarily to protect inefficient farmers against competition from farmers in American and Britain using modern methods) . GMOs even if the definition is defined to the newer methods of accomplishing it are widely used, and are a major reason why people have enough to eat.
Without GMOs people would be starving in the streets. And if you really believe that falling birth rates are caused by GMOs, you are incredibly naive.
It seems no one else seems to think so. Virtually all food we eat has been genetically modified, and the process began over several generations ago, so the human race is probably extinct by now. If you honestly believe the anti-GMO nonsense, feel free to live off wild grass, but don’t be disappointed when you do NOT have the world do yourself in 50 years.
The only halachic issue with GMOs might be if you introduce genes from one plant or animal into another, and that would deal with questions of kilayim. The consensus seems to be that unless it is done with actual grafting or cross breeding (mating), there is not an issue, and that deriving benefit is not as problematic as doing it ourselves (e.g. we can use a mule, but we can’t cause one to be made).
Since we now have a well developed system of hecksherim, why would any frum Yid even consider relying on the “good old days” system of relying on checking ingredients.
Do released felons (who have finished serving the sentence) pay taxes? Are they subject to laws passed by the legislature? Do they use services provided by the elected government? Does the phrase “no taxation without representation” sound familiar to anyone?
Does it matter the more than any other factor (economic status, family background, ethnicity, gender), the factor that most closely correlates with criminal behavior is age. Young people tend to make mischief and get into trouble, and the propensity to do so decline over time (as the people grow older and wiser), which suggests a good reason not to overly penalize a grownup over something they did when they were a kid.
Republicans like religion, include our’s. Democrats think that people like us are deplorables who cling to religion.
If the “frum” Democrats were to “cross the aisle”, it would seriously revitalize the Republican party in New York, and might influence many other “deplorables” to switch as well.
Kametz, can be an “ah” as in father, an “oh” as in oatmeal, or an “aw” as in “raw” depending on dialect. All are glatt kosher. The “aw” (spoken by western and northeastern European Ashkenazi) is probably closer to the ancient pronounication, but you’ll need a time machine to be certain.
According to current theories, dinosaurs did not become extinct, they just became smaller. Most Yidden eat them on Shabbos evening for dinner.
Most Jews, and all Ashkenazim, did not use inherited surnames until the 19th century. A man’s legal names was “Piloni ben Piloni” and a woman’s name was “Pilonis bas Pilonis”. While people often used additional names, they were not necessarily inherited. The goyim required us to use surnames in the 19th century to facilitate conscription, tax collection and assimilation. They initially forgot to require that they be inherited on the male line and it wasn’t uncommon for a man to adopt the wife’s family name (especially if he was moving in with her family and supported by them, as was common). Until recently, Dina Malchusa Dina required a woman to use her husband’s surname, reflecting various Christian legal traditions, but that is often not the case.
There is certainly no halachic requirement for a woman to adopt her husband’s surname, but it is convenient to do so.
Specific wedding customs:
“Mr. and Mrs. …. ” as referring to the hasan/kallah is clearly non-Jewish, as traditionally Jewish women did not change their names on marriage (prior to use of surnames, which were for the most part adopted by Ashkenazim in the 19th century)
Entrance ceremony – Jews had the hasan and kallah walk to the huppah with their parents, anything else is non-Jewish. Among goyim, the hasan arrives with his friends led by the “Best man”, whereas the bride is escorted by the father or senior male relative who has to “give her away” (Jewish give make their own marriage arrangments, at least in theory, so there is no guardian to give her way).
Post-wedding. Goyim traditionally leave town immediately after the wedding for a honey moon, so anything we do after our weddings (where the couple stays in town and goes to parties for a week) is Jewish.
As to what is a “custom” one should remember that customs, by definition, are constantly changing. New Jewish customs are constantly being created based on how we adapt halacha to changing circumstance. For example, 200 years ago there were no microphones or loudspeaker, nor any possible recorded music – and there were no photographers at weddings- Clothing constantly changes since new fabrics become available and styles change (e.g. no one wore pants 500 years ago) – the halacha for clothes pertain to the tallis katan and the need for modesty – the rest it how the Yidden adapt.
It would have to be Jewish, since after the ceremony goyim don’t leave. They have no equivalent of our “heder yichud”.
Ability to instantly translate Aramaic and perfect retention to texts.
1. The secular Jews and the Palestinians would have an overwhelming majority opening up the possibility of fulfilling the zionist dream of a state where Jews could be free from the yoke of Torah (the ?? ???? they sing about in the zionist anthem).
2. Israel could “transfer” the Palestinians elsewhere, presumably the same way the goyim “transfered” the majority of European Jews in the mid-20th century – but that would alienate the countries that support Israel and probably lead to severe sanction or a UN-sponsored military action against Israel. Note that those who wanted to remove Jews from Europe ended up with the country leveled and their leaders swinging from gallows.
3. A single state including most of the Middle East (the plan the zionists and the Arabs agreed to 100 years ago, that was sabotaged by the Brits), with an autonomous Jewish entity would probably work. The key point is the Arabs have to feel secure that they are living in an Arabic Islamic state, even if it includes a Jewish province with its own military force. The secular Israelis would be nervous about Islamic law (similar to halacha on most social matters), and the religious nationalists see a separate state as a halachic requirement. Hareidim who don’t object to things such as banning abortion or gay rights, or giving up having an Israeli team at the Olympics or an Israeli girl at the MIss Universe contest, would support this arrangement – but Hareidim dropped out of politics after Jacob Israel de Haan was murdered and currently only worry about survival and bits of patronage.
Is it fiction or non-fiction?
We Yidden been surviving in Olam Ha-Zeh for a while. We know its the “world of lies” (Olah ha-Sheker). We rely on Torah and Mitsvos. What’s the hiddush?
For the seculars to lose control the following would have to happen. One is an end to the war since with the war going on the religious zionists will stay allied with the secular zionists and alienated from the hareidim. One possibility would be for the hareidim to become more involved politically and to propose a solution acceptable to hareidim and religious zionists as well as the Arabs, but not to secular zionists (e.g. Israel becomes an autonomous non-state in a larger Islamic state, Jews can live anywhere in Eretz Yisrael, Israel agrees that its laws will differ from Islamic law only when halacha differs from Islamic law, Arabic replaces English as the de facto second language). However as long as there is war going on, the alliance of the secular Jews with the religious zionists will continue.
However the entire Israeli economy, military and legal system are controlled by seculars. More importantly, the “kippah” crowd is almost as antagonistic to the hareidim, and the largest growth is among the hareidim. The important number is the relationship of “kippahs” to secular among the non-hareidi crowd. Also remember that in Israeli elections, goyim can vote at present the goyim support the hilonim.
So don’t hold your breath.
All products require checking labels. As a frum Jew, you are obvious used to the idea of needing to check labels. This does discriminate against those who don’t read English but you obviously can read English.
Socks are often made of cotton now (as well as wool and many manufactured fabrics). New socks, feel like, new socks.
Chareidim win.
Bnei Torah (meaning employed by the frum community, though in many cases the word “”Employed” needs to be taken with a grain of salt) win
The deplorables (working class, especially in “red” states) win
Rich Baal ha-battim lose
People with mansion and good incomes (especially two-income families, when both have real jobs), especially in “blue states” lose
Corporations win (but if they distribute the winnings to real humans, those humans will in many cases be losers, see above)
A lot depends on how one defines middle class. In many frum communities, especially in New York City, a large percentage of people rent rather than own. And one has to ask does “middle class” mean both parents are working full time for the goyim at real salaries, as opposed to the working for frum organizations for mediocre salaries (not to mention the possibility of the husband learning at least part time, and the wife being a homemaker). For those who don’t itemize, the doubling of the standard deduction more than makes up for the elimination of exemptions. For home owners with two-incomes (both spouses have advanced academic degress and jobs to match their academic backgrounds), the changes in the tax law may prove quite negative (they don’t benefit from the increase in standard deduction, they may be losing deductions for taxes and mortgages, and such families typically don’t have many children).
To anyone complaining about the new tax law: You should instead be thanking Ha-Shem that you are rich enough to be paying higher taxes under the law. The tax reform (for individuals, I’m not talking about the different question of how corporations are taxed) was designed to benefit the poor and middle classes – families with kids, the 2/3 of the population who don’t have enough to itemize (i.e. who don’t earn enough to be paying $24K in state and local taxes, and mortgage interest).
If one is able to comfortably read Hebrew, the Hebrew is always going to be preferable to English. Torah is in Hebrew (or Aramaic), and those languages do not translate well into English. It has to do with the very substantial differences between Indo-European (Aryan) language and Semitic languages, e.g., verb tenses, sentence structure, etc. While not agreeing with the classic phrases ” Traduttore, traditore” (translators=traitors), there are good reasons why our classic literatures have never been written in an Indo-European languages (of which English and Yiddish are, today, the most important).
Until their is actual “lab grown meat” in commercial production, anyone writing an halachic analysis is writing science fiction, not Torah (similar to: if I miss the time for saying Shma and then hop in a “Tardis” and go back a few hours and Shma on time, have I fulfilled the requirement of saying Shma b’Zman).
My prediction, is that Bnei Torah and Bnei Torah wannabees, will consider lab grown meat to be fleishig, and require a heckcher showing that the original cells were taken from a properly slaughtered kosher animal. If the “meat” is created by some sort of 3-D printer, with the material used being inorganic to begin with, it will be parve.
Note that Saturnalia is specifically mention in Mishna Avodah Zarah (as something we can’t get invovled in). No matter what you rename it, it’s still avodah zarah. And then there is the matter how one can be celebrating while Yerusalayim is yet to be rebuilt and restored (this argument only works on hareidim, zionists think otherwise).
Meat from fish is parve (a now rejected view was that chicken was parve).
If one manages to clone meat such that the “steak” was never part of a living animal, it might be considered parve (the question will become answerable in the near future when that technology moves to fruition).
Most Reform “rabbis” know as much about yiddishkeit as frum middle schoolers (i.e. a bit of humash, really can’t do gemara on their own). If they become baal tseuvah they have to do a lot of remedial work before they could learn in a regular yeshiva.
Many of the early ones were frum Jews who needed parnassah, but that was two centuries ago.
When was time created? When was space created? Is time always linear? Is the rate the time progresses constant or variable? Is there only one universe or multiple universes, and are they truely separate or entangled?
Am I discussing science fiction? Am I discussing modern physics? Am I discussing matters addressed in kaballah.
Someone is hung up on the idea of 5778 years, but if time is neither constant nor linear, the concept of a “year” become meaningless.
When you are discussing the age of the universe you are dealing with matters of kaballah, not appropriate for YWN.
But as for the “smartphone”, perhaps it is due to our generation being dumbed down to such an extent that they need mechanical devices to communicate, something previous generations could accomplish unaided.
Moore was stabbed in the back by the Republican “establishment” (aka “Wall Street Republicans” or “Country Club Republicans”). For the Republicans to win, they need to bring together both the “establishment”, the Conservatives wing, and Trump’s “deplorables” base (who like Trump, could switch between parties). If the different wings of the Republicans can’t work together, and insist on opposing the other wing even after losing a primary, we have a socialist government in little more than three years (3 years, 1 month, eight day) with socialized medicine no choice of doctors allowed, the state makes all decisions, persecution of anyone who doesn’t support the LGBT agenda, a national policy of freedom “from” religion, and a deliberately weakened national defense that will help our (meaning the frum community’s ) enemies. Moore is a very typical Christian conservative charged with nothing worse than having dated teenagers when in his 30s (which is respectable in many cultures, including his own), and his betrayal by the Republican establishment suggests the Republicans need to “get their act together” fast.
By validity, do you mean, for example, if they would be considered violating the Mitsvos Bnei Noach if they engage in adultery – OR – by validity, do you mean if one of them converts to Judaism do they need they need a divorce for the non-Jewish spouse before they can marry a Jew .
I believe the answer to the first example is “yes” but Jewish never would have to deal with adultery cases involving non-Jews, and to the second I believe the answer is a female convert does need need any form of divorce from the non-Jewish spouse to marry a Jew (according to halacha, though Dina Malchusa Dina becomes an issue in some cases).