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But to admit that the goyim are meshuganahs who want to kill us would mean to admit the Israel argument that Jews aren’t able to safely live outside of Medinat Yisrael. Those Jews who feel that way have long since made aliyah.
While the argument is often made that the low rate of gun ownership and proficiency among Jews in America is a problem, the truth is that if we ever have to rely on shooting the goyim in order to survive in a country, it means its long best the date we should have left by. Contrary to zionist propaganda, Jews have always found the means to shoot back (or the equivalent before firearms were invented), but that once we start mowing down goyim, we run into the problem that they will always be better armed than we are.
One neds to remember that we are only visiting this world for the purpose of preparations, through Torah and Mitsvos. This isn’t the real world. That’s we refer to it as the “Olam
shel sheker”.
Tachlis: Consider the most serious act of violence against American Jews, which was the Crown Heights pogrom over twenty years ago. If we had starting shooting the goyim, be they the local Blacks carryout out the pogrom, or the New York City policemen standing watch to protect them, or assasinating those who were promoting or supporting the pogrom though deliberate malfeasance of duty (i.e. Al Sharpton, Mayor Dinkins, Governor Cuomo) – do you really think we would have been better off. The unfortuantely reality in this world, which is only a mere corridor not something we are stuck in permanently, is that we will always be stuck relying on our “smarts” and trust in Ha-Shem, but not in brute force.
Some things not mentioned in the article: 1) the names and accounts of the testimony of anyone who saw them together – remember doing yichud in a frum community sets off all sorts of alarms; 2) discussion of any evidence that the defendant’s lawyers claimed to have that wasn’t admitted (probably the girls sexual history, which might have provided a motive to lie); 3) the medical records and physical evidence to support the accusations; 4) the ethnicity and religion of the jury pool and what steps were taken to exclude anyone who didn’t approve of Satmar’s policy of keeping separate, or who didn’t approve of Satmar’s policy of opposition to the State of Israel; 5) discussion of the role played by “victim advocacy” groups who crated a witch hunt atmosphere (where the prosecutors announce in advance of the trial that child molesting is common among orthodox Jews and we are proud to have arrested one).
I don’t know if he was guilty. I haven’t been to Brooklyn in years. But if I heard the same evidence except that it was about a Black man raping a White woman and everyone knows such crimes are common (cf. Scottsboro), or about a Jew accused of killing a Christian to use the blood in religious rites (cf. Beilis) — I would be very skeptical. All the cases accusing the Orthodox community of sexual misconduct have a similar lack of physical evidence, lock of independent corroboration, and are brough by people who serious object to our religion, lifestyle and politics. At a certain point, they start to smell like a “witch hunt”, and while perhaps there really were witches, one should be skeptical.
According to the “Forward” (a very anti-Orthodox newspaper, but one with fairly comprehensive coverage of Jewish issues, and quite interesting if you take their biases into account), there were no accusation of anything that would be considered a sex offense. They would be guilty of simple assault, not sodomy nor rape. Vulgarity is not a crime.
Non-sexual abuse is a crime, but not one that is routinely an issue after 30 years.
There are many evidentiary questions that might not be clear until there is an appeal (since many of them would have been decided other than in a open court, e.g., in discussions with the judge). The record on appeal, and appeal briefs, will be public documents.
If there was evidence that she was coached by a social worker, that is evidence that should have been admitted, and perhaps transcripts and the social workers notes should have been in evidence (N.B.: most “recovered memory” cases turned out to be hoaxes). If there was evidence that she had a revenge motive based on events not discussed at trial, that raises a serious fairness issue. Were her medical records ever discussed or available? Did the defendant ask for a change of venue? Why the delay in filing a complain? Were there witnesses to them being alone together? Were there witnesses to discuss if the “counseling” was held in a private place, or somewhere where yichud was observed? Was “yichud” explained to the jury? For most frum Jews, if they were alone in a locked room with a bed, something that should have been easy to find witnesses for, his cases collapses. Where the antics of persons other than the defendant (perhaps forgiveable if they were unaware of how American courts work, but still quite illegal) known to the jury, and should they have triggered a mistrial? Did the pretrial statements of advocacy groups and the District Attorney create a hostile atmosphere which would require a change in venue. Were there any Hasidic Jews on the jury, or in the jury pool? Did the court allow questioning on religious prejudice in the voir dire? Was there physical evidence that was inadmissable?
If, as the press reports, the only evidence was the girls testimony, that is a very weak case since under American law guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. It could be there is other evidence. It could also be that the anti-frum groups in the “politically correct” establishment in New York were “railroading” an innocent person.
It should be remembered that most non-hareidi Jews deeply dispise Satmar for political reasons, and that the New York liberal establishment is increasingly angry at Orthodox Jews (of all types) for being vocal opponents of the “politically correct” positions on social issues. The fact they we see involvement by these groups, such as a public relations campaign by “victim’s rights” groups, should raise serious questions of fairness.
DaMoshe: One case lacking physical evidence, maybe. But none of the cases where Hareidi Jews are accused have physical evidence. That’s unlikely. The pattern appears to be of making charges well after the events transpired, and failing to produce any evidence beyond the accusation, and relying on the press and prosecutor to create a “lynch” atmosphere with publicity announcing the sexual misconduct in the Orthodox community is common but that the courageous complainant and prosecutor will teach them a less (“how dare they go around opposing “our” sexual perversion, they are all perverts themselves”). WHILE THE INDIVIDUAL MAY OR MAY NOT BE GUILTY, the behavior of the prosecutor in these and similar cases suggests witch hunt, and suggests that to understand this we need to look at the political and social motivations behind the prosecutions.
“best” and “cheapest” rarely go together
1. Frum schools usually hold classes in this period.
2. In the USA, Jan. 1 is not a problem since its closing is purely secular (in some countries, it was a religious holiday, being the anniversary of the alleged “you know who” have a bris on that day – but not in the USA.
3. I try to never wear a suit and tie on Sunday or Dec. 25, so people will realize I’m not honoring their yuntuf.
DaMoshe: Why were there no medical records? A pediatrician would notice such a thing. If this occured repeatedly, there should have been something a a doctor would have noticed or even DNA (similar to Bill and Monica).
No one saw them in a locked room? Among goyim it is normal for a teacher or school bureaucrat to be alone in a room with a student, and the goyim have ideas as to what is or is not appropriate. Among frum Jews, a male administrator would never be allowed to be alone in a locked room with a young woman (over Bas Mitzvah), and any contact would be “inappropriate”. If her account was true, many people would have seem something that to frum Jews would be utterly shocking – but which most Americans would see as normal (a man alone in a room, perhaps shaking her hand). The lack of evidence of anyone seeing such scandalous behavior suggests her charges are dubious. I seriously doubt the jury was given information on yichud and negiah, and how in that milleu yichud and negiah would be noticed. All it would take to make the case seem plausible would be a neutral witness or some him engage in yichud and negiah, even in ways most Americans see as harmless, and then an expert witness to show how outrageous that is within the frum community.
One case might suggest guilt even though there is no evidence but the testimony of the accused. Many cases with the same pattern, and same lack of evidence suggests a “witch hunt” or “blood libel”.
NOte that in abuse cases involving the Catholic and Anglican Churches, there is typically substantial evidence beyond the testimony of the accuser.
He might be guilty. But the fact that a competent well funded prosecutor could produce no better evidence than he did raises serious doubts about what is going on. I would hypothesize that this is “payback” for the frum community’s opposition to gay rights and abortion (i.e. the sexual components of the politically correct agenda so dear to the hearts of the powerful secular Jewish community), and retaliation for the increasing trend of us to vote for political conservatives.
You have New York and the rest of New Jersey to the north, and Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington to the south. What’s the problem.
1. It’s rude to the defendant.
2. It’s impossible to discuss the case without discussing forbidden subjects. You could say, the Brooklyn DA, in response to political pressures, prosecuted an Orthodox Jew in spite of their being no evidence other than the testimony of witness who admitted her goal was to discredit the Orthodox community, and that it was announced in advance of the trial by the secular media that he was guilty since it is well known all Orthodox Jews are guilty.
3. The most you could say is that she accused him of yichud and negiah but no one else saw anything to back it up.
4. There were a lot of similar case in the American south (Scottsboro Boys, for example, cf the novel “To kill a mockingbird”), and the case does have some resemblance to earlier cases involve Beilis, Frank, Dreyfus, etc. – except in all those cases the prosecution claimed to have evidence beyond a single witness who admitted having a grudge against the defendant (and the possibility of making big bucks on the deal).
5. Unlike Europe where the goyim accused us of killing their children and eating them, in America the charges typically come from frei Jews and are of a nature that the substance isn’t something discussed in YWN. These charges are increasingly widespread, and it is becoming a pattern that they have no physical evidence or corroborating witnesses – a pattern that strongly suggests what the goyim refer to as a “witch hunt” (cf. play “The crucbile”).
3.
That is likely only if 10% of the boys are disappearing. This sometimes happens such as in wars (a big problem in Europe in the 20th century) – but not likely in our community. It could be many boys will decide to be “gay” (common among secular Jews, not among our community). It could be that boys are more likely than girls to go “off the derekh” – no evidence of that. It could be that Baalei Teuvah and Geirim are more likely to be female than male – but again, no evidence of that.
It could that both genders are “spoiled” and will likely postpone marriage until they have the economic means to support themselves in the style to which they were accustomed – so marriage age will increase. If that occurs there will be less pressure on our schools since there will be more parnassah and fewer children – but there is no sign of that happening (when in happens you’ll notice schools closing for lack of students, tuition falling, etc.).
All young people have a “shidduch crisis” which lasts until they get married. That has always been the case. The only one who really had an insoluable problem with Adam ha-Rishon (it require divine intervention to solve his shidduch crisis). Being worried about getting married is part of growing up – like pimples or having physical changes or suddently realizing the grownups think you’re an adult. THere’s really no hiddush here.
While Pearl Harbor was a momentous day for the United States, for Jews the war was already almost half over. The war began no later than Sept. 1, 1939 (earlier if you count the fighting in Ethiopia and China). By Dec. 7, 1941, the Germans had already conquered most of Europe, the Wannsee conference was already planned, etc. Had the USA entered at the start history might have been very different, but the USA was still controlled by isolationists who thought that having a weak military and ignoring the world would make problems go away.
Physically, definitely yes. Diet and exercise can help. It affects men as well as women, though men usually expire faster so its less noticable.
Mentally, a little bit – but experience makes up for it. The CPU is a little slowers and occasionally runs into bad clusters, but the programming’s sophistication improves with time and experience. Obviously, that doesn’t take into account illness or injury.
just my hapence: Frum Jews take fashion very seriously. We have to follow multiple dress codes (our own community, and the goyish world), while trying to dress comfortably and affordably, and have to be careful what message to send to the very diverse communities we deal with (both Jewish and goyish, and often multiple flavors of both).
Currently “double breasted” is moderately out of style in western countries, meaning only a handful of “well dressed” men wear double breasted suits (e.g. the Prince of Wales, the Emperor of Japan – but not the Presidents of the United States or the Russian Federation). This changes frequently. As late as the 1980s they were definitely “in” on Wall Street and the “brown shoe law firms.”
Double-breasted blazers are still worn, and they are often part of full dress military uniforms (particularly of the navy). Heavy winter coats are more likely than not to be double-breasted. Note that this paragraph refers exclusivly to goyim. While we don’t copy them, we are influenced by them, albeit very slowly. By the time “double breasted” goes out of style among Yidden, it will probably be coming back into style among goyim.
In general, double-breasted is fancier and more formal, and Yidden tend to be very conservative. Among those of us wearing various versions of “frock” coats (Kapotes, Beckeshes, Rekels, etc.), the norm is double-breasted (intersting, in the situation where goyim still wear long coats, single breasted with a vest is the norm).
1. Modern Orthodox often don’t cover their hair . Do you hold the Modern Orthodox to be frum?
2. How did you determine that she was a giores (as opposed to being the descendant of someone from East Asia who converted).
The “spirit” of Hanukah is the goyim and frei Jews wanted us to stop being a bunch meshuganah fanatics, and we whipped them good.
However given who we live among, it has always been a matter of “discretion is the better part of valor” and we try not to talk about it too much. We say hallel, al ha-nissim, light candles, have some milkigs and wink at what Yehudis did (not something we’ld be encouraging our daughters to emulate) – but it isn’t wise to loudly celebrate a victory over our neighbors when we live next door to the same.
If someone is rich in money, and a tsaddik, they will spend the money is appropriate ways and perhaps use the money to find more leisure time to do mitzvos – and will no longer be rich.
Since they don’t wear ties, the button-down look is more formal. And since they don’t wear ties, they can buy bigger shirts.
And that is only at “full dress” mode- equivalent to wearing a tie for more “modern” styles. In less than “dressed up” mode (equivalent to American men not wearing a tie), the button gets undone.
Note that the closed neck (buttoned collar) as an alternative to wearing a tie is no limited to Jews, but is also found among goyim in dress situations where men don’t wear a tie (e.g. the dress uniform of the Marine Corps).
Though especially for children’s liquid versions, a kosher version is nice, if one is available. Most people hold medicine doesn’t need a hecksher. Vitamins are more of a shailoh since they are a food (and also, since vitamins are usually available with hecksher).
One has the issue with many non-prescription medicinces that they aren’t really effective or necessary, so is it okay to take what amounts to little more than a treff placebo.
Being fully dressed, they are wearing ties, and many men discover no real problem in opening the top button under a tie (the alternative would be to get a bigger size shirt).
There is always the possibility of making a profit with stocks, especially if the overall economy is good, and the company is well run, and you have lots of skill at analyzing the company (it helps to have “inside knowledge – especially if manage to avoid indictment).
If you want certaintly, but Federal bonds or CDs from insured banks. In both cases you have a more direct issue with ribbis, though if you hold that loaning dollars violates halacha (treating dollars as money rather than as speculative securities since they have no fixed value) you have no business buying bank shares.
If you want a safe investment with a guaranteed return on your investment, give the money to tsadakah and spend the time learning. Next world is above my grade level, but if you are subsequently in need in this world, a good name is better than gold. Asking for help is greatly facilitated if you are known as a Talmud HaHacham who was a Baal Tsadakah, rather than as someone who put all his money into a goyish bank that went belly-up.
HANUKKAH SPIRIT: We should go out and slaughter Reform Jews and/or Hiloni Israelis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, maybe that’s a bit extreme. However the holiday is not about pastry or presents. Just read the text of “Al ha-Nissim”.
For most purposes, soferim are MALE.
For those things women can do, they have to be Orthodox Jewish women with good educations in Torah subjects. At this point, there are few in China.
Countries prefer spies who don’t call attention to themselves. People who are too obvious are to easy to catch. Neturei Karta tries to call attention to themselves. At this point, they are a publicity stunt to call attention to the fact that some Orthodox Jews don’t support the zionists. They are the last people any intelligence service would recruit as spies.
popa_bar_abba: Are you married?
One can argue that the language of a kesuba is “boilerplate” (that’s legalese for formal language that is used in documents routinely, and has to be interpreted based on judicial precedents external to the documents, and often contradicting the plain meaning). To understand the halacha governing a married couple you should look at how rabbanim have been interpreting the law over the centuries, rather than attempting to interpret the language of the kesubah as if you were the first person to look at it.
The cheapest is probably to have a friend with a small (fuel efficient) car pick you up and drop you off (without parking at either airport). I suspect that taking the subway to Penn Station, and then the train to the airport might be cheaper, especially if you don’t have any friends with small cars who love urban driving. Convenience is also a function of time of day and of how much luggage one has.
The public schools would rejoice. They get enough in state and federal aid to cover the marginal costs. The people who run the city would relish the opportunity to break down a community they see as infamous for gender segregation, homophobia, ethnocentrism, and religious fanaticism.
By your logic, the response of Jews to the holocaust should have been to organize a march to the nearest concentration camp.
If want lower tuition, all we have to do is to stop teaching Torah.
That’s like dealing with the high price of food by starving. Same logic.
Every unmarried young adult, in all cultures (gays excepted) feels their is a shidduch (or at least, a marriage) crisis. They have always felt this way. Strangely, the crisis seems to be resolved when they get engaged. Even Adam ha-Rishon has a shidduch crisis for a while.
Absent a disaster that kills most of one gender (such as war with only male casulties), the problem usually resolves itself.
If there was a “crisis” – within a few years we’ld hear about wedding halls going broke, and heddarim closing for want of students.
The tax is a “sales and use” tax, so if you use the goods in New York you have to pay the tax. Many states are cracking down on people who have been evading the tax by buying out of state and having the goods shipped to New York. The state hopes to get lots of revenue by forcing out of state merchants to collect the tax when they make the sale, rather than expecting people to voluntarily pay the tax when the merchandise arrives. The state needs the money to pay off everyone who needs to be pacified.
Trees do bump into buildings, and will even grow through a building if able to do so (depends on how strong the building is).
Trees have some senses that let them know when to shed leaves, etc., but nothing resembling vision.
It’s the way the English and Americans do things, and in their countries it is useful to follow their minhagim. Traditionally, Ashkenazi Jews didn’t have surnames, and both men and women always went by their patronymic (Piloni/Pilonis Ben/Bat Piloni). At this point almost all rabbanim have adopted the custom, so it is mutar (similar to males wearing pants, which once were a goyish minhag, but eventually were adopted and now almost all rabbanim wear them).
The New York Times is owned and operated by secular Jews. They are our mortal enemies. Our existence is an affront to them. From their perspective, our disappearance from society would be boon to them. Their ethical rules reflect it. While it might be good to read the newspaper to keep an eye on what our enemies are doing, no frum person will see it as a newsource anymore than (NOT le-havdil) the infamous Der Sturmer (whose editor Julius Streicher was hanged at Nuremberg for excessivly bad journalism).
It’s not a humrah. Normal Americans (that pretty much leaves out New Yorkers – I”m referring to the vast majority of Christians) consider shopping for Christmas to be part of the observance of how they honor what they believe to be the birth of their diety. Ask you posek:
“Such and such is considered by the majority of goyim to be part of their religious holiday – Am I allowed to participate?” . Unless your posek is uber-Reform, I’ld be embarassed to ask such a dumb question.
Many rabbanim may not be aware that the purchases of presents is part of the Avodah of the holiday of Dec. 25, or that this holiday is truely avodah zarah. That is why we need better secular education in yeshivos – and not from frei Jews. If you hold that Dec. 25 is an avodah zarah holiday, and you realize that most Americans observe this holiday by shopping for and giving presents – it isn’t a shailoh that “Black Friday” is something frum yidden shouldn’t participate in. Do we want goyim to look and say: “Oh, those Orthodox Jews are out shopping for christmas Presents just like us – isn’t it good how they’ve come around to our way of thinking and are honoring “yeshke” (as we call him) by giving presents”.
Wasn’t that a similar question to the dispute of India (South Asian) hair for wigs. If the avodah of the Christians is to go shopping in a certain way, we shouldn’t join it. Of course, the mere act of shopping is mutar. The mere act of going door to door asking for treats on the eve of “All Saints Day” (Oct. 31) is mutar. Giving gifts in December is mutar. If a sale is part of the way they honor their avodah zarah, it probably is better not to participate.
Considering that Jews don’t have a gift-giving holiday in December, there’t no need to imitate the goyim on this one. If there were big sales (a lot of studies suggest there isn’t any real cutting prices), we would want them preceeding our holidays. One might argue that since “Black Friday” is part of the preparation for the holiday the Christians celebrate on Dec. 25, that particpiating in it verges on Avodah Zarah.
Reasons why we don’t want to be like the Catholic schools:
1. Many of the Catholic schools have endowments.
2. Most of the Catholic schools are going broke anyways.
3. The Catholic schools are usually co-ed, and try to get non-Catholic students. If we wanted goyim in our schools, it would be easier to get funding. That’s also the problem with
a Jewish charter school since a public school can’t discriminate in admissions. In truth if we set up a multi-cultural, multi-religious school with a joint secular curriculum and separate religious curricula for each group, we probably could get funding for the secular part.
4. The religious part of the curriculum is small (perhaps an extra subject or two), whereas
the religious part of our curriculum is typically 60% of the day, and sometimes much more. If we wanted to run what is basically a public school with one or two periods of Jewish subjects, it would be much cheaper.
He who pays the fiddler calls the tune. What if the government says that those who accept our money have to teach the subjects our way? What if they insist that 17 year olds be vacinated against sexual diseases (note: pregnancy is a sexual disease from the government’s perspective, and they have long term vacines)? What if they insist that the school teach that “gay” is normal.
Our ancestors always had the option to accept government money in return for raising our children the way the government wants. We always said no (at least, our immediate ancestor said no – our cousins who said yes eventually assimilated into the general population).
You think it was different in the past? While there have been exceptions, the only difference in the past it was hard to get caught “with your pants down”. Indeed, now with DNA testing we can uncover all sorts of things in history (none of which we would be allowed, for good reason, to discuss here).
And yes, frum Yidden are different. We were, and will always will be. It even shows up in scientfic research (e.g., a major factor in determining that one form of cancer was sexually transmitted was the discovery that the disease was very rare in our community). But again, that’s not a hidush either.
The Israeli goal is to stop the random rocket attacks. Occupying Gaza would work, but would claim many Jewish lives. Continuing to trade rockets doesn’t work for several reasons (cost – Israeli rockets are more expensive as well as more accurate; public opinion issues- since Israel has superior rockets they call far more Palestinians than the number of Israelis the Palestinians can kill with their inferior rockets). Getting to Egyptians to in effect reoccupy Gaza makes the Egyptians liable for any future rocket attacks, and only the Gazans, Egypt has a lot to lose in the event of war.
It is interesting that the big ingredient involved is cafeine. At least one religious group (Mormons) ban it. Of course, cafeine in large amounts can be dangerous (which is probably true of virtually anything, even bread and water). But is adopting a quasi-religious objection to cafeine (a major ingredient in coffee, chocolate, tea and many soft drinks) raising a shailoh of avodah zara?
Environmental and health nuts are fine when they stick to science. But their enthusiasm tends to blend in into a mystical faith in their positions, and that raises shailohs.
“Jews pay more taxes…”
Frum Jews certainly don’t. We have large numbers of children (few of whom have trust funds are anything else to pay taxes), a large number of people with low incomes (kollels and yeshivos pay lousy salaries), we have many people who give up much income in order to have jobs that won’t cause hassles with religious observances, we have many women who choose to be unemployed or underemployed in order to take care of children. Any Jews who tries to maximize parnassah quickly learns that most paths to maximize parnassah create a conflict with being frum.
Frei Jews are probably among the richest group in America, and they don’t seem to mind paying high taxes (note that they overwhelmingly vote for the party of “tax and spend”). Frum Jews are more likely to be in the 47%, than the 1%.
At the time a Palestinian with some British rights. If you left prior to May 14, 1948, I suspect that you wouldn’t have qualified for Israeli citizenship. Unless you immigrated to the United Kingdom by a certain date, you would have lost a claim for British nationality but quite qualify for a British passport saying you are a British national without right of residence in the UK.If you moved to the US pre-1948, but neglected to pick up American citizenship, and it turned out weren’t eligible (say, if you are a felon), it would be an interesting question whether the Israelis would let you in when the US deported you as an illegal undesirable alien.
Free government program used by many frum Yidden with good results, no shailoh of taking tasadakah from the goyim:
uneeq:
1. Secession requires at most a 2/3 vote in the Senate to ratify a treaty, and probably only a majority vote in both houses of Congress. At worse, it requires a constitutional amendment.
2. Certainly states such as New York (and most of the states with large Jewish populations) would be bankrupt almost immediately, and would enter a full fledged depression, similar to Greece, often combined with hyperinflation.
3. The withdrawal of the United States from world affairs, as no state would have the capacity of raising sufficient military force to project power abroad, would probably be no worse than it was before the US started interfering in other country’s affairs (we remember the 1930’s, they were a good time, weren’t they?).
Nothing is free. It’s paid for from taxes.
I assume you are talking about programs such as welfare, food stamps, WIC, SCHIPS, etc. These are very popular even though one could argue they are accepting charity from the non-Jews.
One program that costs nothing to participate it is called JOBS. The government is a leading employer. Generally particpants in this program do quite well.
rebdoniel:
1. Many frum Jews are speaking Yiddish, not Hebrew. Various vowel and consonant shifts occured, as they have in German.
2. What defines proper Hebrew? Certainly it requires careful differentiation between ? and ?, and respect for the dagesh in all letters where it occurs (including daled and gimmel). The accent of Jews from Yemen might be the closest. The multiple “S” and “T” letters are all mistakes (natural ones, as many language evolve along similar lines) — note how all American mispronounce the gutteral “gh” as in how we would have written Ghanukah had there been any English-speaking Jews in the middle age.
3. Had the Jewish people been wiped out, Hebrew would have been frozen and there would be a “right” pronounciation. But we surived and have been writing, and speaking, Hebrew for millenia, and like all languages, it evolves.
4. Obviously the correct pronounciation is the way Ha-Shem spoke to us at Sinai. If the correct pronounciation was of any halachic significance, I’m sure that Torah would have been given on CDs so the matter would be clear.
1. It’s a joke. A stunt. A protest.
2. A very small 3% change, and Romney would be doing a transition and looking forward to both houses being Republican. It’s only when your region is getting whooped that you consider leaving. THen the “blue” would be screaming the country is going downhill.
3. Given that any state to leave would take its share of the national debt, but not the ability to print dollars, they would be an instant “Greece”
Since they are goyim, we apply their law. This is an area where everyone would hold the Dina Malchusa Dina applies to goyim.
When the creditor sues the debtor, the debtor has a way of saying that the evil third party is really at fault and should pay the claim. It turns out that most legal system find a way to deal with the situation, since it is quite common. What is usual is that the evil third party may be insolvent (happens to evil tortfeasors a lot), though the debtor probably has a way to declare bankruptcy (which would leave the creditor going after the debtor’s debtors such as the evil third party).
If the case involves goyim, let us hope they have Jewish lawyers, who on taking over all sides’ property (that is what lawyers do) will support our tasadakos.