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Because law is based on precedent. This applies to halacha as well as western legal systems. You could have a system based on what you think is “good” based on how you feel today, but how would anyone know what is legal? Indeed, China abolished its legal system in the mid-20th century, roughly for the reasons you suggested, and finally had to reestablish it. With a set of rules based on established practice, no one knows what to expect. Therefore a lawyer needs to learn those rules, and the rules that resulted in those rules coming into existence.
Suppose you had to decide if was permissable to cross the street. Due to laws based on past practices and customs, we know which side of the street the cars are coming from, what a red light means, who has to yield. Suppose everytime you got in a car, you had to decide which side of the road to drive on, or whether a “red” light meant stop or go. Suppose you had to determine if the right of way went to the person with highest social rank (as was the case until recently).
Suppose you had to determine the meaning of the prohibition of “milk and meat” anew everyday? No checking precedents or past decisions. Some days a “cheeseburger” made with chicken is kosher, some days it isn’t. Some days the prohibition can effectively be ignored by getting meat from a cow certified as a beef cow, precluding the chance the milk came from its mother. But no, we look back at years of case law.
In truth, medicals also consult the past. Did you really think they have to invent a new antibiotic everytime you get sick? Do you think they dream up a way to set a bone or deliver a baby without finding out what millenia of experience have determined.
There is no question that you can copy music from a source you have a right to (such as a CD you purchased) to a different source to facilitate your personal use (such as to an MP3). So I’m sure any Rav would say that is not a problem.
The issue is whether you can borrow a CD someone else owns (or an MP3 download someone else purchased), and make a copy in order to avoid paying for the CD (while returning the original to the person who paid for it), in spite of a copyright statement on the CD that says “no copying without producer’s permission, and in a situation where it is reasonable assume the copyright holder expects to get paid in part since the copyright holder is probably selling the material at this very moment(excluding something that is long since unavailable such as when you take a vinyl record form the 1930s and copy it so you can use it, and where the music is not being produced by anyone else).
However if you want to hear that it is permitted to freely copy, make sure to ask only about items you paid for or are not commercially available, since otherwise you’ll find a hard time getting a heter.
Why wouldn’t you want to buy a baby gift for a Muslim neighbor with whom you are on speaking terms with? Except for the unpleasantness in the Middle East, we get along fine with Muslims when we have to (cooperation in food matters such as opposing those who want ban kosher slaughter, tzinus issues, etc.).
So you get married, worry about money, have babies, worry about money, sneak in a bit of time for learning, worry about money, educate the kids, worry about money, marry them off, worry about money, grow old, play with the grandchildren and look back and feel proud at what you managed to accomplish
For example, if you want to argue that Israeli hareidim are lazy cowards, define as “hareidi” anyone who is learning in kollel (excluding those who hold non-kollel jobs) or who serves in the army (excluding those who do). This is what many Israelis do. If you definie “hareidi” as dressing “funny” (from a secular perspective), than all hareidim dress funny. Of course you have a problem since there are many people who might be considered hareidi based on observance of mitsvos and halachic perspective who hold jobs other than learning in kollel, do serve in the Israeli army and who wear modern western style clothing.
If you want to understand the political ramifications of being “hareidi”, define “hareidi” as believe that if Torah as understood by orthodox rabbanim take priority over Israeli law as enacted by the Knesset or the Israel Supreme Court, you get a measure of those who do not accept the legitimacy of the Israeli government. This is the number of Orthodox Jews who might if sufficiently provoked consider rebellion against the zionist establishment, and probably includes most people who are Shomer Shabbos Just consider what happens if the government were to establish a day other than Shabbos as the national day of rest, and to order the demolition of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, or to require all students to go to secular schools – these being ideas that have had considerable support from Jewish parties in past Israeli elections. Good zionists accept the legality of a law passed by the knesset, and hareidim might rebel.
I believe the halacha is one has to keep them alive as long as possible even though the chance for long term survival is probably non-existent (though if one head isn’t really alive, they might be able to save the baby).
Well the Reform Jews (the ones we beat this time of year, they were called Helenists then), hold that any Jewish ancestry makes one Jewish. And certainly they don’t mind if someone isn’t following halacha. And given the ways genes tend to flow over time, and that some Jews have always been wandering off getting into mischief (and being into mischief, it does encourage gene flow). You let one guy lose in a population and 3000 years later, everyone is related to him (do the math, his descendants come to something like two to the hundreth power after a few millenia).
So to show we aren’t “sore winners”, we’ll use the Reform’s definitions of Jewishness (indeed, being so unfussy, they’ll probably want to extend it back to Noach, rather than just to Avraham)– and you can assume anyone you want in the world is Jewish.
I believe the Gadol in question said not to be rude and insulting when criticizing the President. YWN’s editors dreamed up the part about not criticizing the President.
The price in the United States would be unaffected. Oil is a global market, and the law of supply and demand governs. As it is, the United States gets most of its oil from the Americas (produced in the US, or in Canada, Mexico or Venezuela). The Saudis try to keep the price down for long term economic reasons, and if Israel were in the same place, the Israelis would as well. Control of the Israeli oil would probably be firmly in the hands of the Israeli socialists, which would be bad for frum Jews.
If Palestine had been oil rich in 1947, it probably would today have a Governor appointed by either the British or the Americans. One major factor for Israeli independence was the lack of any “plus” to owning Eretz Yisrael, enough to justify the high cost of occupying it.
Perhaps we can go back to the old system where the head of the government (such as Barack Obama or Andrew Cuomo) can fire all the judges and appoint ones who won’t mess up his policies. The Brits had that system for years. It worked fine (assuming your goal is a government than can act without being restricted by the judiciary). Think was “progressive” legislation could pass if the they weren’t restrained by fears of it being declared unconstitutional. Life tenure clearly results in judges who feel no obligation to do what the elected leaders want them to.
How about a law arresting people who object to Obamacare for obstruction of national policies? Let’s round up the Tea Party for interfing with efforts to reduce the deficit by revenue enhancement.
There’s a reason the constitution requires life tenure. The founding fathers were very clever and didn’t want the British system of judges who serve at the whim of politicians. That’s why they insisted that impeachment was limited to “high crimes”, not judicial misconduct or political incorrectness.
We could get in the spirit and go attack some Reform Jews (we whooped them back good during Hanukah, even though they sent for the main Greek army to help), but that might not be politically correct so we content ourselves with extra davening and lighting candles.
While no one is doing statistical analysis or gathering data in a systematic way, I believe the median for persons arranging a shidduch is an invitation to the wedding and maybe a small gift (the average is higher since a few people spending lots of money can raise an average). I’m very skeptical that “professionals” are close to a majority as opposed to friends, family and acquaintances.
If you hold that Cholov Stam is prohibited, that’s your business. Certainly if you were in American 150 years ago, all milk had to be considered non-kosher (back in the era when middle class people owned their own cows, and milk sold in stores was sold by “quality” depending on what it was diluted with).
Not to be rude, but if a 20 year old male marries a 28 year old female (for sake of discussion, not taking into account relative maturity – we’ll assume an unusually mature 20 year old) — they could still end up with crowded house full of children, and when she is 78 and he is 70, the age gap won’t seem very significant at all (and since women last longer, she’ll probably avoid the problem of a long widowhood, though that isn’t a problem in the frum community since in our community there are lots of grandchildren by them).
If you are going to college for amusement or education it is cheaper and easier to go to a library and read the books for free.
If you are getting an degree so you can function in the goyim’s world, it is rather silly to attempt to be ignorant of aspects you feel might be against Torah such as, to use examples mentioned above, which aren’t all that clear: “Big bang” (some think they got the idea from kaballa), “Evolution” (yet “natural selection” is not even a shailoh or Psychology (which is a huge subject with many specialties). What you might consider is that if you are entering any field with such controversies, is whether one needs to have a level of Torah learning that allows discussing such subjects with frei Jews and goyim, and learning the halachos of such matters (which get complex if they involve Torah she baal peh, especially kaballah’dik issues, and especially for women who customarily get only a limited Torah education in such matters).
If you really want a subject that raises no problems (no ethical concerns upon which you’ll have to know halacha, no issues of subject matters verging on kaballah, etc.), avoid the humanities and social sciences, as well as most of the sciences. Mechanical engineering should be okay as long as you avoid modern physics. Math shouldn’t be too bad. If you really want to avoid all possible halachic issues, consider something dependent on manual labor.
Define “boondocks”.
Do you mean a place such as Baltimore or Chicago which have a handful of yeshivos and restaurants? Do you mean a place such as Albany or Providence where you’ll have only limited options for frum education that might even be co-ed for some grades? Do you mean a place where you will have to homeschool your children, travel great distances or build your own mikva, and either slaughter your meat or go to great lengths to have kosher items imported?
Anything can be password protected. One doesn’t need to share passwords with one’s children.
And of course, one can raise children with the common sense, whether online or in the “real world” to know what is assur and what is mutar.
The three cases in the article all involved people who should have known they were doing something illegal (did the Rubashkins really believe that the large number of foreigners willing to do undesirable work at low pay all had immigration visas? didn’t those boys realize that if someone tells you not to tell the police about what they were carrying that it might be sign of illegality?). While the goyim’s laws for property crimes are harsh (Jews never imprisoned theives, at worst they would have been put to work to pay the damages), at least they don’t execute them which they did until recently. If there is a degree of discrimination in America against us, it is due to common belief that all Jews are unusually clever and frum Jews are especially holy, and therefore it is harder to convince a jury that we were to dumb to realize we were making a honest mistake (since mistake of fact is often an excuse or at least a mitigating circumstance).
Jewish Republicans are sharply divided between the largely Orthodox (or at least, sympathetic to traditional Judaism, think Eric Cantor or Dov Zakheim) who are social conservatives, and the more traditional sort who tend to be “country club” Republicans (think of the likes of Alan Spector or Jacob Javits). To avoid getting into fights, they avoid talking about what divides them the most: religion.
It will be hard to compile statistics for Reform or Conservative, and that assume you define Reform as being a member of an official Reform congregation. Most Jews don’t join a congregation, and no reform and most conservative involve the congregation in divorces. You also have a problem that many Reform, Conservative and “non-affiliated” persons who say they are Jews are not according to halacha. And on top of that, the less “Orthodox” you are, the more likelihood that you have a de facto marriage (which if you are childless as is common among non-Orthodox Jews) which results in not paying a “marriage penalty” in income tax. And what about the growing tendency of non-Orthodox Jews to have same-sex marriages?
The military analogy is good in many ways. While the military someone deciding what is the required uniform, and the frum community doesn’t (just look at the variety between different shuls), there are similarities. Military fashion continuously evolves even though at any point there is an “official” uniform. Note how virtually all armies in the world dress alike (something not so 200 years ago), yet many have distinctions, though often you have to know where to look. Can you tell the difference beween a Hasid and a Misnagdid when they are both working in Manhattan? What about between a Marine and a Soldier in their Battle dress? Also the military, like us, have different styles for different occasions (BDUs for work, formal dress, class A, etc., and we have different ways to dress for Shabbos, weddings, shopping in Boro Park, shopping among the goyim, relaxing in the country). And interesing, both military and frummies have a problem when thrust into the “outside” with its much less rigid dress codes (but where your choice communicates a lot more information about you).
There isn’t really a close correlation between poverty and crime. If you look at people engaged in the financial services activity, it seems that there is a direct correlation between poverty and honesty (the janitors who are respectably but modestly paid don’t steal, the executives who are paid extememly well send to be much more like to end up in prison). The Kollel person who resorted to crime to boost his income would probably do the same if he was a rich businessman. The problem isn’t poverty, but failure to understand that a rich person is the one who is content with what he gets (not my idea, I plagerized it).
All fashion is a matter of how you want to be perceived. Styles in clothing are constantly changing. Most people wait until they see others adopt changes, and others prefer to be last. Over the last 20 years, I’ve witnessed a serious decline in double-breasted suits for me and also a decline in homburg hats relative to fedoras. I’ve seen the introduction of large one-piece light-weight raincoats with attached hoods, which caught on fast after some daring individualists started wearing them. I’ve also noticed a serious decline in people rolling their own wicks at Hanukah (prefering store bought ones).
When halacha is not an issue, styles and fashions change among us just as they do among all other humans, albeit based on factors internal to our community.
You primarily go to college to get a job. Most careers today require a education of the sort offered in colleges. Most of the jobs that don’t require college are usually low in pay, or otherwise undesirable. Sometimes you use a college to learn a skill (such as a foreign language, computer programming, etc.). If you don’t like mixing with goyim, try an online college.
Jews traditionally abuse alcohol only on days we don’t drive (other than Purim). Also whereas the goyim drink to drown their sorrows, we only drink to heighten our simchas (alcohol is a mood intensifier). These two facts, plus the genetic predisposition to fall asleep before we get into too much trouble (at least among those with realtively “pure” Jewish ancestry) explain why public drunkedness isn’t a big problem in frum communities.
Over half of them are extremely unlikely to occur for anyone who is likely to be using YWN.
It also should be remember that many people in the frum community have so many dependents they don’t pay much income tax, and some won’t even itemize (high percentage are renters). THe “social security” tax (which Cain, alone, wants to repeal) is the major tax for such persons.
You are getting old when you remember when:
1. Jews were banned from Jerusalem other than its western suburbs
2. guides to keeping kosher emphasized how to check the list of ingredients
3. it was largely unheard of for anyone to wear a yarmulke in public outside a frum neighborhood
4. “quotas” referred to a maximum number of Jews allowed to be admitted to a college, and only good colleges had quotas (they were referred to in Latin “Numerus clausus” to make it sound less offensive).
5. Brooklyn has a major league baseball team
6. American money was backed by something other than faith in the government
7. There was general agreement that Yiddish would be extinct as a living language by the end of the 20th century
1. For some jobs, particularly in government, any college opens doors. For these jobs, even a “Bachelor of Talmudic Law” based on four years of yeshiva study will work.
2. For some jobs, a degree with a specific major counts, though often the employer will be impressed with specific courses or skills, and will overlook the lack of a degree especially if it allows one to pay you less.
3. For some professions, a specific degree from an accredited school is a requriement and there is no way around it.
4. In general, the more prestigious degree, based on major and the prestige of the school, matters greatly in a tight job market, especially if you aim for the sorts of jobs that frum people rarely get (especially if you aspire to be part of the 1% who allegedly get most of the income in America – actually its more like the top 20%, but that’s not so bad either)
Remember that the equivalent of the IDF during the Hashmonean War were the Mitsyavanim, who assisted by the Greeks, were fighting the frum fanatics. We like to refer to the defeated enemies as the “Greeks” to avoid hurting the feelings of the non-Hareidi Jews, but in truth the war was against those Jews who, like the zionists, which to transform Yiddishkeit and the Jewish people into something like all the other nations of the world.
Compared to 70 years ago (that 1941) or even 1841, our financial situation is wonderful. No one starves. No progroms. We get upset over leaving early on Erev Shabbos at jobs that 70 years ago were closed to even frei Jews (unless they changed their names and/or were baptized). Virtually everyone has at least their own apartment (“boarding” has disappeared, as have multiple families sharing a household). We complain about the high cost of running a car (how many frum Yidden had cars 70 years ago, even in America). Even in countries where the heter to drink Stam Halav exists (and 150 years, that clearly did NOT include America), many people go for Halav Yisrael, and they buy it in stores (no more cows in the backyard). We have so many products that few people even consider deciding what’s kosher by looking at ingredients rather than hecksherim. We even have well patronized kosher restaurants. We even argue about frum Jews in politics (150 years ago no openly frum Jew would dare run for office – we didn’t even get voting rights in all states until around 1830).
We whine about medical care – but how many families do you know whose children died in childhood or were orphaned when the mother died in childbirth. Have you noticed that most people saying kaddish for a parent usually have the niftar’s grandchildren come to the minyan? Infant mortality is so low that families who don’t buy stuff for the unborn baby are considered quaint. When a woman goes into labor neighbors start planning to send over meals for her – 150 years ago the odds were pretty high it would be for shiva calls.
After centuries of wanting time to learn, and worry about death and famine (as in starving to death, not just having to buy house brands and skip restaurants), almost all Jews find time to learn. We are enjoying a tremendous boom in publishing. We have more yeshivos than ever before.
?? ?? ???????, so stop worrying and enjoy.
If you have internet access with a graphic browser installed (a lot of sites don’t work well with a non-graphic browser such as Lynx), the internet offers more choice and a greater ability to select.
Broadcast news will never be more than a headline service feature out of context “sound bites”
If you didn’t have time before you left America, you would probably have to read megillah on the plane. What’s the issue reading megillah on an airplane. Remember things like noisemakers are mere minhagim that can be skipped. You might arrive in time for the seudah. You could always go to Jerusalem (or some other city with the right sort of walls) if you want to do everything under more normal conditions on Shushan Purim.
One needs to remember that most “Jewish” journalists are highly anti-religious secular (frei, hiloni Jews) who are used to routinely accusing people of sex crimes. This is a common theme among our enemies (note the style of Julius Streicher’s Der Sturmer). Note recent cases of sex accusations that ended up being politically motivated hoaxes (the “satanic” child abuse in Massachusettes, the Duke lacrosse team gang rape).
Obviously if a newspaper prints such stuff, we should refuse to buy it, and should avoid thier advertisers.
Daas Torah is what your Rav says about halacha. What any other Rav says is at best an interesting alternative opinion.
P.S. In all fairness, the diversity of opinions is greatly exaggerated. We look for differences that in many cases aren’t really all that significant. If you asked a secular (Reform) Jews, he’ll tell you that all Orthodox rabbis agree on almost everything – they have trouble telling the difference between a Hasid and a Misnagdid, a Hareidi and a Religious Zionist, or an Ashkenazi from a Taimani.
Yeshiva College (and Stern) have higher academic standards and higher tuition, and are designed to integrate Torah with their academics. Touro is primarily a way for frum kids to get a degree without too many problems, with lower standards and tuition. It also depends on what one plans to major in, and whether one wants a profession that requires a graduate degree, or a certain level of accreditation.
Public universities are cheaper but there are more problems especially if you don’t like associating with goyim. It shoulde be noted that public and private universities tend to be liberal with financial aid for large families. Another option is online (there are several places with full accreditation).
One should always strive for perfection, but be realistic enough to realize that only Ha-Shem is perfect.
We should avoid discussing the matter with goyim, whose terms we are using since any Jewish discussion of the matter involves matters of kabbalah which we can’t discuss with goyim, and any attempt to discuss the subject without reference to kabbalah distorts the Torah perspective.
Remember that a “fundamentalist” by definition believes that what they call the “Bible” must be understood without reference to any external source, meaning without reference to our oral traditions – which precludes a meaningful discussion with them.
They are making a point that the way Israel and the Zionist movement are evolving, it will lead to disaster for the Jewish people, and we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket. One likelihood is that at some point the Muslims will defeat Israel (eventually). Another possibility is that those countries protecting Israel will lose interest (especially as the holocaust slips from memory over the centuries). Another possibility is that the ruling class in Israel will continually work against the frum community leaving an Israel that culturally and religious “European” but in no way Jewish as we define it. As the hilonim become more and more fanatical (can you imagine anyone 50 years ago believe that the frei Jews today would embrace gay marriage and legalized abortion – who knows what they’ll do in the future), Israel become less and less stable.
But if there is a surplus of women (or so they say), shouldn’t they be giving them away for free??????????????????
Cain has time to convince people the charges are false. The ones based on when he was running the restaurant trade group probably involve the accusers’ resentment at having an inner city African American as boss. The Bialik/Allred charge could be a hoax (and implies both a witness to what could only have happened in a limo with a driver, and a paper trail pertaining to hotel payments) as will probably be clarified in the next few months. Not have slick answers to every question isn’t a problem, especially about foreign affairs since this is a year for a non-politician who will focus on the domestic economy.
Perry isn’t hopeless but he has to work on his stage presence.
Romney is flexible enough to embrace good ideas from the other candidates and convince everyone that he’s the man to implement them.
Gingrich can easily talk about learning from mistakes and embrace what will get him elected. He likes being a senior statesman, except most people want radical change.
The election isn’t for a year.
The issue was weather they were donating their hair to avodah zarah, or (being poor and having nothing else to sell) they were selling their hair and donating the money to avodah zarah (i.e. upkeep of an idol, as charity to the poor). Of course, the shrine conveniently had barbers on hand to cut the hair. Those defending the use of hair from India would argue that cutting the hair was not part of the avodah zarah (worship of the idol) but was just something done for economic reasons by those who would otherwise be unable to have disposable currency to donate to the shrine and its charities.
Any translation is a problem, even with closely related languages such as English and French (or Hebrew and Aramaic), Kal v’Homer with totally unrelated languages such as Hebrew and English. If the Artscroll was being honest, every word would have oodles of footnotes conveying the difficulty and alternative readings, and the translation would be unreadable. The goyim have a saying that translators or traitors, which is true in many ways.
So remember that any translation is a tool, and usually a valuable tool, but it is only a tool. Then go ahead and enjoy.
You have trouble with the Bank of America?????
The Federal Reserve has trouble with the Bank of America!!!!
It seems they’ve been impersonating a bank.
It was sort of staged between them.
Gingrich is a relic from the past with a really messed up personal history even if he says he’s repented.
The charges against Cain may be racist propaganda. So far he’s only been accused of flirting and being rude, but not of adultery or the like.
We gained an hour. Who used the extra hour for learning?
Kids take after parents, so set a good example. Parents should express disapproval of foul speech when it is encountered. And if the kid is old enough that this is a problem, it’s probably too late.
Why would you not be required to pay for it? It’s shoplifting otherwise. The store clerk can scan the wrapper without the contents – if you get a curious look it would be a kiddush Ha-Shem to explain the kid couldn’t wait to get home to eat it.
Chess (Chessmaster, Fritz)
Firaxis (Civilization, Railroads, etc.)
A crisis? Ask the simcha halls if they are giving deep discounts due to lack of demand? Are the mohelim out of work? Are the kindergartens and nurseries closing since babies are rare? If there were a crisis within a few years we would see the schools closing – since a shidduch crisis means fewer marriages means fewer babies.
There are many things to panic over, but this isn’t one of them.
When I don’t have a choice, I put on tefillin a few minutes after alos ha-shahar, and then daven without tefillin on the train around netz. I have a good job (no yiddishkeit conflicts, good pay, fun work) and live in a makom Torah, but unfortunately not in the same city.