Always_Ask_Questions

ard > you consider them apikorsim there is no issur of loshon hora

so, people standing on street corners trying to find all lost yidden are apikorosim, but those who sit in their chadorim not even noticing the tragedy of millions are the tzadikim allowed to say loshon horo? Olam afuch … As R Soloveichik remarked to the argument that he learns less time than other gedolim due to his interest in philosophy: when they learn, I learn; when they talk loshon horo about me, I study philosophy.

Avram > [about states] They have to be constitutional.

of course. Note that this notion stretched over time. First amendment et al initially applied to feds only. States were able to have government-sponsored churches, for example. I guess slavery issue is by now settled. I presume the rest of bill of rights was applied to states after civil war.

> What’s the difference between your argument and telling people if they don’t like it they can just move to another country?

this is the critical part of the US design. The difference is that US provides uniformity of culture and law. You can move between states without going thru immigration, keeping your property right, dollar bank account, have same language, walmart and mcdonalds, and even your job nowadays. And you can always move back. In math terms, you have 0 switching costs, allowing optimal allocation of resources. Moving from Poland to Germany may be close geographically but way more difficult. It was even worse before EU that tries to emulate USA idea. People risked their life to jump over Berlin Wall.

Competition between businesses works all over the world, except China and Russia. Government monopoly stifles economy everywhere. This ability to move creates competition between (state) _governments_. So, when we make issues federal, we remove this ability for governments to compete. In other words, federal gov is a cartel created by politicians to avoid competing with each other at state level and stick it to the people. Any unnecessary, unsupported by Constitution federalization should be, thus, prosecuted as a illegal cartel under RICO or something.

Neville, it is not my point, here is what one “modernizer” said:
What we have said about this from the beginning is that the entire position of the stargazers is regarded as a falsehood by all men of science. I know that you may search and find sayings of some individual sages in the Talmud and Midrashim whose words appear to maintain that at the moment of a man’s birth, the stars will cause such and such to happen to him. Do not regard this as a difficulty, for it is not fitting for a man to abandon the prevailing law and raise once again the counterarguments and replies (that preceded its enactment). Similarly it is not proper to abandon matters of reason that have already been verified by proofs, shake loose of them, and depend on the words of a single one of the sages from whom possibly the matter was hidden. Or there may be an allusion in those words; or they may have been said with a view to the times and the business before him. (You surely know how many of the verses of the holy Law are not to be taken literally. Since it is known through proofs of reason that it is impossible for the thing to be literally so, the translator [of the Aramaic Targum] rendered it in a form that reason will abide. ) A man should never cast his reason behind him, for the eyes are set in front, not in back.

I am, frankly, for almost any regulations at state level.

If majority becomes too overbearing, people can move away to other states. If the persecuting minority is a small group, then it is better that they move to another state than continue fighting. If small majority tries to impose it’s will, and then 10+% of population moves away, the state would suffer economically and possibly reconsider.

This approach is way better than a small majority imposing their will at federal level.

ChatGPT FACTCHECK:
It is incorrect to day that Nazis started WW2.

First, Germany responded to an alleged provocation by Polish army
After that, Britain and France declared war on Germany
Two weeks later, USSR declared war on Poland.
So, many countries started WW2 and Germany was only one of them.

Rambam in Letter on Astrology: Know, my masters, that it is not proper for a man to accept as trustworthy anything other than one of these three things. The first is a thing for which there is a clear proof deriving from man’s reasoning—such as arithmetic’ geometry, and astronomy. The second is a thing that a man perceives through one of the five senses—such as when he knows with certainty that this is red and this is black and the like through the sight of his eye; or as when he tastes that this is bitter and this is sweet; or as when he feels that this is hot and this is cold; or as when he hears that this sound is clear and this sound is indistinct; or as when he smells that this is a pleasing smell and this is a displeasing smell and the like. The third is a thing that a man receives from the prophets or from the righteous. … something will happen one way and not another, and that the constellation under which one is born will draw him on so that he will be of such and such a kind and so that something will happen to him one way and not another—all those assertions are far from being scientific; they are stupidity. There are lucid, faultless proofs refuting all the roots of those assertions.
…
science of the stars that is genuine science is knowledge of the form of the spheres, their number, their measure, the course they follow, …On all this and the like, the wise men of Greece, Persia, and India wrote compositions. This is an exceedingly glorious science. … How many amazing conditions are made intelligible by this science, all of which is undoubtedly true. It is this calculation of astronomical cycles of which the (Talmudic) sages said that it is wisdom and understanding in the sight of the (Gentile) peoples (Shabbat 75a). But as for these assertions of the stupid astrologers, they are nothing

ard > that it’s not a yeshiva bochur’s (or yungerman’s in this case) job to worry about the hostage deal. his job is to immerse himself in torah as much as possible

as I mentioned, we might not have the context for RY words. I posted my guess. But as to your interpretation, a person who is learnt in Torah obviously should have an ability and a desire to reflect on what is happening in the world. As an example – R Avigdor Miller suggests we learn lessons from what is happening in Vietnam, because if you don’t learn from that, you might get a lesson closer to you … in this case, those lessons were pretty close. Of course, one might argue at which point of learning one should engage with the world and where a particular student stands.

Simcha, sometimes kids simply repeat what they read in the papers and maybe even start arguing with each other using words from opposing papers or tiktoks, so this could be referred as devarim betulim. Maybe this is one of those “you have to be there” moments to understand what the discussion was about.

> I would recommend you retract what you said about believing in mazalos because it is just flat out denying Torah sh’beksav.

I think he is also on firm ground if he follow Rambam on this.

WSJ report (full version, not YWN) says there were several stipulations made by Trump’s envoy:
to Israel
– if hamas reneges on the agreement, US will fully support resumed fighting
– US will work with Israel to create Gaza government without hamas
to Arabs
– US will press on Israel to continue with the 2nd part of the deal

Neville, the problem with “secular” midnight is not that it is goyish, but it is not based on any physical event.

Hatzos is defined by the time between sunrise and sunset. As we see with DST, midnight is totally a human convention. For example, if you have two cities nearby in different time zones, as often happens in US when they are in different states – do their mazalos differ by an hour? And whole China is one big time zone – so their 6th hour could be in the middle of the night or day.

So, you are trying to be traditional and follow a minhag and then tie it to a totally artificial convention.

As to the main sugya, it may be that both following and ignoring mazalos have respectable traditions. For example, gemorah has a lot to say about amulets (but provides for an empirical procedure to test their efficacy), while Rambam rejects them. We could apply Pascal’s wager here (if you are an agnostic – not sure that G-d exists, it is less risky to be frum) and follow mazalos, unless you can encounter a large expense, such as paying for an extra hour for the wedding hall. For some, just having their soup cold on Shabbos evening outweighs other considerations.

Neville > When has that ever worked out for Israel or The US?

A fair question.

Iraq would be such an example. It went from a brutal dictatorship that fired Scuds at Israel to a poorly functioning democracy that is, at best, a most junior member of Iranian coalition against Israel via their militias. You don’t hear about it in the news, but Iraq is a success of an intervention, even while it is not a Jeffersonian democracy, and even after Obama abandoned Iraq and enabled creation of ISIS as a state.

As to Syria, nobody knows what will happen, but it is ok to take a moment to enjoy the downfall of a rasha and to commiserate with people who are digging the prison grounds trying to find out what happened with their arrested relatives. At minimum, Israelis bombed away half of Syrian army and can now fly towards Iran without worrying about Syrian air defence.

Dr Pepper > We choose schools based on where our kids are going to succeed the most- not to show the schools that we have other options.

Respect. We all want the best for our kids. There are still limits. And, by the way, the kids grow up with expectations that they’ll be getting the best regardless of price their whole life … As a Rav from, Ithink, Lakewood was telling Borough Park parents – when you indulge in a little of luxury, you understand that it is luxury, but for our kids this becomes necessity.

For example, when I showed kids that paying extra school tuition easily includes what we could spend paying for their college, they suddenly became more price-sensitive. I also showed them that without (good) college-based profession, they’ll not be able to afford that tuition, that they take for granted, for their kids.

So, _IF_ your school is not reasonable in terms of pricing and providing schooling you want, then I found it pretty healthy to explain to the kids where schools acts in their own interest, and how we can achieve our goals in a different way, even if they are not going to see their friends often. I also pointed out that friends who stop being friends because you are not in the “right” school are not real friends. Of course, if you think that your school provides the right education for you and it is just you are asking for something that is expensive, you have no reason to change.

hashalem, a board member representing parents is a great idea!

This is similar to European/German way to run businesses – where “stakeholders”, not just “stockholders” join the board. One can argue that US corporations that focus on stockholders are doing fine business, but schools are already not run as competitive business, so German model might be beneficial. At minimum, this board member can make public what can be made public from school finances, such as cost per student.

I wonder whether anyone tried this model and what was school response was?

Schools are a system with limited competition that exists, for example, in defense industry where there is often 2-3 or even one supplier. In such system,
(1) suppliers develop strategy to divide market such that each of them is a monopoly. In defense, companies focus on vertical integration in one weapon system. Schools similarly teach you “derech” instead of stam mishna and halocha so that you can’t switch to a different “derech” without losing face
(2) the customer strategy in defense (used successfully during Reagan times) is to create as much competition is possible by subdividing tasks, using two suppliers for the same item …

So, how do you develop stronger negotiating position (may vary by school and place, of course). Here are my ideas, what are yours?

– send kids to two different schools so that each of the school knows that you can move remaining kids to the other school. You can ask for a discount for moving kids there
– change schools with some frequency
– be prepared to go to a different school or move to another town if negotiations fail.
– be prepared to online/home school for a year, maybe create a group ready to do that
– be known in the community as a decent person whose opinion is valued. What would people say if you changed schools?!
– maintain a community school that is cheap and teaches minimal standards for many groups without pushing ideology and is flexible in letting parents add things according to their preferences and interests. So, then people from many schools could use this school when they have problem with their own. It may not be the best, but beats moving to another town.

eddie, you bring an interesting point of view but it is based on your insider position. As you see, we parents are not privy to that magic. Maybe we’ll be more considerate if the school shared details and gives more decision-making power to the parents.

Participant, take a longer view – there is just no possibility of a deal that will not make half of Jews and half of the world upset.
There are demonstrations to make the deal and demonstrations against the deal.

At this point, I would just trust Bibi’s government and army officers to reach the best deal they can given (unknown to us) options and limitations.

We should also appreciate that Israel defeated Hezbollah, that lead to vanishing of Syrian dictator and closing Iran-Lebanon corridor, and, so far, deterred Iran and now also gets anti-Iranian president in USA. Hamas is also partially destroyed and lost most of external support.

If Hashmonaim had our attitude, they would, H’V make chanuka a day of mourning because the war did not end and oil lasted only 8 days.

measuring expenses may be against Gemora that suggests not to measure how much water is being spent along the rivier “lifnei darkei shalom”. Too much intrusion into people’s private life. But it is happening! There are questions on applications like do you send kinds to camps? where did you go on vacations? When I had very little kids, a school financier shared with me “outrages” he needs to deal with – “a guy asked for tuition reduction, and I peaked into his yard, and I see him engaged in some sort of a business!”. Some years later, we finally met to negotiate and I was prepared (built a fence around my business :).

YSerbius, was this maiden in the middle of the field or in the middle of a Manhattan store?

YS, I am saying both are right – there are false reports and there are true reports. I don’t know which ones are what. Possible terrorists could first spread rumors and then deploy real ones. Who knows. In security, you don’t always operate on what is “most likely” but “what is possible”.

Neville, Natan Strauss was trying to protect simple people, aka ignorami, who did not know that spoiled milk kills their children.

This is not a new idea to care about society. Romans promoted public baths and roads… From Gemora Sanhedrin 19:
one woman walk with a kid behind her, bandits behind her snatched the kid, she turned around looking for him, they told her that the kid ran into a hurban, and followed her there … After that, there was a takana that women should walk with children in front of them.

So, next time you see a parent of any gender coming out of the front seat of the minivan , while kids jump out behind to the road –
just come and tell him – Sanhedrin yud tet …

somejew, I am not sure sources for what you guys are looking. I was recently reading an interview with a person who was regularly coming to R Eliyashev with IDF-related questions. Once he had a question about what an Yid can violate while pretending to be an enemy on a Mossad mission, and while they were discussing halachik problem v. personal risk v. Mossad needs, this person says he was _shocked_ when he realized how well R Eliyashev was already informed about “Mossad needs” – he clearly had other contacts also.

YS, of course there are lots of false reports after an issue becomes public knowledge, some reasonable errors and many simply hysterical. This does not mean that nothing happened and, more importantly, nothing could happen.

eddie > Parents want Caddilac service at Yugo prices.

There are 2 (related) issues:
1) high cost v. family resources
2) issue of control and potential abuses of power

on (1), the focus is on fundraising, families struggling and teachers being paid little… maybe we need to be more realistic on what we can afford and what priorities are, and be more innovative in how we price things. Lots of examples:
– expensive seminaries are ripe for a takanah that seminary can not be mentioned on shidduch resume and responded by references on the punishment of herem.
– small classes often have students of different level … use remote classes of advanced general studies
– allow kids to go part time to a different school for specific classes. Optimally, to increase competition, parents should buy one class/teacher at a time rather
– enable transparency of school/class/teacher successes (publish test results)
– enroll those who want into online public schools for general studies (several yeshivos did that, not sure where they stand now)
– move to states with vouchers

on (2), in my estimation, 50% of problems are objective, see above, and 50% are due to school admins – incompetency, self-interest, protecting school reputation/family members, lack of respect to other shitos, etc.

Bottom line is that we need to have good Jewish education affordable to normal jews who work. Without that, we will continue having social distortions. parents consider staying in chinuch to afford education for their kids, schools using the tuition powers to dictate all rules, kids seeing their parents in constant financial distress despite working hard..