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SQRT, was it the same female? single then, widowed now, back in shidduchim?
qwerty, Lubavitcher Rebbe quotes Rambam. So, sit down and learn some Rambam with your local chabadnik. Don’t have to start with controversial chabad things, make start with some moreh nevuhim.
yankel> that he will even stop a soldier reporting for duty in his Arrow 3 anti missile unit .
It is easier. Iron Dome does not hit projectiles that go into no-man land. If someone does not want to rely on Iron Dome, they should report their coordinates to Tzahal and get tax exemption for paying for iron dome. I am proposing the name of this system “makom she ein ish”
ard> where jews fight back, WHEN directed by daas torah
Who directed Yiftach? People who rejected him earlier. The only daas Torah here seems to be in the midrash that when his dedicated object ended up being his daughter, Yiftach and Pinchas refused to go to each other, expecting the other to make the first move. Ben Gurion at least went to see Chazon Ish.
I am wondering – if certain books are known to be a deviation from Emes, what is the reshus to read them? I thought our whole educational system is to protect us from sheker.
YYA> Germany in the 1920’s Jews had more rights and opportunities than anywhere else in Europe.
And in US. Fritz Haber (German Noble winner for inventing fertilizer process and saving billions of lives, and forgotten because he invented poison gas for Germany and killed thousands) visited Atlantis city in c. 1910 and was shocked to see “no dogs and Jews” signs – even when he was told this does not affect him personally as a civilized Jew. He said that nothing like that could happen in Germany …
But another question – we have Gemora from Bavel, Rambam from Muslim Spain, Shulchan Aruch from Poland, Litvaks and Chabad from Russian empire. What do we have form NYC? R Avigdor Miller, Chaim Berlin, YU? Jewish bankers and lawyers?
One sefer muses that Jews were sent to different countries to pick up different middos – scholastics from Germany, survival skills from Russians, etc. For America, he chose “scale” – from McDonalds chain to large yeshivos. Not really a middah. but a method. and “large” is not same as “great”. Maybe general uniform education creates some quality like synchronized swimming does (I am told).
I gave chatgpt several historical examples, and asked to continue:
Trump – the Disruptive
Obama – “the Eloquent”
Biden – “the Steady”
GW Bush the Decider
Bibi – “the Survivor”ExCTL > Long term good tenants are the key to financial sucess as a landlord, turnover is a killer.
Your system looks pretty good and ehrliche. I presume your rentals are in CT residential area. Many people have a little different situation when renting out in metropolitan areas where most renters are moving in/out every year. I am not complaining – as this takes more effort but also pays better. It becomes harder to be nice to renters – as they move out anyway 🙂 I guess it increases a sechar for being nice. So, you got to go a fine line. We usually pay for the first case new tenants do something stupid, just pointing them to the lease item they violated. Some interpret this as weakness and repeat the same thing next week. We then tell them what the repairs they need to do and, as a favor to them, we can recommend a cheaper repairman. This usually works. This is a business extension of great Jewish poet Henrich Heine musing in his dairies – “it is impossible to live if you don’t trust anyone. but if you trust everyone all the time, you’ll be taken advantage of. You can live reasonably if you simply do not let the same person cheat you second time”. I don’t think Heine thought of broken fixtures, but it seems to work.
Baruch > Israel is better off perhaps with someone that yields no power on decision making.
What do you mean? There are situations where indeed having a deadlock helps. For example, when either US or Israeli government is trying to do something wrong … most often happens when the government is trying to do “too much” as it is “natural” for politicians to pay off their voters with our money. But in foreign policy, US president has a lot of power and of he himself does not yield it, then people around him do. So, we get government by unelected officials, see Kafka’s Castle. Most of Obama/Biden policies were driven by people who did not have experience beyond being government officials and their policies were driven by the textbooks they were taught. During 202 elections, Biden tried to separate himself, putting articles in Jewish papers that he was the only one in O- administration who viewed Israel historically – not as an “occupier” – but remembering what environment Israel is in – from 1973 etc. I think this had some truth to it, as was he is supportive reaction towards Israel (and towards Ukraine) early on. But he clearly was not able to break through his helpers in a long term and he would not support, forget about initiate, any bold actions.
R Mintz book is
זקניך יאמרו לך
Publisher
ספרי עץ החיםakuperma,
early sephardim were coming here, running away for religious freedom from Spanish/catholic countries.
19th-20th century immigrants were also coming for more freedom. You can listen to tapes of interviews on Ellis Island website. Some say that the immigration officers asked about professions and directed them to the corresponding guild or trade union. Another Jewish lady describes how her family was saving money in Poland trying to send her to school, and here there was a free public high school … this is not to deny problems with shabbat and observance in general… was it the right idea for rabbis to advocate against going to Amerika except in some cases? Given the midrash that Yaakov sent Yehudah to establish yeshiva in Mitzrayim, maybe there should have been more strong rabinim coming early on? this is, of course, monday morning quarterbacking.Baruch > simple question. Would we have been better off with Nikki Haley
Not sure. Republicans had a pro-business anti-commie candidate Mitt Romney – and he was accused of all kind of silly things, including being laughed at for saying that Russia is a threat. He was such a gentleman that he did not fight back, hoping voters will figure it out. Well, they did not. Haley might have done better, but still similar. Trump is trying a lot of things (that others would not try) and reverses when things do not go right – as any good businessman does. As long as he does teshuva based on this feedback, I am fine with him trying his ideas. Many of the things are hard to evaluate before some time passes. But some are clear – his policy on China from first term was not reversed by Biden; his pro-oil/gas and increased NATO spending is working and accepted, at least on paper so far, by Europeans. On June 11, he did not want Israel to bomb; on June 12, he agreed; on June 13 he planned his own attack. This is fast enough.
qwert> Vin > we don’t follow Rambam in our world.
You could have told him that his Rebbe was learning Rambam and so should he.
Another WSJ article says specifically when Bibi wanted to bomb Iran – 2010,11,12 – Obama times.
I take back my suggestion that Bibi chose to do the operation under Trump. Latest reporting says that Bibi was trying to start this operation for some unspecified time period, clearly during Biden but maybe even during Obama times, but he was not supported by others in the security cabinet and haeds of agencies because of (1) fear of Iranian retaliation (2) concerns that US was not supportive. So, my main point that Israel preferred to do the op under Trump still stands, but it was not Bibi but others who were not sure of support under Ds. Bibi seemingly considered the attack itself more important.
Baruch, the nature of US politics is that there are two strong parties that each, by necessity, unite everyone on one side into a party. An alternative model is in Israel and many European countries where there are multiple parties representing different shades, combination, and divisions among multiple dimensions – so we have a part of anti-religious socialists, national religious socialists, charedi socialists – and then they fight it out in knesset as groups, maneuvering for each particular issue.
So, in American system, as long as you have a strong center, you have to incorporate all extremists on your side – while also not losing the “center” aka “undecided”. So, I am not denying that there is a certain danger in the extreme wing of Rs. And I see the danger not in Trump himself – who repeatedly showed that he is willing to change his positions to more moderate the moment he sees problems, but in people who will talk same language as T but then are not capable of coming with innovative solutions and of responding to reality as well as he is. We seem to agree with this latter part. Note that all the hysterics around T’s words and actions increase the chance that someone unworthy will come after – because the public is desensitized to the criticism, seeing how meaningless it is. So, for the good of the country, limit your criticism.
there are a couple of articles in WSJ looking at recent experience in Austin TX where even progressives went for relaxing rules and encouraging building more instead of rent control – and successfully lowered housing prices in the last several years. TX-wide rule forbidding rent control was helpful here to nudge them in the right direction
One lesson from NY and other such places – if problems remain unresolved, then there will be someone offering a socialist solution. Places where it is easy to build do not elect communists to establish rent control. Historically, this is why USA had very weak socialist movements 100+ years ago comparing to most of Europe – as many problems were resolved otherwise.
none2> If you find the perfect tenant and he can’t afford 50 dollers one month would it kill you to wave that
Of course. But a lot of laws make it difficult to give discounts to good tenants – you might get accused of various discriminations. I believe Trump’s father was accused of something similar: when he had apartments for rent (maybe subsidized ones?), he quickly advertised them in russian-language newspapers, so that recently arrived russian jews would come before less desirable renters.
relevant Gemoras
Bava Metzia 40b – Rav Yehuda was selling oil and sediment, not wine.Bava Basra 90-91 Shmuel (R Yehuda’s teacher) one can not profit more than 1/6th
plus payment for labor and selling expensesRambam: this limit is set by Beis Din and is for essentials only (oil, wine, flour).
Shulchan Aruch (CM 231:20)overall discussion is that 1/6th is enforced only under some circumstances – having a beis din regulating prices and essentials
and when all grocers do not keep to the limit, one does not have to.:SMA (38 and Prishah 26 DH d’Chi): When there is no Beis Din and everyone else transgresses Chachamim’s words not to profit more than a sixth, one who fears Hash-m need not be careful about this. If not, when he finished selling cheaply, all others will sell for a high price!
AAQ – I am not sure SMA works in current markets: Walmart shows you the power of low profits: one who sells cheaper can order more merchandize and become as rich as Waltons.
gadol > I’ll try to remember that principle when negotiating the purchase of a $500 Calabrian esrog or $50/lb box of hand-made shmurah matzoh.
Absolutely. Buying this would be lifnei ever. They would not be selling them if you are not
I used to buy from a couple of the talmidei chochomim like in the gemora whose prices were 30,40,50… The older one is already niftar, and the younger one went to another town to be a rov.
I took kids to the store to teach them some advanced math: record all prices: 30,40,45, 50, 70, 100, 150 compute median 50, add 20% for hidur mitzva, buy $60 esrog.
Lernt, there are cases where it is possible or even necessary to inform, such as when a crime was committed. I know someone who had to ask a shaila and he was told that he should truthfully answer all questions from the police about people in his congregation…
So, presumably, this crowd feels a religious obligation to do what they do. So, one aveira leads to another …
wtsp > If one thinks that differing from the norm is unacceptable in Yiddishkeit, he is right and he is wrong.
– If one differs from Torah Shebichsav, Torah Shebaal Peh, from Halacha, from the guidance and instructions of Gedolei Hador, then that is completely and entirely – not only unacceptable, but – wrong.
– If one differs in how they fulfill Torah Shebichsav, Torah Shebaal Peh, or Halacha, in a manner that aligns with Ratzon Hashem, then not only is that NOT unacceptable, it is welcomed and admired and accepted in every way.Wtsp, right. None2 has a point complaining about pressure to conform. R Twersky writes that industrial age lead to lots of progress by uniform production and it spilled over into spiritual area and in education, in particular. So, it became easy to “train” lots of students with the same opinions, disregarding individual views, and it is unfortunate. AAQ adds that recent tech allows for individualization – even this CR room let’s people easily meet others with different opinions and have a (somewhat) rational discussion. I presume that most posters here will be in trouble if they talk like that in their local shul.
mazal > Unfortunately it will be very hard for Women to stop wearing these immodest, very natural looking wigs.
Right, it would be good to have a way for normal people to stay within halocha without extreme difficulties, as too much strictness turns people away.
I am not seeing any responses to normalize hats again. Nice-looking hats are more affordable and easier for the wearer, and they create an easy marker for who is married.Reports say that recent college grads who are still roaming around the City were decisive to this result. So, every Yid should go out, find a college grad, and give them a sefer about communism, such as “Black book of communism”
Qwerty, right, I have no problem with that opinion. In fact, I have a TV myself but I do not have a service to hook it up. Is this maris ayn?
To Nope and to elevate this discussion: there is a sefer out from R Chaim Mintz, Oorah founder, with his personal notes from R Moshe, R Ruderman and several other Rabbonim. I did not see anything about TVs yet, but lots of other interesting stories. One is that R Moshe did not want to respond to a rov who published a sefer against R Moshe psak on multiple issues – because R Moshe did not want to take parnosa away from that rov. Hope we treat those we disagrees with – with the same kindness.
Baruch > isolationists have never been more strong in the Republican party than today
maybe “in a hundred years” – US closed borders to immigrants in 1924, I recall. But Trump’s “fault” is mostly in moving this crowd from D- or none to R-, resulting in his winning of two elections. We just saw that he is capable of acting internationally, even while within maga boundaries of not engaging in a long conflict. Yes, there is danger that a true maga leader will come after. But the alternative is/was – a smooth talking dems who promise something to every voter in order to win; and we saw how they govern – not good for the country and for the world. As I mentioned before, Bibi clearly showed his preference – he could have pushed the operation into January if he hoped for more support for the previous administration, especially after elections.
akuperma > if he sets it too low he will have more people wanting to rent than he can deal with, plus he may have too little revenue to stay in business
Furthermore, often if you price too low, you may get questionable renters who may stop paying or who will try to push for other payouts, such as costs of repairing things they break. If you charge more, you’ll get people who either/or earn more and are not able/interested in fighting for every penny.
Zushy, shoin, don’t establish a state, just move to those areas under current governments that are there. I am sure they’ll understand you.
1654 – when Shearith Israel was founded.
> note that in New York City many if not most frum Jews rent rather than own their housing
who owns those buildings? maybe other Jews who moved to suburbs themselves?
Indeed, one of the talmidei chachamim in Bavel was in business of retail wine sales. He would buy a barrel, say for $100 and then sell 10 bottles for $10 each. Gemora asks – this does not make sense as there is no profit. Answer: he also had sediment left that he will sell to other businesses for small profit. The lesson is – ehrliche business is about having some profit – not too much but also so that the business can exist.
I am selling my midtown properties.
TV is a box capable of transmitting various channels. I do not understand how you can get one definite universal answer from a Rav about it.
Is one allowed to watch financial news if he is a financial analyst? I presume yes.
Are there shows that one is not allowed to watch? I did not watch them lately, but I presume that there are still some.
Is one capable to keep to the allowed channels? depends on a person and on a family.
Is it a good public policy for the community? this is a question for a Rav
Is one allowed to pay $100 for the cable TV if he can access the same information via already paid internet? Definitely no, switch cable off and send $100 to tzedokah.qwerty > The three contestants had to try to guess who was telling the truth.
This comes up at the end of maseches Shevuos. We do not like having two contradictory oaths that makes it clear that one of them is a liar. When I see a threat, khm, where it is obvious that at least half of the posters are not honest, I just lose interest. Maybe stick to a discussion of things that are verifiable by all sites and then it can lead to a productive exchange of opinions.
Avram to me> This is not fair. Nowhere in the letter did the author advocate confronting women about anything.
He implicitly does – he asks whether women understand what they are causing and he is looking for some community response. So, I took his thoughts to the “logical” conclusion. Again, I myself, am pro-hat for women and anti-hat for men.
Gadol, I am glad you were using your time productively conducting all kind of experiments on seduction. You just need to be careful translating results from general society to an observant community. People who are used to semi-nude women around them may not have any interest in hairstyles, but brothers of BY students might.
Suggestion above of a hat over a sheitel is something some tzadeikos are doing already. But we also need a practical solution for beinonos, who need to wear something daily to their law offices. How about nice hats without sheitel? 100 years ago a hat was considered tzanua and a sheitel was not. I know the OP will start grabbing around the hat looking for a tefach here or there, but can we not be so uptight? If this worked for some of our grandmothers who didn’t have access to hair from Indian temples. This is akin to throwing away your grandpa’s kiddush cup because it doesn’t measure up to Chazon Ish.
Ard, crazy was part of Trumps sneaky campaign to misdirect Iranian agents reading ywn into believing that there will be no strike. He is currently posting on rt messing up rusim whilst their emunah in maga
I am also puzzled by lack of communications between senior rabbonim. Do we need a sanhedrin for that or maybe a WhatsApp group? For an example, r G Kamenetsky reported that r Eliashev banned his book without talking directly: after some people told harav that r GK broke their agreement to pause selling the book temporarily. HaRav believed information and later replied to r Gk: I am Not a Navi
YYA, I don’t really have a strong argument for democracy under moshiach, I am only raising a doubt that it might be possible and democracy might not contradict Torah even during moshiach times
Thanks for bringing up Shmuel. I have a question on his annoyance at the request. All this loshon about “like other people ” is secondary, the reason behind the rejection of Navis rule is… Shmuels fault and even more , Shmuel saw same error done before and knew the grave punishment. Hope someone can solve this simple riddle and explain Shmuels anger.
Lernt > He would view the educated people who dare to speak in his name despite not shaving their heads and growing long payos as shkootzim, and some of them as malshinim as well.
I am not sure how far it went. I heard a talk by a doctor who (when young) was invited by SR for Rosh Hashona to be available for medical emergencies. The doctor later started learning for semicha at YU and proudly reported his advancement to SR who replied “better to be rofe cholim than mattir asurim”
Lernt, a good argument, but at what point. R Akiva supported “bar Kochba for Moschiach” campaign – and his position was as a successful leader of a rebellion, which in part means supported by people. And if Yidden will all have understanding of Hashem – they presumably will vote accordingly.
Anyway, the best way to improve on Israeli democracy is by influencing the voters. Let them see observant Yidden doing wonderful things and they’ll want to vote accordingly. In theory, a “religious” party should be getting more votes than those who go to corresponding shuls – votes by people who might not personally behave fully observant but looking favorably on those who are. I think Shas in this position getting “traditional” Sephardi votes – is this so? I don’t think other “religious” parties draw outsiders. For those who know better: is it so or not?
The letter author is on important mission. We should encourage more men to get courage and approach women indicating specific clothing items that arouse their concerns. I am sure the ladies were not aware of the effects and will appreciate the feedback. As R Tarfon would say: everyone should love tochacha. In fact, for better results, the men should join in small groups, maybe call them tznius police, similar to such successful groups used by frum Muslims in Iran.
I haven’t read r Friedman for years and I am too lazy to scroll up, but it seems that the controversial statement is that there is nobody to punish in this generation. I think it is dependable without denying Schar doctrine.
It is simply an observation about the generation: we are all confused, influenced by non torah doctrines, learned from confused teachers, so we are all anusim … see r Tarfon saying that nobody can receive tachaha in his generation and r Akiva replying that nobody can give …
Non-political, no I am not aware of this controversy. Did he discuss this in some other writings, because my source is a one line and not a discussion of sugya. I had a zechut to learn a sugya of tanur shel ahnai with the rav, and I don’t recall him treating r Eliezer in a biased way, although now I am thinking this sugya illustrates r Eliezer viewpoint.
Now if we go back to teaching girls shtus, there is more color to that: first whole sugya in Sotah is about questionable ladies so discussion of shtus is inevitable. This is not about Rashi’s daughters. Also Ben Azzai supports teaching girls, as if he is a big unmarried expert. On the other hand, r Yehoshua seems to agree with r Eliezer but adds other groups like chasid shoteh, so there are men with issues.
wtsp > AAQ: 1- So give me one reason why no Gedolei Torah support the current State of Israel.
For multiple reasons. For one, you are using “no true scotsman” sevorah – you were taught who the gedolei Israel are. I learn with, and read both charedi and non-charedi Talmidei Chachamim and I see arguments on both sides of such issues. One thing I see in person – a lot of Rabbis I find convincing based solely on what they teach – most likely also respect each other, across the party line. My most charedi rav who rails against college raises up when my most non-charedi rav, who mostly teaches people with graduate degrees, walks in. We can see the same at higher levels – as we discussed her ad nauseum, R Soloveitchik, R Feinstein, Lubavitcher Rebbe were respectful towards each other, etc, etc.
For another, explicit charedi policy from Chazon Ish and on is to separate the community from the outside dangers, to be in the proverbial (Rambamian) midbar. This policy led to a lot of success both in EY and chutz laaretz, but it creates limitations to what one can accept as a social policy. I know of people, for example, with children in very charedi yeshiva where nobody went to college, and when he asked Rosh Yeshiva, he allowed it.
For third, I am not sure all information get publicized. Is it well known, for a random example, that R Auerbach allowed future R Lau to study for bagrut while in his yeshiva and then chastised the boy when he said that he is not interested in science – “I listen to Hebrew U students in the bus discussing physics and how you can be not interested in it!”. That R Eliyasiv was apparently already very familiar with Mossad activities when someone asked him a shaila about related issues. …
wtsp > Firstly, how exactly are the Zionists preparing Eretz Yisroel for Mashiach? Secondly, I’m not telling anyone to go fight a war against Zionists. Rather, everyone should be aware and recognize the fact that founding the State was wrong, and that believing in Zionism is wrong.
I am not arguing with your arguments about early Zionists. I may be able to find zechoyos – many of them (not all), like Hertzl, came from totally assimilated background and were driven by ahavas Yisroel, but this is an interesting, but historical, argument.
I want to raise 2 points:
1) Zionism undoubtfully helped save a lot of Yidden before WW2, run away from Muslim countries, from USSR. It was especially beneficial for non-religious Jews who would surely intermarry if they were able to get to US or other countries like that. R Schach writes that Hashem made Yishmailim to hate Zionists so that they do not assimilate. So, somehow Hashem saw it fit to make those Zionists a kli of yeshua. Whether it is due to their hidden zechuyos or some other considerations, I can’t tell. But I bet you can’t also.2) Israel is not governed by grandchildren of King Gurion. Current Israeli government is a result of free elections by citizens of Israel. It has almost nothing to do with writings by Theodore Herzl/
These citizens are who they are – and how well we, as religious Jews, were able to show them the beauty of Torah. There were plenty of years to achieve that. I am thinking that even a kibutznik in 4th generation would support Torah learning by his shekalim if he were to see how nice and ehriche observant Jews are: “yes, I know my dati doctor who saved my child and a dati person who showed chesed to me when I got lost, and I want them to teach their children the same way”.
I first took Sh’A and posters ^ to mean that davka fathers should not be teaching daughters – let her learn herself or go to Beruria or Stern, but form reviewing underlying texts, it seems that this is simply referring to the standard path: there were no schools for girls and there were no texts of Torah shebealpe, outside of personal notes by Talmidei Chachomim, so it is either father or mother or grandparents or give her father’s notes to read.
btw, yoreh dea 246 referred above also brings definition of what is “Talmud” – understanding and developing concepts (davar mitoch davar), and then Remah adds that Bavli combines written/oral/talmud together. So, it is obvious from this that learning “Talmud” does not have to be literally learning blatt of the gemorah.
Note that there are many other dinim in YD 245-246 on which we are not so strict our days – teaching whole Tanach, not taking pay for teaching oral Torah, dismissing teachers when better ones are avilable, throwing out inappropriate students until they straighten up, “Anyone who resolves in his heart to engage in Torah and not to do work and to be supported by charity, this person profanes the Name and disgraces the Torah, for it is forbidden to benefit from the words of Torah. Any Torah that is not accompanied by work leads to sin and in the end he will steal from people” – not bringing these to distract, just saying that things evolved and each isue needs to be addressed according to their times.
Some of the isolationists are really against anyone who is not like them. America has this strong tradition from the time of country founding, when US tried to not get involved into endless wars between European powers. It served the country well and helped it develop while others were busy destroying each other. Until the time US became so strong that it became a moral issue where US is capable of changing the world to the better. This struggle happened in both WW1 and WW2, where US was not prepared militarily (Army was almost non-existent) but very capable due to industrial strength. (Btw, those who criticize FDR for not intervening enough on behalf of Jews, should also give him credit for pushing USA into the war despite strong opposition).
Republican party in 20th century had a sizeable isolationist minority (see Pat Buchanan, for example), and now Trump brought more of amei haaretz who used to be democrats (“uneducated” that he loves). Without this realignment, same amei haaretz would be joint with anti-Israeli left with way more damage. So, we need to recognize that democratic reality and try to work with or around them. Bibi did this brilliantly – by cleaning the path for B-2s from air defense and letting Trump take front stage with a spectacular makeh b’patish, allowing T to take credit but also claim that involvement is one-time only. As Chofetz Chaim sid – in uor times, one need to be klug, klug, and then frum.
Baruch > If it did benefit, it is not to Trump’s credit.
Important to note the logic behind such statements. Go a day back – and anti-T people were saying: we know he is only bluffing, this is his problem, etc. I am not speaking about this poster and this room, but across the board in the country. Now, after he did the opposite of their expectation – same people changing the tune to something else – not to his credit; maybe bombs were moved to another; this is a big risk, etc. Taken by themselves, each of these statement might make sense, but the overall logic is very simple – we do not care about the facts, we just care about finding some other argument to support our position. This is, sadly, pure propaganda, and has absolutely zero information to the readers. In Jewish terms, genevas daas and also zman and emotions of the readers. Similar un-kosher logic is used by many posters towards multiple events. Try to recognize it before you post, please. Midvar shker tirhok.