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I wonder whether tax credits (whether income-limited like Biden’s or less limited like Trump’s part) can be eventually converted into federal vouchers – to make sure money is spent properly. I am usually against federal involvement, but this looks like a good place to do it.
Shlucha, I agree that women took over halakhic issues at home (at least in mine). My only involvement is to convince girls that in a machlokes between BY and Mom, we pasken like Mom.
But this is not due to men being outside of home, after all, other than shabbos shul, the husband is hopefully either available on the phone or is at home. It is more due to the expanded women’s education – as they need to ask husbands less, husbands gladly switched to learning esoteric subjects that do not lead to any daily responsibilities.
Is it Drisha (whose mother paskened to say brocha before yomtov candles) who says that those who have only (sic!) 3-4 hours a day to learn, should concentrate on halakha rather than Gemorah
Anyone tried making kids clean and do other chores?! That could raise a next generation of self-cleaning Jews.
Common, you are right! Generally humanity lost evolutional direction. In olden days, not only ignorami will be pelted, but lots of avonos – laziness, negligence, not wearing a mask, will lead to early demise. We all are children of the smartest individuals who were able to avoid childhood sickness and adult risks.. nowadays, weak children and incompetent adults survive and sometimes even run the country….
I felt embarrassed learning in Rosh Hashanah that apparently r Akiva was aware of a machlokes between b Shammai and b Hillel but wasn’t sure who said what. Are we better now because we can look it up? Probably yes .. are we more capable than him, no
Health, ok, this make sense. I projected unfairly from other places, where this happened.
Health, vaxed person did his minimal hishtadlus and thus deserves support. I am not contradicting your position on the drugs. I have my doubts based on cursory review of literature, but if you are dealing with am koshe oref, your approach is probably reasonable. If they will not do anything else, give them things that might help even if unproven in tests. I also saw am announcement of a cheap drug finally proven in who tests. Also the new Merck drug is cheap to produce, we will just be paying extra for their r&d, but it will be affordable in poor countries.
Do your customers have to pay out of pocket or they are covered by insurance/government? I presume you will now recommend the Merck tablet also
I think it is the same as getting it at tax time, but baal bais lavan wants you to feel how he cares about you monthly and also budget accordingly, and in truth many beneficiaries would like to have it early and also monthly as a free help with budgeting
An annual windfall might be spent on a one time item instead. He also wants you to know that, contrary to the mishna, you can have Torah without derech eretz and the “credit” is also given to those who don’t owe taxes… A change from previous administrationcommon, life of most of us, whether frum, frei, or bnei Noach, is better than 99.99% of humanity that lived before us. We are just exhausting ourselves trying to conform to new standards. If we were to keep houses clean by medieval standards, we would do with a monthly vacuum and a washing machine shared by a neighborhood. You could afford it by working a day a week without any government subsidies.
ujm, Rav is great, Rabban is greater, but the greatest is just the name. Sorry for omitting the R
Health > So the answer is don’t force people to Vaxx.
Well, a inhumane libertarian answer would be to let them deal with this on their own, including the cost of whatever medicines they require. Maybe insurance will cost more for unvaxxed – this is free market and is happening, but too slow for a pandemic.
Even buying the benefits of the miracle drugs you advocate, let’s say they are 75% effective (this is way over what tests show). Then 25% of them would require expensive medical treatment. Let them pay it. Sometimes money impresses people more than lives (drashos on b’hol meodeha and “your money or your life – I am thinking, I am thinking”). So, maybe if one person gets billed for full cost of oxygen, etc, maybe your whole shtetl will wake up? maybe just start a rumor about it
Ujm, on one hand – agree, as mitzvos bnei Noach should be mostly self-evident from observing the world
on the other hand, R Avigdor Miller explains that Avimelech was guilty of bad manners (asking about the lady first), but he had a chance to go learn from Avraham. So, we would need to find out what were educational opportunities in Haiti and Salem at the time.
Adding, without contradicting previous answers:
Halakha needs to be responsive to different societies and environment and this is the role of Oral Torah v. things that are eternal and are written down. Part of our avodah is for each generation ti struggle with issues of the time – whether entering EY, or galus Bavel, Romans, pogroms, freedom of religion, Covid … We clearly both gained and lost by writing Oral Torah down. We gain ability to better argue across generations and benefit from their knowledge. But we lost some by having it necessary to process every decision thru all amoraim, rishonim, and ahoronim. This probably leaves Talmidei Chachamim less sharp as they don’t need to solve issues from the first principles the way Tannaim did. (and that is why we have too many claiming the title)Avira, yes, I am aware I was not making chidush, but this was just an extreme case – not just someone who stole a pencil but made a career of ruining so many yiden and institutions..
ujm, fair point, I would be more sympathetic to that lady and would suggest simply not to look. I would not say she is frum, I’ll go back to my default position that this categorization “frum” is not a good one. The lady may or may not be shomer shabbat, and there is no reason to categorize her further unless you have some decision to make about her.
CTL > an attempt to keep expenditures down and local property taxes down.
We should be able to find a healthy compromise – with gov maintaining some legit standards and parents getting what their kids need without becoming dhimmis (in terms of double taxation for education). Experience you quoted sound healthy – you attended quality public school and yeshiva. I think this approach would not fit a lot of Jewish community our days in terms of mixing with a wrong crowd, though. Vouchers combined with testing should work – provide funds to any educational institution where children can pass tests on reading, righting, rithmetics and civics. If Lakewood board is control by frum public, could they do something like that rather than just cutting the funds? The latter means that you’ll be surrounded by uneducated population creating crime and other problems.
I found online public schools a good, if not perfect, tool – reasonable education, not much unneeded socialization. This will fit, estimated, 5-10% of population, but also not nothing.A nekudah on our attitudes: I mentioned to kids a story of Bernie Madoff.
One asks: Was he frum?
We settled that one can only ask: was he “frum”?nobodu would ask whether someone us frum when you see him eating Mcdonalds burger, but somehow money aveiros are not that clear cut ;}
Current peak in Covid deaths in Us is going for last 2 months and is as high as last March and just half off December peak. Besides low vaccination, I think the other reason is that last year all papers were blaming Covid on Trump with daily front page pictures and articles. This lead population to be more cautions. Now, the storyline is that this is in Republican states (not fully true as also CA, OH, WI…) and not a national problem, and we are on the way to fighting global warming.
Avira > Jewish lives would be safer if the USA adopted Israel as a territory
And so would Taiwan, Ukraine, and Afghanistan … Although we have experience of inviting Pompey to help stabilize the country. You can’t deny the reality is that the Zionist project lead to a thriving Jewish economic and spiritual life in Israel. You can disagree on a lot of things with them, but facts are facts, and you need to take them into account in your theology.
common > Life is hard in the USA as well
Moshe Feinstein said that this attitude (or parent, recent immigrants) that made American Jews leave Yiddishkeit in droves. A more positive attitude works in this generation (sometimes even too much for my taste). Note, that in general Americans are more religious than Europeans, despite (?) longer period of religious freedom. As everyone has options, religious leaders are forced to cater to the market. In our market, some of these market variations, such as Reform, turned out to be unpalatable and unpopular in a long term, but within O- I think we are doing better than a 100 years ago.
Back to all times, Salem witches may have been an example of what American founders wanted to avoid by creating a republic and not a democracy. I presume Salem population supported the action.
Did anyone say already that meta bivrit means she died? Not sure whether this is a parsha reference or a fitting hesped for sefer panim that started as a collection of Harvard coeds.
Avira, so you agree with that former Governor of VA …
according to my reading of Bava Basra history of Jewish school during 2nd Beis Hamikdash (and some others too), preferred way would be to have fathers teaching sons; when they are not able to, then the best would be for most holy teachers (Cohanim in Yerushalim in Gemora) to teach them – while still generally living at home (fathers are supposed to bring them). When that is not working, use regional yeshivos, and last resort that works universally is the current system of local yeshivos.
Yes, this system helps to keep the bottom from falling down, as designed, but let’s not pretend that this is the best way to raise kids.
Thinking as an engineer, the drug progress will probably be incremental. There are moments of breakthroughs – inventing electricity, new vaccine, but in other cases progress is incremental. People usually underestimate that: say, electric vehicles come up with new things evry 5 years improving by 10%, while old fashioned cars do not have new inventions but continue improving with small things by 2% every year. Same progress overall.
same, there were no “miracle drugs” so far, as with most viruses. Maybe especially because COVID attacks multiple systems, etc. So, look for incremental improvements in combining multiple drugs, some expensive, some cheap (there are 2 approved, and several controversial, plus vitamins), and ways oxygen and steroids are used, and mortality will probably continue slowly going down from a combination of those.
now we know that ujm is Jewish – answering question with a question
Dovid, yasher koach!
> what you do next time you’re in Oklahoma
> daven beyechidus rather than in a chabad shul,First, I presume you will have mashihists in some central locations, but in Oklahoma the only person who might be one would be the shaliach himself, the rest being pure neshomos. Also, what is the probability one needs to be hashash for? We do have examples from Mishnah when we silence hazzanim who daven apikoires, so it was not unheard of to happen to be among some sort of unorthodox opinions. So, why can’t you go there and leave you hear something inappropriate.
FWIW, once at a wedding, a bunch of Chabadnikim started dancing “moshiach, moshiach” and my Teacher from Lakewood, who is a little big in all dimensions, got up, held the chief Chabadnik in his hands and circled him around until the other guy fell of exhaustion. I presume to show that we all are pro-Moshiach. He davened with them also. So, your Rav may be an outlier.When unorthodox opinions are vadai, then you are right. R Soloveichik rules that one can not go to listen to shofar there.
> I did not write a fake review, i was just asking
But what made you want to ask? you did not ask “may I eat chazer when nobody sees it”? this is the question.
RebE > lesson in marketing where good merchandise only needs description but not much convincing.
I agree. The answer is: make you sure your product is better and then there is no yetzer to lie. Still, we need to realize, how hard it is, especially online: users see pictures only, do not know who you are, they make superficial decisions, and fake stuff matters … Maybe we do need “ethical kashrus” agency that can verify these.
One schochet told R Salanter that he is tired of responsibility for so many mitzvos (and possible aveiros) and will go into business. R Salanter was aghast “do you realize how many more aveiros you can do in business!?”
I am not sure what motived OP to write fake reviews, but real yetzer hara can be for an online seller to pay for fake reviews for the site. There is “acceptable” puffery in advertisements, so one could almost argue that if all sellers have lots of fake positive reviews, then having none is a disadvantage. Maybe this leads to a conclusion that one should buy from sellers who do not have these glowing reviews.
> student asked his rebbi for a recommendation letter
In one case, R Meltzer wrote a recommendation letter, then thought a little and threw it into the wastebasket. He explained: he wanted to make sure that he is not refusing to write it out of laziness.
> All of our chachomim had foresight when israel was formed
One of the Rabbonim at Ben Gurion’s speech announcing the Medinah said sheyehianu. Another one incredibly asked – really? The first explained – I have a new tie today to come him down.
Is there a Lakewood Chabad House? I could google, of course, but I’d rather ask 🙂
Do you apply same words to Jewish schools? I know many schools do.
WSJ had an interesting opinion lately by some lawyer saying that it should be possible to argue first amendment: schools have a right to speak, but they are imposing their speech on students, and the cost of avoiding it, as coffee says – private schooling, moving – is prohibitive for most. If something like this flues through the current supreme court, this could immediately force a voucher system. Not sure how convincing this is, but more bizarre things were found in constitution emanations.
grammar, and typing
I think there is a difference between a unique non-observant individual who decided to join a chasidishe shtibl and gets special attention and needs to be fully “taken care of” and Chabad approach that brought multitudes to Yiddishkeit, some forming a large sub-community within Chabad or joined general Jewish observant community. None of these 2 groups need to marry an old-time Lubavicher to fulfil themselves (no they are ready to).
Some say that having one case of tds gives you natural immunity. And only small number of people have long tds. I am not so sure… Wear mask and blinders just in case
> Why do some places call their school for younger children “Cheder”
technically, it should only be if it fits in a room. Many old school did. I think in many places, a teacher would teach a class at his home, possibly with different ages going to different teacher. I am not sure how widespread this was, but I saw this described in several books, including R Kamenetsky’s biography by his son.
I wish we could re-adopt this system. It creates more competition – between independent teachers, rather than schools, and competition is envisioned by Gemora and later poskim as an appropriate approach to education (guilds and competition restrictions are generally allowed in business, except education and perfumes). So, you would then be able to mix & match a Chumash class from a litvishe yeshiva, a Tanya class from a Chabad Rebbe and a math class from a MO school. And reduced overhead.
There is copyright law and maybe more. This is not a $500 catch in fine print. If you did not know it before, you know it now and have no more excuse.
What if you see a halal or a vegetarian or a copyright sign on a chicken and decide that it is a reliable
hashgoha – would eat such a chicken?if not, why do you WANT to steal a CD. Explain please. Not why you may or may not, but why do you WANT. Do you have a special toeva for music? is it more for Jewish or goyish?
Shimon, contract is not a modern concept. See: bris.
GH,
they do. We got new advisors for the retirement fund who undercut fees from the previous ones. I still think I you can’t press them into something that is not profitable for them. for example, an advisor can get demoted for losing your account and you are using that to give you a profit-less fee.I recall reading direct quotes from Telshe Rosh Yeshiva in 1970s saying that most marital problems in his community are due to bochurim marrying too young. Not sure what his place/time numbers were.
2scenta> Just because someone had covid in the past does not make them immune, there are a lot of people that got covid twice.
true, my hypothesis is that maybe first round creates some invisible damage in the body, making it easier to get seriously sick second time around. Also, statistically speaking, a person who got covid, is a person who is in a risky environment due to some combination of health status, work condition, housing situation, and personal stubbornness – as most of these, including stubbornness, do not usually improve from COVID, likelihood of a repeat are high. They should take at least one doze, I think.
Even chicken-heads get it – Tyson Foods reported going from 50% vaccinated staff to 96% in last several months.
There are also recently changed recommendations for preventive aspirin and using statin instead as Health above. You can also walk more and stress less.
Participant> The bigger the fight gets, the stronger the resistance,
Agree. The main goal of learning critical thinking is to be able to analyze data disregarding personal preferences. Talmudic learning does the same thing. Those who did not learn it obviously failed their learning, whether yeshiva or college, whatever their hats/degrees are.
> There are hospitals facing nursing shortages
I quoted vaccination numbers before – doctors are I think 95%, registered nurses are not far behind. Bedside nurses may be an issue. And even a small percentage of losing staff matters especially given that they all are exhausted after dealing with COVID, especially now when they deal in part with people who chose not to vaccinate. The nurse may decide why does he need to do mesiras nefesh for people who do not care and quit and go into finance. Cf halakha of raising an animal “with the owner”.
Cruz, good question.
CDC says that 2 IPV polio shots give, gasp, 90% protection. 3 shots give 99%. They say they do not know how long immunity lasts (but I presume longer than Covid). Many other vaccines do not give full or long-term protection, such as flu. before COVID, there were NO vaccines for coronoviruses, despite many of them circulating. Several more differences:
1) Covid is currently circulating much more than polio did. Lower chances of encountering virus meant much lower chances of infection after vaccine
2) During polio times, the world was not so connected. People were not getting text messages that someone on another side of the world got hit by a bus right after getting a vaccine.
3) People were less educated. Now they are a little more educated and think that they can understand statistics even when they do not, or when someone gives them skewed data in CAPS: DO YOU KNOW THAT MOST SICK IN PEORIA ARE WITH VACCINE EVEN AS 100% of PEORIANS ARE
VACCINATED.you can find what stocks are underwater