Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Charlie, without addressing this thing on the merits (I’ll wait until the story ends, so I don’t have to eat my virtual hat), I want to note two more firsts, this time by you, not by President Trump, even withi9n a quote (1) positive things that President done, (2) greating for a non-Jewish holiday. I commend you for sacrificing so much to fulfill the mitzva of quoting “b’shem omro”
shavua tov
personal testimony:
I once witnessed Rav Shapiro Z’L from Miami teaching a class at a summer location (admittedly, not a difficult class). Students were looking at him, while his wife was sitting at the far end of the table, reading a book that (to me) looked like a novel. At some point, Rav made a pause looking for a right word. His wife lowered the book and mouthed the word and Rav continued. Nobody noticed, of course. How did I notice? I was walking towards the table at that moment.efshar: most bais yaakov girls make is to memorize the meforshim for tests…so why not make them memorize meforshim that bring out yesodos of yahadus
I agree with “memorizing” re: inspiration. I don’t know whether many current schools are capable of changing their approach. After all, the teachers were already taught the same way for a couple generation already. Did you try approaching your school? What was the response?
RE, a good point.
If the reason is danger, then having books and computers at home should exempt one from observing N.N. Or is it minhag avoteinu that overrides a Torah mitzva?If the reason is mystical, why don’t we follow Jewish calendar instead of following Julius Ceasar, Pope Gregory,
Which groups do NN and which do not and when? Maybe we can reconstruct tradition from geo/social distribution?
>> bird in the hand
I agree. Still, Congress allowed President to make this threat by passing the law less than 10 days before the end of Congress. They had months but some preferred that election damage to President is more important. Now, he is ruining their Nittel Nacht.
Also, I would wait to judge one way or another before a story ends. Trump’s negotiating behavior is hard to predict. We just had 2 weeks of “why didn’t he buy more vaccines fro Pfizer”. Now, he did, using production capacity as a leverage. Maybe this will be signed, changed or re-submitted in 2 weeks.
Beruriah knew and quoted Mishna. Also, contributed to the Gemorah.
Also, current Jewish education for both boys and girls is in large part a defense against inappropriate environment rather than learning l’shma. So, girls who might follow their lev, might need emotional education; those who will be exposed to foreign ideas, might need more intellectual learning.
A Chassidishe Rebbe, whose name escapes me, kept his daughters in his house in 1920s Poland, not to expose them to bad ideas on the street (presumably, a Chasiddishe street). I think a very relevant idea.
Why specifically an Eglah Arufah?
Possibly Yaakov felt that he was at fault for what happened with Yosef. Yosef is saying – as long as you did your due diligence (walked me 4 amos, physically and metaphorically by preparing me for life), there is no fault.explanation of Eglah Arufah itself – why the closest city and specifically elders? if he unexpectedly died on the road, he might have been infected in the last city he stayed in. Elders are saying that they maintained proper public hygiene., social distancing and masking. If they would even taught that person a lot of Torah while coughing at him, they would still be guilty.
This year, I am fasting on nittel day, even erev shabbos.
I do not like what I hear about vaccination priorities in US. There is increasing emphasis on essential workers v. those who are in greater danger. There are even “racial equity” appeals..
As much as even medical workers are an appealing and deserving group, I think they are statistically less in danger (partly because they use protection properly) than old people, especially those in communal settings. It sounds that UK and Israel are doing it somewhat better – medical workers + age groups.Halachik sources (R Feinstein, R Auerbach) seem to allow preferences for those who have higher chance to survide, and if not – first come, first serve and a lottery.
There is also an issue ledarchei shalom. If you start giving priority by vague rules, you will ensure fighting and people going around the rules. If rules are easily verifiable, like age, then it should be easier.
@ujm:
correlation – yes, causation – not sure. Lots of other things changed also. Make a controlled experiment – put similar kids with 2 different styles of teaching and see outcome.Anecdotal observation from multiple people – kids behave way better with some teachers, and not others. Is your experience different?
ujm: crossed the street illegally when the pedestrian light was red
I agree that there is a limit somewhere, I am just not sure where. How about Sharia justice of cutting hands off. Some of our sources suggest that Noahide laws are harsher than Jewish ones, with easier death penalty. Anyone has sources for more detailed guidance? I only recall that there are 2 approaches: Noahides should follow Jewish halakhot for them, or that they should just establish general justice. I am also trying to make a point that falls in between these two approaches: we may want to encourage what we think is more just, but should not deny that we live in a just society, even if it is not perfect.
ujm: In the Torah jailing is exceedingly rar
On the other hand, I understand that the mitzva for non-Jews to establish justice is a general requirement, not limited to specific punishments we have. This would make it OK (and a mitzva of assisting non-Jews in their mitzva) for Jews to be lawyers in any just system, like in USA.
Would it make sense for us to advocate for punishments closer to the Torah laws? Also, need to be more careful. In the classic case of Romans accusation of difference in Jewish law between a Jew and non-Jew paying half or full for animal damages: a Jew is obligated to watch his animal, so we presume that the damage is inadvertent. So, you need to look at society: if you can still millions of dollars and risk only monetary punishment (that you can probably pay from venture capital!), maybe this will not be a deterrent.
On the other hand, we are supposed to be light to goyim, so maybe explaining our approach – what is the purpose of punishment? do we need to always have imprisonment? etc – might help people look the issue differently.
Relevant to the topic – there was minimal public discussion of Trump’s prison reform. At the debate, Biden said that he wanted to do it (saying this before someone jumps in saying that there was no real reform) also but could not “because – Republicans”.
GH: The train has left the station.
This was wrong. I think trains are still not allowed on Shabbat, even as they do not use coal any more.
crackers: Tip: always imagine someone is watching you before you slap.
good idea. Keep the window open or show yourself (house or class) on Facebook life. Maybe, just for relatives or school principals.
and of course, know Who is watching. Our generation understands this better than ever before.
Justwondering – what was Rosh Yeshiva’s halakhic position on that?
I believe a heter to smoke expired long time ago when it became evident that sm
oking hurts your health. I believe Rav Moshe in the 1960s allowed fools/innocents to rely on Hashem’s protection. By now, there are not many excuses for ignorance and many teshuvot against it.In theory, one can say that spanking could be done under certain conditions, including the parent not acting on their anger but for sole benefit of the child (this is halakha for any tochecha)
In practice, people who are capable of self-control to fulfill those conditions, probably can find other ways of influencing a child in 99% of the cases.
Thus, with this Bayesian prior, if you see someone spanking, there is 99% chance that this is wrong and should be stopped.
This is even more true with the Rebbes than parents or trained teachers. Not just my opinion. I once asked a Rav about children behavior at school. He said that, according to his observation, it is evident where the problem is, if a child (or more often, many children) behaves in one class, and do not – in another.
So, you can apply the same test here: if you think child X deserve a patch, is there an agreement on that between all parents and teachers? Given them all a call. It will help anyway (one of the methods of dealing with anger is to delay the process).
I understand that incandescent lights have an issue of fire, while other ones – only of electricity.
I heard from Rav Steinsaltz Z’L that Judaism is working slowly through issues, we are not always in a hurry (in response to a question “what is the meaning of Shoah”). It took some time for the Gemorah to conclude what the reason for destruction of Beit Hamikdash was, so we will understand Shoah also – after some time. Similarly, we will get a better answer on electricity “when scientists tell us more about it”. This was a couple of decades back, before LEDs.
>> Presidential pardons and the Electoral College should not exist in any democracy,
this country is not a democracy, it is a Republic. Unless your family were navigators on Mayflower, they should have known where they are coming – and passed this information to you.
Seriously, I am interested to find out where this breakdown happen? Did you talk with your parents or teachers about this ever?
Parler ” allowing anti-Semitism”
I understand that they are simply not censoring the posts. Obviously, they’ll get all kind of dirt.
This is not different from “internet” or “books”. The medium allows texts and images. It is up to the user, or next level application, to select what he wants to use it for.If you would not have email filters, half of your email box will be filled with pornography and viruses.
You need then a kosher filter over Parler, same way you (your internet provider) has a spam filter.@Reb E: If tbe malchus does not cause peace,
This is not how I understood this Mishnah. Mishnah is not saying that Mlachut has a positive value. It just states that any legitimate power is better than anarchy. It calls for acceptance of the power.
Your interpretation calls for a revolution against any power you are not happy with. Rabbi Shimon seems to be on your side (Romans built roads and bathhouses for their own benefit). Are there specific commentaries on this Mishnah?
I think we here in US still pass this low bar. You can even argue that communist China is less murderous now as a mature power than it was when it was fighting internal enemies.
Having two separate public forums will make it better in some sense, but worse in others. Primarily, everyone will listen only to their own side.
Underlying many current problems is vertical integration – facebook posts belong to facebook, your YWN posts to YWN. Amazon hosts sellers, then analyzes and, allegedly, copies their products. This is same monopoly problem that, existed, for example in late 19th century USA.
Web protocols offered a solution, but social networks build their separate markets over that. Maybe government need to enforce that messages belong to posters; kept in a standard format; and then any network can organize them for the user any way you (consumer) want.
technical proposal to unbias ourselves in evaluating Trump’s presidency (applies to others too).
1) did you, or others, have an opinion about him before he ran for President? Some might refer to tabloid info. Mine was based on Apprentice. A family member was studying business, and I suggested watching Apprentice. I also watched several episodes. The business/human side of that looked entirely reasonable.
2) look at opinion writings at the beginning of his term and compare with what happened later. I can recall some, but my memory is biased. So, just go through opinion papers for a month of, say Dec 2016 and list predictions. We can then discuss here. Most memorable is prediction of economic disaster, next Muslim anger. But, please, could someone do a list.
@ubi: is found among Trump supporters.
Absolutely. and, @Syag, it is equally frustrating. I ammore annoyed by Jewish Trump supporters whose motivation to not wear mask seems to be, in large, influenced by politics. Overall, it is a huge bitul zman for people here to just repeat what they here in the news, without applying their Torah values.
I respect very much “first amendment” idea in American public space – where you can throw any argument you want, short of “fire in crowded theaters”, and see who prevails. Jewish debate should rather be based on respecting the truth: quoting by name (presumably, correctly); one who lied in one aspect,is not believed in others; Beit Hillel quoting Beit Shammai before stating their own position. We could do besser.
meir G
I hate asking a personal question, but we are discussing education here. And you are an educator yourself. I presume you also went to an excellent yeshiva. So, it is relevant.I see you are writing in full sentences and great spelling. At the same time, you are using CAPS only in the middle and not at the beginning of the sentences. Punctuation is randomized. I realize this is informal writing, and you can point back to my spelling. Still, for people who are used to writing well, like Reb Eleizer above, for example, correct writing is a habit, and does not require an effort.
So, what do you think is the source of your writing style? Do your children write the same way?
Charlie,
you sound very differently when you are discussing Trump from when you are discussing science.
the more you are reaching to find why every Trump’s achievement is not an achievement, the more you are convincing us of the opposite!A number of centrist people who do not like him in general, admit a number of achievements.
How can you deny all positive changes in Israel – capital, embassy, Golan, Arab agreements, decreased threat from Syria and ISIS .. maybe ask Israelis; or try to remember yourself some years ago: would you praise Pres Clinton or Obama if he were to do some of the above
meir g:WORST of which is HOMESCHOOLING
Meir, my version of Shema says “veshinantem l’vanecha” and nothing about patching. Yours seem to be the opposite
Of course, as Reb E mentions, if you have anger issues and can not overcome them with mussar, then you need to try positive methods only – sweets, payments, competition .. If that does not work, then you might be patur from “veshinantem l’vanecha”, and you will have, lo aleinu, send your kid to substitute parents.
I presume the power of the pardon – power over life – that President and Governors have are a source of the bracha when seeing them.
Participant, get any of the books by R Avraham Twersky, he writes a a lot about low self-esteem
@TheRock thats the only way to make a shidduch ….the main point is Derech Eretz comes first.
As someone said: the problem is with Beis Yaakovs, they are not producing enough rich girls …
As usual in social problems, where do you start in this circle – in education, probably? teach both boys and girls derech eretz, in both (related) meanings – midos and work.
I had a nice conversation with a teacher at some point: she was telling me to focus on selecting a right seminary [with some condescending to my potential lack of Torah values – “if it is a money issue, I can help you find a right place”, as if I was on a stipend and she paid full tuition, instead of other way around]; and I asked her to maybe introduce a topic on mitzvah of kibud av ve’em, not being happy how girls propose chumrot for their mother instead of helping her … We mutually looked at each other – as if the other side is talking about something inappropriate
So, we made a controlled experiment: it took about 3 months of separating the kid from the school, for middos to improve.
ubiquitin @risk to both money and safety is negligible
could you give an estimate and a source?
The Rock “He is the best boy in BMG”. Is there a 2nd best? a 3rd best?
I do agree that midos might be more important, but just with that reference:
Is there a class rank? Test scores?With learning being a central life goal for bochurim and a reference for shidduchim,
are we able to measure anything about that activity?ubiq: you do not have to use a George forman
you have a good point. This is a jarring disconnect – we are considering a person who has a yetzer hara for George Forman that he can and yetzer hatov to risk both money and personal safety for a mitzva of tevilah.
We need to consider how do these two desires simultaneously coexist in the same neshomah.
L’tzad zechut: he is willing to buy the most expensive appliance (is it? Not a bokeh) to then risk to lose in toveling. Mamash hiddur mitzva. He also probably paid $300 for the esrog.
On the other hand, maybe he is just driven to excesses in everything.
two more records for Pres Trump:
survey says: 40% think he is the worst, 20%+ that he is the best president.Both numbers are higher than for previous ones (by 20 for worst, and by 10 for best). I am not sure whether they did this survey at Alexander time … Maybe Lincoln was seemingly polarizing.
PS Upon some hard thinking – I am not sure how the above can be correct. Obviously, Washington had 100% on both scores.
GH “jump off the roof” –
that I understand, but what about less obvious cases – “manufacturers just don’t want to deal with it”, “they don’t care”, or “trust me, I know what your child need to learn”.rational: The best learning boys will hold out for the most money.
This is indeed an old system, but does it make sense now? We used to have a small number of Talmidei chachamim who were able, and wanted, to learn full time and a small number of very rich people and lots of very poor. Now, we have much larger professional middle class and a high cost of living – who can have comfortable lifestyle by working, but not enough to support several sons-in-law.
what is thenn the motivation of the multitude of learners (except the true top ones), select a life partner based on money, instead of learning how to support themselves. I they are that bright and kodesh, they could work in a profession 2-3 hours a day, it will be enough to modestly support their families.
Yserbius: So we compromise.
I think you are right. And we need to look wider at this point, not just mask on/off. Think what things can be improved for yourself and others.
– Know old people getting lonely? call them, ask for their advice, ask them to help you checking kids’ homework…
– Kids are tired at school in masks every day? keep them home for a day or two and learn with them, even if you are not strong to do it every day
etchow and who determines the level of someone’s learning?
are you going by quality of institution?
do you differentiate between the ocean and overturning mountains? or is the latter a negative behavior?
is there an SAT-type test that let us evaluate the bochur learning?@common: zero to do with tipping,
You are right. The association is tipping is gratitude. Gratitude is recognition of positive. We need also to recognize the negative… Also, withholding customary tips (restaurants) is considered a negative recognition. Also, I am all for tipping good teachers. And paying them more – from savings of not tipping and paying bad teachers. Suing is simply restoring falsely claimed payment to the parents – who can now afford tipping good teachers.
Nice? Can I stay in your topic?
Are Rabbis exempt from gramah damages as professionals? I presume here that he is a professional in psak but not in electrical engineering.
So, if a Rav suggest toiveling and then the device is damaged or there is a fire, is he liable?
kollelman:– he can’t even reverse any executive orders
indeed. I wonder whether the Supremes will use it as a precedent for the next administration.
huju: rise in tuition substantially
I think one short-term answer for our community is online colleges or online programs in regular colleges. Their tuition is generally 50% off regular price, making even out-of-state state colleges reasonably affordable. With current financial squeeze, they should be happy to accept “full” (full online, i.e. 50%) tuition students.
In terms of quality, some explicitly offer same professors and diplomas as their offline departments.
Socially, this is probably even safer than over-priced “kosher” colleges w/ dorms. Maybe it is possible to have several friends to apply to the same program and study together.common: @does that apply to the Rebbes and Teachers
changing gears somewhat: It seems that Congress will not pass blanket protection to businesses, then you might be able to sue your Rebbes in secular courts if the following happened (not saying it happened to everyone, but all happened somewhere):
1) they were not careful enough (for example, going to unmasked minyanim), or were not promptly reporting cases to parents,
2) you discovered how bad teaching is when seeing teacher on zoom
3) that your child learned better and got better midos out of school
4) your child was able to learn at home without medication that school insisted on
5) your school always insisted that their school is better than online schools, then continued charging full tuition for online/phone classes
According to pre-election “leaks”, Joe Biden is not always as stubborn and stupid as he sounds.
The guy recalled that when Senator Biden suggested forced partition of Iraq, the author wrote an article explaining why the idea is wrong. Next day, he got a call from Biden’s staffer, who said: we sent you a letter condemning your article, you should get it tomorrow and we will publicize it. Please disregard it, we need to do it for PR, the senator got your message.
So, hopefully, this insincerity applies to other items he talked about. Even better – he honestly said many times that he would rather not say anything than lie to the voters, and would lie only when he
was forced to say something.Nice, eh?
Syag >> No charlie, you are wrong. You follow your rabbis on halachic matters
First, there seems to be a room for being more careful personally. Namely, we feed a patient on Yom Kippur when either a doctor OR a patient say so. Is there an acharon that says a Rav should review their opinion?
2nd, there is a diversity of halakhic opinions here. I was very impressed by R Meir Twersky’s psak early on. I quoted him here before and do not remember any response. One thing he said sounded true: we generally recommend listening to your respected doctor, but due to high uncertainty of the new virus, we should listen to worst fears of several opinions. At the same time, discussing the plans with one of a pretty reasonable local Rabbis, his initial position was “Let’s trust this doctor X”.
Another early warning came from R Heineman: when asked whether it is OK for several families to stay nearby to form a minyan outside, he answered – if you do that at the time when this is forbidden, it will lead to some Jews being denied ventilators by someone saying – they caused it to themselves.
So, when asking for an opinion, you may want to make sure you ask someone who heard enough factual information and has enough historical depth. If you are not sure, provide that information to him.
would this work?
Trump runs for Congress in 2022 (from Florida?)
becomes Speaker of the House
impeach/convict big guy and VP at the same time
Trump is President by June 2023Reported Phase 3 trials were over-conservative in their design. Their primary goal was to fly through FDA rigid acceptance rules. The risk of failure was – months to do another trial.
They passed it. Note the French fiasco. I understand that they did not achieve sufficient efficacy and now going into another Phase 3 (= several months).All indications are that it will be soon (1-2 months?) clear what is effect of vaccine on transmission – by analyzing current data, updating trials, observing vaccinated population.
Another guess: possibly, recommended dose is too high (to guarantee passing the test). mRNA teams could do that because there is no risk of getting COVID. Traditional vaccines have to more careful. So, if the doses will be lowered, there will be more of them and less side effects.
A note for those taking it soon: today’s FDA panel discussed that taking more time between two doses gives more final protection, but it is hard to recommend more time as this increases time when a person is protected less by just one dose. So, if you are not an exposed medical worker, but a relatively isolated alter – you may want to ask your doctor about spacing doses a little longer.
crackers: none of us has had covid in weeks, yes their was a spike
Covid propagation seem to be highly clustered. That is, it circulates in one closely-knit community, and community across the river is safe. Then, one person drives over the bridge for a party, and in a week, second community is affected. A lot of early patterns about what works and not was disproven because of that. If you compare countries/states/cities over multiple months, they belong to a smaller number of patterns then over a week.
So, if you are/were in a safe cluster, you can protect the cluster by:
1) isolating from other communities: if someone visited other communities, they should not go to shul or send kids to school for 2 weeks/getting neg test. This seems an easy solution, but community leaders should insist on that. Our community had several cases recently, all related to this issue.2) SD and masks all the time so that if a case comes in, propagation slows in the 1-2 weeks before the cases show up. This seems to be hard as witnessed on this board due to a combination of love for freedom, political views, lack of education, community leadership, and sheer stubbornness
3) warning system – when someone has symptoms, he should immediately let all his shul/school/community contacts know, before he gets test results after 3 days
ujm: current position is no.
Most of propagation is going through young population, thus it will continue for some time, while, hopefully number of difficult cases will be gradually reducing. Presumably, with lower deaths, youngsters will be even less careful, and thus, move to herd faster.
Re: transition. Recent studies compare locations with and without colleges and see that half of deaths are attributed to presence of colleges by eventually propagating thru the rest of community.
Most direct route – medical students that were, in the studied example, 25% of nursing home staff.