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As we in the Adar – again! – what is the brocha for edibles?
Yes, a wise woman understands the value of a minyan, but as she is wise, she might find other things to do at the same time. And osek b’mitzva surely patur min not hamtzva!
for example, a learnt woman would know that a temporary minyan at the chatuna does not require mechitza, but she also knows that the primary reason for coming to the wedding is to be mesameach chatan and kallah and, given that at current weddings men are machmir to not allow themselves near the kallah, women need to fully attend to that mitzvah – and also to the mitzva of reviewing potential shidduchim for their sons, as, again, sons are not allowed to do it themselves.
HaKataan says that declaration of state was against goyim as UN wanted to have another mandate. Could you clarify about this “another mandate”? I thought UN sanctioned two states – Jewish and Arab.
With all talking past each other, there are some statements here that look like real debate!
Avira > The balfour declaration (and even the UN partition plan) are irrelevant because when the zionists took over, the british were no longer baalei batim on the land.
This is very brisker for me. Could you unpack this in detail step by step? From my simple reading, there were several steps:
(1) initial zionist yishuv, somewhat supported by a small number of rabonim, but no others,
(2) Balfour declaration – that made further arrivals not violating shvuos as they came with permission
(3) state declaration by those who already arrived – not by shvuos – it is just a declaration, not arrivals and with UN permission
(4) later arrival from DP camps, arab countries, USSR – all according to international lawswhere is your analysis different?
It sounds like you are trying to be more of a partner, working for future profits rather than salary – either out of desperation or out of interest in being a businessman rather than a salaried worker. Probably a combination of both. I was once in a similar desperate/promising situation and I proposed to the business owner that I’ll continue working for the minimal wage (in a low-wage state) he was paying me, but I’d get 10% of each software sale he will/might have. We almost struck a deal, but then talk to his Zeresh, aka accountant, at home and called me back amending the terms – “up to 10 sales”. That is, she was pre-envious in case I’ll share in their future success .. I left and I don’t think he ever had 10 sales …
From the business POV, you should do more diligence when you enter into a partnership – first, evaluate the prospects yourself, rather than just relying on the partner and also defining better the terms with your partner. Halachik books recommend going through all possible situations in advance – what if one will leave, if you have no sales, too many sales, etc and put them into the agreement. Maybe ask to learn these sugyot in our yeshiva to make your learning more fun.
Also, you may want to upgrade your technical skills to be of more value in business.
Kuvult, your story is not clear
1) it seems that one should follow a (legitimate as Avira noted) minhag of the father even the father changed it. Otherwise, all chassidim should go back to minhag Ashkenaz …2) when you are in shul, both of you should be doing the same thing – namely what is minhag of the shul you are in! If you wear T and the shul does not, ,you simply put it on at home. Not sure how it works other way around – I guess you wear it in shul and do not wear it at home 🙂
Parents who tell their children to learn raise children who will also be telling THEIR children to learn.
This argument whether original us position on religion and state rights or the current one is better is not a legal argument. US constitution consists of a combination of original rules AND means to change it
These rules were followed most of the time
So both are valid – as well as current Alabama legislation. If you don’t like it, move to MississippiIt is legitimate to be concerned with what various MAGA people are saying and some of it by T himself. At the same time, you need to acknowledge that T’s policies as president were within Republican norm in internal politics (whether you agree with them or not) and quite aggressive in international against China/Russia/Iran – tariffs, starting to arm Ukraine, annoying Europeans by trying to stop NordStream, prevent Chinese participation in cellular, etc.
It might be possible to have different political theories tying all these points together – did T want to leave NATO or to force Europeans to spend more .. is he posturing and being ambiguous to placate the populists he needs for election or is he still looking for secret signals from Alfa-bank … So, post such a theory. But making declaration simply ignoring the facts that do not suit your simple theory is “unbecoming” as Sen Romney would say. Kal vehgomer for a Jew.
Kurds are pro-US and pro-Israel, but they are not above shouting “allahu akbar” when shooting ISIS or Syrian gov troops or Turks. World is complicated.
Yes, see full text in the next thread. Did I mis-state anything in mysummary? Tell me – but I did not say anything about RYBS teaching anything himself, only writing, and did not refer to his “actions”
Avira > all of the conditions laid out in the chofetz chaim,
There are current issues that I do not see in Ch Ch. We have now ability to accumulate and disseminate information and people use this approach routinely. When you are looking up an airline or a hotel, you look up reviews. you are not calling some people who know some people who are neighbors to the hotel … the same for ratemyprofessors and ratemyteachers. Many systems generate “recommendations” for news, books, etc that are based on their internal metrics. Some of this is clearly violating L’H rules, but we also see
Did you actually just say “some of this may be against L”H rules BUT”?
edited
> if we let the religious people spread their religion they’ll go after us.
I think you are both right. R Soloveichik asks why we have issur against avodah zorah in 10 comm, but not about atheism. He answers because there are no true atheists, they all end up believing in some type of AZ. Pretty much sure he was thinking of commies and nazis.
R Soloveitchik didn’t seem to support women learning b diavad. He sees value in it and writes that classes should be mixed to ensure that girls get same quality. I am not sure this argument still holds, but this is what he said un the 1950s
Can the embryo in question simply emigrate to a “free state ”
You would be able to assist it/him/her if you hold that it is better nt to be bornCan’t keep up with everything here…
Cs> get her many responsibilities and lacking the concentration and interest needed, was not a good thing according to Rabbi Eliezer.BTW, r Steinzaltz attaches an epithet like extreme to r Eliezer here. As long as you already have gemora opened 😉 see how he generally stands against other chachamim especially about women
Avira: chochma = Torah, and then torah learning ain’t science…
We clearly have chochma that exists among goyim. As to learning style, torah learning include sevorah, and builds upon it. If done with integrity, there’s a lot to be found in interaction between torah principles and modern science. It may be the most intellectually exciting issue of modern times and don’t put it down because it can lead to mixed dancingSomewhere in Bava Basra there is a case of butchers making a cartel with each of them working a separate day, and one refused and opened up as a competitor, and the cartel slashes his tires and skins. Gemora, I think, allows them to have their own din like that, but not if there is a talmid chacham in town whom they should have asked.
is there a “five town” beis din, or are these five different batei dinim? I am thinking my shtetl should be renamed into “ten towns” given different number of sub-communities with their own psak.
> learning gemoro and chassidus instead of looking after their children’s Yiddishkeit
We somehow got used to the word learning to signify “occupation” or a “chore” … instead of simply “learning”. If a lady shows interest in learning more in depth of mitzvos – that is what gemora is in the wider meaning – this should surely enhance her ability to look after her family yiddishkeit. It does not mean that she has to have a regular seder at the kollel, behind the mehitza or not.
It is probably very disruptive to the ujm household when his russian wife disagrees with his ukrainian one. Overall, it seems that after Oct 7, number of yidden willing to say that who cares about some wars hundreds of km from us …. As R Avigdor Miller says – if something is happening in Viet Nam, take it ti heart and learn a lesson, otherwise H’V the next lesson will move closer. R Soloveitchik writes on Megilas Esther that in all times Jews should not delude themselves that world events do not affect us.
should I trust a heksher on spices with the name “green goddess”? Does it matter whether it has an image or not? Is it ok to use it after taking the label off?
> If someone steals their food, does that make it non-kosher?
Bava Kamma 113 discusses kashrus of stolen items when they are inherited and whether you can exchange money with tax collector who is considered a gazlan of the coins he got from that business.
> it’s not goyish
the founders were very non-Jewish and they had some vague religious beliefs. They were not heimish or even MO, for sure.
People who truly benefit are extremists on both sides: every time an idiot on one side says or does something, an idiot opposing him sends a fundraising email to fight the “other guy”. They feed on each other.
This is what was happening in Weimar republic: some people voted for Commies to fight Nazis, and others – for Nazis to fight commies. One can even argue that, as terrible as Nazi win was, it would have been worse if commies would have won and formed a united Stalinist union from Japan to France.
On the merits, it could be possible to have a Missouri compromise: exchange stopping illegal immigration for a large quote of legal immigration. This will stop the flood and calm everyone down. After that, have a political discourse of how much legal immigration and of what kind (workers v relatives, etc) the country wants.
This just shows – as much as most of us are annoyed by libs running the show – it will not be much better if the opposite side gets in control. The grass is not greener on the other side. We just need to learn how to live with all of that.
Haleivi, right, I forgot who said, pointing to bookshelf- all these authors starting learning from their mothers. .. and nowadays if not from mothers, then morahs. This underscores that they need to be learnt ourdays
Regardless of the differences, R Twersky Z’L highly recommended a goyishe 12-step program. Look in his books, he knew first hand about addictions both in Jewish and non-Jewish world.
disclaimer – it’s not goyish
I wonder what is the peshat for the son to listen to the torat imecha on addition to mussar avicha. First, it means ima has that torah…it is also oral torah as it is shma, not koreh…
probably got it from her mother or learned on her own as the father would be asur to teach, many darshin like that.
Also, if the son needs to listen to that, Kal vahomer the daughter? So we can have oral tradition by the women..
Maybe they didn’t write it down yet?Seems like there is a concensus here on ladies who want to learn v general curriculum. As to how many are there, it is undeniable that today’s women, as well as men, are more educated and have access to more information, than before, so it is not surprising that there are more of those. If you look at historical examples, they were typically daughters and wives of talmidei chachamim, not daughters of rich people,
For those stopping CS from checking out a gemora, I hesitate to revisit the women/Torah debate, but I see several sources that we might have not discussed before. The new chiluk here is the difference between wholesale teaching to everyone v. those who are eager to learn on their own. Maybe someone could look these sources to see if the mention written/oral Torah difference. But if in our generation, teaching written Torah is accepted for everyone, then, there should be some other level accessible to those women who are eager and capable.
.Rav Shach zt”l writes similarly that the restriction against Torah study for women does not apply to self-study, and the concept is already noted by the Maharil (Shut Maharil Ha-Chadashos 45): “[This refers] specifically to somebody who teaches his daughter. But if she teaches herself she receives reward for it – as somebody not commanded in the mitzvah – for her intention is for the good.”
Chida (Tov Ayin 4), explaining that it is permitted to teach a woman who has proven herself as having true intent of Torah study.
Rabbi Shmuel (ben Elchanan Yaakov) Archivolti of Padua (1515–1611) writes that women with suitable intellectual abilities are not only permitted to study Torah, but are even obligated to do so:
“When a woman is ready to receive an abundance of wisdom, neglect will harm her, and […] we can differ, saying that the sages of blessed memory spoke only of a father teaching his daughter in her childhood. … There one might fear because most women’s minds are consumed with nonsense. But women whose hearts urge them to Hashem’s service of their own will shall ascend G-d’s mountain and live in His holy place, for they are outstanding women, and the sages of the generation must glorify, exalt and sustain them, encourage and strengthen them … and Torah shall go forth from their mouths” (Maa’yan Gannim, letter 10; quoted in Torah Temimah on Devarim 11).
kuvult > It is perfectly rational to believe many concepts in the Gemara were based on their knowledge at the time.
how can you claim otherwise? Gemora documents myriads of cases where amoraim argue about meaning of mishayos and baraisos, and sometimes explain that someone knew that baraisa but not another. For example, R Yehudah repeatedly points to Nehardians (where Shmuel taught) what he knows from Shmuel that they do not. All these traveller from Israel to Bavel who either bring information or worse. As the Maharal points out, see my multiple references, the strength of Bavli is developing the method of reconstructing missing information (similar to modern linguistic analysis, pattern analysis, machine learning – AAQ, not Maharal). So, you are free to try to use their methods and you’ll be a talmid chacham if you succeed or a rooster, or worse, if you don’t (Gemora’s words not AAQs,)
> I didn’t author the Shulchan Aruch OR the Rambam.
amazing humility. techincally, rambam is a person, so you should say that you did not father rambam, i.e. you aint Maimon.
ARSo, this might have worked when we had a Sanhedrin and T’Ch having direct discussions with each other. Look at later history – from Rambam to Chasidim, etc. A lot of T’Ch who said something new or unusual were controversial (Does not mean, of course, that any proposed change was reasonable).
So, if R Moshe, R Soloveichik, Lubavitcher Rebbe were mutually respectful is enough to consider all of them worthy respect. It does not mean that you have to agree with everything they, or others who claim to talk in their name, say, of course.
Avira, I absolutely agree that people can, and should try to, do chesed in any job. This is under-rated. many Jews used to be in a situation where holding any job/business was necessary for survival. In our days, B’H, people have some choice and it makes sense to choose the one where you do more chesed (in addition to other considerations on how it affects your own life). So, indeed, possibly a good plumber is better than a bad doctor…
But in any case, one should probably maximize amount of chesed he does – she ein lachem shiur. It will look weird if someone helps an old lady cross the street and check off “did chesed today”. So, someone visiting a sick person is great, someone who visits ten – is better; someone who can actually operate on a sick person and heal him – even better; someone who invents a drug that helps thousands – even better. Not in a sense that one person is better than the other, but in a sense that if the same person can do more, he should do more.
Arso > quite a number of gedolei Yisroel who did not hold of his greatness.
in our divided times, I don’t think we need a consensus to consider someone a talmid chacham; too much machlokes going around. I would say, if 2-3 t.ch recognize another one, especially if he is not part of their particular group, that should be enough,
common, I agree. It is just latest american politicians do not show any capabilities in meaningful politics.
Chazal mostly used stones no bidet. But there are tons of gemoras talking about healthy foods and food effects on different conditions.
> doctors will not he higher in shomayim than plumbers
There are several questions here, what are your answers
1. Is there a mitzva of doing chesed, saving lives, caring for sick.
2. What is schar for that when you are well paid. I asked this shaila and was told that as long as the person is motivated to do chesed rather than higher pay, he is a tzaddik. The rav is anti college, all of his children are tchim or businessmen, but one brother is a doctor.
3. Should the person strive to do more mitzvos if he is capable.BY1212, a fair question. I indeed do not advocate blindly following authorities and I don’t think r Soloveichik did also. I brought his opinion to show that at least in some cases, he would rely on Israeli government opinion. I saw in a sefer of his letters and articles, not a maase. I think I can support your skepticism with another story.
One of the founders of student movement for soviet Jewry asked several gedolim for an advice. R Feinstein, LR, R Teitz all advised against public actions, mostly being afraid that commies will make things worse for Soviet Jews and possibly for protesters themselves. R Soloveichik also advised against, after first consulting someone in Israeli government. After the students started protests anyway, one of them asked R Soloveichik again why Rav is not repeating his position. Rav responded that he changed his opinion after he realized that his advisor mislead him. Rav asked him “what is best for Soviet Jews” and the advisor gave his advise based on “what is best for Israel” (i..e. desire to negotiate with Russians, etc, similar to current Russian war on Ukraine). Rav held that in a situation of pikuach nefesh, one should focus solely on what is best for the people in danger.
I am not sure about timing, but it sounds that second story happened after the first, so maybe we can conclude R Soloveichik reduced his reliance on government – at least when there is a reason to suspect wrong motivation.
But, I think, we can still learn from this that (according to R Soloveichik’s opinion that not everyone holds by), it is permissible to rely on Israeli experts under some circumstances.
> idleness leads to a bigger lack of tznius! Not to mention insanity.
This is about her not sitting without doing any work even if she can afford it. If she is going out to her job as a CEO or an MD, idliness is not an issue.
In fact, one could argue from this position – women should go out. Husband is at work, kids at cheder, washing machine does it’s job. What is the woman supposed to do? Browse internet? Shop online? Rearrange furniture? She is educated enough to understand which job is needed and which one is not. So, for santiy sake, she should go teach at school or work at a hospital.
> Our Ruv has also made changes to the Megillah taking out anything improper.
Stop right here, even in Adar. I heard from the peh of the old Lakewood mashgiach that “Esther becomes Mordechai’s Rebbe” after she was ready to do mesiras nefesh by going to Achashverosh. Yes, it was Adar, but the Rav was not drunk and walking on his own accord. So, it is OK to call women Rebbes.
Sechel, to paraphrase R Salanter, if you only have an hour and you have a choice between CR and chassidus – start with CR because you can learn from CR when and how to learn chassidus; but learning chassidus will not tell you to read CR.