Always_Ask_Questions

Emunas > Chabad does NOT have a monopoly on Kiruv,

First, they, rightly, are not using this a little snobby word. But true, historically, many Rabonim interacted with less observant, say, R Salanter.. But in last couple of generations, nobody was paying much attention to hilonim, reformim, rusim… jut trying to protect themselves from bad influences. Some now have organizations that do this, and this is great, but most people are not involved. Like in ~ 1990, in many shuls, there were collections for EY and lots of people helped ( I tracked down one of my relatives through a wedding announcement that listed donations for EY ..).
Do mispalelim nowadays put $ into a designated pushka for “kiruv”? I did not see that.

> Okay it’s a mitzvah. So is putting a fence on the porch. But why are we so consumed with it? Why is learning Torah so critical?

Are you still sleeping when you daven “vetalmud Torah keneged kulam”? In truth, there is one little thing that comes before that – middos that are not a mitzva but a prerequisite for them. But I should not quoting from the kabbalists or AAQ will make fun of me.

So, in my simple terms, it should be very simple:
you come to register for Chassidus 101 class at 770 university, or to Nefesh Chachaim 101 at Lakewood U, and it says – 1 semester introductory course, with only one prerequisite:
shisha sidrei Mishna 101 with amoraim, rishonim, and achoronim.

You go back a page and try register for shisha sidrei Mishna 101, it says – a short course, 7.5 years minimum, with only one prerequisite: Pirkei Avos 101

You go back a page and try register for Pirkei Avos 101, it says – short 1 semester course, lab – 40 years, pass/fail, grading not on a curve.

Anybody knows what Rav Yehuda said about yichus from Ezra?

Avram > I wish it were so.

I am not saying that there are no people getting in trouble in college. I am saying there are multiple known ways to deal with it, both practically (Jewish colleges, local colleges, online, Israeli, etc) and philosophically (either focusing on technical stuff or reading Jewish books on whatever topic is studied in college). R Twersky Z’L recommends yeshiva students to learn physiology (not in the yeshiva, afterhours) to appreciate Hashem’s creation, not being concerned that physiology will leaed someone OTD

qwerty > Studying Gemara is a tool to train one in acquiring a sense of truth.

I am all with you here. So is Maharal .. that is why a mis-use of Talmudic approach, such as quoting things out of context or quoting only things that support one’s POV is a meaningless exercise. Sometimes, we all start arguing using “first amendment” reshus for expressing an opinion as string as possible and leaving it to the opponent to disprove. this shows that surrounding culture sometimes affects minds more than leaning in beis midrash

> I may even hint to you who that baal tefila was.

singing lecha dodi is not litvish, but so is signing loshon hora

Rbzs, you are the lucky one. Most of is here not just dissecting, but butchering sentences daily

Were previous ggeneration continuously arguing who is or is not Moshe of that generation? Any Rashis about his generation? Well, maybe those generations were not as connected as ours, so if MoMoshe was Teimani, Rashi may not have known him .
.
Maybe Rambam eventually was called equal to Moshe, but I do not recall him hinting to that in his writings.

Many people discuss lofty passages from Zohar or Tanya, but how do we know they know what they are talking about?
Maybe demonstrate your abilities by publishing a sefer of chidushim in nigle, or invent something, or at Least publish a paper explaining problems in einsteinian physics. If you didn’t do any of these yet, how can I trust your opinion on the important issues thrown around in this thread

Financial literacy is indeed important, but is hardly achievable without basic English and math 🧮 skills. And a job that provides finances to manage.
My suggestion would be to first test a kid or adult for their level using assessment sites, such as IXL, and possibly remedy using khan academy

Every art was modern at some point. It didn’t change since.

Some goal posts:
Teachers I know charge the amount that will fit parents budget so that the kid will learn.
You might also consider paying more than going rate from your tzedoka money.
3-5 times more per hour than reasonable yeshiva
tuition divided by number of hours

Avira, my kids are not at yu at all, so they are not seeing goyim there, my information is second hand. In this case, just responding to theoretical ideas.

As to that, a couple of my kids took online religion class from a goyishe college, with my running 🏃‍♂️ commentary and, I think, benefited from that. I have a psak for this before I am told that this is worse than having a TV 📺.

Will these guys assault some yu kids? I presume someone is monitoring the situation, and that’s why it is a pilot

I think both sides are losing the debate here. Just by making such issues the focus of your relationship to Hashem or by trying to bring up every little idiocy your slightly meshugene neighbor have done in his life. Can we all just get along?

So conclusion on the TV seems to be that it may be OK for some. I would just quibble with the rationale: it is not like matiring drugs to an addict, but simply acknowledging that a mature person who watched it for 60 years and maybe even knows how to extract information from it l, can continue watching it. Same in this generation, an yid who works in politics or stock market may get a eter to watch Bloomberg terminal and wsj …

I think some gemoras put down Aramaic as an impure mixture v pure languages like Greek. Maybe in discussion on what language are kosher for megilah reading

Concerns about evangelical love are justified, and historically many Philo semites turned into anti when we didn’t play along, from Hadrian to Luther.. still it is way more comfortable to complain from your current position than from catholic Spain or from soviet Russia. We need to acknowledge the positives while staying vigilant.

Lots of interesting opinions but underlying facts are still unclear.
Could someone find a syllabus for these classes at least? Fluffy articles about the program may just be writer’s opinions

I believe that women follow their mother’s minhag in women specific mitzvos such as candles 🕯. But overall an kind of difference is a potential source of irritation, so it may be a good idea to be more accepting, doing it during shiduchim may be too late if a person was taught at school that chasidim sleep late and working boys don’t learn …

Moses Mendessohn lead first response to an extraordinary challenge of the modern world. I don’t think we had similar challenges from the time of Rome and beginning of Xianity. A typical view is that Moses lead jews into reform and conversion…but do we really think that his German Bible made all Yiddish speakers proficient in high German? Jews assimilated in other countries too. Maybe we can admit that he was looking for a right response, whatever the results are. And from current hindsight, unfair of course, the rest of the community didn’t respond either. Even later, when Chofetz Chaim in 1920s laments about polish jews assimilation, he is not proposing a lot of solutions… for one obvious example, Sara S proposed BY school, not any of the leaders… those were extraordinary challenges and many people tried to address them in a different ways, and no reason to denigrate those who earnestly tried

There is nothing modern in modern… Avraham Avinu dealt with people and norms of his time, Moshe Rabeinu went to Pharoah,
Tannaim addressed Greek influences, Ramban disputed apikoirosim of his time… As r Soloveitchik wrote, quoting from memory, we are not going to fulfill our mission in the world by hiding in caves. We can have legitimate debate on specific positions, and many issues are complicated, but a tradition of being modern is pretty old.

sechel, yes – generally things written by Moshe Rabbeinu are accepted.

And this Litvishe approach is well documented, starting w/ Mishna that meticulously documents multiple opinions. Somehow tannaim and amoraim did not follow one rebbe.

And as if “chasidishe” velt has such a sefer. Each of the groups have their own Rebbe.

common,
(1) sounds like your answer is “no”, please explain why
(2) I do not understand what is the taava of motzi shem ra about an anonymous opponent? during our discussions, I quoted a number of responses to my shailos.

ujm, and on a positive side, you are engaged in a bunch of mitzvos while employing your plumber – chesed, tzedoka, kavod/love of talmidei chachamim. I hope you pay extra, but not so much that he notices that this is tzedoka. Maybe throw napkins into the bowl on purpose to increase his income.

Avira > This was before the internet; information traveled slowly.

This is questionable. You are suggesting that gedolim were making judgments about major current movements lead by other gedolim without investigating the matter properly? We had a question whether one should trust a gadol in stock picking, but surely evaluating hashkofos _is_ what a Rav is a boke in!