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Z > postpone your visit in France, there is too much violence here,
funny, I think, historically, most visits of an English King to France were accompanied by violence.
> Camilla “intended” to use the title Duchess
that is why constitutions help in limiting human ambitions.
ps I do not recall mocking “asey lecho rav”, only DT. The first one is in the mishna. I may be a Gaon (no Rashi, etc), but not a Tanna.
common, as I mentioned before, I’d love to follow DT, but my DT does not recommend that. So, I am following DT.
That said, I am absolutely for asking when you are planning to do something that clearly violates halocho but you think that you have overriding priorities.
For example, when a member of my family was slightly hurt by a negligent community member in an auto accident, and the perpetrator left right after giving a statement to police and did not contact with any remorse gestures. I was wondering whether it is appropriate to pursue the guy financially to pay for medical expenses and whether this should be done through beis din. I asked a beis din Rav and he, surprisingly, suggested going through goyishe system, even suggesting that the person, and the community, needed that lesson. I did not ask for technical heshbonos at the time, and at the end decided not to follow up – if someone needs a lesson, I was not planning to spend my time on providing it. Maybe I am not the best Yid I can be …
I am always amused by people being so much interested in the future things, Kabbalistic interpretations – anything that sounds good but can not be disproven. We have so many challenging things in the world that Hashem gave us _today_, where the mitzvos apply. Is He really wants us to spend time in speculation instead of addressing what he gave us?
I suspect that people feel better when they get involved into something that is not verifiable. I am “learning Torah”, “learning about Moschiach” and see myself (and is seen by others) as a tzaddik and a masmid. Try doing something where there is an objective challenge, a test to pass, resistance to overcome, people to help… There is a huge difference between a surgeon who saves every patient and the one who just enjoys cutting people up. There should be same in other things.
This was less of a problem in olden time, I think. Your neighbors saw you every day and knew who is real. In our days, it is easier to pretend ( I am not saying on purpose).
jackk > arguing with someone about whether the earth is flat.
Why can’t you argue about that? Repeat the classicial Greek experiment with a shadow angle at different cities. Use the globe or Google Earth. Take them on a round-the-world all-paid trip, let them hold the compass and return to the same place. If people deny the facts would be different. But having unusual opinions is not a crime, it is a plague, a makkah, of our times. How do you know who is or is not a dog on Internet?
Yserbius, I am not a navi, I do not know what is more dangerous – Chinese occupation or US government joining Chinese federation. We are talking here long-term stability. Many empires were stable for hundreds of years – until they failed. This is a one way street – failure leads to catastrophic results. And, given globalization, endangers the whole world.
And, again, you did not respond – I am not advocating for such a system in ideal. l’hathila, I am just saying there is sense in the system and cost of fighting is high. There are many other things to fight for. Reduce taxes; increase NATO spending; get school vouchers; get libs out of education; produce ammunition for Ukraine; etc. Choose your battles.
All vaccines were tested through a usual 3-Phase protocol – starting with a small group to select the dose, 2nd group to verify safety and 3rd to verify both safety and effect. The only difference that everything in the process was compressed in time – every step of testing (and production) was done as early as possible, and many people were involved in trying to achieve this success.
Some might be confused by the fact that, of course, testing was limited in time. Many _medicines_ are routinely tested for years to ensure safety. Note the difference between medicines and vaccines. If you look at statistics of recalls over decades, there are medicines that are discovered 5-10 years later to have undesirable side effects. I did not see vaccines having a similar effect. The difference is
that medicines might be taken over years, while vaccines are finite events, so potential side effects are found out quickly.All of that is, of course, water under the bridge. By now, all of the vaccines were tested over several years and billions of people. Some possible complications,, like myocarditis, were analyzed and found to have some elevated risk but lower than risk of getting sick by the virus even for the healthiest categories. A couple of vaccines were not recommended for some sub-populations. By now, everyone had a multiple combinations of vaccines and infections (hopefully, in that order) and effect of additional ones is way lower than the first events.
Thanks for defending the honor of the beis din. Maybe others can explain how they came to the conclusion that the call was from the beis din – did they listen to a call and misunderstood or someone mis-informed them?
A good thought – why are we all fighting for the “right“ President – why not one President for one half of the country, and another – for another, and everyone will be happy?
This is not (just) a joke: first, one of the original considerations for US Constitution was to have a 3–person Presidency, representing North, Middle, and South. More seriously, we have a federal system where everyone can live in a state with a preferred governor. On many cultural issues, you have a choice between complaining or moving to a state you like.
Shift towards more grandiose federal power created current situation where we all need to fight for federal offices. A lot of issues that President run on (right to life, arms, economic policies, education, environment, taxes) could be resolved at state level, leading to the Presidential campaign focusing on international affairs.
west bank > any idea how to go around it?
The best way to go around it – down South, then around Florida, to Mexico, then follow everyone else North over the border.
Don’t forget to first ask your local Rav whether he recommends going around.
Pardon moi, mademoiselle Ze Truth. You sounded pretty much like some posters here from some NY boroughs … I am now even more intrigued of your interests – from a random Kennedy to pro-Russian statements to covid anti-vaxing. Are these popular opinion in La France, or are you currently in USA and picked up these opinions here. I would appreciate an explanation of how you acquired such a combination of views. I would understand how person comes to a certain conclusion on a topic, but how did you combined all of them, that is my question.
CS > When people study a secular course on a topic, they become arrogant as they feel themselves a master of the subject, whereas when one learns Torah, the more they learn, the more humble they become
this is a gut vort. One hiluk: when Rabonim from 50-200 years ago write about this, it is about people who are abandoning Torah in favor of secular culture and knowledge. We here are mostly discussing Torah-observant Yidden adding knowledge of science or professions. This is a different issue.
Just to ponder: when gemora says – ein Torah b’goyim aval yesh Chochma b’goyim, why do they put these 2 things nearby, and how do they know about Chochma b’goyim? learned it and compared with their own studies?
AAQ is that a statement or a question
Statements generally end with “.” and questions with “?”.
I am not saying that we all need to join NRA. Just that this is not the most disturbing part of American culture. Again, if you have ways to minimize problems in a ways of peshara, I am also for that. But if you just start supporting one-sided measures then you won’t achieve anything and make enemies from people who might be friendly towards us otherwise.
YS > allowing people access to weapons does absolutely bupkis in terms of arming them against evil governments.
This is not true. Occupying armies have hard time dealing with population with weapons. To quote Chofetz Chaim out of context, he writes (in 1920s Poland, neighboring USSR) asking everyone to organize some learning in his town: when a country sees that they are weaker than a potential aggressor, they call on everyone to take a gun … Not a direct comparison, but look at Afghanistan with fighting culture that helped them keeping outsiders out. Having guns in every window will absolutely make keeping control over a modern city difficult.
I find it funny when people quote sources selectively. Rambam thinks this of Xians (while living among Muslims), while others said something else. Why not lists those who are on both sides, and then explain why your conclusion is the majority? (I know I sometimes quote Rambam only, but this is just because I don’t know much and also respect Rambam’s approach – and Rambam wrote short books for people like me).
Also, on this issue – there are different versions. Rambam writes about Catholics. There are Orthodox who simply follow Russian tzar or seretary general, there are various Protestants who believe either in more abstract things or in nothing at all. There are non-Jews who classify themselves as Reform Jews – what is their status?
Dan THe > I think that was Bibi’s best moment as PM.
Indeed, Dr. Bourla in his books describes some of his conversations with Bibi and says that Bibi read between the lines and understood that Bourla is looking for a test country, and then Bibi was able to convince him that Israel will be the best such country, despite the reluctance. My reading of reluctance – in part because two Pfizer Jews in charge might be seen as doing favors for other Jews, and also Bourla seems to be left-of-center, so did not want to help Bibi that much (Bourla even skipped a visit to Israel before the election on a made-up excuse).
If the OP wants to get anything beyond flames, maybe he could provide some specific information rather than simply inflammatory logic. Seems like people live in different information spaces and what is obvious to one is nonsense for others.
So, if you can show that, say, more people died from vaccine than from covid, people might consider your argument on merit, or something like that. On the other hand, many people here think that millions of lives were saved by the Trump’s vaccines, so whatever negatives you can come up with, we wold like you to weigh against those lives.
Avira, you are arguing, I think, with R Hirsh, R Lopian and probably others that explain this way.
I am not saying this is an only way, but something to think about.
Maybe you understand differently what “middos” are.I included the notional “atheist” here, whom I presume to be a proster non-religious Yid, closer to a classic “am haaretz”. As an example from another thread, I’ve seen a number of Israeli and Russian Yidden who did not have much Jewish background, but had good general attitudes, sending their kids to Jewish schools, whether Chabad/MO/Litvishe and blending into communities in several years, starting from zero.
Maybe you suggested a real apikoires, a head of a Marxist club, who also takes care of his comrades. That would be different.
Why are mods allowing repeated blaming of free countries for Russia’s ongoing murders?
for those who are not aware, most of online unmoderated and lightly-moderated forums in various papers and in multiple languages are full of similarly-looking posts combining pro-Russian and anti-West posts. I would expect moderated forums to filter that out – at least check that this is a genuine Yid rather than someone logging from a bunker in Siberia via Amazon cloud or something.
> When I was in school the curriculum was as such that we had to read goyishe novels.
that is in high school, where English is a bog thing. Less in college, unless you major in English or Education, R’L.
CS > TTI is not what The Rebbe meant when he was against college.
indeed. A good first step, but you can do better than that also.> Alter Rebbe discussing how one is metame his brain with learning secular knowledge
I know Yidden who are convinced that Rambam’s science is all from Gemora, and not from goyim of his time. Do you think they understand Rambam?But you need to specify what “secular” knowledge Ball Tanya was talking about. At his time, there was a lot of “anti-religious” secular knowledge.
Are we talking math? show me who is against math.
Physics, chemistry, biology, physiology that study how Hashem runs the world? You can say – to a certain degree, as Torah gives us a better approach to Hashem, but still.
English? I agree on annoying novels. Still, ability to write full sentences and express yourself clearly is useful. Most college classes have 1 or 2 of such classes.
At the end, if you take classes that help you get a productive profession, where you’ll spend part of the day doing chesed (surgery, legal, programming) at the price that you can afford seforim and your children’sschool tuition, and learn the rest of the day.
CS,
thanks for the detailed answer.so Rambam has a page and Gemora has a page, while you spent a shiur for 4 years. Some disbalance? It sounds like your parents are more balanced, and maybe you should follow their advice. Btw, Chofetz Chaim says that, yes, children in our times (1920s) are upset when parents tell them something, but Eliahu will come soon and will explain to children that parents have their best interest in mind and they’ll love their parents for their direction.
We need to stop making gedolim into popes, has ve sholom. Whatever great things Chabad and others were doing secretly in support of remaining Yidden in USSR, there were limits to their power. When students for Soviet Jewry started planning (ultimately successful) public protests in 1960s, they asked advice from R Feinstein, R Teitz, L Rebbe and Rav Soloveichik – all advised against. First 3 primarily because they were afraid of USSR reaction, including physical, based on their own painful experiences. This is documented in memoirs. Someone else asked at Ner Yisroel and got a positive response – that we don’t have preference for shtadlanus v public action, we have preference for whatever works.
Trump is way higher on the jerk scale than on worst scale. The only people who are not happy with his policies are those who would disagree with anything Republican or those who claim that results are good, but he is not the direct cause of them.
If you swapping several phones, you may want to have one of them with a SIM card, a mobile connection and filters and providing hotspot to other phones and computers.
You can also add opendns filters to that hub phone that white or blacklists sites.
there are restrictions for non-US citizen. I heard of people who were not able to board the plane because they had only one of two doses.
from CDC:Updated Apr. 19, 2023
You must show proof of being fully vaccinated with the primary series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine before you board your flight to the United States. Only limited exceptions apply.2 weeks (14 days) after your dose of an accepted single-dose vaccine
2 weeks (14 days) after your second dose of an accepted 2-dose series
2 weeks (14 days) after you received the full series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine (not placebo) in a clinical trial
2 weeks (14 days) after you received 2 doses of any “mix-and-match” combination of accepted COVID-19 vaccines administered at least 17 days apart*A person who has received only one dose of an accepted 2-dose series and has recovered from COVID-19 does not meet this definition, and therefore is NOT considered fully vaccinated for travel to the United States.
Single dose
Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent
Janssen/J&J
Janssen/J&J
Convidecia (CanSinoBIO)2-dose series
Novavax
Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech)
Spikevax (Moderna)
Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca)
Covaxin
Covishield
BIBP/Sinopharm
CoronaVac (Sinovac)
Nuvaxovid (Novavax)
Covovax
MedicagoDocumentation Type Examples
Verifiable records (digital or paper) Vaccination certificate with QR code1, digital pass via Smartphone application with QR code1 (e.g., United Kingdom National Health Service COVID Pass, European Union Digital COVID Certificate)
Non-verifiable paper records Printout of COVID-19 vaccination record or a COVID-19 vaccination certificate issued at national or subnational level or by an authorized vaccine provider (e.g., the CDC vaccination card)
Non-verifiable digital records Digital photos of vaccination card or record, downloaded vaccine record or vaccination certificate from official source (e.g., public health agency, government agency, or other authorized vaccine provider), or a mobile phone application without QR code1
1. The QR code in a verifiable vaccination record links to information confirming the credential was generated from an immunization record in an official database and is protected from tampering.All forms of proof of COVID-19 vaccination must have
Personal identifiers (full name plus at least one other identifier such as date of birth or passport number) that match the personal identifiers on the passenger’s passport or other travel documents
Name of official source issuing the record (e.g., public health agency, government agency, or other authorized vaccine provider)
Vaccine manufacturer and date(s) of vaccination> most math exam questions, whether in elementary school, high school or in university, are “follow the rules” problems.
this is what counts as math in many places, but that is not what math is.
My personal theory is that after Russkies sent Sputnik, US understood that we can lose the technology race to future missiles just with lawyers, so math was immediately introduced at all levels. Unfortunately, Khan Academy was not there yet, so who were the teachers in all these new classes? Same English teachers and unsuccessful lawyers. This generated a huge wave of people hating math teaching children hating math, and this became the mesorah. This is, l’havdil’ what happens when Jewish community grows, b’H so fast that not-very-educated teachers propagate through educational system, leading to higher minimal level, but not much at higher level.
I double checked w/ Chofetz Chaim – he quotes Gemora in Sanhedrin, saying all you need to prepare is to learn Torah and do chesed.
Yserbius, in the last century Weimar Germany overrun by thugs; several Eastern European countries occupied by Soviet tanks; others having local dictators for decades. Several countries now border Russia and have part of population that might join occupiers. In all of these cases, having well-armed and trained population would be an asset in support of democracy.
Again, we might not support such a system were we represented in the Continental Congress by a couple of Chachamim. But as far as the system exists, let’s use it, and mitigate problems, rather than fight something that has a healthy tzad. So, if you propose changes that lead to more safety without threatening the pro-gun population, you have a chance of progress; otherwise you are just working overtime to support Dem party contribution pitch. This is silly.
I think we all just got comfortable being “consumers” rather than people whom Hashem granted free will. A 100 years ago, half of the children were dying in childhood, world wars were raging, factory workers went unemployed … now, we B’H live decades in peace and prosperity with 24-hour delivery of anything in the world. There is always somebody out there who did not live to our expectations – did not deliver on time, did not create the right medicine … So, nobody had any vaccines against CVs, and suddenly new technology worked out in less than a year – but, sorry, not perfect, just decreasing death rate by 3-6 times …
with that in mind, if you compare overall pandemic statistics, you can see that US death rate is higher than comparable countries, seemingly due to lack of continuing vaccination and probably lack of other protection measures – especially starting 2021 when there was no more Trump to blame, so libs stopped blaming him and started convincing tired public that everything is great now so that nobody notices how many more deaths happened under Biden who did not introduce one useful idea (I don’t think rent and loan cancellations helped anyone’s health).
I’ll take an atheist helping his neighbor to a “frum” person who preaches hating everyone. Avraham preferred mehutonim frmo his family who were avdei A’Z because they had proper middos, the rest can be changed, but not that.
I am confused – to what degree we expect rules to change in bm3? Chofetz Chaim wanted Yidden to learn kedoshim to be ready. Now, we here that radom CR posters will wander around like they are kohanim gedolim as long as they see themselves “on the level”
Avram, I apologize for gaslighting, I am not seriously discussing details of pandemic, just responding to the poster whose opinions consist of praising Russia and blaming US for everything. I am not sure is he a reader of RT, a writer at RT, or just happen to attend a shul with RT watchers.
Yserb > It’s not a slippery slope to mandating limits on consumer ownership .. You’re just restating the “What if the government goes bad?”
It just happens that gun ownership in the population might prevent a dictatorship, while owning lighters and fireworks are less useful.
Just look at current Europe – many countries convinced themselves that there is no international danger and if they buy gas from former bullies everything will be alright… Very knowledgeable people made a mistake … Easy to imagine a similar thing happening inside the country…. electing a bad-meaning President and Congress at the same time and Supreme Court going along, possibly intimidated. Why not to value a mass of gun owners as last resort? It might be argued l’hathila that there are better and safer mechanisms (are there?_) but b’dieved – as history of this country was based on local communities protecting themselves – it is a useful thing to have.
CS,
when Moschiach comes, we – hopefully – all accept him. Before that, you may try to think how you can make the world into a better place rather than idly speculating who M might be. There is no special mitzva to be the best guesser as far as I know.Maybe it will help us (and you yourself) understand your position better if you could describe how it came to your mind to spend time speculating about who M might b. Did you read it in sichos? a yeshiva teacher? your parents? a Gemora? something in Tanach?
it may be “worse” in some senses, but you just need to define what exactly you are talking about. Someone at U Chicago Economics program and someone playing football at U of Alabama are just not comparable. Also, in terms of employmwnt, one had to inspire to be an elite person in 1950s if he ewnt to college, so, frmo Jewish perspective, “most” Yidden did not need it. Certainly L Rebbe and Rav Soloveichik were exception to that.
Nowadays, if you are not in college, you are limited to “heimishe” professions, that has their own downsides in terms of pay and job security and yetzer hara to cheat the government and others as a result. We also have lots of ways to mitigate problems that occur in college.
A large number of people can earn an honest living after getting a degree in a safe way and continue their learning through their life.
Is it interesting how certain people accumulate multiple weird opinions along their travels. Maybe RT has a travel show or something.
Re: L R opinion of college, similarly to R Feinstein’s opinions – we need to differentiate between colleges in different time. 2% of American men (and less of women) were going to college in 1940s and then was growing over time. College of now, in general, is a different thing both in terms of what it teaches, can be very differfent in nature, and also in terms of ways of dealing with it (Chabad houses being one of the great means of mitigating some of the problems)
CS, depends on the college, major and how you pursue it.
If you choose a technical major in a local or online college, use CLEPs and yeshiva classes for electives, you are mostly studying livelihood-related subjects. Parents should be able to guide you around things you don’t need to listen.
If you are going for a liberal arts degree in a fancy college while living in a dorm, then you get a lot of problems inside and outside of the classes
maybe simply look at TaNach? Yona and kikayon.
we seem not to be ready for Moschiach, as everyone producing a candidate list omits people from different groups from their lists – Y v L v MO, etc. Do you expect Moschiach to lead the whole of Jewish pepole or just lead the flame wars on Internet on behalf of your group?!
As death does not seem to be a barrier any more (gilgulim welcome?), maybe we should look at people who are accepted in all corners? Rashi, Ramban, Ramchal, Chofetz Chaim, Jonathan Sacks. There are also several candidates who made an effort to be accepted by broader Jewish community with some success, but, as a result, are less accepted in the yeshivish community despite their credentials. In my count, they qualify by their ability to lead the broader community, but I am not putting their names here to avoid reflexive loshon hora.
We never had so many people in yeshivas and kollelim as we had now. Maybe in the midbar. This is welcome change from 100 years ago, when Chofetz Chaim was calling on Yidden in Poland to teach their kids chumash with Rashi without skipping prokim, form learning groups in shuls, women who can read to read several pages of niddah halochos to those who can’t, and not send kids to anti-religious Jewish schools where they teach stories from Tanach, and suffer being working poor instead of going to far-away countries where they can earn more money.
Still, we are obviously not producing proportional number of Chazon Ishes and Chofetz Chaims, as the small yeshivos of 100 years ago. So, these are obviously different institutions with different goals. Maybe using same name creates confusion in the discussions. Our communities found/decided that it takes 15 years minimum (from pre-K to post-HS yeshiva) or more (with kollel) to make sure our kids are not going OTD and keep enthusiasm for learning, and send their children into the same direction.
Avi, R Soloveichik, similarly, suggests cooperation on world-related issues but not even a conversation about how we relate to Hashem. When discussing possible cooperation in Vatican proceedings where they were expected to change their position to a more positive towards Jews, he writes – we are not negotiating and offering something in exchange. They have a problem that they are trying to fix, they don’t need our presence. Also, they’ll not be ever satisfied by our offers unless we fully convert, so any conversation might lead to more hatred.
Zetruth seem to be nuying lots of theories, mostly describing how bad America is bad to Jews restricting his, Zetruths’ freedoms, while presumably pining for some better times at other empires where we prospered. Can I ask you a question – did you have a world history class in the yeshiva, and if yes, what was your grade?
> davening for a particular non Jewish person is assur
I have sidurim with davening for Emperors Franc Jozef and Nikolai Alkexandrovich and their mishpuchas (with names of wifes and children listed). Are these in contradiction with MA?
Yserb > Did Rav Schneerson ZT”L ever comment on that philosophy vis a vis his time learning in Hildesheimer?
How is it different from R Feinstein Z’L whose daughter studied chemistry and married a future prof. of Biology? There is a difference between what particular people can do and a social policy for the wider community. Most people who went to college in 1940s-70s did not end well Jewish-wise.
interjection>> “you encouraged me to go in this direction” …”
> Are you suggesting this is Lakewood’s fault?it is a joint fault of the schools and yeshivos encouraging the guy into more and more limud (staying a couple of extra years every time he was to go home) and discouraging learning a job, and parents who went along (and paid tuition).
> 3-3×6+2
how about this, towarzysz?
+ 2 – 3 x 3 6