Always_Ask_Questions

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  • in reply to: What are your thoughts about Kennedy?? #2186066

    Ze,
    could you explain what makes you truth this RFK Jr person? Do you know him personally? Or anyone from his family? Did someone you trust recommended him? What are his credentials? As far as I know he did not achieve much in his life to be listened to, but I am willing to learn.

    in reply to: Professional help (marriage, life) #2186065

    R Twersky’s “Dear Rabbi, Dear Doctor” book (last published 2016) list these agencies about various psychological issues without specifying which is which. maybe someone wants to look into them and add descriptions

    echo 845 425 9750
    relief 718 431 9501
    bikur cholim
    AA
    Mask 718-758-0400
    Shalom Task Force 718-337-3700
    JAADD (Jewish Ass for ADD) 718 435 0101
    Nefesh 201 530 0010
    Ohel 718 851 6300
    Counterforce 718 854 7730
    JFCS 718 435 5700
    Yitti Leibel Help line 718 help now

    in reply to: Time to demolish orthopraxy #2186058

    I think we got to a conclusion – this thread is more about what is in the mind of the OP than of the objects. Avira seems to suspect that everyone who is not thinking like him is an apikoires, and the fact that the person read or quotes some T’Ch not approved by Avira as the definite proof.

    We indeed have a mishna that lists cases where we correct shaliach tzibur when he _expresses_ inappropriate beliefs, I just don’t see tanna going as far as Avira does.

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2186039

    YS, it is hard to argue about what did not happen, but one could, for example, imagine small mafia states emerging in American West, centered around religion (Mormons) or natural resources. Maybe because law & order somehow existed in those remote areas, in part because there were enough armed men there. Maybe I watched too many Westerns.

    My main thought is that we tend to look at what is lacking and complain and not appreciate what exists. This is how various revolutionaries lured people in the last centuries.

    Chofetz Chaim writes that one needs to appreciate how difficult it used to travel, and now that we got trains, one should be thankful for that…

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2186023

    ok, I take back “minor”, that was inappropriate, but it is only “major” as proportion of US population (20+ mln), not in absolute scale. Just the Napoleonic wars had 3M soldiers and 1-3M civilians killed…

    As you are saying, the N/S conflict existed for a long time and was somehow managed most of it. But that is only N/S. There are no other divisions? Just ponder why NY and NJ did not fight as France and Germany …

    in reply to: info travel restrictions #2185881

    Hashem can send a vaccine and then put an officer to make sure that even a choleh nefesh gets it, but ultimately he can’t make him drink it….

    in reply to: Time to demolish orthopraxy #2185877

    Op indeed mentions atheists, but this is not what orthopraxy usually is. At Least in our times. It is usually people who didn’t thimuch about why they do what they do. It is exactly like students whose inside is not like outside. I don’t think any Tanna I’m in the Mishnah are in that category, the question was whether to admit such students. You might be insulting Tannaim by your assumption

    in reply to: King Charles and Queen Camilla #2185873

    There is a brocha for seeing a monarch, not sure whether current king has enough powers to qualify, but this shows that watching it may not be bitul zman

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2185872

    Ys, I am trying to look at a bigger picture 📸 and this necessarily involves longer time frames. It is a Jewish thing to look at history as you probably know. Chachamim yodea itim is not just about Rosh hodesh

    Your examples show how we can get confused with day to day news. I am aware of effect of these on American psyche, but even taking the most anti American interpretation of these, they will still be minor skirmishes

    in reply to: Biden’s age #2185868

    There is such thing as biological age as people age differently..it can be measured via telomer length. Look it up

    We all probably saw the difference between people in their 80s recalling gemora by page and those who struggle to use the TV clicker

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2185702

    Americans do seem to be more violent by gun statistics. But some observations over the time frame of US existence:
    1) other nations had way bigger outbursts of violence – wars, prosecutions. French could not even do a revolution without killing each other; Germans thought of themselves as most civilized until they did not; all of the European empires brought a lot of misery to different parts of the world (together with some rule of law), while American founders ended up being friends in later years; one “minor” civil war

    2) in international side, US had wisdom to stay outside of European wars until they became world wars – and then consistently ended as the leaders on the right side of the history in all major wars – WW1, WW2, Cold War …

    Are these things connected to second amendment? maybe not directly, but somehow. for example, Brits write during both WW1 and WW2 that Americans came unprepared, did not listen to their sage advise, then repeated same mistakes Brits did, then made ten times more mistakes until they figured out the right way to fight and then won … Brits were both irritated by this approach but also admired the speed of change and learning that Americans demonstrated. for example, I would think that Americans had more officers to go through trying to find the right ones as they all came from gun culture and had experiencewith weapons even when country did not have a big army.

    in reply to: Time to demolish orthopraxy #2185696

    I am thinking of a similar situation related to learning: R Gamliel forbidding insincere students, and revoking that rule “on that day” when more benches were brought and RG warming up to this mass of students … I personally am sympathetic with R Gamliel in terms of desiring purity of learning, and I think there is a kal vehomer here: it is easier to overlook lack of sincerity in mitzvos than in learning, as the first achieve something without kavana, while the latter requires intellect to be involved. So, if we reject RG approach to purity in learning, it would follow that we shuold do same in orthopraxy.

    in reply to: info travel restrictions #2185694

    Gadol, there is also a shaila whether one can leave EY for a spurious reason. So, it could be Hashem’s will that he gets back to West Bank ASAP.

    in reply to: The official ASK Chat GPT ANYTHING thread!!! #2185643

    It is pretty easy to recognize the bot: he is the one who does not make grammer mistakes!

    in reply to: Time to demolish orthopraxy #2185642

    not sure what this leads to, but I see the pattern: a well researched post with multiple sources supporting author’s position. So, either everyone supports that or the author omits those who disagree.

    in reply to: King Charles and Queen Camilla #2185500

    Those who don’t want to sing hymns to Kings can move to America, as you also seemingly did.

    in reply to: I refused to be injected with an experimental product #2185499

    Z, I mean papers in research journals that compare health statistics on people after taking a vaccine with others who did not. A number of of them uncovered elevated risks from the vaccines, like myocarditis in young males. Europeans changed recommended vaccines for younger population based on some of this research. There was also a finding that having more time between two vaccines was safer. Etc. Also, when you put even worst estimates of the vaccine risk v. virus risk, for all groups, risk from virus was higher. Researchers by now have access to millions and millions of health records, and conclusions seem to be pretty definite.

    As to sudden deaths, I think those are attributed to the damage from the virus itself. Virus seems to be affecting various organs in the body, leaving lasting damage. this might be especially true in communities that were totally uncareful and people were exposed to multiple versions of the virus (wuhan, delta, omicron).

    in reply to: info travel restrictions #2185488

    Bath,
    you are talking like suddenly, out of nowhere, someone forced a new vaccine on unexpecting people. This is childish. Any long term effects are likely to come from the new virus that CCP unleashed on us. Vaccines saved many lives during pandemic.

    in reply to: I refused to be injected with an experimental product #2185349

    What Pfizer executive admitted What? Please clarify.

    Also, by now, there’s so much research published from multiple countries, such as UK and Israel, and multiple hospitals, each using their own data, are you claiming that someone contacted all of these research teams and changed their results?

    in reply to: King Charles and Queen Camilla #2185222

    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.

    in reply to: King Charles and Queen Camilla #2185221

    > Camilla “intended” to use the title Duchess

    that is why constitutions help in limiting human ambitions.

    in reply to: info travel restrictions #2185220

    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.

    in reply to: info travel restrictions #2185219

    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 …

    in reply to: Exciting Facts that we’ll have by Geula #2185217

    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).

    in reply to: What are your thoughts about Kennedy?? #2185216

    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?

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2185215

    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.

    in reply to: I refused to be injected with an experimental product #2185214

    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.

    in reply to: I refused to be injected with an experimental product #2185195

    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?

    in reply to: Joe Biden is not the 46th President of the United States of America. #2185027

    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 3person 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.

    in reply to: info travel restrictions #2185014

    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.

    in reply to: What are your thoughts about Kennedy?? #2185013

    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.

    in reply to: Teen Violence in Lakewood #2185012

    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?

    in reply to: Exciting Facts that we’ll have by Geula #2185010

    AAQ is that a statement or a question

    Statements generally end with “.” and questions with “?”.

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2185009

    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.

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2184995

    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.

    in reply to: Lo sichanem #2184994

    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?

    in reply to: I refused to be injected with an experimental product #2184992

    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).

    in reply to: I refused to be injected with an experimental product #2184991

    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.

    in reply to: Lo sichanem #2184636

    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.

    in reply to: King Charles and Queen Camilla #2184604

    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.

    in reply to: Teen Violence in Lakewood #2184613

    > 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.

    in reply to: Teen Violence in Lakewood #2184612

    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.

    in reply to: The Five Most Likeliest Candidates to be Moshiach #2184610

    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.

    in reply to: The Five Most Likeliest Candidates to be Moshiach #2184609

    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.

    in reply to: Joe Biden is not the 46th President of the United States of America. #2184606

    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.

    in reply to: Dumb Phone #2184605

    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.

    in reply to: info travel restrictions #2184603

    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
    Medicago

    Documentation 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

    in reply to: Elementary Mathematical Equation #2184601

    > 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.

    in reply to: Exciting Facts that we’ll have by Geula #2184595

    I double checked w/ Chofetz Chaim – he quotes Gemora in Sanhedrin, saying all you need to prepare is to learn Torah and do chesed.

    in reply to: Mass shootings, and non mass shootings, must stop. #2184594

    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.

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