Always_Ask_Questions

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.

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.

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)

maybe simply look at TaNach? Yona and kikayon.

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.

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?

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.

> 3-3×6+2

how about this, towarzysz?
+ 2 – 3 x 3 6

I do eat like chazal. Chazal were observing effects of different foods on health and ate accordingly. I am trying to do the same.

Avira,
in my experience, most of baalei teshuva are from chabad (not necessarily staying Chabad). Maybe my crowd is skewed more towards academic community. There are several good-meaning and donor-funded organizations on campus now that do some classes and trips to Israel, not sure how successful they are. I do not know many (any?) people who walked up a Satmar, Litvishe, or MO shul and became interested. Do you?

Yeridas hadoros, the old ones really knew how to party (Nazi or otherwise). Current one is stum a meshugane.

> Why does the amount of times a word is used matter?

I just came up with a ridiculous argument, so you know how we feel sometimes.

Good questions, all. I think there is a boundary somewhere between different minhagim within derech eretz and amhaartzuts. We have gemoras dealing with things like drinking a reviis (not one gulp and not three, Beitza ~ 25), someone should write same for driving. One good place to start is US gov highway survey, do not remember exact name, where they installed cameras in 1000s of cars and then analyzed what was causing accidents. One result: number of sharp stops is a good predictor of accidents.

Maybe, look at accident rates per county v. population density and see where safer drivers live. Obviously, the fact that you live a dangerous place is not an excuse but a reason to be even safer there.

There is already alcohol scanner for the cars. I think it takes a court order. I wonder whether responsible people should install such in their own car, just in case.

And the lesson is – express yourself carefully – do not use Os for 0s and put parentheses in (2x)/(3y). Mathematicians know that. In Hardy/Littlewood book of math jokes, the professor (Hardy?) writes down an equation:

a x^4 + b x^3 + c x^2 + d x + e (similarly to ax + b, ax^2+bx+c, etc)

and then finds it necessary to add:
when e is any number, not necessarily the ln(1)
and then adds further
although it could take that value.

That’s _precision_ of speech.

richashu, this might be true of “economic conservatives”, but not cultural ones. There are a lot of the latter ones both in goyishe and in Jewish world that are not wasting their time on making money.

Avram > Also, if you allow kol haolam kulo to merge in front of you, that’s fine for you, but who permitted you to sentence the driver behind you to a delay?

Exactly, and concur with your other considerations. There are lots of halochos and heshbonos here, and there is no time to look up Mishna Berurah.

And it does depend on local minhagim. In one suburban area, there is a long major road with multiple subdivisions opening up. Most people who turn into their subdivision first hold traffic, letting 1-2 of their neighbors to get out. Everyone is ok with that, because they all experience same wait time to get to the road. Try this in any other place, forget NYC, and you’ll indeed be honked. And people who you are letting go, feel like this is a trap and do not move anyway. So, I think we agree here both on desirability of being a mentch, but also of challenges. As long as you are trying, you’ll achieve something. I am also wondering whether there is an effect here – I tried estimating whether letting someone in, increases the chance that they’ll let someone in after that. I think there are papers and gemoras about good behavior being as contagious as the bad one.

Too much legal protection might have adverse effect. Same as exceeding protections for “birthing persons” and parents makes employers reluctant to hire family people, same strong Shabbat protection will make employers reluctant to hire shomer shabbos people.

Some excited responses related to driving… I agree that part of the explanation is that crazy NY drivers continue doing the same in the “rest of the world” (AKA OOT). This is somewhat an excuse for bochurim on I-95 driving to Florida, but not to people who moved to a community for 1 or more years already. You are supposed to follow local minhagim, not to say about traffic laws and human courtesy.

The NYers somehow think that others do not “know how to drive”. I once drove to NYC from Midwest with a native NYer at the wheel. He was beeped at at the yellow light just based on our pathetic license plate (he told me this is going to happen).

Alos, it is interesting why frumer Yidden drive similar to other MY-ers but are less assimilated on how they dress, how they walk on the sidewalk or shoot their neighbors … Maybe cars look impersonal – you are not dealing with a fellow yid, or human being, but just a piece of metal. If you use your seichel to imagine the person in the other car, you would behave better. Try it.

One trick my kids and I are using is counting how much hesed you do during a trip, letting people inside the lane, make a hard turn, etc. If you remember about it, you can consistently do it at least 2-3 times per trip.

n0 > The full time kollel student with a side job is responsible to his kollel above all else.

right, so, should any other Yid who is learning. A lot of “working” people change their schedules to learn properly.

Avram, when someone in a black 👒 cuts me off on th street, I point it out to the kids that this is hopefully just an am Haaretz in a hat and they shouldn’t think that talmidei chachomim drive like that. I can’t though plant this thought into other drivers’ heads

For the record. When L rebbe was not speaking already and meshugas started, one L rav called the secretariat and ask how he can be helpful
They told him to tell the velt that the meshugas was not coming from them, and he said that publicly

Buy it now, prices are low post Yom tov and best investment during inflation is in real property

There is an earlier trip recorded – 3 Arabs stopped by Avraham for Pesach and, thus, went to a Dead Sea resort for chol hamoed. The accommodation options were limited, but the locals were excited to see the guests, and the whole trip was reported a blast.

It was bigger than the desert trip – one new nation emerged from 40 years of travel, but two new nations were conceived in the two night of THAT chol hamoed.

Why is shaliach tzibur reminding at maariv is not enough? Or are you the shaliach tzibur and afraid to skip it.