Always_Ask_Questions

Horayos ~13 illustrates why a proper segula l’parnasa is attending college and working overtime.

Gemora discusses various segulos – Rosh Hashona and also for and against success in learning and what causes forgetting (walking between camels and ladies, separately, etc). After all segulos are discussed, we suddenly have an advice from a father to the son: if you want to be successful in learning (i.e. segula for learning), you should
1) learn the mishnah before going to the class
2) watch carefully at Rebbe’s mouth
3) learn near a river

This seems to be a finale for the segula discussion – do hishtadlus instead of watching how the candle burns, although from a quick look, I do not see commentaries saying that.

AAQ > Rambam considering any such error fatal, while sefer haikkarim allowing for mistakes.
yankel> where is sefer ikarim ‘lenient’ about mistakes in core beliefs ?

Contrast:
Rambam MT Hilkhos Teshuvah 6:3 – Hashem hardens heart of Pharaoh as the result of his previous sins and he has no free will any more
v.
Sefer Ha-Ikkarim 4:25 where R Albo goes at length describing how Hashem is always open to teshuva, and even with Pharaoh, he “hardens his heart” in the sense of adjusting his values so that he still has a free choice.

Gil Student quotes R Soloveichik The Lord is Righteous in All His Ways, p. 274 – whether Nazis can repent like Nevuzaradan did (Gittin 57), even as they were clearly worse than that. He quotes same Rambam 3:14 that teshuva is all powerful …

Harav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin makes an unusual comparison of the matzav to USSR experience. Usually, people who try to appeal to raw emotions, just go for Nazi comparison – not because Soviets were better than Nazis, but most emotional people don’t think about USSR whether early or late times, while Nazis are mentioned more often.

So, I presume HaRav chose his words judiciously. Maybe, he was affected by his family’s history in Belorussia and even Russia itself up to 1930s …
Maybe, he also was so much involved in helping Russian Jews to become more religious that he feels their pain and is afraid that secular Israelis are moving in the same direction as our lost russian brothers. Please give me more info on these outreach activities that HaRav was involved in so that I can understand why he thinks he can make such a comparison.

ujm > In 1970, the NK held a public protest alongside the PLO outside the United Nations. And this was the NK that the Steipler issued extremely high praise, referring to the Neteurei Karta as his friends and colleagues and wishing them long lives and good days; and saying that he loves every single one of them.

what is the year of the letter? From a quick look, it is one of the earlier elections, maybe 1950s.

Avi> one of the rabbanim said that that was before daat Torah was invented.

R Zelig Epstein. As I heard it, he used subtler language “before daas Torah” without the harsh word “invented”. In reality, R Chaim Ozer position seemed to be more nuanced – he wanted older Rabbonim to have a priority for visas, as they would be more useful both for the ones who are left behind and to Americans themselves. I think we can see the wisdom of that from history – a small number of survivors started revival of Torah in US.

Interesting also that you put R Soloveitchik and R Chaim Ozer in the same paragraph. When R Soloveitchik was studying philosophy in Berlin, he would visit R Chaim Ozer during summer and present him with his hidushim developed during the year. R Chaim Ozer, who was famous also for his library, would nod and find a sefer where that “hidush” was already discussed.

Chaim, so start with opendns, it is free.

yankel> emrei emet talking to REW

I am not questioning R Elchonon’s mailos at all.

Avi > Rav Soloveichik did not take a position on demonstrations. When asked, he told questioners to ask a Kremlinologist. In general, his position was that rabbanim should not answer questions that are the realm of secular experts.

Not a contradiction here. My source is memoirs by one of the students involved. They first asked R Feinstein, R Tetz, Lubavitcher Rebbe – they all answered negatively from their belief that (1) afraid that their quiet activities for soviet Jews will be disrupted (2) that students are putting their lives in danger from Soviet agents (we are talking 1960s!). When they approached R Soloveitchik, he indeed followed the approach you described – he asked his trusted contacts in Israeli government and they also suggested negative. So, batting 0:4 in daas Toirah, students started what they started. Later on, this student while driving R Soloveitchik casually asked him – we are doing things you did not approve of, but you did not reprimind us. Rav responded: I was mislead. I asked Israelis “what is best for Soviet Jews” and they responded based on what is based for them (presumably, before 1967, when Israel tried to re-establish better relations with USSR). Halakha of pikuach nefesh is – you do what is best for the person in danger, not for others.

somejew > The Steipler says that he leans to say that voting is a “mitzvuh rabbuh” and not (technically) usser, yet nonetheless there is vald place for kanoyus like NK (and they should continue not voting and disregard his “mitzvuh rabbuh”).

I was reading the letter slightly different. Not sure, whether one – or both – of us is trying to put our own meaning into subtle words of Steipler. Presumably, the recipient of the letter knew how to understand these words. But my reading is that Steipler is not “leaning” but rather strongly says that it is the right thing to do and opposition is mistaken, even if well meaning. Yes, he sort of says, I do not want you to change your position, but he does not say explicitly – “I am ok with you not voting”. I am reading this as a subtle tochacha (we should all learn!) – yes, I respect your position, but if you respect my arguments, you will have to go and vote. The last paragraph might be the minimal ask – even if you will not be able to vote yourself, at least stop spreading loshon horoh that might prevent others from voting. Again, said subtly, but pretty direct if translated from loshon Steipler into loshon CR.

yankel > [undisputed list of Rabonim who respected R Kook] .. rav kook was controversial – yes
katan> But all of that doesn’t change what the gedolim held of him, as mentioned above. The Chazon Ish also banned the sale of Rabbi Kook’s books, which included at least Rabbi Kook’s “hashkafa” books, if not also the others.

you guys repeat your positions as if they are compete with each other – they do not! You need to come to some joint conclusion! Can we agree that R Kook was controversial and that some approved of him and some did not? What else can be said here?

Avram> one should not sacrifice his children.

Hard to argue about that, as there is a posuk about it! But we were not talking about children online, we were talking about an adult. I hope you are not suspecting him of watching videos enticing moloch practices!

When you argue how NK behaved during “Steipler lifetime”, you need to see – what year was the letter written? Steipler was writing about elections early on – I see one in 1955.

Seemingly Steipler wrote way more about elections than just this one letter. Maybe someone could look up more on his thinking?
here is what I see in secondary sources:
Kreinah D’Igresa letter 739: “I don’t understand the position of the Satmar Rebbe, though I agree with all that was written in his book…nonetheless the people have returned, it is a fact that the people have come back, it is now a reality and therefore whether it was done correctly doesn’t matter, thus now one must vote in order to ensure the safety of Klal Yisrael.
…
all throughout Jewish history Jews were part of the Gentile governments in Europe and of course if one could be in a goyish government he can be in the Jewish government, but nonetheless says the Steipler that one must be very careful that being part of parliament or government is not about getting money, even for the Jews, rather it is about upholding Jewish law.

Chaim,
buying used phones is smart. Same w/ computers – a modern computer can really work for many years if you are not kicking it too much.

are you an uber driver or something like that? For many sedentary occupations, a computer would be enough. If you do need a device, maybe make it non-private. for example, when you come home, put into a charger in the living room and let everyone in the family use it while you are in shul or learning.
This should give you some lack of privacy – especially if you have savvy teens in the house. Or even you can plug it at home via usb as a drive to the home computer so that everyone can ready your phone drive from the computer when you are at home.

Yankel, I was reading ch ch letters of 1920s until early 30s, and didn’t find any negative statements on zionizm, even as his main topic is decline of observance. So it is just several years difference. Speculating: maybe ch ch objected and thus REW published only after his petirah? I didn’t know about RCHO involvement, thanks. Is this from independent sources or from REW chasidim?

yankel > As an outsider, I think many of us view every habadi as both a Mikdash & a Madhouse.

this is not new. R Soloveitchik writes in 1950s that he respects Alter Rebbe’s teaching, finds published chabad magazines illiterate, and then is at awe at their reaching out to small pockets of assimilated Jews.

yankel> there is no indication whatsoever to be taken from the fact that hafets hayim approved of rav kook going into the rabinate
even if historically correct ,

agree, approval at early times is not necessarily an agreement on later actions. Still, we seem to have established here that CC and REW had different views, or at least public views at the overlapping times. So, if you want to follow REW, you need to explain why you are not satisfied with following CC.

metoo > if the steipler said not to publicize the letter, he probably had a good reason (or reasons) for saying so. Could it be that his high praise for NK was one of them?

this sounds plausible. The arguments in the letter seem to be designed specifically for NK listeners. It does not mean that Steipler agrees with them, he is simply saying “even if you hold these views” …

In Michal’s view, David danced inappropriately in front of bnos yisroel … he should have refused the procession until all the ladies were removed from the celebration?!

> CC was actually uncertain about publishing his one and only anti Zionist letter which opposed the claim Zionists then made (they no longer do) that by living in EY and speaking you can be a good Jew without keeping Torah.

smerel, thanks for answering my question – that CC was very limited in his public arguments against Z. I had this impression from reading his correspondence and finding arguments against every other group, but it is hard to prove a negative. The question then on REW – how could he have such a drastically different position? Was there any discussion between REW and CC? Did REW ask? Did CC respond to what REW was saying and writing?

Avi> The religious ruined it by not heeding Rav Kook’s call

Agree, but you are mindlessly repeating the lashon hara terms – as if followers of R Kook were not “religious”. As somejew showed, it is asur to speak such loshon hora.

lakewood > What happened when it’s 2 am and no one else is up in your house

this is not a problem in my house! If it is in yours, just wait until your kids are teens.

the simple solution is time-based controls. And give your spouse/parents/children teamviewer access – that is have them logged into your computer remotely. If you are worrying about night shift, have also a shomer in EY or in China.

There are also tools that do random snapshots of the screen (or you can program this capability yourself), making them available to your shomer/shomeret.

yankel, thanks for this hasam sofer! and right on point!

somejew, thanks for brining this interesting quote. I am confused how you are interpreting it:
> He is explicitly that claims of אתחלתא דגאולה are FALSE, they are not compatible with Torah. That means that the belief is kefira in the (Torah) Truth.

all these seem to be your words. Steipler says simply אינו אלא טועה – a mistake. Where is kefira comes from?

Also, he is explicit that you cannot say lashon hara about them. I hope you kept this psak in mind in your last 1000 posts.

coffee > he’ll be told he’s on the wrong side of the mechitzah and then is directed to the other side!

indeed, and every shul has kanoyim who can be relied to tell him that, after they are done correcting leining. Just make sure mehitza is bullet-proof.