Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
when asking openGPT shailos, don’t forget to specify what your nusach is.
uniq, I agree re: market distortion in healthcare, and I also mentioned transparency regulations by Trump. The answer to that is improving the markets as much as possible – publishing prices, enabling competition.
I did not study healthcare, but I studied defense industry under Reagan – who introduced competition by partitioning weapon development into R&D and production, and bidding them separately, with government fully acquiring R&D results of the bidder after Phase 1 and making them available to all competing companies. During Phase 2, several companies get part of production, and deciding on one contractor after a couple of years of competition.
coffee,
hevrusa could also get some savlonus, and they could learn on the phone. And what kind of tzaduk does not have a mishna with him or can’t learn by heart?! I think there is an attitude problem.coffee,
I don’t think I saw a response to my suggestion – simply wait them out, while learning. Maybe google for kulos in this predicament.Another option – direct the women to where the kiddush is.
jackk > The insurance companies are part of our capitalistic system. There is nothing stopping them from raising premiums and lowering coverage. All this was happening before Obama. Individual Americans have no recourse. The insurance company lobby will destroy all dissent.
jackk, do you have your degree from Havana University? Competition is the “thing” that typically stops suppliers from raising prices. Econ 101. It is harder in some industries than others, but it works better if you increase fair competition by providing markets (midrash says this is what Yaakov did, forgot exact citation). Excessive regulation and government intervention limits competition and allows near-monopolies to raise prices indeed. This way, it seems that the progressives are sneaking in their market-destroying policies in order to then tell people – see, the markets do not work. I think freedom, like education, are expensive – but cheaper than slavery/ignorance.
> My grandfather’s yeshiva town was one such place, until the last few years when the children joined hashomer hatzair and left Torah.
Right. And when you rightly say that a lot of MO now going OTD, you might ponder why people in a small shtetl on the banks of Neumunas “suddenly” went to Shomer Hatzair. Maybe, their “yeshivish” education did not prepare them sufficiently to the onslaught of modernity? I am not saying it as an accusation, but as consideration that maybe the “ideal” past was not ideal for the new circumstances and both “modern yeshivish” (this seems like a right term) as well as “modern O” are different reactions to modernity, trying to keep Yiddishkeit going, and given both are still searching for an answer, we should look what both bring to the table, rather than fighting.
This is like two people on a sinking boat, arguing whether to sail to the shore or to try to close the hole. Try both and see what works.
Rocky > would be to have a larger tzedka organization weed out the Reuvens from the Shimons with investigations as to who is who
this probably worked when communities were stable and many people knew each other for many years. Now, we do not often know what “large organizations” are doing, and it creates a field for abuse or at least for lack of urgency. You might do better by prioritizing people you know personally or those for whom people you know personally can vouch for.
It may be worth reading R Pliskin’s books earlier on.
> Poor people are just as obligated in getting married as anyone else
I am guessing, he was not disparaging poor people in general, but he meant that the hatan needs first to make an effort to earn a living,
there are 2 questions here:
1) why healthcare is so expensive
2) how to pay for itfor one, US spends more than others, but not astronomically (I recall 17% of GP v 12% for other OECD countries). This is not that bad. And other than Torah learning and defense, what else should country spend on? Even if some of that is waste, still it is an indicator that the country throws money at people’s health.
2) You can’t convince me that a fully socialized medicine does not create moral hazard – for not taking care of themselves and not working to cover expenses. When we show kids dental bills – they start brushing more often for a week or two. So, covering catastrophic cases and showing chesed – yes, but making it free-for-all – no. One less explored direction is to make capitalism work rather than trying to socialize it –
allow insurances compete across state lines
transparent pricing rather than secret bargaining between large groups. Under Trump, there was a new rule requiring hospitals to post their prices. I believe it went into affect at the early months of Biden, and that was the last time I heard about it. Not sure what happened.besslel > Eddiee: you wrote: With regard to Shemen Akum, it is still assur. they were only matir it for that year.
who are you to attack people’s chumros and burn down someone’s parnosa of selling shemen yisruel. But if you are on the sugya – could you please clarify the turn of events and what was the reasoning and any commentary on that so that we can analyze how halocha changes (or not).
> desantis as Trump without a lot of baggage
on the other hand, DeSantis and some others are talking like Trump but do not have same experience and track record. DeSantis is doing something with education, and I am interested in seeing results, but not much that. He might be a great candidate or Sec of Education or something. There are others, like Pence and Pompeo, that have better credentials even if they do not speak like Trump but more like him in their achievements. Pence in particular, I hope learned some real-life tricks from Trump and might not be as square as before.
> If you can’t afford a chasunah, you should not be in shidduchim.
why not ask the question – why can’t they afford?
if parents and chatan are working and still can’t afford – then, it is the problem with the price that needs to be controlled.
if parents and hatan chose not to work, then it is the problem of whoever wants to provide chesed for them, not the community.
on care for environment:
I recall reading about R Kamenetsky encountering some insect. Someone suggesting stepping on it. Rav inquired whether the insect is dangerous. When told that it is creepy but not dangerous, he stepped over it. I hope I got the details right.But, then, R Kamenetsky would not authorize driving around a bus, so I know many do not hold by his shitos.
Avira > global level theoretical ideas which even if proven, are outside our purview. We have no mitzvah to investigate them, and if we’re made aware of them, we should say it’s up to Hashem.
I agree that there is a moment where speculation starts and pseudo-scientists misuse it.
But, still, purviews are different. Probably, easiest to see in medicine. Should we still recommend bloodletting for most diseases, or is it OK to use MRI to diagnose and then treat accordingly? Is MRI going into something that is up to Hashem? don’t know your opinion, but most people seem to accept such things, even when they have no idea what it does. Now, many of these instruments are not 100% correct and predictive, but, on average, they are helpful.
Avira,
you might notice that there are several people, coming from different perspectives, who have hard time believing that your disparaging attitude towards any group that disagrees with you does not translate into how you are teaching kids and that you are transparent with parents about it. I do think it is possible that you limit yourself. I myself have no problem talking to anti-modern people in person, and usually do not point out their hashkafic problems to them. And if I were in a position to teach, say, math or history in a chasidishe school, I’d probably also sneak some of my hashkofas here and there and make them realize that not knowing where Mitzraim is on the map is silly, and working for a living is how most Talmidei Chachomim spent their lives.I don’t know what Orach Chaim says about girls learning Gemora or having unfiltered phones (not that I fully disagree), but I would have half of shas at my disposal discussing all kind of business and work issues.
Dofi, I understand you are trying to save the kids, but Amazon is actually firing right now, not hiring.
so do not mislead Avira into unemployment. You’ll have to pay him then!If I understand correctly, Dems recently established a precedent of taking members of other parties from the committee, and Reps are retaliating. Whatever it is, yes, people are entitled to have their rep, and Congress as a whole is entitled to limit their powers. This is not a bad rule in terms of dealing with extremists and keep Congress somewhat “centered”.
Note other similar events in recent past – Dems changing Senate rules for district judges, and Reps responding by changing Supreme court rules.
Note that this is not fair warfare – Dems are usually the first to move and Reps are playing defense.
Eventually this will cause even higher outrage and Reps will start pushing for starting out with their own changes. This is not going in a good direction. I hope they all stop.Centrist > i think the only BIG mistake was made by the reporting of the story before the facts were clear.(small mistake done by the man,slightly bigger by the woman, slightly bigger by shomrim)
There is just one person in this story who could have behaved like a mench – and NONE of that would happen.
He could have read a sefer or engage someone in divrei Torah and let ladies finish their conversation in dignity. Why going between any two people who are talking, whatever gender or combination thereof they are? And bother someone’s kid for the whole six seconds. Imagine now, 100 people need to leave and the kid is being walked back & forth for an hour!?
It all started with his gaava that him getting on time to watch the football game was more important than the divrei chesed and Torah that the ladies were having.
eddiie, right, this is 2 methods of chinuch – in different times, what was appropriate in one, not appropriate in another because people now generally have different sensibilities.
Kesubah – the takana was first for husbands to have ketuba money in the house. When rabbis so that this leads to quick divorces – “get your money and get out of here”, they started changing that until settling on mortgage on all real estate.
Avira,
I was not clear on your position – so you would agree on pollution, but not with “climate issues”?I don’t think our positions differ much then. I also think that most of the climate hype is an aveira, with people pursuing their political instincts and/or financial interests. It is easier to scare people by some future unknown threat into taxation and submission than solve actual problems.
I think I disagree that this highly visible group of alarmists represent “scientific community”. Most of the latter continue solving world’s problems and do not get into NYT unless something bad happens.
Historical example I used before Fritz Haber got a Nobel for contribution to fertilizer process, saving/creating billions of lives, but lost world recognition, and his wife to a suicide, for inventing poison gas for the German army. World is not paying attention to important things both in ruchniyus and gashmiyus.Dr Pepper,
I think you can still have private insurance? Are yo saying that ACA distorts the market to such a degree that it makes insurance impossible? I am not a baki. I believe large companies, like walmart, self-insure – does their method work?Is it possible to create an association of responsible daveners who also do not smoke and machmir in middos and pool an insurance coverage? maybe, self-insure? As an example, R Avigdor Miller mentions that shabbos saves us from risky saturday driving and other risky behaviors – we should be able to get better rates…
My mesroah says that there are at least 36 potential members in every generation – is this large enough for a pool?
why not just use a wired telephone? problem(s) solved.
Correcting ending of the story: the son says to the Rebbe – do not worry, I’ll be saying kaddish for you whole 12 months.
Avira,
it seems that most people here have hard time believing that you can be so partisan and biased in this forum and more reasonable in the classroom. I can believe it, although not fully. I’d like to address 2 issues:
1) when you discuss an issue – do you present all sides or just the psukim/opinions you prefer? how much do you discuss inyanim related to helping all yidden, including those who are not frum by your standard (maybe not all of them).2) doing the job parents paid for honestly. I presume that parents are not coming to school for your shitos. If they were, they would send them somewhere else. Pls correct me if I am wrong. At best, they are saying – ok, the school is great in maths, sports, and last year chumash teacher was great, so there is nothing better than that. At worst, they are not aware that you are not holding where other teachers and parents are.
That is, you are teaching kids not in the way the parents prefer. That is, they hire you thru a shaliach (school) to do a job and you are not doing it the way they want. Either they have iyush because there is effective monopoly in the segment of the market or they are not expecting what they are getting. Let me know if you disagree with this premise.
You say it is 1%. There is 20% margin for sending wrong amount of shmata, but this is in the case of error. Not sure what is halakha when you are using bad weights on purpose. Also, it is a human brain you are operating on. Damaging 1% is often killing. Also, some do not believe here that is “only 1%”. Anyway, why go into chinuch when you are cheating by “only 1%”. Go into diamonds, 1% stealing with at least make you rich so you can give tzedokah.
Let me give you an example. Say, the father is teaching his son to become a doctor while at the same time learn a couple of hours a day and do chesed. Then, the boy gets a 7th grade rebbe who teaches him, unbeknownst to me, that those who go to college are mevatel Torah, involve in pritzut, etc. The heilieke Rebbe is totally unaware that the kid has 5 generations of doctors, none of whom went off the derech that way. Can the father sue for lost wages, including unrealized tzedoka and chesed for this and future generation of lost doctors? Or should he wait until the old Rebbe has a heart attack, calls the old father, who says sorry, I do not operate any more, call my son. The son comes and says – no problem, Rebbe, I’ll say kaddish for you with kavanah.
Avira > do we have a pasuk and a command from Hashem to exercise hishtadlus in climate issues?
Elisha providing environmental cleanup in Yericho – I suggest drink there before Hudson.
The bears who ate the business-men (boys/naarim) who were upset that they lost lucrative water delivery business.
Meam Loez, based on Yaakov’s behavior, says it is etza tova when you are visiting a place, find something that you can improve in that place to make people’s life better.
numerous Gemoras that discuss how to make people healthier and more prosperous.
eddiee > you can’t say that since people would be insulted the halacha changes.
halochos ben adam l’havero definitely depend on the havero. Saying something that insults or offends the person depends, in part, if the person is insulted. You can’t tell him that you would not be insulted and, thus, you can say it. It is his sensitivity that matters. And sensitivities change between people, also between cultures, and between centuries.
I heard about 2 identical stories of a bochur saying out of turn “there is no tachanun today”. In pre-WW2 Europe, the gabbay “kindly” asked everyone to stay to the side and invited the bochur to the front row as the “new Rebbe” to teach him a lesson. In Israel, R Ouerbach whispered to the gabbay “skip the tachanun” …
eddie, Gemora says that ketuba was first kept as cash, then as money deposit, and then as a mortgage, like now.
Rabbis declared shemen akum asur and rescinded in a year when people did not follow.
Eddie > My question to AAQ is, why is MY action obviously inappropriate, because YOU reported it?
If you do something that causes adverse effects in the universe, just stop doing it. Safety achieved
by a further step – investigate all cases where you got close to a problem and learn from that. Feds investigate all “near collisions”. Best predictor of car accidents is number of times a person brakes abruptly… But if, to the opposite, you focus on finding blame in others, there is no hope for improving your midos.Here is an example to illustrate: I was coming to an intersection and thought that I can enter it safely. Then, while I was closing on it, I saw a car going extremely fast, so at the last moment I stopped to let it go. When I moved forward, I saw the fast driver stopped in the other lane. I also stopped, thinking that he needs to change lanes. Turns out, he stopped his mad rush only to wait for me to show me a finger for daring to come so close to his path – and then took off again…
Was he mad? probably. I still made a note to myself to evaluate what is happening before coming too close to the intersections.
Gadol,
you should really expand on what you learned from this awesome experience. Were you the first to celebrate shabbos in Antarctica or was there a Chabad house already? And which way do you turn to daven at the South pole?Dr. Pepper, this is how free market works – people are trying to do things, some more, some less risky, and some of them work out. You mentioned insurance problem. We, “the people”, had lot of unsolvable problems – horses were hard to feed, wheat was hard to mill, houses were only 2 floors high, and cows were killed to write on scrolls… somehow, people solved many of these problems, so don”t be so upset about the remaining ones.
Thanks for everyone trying to help my kid to become smarter. Thanks a lot, government educational system and papers provided already enough material! B’H, kids did not buy into that. I worked hard on that – we watched Bernie-Hilary debates so that they can see an unabashed socialist in the wild, and before listened (sic!) to Obama-Romney debate. For O-R debate, most kids did not know my preferences, and Romney won by a knockout after Obama promised hiring 100,000 math teachers.
For B-H debate, the risk was too high, so I was providing running commentary and it seemed to stick.Also, when kids finally learned numbers, I showed them the salary I draw and asked them to compute the size of the paycheck, and then showed the paycheck. They felt robbed and started studying all the taxes and fees …
Anyway, all I need is for someone to show up here so that the kids see that such believers exist and I am not making it up. Thanks!
I found that kabbalists were using Hashmal. Good enough for them, good enough for me.
Oy, this information was worth subscribing to this blog! I am gonna install a filter in my Israeli apartment to filter out electrons that were mined on Shabbos. Given that no milk & meat mixture was involved, I presume they are not asur l’hanaa, so I’ll give the electrons to the non-Jews. Maybe the simplest, I’ll put the wire across the highway to sonei isroel and direct it to an exposed pole that any passerby might touch.
jackk does not have no business references, businesses are for profit and evil. He has two government references and they’ll stop by to check on you shortly.
As I mentioned before, my daas Torah does not believe in daas Torah, so I will have no problems to square the posts with the daas Torah that does not exist.
I think mathematically, my daas Torah is a portion of my teacher’s DT, somewhat a Bayesian DT:
that is DT (AAQ) = DT (AAQ / teacher) * DT (teacher),
where DT(teacher) = DT (teacher/ his teacher) * DT (his teacher) ad Moshe Rabeinu ..so despite DT (AAQ / teacher) hovering around 0.5 (sometimes yes, sometimes no),
DT(teacher) seems to be 0, so DT(AAQ) is 0 also.Note that your DT is 1 only if DT of everyone in that chain is 1. Even if everyone in your chain
is holding by 0.99, the whole product may be around 0.5Avira, thanks for answering my question and sorry for the scolding you are getting…
I see that you are somewhat in a pickle: you proclaim and teach importance of the truth but then have to say things to your students that are appropriate for the school. I don’t think it is wrong per se, just an intellectual contradiction that I am sure you have a resolution for. It does not look like you are doing it just for financial reasons also.
What I am not sure though whether your declared behavior is always what actually happens. As others mentioned saying, for selected ones, that some Jews are cut off, even if they can come back in not what a serious, non-LW, MO Rav would say .. so, it is probably similar with many other issues that you may not even notice consciously. Also, with sending kids to “frummer” places – I hope this is with agreement of the parents and your school administration. This might be a geneva otherwise.
JJ Herman sent a kid to a yeshiva and then went to tell his parents. I think we would have been arrested in our days.So, back to putting myself into the shoes of the parents – I presume my kids are serious enough to hear the “truth” for you and I would probably inform the administration when I find out that teaching is not as expected from the school. And I would when kids start calling their cousins not part of am isroel or something like that. In the ideal world, I would also go to beis din to recover tuition and bitul zman.
to reduce social pressure we ALL should act accordingly.
I know Rabonim who only come briefly and never it – even if they are in charge of kashrus. If more people will limit their attendance to dancing and mesameach hasan v’kalah, there will be food – AND DRINKS – left after every wedding, then maybe people will start scaling down. Or at least, the hasan vekallah will have enough food for a month.
As to collecting for life after the wedding – that is why we had in older times a year when the hasan was supposed to find a place to live and the kalah get her dresses in order.
So, one, not the only, way mesirah is bad – non-Jews will typically inflict harsher punishment than this Yid deserve. A thief can get a long prison sentence or have his hand cut off, instead of monetary payment by us. In this case, kidnapper is hayav misa and non-Jewish punishment is milder.
Gadol, your question requires possibly that the abductor be more likely to be Jewish or not.
So, if this is happening on Rt 9, simply count whether it is closer to Lakewood or Tom’s River …
or maybe what is the car direction (from which town it is going).On the other hand, in laws of iyush for the lost item, it is possible that there is “rov goyim” even for an item left in a shul – as Jews are there to daven, so a non-Jew is more likely to find it. So, the same thing here.
But the real question is that we do we do if H’V abductor is Jewish? As the punishment is misa, do we keep him until moschiach comes, or do we transfer him to Texas for the punishment?
> I recommend that you never look at a child for more than 2 seconds.
you are evidently struggling with the fact that this person was reported. If he was reported, that means his actions were not appropriate, whatever faults you can find in my logic.
Avira > I’m sure some parents here would be terrified at the thought of me teaching their children
I have to admit to that, indeed. As much as I am ok discussing issues with you and many others with whom I disagree, whether they are Neturei Karta or members of Bund, I would not want my kids to be exposed to that, at least without ability to know about it and respond. So, I wonder whether
1) do you expose your students to your views (possibly subtly and without malaise)
2) do parents know your views
3) would they keep kids in class were they to know your view/ or were you telling them that/provided they have easy alternativesGadol, welcome back. Do we have here posts from the icebergs!?
Just because we need the government sometimes, does not mean we need it to do everything.
Mr. A got himself a private insurance. In a rare case that you describe, the government can come in and charge all of us for the mishap. This is not an excuse for creating rules such that Mr. B can make a rational choice of freeloading.
I actually need your help guys. I explained these ideas to my kid, and he immediately said – and who will pay for that? I said – some people think that it is not a problem to give people more money. He laughed and asked – little kids? I said – no, adults. So, my kid refuses to believe that there are adults who do not understand that it is ok to give away “free” money. So, if any of you who believe in this, can swing by when you are in my area, so that I can prove to him that such people exist. Thanks in advance.
The “only” problem with E-sts is that they mix up priorities making Earth into an idol, and in misusing lofty far-away goals in order to extract money frmo us today. Nothing new here. Christians, Communists, etc did the same
Dr P > why don’t you open an insurance company that has affordable rates for quality dental care and then you’ll see why it’s not feasible.
why discourage him? I heard from one Rav that he re-sold for some time reliable kosher food without profit in order to raise the community standards, and his prices were lower than less reliable competition. So, someone might want to open a cheaper insurance company and provide good service. Don’t stop people.
huju, what are you questioning? Are you served gefilte fish for breakfast?
Gadol, marrying younger does not eliminate Rambam’s suggested order – work -> house (or prequalified for mortgage, I guess) -> marriage. A 17-y.o. can go get a job and earn enough to use Uber.
why “gezera” when it might be possible to do something? At the yam suf, Moshe is told not to daven, but to act. Maybe, you don’t need to run away from the meteor, but simply shoot it or send a rocket to confront it and redirect with a magnet – even a small change far away will be enough to save the planet, or maybe just EY … Same as when a person is sick – is it a gezera or a cure is possible? A poshute yid and a Rabbi Dr may come to poosite conclusions …
Maybe, you have a similar cognitive dissonance with the meteor: you clearly need to know physics and engineering to confront the meteor, but this would require you to admit that going to college is useful, and you would rather have the whole world destroyed than admit you were wrong. Understandable.
this is a very self-centered argument whether the Tam behaved appropriately. This episode is a simple proof that such behavior is not appropriate as it may cause moris ayin and a long prison term.
Maybe, just maybe, there is room to permit when there is a camera that will help during prosecution. Even then it is a big bitul Torah for the Tam, the youngele, his ima, dayan and lawyers, most of whom might be Jewish. And the camera may be off.
To sum, staying away from questionable behavior that might cause a problem is an etzah tova. If you don’t want to walk between two nashim tzadkiyos, just get out a sefer and wait until they finish the conversation. At worse, you’ll do an extra siyum.
Why not – what is more important – mitzvos bein adm l’Hashem or l’havero? (or l’ atzmo as some also count). I don’t have enough time to do all of them, please advise should I drop the tefillin or the grandma?
Yes, we sometimes have emergencies when one needs to prioritize – and possibly inward approach was appropriate in pre-WW2 Europe and post-WWs US and Israel. Other approaches, including some non-extreme MO types led to assimilation. But, we can’t continue an emergency for more than 100 years. Many, not all, maybe a minority ( should be a respected minority) is capable of walking and chewing gum, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Just because your kid is not capable of handling college and having a profession, does not mean that you should teach him to hate the doctors and engineers who help you have a comfortable life.