Always_Ask_Questions

I’ve played a lot of chess, but this is the first time I see both sides shouting CHECKMATE. Moschiach is coming.

> your hashkofos have moved leftwards.

maybe he moved to DC? This is an observable trend – politicians moving to DC (such as Supremes) move leftwards over time.

Also an observation relevant to this topic: hemlines vary with the stock market. So, tzniyus is up during recessions.

Parents (that are capable) should teach their kids usingall means available. I didn’t think it is controversial until I got here. People here, who recite shinantem levanecha twice daily, explained to me that this is controversial. Thanks, I learned a lot from these discussions.

Communists are as bad or worse as nazis and both should be mentioned when we talk about our prosecutors. This used to be controversial but less now, as the term “Russian Nazis” became widespread.

@yankel berel

I think we settled on a lot of point already, great.

> R chaim kanievsky did not have smiha and certainly [over]qualified as a talmid haham al pi hahalaha.

of course. I reviewed a little of modern history of “rav” and it seems that it was “exceptional T’Ch in _his_ generation” in the times of Sh’A and became a “knowledgeable in Torah” by Mishna Berurah. R Chaim qualifies for both, of course.

> Muflag behohma bedoro is found in shulhan aruch hilch kvod rabo in YD .

I think YD refers Muflag re:standing up, while reserving “Rav” to the primary teacher. Given changes of “rav” by now, your inference looks reasonable.

> RCV is not gadol meraban shmo .
In my mind, he does, given his role in establishing _the_ yeshiva and the role yeshivos play now. (yes, “yeshiva” changed the meaning faster than “rav” but still).

Interestingly, there are sources that stress danger of over-titling. R Akiva Eger, I think, minimized his own titles and maintained that you can be a Rav or a Gaon but not both … with danger being once you give all titles to person A, then person B also demands them, and ein ledavar sof, and public becomes mislead who is a real T’Ch. R Akiva Eger lost this battle by now just by looking at how we dress…

Introduction to “Making of the Gadol” offers a great solution – the author uses R in front of all names giving permission to the reader to choose between Reb/Rav/Rabban/Rav Gaon.

> opened an Igros Kodesh and was excited to find a letter that said “ברוקלין נ.י. שלום וברכה

Not a joke. I was at the Kosel shortly before my wedding, and a suspiciously looking individual said he is collecting for a yeshiva. Skeptical, I asked what yeshiva. He named the yeshiva from a mid sized town my kallah was from.

Shtell > I assume the gedolim knew a little bit better .. It is well known that after they cancelled bein hazmanim because of the yom kippur war, that was the worst winter zman for many of the bnei torah.

This is unclear – are you claiming that gedolim know better because they are gedolim – but then how they made “the worst winter zman” in 1973? Or you are saying that gedolim know better because they absorbed experience of 1973? (the latter corresponds to Bava Basra description of creating a school system through “trial and error”).

yechiell > Trump has hinted at dropping support for Ukraine. Where is the guarantee he won’t do the same 2 weeks later, to Israel? He is too weird to trust mo

you are right, he is not predictable .. when my kids asked me (pre-covid): do you think Trump’s presidency is successful, I answered – yes, so far, ask me on the last day ….

But the choice is between T who has a track record of doing a lot of stuff right, yes, unpredictably and with a lot of drama, partly generated by him, partly by liars in the media; – and a lady who has no track record other than making her way through politics. She is less predictable.

Sechel > vilna gaon was fed lies by the misnagdim, thats why he made a cherem against chassidim,

could you tell us whose opinion this is? Most chassidim and misnagdim made peace by now, and I think the prevailing view is that Gaon’s position against excesses helped Chassidim to become a better movement. I think Alter Rebbe also contributed to that process.

yechiell > Maybe, but hers is as good as any other politician’s.

Not the same. She is mostly known for her political statements, not actions. So, repeated 180 degree turns are jarring. There is no underlying substance there to understand her. for comparison, when Joe Biden says something positive towards Palis, we can go back to his previous relationship with Israel and Israeli leaders and make some conclusions. Mine were that he will generally be helpful to Israel during an acute crisis, but will also try to cover his political bases. With her, I have no idea what positions she will take. And there is no other middos that can compensate – I can’t say – well, she is a smart and honest person so I hope she’ll figure it out. No record there also. So, you are playing Russian roulette here hoping for the best.

Yankel, thanks for the exposition. As Koreh lrabo applies to one’s rav, you use muflag b chochma. I understand the latter as applying to one’s own generation as much as we are commanded to listen to rabbis of our own generation. Are you saying that this applies to anyone who was in HIS generation? Is there a source for this or your own idea?

For me, r Chaim certainly qualifies as gadol merabanan, as I don’t think he is not recognized now by any of the modern groups. Every Yeshiva that calls itself yeshiva attaches themselves to r Chaim. For example, I think I write r Salanter, because even as maybe there is not much open opposition to mussar, not many groups follow his approach.

Anyway, as one measures offense by the other person’s sensitivity and not his own opinion, I’ll certainly try blind neder to follow your convention.

It could be both sides are right – R Falk is a machmir and, among those who say R Falk is a machmir, there are those who dress inappropriately.

There was an incident in NYC a couple of years ago – a redneck attacked a Jewish lady, thinking she was a Muslim. This is now my personal test for tzniut excesses – when you are confused for a Muslim.

I also do not understand black fashion both for men and women. Gemora disapproves red, but not other colors. IT also disapproves black and recommends it only when someone cannot control his yetzer hara and needs to do something inappropriate. It may be that some were wearing black because of poverty, or maybe we are mislead by old-time grayscale photography. Similar, l’havdil, all these Greek statures that are white does not mean they were all wearing white, just the colors wore off.

yankel > Why can’t you write R Chaim Volozhiner ???

just to clarify, I did not mean to deny his semicha from (sic) Vilna Gaon. See, you don’t need to say R Kramer, just Gaon is enough. Same with other famous people – Hillel, Shammai, Berdichever. At the same time, not using with less-known people or using Dr but not R is usually an intentional opinion disparaging not just the person but also the movement that gave him the semicha.

> And the spiritual destruction of Western Europe and the US is an after-effect/because of that same Zionist-caused Holocaust.

Zionists were not the major cause of that destruction (and why are you excluding most Jews who lived in Eastern Europe?) – most Jews assimilated, intermarried, converted, became communists, bundists. Zionists might have been beneficial for assimilated Jews as it kep them within Jewish circles, and brought many to ISrael where they both survived physically and gave their einekels a chance to be part of Jewish nation. What was the source of all those plagues? Tremendous changes in modern society, and also Jewish community’s inability to counteract. We can’t blame leaders of communities at that time – many tried, it was unprecedented time, etc, but the fact is that it took us a couple of hundred years to partially figure out how to safely either separate from or live inside modern society.

modern > Well Justin Trudeau didn’t downplay anything and Canada’s COVID death rate was 60 percent lower

comparing rates across nations is complicated due to different health profiles, travel patterns, and social customs. Canada is built upon loyalists who preferred a steady hand of the king to a turbulent revolution. And a vastly smaller country with isolated settlements. Most states were following their governors anyway. The way to estimate possible Trump negative effect would be to look at health differences between R-s and D-s. Some of this effect (that exists) can be seen as Trump’s fault. You also seem to be counting deaths under Biden as Trump’s fault.

I myself was guilty accusing Biden of cynical statement when he came to power that “he did not find any vaccines”, rather than acknowledging what Trump did. It is now clear this was not a political stunt, just an early sign of cognitive decline. Maybe Dr Jill should have helped. Still, does not excuse that there were as many or more deaths under Biden – his admin dismantled all the task forces and further Covid spikes were managed same way Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Hamastan are managed…

I think many ehriche Yidden are sympathetic to Zionism even when disagree with something. I saw one such charedi British rav being asked by not-so-observant Yidden whether he is a Zionist, and he replied “yes, in the meaning of hamechazir shechinato l’Zion”. As he explained later “I just do not have a heart to say No”. I understand him – with centuries of Jews davening towards Yerushalaim, having Jews there, both those who are observant and the others also is something our great-grandfathers were dreaming about. So, focusing on the issues that someone is not paying “enough” to support “yeshiva students” is a very shorts-sighted and misguided vision. As to non-religious Jews having a large vote – same was happening in European communities before WW2. The only reason we do not feel it so much in modern US is because everyone separated into their own community. Not having pressure because those Yidden are disappearing is not such a good thing.

Just to add to this wonderful post: Chofetz Chaim did not limit himself to quotable calls of generic love. He was often calling for very specific action to help other Yidden: organize kosher schools (at least one per city in Poland); for literate women to read laws of niddah to those who do not know how to read; to regularly send packages of food to Yidden trapped in Communist Russia; to help WW1 refugees find affordable rent, not raise prices and not use shuls for permanent housing; to go vote for religious candidates in Polish Seim, etc.

It was somewhat understandable that people were concerned about vaccine safety during the emergency and were not able to balance great measurable benefits with way smaller potential side effects. If someone continues holding these way till now several years and billions of doses later, either they can point to specific medical work that supports their views or they are at total disbelief in anything that comes from official sources and prefer to believe Chinese and Russian online bots.

lost> Maybe he should have learned chassidus to avoid this terrible aversion to the derech.

R Soloveitchik, to my knowledge, did not endorse any clubs. Are you trying to make a parallel between L Rebbe and later behavior of chabadnikim with RYBS and current YU leadership (was it a grad school?). This is an interesting question indeed – what a person proclaims and what it leads to in a longer term is a fair question to ask. Similarly, is Chaim Volozhiner responsible for modern excesses of your local yeshiva?

specifically, I don’t think RYBS had same influence on YU outside of his own teaching. For example, in his article explaining why it is good to have a medical school at YU, he says that his approval is b’deived as nobody asked his opinion l’hatchilah.

Qwerty, thanks for R Miller/Chabad story, so I am glad I am following in the steps of the giants – he has a very similar reasoning to what I am presenting here. There is always a mixed story – R Soloveichik’s father was a Rav in a chabad-majority town, and his melamed was a chabadnik. Rav S remembered fondly the studies and a picture of Alter Rebbe on the wall … At the same time, his mother noticed that he was learning chassidus to the detriment of the gemora, and directed the father to take take from his all-important position and teach the child himself.

Of course, Trumps team developed vaccines at unprecedented speed and started distribution, better than other countries. Certainly he is not the only one responsible, but it is no doubt that his business skills served the country and the world well.
You may keep strong opinion on other issues but this is undeniable. You can read a book by Pfizer ceo who is no friend of Trump if you are not sure.

Btw, some say Dr Berger, some say Berger, this should be Rabbi Dr Berger, whether you disagree with his opinions or never read his books.

I did not learn his positions on Chassidut, but I had an interesting interaction with him many years ago – he made an oral presentation that was pretty strict on how to relate to another religion. I asked him on one articular nekuda where his presentation explicitly disagreed with a sefer he co-authored. He replied that his position is what he said and that particular chapter was written by the co-author and they could not come to an agreement on the issue. I guess, a good argument for “oral learning”.

Gadol > Right now, the Dems are actually aligned with a large segment of the Israeli electorate that believes Netanyahu is slow-walking

We need to keep in mind that Israeli government is actually fighting several wars right now, and need to balance many issues – and often are
not able to give full information to the public. So we can’t really have a firm opinion about what kind of agreements will work or not.

So, at some point, we need to give some leeway and benefit of doubt to those who have serious security credentials. And in this, I include people like Bibi, Eisenkot, major generals, (even when they publicly disagree with each other), not minor party demagogues on all sides. They could be wrong, but their opinions are more informed than ours.

qwerty > What I and all the others in the thread are saying is that Chabad is no longer a valid expression of Judaism since it posits that the Rebbe is god.

I hear you. I frankly avoid people who look like they could have such opinions (and they literally “look” this way), and I did not interrogate others who I knew for years to be ehrliche Yidden to how they hold or deal with it. I do presume that in a Venn diagram, there are those who are both mashichists and who do great with non-observant Yidden as well as those who are non-maschichists and doing great work also. I am primarily concerned of the honor of the latter ones that you might be hurting.

> Your argument is similar to the popular Chabad refrain, “How can you criticize us? What happens if you’re in Mozambique and you need a Kosher meal?”

First, I am surely on record to discuss burning issues with Chabadnikim both seriously and needling, from bringing Vilna gaon books with me to wondering whether a person they are teaching should follow their minhagim or minhagim of their forefathers (such as sefardim or litvishe).

I do see though that you repeat mentally equating pikuach nefesh with providing kosher food to Yidden wandering in Mozambique. This is an echo of a chasid shoteh who hesitates saving a drowning lady.

> You’re a follower of Rabbi Miller and he endorsed Chabad.

FYI, I am not a follower, just a reader/listener and I did not recall that he endorsed chabad

Gadol, you are right. I am just pointing out a problem. You would not call an airline “kosher” if it were serve strictly kosher meat, except there is nobody checking kashrus of meat after shechita … Same, I am asking who is a posek that is answering their shailos on monetary issues. And pricing during hostilities sounds like a reasonable question. See, for example, Bava Basra 90. This also might be relevant to Ms Harris’ price controls.

DovidBT > School vouchers enable us to reclaim some of our tax dollars

I don’t think there is a strict halachik or “Jewish” view on social issues, we are somewhat pragmatic – whatever works to achieve the right goals, as seen from a sequence of school systems during BM2 as described in Bava Basra. I don’t see how an experiment with vouchers would not be welcome. If results are unfavorable, then the society can always turn around. And US system that allows state experimentation is a perfect place for such pragmatic experiments. So, my only objection is for those who make federal government in charge of everything drastically reducing ability of states to experiment. This applies to education, medicine, welfare, not defense obviously.