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DC, Lyubavichi is currently part of Russia but it is on the border of Belarus and is part of the ethnic territory of the Belarusian (Ruthenian) people according Yefim Karskiy and Mitrofan Dovnar-Zapol’skiy . At the time Chabad was established it was ruled locally by Ruthenian aristocrats.
Akuperma,
1. No country allows non-citizens to vote. Switzerland has such a tough law (prospective citizend have to stand for election in their cantons and details about them and their families are published in the press) that very few succeed. Their is also no birthright citizenship.
2. The relative poverty (compared to how they lived in Europe and Arab countries they are rich) of Chareidim and Arabs is their own fault. The former choose to live on tzedaka and the latter vote dor parties that function as propaganda tools for Abbas rather than trying to help their constituents. Just to give one example, they even oppose national service within their communities. This closes many opportunities for job training.
1. In almost every democratic country there is a court which can strike down laws. This is part of democracy. The judges are chosen by a committee that includes members of both the government and the opposition. It is, in fact, number 30 on the Democracy Index sandwiched in between France and Belgium (it fell in the civil liberties category, probably because of the connection between government and religion and especially the fact that there is no civil marriage), not far behind the US and ahead of Italy and the Czech Republic.
2. Security forces are supposed to use violence. See Rashi on שוטרים. What do you think they should do? Say “Please accompany me to the police station so that I can fill out the arrest form”.
3. You are greatly exaggerating the extent of corruption in Israel. This is a grievous sin. The fact of the matter is that nobody knows how corrupt a country rally is. There is only perceived corruption. However, this is can be lower or higher than actual corruption. A bureaucracy can succeed in covering up its corruption or a people can be very critical by nature. It also depends on how one defines corruption. For example, one of the indices in the Perceived Corruption Index is “ease of doing business”. Most would not consider regulation to be corrupt.
4. Actually the average salary in Israel is comparable to that of the US. Most Israelis are affluent to the point where foreign vacations are (unfortunately) common. Israel is actually only number 19 on the list of most expensive countries. It is, however, close to the happiest country. It is among the top 20 on the UN’s Human Development Index.
CA, the spies did not want to go. The people did. However, that obviously was not enough given the enormity of the חטא. Rambam discusses this in chapters 1 and 4 of Hilchot Teshuva. In fact, the two great national sins the חטא העגל and the חטא המרגלים were so profound that they are still with us. The former is committed by all those who think that some foreign ideology, even if it some part of Torah (in fact, according to the Zohar the sin involved separating the name אלוקים and only having אלה), will by itself bring תיקון עולם. The latter is committed by all those who want to give up sovereignty over all or part of Eretz Yisrael.
DC, you are also wrong. It comes from Belarus.
YO, it is indeed the origin of the Hebrew word. However, the Hebrew word does not mean “to compliment”. That is להחמיא.
לפרגן means “to indulge” or “to encourage” (Miriam Adahan would call it “to endorse”).User, there is no Torah like the torah of EY. You list language as one of your reasons. FYI, there are many shiurim here that are given in English as well as English-speaking kollelim. However, unless you learn Hebrew (and a bit of Aramaic) you will never be able to fully understand Torah.
Grey matter, for almost every mitzva there are those who are exempt. For example, a person who must eat to save his life may not fast on Yom Kippur. Ask you LOR if you have a heter to refrain from making aliya.
Rebbetzin, why do you think that he is the only gadol?
Ravkahanatzadak, how do kews make (a) chillul hashem? I presume that you are referring to Kew, which is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Ubiquitin, I don’t know if it is a chillul Hashem that someone was allegedly killed by an Israeli police officer for no good reason (chillul Hashem is relative – any Jew who misbehaves in the presence of non-Jews is committing a chillul Hashem if he causes anti-Jewish stereotypes) or a kiddush hashem that he officer is being prosecuted.
.פוק חזי מאי עמא דבר
JJ, you lifted that from the story of the Chafetz Chaim and the President of Poland. In an case, presumably the idea was to encourage people to learn. His points were obviously lost on those who do not understand creole German.
Ubiquitin, Yiddish is broken German. Agnon wrote a story about a Polish rabbi who went to Germany for medical treatment and was constantly corrected when he tried to speak to the locals.
Laskern, that is utter nonsense. Only a small minority even understand more than a few words of Yiddish.
Git, actually a large number of the founders of Aguda were German-speaking followers of Rav S.R. Hirsch. In any case, the founders of the Talmud were Hebrew and Aramaic speakers. Those is EY also spoke Koine Greek. Should speeches have been made in all of those languages?
USER,
1. Once I was at a seuda for a berit mila where someone spoke in English. I was asked to translate by two people. Probably more would have but they already surrounded me.
2. The fact that someone can more or less read a language does not mean that he can speak it or even understand it when spoken. I can more or less read French (sometimes more, sometimes less) but I cannot hold a conversation in it and I only understand a small part when I hear it spoken. In fact, those graduate programs that have foreign language requirements only require reading knowledge. Similarly, there are jobs in Israel where only the ability to read professional literature in English is required. I had a teacher for a computer course who said that he could read a manual that lay native English speakers cannot read but not the Jerusalem Post.Ploni, it depends on the minimum GPA needed to keep the scholarship. It is also highly unlikely to that all except one will get 100 and even if that happens the one with the 99 will probably not get a D but a B+. Moreover, if non-Ivy League schools have empty places it is in their interest not to push out students.
Oriental Jews (Eidot haMizrach) are from countries like Iraq and Iran. Sepharadim/Sephardim (they are alternate spellings) are descendants of Jews who were expelled from Spain (Sepharad). Unlike the former, who spoke Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, etc. the latter spoke Ladino, which was alternately called Sephardit (my grandmother who was from Turkey called it Spanish and could converse with Hispanics in it).
Ubiquitin,
1. Like what does an English speaker look?
2. If they are part of the same group it is simple courtesy that all speak in the common language. Otherwise you are outing those who do not understand. I participate in shiurim given in Hebrew with other English speakers. In the framework of the shiur we all speak to each other in Hebrew.
3. If one wants to compare with programs in English in Israel then have a separate Yiddish event.
4. The CS’s takkana certainly only applied to Hungary. It probably no longer applies even there as almost no one in Hungary understands Yiddish. Moreover, takkanot often fall into disuse. There was a takkana that no single man between the ages of 20 and 60 could live in Jerusalem. it was universally ignored until finally Rav Ovadia convened a special bet din to repeal it.Reboby, a surf board or an ironing board?
Ubiquitin, they spoke completely in Hebrew. In fact, once when I was with some Russian-speakers one of them even addressed another by his Hebrew name and not his Russian name. You may think that it is lifnim mishurat hadin but that is because you are an American and assume that really everyone speaks English. When I first came to Israel strangers would ask me questions on the street in English without asking first if I speak it. I could not understand how they knew. Then it dawned on me that they are ugly Americans who think that everyone speaks English.
Neville, you probably look at half a glass of water and say that it is half empty. We have our own security services which have rabbanim, kosher dining facilities, etc. I know for a fact that sometimes they also send questions to Rav Asher Weiss as he has so stated in his shiurim. In fact, all public institutions have kosher eating facilities, except where pikuach nefesh is involved they close on Shabbat (and in most cases also erev Shabbat). Jewish civil law (Mishpat Ivri) has official status and is often cited in court decisions. I could continue but my post would be deleted as overly long.
MrSarah (I thought that we don’t allow that), he did not denigrate EY or its inhabitants. Interestingly, this week we in Israel are reading the parsha of the spies.
CTL, I have a friend whose wife is from Switzerland. She said that she can understand Yiddish if the person speaks slowly and clearly (admittedly not everyone does this and my GP even put on his voice mail recording “speak slowly and clearly”). Ibn fact, Yiddish is a southern German dialect. People who speak Hochdeutsch also have a difficult time in these areas. In ffcat, someone I know whose parents are from Germany said that when he was in Switzerland people considered his way of speaking strange.
Ubiquitin, it should be “fewer Latin speakers” as they are counted as individuals. As for bentsching, as you are not speaking to them or (presumably) in a loud voice their lack of knowledge of Hebrew is not an issue. However, I once was at a seder where the lone Russian oleh was visibly annoyed at the fact that the conversation was in English. When I am with Europeans from the same country they speak to each other in Hebrew as a courtesy to me.
Neville, every thread in the CR is an argument thread.
What about Sephardim and Eidot haMizrach? Our common historical language is Hebrew. Yiddish is at most a creole German, maybe not even a language but a dialect. In fact, it was known as Jargon.
CTL, maybe you should hire an English major. It is incorrect to use “who” in reference to a thing (“government agency (DA, etc) who uses tax dollars to underwrite your cost”). If all government agencies do this it should be a comma followed by “which”. If not no comma and “that”. BTW, those government agencies require a three-year commitment. I would imagine that larger firms and corporate legal departments also hire people before passing the bar exam. That is why they send recruiters to law schools.
There is a type of tamei bird that is called a ro’eh because he sits in chutz la’aretz and sees a neveila in EY (Chullin 63b). The Kotzker says that nothing is more tamei than that.
Besalel, it is most likely that every tribe had its own pronunciation as with other languages (e.g. Boston and NY accents). We know for a fact that Ephraimites pronounced the shin like a samech. It seems that during the time of the Tannaim there was a difference between Judea and the Galil as Beruria knew immediately that Rabbi Yossi haGlili was from there (Eruvin 53b). In later periods there were places where people did not differentiate between ח and ה or א and ע (Megilla 24b).
Charlie, did you read my entire post? I wrote that any leader elected by the people can be in place of a king.
Galut (exile) is the situation of living outside of one’s land. Thus, by definition a Jew living in Eretz Yisrael is not in galut, at least not physically. Those chareidim and leftists who do not understand the meaning of having a state are in spiritual galut. There are, however, level of geula as the Yerushalmi (Berachot 1:1) states. First we have to have a king (or any leader elected by the people as stated by Rav Kook in Mishpatei Cohen 144 and see also He’emek Devar on Devarim 17:14). Then he has to wipe out Amalek (according to Rav Chaim Soloveichik antisemitism) and then he has to build the Beit haMikdash (Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 1:1).
Charlie, how is being a strong supporter of Israel a qualification for mayor?
Crime rates have been plummeting since Giuliani cleaned up the city. Now that DeBlasio is reversing course they will eventually go back up. Not to mention his fiscal irresponsibility and war against the specialized schools.The main consideration for law schools is the LSAT score. A BTL could mean that the person has superior analytic ability. It could also be a factor in a school that wants a diverse student body so far as majors are concerned. Firms mainly look at the law school and the person’s record there.
RY, why don’t you apply two years down the road?
Israel is by definition not part of the galut. Of course, there are some people whose souls are in galut even though their bodies are in Israel. Those who do not want to be part of the IDF, for example. If they get bad enough the Land expels them.
RY, if sports teams can why not schools?
Unommin, don’t give up your day job.
Anyone who is not makpid on the ע in keriat shema says apikorsut. He says השם נשבה לאבותינו, which means that He was captured c”v. Similarly, those who pronounce the chaf like the kaf say that Hashem destroys the world out of chesed c”v. On the other hand. those who overcompensate say that געל ישראל instead of גאל ישראל, which is also very bad.
As for the צ, it is clear that at one time it was similar to the “s” sound as the word for stadium in אצטדיון (the א was due to the fact that they could not pronounce a sheva nach at the beginning of a word (Arabs also often do this). Apparently Ashkenazim did not change their pronunciation until later as one of the Baalei Tosafot is
רבי אליעזר ממץ. In French the name of the city is pronounced with a long “s” (you can hear it by going into the Wikipedia article on the city).Regarding picking up sounds from other languages, it is clear that pronouncing the cholem “oy” or a long “o” (e.g. kosher) comes from Slavic influences. Pronouncing it like an “i” comes from the German ü.
KJ,
1. David haMelech disagrees with you. When he ran away to Gatt he said that he was expelled from Hashem’s inheritance (Shmuel Alef 26:19). Chazal also disagree with you. The first mishna in Gittin gives the northern border as Acco. The former was because Gatt was not part of Shaul’s kingdom and the latter because it was the border of Jewish settlement. Rabbi Menachem Leibtag has an online analysis entitled Masei: The Borders of the Land of Israel/
2. The Golan is part of Ever haYarden. Eilat is near Etzion Geber, which was conquered by Shlomo haMelech and again by the IDF. Both were kibbushei rabbim.
3. It is not correct to call a state as the Land of ——. One does not, for example, call France the Land of the French. The term Medinat Yisrael was chosen to signify that the state belongs to all Jews.
Klugeryid, on June 5, 2019 9:06 am at 9:06 am you asked “Do the thousands of unmarried girls have basherts? How about the thousands of unmarried boys?”
They rejected their basherts. The Steipler, in fact, told this to someone who asked where his was.
Klugeryid, people have free choice. That includes rejecting one’s bashert.
Get it while you can. It’s having trouble competing with good, old-fashioned seltzer.
A true ger was born with a Jewish neshama. The fact that he is legally a new person (for most things – he still has to repay his creditors and his debtors still have to pay him) does not necessarily come into effect. It could also be that he loses his zivug rishon (who says that non-Jews do not have zivugim?) and gets a zivug sheni.
The trauma over the Churban and mass destruction of the Jewish communities in Judea caused people to forget many details. This si why in the end Rebbe had to write down the mishnayot.
Are you referring to the French Catholic newspaper or a brand of sparkling water?
Klugeryid, the Jews who lived in England before the expulsion came with William the Conqueror. Thus they almost certainly spoke Norman French, which was also the language of the aristocracy (William wiped out the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy so that the common people would have no leadership) and the law courts until after the time that the Jews were expelled.
OOPs. I confused him with Engel.
Charlie, are you sure it is Orthodox. The non-resident of the district married a non-Jew (OK so she had a deformed “conversion”).
Is YiddishKite something you fly?
Neville, actually it is 3.25%. the idea is to give minorities a say and the possibility of defending their interests. This is also a form of democracy and exists in some European countries. There are also some countries where one house of the legislature is elected by proportional representation and one by the winner-take-all method (which means that 49.9% of the voters might be disenfranchised and encourages gerrymandering).
CTL, you are correct. The GOP has consistently been against slavery. It doesn’t matter if they masters are plantation owners or leftist bureaucrats.
CTL,
1. Andrew Johnson was elected VP in 1864. Lincoln’s first VP was Hannibal Hamlin of Maine.
2. The GOP did not spend Johnson’s entire term trying to impeach him. He was not impeached until 1868. After that there were no more moves to impeach him. Giving him trouble is another matter. That is part of the system of checks and balances.The American government was supposed to represent the Aristotelian ideal of a combination of democracy (the House), oligarchy (the Senate – which was originally chosen by the state legislatures) and monarchy (POTUS). It has the advantage of stability but the disadvantage of a very unpopular POTUS staying until the end of his term (although the Congress can thwart him by refusing to pass his legislation and overriding his vetoes).
CTL, you should go back. Lincoln’s first VP was Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. AJ was his running mate when he run for re-election. Moreover, back then the GOP was the more liberal party and those who wanted impeachment (as well as a hard line towards the South) were called radical Republicans. At that time the VP was not considered to be an assistant POTUS but mainly the person who presided over the Senate. In fact, it was not clear who would succeed William Henry Harrison. John Tyler decided by himself although some thought that he should be called “Acting President”.
Lucy, please learn proper English. It is “than”.
CTL, in some parliamentary systems there is no President. There is a monarch who serves as head of state. In France the President (currently Macron) has much more power than the PM – whom he appoints.