AviraDeArah

*Simchas torah, not sukkos

Anon…nope. we will use aidim again when we have Sanhedrin; the gemara says that openly. We use the calendar specifically because we don’t have beis din smuchim.

As for electronic forms of communication; nothing’s written in stone. The world could change, computers could all cease to exist – anything’s possible.

As for shevuos, you could have asked better – why keep the 8th day of pesach and sukkos, since the shluchim could have reached the galuyis by then?

As with your original question, the gemara openly addresses it in rosh hashanah 21a. Since we made the takanah, we are not mechalek between yomim tovim.

I have all the patience in the world for someone who doesn’t know things, be it because of their upbringing, lack of education, or learning difficulty – what i have little patience for is chutzpah. Brazenly attacking concepts that one doesn’t understand and limiting them to his tiny depth and breadth of knowledge… it’s a form of bizayon Hatorah.

If you want to know, ask. If you want to show everyone pompous ignorance, continue blasting gemaros without having learned them. I’ve yet to see you quote a single mareh makom on this forum.

Whether maintaining the status quo in eretz yisroel would be a continuous violation of the oaths is a machlokes between two of my rebbeim; rav belsky told me that the shevuos are a metzius; if we do X, chazal say there will be redifos and yidden will be hunted like animals. Anothet rebbe of mine held that once they’re violated, the act is done, but would apply to, say, new settlements etc..

Either way the state was made b’issur. The flimsy attempts at defending it only show the lengths some go to halachikally justify the actions of people who do noy believe in or practice halacha to begin with. To them it made no difference.

One can look at the state as being a hatzolah of jews, as some choshuve rabbonim did, without buying into the idea that it was done b’heter. But those opinions are not nogaya in our time; the gedolim established the Torah community’s approach to zionism, and those opinions were pushed out of the mesorah. Had those eabbonim lived in our time, it’s very unlikely that they would have looked at the state as they did then; they had just experienced the destruction of European jewry with a new door being opened to them, while the rest of the world wouldn’t take them in. Did those rabbonim know that it was the zionists who stoked the flames of the Holocaust and then held the hands of governments from using the fire extinguisher, and then from even saving the remnants? Probably not.

Also, one can question the status of lo yilbash being abizrayhu for someone who is physically incapable of biah. Yet he is capable of other issurim(lo sikravu, etc..) so perhaps it’s veiter an abizrayhu.

YO, he didn’t ask for a source, he said it’s not convincing because it’s not in the gemara. If you want sources, i can find them; it’s all over seforim like daas torah, sichos mussar, etc. . Nom is right that it’s the mainstream understanding of it

Neville, i should be clearer; that’s exactly how poskim discuss transgender people. If someone is suicidal, we don’t tell them that they cannot do those issurim; that particular mental illness induces suicide very often; it’s not a quality of life issue. This is how rabbonim have been paskening since these shailos started; it’s all in that sefer.

It’s very easy for me to look at someone delusional and tell them what’s real and how messed up they are and how they can just work on it and they’ll be fine, etc… But it’s not going to stop them. The delusions are extremely powerful.

Obviously every alternative should be sought first and the person shouldn’t be made to feel as though it’s ok to do what he’s doing, but stopping someone from committing suicide is considered pikuach nefesh.

But there are limits; even under pain of suicide a man cannot marry another man, etc.. No matter what he “identifies” as.

Neville, definitely! We’re talking about people who are mentally ill and liable to kill themselves if their fantasies aren’t indulged. Issurim of lo yilbash, mesares, etc, are chamur, but not yehereg velo yaavor, so the poskim allow it for pikuach nefesh.

The dor tahapuchos, which was kept under the radar for many years and was used only by rabbonim who were asked such shailos back when society was a bit more sane, is now available to the public. It was reviewed by an odom gadol, i just forgot which one. You can find it online, too.

His chidush about shul and other social situations is that others will look at him as a woman, and That’s taaruvos.

But for these people it’s usually not about doing teshuvah so much as getting psychiatric help. If they’re cured of their illness and want to go back to being their real gender, then of course they should; no one’s going to argue with that.

And I’m sure many do it b’issur because society tells them that it’s ok and they’re just ready to be oiver; for him, he needs to do teshuva, obviously.

Neville, check out sefer Dor tahapuchos, which is all about transgender issues. For social things, like where to sit in shul, a person who changed genders, whether for pikuach nefesh or stam b’issur, sits with the one he “changed” into, but for all halacha issues, like kidushin, etc, he remains a man according to everyone. People like to throw around a tzitz eliezer who never would have dreamed of people changing their gender the way they do today; he writes about babies being born with defects and having doctors do surgery to determine the gender, etc

in chabad chinuch yes, but i am referring to their outreach. they are not teaching yiddishkeit if they are teaching that feminism isnt so bad. they should be teaching jewish femininity to BTs too, but in ways that they can relate to. They should highlight how society objectifies women and that the torah places great kedushah on them, and how that relates to tznius and abstinence,

Cs, that version of what you said is better, but to secular people, “being of the same value”(which they are, Hashem loves women just as much as men) means equality in halacha and community. They consider it devaluing if they can’t lead prayers, wear tefilin, be rabbis, etc…

So what the Lubavitcher rebbe said did not address teaching the women the beauty of jewish femininity; the akeres habayis, the stronghold of emunah, the calm nurturing mother, the builder of klal yisroel, the daughter of Hashem – those are things beis yaakov teaches to inspire Jewish girls. And they don’t feel any less valuable because of it. Why couldn’t the Lubavitcher rebbe do the same?

I should add that i saw a radvaz(siman 27) which says that Nechemiah was unique, because his job was to bring the king his drink (not like how I assumed earlier) plus he was before the gezerah of stam yainon was finalized, though he had accepted it on himself, so it was eaiser to allow

Neville that’s easy to find; one of the tannain was allowed to drink stam yeinon(at a time when rov goyim did avodah zara no less) because of the need to deal with the romans.

Once America won the “space race,” which other rhan satellite capabilities, was almost entirely political, it stopped investing aarge amount into space travel. That’s why they didn’t campaign to reach mars or make additional moonwalks – it wasn’t necessary or very important from the government’s perspective.

The Mishnah berurah quotes the chayei odom who says, based on rishonim, that one who believes in “thoughts that are opposed to the daas that the torah is built on” violates lo sasuru. Feminism is definitely in that category, since it can be proven that the daas that the torah imparts to us requires gender role separation and requires women to be in a socially and religiously different role than men. Thinking that women should be treated the same or given the same responsibilities is definitely apikorsus, such as thinking that women need to learn gemara, wear Tefilin, tzitzis, make kiddush at home, etc..

But you misunderstood my intention. I was saying that your one liners are a bad representation of hashkofa, because they’re statements without context, proofs, sources, etc, the kind of thing that requires a bracha.

It’s not that the topic itself isn’t torah, it’s that the statement is too simple to require a bracha, like stating “pig is treif” or “you’re not allowed to steal” –

If i say “i love Hashem” that statement doesn’t require a bracha, but saying veahavta es Hashem Elokecha does, as would a discussion of what that mitzvah requires.

So saying “feminism is treif” is not significant enough to require a bracha; it’s not that the topic itself isn’t torah, it’s that the statement isn’t enough.

Nom, you don’t need to make a bracha on the statement “pig is treif,” and you’re allowed to answer yes or no shailos in the bathroom.

Talking about why(insert italics) Zionists are kofrim, or why feminism is anti Torah, which would go through mekoros in chumash, chazal, etc .. Would require a bracha.

Nom, actually, making divrei torah into divrei havai is assur – this is why we aren’t allowed to teach gemara to women.

The velt asks a kasha – aren’t men motzi divrei torah ledivrei havai sometimes? The answer is that men have to learn, and it’s a risk we need to take. As long as we’re trying hard to learn properly, we aren’t punished. We’re onsim. But if someone in fact does not endeavor to learn properly, but instead wants the torah to fit his own preconceived notions… yes, he is guilty of megaleh ponim and bizui, ziyuf Hatorah.

No issur to say bad hashkofos??

Let’s start with megaleh ponim.

Then let’s go to bizayon hatorah. Ziyuf hatorah.

But no big deal because his body is not doing anything wrong!

Mod, i disagree; teshuva works to undo one’s wrongdoings. If someone wrote something that he now realizes is assur or a bad hashkofa, and he doesn’t want it to be out there….i don’t see why he shouldn’t be given that right.

Neville, when a legitimate beis din with rabbonim not known to be maskilim or corrupters of halacha comes out with a psak, I’m not inclined to go against it – with some exceptions.

But regarding the Brooklyn eruv, a psak was made by the preeminent gadol hador with the support of the overwhelming majority of other gedolim behind him. Those who went against them, even though they were competent rabbonim, i believe were jn the wrong for doing so.

In England, there are basically two communities, as far as i know. The united synagogue and beis din, and the kadasia/charedi world. I know people from both sides, and they usually get along with each other. I rolled my eyes at what many of the chief rabbis have said and written, and some of it is outright apokorsus. No one’s defending giving LGBT abomination the tolerance that you sometimes hear from such rabbis, or their participation in Limmud together with kofrim, or other things.

But because I’m not very familiar with the british rabbinic scene, i don’t know the facts on the ground, nor do i know enough to have an opinion about the psak in question, as i would an issue in new york. When haskel lookstein was almost thrown out of the RCA for attending an interfaith ceremony when obama was inaugurated, he defended himself with some teshuva he found, and they decided not to get rid of him. At the time, i dismissed it as just MO nonsense, another casual sin that comes from their intermarriage with secularism.

But my reaction to an issue that I’m not familiar with is not to get involved until I know all the details, and i still don’t know enough to say that the london beis din was totally wrong in the psak they gave rav jakobovitz, and that he was wrong in doing what he did too. Gedolim respected rav jakobovitz, so I’m not quick to say he was wrong.

I don’t get into fights about the boro park eruv. That’s because rav pam said not to; he was very sad to hear that almost half of boro park carries, “uber machlokes is erger,” were his words.

But he didn’t defend the flatbush or definitely not the Brooklyn -wide idea, as far as i know. I don’t think it was even a hava amina in his time

On that, i don’t mind getting into arguments

Da, i don’t think you’re familiar with Brooklyn demographics. Most fully modern people left to the 5 towns, Manhattan, and Teaneck. They used the eruv for the most part.

Talmidim of rabbi Shechter in Brooklyn(and I’ve met only a handful) aren’t sending their kids to the few remaining modern Brooklyn schools, i.e. yeshiva of Flatbush. They’re sending their kids to prospect park, kaminetz, etc.. Because they want an actual yeshiva, and not a coed Jewish public school.

As for chasidim, many, if not most at this point, carry. But mostly in boro park. The heimish Flatbush crowd is litvishe influenced and mostly does not carry.

But if you walk on shabbos in flatbush, you’ll see people carrying, and it’s identifiably modern people.

It says the chacham will daven for the person

Bava basra 116, anyone who has a sick person in his house should go to a chacham in the city, and he should daven for him

Seeking out Hashem doesn’t mean not turning to tzadikim. That’s a mistake.

Anon, again, apples and oranges; kitnios is a minhag. Hotzaah is deoraysoh. And it wasn’t only rav moshe – it was tje vast majority of poskim in America who joined him.

Besides that, you’re cherry picking a handful of psakim which rav moshe made which were not accepted. Rav Moshe paskened the biggest shailos in the country and was, in the satmar rovs words, “mara d’asra of America” despite their disagreements. Most of his psakim became the common standard for American jewry. It’s disingenuous to quote a couple of psakim and make it as though they represent the bigger picture.

Ujm, it seems that rav jakobovitz heard from the beis din that he can only attend when he was directly asked to under specific circumstances.

Anon – ash provided a source. You just said it; big difference.

Aaq, i disagree. R. Mirvis represents the Jewish community and his actions are not that of a private individual. He is to be held accountable for his public decisions and we are entitled to know the psak he received.