AviraDeArah

Aaq, that wasn’t at all clear, it seemed that you were endorsing having fewer kids, or at least being pareve about it

If you don’t accept that, then disregard what i said

Dofi – modern orthodoxy represents illegitimate judaism and fake jewish values. It’s not the fault of its adherents who are brainwashed and kept ignorant of torah sources by schools which prioritize SAT scores and ivy league college admission statistics. It’s the fault of its fake rabbinic leadership which either encourages or allows this institutionalized ignorance, heresy and sinfulness to thrive.

aaq, the apikorsus, unadulterated anathema of yiddishkeit that you so nonchalantly throw around, about decreasing the population in order to help the environment, made me make a double-take. You start out with mitzvos of bal tashchis…and you end up with denying the mitzvah of lesheves yatzarta and le’erev al tanach yadecha?!!?!?!?

it is a mitzvah to have as many children as possible after fulfilling the minimum, chazal say this explicitly. the torah is NOT concerned with limited resources, because “hayad Hashem tiktzar?”

And to prove it in physical terms that you might be more agreeable with in your heresy, scientists predicted mass famine if the population continued to increase in the 1960s.

Well, the population more than doubled in the worldf since then…and guess what? There’s less world hunger now than ever before in recorded history!!! That’s Hashem’s way of showing how twisted, evil and anti-life the people are who subscribe to your heresy.

If you want to see the success of chasidishe tzedaka, look at where all the gemachs are, the bikur cholim, the community resources for chasanim, kallos, kimpeturins, medical referrals, clothing,…chasidim are the zevuluns of klal yisroel. The litvish are yissachar, and the MO are stragglers who contribute neither Torah nor gemilus chasadim. They keep their wealth to “philanthropy” causes that their wealth goyishe friends are into, while giving some to poor jews.

AAQ, steinsaltz was called an apikores by the steipler and rav shach. He’s nothing. A gornisht. Chabad likes him because he liked the rebbe.

Also, if the girls are making points you and the maggid shiur missed…probably time for a new maggid shiur. Or go to an iyun shiur where they don’t fly through a blatt in 30 minutes while drinking coffee.

Nom – cute; I actually think I’m going to use that as a joke from now on. The gimmel chamuros are MO, Zionism, and Chabad, I like it.

Except UJM agrees that conservatives who keep some mitzvos aren’t included in “those who keep part of the torah” – because they don’t believe that Hashem commanded them to do so. If there is no commander, there is no commandment. Their actions are meaningless in halacha, they have accomplished no mitzvah, their brochos are in vain, and they are not going to receive any reward for doing things that they themselves decided are spiritual nice things to do, or traditions.

Rocky, unfortunately many online forums, particularly of the kiruv variety, traffic in misinformation, to use a modern term.

Aish is extremely zionistic, moreso than mainstream israeli news outlets. It’s actually very embarrassing for us, because a jewish student who is disillusioned with zionism when they learn about der yassin and the other atrocities of the secular zionists, then they see “Orthodox judaism” whitewashing it… it’s doing us no favors.

Kiruv places like to quote the same ridiculous “proof” of environmental activism that the RCA used years ago. Chazal say that Hashem took Adam all around gan eden and said “look how beautiful my creations are, take heed not to ruin my world”

Do you know who has ever taken that medrash to mean physical destruction or pollution?

You guessed it – zero.

The seforim, including the ramchal and maharal, say it means that we shouldn’t destroy the world through sin.

All throughout chazal and tanach, the one destructive force is sin. Not pollution. Not aerosols. Not greenhouse gasses.

To say that these non-sinul entities destroy the world is like saying that the Holocaust happened because of mikrah, just nature.

It’s apikorsus and denial of Hashem’s hashgocha, and denying that it is sin and mitzvos which benefit and destroy the world. Not what kind of car you drive.

Rav chaim didn’t have taxable income, as far as i know, but i assume he wouldn’t if he did based on the psak.

Re, roads etc, it’s an ones; we want to live in artzeinu hakedoshah, and to do so one needs to walk on the street.

Square; i agree that paying taxes is important in general. However, you ahould know that America’s taxes might be different than what chazal refer to. They’re painfully exorbitant, and make owning property a liability. The government can literally evict an elderly widow who has no money to tax her own property that her family spenf 40 years earning to own. It’s a unique evil that an otherwise kind government allows

Yserb… I’m struggling to find the words.

Rav hirsch was extremely controversial in his setting up a school with secular studies. The ENTIRE European jewish world had chadarim that were torah only. They would learn a trade from their father or someone else.

You make it sound like rav hirsch was the….norm? And that there were a few outlying fanatics who just taught torah only? Are you serious? Are you aware of the rashba’s cherem against ANY secular studies until the age of 30? Are you aware of a single other jewish educational institution besides rav hirsch ‘s realschulle that did so?

He was accused, wrongfully, of being modern. He was intending to save klal yisroel, and his model served as a prototype for other parts of the torah world, including most(but far from all) litvishe yeshivos in America.

The chazon ish didn’t hold of it at all. According to your view, you would think he is an apikores, chas veshalom… because he didn’t hold of 2 achronim’s learning schedules????

Simcha, we’re not speaking about how good or bad a government is. Governments are imperfect. Some are better than others.

Rav chaim’s point isn’t that the government isn’t good. He writes that it’s illegitimate. Built on sin. Doesn’t have the power of a malchus in halacha.

Environmentalism is a good replacement for religious fervor for secularists. While people used to use their religion to drive their passion, they now turn to phantoms of “racism” and environmentalism

Simcha, good questions. You’re wondering why it’s ok to expect things that tax money goes to while not paying for it.

My answer to that is “tut mir nisht ken tovos” – we didn’t ask for the state, we didn’t want it, and we believe it’s continued existence is a bad thing. They put us in a situation where they need to raise money for things to maintain their state, mostly for defense, so let the frei take care of their own mess. The frummer would be just fine if they were under a peaceful Arab or Western government. We don’t actively search for arab leadership anymore, because in the current political climate it would put millions of jewish lives in danger…. because of what the zionists did.

It’s their mess, let them take care of it and leave us alone.

Besalel, it’s in a letter obtained by rabbi yaakov Shapiro, author of the encyclopedic “the empty wagon.” I’ve seen it personally.

Little; men and women have strengths and weaknesses. Men are subject to their yatzer hora, but are more logical. Women aren’t as pulled by passions and are more resolute, but fall victim to daas kalah, lack of logical, analytical reasoning.

comitting a crime doesn’t always require teshuvah. Aveiros, violations of Hashem’s will require teshuva. People, especially women, often equate the word “illegal” with “wrong” and “aveirah,” but these are distinct concepts. Not every crime is wrong from a torah perspective, and not everything that’s wrong from a torah perspective is an aveirah.

Rav chaim kanievsky clearly wrote that israel, as an illegitimate state, has no right to impose taxes on its citizens. Rabbi Deri did some shtick to avoid taxes. According to the gadol hador, he did absolutely nothing wrong and has zero to do teshuvah for, even though it was illegal under israeli made-up law.

So not only did he not do an aveirah, he did nothing wrong either, as there’s no moral imperative to pay taxes to an oppressive, anti religious shmad state, especially when most of it will go to fund things that are, actually, sinful, such as israeli public schools and the abominable gender-mixed army.

If the law was valid according to the torah, then yes, barring Rabbi Deri would make some sense; but not a lot. Because politicians always scream about giving people who are “justice involved” second, third, fourth and fifth chances. In New York City, landlords will soon not be allowed to do background checks to see if someone was a murderer, because you canrt hold someone’s past against them.

Why should someone who did a crime not be able to hold office if he “paid his debt to society” or whatever they call it?

Oh i see what you thought i said…i didn’t say that i don’t believe that they murdered, i said i don’t believe there are such allegations, as in, I don’t know of any. If there are I wouldn’t not believe it.

Yes, halachos of tzedaka do mandate how much one must give. They require a wealthy person to give more than just maaser.

My objection was to the heter you and others are giving, saying taavos are fine as long as you’re not spending more than what you have. That’s factually incorrect. I don’t go over to rich people and tell them what to do, because you’re correct that it’s not my business. Taavah in general is a personal issue and middos in general are usually outside of the parameters of personal tochacha, because they vary from person to person. One person’s supper is a person’s taavah, and we can’t know.

An important point needs to be made too – it’s totally possible to have luxury items leshem shomayim in another way. Chazal say fhat a nice home, a beautiful wife, and good foos is “marchivin daato shel Adam,” it expands the mental abilities of a person. It can make a person learn better if their gashmius is taken care of.

But that has to be the intent, and if pursuing riches makes you learn less in practice, or you’re seeing that after that nice juicy steak, you want to lay down instead of run to learn gemara… it’s ear where your intentions are.

CT, valid point; some people inherit money. Another example is the concept of “Torah ugedulah bemakom echad,” where a person has fancy things in order to benefit klal yisroel as a nobleman, and to promote kiddush Hashem. The caveat with that, however, is as rebbe yehudah hanasi raised his small finger on his deathbed and swore that he never enjoyed this world even with this finger. A similar avodas Hashem was undertaken by the rizhiner rebbe, who emphasized malchus to his chasidim… He made the same oath before he was niftar too.

I’m guessing the chofetz chaim knew the man and his circumstances.

And lest you think it’s me who makes such statements, having not been anywhere near rich at any point in my life, i direct you to a sefer called kohelea, written by the most powerful, richest and wisest man to ever walk this world. Rashi says this is why Shlomo hamelech wrote this sefer, decrying gashmius, because he understood wealth and was in a position to denounce taavah without being told he has sour grapes.

He doesn’t only denounce living beyond one’s means. Actually, i don’t think he does much at all – he decries going after taavos. Who told baalei batim this myth that taavos are ok as long as you wear fabric on your head, make blessings, (but don’t get too caught up in which brochos to make, because shehakol works for everything!) don’t talk about work on shabbos (unless it’s really really big business, then nisht oif shabbos geredt works) give tzedaka, you’re 100% a kosher jew and mezuman lechayei olam haba?

the chofetz chaim once visited the home of a rich man, and looking at the fancy walls and trimmings, said “oy, theres a page of bava basra here”, and “oy, there’s a page of mesechta shabbos here”

his point was that all the time the wealthy man wasted on becoming wealthy could have been spent learning, if he just worked enough to support his family.

not living within one’s means is a different question; you’re mixing up taavos with irresponsible pursuit thereof – taavah isnt good, as the mesilas yeshorim says the more youre drawn after physicality, the more youre distant from ruchnius.

distant, far from Hashem. nebach.

Common, there’s nothing to be jealous about people eating their olam haba

Daas, some differentiate between the two, and others don’t, but everyone agrees that most women(if not all in our time) do not get schar for torshb”p because they’re learning or being taught tiflus. The only difference is if a woman can trust her own assessment and learn on her own or not

Historian, it’s definitely an issue; rav Moshe writes that it’s a bedieved.

Here we go with equating Torah ability with secular studies…

They work differently.

And if the rambam brings rebbe Eliezer, it IS halacha unless there are other rishonim abd achronim who don’t…and nobody does.