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The flu is a bad example – it has never caused mass hospitalization and death. It causes between 12 and 50 thousand deaths per year (according to the CDC website), and infects about 9 million per year. Covid has caused 332,000 deaths. While omicron may be less dangerous, it will still probably increase the overall death toll by sheer number of cases. If vaccines prevent deaths and hospitalizations, then from a public policy perspective, we can understand the rationale for a mandate, especially with the vaccines now being a year old with billions of people worldwide getting it and not getting sick/dying from it.
So we have a machlokes between Dr slifkin and chazal. Which one shall we follow?
There’s a very big difference between kashrus issues in chutz loarerz and eretz yisroel. In eretz yisroel, anything besides water and salt that’s edible can have a multitude of kashrus problems and can be issurei deoraysoh. A reliable hashgocha isn’t just about shipping verification, ingredients and bishul akum (the biggest issues in American kashrus) – it’s a constant maze of preventing issues with terumos umaasros, shmitah, arlah, yoshon, and tons more – with little leniencies available.
Comparing triangle K to Israeli issues is way off.
Mendel unfortunately was niftar about 7 years ago: he was a very special neshoma
Halevi, that sounds plausible – doesn’t explain why so many kehilos accept it as the maharal, but this is the the closest thing to an explanation I’ve heard yet – bravo
Torah is compared to water, so i guess it can be bottled somehow
Rebbe Meir is enough of a source, being a tanna – his word is torah misinai. He said she is wrong – she was not a tanna; she was very big in learning and was nosei venosen with tannaim, but not every learned person is a tanna, and she definitely was not.
Rebbe meir said she was wrong for writing that she was an exception to chazal and set out to prove it to her. The ben yehoyada writes that he sent a talmid who was impotent and physically unable to sin, so it was harmless in that regard. He also tempted her in an appeal to her midas hachesed, not stam taavah. He did not expect her to lose her sanity and commit suicide.
As the drishah famously writes, exceptional women can learn gemara, like beruriah. She was not criticized for learning, rather for thinking that she was an exception to chazal’s dictum of noshim daatan kalos – she simply was not, as evidenced by her being nichshal.
AAQ, she didn’t put herself into a nisayon; rebbe Meir may have initiated it, but it was min hashomayim, as no one has the ability to harm or help anyone else without it being nigzar in shomayim.
“the velt” says that ch”s petach tikvah is better than bnei brak
Beruriah thought she was an exception to daatan kalos. She wrote that in her notebook (this was before torah she baal peh was written). Rebbe Meir said “chayech, by your life, you will admit to then (the chachamim) in the end”
We know exactly what happened in the end.
Nom; of course there are unfit lomdim – my rebbe rav belsky used to say that “there are people with time on their hands… They could be taking walks, eating chicken… They want to write seforim”
Doesn’t change the ridiculousness of female talmud “scholars” who would struggle to understand the notes on the bottom of an artscroll.
TS, you’re still not understanding the implications of the term Nasi and why it is that it was not used practically since chasimas hatalmud. A nasi is a position of rulership that is similar to malchus (there’s a reason why it was held by einiklach of dovid hamelech), and it has definitive halachik ramifications that are not applicable nowadays. It would be like calling him an actual melech, embuing him with the halachos of a king, or (if he were a cohen) calling him a kohen gadol or meshuach milchama – there are titles that we don’t just use on gedolim/poskim/manhigim.
I’d say exactly the same thing if someone called rav chaim the nasi hador; this has nothing to do with my personal feelings about the lubavitcher rebbe.
Ubiq, everyone agrees that there were other golems in the past, so i don’t think it can be called “nonsense”. The issue isn’t if we want to be materialists and deny it on the grounds of it not being scientific, the issue is of historical veracity.
I agree that elevating nonsense is a problem, but I don’t see that happening here.
AAQ, I don’t think it’s a sheker because he’s the rebbe of klal yisroel, and i consider him an authority… I’ve also learned from his seforim – if you learn one thing from a person you’re supposed to call them your rebbe, so I don’t see anything wrong with calling him so
Fictional stories are known as fiction. Factual stories are either factual or usually based on something true that may have developed over time.
It’s a valid point that the talmidim of the maharal should be expected to have mentioned something, especially when the tosfos yom tov spends time describing his rebbe, so it’s hard to attribute it to others reasons, such as missing writings etc..
On the other hand, klal yisroel has adopted this story – when we start dismissing such traditions out of hand, we are on a slippery slope… Of course some people here are already on the bottom of that slope, but that’s another discussion that is far more important than whether or not the maharal actually made a golem. For me it makes almost no difference if he did or not, but the impulse towards rationalism and the attempt to remove the spiritual from our history is the truly scary thing
Hot-headed, “flaming”
Mindful – I have rarely seen a myopia that is so severe, that it sees others as myopic.
There’s virtually no strand of orthodoxy that doesn’t hold of rav chaim as a gadol. That includes satmar who are at odds with many litvishe rabbonim. I once met a farbrenteh satmar bochur who asked me who my rebbeim were, and my 3rd answer, Rav chaim, made him very settled… I have never met Rav chaim, but I knew it would make him happy to say it.
I’ve yet to encounter a single person who didn’t hold of rav chaim. And I have friends who are associated with the “real” neturei karta (as in, not the ones who kiss Arafat).
Modern rabbis have admitted the excellence of rabbonim like rav elyashiv, rav shlomo zalman, and rav chaim, even though they are “charedi”. The reverse is not true though; nobody outside of MO gives a lot of credence to the vast majority of RZ and MO rabbis, let alone hold of them to be gedolim.
The litvishe world is far from “tiny”. It’s one of the two fastest growing communities of orthodox Jews, next to chassidim. It comprises almost a million jews worldwide.
Danoshe – it’s recent if all you read are recent seforim.
The mechaber, for one example, was referred to as “mofes hador” by many contemporaries including the maharal and others .
“Peer hador” is also commonly used in seforim; those terms were given to the rambam, mechaber, rashi, ri migash, rif and others.
Don’t believe the MO writers who stress change and reform, but take the payos out and claim “tradition! Above all, tradition!” When if comes to things they don’t like.
AAQ, the gemara doesn’t criticize ravina there – lots of behaviors of tzadikim look strange upon first glance…amoraim used to marry a woman for a day or two if they were traveling to save themselves from hirhurim – these actions require the same scrutiny that we give their maamarim
I’m basing it mainly on the dismissal of a halachik concept because she had a kasha on it; that’s not something one would do if they had even a rudimentary training in basic 7th grade gemara.
I’ve yet to see a “shtikel torah” by a female author that isn’t divrei havai – i actually have to mention that i realize that that’s what you’re referring to when you said shtus…
Creating a situation where torah will be made into divrei havai is assur because of kovod hatorah; men might do the same, but they’re obligated, so they’re onsim if they do so
Venerated? Yes. Accepted as halachik authority? That never happened even among ashkenazim, with chasidim having their own poskim (rav vozner, rav chatzkel roth, etc) and litvishe in America having their own (rav dovid feinstein, rav belsky, and dozens more). That aforementioned veneration manifests in their words setting a tone for daas torah, in attitude and hadracha, but not in particular p’sak.
תפלות doesn’t mean shtus… It means immorality, and if it weren’t a big deal, the rambam wouldn’t use the expression “tzivu chachamim”.
The bedieved applies to torah shebichsav, which the rambam says is not keilu melamda tiflus – but lechatchila even that he says not to. We’re in a bedieved situation, so the gedolim held that torah she bichsav is alright and even important in our times.
This distinction, in an open rambam, is somehow lost on the many discussions that are had about this issue
The steipler in letters originally referred to the maharals golem as “yadua”, but when some doubts were raised, he later referred to it as “omrim olov”
I once went through a book of “women’s halacha issues by women” who are self styled talmudists
It contained material that would get one laughed out of a 1st year beis medrash
someone saying that they “know gemara” is usually a pretty clear indication that their concept of it is “something about two guys holding on to a talis which they divide” or “something about an egg being laid on yom tov”
Add that to the above inability to distinguish between a kashya and halachik jurisprudence, and….
Yehudis, halacha doesn’t change because we don’t understand it lr have a kashya on it. What I meant was that gemara and meforshim routinely ask earth shattering questions which undermine initial understandings or raise clear contradiction – women are generally more “nispa’al” from this because they’re not hsed to it from learning gemara.
I don’t believe you have the ability to read through an entire piece in reb akiva aiger; nor do the vast majority of male posters here.
I’m not going to cry over others’ misbehaviors; if I were a tzadik I would, but I’m more concerned with my own issues.
Why not ask it in the form of a question, instead of being cynical and disrespectful?
Happens to be a good question in theory, but not in practice because Hashem promised not to destroy the world again. You might not be familiar with gemara(i hope this is this the case) but we ask probing questions all the time which seem to destroy all of our understanding in a mishnah etc… But the gemara doesn’t dismiss the mishnah because of a question. It answers it! Your question deserves an answer, but your attitude doesn’t
Where does it say that the golem is invisible? There are shailos in poskim if you can count one for a minyan…
The baba sali represented a combination of toras hanigleh venistar; he was a rosh yeshiva and a mekubal. Very often acheinu bnei hasfardim and many others are enticed by someone in a white cape who looks mystical and is said to have performed nissim. They will throw money at the chance to be told that their awaited yeshua is within their reach…as long as they reach deeper into their pockets.
The baba sali was the real deal
Anom, it’s amazing how not bitter and not entitled you are at that predicament… It’s truly amazing; most people would be fuming at their mother in law and want their husband to go to work under such circumstances
Ujm, chasidim have a system which is so much less stressful, and doesn’t result in emotional disturbances – halevai we can do things that way, but in the meantime, sensitivity is necessary
It’s really sad that no one is being the least bit sympathetic; shidduchim can be very painful; it can make a person feel rejected.
Gadolha; I don’t think many litvishe react negatively to a visibly sefardi yid saying shabbat shalom, especially if they have a aefardi or Israeli accent.
I share the consternation that many have with ashkenazi jews using the American sefardi-esque pronunciation that takes the chisronos of both the ashkenaz and sefardi pronunciations, attempting to make Hebrew as easy as possible. Most MO people are ashkenaz and should be differentiating between a hard/soft tav, komatz/pasach, tzeirei/segol and others.
It’s also frustrating to see people sound the same as irreligious jews who went to hebrew after school programs.
There are times that I feel I need to become reacclimated to a pen – the vast majority of what I write is electronic; grading papers is one of the only things I do by hand.
Torah mitoch hadchak; you’re one of the pillars of the world – you have one of the biggest bank accounts in shomayim that’s possible. Ashreich vetov lach!!
I’ve been there several times, and it’s not always as easy as “well they weren’t your bashert, so be thankful and move on!” which conbines the oft quoted attitudes of the previous replies. There is a lot of pain in uncertainty, a spectre of “is there something wrong with me?” which if allowed to fester can be very harmful. It can also make you gunshy, because you might think “I thought everything was great the last time, and look what happened!”.
In my experiences, it’s usually something simple that the other side determined to be a deal breaker; something they needed on their checklist which wasn’t met. Sometimes there are facets of a person’s personality that the other side determined would bother them too much. Not giving a reason for them is preferable to having to say something potentially insulting. There can also be an exterior reason, such as a family member acting irrational (this happens quite often) based on some hunch or intuition.
Your “radar” isn’t out of sync; men and women are extremely different, and women are often very good at concealing how they feel about something or someone. There aren’t always signs to read or cues to pick up on.
**that should have said “paternal”, not patriarchal; indirect exposure to wokeness got into my head apparently
I disagree with the poster above who said that rav moshe’s psak would not apply to “heintegeh” therapists. While it’s true that therapists were more patriarchal and directive in previous decades, and would impose their beliefs on their patients, the issues aren’t limited to such extreme problems. As rav moshe wrote, they will advise *sometimes* to violate something – anything – in torah. Even if the therapist is very supportive of the personal beliefs of their patients, there are a ton of pitfalls in which a therapist who means well can damage a client. Imagine a client is beset with guilt over aveiros, and says he wants to give up and just keep doing them, the therapist will feel it’s healthy to encourage them to engage in aveiros that the psychology field would consider healthy. The therapist might suggest watching a movie to destress. He might validate hashkofa problems a client has and encourage them to “find their own way”. These are but a few examples.
Common; this is one of the rare times that we are on exactly the same page – very good post!
Gadolha, definitely – the tanya makes note of that in perek 5 (i think), where he differentiates between secular pursuits that are leshem shomayim (which include what you mention as distraction/mental health) and those which are not
Gadolha, check out the lashon of the chinuch (brought in the mishnah berurah lehalacha) ובכלל זה שלא לרדוף אחר תאוות העולם הזה כי אחריתם רעה וכדי בזיון וקצף mitzvah 387.
Biur halacha, siman 1, on the 6 mitzvos temidios –
והקובע את מחשבתו בעניינים הגשמיים ובהבלי העולם שלא לש”ש רק להתענג ולהשיג כבוד ביטל עשה זו ועונשו גדולNeither source seems to indicate that the issur is only when one loves the other thing more than Hashem.
The chinuchs second piece in the same mitzvah – , כלומר שהוא רודף אחר תאוות העולם כגון שהוא משים לבו תמיד להרבות תענוגים גדולים לנפשו מבלי שיכון בהן כלל לכוונה טובה, כלומר שלא יעשה כדי שיעמוד בריא ויוכל להשתדל בעבודת בוראו, רק להשלים נפשו בתענוגים, כל מי שהוא הולך בדרך זה עובר על לאו זה תמיד בכל עת עסקו במה שאמרנו.
This seems to say that the issur is when one is תמיד, which is relative – an argument can be made to say he means like you, but I’m not convinced of it. Tamid sometimes means once a day; here it can mean the same thing – the main thing is the kavanah; if someone natural enjoys food; gezunterheit, just don’t make a huge deal over it and make big plans as to how to enjoy the most that you can.
To ujm’s point; one who cultivates a love of the pleasures of olam hazeh not for Hashem(as in, not for shabbos, y”t, simchas) violates lo sasuru, and an issur asei of veahavta es Hashem, because he’s loving something else… The sefer hachinuch writes this and ends off “veonsho gadol”
Ubiq; teaching is probably the most time consuming job possible – you always take your work home with you, and spend hours preparing…you don’t just walk in like a regular 9-5 job, do your work, come home to a supper, daven up a daf yomi and fo to bed.
Due to the low pay, having the sunmer “off” is quite far from a vacation; all rebbeim have to take summer jobs.
I’d much rather a system where rebbeim have to work in, say curriculum development over the summer and get paid decently than the way things are now.
If anything, it’s your post that is entirely making things up, casting chinuch as an east street profession – I find it insulting as someone who is in the trenches, constantly dealing with parents, lesson plans, grading, planning events and much more.
What I said isn’t “against the gemara” any more than is the cherem of rabbeinu gershom – yeridas hadoros happens, practicality has to be changed to reach the same goals. You’re probably fine with women learning gemara because “times change” even though the gemara is against it – there it’s changing not lishma, and here it’s changing as ais laasos lasehm heferu torasecha.
AAQ; most who go to work don’t go off, but a significant amount do, and a much bigger amount have a yeridah. It’s kind of the opposite of the situation of the gemara; yechidim can stay very strong while working, while most develop spiritual deficiencies – of course they were already having problems, but being in kolel would have held them back from many things. I’m talking about what I’ve seen happen to my friends who left Yeshiva early – I’m not talking at all about yungeleit who go to work after 5 years in kolel; almost all of such people I know of turned out fine, albeit a drop less idealistic.
It has a multi purpose function; it definitely produces klei kodesh etc, but the reason why it’s encouraged for everyone is what I said above; this is based on conversations with numerous gedolei yisroel over the years.
AAQ, currently a great number of those who claim to want to follow rebbe yishmoel go off entirely or partially in trying to do so, while almost none of their learning counterparts do.
The kolel system is meant to maintain frumkeit and produce jews who are yodea sefer, on the level of baalei batim of previous generations
I was close to a certain tzadik who was not rich, but ended up on the list of gevirim that meshulachim would visit. He said that he ends every month with about 1/5 left of all the money he makes from his positions in kashrus and his being a rosh yeshiva. I’m not mentioning his name because he didn’t want it to be publicized.
Ujm, are you saying that it should scale based on income – that rich people should give a higher percentage of their income than others? Where do we find that? Chazal say to give 1/5, or just 1/10 for maaser kesafim.
Random; is there a difference between one lost Jewish life and 20? It’s true that many… Many victims of abuse commit suicide. That doesn’t give the right to people to cause others to do the same, and it won’t bring the deceased victims back to life. It might make them feel good that there’s justice, but how satisfying is it in the long run? The damage has been done, and it takes immense personal struggle, effort and siyata dishmaya to overcome it.
שב ועל תעשה עדיף is how I feel when faced with such an issue; I am not qualified to pasken dinei nefashos – I’ll leave it up to those who are to decide.
**and it’s not in the sanctuary
Common; that psak is the same as many old shailos about events held in reform/conservative temples. The general rule is that you can go there if it’s necessary as long as it’s not during prayer times.
I hate to say it, but this post and another from a few months ago really seem to be expressing an urge to associate with irreligious Jews. As has been pointed out, we all know “neuroatypical” (to use the new expression) individuals who live in the community and who are known to be such; they can’t exactly hide it. Try davening at different shuls; you’ll find people who have autism if you look hard enough.
I had a friend in high school who was missing his left hand due to a birth defect. Everyone knew but he was still a normal part of the group; he didn’t walk around with a t-shirt that said “I’m disabled” – instead he taught himself, somehow, to play basketball (he was actually quite good) and other things… He didn’t want his identity to be defined by his disability, and he was successful at doing so.