Forum Replies Created
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GotAGoodPoint,
“How do we know that זה refers to matza & marror, and means by night, maybe it refers to the קרבן פסח and זה applies already by day.”
I’m not sure I understand your question. The korban pesach is slaughtered during the day on the 14th of Nissan, but it is eaten by night with matzos and maror. So wouldn’t the time that זה refers to be night by the korban pesach as much as with matzos and maror?
jackk,
You’re not even bothering to rewrite the talking points in your own words anymore. Out of curiosity, what is your goal here on this forum? I personally do not fit into a political box and like to have a back and forth with other posters, but in our few interactions you seem incapable or unwilling to do so.
huju,
“I sense that Gadolha and Common Saychel have doubts about Chabad’s readiness to raise a minyan. And yet Common S tells us Chabad did help him/her raise a minyan.”
He did not tell us that – he said that he posted on godaven. From my personal experiences with far-flung Chabad houses, making a daily minyan is not one of their biggest priorities. I’m sure the shaliach will try to help if requested, but you should ask what the chances are of success.
I was in the Smokies a couple of summers ago on the NC side of the park and was pleasantly surprised to encounter more than one other frum family during our stay. I had never seen other frum people there before on previous trips. Chol Hamoed is probably a bit tougher to swing given the distance from frum communities (Atlanta is probably the closest and is several hours away).
mdd1,
“The bodies could have been planted.”
You should apologize to kollelman.
“Also some rogue Russian soldiers may have committed crimes”
Of course, nobody is disputing that.
“but not the execution of a lots of people”
How do you know? Did you go to Ukraine and conduct surveillance?
“and also not as a policy of the Russian army.”
It doesn’t have to be an official military or government policy to be a war crime. Most likely the specific atrocities we’re reading about in the news now are largely a result of poor training, poor discipline, poor logistics forcing Russian soldiers to forage for food among a hostile populace, poor morale, and rage over the high number of casualties they’re taking.
“Look at the news — there are alleged Ukrainian atrocities against Russian POWs dating back to March 30 and so on. “
Yes, there are Ukrainians committing likely war crimes as well, including poisoning Russian soldiers, and abusing or executing POWs. Maybe Russia can appeal to the ICC.
mdd1,
“it implies exactly what i wrote. One is not prohibited from bombing a hospital or a school if there are enemy combatants there unless excessive force is used,”
You’re weaving quite the web of fantasy in order to defend your position. First you posit that Ukrainian soldiers were present near the hospital. That may be so, but there’s no evidence of it. Then you posit that whatever imagined Ukrainian solders that were there had a significance to the Russian war effort that justified shelling a maternity hospital. So maybe Ukrainian soldiers found a nuclear warhead lying around and were preparing to lob it at Moscow from the roof of the hospital, and Russia only had a few artillery pieces within range to prevent the attack. This is quite the leap of faith.
Given that Russia has a supply of precision guided weapons in its arsenal that can be used against the Ukrainian military in urban combat, I think the case that firing artillery shells into heavily populated areas near (or at) highly sensitive civilian locations constitutes a war crime is fairly strong. But the hospital and theater shelling are not even what has generated the recent accusations of war crimes. It’s the evidence of mass killings of civilians in the Kyiv suburbs. What’s your spin on that?
ujm,
“The ICC has no jurisdiction to indict or request extradition of any parties or state nationals, that committed any gruesome acts outside any jurisdiction not party to the ICC.”
Your statement is factually incomplete. The ICC nominally has jurisdiction only in respect to its signatory nations, but a nation that is not part of the court can still grant the ICC jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute potential war crimes committed within its own territory. Ukraine has done so, and the ICC has already opened an investigation. And yes they can in fact indict Russian citizens. Now, Russia and the US maintain that even if indicted the ICC has no jurisdiction over their own citizens, unless it is authorized by the UN Security Council, where of course both the US and Russia hold veto power. So it’s unlikely that any indictments from the ICC will have much effect on Russian civilians, but that’s quite different than what you are saying.
And again, all of this is an irrelevant smokescreen, because whether or not the ICC can successfully prosecute someone for a war crime does not affect the definition of a war crime.
ujm,
“Russia is not party to the Rome Statute of the ICC and its rules are not international law binding upon non-signatories.”
Russian individuals can still be accused of war crimes and arrest warrants issued, even if Russia refuses extradition or recognition of the court. A special tribunal can also be initiated specific to the conflict in Ukraine. But at the end of the day your point is irrelevant – not recognizing an international court does not redefine what a war crime is.
mdd1,
“If enemy combatants take up positions in or near a hospital, you are allowed to fire at them. You have to learn the laws of warfare to know what constitutes a war crime.”
It’s weird that you’re lecturing me about a need to learn the laws of warfare – what exactly are your bonafides, and what do you know of mine? It seems to me that you are making things up as you go along your quest to defend Russia.
From Article 8 (War Crimes) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, we see the following defined as war crimes:
Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated.
Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives.
So no, you can’t just blast away at a hospital or civilian shelter or obliterate towns because enemy soliders may be operating nearby. And the hospital attack is hardly the only evidence of war crimes. The heightened accusations of war crimes leading to this thread have come up after finding executed civilians in the Kyiv suburbs vacated by Russian forces. There have also been reports of Ukrainian civilians poisoning Russian soldiers – this would also be considered a war crime.
“Russia also has a number of reasons/justifications for their invasion.”
This is absurd. Since when do “justifications” permit crimes?
“You and others here were to quick to swallow the Western/Ukrainian propaganda.”
Well, jackk thinks I’m a Putin apologist, and you think I swallow Ukrainian propaganda. I must be on the right track!
jackk,
“Putin, his regime and many members of the Russian Army are guilty of war crimes in Ukraine on a scale not seen in decades.”
This is a fairly Western ethnocentric viewpoint. The war crimes in Ukraine are heinous, but are small in comparison to the Rwandan genocide and the subsequent Second Congo War (a continent-sized conflict involving at least 9 countries), which brutally killed millions. The Syrian civil war was also far more deadly and rife with war crimes, as was the Janjaweed’s campaign of horror in Darfur. Don’t forget that there are seven continents on this planet, and Africa and Asia are far bigger than Europe.
“This never was about invading Ukraine but a complete genocide of the people living in Ukraine.”
Russia is certainly committing war crimes and atrocities against civilians, including mass killings, but a genocide is different. When you make wildly unfounded statements, you provide an opening for Russian propaganda, as can be seen in this thread already.
mdd1,
“2cents, did you support the US invasions of Iraq and Afganistan, the Israeli invasion of Gaza and bombings of Lebanon? Plenty of civilians were killed there etc.”
I disagree that the US and Israeli campaigns are at all comparable to Russia’s invasion and war against Ukraine. The US campaign against Afghanistan was a direct response to the 9/11 terror attack, and Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon was in response to a violent cross-border attack that killed and captured Israeli soldiers, and cross-border shelling. The US war against Iraq had much less justification, though Iraq was failing to cooperate with nuclear inspections. In all three of those campaigns, however, precision munitions were primarily utilized by the US and Israel. These weapons are much more expensive than conventional artillery and are designed to hit the intended target accurately while minimizing collateral damage. The US and Israeli armed forces were also working to limit their attacks to military targets, and took responsibility and corrective actions after mistakes. Israel would even “knock” on buildings it was about to hit, giving advance warning to those inside to get out beforehand. Israeli and US soldiers are well trained, well organized, and have a robust disciplinary system in place where soldiers are accountable for their behavior.
In contrast, Russia has relied primarily on less accurate conventional artillery in urban areas, has applied scorched earth tactics rather than precision strikes against legitimate military targets, has appeared to deliberately target civilian residences, hospitals, and shelters, and has poorly trained and poorly disciplined soldiers that have rampaged against defenseless civilians to vent their wrath over staggeringly high numbers of casualties due to their poor training, discipline, and the tactical decisions of their “superior” officers.
jews4biden,
“Religions seem to be the same as cults, but everyone goes crazy about cults, and most people (except atheists) are pro religion?”
The term “cult” does not have a cut and dry definition. In older usage, it may describe a group within a broader religious tradition that focuses its devotion on a particular religious ritual or figure, such as Catholic cults dedicated to certain saints. In modern English usage, however, it is a pejorative used against people who think things you don’t like. Thus, secular people hostile towards religious belief may label all religions as cults, while religious believers may label those who hold beliefs they are opposed to as cultists. Not all accusations of being a cult or a person being a cult leader are religious in nature (Exhibits A and B: Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci, depending on your political views).
How I personally define it: a cult is a group of people with complete devotion to a charismatic leader, where the leader exercises almost complete control over his/her followers’ lives. Cultists usually will break off contact with family and friends at the behest of this leader, will give him complete control of their finances, their children, where they live, etc. By this definition, a cult would be avoda zara for Jews, as it involves the worship of a human being, whether or not the cult is based on religion. Unlike ujm, I would not call those who worship a dead man a cult, as the dead have no power to control others, though such worship is still avoda zara. However, cults can form when a person claims the mantle of a dead figure that others worship and uses that claim to control them.
commonsaychel,
Did I say asking shailos of a posek is wrong? Stop being a troll.
commonsaychel,
“then why ask a halacha lmishya question to a bunch of ramdom people online instead of asking your rav who paskens your shalos.”
You’re doing the coffeeroom all wrong.
TS Baum,
“Any normal person doesn’t eat pizza between meals! It is the meal!”
This may be partly a generational thing. When I was younger and my parents would pick up a pizza for dinner, my grandfather A”H would insist that other things like pasta, salad, and bread get ordered as well, because as he’d say, “pizza is not dinner, it’s dessert!”
Anecdote aside, in 2014 the USDA released a survey called “What We Eat in America”, and a document specifically on pizza called “Consumption of Pizza.” Remarkably, on any given day, 1 out of 8 Americans ate pizza. And as far as the breakdown on the type of eating, around 10% of the pizza consumed in America is done so as a snack. So yes the majority of pizza eating is done at mealtimes, but maybe over 4 million pizza snacks occur each day in this nation.
WolfishMusings,
Indeed, and moving to DST year round will make global warming much worse too 😝
Always_Ask_Questions,
“most world cities have poorer East due to prevailing westerly wind, so eastern of two nearby towns will be more polluted”
This only holds in the midlatitudes.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“How is a circle on your hand with 2 sticks, or numbers on your computer, materially affect your life?!”
So the problem is not that we Yidden care about the circle with 2 sticks, we don’t. However, the goyishe bossman does, and tells us to be seated in our fuzzy-walled cells interacting with the glowing rectangle in the morning by the time the short stick is pointing left and is orthogonal to or at an obtuse angle to the longer stick pointing straight up. And now they’re proposing to advance the rotational cycle of these sticks during the cold season so that they reach the bossman’s allotted time too early to daven shacharis.
“I’ll try tomorrow telling my wife that I’ll be home at mincha gedola and I hope to be able to report the results of this experiment.”
I bet it’d go over better in December than in June.
“what does everybody think of this”
I saw in the media that the sleep “–>Experts®™©<—” [insert gong and angelic choir sounds] have said that eliminating the bi-annual transitions is a good thing, but that we should go to full-year standard time, not daylight time, as the former is better for sleep. Sorry folks, but Science hath Spoken, and thou must Believe in the capital-S Science and Listen to the Experts, for anyone who dost not obeyeth is a heretic and must be banned from public life. Shuls should check the watches of mispallelim at the door and turn away any who have their watches set an hour ahead of standard time, for they have had less sleep and are more likely to get into accidents and are a clear and present danger to society.
Keep midday Noon!
Always_Ask_Questions,
“I apologize if I offended you or someone else.”
I confess that I was bothered initially by what you wrote, and that may well be my own problem. But just in case I am mochel you, and I hope nothing I have written has caused you pain or offense. I know we’ve disagreed sharply at times, and I try hard to focus on what we’ve written and not say anything personal, but I may not always succeed.
Always_Ask_Questions,
Thank you for sharing those sources. They seem to fall into two distinct categories:
1. It is forbidden to call one’s parents by their names.
2. How to handle disagreeing with your parentsAviraDeArah’s hypothetical child certainly didn’t violate #1. Did he violate anything in #2? He didn’t disagree with any position held by his father, nor did he affirm his father’s words. In fact, the hypothetical father stated no opinions whatsoever, nor did the child. He simply asked a question: did you ever get that garment checked? It says wool on the label. The source you brought that has the closest relevance to AviraDeArah’s example was the Prisha: “But if there is definite proof that a mistake was made in religious matters, then one is obligated to point this out.” Not getting a wool garment checked for shatnez is a mistake in halacha which led to a clear and definite violation of halacha in AviraDeArah’s hypothetical. Perhaps you can say the son was not sure, but the son did not disagree or level an accusation against the father, or “correct him” as you wrote – he asked a question! Did you get this garment checked?
You leveled some serious charges against AviraDeArah due to his example which by even your own sources doesn’t appear to violate any clear issur in kibud av, and then implied that I look for excuses to get out of observing mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro when I defended AviraDeArah from what I thought was unwarranted and harsh criticism. I think it’s possible you’re reading way more into the example than was actually there.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“I don’t want to throw quotations at you, I suggest you yourself look up halochos of talking to a parent and tell us how this matches.”
By all means, bring ’em!
“But as usual, somehow the first instinct in bein adam l’havero is to find an excuse why not. Not healthy.”
So explain to me how you can frequently assume the worst about people and then lecture them about bein adam l’chaveiro?
Always_Ask_Questions,
“speaking respectfully with your parent is as basic halakha as keeping shabbos.”
What is considered respectful and what is not is highly subjective and depends on the parent and child in question. I did not find AviraDeArah’s wording to be disrespectful. Some may find “ta” rather than “totty” to be disrespectful, but Avira’s father may not. It seems that you’re more interested in the fun of trying to hit Avira from the right, so I’ll join the fun. How could you give an example of a child referring to his father in the 2nd person as an example of respectful speech? There are children in some Jewish families who wouldn’t dream of such chutzpah! You should have written, “Totty, how is shatnez checked in a bekesha?”
“Your kid should have just switched it off first, of course.”
You’d want your kid to walk into a kitchen that is ON FIRE to turn off the stove? I’d want my kid out of the house as quickly as possible.
Here’s the thing: Avira and I both brought stories in an attempt to show that nobody is perfect, mistakes happen even with the best intentions, and the right thing to do is to correct the mistake and keep moving forward and not let yourself become derailed – while also saying that it’s possible that no mistake was made at all. I’m not sure why that message bothers you, but by Avira’s story you went off on a tangent about how kids these days become frummer than their parents and disrespect their mitzvah observance. Perhaps that’s a worthy topic to be discussed separately, but how is it relevant here? And furthermore, Avira’s story was talking about wearing straight up shatnez, not a chumra such as gebrochts that might cause a child to stop eating at his parents house. So the tangent was not only irrelevant, but inappropriate to the example.
As for my house-on-fire story, my point is that there are times for polite obfuscation, but there are also times that true respect calls for a shorter and more direct statement. If I’m about to accidentally put a piece of bacon in my mouth thinking it was kosher corned beef, I hope my kids stop me directly rather than blathering about how they learned in school that bacon was unkosher, or how to tell bacon from corned beef while I’m eating it. Their misguided “respect” would have caused me to unintentionally sin!
WolfishMusings,
Are you still reading this thread?
coffee addict,
“I’m joking, but in essence Hashem looks into our kavanah”
Maskim.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“As kids “learn” to be “better” than their parents, then most of parents’ mitzvos will be found to be pasul”
It would be the height of nachas for my children to exceed my levels of avodas Hashem, and like I huff and puff after them while they play now, I daven to have the strength to huff and puff after them in spiritual growth then.
“A chachan, or even a tam, son should have said – Ta, how do you check bekeshas? Or, I learned today that bekeshas need to be checked.”
So the other day I left a stove burner on, and the kitchen caught fire. My child came to me and said, “Ta, I learned in cheider how important it is to make sure nothing is left next to the stove.” I said, “that’s a nice safety lesson, kol hakavod!” He paused, then said, “Ta, can you show me how to turn a burner off on the stove?” I said, “sorry my dear, I’m working right now and I don’t think you’re ready to do things on the stove.” He paused again, and then said, “Ta, can you show me how to use the fire extinguisher?” I said, “why do you ask?” And then we both collapsed from smoke inhalation. Just kidding like coffee addict, thank G-d. But I don’t think Avira’s wording was necessarily rude given the situation in his hypothetical.
WolfishMusings,
“So, by doing so, for years, I have been mechalel Shabbos every time I davened for the amud on Shabbos mincha.”
Did you read the rest of AviraDeArah’s post?
Even if it turns out to be 100% hachanah and assur, or worse, the bookmark sent wireless signals to a remote controlled robot programmed to start every car in the parking lot, chop and gather wood, and sort all your kids’ lego by color when placed in contact with the first page of the weekday maariv, I think you’ve received a blessing with your realization. We are supposed to keep growing and improving ourselves, and you have an opportunity to do just that with a very small but meaningful act.
There’s a well known story of a chossid who had a precious set of tefillin written by a renowned sofer, who was makpid to get them checked frequently. When he was elderly, a routine check revealed something that meant the tefillin were always possul, like a misspelled word or something. His family expected him to be crushed – he was so proud of and careful with the mitzvah of tefillin, and now it’s become clear that he’s never fulfilled it properly in his entire life! Instead, he started dancing. He told his family that, no, he was not out of his mind. But rather, for some reason, it had been ordained that he not get the merit of fulfilling the mitzvah of tefillin, but Hashem had now given him the opportunity to do so before he left this world.
ujm,
“there’s a chiyuv to get stone drunk on Purim?”
What does stone drunk mean? Throwing up? Needing to go to the ER for alcohol poisoning? Passing out and missing maariv? Missing shacharis the next morning because of a hangover?
Always_Ask_Questions,
“this year you can’t fulfil it on Stoli from moris ayn.”
You can’t fulfill it on hard liquor any year. We drink wine, as wine was involved in our salvation. Esther did not invite Achashveirosh to a vodka party.
Syag Lchochma,
“and your attempts to be extreme for it’s own sake continue”
He’s not trying to be extreme. He had a bit much to drink one Purim and couldn’t tell the difference between Hebrew letters and Greek, so he inadvertently spent 20 years learning in a college fraternity house thinking it was Yeshiva.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“this thread should be useful for economists to track inflation (or affluence of Yidden). Assuming 2% inflation for 10 years and 10% last year, the price is still 30% higher. So, B’H, Yidden are ready to pay for mitzvos.”
Brand and location also play a big role in the price.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“Rav suggested not to refuse at all, but “give a dollar”. Then, I realized why he is always getting money out of the same drawer to give – this is where he had single dollars.”
I think this is an excellent practice.
Artscroll is crisp, clear, and easy to follow, and the siddurs are well made with strong paper and a binding that can take years of use yet allows you to lay the siddur open flat on a table and keep your page. I davened from the Yitzchak Yair until several years ago when I switched to…
Siddur Tefillas Shai. It matches Artscroll’s crisp clearness, and uses a beautiful, unassuming font that’s my favorite I’ve seen. Unlike my argument here, I have completely come around to having vehi noam tucked right into the weekday maariv before aleinu. The binding is strong, but unfortunately it doesn’t lay flat so well, so I lose my page when gathering the tzitzis for Shema. Also, only the tiny 5″ size is seemingly still in print. I managed to get a larger version a year ago, and hopefully over time it will start to lie flat on the table or shtender. This is my favorite siddur at the moment. Other than not lying flat, my only quibble is that some of the text is very small, which is difficult to read in poor lighting.
Aliyos Eliyahu – I grab this siddur in shul when I don’t have my own on hand. It has large, readable text, and stretches letters rather than spacing to achieve column uniformity, similar to a sefer Torah, which is a fun touch. It uses a different, neat looking font for pesukim, which clearly identifies them. It also lies perfectly flat on the table or shtender. It follows the nusach of the Gra, so there are some differences from how I daven nusach Ashkenaz.
Tefillas Kol Peh – I have a pocket sized version. It has an old fashioned feel to it which is nice, and I like the font, though sometimes words run together with no spacing. Rightwriter mentioned how the font size changes from paragraph to paragraph, and this feature is really nice in some places such as enlarging the 4th brachos in each of the Shabbos tefillos, but on the downside there are a lot of important tefillos that get squeezed in with tiny, hard to read font sizes, even paragraphs of krias Shema. Also, while I understand space saving, I personally don’t like when mincha and maariv are squished together with the ashrei of mincha spread out over like 10 pages with 2 lines on each page, with maariv underneath. Others may prefer this.
For someone new to davening, I would recommend Artscroll’s “Kol Yaakov” English/Hebrew siddur. It’s a lot of page turning, but it includes a bunch of helpful instructions (where/how to bow, when to say amein or not, etc.) and it marks out the points in each paragraph where the shaliach tzibbur usually picks up. It also marks where the shva na’s are (so do the Yitzchak Yair, Tefillas Shai, and Aliyos Eliyahu).
Always_Ask_Questions,
“I encountered one at a simcha, where there was a specific request to only have vaccinated people (due to a medical condition of the baalas simcha, that many might not have known about) – that, at the time, meant no children. Hundreds of people followed the request, while generally not adhering to any precautions, including ambushing the lady who was trying to avoid that. Then, I see a family with a kid.”
The baalas simcha was in more danger from the hundreds of vaccinated people milling about than the lone kid at the buffet. And honestly I find it hard to believe that you were in attendance at an event with hundreds of people prior to October 2021, when such gatherings were strongly discouraged. Maybe you should’ve stayed home and watched via Zoom.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“I think mandates is a manufactured political topic.”
Incorrect. Mandates are a real life policy implemented by those who have more power on those who have less, and I am asking what your opinion of it is. Sure, politics may be the motivating factor behind the mandates, but it doesn’t make them any less real. You carry yourself as an expert on every single topic under the sun on the CR, with an opinion on each one of them. Why does this question make you wriggle?
“It is an unfortunate side-effect of democracy that politicians are using every issue to their advantage.”
So what do you propose in its stead?
“USA lost 2x more people comparing with similar developed countries, mostly due to slow government and inability of the society to focus on what is important.”
Slow government response I’ll agree with, but not your criticism of “society”. That’s an opinion promulgated primarily on the left, who have tried to blame the citizenry for this virus at every turn. The demographic and societal makeup of the United States is quite different from the European countries you use as a comparison. A few examples: the U.S. has large Hispanic and African American populations, and the risk of hospitalization and death in those communities are roughly twice that of the white, non-Hispanic populations. Access to quality healthcare varies significantly in the U.S. depending on where you live and how much money you have. So perhaps more time should be spent addressing these structural inequalities than screaming at Jews or DeSantis.
Participant,
“I achieve the same thing with about a twelfth of those words.”
Do you yell, “AIYEEEEE!!” and then shoot staples at them?
Always_Ask_Questions,
“I don’t have an opinion on mandates. I am blessed not to be a congressman, a policeman, or a school principal, so I don’t have to make decisions on that.”
Balderdash. You’ve expressed opinions about almost every single topic here on the CR, including many topics that don’t pertain directly to you (e.g., full time learners in kollel). Why the sudden reticence with respect to mandates?
“Enforcing rules is a very delicate area and there are a lot of gemoras discussing whether society will accept, whether people will be confused or negligent as a result.”
Sounds very relevant.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“If you are forced to be in a place with strangers, maybe think about them as family, and count time you are talking with them as [chessed] ( and talk accordingly)”
I agree with you to a point. Greeting people is a mitzva and I think a few minutes at the start of a work day or during breaks exchanging pleasantries with those around you is reasonable, expected by normal managers, and is good for productivity. I think Participant is dealing with frequent interruptions while he is deep in the flow of his work (e.g., when I’m working I call it a coding trance or the coding zone), which not only wastes time during the interaction itself, but also the recovery time afterwards where he has to pick up where he left off. This can be very challenging. I like your idea about putting on headphones, but it seems that Participant’s co-occupants aren’t getting that hint. In that case, I’d add a humorous sign to the back of the chair letting people know you’re busy and would prefer not to be interrupted. One of my favorites I use when working from home came from a cartoon I like: “Hush, I’m coding. You ate yesterday.”
“One of the baalei musar was overheard asking a farmer about his chicken and at the same time murmuring gemora to himself”
Here’s the problem: the vast and overwhelming majority of us do not have the brain power of a gadol, and we cannot effectively do multiple things at once. If I’m thinking about learning or work while trying to talk to someone, either the thoughts or the words coming out of my mouth will end up nonsensical.
Also, I can’t resist asking a question about your consistency in halachic application. I’m wondering why you seem so makpid about the time and resources a learner spends when he is supported, to the point that someone supported in kollel should ask permission to get gas, etc., yet here by an employee who is on the clock, you seem unconcerned about geneiva, even when the OP states that the interruptions are reaching the level of harming his expected productivity.
Always_Ask_Questions,
“I am glad you are getting on board!”
So I take it from this response that you are a supporter of draconian mandates imposed with little to no information on their effectiveness, citizens informing on each other to the authorities to uphold the mandates, groupthink, crushing dissent, and the veneration of a single issue at the expense of all others?