besalel

im with the gatesheader on this one. the definition of marriage, for me, is controlled by the torah and always has been and always will be. what the politicians do with this law has zero effect on my life so why should it bother me?

The idea that you need a mesorah in order to do a mitzvah is one I find quite silly. Put aside everything for a second and think about it. If the Torah says do something then its a mitzvah to do it. It’s really as simple as that.

However, in order to passkin lehalacha that one is obligated to do anything you MUST follow the structure and rules of halacha which may very likely require case precedent. The evidence of techeiles is purely scientific. there are no halachic tools available today to poskim which allow them to weigh this science. Therefore there is no way, without what you call mesorah, to pakin that one must wear techeiles.

Since there is no aveira involved in wear blue and science suggests you are doing a mitzvah then why not take the chance that maybe you are doing one?

Sam: thanks for cite. Interestingly, Rav ovadia holds that sticking your tzitzit out your pants if you are sefaradi can be an issur too.

wandering chana: most sepharadim also refrain from eating chudush. also, the sefaradic standard for glatt is more restrictive than the ashkenazi. also, their stance on bishul askim make most kosher restaurants off limits (although rav ovadia does say that bishul akum may not apply to restaurants at all so sefaradim can rely on us for restaurants). also on peysach, some sefaradim (afghanis and some bukharians and iranians) wont eat sugar, believe it or not, on peysach.

on the other hand, most sefaradim eat gelatin (as permitted by rav ovadia). they eat some kitniyos (there are few sefaradim that eat all kitniyos). sefaradim never considered gebruchs on peysach to be problematic. sefardic poskim allow swordfish while ashkenazi do not. sefaradim eat egg matzo on peysach while ashkenazi refrain.

mamashtakah is absolutely correct but if we were to apply his standard to this place most posts are in violation.

the thing with techeiles is as follows: there are no halachic tools available to poskim to assist them in determining whether one should go out and wear it. the reasons to wear tekheleis are purely scientific.

that being said, it is clear among all poskim that there is no halachic violation in wearing blue non-tekheleis.

The kabbalists, however, caution against wearing blue and believe that in galus we must wear white for kabalistic reasons (something to do with blue bringing middas din on us which we cannot handle in galus).

the kabbalistic interpretation is troubling in some respects as it appears to use kabbalistic reasons to nullify a mitzvah de-orayssa

the kabbalists can maybe be understood to mean that the tekheles is surely not genuine because hashem has a reason to hide it from us.

in any event, since all of us wear blue shirts, suits, socks, etc., we do not live by the words of the kabbalists anyway.

maskunu: there is no way halacha can obligate us to wear it but it does not hurt to do it.

MSS said: “the recent NASI offering which was nausea inducing for many normally very tolerant and easygoing ehrlich people.” AZ, called the statement, “so totally out of line, motzei shem ra, libel.”

I cannot speak for MSS, but most people i have spoken to from a very wide spectrum of the frum velt, indeed, viewed the NASI initiative very harshly. I have heard it been called rishus and a scam, among other terms.

on a personal level, the NASI initiative seems to me – at best- no different than someone brokering kidneys – which most people do indeed get nauseated by, even if they understand the need.

perhaps the initiative is a good one that needs to marketed differently to reduce nausea. maybe we are all judging it harshly because it was presented poorly not because it is really a scam or rishus.

yiddish is not a jewish language it is a foreign language used exclusively by jews. there is a difference.

also, historically, we adopted names from the goyim and “converted” them to judiasm, like alexander, for example.

also, the amoraim were not always known by (or even have) a jewish names.

i have a simple solution: any girl that doesnt get married within 2 years of high school has to give me $20,000. i will invest that money in blue chip stocks and triple a bonds in order to make money off your money. but dont worry, i will absolutely make sure that you can get your money back at any time before you get married. i will then pass your name along to any boy i see whether its the right fit or not because, you see, i have a financial interest in seeing you married. once you get married, the keren is mine (in any event, the money i make from the investment is mine). i keep some of the keren for myself and the rest i give to my friends and family.

radical, huh?

what about zeesha, faigy, blima, and other ashkenazi names which are not jewish names but jews use?

i have little doubt that this dor is by far the worst when it comes to things that are sheketz in the eyes of hashem and that we have long passed the dor hamabul and sodon and ammora in that regard. i also believe we have the most and the greatest torah learning and observancy since the beginning of time, both in terms of sheer number and in terms of quality. we are the most polarized dor since the beginning of time.

health, this is a true story: in one beis din i know intimately, a couple was getting divorced. at the time of the divorce the woman was crying and saying that this was only happening because of one friend of her husband who poisoned her husband to think that he should get a divorce. she cried and cried and cursed this man over and over again. the very next day, we learned that this man was shot and killed on the same day of the divorce by a business relationship that went sour. this happened only a few years ago and i know all of the people involved. i promise you, hashem does not look lightly upon people who ruin families and in time, whether in this world or not, they will get their due.

let hashem get revenge for you.

while i certainly recognize the very valid halachik arguments against organ donation it is comments like the one made by golden mom that make me wonder what int he world has happened to our judaism. to think that we cannot save a life because we will be missing body parts at techiyas hameysim is so far removed from the way the torah wants us to think that it is absolutely scary to imagine that there is a huge chunk of frum yidden that walk around thinking like this.

i used to hink artcroll did more harm than good. i have learned that i was deeply mistaken. i am maskim that artcroll is a valuable tool. in fact, i am leaning towards replacing my jastrow with an artcroll. artcroll certainly has its place in the bais medrash. but that is not the same issue i was addressing.

Learning from an artcroll.

mussarzoger, no one disagrees. simply put, learning nach requires a certain level of maturity which yeshiva boys lack.

gavra at work: i dont think that having the tzibbur participate in the torah education of its community is considered lehitztureych labriyos. the public school system is funded by every homeowner. the catholic schools by every member of the catholic church. if education is a basic right and not a privilege then the community ought to bear some of the responsibility. al achas kamma vekamma torah education is a right and not a privilege. also, see ????? ????? ???? ??? ? wherein the obligation to be mechanen children falls on the parents but also the grandparents and the tzibbur. in fact, the chassidishe communities that truly value torah education already have the tzibbur heavily involved in the chinuch of all of its members and tuition among those communities do not break the backs of the parents.

that being said, we need to be practical. if you can afford to pay tuition, pay it. if you can afford more, pay more. all i am saying is that how much a person earns cannot be the determinitive factor. As an extreme example to make my point: if one person wins a $100 million lottery and never works again in his life, and his shocheyn earns $150,000 annually but is living pay check to pay check we all would agree that the millionaire ought to pay more.

unfortunately, you are right in looking down upon the way we live in brooklyn but that is the way it is. $150,000 doesnt get you that far. as a community, we probably have our priorities all messed up.

in response to simcha613 who stated: “I heard a story of someone with a $150,000 a year salary applying for scholarship”

a family of 7, after taxes your $150,000 becomes about $100,000. you have 4 kids in yeshiva, each one asks for $11,000 meaning you pay $44,000 in tuition. You have rent of about $2500 a month and student loans and credit card debts of about $1000 a month. thats $42,000 a year right there. Car payments and car insurance cuts another $500 a month. there goes another $6,000. 4 shabboses a week cost you another $1000 a month, and there goes another $12,000. and now youre $4000 in the hole. and you have nothing to save so youll never buy a house. you cant afford a babysitter, yet alone a night out so you never go out. we havent even discussed summer camps.

dude, a person making $150,000 may need a scholarship.

i have heard from a number of yeshiva executives that they expect a high earner to set aside 25% of his income to yeshiva tuition. a person making $150,000, thus, should pay $37,500 in tuition. if that person has 4 kids in yeshiva, thats $9,350 per kid which means he needs a scholarship.

i believe the problem does not lie with the high earners. it sometimes lies with those kollel folks who have had their parents/inlaws pay for their homes, supplement their income, pay for their vacations, pay for their cars and end up having a better standard of living than the high earners but then come to the yeshivos expecting to pay nothing for tuition because they are in “klei kodesh.”

AZ makes one good point: time will tell a lot. if the folks at nasi become filthy rich, as they hope, then obviously nasi has filled a void that actually existed. if they fall flat then we learn, in hindsight, where these folks were coming from – just using scare tactics to make money off of people’s fears and weaknesses.

i would add, however, that even if it is a successful program, it would still be quite disgusting from an ordinary person’s point of view. i would compare it to a kidney broker: sure, he provides a very valuable service to people in need but uch, what an awful way to make a dollar.

any way you look at it, the folks behind nasi don’t look good.

We sometimes find erlich looking jews looking to buy chewing gum that is kosher “lechoyl hashitoys” yet are looking to make money that is kosher “afiloo al pi da’as yuchid.” It is never chewing gum that is kosher “afiloo al pi da’as yuchid” but money that is kosher “lochoyl hashitoys.” Maybe the priority there is messed up.

Even if this schtick is kosher according to a certain understanding of a certain pesak of a certain posek isn’t it better that your money be “kasher lechol hashitot?”

Willi, according to rav ovadia, ashkenazim cannot because they hold of “hashma’at kol” and most dryers are pretty noisy, unless youre Milhouse and found a quiet machine. Ashkenazim can only do so in sha’at hadchak circumstances, which would need to be evaluated by your rav. Sefaradim, however, are permitted to do what you describe above.

There is no chiddush here as Rav Ovadia’s son specifically recalls his father’s pask on this exact issue in the exact same manner in Siman Resh Nun Bet of Yalkut Yosef. If you will look there (and i know you won’t) you will see that the psak is not limited to chayalim except for ashkenazim who hold like the rama with regard to “hashma’at kol” in which case it is limited to chayalim.

last time i checked we still held like bet hillel and against bet shamai that “ein melacha bekelim.” In other words, kelim, like washing machines, cannot, by jewish legal definition, commit a melacha. even the inyan that in israel the electric companies are jewish operated and mechaleleh shabbat has been addressed by rav ovadia in the past where he held since the electricity is also generated for permitted uses (like hospitals) it is permitted to derive benefit from it if you are not mechalel yourself, of course.

But it is very very old news. ynet or haaretz, whose editors do not learn, may be susceptible to reporting this as new but i am surprised at yw’s decision to publish this as new.