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You’re not a hypocrite, and it is not “selfish” of you to want to have your own Sefer Torah; on the contrary, it is a Mitzvah, and you are to be commended for what you are doing.
It is a true Kiddush Hashem that you are working on a six-year plan to fulfil this Mitzvah in the best way possible. [Most people never have their own Sefer Torah, instead relying on the Rishonim who say we can fulfil the Mitzvah by purchasing other Seforim.]
The fact that you also plan to lein from your own Sefer on a weekly basis is a marvelous Hidur Mitzvah in Krias HaTorah. At the same time, it is also a tremendous display of Kavod HaTorah that you will make regular use of your Sefer.
I’m sure your friend means well, but I think he’s wrong about this.
“But people blind themselves from and ignore the above Mishna, choosing instead to hang their hat on other Ma’amorei Chazal that they don’t understand … All of this is a טעות which has no basis in the Torah or out of it.”
So everyone from Rav Aharon Kotler through all of today’s Roshei Yeshiva and Roshei Kollel across the globe somehow missed that the entire system to which they’ve devoted their lives has no basis? ALL of them simply ignore a Mishna, and erroneously “hang their hats on Ma’amorei Chazal that they don’t understand?”
Tough sell, to say the least.
The Rambam famously takes the approach you support, but Rov Minyan and Rov Binyan of Gedolei Yisrael for hundreds of years have clearly not paskened like the Rambam.
It’s fine for you to prefer the Rambam’s shita, but there’s obviously more to the sugya than just your opinion based on a Mishna.
If what you really mean is to undermine their credibility, their objectivity, or their sincerity, well, that’s very dangerous territory.
The aggressiveness with which certain people articulate their posts is often in direct proportion to the “am ha’aratzus” in their position.
I usually ignore it, but sometimes…
The Gemara’s exemplary cases of עד אחד נאמן באיסורין are חלב and דם, both of which are חיובי כרת.
Anyway…
The Gemara says that the reason she needs a גט from the second “husband” is that we are concerned that people might assume that she had been divorced from the first husband before marrying the second, so if we allow her to remarry again without a גט משני, they will think we allowed an אשת איש to remarry.
I think the original question is very interesting, and it is not limited to the case of עדות אשה. Any time a person’s testimony is relied upon (such as when my wife prepares and serves dinner, implying that the food is kosher), a similar question can be raised.
I would guess that it is לפני עור בשוגג, but it’s like to do some research.
@MRS PLONY
You are clearly a first class Jew. כל הכבוד.
For context, I am fortunate to have been “FFB”.
“Ba’al Teshuva,” not unlike “Am ha’aretz,” has a very different meaning in the vernacular from what it means in the Torah.
Your anecdotal evidence is not compelling. I obviously don’t know the individual whose story you relate, but I do know numerous Ba’alei Teshuva who are happily married. Many of them married “FFB” spouses. I happen to know a good number of geirim who are married, and a fair portion of them are also married to FFB spouses.
I also know many people who are FFB who – unfortunately – never married.
The protagonist in your story likely has more than just the fact that he’s a Ba’al Teshuva to explain why he wasn’t able to get married.
In my experience, Ba’alei Teshuva are, by and large, fully accepted and integrated into the general Frum community. Sure there are FFB people who can’t get over their own immaturity. There are Ba’alei Teshuva like that as well.
Please don’t paint the entire Frum community with the black brush of hatred.
What @jackk said.
There is no reason the comment section on The Yeshiva World should allow vitriolic personal attacks.
In the parlance of Chabadianity (shout-out to RightJew; I love the term), Reb Shneur zt”l would be called “The Mittler Rosh Yeshiva.”
AAQ, turns out they wanted dinner, too.
Besalel, not everyone who is prosecuted is “railroaded”. Your personal biases notwithstanding, the examples you use illustrate quite clearly that you don’t understand this.
That said, the Trump trial is an outrageous and dangerous abuse of power. I recognize this even though I have never supported Trump.
@coffee addict,
I disagree with your characterization of Democrats as the “אחי” from which Yaakov davened for Hashem to save him.
Eisav as “my brother” is understood to be the devious exploitation of a brotherly relationship to destroy the Torah way of life.
The vast majority of Democrats and Leftists in the United States have no problem with Judaism and its observance. They just want to live their lives.
Freedom of religion is a bedrock principal of Western society, Masterpiece Cakeshop’s ordeal notwithstanding.
Sure there are a few militant fringe kooks who might conspire to attack Torah Judaism by means of trans-discrimination lawsuits, but even they are motivated not by a hatred of Judaism, but by resistance to the regime of ethics and morals which governs the United States, and which they perceive (incorrectly) as hostile to themselves.
[It’s worth noting that the American political right is not without its own fringe kook militants, and these are often more directly anti-Semitic than their counterparts on the Left.]
The fact is that Torah Judaism has thrived in these United States in a manner unparalleled perhaps throughout the entire galus. This has been true under Presidents and Congresses of both parties. It is especially true in New York and New Jersey, two of the most reliably Democratic states in the country.
The assertion that Democrats hate Torah and are out to get us to give up our religion is an insult to the intelligence of any person who spends a minute to think the matter through.
I’ll address the specific policy issues you raise below. First, though, I need to ask:
Do you really think that “Democrats want to stop us from following the Torah?” This assertion is not only without basis, it’s preposterous.
Comments such as these belie, at the very least, an astounding ignorance of history (Jewish history, American history, and world history) and a willful disregard of reality. They also undermine your own credibility, raising the possibility that you do not argue in good faith.
Now, to the issues: There is absolutely zero debate in American politics about the moral question of homosexuality; every American politician across the entire spectrum supports the idea of full equal rights of homosexuals. Even the question of same-sex marriage was only about whether the specific term “marriage” should be limited to heterosexual couples. Everyone agreed that all the rights and privileges of marriage should be extended to same-sex couples in a legal union. Conservatives (and, until about 2010, even many on the Left) just wanted that union to be recognized under a different name.
Likewise, virtually nobody in the country takes a view on abortion which would be in accordance with the Torah. The most extreme right-wing positions allow for abortion in the first six weeks of pregnancy, or in cases of rape or incest. Both Right and Left allow abortion contrary to the Torah; the difference between them on this question is quantitative, not qualitative.
It would be fairly easy to make the case that Democrat policies are generally more charitable and concerned with the welfare of all people, which is more consistent with Torah values than Republican policies which are more aligned with Midas Sedom. This is just one example of how Democrats can be said to be closer to the Torah than Republicans.
I understand the counterarguments on all of these issues. But that’s exactly the point; this is an American political issue, not a Torah debate.
Good bump, thank you.
I think it’s a very mixed bag.
There are undoubtedly many people who learn more than they otherwise would, thanks to the popularity of Daf Yomi.
There are also many people who learn less than they otherwise would, both in quality and in quantity, due to the fact that they “do the daf.”
I doubt that DY today looks anything like what RMS (or whoever, I’m not getting involved in that argument) envisioned.
I do think that the commercialization of DY (and all of its spinoffs) is, on net, a detriment to the society of Bnei Torah.
We have converted a notionally beautiful concept into a vehicle for promoting hedonism and self-interest.
It seems to me that The Siyum© is a most egregious example of using the Torah as a kardom lachpor bo.
Sure, anyone can appeal to authority to shut me down, but I challenge anyone who would like to have a real discussion to disagree on the merits instead.
Jackk, I have never supported Trump, and I still don’t.
That said, my larger point was that ALL of American politics is just that – American politics, and nothing more. No American political affiliation is inherently consistent with the Torah, and no American political affiliation is inherently opposed to the Torah.
A coherent Torah argument can be made to support voting for just about any American politician, including Trump, Biden, et al.
Coffee addict, it could be that the OP meant if you vote for Democrats in the coming elections.
My main point in all of this is that it’s a terrible mistake for Torah Jews to identify themselves in their hearts as Republicans or Democrats, or, indeed, even as Americans. This leads to an inevitable distortion of values.
@lakewhut,
1. The idea that both parties’ platforms are at odds with Hashkofas haTorah, and that therefore the frum community should vote in its own best interest is a legitimate position (albeit one with which I personally disagree).
2. Many frum people who are registered as Democrats (and / or who vote for Democrats) do so because they consider the Democratic platform more in line with Hashkofas haTorah (YES, this is an eminently defensible position, again, despite the fact that I disagree).
@coffee addict, you should read the OP again; it clearly vilifies “Democrat Jews” (sic), along with anyone who “vote[s] Democrat.”I happen to be a registered Republican, but I know some very fine and ehrliche Yidden who are Democrats, some of whom are genuine Talmidei Chachamim whose erudition, I suspect, far surpasses that of anyone posting in the CR.
The premise of this thread is vile.
Matzah baker is a highly specialized job, and all of the big bakeries use only very experienced bakers. Even most private Chaburos hire professionals for that position.
The matzos are laid flat in the oven. The slightly convex shape of your matzah is a result of the intense heat in the oven causing the middle of the dough to rise. I don’t know why this doesn’t happen with machine matzos; I would guess that it has to do with the fact that hand matzos are thinner in middle, while machine matzos have uniform thickness.
We were together with family for Pesach, in a group of close to 100 people. As such, we had many, many boxes of matza, from several different brands.
On average, there were about five or six matzos per pound, of which one to three were broken.
We had no problem providing sufficient whole matzos for each family unit to have its own lechem mishneh for all of the meals, including ne’ilas hachag.
Broken matzos are perfectly useful for all other intents and purposes, and so are completely dissimilar to wine glasses and most other products.
Bottom line is, I’d rather get half my matzos broken in the box than pay extra for more secure packaging. There is almost no value lost in a broken matza.
I get it; people like to kvetch. Go ahead and kvetch! I just think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.
Matzah is a fragile product.
Unless bakeries invest heavily in packaging, some breakage is to be expected.
I find that a third to a half of the matzos in each box are broken.
I would rather the situation stay as is than have to pay an extra ten dollars a pound for more protective packaging.The MMM operated with algorithms that were able to predict human behavior with astonishing accuracy, and so it was able to activate Midos Alerts even before the actual aveira was committed.
That said, since the MMM is not the Ribono Shel Olam and so does not have actual Yedia, there must be times when the algorithm was inaccurate. I imagine that these cases resulted in often comical misfires of the MMM. Of course, the cases that have been preserved for posterity comprise a sort of “Best of the MMM” collection.
I think that Abie should put out an album of MMM Bloopers. This would be potentially even more entertaining than the existing record.
As an aside, @munkatch, the chair wasn’t actually a time machine, it was a sleep and dream machine. Shnooky didn’t really meet young George Washington (who, incidentally, never really admitted to chopping down the tree).
Zaphor, you can earn my vote by adding one plank to your platform:
Replace the Vogons who work at the DMV with actual people.
Hesh Kastin is obviously a terribly misguided person who apparently has no confidence in the מנהיג הבירה.
לא זו דרך התורה.
@lakewhut,
Yes, according to Rav Moshe v’siyato, anyone who carries in Brooklyn on Shabbos is mechalel Shabbos.
If they are ill-advisedly listening to someone who thinks there is a valid Eiruv, they are not Reshai’m, but this does not change the facts of the case.
I request a rant on how terrible it is that politicians consider themselves above the law. Nobody knows this better than the President of the Galaxy, so I’m expecting a rather lengthy discourse.
@CTLAWYER: “Wishing someone dead and buried is inappropriate.”
I couldn’t agree more. The vitriol of our political environment – for which Sean Hannity and Fox News are to blame as much as Dana Bash and CNN – has warped the perspective and sensitivity of many people.
It is unhealthy to allow yourself to become so immersed in political commentary that you lose sight of your own true values.
Relax, Oh Great and Awesome Mod.
I saw the time stamp, but I don’t know how your system works. I posted about it for over a week with no response from Your Modness, before finally seeing the thread, with a Mod’s post from today that it is active.
Is it unreasonable to think it possible that the thread was only first approved today, but with my original time stamp?
Essentially, I was asking the other Participant if he could confirm that it was my error, and that the thread had been up the whole time.
I apologize for any slight to the honor and prestige of Your Great and Benevolent Modness.
Not sure what all the attitude is about. I am neither Great nor Awesome, as evidenced by what I am obligated to approve. I assumed my posting shortly after your request was a response. I will humbly try much harder to please in the future.
🙂
n0mesorah, that may be true, just as many people value form over function in anything they buy.
The quality manufacturer still makes sure to produce quality goods.
Much the same way, the quality hashgacha will make sure to provide reliable kosher certification, even if the customers’ main focus is on the music.ujm, it’s now up, with a claim by the moderator (posted this afternoon) that it has been up the whole time. I didn’t see it up until now; did you?
My OP in that thread is unaltered from how I first posted it. Do you think it is objectionable?
Really? You are double checking with him that it’s been up? You posted on the 6th that it was missing. I found it and posted it. Check the time stamp.
You’re welcome
It was about the excessive obsession with food that has become widespread in the frum community.
I had commented on an article on the main page, and the comment never went up, so I tried starting a conversation about said article.
Still no word from the Mods.
Thanks for asking.
I don’t understand why my thread was not approved.
Maybe if a Mod responded, they could explain it to me.
But it’s been nearly a full week, and I’ve heard nothing.
It’s not unreasonable for people to prefer a certain type of atmosphere when they go to a restaurant (or anywhere else, for that matter).
This is not close-mindedness, but simply a matter of personal preference.
I resent the allegation that my choice to avoid restaurants with a certain atmosphere means that I am a judgmental person
I see no problem with a hashgacha catering to its clientele, even if only as a business decision.
You seem to think that the hashgacha both (a) has no place regulating anything other than actual food kashrus, AND (b) should tell people not to judge.
Lakewhut: “Is a kashrus agency the moral police?”
Also Lakewhut: “Why can’t a hashgacha lead the way and tell people who are closed minded not to judge.” (sic)
So you want the hashgacha to be the moral police, but only to enforce those aspects of morality which appeal to you. OK, then.
The idea that people involved in servicing the religious needs of the frum community must be oblivious to market realities is absurd.
Hashgachos are aware that many consumers make assumptions about the ambience of an establishment based on the Hashgacha it carries. Is it wrong of the Hashgacha to give its customers what they want?
Suppose (for the sake of the argument) that it’s true that Hashgachos make many decisions for monetary considerations. Is there anything wrong with that?
I believe that Nike didn’t sever ties with Kanye West out of righteous indignation, but because they didn’t want to damage their brand. Is Nike the morality police?
In any case, it’s difficult to separate “protecting the brand” from “maintaining our ability to provide excellent Hashgacha services.” A bankrupt Hashgacha does not help the kosher consumer, no matter how altruistic are its principles.
It is an incontestable fact that numerous Gedolei Acharonim knowingly and deliberately explain Pesukim in ways that are irreconcilably different from Chazal. I don’t know what you mean by “[not] arguing fully.”
Rav Hirsch wrote an extensive explanation of his position on this issue, which is published in Volume IX of his Collected Writings.
I acknowledge that there are those who disagree, but it appears that the mainstream, majority opinion among both Rishonim and Acharonim is that Aggados Chazal (including, but not limited to, Midrashic explanations of Pesukim) are not Torah M’Sinai, and we are free to reject them (It scarcely needs to be said that we do so at our own peril, and we are well advised to exercise extreme caution in this regard).
I know this is not what we were taught in Yeshiva. That doesn’t change the facts.
I would love to see this Abarbanel; can you provide the reference? I am rather skeptical that there is any sort of “consensus of Achronim” reading the Ramban that way; the annotated Mosad HaRav Kook (it’s been a while, but I think it was from MHK) version does not provide many such references. If you would, I would greatly appreciate it.
Is my thread going to be approved?
The Ohr HaChaim quoted above is far from a Da’as Yachid.
The Malbim, the Netziv, Rav Hirsch, and many other Gedolei HoAcharonim regularly explain Pesukim differently from Chazal, let alone Rashi and the other Rishonim.
The Ramban in multiple places in his commentary on Chumash makes it clear that we are not bound to Chazal’s interpretation of the Pesukim, a point he makes explicitly in his Sefer Haviku’ach.*
There is no question that, as the Ramban says, Rashi is first and foremost among the Meforshei HaTorah. This, however, was never understood to mean that we are required to follow his interpretation.
The ban seems very strange to me.
*There are, of course, those who say that the Ramban didn’t really mean it, that he just used that as a winning argument in a debate. To my mind, this is a slanderous accusation, which amounts to the assertion that the Ramban espoused kefira because it would help him win the debate. The Chasam Sofer (in his Teshuvos) accepts that the Ramban meant what he said, and that he intended it in reference both to Midrashim and Aggadeta Gemaros.
It should be noted that according to many Poskim there is no problem with opening such wrappers on Shabbos. Rav Moshe Feinstein explicitly permitted people to open sugar packets on Shabbos even though this entailed ripping through letters and words.
Nevertheless, common practice is to refrain from this activity. The fact that Frum-owned companies are not sensitive to this issue has been a pet peeve of mine for many years.
ברוך דיין האמת
המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבילי ציון וירושליםIt really depends on what you’re looking for; the various seforim are not necessarily similar styles.
I personally use Sefer HaChinuch and Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch’s Chorev more than the others.
Your version of “Yiddishe tznius” is revisionist history. At least in the Litvishe world, this is not the mesorah.
Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, for instance, called his wife “Baila Hinda” in public. He is by no means an isolated example, but illustrative of the norm.
The idea that women and womanhood cannot be acknowledged out loud is harmful in many ways, not the least of which is that it distorts the true Torah concepts of tznius and shalom bayis.
GH: I could belabor the point by referring to the numerous Mishnayos, Gemaros, Halachos, etc. that mention and discuss מליח הישן and קוליס האספנין.
Instead, I’ll just clarify the point, because you apparently are from Rio Linda:
Lighten up.
Finally, an important topic in the CR.
Matjas is my favorite, with Schmaltz a close second. Pickled is bal tashchis.
While some of the new types/flavors are tasty, I must make a Macha’ah because they are not part of the Mesorah. [That said, I will not turn down a piece of Jalapeno herring. The pepper-crusted ones are also delicious].
@CTL
Now even the New York Times agrees that the SALT deduction should be completely erased.
It’s a shame I can’t post the link here, but the article is in today’s editorial.
Well, there is still a burden of proof.
Even when the defendant is a conservative.
Congress is free to change the law; the Supreme Court is bound to apply it as written.
@TLIK
1. Killing any person is murder.
2. The Torah prescribes a code of conduct for non-Jews. Whether the non-Jews choose to follow the Halacha or not is irrelevant. The question in the OP was what the Halacha says about this case, which is an interesting question.
@lakewhut
Even if you witness a murder you may not kill the perpetrator, even though moments before he was a rodef.
As others pointed out, even in the case of a rodef, if יכול להצילו באחד מאיבריו and you killed him, you’re the murderer.He’s right, there is not consensus among the members of the commission that there is One G-d. Even people who serve Avoda Zara may serve only one god, but I would never want to join them in a “universal prayer.” This has nothing to Achduso Yisborach.
@CTL
“residents of your state can’t pay higher Federal Taxes than residents of my state. The Federal tax rates are uniform across the country.”
You’re smarter than you pretend to be with this argument. Obviously, Federal tax rates are nominally uniform across the country. However, people who pay SALT and deduct accordingly from their Federal taxes, practically speaking, pay a lower rate than similar taxpayers in other states. This is a Federal subsidy to your state, paid for (in part) by mine.
“Loads of residents of my state don’t itemize or aren’t affected by the 10K cap on state tax deductions.”
Your initial complaint belies this argument.
The people who pay most of the taxes most likely do itemize, and presumably more people itemized when there was no cap on the SALT deduction.
Here’s the bottom line: With no cap on the SALT deduction, people who pay SALT don’t really pay SALT, they simply shift money from the Federal government to their state. With a cap, this is still true, albeit to a lesser degree. This means that of two people in identical financial positions, the one in Texas pays a higher amount in taxes to the Federal government than does the one in California. This may not show in an analysis of “tax dollars sent to Washington” versus “money received back,” but it is effectively a Federal subsidy to California, paid for by the people of Texas.
If California wants to offer high pensions to its employees and expensive services to its residents, that’s fine with me. The people of California can do whatever they want. The people in my state have chosen not to pay for these things, which is our prerogative. If we don’t pay to have these things here, why should we pay to have them in California?
To the OP:
Let’s replace “שלוחו של אדם כמותו” with another Halacha to crystalize the question.
Why can’t we just take it for granted that the time to light candles on Erev Shabbos is 5:08 without the “mechanics” behind it?
Obviously, you need to understand why the time to light on a particular Friday is 5:08 in order to apply that knowledge to a different week.
The same idea is true of all other Halachos.
@CTL
Your personal wealth does not interest me in the slightest, and I find your penchant for flaunting it distasteful, to say the least.
It is also irrelevant to the current conversation.
The fact that your state “sends more dollars to Washington in taxes than it receives back” is equally irrelevant.
Residents of your state and locality pay lower Federal taxes than do residents of my state and locality. This deduction subsidizes state expenditures which are paid for by state and local taxes, and disproportionally burdens my state for the Federal budget.
In other words, the SALT deduction enables you to pay for things with my money. Whether you personally benefit directly from these expenditures or not has no bearing on this fact.
I agree that too many loopholes exist in the tax code.
This is stupid.
Neither “liberalism” nor “conservatism” aligns perfectly with the Torah.
It’s very easy for both liberals and conservatives to “prove” that theirs is the Torah way, and the others are against the Ratzon Hashem.
I have no problem with people arguing about liberalism vs. conservatism. Just let’s please not pretend that a debate about US ideology somehow involves the Torah.
@CTL
“The list goes on, especially as I am about to file taxes and am limited to a $10,000 deduction for state and local taxes, a direct Republican/Trump attack on all of us who live in blue states”
People who live in blue states choose to pay for things that people who live in red states choose to do without. There is no reason that people who live in red states should subsidize the choices of people who live in blue states. This is part of the beauty of the federal system.
Real fairness would be to have absolutely no SALT deduction at all. Federal income tax should be completely unrelated to state and local taxes.
Why am I, a lower-middle-class Rebbe who struggles to make ends meet, subsidizing the luxuries of people like CTL?