Chaim87

Manichewitz (owned by Kedem now) now makes hand made shmurah matzah. Its almost never broken. They claim its all hand made. (is there some loophole where a machine still does part of it? I don’t know. But if fully handmade they are almost all whole)

@jackk,

Ok so this and his civil trial proves that when trump didn’t pay taxes its because he really was poor. As long as you have no issue with his tax returns.

@Lostspark,
But so far there is no american war in the mid east and its not likely to happen. Its a scary thought in theory but very unlikely. Don’t forget trump doesn’t like wars and is an isolationist. What we do know is that right now our jewish brothers are at tremendous risks not seen since the holocaust. Its not the time to get lost in what if hypothetical highly unlikely events.

@Participant: I am not a major trumpie. Till the Israel war I was a never Trumper and still repulsed from him. When trump said Israel has got to finish their job quickly and got out of there it sounded like he is also calling for a ceasefire. But here is the thing. WNYC not exactly a Trump leaning station had as segment about this on the BL show and I thought the seized it up well. Trump isn’t saying that Israel should stop. Trump is saying just nuke the place and don’t care how many people die but then get out of there. In other words by dragging out the war you make my problems. Its not that he cares about lives or its people. His comment yesterday was just about seizing the moment to stoke anti biden rhetoric.. The man is a master at exploiting situations. Trump is an amazing con man. But its ludicours to think that when you have so many diehard Israel supporters, a jewish son in law and just a hate for muslims that al of a sudden he will turn on Israel. Look at his record first term.

@jackk,
I don’t disagree re your assessment of how bad of a person Trump is. However I do disagree about Israel . And I do not think you as a Jew are entitled to put America first. This isn’t just the classic pro vs anti Israel debate. Oct 7 is modern day holocaust and requires us dropping every other value for that. Imagine if by electing trump you saved Jews from dying in 1944 vs FDR yimach shimo. Wouldn’t you have done it then no matter how bad of a person Trump is. I don’t think that as a Jew you have the right to care about anything else.

Now to Bibi. At the end of the day Israel cannot do this alone. The recent Iranian attack shows that. You say Bibi will do what is best for Israel’s security no matter what. But here is the thing. Israel needs the USA for its security. If Biden won’t allow Gaza Bibi cannot go against him.

Re Biden s goals, I agree that ideally he wants Hamas destroyed like Israel. But he is scared of the Arabs. It’s 1B Muslims against 20m Jews . The Muslims are louder and scarier. Deep down Biden knows the moral choice. It’s not like Biden really believes these Palestinians are innocent. He simply is too scared of the Palestinians and has to balance that with the need to destroy Hamas. Now it’s not a zero sum game and yes there are a few innocent that die although most aren’t. And so there is a bit of that too. But even for those innocent that die, anyone with true moral Justice gets that, when an enemy bent on killing, kidnapping and abusing you, again and again hides behind them there is no choice. Biden drinks tue Hamas PR kook aid too much. Trump doesn’t fall for their PR stunts.

Now let me explain what finishing the job means because it’s really simple. It means destroying Hamas total infrastructure and disrupting their power to govern. As long as they have rafah they have infrastructure, governing systems, power etc. Once that’s all destroyed they have nothing. Does that mean Hamas goes away ? No . Is there an end solution ? No there isn’t. Because the honest truth is Gaza is just a huge Jonestown like cult. All 2m people drink the kool aid since they are in the cradle. You can’t stop them. But you can limit them. If hamas infrastructure is gone , they have no way to commit oct 7 again. The Shfa disaster where Israel cornered over 700 fighters proves this. Once their infrastructure is gone once they crawl out they have no where to run and reorganise. They will always be around but too weak to mobilise. And Israel will just keep on wacking. And so finish the job means Israel take Rafah. That’s the goal.

@Reb Eliezer,

I fail to see your point. There are only two choices now,
1) Someone who emboldens Muslims and Palestinians.
2) Someone who emboldens white supremacy.

Which one is a bigger threat right now? What keeps you up at night? I lost sleep on Oct 7 night. i didn’t loose sleep on Jan6

I just want to make sure i get you correctly. So now it no longer bothers you that Trump didn’t pay taxes and reported huge losses? After all he isn’t wealthy and can’t even cover his bail.

yechiell

All that you say is true but now that your brothers in israel are going through a holocuast and one party is more suitable than the other to help, no matter how rotten the man is, you still must vote for them.

@Always_Ask_Questions,

You bring out a great point. But that doesn’t make our justice system so great. Should we be extra vigilant? 100% That doesn’t negate the fact that the legal system in our country is morally corrupt. You also have not morally disproven my point. You take the legal system for granted as being morally upstanding just because we are in a medina shel chesed. I asy ask yourself it it is moral? I see it all based on which prosecutor scores the most brownies and gains fame. The idea that our democracy is so holy and that you can never say its corrupt, is morally flawed. Ina similar note, its OK for BLM to smash stores on 5th Ave and loot but if you a rich dude and you steal front he govt you get the slammer for 25 years. meanwhile Yankel Rosenbaum’s murders, OJ and Cosby are all out on the streets. This is all very relevant to Trump too. the man is a low life and probably a criminal but who says the prosecutions are all just

@CTLAWYER,

I think this is such a nuanced question that it needs to be tackled in multiple directions. Firstly is this a moral question or a practical question?

Morally, I think noone should be prosecuted for a crime that prosecutors look aside and/or are piety. In other words if the only reason they go after the individual is because they are famous and its scores brownies but the crime itself isn’t one they’d normally go after the layman for then its morally wrong. For example, what Shelly Silver a’h went thru. He committed a questionable quid pro quo crime that was very piety and questionable if wrong to begin with. Its vague in nature. Its like they got him right over the red line. Same with Rubashkin and Eisman in Lakewood. As it pertains to Trump, the same should apply. His real estate shtick, classified docs, or the stormy stuff are all things we don’t usually go after laymen for. As it pertains to election interference or insurrection, if he committed those crimes, that’s not piety or silly crimes. It warrants prosecution.

Just as a side note, (since I brought it up) the punishment for some of these piety crimes are mortally wrong. We seem to have 10 statutes for every little monetary crime so that when convicted these people get the slammer for 25+ years. Meanwhile rapists and murderers get less. There is something very morally wrong when Shelly Silver has to die in prison without family and loved ones nearby while everyone else got out on Covid safety rules or other technicalities. The same is for Rubashkin who would have sat there for another 15 years. For what? What was the crime already? (I forgot it was 20 crimes because it was 20 statutes. Cmon ) Are they so evil. We became so cruel when it comes to money. I think its because we love saying we got the famous rich white guy.

Back to main topic, The second issue is practically. So if trump is found guilty, how will you jail him? Lets say he wins elections then what? Will you jail a sitting president? what if it invokes dysfuction or some kind violence in the country? I mean say there is a republican congress and trump is sent to prison, they will bring down the country via severe govt shutdowns, and other disobedinece like you never saw before. There also can be cv’s mass shootings and a decay in the streets with Trump crazies. And if trump is found innocent, this will embolden him and make him crazier. Ask yourself if its practical and/ or worth the consequences? Its horrible to say people are above the law but maybe thats just life and its not worth it.

@Menachem Shmei,
I am not convinced that the Israeli flag is not for torah and mitzvos just like the tzvios hashem flag. There is kedushas haretz and alot of mitzvios that apply in EY. Now it is true that once upon a time it was used by rashim like Ben Gurion YMS to say we do not need to observe mitzvahs CV’s because we have the medina. And we intentionally only wnat things to be secular to the point of kidnapping immigrants and snipping their peyos off. However, that is no longer the case. We live in a post zionist world. The flag has no come to represnt a simple unity among jewish people. Furthermore, even if its not as “jewish” as a menora, at a time of epic tragedy like this and when it is exactly threatening Jews of Israel for river to sea …There is a justa time and oplace and you can’t just bring a defrence from a sicha said 60 years ago.
As a side note yes the reba z’l was human to and at times changed his opinion too. I know for a chosid that may be kefria but for us layman its the turth. it doesn’t degrade the person to say that. We know he went to college but was anti college too. And no i don’t buy that he went to college for chasdic purposes but would have never gone if not. Thats baloney. he went because that was the mood at the time. But as time evloved he shtigged like we should all be. He realized that engineering is not important in life and then told chasdim not to attend college. My point is things chnage as time elvolves and the same with the flag.

I think the rebbe tried to parse things. So there is the belief of zionisim and then there is the idea of supporting Israel and even more so not making peace with people bent on killing us.

The rebbe was very famous for giving a sicha after the yom kippur war when israel was a couple of hours away from Damsucus but stopped short of capturing it and accepted a ceasefire because of UN pressure. The rebbe said “der UN vet shrien si vsi velin zi shrein a bissel hiecher” (The UN will yell anyhow so now they will yell a little louder).

The rebbe was also very famously against Oslo or any pace deal. Contrast that to R Shach z’l who was pro Oslo. The rebbe was pro living in settlements too.

All In all the rebbe took a very anti Palestinian view. But he still held that fundamentally the state of Israel is a bad thing in ideology. Its kind of like now that its here even though we don’t agree with its principals, its still jews and we need to keep it safe via fighting and being anti peace with people who are ina cult bent on killing us no matter what. A fake peace. i wonder what he would hold today of the flag. The flag histrocially represented the ideals of the state which is bad. But nowadays its intended to represent a more general symbol representing the jewish people and its existence against the Palestinians and musilm enemies around the world who seek to destroy us. it isn’t really about the ideals of zionism any more. (Kind of post zionism). I suspect the reba would be torn about the flag now and i wouldn’t mock shluchim that used it. You can’t bring a proof form sichah in 1955.

@sm77,
I am not convinced that security is such and issue espcially when the cops are on high alert. Will it perhaps anger cetrain sects? yes and maybe they will yell. As long as we don’t yell back, I think its OK. Anytime you fight back you will anger someone. While our place is to stay low normally in golus, we also can’t be like sheep being slaughtered again. Some times you also need to be enraged and fight back in our own eidla way of public display davening. I think this golus syndrome is overdone. You need a balance. I don’t see why a yom tefila is such a security concern. The risk is tiny. Also the illegals you refer too from our south border aren’t part of this war. I think the greater issue is that the frum need to learn how to get along better. It shouldn’t be treif if aguda orgnanzies even if you don’t like their shita. Chasdim should fargin standing near litfaks etc.

@sm77,
I hear R Yitzchokc’s point. But my question is why not a yom tefila in Manhatan? We did this about 20 years ago and I remember that. We will thne get a lot more people. And more importantly, it wouldn’t be a “rally” in the sense of yelling. Its a yom tefila but with some showing to the world that we care and that this is the way we yell. I understand that it may bring iut the other side but the point is that if you are simply dvaening vs yelling it isn’t a two way fight then and won’t invoke as much. This has always been our way. It distubrs me that we can’t do that

Can someone please elaborate how this relevant for today? You think if CV’s Hamas entered Torah viryah they wouldn’t have done the same because its NK? What’s the practical shita of NK today now that the beast called Hamas is running would and out to kill us? Is it that we give them from sea to sea (whatever Tlaib’s slogan is.) If the govt completely hands the knesset over to Hamas, no more tzionim, will they stop killing us or will it be worse? I think we all know the answer but please do enlighten me. What’s should we do today about it?

I am not sure where this is going? They have a point historically. So if we lived in Shnucky Shapiro’s time machine perhaps ste the clock back 150 years and having no country would be better than today. But if you look at the present, there is simply no way to reset. Now that they are wild and enraged and mad, even if you gave them the keys from sea to sea they’d destory us in the most barabric way. basically its too late now. Its only a nice idoelogical idea of history. A what if thing. It has no value today.

As a side note, the arab countries you mention are m ore developed and were always more cultured. Either way alll this is, is a debate of history. Nowadays if you attend a Free Palestine rally you just encourage more killing and are a rahsa

As someone pointed out above indeed this is a chess game.
1) Hostages: if we go in we risk losing them. On the other hand Hamas will never free all hostages. At most they free civilians. They will only do that in drip drip stages schleping it out for months. Then they will hold on to soldiers till every Palestinian prisoner is let go. israel will have to settle for some middle ground of maybe getting at least women and children out before any invasion. Its so tough.
2)Yes you don’t want a world war on 3 fronts and so we need to make sure the USA has our backs and do this thoughtfully in a way that doesn’t provoke Lebanon into full scale war. Maybe the answer is just a go little in at a time etc. Till they get used to it. Again tough
3) what to do with the tunnels , traps and everything else set up on the other side? You need caution.
4) You can just go in and kill 500K civillains. Right now Hamas isn’t letting them leave.

There is a thought in me that had we rolled in on day one with force they would have been unprepared even with all that planning. And we could have accomplished alot. But that assumes that we had all the troops ready and all the weapons etc. And we still would have lost alot. This day one scenario is very impractical. And so now once they had a week or 2, you need to be more cautious

Will they go in? Who knows. Ultimately the goal isn’t to go in. its to get our hostages home first and then to decimate Hamas. I think most definitely its wise not to just barge in at this point

9/11 is not the same as this for many reasons. For starters, Bibi was PM for 15 years pretty much straight He wasn’t brand new. Therefore,
1) He was the one who ensured that Gaza was safe. He built the way for $7B Shekel. He oversaw the safety of the gaza border. The fact that he banked the safety solely on a wall was a big mistake. It was hinged on technology that could be hacked or busted.
2) Why did it take the army 6-8 hours to respond? Bibi speaks all day of the danger of Iran. Imagine if CVS they attacked, would it take 8 hours to round up troops?
3) They were training out in the open and Israel knew they trained how to capatrure mock cities. they laughed at it and didn’t take it serious

All of this was not the case with 9/11

@huju,
Meir didn’t step down till after the war. First we need to fight the war in a united fashion with no blame. After that Yes i think Bibi must go and we need to return to electing strong generals who understand security issues. Not Bennet or Lapid
Re as to why blame Bibi? Well there were 3 main failures here.
1) A lack of intelligence picking up Hamas planning. How did we miss that.
2) The fact that the security for Gaza was all based on technology albeit high tech, but that can easily be wiped out in one air strike.
3) The fact that after the breach it took us hours to mobilize in the the modern day 2023 era. Israel needs to be able to mobilize alot quicker and that has always been a strength.

If I had to quantify this, Id say #1 isn’t so much Bibi’s fault as Hamas unfortunately did a good job concealing all this and fooling us that they are “peaceful”. But #2 is a huge issue. Bibi has been around of 15 years more or less (aside for a brief loss here and there.) That border wall was built under his watch and he put time in that. What was he thinking? And then #3 is also Bibi fault since its his army that needs to be better prepared to respond.

I love Bibi policies and I am not a leftie. I’d never want lapid. Edit

@Amil Zola,

NYC is the financial capital of the world with some of the largest insurers and highest pays. i know for a fact that your info on actuaries are exaggerated somewhat unless you are star that knocks off exams 123. But thats beside the point.

The key question is, about the careers you quote where you start at $90K . Why is that worth it when i can earn 150K in jewnvierse? or when i can earn $50K in jewniverse but get another 50K net in handouts?

@Always_Ask_Questions,
Disclaimer i am kind of tuned into this today purely bec I need a distraction from the sad news of which i didn’t sleep from last night.
So exactly what college educated occupation offers a staring salary (or at least 2 -3 years in ) of $150,000 and doesn’t require an IVY league education. You can’t expect the masses to attend Harvard. Lets say it isn’t accounting then what is it? (I can tell you that it isn’t data science either. I dabble in that and its not as lucrative as they sell it to be) Do you buy into the AI bubble? (to me it sounds like the zoom and Peleton bubble)
Nursing homes by the way just require 6 months of training. But I don’t want to get stuck just on that. Today you have people manging warehouses, amazon sellers, marketing all flavors, real estate and property management etc. These guys are all making 150K after 2-3 years. Will all this stick? Who knows? There is a video out there from Freda Vizel (a former chasdish jew but now secular) who i thought put it down nicely. We kind of built our own economic society where jewish commerce is nearly self sustaining from within.
Ill bring up yet another mathematical point. It almost doesn’t pay to work in a field paying 100K gross bec of govt programs. if you sum up the value of medicad, Snap. wic, free child care, earned income credits etc it adds up to well over 50K in net income. It really doesn’t pay to earn less than 150K Gross because then you’ll lose all those goodies. Now may be altruistic and say its wrong on so many levels to take govt handouts. But when the math is so compelling its hard to tell others that they should just live altruistic lives unless its clearly assur in the torah.

Lakewhut,
Well it goes two ways. What does it mean to be hiemish? I see many who’d never do a shidduch with an “American”. But if they have money they become hiemsh and shidduch worthy with the finest

@ctlawyer
There are definitely way too many people following the Joneses and living a lifestyle they can’t afford. I am assuming that you live in CT. But if you’d only see what’s going on in “in town” communities, it is ostentatious beyond any belief. Way too many people are going to Orlando than can afford. The restaurants that are now $500 a plate is insane. People go to say they went and not because they can always afford it.
Now what’s wrong if you can afford it? There is a lot wrong with these out of hand spending.
1) it creates peer pressure
2) you ever thought about what it does to the next generation even if parents aren’t the ones following the Jones’s? And the next generation goal is to be the next billionaire because this lifestyle with private jets etc. There is no way to shield your kids from seeing this and it becomes their goal
3) Are you really thinking about Hashem when you go on live this kind of lifestyle? There is so much prikas oyl.

I don’t Care how much tzedaka you give. This Outlandish lifestyle is disgusting and it’s corrupting so many people.