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I don’t say Tachanun on Yom HaAtzmaut. Don’t make sense to say it after Hallel.
I visited the congregation in Madrid Spain. They never recite Tachanun on Mondays or Thursdays. I have never found another community with this minhag.
What’s WhatsApp?
“one never knows who is the lesser of the two evils are especially the way Donald is going now”
Actually you do. It is clearly Trump. In every respect Clinton is a saint compared to him — according to our own values.
Just to give some examples:
Trump has often boasted of his licentious lifestyle. He publicly cheated on his first two wives, has frequently spoken of women in the most demeaning ways, and enthusiastically embraces the support he has been given by convicted rapist Mike Tyson. If this reflects Jewish values I don’t want to be Jewish.
Trump has suggested that the US default on our public debt. Then, challenged on that, he suggested that we could just print money to pay the country’s obligations. Prepare to need to take a shopping cart full of hundred dollar bills to the convenience store to purchase a carton of milk. This is Weimar Germany all over again and you know what succeeded Weimar Germany.
Trump has assembled a foreign policy team of inexperienced isolationists; not even Warren Harding had such an awful group. He would rescind America’s participation in all kinds of international agreements. His willingness to start trade wars will lead to huge increases in the prices of consumer goods and trigger a worldwide depression; think Smoot-Hawley and what that led to in Europe. And don’t think for a moment that his current comments in favor of more settlement building won’t get retracted — remember that he gave a pro-Israel speech at AIPAC just hours after demanding that Israel repay the US all the aid it has been given.
Trump has given hope to all the racists and nativists who had been shut out of politics for decades here in the US. He just included a prominent white supremacist as a convention delegate from California. Then the campaign lied about the fact that the campaign didn’t know about the guy, who had been funding pro-Trump robocalls all over the country with no objections from Trump. These white supremacists hate us as much as they hate blacks and Mexicans; don’t think for a second that they won’t have influence in a Trump administration.
Trump also buys into junk science like the anti-vaccination campaigns. Should there be a serious outbreak of infectious disease we could face a public health disaster.
Trump himself isn’t anti-Semitic. But neither was Mussolini. That didn’t work out well, and neither will this.
“If, as I think is the case, a Ger can be a Rabbi, then a woman can be a Rabbi.”
Bingo.
“If he ever gets o the White House,he will cost this nation trillions of dollars in extra interest costs and drive the reputation of the United States into the mud. We would be just like Greece.”
Given that this a man who deliberately uses bankruptcy laws to stiff his creditors, is there any surprise that he would want to stiff the country’s creditors?
Wake up! This man is like nobody who has ever been nominated for President before!
“The Right uses logic and facts when making cases.
The Left appeals to emotionalism.”
That makes Trump part of the Left and Clinton part of the Right. All the factcheckers have consistently found that Clinton is mostly truthful and that Trump mostly spouts falsehoods.
I thought that Trump had reached the depths of awfulness and couldn’t go any further.
Then he accused Ted Cruz’ father of being involved with the Kennedy assassination.
I couldn’t imagine anything worse.
And then he suggested that the US should not pay its debts.
In addition to the moral issues involved, that would destroy the US economy and along with it much of the world’s economy. We are talking Great Depression again. And we know what happened as the result.
I can’t believe that there is any debate!
“she is a blatant anti-semite”
That is a baldfaced lie.
“If the Torah dictates that a murderer receives capital punishment for his wrongdoing, then no G-d fearing Jew should have any compunctions in fulfilling the Will of G-d.”
So you have no problem with the courts of the United States administering death penalties for petty theft?
“Here in CT The Harford Kashrut Commission supervises kosher dining at UCONN, Trinity, and Univ of Hartford.”
The Hartford Kashrut Commission also certifies the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, where I just spent all eight days of Pesach.
You could have even come here to enjoy a second end to Yom Tov!
“Why do some feel it is less okay to have a dating/marriage partner preference regarding skin color than hair color?”
They are both silly.
Besides, I hardly ever see my wife’s hair. She covers it with a hat or scarf!
I attended the wedding of an African American convert to a white born-Jew a few weeks before Pesach; her daughter, who converted separately, flew in from Israel where she lives with her husband, another white born-Jew.
“one-day-a-week Jews”
If that slanderous denigration is typical of the midot of people in Eretz Yisrael, I’ll stay in galut.
“Just because a grain has been (relatively) recently discovered does not mean that it can’t fall into a category, and hence a prohibition”
Except that with kitniyot there is no prohibition. It is a longstanding minhag.
(FWIW I absolutely oppose dropping that minhag unless one actually moves to a Sefardic community and adopts all Sefardic minhagim and halachic rulings.)
“Kitniyos are harvested and processed in the same way that chametz is. “
Not true for rice — almost all of it is grown in flooded fields. None of the harvesting equipment used for land based plants would work. Think Pharoah’s chariots in the Yam Suf.
“Kitniyos Keilim isn’t an issue”
My wife and I have longstanding custom to eat a kitniyot lunch on Erev Pesach, cooked on our Pesadik kelim. I would even cook a kitniyot dish on Pesach itself on those same for any Sefardic Jew who asked for one.
Kal v’chomer gebrockts kelim should be no issue.
Now lets move on to real issues in our community.
That this even gets discussed shows that we don’t know the difference between an issur and a minhag. 🙁
“Most of the farmers who grow oats for Cheerios also grow wheat and barley, which aren’t gluten free. Sometimes, those grains get mixed together in the fields or on the farm, so, to make Cheerios gluten free, we had to separate them.”
Wheat, barley, and oats are three of the Five Grains. They have nothing to do with kitniyot. The reason we Ashkenazim don’t eat kitniyot is because it is one of our longstanding minhagim, not because there is any issue of contamination of rice or beans with one of the Five Grains.
Cruz finished a poor third place with less than 15% of the vote statewide. Looking at the primary results map, it looks like the charedi areas are pretty much the only places Cruz got any votes. He did win one election district in my neighborhood 8 votes compared to 3 for Trump and none for Kasich. (Those are not typos.) In one election district in the South Bronx, there was a three way tie: Trump, Cruz, and Kasich each received zero votes.
Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein were among the greatest Torah sages of the past century and they were all enthusiastic Zionists.
“not there entire State of Israel is in Eretz Yisroel. Eilat, Israel
is in chutz l’aaretz. And not the entire Eretz Yisroel is in the State of Israel”
The boundaries of the State of Israel are not clear. There are differing definitions in Chazal, and those definitions don’t agree with the definitions in Tanakh.
“the bahag’s source is the y’rushalmi”
Actually it is a Tosefta. We don’t usually pasken by Toseftas that contradict an explicit Mishnah, especially when there is an unopposed Bavli that supports the Mishnah. But who am I to argue with the BeHaG? (Rashi, Rambam, and the Shulchan Aruch do.)
What zahavasdad and simcha613 said.
” there just might be some middle ground between Zionism being the best thing since Matan Torah or the worst thing since the Eigel HaZahav?”
Of course! Most religious Zionist rabbis would fall into that middle place and so would a lot of charedi rabbis.
What lesschumras said.
“any examples of Ashkenazi p’sakim that don’t make according to the g’mara? “
Women reading Megillat Esther for a man. (Although Rashi had no problem with it and he was an Ashkenazi.)
“I have already learned Shevi’is twice, once each past Shemita, as well as Berochos & Peoh, and IY’H more to come. “
Mazel tov, Mazel tov, Mazel tov, and Mazel tov!!!
“peanuts magically became kitniyot”
And people complain about Open Orthodox changing “mesorah”?
“According to the Rif, because we Pasken by it over the Yerushalmi.”
Did he say that even for the agricultural laws for which the Yerushalmi has much more detailed discussions? We just had such an issue come up today in daf Yomi.
“Why has talmud bavli been learned for years, and not yerushalmi? “
Maybe it is because the Bavli is much easier to learn? I just finished my seventh Yerushalmi tractate (siyum erev Pesach!) and only Berachot has been straightforward (and in that case it helped that I was learning Bavli Berachot in parallel).
“The simple truth is Trump has been touting he is a good Christian, and a Presbyterian in particular”
I am no fan of Trump but he is not a member of a Presbyterian Church or of any other Church. Ignore this silly piece.
“The Ten Commandments”
Cecil B. DeMille was not Jewish but he was very respectful of Jewish traditions. He and the writers consulted Jewish sources for the 1956 movie. The narrative was modified for dramatic effect but I found nothing hostile to Judaism in the movie. (He had also done a movie by the same title in 1923 but I have never seen it and do not know much about it.)
I can’t believe that this thread is still going on. In fact, I can’t believe that it even got started. Keep fighting the arguments of the 1940s, folks.
“the place with the most Kosher restaurants is not NYC , Miami or Jerusalem, Its Paris “
This is correct. And I was unable to find a kosher restaurant in Paris with bad food!
“The problem with food businesses is Shabboses and Peseach. I think most kosher Donuts are not owned by jews. so these are not problems for them.”
I am unaware of any Dunkin Donuts, kosher or otherwise, that is not open every day of the year. There are halachic workarounds for this involving a non-Jewish partner — consult a good rav with yadin yadin to work that out.
“You have to use wine. “
I exclusively use the watered down Kedem “light” grape juice. The label specifically says kosher for arba kosot.
“if he is a Jew then you defend him until you personally have enough knowledge to know otherwise”
I don’t make comments on things like that when I don’t know the facts.
“if you are going to withhold gunfire”
I will let the IDF decide what the rules of engagement are and not anonymous internet commenters. If you disagree on that it is YOU who are missing the boat.
“Is he a Jew? Then you defend him. “
I will wait for the investigation to determine what the facts are here, but if the allegations are correct, then what happened is murder and there is no defense. Numerous poskim have been speaking out on this, that it is asur to harm a terrorist who has been neutralized.
You wouldn’t defend Bugsy Siegel or Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, would you?
“If you are on the fence about following protocol with terrorists”
If you are on the fence about following protocol if you are in the military you should not be in the military and if you violate protocol you should expect a court-martial. The IDF is the most moral army in the world — anti-Semites have even blasted it for refusing to rape anyone — and we should support efforts to keep it that way.
“Destruction of Avoda Zora”
They aren’t objects of Avoda Zara and haven’t been for 1,500 years.
The Labor Department’s Occupational Outlook Handbook is now online. You can search for jobs that don’t require advanced education along with the typical entry level salary for those jobs and the forecast for job growth. Most job categories that don’t require at least some college either don’t pay well or are projected to become less common in the future, or both.
“Airplane pilot”
While anyone can pay for flying lessons and learn to fly private planes, to become a commercial pilot requires extensive training in aeronautical engineering that can only be obtained by taking college courses. Most commercial pilots in the US served in the US military and many continue to fly in Reserve or National Guard units.
“The oil producing Arab nations drove down the price to bankrupt alternative energy producers and retain their market share.”
A bigger reason is that there has been a spectacular rise in crude oil production in the US in recent years. Thank you, President Obama!
“99% of Americans who owe it do not pay the use tax (including not using the table) and none of the 45 states that have it on the books enforce it or try to collect it”
New York tries to collect it. You have to report and pay on your state income tax return and if you lie about it you have committed perjury, a much more serious crime than not paying a small amount of tax.
You would have supported anyone against Mussolini had you known what he was going to do to you.
This is no different.
That even a single Jew could even consider a vote for the candidate of Louis Farrakhan and David Duke shows that we do not learn the lessons of history.
“Clinton publicly announced her support of a serial immoralist who was worse than Trump.”
Obviously you along with many frum Jews have not paid attention to the tabloid media’s long documentation of Trump’s many affairs, which led to two divorces, or the accusations of his first wife against him, or his current wife’s absolutely non-tzniut modeling career. None of that news is suitable for a frum home.
But you should at least be aware of Trump’s business ventures into beauty pageants and casinos, both of which are completely against Jewish values, and his abuse of eminent domain and bankruptcy laws which our tradition would consider to be borderline if not outright theft.
And of course there are his supporters who include Louis Farrakhan, Mike Tyson, and David Duke.
“If you have patriotism, how could you not vote for Donald Trump? “
I am going all in to defeat Trump BECAUSE I am a patriotic American. We have had no more stupid major party candidate since Warren Harding. And Harding didn’t fan the flames of bigotry and hatred.
Everywhere Megillat Esther is read is a happening place on Purim night!
“This being a national election year, you may receive many annoying campaign calls…all legal. “
Fortunately I live in deep blue NY so neither side is going to make much of an effort here. I feel sorry for the people in Florida.
“New York State’s current marriage laws have provisions for getting married from age 14.”
That doesn’t apply to us because the couple and parents have to go to secular court to get permission. Going to secular court is asur. 😉
Children can get married at age 16 in NY with parental permission.
You can find detailed information regarding New York City’s budget online.
zahavasdad is correct in that comparisons would be unfair. There are huge administrative economies of scale and one reason property taxes are low in NYC (at least for owner-occupied residential property) are that the per pupil expenditures here are much lower than in small inefficient suburban districts. But people in NY and NJ prefer to continue paying taxes that are so high as to be nearly confiscatory than to consolidate school districts.
Fulfiling the mitzvah.
“How dare you malign and criticize other Jews!”
I have been maligned and criticized here for years. Have you ever come to my defense?
“we might Not have a Communist/DemonCrat for president”
If you think Obama is a Communist, you really aren’t in touch with reality. Were Obama really a Communist you would have long since been rounded up and sent to the gulag!
“He has had a very checkered career as a businessman”
Actually his many bankruptcies appear to be a deliberate strategy to coerce his creditors into accepting equity stakes in his projects. How anyone can defend this kind of behavior is beyond me!
“You, who considers Avi Weiss to be your spiritual adviser.”
He isn’t, but since you brought him up, you might want to do some internet searches to find a video in which Rabbi Weiss charges the podium at a David Duke for President rally. Rabbi Weiss carried a “Duke — Nazi for the 90s” sign with him and was forcefully removed from the podium. Rabbi Weiss knows an enemy of the Jewish people and doesn’t have to “do research” on Nazis or KKK members.
“twist Judaism to fit your sick, liberal world-view”
Using public funds to support those who are less well off is “twisting” Judaism, “sick”, or “liberal”? Better tell Chazal and Rambam that they are sick and twisted.
Did Romney have any good points?
Yes.
All of them.
That so many Jews are supporting Trump shows that many of us have adopted gentile values. Did you not see him last Thursday? He is the most vulgar man ever to run for President as the candidate of a major party. His major business interests have included gambling casinos and beauty pageants? Would you allow your daughter to enter either? Or worse? He is the candidate of licentiousness and hedonism! In his business career, his ethical guidance is basically “can I get away with it”?
Trump encourages the worst bigotry among his supporters, has to think about whether David Duke deserves condemnation, but himself spouts anti-Semitic memes in front of Jews.
And he has said repeatedly that he would force Israel into a “peace” deal that would not be in its interests. All because he can.
“I said Trump is better than Hillary”
You have to be either an ignoramus or delusional to think that.
Any Democrat who has done what Trump has done be getting condemned across the Orthodox spectrum. And the condemnation would be deserved. That the criticism to date has been mild and that there are people right here in this comment field who actually support Trump shows that Jews can keep Shabat and Kashrut but have brains that function like gentile bigots. It is a Chilul HaShem.
edited
“Rambam writes that we have an obligation to force the nations to follow the 7 mitzvos of Bnei Noach.”
This would require repealing the First Amendment to the US Constitution along with similar provisions in every state Constitution.
It would require reinstating the sodomy laws, which would require yet another amendment to the US Constitution reversing the doctrine of substantive due process.
It would require changes to death penalty prosecutions to require
eyewitness testimony.
It might, depending on which posek you hold by, require the banning of Christianity as being a form of idol worship. (Islam, however, would be permitted.)
“Trump just came out with a great Seven-Point Health Care plan. “
Trump wants to have the federal government save $300 billion from its $80 billion dollar prescription drug program. The rest of his plan makes about as much sense. For example, he wants to have insurers sell across state lines. Well, my own health insurer is based in Indiana and my wife’s is in Minnesota. We live in New York. And he has no plan to help those millions of Americans who will lose their insurance as the result of his repeal of Obamacare other than to let them die in the streets.