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It is interesting that Trump and Carson lead the Republican polls. Clinton and Sanders support Big Government. Trump supports HUGE Government and Carson MASSIVELY INTRUSIVE Government.
I am far more comfortable with either Bernie or Hillary leading the nation than with any of the top Republican candidates.
The Republicans actually do have two candidates running with lots of experience and ability to work with others. Their names are George Pataki and Lindsay Graham. They are both around 1% in the polls. Proof that the Republicans who whined about Obama’s lack of experience didn’t really believe what they were saying.
How did this thread end up in my personal room?
(And how is it that I got my own personal room?)
I ignore Halloween. It is a Christian holiday, not a Jewish one.
There are at least six locations in Manhattan that once were Jewish cemeteries, but the bones were dug up and the land sold to developers. There are still three Jewish cemeteries in Manhattan, all maintained by the same congregation: Shearith Israel. The last burial was in the mid 19th century.
“The fact of the matter is that the crime rate, including terror attacks, in Israel is much lower than in any American city.”
Precisely my point! Israel is safer than New York.
For most of its history De Beers could not operate legally within the United States, because it flagrantly violated US antitrust laws. Worse, it refused to cooperate with the United States in both World Wars, leaving the US desperately short of industrial diamonds. Then it bought up all the diamonds that the Soviet Union could produce once it found diamond reserves, giving that horror state a nice source of hard currency for its mischief. It engaged in unethical anticompetitive practices, forcing possible competitors out of business through predatory pricing.
Finally, Canada and Australia had enough diamond production to ignore De Beers. It gave up its monopoly and now controls only about a third of world production. Interestingly, prices for diamonds are now higher than they were when De Beers held its monopoly. But the prices are now very variable. Very expensive diamonds are a highly speculative investment and inexpensive diamonds aren’t an investment at all.
I met my wife online 11 years ago.
Deficiencies in multiple vitamins are pretty rare in developed countries. You just don’t see beriberi, pelagra, scurvy, rickets, or vitamin A-related vision impairments. Furthermore, megadoses of water soluble vitamins just get excreted in urine.
DONALD TRUMP:
You have two cows. Trump uses eminent domain to have the government expropriate your farm so that he can build a casino. He then convinces you that it is the best investment ever so you lend him the construction money. He goes bankrupt and you are forced into owning a part of the casino’s equity, with no likelihood of ever getting your money back.
BERNIE SANDERS:
You keep the cows and sell the milk at the artificially inflated price thanks to Sanders’ influence in Congress, and have a properous farm for the rest of your life.
CYLOR.
I would point out that most vitamin supplements are a total waste of money.
“And the way the people are so stupid, (think what just happened in Canada with the win of Justin Trudeau)”
Unemployment in the US is 5.1%. (After the Bush financial collapse it went all the way up to 10.0%. Last January it was 5.7%.)
Unemployment in Canada is 7.1%. (It was 6.6% in January.)
To be fair, the different ways the two governments analyze the data probably adds about 1% to the difference. But still, the countries are going in opposite directions. And that is all you need to know about why Stephen Harper lost, as his entire argument (other than anti-Muslim bigotry) was about how conservative policies are better for the economy.
Very few rats in my neighborhood. It is literally crawling with feral cats.
I have a good raincoat and rain pants. Not an issue.
How is the most recent post by mw13 relevant? Ashkenazim consider oats to be one of the five grains based on Rashi. I have personally eaten oat matzah.
I would certainly vote for any of the Democrats against the fool who has variously blamed the Shoah on Jews refusing to fight or on gun control, or the failed CEO who appears to be a pathological liar.
The United States does not collect statistics on the religious affiliation of crime victims unless there is evidence that there was a hate motivation. However, there were 737 Jews who were victims of hate crimes in the United States in 2013, the last year for which statistics have been reported.
Rav Kook, Rav Herzog, and Rav Soloveitchik all had good relationships with charedi gedolim even when they were disagreeing on secular education and Zionism. The language being used to attack them is really out of line here.
“Secular knowledge can be useful to understand Torah”
My favorite example:
The Latin word “familia” appeared in a gemara we were learning. I immediately raised my hand to ask the maggid shiur why Chazal used “familia” and not “mishpacha”. Before he could respond a frum high school Latin teacher who was also in the shiur explained that in classical Latin, “familia” has a broader context than do the cognate words today, that it included not just relatives but slaves and servants. Chazal were deliberately using a broader term in order to be specific. Without that understanding from a secular source you would not understand exactly what Chazal meant.
“Was he unable to express his Torah without reference to literature?”
If you have to even ask that question you are clearly unfamiliar with his work.
“Or did he not care if people were able to understand it?”
His students were well-educated and he spoke in language that they could understand.
If you read Milton, Blake, and Cardinal Newman you, too will understand.
“For all those so knowledgeable: This holiday is NOT Christian in any way. “
It is actually part of the third most important Christian holiday after Easter and Christmas. I cannot understand how any religious Jew could countenance participation.
“He equates rabbi lichtenstiens gadlus bitorah with gadlus in literture. To the charedi community this korov liapakarsus. “
That is because the charedi community loses out in that they can’t understand the brilliance of the Torah of Rav Lichtenstein z’tz’l because they are unfamiliar with the literature he references.
“Herschel Goldwasser essentially justified the crime”
My wife read the entire 83 page paper. She concluded that Rabbi Broyde had NOT made a convincing argument that married women did not need to cover their hair; she was convinced after reading it that it is a binding chiyuv d’rabbanan.
“Based on what do you say that when there are random acts of terror just about anywhere in Israel?”
Look at the homicide rates and the rates of violent crime in general. We have random acts of violence every day in New York. In fact, I experienced one just this afternoon on a transit bus. Baruch HaShem, I am okay.
“BTW, did you hear about the firebomb attack on W. 37th St. near 9th Ave”
Didn’t the NYPD rule that Jews were not the target, that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time? That was also the case with my bus incident this afternoon.
” if you saw someone about to jump off a bridge, you wouldn’t be mechallel Shabbos to save him?”
I would be mechallel everything except forbidden relations, idolatry, and shedding blood!!! This isn’t a shilah!!!!!!
If someone is in such a severe condition that they need IV fluids, it is ASUR to ask a shilah — you give them the fluids! Pikuach nefesh trumps Yom Kippur! By seeking out a rabbi to ask a shilah you are further endangering the life of a Jew!!!!
This YK I saw two doctors order a woman who was faint to drink water. A rabbi oversaw the entire thing and did not interfere.
Even with the recent violence, Israel is far safer than the US. Have faith.
“Many MO’s do give their kids jewish names, “
I have never seen a MO family NOT give all their children Hebrew names. Yiddish is not a Holy language. (How many sefarim are written in Yiddish? Two?)
” If someone is not Shomer Shabbos, they won’t be counted for a minyan”
The universal custom is to count Jewish men above bar mitzvah age for a minyan as long as there isn’t some other disqualification (such as having converted out or married a non-Jew). But being non-shomer Shabat is not one of the disqualifications. I have seen this done in many charedi shuls as well as MO shuls.
“do you always ask what hechsheirim any potential host uses?”
I never do that. It is asur to do so. If someone is shomer Shabat they are trusted in kashrut. That isn’t a halachah that the frum world has been very good at keeping lately.
” MO’s are very zionistic and many decide to stop being armchair zionists and become real zionists and make Aliyah and become Dati Leumi in Israel.”
That is actually why MO numbers have not been growing. My community keeps sending people on aliyah. It is, according to many, a mitzvah. 😉
“not shomer negaih, dress modestly, etc, the self-identifying MO who actually live up to MO ideals would never dream of doing such a thing.”
My wife would not be caught dead with her hair uncovered in public. She always wears either headscarves or hats. (She has never worn a human hair wig; there are poskim who forbid such.)
However, she is anything but shomer negiah as she is a doctor! She has to touch patients dozens of times every day. Pikuach nefesh trumps any and all tzniut concerns.
“The MO Rabbonim have long accepted Avi Weiss as an official rabbi of the RCA.”
Rabbi Weiss is (1) retired, (2) no longer a member of the RCA, and (3) accepted as an orthodox Jew even by his most strident opponents such as Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, who wrote that the Israeli Rabbinate’s rejection of his eidut was unjustified.
“not most or even many yeshivish people cheat on taxes, steal from the government, or cover up abuse, etc, “
Just today I happened to run into a now off the derech woman whose parents never, ever worked. They survived on tzedakah and government benefits fraud. I certainly don’t consider them orthodox and I certainly don’t see that as typical of charedi communities.
” just is how exactly are they different from regular orthodox?”
Those of us who are committed to halachah are no different from any other orthodox. It is true that you find people in all orthodox communities (not just “modern” ones) who aren’t committed, but don’t judge those communities by those people. Modern orthodox poskim don’t always pasken the same way as “other orthodox” and sometimes the psaks are more lenient, some more stringent.
“you still haven’t given a reason why women can’t dance on Simchas Torah”
There really isn’t one at least not a good one.
“since it’s not traditional, it’s not the way.”
Simchat Torah itself is a post-Chazal phenomenon that violates so many normative traditions that you really can’t use “tradition” regarding Simchat Torah at all.
“I DO NOT advocate changing a SINGLE ONE of our traditions. “
We have changed lots of traditions — just in the past century. In no community did most men learn full time a century ago; today it is very common. In most communities (not in Germany or America) women were actively denied Torah education; Baruch HaShem that tradition changed. In the 1780s American Jews stopped saying a prayer for the King of Great Britain and started saying a prayer for the United States Government. Then in 1948 we started praying for the State of Israel. Should we still be saying prayers for a foreign monarch and refuse to say a prayer for the State of Israel? I could go on and on, but you get the point. Traditions can and do change. Baruch HaShem.
‘trying to outflank and disobey the Gedolei Torah by deciding that “it’s not a halacha question” ‘
Of course it is a halacha question — one on which different Gedolei Torah disagree.
“There are no churches on the Har Habyis only 2 Mosques (Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock)”
The Dome of the Rock isn’t a mosque.
Rambam would never have approved of Anim Zmirot either spoken or sung. I go to a shul that does neither.
“The US equivalent of the new UK Labor leaders is Bernie Sanders”
Nope. Sanders doesn’t hate Israel, doesn’t give money to holocaust deniers, doesn’t want the US to give up its nuclear weapons, doesn’t want to expand coal production, and is from all indications a mentsch (albeit a completely non-religious person).
I don’t think much of Sanders’ non-interventionist foreign policy (although Rand Paul is even worse). It isn’t necessary to break up all the banks if you would just regulate them the way Canada and Israel do. And I personally caught Sanders with a false statement regarding trade. So I’m not a huge Sanders supporter. But I do like the fact that in 43 years in public life he has never run a single negative ad. Unfortunately, you can probably only get away with that in a small state like Vermont.
“So what’ wrong with Dr. Carson?”
He says that Obamacare is worse than slavery. You really don’t need to know anything else.
“Clinton and Sanders are inherently anti-Israel “
I am not a defender of Sanders’ foreign policy — he is too non-interventionist. But I challenge you to find any Republican who has publicly, on video, told pro-Palestinian hecklers to “Shut up.”
Clinton is probably the only candidate of either party who will aggressively promote the interests of the US, backed with military force if necessary, while avoiding stupid wars like the one in Iraq.
“I consider the Iran/P5+1 deal good and enforceable.”
No deal is a good deal when it gives tens of billions of dollars to a sworn enemy of Israel and of the United States. But contrary to the deal’s opponents, it IS enforceable, and it WILL prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. And also contrary to the deal’s opponents, there isn’t a better deal to be had.
” Compared to the Democrats of a generation or two ago (Kennedy, Johnson, Scoop Jackson, Humphrey, Truman), “
All the folks you mentioned are about where Bernie Sanders is today regarding domestic economic policy. The party moved to the right in a big way starting with Jimmy Carter and continuing with Bill Clinton. Obama conned people into thinking he was a leftist because he had opposed the Iraq war; Richard Nixon was actually to Obama’s left on most issues.
” had a beefed up British and French military won World War II in 1939, Chamberlain would be remembered as a genius who concessions at Munich were a strategic brilliancy.”
Chamberlain had three problems: (1) He had no idea how weak Germany was militarily at the time, or that there were people in the German military who were planning a coup against Hitler had the negotiations failed, (2) He had no idea how bad the French leadership would turn out to be — much of the French Right preferred fascism to the French Left, and the French military leadership was atrociously bad, (3) He wasn’t able to get the UK to remilitarize. (FDR had the same trouble. It should be noted that Chamberlain’s two immediate predecessors — Baldwin and MacDonald, who between them had held the office of Prime Minister between 1923 and 1937 — were FAR more into appeasement than Chamberlain. MacDonald was actually a pacifist!)
“Donald Trump does not do anything without putting his name on it. “
Donald Trump does not put his name on anything without collecting a huge licensing fee.
” listen to your doctor “
Donald Trump just doubled down on his anti-vaccination nonsense.
“he’s a good guy”
Well he clearly is not an anti-Semite. But a lot of his supporters are, judging from internet comments. Think Mussolini.
“Arch-liberal Dr. Charlie Hall is advocating that everyone join the Conservative Party.”
Just in case anyone thinks that I was hacked, I would definitely join the Conservative and Unionist Party (its official name) were I a UK subject and I would encourage all other UK subjects to do so.
The new leader of the UK Labour Party is that bad. Really.
I would not join the UK Liberal Democrats because that party has become hostile to Israel in recent years.
Akuperma is correct that David Cameron and Barack Obama have pretty similar political views.
As a US citizen, however, I limit my participation in other democracies’ elections so I personally will not be joining any UK party. I remain a Democrat in the US. The new mainstream of the Republican Party is as bad as the new UK Labour leader. Really.
What is wrong with Central and South America? How many pogroms have they sponsored compared to White Europe?
Closed borders led to the death of six million of our people.
“identity politics “
The leader for the Republican nomination is running a campaign based on White Male Supremacist politics. Trump himself isn’t an anti-Semite, but a huge fraction of his supporters on the internet are. (If you don’t believe me, try calling out their nativism on any conservative internet site that isn’t moderated and you will see the racists and anti-Semites coming out of the woodwork.) And Trump himself is a nativist bigot in the spirt of Patrick Buchanan and Steve King.
“half of the Republican candidates for President started off as Democrats”
There are now five Democratic candidates for President; the only one who is a lifelong Democrat is Martin O’Malley.