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“now I see the bearded, black velvet yarmulka types young and old”
I am proud to be a “bearded, black velvet yarmulka type”. I almost never wear a suit or jacket except on Shabat or Yom Tov — and in the hot summer, not even then — and I don’t even own a black hat.
“The mishna brura”
The author of the mishna berurah also didn’t consider himself a posek. The author of the Aruch HaShulchan actually WAS a posek.
“The Lubavitcher Rebbe was not a posek.”
Rav Soloveitchik z’tz’l also didn’t consider himself a posek. But between the two of them, they probably established the minhagim for most orthodox synagogues in America.
” I’ve seen people walk into shul wearing a Yankees cap. “
I’ve seen people davening at Yankee Stadium wearing Yankees caps!
“beanie”
A beanie might be more appropriate than a fedora. The Fedora was popularized by a notorious apostate, Sarah Bernhardt. (Yes, the Fedora was originally a women’s hat style.) Yarmulkes are basically beanies; the propeller beanie was devised by a science fiction writer and is quite pareve.
“Hamilton was also an elitest”
It is ironic that the opposition to Hamilton, led by some of the wealthiest landowners in America, called him elitist; he came from a very poor background, arriving in American with little more than the clothes on his back. Hamilton was also one of the first prominent politicians in America to support the abolition of slavery; his wealthy landowning opponents in the South typically owned huge numbers of enslaved people. Hamilton wanted everyone in America to have the same opportunities he had. His opponents wanted to keep the current system entrenched indefinitely.
“with the democratization (small “d’) of the Jacksonian, the extension of franchise would have not taken place”
It had happened pretty much everywhere before the Jacksonian era; Jackson’s success was a result, not a cause. One exception was Rhode Island which had a small civil war in the 1840s over the issue of the expansion of the franchise. (Type “Thomas Dorr” into a search engine and you will be horrified at what you find.)
Jack Lew lives in my neighborhood; I see him in shul (in an Orthodox synagogue) often. I have even heard him daven Shabat Shacharit from the amud and he did a nice job.
“Jackson is also the only president who ever had the USA at a surplus, not owing any money at all.”
Except that his policies set a trap for his successor, Martin Van Buren, as the economy collapsed almost immediately after his inauguration and didn’t recover for many years. The lack of a Central Bank made it impossible to fight the long, damaging recession.
‘Jackson had a very good record on supporting civil rights for Jews – it was the Jacksonian era when the last legal restrictions on our civil rights were removed (e.g. the famous “Jew Bill” in Maryland giving Jews political rights).’
Doesn’t make up for genocide against others. Property qualifications had been gone before Jackson became President — in Maryland it had been done in 1809. And the Maryland “Jew Bill” was also before Jackson was President — the debates in the Maryland legislature were on Federalist-Republican lines as the Jacksonian/National Republican division hadn’t really set in yet.
Grant was indeed an awful President. But he was merely incompetent. Jackson was evil and incompetent.
zahavasdad is absolutely correct. Hamilton was a visionary without whom America would have likely remained a poor agricultural country. He was also one of the very first prominent Americans to call for an end to slavery.
Jackson, on the other hand, caused untold economic damage to millions through his opposition to any and all forms of a central bank, was an unapologetic slaveowner, and fomented genocide against American Indians. He is arguably the worst President ever.
“There are ways of preventing kittens without altering a cat. “
True. And if you get an unaltered female cat who goes into heat you will be rushing to the nearest posek to find a heter to alter her. That actually happened to us.
Unless your landlord prohibits it, or there is someone else in the family who is allergic, go to a shelter and get her a cat. Make sure that it has already been spayed or neutered to avoid any possible halachic problems. And make sure that she accepts the responsibility for cleaning the litter box, and seeing to it that the cat is fed all the time. Also make sure that you have several scratching posts around the house. Cats can make wonderful pets, and you will never, ever, ever have to worry about rodents in your home.
Rabbi Mizrachi has said a lot of over the top things in the past so I would not follow him on anything without checking with my own rav first.
I’ve been trying to get more Jews to listen tto he music of Arnold Schoenberg. He was a Jewish composer whose atonal compositions were different from anything that non-Jews had ever created.
“It’s a machlokes about an obscure Gemara that’s not even brought down lehalachah by the Rosh, Rambam, Rif, or Shulchan Aruch. There are many machlokes in halachah and hashkafah and yet none seem to be as polarizing as this.”
If neither the Rif, Rambam, Rosh, or Shulchan Aruch accepted it as binding, there is no machloket.
The earth is (to a very good approximation) a sphere. Astronauts have proven it with photographs.
And this has been known for a long time. Eratosthenes of Cyrene who lived in the 3rd century BCE even got the dimensions about right.
“The passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the beginning of the end in terms of real safety for Jews in the United States.”
One of the most stupid comments ever posted to the internet.
69 million Americans voted to give him a job.
“We better stop those anti-semites at the DOT trying to stop us from flying down Coney Island Avenue faster than a speeding tow truck on a rain-slicked highway.”
We better stop those people flying down Coney Island Avenue faster than a speeding tow truck on a rain-slicked highway before some poor Jew gets mowed over by the speeders.
It is actually junior high school level. But you have to be fast — when I took it 25 years ago it was 60 questions in 60 minutes and I don’t think that has changed.
” breach in the wall of Shmiras Shabbos and Yom Tov through which the Jewish nation is sanctified thoughout the generations.”
Jews have been adjusting flames on Yom Tov for thousands of years.
“Shabbos Mode ovens, which almost everyone assers”
It isn’t really Shabbos mode, it is Yom Tov mode. And in my community almost everyone uses them. Rav Heinemann and Star-K are reliable.
” Nobody said to major in philosophy, theology, humanities,”
A lot of great rabbis have earned degrees in those fields.
The list of rabbis endorsing the kosher switch is pretty impressive.
“in states in which all traffic offenses are criminal”
About the only part of the Bill of Rights that the courts have not “incorporated” to apply to states (and local governments) is the right of a jury trial in a civil case such as a parking ticket. It is time for someone to take this on and invite the Supreme Court to end this inconsistency.
“chalk it up to living in new york”
It is worth noting one of the conclusions of the Justice Department’s report on the Ferguson, MO police department:
I note that a lot of commenters here hate Eric Holder. But he got that one right. New York City is no different but the Justice Department has not investigated. Perhaps his successor can take some action. Hopefully it won’t require riots.
The purposes of parking fines are twofold: (1) Public safety, such as the need to prohibit parking too close to a corner of an intersection or too close to a fire hydrant. Those fines should be higher than they are today! (2) Making sure that the system of parking works for all, including the need to get the streets cleaned at least weekly, to make sure that there is turnover in business districts, and to prevent traffic tie-ups from things like double parking. Those fines could be cut by 2/3 in most of the city. But it is the fines that keep property taxes low!
Why hasn’t some mayoral candidate made this an issue?
(And I don’t blame the police or meter maids. They are merely enforcing what the Mayor and City Council have made into law.)
I missed this last year, but it is worth noting that aluminum is not dangerous in the levels that would be absorbed from aluminum cookware or foil, or, for that matter, aluminum keys. It is by far the most common metal in the earth’s crust and you get exposed every time you touch dirt.
Brass, OTOH, often contains lead in addition to the copper and zinc that defines the alloy and there is no safe level of exposure to lead. Don’t cook anything brass with your food.
“not all of them did hate us”
The Arabs who first conquered Eretz Yisrael in the 7th century saved us from likely extermination at the hands of the Byzanties. Arab rule was pretty tolerant as long as it lasted, a bit more than 300 years.
“Rav Henkin said”
I’ll take the distinguished posek Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin shlita regarding his grandfather z’tz’l’s opinion over that of an anonymous internet commenter who has a history of lying about the grandson’s halachic positions.
The chutzpah here is astonishing.
“Perhaps I’m mistaken, but the rise of antisemitism caused Zionism, not the other way around. “
You aren’t mistaken.
Jews had been trickling into Eretz Yisrael from Europe since the 13th century, but it too the pogroms of late 19th century Russia and the Dreyfus affair in France to make it a flood.
“Remember, you are gambling with his life (and yours, being as you have a Din Rodef.) “
By doing nothing in abuse cases you are gambling with the lives of the victims and you are dealing with an abuser who falls under Din Rodef.
And if you are a mandated reporter you are dealing with your own life. In New Jersey, the definition of mandated reporter includes everyone.
“Unfortunatly many Bais Dins have proven themselves either unable or incapable of dealing with abusers”
ALL beit dins are unable and incapable of dealing with abusers. They do not have the power to compel collection of evidence or to compel testimony, they do not know how to safeguard evidence, they do not know how to conduct proper forensic investigations, and they do not have the power to enforce sanctions. We have no choice but to rely on the secular authorities.
‘Just out of curiosity, what would you do if the US government mandated chillul Shabbos?’
Leave the country.
“existentialism being Assur was serious.”
I don’t think that Rav Soloveitchik z’tz’l would say that.
“A shaila needs to first be asked whether the case reaches raglayim la’davar.”
R’Elyashiv z’tz’l may have been able to pasken that way in Israel. But if you are a mandated reporter in the US, you can’t ask a shilah and you must report. Furthermore, some states — New Jersey is one of them — make EVERYONE a mandated reporter. If you or your rabbi has trouble with that, you need to live somewhere other than New Jersey and you need not to be a mandated reporter in the state in which you live.
” in a case where there is no question of them repeating the abuse?”
There is no such case. Ever.
” There isn’t that much of a difference between the frum Modern Orthodox and the Yeshivish.”
Numerous times I have seen Rabbi Ausband of the Yeshiva of Telshe Alumni davening at the Young Israel of Riverdale. The Young Israel gives Rabbi Ausband a position of honor equivalent to that of Rabbi Willig, and the two rabbis seem to go out of their way to give each other respect and honor.
I wasn’t claiming that it was egalitarian, I was questioning the source for the “rule” regarding shidduchim expressed by the OP. The examples given don’t seem to have anything to do with our modern shidduch system.
“gezeira d’rabbonon”
There is no gezeira against smartphones. They didn’t exist in the time of Ravina and Rav Ashi.
MO and DL rabbis use modern technology to spread Torah. There is even one promient DL posek, Rav Aviner, who has published volumes of his text message responsa. I have personally had shilahs answered via text message. And the number of MO Torah shiurim on the internet is practically uncountable — YU alone has more than a hundred thousand shiurim on its web site. Think about that. Even were you to devote eight hours a day to nonstop learning just the YU shiurim it would take decades to learn them all, and you wouldn’t ever get through them because they typically add several new ones every day as practically every shiur there is recorded.
This represents a revolution in the degree to which Torah can be spread that rivals the introduction of the printing press! And just like printed books, there is stuff we shouldn’t see. But would anyone seriously argue that we should burn all our printed books and go back to handwritten manuscripts?
If you can’t be trusted to avoid the porn and gambling sites, by all means donate your smartphone to a shelter for victims of abuse and stay off the internet. But I would suspect that for most of us, a shiur with audio and text on my smartphone is a much better use of time on the subway than observing all the immodest advertising (and there is currently one series of ads on the outside of subway trains that is particularly bad). When I saw that on a train I just turned away and looked back at the Hebrew text on my phone and started listened to yet another shiur.
?”? ?”?
The quote has nothing to do with shidduchim, it has to do with proper treatment of ones’ wife!
Where in Shas is this “rule”? I completed a daf yomi cycle and must have missed it.
Regarding 147’s comment: My wife and I met on JWed (back when it was still Frumster). We are still happily married ten years later. It was a lot less expensive than $10,000.
“Smartphones are addictive”
I was running all over NYC today, with business in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. For hours I listened to shiurim that I had downloaded onto my smartphone as I went from one subway to the next. (Actually, six different subway lines plus two bus lines.)
“Daas Torah is unequivocal”
My rabbis have a different daat.
‘ There are some people who don’t sell “real chometz”. ‘
I am one of those people. I eat it all or give it away.
Remember that Indiana is the state that in 1924 elected Edward L. Jackson, a Republican who was a KKK leader, as governor. If today people want to legally discriminate against gays, tomorrow the “No Jews or Dogs” signs will be back and the next day co-op boards will declare themselves religiously opposed to having Jews live in the building. You don’t have to like homosexuality but if we don’t fight this now, we will be the target of Christian bigotry.
(In fact, we may already be. A recent poll found that 57% of Republican primary voters want to establish Christianity as the official religion of the United States, overturning the very First Amendment that they claim to be defending here and turning Jews into second class citizens. The only good news is that Big Business calls the shots in the Republican Party and Big Business knows that gay bashing is bad for business. Already Republican leaders like Jeb Bush and Asa Hutchinson are starting to distance themselves from this nutty law that gives for profit corporations religious rights.)
“it should be noted that the store memories pizza went from having 2 reviews to over 500 hate reviews by these people.”
It is now out of business.
“This is why the Civil Rights act, in my opinion went too far.”
Yup. It got rid of the “No Jews or Dogs” signs. It got rid of most of the Judenrein housing developments. It got rid of the Jewish quotas in colleges. It got rid of most of the Judenrein law firms.
Yup. It went too far.
“the Kitniyos prohibition is about 800 years old,”
Only part of it. The prohibition on corn (maize) cannot be more than 500 years old, and as noted in the quote below, and the prohibition on peanuts cannot be more than a few decades old. Rav Moshe z’tz’l, who died in 1984, said that peanuts were not kitniyot. Some are now trying to asur quinoa.
” You cannot convince me that some time between the late 60s/early 70s until today that peanuts magically became kitniyot.”
This is actually proof for the Open Orthodox position that minhagim can and do change.
Sefardim are from the Left? Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef z’tz’l would have been surprised.
“Why would she care that a hat which became popular as a men’s hat after she died is now popular with the frum community?”
This shows that even the frum community is susceptible to fashion trends.