Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
No Jewish man would have been caught dead wearing a black fedora a century ago. The style was a woman’s hat style popularized by the notorious licentious (even by today’s low standards!) apostate actress Sarah Bernhardt; the very term was the name of one of her characters and feminists of the time adopted the style as a mark of identification. Bernhardt is probably laughing in her grave that orthodox Jews who would have been horrified by her lifestyle and what she represented have adopted her style.
The OU welcomes all who identify as Orthodox. Lets at least have one frum organization that is like that.
I happen to know the burn doctors at the hospital where Gila is. They are (1) frum and (2) two of the best burn doctors in the world. Continue to pray for Gila bat Frances.
I think that it makes a lot of sense to have the mourners stand together. I saw that in a shul in Paris; they MANDATED that anyone reciting mourners kaddish go to the front of the shul and stand right in front of the Bimah. I was saying kaddish then and I appreciated being right next to other guys reciting the longer Sefardic kaddish with which I was unfamiliar.
‘the Charaidim are guilty of not supporting the “Israeli” cause, but Hashem and his Torah. That is not something they are ashamed of. Should they be?’
Were all Jews in Eretz Yisrael to become charedi, the economy would collapse and there would be mass starvation — unless the Arab rashaim wiped us all out before we could starve to death because there would no longer be an IDF. There would then be no Torah in Eretz Yisrael.
The fact is, the current Charedi system does not work and cannot work.
“What an excellent expression of thinking New York is the only place on Earth.”
Yup. One might have thought that people would be embarrassed about their narrowmindedness.
My wife and I just visited Northern and Southern California. 85 degrees in the south, no rain, people going to the beach. Kiddushes held outdoors — in February. In the north, the largest cross country ski area in North America was closed for lack of snow. The Lake Tahoe area, where snowpack is generally measured in feet, not inches, had no snow at all.
2014 was overall the warmest year ever since reliable worldwide measurements became available in 1880. Eastern North America is the only populated area in the world that has escaped that trend. Be grateful that we have escaped that trend — so far.
(And if you live in South Brooklyn, the Rockaway Peninsula, or South Staten Island, be prepared for more Sandy’s.)
“the o-U was not acceptable”
They can say it (in Paris). We can’t (in America). You simply cannot keep kosher in the United States if you don’t accept the OU unless you make all your food from scratch using only raw agricultural products, because every other kashrut agency in America relies on the OU.
“the Mechaber and the Rema”
Not all Acharonim pasken according to the Mechaber or the Rema.
“he did not hold cheese produced with microbial media to be cheese in the traditional understanding, since microbial coagulant did not exist at the time of the Shulchan Aruch. He said it is a different product, so the gezerah was not applicable to it”
My rav told he that Rav Soloveitchik z’tz’l ate such cheese. My rav doesn’t accept Tablet K for other reasons, not this one.
“I would certainly not eat the bagels, I dont think you can say with certainty that they’re treif. “
In the Bronx, almost all the bagels in independent retail outlets come from the same source, Just Bagels, which is under OU supervision. I’ve seen their trucks making early morning deliveries.
A Herzog government wouldn’t have foreign policies much different from a Netanyahu government. It will propose Land for Peace to the Arabs, just as Netanyahu did. It will aggressively work to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, just as Netanyahu has. It will aggressively fight the UN sham investigations of Israel, just as Netanyahu has. It will fight Hamas but won’t go out of its way to put it out of business, which is exactly what Netanyahu did.
The major difference is that Herzog wont diss diaspora Jews, and will do a better job at keeping up good relations with Israel’s supporters across the US political spectrum.
In there United States there are about 105 baby boys born for every 100 baby girls. The likelihood that that difference is due to chance is extremely low.
“Many Chinese parents manipulate the results by aborting female pregnancies”
This happens in much of India, too.
And we can be thankful that the University of South Carolina has a film archive dedicated to preserving this kind of history. I will make a donation to them in the memory of my grandfather a’h who was an alumnus.
“The university has cataloged together the reel together with its original report, both available in their library.”
They also transferred it from the original film material to a more longlasting electronic format. The plastic base used for almost all motion pictures prior to about 1950 had a tendency to spontaneously conmbust! It is a miracle that the original lasted this long and for that we can be grateful.
No place in the US bans Walmart per se. It is just that many places, NYC included, have zoning laws that make it difficult for Walmart to build their huge stores.
“who had their Seudas Purim Plans messed up? “
Me! I had to throw together a seudah on no notice in 1 1/2 hours.
And I know the reason for the snow. The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale had selected as the theme for its Purim Carnival “Purim on Ice”! So you can blame Open Orthodoxy for the snow.
“I think even charliehall once posted that at one time a high percentage of hesder boys went OTD (although now it’s better).”
I did post that. My source was a public statement by a Religious Zionist leader who had helped start the Army Preparatory Schools that dramatically reduced the OTD rate for RZ young people who did not want to go to a hesder yeshiva. Previously, the hesder yeshivot had dramatically reduced the OTD rate among their students.
I suspect that there are some folks who are attempting to rationalize getting drunk.
The OP is one of the minority of Mordechai’s brethren Rashi mentions in his commentary to the last verse of the Megillah.
“expanded education for girls”
While there were Jewish schools that gave girls a Torah education in Germany and America before Sarah Schenirer was born, I think that it was Rav Soloveitchik z’tz’l who instituted teaching gemara for girls. He made a point of teaching the first gemara shiur to women at Stern College himself — there is a famous photograph of him leading that first shiur.
“How many Orthodox schoolgirls living in Riverdale learn Gemorah today in elementary and high school?”
All who go to SAR, and most who go to other schools.
“Who knows what the truth really is.”
The Jewish Republican former Governor of Hawaii personally vouched for Obama’s birth certificate when she went to that state’s records. Are you calling her a liar?
Kenya did not yet exist as a sovereign country at the time of Obama’s birth. Because Obama’s father was a British subject, Obama was probably born a dual national. (At that time, British nationality only passed through the father; you could be born IN the UK to a British mother and you would not get UK nationality unless your father was also a UK national.) But Obama lost that status when Kenya became independent, becoming a Kenyan citizen, and he lost his Kenyan citizenship when he turned 23 (retroactive to age 21) because at that time, Kenya’s constitution prohibited dual citizenship for adults. In 2010 Kenya adopted a new constitution which permits dual citizenship and also enacted a new nationality law that allows former citizens to regain Kenyan nationality so Obama could get his Kenyan citizenship back if he so desired.
“Why would anyone one assume that marijuana is safer than alcohol or cigarettes? “
One would not assume that, but the actual evidence is clear that it does not cause the social and physical harm that alcohol and cigarettes cause.
“isnt it addictive?”
Not in the same way that alcohol or cigarettes are, or even heroin or cocaine are. Millions of people have quit smoking marijuana with little struggle.
” Does smoking it have less an effect on the lungs than tobacco? And it’s usually not even filtered?”
Filters don’t prevent the damage to ones health that smoking causes. And while in theory a marijuana cigarette can be as bad as a tobacco cigarette, it is extremely rare for a pothead to smoke 30 marijuana cigarettes a day!
“As far as I know, there is no other purpose to smoking marijuana other than to get high, an altered mental status”
Actually there is now a lot of evidence for marijuana having numerous medical uses, and it is safer to smoke a marijuana cigarette than to take the active ingredient in pill form.
I absolutely do not support smoking marijuana to get high. A college roommate of mine flunked out because he was high all semester. But discussions should be grounded in fact, and the anti-marijuana folks are fact-impaired.
nolongersingle,
That psak from Rav Soloveitchik z’tz’l, which is one of the few halachic positions he stated in writing during his lifetime, was more like 60 years ago. And the communities that have schools like he himself opened and also insisted on for Rabbi Rosenfeld’s community have grown by leaps and bounds. For example, when Rav Soloveitchik wrote that letter, Riverdale did not have a single Orthodox synagogue. Today it is full of Orthodox synagogues and all are packed every Shabat.
‘The Remo clearly writes that “mutov shejehi shoggegim” is applicable even to d’oraisas, except when it is explicitly written in the Torah.’
Who here would tell their his to disrobe in public if you discovered that her dress contained a forbidden mixture of wool and linen?
“the minhag is to be machmir like R’ Moshe, the Tzitz Eliezer, and others”
Actually in my community the minhag is to be machmir on oral hygiene like Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Ovadia Yosef. 😉
“Every Jewish conservative must follow exactly the Torah, but Not liberals”
You can follow exactly the Torah and oppose MBP.
“none of my questions in the OP asked for anyone’s legal opinions on its legality”
That is like an OP would ask about the advisability of participating in some dubious financial scam and complaining that commenters point out that the scam is illegal. The fact is that unlicensed B’n’B’s drive out of business those who are following the rules. Is it even mutar to do business with a known lawbreaker?
link removed
Anyone thinking of listing with AirBnB might want to consult with a lawyer first.
“Lounges IMO are not appropriate places to go for a date. “
Correct. In addition to the fact that hotel lounges are places where a lot of, er, uh, precursors to non-tzniut behavior occur, there is the issue that if the lounge is at all crowded, you are taking space from hotel patrons who are paying customers. This is a form of theft!
There are plenty of public parks and even indoor public spaces that aren’t privately owned and intended for paying customers.
“I don’t subscribe to the global warming theory”
You don’t have to subscribe to the theory of gravity, either, but I would not recommend jumping off a tall building. Similarly, I would not make major investments in oceanfront property. The earth is getting warmer whether you believe it or not.
Uber Black is the Uber livery cab service. Comparing livery cabs to Uber X is apples to oranges. Compare comparable service to comparable service.
Took a livery cab from the subway station to my home tonight. $8. Uber Black wants $19 to $23.
Want more examples or is this enough?
Uber Black wants to charge me $63 to $82 to take me to the New Rochelle Amtrak station. Blue Bird Taxi will do it for about $30 plus tip.
Just got a quote from Uber Black for a trip from my home to La Guardia Airport. $72-$91. I’ve never paid a livery cab service more than $55 including tolls for that run.
?????? ?????, ??????? ????????: ??????? ???????-??????, ???? ??????????.
The people who ask for pictures and dress sizes don’t pay attention to what they sing on Friday night.
When I have checked Uber’s prices, they have always been much higher than the local livery cab services. And my neighborhood is full of livery cabs.
I should add that my own experience in academia is limited to the United States.
“1. The shock of going from an environment of kedusha to secularism.”
An argument against the isolationism in the charedi world.
“2. Kefira in academia.”
Science and history aren’t kefira. In most universities, you don’t have to take philosophy classes that would challenge traditional Jewish beliefs any more. But even so, if after years in yeshiva a single philosophy class could cause you to go off the derech, your yeshiva education must not have been very good. Rambam mastered Greek and Islamic philosophy, why can’t our top students?
“3. Influence from secular professor with improper values.
(I’m not sure where you get the idea that U.S. professors are “supportive of Orthodox Judaism”. U.S. universities are a major hotbed of liberalism and anti-religiosity [and anti-Israel, for that matter.])”
In two dozen years I have never encountered hostility to Orthodox Judaism. Even the anti-Israel activists aren’t very common — there is far more anti-Israel sentiment right here in the YWN coffee room. (Maybe the coffee room is asur?)
“4. Influence from secular students. (kefira discussions, mode of dress, etc.)”
Mode of dress??? Unless you live in a cave you are not going to be able to avoid seeing people dressing to a standard different from Orthodox Jews.
And would that today’s college students discussed kefira! At most campuses, partying, drinking, and sports are the main interests. And that brings up what should today be the real issue of concern, which is the licentious environment on many campuses today.
“5. Even in chareidi colleges there are instructors who aren’t 100% yirei shamayim.”
When you go against the mesorah and ban secular education you aren’t going to have teachers who are qualified to teach.
“They are telling me that I cannot bring my services dog because it is a mechir kelev.”
Get another shul or sue them under the ADA. In secular court.
“shtusim of history, psychology”
History is something every Jew needs to learn. Much of the Tanakh narrative is historical.
Psychology is an empirical science and as long as you remember that, it is absolutely no challenge to Torah.
Rebbe Yid,
The situation with Israel is different. Yehudah, Shomron, and Gaza are not and have never been part of Medinat Yisrael, and the government of Medinat Yisrael refuses to annex those areas.
“The RY makes many valid points”
True and had the piece been written as a warning rather than a ban there isn’t a lot to object to — as I pointed out, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb has been saying some of the same things. But an absolute ban on secular study is not consistent with our mesorah and this proves that it isn’t just Open Orthodox that is trying to make innovations that have not been accepted in the past.
“Most Israelis prefer a two state solution “
The last five Israeli Prime Ministers have supported a Palestinian State.
“look at the boundaries proposed in 1918”
No exact boundaries were proposed in 1918.
The Rabbinical Council of America has this position its web site:
Genetic Engineering and Cloning 1997
Jun 1, 1997 — Genetic Engineering and Cloning
The Rabbinical Council of America, in convention assembled, wishes to raise a cautionary note in regard to the new technologies of genetic engineering and cloning. Though some positive benefits may result from these breakthroughs, we must express our concern that the work is proceeding without thorough discussion and enactment of legal and ethical guidelines. While there is great potential for good in these technologies, there is also great potential for harm. The Rabbinical Council of America, therefore, calls on the United States government other international governments and the scientific community to convene conferences and other for discussion of the ethical and legal concerns endemic to this technology, and to allow time for the passage and implementation of legal and ethical guidelines that will structure this work in ways that will maximize its positive potential and protect against its potentially negative consequences.
link removed -79
Cafeccino bakery on West 231st Street in Kingsbridge, Bronx. Best pita outside of Israel.
“Is this true? Can anything be done? “
Build more low and moderate income housing.
“There is no mitzvah to specifically give to any community or specific charity “
From mishnaic times through the period of the Rishonim (and possibly longer) there were mandatory community charity collections. See the last perek of Masechte Peah and Rambam Hilchot Matanot Aniyim. According to Rambam, who wrote that he had never heard of any Jewish community not having such an institution, anyone who refused to contribute the assessment could recieve lashes and have their property seized by beit din.
” if she is suddenly exposed for several hours a week to secular-chiloni studies it can influence her. There is no guarantee that she is immune because all academic studies pose a risk”
If *everyone* who goes through the Torah educational system comes out at risk, there is something badly wrong with the system. Is a Torah-based hashkafah so fragile that a single cynical professor can cause someone to go off the derech?