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“the Rema (467:8) cites customs to not eat honey, raisins, dried fruit, sugar, saffron and cloves, and other Poskim cite numerous other customs from specific communities.”
If one took on every Pesach stringency that has ever been practiced by every community ever, he’d starve to death!
Mark,
Why?
Mw13,
Learning any language in which a Torah essay has been written is certainly of inherent value! There is certainly enough Torah in English, German, Arabic, Ladino, and Yiddish to make learning those languages worthwhile in addition to Hebrew and Aramaic.
There is no shayla. Rudeness is NEVER permitted. My charedi teachers and my modern orthodox teachers have all said this over and over again.
And what some seem to forget is that undesired advances are themselves unprofessional. A simple, “no” to a social invitation MUST be respected.
The idea that English is unimportant is NOT a Jewish idea. Members of the Sanhedrin had to know all the world’s languages. And there is far more Torah in English than in Yiddish.
My mother suffered a severe cut to her foot on her wedding day and ended up in the emergency room. But she was married to my father for the rest of her life.
agree with bpt
“Greece,Portugal, Spain or have began the move towards Capitolism to head off collapse i.e Isreal, France, England. “
Actually the countries that had the most laissez-faire economies were the ones that suffered the most. Ireland in particular is now a poor country again. Canada and Israel, which tightly regulates their financial sectors, had no banking crisis whatsoever!
“Who in the world is poor because Bill Gates is rich? “
Anyone who invested his life savings in one of the many businesses Gates drove out of business.
“Reuven buys a car from Shimon for $3000. Total wealth is increased because both transactors have more wealth than they started out with, Reuven has a car that he wanted more than he wanted the $3000 and Shimon has the $3000 that he wanted more than he wanted the car. “
No wealth increased in that transaction. UTILITY increased, but the car is still worth just $3000.
“All I know is that the Gedolim (virtually) don’t trim. “
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein is clean shaven. Perhaps one of his students might be able to inform us of his position regarding beards and shaving?
“the Ramchal says that there just needs to be a beard even if it is trim”
I’m with Ramchal. I keep mine trimmed.
I have seen photographs of yeshiva classes in Europe from the 1930s — all the bocherim were clean shaven. A Rosh Yeshiva who was in one of those photos told me that they used depilatories. Electric razors were first marketed in 1933 and many poskim hold that they are really like scissors, not razors, and therefore mutar.
I was taught never to pick up hitchikers, unless it is someone I know.
“Chofetz Chaim never changed, everyone else did.”
Chadash asur min ha torah.
“even the Levush would agree that spelling words while playing Scrabble does not violate Shabbos since the letters are complete to begin with.”
That is what I have been taught.
“This precludes using a game where letters or numbers snap firmly into place, and prohibits playing Travel Scrabble on Shabbos.”
I have also been told to use regular Scrabble and not Travel Scrabble on Shabat.
We also have a simple way of keeping score: Bookmarks! Find a book with at least 300 pages. If you score 20 points, put the bookmark at page 20. If you score 13 points on the next turn, put the bookmark at page 33. It completely avoids writing. You need as many books as you have players. In fact, because we mostly play Scrabble on Shabat and rarely if ever during the week, this is our normal method of keeping score! Therefore there is no issur.
I agree with The Goq.
I will let you in on a secret: those of us who are good at math — I have batchelors and masters degrees in applied math and a doctorate in biostatistics — have to work hard. Math requires concentration and attention to detail. The truth is, other disciplines do, too, but in math the consequemcies of inadequate prep are instantaneous and you can’t fake it if you didn’t do the work.
Life is about doing things that are difficult and require attention and concentration. You might get out of a math course, but you (hopefully) won’t escape a long and healthy life. Get yourself a tutor and prepare for hard work. The effort will produce reward. Good luck!
We always do it the Sunday before Pesach.
Rav Lichtenstein quoting the Chazon Ish in the link I gave above:
Let me restate my apology in a stronger way: I apologize for the stridency of my previous post and for the term “ridiculous” it reflected a misunderstanding of what others were saying. I regret the error.
Rav Lichtenstein on this general topic:
“charliehal is using it meaning to rely as regards actions.
i am using it as regards thought and emotion. “
Correct. I apologize if my previous post seemed to strident. I did not understand that the distinction was being made. HaShem is of course in charge of EVERYTHING.
“it is obligatory to rely on Divine intervention.”
That is a totally ridiculous statement.
If I don’t prepare for Shabat, will HaShem do my grocery shopping and cook my meals?
If I don’t get rid of my chometz, will HaShem miraculously cause it to disappear before Pesach?
If I get sick, will HaShem always make the disease go away without treatment?
The halachah simply does not agree with that statement. It is a chiyuv to prepare for Shabat, get rid of my chometz, and go to a real doctor if I have a serious illness.
It is asur to rely on Divine intervention. Therefore life and disability insurance is needed even by those with the strongest bitachon.
“Charlie is 100% correct.”
What happened to my comment?
One reason *I* go to minyan is to be of service to my fellow Jews, particularly the men and women who need to say kaddish and need a minyan to do so.
Now *I’m* saying kaddish and I’m grateful to everyone else who comes.
Judaism is about serving God and our fellow humans.
“Do you feel you’re related –spiritually– to either of them?! “
Yes.
I really need to post less here. I’m two days behind in Daf Yomi.
“Modern Orthodox- ascribes to modern movements in orthodoxy, like chassidus or the mussar movement. “
I love it!
Fresh fruits and vegetables are kosher year round and kosher for Pesach. I don’t even try to do the fake cakes and pastries and as a result I actually eat more healthily on Pesach than during the rest of the meal.
Here is one recipe, from *Indian-Jewish Cooking* by Mavis Hyman:
“Kuccha” Tomato salad
Cut tomatoes up into small pieces.
Add finely chopped scallions and cilantro (coriander — fresh is best but dried leaves work well, too).
Add salt and lemon juice.
Mix and serve.
Delicious.
My parents chose it for me when I was born.
We got engaged on the second date, so I’m not really an expert on third dates ;).
“The reason people are questioning the facts on the latter is because she makes a claim that isn’t borne out by the facts in most other cases.”
Well as Wolf pointed out, she isn’t around any more to make a claim, but nobody who is informed questions her dates of birth or death.
‘The goy commented “that Jew will live long”. Didn’t he? ‘
He was born in 1838, and died in 1933 at the age of 95. Radvaz may have lived to the age of 110.
“its soo weird that a random lady outlived Moshe Rabbeinu “
So did his brother.
If you lived in Jerusalem when we had a Temple, you had to put up anyone who showed up at your door for the shlosh regalim.
“What has been accepted IS the Rema’s codification! “
LOL!!!
Rabbi Yaakov Emden didn’t accept it. And as I pointed out, many other codifications of the Rema have not been accepted. And the Rema never codified that massive expansion of the definition of kitniyot we’ve seen in the past generations.
“a dishwasher’s relative low cost compared to a house is reason to disregard Feif Un’s rov’s p’sak that he doesn’t need a new one”
As I said, I agree that he can follow is Rov and that anyone who doesn’t accept it isn’t Orthodox. But because there are so many people who claim to be Orthodox who won’t accept it, it may be worth an extra 1/10 of 1% of the cost of the house to get a new dishwasher. Sometimes you just have to cave in to the folks who won’t accept the halachic process in order to maintain shalom among Jews.
“Time to fight that yetzer hara of yours and absorb a true Torah Daas. “
Rambam and Rav Hirsch had a yetzer hara and lacked a true Torah Daas?
There are come great Jewish museums in New York. My favorite is the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan. (And you can also pick up a minyan at the synagogue at 3 West 16th Street.)
“The price of Kosher food (Meat, cheese especially) and even more if you want Hemish brands. Chalav Yisroel can be quite expensive especially Non Milk (ie Ice cream, butter etc)”
Buy your baked goods at Stop and Shop. If you are Ashkenazic, eat non-glatt meat. Eat Cabot cheese and Breakstone butter rather than the “heimish” brands. The prices will stay high as long as people are willing to pay them. The OU is a perfectly acceptable hechsher!
“Kosher food prices will continue to rise when each product or resturant needs 4 different hechsharim just to appeal to enough customers to keep them from going under. “
I have a container of spice that has five hechshers — and according to some opinions, plain spice doesn’t require rabbinical supervision at all. Don’t buy the 5 hechsher spice; get the store brand with at most one hechsher.
“Cut the Sem in Israel. Cut the Sem in Israel. Cut the Sem in Israel. Cut the Sem in Israel. Cut the Sem in Israel. “
Got it!!!
“The money is going somewhere.”
Salaries for administrators in Jewish Day Schools are much higher than public schools. I am aware of one Day School that pays its principal over $400K/year. The most that a public school principal can make in NYC is about $153K — and that is with an earned doctorate and over 20 years experience.
I doubt that is the entirety of the problem though. Most Jewish schools are quite small. I was told this evening of one very well known high school with a graduating class of 70. I know of another with a graduating class of 100. By comparison, there is a public high school near me with a graduating class of over one thousand. The economies of scale are enormous.
“the Catholic schools charge $3500 a year tutiton and the Yeshivas can charge $15K (or more)”
The Catholic Church would never allow a school with 70 students per grade to continue operating. It would be forced to merge.
“Nobody can say for sure if the Bais Yaakov is running a surplus or a deficit since the President of BYBP is not opening the books for people to see.”
Don’t ever give money to a charity that won’t open its books.
“Anyone want to lobby for tuition credits? “
Sure! We would have to do two things:
(1) Repeal New York’s Blaine Amendment, which prohibits religious schools from getting any form of governmental assistance other than transportation. An attempt was made back in 1967; it got less than 30% of the vote in a statewide referendum.
(2) Campaign for the higher taxes that will be needed to pay for the religious school tuition.
I had never heard of this minhag.
The Wikipedia article states that the custom of putting candles on birthday cakes originated in 18th century Germany.
I agree with rebdoniel.
“This one is universally (AFAIK) accepted by ???????.”
And *that*, not the codification of the Rema, is why Ashkenazic Jews don’t eat kitniyot. Minhag is important.
“Because if the difference is small enough, it is worthwhile buying a new one. “
Dishwashers aren’t that expensive compared to the cost of a new house. It might be worth it.
Kashrut is the major divider among Jews today. I am glad that I live in a neighborhood where if you are shomer Shabat, people trust your kashrut.
“How does one overcome jet lag? “
Don’t take overnight flights.
Seriously, you can get to Israel without an overnight flight. Take a day flight from NY to London, UK, and spend the night in the UK before traveling to Israel the next day.
“How reliable are the records of people who allegedly lived beyond 121?”
Other than Jeanne Calment, they are not reliable.
The Birthers aren’t satisfied with questioning Barack Obama, they are insisting on questioning Jeanne Calment!
Sometimes it is clear that you are incompatible. I was once fixed up with someone who turned out to be a fan of Bill O’Reilly.
What is going on in Gaza? Hamas continues its thuggish rule over the Palestinians there. It isn’t news because it hasn’t changed. 🙁
A better example: Directly outside of a Judaica store in Manhattan at a bus shelter was a very large ad put up by missionaries targeting Jews. Should it have been defaced?
“Do you know that he didn’t? “
Or that he didn’t try to convince his father to try another line of business?
Besides, we don’t derive halachah from aggadata.
“They followed Torah law (which takes precedence over dina dmalchusa)”
There is no commandment in the Torah to deface anothers’ property. In fact, it is asur.
“What do we do now? This is widespread. “
Let the kids be self sufficient.
We paid for our wedding out of our own pockets. When we bought a house, my wife’s mother helped us out some, but most of the down payment and the entirety of the mortgage payments are from us. If they can’t afford Lakewood, there are plenty of less expensive frum communities in rust belt cities that would love to have a new family move in. The kids will handle it ok.