charliehall

“If H and M pays for a billboard in BP, its because they know the BP market is one of theirs.”

I would not assume that. Most humongous corporations contract out their marketing to advertising consultants who buy billboard space in large quantities through billboard companies, so H&M may well be two steps removed from the actual placement of this offensive ad.

“H&M does have a right to be notified that their ad was offensive in that community and that the owner of the space should have informed them of that.”

Agreed. H&M is a huge multinational corporation with tens of thousands of employees. You can’t expect them to know the demographics of every block in New York City.

And it is currently being boycotted by the anti-Semites because they have opened stores in Israel! It deserves our support, not the destruction of its ads. The community should raise the money to pay them for the vandalism, and to buy them out of their contract for the billboard. (Actually, the bocherim themselves should pay, but they may not have the money.)

*Except the ‘??”? ??”? ??”? ???? ?. *

Also worth mentioning is that we don’t even follow all the Remah’s minhagim! For example, the six closest Ashkenazic synagogues to me recite Hallel in shul on the first night of Pesach.

‘If the ad displayed a far worse (yet technically legal) image and was put up on 13th Avenue across from Shomer Shabbos, and the advertiser refused to change it, would anyone still be opposed to it being removed by “other means” so your children shouldn’t have to see it daily?’

Yes, I would oppose it. Vandalism is illegal. It is no different from some Christian fanatic torching a synagogue because he is offended from our denial of his messiah.

jonas,

If that *was* the reason for disqualifying an eruv in Brooklyn, then the psak can be ignored. Ocean Parkway is used by fewer than 70,000 vehicles a day, which in no way can result in the 600,000 individuals needed to disqualify an eruv. In fact, it can’t handle 600,000 even in theory, as the maximum capacity of a single highway lane is approximately 40,000 vehicles a day and that assumes no traffic lights, no backups, and peak flow for 24 hours a day.

“According to this, you could eat the actual kitniyos”

And you would violate absolutely no halachah by doing so.

‘First of all, he was a big oheiv Yisroel whose “hostility” was never directed at people, but at anti-Torah ideals.’

Religious Zionists would emphatically disagree with that statement.

“so too does a woman/girl have a right to say she wants to marry someone who does wear a hat.”

Yes, we have a right to be stupid. I, the committed Torah U’Maddah guy, did not expect to marry a woman whose rav learned at Lakewood. But she was a perfect match. And if you insist on externals, you are more likely to miss your perfect match.

“I never saw a Rosh Yeshiva or other Rav without a tie.”

Many in Israel go without ties. Its really hot there in the summer!

“They do not have TVs”

I don’t have a TV. Does that make me no longer Modern Orthodox?

“Only because there was no government assistance available at the time. “

ROTF!!!!! More evidence that Big Government is the Torah Way!!!

She was not ugly. Have any of you ignoramuses ever seen a photograph of her as a young woman? Her skin was wrinkled, but that is what happens when you take someone from Eastern Europe and put them in a hot and sunny climate for decades.

What does this have to do with Mother Theresa?

For a rather exhaustive list of sources related to tzniut, see Rav Henkin’s English language sefer *Understanding Tzniut: Modern Controversies in the Jewish Community*.

“Still, I wouldn’t recommend it. “

That’s ok — I’ll fix MY daughter up with Rabbi Akiva!

“I’ll believe you when the Satmar Rov zt”l is admired in those circles”

Had the Satmar Rav shown a bit less hostility towards “those circles” he might be appreciated more.

“a teacher in the yeshiva I attended tried to convince me that Avraham Aveenu and Moshe Rabaynu wore black hats.”

And we wonder why so many people go off the derech.

Rambam never wore a black fedora.

Neither did the Remah.

Neither did the Vilna Gaon.

In fact, neither did the Chofetz Chaim, even though by the end of his life they had become common dress in non-Jewish circles. (I heard this directly from a RY who learned in the CC’s yeshiva while the CC was still alive.)

“Rabbi JB Solavatchik told him (in usual way..) to that kovod Shabbos would be for him to wear his hat in the heat. “

The Rav z’tz’l wore hats. But not just black fedoras. There are many photographs of The Rav in straw hats.

Regarding Franklin Roosevelt and WW2: Roosevelt did not make operational decisions for his military. He left that up to the theater commanders who in the case of the European Air War were Gens. Eisenhower and Arnold. The same criticism of Roosevelt could be made against Churchill; British bombers had just as long a range as US bombers for most of the war. And Churchill himself ordered the bombing of Dresden, which had no military significance.

I consider both Roosevelt and Churchill to be heroes. They saw the evil of fascism before anyone else did. And they worked together — illegally, before the war — to put it out of business. And B”H they succeeded. Yes, the railroads should have been bombed. But think of what would have happened had Lord Halifax become PM in 1940 — or had Robert Taft been elected President the same year. Halifax was an appeaser worse than Chamberlain and had more support within the Conservative Party, but fortunately he yielded to Churchill. Taft was a die hard isolationist and fortunately they masses of the Republican Party masses outvoted their party leaders and nominated the outspoken internationalist Wendell Willkie so US foreign policy was not an issue in the 1940 election.

The black fedora is a relatively recent style — probably a century old. It was common in non-Jewish society for a generation or two but is now indeed a symbol of Jewish community for some. Every rabbi I’ve met who wears a black hat tells me that it is the insides not the outsides that matters. My own rav is cleanshaven, and wears a black hat over his kippa sruga. I never shave, ever, wear a black velvet kippah (I’m not sure I’ve ever worn a kippa sruga), and don’t even own a black hat. I wore a black hat once, at my wedding at the seudah, when my wife’s (Lakewood-trained) rav lent me his for about ten minutes. He then repossessed it with the comment, “It doesn’t fit.”

“Whether Cromwell actually committed genocide is hotly debated by historians to this day.”

There are “historians” who debate the existence of the holocaust, too.

A more direct comparison would be to Chmielnicki Y”S who was murdering Jews at almost exactly the same time as Cromwell was murdering Irish, with almost exactly the same rationale. And yes, you can find historians who don’t pay attention to Chmielnicki’s genocide (particularly in Ukraine). The fact that Cromwell was in fact very good to Jews should not blind us the fact that in almost every other respect the man was a total rasha.

“if the Torah says all the assets are his, even if secular law says 50/50 in divorce, she would not halachicly be allowed to demand that in secular court. “

That is a problem in community property jurisdictions. Basically, the husband has no right whatsoever to half his earnings from the very day they are earned. They aren’t his, they never were his, he never established a kinyan. Any dayanim in California able to address this?

“Would you mind explaining to us “

I submitted an explanation but it has not as of yet been accepted by the moderators.

“The Founding Fathers were conservatives/Classical Liberals, committed to less government intrusion in our lives,”

You obviously have never studied the economic policies of Washington or Hamilton.

” individual liberty, opposed to the welfare state,”

George Washington personally distributed welfare funds under Virginia’s version of the Elizabethan Poor Law. Washington and Hamilton were huge supporters of Corporate Welfare, getting the federal government to invest in the First Bank of the United States. Madison, who had opposed this, finally realized the desirability of a Central Bank and approved the Second Bank of the United States. Adams signed a law requiring individuals to buy health insurance.

” and supported a noninterventionist foreign policy,”

George Washington couldn’t intervene anywhere because the US didn’t have a Navy. (We paid bribes and tribute instead. But he did authorize a Navy which Adams, Jefferson, and Madison used to intervene.) Adams got us into an undeclared war with France. Jefferson started the First Barbary War. Madison started the War of 1812 and invaded Canada!

” gun rights,”

Washington and Hamilton put down the Whiskey Rebellion and disarmed all the rebels they could find.

“opposed taxes, etc.”

Washington and Hamilton raised an army that was larger than the one they had had at Yorktown to put down the Whiskey Rebellion and maintain their high tax policies — which were due in part to the bailout of nearly bankrupt state governments by the Federal Government.

The truth is, our founding fathers were quite comfortable with intrusive government — as long as it was an intrusive *American* government.

‘encouraged doctors to see Medicare patients thru malpractice reform’

While I support malpractice reform, (1) Texas’ reforms are mainly attributable to Bush, not Perry, and (2) they didn’t produce the desired result. While malpractice premiums dropped, it did not result in an increase in the supply of medical providers. Perry’s cuts to Medicaid seem to have more than offset the reduction in malpractice premiums, and Texans are now going to Mexico in record numbers for medical care.

‘Who did Cromwell “genocide”? The Jew-hating Irish?’

At the same time he as letting a few Jews into England, he was committing genocide against the Irish. Who, by the way, are not Jew haters at all. Please name a single Jew who has been killed in an Irish pogrom. There has been less anti-Semitism in Irish history than in the history of any other country in Europe. Not for nothing was Rav Herzog z’tz’l called the “Sinn Fein Rabbi”. (Would that the modern Sinn Fein would pay attention to its history!)

“He is still be entitled to all the marital assets (sans the specific exceptions) in a divorce case.”

Also, under federal law she is entitled to half her pension moneys.

“Oliver Cromwell”

He was a rasha who committed genocide.

In the example given, Marshall’s may actually be violating the rules against *under*charging.

“Not too many heimish folks will accept a $10 an hour job.”

And as the union-busters continue with their success, there will become far more $10/hour jobs than jobs that pay enough to pay yeshiva tuition.