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“That’s why IMO there is no purpose to learning in Yiddish nowadays”
I would disagree as there are at least two very important sefarim in Yiddish: Tzena Urena and Orchot Tzadikim.
Similarly, it would be better to learn the Meam Loez in the original Ladino.
Similarly, it would be better to learn Emunot v’Deot, Chovot HaLevavot, Kuzari, and most of Rambam’s works in the original Arabic.
Similarly, it would be better to learn R’Hirsch’s works in the original modern German.
How many yeshivot teach Ladino, Arabic, and or German? YU teaches Arabic, Yiddish but not German, modern Spanish but not Ladino. I know of one Orthodox high school that teaches Arabic. Any others?
There is no question that it is best to learn in the original language of the writer.
Regarding “clean” languages, there really isn’t any such thing anywhere in the world except for newly invented languages such as Esparanto. There are Aramaic words in Chumash and entire sections of Tanakh are in Aramaic. The gemara is full of Greek words and I even found a Latin word in the Mishnah. Rashi translated words into French for his audience — so many that medieval scholars use Rashi’s translations as a major resource for understanding the Christian and secular writings of that time. (Derech HaMelech, I’m not sure what you mean by “don’t talk about”.)
“Thanks, I’m full.” is a complete sentence.
to respond to blueprints and popa:
I don’t understand why we are continuing without considering the halachic issues. We are looking like the situation described at the end of Sefer Shoftim, with everying doing as they wanted as there was no King. Our King is HaShem and His Law is the Torah. And it contains explicit instructions on what we can do to protect our lives and property — none of which have been discussed in over a hundred comments.
Dudu Fisher.
“Unless there is a name of the rav attached, discount it. “
I would not automatically assume that. If anyone really wants to hear from my rav in person something I’ve attributed to him, I’d be happy to give you (privately) his telephone number. I will not ever publish his name because all his psaks to me were private; if he wanted to publish them under his name he can do so himself. Private psaks are perfectly permissible!
“The Chasmonoim were not protecting their houses, thay were
protecting the Torah.”
I’m surprised there has been no discussion of relevant halachot. Is this not a torah site? Most intruders aren’t tunneling into your house.
Do you support bank bailouts?
I don’t know enough about it.
CH> That was the single most important issue of the past 4 years.
Do you think America’s infrastructure is not in need of substantial improvments?
It is. I think it should be state funded.
CH> States don’t have the ability to do pay for them. Do you therefore think that the bridges, roads, and railroads should be abandoned as they crumble?
Do you think that millions of Americans should be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions?
Yes.
CH> You realize that you are condemning people — including some Jews — to an early death?
Do you think that employees’ rights to form unions should be eliminated?
No. Neither should the secret ballot be eliminated through tricks like card check.
CH> I’m happy with the secret ballot, but I’m not happy with current labor law that allows employers to delay such a secret ballot while systematically purging their workforces of employees believed to be supporting a union.
Do you think that America’s educational system does not need improvement?
It does. It needs an overhaul. We need to fire every teacher and hire teachers who will be accountable and competent. I don’t care what it costs.
CH> How large a tax increase are you willing to pay for it? To fire every teacher and hire superbly qualified teachers in today’s labor market probably means that salaries for teachers need to be about doubled.
Do you think that Americans’ Social Security money should be invested in the casino known as Wall Street?
Better than the Black hole known as the Social Security Trust fund. I think we should eliminate the program and just make a need based senior welfare program.
CH> Great! Millionaires don’t need Social Security any more than they need more tax cuts.
Do you think that the US government should not enforce laws against racial and religious discrimination?
By public entities- Yes, but only real discrimination, not made up garbage.
By private entities- No.
CH> Don’t complain then when you are fired for refusing to work on Shabat or for wearing a yarmulke, or if you are refused an apartment or a house by a landlord or seller. Jews have benefitted enormously from anti-discrimination laws.
Do you think that the government should ban all abortions, including those that are halachically mandated?
Yes.
I don’t want them to, but I think they should.
CH> Are you really a Torah Jew?
Do you think that the government should sit by and let people be denied their right to vote, as is happening to Jews in some upstate communities?
No. Since when is this a partisan issue?
CH> It shouldn’t be, but it has been made one by the people who posted here. Republicans are actively trying to disenfranchise qualified voters. One of the most eggregious examples have been upstate communities with many temporary residents who are Jews from New York who don’t vote the way the permanent residents want even though they own their second homes and pay high taxes. The law says that you can use a summer home as your voting address as long as you don’t vote twice. (In some places, such as Connecticut, you actually CAN vote in both places in local elections under some circumstances.)
Do you think that the concentration of mass media ownership in a few hands is a good thing?
If there is an anti-trust violation, it should be prosecuted. Otherwise, no harm- no foul.
CH> I agree.
Do you think we should continue the war in Iraq indefinitely?
What kind of question is that? We should continue it as long as it serves our interests. Even if that is 100 years.
You think we should not continue if it serves our interests?
CH> An endless war is not in the interests of the US. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are preventing us from doing anything about the real enemy, Iran.
Do you really think climate change requires no action at all?
Yes. It is a scam. Historians will tell of past warming and cooling cycles that have been happening forever.
CH> The world has gotten warmer. That is a fact. It is no scam.
Do you disagree with Ronald Reagan regarding nuclear proliferation?
I never got this argument. We should prevent other countries from getting nuclear weapons, and we should continue to develop our own.
CH> I objected to the guilt-by-association here and pointed out that Reagan’s position at the end of his term was identical to the CPUSA.
“Do you not do mitzvos so you should get a bigger chelek in oilum habba? So than why do you do it. “
I do mitzvot because my Creator commanded me to do them. Is there a problem with that?
We gave our housecleaner a nice bonus just today. If you hold by Tosafot, HaMeiri, and Remah that Christianity isn’t asur for non-Jews, I can’t see what the problem would be. If she were Jewish I would have given it before this week.
So now that we have proven that Ronald Reagan must have been a Communist, I will now ask which of the points the alleged anti-Communists here oppose:
Do you support bank bailouts?
Do you think America’s infrastructure is not in need of substantial improvments?
Do you think that millions of Americans should be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions?
Do you think that employees’ rights to form unions should be eliminated?
Do you think that America’s educational system does not need improvement?
Do you think that Americans’ Social Security money should be invested in the casino known as Wall Street?
Do you think that the US government should not enforce laws against racial and religious discrimination?
Do you think that the government should ban all abortions, including those that are halachically mandated?
Do you think that the government should sit by and let people be denied their right to vote, as is happening to Jews in some upstate communities?
Do you think that the concentration of mass media ownership in a few hands is a good thing?
Do you think we should continue the war in Iraq indefinitely?
Do you really think climate change requires no action at all?
Do you disagree with Ronald Reagan regarding nuclear proliferation?
“What percent of the Communist Party platform here does the Democrat Party disagree with”
I don’t know. There is no Democrat Party. There is a Democratic Party.
“They censored Joe McCarthy and demonized him”
As they should have. You defend a liar like him, whose motzi shem ra destroyed many careers? Shame!
“This is takn from “
You disingenously select items with widespread support. For example, consider the following:
CPA: Enforce nuclear non-proliferation, work to abolish nuclear weapons.
DNC: America will be safer in a world that is reducing reliance on nuclear weapons and ultimately eliminates all of them. We will make the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide a central element of U.S. nuclear weapons policy.
Ronald Reagan agreed!
I also agree with Wolf on schar.
popa,
The age of Rivkah’s marriage is a machloket between different manuscripts of Seder Olam Rabbah, many of which say she was married as a young teenager.
Is this redstate.com?
myfriend is lying. Compare for yourself:
According to many rabbis, it isn’t.
If you are not totally fluent in both Aramaic and Hebrew, you might learn better with the English translation. Furthermore, Artscroll’s footnotes are outstanding.
“I am also angry about Yoga. Its full Avodas Zara.”
Not necessarily. My wife is training to be a yoga teacher and her mentor is also frum. The fact that something is done by other religions does not make it automatically asur!
“Doesn’t the Torah teach us to appreciate the fact that we have a sun?”
Indeed we say a blessing on the sun every 28 years!
I saw it. It was beautiful. The sky was unusually clear. I’m tired now but I have no regrets.
HaShem created an amazing universe.
Every lunar eclipse during a 5000 year period:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/LEcatalog.html
There are two or three most years, always occurring on the full moon hence around the 14th/15th of a Hebrew month. There may have been a lunar eclipse on Pesach the year bayit sheni was destroyed.
“those that break our laws and enter illegally never proved they had a job awaiting them here”
Not true! Look at all the illegal immigrants Shalom Rubashkin employed!!!
“Legal immigration is available. “
Actually, it isn’t. The wait for visas from places like Mexico and the Philippines is often decades. The system is broken and needs to be fixed.
“I think they should deport the Jews. They’re turning our country into a non-English-speaking country and spreading dangerous diseases around and stealing your stuff. “
That is exactly what people said a century ago. As a result, the Johnson-Reed Act was passed in 1924 which slammed the door on Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. Six million had nowhere to go.
Sam is either not Jewish, or so assimilated that he has lost any connection to our history. Open borders have been essential to Jewish survival. English was not a language spoken by many Jews until about a century ago. And hostility toward immigrants is Midot Sedom.
(Sam’s stats are also completely misleading. The incarcerated illegal immigrants are mostly awaiting deportation, not criminals. It is not a crime to simply be in the US without a proper visa, it is a violation, like a parking ticket. Furthermore, border cities such as El Paso, San Diego, and McAllen have some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the US even though the Mexican cities directly across the border are among the most dangerous in the world.)
Approximate statistics in the US:
10,000 homicides using guns.
16,000 suicides using guns.
Under 1,000 accidental deaths from guns.
33,000 deaths in automobile accidents. (This number has dropped dramatically in recent years.)
250,000,000 registered passenger vehicles in US.
We do not know how many firearms exist in the US but estimates are that the number is approximately the same or slightly larger than the number of vehicles.
I had a relative who owned a gun. Two deaths resulted.
The first was when a poor sick unarmed mentally ill person tried to break into his home. My relative could have easily and safely called 911 and fled. But instead he shot the intruder, who died. The police did not press charges.
The second death was himself, when he committed suicide.
Also worth mentioning is that it would cost tens of billions of dollars to increase the size of the federal law enforcement agencies to the point that they could arrest, detain, and deport most of the illegal immigrants. Very few of the people who scream about illegal immigrants are willing to pay the increased taxes.
And of course when a Jewish business gets raided for illegal immigrants we scream anti-Semitism.
There was also a solar eclipse on Rosh Hashanah a few years ago and there will be another in a few years.
We had a lunar eclipse on Purim a few years ago. There will be lunar eclipses on Pesach and Sukot in a few years.
No, we do not have a TV at home, at least not one that receives over the air broadcasts. We sometimes rent videos or DVDs and watch them either on a computer screen or on an old TV that no longer receives over the air broadcasts.
popa bar abba,
You’ve just admitted committing a felony. YWN may get a subpoena from a federal grand jury for your identification information. I’d recommend contacting a good criminal defense attorney.
—
To all: There is one state with almost no gun control laws: Vermont. You can even carry a concealed handgun there without a permit. Just don’t carry it onto the property of a school or a courthouse. And don’t take it out of state.
Needless to say, if you live in Eretz Yisrael and rely on the Ran to justify not paying your taxes to Medinat Yisrael, you will be enjoying the prison kollel. Remember that during the Ran’s lifetime, Eretz Yisrael was ruled by the Muslim Mamluks, not Jews. Not paying taxes to Medinat Yisrael also shows horrible midot, as those taxes pay the stipends to more people learning torah than at any time in history.
Sister Bear,
I don’t know where illegal immigrants are getting free insurance; they are ineligible for almost all government programs.
To all,
I recently served on a federal grand jury for a month. We indicted a lot of people and 80% of the indictments were for illegal entry into the United States after having previously been deported. (Ordinarily, it is not a crime to simply be in the US illegally, but it is if you were previously deported and didn’t get permission to return.) The Assistant US Attorneys told me that that is happening all over the US.
The federal government under President Obama is enforcing immigration laws as they have not been enforced in decades, deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants each year and prosecuting these criminal cases where in the past the government had been willing to simply deport them again. But law enforcement will never be able to solve the problem alone as there remains tremendous demand for the labor that illegal immigrants perform, and tremendous numbers of persons in Mexico, the Philippines, China, and India who want to come to the US. The only solution will involve huge increases in the immigration quotas for at least those four countries.
Midwest2 is correct, we should enforce the law. But it was immigrants who made America the great place that it is and we should make it even more friendly to immigrants — legal immigrants.
I would recommend my own field: Biostatistics. You need a masters or doctorate, and you need to be really good at math and have good people skills. But the work is very interesting, you can make a big contribution to saving lives, the pay is good, and there are lots of jobs. The field is also now about 50-50 men and women.
Maybe he sells the business to a non-Jew Friday afternoon and buys it back Saturday night?
“If someone keeps shabbos and kashrus, but not any other mitzva, is that frum?”
No. But that person is a part of the orthodox community because he can host people in his home, be counted for a minyan, serve as a witness, etc.
pascha bchochma,
I don’t think Shlomo HaMelech’s dating history should be a model for frum Jews today.
If you are shomer Shabat and have a kosher home, you are part of the orthodox community.
Terri
64 W 23rd St between 5th and 6th
212 647 8810
Vegetarian
Books and Bagels
121 West 19th between 6th and 7th Aves.
212-633-4330
Vegetarian/Dairy
Blossom
187 Ninth Avenue between 21st and 22nd Sts.
212 627 1144
It is a vegan restaurant under kosher supervision.
Adolph Schayes was at the time of his retirement the leading scorer in the history of the NBA. He is almost certainly the greatest Jewish basketball player ever.
Why does greater observance lead to political conservatism? My politics have moved quite a bit to the left as I have become more observant and learn about the Torah’s mandates to take care of those who are less well off and its stringent regulation of business activity. Not for nothing did Chazal mandate that prospective converts be taught not Shabat, kashrut, and taharat hamishpacha but leket, peah, shich’chah and maaser oni, and also to place on communal authorities the reponsibility for public works, education, and care of the less well off.
It should also be noted that Rambam in Hilchot Deot says we have to follow the middle path in all things except arrogance.
” I’m talking about actual economic growth not induced growth.”
For most of this year private sector employment has increased, while public sector employment has not. That’s what you call “actual”.
“Bailouts are not pro-business – they’re anti-business.”
Then why does every business want a bailout when they get into trouble?
” higher interest rates “
Wrong. Interest rates remain at historic lows.
“for the first time in history people are talking about a government default. “
Wrong. The US *did* default on its foreign debt in 1914 by suspending convertabilty, and then again in 1933 by suspending the gold standard for what would turn out to be forever. Fortunately in 1914 the Federal Reserve System had *just* been created, and Treasury Scretary William McAdoo worked with the House of Morgan to handle the worst financial crisis the US had ever seen. Among the actions taken was to shut down the New York Stock Exchange for FOUR MONTHS because the free market was destroying the world economy. The actions were so successful that the Panic of 1914 does not even appear in history texts.
TARP was incredibly unpopular but it may go down in history as being just as successful.
“high debt leads to high interest rates”
As I have pointed out, what is happening right now shows clearly that that is not the case.
“it would’ve “
You continue to use conditional logic rather than actual empirical evidence.
” it still isn’t a direct effect on the GDP”
Wrong again. Purchasing goods and services DIRECTLY contributes to GDP.
“it’s either tax cuts permanently extended or nothing. “
You are blinded by ideology and are willing to destroy the economy as a result. Fortunately neither President Obama nor most of the Congress is as blinded.
mosheemes2,
The Wikipedia article says that the Roman Empire made homosexuality a death penalty offence in 390 CE. At that time, the Roman Empire was still at almost its maximum size.
As of 476 CE there was no Roman Empire in the West.
ItcheSrulik,
I think you may be confusing Persia with ancient Greece.
The closest location that has groomed trails, ski rentals, and lessons is Fahnestock Winter Park, about an hour north of the city right off the Taconic State Parkway. It is a state park; I highly recommend it. I’ve seen other frum families there. Their web site is http://www.roberts-1.com/fwp/. I would also very much recommend lessons for beginners.
Hope to see you there!
BP,
Thanks for the info!
“Dont forget to dress VERY warm, its biting cold out there”
The best skiing I’ve ever had was north of Montreal in 20 below zero weather. Perfect powder with not a hint of ice. And nobody else was on the trails. A great day to experience HaShem’s universe. Of course, I had the right winter equipment — don’t do this if you don’t know what you are doing.
“A partial list “
You can add Assyria, Babylon, Persia, the Byzantine Empire, multiple Arab Empires (Umayyad, Abbassid, Fatimid), the Ottoman Empire, the Aztec Empire….
Actually, it did. The economy has been growing since June 2009.
“Obama passed stimulus bills and an overhaul on healthcare that was largely seen as anti-business. “
The healthcare bill was basically a bailout of the health insurance industry. That isn’t anti-business. Neither was the bailout of the auto industry.
“The deficit is an imminent threat to our future and those of our children.”
No, it isn’t. Interest rates remain at historic lows. There is no inflation except for a few cartel-controlled commodities such as petroleum; the problem in much of the US is DEflation. We actually need some inflation to get homeowners out from under water and the deficit can help.
“The Laffer Curve suggests that a tax cut can actually increase tax revenue.”
There has yet to be such a tax cut.
This exposes your ignorance on economics. “Might” spend it??? Have you ever been unemployed, with no savings? The tax cuts to businesses and zillionaires will get stashed away (as you mention, companies are hoarding cash) while tax cuts to the poor and unemployment insurance gets spent, increasing consumer demand and giving businesses a reason to produce.
‘whose post is the quote beginning “shouldn’t you also…”‘
It was by yitayningwut.