CTRebbe

I did not mean to be so curt earlier. When figuring out what type of person you want to marry, it is important to think about which things are preferences and what are your absolute necessities. If you know you absolutely must live in Israel and would turn down the perfect guy who has everything else except that, then so be it. Just make sure you clarify that with shadchanim or else you are wasting everybody’s time and effort. Some people think they want one thing but get someone different.
In the end you just need to make the best decision based on what you see and daven daven daven for help all along the way

I do not know of any poskim who hold that we don’t do Teshuva on Rosh Hashana. As far as I know Rosh Hashana is counted as 20% of the aseres Yemei Teshuva and its a pretty heavy 20% at that. No one says it is asur to do teshuva during the aseres yemei teshuva

How do they deal with it- they often hire Israeli shlichim who know Hebrew but are not very knowledgeable in Torah. Some cities hire those with hashkofos that do not accept all of the yud gimmel ikarim (i.e. Apikorsim). Some have local retired baalei batim volunteer time but they are not skilled or trained as educators. Some just have to cut their Judaic program or combine classes. Like I said, it’s not pretty.

Not all of these cities are currently looking for Rabbeim but they have all voiced concern to me over the last year or two about this issue

Allentown, PA
Birmingham, AL
Ottawa, ON
Charleston, SC
Louisville, KY
Calgary, AB
San Diego, CA
West Hartford, CT
Greensboro, NC
Rochester, NY
Seattle, WA
Portland. OR
Fairfax, VA
Indianapolis, IN
Jacksonville, FL
Vancouver, BC

These cities could use a principal

Sharon, MA
Syracuse, NY
New Orleans, LA
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Harrisburg, PA
West Hartford, CT
Charleston, SC

Phil-Unfortunately you have been misinformed. Trust me I am heavily involved in finding candidates for positions in smaller communities. The mindset of today’s kollel graduate is that the world ends on the outskirts of Lakewood. By the time most yungerlite consider getting a job, their children are at the age when it would be a very big sacrifice to move out of town. The numbers of kollel graduates willing to take these positions are greatly reduced due to a number of factors
1. The mindset that one can not move to a smaller community unless he goes with a large chevra (kollel of at least 10)
2. drastically reduced levels of idealism in yeshivos
3. Lack of gedolim encouraging men to take these positions like in yesteryear (R. Ahron, R. Yaakov, R. Ruderman etc.)
4. The polarization of the Jewish community
5. Our Yeshiva bachurim grow up in a bubble and their ability to talk to someone non-frum has a culture and language divide a mile wide

I have been to these schools. They have the children but no one to teach them. It is a tremendous tragedy which I only know of one organization trying to do something about it (not the one you are thinking of).
If you want I can list the names of cities that are suffering

Excuse me midwest, but what program from Torah Umesorah are you referring to? To my knowledge, the only training program for teachers that Torah Umesroah has is Aish dos in Lakewood which places 80-85% of their Rabbeim in Lakewood and the rest in Yeshivishe places in the NY/NJ area. What training program do they have in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and several other cities for aspiring Rabbeim? What are those other cities praytell?

I think you might be about 40 years behind on the news.

The production of gedolei hador as a gauge of the quality of a Yeshiva would be very misleading especially since many gedolim (possibly even most) did not spend most of their learning years in Yeshiva. We might even be able to say gedolim achieved what they did despite the Yeshiva system not because of it.
Think
Chazon Ish
Rav Moshe Feinstein
Rav Elyashiv

Of course, they had Rabbeim and did shimush by previous gedolim. But their greatness was not achieved in Yeshiva

Shouldn’t it be considered non-holy by definition? We all know Hebrew is refered to as lashon Hakodesh. Yiddish was created so that in people’s mundane speach they could use a distinctively Jewish language that was not holy and reserve the holy language for holy matters (prayer and study)

Of course there is a lot that we can do! Step one is to not post ridicoulos discussion such as these for all the world to see. If you have ever spoken to non-frum Jews (i suspect many commenters here have not) you will hear a major fallacy circulated that frum Jews do not consider them Jewish. If you actually believe this (like that Moron MK Azoulai) you know nothing about Yidishkeit. For all those in this coffee room that say “kol yisrael arievim…” only applies to frum Jews, would you also say

You can not be yotzei a non-frum Jew in kidush?

If a non frum Jew is drowning would you save him?

There is no such concept as Teshuva?

The list goes on

It is true that many who consider themselves as Jews may not be halachicly Jewish. But many if not most are.
A Jew is a Jew is a Jew
Hitler Y’M knew that. It is about time we do too.

It all depends on what LGBT stands for. if it’s a bunch of
Litvaks
Galitzianers &
Balei Teshusha

it is not so unusual and not so bad

I think we all realize the disparity between what frum Jews do and whether or not poskim say it is mutar. We can all come up with a long list of things that come under this category (unfiltered internet, non-tznius clothing, alcohol abuse, materialistic opulence etc.)
It seems as if it has gone down in popularity over the last 20-30 years and may not be at the top of every Rabbis hit list when they are looking for issues that need fixing in the frum world

Anyone who is questioning why sponsored siddurim are not cheaper or free is missing the point why Artscroll makes them. It is a business. It is there to make money. It is not like projects which they know will lose money (like a translation of the Yerushalmi) which are done to be marbitz torah. The real question is on the people who give money to get their name or the name of a departed relative on a siddur. Don’t they realize they are just giving money to the pockets of the owners? Not that there is anything wrong with that. It is much better than blowing money on a fancy car or wedding. It also makes you wonder about people who donate money to projects put out by the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation. They collect donations for each page and then sell it for full price.

unfortunately, the majority of haggadahs have nothing to do with the mitzva of vehigadita levincha. Many are just a collection of stuff very loosely related to the text. The Lekach tov haggadah (I think its only in Hebrew) has the best focus on the real theme of the evening-imparting emunah lessons to our children through the experience of Yitzias mitzrayim. I wish someone like Rabbi David Ashear would make a haggadah incorporating his lessons into lessons from yitziat mitzrayim.

Do you have any source that the Chofaetz chaim really said this? If so he was off bec. WWII did not start 25 years after WWI

Can anyone explain what this discussion has to d with small brim vs. big brim? Or is that too logical?

There are very few guys who look good in a small brim. Somehow the hat industry Who apparently does not make enough money selling $250 hats to Jews thought of drudging up a style from the 70’s and convinced people “but everyone is wearing this!” They do this until “everyone realizes how ridiculous they look and then buy a new hat a few years later. Sort of like what happened with the thick black plastic glasses

Will all those saying that it is asur please quote a bona fide source. Otherwise, we can all assume that it is just based on silly Jewish superstition (like if you walk over a child he will not grow)

Dovid Hamelech never went to University and would not be accepted by all of the Jewish intellectuals out there

Just a sec-So are you saying that it is realistic when making inquiries about a potential shidach that the response might actually be “come to think of it this boy/girl does not really have yiras shomayim and their midos are lousy”. Have you ever received such a response? And if you did would you have permission (or the daas) to believe it?

I am glad that Yekke made a good point about the distinction of the chilul Hashem (Every discussion needs a clear thinking yekke to cut through to the heart of the issues).
I personally think both issues are a chilul Hashem although the first is much more minor. Try and think things fromthe perspective of a secular Israeli. Chances are they either served in the army themsleves and lost a friend or relative in the army. To hear chareidim complain that they don’t even want to register would make they blood boil. There is no mention in these protests even a hint of hakoras hatov to those that do serve in the army. If these hashkafos were done in a gathering off the streets it would cause some anger but not as much.
The second isssue is where we have the major chilul Hashem. Can you imagine how much the hatred of chareidim this is causing to not only Peleg but all Chareidim. The only outcome will be a anti-chareidi backlash in the entire country, eventually the government and eventually less boys in Yeshiva. It is worthwhile looking through history and figuring out when protests effect positive change-what were the methods of protest and why did they work. I can not imagine how this is in any way “good for the Jews” whether you agree with them or not