DaMoshe

common: No, that would be per capita. Household income is exactly what it sounds like, total household income.
Joe, if a talmud chacham is making $43k per year, and has 5 kids, then he’s relying on tzedakah to live. If that’s viewed as a success, then there’s a problem with the Lakewood system.

Joe, according to your post, going to college in order to learn a trade can be a mitzvah (paragraph C). You just need to be sure not to be exposed to apikorsus in the classes you attend, which isn’t difficult.

Indeed, many Rabbonim attended college/university. The Novominsker zt”l attended Brooklyn College. R’ Hutner studied philosophy in University – philosophy being a subject which can contain apikorsus.

R’ Bender has said that his father, R’ Dovid Bender, went to college and actually became a CPA.
Regarding your story about R’ Segal zt”l, I have a relative who wanted to stop attending general studies, and learn the whole day. R’ Segal told him absolutely not, and at minimum you need a high school diploma in order to get a job.

At the end of the day, even if someone wants to live at the bare minimum level, working 3 hours per day is not enough to support a family. Not when you have tuitions to pay. For most people, working 8 hours per day isn’t enough to cover tuitions in full if you have more than 3 kids. It’s one thing to ask for a scholarship when you’re working full-time, but how can you ask for help when you don’t want to work a regular job?

Regular is a very vague term 

coffee: I heard he tried to run but couldn’t make it more than 2 steps.

Joseph, R’ Schachter is definitely a gadol, and not only did he encourage attendance, he himself attended the rally. As others said, keep your lies to yourself!

Yasher koach! Being nosei b’ol is a huge deal. I posted about it a few weeks ago (https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/nosei-bol-chaveiro), as R’ Bender had spoken about it.
I gave up eating dessert after meals. Small things make all the difference!

Probably because the organizations who planned the rally aren’t Orthodox, and the frum orgs didn’t support it until things were already set.

Joe, you are so eager to attack me that you’re just reaching now. I’ve posted many, many times that I 100% oppose Weiss and YCT. Got anything else to show your hatred of a fellow Jew?

Joseph, you can say whatever you want – I hope you realize that nobody here takes you seriously.
Agudas Yisroel encouraged people to attend, and I assume that there will be Rabbonim attending.
Go crawl back under your bridge, you sonei Yisrael.

Avira: Or, Satmar is completely wrong, and Israel is NOT preventing the geulah, but rather is a part of it.

Neturei Karta are reshoim. No, they do not have a point. You oppose Israel for a halachic reason? Fine, go ahead and oppose it. But how dare they go out and march with those who want to kill us? How can they go to Iran and meet with the leaders there? That is why they are 100% wrong, and are reshoim. Don’t compare them to Satmar – R’ Yoel would never have been friends with the leaders of Iran, or been mechalel Shabbos marching with Palestinian supporters.

To the OP – you are right, it isn’t easy. It’s easy to have emunah and bitachon when things are going well. It’s times like these that show the real faith. Remember, we say “l’hagid baboker chasdechah, ve’emunascha balailos.”
I heard from R’ Shmuel Brazil that if we want to be able to properly celebrate the chasdei Hashem, we need to keep the emunah in the dark times.
Look back at Purim – the story took place over a number of years. When we read the Megillah, we see that the salvation was in place even before the real trouble started. Hashem never abandons us. Even though we can’t see it now, the salvation is already in place for the current situation.

The really frum seminaries won’t take you in given what you describe. So you switched from 3 hours to 6 – they prefer 12. Stockings that are 70? Keep going, as they say, “biz a hundred un tvuntzig!”
Pas Yisrael is a good thing to take on. Chalav Yisrael is only good if you bad-mouth those who don’t keep it, that’s the more important part of the chumrah. After all, you’re not really holier than others if you don’t tell them so!
Not eating gebrokts? You need the extra chumrah, not to drink any water at all at meals where you eat matzah. Except, of course, on the last day, when there is a minimum shiur of 8 glasses per meal, which you must drink while chewing on the matzah. Some are extra machmir to drink all 8 glasses within the short zman of 60 seconds.
Please try keeping those chumros, and then the more serious seminaries will give you a shot.

Unfortunately, even staying home for Yom Tov can be extremely expensive. The cost of food has gotten so high that it’s difficult for families to afford it.
There is one thing I usually only do special for Yom Tov – I’ll make a roast. For Shabbos, the beef I’ll eat is cholent meat (which is usually a cheaper cut) and cold cuts. A roast (or a brisket, which I enjoy smoking) is something special for om Tov. The only exception is if I’m having choshuv guests for a Shabbos, I may make a roast, but that is extremely rare. It’s my item that is l’kavod Yom Tov.
Anyway, the cost of a roast, no matter what cut, has gone insane. So now, I keep my eyes open all the time, because there is one store I know of that puts whole briskets on sale for about $7/lb. When they do, I’ll buy a 14-15 lb brisket. When Yom Tov is coming, I’ll smoke it. One piece goes into the cholent whenever Shabbos comes out on Yom Tov. Most obviously gets served. I freeze whatever is left, and will serve it for the second days.
But meat is only one item. Grape juice is now $6 per bottle, although ShopRite sometimes has it on sale for $4.50. If you’re unable to bake challah, you can be paying $6 for each one. Cold cuts, even without the fancy boards, cost a ton. Salami, which has always been the cheapest one, was available just a few years ago for $7-$8 per lb. Now it’s $14. Pastrami is $25. If you have any guests at all (and what is a Yom Tov without guests?), you can easily be paying thousands of dollars to make a Yom Tov at home!

Chaim, it’s not just luxuries that people spend on. Tuition has increased exponentially since our parents were raising us, and it’s a crushing burden. With lots more families having 2 working parents, often 2 cars are needed in order to commute to work.
There’s also housing costs. I saw a study that compared house prices from 1965 through 2021. They adjusted for inflation. House prices rose 118% from 1965 to 2021, even adjusting for the inflation. Income only rose 15.5%. In 1965, the ratio of avg house price to avg income was about 4.5. Currently, it’s about 7.33. So paying for the same size home that our parents had is costing us significantly more than it cost them.
I agree about fancy vacations, and indulging on fancy foods. If you can’t pay full tuition for your kids, you have no business spending money on a fancy trip. I get that people need vacations to relax, but there are affordable options. You don’t need to fly the whole family to Israel.
At the end of the day, let’s all just remember that all our money comes from Hashem. You want to ensure financial well-being? Make sure to give maaser. It’s guaranteed to help your finances. And don’t forget to daven. Davening and doing mitzvos accomplish more than any segulah for parnassah out there.

I’ve seen both sides of this.
I have a friend, who I’ve known since I was young. He is now in his 40s, and has never been on a single date. He doesn’t want to get married. Why? Because his parents can’t stand each other. They constantly fight. But they live in a chassidish community, and were told that divorce is not an option, so they stayed married. He did not see a healthy relationship between his parents, all he saw is fighting, so now he doesn’t want his life to be like that. So he refuses to date at all.

On the flip side, I have a close friend who got divorced. They had one daughter together before they split. It was not an easy split for him, and he had a lot of tough feelings towards his ex-wife. But he told me, “I put those feelings aside, and I deal with her as nicely as I can, because we have a child together, and she is the main priority. We have shared custody, and she sees how we interact with each other. So I treat my ex respectfully, because that’s what is best for my daughter.”

Sadly, there are cases where a child is used as a pawn against one parent in a divorce. But that doesn’t mean the divorce is wrong – the actions of the parent are the issue, not the divorce itself.

In some cases, a parent may claim that a child is being used against them, or that there is parental alienation. Sometimes, removing one parent from the kid’s life was a decision made by a beis din or a court, for the child’s best interests, but the parent can’t accept that. So they start a social media campaign, trying to paint the other parent as a monster, to put public pressure on them. That too is wrong.

Kevin McCarthy is only 58. Not all that old.

Joseph, why so-called?

Sam, the Mishna says that there are 4 different Roshei Shanim. Nisan is one of them, and it is used for counting the months, as it says straight in the pasuk. Tishrei is when the world was created, so as far counting the age of the world, we go from there.
Saying DIRECTLY FROM HASHEM all in caps all the time doesn’t make your argument any more convincing – if anything, it leads me to think you’re just not entirely rational. In modern times, the only things we have which are clearly directly from Hashem are the words of the Torah. Nevuah is long gone. The messages we receive from Hashem now are done indirectly – it’s up to us to see them.
Yes, 9/11 was a message from Hashem, but it had nothing to do with any numbers or anything like that. If it was meant to be connected to Tisha b’Av, it would have occurred on Tisha b’Av.

Kugel, as I mentioned earlier, I won’t read the book because it contains kefirah. If you want to study the New Testament so that you could properly understand Christianity’s arguments before dismissing them, then I’d say you have a right to ask that we read your book.
As for other possibilities for Mashiach if he can come from the dead, well then, R’ Akiva thought that Bar Kochba was Mashiach. Maybe that’s who it would be? I’d trust R’ Akiva more than any Chabadnik – more than anyone alive today, honestly.

Joseph, I don’t think you’re in denial, I think you’re just trolling. You know full well that this is far from isolated cases in the yeshivish communities. You just use it as another excuse to attack MO communities.
Once again, you disgust me.
If the mods would allow it, I can name specific shuls which have excessive drinking. I just don’t think they’ll allow it.

There are things that can done to lower costs.
edited
Families today have a need for vacations, and all sorts of fancy things, whether it’s bein hazmanim, or other times. Who pays for the vacations? I haven’t been on a vacation in years, because I pay tuition for my kids. I’ve been married for over 15 years, and in all that time, my wife and I went on one real vacation – where we used credit card points to pay for the flights, found a cheap AirBNB to stay in, and just overall did not spend a lot. We’ve never been on a family vacation, where the kids went with us. Maybe one year soon I’ll have the money for it! So why do families think it’s ok to live off of government programs and tzedakah, and then take vacations?
Clothing is another big one. Frum stores, which sell tznius clothes, charge outlandish prices. $75 for a simple skirt for a young girl??? It’s crazy! My wife found websites that sell tznius clothes for much cheaper, and she buys clothes for herself and our daughter there. Instead of $75 for a skirt, she pays maybe $15-$20.
Expenses can be cut, if you’re willing to make the sacrifices. The issue is that nowadays, most people aren’t willing.

Avira: Maple Lanes doesn’t exist anywhere anymore, it closed down years ago. IIRC, it was on 60th St and 15th Ave. I just checked Google Maps for the borders of Boro Park, and it was within them. Either way, on a Motzei Shabbos, it was completely filled with Jewish people.
I think you’re mixing it up with Melody Lanes, which is in Sunset Park.

Kugel, I think you should study the New Testament, along with commentaries on it, so you could come up with differences between your belief in the Rebbe’s second coming and their belief in Jesus’s second coming.
After all, you don’t really know anything about Christianity, so how can you claim it’s wrong?

I had my tefillin checked about 2 years ago.
For my bar mitzvah, my father had reached out to a relative who is a well-known and respected sofer to get my tefillin. He doesn’t really write things himself anymore, but he does sell for others. My father bought the tefillin he had recommended.
When I had them checked, the sofer asked me, “Where did you get these tefillin from?” I was nervous, and told him about the relative. He replied, “They are in amazing condition, and the parshiyos are absolutely beautiful! One of the nicest sets I’ve ever seen!”
When my son had his bar mitzvah, I also reached out to the same relative, and got my son’s tefillin from him. Hopefully they’ll last a lifetime!