DaMoshe

Qwerty, I’ll say it, because I had a rebbe in yeshiva who told us straight out. He said Lubavitchers who think the Rebbe is Mashiach are like Christians, because they are waiting for a second coming.
He told us not to count them towards a minyan. I saw him take a bottle of wine that was going to be used for a Sheva brachos, and when another Rebbe told him that the Rav giving the hechsher on it was a meshichist, he spilled out the entire bottle.

Menachem, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. 200 years isn’t a Mesorah. The Besht had no Mesorah whatsoever for his teachings, and pretty much everyone agrees that what he taught was a huge change from traditional Judaism.
The Litvish Jews have a Mesorah that goes back thousands of years. Yes, there have been differences in the derech halimud that came up over time, but not in the observance of Halachah. The nusach of tefillah goes way, way back. Chassidim changed in. Let’s be clear – even Nusach Ari is NOT the tefillah as the Ari set it down. The Ari taught that each Shevet had its own nusach, which reached a separate “gate” in Shamayim. He also added in certain elements which he felt were common to all of them. After he passed away, many communities claimed that they had the proper text of the Ari’s additions – which, in many cases, were not actual additions to the davening, but just kavanos to have while davening.
Early chassidim then came up with the idea that nusach sfard was a superior nusach, and was capable of reaching a 13th gate.
The Baal haTanya studied all the different versions of the Ari’s nusach, and added in his own thoughts. He came up with what he felt was the most correct version of the Ari’s nusach, and labeled it as Nusach Ari. Again, there was no mesorah for this nusach – it was an amalgamation of other versions, coupled with his own thoughts. He did not have a Rebbe who taught him this nusach as being proper.

It’s very sad that Chabad feels the need to try and spread their beliefs to other groups of Jews.
Look at the fights that happened between Chabad and Satmar in the 80s, which ended up with some Satmar chassidim pinning down a Chabad Rabbi and cutting off his beard. Why? Because he’d been hired to tutor a Satmar kid, and instead of teaching him the subjects he was being paid to, he started teaching him about Chabad, and why Chabad was preferable to Satmar. He was warned, and continued doing it, so he was attacked.
IMO, as long as you keep basic halacha, and don’t violate the ikkarim, you’re fine, no matter what derech you follow.

While I don’t consider myself “yeshivish”, I’ll still attempt to answer these:
1) There is a machlokes regarding shaving. R’ Moshe Feinstein zt”l, who was considered the undisputed gadol hador in the US (except for by Chabad), held that an electric shaver is permissible.
2) Ok, so what? Does anyone really think that the way they daven is 100% correct? Do you think that learning chassidus, then davening after the zman makes your davening any better? I think we all realize that the davening of the average person leaves a lot to be desired. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t daven at all. We do our best, however flawed that may be.
3) Again, this is obviously a machlokes. There are yeshivos that learn in different ways, each according to its own leadership. So what exactly is your point?
4) R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky said that the reason is because chazaras hashatz was instituted for amei haaretz. Since in yeshivos they are not am haratzim, there is really no need for chazaras hashatz at all. However, since we don’t want to do away with it entirely, as it’s the minhag Yisrael, they do a short one. I will note that not all yeshivos do this. When I learned in Darchei Torah, they did NOT daven a short Mincha. R’ Bender once told me he had asked R’ Elya Svei (I think that’s who it was) when he started the Mesivta, and was told not to do it.
R’ Aharon Kotler had paskened that in Lakewood they daven a short Mincha, except on Chanukah and Purim, since there is a mitzvah of pirsumei nisah, and repeating Al haNisim fulfilled this.

In some cases I agree. But in others, not so much.
Let’s look at a theoretical case – big pharma releases a medication without proper testing, using their political clout to push it through government approvals. Then it causes damage to its users, and they get sued.
If they are limited in how much they have to pay out, it won’t matter to them. Their profits will far outweigh the payouts. They need to be held accountable through punitive damages, otherwise it’s a simple cost/benefit analysis that tells them to continue pushing out bad products.
Tobacco companies would have the same issue. They’d abandon the warnings on the labels, and start advertising like crazy again, because they won’t be held accountable as they should be.

Soo for small businesses, yes, there should be some type of limits. Maybe limit when there isn’t gross negligence? That might be a better option.

sechel, learn basic Rashi on the Gemara in Sanhedrin. He says that the Gemara doesn’t mean Mashiach can come from the dead, it means if you think Mashiach already came.
The Rambam, in Melachim 11:3, says that Mashiach will arrive in a natural way, without miracles, similar to Bar Kochba. He further says that Mashiach will not perform any miracles, and will not resurrect the dead.

To whichever mod made the comment on my post, thank you for the kind words.
Avira, IIRC, it was R’ Akiva’s shiur on the tagin that Moshe couldn’t understand, and he was upset by it. Then someone asked R’ Akiva where these ideas came from, and he said it was from Moshe m’Sinai, and then Moshe felt better about it.

Having people explain Torah to Malachim is easy to understand, because Torah lo bashamayim hi. In Shamayim they don’t necessarily know what the meaning behind a Gemara is, because that meaning is defined here. It’s up to us to decide what the meaning is.

I once asked my father-in-law, who is a Rav, the following:
We say b’rshus Kohanim, because really, the kohen should lead the zimun. If someone else is leading it instead, he asks for permission. So if a kohen is eating at someone’s house, and is asked to lead the zimun, he’ll often say b’rshus baal habayis. But if the baal habayis leads, he’ll say b’rshus hakohen. So who actually has the right to lead the zimun? Is it the kohen, or the baal habayis?

As an aside, when I was in yeshiva, there were some guys, who if they had eaten out, would say b’rshus baal habayis v’baalas habayis. This is wrong, because the woman is unable to lead the zimun, so you don’t need her permission.

I haven’t seen that IMAX, but I do love aquariums! I’ve always been fascinated by life underwater. When I travel somewhere, I always try to see if there’s an aquarium I can visit, to see new things. I’ve also gone whale watching a few times, but unfortunately, did not see any whales. I did see plenty of dolphins, and a school of bluefin tuna.

CTLawyer, great post.
I am registered as a Democrat even though I tend to vote Republican. That’s because if you live in NY or NJ, having a vote in the primary is far more important than the general election in determining who will be the next representative.
The best thing for the country as a whole would be to ban political parties, and institute term limits for members of Congress. That would go a long way towards stopping the extremism from creeping into the mainstream, as well as getting rid of a lot of the corruption.

The Arizal never claimed to go up to shamayim and learn with Nevi’im. The claim was that Eliyahu came and learned with him. He was not opposed by the leading Rabbonim of his time, in fact, he was widely accepted.
The mesorah that litvish have from the Gra didn’t originate with him – he learned it from his Rabbeim.
Yes, there are chassidish Rabbonim who were great talmeidi chachomim, but as I said, that’s because chassidus moved away from the teachings of the Besht.
As for my questions on Tanya, I actually asked multiple people, including some Chabad Rabbis. I never got any satisfactory answers.
I don’t think all chassidim are completely wrong in their observance, because again, they don’t follow all the Besht’s teachings. Specifically when it comes to learning Torah, they moved away from the Besht’s views, and towards the Gra’s. I had Rabbeim in yeshiva who were chassidish, who I have tremendous respect for. I’ve met Rebbes who I thought were incredible, and gave me tremendous chizzuk – in fact, one of the main reasons I became a baal tefillah is because of something a Chassidish Rebbe told me!

Avira, I asked in a different topic and didn’t get a response… what Mesorah? The Mesorah of chassidus started with the Besht. He had no Mesorah for his teachings. He didn’t get it from his father or a Rebbe. So it’s only a few hundred years old. That’s not a Mesorah.

Little I know, what Mesorah? The Besht did NOT have a Mesorah for his teachings. The entire “Mesorah” for Chassidus stems from the Besht, and is only a few hundred years old.

Avira, it mentions that 4 Tannaim went up to the pardes – I don’t think it says they learned there. 3 of the 4 had terrible outcomes for going there. Do they think the Besht was greater than Tannaim? That he was able to regularly go to Shamayim?
Yes, Eliyahu taught many, but he came to them, not the other way around.
As for hearing things maachorei hapargod, that just proves my point – they couldn’t get into the “main” areas, they had to stay behind the curtain, and overhear things. On Yom Kippur we have the famous piyut, where R’ Yishmoel the Kohen Gadol went up – and he couldn’t even get to achorei hapargod. He had to ask a malach, who himself had only heard maachorei hapargod!
I can’t believe that someone from just a few hundred years ago was on a higher level than the Tannaim, went to Shamayim, received a new way to practice Judaism, and was told to share it.

Recently I received an email that was sent out to my shul’s list. A Jewish man who lived in a home had passed away. He had almost no family, just one relative. They were trying to get a minyan together for the levaya.
I went to the cemetery, and there ended up being about 20 men there, who all came out for this meis mitzvah. This was on a workday, in middle of the day. People stepped away from their jobs to do this chessed. Truly amazing!

Good old Joseph, he’ll never miss a chance to insult large numbers of Jews, even when it has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Yserbius, no, a Rebbe does not leave his responsibilities to someone else. It says “Aseh L’CHA Rav”, choose one for yourself, not that the Rebbe is chosen for you.
A Rebbe is who he is because people choose to follow him. If people choose to follow his son, that’s their decision. In the early days of chassidus, most Rebbes did not have their sons take over. It’s only become an issue more recently, when chassidic groups control vast amounts of money, that the sons would insist on taking over.
Even R’ Yoilish didn’t want to become Rebbe at first, but people insisted he do so.

sechel, can you please show me a source from anyone before the Baal Shem Tov who says anything about chassidus as the Besht understood it? Anything about davening and chassidus being the best way to come to love and fear Hashem?

Joseph, sometimes it’s not hard to figure out. A guy who is single, maybe getting older, never been on a date in his life… for his friends, it’s not difficult to realize something is going on.

Joseph, I agree that nobody SHOULD be bothered by it. Sadly, there are those out there who are, and mistreat people for it.
I heard one person say that he went to his Rosh Yeshiva and tell him he had these urges, and asked for help. The RY yelled at him and called him terrible names, then kicked him out of the yeshiva.
That is the kind of attitude that just drives these people completely off.

My apologies for my last point – I misunderstood what SSA stood for. Once I realized, I fully agree with what was said.
I’ve been dealing with helping a relative apply for disability benefits, and I’ve seen SSA printed in letters way too much lately, referring to Social Security. I thought it meant someone living on government benefits, learning all day without working at all, relying on the government to support him, and not wanting a family so that it wouldn’t interfere with his learning.
Again, I apologize for the misunderstanding.

Aveirah, you should read about R’ Belsky’s heter for chalav stam, which actually removes one of the issues that some had with R’ Moshe’s heter.
Mods, is a link to the OU’s site allowed? https://oukosher.org/blog/consumer-kosher/rav-moshe-ztls-heter-of-cholov-stam-revisited/

n0mesorah, there are many who claim that R’ Moshe once drank chalav hacompanies and when he realized, he vomited it up.
A friend of mine who was a student of R’ Dovid Feinstein zt”l once asked him if this story was true or not. R’ Dovid laughed, and said, “If my father ever threw up the milk, it’s because it was spoiled. He never threw up just because it wasn’t chalav Yisrael!”

jdb, where did you hear such things from? That we should celebrate “tzaddikim” who remain celibate their whole lives? What about the mitzvah of Pru u’rvu? The fact that if you don’t have children for 10 years then you can divorce your wife?

And celebrate people on SSA? Seriously? I’d love to know which “major Rabbonim” you heard this from.

sechel, regarding the Gemara in Sanhedin, I believe Rashi explains that when it says “from the dead”, it doesn’t mean that Mashiach will be revived, it means that he already came.
In any case, if you’re going to use that Gemara, then it definitely isn’t the Rebbe – it’s Daniel!