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Everybody, strap yourselves in and get ready for the ride… I can see this topic heating up!
Joseph,
Just to re-iterate that being somewhat physically proximate to “a women’s pinky” is not the primary source of tumah, but the looking and thinking… which can occur from a distance, as alluded to in the passage you quoted from the Shulchan Aruk
משם חפר אכל למרחוק עיניו יביטו
איוב לט: כט
…בעיניו יקחנו
איוב מ:כו
The other point being that we are in Galut, and as someone not living in the U.S.A. I would make the point that it is a major mistake for people to treat it as some sort of Aretz haSheni. Being too comfortable and expecting halachic conformity with secular society and visa versa is a major danger and mistake which I equate the generally comfortable conditions experienced there as a major point of stumbling.
There are not separate paths to tread on there for men and women as once was found in Jerusalem and the State of Israel too is largely secular.
The phenomenon of immodestly dressed women can be a challenge but also a unique opportunity to serve Hashem by not looking at them. As I said, if you have already made it through the city and the Terminal without seeing anything inappropriate, then it should be relatively easy to sit quietly by a window reading a book.The days when the Shulchan Aruk was written, even gentile women dressed far more modestly, so in my opinion there is more danger of inappropriately looking at women and seeing far more than just a “pinky” during the time spent walking around the airport terminal than when seated when you can simply read.
The best advice I can give is that when it says “stay far away from a woman” it means stay away from thinking about women in your mind. Don’t get caught up in long conversations.
We need to respect the fact that we are only one person amidst many all legitimately seeking to get to their destination on time. I book window seats and I can keep to myself like that.It seems like some people have adopted a strange custom of going for little walks back and forth when they finish Shemoneh Esrei ahead of everyone else. Some of the antics in the Synagogue seem amusing at best!
What I believe is most important to address in relation to this matter is the maxim that “you should not embarrass your fellow in public” since bringing the blood to the face of your fellow is likened to spilling blood.
The modern saying “I could have died!” attests to this ancient maxim.
For example, on Simchah Torah as a fellow was departing the Bima, I overheard the Rabbi gently and quietly say to him “may you merit to have children by next year”.
He didn’t blurt it out for the whole congregation to hear so therefore it was relatively acceptable. Having said that I now know that this gentleman and his wife are probably experiencing fertility problems and since I am not amongst their circle of intimate friends I assume that they might have be uncomfortable having that information “out there”.
In relation to CG1994 comment, there is no information to support his or her assertion and so this illustrates the genesis of lashon hara. For example, a married couple born to wealthy families may well have nanny’s and all sorts of family support including subsidised income. The wife might not need to work and in fact they may have been well provided for from before the time that their marriage was arranged for them and everything handed to them on a silver platter.
The single woman who CG1994 addresses clearly has to work for herself and has not been given a head start. Do you think she does nothing in her spare time? Perhaps she looks after a sick parent, her siblings or friends children, or actively attends women’s groups and shiurim. What gives CG1994 the right to jump to the conclusion that this single lady can be expected to drop her commitments?There is a lot of free advice out there that can end up being very costly. If someone initiates the topic as to why someone is still single it seems as though they are just checking if the person is “normal” – otherwise they would be married, right? My suggestion is, do not bring up the topic unless you are prepared to actively help the person find a partner. That means you already have a possible shiduch . Moreover, don’t give unsolicited advice such as “go on such-a-such website”. You could end up making things ten times worse. Also, how do you think the person will feel when they go home alone after your little talk?
I agree that the use of the term “holocaust” is misplaced in this context and suggest that the moderator has erred in allowing the original text to go through. As already pointed out by others, the term:
1) Refers to the slaughter of offerings, hence the connotation of Kiddush al’Hashem
2) Has colloquially come to refer to state-sponsored criminal genocide based on race and or religion.
3) By using it in the current context of supposed intermarriage or decline in observance it lends a halo of sacrifice and Kiddush al’Hashem to irreligiosity.
4) It creates a slur against Britain and the British People, not just England but also the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish who have nothing to do whatsoever with the problem.The hands are the hands of Esav but the voice is the voice of Ya’aqov.
Both women were involved in a fight using the weapons which they had available to them.
Provocation is a defence at law.
We should not set a stumbling block before the blind.There is no need for the car to make pre-set stops. First, take a programmable electric car charged before Shabbat. It is programmed to, say travel to the Synagogue from the home at, say, 8:15 am and return at 12:30pm irrespective of whether it is occupied or unoccupied. It opens the doors automatically.
Scenario 1:
Since I haven’t heard anyone raising objections to the following variables on Shabbat:
a) The number of heat emitting bodies (humans) in an air conditioned room set by way of a thermostat.
b) The opening and closing of vertical refrigerator doors.
c) The placing of warm material in a cold refrigerator.
d) Opening a window when there is a thermostatically controlled heater.
Then the additional consumption of power due to the increased mass of the car by passengers (increased current flow) through the car’s electric motors should not be of concern. This differs from opening a hot-water faucet on Shabbat since a water-heater has only on-off possibilities. A fire that was ignited before Shabbat may burn at a greater or lesser rate once Shabbat commences depending on multiple variable externalities. This is what separates halachic Shabbat observance from the sect (whose name I don’t readily remember) who forbade fires to be lit before Shabbat if they would burn over Shabbat. They spent Shabbat in darkness. Also, if it was intended before Shabbat that there would be an inclusive passenger mass of the car, then if the intended passengers did not board it, then would be classified as a reduced current flow / power consumption which cannot be a chillul Shabbat (surely Quantum physics attests to this). In any case the variations imposed by fluctuations in traffic density and time delays at intersections would increase sufficient uncertainty in much the same way that a air-conditioner would work more or less hard on a hot or cool day.
Scenario 2:
The car calculates the mean expected power for the whole trip for the expected mass inclusive of passengers and only applies the total current or less over the entire trip. This is messy and unnecessary for the the reasons given above. For the sake of the trip the car should be “dumb” to all variables and simply perform the job it was programmed to do before Shabbat.
PS: The perceptive will note that I use the acceptable English spelling of “programmed” The author is a resident of the “land down under” – Australia!My view is that the flaw in the argument commences when we ask the question: Is there not supposed to be Mashiach ben Yoseph who dies fighting the war of Gog and Magog, AND THEN comes Mashiach ben David? See the traditional texts in the subject such as מלחמות מלך המשיח.
I find that after asking this question of a Chabad Devotee they say “yes but if we merit it we could bypass the wars with Mashiach Ben Yosef and go straight to a peaceful transition under Mashiach Ben David”.
From there it is a short distance to the muddy waters stirred up around the memory of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, may he be remembered for good, whereby we hear of amazing Ruach HaKodesh and help in many, many, people’s lives but then that is automatically equated with being the Mashiach or the best candidate.
But when the fervour set in so many years ago and they began wheeling out an incapacitated Rebbe saying that Hashem will heal him, and later, he either didn’t die because a Tzaddik is more with us after his passing then before, or secretly whispering that he will raise from the kever, one realises that this has become an halachic merry-go-round with no end.
The reality, in my view is, that just as when we were in Mitzraim, we have failed to generate the enormous zchut to be redeemed on our own merits alone which is the basis of a purely peaceful Mashiach ben David alone.
Let’s wake up and smell the roses.
DavidI bought a tagged phone from the UK but I came across limitations for business use. I now have an apple phone and a chaver has the code for parental controls. If a new app is required he unlocks it and after installation it is locked again. I took off all internet access because even if one uses a child search engine such as google for kids 4+yo it can easily be defeated and I have had correspondence with them about this but they basically admitted that it wasn’t really “safe”.
When I was a boy I had beautiful black peyotim curling down in front of my ears. It is an adornment of beauty, not a mitzvah. Hashem simply says to not cut the corners of our beards, we offer more. I was sent to a public school and the German teacher used to flick them behind my ears and there was not a thing I could do about it except glare at her hatefully. Now people want to be machmir but hide them from the goyim and their bosses, to improve their employment prospects etc. That’s all.
Assuming you decided to give her meat for the sake of peace with your neighbour, if she was not Jewish, then non-kosher meat would be acceptable. If she was Jewish then she would have to confirm that it was only for her dog, otherwise theirewould be a moral obligation to give her kosher meat so as not to put a stumbling-block before the blind. In other words it would be a kiruv opportunity to draw a Jew who doesn’t keeper kosher to perhaps consider becoming kosher.