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I don’t like the idea of pushing away anybody sincere who wishes to join our people and accept Torah. The Torah commands us 36 times to love the ger, and I see the takanah as being at odds with that.
BUT, the takanah is halachically legitimate. It began in Buenos Aires by the Diber Shaul. It spread to America in 1935. Hacham Ouziel, zt”l, defended the legitimacy of the community’s right to enact the takanah, despite his own shitos on giyur.
The SY takkanah was passed because they felt they needed to put gedarim to protect them from assimilation.
The reason why historically, a ger was turned away three times was because of fear of persecutions. We were a proselytizing religion in Roman times, but that soon changed due to persecutions.
It does require a hechsher, due to the fermentation process involved in its production.
If any SY marries a ger, they’re out of the community. No exceptions.
They also do not allow gerim to hold membership or have aliyos in their shuls.
CT Lawyer,
Yes, thankfully, many universities and hospitals have kosher cafeterias under reliable hashgachos.
There’s a case to be made for proper hashgacha in schools and camps. I’ve seen many mishaps and systemic issues in such venues.
Romaine is the best form of maror to use. Radicchio isn’t mentioned as suitable, and no poskim ever used it. Some, including Rav Aharon Kotler, would use iceberg lettuce. I’ve seen iceberg used in communal sedarim because it’s cheaper than romaine, and poses less of a tolaim concern, although there are still bugs in iceberg.
Very nice story.
We have non religious guests over, and we even had non-Jews over this year for the first seder (Shabbos, avoids any issues of cooking on yom tov for a goy). I told them that if they wanted to bring something, they should just bring themselves and a willingness to read in English parts of Magid.
We’ve had so many issues with people not knowing. Even if you give them explicit instructions in terms of what’s acceptable, they still don’t get it 99% of the time.
I serve dessert at the seder for those guests who find macaroons and jelly rings an integral part of the Pesach experience, but I do explain that they shouldn’t fill up, since we have to eat the Afikoman with an appetite, and I tell them we’re not permitted to eat anything after the afikoman.
There’s a lot you can do with bananas for Pesach.
We made banana pancakes this year, a recipe that involves just bananas, eggs, vanilla, a little sugar, and whatever other goodies you want to add. There’s also Yonanas Ice Cream, a perfect natural, parve treat made from just bananas and whatver flavors you want to add. Good item for Pesach all around.
You have to monitor what the kids are reading.
Acher was a great scholar too, but he read too much of the wrong stuff and look at what happened to him.
You’re very young still.
If you live in an area with NCSY, get involved. They have great rabbis who will help guide you properly.
Don’t take on too much at once. I’d say to start incorporating more into your life gradually. NCSY or your local Chabad can get you a pair of tefillin. Pray with them every morning, except shabbos and yom tov. Begin to learn Hebrew reading, and get some transliterated materials to help learn the prayers in the interim. Keep reading and listening to shiurim and lectures. Keep doing good deeds and incorporate kashrus and shabbos into your life, and you will see great blessings.
When the time comes, apply to colleges with a strong Jewish presence, kosher food, JLIC, etc. Maybe take a year off and learn in yeshiva after you finish high school.
Best of Luck!
A nice idea would be to go to the Bronx, do bikur cholim by Montefiore Hospital, have a bite from their cafeteria, which is KFP, under strict hashgacha and very reasonably priced (you can get two meals for under $15 there), and then go to a nice place, like the NY Botanical Gardens, or the Bartow Pell Mansion.
People who are makpid to not eat gebrokts will often not eat off the same kelim. If that’s their choice, maybe let them bring their own food. I don’t see why people who keep perfectly KFP homes and who brok should have to do backflips to accommodate “machmirim.”
There’s the minhag not to mish. Let the machmirim not mish and feed themselves.
In my family, sadly, this became a big issue. I have a female relative who married a Lubavitcher and they don’t eat ever by us for Pesach or Shavuos because they won’t eat off cholov stam kelim or kelim that came into contact with gebroks.
1) Quinoa from Israel can indeed have bugs, and requires checking.
2) Quinoa sushi is made in some KFP establishments in Queens and other places. There is KFP quinoa, nori sheets, and imitation soy sauce all available for Pesach use.
3) I’m not crazy for sushi year round. I can go months without eating it.
I’m not sure if they’re frozen, but they do have fresh strawberries under hashgacha.
They also sell fresh blueberries. While the hashgachos generally believe there’s no issue of tolaim in cultivated blueberries, experts have checked them and found scale insects in the crown part on top of the blueberry and have found maggots inside the berries themselves. Kosher Gardens came out with the first ever blueberries where they check for these insects.
I now buy all my produce from them. Romaine, cabbage, iceberg, baby spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, scallions, cilantro, parsley, arugula, dill, kale, and mesclun. Many of these items I’ve never even had before. Also, there are quite a few heimish hechsherim that allow only Postiv produce, which is a big hiddur. I will also use Eden or B’gan products too.
If I were a girl and a guy brought me to Starbucks, I don’t think I’d be impressed. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is another matter.
I peeled strawberries, too, until Kosher Gardens came out with strawberries. And yes, it has the hechsher of Rav Vaye, the undisputed expert on tolaim.
The hashgachos say that if you make a hole, to then cut the strawberry in half to expose the inside to washing.
Here’s the issue with strawberries, though. If you understand that the thrips and thrips larvae hide under the seeds and don’t come out easily, there’s no amount of washing,soaking, or checking that can help.
Same is true of figs, which are very hard to check.
Does the issur of making either meaty or dairy bread apply in a food service establishment that’s either all meat or all dairy?
You can get fresh now from Kosher Gardens
The Kof K says that if you cut off the green part, soak in soapy water for 5 minutes, and wash while rubbing under a heavy stream of water, they’re fine. The problem with that is that the thrips and thrips larvae hide under the seeds, and there’s no way to get them out even with rigorous washing.
I will buy cheap, fat strawberries, remove the green, peel off the outer layer, and wash. If I’m lazy these days, I’ll buy the Kosher Gardens ones.
I don’t buy Bodek frozen or any other brand of frozen with a hechsher, although I wouldn’t chas veshalom say that they’re asur.
I would have loved to have gotten married in my youth, but I was rarely ever able to get a second pegisha.
Le Marais is grandfathered in from the days when the OU didn’t require frum ownership. Now, if a place wants the OU, they need to have fru ownership.
I know friends who are mashgichim and they say the difference is like night and day between a frum owned business and a non frum owned business.
And for food service, kashrus is very expensive; the agency charges a lot for use of the name and their endorsement, while the mahsgiach temidi should be paid at least $20 an hour if bedikas tolaim is involved, in my opinion.
Stella d’Oro are labeled Pareve to avoid confusion because the company threatened to go Dairy.
Positiv/Kosher Gardens parsley is very good, too.
It just seems to me that there’s a blurring of the boundary between adam and chaya these days. People treating their dogs like people, with clothing, expensive treatments, etc. is just sickening to me. One of many moral faults with our decadent culture.
I don’t mind dogs, but what sickens me is the obsession people have with pets, often spending money on veterinarian bills, when that money could have gone to serve the needs of people.
The Rema’s psakim on tzaar baalei chaim match up with the Bereshis narrative that clearly gives man dominion over the rest of creation.
The Democrats have made war on religious freedom a hallmark of their reign of terror under Obama. Religious liberty has come under attack more in 8 years than ever before. Free speech is under attack on college campuses and on the streets; we’re at the point of denying people their 1st Amendment rights, so as to not “offend” others.
Our preoccupation with trigger warnings, microaggressions, safe spaces, mansplaining, and all the other doublespeak nonsense from the left is going to make us even bigger losers. We’re an emasculated society, thanks to the obsession over race, sexism, feminism, etc.
I hold very highly by the OU and their standards.
We’re not meant to live like that. There’s a Yerushalmi, I believe, that says a person has to give a cheshbon hanefesh in olam habah for all the pleasures he denied himself in olam hazeh that he could’ve had.
The RBSO gave us foods for health but also enjoyment. The Torah could’ve said to express simcha before HaShem by having bread and water, but instead commanded us to have meat and wine on yontiff.
On the other hand, Avos says one is koneh torah through bread and salt.
Trump won one closed caucus and the only primary of the night…Cruz won two caucuses. For a candidate like Trump who is not far right the caucus is the toughest thing to win… Romney did not win most of them in 2012.
And yes, I agree with mdd. The Rebbe certainly held that way.
DY,
Would you eat fresh broccolini (not Bodek or greenhouse grown), mesclun, spinach, thyme, rosemary, etc. that were merely washed but not checked with a shmattah?
I agree, any lashon hara against the OU is uncalled for.
There’s really no reason at all to bash the OU.
They’re the leaders in kashrus, truthfully, and invest heavily in research and training. Their internship program for mashgichim is incredibly huge and I have the materials binder from it, which is full of information on all sorts of stuff. Star K is excellent, as well, in this department.
In the NYC area for food service, I trust OU far more than the Kof K, Vaad of Queens, and many heimishe hechsherim because they require shomer shabbos ownership PLUS a mashgiach temidi, they check vegetables thoroughly using a shmattah bedikah, they require separate kelim for fish in meat establishments (not required al pi halacha, but a good policy), and have all of their policies written out in a way that’s very mesudar. The Vaad of 5 Towns is also highly recommended in the NYC area.
That’s the fault of the consumer, not the OU
I can only eat a bowl of cholent if I pour a mixture of ketchup and bbq sauce into it.
Huh? They certify those as OU-D. What’s the issue?
I love Persian, Indian, Bukharian, Syrian, Iraqi, Turkish, Greek, Moroccan, Yemenite food. Just not fish. I love all of it. Sambusak, Cigars, Kibbeh, Kibbeh Lemon with artichoke, Kibbeh Cherry, Yebra/Dolmades, spanakopita, cheeses, olives, everything from this part of the world. Along with Italian, these are all my favorites.
I also happen to believe the Sephardi approach to learning and halacha has many maalos above the Ashkenazic approach, personally.
If gefilte fish is made fresh, and served with a copious amount of sweet red chrein and mayonnaise, I can eat it.
Herring, I just can’t bring myself to touch the stuff. I’m not the biggest fish eater, anyways. Chraime is equally repulsive to me.
The website says:
Over the past 18 months, we have observed a significant decline in the use of the job board by both job-seekers and corporate partners. That, and personnel changes within the organization, suggest that it is an appropriate time for the Job Board to cease operations.
The OU has made available on its website the entire collection of our highly-acclaimed courses and seminars that will remain available for use free of charge. You may access them here.
All jobs and resumes currently posted on the OU Job Board will remain posted through March 31st.
And they mostly went to Israel, not America. Whether they’re even Jewish is a machlokes haposkim.
Beans, potatoes, such as frozen fries, frozen latkes, blintzes,knishes, possibly cranberries, and quite a few more foods.
The OU is a great organization. But the heimishe hechsherim are good, too. They provide additional oversight, especially as far as bishul yisroel goes. A great example is waffles. The OU position is that waffles are not oleh al shulchan melachim. Others disagree, as brought down in the great Sefer Shulchan Melachim, by Rav Bar Shalom. There, he says waffles are oleh. An OU waffle goes by the lenient opinion; there’s no mashgiach in an Eggo factory lighting fires. But a heimishe brand like Smacking Good or Frankel’s likely would have a mashgiach turning on the fires there.
Which meats don’t have an OU?
Those under Star K, but if it’s Star S, I’ll buy it. I buy my meat from either Moisha’s/KRM, or from Glatt Mart.
I’m not makpid on chalav stam kelim. I recently adapted cholov yisroel, so in time, I’ll probably become makpid on kelim, also.
For vegetables, I tend to keep it to Postiv/Kosher Gardens, but will occasionally buy Bodek for some things.
Why shouldn’t polygamy be legal?
If the product is Bob’s Red Mill, the underlined K means Kehilla Heart K from Los Angeles, Rabbi Teichman
I’ve had to have cereal quite a few times for supper over the years. Poverty dinners, for the win.
Corn Flakes with milk, sugar, banana
Potatoes, eggs, and onions with ketchup and toast
French toast
PB and J on matzah (during the year, of course)
Cream cheese and jelly sandwiches
Tradition cup a noodles
Bean soup with fried plantains and rice
If one washed their hands after a meal at the sink, would this fulfill his chiyuv, or does it have to be from a kli?
Trump just came out with a great Seven-Point Health Care plan.
And there’s a big difference between bombing someone into oblivion and having a protracted war with boots on the ground. The neocons want Iraq part III. They want to bolster Libyan Al Qaeda and anti-Assad insurgents in Syria, just like they did in Iraq and Egypt. No more Arab Spring, no more New World Order. An A bomb on the Middle East may be the only recourse.
OU is probably the largest hechsher out there, with the most research and expertise. All the other hechsherim use OU materials and policies all the time on many things.
For me:
I only use OU tuna with bishul yisroel/hashgacha temidis.
I don’t rely on OU-D, but will confirm if OU-D items are just dairy equipment or are actual dairy, on a case by case basis.
I only buy meat with an OU (generally BYL or another reliably beis yosef brand)
I try to buy canned and processed foods with a chashash of pas akum or bishul akum with a heimish hechsher where they take care of these concerns.
I say Al Tira 3 times a day. I do believe in conspiracies. They’re not conspiracy theories, but facts. We have establishment insiders, liberal internationalists, CFR, Federal Reserve, IRS, UN, State Department, North American Union, liberal godless universities, gun confiscators, open borders, free trade, evil reshaim all plotting to destroy the country and lead us into One World Government. The New World Order is real, and the neocons and Democrats are leading us there, into Bolshevik tyranny. I read 2 books by the late Rabbi Marvin S. Antelman, zt”l, where he explains this all from a Jewish perspective. Reading Rabbi Antelman, Carroll S. Quigley, Paul Gottfried, G. Edward Griffin and others has had a strong impact on my political views.
Candidates evolve on issues all the time. What you do as a private citizen and a public official are two different things.
He most certainly is a Neocon. He’s weak on immigration, a warmonger, he wants to oust the Assad regime, import millions of Muslim immigrants into the country, and wants to dismantle the culture of this country.
Trump will keep us out of war. Rubio is a neocon warmonger, affiliated with the Project for a New American Century.
Duke and Farrakhan actually didn’t endorse him.
And compared to Cruz or Rubio, a Trump presidency would be more palatable to Democrats. Here’s why:
1) Cruz and Rubio are dyed in the wool conservative politicians. Cruz is a true ideological conservative. Trump is not. He’s malleable, pragmatic, and a businessman open to negotiation and compromise with Democrats.
2) Trump will not touch entitlements and likely he will retain most provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Cruz and Rubio would look to cut social security and health care.
4) He has publicly defended Planned Parenthood, whereas the other Republicans have no desire to fund women’s health programs.
5) Rubio is affiliated with Project for a New American Century. He’s a neocon warmonger. On day one of a Rubio presidency, there would be another way on our hands. Trump wants to keep us out of war and instead, wants to use strategically targeted airstrikes against ISIS. His statements against the Iraq War and the Bush Presidency further confirm his more amenable policies on war and defense.
6) In an interview with Hannity in August 2015, he endorsed the idea of a wealth tax.