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The Rama (OC 75:2) states that you can say Shema in front the the hair that normally sticks out from under a hat.
R’ Moshe zt”l (Igros Moshe EH 1:58) quotes a Gemarah in Brachos (24a) that states a tefach is considered ervah. Therefore, R’ Moshe says, less than a tefach is not a problem.
Sheker hachein v’hevel hayofi is being misused here. It doesn’t mean looks shouldn’t be considered. It’s talking about what makes a woman praiseworthy. It says Isha yiras Hashem hi tishalal – she should be praised. A beautiful person doesn’t deserve praise for it. It’s not from them, it was a gift from Hashem. Praise Hashem for it, not the girl. The Yiras Hashem comes from the girl, and makes her worthy of praise.
That said, when a man is looking for a wife, he needs to find her attractive. Does that make her worthy of praise? No. It’s just a basic fact – a man should find his wife attractive. If he doesn’t, it can lead to serious problems down the road. Sheker hachein v’hevel hayofi refers to a person’s perception of it. Don’t try to exalt yourself because of it. It’s sheker v’hevel – it comes from Hashem, and Hashem can take it away whenever He wants to. Yiras Hashem is something that can’t be taken away from a person. But that doesn’t mean looks aren’t important!
The Shell station near me recently raised their prices. They used to be about 2.99, now they’re up to about 3.50.
It’s important that you be attracted to your wife. Someone who insists his wife look like a model might only be attracted to that. If that’s the case, that’s fine – he shouldn’t marry someone he’s not attracted to. But remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me, my wife is a supermodel. Someone else might think she’s ugly, but that doesn’t matter to me.
0710, not to be insulting, but IIRC, the Mishna says that the girls who weren’t particularly attractive used to say what you said to try and attract a husband on Yom Kippur and Tu B’Av.
I think that Manwich sauce is the best. Just take ground beef, brown it a bit (make sure to keep stirring and breaking it up), and when it’s about a third of the way cooked, pour in the Manwich sauce. Let it simmer for a while, and voila! it’s done! Whether you want it on a sandwich, plain, or over rice or some other thing is up to you.
Shticky, the point was to maximize his mazal. If all the days are equally bad, he still tried to find the month that was best – better a bad day in a good month than a bad day in a bad month.
Shticky, I don’t know the answer to your question, but I have a similar one. For Kislev the reason given is Chanukah. Chanukah was during the 2nd Beis Hamikdash, which was well after the events of Purim. If it hadn’t happened yet, why did it protect them?
If I remember correctly, the artist was named “Yonah ben R’ Shlomo Carlebach”, although his father wasn’t the singer. I don’t know where they have it. I had bought it for my brother who’s a huge Carlebach fan. I don’t know where they’d have it now, sorry.
Every year I tell my wife to cut down on the Mishloach Manos and give the money to matanos l’evyonim instead. She’s nervous someone will be insulted that we don’t have mishloach manos for them.
There are a lot of guys from Torah V’Daas who go to Touro.
R’ Fisher runs a yeshiva in Brooklyn that’s half a day. It’s on Ave I and East 23rd, in his shul. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.
I heard from someone just last week that Touro still hasn’t finished getting accredited. The person said that they got a degree from Touro, but that they can’t find work with it – they were told straight out that it’s useless. Be careful, and make sure they are fully accredited before going there!
R’ Miller zt”l was once walking on a rainy day and heard two women complaining to each other about the weather. He rebuked them for complaining about such a blessing. Without rain, we’d all die!
Different areas/groups have different pronunciations for different sounds. To use Torah as the example: some pronounce a cholem as “oy”, which is the same as a komatz with a yud after it. Others pronounce it as “oh”. Some Yekkes pronounce it as “ow”, like you say when you stub your toe.
There are other sounds that differ by group. Chassidim sometimes pronounce a komatz as “oo”, while the majority pronounce it as “uh”.
I’ve heard that the Yemenites have the closest pronunciation to what is actually the original. However, R’ Elyashiv has said that they’re all correct, for the groups that use them.
Maybe they are Hatzalah members and were coming back from calls?
When I was in yeshiva, we didn’t have a shiur klali once a week. We usually had it the last week of a zman, sort of to wrap up the sugyah we were learning. Everyone stayed for it.
There were also occasionally other times, such as on Chanukah or before Purim, where there would be a shiur klali about the chag. They were always well attended.
I’ve never seen my RY eat out, but he’s told me that it’s important for a couple to go out to eat every once in a while.
This story has been posted before, and I’ll write the same thing I did then. I personally know Shaya and his family. His father told me that R’ Krohn blew this story out of proportion. It wasn’t the last inning, the team wasn’t down by one run, and Shaya didn’t win the game. He simply asked if he could hit, and the boys stopped their game to give him a chance. They gave him the home run, true, but he was never picked up on their shoulders or anything like that.
It doesn’t take away from the message of what the boys did, but the details should be told truthfully.
It says in the mishna that on Tu B’Av the girls would dress in white to try and attract a husband. Maybe that’s where the white dress comes from.
bombmaniac: So I can’t dislike Carlebach’s music simply because I just don’t like the style? As I wrote before, most of his songs sound the same (the 3 bar step-down is what I call one of the things he uses most). So if you don’t like one of them, you probably don’t like all of them. As you said, simple tunes. That’s correct. Most of them go nowhere, and have no real substance to them. Someone once asked one of my Rabbeim, “I heard Carlebach has a song that only has one word to it. Do you know it?” The Rebbe replied, “Yes. It’s kind of funny – the song is called Ruach, and it’s exactly what the song is missing!”
As I wrote earlier, R’ Mendel Kaplan zt”l told his students (one of which was a Rebbe of mine) that listening to Carlebach will make you depressed. That’s not my opinion, it’s the opinion of one of the biggest Rabbonim in America since WW2.
Some people will say, “But look at people singing Carlebach! They’re so happy and lively!” Well, it’s well documented that drinking alcohol actually causes you to be more depressed than you might already be. Yet when people are drunk, they get very lively too.
I don’t have any yet, but I do have two children of my own. Right now I’m not wishing for 100 grandchildren – 50 kids for each of my two would be a bit rough on them!
My grandmother survived Auschwitz, and lost her parents and six siblings there. B”H, she has 17 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren (I don’t even know the exact number, but I believe it’s close to 30 now, with hopefully more to come!) She is hopefully going to see her first great-great-grandchild in the near future as well.
I’m not sure exactly where it is in the SA, but there have been many instances where the Gedolei Hador have said a Jew is obligated to support his/her home country.
What about the soundtrack? Not the actual songs, just the music playing at various times.
At the beginning, when they say “The Purim (urim urim urim) Story (ory ory ory), the music playing is from a Disney movie called The Black Hole.
When Esther is outside Achashveirosh’s door, they play music from Star Trek II.
When Charvonah is telling them about the gallows that Haman built, they play circus music.
I’m sure I missed some more, can anyone remember them?
Can we all just agree that this is a machlokes poskim, everyone should follow his/her Rav, and leave it at that?
Tums: maybe so, but R’ Moshe states clearly that there is no issur in listening to it. If asking is a sign that something isn’t necessarily “kosher”, then we’re in big trouble – any heter written down shouldn’t be followed.
Jews are obligated to support the country they live in. Being patriotic is not just a nice thing, it is a chiyuv.
During graduation at the yeshiva I learned in, they play the national anthem. They ask everyone to stand and take off their hats while doing so.
A toast! Light or dark?
I like mine dark, Your Majesty.
*crunch*
As was said before, there are differing opinions on having over someone who will drive. I once asked, and was told that you should offer to host the person for the entire Shabbos, so they don’t have to drive. Even if you know they’ll refuse, once you make the offer, it’s ok to invite them.
mikehall: you say it’s foolish, but it wasn’t my opinion – it was R’ Mendel Kaplan’s opinion. Do you even know who R’ Mendel Kaplan was?
rabbiofberlin: Because it adds quite a bit of time to davening, and many people aren’t interested in a drawn out davening. It’s one thing if there’s a good baal tefilah, but for a Carlebach davening, they’re not interested.
Personally, I’m not a Carlebach fan. Many of his slow songs sound like funeral marches, and most of his songs sound the same.
When I was in yeshiva, there was some debate as to whether guys should listen to Carlebach. R’ Moshe’s teshuvah in the Igros on it was brought up. One Rebbe in the yeshiva told us that his Rebbe, R’ Mendel Kaplan zt”l had addressed the issue years before. He said that halachicly, there is no issur to listen to Carlebach music (except for the albums where he has women singing), but that listening to his music would cause you to get depressed.
In the shul I daven at Friday nights, there is a guy who will always do the Carlebach nusach if he davens for the amud. I am the gabbai at the minyan, and most of the people have asked me not to put him up there anymore – or to at least schedule Carlebach weeks so that they can daven somewhere else.
I heard the following: Imagine that you have a friend. You help this friend a lot. You give him a home to live in. You give him food to eat, and clothing to wear. Every need he has, you take care of. One day, you ask him for a favor. How would you react if he said no? You give him everything, and this is how he repays you when you ask for one thing? You would not like it at all!
Hashem gives us everything. Without Him, we’d have nothing. He asks us for a few things in return – 613 mitzvos. How can we refuse? Purely out of gratitude, we should do it!
That is also a pshat in teshuva m’ahavah versus teshuva m’yira.
yogibooboo: my wife was in that class. She told me she loved it!
SJSinNYC: While there are things that can be cut out, there are others that shouldn’t be. Yes, you can eat beans, and they’re cheap. But that doesn’t mean you should never eat beef or chicken. Just don’t eat them every other night. Vacations? People need a vacation sometimes, just to keep from going crazy. You don’t have to go to Israel and spend $10,000 on it. You can go somewhere more local, and spend less than $1,000 for a few days.
I agree about camps – they are a luxury. Don’t spend money you don’t have to send your kids to camp, especially not when they’re in high school. Let them work at a local day camp and earn some money over the summer.
I won a pair of diamond earrings for my wife once.
When I was young, we used to kiss my mother’s hand after she lit candles. Once I was old enough to go to shul, I wasn’t home when she lit, so I didn’t do it anymore.
I just try to avoid Brooklyn as much as possible. Over-crowded, noisy, messy, and people are rude. Not to mention alternate-side parking!
Last year I was having some financial trouble. I davened on Rosh Hashanah and asked more so than usual for help with parnassah. I told my wife I wasn’t worrying too much, because I davened, and I had faith that Hashem would help. I got a call the Monday after Rosh Hashanah that a company wanted to interview me. I went in on Erev Yom Kippur for an interview. Over Sukkos, they left me a message offering me a job.
You can’t get a clearer answer than that!
cherrybim: I don’t know, we just don’t have a problem with it. Maybe you’re overcooking it, or not putting in enough water? We usually cover the fish about 3/4 of the way up with water, cook for 45 minutes, flip it over, and cook for another 45 minutes. Make sure the flame is low so the water doesn’t boil out.
My wife and I tried many different brands when we first got married, and decided that the A&B Hungarian Style fish was the best. We boil it with carrots, some onion, sugar, and a bit of black pepper.
I believe Adar Sheini
I know many people who are close to R’ Dovid, and they all say that he eats cholov hacompanies, and bases it on his father’s psak. Again, in the Igros Moshe that R’ Moshe himself put together, it doesn’t say anywhere that it’s only shas hadchak. It only says baal nefesh yachmir. It’s not clear that R’ Moshe said only bshas hadchak was meant for everyone.
Can I get “Proud Modern Orthodox”?
Daas Yochid: you misunderstood what I meant about R’ Dovid. R’ Forst feels that R’ Moshe’s opinion was that you should not drink cholov hacompanies unless it was the only thing available. R’ Dovid disagrees, as he eats and drinks it on a regular basis, based on his father’s opinion.
This is a big debate between the cRc and the OU. The OU holds it’s not a problem, the cRc holds that it is.
The letter in chelek ches was written to a yeshiva, not for the general public. As for a Rav who disagrees with R’ Forst, I already named one – R’ Dovid Feinstein.
I don’t know when the kashrus guide was printed, so I don’t know what R’ Moshe’s opinion of it was. I know the letter wasn’t printed in the Igros, and the teshuvos that were printed (except the one in chelek ches) say “baal nefesh yachmir”, not bshas hadchak.
Mod-80: Generally, having over 100 people is considered very big by non-Jewish standards.
Daas Yochid: Was it publicized earlier at the request of R’ Moshe, or by someone else? I didn’t mean that R’ Moshe didn’t write the letter, I meant it wasn’t his opinion to publicize it. That was R’ Forst’s decision. Just to note, R’ Forst is generally machmir on many things that other big Rabbonim are meikel on. Just because he felt it was ok to publicize it didn’t mean that R’ Moshe intended for it. If R’ Moshe had intended it, it would have been in the Igros.