Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
To Joseph:
Are you really serious about Lakewood being such a “Kiddush hashem”?? You are either trolling as usual or are totally oblivious to the fact that welfare is so widespread in the township that according to census data, more than half of all the children live in homes that receive some form of government assistance for the poor. There are 10,000 more children in households with married couples in Lakewood receiving food, income or state aid than Newark. Clearly, the BMG network did much to help rebuild the frum tzibur and support limud torah in the post-War period here in the U.S. However, do you really believe that Aron Kotler imagined that the frum community he helped establish and nurture would deteriorate to the point It has become the welfare capital of the state??
Until the leading rabbonim in Lakewood speak out forcefully and unequivocally about these low-lifes who steal from the public (which means stealing from you and me), than the type of anti-Semitic vandalism we saw at the Jersey shul last night will proliferate. All of these “innocent until proven guilty” and “maybe they didn’t understand the law” excuses are simply another form of denial. These ganovim and their families who were complicit in this fraud, if convicted, should be publicly cut off from the Jewish community and treated like pariahs. Welcoming them back into the tzibur after they get out of prison will make them seem like conquering heros. If people know that they and their wives and children will be treated like pariahs, then maybe there would be some deterrent effect.
Avi K is right….if chazal were to opine on the issue today, they would be considerably more careful to qualify their statement so that CR readers would not take it as a blanket statement. Its intutitive that the daughter of a talmid chacham is more likely to have good midos and make a good wife and mother but everyone can probably cite examples where that is not ALWAYS the case.
Lowertutition: I get your point….if there is simply a loss of confidence by the mashgiach for a variety of reasons, it might be difficult to be transparent. There are obviously going to be subjective determinations in hashgacha where thee might not always be a “smoking gun”. However, my concern is that in some communities with only one hashgacha or vaad, a purely personal matter can literally destroy a business overnight. Self-monitoring would not be a viable alternative where hashgacha is withdrawn arbitrarily.
Perhaps its time to place less empahasis on shiduchim and focus more on allowing our young men and women to meet and get to know one another without all the stress and pressures of the current system where parents, grandparents, family and friends create a sense of near-hysteria if a date for kiddushin is not fixed within a short time of the first date. There is no “shidduch crisis”; there is cultural crisis where we push marriage on children not ready of marriage and make them feel like damaged goods (especially the girls) if they c’v reach the age of 20 w/o a chooson and baby carriage. In the context of young men and women with some physical illness or emotional disability, they have every obligation to be transparent as to their condition, even if it means taking longer to find their beschert. To do otherwise is deceitful and more likely than not to result in a breakup of the marriage or serious marital disfunction.
In matters like this particular incident, and many others, confidence in hashgacha in general would be enhanced if the parties would stop using “code words” for the underlying issue and be more transparent. Absent some legal constraint (e.g. allegations of criminal activity under investigation where the authorities have requested that information be withheld) or important matter of personal privacy, providing the real reason why a hashgacha is being suspended or withdrawn should be the rule, not the exception. If yidden have patronized a restaurant or market or purchased a product for a period of time based in part on the hashgacaha, they are entitled to know why it suddenly is no longer applicable. If a product, should they worry about having to kasher and toivel their entire kitchen?
In today’s world, any mark or symbol of “hasgacha” has great commercial value since it conveys the sense that the product is produced under higher standards, with higher quality ingredients, etc. In some respects, its a second tier version of “organic” or “natural”. You can credit this to a few brands such as Hebrew National (whose hashgacha gets low grades here on YWN) because of their national TV marketing about “we report to a higher authority”. There are various studies, but some estimates indicate that more than 2/3 of the market for specialty kosher products are purchased by goyim for the reasons noted above, This does not include such generic products as nationally marketed baked goods, breakfast cereals, canned tuna fish, etc who have a kosher certification.
OPM data shows that there are thousands of federal employees “fired” annually for a variety of reasons ranging from poor performance to violation of ethics rules or simple workplace issues such as threats of violence, theft, etc. Yes, its more difficult than in the private sector but it was meant to be so that a new administration could not arbitrarily create some “trumped up” excuse (bad pun) to fire those whose politics they disagree with. Every democratic government in the industrialized world has a career, non-political government workforce.
To “rational jew”
You didn’t get the memo…at least for the past few days, the Trumpkopf-in-Chief has been listening to his lawyers and calling it an interim suspension of visa issuances to residents of high risk countries” rather than a “Muslim Ban”. If he reverts back to his old language, even the Supreme Court will tell him to go back to Mar a Lago and take a cold shower. Logical security safeguards are essential; those based on optics or nominal association with a religious belief will never pass muster here in the U.S. or Europe.
To Dass Yochid: That may be a better way of saying it…every rule of general applicability still has some exceptions….especially when it comes to people.
To Joseph:
You ask “You’re saying Chazal are wrong? ..”
Answer is they can be wrong in some cases…..it is beyond foolish to believe that Chazal meant this in ALL cases. Obviously there are exceptions where a bas talmid chochom goes OTD, has personality issues, or any of a dozen good reasons why in a particular case she would NOT be a good choice as a wife. Obviously, most cases one would expect a bas talmid chochom to be someone with wonderful midos, etc. but nothing I 100 percent
There is a centralized job listing website managed by OPM for most federal agencies (except for certain SES jobs, and excepted service jobs along with schedule C political slots) ….the hiring process has gotten somewhat better but still plan on at least 3 or 4 months and sometimes 6 months to a year. There are hiring preferences for veterans that trump (excuse the expression) merit based hiring decisions.
Assuming most YWN readers are not pregnant, there is no reason you cannot eat fresh fish once a week without worrying about mercury et. al. You fail to mention the cardiac benefits of fish along with the protein and absence of material amounts of bad fats. Like anything else, with moderation its fine. If you are going to eat fish once or twice a week, much better fresh than canned. Substantially more people get sick from poorly handled and prepared chicken than fish according to the CDC. If you know a commercial insurance broker, just ask if a sushi restaurant would pay a higher premium to cover potential customer claims versus a pizza restaurant or chicken rotisserie takeout.
To lowerourtuition1121
With regard to an expensive steak, properly “cooked” does not mean well done….you can find a better valued piece of leather at the shoe store. Most of the top restaurants won’t even accept orders for a “well done” steak. As to the price of canned tuna versus fresh tuna, most of us don’t purchase food for our families based on finding the cheapest option available, unless of course, that’s also “your preference”. For a casual lunch sandwich perhaps but who would choose canned tuna for a dinner when fresh is readily available. If you live in the boonies where fresh fish is not available, than of course you are right.
With fresh tuna so readily available in most cities (especially the NYC metro area) its hard to understand why anyone would eat cooked tuna from a can, frequently packed in oil. I guess its the same mindless gourmands who pay $40 or $50 for a good steak and then mindlessly ask that it be served “well-done”.
It seems everyone agrees that food preferences were NOT dictated via torah moshe m’sinai nor does the very limited (and grossly unhealthy) pantry of food choices available to yidden in the Alte Heim 75 or 100 years ago have any relevance to what we choose to eat today based on having access to an almost unlimited set of choices that provide much greater nutrition, are healthier and satisfy even the kashruth requirements of the “mega machmir” crowd. Of course, every segment of the tzibur and every family may have its own minhagim which may guide their menus, especially for Shabbos and yom tovim, but otherwise there really are no limits (other than kashruth) for a frum yid today living in any large metropolitan area. Also, today, there are many more families where men share in the cooking with their wives so that introduces a totally separate range of food choices and preparation options. Finally, it was not that easy in the Alte Heim to push a few buttons on your iPhone and have your chulent delivered to your door within 30 minutes. It took that long to walk down the street to the rebbe’s house with a chicken you were fortunate enough to have for Shabbos but about which you had a sheilah.
To Joseph:
Now we know you are a troll?? The Ebeshter gives us fresh fish as a great source of protein and fresh flavors of the sea; Chazal bring down that he did not intend for his creation to become a condiment for Hungarians to serve sugar etc.
Most good sushi bars (kosher or otherwise) will not serve that yucky fake shrimp stuff made from ground up and processed trash fish. Sushi and sashimi are the prime example where “less is more”. Fresh fish with minimal handling and simple presentation are the best and raise the fewest issues of kashruth. The more “stuff” you add to sushi rolls (an entirely American meshugaas) to make them more attractive to the less adventuresome palettes in the market (aka its not schmaltz herring or zeese Ungareshe gefilte fish), the more issues the mashgiach has to focus on and the less tasteful the outcome.
There is probably a rather old but reliable metric in considering a potential kallah….does she (herself) act in accordance with daas torah….do her midos and demeanor reflect the family’s yichus….and MOST importantly, does she show she cares for and cherishes her potential chassan and look forward to building together with him bayin ne’eman b’yisroel.
The same proliferation of educators was a problem in the public sector in the 80’s and 90’s where kids who had no clue what they wanted to do when they graduated college became “education” majors. The teacher pipeline was flooded with mediocre teaching grads and compensation was flat or went down. Only when other lines of work became more attractive did the pipeline slow and the laws of supply/demand pushed up salaries (along with powerful teachers’ unions in some states). For a kollel yungerleit who wants to study full time for several years and then go out and work to start a family, chinuch is likely the only real option in many areas, given their lack of secular job skills. Its not clear the really top student want to go into chinuch. Most prefer to stay and learn 24×7 and in some cases, will find financial sponsors if they are truly the top 1 percent. Most roshei yeshivos do not have programs to systematically evaluate their yungerleit to determine which ones will make the best teachers. A top learner is not necessarily a top teacher.
The Sushi Tokyo location in 5T…..even better than the original location in Brooklyn. Service is a bit uneven (but with one or two exceptions, that seems to be the norm in most Kosher restaurants). Fish quality is excellent and turnover is high so freshness is not a concern.
While Trump and his chevrah run around disparaging government employees and “unelected bureacrats” and using them to scapegoat all of the government’s problems, the vast majority are dedicated workers who have a public service ethic and really are committed to their work. Studies show that compensation is slightly above market at the lower wage levels but substantially below market at the higher levels where most government employees could be earning substantially more for doing equivalent work in the private sector. While there needs to be more efficient hiring and firing practices, the system overall works reasonably well. Also, the number of federal employees is actually lower today than 20 years ago, notwithstanding an enormous increase in federal agency responsibilities. If anyone thinks it would be cheaper to hire a private contractor to do the work of a Department of Defense analyst, just look at the few studies that have examined so called “outsourcing” programs.
The most talented rabbeim will find their ways in to the top yeshivot where the compensation is higher. Chinuch is a free market. No one forces a Rav to teach for a non-compensatory wage. He can move on to another school if he feels he is not earning enough for his family. This is not a unique problem Public school teachers are also complaining that society doesn’t value their work correctly and in some cities, the trash collectors earn more than the teachers.
If there are lots of empty seats, than asking a woman to voluntarily relocate to a comparable seat across the aisle or a row or two back is obviously not a big deal. However, the burden should be on the man who doesn’t want to sit next to a woman to relocate, NOT the woman. In any event, its NEVER ok to require a woman change seats if she doesn’t want to move, unless its a matter of security.
The El Al decision applies only to El Al; other international carriers are not covered although all U.S. airlines already have policies in place that do not allow flight attendants to move passengers because another passenger objects to sitting next to them. The rules are flexible to ask for volunteers to change seats to accommodate a disabled person or allow a family with young children to sit together but the key word is “voluntary”; they cannot require a seat change to accommodate other passengers’ preferences. Chareidim can always book an empty seat next to them (and pay the cost) or take another flight. There is no reason ANY woman should be inconvenienced on a long overseas flight because some ehrliche yid is worried that they might not be able to control their yetzer horah.
There is a libertarian perspective that there should be NO regulation or interference with individual use of any product or service, no matter the risk to a minority. SouthWest Airlines, for example, got a lot of flak when it agreed not to serve peanuts on any flight where any passenger claimed to have an allergy risk, without even requiring any proof. Legally, they are required to accommodate such requests along with any other reasonable requests. Its gotten silly since on a flight to Las Vegas last month, a passenger in the row behind me boarded with a real pig that she characterized as a “companion animal” which must be allowed on board. The flight was too crowded for me to change seats.
If you look carefully at the photos of some Chassideshe courts from the Alte Heim, the Shtreimlach have actually been getting smaller over time from the much large ones worn by Polish nobility; most likely because the cost of fur has been rising as a result of the Endangered Species Act and a recognition that the smaller Shtreimlach provide a smaller profile target for some antisemitim throwing snowballs.
2qwerty: Thanks for the useful and informative information. However, I’m not sure the same analogy about timing the compressor works for an HVAC system using the type of thermostat with a lag response that is impossible to predict. If the cooling is set to 70 degrees in some small shteeblach and the ambient room air temperature is at that same 70 degrees, having a few daveners walk into the room could increase the room temperature by a degree within a minute or two, thus triggering the thermostat to start the compressor to cool the room back down to 70 degrees. I don’t think you would stand outside the beis medrash and only go in while the compressor is already running to avoid being the davener who starts the compressor.
Its sad that some posters wanting to isolate kids with special needs from allergies rather than accommodating those needs to the extent possible seem unable to show some empathy. Perhaps if their own kids or grandkids were those suffering, it might enhance their understanding. That may be what it will take.
There are several models which have built-in LED lights that can stay on 24×7 so that the bulb will outlast the refrigerator. Problem solved, if you only worry is the bulb going on/off. Most yidden don’t get hung up on the compressor going on any more than worrying about a few additional yidden walking into the beis medrash and their body temperatures pushing up the ambient temperature sufficiently to trigger the thermostat to put on the cooling compressor (even if the fan on the air handler is running).
ANY Yid, without regard to their hashkafah, should be able to enter ANY shul in EY to daven without fear as long as they act with respect and do not interrupt the davening. The issue is not their dress, their affiliation with the IDF or whether they daven nusach shpard, ashkenaz, Ari or whatever. If someone attempts to verbally or physically assault them, the security forces should forcefully grab that individual and prosecute them to the maximum extent allowed by law. These zealots who attack IDF chayalim who come in to daven or say kaddish, and the rabbonim/askanim who allow such attacks to occur in or near their shuls are beneath contempt and should be treated accordingly.
Not worth litigating further…I think we all agree that accommodations need to be made where feasible….we agree to disagree on where is the line between accommodation and entitlement and when one person’s accommodation encroaches on another’s sense of right or entitlement not to forego certain activities
Sending kids to schools that accommodate the needs of severely disabled children is not only right but a requirement of law when a regular school cannot provide for that child’s needs. However, I don’t find any equivalence between normal kids with a peanut allergy that might inconvenience a few parents whose kids like PB&J sandwiches for lunch and kids whose severe disability means they cannot function in a regular classroom and require intensive personalized care. Its not rocket science. The two are not analogous.
The issue is not “tone”….its not a joke to suggest that ANY child with special-needs should be pulled out of regular schools and forced to attend classes in some remote location. Whether you meant it in jest, sarcasm or whatever, there are too many parents suffering from the stigma of having their children sidetracked when the obligation of the school, yeshiva or public, is to accommodate their needs within the regular instructional programs.
To RebYid
Its not a big deal to restrict certain foods from yeshivos. Do we inspect the kitchens of every baal haabyis who sends their kids to school to be certain all meet the highest standards of hashgacha? Kids share foods so that’s why many schools don’t allow ANY food to be brought in from the outside, even from a top of the line market with Chassideshe hashgacha. Giving up peanuts is no big deal. Sending all kids with peanut allergies to special schools is such a disgusting idea, your idea of a sick joke is really inappropriate for the CR.
Peanut allergies are pervasive and have more deadly impact than any other widespread food allergies, given that minute amounts in the air can be transported to an allergic child. Gluten is not such a concern. If a parent insists on sending peanut butter sandwiches to school, after warnings, the children of that parent should be expelled. Its not a joking matter or one that should require more than one warning and your out.
Maybe its time to say “enough already” and leave the Kushner/Trump family alone. They are what they are and they don’t go around preaching to others about their hashkafah or holding themselves out as role models for yiddeshe families. They have worked closely with the administrators and faculty of the yeshiva where their daughter is a student and parents there have not felt any disruptive effects. Overall, just let them be whoever they want to be and lets focus on our own midos and opportunities for self-improvement.
Obviously, there are economic considerations driving younger frum couples to relocate to one of a number of smaller and medium size cities throughout the U.S. (many of whom have actually run ads here on YWN promoting their local virtues). For most couples, its hard to find a nice apartment in NYC and support yeshiva tuition on less than $150-$180,000/year combined income. For two college grad families with both working, that’s not a problem but it is for the large percentage of young couples from heimeshe families with only one working and w/o and advanced degree. In those cases, places like Rochester, Virginia Beach, Suburban Cleveland, Phoenix, etc. offer very attractive options for a frum lifestyle and much lower living costs. Obviously, you miss the cultural attractions of NYC in terms of museums, theatre, etc. but for many frum couples, they don’t patronize such attractions anyway so relocation is not such a great loss. A bigger concern is being further from family and friends in a new community.
Aside from the known episodes of the Russian Jews and some other large “block conversions” which were subsequently invalidated by a Beis Din for clear reasons of fraud and deception, Joseph just creates his own “alternative facts” and rants against those who disagree….. Rabbonim do NOT monitor those who have been megayer and withdraw their geyrus if the gerim go OTD.
“Where else do you have a sellout stadium of 20,000 packed to the brim”
At a Lipa concert that was “banned” by certain “gadolim” (who later claimed their signatures were used without permission),…..at an “asifah” dedicated to trashing the internet and assuring smartphones and at a Donald Trump rally (bigley huge attendance)
Actually, there were well over 40,000…again, these lies by the fake media….there were at least 2 kollel yungerleit squeezed into each seat and for the less shartke ones, 3 bochurim in one seat….ordinary, real world metrics cannot be applied to Joesph’s alternative reality. If you have any doubts, just look at the photos of the event (with 3 D glasses to see the otherwise invisible yungerleit in each seat)
If a certain Satmar troll wishes to engage in Trumplike exaggerations about these and similar events, you only feed that mentality by engaging in rational dialogue. The reality is whatever he says it is at the moment; a gadol hador (or dorah) is whomever he decides and any other rabbonim are the B or C team….Its ok to denigrate gaolei yisroel from a prior generation since their “fake paskins” don’t comport with his assertions…
Not worth debating Joseph…there is whole world outside of his narrow NYC/Monsey/Lakewood focus where frum yidden of varying hashkafah have come together to provide torah-based chinuch for their kids. They have done so in consultation with rabbonim they rely upon. They could care less, whether some CR mashgiach ruchani approves of their decisions with respect to what is “assur”.
This one…in smaller communities where they cannot support the substantial costs of maintaining two separate buildings for separate “boys” and “girls” campuses, they have a single school building but have taken great care in consultation with rabbonim to separate instruction and avoid social mingling.
I was referring to cases where a Rav/beis din decided years after the geyrus of a particular (high profile) individual that the individual was not sufficiently living a torahdika lifestyle to withdraw the geyrus approval? I’m aware of cases where an entire class of geryim was rejected or where Rav A did not “accept” a geyrus approved earlier by Rav B. The case we are dealing with here is not something I’ve seen alleged previously where someone like Rav Lookstein or any other Rav would revoke his own geyrus approval.
And who makes such a finding on an retroactive basis? Are you aware of cases where the rav who officiated over the geyrus years later “reversed” his decision based on failure to comply???
Once a geyrus is completed, we don’t “monitor” the compliance of the individual with their commitments to be shromrei torah umitzvos (aka “kabbalos ohel mitzvos”). They are a yid in the same way as any other yid born a yid and their behavior in olam hazeh is only accountable to the Ebeshter in olam haboh.
I’ve heard so many definitions of “MO’ that its not clear the term has any objective meaning, any more so than terms such as “Yeshivish” etc. If you look at some of the registration forms used by shidduch services, some have as many as 8-10 categories in which you place yourself, and that’s only for frum shaddchanus.
Unless you want to be just another “blackhat”, think out of the (borsolino)box…think BIGLEY…go to Lebovitz and get yourself a few of the most elegant black fur streimlach
All three seem to be appropriate subject matters for complaints and perhaps the inyan for a new thread…