Gadolhadorah

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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

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.

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.

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.

“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)

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…

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.

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???

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.

All three seem to be appropriate subject matters for complaints and perhaps the inyan for a new thread…

The “z’chus” is in marrying a baas yisroel who is herself an appropriate kallah for the bochur in all respects and that they together are well suited to raise a family and establish a “bayis ne’eman’ bayisroel. The fact that here father is a talmid chacham or big tzadik is nice but otherwise irrelevant as to the likelihood of the success of the cahassanah. A girl raised in such a family is likely to have the midos and love of torah to create the right conditions but thats no guarantee she is the be’shert for the bochur in question.

To Avramalah in Baltimore (or Reisterstown, Owings Mills , Silver Spring, Kemp Mill or wherever )

Would you give a dollar to tzadakah for every pot, pan etc. that has ever had to be toiveled in mikvah because of some crooked mashgiach, whether chasddish, litivish or Eastern Shore leading to treifus being sold to a frum yid? Please name your favorite tzadakah.

To BK613:
If a woman has existing arrangements with female specialist relevant to her pre-existing condition than obviously that would be best since she would be best served by a physician she knows and trusts. However in the case of a heart attack or serious injury requiring invasive surgery, clearly the gender of the attending physician is irrelevant. She wants to get to the best medical facility asap and would care less about tzinius if her life is at risk.
Equally so, most men would probably feel more comfortable with a male physician for routine exams and non-emergency care but I cannot imagine a rational yid with a life threatening illness or accident telling the emergency room physician, cardio lab specialist or surgeon (who happens to be a woman) that he would prefer to delay treatment until a male physician can be called. Even the gadol hador would not delay a nanosecond to potentially save a life.

To Daas Yochid

I’ll repeat my point that if you have real facts or evidence that the Rav is engaged in fraud and deception with respect to his Hasgacha, you should publicly present your information to the Rabanut and authorities. If not, you are engaged in the worst type of lashon haroh, defamation and libel and should beg mechilah from the Rav and the dedicated mashgichim who work under his supervision. Its outrageous that you simply make these vague assertions without any support.

There are 2 or possibly 3 statutes, including one specifically focused on the Office of the President, which require retention of ANY work-related documents, including emails, Tweets, blog postings etc. These rules have been upheld by the courts. Retention doesn’t mean public disclosure and indeed, presidents may specify that certain documents be kept confidential (by the National Archives) for many years after they leave office. A tweet, by definition, is a public document and must be retained. A tweet with his son regarding “business’ would violate their ethics commitments but would still be work-related since they are required to maintain records showing they complied with those ethics commitments.

I assume you have provided your objective, factual and public assessment of the deficiencies of the Circle K hashgacha to the Rabbanus so the can take appropriate enforcement action. If not, you are engaging in slander and defamation with your innuendo. I’m not a big fan of Circle K but that’s a personal decision not based on any knowledge of moral failings or breaches of integrity by R. Ralbag.

To Syag:

First and most important, Rav Ralbag, shlita, is a chashuvah rav and a big talmid chacham but like most non-chassideshe Mashgichim, he has his own set of chumrahs and kulahs that he goes by (e.g. can goyim participate in wine preparation prior to the separation of the skin from grape juice per the inyan of mevushal, the use of certain casks in whiskey, etc). If you are comfortable with those kulahs Rav Ralbag is “reliable”. If you want a higher standard across the board, find one of several chassideshe hashgachos (and perhaps one or two of the litvish hashgachos) who are considered the gold standard for mehadrim. No lashon horah about R. Ralbag is appropriate given that these are areas of discretion and everyone finds their own “norm”.