Gadolhadorah

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”.

No. In the same way that Hillary was required to keep copies of her private emails that had any work-related subject matter, so is Trump. Any Tweets on national policy issues are “work-related”; any tweets regarding his personal social life (assuming he has any) or his views on a movie he saw over the weekend can be deleted.

Why not acknowledge that there are a range of views on the issue of draft registration and/or ANY form of cooperation with efforts to recruit frum bochurim to some form of public service. Along with many chashuve rabbonim, I believe there are ways that bochurim coming out of high school can and should be required to participate in some form of alternative service to the tzibur that would not threaten his hashkafah while providing needed service to the tzibur (even filling in for a reservist who is called up for active duty, working in hospitals or other mosdos serving the Chareidi neighborhoods, etc). They could provide such service while continuing to learn several hours a day. Instead, the issue has been framed to make it impossible to find any middle ground and intensify the already enormous gap between segments of Israeli society.

If anyone really believes that these type of “anti-Zionist” demonstrations, kinus, asifahs etc. do not contribute to the global pressures on EY, increased anti-Semitism, J-Street type groups, divestment of holdings in Israeli companies etc. you are sadly mistaken. None of these individually can be traced to a particular event but collectively they weaken EY. Having dozens of black hats by the U.N. screaming anti-Israeli rants or thousands at Barclays defaming the IDF only bring smiles to the white supremacists, racists, and Islamic terrorists. If that is your agenda and you think these demonstrations will bring down the medinah, you will not be successful.

The NK and some of the Satmar zealots are NOT “ultra-orthodox” Jews but a fringe group of Jewish descent who claim to represent the “true” version of their religious faith to the same extent ISIS claims to represent “true Islam”. Bachol dor v’dor we find a small number of disturbed individuals seeking to glorify themselves in the guise of Kiddush hashem but instead put all of Klal Yisroel at risk. Fortunately, in every case, the Ebeshter has squashed these efforts and will do so again here.

What was originally meant as a limited waiver of the draft for a small number of serious learners has morphed over the years to a sense of entitlement for ANY chareidi bochur to avoid the draft or any form of alternative public service and shift the burden on to others. There are tens of thousands of frum bochurim who have served in the IDF and who gain valuable professional and leadership skills and go on to live a life of torah while contributing the welfare of the medinah. The small number of rabbonim who encourage the Peleg demonstrations that disrupt the evergday lives of hundreds of thousand of yidden in Yerushalayim and who tolerate the vile attacks on the chayalim of the IDF who walk on the streets of yerushalayim are the ones who should be condemned.

Have the two rabbonim (Shechter and Wachtflacht) who are the featured speakers at this “asifah against the draft” (aka Bash the IDF) offered any intelligent proposals as to how EY should defend itself against terrorists if everyone gets a draft derferral? Have they proposed some form of alternative public service for the yungerleit who they insist not serve in the IDF? I guess they believe that if everyone just sits and shteigs behind a shtender , the terrorists will simply go away and attack Lichtenstein. Its too bad the IDF cannot just selectively protect the rest of EY and leave these idiots to fend for themselves.

As you read through this thread, it seems that many posters are in denial and would like to revert back to a bygone era in the Alte Heim where women stayed at home because it was a social norm for the society they lived-in, goyishe and yiddeshe, and there were very few opportunities for women to pursue their own education and careers. B”YH, that world is GONE FOREVER, and today more than 50 percent of the students pursuing graduate degrees in professions such as medicine, law, social work, education etc. are women. Also, there are an incredible number of frum Jewish women who have found ways to maintain their yiddeshkeit and hashkafah while also pursuing their education. Yes, for those kollel yungerleit who want a “stay-at-home” baas yisroel with a very limited secular education wnd no real job skills, I’m sure the inventory is well-stocked (if one believes the constant drumbeat of “shidduch crisis” stories here) but increasingly, both young men and women are finding their beschert among those who have realized the opportunities the Ebeshter has provided and pursuing them through advanced education. These men and women are more likely to treat one another as “equals” and don’t take seriously the notion of subordination of women to their husbands.

If the internet itself is mamash tameh according to some gadolim, how can a mechitza on the internet even be considered whether per halacha/chumrah or otherwise. We don’t typically debate whether its mutar to use cholov stam or cholov yisroel in a recipe for cooking chazerfleish

Too bad most legitimate gadolim assur the internet since the most efficient way to provide the tzibur with objective and valid information on matters of halacha would be for them to schedule one hour a week when they will hold “online office hours”. Those with shailos could post their questions on line (anonymously of course), the questions could be screened by the Rav’s more hip and internet savy gaaboim and they could post his answers on line. This way we wouldn’t have these silly posts which say, I heard from someone in my charusah, who heard in shul that someone said in the name of Rav XYZ, shlita that it is assur for the shaliach tzibur to klop on the bima during SE to shush the daveners”…We constantly hears these “in the name of” psaks or letters attributed to different Gadolim which often sound questionable but there is no way to confirm.