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Katan: Well, having eaten at probably 25+ Chabad houses on 4 continents over the past 25 years, I’ve developed a taste for neveila.
P.S. Every time I think we’ve graduated beyond these childish “bash Chabad” threads, a new one springs up. Sort of a chassidish/Litvish whackamole’What would happen if some misguided souls from Willy bought a few slightly used yellow flags on E-Bay and paraded up and down in front of the Beit Medrash Hagadol in KJ singing that R’Yolish Z’L was moishiach?? Would that suggest that all the Aronites had suddenly become “Moishichists” and the Zalmanites were the only true Satmar still i”in the fold”?? As noted by many others on multiple threads, the segment of Chabadniks that take the extreme views regarding the Rebbe is very small.
There is a frequently “blind” belief that yiddeshe life in the Shtetl/ Alte Heim was fundamentally endowed with greater kedushah than how yidden live today, both in EY and chutz l’aretz. On some levels, clearly yes but it is naive to make a blanket generalization.
Sadly, much of the really geshmack yiddish lexicon is unlikely to make it past the Mods. Thus, we are left with a somewhat narrow and sterile Borscht Belt vocabulary focused on eliciting a laugh from a generally non-frum Jewish crowd. The brilliance of yiddish in many cases was the ability to convey a complex thought in a few words which in most other languages would take a paragraph.
The former head of the NRA was Moshe Rabenu
AAQ: As Elon Musk suggested in a slightly different context, New York should use eminent domain to expropriate Trump Tower (at “fair” market value of course after discounting for his non-payment of taxes) and convert it into a homeless shelter. Economists believe in dedicating asset to the highest and most efficient use. Conversely, DeSantis should consider doing the same to the Doral in South Florida. Trump could always claim a tax deduction for his “contribution” to the public welfare.
Ashkenazi shofars are made from a ram’s horn while Sephardeshe shofars are made from the the horn of a kudu. To be kosher, a shofar cannot be painted in colors, but my understanding is that it may be carved with artistic designs. Some of the more ornate Sephardishe shofars you sometimes see displayed with silver plated insets across part of their length are not meant to be used for tikias shofer.
Who prevented them and WHY???
Read the story in today’s YWN news section. If these bochurim continue to ignore the directives of the security forces, whether they agree or disagree, they should just shut down the site entirely and cancel even the limited plans for one hadlakah on Lag B’Omer. The risk of another tragedy is too great to allow a bunch of mindless demonstrators to do as they please.
Does anyone regard ANY yid serving in Congress as borderline frum or “observant” to any degree. Since Joe Lieberman, not sure if any of the 535 members would be regarded as living a religious lifestyle in minimal terms of shomer shabbos and kashruth?
Reb E: Perhaps thats why a good friend (who is a real melamed) listens respectfully to my spin on some issue and then leans back, and mutters something that sounds a lot like “vayiftach hashem es pi ….”
“Just listen to the crazy way they spew full sentences of insults towards someone who isn’t even in office anymore…”
Syag: Respectfully, thats my point. The reality is that for a growing number of Republican elected officials he IS still in office in the sense that they have lost virtually any ability to independently assess and decide issues and have become submissive sycophants seeking to please him w/o regard to substantive policy ramifications. Its not just the crazies like MTG but even the Republican leader (McCarthy) twisting himself into a lying pretzel denying he said what we hear him on tape saying about Trump’s behavior on 1/6. The Democratic opposition is not the Republican party defined by conservative principles of smaller government, less spending and socially conservative values…its whatever Trump wants to hear on a particular day to feed his insatiable ego.Syag: There is a lot of disappointment in Biden among Dems….part of it is simply his seeming “tin ear” on the political ramifications of his decisions and the glacial pace of those decisions. Even w/o considering Ukraine, key nominations were left in limbo while they tried to find a compromise candidate between party centrists and progressives. Too much focus on being the “first” ethnic, gender etc. nominee for a particular agency, failure to anticipate the known outcome of Manchin opposition to BBB etc. etc. Lots of good ideas and proposals but lots of self-inflicted damage by really poor politics.
OCC: Great point on the ill-fated and obsolete FCC guidelines on media holdings/cross-ownership. As we know, those guidelines have proven almost possible to apply in terms of defining the “relevant products” and “relevant markets” (in antitrust jargon) as new modes of communications seem to evolve quicker than economists can categorize them. Does Twitter compete with just other social media
sites or do we throw in computer gaming which now incorporate real time blogging. How about traditional news (Fox, NYT, WSJ and even “The Forward”, which now have online presence and blogging. And of course where do interactive podcasts fit in.
My only point is that no Federal judge would side with the FCC or DOJ/FTC if they tried to block the Musk takeover of Twitter on some vague “market power” issue.“You aren’t a gadol hador, and therefore it isn’t up to you to decide what is a prerequisite of achieving that title”
Agreed. Throughout our history, gadolim with long-term relevance have not been insular and have managed to maintain and reinforce the relevance of daas torah for their times w/o the need for sudden reversals or inexplicable deviations from their predecessors. Most importantly, our gadolim have always seemed to be adept at discerning which of their predecessors are the ones to look to for guidance.
Syag: On a serious note, it would be political malpractice for any Dem to “forget” about Trump since he has become the central focus of the Republican party. Even historically “normal” Republicans have now reached the point where they are obligated to assess every word/action in terms of a Trump response. There is no longer any principled approach to policy or voting…just whether or not it will please Trump. I wish more were obsessed with this evolution in our political system and respond as they see appropriate. While Biden is clearly a disappointment to many of us, we truly believe (and thus our “obsession”) that another 4 years of Trump would be an existential issue for our democracy.
Syag: Notice that I was responding to Sammy Klein who somehow linked Musk’s takeover to a return by Trump to the platform. But otherwise, you are 100 percent correct in re my “obsession” with Trump but why devalue your opinion as irrelevant. Indeed, among the Trump acolytes, you distinguish yourself with frequently insightful points supported by factoids and with a degree of humor, something sorely lacking among the run-of-the-mill MAGAs.
Within an hour of the Twitter Board announcing they had accepted Musk’s offer, the Trumpkopf announced he would not return to Twitter and will post on his own new social media site whose name he couldn’t remember at his motzi shabbos rally in Ohio (He finally referenced it as “Truth Central” which is not its name). While Twitter has made some questionable decisions on postings (aka allowing Iran leadership to continue to threaten EY) it is still the most useful and functional political blog as compared with the garbage on right-wing sites such as Gab, Gettr, etc. Trump himself has only posted ONCE on his own new Twitter alternative site.
There are more Dems in the “center” than Republicans willing to even acknowledge the existence of a “center”. Those who do are immediately tagged as “Rhinos” and sent to political cherem.
Huju: What UJM means is that the header “Republican Craziness” is the ultimate oxymoron…..when you can link “low flow” toilets to the California water crisis and cancer causing windmills to the Covid vaccine (just one rant during multiple riffs at a recent MAGA rally) you know we’ve come full circle on craziness emanating from the titular leader of the Republican party. Dems have their own crazies but they don’t come anywhere close to the orange blob.
Would anyone here support a brothel since its owner gives 50% of his profits to the poor
Well, a large percentage of the Repubicans clearly are sending their tithes to the brothel owner across the street who lacks any principles other than funneling the political alms to his own businesses. Most of the nearly quarter billion dollars collected by the various MAGA groups is still under Trump’s control (with very little deployed to congressional candidates) while he is still charging millions of dollars to the campaign for events held at his own venues, charging for unused office space in Trump Tower, charging the secret service for rooms at his golf courses, etc. All of this is legal and BOTH sides do it but Trump has clearly taken it to new heights.
Pre-Covid, KGH (as distinct from KG) still had a very large and vibrant frum community but also has growing pockets of Chinese, Korean, Afghan and Latino residents. Within the fum tzibur, there were a growing number of Buchahrian Yidden but that was several years ago and I’m not sure if that has been sustained.
“If it has mainstream hechsherim why be machmir?..”
For the very reason that they are approved by “mainstream” hashgachos.. If the average frum yid is accepting a certain hashgacha, someone who wants to step above the “average” can only be machmir by relying on a non-mainstream, ultra-conservative hashgacha
P.S. Along the lines of doing something for yourself and Common Saychel’s sage advice, consider using your down time to perfect your trolling skills. For example, our resident chief troll, Reb Yosef, offers a special seminar on varbeshe trolling dos and don’ts. Similar TTPs are available online.
Use the time to do something meaningful for YOURSELF. Get out and enjoy the beautiful weather (at least here on the East Coast of the U.S.), visit a museum you’ve been meaning to go to during 2 years of Covid lockdown, attend one of the great Moed concerts for women advertised here on YWN and elsewhere, or perhaps find a sefer at Eichler’s (or your local Jewish book store) and take it to the local park and read. Just take some time for yourself, de-stress, do something new.
Enough of BOTH of them…..halevai the American political system can somehow reinvent itself and bring forth some non-geriatric “normal” leaders on both sides of the aisle with substantive policy positions, modest political and communication skills and none of the Trump/Biden drama. Probably not in my lifetime (and I’m not that old).
The real priority now is to provide some clear legal authority for responding to future pandemics including specification of conditions under which emergency actions can be mandated, duration of emergency and mechanisms for speedy judicial review. Otherwise, we will simply reinvent the past two years of uncertainty and litigation with no clear lines of authority and seemingly endless legal challenges.
As repeatedly noted in response to the OP, a possible contributing factor are self-styled neviim who claim to speak on behalf of the Ebeshter, attributing every natural disaster, human tragedy, geopolitical confilict etc. as a “warning sign”, constantly condemning the tzibur, calling for “Teshuvah” while continuing to restyle their misguided and mistaken predictions to conform to changing facts on the ground. Reminder of the Evangelical X’tian group whose leader had predicted 6 or 7 end-of-the-world timelines in recent years while each time coming up with some excuse why they are still around to predict yet another Armageddon.
Katoni: Having reviewed your lengthy rant several times (including your proclivity to refer to anyone who disagrees with you as “ignorant”) I continue to question your assertions on the scope of the problem. Of course there are many individuals who have issues with xxxxx but I don’t believe the numbers are nearly at the level you claim or anywhere near comparable to those who daily use frum and secular news sites and . And yes, I fully understand the struggles of anyone dealing with ANY form of addiction but I’m a bit puzzled by your projecting your own issues on others.
“There are unfortunately a comparable amount of religious jews/buchrim on p*** sites then there is on YWN…”
Katoni: I suspect the YWN management might respectfully disagree that there are more yidden viewing frum *** sites than frum news sites. You exaggerate a bit much with respect to the “real churban”.
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If you are immuno compromised/high risk, a mask may make sense indoors, on planes, etc. Otherwise, virtually all public health experts agree that for most people, risk is low, even with higher beta variant infection rates. Combination of prior Covid exposure, vaccinations and therapeutic drugs all make it less dangerous to go w/o masks.
As enforced, the mask requirement provided minimal marginal protection since CDC never defined minimal mask specs (aka cloth, paper, N95 etc) and most passengers took their masks off for at least half the time while “eating” and “drinking”. Airlines still have the authority to impose their own rules including masks but few will do so for economic and passenger disruption risks.
CA: Believe it or not, I don’t focus on all the flashing ads and the acronym is not one that everyone would immediately associate with 302.89 remedial issues.
GYE=Guard Your Eyes??? If so, not sure whats your point. While there are some who obviously have some form of “addiction” to online pritizus, such addictions existed long-before Al Gore invented the internet.
“Just check out GYE…”
Not sure I get your point. The “GYE.Com” website URL is listed as “for sale”.
If you want to see multiple varieties of fruit trees in bloom (to be yotzeh the baracha) along with having a great chol hamoed outing, head over to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, one of NYC’s hidden gems. Their cherry tree collection alone is worth a trip.
“We all know that there is not one Chassidich Rebbe or Chareidi Rosh Yeshiva that would give reshus to any of their Chassidim/talmidim/followers to be using the internet in this manner.”
The chief Rav of the CR and many equally chashuvah rabbonim have endorsed and contributed to the CR dialogue. Indeed, Rav Yosef of the Trollevitch Chasidus has himself been know to be lurking here and occasionally dropping a vert or two known to elicit multiple responses.“…you can not tell the difference in a blind study..”
Well, actually you can.
In a recent blind taste test conducted by a reasonably well known food magazine, eight (non-shamurah) kosher-for-pesach nationally market matzoh varieties were evaluated for taste. Listed from highest to lowest score achieved, they were: Yehuda Whole Wheat Matzos, Streit’s Matzos, Yehuda Matzos, Streit’s Whole Wheat Matzos, Manischewitz Matzos, Manischewitz Whole Wheat Matzos, Osem Whole Wheat Matzos, Osem Matzos.
In the blind taste test, judges compared the flavor, consistency, and appearance of eight types of matzohs (four plain and four whole wheat). All were sampled without spreads or added flavors. There were distinct differences according to the judges. The best overall winner, the Yehuda Whole Wheat Matzo was the unanimous choice by all the judges. Everything from the prominent rectangular holes to its popcorn-like smell won tasters over. “Not only is this one perfectly toasted, but it’s slightly sweet, and quite substantial” it was noted.
At the other end of the spectrum by a large margin were the were the plain Osem Matzos which lived up to the characterization of “bread of affliction”. Everything from the paint-like smell to the unidentifiable aftertaste made eating this variety unpleasant.iI have heard from an adom gadol that no man has ever lost his chelek of olam haboh for answering amen to a woman’s baracha. However, this is limited to a simple sephardishe nusach amen. The issue becomes considerably more complex if he responds to such a varbeshe baracha with one of those passionate, elongated litvishe style UUUUUMEEIINE! which certainly would draw inappropriate attention to both himself and the woman making the baracha.
Most of the rational people in the “MAGA-world” are laughing at Trump behind his back, making derogatory comments off the record and using his name to advance their own agendas. Whether or not he runs in 2024, he will go down as the most pathetic clown in the history of American politics. His entertainment value has not diminished and a MAGA rally reminds me of going to the midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Show back in College.
Ymribat: We have come a long way….it used to be just the usual home-grown trolls and the more recent trend of bored BHBs. Now we are getting some big-time attention. Mi kamocha CR!!
Chaylev: Do you really want to play dumb? Corona virus was real….there is legitimate debate over efficacy of masks, business closures, vaccines and anti-viral drugs and various public health strategies but the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died from Covid or covid-related illness are not some joke or figment of someone’s imagination. Hopefully, we will learn and not repeat mistakes going forward.
Doing your best: Yup and all the media from far-right to far-left are all part of the conspiracy. The 4 million refugees flooding Eastern Europe are all hired actors. The rotting corpses in the streets are mannequins. Among many dumb posts about this tragic conflict, your words certainly rank among the highest.
CS: Not sure what you mean by “gas”. $3.88/MMBTU for natural gas or $3.12/gal for gasoline. DJA will be at 48,339.
UJM: There is empirical evidence that there was intelligent life and chesed endeavors within the Litvish tzibur before the invention of Chassidus.
Huju: Alternatively, you can invite nine of your BFFs to travel with you. It is not unknown that chashuvah rabbonim and askanim arranged for such “traveling companions” to assure they wouldn’t have to daven b’yachid.
CS is correct…..however, you are more likely to find sufficient numbers of frum tourists during the summer months. Chol hamoed travel distances tend to be limited unless you are in South Florida or Arizona this time of year.
I clearly lack the knowledge of Reb E and others but perhaps the argument is simply that a man responding “umein” to a woman’s baracha might somehow call attention to that woman or imply the man is focusing his attention on her and thus somehow there is a “tzinius” concern. Again, I have no source for this rather simple-minded argument.
Huju: Its about an hour drive from Dollywood to Knoxville, the nearest city with a chabad center.
I recall that while a woman can be motzi one or more other women of their obligation to make a certain baracha while engaged in a common endeavor, along with children, it is not considered tziniusdik in some circles for a woman to be motzi a group of men. However, not clear how the inyan of tzinius would apply for a man to acknowledge a woman’s baracha with an amen