Gadolhadorah

“How about hezek reya”

AAQ. I’ll certainly defer to your familiarity with the gemorah in Bava Basra but my vague recollection is that the issue was not entirely clear as to whether ‘gazing’ on to your neighbor’s property and activities is to be considered is a real hezek and was assur or whether there had to be some real physical damage to trigger compensation or whether the concept was more applicable to private activities undertaken by your neighbor which if witnessed by others could cause an ’embarrassment’ (a component in determining compensation for injuries). I thought that halacha put the obligation for building a wall or some physical barrier was derived from a socialized obligation to avoid real physical damages in common areas for the common good. A clear, line-of-sight view from one neighbor’s property to another doesn’t obligate either to block their view of the other but certainly each has the option of doing so to the extent they wish to protect their privacy.

When the Lerner family built the Nationals Stadium, they left a portion of the center field wall open knowing that new condos in the neighborhood would have a view of the playing field. I believe the gemorah contemplated tha if one neighbor repeatedly performs activities without active protest from the other neighbor ( a form of chezkat tashmishin?) Would chezkat tashmishin apply to gazing rights? I have no clue but perhaps there was an implicit waiver of any rights to seek damages since the Rav living in the condo had no obligation to close his window blinds and block his view anytime the Nats were playing a home game. I could see a potential haalachic issue (along with an obvious tort under civil law) if he publicly advertised tickets to sit in his living or on his balcony to watch the Nats game.

Hopefully, they can sell out all the tickets at $500…..Camp HASC is one of the most unique mosdos doing incredible work with both children and adults with special needs, intellectual and physical disabilities. The more money they raise, the more they can expand and sustain their programs.

Reb E: You were fortunate to have heard a vert directly from R’ Miller. I was not familiar with him so I found several videos of his presentations on YouTube. The most memorable was where he was saying the Badchunes at a shevah barachos for the grandson of Rav Chaim Kanyevsky. Never have I seen 20 minutes of R’ Chaim sitting at the dais laughing almost non-stop along with the other guests to a brilliant exposition of divrei torah presented with skillful humor with an Ungarishe nusuach.

As CJ Roberts said (paraphrasing) “since the original 24 weeks was arbitrary, why can’t a woman just make her (abortion) decision within 15 weeks”?? We can retain Roe v Wade but just substitute one arbitrary time limit for another since we are not dealing with a constitutionally guaranteed “right” (at least from the perspective of 5 or 6 justices).

“And that’s how we ended up with 2 Jewish Willie Wonkas”

Or was that TWO Uncle Moishys. You may recall the articles here in Ami magazine (and I think also reported here on YWN) several years ago about the food fight between Moshe Tanenbaum, the “original Uncle Moishy,” and an upstart imitator. Yossi Berktin, the “new Uncle Moishy,” . I forget how how that one was resolved

“All of the kosher chickens sold come from a coupme corporate poultry farms that have been determined to be reliable. So I dint think every duck would need a Covid test..”.

Agree…..should be sufficient to have the chickens wearing face masks and only requiring a Covid test for the katshkes, with a plumba pasted on each egg showing it tested negative.

Since we are on the subject of chicken farms and plumbas (how’s that for a really bad segue) there is an old joke from one of the heimeshe resorts in the Catskills where a guest complained to the mashgiach in the dining room that his wife nearly choked on a plumba, and that he would sue the resort for all its worth. The terrified mashgiach ran over to the resort’s owner sitting nearby who quickly grabbed a microphone : “I’d like to announce that Mrs. Gevornlick has found the hidden plumba and won a free week at the resort.

There are cars and minivans parked near Chabad houses throughout the world this week with menorahs on the roof. I guess these are owned by the same “idiots” who drive around with a small succhah on the back of a flatbed truck or Your respect for other yidden continues to shine through

UJM: “I was called a troll…”
Outrageous….the offender should be permanently banned from the CR, absent extenuating circumstances.

Interesting that CJ Roberts floated several “middle ground” positions on “viability” et. al. that would avoid having to reverse RvW hoping that either Kavanaugh or Barrett would bite but neither seemed interested. Alito, Thomas piled on and said only real options were to reverse or affirm. Goresuch was a bit of a enigma based on his questioning of the SG.

If you daven vasikim, you will have the benefit of davening at a reasonable speed but with the assurance you will finish earlier

“What normally is innocent (like this case) becomes something we avoid when it smacks of goyishe hashkofos’

This very clear and truthful explanation goes to the heart of many machlokis debated here in the CR. Someone decides that an otherwise mutar, rational or functional form of behavior or activity has morphed into “goyeshe hashkafos”, creates the potential for “maris ayin” or is simply inconsistent with how our grandparents acted, dressed, spoke etc in the Alte Heim. When that “someone” is a big daas torah, we obviously stop and consider his argument. When that “someone” is a chashuvah CR poster (other than Reb E who is our virtual LRP) we give it thoughtful consideration but don’t feel any obligation.
As others have noted, there are multiple reasons why a woman might legitimately want to retain her maiden name or hyphenated name after marriage. Feminism along with other “isms” and practical reasons are possible drivers but there is NO chiyuv to do something that is really important to you as an individual or a member of a family in order to conform to some abstract psak about a non-existant geder under halacha. Proudly keep your name if thats your preference and if gives you a positive sense of kavod to your father’s name.

CNN should have fired him after the first round of exposure on his involvement with his brother’s bullying and harassment allegations. I can’t imagine that his ratings were so high they were reluctant to fire him sooner.

As noted above, there is no inyan in halacha to have a “last name” nor are many of the most chashuvah rabbonim in our early history known by a surname. Perhaps ask your husband to change HIS last name to yours so as to make it easier for the kids. As to the shtus about retaining your name being derivative of a “feminist” trend which is alien to yiddeshkeit, I would respectfully suggest that misogyny cloaked in halacha is also alien to yiddeshkeit.

Reb E: Good point… I guess its all relative. I

Is there a generic heter to be mechalel shabbos if done so pursuant to a lawful order of a government agency? While the purported intent of the travel ban was pikuach nefesh, its hard to make the case here that there was a real or imminent public health threat. As a practical matter, I agree that short of being detained or arrested, these individuals had no choice.

Multiple potential issues regarding various formulations of “work” assur on shabbos including, but not limited to your incremental weight/baggage requiring additional kerosene consumption/thrust by engines, techum shabbos, electronic tools used for check-in and onboard, etc. If you must travel, consider using a shabbos compliant “transporter” as per Captain Kirk and Scotty on StarTrek.

“and YWN puts a nice spin on to keep me happy….”

Like linking every article about Biden, Pelosi, or Obama to some really wierd and unflattering photos of their subject? At least there is no claim of “fair and balanced”.

“They [government employees] can almost never be fired, thanks to the union thugs, even if all they do is clock-in and clock-out on time, but otherwise sit and do virtually nothing other than slack….”

UJM: I was not referring to the jerks hired in the prior administration, who were forced to resign for flying home on weekends first class or using government aircraft for personal vacation travel, padding their payrolls with 20 yo Schedule C appointees who worked on the campaign and hung-out at the Trump hotel bar etc. I’m talking about career government employees working at NIH, staffing FEMA emergency centers, getting disability payments andsocial security checks mailed and treating veterans at VA hospitals. Yes, there is deadwood in the federal government but you could go into a large number of Fortune 500 companies where non-performing employees and poor service is the norm. The wait-time for a service call to your bank or cable provider can be as long as that to the IRS.
As to benefits, government employees don’t get stock options, paid-“team building” retreats at luxury resorts, free meals at company cafeterias and a lot of the other “free stuff” you hear about at tech companies anxious to attract and retain talent.

CTLawyer: I’m sure you’ve done the research but my understanding is that the largest wave of Jewish immigration was in the first several decades of the 19th century and in general, was less affluent than those who came over in the 1870s-1890s. Again, I’ve not done any research. Your point regarding some of the early German-Jewish assimilation is fairly important in looking back at yidden in America. We often focus narrowly on a few merchant and investment banks with Yekkishe ties but it goes much deeper than that.

AAQ: Congress established the Federal Salary Council (FSC), an advisory body made up of academics, private employers and public employee leaders to study the question of comparative compensation of federal versus private sector employees to provide input into annual federal salary changes for budgetary purposes. Their most recent study showed that federal employees are underpaid by as much as 22-35 percent compared to their private-sector peers although most of the differential is skewed at the higher compensation levels.
However, federal employees shouldn’t expect a big spike in comparability pay since virtually all presidents of both parties ignore their recommendations and link any increases to the lower of inflation and/or the increase separately decided for military personnel. The rationale is that federal employees willingly accept lower salaries for job security as well as many benefits NOT factored into the FSC criteria.

However, as an example, the top federal government lawyer in the SG’s office with 25+ years of arguing cases before SCOTUS is paid LESS than the starting salary of a FIRST YEAR associate at one of the top D.C. litigation firms. Indeed, if that first year associate goes into private practice having clerked for one of the Justices, there is a separate $200K to $300K signing bonus separate from their annual salary. I’m sure there are other cases where government employees leave for private sector work at lower salaries, but that is generally NOT the norm in the D.C. area. It could be more likely in more rural areas or outside major cities where CoL is lower and mean private sector salaries are lower than those in D.C.

Many, many years ago I heard severa explanations from a Rav. The one that stayed with me (perhaps because it was the most intuitive) is that because it was assur to replicate the keilim used in the Beis Hamikdash, and the Menorah in the Beis Hamikdash had 7 lights, the rabbonim paskind that the Chanukah menorah should have 8 lights. (I’ve never confirmed where chazal bring down that is is assur to make copies of the keilim used in the Beis Hamikdash).

“Pray tell, what do you consider important for jews to be discussing in 2021”

On a list of the top issues for yidden in 2021, lace sheitels are lists as no. 317. Perhaps consider how yiddeshe mosdos and individual families should be planning now to accommodate what may be several years of covid-related overhang w/o shutting down daily lives. How about addressing chronic poverty in segments of the tzibur, making our voices heard in many cities and towns with new “woke” political leadership, working with daas torah to find “safe” ways of introducing limited use of computers and internet access, promoting decentralization of frum life into new communities to address the skyrocketing cost of housing, education etc. in the established frum communities in NY/NJ areas, etc. etc. etc.
Lace sheitels are not on anyone’s radar screen but for a few untalented, immature and boring trolls.

Mods: Is this a race to the bottom??

Nah, I was just waiting for someone to defend me.