Gadolhadorah

There have been no double blind clinical trials conducted that would show that those who believe and spread the constantly changing conspiracy theories about the risks of vaccination are also likely to incur higher rates of mortality and morbidity by foregoing proven medical interventions but that is a logical and intuitive expectation even without a peer reviewed study.

Given the demonstrated efficacy of the vaccine, especially in the context of materially reducing the risk of hospitalization and death in the unlikely event of a breakthrough infection, pikuach nefesh trumps (excuse the term) paru u’ravu 100 percent of the time.

All the studies released thusfar, both in the U.S. and EY, seem to confirm that those vaccinated have materially lower rates of infection, hospitalization and death than those unvaccinated. The rates and intensityof side-effects, albeit based on very short-term results, also clearly support the notion that risks are lower with vaccination. No one claims the vaccine totally prevents Covid but the few studies of breakthrough cases show that the large percentage of those infected were either asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms.
For those CR participants still in denial, hoping not to see your photo with a candle in the background on the News page.g

Twisted sounds like a real Hagbah Mayvin….everything he says is intuitive and logical but many of us never really stopped to think about the nuts and bolts of what would otherwise seem to be a simple act but fraught with catastrophic outcomes in the hands of an amateur.

AAQ. Yes, its a pre-Covid trend but Covid has really created a separate “shortage” issue, especially among those who would trade in their leased vehicles every 3-5 years because they wanted a new model car. Those new or late model cars simply aren’t readily available because of chip shortages and other supply change issues. . However, I doubt any of those “new” car buyers would know how to open their hoods, much less change their oil or air filter.

“some hold that the reasoning is that since the king owns everything, we’re only able to use the land and resources as oer his directives. This would make [dinas dimalchusa] not apply nowadays”

Well, the way things are going in D.C., if you just wait a while, the “King” (aka “the government”) will soon own everything again so dinas demalchusa will again be the rule. See the House Democratic Ways and Means Committee Tax proposal released evev shabbos

Thanks to the CR Rebbe for a beautiful vert for motzi Shabbos Shuvah

Even though the issue is not “reciprocal”, the visuals for most women in the case of frum guys walking down 13th Avenue in Brooklyn, Clifton Avenue in Lakewood or Main St. in Monsey in shorts and long socks are unlikely to promote illicit thoughts or pritzsus. In fact, just the opposite. There is a time and place for most things and Commons Saychel should suffice.

Ask your LRP but I would submit its an obvious issue of tzinius for women and probably for most adult males (putting aside the fact that after a certain age, most yidden look better in long pants, tzinius concerns notwithstanding).

“GHD, don’t be such a fein-schmecker and simply buy an older car…”

UJM: The “older” Maseratis cost a lot more than the newer ones, and for an ehrliche fein-schmecker such as myself, they lack that “new car schmeck”.

Joe Rogan just announced he is postponing his “Clown Tour” (no joke…tickets went on sale last week) because he was diagnosed with Covid. If you believe in contrarian indicators, he is on something that looks like a variation of the Zelenko protocol with Zinc, Trump antibodies and this horse medication

Whether its a “minhag’, required by halacha, or a self-imposed chumrah, the reality is that the younger generation seems more comfortable with openly declaring their yiddishkeit than many of their parents and grandparents. I’m most impressed by the large number of kids with kipahs on college campuses where the leftist and anti-Israel agendas of many faculty and students seems to equate wearing a kipah with support for the policies of EY. I’d assume a yeshivish bochur would always wear a hat or kipah as a matter of course. When a MO bochur wears one in in venues that are not always the most “friendly” I’m especially impressed.

CS: From UJM’s perspective, the yiddeshe velt outside his virtual sheteitel is binary in terms of those whose beliefs are either (i) mamash apikorsus or (ii) some variation of modernishe hashkafah (which is nearly as bad but not chayav misah).

I find it amusing that one of the most conservative political pundits, Ann Coulter, actually came out yesterday and strongly endorsed Biden’s decision to implement an immediate military withdrawal from Afghanistan while dissing Trump who she said”abandoned” his unequivocal campaign and subsequent promises to withdraw troops. After citing multiple statements and Tweets by Trump she wrote in a NY Times piece: “Thank you, President Biden, for keeping a promise Trump made, but then abandoned when he got to office….Trump REPEATEDLY demanded that we bring our soldiers home, but only President Biden had the XXXXs to do it.” Its bizarre to hear Fox and others twisting themselves into pretzels trying to explain why in his 4 years in office, Trump couldn’t withdraw.

It depends what you consider “distractions” for an OOT locatoin. Having good highway access (since its unlikely to be in an area with public transportation), nearby shopping in walking distance so the bochurim could purchases”necessities”, etc. are important positives. Being across the street from a Beis Yakov or public swim club or tennis courts might be considered by some a ‘distraction”.

An interesting perspective on the issue and the deeply personal choices involved came 35 years ago when Nat Lewin, one of the most outstanding appellate lawyers in the U.S. (and himself a frum yid whose zeida was the Chief rabbi of Rzeszow) argued a case before the Supreme Court on whether the military could prohibit any religious-based head coverings. (For those not familiar, Lewin had an eclectic client roster including, Richard Nixon, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Z’tl, Jodie Foster, John Lennon and Shlomo Rubashkin)

The particular case focused on a frum psychologist working in a military hospital who wanted to wear a yarmulke at work. Lewin argued that that the First Amendment guaranteed Dr. Goldman the free exercise of religion and thus should have been granted an exemption from the Air Force’s dress code. He stressed that the yarmulke was ”a neat, small, personal article of clothing that does not interfere with any military mission.” Lewin’s personal practice at the time was to not always wear a yarmulke in Court but in response to a question, he pulled his kipah out from his pocket and held it up to make his point that it would not interfere with his clients work in the hospital

But the government and several Justices, including then Justice Renquist, expressed concern that an exemption for yarmulkes might defeat the goal of the uniformity which Renquist noted terminology was to help foster discipline and morale and to
make everybody look alike.” Other Justices invoked the multiple religious groups in the U.S. and their respective head wear requirements, some of which were potentially problematic with the military mission.
In response, Lewin said a Sikh turban might be different constitutionally from a yarmulke, ”because it’s larger.” Finally, Justice Stevens pushed back at Lewin and asked whether his client’s religious beliefs might be satisfied by ”wearing a toupee.” Lewin said it would. But when Justice White asked why Dr. Goldman could not just solve the problem and wear a toupee instead of a yarmulke, Lewin remained silent for a moment and then responded with one of the great lines of modern Court History.
”Well, because he’s not bald” at which point the transcript shows extended laughter….
There have been many frum yidden who made personal decisions that wearing a kipah would complicate their workplace relationships, prejudice their clients’ interests, etc while others felt exactly the opposite and insisted on their right to do so without restrictions from their employer, government or private sector. It might have been easier in an earlier generation when just about everyone wore a hat or cap of some sort and a yid doing so was not readily identifiable as a frum yid. Today, it stands out more but the younger generation seems so much more confident in their own expression of their yiddeshkeit.

Before you enter olam habah, there is a screening committee of malachim that reviews your CR posts as part of a more comprehensive forensic audit by beis din shel maalah of your frumkeit. The final report is forwarded to the Ebeshter who obviously has full discretion to accept, reject or modify the advice of his maalachim. Otherwise, I’d like to believe that those who excel in ahavas torah and are engaged in both serving hashem AND helping those in the tzibur who are less fortunate will be assured of a greater chelek of olam haboh.

Philosopher: Very few Americans who wanted to leave were “stranded”. Most were dual passport holders who have lived in Afghanistan for decades and/or who have extended families that were not eligible for U.S. visas. As to bringing in unvetted refugees, thats simply not true and the vetting continues after they arrive in the U.S. First Trump was criticizing Biden for leaving our Afghani “friends” and “allies” behind and then Steven Miller flipped 180 degrees and started screaming gevalt about bringing over terrorists.

Philosopher: Well said. Clearly it was time to get out of this black hole but Biden’s inept handling of the withdrawal will likely drag down the Dems in the 2022 mid-term elections. Totally self-inflicted
fiasco that speaks to his decades-long objections to these types of wars and fixation on making withdrawal a hallmark of his first year in office.

Most of those here in the CR who condemn MO hashkafah are still able to do so with a degree of intellect and civility. However, as I have followed these posts over nearly a decade, those who do so with a degree of contempt and with an absence of civility are no longer a “fringe” or “random” minority. Likewise, there are too many episodes of both natural disasters and personal tragedy where we immediately read stories about certain rabbonim (echoed by certain posters) linking them to failures in adherence to tzinius, toeavah marriage or other breakdowns in observance of halacha, frequently focused on “conservative/reform” but increasingly sweeping in MO as well.

“Rabbi willig acknowledges that there is widespread sinfulness in MO on a communal level, why can’t the rest of you??”

Perhaps its because many of us reject the mindless notion that if we stopped educating bnos yisroel and locked them at home to cook and make babies, the geulah would be immediate and most of you (except for those davening in YIs or sending their kids to Ramaz) would heading to EY for z’man moishiach. The apikorsus you project on to the MO tzibur sounds like youwould prefer to impose what we are hearing for the past week or so from the women of Afghanistan who are terrified that their lives are about to revert to the horrors of the Taliban era circa 1980-2001.

For several years (pre-Covid) we returned to New York for shabbos before RH and went to Selichos at the Park East shul with Chazan Yitzchak Meir Helfgot. You can call it a “concert” but nothing like it to create the mood for the yamim noraim . I would agree that some of the “new age” acoustic concerts have zero nexus with the purpose and themes of Selichos.

“The [YU] Counseling Center will also ensure that its staff includes a clinician with specific LGBTQ+ experience….”

The REITS rabbonim agree that LGBTQ is clearly asur m’dorisah

its the “+” that is the subject of considerable debate

As rational so elegantly noted, If you can’t handle the heat stay out of the CR.
We have a hard core group of posters here in the CR whose hatred for yidden whose hashkafah differs from their own is deeply entrenched and are unwilling to focus on the much wider areas of agreement. Their vile disparagement of someone who davens at a YI shul or whose children attend a MO yeshiva somehow makes them feel superior and they virtually cloak themselves here online with the purity of their vision of “true torah judaism”.
Let the haters hate.
Their hatred is like a boomerang which in the long-term will take them down rather than their intended targets.

Syag: Nowhere in my post did I reference anything about”frum people going to shul” nor is that the only issue. I referenced a “lockdown” such as imposed previously which applied across the board to concerts, soccer games, and large gatherings of any type, NOT just focused on shuls. I personally plan to daven in person this year (whether outdoors or indoors) given that I have been vaccinated and will be wearing a mask along with all the others (except the baal tefilah). However, we live in an area where fortunately, the level of infection and community spread has been VERY low. Our shul also has the ability to set up for large seating outside with some modest spacing if the weather permits. Given the recent numbers in EY, they may have to consider more extreme measure before things get out of control. Politicians at this point seem to be reluctant to act quickly and decisively in advance of the yom tovim.

As to funding, of course the funds should be released asap. However, my understanding is that the amount of funding that is being debated with the hospital administrators will come nowhere close to expanding the ICU capacity nor are there sufficient trained nursing staff to manage the worse case scenarios. Hopefully, the current 4th wave of the Delta variant will decline quickly, as it seems to have done in the UK, before the yom tovim but if not, it could be a really massive challenge to avoid a much bigger problem than Bennett et al. seem prepared for.