Gadolhadorah

If you are going to leave the New York area to get away from the crowding, noise, pollution etc. WHY would a rational yid move to Monsey???? Its a very big country and if you don’t want to make Aliyah, there are so many smaller towns and cities with thriving frum communities??? My personal belief is that just like the months after 9/11, NYC will gradually bounce back once there is a vaccine widely available and De Blasio is gone.

Coffee Adict: Using your warped logic, hashem put the Dems in charge of the big cities. Its just the beginning of the storm season so make sure you get a refundable ticket if your heading to Disneyworld in the next month or two. As for being “geeful”, watch the Trumpkopf and his chevrah cheer on the violence in major cities so he can run on a tough “law and order” theme. Hopefully, if there is going to be a Category 5 hurricane, it will make landfall at Mar a Lago, and then head back out to sea, with no casualties other than that obscene golf club on the coast. Of course, you will say, the Trumpkopf can pull out his magic sharpie and reroute the storm to Havana or Alabama.
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There was NO GUN found and there were 3 little children in the back seat. Since they haven’t released and videos of prior activity and the Kenosha police have deliberately delayed use of body cams, we don’t know what might have happened before the policeman grabbed his shirt and emptied 7 rounds into his back at point blank range that might have justified the shooting.

The most fun part of the morning of January 20, 2021 will be watching the U.S. marshals literally dragging a wimpering and screaming Trumpkopf down the driveway of the WH and throwing him into the back of Chevy Surburban for the trip to Joint Base Andrews and his flight to Florida. Even someone like Barr is not going to go down in history as having been part of the “denial” of an election outcome.

There are some thriving MO shuls in the NY metro area and in other areas of the country. Just before the virus shutdown, I attended a Simcha at Beth Sholom in Potomac which was literally packed. Same for MO shuls in suburban Boston, Denver etc. Some of these blanket statements regarding the demise of MO are simply made from ignorance.

No, neither Gamzu nor any of the public health officials in EY, the US or anywhere are poskim. They are all dedicated to providing their best professional judgement as to what steps will best protect the well being of the tzibur. Its up to elected officials to be “poskim” with respect to government policy and will and won’t be allowed. If some of you actions or behavior threaten the well-being of others, than the government in most societies decides whether to curtail or restrict your behavior. That is a social norm that until recently most of us had accepted but like everything else today, whether it be wearing a mask or restricting travel, its become a political statement on “personal liberty”.

1: “Women don’t have to go to shul”
Nor do they “have to” do a lot of other things. At the same time, there a lot of things men do have to do, but they don’t . During the past 6 months, in many frum households,, the women have held the families together, many taking on the additional role of virtual educators, in addition to their other 24×7 responsibilities. For some, not having the option to go to shul on Shabbos and the coming yom tovim is a real loss that is deeply felt.

From statement to news media motzi Shabbos by Dr. Gamzu, the new EY Covid Czar. He is prohibiting all flights to Uman and urging the government of Ukraine to ban all visits to the kever this year. He is tasked with saving lives and has the full support of Netanyahu. (Full story on YWN main news page)

“Uman is not one of the Tishrei Chagim and is not a devar kodesh,” Gamzu said. “It’s a hillulah or party and it’s not necessary to do it. It can bring us closer to a lockdown. The whole government needs to be firm in order to earn the public’s trust and say to the chassidim – don’t travel during this time to Uman, it will endanger lives in Israel. I’m announcing – there are no flights to Uman – period.”

nOmesorah: If you have to leave your family, risk their health and fly thousands of miles to enrich those whose CommonSaychel’s grandmother correctly ID’d as the world’s worst antisemitim in order to experience a “true yom tov”, I suspect you have bigger problems in your emunah and hashkafah than we can deal with here. I respectfully submit that running off to Uman next month would be both depressing and debased.

Given that both governments have asked people NOT to come fecause of the public health issues, why would anyone deliberately want to jeopardize their own health, their families and the tzibur at large by pour money into one of the most anti-Semitic countries in the world.

“what is milchemes Gog’u’Magog=???
Actually, those are codewords for the ongoing battle at 770 Eastern Parkway between the traditional Chabad leadership and a bunch of young zealots who are trying to impose their radical view of the Rebbe as moishiach

But not to worry…..the real evangelicals believe that for their “moishiach” to come, there needs to be some type of all-out war/Armageddon between Israel and its enemies so moving the Embassy, annexing land, and making any kind of solution with the Palestinians an impossibility is all part their master plan for a goiyeshe olam habah where yidden are cannon fodder for their desired outcome. When they say we are the “chosen people”, stop and inquire, “chosen” for what???

No one has blamed Trump for the virus or suggested that the large percentage of deaths could have been avoided had he acted differently. We are not an authoritarian country whose political system would have tolerated a complete China-type lockdown. However, even Trump’s own advisors acknowledge that a stronger initial response at the NATIONAL level in terms of closures of high-risk activities, immediate invocation of the DPA to coordinate production and distribution of PPE, setting an example by having the President and his team wear masks and practice social distancing etc. would have reduce the numbers of those infected and the death rate. Instead, the non-stop “happy talk” of “the virus will just disappear” etc. and boasting about not wearing a mask and mocking those who did, organizing indoor and outdoor rallies contrary to his own Task Force advice and pushing to “reopen” even when CDC guidelines on reopening have not been met has further polarized Americans and caused more deaths. Its not just Trump. Cuomo’s stupid guidelines on moving covid victims back to nursing homes from hospitals and other governors who tried to imitate the Trumpkopf also share the blame. The country could have done much better than it has.

If a frum yid hums “oy yoy yoy” to a melody he composes in his mind, that is “Jewish music”. Obviously, there is no singular definition since virtually all of the top “Jewish Singers” have willingly adopted goiyeshe nigunim in their “Jewish music” just as goyim have taken the words of torah and adopted it into X’ian music.

If the Brisker boys were as smart as would be implied by some of the comments above, they would “auction” themselves off for a shiduch in a true competitive market format with a “meiskeit” opt out provision. Likewise, the girls would have the right for an inspection of the bochur (like a home inspection) prior to the funds being wired to the bochur’s family. Shadchanim could only claim a percentage fee arranged in advance.

More important is to understand the detailed protocols BMG will follow if one of the bochurim shows signs of infection. Do they have rapid test capability? Are there daily temperature checks? Have they set aside one of the dorms for quarantining out of town yungerleit who test positive? These are the questions I would want to understand.
Hope you son stays safe and healthy

Asimpleyid: Thanks for the clarification….I don’t recall any “alma mater” from my own years at summer camp. Thanks to Charlie Hall, I do very clearly recall the melody and lyrics of High Above Cayuga’s waters from my many years in Ithaca although we generally hummed everything after the first stanza.

Sam: Sorry to disagree but appearances DO matter when davening or engaging in any mitzvah. Its not how much you spend but doing the best you can within you means. Hidur mitzvah does not mean spending hundreds of dollars on an esrog if that means you don’t feed your family for yom tov but it also doesn’t mean showing up in shul with arba minim hoping the Ebeshter doesn’t notice you’ve been frugal and substituted a lemon for an esrog. While 90+ percent of yidden show up in shul dressed respectfully, I’m still amazed at the few who don’t seem able to put on a clean and well fitting pair of pants, jacket and hat that is in accordance with their hashkafah.

First of all, given your intentions, I would be saying a kapital tehillim rather than viduy. Second, notwithstanding the “finger lakes” designaiton, it is really at the northern end of the lakes halfway between Syracuse and Rochester, both of which have several orthodox shuls with daily minyanim. There is no shul in Weedsport.

Not sure what you are looking for……a rousing “fight song” sung at competitive athletic or intellectual events (e.g. a Mir-Brisk talmud quiz like a fum “Its Academic”) or a slow, melancholy melody sung at the end of a class reunion…..Big difference

If your kids have been in Northern Virginia/D.C. suburbs for the past several months, than they will find a considerably lower level of caution being exercised in Lakewood than at home. If you are from the Virginia Beach/Newport News area, probably the same level of masks, social distancing etc. In any event, hopefully they will stay safe and well and yuse good judgement no matter what others may be doing.