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AJew: Actually, from the perspective of quality and selection, GG is quite reasonable plus the service in the two stores I have visited is excellent (compared to some other markets which don’t need to be named). Sure, if you have the time, you can shop Costco, regular supermarkets and local heimeshe markets and get a lower price for your combined shopping list. Most of us don’t have the time or interest so we will pay a small premium for the quality and convenience.
Yankelle: You are right (in re the politics) but I couldn’t get over the irrationality of so many here being big supporters of the Trumpkopf and say nothing about his slandering the residents of a major city but yet debating the merits of a high quality Yiddeshe firm relocating there. Couldn’t help myself.In Texas, the legislature just enacted legislation authorizing open carry in schools and churches. Unfortunately, by the time a security guard figures out which are the GGWGs from the BGWGs, he will be in olam haboh.
To all the CR Trumpkopf fans: Why would any reputable, high-quality food market such as GG want to move to a “disgusting, rat-infested mess of a city” [with a losing football team]??
Lakewhut: I had assumed the OP was talking about a college degree or graduate degree but just realized there are many occupations where a 2=year associates degree may be sufficient and surprisingly, those 2-year programs seem to do a better job of training people for real world opportunities. I would avoid private (for-profit) “on-line” colleges since they seem to be the subject of frequent prosecutions for “over=selling” their success in job placement as well as saddling their students with huge amounts of federal college debt.
I’m not sure there is any single “oversaturated” professional discipline that would warrant not pursuing a degree. Rather, there are many fields where you can always find a job but only the top graduates from the top schools command a really good salary. In law and business, grads from the top schools can easily earn $150,000 to $200,000/ annually (with additional “signing bonuses”) with the major NYC law firms and investment banks but “average students” from mid and lower tier schools are having a hard time finding positions and when they do, starting salaries may be in the range of $65-75K. At the other end of the spectrum, really top notch programmers can earn well over $100K with the larger social media companies and startups but run of the mill programmers are a fraction of that. Some careers are quickly being overtaken by offshore outsourcing, automation and artificial intelligence (e.g. accounting and auditing, back-office administration) while others reflect changes in how we do business (e.g. 30 percent of bank tellers have lost their job in the past decade). Their is a huge demand for public school teachers paying good starting salaries $50-$60K) but a frum young man/woman will find salaries at most yeshivas (where they might want to work) are 30 percent lower. Nursing seems to be a steady area of growth with good salaries across the board and less focus on academic pedigrees.
I suspect if you asked 5 of the most chashuve rabbonim, you will get 6 answers all of them highly nuanced and caveated . The reason is simple: The term “mass shooting”, “self-defense”, “stand-your ground”. and the underlying facts and context are so varied. All will agree that the classical notion of rechitza is assur whether one victim or many; jew or non-jew . All will also agree that individuals are entitled to take reasonable step to protect themselves and their families. Beyond that there is unlikely to be agreement on a single hashkafah any more so among rabbonim as among members of Congress seeking to find a common and unifying theme on issues such as gun control, etc. There is also a question of how a yid living in galus must act under dina d’malchusah versus halacha.
“Why are some folks uncomfortable acknowledging this Chazal or its truthfulness?”
I suspect there are many reasons that could be offered in response to your question. One that immediately comes to mind is that there are many who purport to quote chazal or bring down inyanim from chazal who manage to distort its meaning and application to the facts of contemporary life. Its not the “truthfulness” of chazal itself but the veracity and “spin” of those who invoke it out of context or apply their own bias or misogyny in its interpretation.Ejab:
I’m still not sure I understand the concerns underlying the OP. Was there a concern that any of the 3 fathers might act inappropriately towards the 15 or so mothers at the Park? If not, what do you mean by “unmanly”?? Perhaps you need to get in touch with your feminine side.I’m sure there will be some of our regular baalei musar who will cry gevalt and remind you of your “obligation” to eat REAL meat for shabbosim and yom tovim or you will risk your chelek of olam haboh. However, given your economic distress, you should consider finding a schlachthois with a top of the line Chaddishe hashgacha that will schecht a Tofu for you for that really special Shabbos meal.
B’tayavon!!!
That rumor has been around for a while (perhaps more hope than reality) as spread by those disaffected from the Seven Mile monopoly and having returned from a weekend visiting family in NYC, 5T or Lakewood hoping to someday have GG as an affordable alternative
Set aside the pros/cons of swordfish, it should be noted that Rav Shacheter is not some “liberal” REITS rav who is machmir on everything, He is a well respected talmid chochom and posek whose views are widely respected across the spectrum of orthodox yidden.
Neville…..ANDREW Yang…my mistake…..Jerry Yang was the co-founder of Yahoo and to the best of my knowledge, is not running for President (at least not yet).
tweaked 🙂
Neville:
We have gone to a 24×7 world, where Millennials want instant gratification and seem annoyed if it will take more than 30 minutes for their local take-out Chulent joint to complete a delivery. UPS just announced that they will go to Sunday delivery at no extra charge but they are hiring special workers who will make 40 percent less than their regular drivers and have fewer benefits. Even those lower skilled jobs may not last long. Within a few years, your cholent may be delivered via drone with no need for the deliveryman . (As some of you many have read last week, a local TV station reported that 1 in 3 deliverymen admitted having “tasted” food meant for customers on the way to delivery because they were not paid for time taken off for meals).Also, SF and several other cities have adopted a “robot tax” for large employers who reduce employees and substitute robots. The tax money is supposed to go into a job-retraining fund. Big brother at work.
“we’re dumb, crazy Chareidim and we think we’re so much better than you, but really we’re just crazy and stupid and can’t get over ourselves”
One of the few times I’ve agreed with Neville. Yes, that is an excellent explanation.
One of the marginal Dem primary candidates, Jerry Yang, has focused on an issue the other candidates have effectively ignored which is how automation/AI will gradually destroy millions of low skilled/low paying jobs over the next few decades threatening the social fabric of our country and others. Jobs such as cashiers, truckdrivers, low-tech assembly, call center operators, etc. will disappear. This will put greater pressure on employers and government to reduce the workweek hours to spread around the remaining jobs across more workers. Three day-weekends may be a start but look for more draconian government efforts to “spread the wealth”.
If you see any paid advertisements for a “mekubal” or “rav” who is offering a “segulah” or “yeshuos” or “barochos”, there is a very high likelihood you are dealing with a scam or fraudster. While some may believe in these new age offerings, if they are marketing their services online, put them in you junk/spam folder and block them. If you see a banner ad, just move on. Take you money, give to your favorite tzadakah you know is legit, and offer heartfelt teffilos for whatever it is you are hoping for. Don’t line the pockets of these yiddeshe Jimmy Swagarts.
I think there is general agreement that the term, as used by headline writers, has become a journalistic shorthand for expressing pride and respect for everything from little acts of kindness from a yid to a goy to significant professional and secular accomplishments by yidden. We tend NOT to use the term “Kiddush Hashem” when a yid achieves a significant milestone in limudei torah or new heights of hidur mitzvah (aka “Kiddush Hashem: 6 year old yeshiva bochur in Willy memorizes entire tanach with meforshim” or “Kiddush Hashem: Yid pays $13,000 for Calabrian Esrog”)
R’ Schechter is entitled to his opinion, as are other rabbonim at the OU etc. I think the majority hold that swordfish should not be eaten but certainly their are dissenting views. As new species of ANY animal, fish, fowl etc are “discovered”, there will be a need for rabbonim with expertise in applying the criteria set forth in Torah as interpreted over millenniums by chazal. Ultimately, thats why we rely upon our own rav/posek for guidance (since presumably they track the views of other rabbonim with specialized expertise in these areas).
OU does get involved in policy advocacy on selected issues but by far, Agudah is the primary lobbying/political advocacy group for the frum tzibur in the US. Perhaps less well known aside from its great work in D.C. on legislation is the incredible work Agudah does in State Capitals across the country.
Many of the fish with high levels of mercury are not eaten by yidden ( marlin, shark, swordfish etc) . Various species of tuna as well as pike and carp do have higher levels of mercury but you would have to eat a lot of sushi every other day to be concerned. Women should also be careful during pregnancy. A yid would be more at risk from the sugar in Ungarishe Gefilte Fish than mercury.
These various minhagim probably have roots in kabbalah etc. some of which have more intuitive logic then others but all are obviously practices that provide positive energy to the participants in a Simcha. Whatever gives people a sense of optimism that their actions will result in a segulah and intercession from shamayim they should go with.
The Chabad centers on the Dartmouth campus (Hanover) and in Manchester have minyanim on the weekends but I don’t think on weekdays. There is also a place in Bethlehem that has daily minyanim in the summer which you can probably learn about from the Chabad office in Manchester. BTW, the director of the Chabad in New Hampshire, R’ Levi Krinsky, is the son of R’ Yehuda Krinsky, a senior administrator of Chabad Worldwide and I think who also served as the gabbai to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Z”TL. I don’t believe there are any other frum shuls in NH, but I could be wrong.
Any recipe for vegetarian chulent clearly should be included. Nothwithstanding repeated efforts on my part of the past several years, the options I’ve offered from the Tikun Olam Cookbook substituting tofu and seitan for fatty meat have not met with a high level of enthusiasm from CR chefs.
Sasha: Most of them do. All yeshivas have an annual budget that should be accessible to anyone making material charitable donations. If a benefactor is denied such information, he/she should suspend their giving until it is provided to them.
Sosha: Huhhh? When determining the amount of tuition parents must provide for their children, a yeshiva factors in all of the charitable donations, grants etc. included in its annual budget. If there are sufficient funds, which there rarely are, then the tuition can be reduced to zero. In the real world, there is some minimum amount they will have to get from ALL parents in order for them to meet their payroll and keep the lights on. Requiring that parents pay that minimum amount is NOT equivalent to stolen money. Indeed, by not requiring them to pay, they would be stealing from teachers who would not be paid on time (since there would be no money in the payroll account) as well as from other parents who are already paying their full share and would be called upon to contribute even more to avoid having the yeshiva close its doors. In simple terms, parents MUST take responsibility to pay for their own children. You just don’t have children and then absolve yourself from supporting them. Assuming the school has done whatever fundraising it can for its scholarship fund, Its then the individual parents’ responsibility to go out and find some baal tzadakah to assist them in paying their tuition or to get a job or a higher paying job or work longer hours so they can afford to pay their bills.
I’m not sure there is any value in dragging in the anti-vaxing argument to this thread other than to further complicate an already complex issue with few obvious solutions. Parents who choose to not vaccinate their kids obviously know they will be denied entry to the school system (as several states have done) so presumably are prepared to home-school their kids. If they are smart enough to know better than the doctors and rabbonim who say vaccination is a chiyuv, than they obviously are smart enough to have planned for alternative education for the precious yinglach.
Although it may be a political and legal fantasy, the only “magic” solution to the “missing money” issue for yeshivos accommodating everyone regardless of ability to pay is for the country to give ALL parents a basic “child development credit” which they can use for either private school tuition, enrichment activities and special tutoring if their kids go to public school, or put into a 529 account for their kid’s college tuition.
Edited You correctly acknowledge the laws of economics apply to yeshivos as they do to any other not-for-profit mosdos but then you turn around and assert that there is a “huge perctengage of the community” that earns too little to pay tuitiion”. Which is it?? Both cannot be true at the same time. Instead you call for some magical “mechanism” to bridge the funding gap. What “mechanism” are you talking about?? Should each school impose some type of “wealth tax” on the parents of the more affluent students to provide free tuition to those whoc cannot afford to pay. (Not that many yeshivos already have tuition surcharges that go to their scholarship funds)? If so, how much?? Should the tuition of the rabbonim and moros be cut even further?? Do you know of some big time baalei tzadakah who are ready to come forward with the needed funds? You reject as” ridiculous” the notions of parents scaling their school choices with their ability to pay, groups of parents forming their own home-schooling and tutoring cooperatives geared t affodability etc. What then is your solution? In some cases, it may mean that BOTH parents get a job, possibly hold a second job, or get the job skills to increase their compensation. There are difficult tradeoffs that have to be made and there is no magical fix to the problem as you seen to assert without any support.
“Not-for-profit” does NOT mean not responsible for paying its bills. Not-for profit schools, including those part of a “kehila”, still have to deal with the reality that revenues (from all sources including tuition, funds from other mosdos in the kehila and charitable giving) must equal or exceed expenses over any reasonable period of time. A parent must assume responsibility for paying his/her childrens’ tuition; its NOT the responsibility of the school. If you cannot afford the tuition at your preferred yeshiva, than find a lower cost school or consider some combination of home schooling your kids in limudei kodesh and public school/and or tutoring in basic secular studies.
Non-political….you are so right. The residents of Baltimore are the only Americans who “hate trump”. Otherwise, he is a hero to the residents of all of American’s other cities and towns, especially among minorities (where the Fox News Poll shows his popularity among African-Americans increased by nearly 50 percent in 2 years, 4% to 6%)
“So who is better — the pruste goyim or the administrators of those “yeshivos” that throw Yiddishe kinder into the street because their parents are poor”
At the end of the day, if a Yeshiva or Beis Yaakov cannot pay its bills, it will close its doors and ALL of its talmidim will suffer. Yes, its sad if a yeshiva must exclude some to assure that the institution remains solvent. Almost every yeshiva I know has a substantial portion of its enrollment on some type of discount or tuition assistance but at some point, the responsibility to fund the residual tuition obligations are on the family , not the beleaguered school administrators. They cannot tell their teachers that their paychecks will be “late” because a few parents did not pay their tuition.
“A new sign was just hung at the entrance to the new settlement named “Ramat Trump” after US President Trump”
Well, Joey, a new sign appeared overnight at the Sewage Treatment Plant just outside Baltimore renaming the facility as the DJT Sewage Plant. The Av H’Tumah has relocated from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave to the shores of the Patapsco River
Both right-wing and left-wing can agree that it is possible to pursue certain policies and take certain actions which arguably have a political rationale without engaging in vile, hateful and racist rhetoric. Ronald Reagan consistently acted in accordance with his principles but NEVER got down into the slime and engaged in the personal bullying and obscene racist tropes that the Trumpkopf seems to thrive and and energizes his supporters.
Why would parents deliberately send their children to a school that requires all past-due accounts to be settled before the beginning of the new school year when they know they have bills due or otherwise have negotiated a re-payment with school administrators. It is abusive to send your children into a situation where you know they will be embarrassed.
In Africa, a “white” person would be a “person of color”. I think the term is clearly meant to reference miniority population or ethnic groups who may be subject to discriminaotry treatment by the majority.
I don’t think we are likely to ever again see urban hipsters walking down 13th Avenue with a boombox on their shoulder blaring out Eine Kleine Nachtmusik……the cacophony of hip hop and rap seems to have become embedded within the urban fabric of the U.S. When you travel “in the country” you will hear a dozen variations of the same melody with variations of the lyrics about ‘my girlfriend ran off with another man and stole our only tractor”. I wish classical music would return but don’t hold your breath. In Baltimore, recently, the famed Baltimore Symphony cancelled its summer season and may have to shut down permanently as attendance at the Myerhoff has been declining year after year. Other traditional symphonic ensembles throughout the U.S. are also dismantling as an aging population with hearing aids is simply not showing up.
Syag: If you don’t belive that young men and women marry based on either naive or misleading expectations of the other, then you probably have a very limited set of life experiences. The good news is that many of the parties in these relationships built manage to evolve in thir expectations and learn to love and respect their counterparts and build a bayin ne’eman ba’yisroel.
MrSarahLevine613. Agree with your assessment regarding relative percentage of MO going OTD….the MO shuls I’ve attended in the past several years are either growing or holding stable, especially among the younger crowd. The numbers seem to drop a bit during the summer months when many are travelling or working summer jobs OOT but nothing like the 50 percent estimate from the Rav in Teaneck.
Devny: If you are not a boy and not a girl, you likely qualify for the new “X” designation allowed by New York, California and Massachusetts for those who don’t have a binary gender preference for driver’s licenses etc. Clearly you are on the cutting edge of posters here in the CR with respect to your dilemma in applying traditional norms for dating, shadchonus,, tzinius, and most importantly, who decides where to go on the first date. Historically, these kinds of issues were raised for a chassidish boy considering dating a girl from a Litvish family but you are raising challenging new questions.
Neville: You are entitled to your opinion. Other posters above note they have either davened at “conservative” shuls or know of others who have done so and do not consider their participation in such minyanin as kefirah. You obviously disagree and its your also your right to request the Mods to take down our dissenting viewpoints. I’m not in the business of labeling and trashing other yidden. No more comments on my end.
Benny…..the original “topic” of the post was the scope of issues/prohibitions arising from a presumably frum chazan/baal koreh accepting employment from a “conservative” shul. The point that you and others refuse to recognize is that there is no single model of a “conservative” shul and their practices range across a wide spectrum. Obviously, some prefer to paint them all as kofrim so thats your option but many are true shomrei torah umitzvos.
These “traditional” minyanim at some conservative shuls will not satisfy the standards of even the most progressive MO shuls but they exist because there is a real bifurcation where some congregants are simply unwilling to adopt the more reform/egalitarian trends in the Conservative movement. I don’t believe they are “renting” space but simply co-exist in the same physical facilities, especially in some areas where the overall Jewish population has declined.
DY: I don’t think anyone is responding to the clown who posted the original question..after the third of fourth post, .it has morphed into a generic exchange on first date protocols.
There is always a tension between indirectly punishing children for the sins of their parents, which is unfortunately the case here when kids are kept out of school. However, it is the lesser of two evils given the risk to the tzibur. Given the overwhelming amount of information shared on every media platform, frum and secular, there is no longer ANY excuse for any vaccine denial.
Logically, these parents should be subject to criminal liability if their own children or others could be shown as having become sick for their failure to vaccinate Unfortunately, it is really hard to make a definitive linkage to meet criminal liability and intent criteria so keeping their children out of schools is the LEAST the state should be doing.
Let the young man and young woman communicate normally and mutually decide where they want to go on their first date and ignore all this meshugaas about who might see them and whether they have drinks, eat a full sedudah or simply walk around Central Park Lake . No wonder the younger generation is becoming so stressed out with all these well-meaning shadchanim, parents, prospective future in-laws and most importantly YWN CR baalabatim providing musar about something incredibly important but personal to them only.
There are multiple large Conservative congregations/shuls/temples etc. that have the same bifurcation as the rest of the community on these issues and have attempted to resolve these issues by creating parallel minyanim using different names but generally split along the lines of traditional (with separate seating, full davening and reading the entire parsha rather than the “triennial” short version) versus “egalitarian” with mixed seating and abbreviated davening with more English. They continue to have a common membership, joint social events at the shul, but do not attempt to coerce the other side to adopt or compromise on their preferred style of davening. The traditional minyan will still not meet the requirements of the truly frum but they are certainly the kofrim that some here like to claim.
Obviously, at some point in the future, there will be more paid out than paid in to the point that it will become insolvent. Prior to that point, Congress will have to act by some combination of reducing future payouts for younger employees, increasing contributions for all participants and means testing current recipients. All government programs are theoretically Ponzi scheme since they rely on the assurance of future government payouts.
“men driving girls in Jeep’s during the frum girls trip”
I’m not sure if you are trolling or really think women cannot ride in a bus driven by a man……90 percent of bus drivers for girls yeshivos and for the bus lines on which frum women travel to work are MEN. The driver is focusing on the jeep or bus, not engaging with the women.