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For a change I agree with Joseph. What is remarkable and defies understanding (at least to us “libs”) is the nearly constant 35-45 percent approval ratings he gets in the polls. There is clearly a hard core base of support that may not budge no matter what he does. The Dems challenge will be to come together and motivate the other 55-65 percent of voters to turn out and elect an alternative. Problem, of course, is that the Dems will more likely form a circular firing squad as they typically do, fail to converge early on one of their younger and more charismatic candidates (aka NOT Beto, Bernie or Biden) and work to defeat Trump. If I was to bet now, I would say the likelihood of 4 more years of the Trumpkopf is about 50-50. As to his being a racist, I believe he truly does feel that his 1950s/60s vintage notions of “traditional America” is threatened by the reality of whites becoming a minority in the U,S. within a decade or two. He is not as verbally explicit as some of the racist leaders that have emerged in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland) for he proclaims great admiration but his advocacy of “really fine people” among the white supremacist demonstrators and calling himself a “nationalist” should be sufficient cause for concern.
You are correct that Yidden should be thankful for the few positives achieved by the Trump administration but you correctly note that these are the exceptions. The economy is beginning to tank (as many predicted), the Stock Market is DOWN since the tax bill became law, we have alienated EVERY ally in the world except for the countries run by Trumpkopf wannabes (Turkey, Philippines, Saudi Arabia) and of course Russia and North Korea. The deficit is expanding out of control since the tax cut but suddenly Republicans say it doesn’t matter. Most of the responsible members of the cabinet have been fired or resigned, others have been forced to resign over lying and stealing from public ffunds leaving dunces like Carson, Dev Vos etc to run the show Mueller hasn’t even reported yet. Most of all, the racist stench and vulgarity emanating from the Oval Office has resulted in a massive increase in hate crimes and historic divisions in our country. Otherwise, we should be glad to vote for 4 more years of the same..
To Eli Y:
Kol hakovod for your efforts to involve you child through Chabad with this program. Its totally understandable that such programs are easier for kids from families where both they and the parents have grown up with immersion in lashoh hakodesh but encourage your kids to participate to the extent their Hebrew skills (and yours) allow. Over time, its one way among many to increase their Hebrew language skills while growing in their limudei torah. Again, you are doing great work and encourage the kids to move along at their own pace and make steady progress.The MO mosdos generally prefer that the State education bureaucrats stay out of decisions on curriculum and time devoted to instruction. However, they also understand the State’s legitimate interest in enforcing minimal standards for schools accepting any form of state financial assistance. If you line up the MO Schools with the Chareidi schools, I suspect the latter will not show up well on average test scores etc. The MO are walking a fine line but at the end, they should stand together with the more frum schools in insisting that the state should NOT impose its views on the frum schools..
Ziongate: You cite the treife “curried chicken” as one reason not to fly. What are the other four? ”
P.S. How does your “relative” get from Lakewood to Lisbon if he/she doesn’t fly? I checked the Monsey Trail website and they have no scheduled bus service to Portugal.Delta, like all the other major commercial carriers that offer “kosher” meals, does not publicly disclose the source of its “kosher” meals for particular flights. The sourcing for such meals is decided by the catering contractor for each airline and uses different criteria, primarily economic (although business/first class passengers get a much higher level meal) Flights from airline hubs may have a wider range of options and almost always, fresher (frozen) meals. The meals themselves will typically have a label clearly providing the hashgacha but good luck calling either the airline and/or the local flight services ops center and asking for the name of the rav hamachshir.
I disagree with the bureaucratic process for granting draft deferrals under the new law and strongly support the concept of some form of alternative service for bnai torah in EY (whether in special IDF units such as Nahal Haredi forces or work in public institutions such as schools, hospitals, hospices or assisted living facilities). However, to engage in hyperbole such as this law would “eradicate torah”, “wipe out yeshivos in EY,”, threaten the “suvival” of klal yisroel etc. suggests that the writer has not read the law or is predicting outcomes inconsistent with the terms of the draft legislation pending in the Knesset.
A bunch of phony registrations of yeshiva/BY kids into local public schools will result in a lot of paper shuffling and thousands of wasted hours of bureaucratic time entering and deleting registrations, reassigning staff etc. at a cost that will be passed on to NYS taxpayers in next year’s budget. While the educational gurus have a political tin ear, they generally know this is a hollow threat since most frum yidden wouldn’t really send their kids to the local public school, except perhaps for some enrichment program of after-school activity.
There are some affiliates of the Mathnasium network of after-school math programs in EY but no sure if they are located in Yerushalayim….(and some of them have really good hashgacha). If you really wanted to focus on math and not compromise on limudei kodesh, supplemental tutoring of one sort or another might be your best option.
While the inyan of pirsumei nisah (or assisting another to be yotzeh that or any other mitzvah) is always something to consider, an equally important and practical consideration is the fact that for a large percentage of the tzibur, getting a good night’s sleep is critical to their daily functioning and it may be very difficult to fall back asleep if they are woken. In such circumstances, be very cautious about waking a member of the family or friend.
To those mindless sheeplach who blindly vote for all of either party’s candidates w/o focusing on their individual background and positions, I guess there is not much to say. What has really been depressing for most traditional Republicans is their willingness to hold their noses and support Trump on even his most bizarre, racist and ignorant comments. Guys like Rubio, Graham and Christie who once were principled Republicans have sold their souls to avoid being on the wrong side of a Trump tweetstorm. Those who we thought had some backbone like Flake and Corker are heading into the sunset. To those who believe that moving the Embassy sign from Tel Aviv to Yerushalayim and pardoning SMR define a Presidency as the greatest in history for yidden, even less to say.
If you hold the same type of hypodermic needle used for the initial injection against the upper arm of your child and pull up to create a suction/vaccum effect, it will remove most of the vaccine. Be certain the needle reservoir is the same size as the original used for the vaccine injection.
I would reframe the question in more gender neutral terms of how does a woman know if her husband’s bad behavior is related to her own behavior or simply because he is a paskudnyak. In reality, parties to a relationship may respond to their partners but their core behavior is ultimately their own issue.
If you are drinking coffee for any reason other than you love the taste of coffee in the AM than it really doesn’t matter. You can find a gazillion brands of “flavored coffee”, 14 brands of cholov yisroel, and add enough sugar to compete with Ungarishe gefilte fish. Otherwise, buy really GOOD fresh coffee beans, store them correctly and grind them just before brewing. If you need the morning buzz, than just pop a few caffeine tablets with your cocoa puffs after davening.
I’m not sure there is any credible evidence that compliance with rules requiring a minimum number of “hours of instruction” in certain subject areas correlates with “performance’ on various tests or metrics for the subject areas of concern. Nor is there much evidence from anecdotal success stories about individual yungerleit who have learned in yeshivos with minimal secular instruction have nonetheless been able to achieve success in various business ventures. Perhaps the yeshivos could agree on some performance metrics that would not intrude on their ability to maintain their current programs in limudei kodesh while assuring that their graduates can function at minimal levels in secular reading, math and language skills.
Is anyone aware of any studies which have examined whether EMS unit seeking insurance reimbursements may have the indirect effect of discouraging the use of 911 by those w/o insurance and fearful that they might be held personally responsible for the cost of transportation to a hospital ER? At times of medical stress, individuals who are not familiar with the medical care payments/insurance system might incorrectly believe they could be held responsible for hundreds of dollars of ambulance costs.
Laskern: There appears to be confirmation that the Rebbe Z’TL received an electrical engineering from the ESTP, a Grande école in Paris in the late 1930s and that he also attended the Sorbone but I haven’t seen confirmation that he actually received a degree from the Sorbone. In any event, the point is that the Rebbe was highly educated in secular and technology matters as were many of the great rabbonim in our history.
Unless you know the individuals who will actually handle the sefer torah (aka who will be the baal koreh, will the hagbah/gellilah know how to lift/tie) I’d be reluctant to share a sefer with others, even if you know they are erliche yidden. I’ve seen damage to a sefer torah caused by an inexperienced baal koreh who used a yad with too much pressure directly on the parchment scraping the ink.
Cuomo will discover that he has more to gain by working directly with religious mosdos than trying to legislate these types of issues. Nothing bring yidden together than pereceived threats on freedom to practice religious observance.
A math question is a lot better than some of the other “I am not a robot” verification schemes used on some websites. The most annoying is where they show you a matrix of 9 or 12 photos and ask you to check each one that shows a certain item (e.g. airplane, car, etc.). Problem is that trying to see on a small screen divided into 9 small photos is just about impossible. After 3 incorrect guesses, you are locked out
No one is telling you what to “think”. For most of us, YWN is important source/aggregator of news stories that we might not otherwise see. The news articles frequently trigger concurrent CR postings where you get a fairly wide range of perspectives on the underlying news, including views that would not appear in the mainstream media. Ultimately, you decide what to “think”, even if the news story has a clear “spin”.
If one is aware of credible “allegations” of abuse, or actually witnesses behavior considered to be child abuse, there is an obligation to report to authorities. And if this was sarcasm, not a good subject for sarcasm, since there has been too much inertia on this issue. The good news is that the leadership of virtually all segments fo the tzibur have come out clearly in favor of timely reporting compared to the foot-dragging we saw several years ago when mandatory reporting legislation in NYS was blocked by a coalition of religious organizations, etc.
The problem is that the Trumkopf has the potential to tank the market with an errant tweet even if the Fed stops raising interest rates after the 25 basis point increase next week and declares victory in the China trade war. Freddy correctly notes a number of great “companies” but great companies don’t always equal great “stocks’ unless you have a really long time horizon.
T22T: Are you really of the belief that someone who witnesses sexual abuse of a child in a yeshiva/beis Yaakov or any Yiddeshe mosdos should delay reporting that individual to law enforcement and instead report the incident to some beis din??? Any such delay makes the witness culpable of putting that child, and other children at risk. I’m not certain of how the New York criminal code deals with the issue but in some jurisdictions, teachers, social workers and mental health professionals who fail to report such incidents IMMEDIATELY are themselves subject to penalties, loss of licensing etc. There is no harm to concurrently reporting the suspect to a beis din so it can take parallel actions to be certain the school takes action to better monitor its rebbeim and those involved in secular instruction, investigate any other incidents that might not have been reported etc.
Tango: Thats just kicking the can down the road w/o addressing the underlying problem that there are a small percentage of talmidim/talmidot who really cannot be integrated successfully (aka mainstreamed) into the regular yeshiva networks and the tzibur needs to offer some backstop for to poor parents of these kids who struggle to find an alternative to educate their children. I recall years ago, Kiryas Joel worked with one of the most outstanding litigators in the country (Nat Lewin) to argue for public funding of a special school district they established for their disabled children. Thats not an option in many other cases where the parents will not be willing to send their kids to special programs managed by the public school systems.
And you are saying the IDF is fortunate to have a ben-torah in their midst?
If a student is either so disruptive that he/she is preventing others from learning or their personal attributes (vaccination, carrying a communicable disase etc) put others at risk, than not only is it “allowed” to suspend them from school but the school administrators are obligated to do so. It is mamash gazalah from the other parents who are being mesiras nefesh to pay the tuition to educate their kids to allow a chronically disruptive student to remain in school and deny chinuch to others. Likewise it is pikuach nefesh to protect the other kids from one who poses a known medical risk.
The real question is what responsibility does the tizbur in general have to provide the financial support for special education in terms of either home schooling etc. for those who cannot be allowed to attend regular yeshivos/beis yaakovs.
BoccaMagid: What you say is true but I think the overall judgement on Bush will be more positive. He used some really bad judgement when he lashed out in the early 90s against the Jewish lobbying efforts on the hill in support of funding for helping EY resettle Russian Jews an had a really toxic relationship with Shamir. However, he was very involved behind the scenes in helping bring the Ethiopian jews to EY and in helping EY on critical national security issues. I’m no a big fan of Abe Foxman of ZOA but he observed that when yidden look back on Bush 41 they will see a “real Tzadik”.
In listening to some of the political hespeds today regarding Bush 41, there was an interesting analogy made by a highly respected Republican who noted that some of the same “belated love” had been shown by “Liberals” after the petirah of Ronald Reagan, the same liberals who castigated his policies and agenda throughout his Presidency. However, he followed the point with the rcognition that they were not changing their fundamental views on the Reagan presidency, only on the fact that he had upheld the dignity of the office and maintained a civil discourse with his political opponents (aka the frequently invoked story of his drinking a l’chayim with Tip O’Neill). I think that is the real point many of us on your left feel about the legacy of Bush 41. Did he drag us unnecessarily into a fiasco in Iraq? Probably yes but we probably would have gone in anyway for other reasons. However, the country today is a very different place than it was 2 years ago for reason some will agree with but many obviously don’t.
Neville: If mindless adherence to self-adulating tweets interspersed with demeaning commentary on just about anyone who disagrees is your notion of “substance”, than I’m glad not to be part of that vacuous segment of the tzibur that finds the current occupant of the WH to not be anywhere in the same league with respect to either Bush 41 or 43. No, I did not then or now approve of much of the Bush/Cheney policy agenda but there was an element of dignity that is important to some of us. As RebYidd23 Obama wasn’t ever in the same league as Trump, (and a much lesser degree Clinton). Trump has achieved some positive outcomes in both domestic and foreign policy that could have been more effective and sustainable. To those who claim “its just Trump being Trump” and his success is entirely a function of what some call “political incorrectness”, there really is no logical response.
Neville….What does 43’s bad intelligence/Cheney’s lies have to do with 41? And yes, having a boorish, vulgar and narcissistic occupant in the WH takes us all down. If thats “Robotic” than I’m pleased to work on my immiitation of R2D2 (aka Trumkpofs parroting his tweets)
Winnie: Well stated!!!
A boy or girl is not obligated to consider how his/her decision on choosing a life-partner might affect the shidduch prospects of others. It is probably the most important single decision they will make in their lifetimes and should be driven on what works best for the two of them, not on what some CR poster might have speculated about some Fake Shidduch Crisis or how the machatonim will be outraged about a a “mixed marriage” aka litvish bochur marrying girl from some esoteric chassidus they’ve never heard of.
Remind yourself from the famous exchange between Bush 41 and Mike Wallace who asked whether he was “too nice a guy” to be successful as President. Bush replied that ‘toughness” and “resolve” in foreign policy do not require one to engage in vulgarity or demeaning one’s opponents. Also remind yourself that one can take time away from family and studies to volunteer to defend you country in times of national crisis. If his petirah brings only a brief respite in the current wave of polarization in our political dialogue, it will be the best we collectively do in his memory, both as yidden and Americans.
It a world where everyone has a cameral and every street has security cameras,, its hrd to imagine any event not being recorded. Couple that with 24×7 media coverage and the polarization of our political discourse, the “copycat” aspect of these events means there will be more such occurrences. I’ll go along with the “CR experts” who claim that the recent report by the Departmen of Justice that hate-crimes have inreased 57 percent since the new administration took office i purely a coincidence.
The artificial pressures to marry at very young ages, for both boys and girls, driven by a fake “shidduch crisis”, only create unnecessary stress and tensions. Let them figure it out for themselves on their own timelines. A boy may be “ready” for marriage in terms of maturity but may want to take time to learn for a year or two w/o the pressure of supporting a family, may want to pursue a secular graduate degree or profession or simply want to take some time to pursue whatever he feels passionate about. Let them decide for themselves.
Meno: While the inyan of Pirsumei Nisa is most frequently thought of in connection to the lighting of Hanukkah lecht, I recall learning that variations of the same inyan apply to the reading of the Megillah on Purim, the recitation of the Hallel on yom tovim and drinking the arba kosos at the Pesach Seder. In each case, would you make a judgement in each case (aka nudge the guy next to you in shul if he fell asleep at the end of chazaras hashatz for shachris before moving on to Hallel or your zeida’s falling asleep at the end of a long seder before the baracha for the fourth kos?)
“Allowing illegals to not face consequences for their law breaking in coming in isn’t a Jewish law; au contraire. The Sheva Mitzvos require that the law be enforced..”
If our parents, and grandparents, especially many of those seeking entry to escape the Shoah or the precious few survivors seeking to escape the DP camps after the Shoah had diligently observed the rules at the time governing immigration to the U.S. and were 100 percent truthful in their responses to the immigration questionnaires and interviewers at Governors’ Island, I personally know of many who never would have been allowed entry. Yes, I’m certain there are some terrible people mixed among the migrants at the Mexican border but the majority are escaping a toxic and deadly environment in the home countries. Please don’t lecture about their obligations to observe the Sheva Mitzvos. On climate change and GHG, I would suggest the vast majority of Jewish scientists who have studied the issue are in agreement with respect to human activity being the primary factor in accelerating atmospheric warming and thus should be the focus of mitigation efforts. If you really believe that burning coal versus using renewables is m’doraissah, than not much more to say about your distorted notion of yiddeshkeit.As others have stated in different words, El Al is far from perfect but much better than having to rely upon commercial airlines. El Al aircraft also provide a vital national security backup in times of war or critical national emergencies as shown throughout the history of the medinah. If you don’t like the El Al service or attitude fly another carrier or start your own boycott along with the rav who burned his frequent flyer membership card as a publicity stunt and cancelled his boycott 17 hours later.
There is no reason you cannot donate to a “Toys for Tots” campaign run in our area by the Marine Corps reserve unit and local First Responders…..please show me where it is assur to donate to a goiyeshe charity. These programs operate as non-denominational efforts in low-income communities. While I don’t expect to see a fire truck full of Barbie Dolls and Leggo sets pulling up to the big shul in KJ , there is no reason a yid who has provided funds to yiddeshe mosdos could not also donate to other charities in the communities where he/she resides or at an office-wide collection at their place of employment.
Any “gift” that would facilitate the observance or mitzvos by another yid would be especially appropriate even though many frum families now forego “Chanukah gift” other than perhaps for little children to keep them engaged with the menorah lighting and stories of neis chanukah. A new App for learning some variation of daf yom or containing all the weekday davening, a gift card for Uber trips to shul when the weather is bad and walking is not an option, a new stroller for the mom to take the little ones to shul (within the eruv of course if you so hold), or a gift for hidur mitzvah of some sort (a new challah cover, a “fire safe” blech for shabbos, a new silver box for that gazillion dollar Calabrian esrog, etc).
So Trump is the uber-Ohev Yisroel (because he put up a sign outside a U.S. counsel office in Yerushalayim that says “Embassy”, claims he “built” the Embassy for a cost of $1 billion less than “everyone said it would cost’ and invited a bunch of Evangelical galachim to “bless” the sign…..and some rabbonim in in BP, Willy, Monsey and LW “instruct” their mindless sheeplach to VOTE for R’s w/o considering the candidates or the issue and making an informed judgement. Yup, great reasons to support the former Republican party now the Trumpkopf version of “nationalist” (aka racist, white supremacist, misogynistic) Party. Our Troll in Residence is shepping naches from being among the first to climb on board the Trumptrain before it was fashionable
I guess with a few exceptions, we apikorsim. find that there are fewer trolling, lying and misogynistic yidden among those residing in districts that vote for Dems.
There is a credible theory that one of the root causes of sinas chinam between the Litvish and Sephardeshe tziburs are their respective food and culinary preferences and minhagim. Even within an individual Litvish family, any questioning of their culinary mesorah (“….so you don’t eat XX on yom Tov YY) is likely to trigger as much broigas as announcing your future son-in-law is a Chabadnik. Foods and food preferences strangely are a very powerful force in interpersonal relationships….much more so than we acknowledge
How is a frum yid’s “celebrating” Thanksgiving Day different from his/her celebrating the Fourth of July, Veteran’s Day, Labor Day Prisident’s Day or MLK’s Birthday. For most of us who work for non-frum employers, its a paid holiday and sometimes a four-day weekend (except for government employees who have to work today). No, we don’t consider Thanksgiving Dinner a “seudas Mitzvah”, although we might have purchased a Turkey because they were on sale for “yom tov”. We do not add ya’aleh v’yavoh in benching afterwards. Its just a relaxed day off where we can veg out from the daily grind….Does everything have to be so intensely analyzed?
No reason not to be “thankful” to the Golden Medinah for the freedoms and affluence we have been granted here in galus. Turkey tzimmes and cranberry kugkel is fine along with a Tofukey for the really frum Vegans in the family. Stop trying to over analyze every “chag” that comes along. No more a yom Tov than Bibi’s birthday or George Washington’s yahrtzeit but still a good day to spend a bit of extra time with the kids, watch the parade (if you live in NYC) and/or sleep in and daven with the 8AM minyan rather than Vasikim. Also, do some chores (blow the leaves from the driveway, bring in some extra firewood, make sure the downspouts are clear and the snowblower has new spark plugs and filter).
America is still the “golden medinah” by any rational standard….there is more hatred today across the board against all segments of the tzibur, left against right, right against left, white supremacists against Blacks, Jews and other minorities, Evangelical Christians against gays and anyone who is not “born again” or who is not a “traditional believer”, Black/Muslim extremists against government institutions, police and Jews etc. The President and many Dems share the blame for worsening the situation with their inflamed rhetoric. However, all that considered, yidden are still better off here than anywhere else in the world other than EY.
Sariray: You can bring down a gazillion anecdotal stories and they will have the same significance…..correlation does not mean causality and you and your denial chevrah will have the same irrelevance as you historically have had. The best science today says NO Causality and thats how public policy will be made until these families provide more than just “their feelings’. I feel really bad for their suffering but taking actions that would impose such suffering on 10x as many others makes no sense.
The same point has been made over and over….there is NO SUCH THING as a single “Gadol Hador” other than perhaps for honorific purposes. You either rely on your own local Rav/Posek or in consultation with your Rav, the two of you seek additional guidance from a subject area expert on complicated issues that your Rav is not capable of addressing. There is no “one-stop shopping” for all matters of halacha. for all yidden regardless of their location or hashkafah.
Vaccination is like global warming and any other critical policy issue linked to science, where there will always be some research and studies that seemingly deviate from the vast consensus of scientific belief. Governments make policy based on the consensus of the best available science and do not defer critically needed actions because a small number of dissenters raise doubts. If that was the case, nothing would ever be done since there is no policy that is totally “risk-free”.
Milhouse is generally right but at some airports, long-haul flights are often given priority in the takeoff que if they have issues on weight, fuel supply or crew flight hours.