Most of my friends at Brooklyn find the activist teachers more amusing than influential. Then again, that might just be the crowd I hang out with.

It seems to me that people like to talk about “chemistry” and “clicking” because they don’t like the word love for some reason.

No comment.

RSRH: Do you really expect that spirit to be preserved once politicians get involved?

Can we please have a slightly more intellectual thread? Just once?! Is a little content too much to ask?

FIrst of all, why should a blackberry be less fit to daven from than a siddur? Is it because of the dreaded “T” word?

The only real issue is one of “tarud,” i.e. a lack of kavanna. It says that one should not hold tefillin while davening because he will be worried about dropping them and hence not concentrate properly. Most poskim extend this chshash to anything valuable so it might be better to avoid holding your expensive phone during shmoneh esrei even to daven from it. Personally, I daven by heart.

It’s minhag ashkenaz. No source in halakha. AFAIK sefardim don’t.

I had a response that was not objectionable in the slightest. It seems to have vanished. Anyway, the gist of what I said was that I think that it’s important to learn Hilkhos Yesodei Torah before looking at the Moreh because otherwise you won’t understand it. Also, I said that I don’t worry about people calling me a kofer for following the man of whom it is said “m’Moshe l’Moshe…” though I may have phrased it too harshly in the earlier post.

You can easily avoid this prof. You do not need to take many polisci courses to graduate and it’s a relatively large department. I’m in Brooklyn College now.

Can’t talk Torah because it’s “yeshiva world.” Gotcha.

How about an unmoderated section? RabbiofBerlin recently tried to start a thread summarizing shtiklach from a sefer. It got closed after two posts and he didn’t get anything up from the sefer itself. Is this yeshiva world or “we-can’t-talk-torah-because-it’s-too-controversial-world?”

Feel free to visit the unmoderated websites. There are no shortage of them. You are correct. This is the Yeshiva World.

90210 is Beverly Hills, California. That’s where the show gets its name from.

Mods, I’d like to call a double standard. You let a post by a Joseph-clone through where the clone implies that wearing leggings under a skirt is at least as bad as abortion and at the same time implied that Charliehall’s rav is a mumar who blanketly permits abortion. Would you have posted the equivalent about a chasidishe Rebbe? The closest I could think of would be if I were to say that the Gerrer Rebbe eats chazer solely as a way of annoying the Prof.

truth be told: A site like frumteens is a very good idea, but that particular site is not one I would recommend to anybody for a variety of reasons.

sm29: not just the youth. Everyone should have a mentor. Even more importantly, everyone should know — to the extent of their abilities — exactly Who they’re in all this for. Without that, it just isn’t worth it no matter how enjoyable.

ROB: I know what the sefer is called and I’ve learned parts of it. I just don’t have a copy.

HaLeiVi: To argue those points you would have to know both Torah and history. Sadly, since 1979 many proponents of the shita know neither.

Hatzlacha.

Not sure any of this will be helpful, but here goes.

I’m a lefty and my father, a righty, taught me how to put on tefillin. I put them on just fine.

I learned to use a righty can opener with no trouble.

With scissors, I always got the kind with big handles. If you turn them upside down they work just fine in the left hand. (Hence the big handles, so the fingers fit in the hole made for a thumb.)

Most kids learn silverware through imitation but I don’t remember how I did it. I’ll ask my two right-handed parents and get back to you.

Re it being a mum: I couldn’t find that in Mishnah, Gemara, or RaMBaM. In adddition, many people will tell you that your son cannot be a sofer based on a misreading of a Rema in hilchos tefilin which says that if someone wrote with their non-dominant hand, the tefilin are pasul. That means a lefty can be a sofer as long as he does not write with his right hand.

R’ Shlomo Aviner has published volume one of a sefer responding to every taana in v’yoel moshe. I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

Funny, whenever I point this out it gets deleted.

An Israeli I know told me the following bitter joke about the whole business: ?? ??? ??? ???? ????? ??? ??? ???? ???

real-brisker: Three words for you: four kids later.

Homeowner: touche.

No, he cannot continue his “bearlyness.” The avoda of a ben Torah is tikkun hamiddos and he cannot remain a vilde chaya his whole life!! 😛

charliehall: Based on learning with many college educated rabbis, I would argue that academic bible and talmud do more for the laity than the rabbis, but that’s just my personal opinion. Then again I am not a rabbi and have never taken an academic bible or talmud course.

real-brisker: and if he’s barely surviving now, shouldn’t he have a backup plan for ba’u mayim ad nafesh?

Homeowner: Looking?

If you choose to destroy the drive, you’ve gotten rid of everything. Nothing is written to the “computer itself” except for some BIOS data. The best way to destroy a drive is to leave it on top of the product scanner in a supermarket (or any other powerful magnet) for thirty seconds.

mbachur: define tzadoki and say what the step is. If the OP is one step away from a tzadoki, you’re one step away from a Bandersnatch.

charliehall: I second that 100%. We can take it slightly further and point to the fact that according to some Rishonim (e.g. RaMBaM) others (e.g. Raavad, Radbaz, many baalei tosfos, practically all mekubalim) would be heretics.