koma

The EY perspective on this is a great deal different. It is not really hard to patronize Jews, but the perfusion of cheap Arab labor is sometimes hard to avoid. I regard as a rare treat doing the shabbos shopping in a supermarket with Jewish stock help. In my sector, home repair and construction, Jewish labor is really rare, in part because most Jews are averse to physical labor, and many wrongheadedly judge only by price. There is also and issue of lo sechaneim, but who would worry about a simple lav when there is shekels to be saved?

To SJS: The rishonim and acharonim wrote with often very nuanced language. The S.A. in particular sometimes uses elegantly blunt terms, and in places indicates that a woman is an object. At times a cheftza shel mitzva, but an object non the less. Of course the daughters of Sara Imenu are much more than just holy objects. But yet, it is still ok to be just a holy object.

In Rav Vai’s book, there are full color pics of what to look for. And there are very visible parasites.

<< Your neighbor in McDonalds>> In chutz laretz I was a baal melocho who dressed in shmates, 6 foot plus and bearded. In town was another baal melocho, in a very very different business, but also in shmates, 6 foot plus tall and bearded. People routinely were confused as to who was who, and we often received messages and complaints that belonged to the other. In EY, I still work in this business, I dress in shmates, and am often dusty or worse. Children,who because they are socialized that way, (and their parents are too cheap to ever use Jewish labor) generally see me as an Arab. The point? Human perception is a blunt instrument and highly subjective. How can you be judgmental when your lens is warped from the outset? Always be dan l’kaf zechus. You are mostly Americans, are you not?!

HiE: The sax is a recent arrival, it’s keywork was pattered after the modern flute, though it is a heavier touch and can be spread out further in the as in the baritone. It also involve a reed and reed care, where the flute is just an issue of embechure (mouth position and set.) The trumpet gets all it range from three valves and like other brass horns, lots of embechure.

Indeed. Depending on your cultural baggage, you may or may not be familiar with the guy who died for piece of Mamas apple strudel. Also implicated in the health tzoros is that the beef bearing critters of today are not as those of yesteryear, when the thing ate only grass, and you had to run to catch it.

and in MHO, the only civilized way to do a cheesecake is with a farmer cheese and sourcream filling. Just a little less of a heart attack recipe that the Satmar Rebetzin’s.

I once had a service call to a kosher bakery on Thursday evening, and I witnessed the 8 or so bakers preparing to do the braiding. The dough was 20 feet long, of a “saftey yellow/green” color and greased like it came out of a deep fry. I noticed the large cannisters of stabilized egg yoke with 10% sugar and who knows what else. Bakereries, like any other business produce what sells, and what sells in not always in your best nutritive interest. As NYmom is onto, there is also some less than honesty regarding the claim of “whole wheat”. Even whole wheat flour is not whole. The germ must be removed because of its poor shelf life. If you want the good stuff, you’ve got to grind it yourself, and as I know from matza, fresh ground is truly delicious!

rwndk1: What you describe as the “more businesslike” Israeli mindset, is what I call a lebedik velt, an anything goes, midos deficient hardness of people playing hardball, borne of a hardscrabble life. It is not anything near what a yid should be, hard realities or not. My two marrieds, A listers, are living in rented flats at the largess of my machatonim, God bless them. The insecurity dose not bother them, and this itself is a level midos that I doubt you would find in the siddur maleniks.

Volvie, you cropped the quote. I saw this quoted in Yalkut Yosef, and roughly quoted from memory: “I have always questioned why we do not have our own medical schools but rely on the goyish institutions and their experts who are naught and their knowledge is naught for their experience is based on goyim who eat shkatzim urmasim,, how does this apply to a Jew who avoids (d’d’igi) skatzim uremasim.” Now if we held by the Rema, why would we need medical schools when we can access the big medicine from the bais medrash? Clearly few people trumpet this viewpoint ( shitta) and fewer still act by it. Personally, I don’t like the word infallible. We (some Jews) have the concept shegga for the Nasi and Par Helem Davar for the Bet Din.

The people as whole in bringing Trumah, Aharon Hakohen in stopping the Magefa in parshat Korach,

and in the negative sense, Chamor ben Shechem, Doeg haEdomi Avimelech ben Yiftah, not all specifically zrizus, but alcarity certainly.

There have been de’os that took expansive views of the minhag, such as the Aruch Hashulcha saying “rice and beans and `anything else in the world”, and there is the school of Havu delo losif aley. Even the Rema (sourced to Maharil) lists some spice seeds as exempt. From the latter view, you can exclude from the issur anything native to the Americas, which were not known at the time of the gezerah. As an Askenazi in EY the choices of oil, l’mashal, are the non kitniyot olive, nut, and palm, all rather pricey, and the palm of questional health. The reasonably priced stuff is corn, soybean canola and sunflower. Corn and sunflower is native American. I use sunflower, and would use corn if I lived less in fear of my wife and other wagging tongues. There are also indications that the original parameter was dried kitniyot cooked into porrige, and that in the green state, there was no issur, such as fresh green peas, green beans, and say, CORN ON THE COB. Lastly, and this is perhaps exportable to the What to East on Pesach thread, Reb Moshe ztg”l ridiculed the inclusion of peanuts, and peanut oil was marketed by Rokeach in the 60s. Peanut butter (home made) and jelly on machine matzo is a real comfort food.

Anuran: I think thermite lights with a spark or blasting cap. For a masonry oven in siman tav samech alef the accepted hechsher is that ‘ the coal go on its entire surface” taken to mean the whole baking floor. I found this much easier than cleaning the GE and some fun as well. The arch in my little oven would be over 1000f at the stage where I had enough coals to cover the floor. My floor was yellow firebrick about 17″ wide and about 48″ long, 14″ high walls and a shallow arch of red brick, and a second coat of brick on the outside and a hump of cement to seal my poor arch job. It stood on a table of three inch angle iron and a cement pad. I am sorry I didn’t take it apart and move it to EY with me. If you are a “stick it on the wall” baker, you should ask what the do to kasher the walls because in reality you cant fill the entire void with charcoal. Maybe try to build a clay or adobe tanduri and keep it for matza, but I found the matzo oven heated and with the fire swept out made the best chometz sourdough bread ( in about twenty minutes). If you go for the big rig, the one we did was supported on a base of seven courses of soda crates, 7×7 (crates) had walls hemmed in by standard blocks pinned with steel into a slab, so the wall were less high that the length of a block and the top of the pinned blocks held the outer edges of the arch. It had a low flat arch, and fire brick floor and sides. The beauty of this was it really held its heat, and with tossing some wood on at say, dayenu, at motzee matza you can go out and whip up some hot matzos. Its a great way to add some hitlahavut to the seder and also a good way to do two or three full size whole wheat pizzas.

here I blow my cover again. My very favorite matzos are the ones I bake myself. This started many years ago, I had no clue and grew the grain myself. It was rye which grew like a very beautiful weed in NY, and after the harvest, threshing, grinding and baking, I got these oh so ugly dark grey matzos that had jagged edges ( rye has little gluten, the protein that makes dough stretchy, we discovered at the seder that the matzos tasted like peanut butter. Fresh ground (+24hrs–halacha) whole grain matzo is a absolutely not cardboard experience. Ultimately I learned to get grain from Shatzer or the Spinka bakeries, Shatzer because they kept grain for meshugaiim like me, and Spinka because they grind on premises. Over the years I got good at it, and my legend spread to a chaver new to our neighborhood and together we built a full size oven. We did a hilchos matza seder for six months behabura, and then opened up the process to the community. This, I believe was the inspiration behind the new 5-Towns bakery( but we were non commercial) In the course of our studies we looked around at bakeries big and small( and family based) and we saw lots of things we didn’t approve of. I still make my matzos one or two at a time, and can give them hidurim that can’t be had otherwise. Now in EY, I was asked by my chaver to find a source for the stainless rolling pins. Based on some advice I sought out a bakery in Jerusalem that used them. This was a two table, continuous production facility, meaning there were multiple doughs worked on the crushing tables and at 18 minutes the rolling crews would switch tables. The baal habayis was fast asleep in a chair, so I waited for the 18 minute break to ask the mashhgiach. He was of no help, but I had come there for diferent limud. To my utter disbelief, they did not wash their hands between runs. I said to myself then that bli neder I will never again eat a commercial hand matza. I will end with these recomedations: Learn the halachot and see that they were written for a Mom and Pop operation, and in the Sh”ut of the Rogachover, you will find a piece on machine matzo, where he bemoans the commercialization of matzo.

While the soul of this thread is the Harmony story, it is the lighter moments of wow! that we should be sensitive to, and as her story tells, it is that sensitivity we gain from the big events. Here is a hashgocha lite story a little out of season, and a little long, but one of the favorite ones I tell, so I hope this doesn’t blow my cover. I like very large esrogim, and while in NY I would scour the avenue in Brooklyn asking the vendors for etrog hatzi kilo.In the course of time, I came across the maamar of Rav Ovadia Yosef, loosly translated as “most of EY’s etrogim are murkavim, and thus one should only buy from a known source and yere shamayim. This was a precious example of the broad shouldered fearlessness that only a posek can have, and I filed it away in the depths of my head. Also stored in one of the back files is the factoid that all citrus freely cross pollinate.

One year, I had gotten my prized lunker esrog, but my shul was selling that year as well, and after one maariv, the guy selling waved me over and held up an esrog, perfectly tapered, all bumps, and a lovely green fade into yellow– it was love at first sight. Now with two esrogim, I decided to use the little one for the bracha, and the large one for Hallel.

Another little habit of mine was to recycle the esrog into a cordial or into candy for Pesach to connect the chagim. This is before I knew THAT COMMERCIALLY PRODUCED ESROGIM ARE POISON, that they are sprayed mercilessly and that an organic esrog is indeed a very ugly thing. ( This is the H.P. for those of you still making jelly out the collected esrogim.) That year, I was intent on making esrog whisky, so at closing time erev yom tov I got 5o or so unwanted esrogim from a worn out seller for $10. To my mild surprise, cutting them up to process, I found about 2 percent had full fruit centers, identical to a sliced lemon. Then I cut open my large beauty and the maamar of Rav Yosef came back to me like a hit on the head. This was the largest lemon I had ever seen, as full and developed as a grapefruit. With tears, I mouthed the morning bracha ( without shem umalchus) “blessed be he that guides the steps of man” that I was motivated to use this unfit esrog for Hallel and not for the bracha

ICOT: Some of the old pipe here is from the Brit influence when they still used inches, and most of the cast iron is inch sized. Then there is asbestos pipe and concrete pipe, and clay pipe in whatever size the unsteady supply supplied. The modern media are plastic sized in 110mm, 50mm 40mm and 32mm closely matching 4″ 2″ 1.5″ and 1.25″ The wall thickness, and the way they do gas pipe here would land you in jail if you did that in NY area. In threaded pipe there is a mix of NPT, the American way (9 degree taper) and BSPT, the British strait thread. This gives one way too tight, and one way too loose. We also have stuff influenced by the European tzarut ayin mistaken for economy. Life for and American plumber here is challenging, but fulfilling. You can also walk into any hardware store and buy really caustic stuff with nary a safety label.

Trap tactics: Sweep the kitchen floor and counters so there is no competing food supply. Lay out spring traps baited with peanut butter, or squashed raisin around the perimeter, and perpendicular to the wall or baseboard. This should be done at bed time,and lights out. When all is quiet and the coast is clear, the mice will come exploring, hugging the perimeter for safety. When you hear pop pop pop, you can drift off to sleep knowing you were successful. Rise early to clear the mess before the ladies or toddlers find it or any unsprung traps. Used traps can be washed with plain water and used multiple times.

Lesson in Kashrus; Long time ago in E”Y, I attended a wedding in Bnei Brak. The baal simcha was an erliche mentch, and the hashgacha was premium. This was right after the 73 war,and the hall was filled with all manner of haredi and other commers and goers. A hasidishe guy sat down next to me, pulled out an apple, made the bracha and ate it, made a borei nefashos and left. That left an indelible impression on me. If you want real kashrus, keep it simple, and make it yourself from “primary ingredients”

Bear, there are many of us. I am the ud muztal from my mothers side. Recently someone commented that I have such amazing kids. I told them that the zechus of those temimusdik people and their yisurim had to show up somewhere. I never knew that grandfather, he was niftar when my mother was 18, but we were told he worked on a farm in Conecticut for eight years to be able to bring my grandmother over to the US, ( they were from rural Poland,) and he was a yoshor in his community in Brownsville. It was a common fate for those who came before the war, to lose the next generation. Baruch hashem for grandchildren (some) and great grandchildren (yishtabach shmo)

Hello folks.I,Koma am the plumber in this chabura, and you are all guilty of “Mishtamesh b’tachsisei malchus. Tsk Tsk. About the basement bathrooms, a quality pump is worth its price, but still has limitations. They are designed to handle the waste, and just toilet paper. Nothing else should be flushed, and kitchen connections and laundry connections are risky because of the grease, and because of lint and the occasional lost sock. In a power outage, obviously it won’t pump, and the average installation can only store two or three flushes. They are also maintenance heavy.

In terms of psak for use on Shabbos, I have seen, in a long career psak from every angle and flavor. My own Rosh paskined not to use them at all, I saw in a RY’s house a shabbos clock with one pin in one pin out (plumbing roulette), in a shul of an adam gadol, there were two canisters, one flowing into the other, and some large mikve sized industrial setups in large shuls and yeshivas where the size made psik reisha a non issue.

The best solution I saw was someone holding by my RY. He lived in a basement and had no choice but to use the pump. He rigged a washing cup on a hinge, with a faucet dripping into it. When full, the cup tipped and spilled into the sink, pulling a string, which by means of small pulleys mounted on the ceiling and floor, pulled the flush handle to flush the toilet. The drip was timed to flush once an hour,and a counterbalance brought the cup back into the fill position. Mi K’amcha yisrael. Just not a conservationist, or EY solution.

Orach Chaim Tav kuf samech. The gezerah against music zecher lchurban. Sometime, somwhere, the cat got out of the bag. Klezmerim were always there and allowed at weddings,and chazonnim in shuls, but particularly with the advent of recording, and particularly on the american scene, the portzei gader spawned an industry. One doesn’t fully understand his rebbe for forty years, but sometimes there is a bright spark that you can catch. My rebbe regarded musicians with deep derision. We assumed it was because the degree of work and practice required was a huge bitul torah. A few rare attendances at “concerts” gave me perspective. It seemed that at every performance, after the performers had the audience emotionally hooked, they would put down the instruments and open their mouths with all manner of krum philosophy. Thats were the most damage is done. That said, I have seen music be the glue that held children together between rebellion and mentchlich.

Keeping Entertained: You mention the impermanence of community. This is the makas medina of our times. Our zeidys and bubbies often were born, lived and died in a twenty mile radius. There was no confusion of minhag hamakom, or what was expected of a Jew, no dysfunctional wandering unless it was from outside hostility. I left a community in which I spent 32 years of my adult life, to go up to EY. Such a feeling of achva and connectedness is very difficult to reconstruct. The disconnect remains painful, and this is one of the yissurim with which EY is earned.

Bear, I suggest you learn some humility fast. I have some other choice ideas from the novi why and what the Jews in Europe feel and felt, but you have excused yourself of serious conversation with your attack on Rav Kook.

Bear: We. the faithful in EY rely on the land vomiting out those which it can’t abide. All that remain, we are dan lkaf zchus that there is a purpose in them being here. As to your disdain for the spoken language, it too has been zocheh. I was taught by my rebbes to never ignore the Mussar of the Neviim, and though Novi is not a strong suit of the yeshivish velt, we are exposed to it through the Haftoros. One little book we read on YK is Yonah, who when asked ‘1) what is your profession, 2) from where have you come 3) What is your ‘medina’ and 4) of what nation are you, had one succinct and awsome answer: IVRI ANOCHI! AND I SERVE YOU KNOW WHO!

Ok, just for fun, someone up above asked what came before Borsalino. So here we go: The upper limit location for shechita on the trachea is a cartilage structure called shipui kova in halacha. Rashi comments that is called so because it looks like a hat! Now y’all go an pull out a Sichos Chulin and look at the pictures. If that was hat enough for Rashi, does it go with the jeans or does it go with hat and jacket to the Bais Medrash?