I remember hearing that Gedolei Poskim of E. Y. were cholake on Reb Moshe and were against life ins. due to ayin hara or pischon peh l’satan. This could involve perhaps the greater chiyuv of bitachon and liphnei meshuras hadin of living in E. Y.

The check is in the mail!

The root of the problem is that there is a false god that is being worshiped that some call the philosophy of art for art’s sake, and in the name of their work or art this god permits them all kinds of behaviors that amount to lives lived in arrogant self absorption that is dressed up as deep and meaningful. This takes a great toll on the society that admires these people and encourages youth to join them and is quite sad, especially Jewish youth that are talented and soulful and imagine they are joining some great, lofty community. Some of you may think I’m being ridiculous about that what with the true shallowness of these people constantly exposed in all the tabloid magazines, but the irony is they don’t seem to make the connection at all. Ask an average parent of college age kids how they would feel if their son or daughter wanted to study the arts with a goal to being an artist, actor, filmmaker,etc. see if they are concerned(other than about economic issues)?

I am a bit older than the backberry crowd but I have always been a reader at the table type – mail, papers, sefer, etc.- and I know the frustration my family feels with trying to get my full attention so I try to give it to them and it is amazing how hard it is to change this habit but it does come down too giving them the respect they deserve, personally I find one on one quality time easier to manage.

Hi Stamper sorry I didn’t see your question till now. The Kesef Mishna says the Rambam meant aidus meyuchedes rather than regular one witness which is for instance a witness that saw the incident exactly from 3pm to 3:02 pm and then another that saw it from 3:03 to 3:06 pm or alternatively they saw it at the same time from two different windows and could not see each other; neither of these are acceptable to mechayiv misas beis din al pi 2 witnesses but according to this Rambam it seems the Bais din would not hold a goel culpable if he acted in these cases, so the Rambam advises the killer to protect himself from that time forward…

Bracha v’haTZLACHA V’COL TUV!

MDG – You are a bit off with upswing and downswing. The Gem. and Rambam clearly say upswing is patur from galus and downswing is chayiv galus from the use of the word vayapol “and it fell” in the posuk in Bamidbar 35. The Rambam seems to explain it that things which fall downwards are more likely to damage because they move faster.

Here is the psak of the Rambam- Sefer Nezikin, Hilchis Rotzeach V’Shmiras Nefesh(Laws of Murder), chapter 6, no. 5 – What should this one (who cannot be sent to galus) do? He should sit and guard himself from the goel hadam. And so too all killers that killed with only one witness or without hasra and the like, if they are killed by their goel hadam they(the goel hadam) are not treated more stringently than with the ones that killed with no intention.

It’s clear from the gemara above this one that the goel hadam has a chance to kill the rotzeach (whether shogeg or mazid) while he is traveling to the ir miklat. Two Talmidei Chachamim will accompany and try to convince him not to by saying acc. to the Maaratz Chayis, Hashem brought this about b’shogeg because the victim must have killed someone b’mazid previously and this man was just the unfortunate shaliach of Hashem to punish your relative, as the gamara says above also Hashem mazminim l’pundoc echad…

BTW How do you know that after the beis din is m’chayiv him misa he is “given to the goel hadam” although those are the words of the posuk here what about the gem in Sanhedrin Vahavta l’reecha going on the one being led out to be executed?

I respect Hatzolah members for dropping everything and running to the aid of their unknown brethren. I respect every Yid that comes to daven to Hashem with a minyan 3x a day.

I went through a very difficult time financially recently and one thought that has been helping me alot is telling myself it could not be that Hashem brought me this far to drop me , hang on and try to focus on the good things , sounds like you have what to be thankful for! Brocha v’ hatzlacha !

Rav Shimshon Pincus writes in Shaarim B’Tefillah about Tzaaka which is one of the 13 loshonos of tefilla that it is crying out to Hashem without words which could mean without the ability to put ones feeling into words and Chazal say this prayer is very powerful and can break gezeiras!!

There are alot more things that will come up like invitations (kallah) benchers (CHASSAN) sheva brochas not to mention clothing gifts, transprtation etc. etc.

i also find it easier to daven when other people are whatching me….. 🙁

If so maybe you can go outside in, by that I mean set your outside appearance of body, face hands etc. as you imagine a super concentrated person would look and (even if you feel silly inside at first) hold that external appearance for the first few brachas of shemoneh esrei and see what happens, you really need to work physically to give this a serious try.

18, 36, 54, or 72 when you multiply it by 100 or so guests adds up and most bar mitzva boys or chassan/kallahs have some better off relative or two they receive bigger gifts from so I have found that the simcha helps in receiving each gift in the right spirit as Mod 80 expressed above.

If one had to give one overall purpose to the world one could say it is the maintenance and production of life. Until Avraham it seems it was difficult for many to link seemingly conflicting forces together to understand they in fact work together to maintain and produce life. Therefore Not only the survival (and influence) of the Jews is evidence but the blessed growth of all humanity is evidence there is one force, driving it, the logic is one purpose indicates one force scientists seek one unified theory, but do they work consistently with the purpose of this force which we are saying is a blessed life for man?