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First, nobody proposes boycotting “E”Y”; they propose boycott the Zionist State of Israel.
They are exactly the same thing. The state of Israel is located in Eretz Yisroel. And the boycott is of any Jew living there.
As I wrote before, there is no such thing as an anti-zionist who is not an antisemite, unless his opposition is based on one of the three grounds I listed. And all three grounds make it impossible to support the “Palestinian” cause either. So anyone who supports a “State of Palestine” but opposes the State of Israel is an antisemite. It should surprise nobody that there exist antisemites born to Jewish mothers, with Jewish neshomos, just as there exist Jews who are murderers and all kinds of other terrible things.
I have heard that the Satmar Rov zt”l said a Jew is not allowed to be a zionist, but a nochri is not allowed not to be one.
Anti-zionism isn’t exactly the same thing as antisemitism, but it is almost always an expression of antisemitism. I have thought hard about this, and I can think of only three non-antisemitic grounds on which one can oppose zionism. Anyone who is anti-zionist on any grounds except these is an antisemite. The problem is that all three are even stronger grounds for opposing the “Palestinian” cause. I cannot think of any way at all to oppose zionism and support the “Palestinians” without being an antisemite.
The three non-antisemitic grounds I have identified for opposing zionism are:
1. Anarchism. If you oppose the existence of all states, then of course you will oppose the existence of Israel or of a hypothetical “Palestine”.
2. Pacifism. If you believe violence is always wrong, even in self-defense, then you will oppose the IDF’s existence and everything it does to defend the Jews, just as you will oppose the “Palestinian” efforts to destroy Israel.
3. Torah. If you believe that G-d send the Jews into exile and they must remain there until He frees them, then zionism is like a prison breakout. A prisoner does not lose title to his home, it still belongs to him and nobody else has the right to live there without his permission, but he has no right to go there. He can have a lawyer evict squatters, but he must remain in prison. Thus if you believe this you will oppose zionism, but you will oppose even more strongly any attempt to steal the Jewish land while its owners are away.
We should be clear that neither anti-zionism nor antisemitism is or can be illegal. Nor can anti-zionist or antisemitic speech. BDS has every right to advocate boycotting Israeli businesses, just as people have the right to advocate boycotting Black businesses or Jewish businesses. But it is not legal for a business to engage in such a boycott. BDS supporters often deliberately fudge this point, claiming that anti-BDS legislation suppresses their freedom of speech. It doesn’t. It only restricts their actions, in the same way that all civil rights laws restrict people’s actions.
CTL, you are a sick sick person. You wrote “The purpose of this post is to correct the misconception that these ICE raids are solely aimed at brown skinned Hispanics.” Literally the only people who ever thought such a thing are you sick Democrats and rabid Trump-haters, who project your own racism on to Trump and Republicans, tell vicious lies, and then think we should be shocked or upset when they turn out to be false! No Trump supporter or Republican ever supposed the raids would be targeted by race, so we are neither surprised nor upset that they aren’t.
And are we really supposed to be upset that an Israeli who blew off a deportation order will now be sent home?
As for the Puerto Rican lady or your daughter, there was never any chance that they would be deported. The worst that could happen to them was the inconvenience of being held on suspicion for a few hours until the truth could be sorted out. Unfortunately that can happen to anyone; we could all be mistaken for some wanted person, or for a burglar, etc., and it might take a few hours to establish our innocence. It’s the price we pay for not hiring infallible telepathic policemen.
As for the Polish Jews whom Hitler deported, first of all they were legitimate German citizens, having been properly naturalized under German law at the time. That cannot happen here; US citizenship, once validly obtained, can never be revoked involuntarily The only way someone claiming to be a US citizen can be deported is if the government can prove in court that the claim was false and the person was never a citizen in the first place. Another problem with what Hitler did is that Poland did not recognize these people as citizens and did not admit them; the US does not ever deport someone who has nowhere to go.
How dare you question Ivanka Trump’s giyur, and R Shachter and R Lookstein who were on her beis din? And how dare you compare Trump, in any way, to Hitler or to the KKK, which was the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party?
PS: Forget about reminding the school. I just learned that the minimum salary of $455 a week does not apply to teachers.
“Teachers are exempt if their primary duty is teaching, tutoring, instructing or lecturing in the activity of imparting knowledge, and if they are employed and engaged in this activity as a teacher in an educational establishment. Exempt teachers include, but are not limited to, regular academic teachers; kindergarten or nursery school teachers; teachers of gifted or disabled children; teachers of skilled and semi-skilled trades and occupations; teachers engaged in automobile driving instruction; aircraft flight instructors; home economics teachers; and vocal or instrument music teachers. The salary and salary basis requirements do not apply to bona fide teachers. Having a primary duty of teaching, tutoring, instructing or lecturing in the activity of imparting knowledge includes, by its very nature, exercising discretion and judgment.”
BTW I “blithely ignored” what you wrote because you wrote that “it’s about 31 hours a week equaling a ten month salary of $20,134.50”, which makes no sense. A salary by definition is not made up of hours. I also find it difficult to believe that anyone in NYC works for so little.
Now here’s a wild guess at what is happening at this unnamed and possibly hypothetical school. Perhaps they used to be paid a salary for ten months; $20K for ten months is above the federal minimum. Perhaps the school has now decided to spread that salary over twelve months instead of ten, and is unaware of the federal minimum. If so, it would be appropriate for one of these salaried employees to bring it to the school’s attention.
Uncle Ben, do you not understand the difference between a salary and a wage? A wage is paid per hour. A salary is paid per week, month, or year, regardless of the hours worked. When you are on a salary you are expected to do the job, which means putting in as much or as little time as it takes to get it done.
New York state has a minimum wage but it has no minimum salary. The USA does have a minimum salary, which New York has not chosen to supplement.
Also, teachers are professionals. They certainly insist on that and protest loudly if anyone implies that they are not.
Uncle Ben, you keep deliberately mixing up salaries and wages. A monthly rate is not a wage, it is a salary. Since you say their contract does not specify an hourly wage, but a monthly salary, that means they are salaried employees and they do not get an hourly wage, so there cannot be a minimum on it. The federal minimum salary is $23,660 a year, and I’m sure they’re getting more than that.
The amount of the monthly check when multiplied by 12 and divided by # of hours worked over 10 months equals the $15 minimum wage.
Interesting arithmetic, but utterly irrelevant. Salaries don’t work like that.
Uncle Ben, make up your mind, once and for all. Are these people you’re talking about paid by the hour or are they paid a salary? If they are paid a salary then the hours are irrelevant. THERE IS NO MINIMUM HOURLY RATE for salaried employees. So long as they’re making the federal minimum of $23,660 a year (and I’m quite sure they are) they have to put in as many hours as the work takes. If that means they end up with not very much per hour, that’s their tough luck. If they don’t like it they’re free to quit.
DC, what is puzzling you? It’s a simple and well-known fact that most Chabadniks have never worn tefillin even once in their lives.
In our circles there is a picture sent to get a general idea if it is shayich or not. Only the mother of the boy looks at the girl’s picture
That’s even worse, because the mother may have no idea what physical type of girl her son will find attractive. Boys would be too embarrassed to discuss this with their mothers, and the mothers just assume, and end up ruling out all the girls that their son would actually like!
Hair color is changeable.
Especially if you expect that she will spend most of her time in a sheitel.
No, “they” ≠ “misnagdim”. Why would you think it does?
Really? You’re kidding me. But I do believe that with all the pogroms against Ashkenazie Jews , there is a theory that their fathers are Ukrainians, hence Uman.
1. There is no such “theory”. Unfounded speculation by random nutcases does not constitute a theory.
2. What the *$#$% does Uman have to do with it?
3. Even if it were true, so what? How could it be even remotely relevant?
I would have no more hesitation in selling my chametz to an unconverted member of “Beta Israel” than I would in selling it to any random nochri who might turn out to be Jewish in the maternal line.
How did he figure they’re Zera Yisrael? You have the source?
His only source was a teshuva from the Radvaz about a slave purchased in the market who claimed to be from them. He takes for granted that they are from Shevet Dan, but gives no source for it.
NC, I already told you the gemara is in the middle of Yevamos, and it’s very easily found by searching for “chalach” and “chavor”. If you can’t be bothered finding it that’s your privilege, but you’re not entitled to an opinion on it without first looking at it.
We don’t posken by genotyping.
Why not? It’s a question of metzius, and this is important evidence. But you have it backwards. If they had genetic markers of a Jewish past, then there would be reason to take their claims seriously. Without it what reason is there?
All the reasons you list are why they need geirus. The fact that they claim to be Jewish and have been for as many generations as they can recall is what makes it a safek.
Are you serious?! Just because someone claims something creates a safek that they might be correct?! If I claim to be a lamp post, will you entertain even the slightest thought that maybe, just maybe, I might be one?
The difference is obvious: When you apply for a permit the police consider traffic conditions and only give the permit if it will not be disruptive. That is why parades in Manhattan are held only on Sundays, and only on certain roads that drivers know to avoid on summer Sundays. And of course they are publicized well in advance. The NYPD has now reached its limit on major parades and no longer issues new permits, because there aren’t enough summer Sundays for them, and the needs of traffic come first.
There is no first amendment right to an automatic protest permit; the right exists only to get permits on the same basis that everyone else does. The police can’t discriminate between applicants based on the cause they’re promoting; rather, in each case they must consider only how disruptive it will be to traffic.
The Ramban in sefer Haguelah shaar aleph, and the rambam in Igeres Teiman […] state that the sefardim are from Malchus Yehuda, and the Ashkenazim are from the aseret shevatim
I just scanned through both of these sources and did not find anything like this.
Re Ethiopians, the metzius is that there’s no evidence or reason to suppose they have any Jewish origin at all. Their Bible was identical to the first half of their Xian neighbors’ Bible, and not to any Jewish Tanach. They have no traditions that are Jewish rather than Xian. They have no genetic markers indicating Jewish ancestry. And their own origin story is completely consistent with the beliefs of their Xian neighbors, and completely inconsistent with Jewish tradition. It seems obvious that their ancestors were normal Xians who one day decided that the first half of their Bible made sense and the second half didn’t. Rather like that group in Uganda who have now been “converted” by the Conservatives.
By way of contrast, the Bene Israel of Bombay had very little in the way of Jewish tradition left, but the tiny bits they had were inconsistent with anything around them, and their origin story is plausible and consistent with our traditions. In addition they did not intermarry with their neighbors, or accept converts, and since they did not allow divorcees to remarry they’re not bechezkas mamzerim.
NC, I don’t understand how you could even consider that this gemara might be agadeta. It looks exactly like any other piece of gemara that discusses a practical halachic question. Would it even occur to you to suggest that the sugya of yiush shelo mida’as might be agadeta?!
“They” is people generally. And if you have to ask what this has to to do with the topic of this discussion, then you probably have no idea what that topic is.
It’s in the middle of the mesechta. Just search for “aseres hashevotim” or “chalach” or “chavor”.
First, even if the official botei din will not accept gerim, there will surely be private botei din that will, just as there were in the times of Dovid and Shlomo. But in the case of people who were already frum, and are therefore obviously committed to keeping mitzvos, why would the official botei din not accept them? It’s obvious that they will.
Chabad is not against Daf Yomi, but it’s an Aguda thing, and Chabad stayed out of the Aguda in solidarity with Reb Chaim Brisker, so it was never a thing there.
What will happen? What do you think should happen? Once they find out they are not Jewish they will have the same choice any non-Jew has: to remain non-Jewish or to become Jewish. Why would you imagine anything else?
Even better, fewer than 50% of Chabadniks wear tefillin.
And no, Joseph, the ideal number would not be 50%.
They used to say that the Gerrer Rebbe had thousands of chassidim who eat on yom kippur.
Joseph, yes, before WW1 and the Russian civil war, the majority of Jews living in the entire northern and eastern Belarus were Lubavitcher Chasidim.
ZD, Chabad comes from Litte, not Galicia. (In Jewish terms, Litte refers not to the modern Republic of Lithuania but to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which included what later became known as White Russia, and is now called Belarus.) That is where Chabad’s origins are. Vitebsk is in the far east of Belarus, and Lubavitch itself is now just over the border inside Russia. Anyone whose family comes from northern or eastern Belarus is likely to be descended from Chabad chassidim, but the majority of today’s Chabad is from people who joined after WW2 or more recently.
unlike the third Bais Hamikdash, one is not suddenly going to be created by Hashem.
How do you know? Maybe the siyum will be held at the rebuilt Beis Hamikdash.
Joseph, there is no evidence or any reason to believe that the Ethiopians known as “Beta Israel” have any Jewish ancestry at all. Those who have become gerim in the last 40 years are of course Jews; the rest are not.
It is completely obvious and not even slightly controversial that if someone discovers that his maternal line does not trace back to a Jewish woman then he is not Jewish, and if he wishes to be he must become a ger. However, what makes you think there are a significant number of such people? How exactly would “female non-Jews erroneously got mistaken for Jews”?
It is also completely obvious and uncontroversial that there are many Jews in the world who have no idea that they are Jews, because their Jewish ancestor in the maternal line married out many generations ago, and that these people are 100% Jews, just like any of us. There were many many gerim in Roman times, most of whom eventually became Xians. Their female-line descendants are Jews. More recently, until 500 years ago the south of Italy was full of Jews; then Spain conquered it and brought in the inquisition, and suddenly there were no Jews. Many of the Jews fled, but most probably remained and became Xians. Also in Spain itself, the majority of Jews remained and became Xians. All of their female-line descendants are Jews. There is nobody who disputes this.
When Eliyohu informs them of their yichus they will have to start keeping mitzvos, and will have to bring chato’os for the sins they did beshogeg. The gemoro says that a Jewish child who grew up not knowing that he is obligated to keep Shabbos must bring one chatos for all the Shabbosos that he violated, because they were all included in the same “he’elem”.
we know that Rashi and the Baalei Tosfos shtam ben acher ben from Dovid HaMeclech, hence Shevet Yehuda.
No, we don’t know that at all. We don’t even know that Rashi was descended from him at all (though it seems very likely), but we certainly don’t know that he was ben achar ben. (And of course nobody is ben achar ben from Rashi.)
We have the complete yichus brief from Dovid HaMelech through Rashi.
No, we don’t. No such document exists, and there is no reason to suppose one ever existed.
YRST, I doubt your friend can actually trace himself to Shevet Shim’on. More likely he simply has a family tradition that they are from that shevet. Is that tradition authentic? Who can possibly know? It is certainly possible. And since one of the major opinions in the gemara is that the ten tribes’ exile only lasted a short time, after which they returned to Eretz Yisrael and then shortly thereafter went into Galus Bavel, there’s no reason to be surprised if a group of Jews from Shevet Shim’on settled in a certain place and their descendants still have a tradition about it. Of course this is not proof, and even it it’s true, over the course of 2500 years many other Jews would have moved to the same place and assimilated into their community, so someone whose family is from there now is not necessarily descended from the original settlers.
CTLawyer, you claimed that German is better than Yiddish because your German-speaking sister could function in Switzerland while her Yiddish-speaking friends could not. I pointed out that German dialects are very different, and while the Swiss dialect is very different from Yiddish (and from standard German) , the Frankfurt dialect is very similar, so similar that I, speaking a Litvisher Yiddish but no German, could communicate readily there. I’m sure I’d be lost in Switzerland or in Hamburg. I also pointed out that the Swiss dialect is also very different from standard German, so the fact that your sister’s German worked there was probably because so many Swiss learn standard German in school.
Why on earth would you even think you need to tell them? Why would you think they would want to know? Do you give your guests a detailed description of each recipe before you serve each item?! Unless you know one of your guests has an allergy or aversion to chickpeas, there’s no need to ever tell them, let alone before they taste it. (In general it’s a good idea to ask all guests in advance whether they have any allergies or dislikes.)
The term “the ten tribes” refers to the legend that the exiled tribes were lost, and will one day return. When someone uses the term that is what they mean. And the gemara says it’s a myth.
The most obvious meaning of the posuk is that there will be no more tribal rivalry. Right now that has been fulfilled; our tribes (whether we have two or twelve) no longer have separate identities, so there can be no rivalry between them.
However it’s also obvious that every Jew is descended in the direct male line either from one of the tribes, or from a ger. When Eliyohu comes he may well inform each of us of our yichus and we will know who we are. For those of us who are descended in the male line from the original Bnei Yisroel, he may also inform us exactly where our property is in Eretz Yisroel, that we inherited from our ancestors. So assuming that there remain at least some descendants of Efrayim, we may re-form the tribes. In that case, the posuk is promising us that the re-formed tribes will remain friends.
Either way, the idea that Sefardim (or any community, such as Ethiopians) come from these “lost tribes” is not feasible.
Coffee Addict, what has that pasuk got to do with anything? How do you see in it any support for the myth of the “ten tribes” waiting out there somewhere for Moshiach to return them?
CTLawyer, I said nothing about High or Low; all I know is that when I spent a few days in Frankfurt my Yiddish was sufficient for me to make myself understood and understand others.
Coffee Addict, what pasuk?
Joseph, Sambatyon is a legend, and the tribes behind it are even more of a legend. At least Sambatyon is mentioned in the gemara. The idea that there are tribes behind it seems to come from the medieval fraud “Eldad Hadani”.
More Chessed, it’s an explicit gemara in Yevamos.
It is Time, there is no difference in opinion in the original sources. As I said, the gemara is hilchesa, not agadeta, so it is binding, and there is no contrary opinion expressed. The stories people have told each other through the ages are irrelevant when there’s an explicit hilchesa in the gemara against it.
CTLawyer, if your sister had no problems using your great-grandmother’s German in Switzerland it was only because so many Swiss nowadays learn standard German in school. Schweitzerdeutsch is very different from anything your GGM spoke. But I got along just fine in Frankfurt with my Litvisher Yiddish, and so would your sister’s Yiddish-speaking friends.
Kluger, you ask what the sov did wrong. First of all, everyone agrees that it’s supposed to be a thov. The TH became an S when we lived among people whose languages did not have a TH sound. As for what it did wrong, probably the same thing that the ghimmel and dhalet did. Since approximately none of us pronounce those any more, we’re in no condition to complain about those who’ve dropped the thov, or even about the Syrians who’ve dropped the bheth.
No, because the “10 shevatim” are a myth. The gemara states as a matter of halacha that they don’t exist, and gives only three possibilities for what happened to them:
(1) Their exile only lasted a decade or two, until Yirmiyahu went to Chalach and Chavor and brought them back. If this is so, then most of us are probably descended from one or another of them.
(2) The first generation that was exiled had no children and died out. The only surviving members of those shevatim were those who were living in Yehuda at the time, or who found refuge there, and thus never went into exile with the rest of their tribes. Some of us are descended from them.
(3) The Sanhedrin, using the power the Torah gave it, declared them to be goyim. They can never come back. Again, the only Jewish members of those tribes are the descendants of those who never went into exile.
Manitou, you have seriously misread the gemara. It doesn’t say that בן דוד בא after J’m is built. It says דוד בא. First בן דוד has to come, because nothing can happen without him. Only then will he fight Hashem’s wars and win, return the exiles, reestablish the courts, rebuild Y’m, and then the House of David will be re-established, which is דוד בא.
Of course the galus exists in Israel On the contrary, over there the galus is deeper and darker, because one is in the place where the geulah should be visible, and yet it’s not. To stand at the kosel and know that the so-called “Israeli” government does not have the power to rebuild the beis hamikdosh or even to start korbanos even if it wanted to — and even worse that it doesn’t even want to! — what darker galus could there be? That it openly declares that it is not and will never be a state of halacha, what bitterer galus could there be?
Klugeryid, what you describe is not an hourly rate, it’s an annual salary. A $55K salary for 950 hours worked comes to $57.89 an hour, but that’s not the rate, it’s just what it happens to come to. The pay stub is unlikely to mention hours at all, because they’re not being paid by the hour. If the school is now demanding more work for the same pay, so what?
Alternatively, they may be paid by the hour, and the school has just told them that next year the rate will be cut, so that they will have to work more hours to earn the same amount they did last year. Again, so what? So long as they’re free to quit it’s not slavery, and so long as this takes effect only after the announcement, not retroactively to hours already worked, it’s not theft.
Yes, I can assure you there is no J sound in Hebrew. It should be completely obvious that gimel and daleth with and without a dagesh have the same relationship as do the similar pairs: beth-bheth, kof-khof, pe-phe, and tau-thau. Their sounds cannot be completely different from each other. In each case the sound is essentially the same, but the dagesh-less form is softer and the dagesh form is harder. Thus Daleth without a dagesh is like a Greek delta, or like the consonant in “the”, “there”, and “though”. Or, as Yehuda Halevi wrote, like the sound of a bee buzzing.
Make up your mind. Is it an hourly rate or an annual rate? If it’s an hourly rate how can it be divided over months? Obviously it accrues when the hours are worked. If it’s an annual rate then it makes sense that they’re now dividing it over a longer period, and demanding more hours worked, and thus paying less than they used to per hour. So what? Since when is a business not allowed to cut wages?
You can read it in any Sefaradi or “Sfard” siddur. English translations of such siddurim are readily available. It is not a prayer. There are various customs on when to say it.
The Teimanim have pronunciations closest to Har Sinai. Much better than Ashkenazim or Sephardim.
And you know this how? I can assure you, Hebrew has no J sound. Temanim picked it up from Arabic.
It’s a page or two of Zohar. What’s your question?