ohrchadash1

Rabbi Bachrach (Chavat Ya’ir, no. 31) was asked by a certain errant woman who sinned promiscuously, became pregnant and had regrets. Would she be permitted to abort? He cited the above mentioned Talmudic source (Arachin 7a) and permitted her to do so in order to save herself from a life of agony.

The famous Rabbi Ya’akov Emden (She‘ilat Ya’avetz I:43) was asked a similar question by a married woman who sinned promiscuously, and gave her a similar permit to terminate the fetus. However, he concluded his words with the cryptic statement, “Any wise person can understand that lechat‘chila it is prohibited to kill, although Bet Din does not administer capital punishment for killing fetuses”.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Iggerot Moshe, Choshen Mishpat II:69 par. 2) claims that, with the above statement, Rabbi Emden recanted from the permit. But Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg (Tzitz Eliezer IX:512 part 3) understood his words as teaching that if not for grave circumstances, one should not easily permit abortions for just any minor reason (such as financial distress of a woman seeking career advancement etc.).

Although some people may be just waking up to this issue now, there are actually already Rabbanim who specialize in yuchsin when there are complicated issues.

It should rather be standard practice in every community, if it isnt alread, (and by many communities it certainly is) to check seder yuchsin by every marriage.

There are actual halachos about accepting someones word if a stranger comes to town and they say they are jewish and want aliyos/ say they are a Kohen etc.

Norm, standard and default in which time period?

The very first woman was Chava and it says that Hashem braided her hair before setting her before adam so she should be pleasing for him. Sara immainu also says that she had long hair. There are plenty of stories in gemara where its obvious that women had long hair. The details of the punishment of the Sota, also mean she had long hair and this was not talking about one specific woman either. The Rambam doesnt mention anything about women cutting their hair although going to great detail about other areas of tznius. Pictures of women in europe/russia a hundred years ago also show that they rarely have short hair. Are you referring to shtetl life in the 1800’s? Many women in the shtetl of the Russian empire barely covered their hair because the czar decreed against it.

Cutting hair short was for women who were makpid about chatzitza. And women who were in the life stages where they werent going to mikvah regularly didnt always keep it short either.

So maybe it was norm, standard and default for certain communities in certain time periods but not as a blanket minhag yisroel.

Shaving head completely is a relatively modern minhag. Like other people mentioned it comes from women being violated during pograms and thats why only certain communities do it- the ones that came from there.

Whats the goal of the fines? To get people to return books. It should not be seen as a way to fill budget gaps. Libraries are not money making enterprises.
Racking up accumalating fines is a punitive measure that affects poor people more. Poor and disadvantaged people need to use the library more because they dont have acess to books/literacy/ resources at home. Senior citizins who use the library may not be able to get to the library to drop off books in time esp if theres bad weather.

The new method is smart. After a book is overdue for a month, the patron will be charged the cost to replace the book. They wont be able to take out new books until they pay to replace the book or bring it back. Thats a much fairer method then arbitrary daily accumalative fines liolom vaed and still teaches responsibility.