Pashuteh Yid

Joseph, you are making this thread very hard to follow, because you keep mixing in many different concepts, some of which contradict each other.

For example, you cite some poskim who hold that things like lice and the treifos are binding even if the science behind them is proven wrong. So you are contradicting your assertion that Chazal’s science was always right. We are not arguing here about the halachic ramifications, only the scientific facts.

Second, you bring evolution into this. I agree evolution and origin-of-life theories are unproven in science, thus far, and possibly unprovable, since we cannot conduct a 15 billion-year long experiment. But you also throw in things like astronomy, which modern science knows quite well, and are testable, evidenced by our man on the moon, and the fact that the GPS system works as advertised. You do not address the fact that some gedolim said Copernicus was totally wrong and even wrote sfarim to this effect (see Slifkin’s site for a PDF), which we know is not the case. Any attempt to answer this up with relativity is a very big dochak, and not the svara pshutah. Bishloma the psukim use the earth as a frame of reference because it is convenient to tell somebody to make a left turn to get to your house with respect to the earth, and not refer him to astronomical coordinates which will likely get him confused. Dibrah Torah kloshon bnei odom. But here is the point, this Acharon available on Slifkin’s site refused to accept Dibrah Torah as the pshat, and instead tried to refute Copernicus! This shows he is wrong. Your relativity suggestion can only possibly defend the geocentric view from the strong kashya that it is kneged the simple metzius, but cannot refute Copernicus who has no kashya on him to begin with. You need to read the PDF and see for yourself.

Third, you say that the view of the Meor Ainayim that science carries more weight than Chazal is incorrect, and gedolim say not to read it. But you have never addressed my point that the Rambam says the same thing in Hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh 17, 24 that anything proven scientifically or mathematically carries the same weight as divrei neviim. He further says that we do not go by who says a particular idea. We go by the truth of the idea itself, no matter who says it. I believe the source of the Rambam is simply Chochma bagoyim taamin which you also refuse to address. This idea is only reexpressed by Rabeinu Avraham ben HaRambam where he says that Chazal will never expect us to believe anything which goes against our rationality, as far as the aggados go.

Related to this is Point Four where you insists that all aggadtas are to be taken literally and it is kefirah to believe an allegorical interpretation. But Rabbeinu Avraham says that even the Chumash uses exaggerations, such as Arim betzuros bashamayim. The meraglim didn’t mean their cities were fortified in the sky. They simply meant fortified to the Nth degree. Similarly another very long intro to aggadta in the beginning of the Ein Yaakkov (Maharatz Chayos?) also says that Chazal exaggerated, such as 300 cities wiped out by the egg of the Bar Yuchni bird. In addition there are some very hard aggadtas such as Bava Metzia 84a Aivrei d’Rebbe Yishmael, and so on. He also brings views that many of the nissim of Chazal were dreams, such as the proofs in the case of Tanur dBen Achnai of the river reversing direction. In addition, Chazal themselves said Iyov lo hayah vlo nivra. So if Chazal can say about a whole sefer in Tanach that it is only an allegory, then why can we not say about Chazal that some of their words were the same.

My personal kashya on this mehalach is simply what about the concept of sheker. How can you tell us a story if it never happened. At least preface it with mashal lmah hadavar domeh, etc. That is why when I was younger I always believed in the literal, but now am open to other interpretations. I heard from Reb Yaakov Weinberg that the Rashi of Vatishlach es amasa by Bas Paroh may not be literal, and Rabbi Yissochor Frand is my eid, and was in the car with me then.

Point Five, you have never addressed my loads of questions on why we find no reference to modern technology in Chazal such as modern weapons, modern electric lights, modern plumbing, but we do find tons of references to ancient technology. Shouldn’t there be a single detailed reference as to how to construct a single modern device that was predicted 2000 years ago. It would blow everybody’s arguments away. You basically want everybody to believe they had this knowledge as incredulous as that would be, and they hid it from everybody, because you have decided it is one of the ikrei emunah. A) It is likely not one of the ikrei emunah. B) Believing that they deliberately hid it is rather weak, don’t you think? I mean if I say I can turn lead into gold in my basement, but I keep it a secret, will anybody believe me? By definition science is built on observable and repeatable experiments. Private science is not science.

MyShadow, Not sure what clothing drive you are referring to, but I will take as many Brooks Brothers suits as you can get me.

Seriously, there are a number of other posters here with names very similar to mine, so recheck who your msg was intended for.

Bogen, I never ordered any ham equipment via ebay, but I have heard of scientists that have bought lab equipment, so I guess it can be reliable sometimes. It probably all depends on the honesty of the seller. I have bought used equipment at an in-person hamfest, and it always worked perfectly. If it is from a club regular, he will especially not want to ruin his reputation with other members of the club.

I don’t know the current stats on numbers of hams. You can probably get them on the web. A good place is the ARRL regular site and the beginners site hello-radio. They have sample test questions and a wealth of other info. You may communicate either way, by voice or code. I don’t know the stats, but I believe voice must predominate these days. There are license study guides and review books and sites. The test is progressively harder for the higher classes.

In the past, most hams were men. I don’t know the current stats, but you can probably look them up online. I will see if I can find that info.

One interesting thing is that if you buy a fancy antenna, and need help assembling and climbing on towers, club members love doing this and will not charge. You will probably get a whole crew of volunteers and you only need to serve them a good meal.

The ARRL web site for beginners is Hello-Radio.

Bogen, good questions.

A repeater extends the range of weak portable stations. Ham radio is in a sense divided into two ranges, The HF (high freq) bands (160-10 meters) can go very far. They can do this because these frequencies tend to bound off the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore like a giant mirror in the sky, your signal can bend around the earth to the other side. In addition, usually these transceivers are very powerful and bulky and use a lot of power and big roof-mounted antennas (but do not have to). They also have a very short wave radio-like sound with a lot of static and crackle, etc., and different people may be on same freq which causes one to drown out the other.

There are also the VHF (very high freq) bands which are 2 meters and 70 cm and above (remember that the smaller the wavelength the higher the freq.) These bands are mainly line of sight which limits to about 50 miles max with the best antenna, but if there are buildings or obstructions, then much less than that. In addition, they are usually used for portable walkie-talkie (HT=handy talkie) sized devices which are weaker, and have small antennas. The method of modulation for these is usually FM which is much clearer and without static. In addition, instead of a continuous freq dial, there are usually well-defined slots (like channels) which prevents people from getting on top of each other. Practically, about 2-3 miles I believe is the best you can do directly (simplex) with most of these portable units. In a car, where the roof blocks the signal from getting out, it can be less.

For this reason many clubs sponsor repeaters which are very powerful stations mounted on tall buildings that rebroadcast whatever they hear. This allows many people in cars to be able to speak to each other. They rotate if there are more than a few people at one time. The range is now about 30 miles. A mag mount is an externally mounted magnetic mount for your car to allow the signal to get out of the car better. (Listeners on the repeater sometimes get annoyed of someone is weak and breaking up and 25 other people can’t hear what he is saying.)

While some transcievers can cover both of these ranges, they are not that common, and generally you would be sacrificing the portability you want on the high bands. (Remember, before cell phones, hams were happily talking away with each other on the road when it was only a pipe dream for everybody else. There were also no laws then about not talking while driving. The good old days.)

Will answer the rest of your questions shortly. Need to take care of something now.

Areivim, that is exactly what I am trying to address. People need to find some way of boosting their self-esteem and confidence both for shidduchim and for anything else. It doesn’t mean they need to be the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. But they still need to feel positive about themselves. I am trying to say that most anyone can develop this, and can learn to not only be more confident in private, but even in public.

I have even seen handicapped people who look great and are the most lebedig in the crowd, leading on everybody else at a simcha or whatever. Certainly those who are blessed to be normal can speak with confidence. One must have a positive attitude about him or herself, if he/she wants somebody else to have a positive attitude about him/her.

Too many people go around saying I am weird and ugly and nobody will want me, and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In just about every case, Hashem gives people the physical attributes to be attractive to others. They need to realize that they already have this gift, instead of complaining and worrying about imagined flaws.

In extreme cases, it leads to eating disorders and people going through unnecessary surgery in a desparate attempt to fix something that was never a problem to begin with. I have seen some people who were super attractive to begin with stop eating, and become totally sickly and emaciated, thinking they are now more attractive. Everything about them now looks terrible because of malnutrition, chapped skin, sore gums, bones protruding, gaunt faces, etc.

Chaimss, I do know some frum hams in my area, but most of us aren’t that active these days. At field day it used to be that we would get 5-6 frum hams, but now sometimes I am the only one. The rest of the year, I myself have not been too active. Things are just too hectic at this point.

Oomis, why didn’t you invite all of us here to the restaurant that night? We all would have added our two cents worth and made the experience that much more meaningful and memorable. Plus, since your husband was treating, we all could have had a good meal at the retaurant for free.

There is not a single person I know that wouldn’t want the entire YW Coffee Room present at their marriage proposal.

Chaim, Field Days are chok vlo yaavor always on the last full weekend in June, azoy shtait in ARRL rules. (Probably because they are the longest days of the year in terms of daylight hours.) The rules are that from 2 pm EDT Friday till 2 pm Sat they set up the stations. From 2 pm Sat until 2 pm Sun they operate. I usually go Motzaei Shabbos and/or Sunday morning until the end. This is the same everywhere in the country and in the world (except for time zone differences).

I used a mag mount for a while, but haven’t been on a repeater for a number of years now. At Field Day I usually operate CW (morse code), but I think there is some activity on 2 meters/70 cm at my club. But I am not sure if it is official Field Day contesting that counts towards the score. I have been to a number of clubs in different locations, and they will probably be glad to let you operate for a while, even as a guest. You may want to give them membership dues when you are there, if you plan on being active in that club and using their repeaters regularly.

One story about the gadlus of Reb Aryeh Levin. He was once asked to sign on a certain kol korei. He did not want to. (I believe because his way was to gently teach through love and example, not by loud declarations.) But he did not want to offend those who asked him, either. So he said, look, these signers are all great Rabbonim and Gedolei Torah. But I am a plain Jew and they call me simply, Aryeh. It would not be proper for a simple Aryeh with no title to sign the same document as all these choshuveh Rabbonim.

Moish, there is a book about the Yeshivish language which translates the Gettysburg Address into Yeshivish.

The last line is:

The government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Translation:

That a nation that shtams by the oilam, by the oilam, by the oilam, will blaib fest ahd oilam.

Kapusta, I am no habitual practitioner of vasikin. But just from what I remember learning in Brachos, there is first, an inyan of semichas geula ltfila, which means we must have no break between gaal yisroel and shemoneh esrei. In addition therte is an inyan to daven smack at sunrise either because of zerizin makdimin (zealous people try to do things as early as possible) or also because of a pasuk Yiraucha im shemesh (let them see you HKBH with the sun). Because netz is the earliest possible time lchatchilah, we time shmoneh esrei to begin right after netz. But since gaal yisroel is the final bracha of shema, and must lead into shemoneh esrei, we must conclude shma right before netz so there is one continuos flow from shema to gaal yisroel to shemoneh esrei.

Note shema and talis and tefilin can be before netz, as long as they are after mishaykir (light enough to recognize a friend at distance of 4 amos). This is about 50 minutes before netz.

This is my understanding, but I am not an expert.

SJSinNYC, you mean you woke him up so early in the morning just for that? It couldn’t have waited till 10 am? What was the big rush?

JayMatt, I am not saying that the RBSH doesn’t control the world, chas vshalom. I am saying that according to Joseph, there was a major neis in the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, that a nuclear power was defeated by a band of horseback riders. Do we find this anywhere in the mekoros? Do we find anywhere that the yidden had the most powerful weapons and technology, but since their aveiros were so bad, that all the technology suddenly became disabled. I.e., their planes stopped functioning, their tanks wouldn’t start, the production line for new vehicles became stalled, the high-powered long-distance lasers that would have stopped the enemy all disappeared. The remote early warning systems that controlled the mines all became disabled and the enemy infiltrated. Why isn’t there a single medrash that tells us that Hashem’s wrath was so great that even though we were dealing with a primitive army against a superpower, the primitive army miracously overcame the high-tech army because of the aveiros of the yidden? Please understand, bderech hateva could horseback riders overthrow the entire USA? Where do we find that a miracle of such magnitude occurred by the churban?

As you brought up about Chanukah we were victorious against a majority. But wait isn’t that a rayah for me? Don’t we say giborim byad chalashim? That the strong were delivered into the hands of the weak? But I thought we were the nuclear superpower, and they were the weak primitive horsemen. Of course we won, because we were the far stronger force. So what is the miracle there? Incidentally, Berel Wein describes how the Chanukah battle was fought with elephants, and I do not think he mentioned tanks.

In addition, let’s leave the churban and look at other things. Chazal tell us about lamps in many places, but they are all oil lamps, not light bulbs which have different halachos (i.e., you can read on Shabbos with them). The first mention in the shailos and tshuvos of the new lighting technology was in the 1900’s, not in the mishna and gemara.

The gemara tells us about bathrooms. They were simple outhouses with no water or sewers, etc. They used stones instead of tissue paper. The gemara tells us that going to the bathroom was such a difficult process, (required a long walk to the nearest location, and so on) that Rava always avoided it when he was giving shiur, and because he held it in, he severely damaged his body.

Jay and Joseph, I understand my points about the ancient wars are silly. What I am trying to point out is that it is all an anachronism. This technology wasn’t around then. We find no remnants in archeology of electronic systems, yet we do find arrowheads. You are asking me to believe in something which goes so totally beyond the pale of rationality. As I said earlier, science is a team effort with each expert only mstering a small slice of his enormous field. And there are numerous fields. It is when we put the collective efforts together that we achieve the modern technological innovations of today. Simply put, if Chazal were experts in all areas of science, they would have no brain cells left to be experts in learning. It is simply not humanly possible. No scientist is an expert in all areas of science, not even in a single area.

Again, if you believe that the gedolim have scientific expertise via ruach hakodesh, would you be willing to identify one such godol today willing to take and ace university level exams in all subjects without studying the textbooks?

Ames, I agree with you that technology is not the ikar, and would not have stopped the RBSH from destroying the Beis Hamikdash for our aveiros. As I posted earlier, the ikar is menschlachkeit. That is our whole purpose in learning and doing mitzvos, not to become scientists. I don’t know where Reb Avigdor Miller got his sources, but I don’t know if I would trust him on scientific matters, either. (I am not a proponent of Global Warming).

As far as a tzaddik saying something and making it true, miracles are always possible in any set of circumstances. But most of the time we don’t see things that go against the laws of nature. What we should keep in mind is that nature itself is the biggest miracle of all. The laws of science are miraculous in that they work so well and are understandable by our brains which the RBSH gave us in his infinite chesed. It is a chesed that we can see the experiments, that we can move our hands to do the experiments. That we can talk to another scientist (koach of speech) by vibrating the air from our mouths by moving our throats and tongue. That he can sense the vibrations in the air and get an interpretable message out of them (hearing and understanding). That he can add to it, and develop a device using the raw materials that Hashem provided. (Imagine if metal did not exist, and the periodic table was half empty.) These are all the biggest miracles of all. Yet we must realize that these all exist to do chesed.

(Mods, just saw this new thread. Can disregard my previous attempt to post this in Big Event thread.)

Joseph, your scholarship is staggering, and I don’t know where you got it all from. Yasher Koach. Nevertheless, I will bring you an irrefutable rayah (lfi aniyus daati)that Chazal did not know the science of today. This is not apikorsis, because it is not one of the ikrei emunah to believe that Chazal knew everything, only that their HALACHIC pronouncements are from the RBSH via Moshe Rabbeinu.

We know that twice in our history the Beis Hamikdash was destoyed. We lost first to the Babylonians in the time of the Neviim, and to the Romans in the time of the Tannaim.

Had Chazal known the science of today, why didn’t they build an atomic bomb and drop it on Rome. If that would have taken too long, then why not a couple of planes with a handful of bombs? I submit even a single modern tank with a few hundred rounds of tank shells could have taken out their entire army of horsemen. After a few explosions, whichever horses and riders were still alive would be fleeing in panic for their lives.

The siege of Yerushalayim lasted a while. During this time, if they knew our modern sciences they would have been MECHUYAV to build modern weapons and defend Eretz Yisroel. I claim that lchol hadayos, even Neturei Karta would agree that back then even on Shabbos one was obligated to defend even a single far flung border town. Certainly to defend Yerushalayim, and even more so to protect the lives of the Yidden because of PIKUACH NEFESH MAMASH. There is no heter in the world for them not to have saved us from defeat. (Ein osin ir hanidachas basefer, we don’t make a border town an ir hanidachas even if they all worshipped Avodah Zara, since it will lead to infiltration.) Churban Beis Hamikdash was the quintessential milchemes mitzvah and they would have been mechuyav to save klal yisroel via their advanced weapons. If that is not a milchemes mitzvah, I don’t know what is. Even one cannon could probably have saved us.

You may claim that we were punished because of varios aveiros so we were destined to lose. Nevertheless, if one sees a person whose life is in danger on Shabbos and tells him that he deserves to die, and we cannot save you because of Chilul Shabbos, the Rambam says that this person is an Apikorus. Lives take precedence over all else. Chazal would have used modern weapons then, if they knew how to build them. Instead of risking smuggling out Reb Yochanan ben Zakkai in an aron to try to beg the king to at least save Kerem Byavneh (he didn’t even bother asking for Yerushalayaim, as he knew he could only get a hatzalah purtah, small request), they should have smuggled in a smart bomb and remotely detonated it in the king’s face.

We see clearly from here they had no modern technological knowledge, or they would have had absolutely no heter not to use it at that critical time. This is a rayah sh’ein alav tshuvah. In English, that means Checkmate. You may try some weak dochak answers, if any actually exist, but you would appear to have been refuted. The sources you quote did not live at a time when science had advanced so far. They did not have the benefit of the hindsight we have now.

But one other source. I believe Reb Elya Lopian quotes a Zohar on Vayiftichu arubos hashamayim, that in the year 5500, new chochma will pour down into the world which was never previously known. This corresponds to the beginning of the Scientific Revolution.

This is a very disconcerting topic to deal with, but let me conclude with one thing. We have a beautiful unbroken mesorah. Do you know what that mesorah is? It is the mesorah of Chesed that Avrohom started, and Yaakov and Moshe rescued the sheep, and it continues down to today unbroken with the work of Tomchei Shabbos. This is our mesorah which no other nation has come close to. We are the only nation that has an issur of loshon hara. Once we realize that the whole purpose of the Torah is to teach us menschlachkeit, not science, we see the incredible things our nation was zocheh to accomplish. We never perpetrated a holocaust on anybody else, and we are the biggest philanthropists and have an inate kindness which we inherited from our holy Avos, who had to fight off all kinds of barbaric behavior in their time, and helped civilize the entire ancient world our norms of behavior, which persist until today in what even the USA acknowledges as the Judeo-Christian foundations of our legal system and way of life.

Will, can you explain your astronomy point in light of the fact that the gemara itself (Pesachim 94 or nearby) says that the non-Jewish astronomers were correct and Chazal were wrong on the orbit of the Sun. Also the Rambam says in Hilchos Deyos that the Sun goes around the Earth, and is embedded in a sphere, and each of the planets is embedded in a hard sphere, as well, and there is no space in between the spheres. Also the dimensions of the Sun and Moon are about an order of magnitude off from currently accepted values.

This doesn’t bother me at all since the Rambam says in Kiddush Hachodesh 17,24 that anything proven mathematically or scientifically, even by a non-Jew carries the same weight as Divrei Neviim in halacha. So the Rambam in Deyos was going with the best science of his times, but would have been the first to say we should follow the best science of our day, not his day.

(Incidentally, you don’t mean to say that our astronomers don’t know orbits, do you, as if so, kindly explain how they got the 24 GPS satellites into correct orbit transmitting accurate positional information to your car.)

Joseph, Still need to clear up some questions here. As you know, majority of hams are not yidden. In older threads you have come out very strongly against socializing in any way with these types of people. How do you reconcile this with the hobby.

As I mentioned in one of those threads, Rebbe Yehudah Hanasi was extremely close with the Roman ruler Antoninus. So much so that when he passed away, he cried and said nispardah hachavilah, the bundle has broken.

When I was younger, although I went to Orthodox schools, occasionally I met non-Jewish boys my age, who were extremely respectful, and we even built some projects together at each other homes. The parents of one would always get kosher ice-cream in plastic utensils for me.

Once I met a retired fellow who invited me and my family to come up to his home in New Hampshire any time we happened to be in the area, and once we did go to New England, and we took him up on it, and he and his wife welcomed my parents and myself and my siblings to his home on a lake and we had a nice visit.

More recently, A major officer of the club I belonged to who was a non-frum Jew passed away. He always conducted classes and organized meetings and was one of the best-known people in the club. I went to the funeral, and one of the speakers was a non-Jewish officer of the club, who is an extremely sharp-looking professional, and one of the major regional directors of ARRL, and was very close with this Jewish fellow, and he cried the whole time, they were so close. I thought, wow, this is the total opposite of anti-semitism, such warmth from a non-Jew towards a Jew. I was astounded.

Note that I believe if one is involved in yiddishkeit because he enjoys it, even non-Jewish friends will not cause him to go off the derech. I didn’t. However, if it is forced down one’s throat, and everything the child wants to do he is told no, then he may go off the derech to rebel. Yiddishkeit should be a happy and healthy experience which is not threatened by meeting other people.

But anyway, given your hashkafas, I am curious how you reconcile this hobby with your philosophy. If you are a baal teshuva, who was involved before you were frum, have you totally repudiated the hobby now?

On another topic, just wanted to clarify that when I received that citation for being out-of band, I had been out of the Novice area by only 1 KHz, and was probably due to the mechanical dial misreading the true freq (they used to be connected by string and pulleys from the knob to the tuning capacitor, something I learned from building kits, before electronic digital displays became widespread). Still, the FCC picked up on that.

Yep, Feivel, I was also going to say we all wish you a Mazel Tov.

Is it true that Joseph is going to be your mesader kiddushin?

Ames, Everybody has a call sign, and these are listed in databases and directories like a phone book. By law you must identify at beginning and end of conversation and every ten minutes. Theoretically, one could steal another’s call sign as an impostor, but you would get into big trouble, and be caught. Remember that you are on the open airwaves, and anybody can and does listen. It is not a place for private personal conversations. You can even listen without any license, just can’t transmit without a licence. The FCC monitors periodically, and any others listening who believed somebody was messing around would alert the authorities. Also, far away stations sound far away, fade in and out, and you would never confuse your next door neighbor with King Hussein.

I myself once transitted on a frequency I wasn’t supposed to be on by mistake, and got a citation (ticket) from the FCC monitoring all the way in Texas. (I was 13 at the time, and dial became miscalibrated, which is something you needed to check every so often, with older mechanical displays.) If you respond promptly and explain circumstances and what actions you have taken to insure it won’t reoccur, there is no fine or loss of privileges. However, if you ignore citation, then can get into trouble.

I don’t mean to scare you, as it is a pretty easy-going hobby, but deliberate messing around will eventually get one in trouble. There are some pranksters who try to jam and interfere with conversations and repeaters, and every club has members who know how to trace the source of interference and file reports.

Nice pshat, Feivel.

Is it true they use a light bulb today so the chosson shouldn’t have trouble cracking it?

Ever see the mothers by the tnaim hitting the plate over and over again and it won’t break?

Joseph, unfortunately, I don’t have an antenna set up now on HF bands. Also, I almost exclusively used CW when I was active.

On another topic, your hashkafas don’t seem to fit with your worldly pursuits. I mean most of the yeshivishe/kannaishe velt would never have heard of ham radio, and even if they did, would say it is bitul zman. Now, I happen to think it is educational, and gives one skills to study electronics and possibly go into engineering to make a living (which usually requires college). However, the camp that you associate with would frown upon limudei chol, and in Israel there is none after 7th or 8th grade. So how do you reconcile your world view with these secular pursuits?

Joseph, have had general class for most of this time, but with code. Started as novice, but rule was you had to upgrade within 2 years. Was very active all through 7th, 8th and high school building kits and equipment and operating CW. Then after I went away to Yeshiva and college, didn’t have so much time, so became less active. However, for a number of years now, I don’t miss a Field Day, where I can operate CW for many hours straight.

Years ago I was active on one of the repeaters, but stopped when I moved away from that area.

After they diluted the code and licensing requirements, I think the hobby lost much of its luster. They even started publicizing all the possible questions and answers, so you only had to memorize the whole pool. No more calculating and figuring. In my day, you had to go down to the FCC office and they gave the code and theory tests under rigorous conditions. Now it is done at the local ham club and I think it is all multiple choice. All this bothers me, and makes me nostalgic for the old days. (I am not that old, BTW.)

Also with email and cell phones, the draw has been lessened. It is a shame, since I used to think it was the greatest hobby in the world. We live in a different generation. Kids today think they are high tech with all their gizmos, but in fact, they have no clue how they work. It is like telling time. You can read a clock or drive a car without knowing anything about the internal mechanisms. That is where the lomdus and chochma is.

The same is true with chemistry sets, as well. Years ago they came with real chemicals and experiments. Today, most are about vinegar and baking soda. Go to any yeshiva science fair and you will see many projects of that type. The manufacturers are afraid people will drink the chemicals and they will get sued.

Sadly, it is a different ballgame now. In a way, I think the collapse of the economy is partially because we have watered everything down.

BTW, years ago before cell phones and international calling plans and email, I knew a fellow who went to learn in Israel for a year and brought along a rig, and every night he spoke to his parents who were avid hams for free. He would often relay messages for the other bochurim as well.

There was also a nightly shiur given from Lakewood a number of years back called mesivta direkia.

BTW, Joseph, one of the questions they ask on the FCC exam is if you are a kannai, and if yes, you are disqualified from getting a license. How did you get around that?

How about a School Closing section where yeshivas who don’t have internet sites can post info in weather emergencies. Maybe in alphabetical order so people can find their school.

I agree with Oomis. There are many great things we can enjoy, such as seeing the beautiful ocean, and a mother happy with her kids, and listening to a great violinist, etc.

The best eitzah I have found for fighting the yetzer hara is that we must remember that many people are suffering. If we waste time, we may have blown a chance to do a chessed, or cure cancer, or visit someone in the hospital.

We should get into the mindset that things that are asur are not asur to torture us, but because they will not make us truly happy. True happiness comes with accomplishment.

Also, many issurim can be viewed as helping us to realize the plight of the less fortunate. We fast on Yom Kippur to remember the hungry. We keep taharas hamishpacha to remember the singles. We keep Shabbos to be able to spend time with our family without having to worry about business.

Of course, no matter what eitzah you use, the yetzer hara is always a tough guy. But it’s easier when we realize that the Torah wants us to have a good life, not to make our lives miserable in this world.