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Very interesting and thoughtful analysis. Especially summed up with the very end paragraph.
Maybe these rabbonim think there’s something fishy about sushi. 🙂
Actually I do like sushi a lot. I usually make a “mezonos” on the rice and a “shehakol” on the fish. Although I think the better thing to do would be to say mezonos on a cracker and a shehakol on a piece of herring or gefilte fish, intending for those brochos to apply to the sushi as well.
When someone telephones me and when I answer they say, “Oh, you’re home!”.
Do you want me to give you a piece of my mind?
A Rosha is someone who purposely violates Torah him or herself, and so hates Torah that he or she will do everything the can think of to prevent others from living a Torah-centered life as well. When such people do act as if they have respect for Torah observance, it’s merely a ploy to get the Torah observer to let down their guard to the Torah hater can more easily succeed in his or her newest offensive against Torah.
For myself it’s because I’m so sad about it that I don’t yet know what to say. All I can think is what a beautiful family was lost. Not living in New York I can’t pretend to know all the facts of why the murderer was allowed to be driving, etc., and beyond being immensely hurt I don’t know what else to say.
Anyone who talks during davening and/or laining is a jerk and should be told so to their face!
All the above. It’s also best when warmed up.
I was three. As a college professor once told me when I was feeling down about something, “If you could read at age 3, you can still read today.” I’m glad to have gotten that early start, especially as I went through the first couple of grades in school and saw kids age 6, 7, and 8 who could not read.
Best American brand is Bubbie’s. However, the very best are the ones from Eretz Yisroel kibbutzim, such as Yavne and Darom.
I used to, but I’ve gotton over it. For one thing, it’s not more strange than other forms of behavior in public in our time. If the issue is that it looks like I’m “talking to myself,” there are a lot of people who are talking on their cellphones with headsets that are all but invisible, and who years ago I would have thought are talking to themselves. So my talking to Hashem is no more strange or wierd than whoever the cellphone users are talking to. During the winter months at work, my work schedule requires me to work through Mincha time, so I daven at my desk.
I’ve gotten smicha from a number of charity-seeking organizations who got my address. And even from the former Rov of my shul for his daughter’s chasena. And I’ve never even learned in Yeshiva. I became Baal Teshuva in my early 30s.
Learn something. Gemara, Mishnah, the Parsha with Rashi and/or Ramban, Halacha. There, that should be enough to avoid boredom for a whole week.
Not to actually be happy for a person’s death, but I certainly don’t consider this death a loss for the Jewish people, or for humanity as a whole.
That depends on the progress of your relationship with the prospective Kallah. It’s something you should probably consult with your Rov or Rosh Yeshiva about, and/or her Rosh Bais Yaakov. My wife and I got engaged after 5 months of dating. Believe it or not, most people were telling us that was too long. Moral of the story: You need to get sound advice from someone who knows you and who can give you sound advice based on his knowledge of you. It’s not a subject to be taken up with a mob, including over an internet website.
I spent the day learning, working on some personal finances, and went out to a Chinese buffet at Denver’s East Side Kosher Deli. I thought the blat scheduled for December 25, which discusses the tumah of Avodah Zorah, was particularly poignant for that day. Talked to my son in Yeshiva, where he was making phone calls for his Yeshiva’s raffle campaign.
I love working in Customer Service. I just wish I didn’t have to deal with so many people so I could get my work done.
Technology would be a great thing if it weren’t for all the machines.
Since $40,000 is about 2/3 of my NET (AFTER taxes) salary for a single year, I don’t put much stock in $40,000 watches, and I can’t begin to think of the things that someone who could afford to buy such a watch would be thinking. However, bashing the rich (someone who could afford a $40,000 watch, etc.,), or companies whose products are marketed to the rich, is not a Jewish mida. It’s a mida of classical Christianity and of some in American political circles. I’ve said before, and say again, check the Igeres HaRamban, and what he has to say as to how we “commonfolk” have to think of the rich. We have no right to be jealous, or to begrudge them their wealth. Are we also jealous of their nisyanos in everyday life? I’ve seen some very wealthy Jews, and the heartaches and burdens they often have to carry with them. And I often think of them a bit, and conclude, “Thank G-d for MY problems.”
Well, once you start abusing Judaism, as YTC does on several points, you’ll end up abusing Jews. YTC has always held itself as “liberal Orthodox.” But a real “liberal” is someone who applies the most lenient side of the law. A “liberal” is not someone who, in the name of simplicity or whatever else, violates the law.
May I refer you to the Igeres HaRamban (which is now included in Artscroll’s Expanded Complete Siddur), in which he cautions against thinking badly of rich people. That letter needs to be read by everyone. Hashem gave each of us what wealth, possessions, etc. that we have, and we’re each supposed to use that to the fullest to live up to Hashem’s hopes for our potential. Rich people have nisyonos, and poor people have nisyonos. There are both rich and poor people who overcome them and contribute greatly to Klal Yisroel and the world. There are also rich and poor people who fall to the nisyonos. And most of us are probably somewhere in between. It’s bad enough that our nation’s top leader is mounting a class warfare to enable his agenda. We should not be imitating that example, of mounting a war between the rich and the poor, in the Jewish world.
I can’t tell just by looking at a person whether they cover their hair or not. Sheitels look so like real hair to me that I’d never know if a woman was wearing one or not, unless my wife were to tell me.
Raphael Kaufman: That’s exactly what I was going to say! The whole point of Chanukah is that we don’t incorporate the practices of others into our Holy Days and celebrations. So, “Chanukah spirit” does not belong in our lexicon.
I’ve got several entries:
There’s nothing like a good_______
blat Gemara
Date with my wife
Drasha from the Rov
Private meeting with the Rov
Hotdog
Corned beef/Pastrami sandwich
Moderator, I think Adams deserves a serious answer, and as he said, he isn’t so learned.
Adams, there are four different modes of capital punishment prescribed in Torah for various serious offenses. However, they can only be carried out when we have a functioning Sanhedrin sitting in Eretz Yisroel. We haven’t had such a Sanhedrin for 2000 years, and we also don’t have the possibility in our time of the full Smicha (ordination) that the rabbis who would have sat on the Sanhedrin would have. So, no capital punishment at all for any reason because no qualified Jewish court.
Now what do we do? Exactly what we should have been doing the last 4 years, and as we should be doing if Romney had won instead. Daven for Hashem’s protection and learn, Li’shma, His Torah fervently and passionately. We voted. We did whatever was humanly possible to do. But to be either euphoric or depressed because of an election outcome borders on Avodah Zorah. I’ve spent years rebutting the view of most Jews that liberalism and the Democratic party are “Torah mi’Sinai.” But the same is true of those who think that conservatism and the Republican party are “Torah mi’Sinai.” There is only one G-d, and He is calling the shots as to the kind of world we have to rise to. The message of last night that our ultimate vote, first, last, and always, must be to try to think of what Hashem wants and to act accordingly.
Romney.
Maybe this is the “Thread To Nowhere.” Kind of like the “Bridge to Nowhere” that Sarah Palin was constantly touting in 2008 because she vetoed it.
It was nice to chat with you anyway. Have a great day!!
The several blat that follow the first one are quite complex, and after the relatively easygoing Aggada and Hashkofa that permeates most of Brachos can come as a shock. I would suggest evaluating whether you want to stick with the speed of Daf Yomi, or if you want to compromise the speed for a few days in favor of understanding those blat. If the latter, you would probably do yourself a favor to hook up with a tutor to help you through them. I do recommend working from the Artscroll volume because their explanations are very thorough. You are going to sweat a lot to get through it, but you will be very satisfied for having done so.
As with most questions of such serious nature, the venue for discussing this is the office of a Rov that you trust with halachic questions. I’m certainly not one, and therefore I’m not in any league to answer the question, and I gather that most of those who post to this site aren’t rebbeim either. As to “wanting to break the relationship off,” that may be going overboard. The question is whether your cousin needs the information you have received. What she does with it is her decision, and as above, one that she may need to take up with her Rov
I don’t know that it’s absolutely prohibited in a strict halachic sense, although there is a general prohibition on causing undue suffering to an animal. As with most questions of a halachic nature on this website, I think you need to talk to a posek and tell him the exact circunstances you’re thinking about.
Reply to Health:
The reason evil triumphs so often isn’t because there are so many evil people, but because there are too many good people who don’t act to stop the evil. This is evil. This isn’t just trivial President bashing or political conversation which has been a questionable use of our First Amendment rights. This gizera goes to the heart of the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of religious liberty, as well as against Halacha. This gizera is an evil that good people need to take action to stop.
“Buzz punched reporter in the face:”
I rarely agree with Buzz Aldrin on things, but that reporter deserved it. On that one, Buzz was 100% correct!
Normally I wouldn’t even give this question the dignity of answering in a debate, but yes Neil Armstrong and 11 others have walked on the moon, with several others having spent some time in lunar orbit. All I can say about the conspiracy theories is that society has come to a very sad state when people pretend to be intellectuals by denigrating or denying the accomplishments of others. Since I’ve heard this conspiracy stuff from a bachurim in a number of yeshivos, it makes me wonder just exactly what other kinds of hooey they’re teaching, and if they can even be trusted regarding Torah itself.
Because the Democratic Party has become an Avoda Zorah, even when it comes to sympathize with our worst enemies. Why would any Jew vote for Obama? For the same reason that a Jewish girl would lay down in front of a bulldozer and get crushed to death so she could become a martyr.
Aish HaTorah’s Discovery Seminars are masterful at providing absolutely compelling proof for someone who is in the early stages of adopting a Torah lifestyle. For me, that was nearly 25 years ago. But since then I’ve been able to learn from the classic texts of Tanach, Mishnah, Gemara, Mishnah Breura, etc. from such publishers as Artscroll and Feldheim. Having done that, and continuing to learn daily I no longer need any proof of Hashem and His Torah. The fact that I exist, and that I’m a Jew — and particularly how the events of my life have come together to enable me to do the learning and become frum after an upbringing that made all that impossible by any natural standards — is all the proof I need. Beyond that, I don’t need any proof for Hashem and Torah. Just like I don’t need any proof that I have a mother and a father.
Fish (fresh or breaded fillets) with rice or potato and cooked vegetables or a salad.
I’m too old for this to have an affect on me now, but I’d try to find a way to do both. The Jewish people need both learning and being adequately armed and trained to stay safe, and staying adequately armed and trained is not a contradiction to learning. It’s another area of learning. Jews need to learn Torah and to constantly enforce our connection to Hashem by doing that. But we also can’t be claiming, in the name of our learning, that we can’t give up a town here, a religiouly significant site there — and being fully prepared to defend that down to the last Chiloni.
Take a leaf from Bereshis: Specifically Ch. 3:13-14. The snake stands accused by Chava. Hashem doesn’t ask any questions of the snake. He just pronounces the sentence. Lesson: Not everyone we meet is appropriate to debate. Parents should be teaching there kids that when you meet a missionary you get away as fast as possible. You don’t sit there and argue. You don’t debate them. By debating them you legitimize them. Just get away! (And when you’re at a safe distance learn something, like a Mishnah.)
We have two cats, brothers from the same litter. They are sweet, cute, and lend a lot of humor when they do some unusual antic. And we’re black-hat, Charedi, “Ultra-Orthodox” and makpid on the mitzvos and Torah learning. That includes being makpid in appreciating the other creatures that Hashem created for our enjoyment.
That the moon has no gravity. And that’s exactly what I was told before the moonlanding, and children’s videos etc. are still saying it 40 years after the moonlandings. I’ve never been able to understand why teachers and children’s videos can’t say the moon has less gravity than earth. They might not understand a fraction like 1/6, but any child can understand “more” or “less,” as any child will prove when calling our attention to that they got “more” or “less” of something than their siblings.
Also, my daughter was told that people in Australia are upside down. The truth is that it was a shaila put to HaRov Tzvi Pesach Frank as to how the lulav should be held during Succos when in the Southern Hemisphere.
It’s a pretty stupid and selfish thing to say. Everybody has their trials as Hashem sees fit to let them endure at whatever level. Having had a quite challenging upbringing myself I certainly know as well as anybody that children, even after they’re grown up, continue to feel pain from the very real hurts that family relationships can include. It’s how we respond to the hurts that answers whether we’ve passed whatever test Hashem wanted us to go through. Definitely, find somebody to talk with if that’s what you need — but somebody other than this person who will actually hear you out and attempt to be of honest help to you.
Sorry to be ignorant, but exactly what is a Troll? Somebody called me that once and I didn’t understand what they meant.
Personally I’m voting for Romney. I definitely think he has the potential to be a better President than Obama. That said, no matter who wins the election, the only one I’ll trust with my wellbeing, and with that of Klal Yisroel, is HaShem.
A couple of kids, preparing for their Lag b’Omer picnic, took them to try out as Frisbees.
In Jewish law, a father could only marry off a daughter who was still a minor as defined by Halacha. By the time the girl was 12, the age of Bas Mitzvah, she was already a Bogeress(a full adult), at which stage her father could no longer marry her off without her consent. Although the Torah made this legal, it actually seems to have looked askance at such a practice because at one point it states that such a girl’s father “has betrayed her.” I don’t know what the current Halachic status of that law is, Rov Auerbach is spot-on, and in our time only a very evil man would do it.
Maybe we’re in different regions, but in Colorado it’s a very pleasant spring. The winter cold has given way to nice, warm temperatures, but not so hot as to be oppressive. It’s also very pretty outside. So from my angle, at least, the weather we’re having is a real brocha.
I’m not a doctor, and I’m also not a “health nut.” However, I do try to eat a healthy diet, with coaching from my doctor. The biggest problem I can see in the items you listed is fat content, especially in latkes and kugels. However, if they’re eaten in moderation and not the mainstay of the diet, they shouldn’t be an undue health risk. Cholent is basically a beef stew, which again is probably a ditto of the above regarding latkes and kugels.
The biggest problem I personally have is that a lot of the processed kosher items, such as chicken coating mixes, soups, etc., is the presence of MSG, to which I’m violently alergic. I’ve learned to read food labels real closely to avoid it.
I don’t subscribe to the Jewish Press. However, my wife doesn’t wear makeup. She didn’t on our first, or second, or 20th date, and hasn’t since we’ve been married. After over 17 years she’s still as beautiful as when I married her. Looks are definitely a part of the equation, but the difference in maturity is in what attributes besides that people are looking for.
Artscroll’s calendars are excellent in that regard as far as most dates when not said. With that as a starting point, you then need to consult the Rov or Gabbai of the shul or minyan you daven with to ask about their own minhagos.
For example, in the main shul on Denver’s Westside, we stop saying Tachanun exactly 1 week before Rosh Chodesh Nissan, because during that week the Mishkan was being set up and taken down, with Moshe officiating as the Kohen. We don’t start again until 2 Iyar.