pcoz

enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind – I can’t think of a Jewish source that doesn’t say that the source of enlightenment is the mind (maharal, mesillas yesharim, maharsha, ohr yisrael)

He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present – ve’yadata hayom ki ka’asher ye’yaser ha’ish es beno Hashem elokechah meyasrekah – we do receive yissurin but we respond to them and are elevated through them

the indestructible essence of our Being, “the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are

subject to birth and death” – kudsha berich hu ve’yisroel ve’oraisoh chad hu is a more encompassing thought than saying that life as we perceive it is ephemeral

Reb Chaim says that the maaseh of tefilla consists of being mechaven that you are omed liphnei Hashem. (Therefore he says there are 2 kavanos in shemonei esrei – one that you are omed liphnei Hashem and – two – the peirush hamilos.)

If someone is ‘spacing out’ during chazaras hashatz they are at least being omed liphnei Hashem – ve’haraya – becuase otherwise why are they standing there. Mah she’ein kein if they learn they are not being omed liphnei Hashem.

there’s no issur of baal yeroeah and baal yimatze on blios so nothing needs doing

BHTWIA – the Chazon Ish says (Emunah u’Bitachon) that torah and tefilla are cyclical, torah strengthens davening and davening strengthens learning, ki Hashem yiten chachmah mipiv daas usevunah! I always thought of this as a capacitor / inductor resonant circuit.

In a minyan metzumtzam if a person is learning during chazaras hashetz I imagine you would not have asarah mispallelim.

Crazy Brit – I think the Spectrum is better

this person seems to be more of a nut than a rodef

the Gateshead Rov z”l once paskened that you can copy a tape as long as you leave out one song. The logic in this pesak would seem to have been that seeing as the item which is sold is the tape then as long as you did not copy the entire tape you have not ‘stolen’ the item which is sold. That was in the old days of tapes, nowadays this pesak would seem to not apply becuase

a) copying music is rampant and a threat to the parnassah of the people who produce music

b) as each song is sold seperately it is now possible to ‘steal’ a single song

It has to depend on the demographic of the person he is answering the shaaloh to or who he is expecting to learn his sefarim. Obviously Avraham Avinu did not wear a hat for davening. For the yeshivisher olam wearing a hat is equivalent to being dressed properly.

that would only seem to apply if for you it is a bizayon to daven without a hat

so let’s say you ask an amaleki to kill himself – did you do a mitzva? licheroah it depends, if the mitzva is for the amaleki to be dead, then lemai naphka minah how he became dead, this is like the halacha that you can make a berachah al asiyas maakeh if you ask a goy to make a maakeh for you because at the end of the day your roof now has a maakeh made for it.

However if you say that the mitzva is that you should kill the amaleki then you can’t make him your shliach for you because he’s not a bar chiyuva

it’s lav davka, it means that you feel this is the halacha. I doubt that Avraham Avinu’s kidneys had any more part in being a mayan ha’novea hachachma to him than any other part of his anatomy, it’s a geder of mibesari echezeh eloak.

the problem with the internet in chinuch is that the chol is meant to be taphel to the kodesh which is very difficult when technology offers a more immediately vivid experience to the kids than is available in kodesh. if you are the sort of kehilla that cuts themselves of from this altogether then that’s not a problem but if you are a kehilla who tries to integrate the technology into the chol education then it is a real problem because the kodesh cannot capture the kids’ imagination.

reb shlomo zalman z”l said you can listen to hergesh music during the sefirah, a friend of mine asked him about this as he was surprised at the heter, his response was “mah, eli tziyon lo sharim be’tishah be’av?”

story from Reb Moshe Aharon Stern z”l; rav scheinberg was on a plane and wanted to learn, they were going to put out the lights for the movie, so he asked the attendant if they could do without the movie, she said if you ask every person on the plane, which he did – but they still went to put it on. The projector wouldn’t come on due to an electrical fault. Apparently if there is a fault with any of the electrical fixures at all they have to do an emergency landing which they were going to have to do. The attendant aplogised to rav sheinberg and the projector came on, they didn’t watch the movie though and rav sheinberg got to learn

you’ll never convince anyone you’re a talmid chacham by getting up and giving a prepared speech, just stand up and ask them to faher you

chas veshalom, mi gilah lechah raz zeh

I once davened with nk on shabbos morning, I was walking to meah shearim shtieblach and met the leader of the neturei karta who recruited me for a minyan. I didn’t notice any mossad agents there but you never know

in the old days women would not go on the streets at all which is why the halacha says im pagah ishah bashuk lo yelech acharehah because it was surprising that a person should be pogeah ishah bashuk as only the men went to the shuk. this halacha probably does not apply today becuase aderabah most of the people in the shuk are women. the situtation in gateshead is different if you are talking about sem girls and yeshiva bochurim because eino domeh mi sheyesh lo pas besalo lemi she’ein lo pas besalo. even if this is a valid takanah it is not a raayah to other towns where this is not the situation. on the other hand everyone has the right to defend themselves against whatever they deem to be a threat to thier ruchniyos.

If the mother staying at home would endanger her child’s life then she definitely would not be allowed to have a home delivery. The question is if this is assur because it is shchiach hezeika or not. There is probably not one single answer to this question which is why you have to ask your rav.

Here is a comment from Dr M. Chalk of Gateshead z”l from a letter sent to the British Medical Journal;

“For myself, I feel that absolute safety is non-existent.

And to have given the mother peace of mind and happiness (of a home birth) is a very great thing.”