rabbiofberlin

popa -bar -abba: can you tell me what “objective” response you have to the recent controversy about the draft? The irony here is that the only halachic sources are PRO- draft! (See gemoro sotah and rambam). Halacha has nuances-clearly- but you have a foundation(shulchan aruch) upon which to base your assumptions!

to mdd: Within your words, you answered yourself the question: these are HASHKOFOS, not HALOCHOS. Do you believe that “torah im derech Eretz’ (RSR Hirsch way) was against halocho? certainly not! Yet, the hungarian rabbonim (and today, the Israeli chareidim) are dead set against such a derech. It is a HASHKOFO, not a halocho.

As far as questioning the Poskim, I, for one, will not question a psak halocho of the great Poskim unless I have some solid other sources. It would be outrageous for me to dispute, for example, R”moshe piskei halocho- although other Poskim may disagree.

However, I feel quite comfortable in taking a different view about Zionisnm for example. This is not a halachic question (as much as Satmar would like it to be)and I free to follow my own inclinations, especially as I can find support in other Gedolim!

As far as the Chief Rabbi, if his piskei halocho make sense, then what is the problem? You may disagree and you can follow whomever you want to ,but in halacha ,there are solid parameters to follow.

popa-bar-abba-You are being facetious, aren’t you? You never heard of anyone asserting that “daas torah’ is infallible and we ust followe it? We must live in on different planets!

And you will have to show where, amongst all the many volumes of halacha, is there a direct instruction how to elect a rabbi ? Clearly, such a person needs some qualities but do you have any source that tells me whom to elect?

Classic strawmen cna be attributed to your writings too…

to Daas Yochid: I did not say anything about the letter- on the contrary, the RCA is fully competent to point out what they think is wrong. My point was that you did NOT have necessarily have to listen to Rav Ovadia Josef in this matter. Whether to support Rav Stav or not is not a halachic matter. If you follow Rav Ovadia Josef. then you listen to him but others (RCA, Rav Druckman and others) can certainly argue with that view.I tend to agree with you that the language was very intemperate.

To Popa bar abba; Halacha is encapsulated in the Shulchan Aruch. How to conduct your life as a jew is hazier (must you wear a black hat? Must I follow my view as to drafting all jews ?) I do not agree with you that the Rabbonim konw all the time what would be the Torah way. Do you follow the way of RSR Hirsch? Or, do you follow the way of the Hungarian rabbonim (firmly against limudei chol)?Do you follow the way of Rav Kook or do you follow the way of the Neturei Karta? The mishneh says “ashe lecho rav”- you can choose who your mentor is. Allow every Jew to have that choice and do not denigrate others who do not view the world as you do.

mdd: as you addressed me, I will ask you again- find me a source that says that we have the obligastion to follow a Pssek on “milei d’alma” .Just by insulting me does not make you right. Please provide those sources you are so knowledgeable of. I repeat what I said many times : this assertion that Poskim are infallible and that we must put aside our own brains and follow them blindly is a modern invention. Please provide sources.

moderators: please show why “milei d’alma” -matters of daily interest=is WITHIN the purview of halacha. This has become the mantra today but there is no source for it.

take it to a different thread. Maybe I’ll post, maybe I won’t. I usually don’t get involved, as you know.

This is going put me in hot water (if the moderators even allow it through). Why do we have to listen to Rav Ovadia”s words? if you are his follower, so be it. I find his words in general very disturbing (he called Rav Amsallem a rosho, he calls Rav Stav an apikorus)

allowed half. The answer to you is there is a difference between a disagreement with the gadol hador of sephardic jewry, and saying “oy l’mi shelamdo torah”.

Sam2 (and benignuman): Your quote from the gemoro kesubos (17A) is slightly erroneous- R”shmuel bar nachmeni in the name of R’jonasan says it is MUTTAR to look in a kallahs face, etc…but the gemoro says that the halocho is not like him.

However ,from this gemoro itself ,you clearly see that the kallahs did NOT cover their faces! Hence, you COULD look at their faces! if the minhag was to cover their faces, the gemoro’s statement would make no sense!

Furthermore- earlier in the sugya, the machlokes of bais hillel and bais shammai concern the statement-“_Keitzad merakdim lifnei hakallah”, but it is pretty clear that they both agreed that one looked at the kallah to see how she looked.

The answer to this contradiction is probably benignuman’s answer- R’Jonasan’s statement maintains “lehistakel”-meaning intently and this is what the gemoro refutes. Bais Hillel and Bais Shammai talk about looking casually. (see Bais shammai’s statement about “chiger and sumoh”)

I did not see much of the vidoes but I am indeed surprised that the kallah put her veil back on during the mitzvah tenz. I have been to countless chassidische chasunos of all stripes and the kallah did not cover her face during these mitzvah tenz. The remark about burkas is not far fetched.

wow! levandowsky is now the last word in nussach? some of his tunes are brilliant, but then so is yankel talmud, modzitz, and above all shlomo carlebach!

HaKatan; Against my wishes, I am being dragged back into answering your outrageous arguments. First- who are you- or we- to gauge someone’s greatness? Rav Zevin, zz’l, knew as much as Torah as anyone you mentioned. Certainly, Rav Kook zz.l, was of equal stature. But, regardless of this artificial measure, events prove someone wrong or right. You continue to promulgate the fantasy opinion that things are terrible in Eretz Yisroel, that everyone is being shot at and killed, that it would be just honky-dory if all jews lived under Moslem sovereignty. All of these arguments are the equal of seeing pink elephants fly over the roof.

In fact, the medinah is thriving, Torah is at its heighest in a thousand years (at least)and the real danger is for Jews living in France, Argentina, Russia, Hingary.etc….

So, continue presenting your fanciful arguments. Sadly for you, few people beleive in them.

And, can you please explain to me why the Brisker zz’l, went to live in Eretz Yisroel rather that the United States? How could he live together with al lthrse “ovdei avodah zarah”?

yekke2: thanks for the reply. As you quote from the Haggodo- it is very difficult to “pasken” from an oral psak. Although the person asking the question may rely upon an “oral psak’, the klal must have the exact parameters and this is only possible in writing.

yekke2: thanks for your honest answer. This is why you can never rely upon so-called oral decisions. It could have been done in so many different ways and therefore it is important to know the actual parameters.

Note that YOU added the words “and it is assur” which is not what happened with the Rov you mentioned. His quote (as per your own admission) is that R”Shlomo Zalman said that “a sensor is switch”. OK. But then, there are many things that can happen and will engender different piskei halocho.

“I can only try ” has the sensible reply. The whole issue of electric circuits being triggered unwittingly is replete with “dovor she-ein miskaven’ and “lo niche lei”. Add to that the fact that some major poskim don’t consider electricity a “doirasai’ and add to that “kovod habrios” (that allows a shvus on shabbos).

to yekke- Can you show me wehere R”Shlomo Zalman zz’l paskened the way yoy report?

mdd: i know the pirkei avos qualities about learning torah- but tell me, truthfully, do you expect today people to be abjectly poor ,not being able to give their children food, not being able to pay rent , yet spending their time learning ? what ever happened to the mishne in kiddushin? the kesubah? and, as I asked another poster, what happened to all those wo remained in europe and heeded their rabbonim’s advice up to the Second World war?

health: I’ll let the people at large decide whether your arguments or mine are the right ones. No need to keep on regurgitating the same lines of argument.

Secondly- you continue your lunatic options of “giving away the medinah to simply save lives”. What are you smoking? Have you looked around the neighbourhood a little? Syria is killing tens of thousands of their own people…. Egypt is persecuting the Copts everywhere..Iran is imprisoning tens of thousands of their own citizens…Turkey (your very favorite Turkey) is killing the Kurds and imprisoning their citizens, on the way to an Islamic republic…AND YOU WANT US TO GIVE AEAY THE MEDINAH TO…WHOM??? stop your lunacy!

HaKatan: i did not have much time to look over all comments and just realised you asserted- in opposition to my statement- that you have z”no intention of denigrating anyone’. Now that’s a belly laugh. For years now, you have become the main apologist for the terrible things that are said about millions of jews (many chareidm includdd, btw) so spare me the crocodiel tears.

As far as the opposition to Zionism by many Rabbonim-so what? there were always two sides to any story. The Holocaust and the founding of the medinah put paid to that debate. Look who survived.

DaasYochid: Thank you for pointing me to the Rashbo. I read (and re-read) it carefully and also looked at the gemoro in Nazir to whioc he alludes. In truth, the teshuvo raises more questions than it gives answers . Firstly- the person asks the Rashbo the question whether the custom of people “shaving under their chin and the throat” (obviously to avoid “hashchoso beta-ar in “Pe-as zekeinecho”) is allowed, as the people do it all the time. So, does the Rashbo prohibit this? In other words, according to the Rashbo, can we -today!- shave anywhere? According to your intimation that the Rashbo holds that,once it is a “malbush isha” it remains Ossur forever- dos that mean that we- today- do not hold like the Rahsbo??

Secondly-if you look at the actual gemoro- it ends up allowing to scrape hair from under the armpits ,asl ong as it is with a “beged’ a cloth. Why should that be so, if any shaving like women is ossur?

Lastly, although the Rashbo does indees intimate that any shaving would be ossur- from the gemoro “Nazir” (59a) it seesm that only “chaveirim” followed that precept. Maybe it is only a middus cahssidus, and nto the halacha? More questions tob elucidate this.

For all those who criticize Rabbi Lipman and make him out to be the most evil person since Titus, I challenge you to actually read what he did say and see Rav Feldman’s apology to him.The facts are simple-as Rabbi Lipman maintains- the chareidim who do not acquire even the most basic secular knowledge, like math, will never be able to enter the workforce and will be poor forever, dependent upon zedakah all their lives. That,says Rabbi Lipman is not the Torah way. The Torah clearly enjoins husbands to feed their wives, fathers to teach their sons a profession and all Jews to go out to work for a living. He is right and the chareidi public in Israel is now paying for their misguided ways.

Hakatan: please check with argentinian jews, russian jews, french jews,turkish jews (what’s left of them) whether the medinah has “been a disaster” as you maintain…Or maybe you should aks the tens of thousands of avreichim in israel who have lived their whole lives supported by the medinah,whether it is ‘a disaster” the disaster is amongst the dwindling few who still cling to an obviously wrong shittah…..

DAMoshe: I join you in the thanks for this marvelous day!

Sam2: your “mareh mekomos” for the prohibition of pants for men must be erroneous. Aruch Hashulchan ,Even Ho’ezer 21 does not have a S/K 13 and I quickly perused the gemoro in niddah 13A and 13B that you are pointing to and I don’;t see what you are maintaining.

I must be a glutton for punishment because nothing that is said here will make an iota of difference but , “l’maan haemes” I have to put in my two cents, in response to DaasYochid and others.

It is irrelevant how many people are available for the army or how many people are or are not learning. IF the situation today in israel is one of danger, then everyone has a CHIYUV to go to the army. As simple as that. Look up the mishne end of soitah and the rambam. It is uequivocal that the duty of defending the Jewish yishuv falls on every one!

benignuman: “bemechilas keovd toroscho”- if you look at the actual teshuvo, you will see that R”Moshe zz’l brings proof that no mechitza is needed by a “chasunoh” from korbon pessach- when families ate together and no separation was required to eat together. So, it seems pretty clear that we are talking about eating together-without separate seating.

As far as your argument about ‘closed family group”, “im kein ein ledovor sof”- it is impossible to gauge each event individually and, in any case, at the korbon pessach, we had different families eating together,not just one family.

Lastly, I looked up the teshuvoh you mentioned in even Ho-Ezer 4,60. R’Moshe zz’l does indeed say that talking to a woman -same as embracing – may come under the issur of “lo sikrevu”, but it is only when there is a real relationship between the two people. I don’t see where ‘kalus rosh’ is an issur medoraisa. I read the teshuvo diffenretly than you do.

wrtiersoul: A pin test means you stick a pin in one word on an amud in shas- and the person can tell you what is on the other side of the amud ,continuing through the masechta.

charliehall (and others): tefillah ,in its present form, came to us quite late-certainly after the ‘anshei knesset hagedolah” and even afterwards if you know when “velamalshinim’ was instituted.For a long time ,we had the ‘bekki-im’ who repeated the tefillah for those who could not read. Hence, I am not sure whn regular minyanim were established and certainly, we don’t have any idea when “botei knesset’ were established. It strains credulity to think that “botei knesst” in their present form were established during the Bayis Hamikdosh’time.The architecture of synagogues date from the late geonic time, not before. I still think that the separation of sexes was pretty common but not necessariyl the mechitza. And -as charliehall notes- never i nall circumstances.