rebdoniel

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  • in reply to: My Zeidy is so Jewish… #1102038
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Perhaps.

    in reply to: The last supper #964304
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Wine and matzah (jk). Seriously, probably leftovers from shabbat.

    in reply to: Why don't the Rabbonim enforce Tznius? #967218
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Rabbis command no respect anymore. Power lies in the hands of big machers with gelt. Power of the purse is an attitude that affects our community. This is one reason why I believe the Rambam felt talmidei chachamim ought to have jobs; if a rabbi becomes dependent upon a community for his parnassah, what does he do when the shul board votes him out because they’re upset he talks about tznius and elevating standards in his sermons? It happens every day. People don’t like being chastized. Tochacha isn’t popular.

    in reply to: Where did the Jewish food "Kneidel" come from? #964585
    rebdoniel
    Member

    All that matters is that they’re delicious. One of my favorite foods for sure, whether done vegetarian (yes, it can be done) or in a geshmake chicken soup.

    I made matzah ball soup for shabbat this week. The key that made them so good was that I used (in addition to matzah meal, salt, eggs, salt, white pepper, and parsley) a little chicken powder and a good amount of melted schmaltz in the matzah balls. In my chicken soup, I used feeselech, wings, necks, backs, a whole chicken, onions, carrots, celery, whole garlic, petrushka, celeriac, a ton of dill, parsnips, rutabaga, bay leafs, and peppercorns. To intensify flavor, I browned and roasted all the ingredients before putting them in my huge pot, and I also found that using cold water is essential.

    in reply to: My Zeidy is so Jewish… #1102036
    rebdoniel
    Member

    The stereotype of the Jewish nose is a pernicious one. Nazi propaganda, Soviet propaganda, Czarist propaganda, etc.

    How about this? When I am 120, I’d want my eineklach to say this about me:

    That he greeted everyone with a smile.

    That he respected and learned from all people.

    That he learned Torah whenever he had the opportunity to do so, while working hard to care for his family.

    That he greeted his wife every erev shabbos with a bouquet of flowers le kavod shabbos.

    That he respected those he disagreed with.

    That he made a kiddush hashem.

    That he defended the oppressed and marginalized.

    in reply to: Why don't the Rabbonim enforce Tznius? #967205
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Is the post really so outlandish? Tznius standards have fallen considerably across the board in the past couple of years.

    in reply to: Anti-Semitic Apartment Rating #964630
    rebdoniel
    Member

    There are several things we need to do in response to Anti-Semitism.

    a) First and foremost, teshuva. Strengthening our shmirat hamitzvot and limud hatorah, especially mitzvot ben adam le chaveiro. Becoming more makpid in things like shmirat halashon, etc. is necessary. It is also horrible when Jews are in conflict among each other; one Jew hurting another is a tragedy, IMHO, when what we need is love.

    b) Improving our ahavat yisrael and promoting unity. We need to be united as a community. The Nazis didn’t care who was Reform, Orthodox, Hasidic, or secular. They didn’t care who was Jewish by Orthodox standards, or Reform standards, or Neolog standards. They all suffered the same fate, r”l. Fsctionalism and sectarianism were also the factors that led to the destruction of Bayit haSheni. Organizations today such as the UJA/Federation, AIPAC, AJC, ADL, JNF, etc. represent the entire community and provide an effective means of advocating for Jewish interests.

    c) Improving our ethics: The Shvet Yehuda (Ibn Verga) believed that a failure to act upon our universalist duties to gentiles and a lack of ethics and concern for their needs promoted anti-Semitism in Spain. The Seridei Esh said the same regarding German anti-Semitism. Ill-feelings need to be avoided, and we need to appreciate our duty to bury the dead, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked of all peoples, for all are G-d’s children.

    d) Education: Making a kiddush HaShem and letting people know that Jews aren’t all like the crooks portrayed on the news is crucial. Through charitable and huanitarian efforts, as well as efforts to work together with other groups in promiting social welfare, we can achieve this. It is also as simple as offering your seat on the train to an elderly gentile, or helping gentiles with directions, or just having a kind word and a pleasant attiude towards all people. Remember: every person you see is a Tzelem Elokim.

    in reply to: A Handwriting Analysis Changed Me! #969816
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Graphology is probably assur. Darchei Emori.

    in reply to: If someone said that they'd give you a car… #1105515
    rebdoniel
    Member

    They’re not owned by Ford anymore.

    It’s interesting to see how many organizations are actually financed by Ford’s foundation.

    in reply to: Camp learning groups #964291
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I once subbed limudei kodesh. They liked some more of the epic narratives in Nach.

    in reply to: If someone said that they'd give you a car… #1105513
    rebdoniel
    Member

    No Nazi cars for me (sorry, Biology). I’d want a Jaguar.

    in reply to: Why don't the Rabbonim enforce Tznius? #967192
    rebdoniel
    Member

    What do you practically expect rabbis to do about the situation?

    in reply to: What are they thinking? #964841
    rebdoniel
    Member

    When I was Reform as a kid, nobody ate until after Neilah and Maariv. With triennial, they end up actually completing the Torah in a year, but they end up reading less at Shabbos shachris and more at Mincha, Monday and Thursday shacharis. As someone who began leyning seriously this year, I wish there were a halakhic way to have a triennial cycle, but there is no way to my mind to allow it. Rav Benzion Uziel vigorously opposed it.

    in reply to: Mozzarella cheese doesn't need hashgacha? #964556
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I never read any psakim on wine like that. He’s matir Welch’s grape juice because that davka is produced all by machine.

    Also, Polly-O mozzarella (before the OU) had Conservative rabbinical hashgacha, and R’ Abadi allowed that because there was a fully automated process in place; i.e. machines poured microbial rennet into the milk, and human hands never handled the cheese-making process.

    in reply to: Stupid ASPCA commercials #1040104
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I’d suggest people read R’ Dovid Sears’ book on Compassion for Animals and Judaism for a better insight into these matters.

    in reply to: Snowden and Pollard Crime #964226
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Snowden is not a patriot. I do agree that Pollard’s sentence is disporportionate with the crime he committed, but let’s not forget that there is evidence of Pollard’s involvement with China.

    in reply to: What are they thinking? #964837
    rebdoniel
    Member

    No such thing as triennial service.

    There was a tradition mentioned in the Yerushalmi that some communities in E”Y would read the Torah in its complete cycle once every three years, not once every year. The early Reform movement adopted this, and the Conservative movement did in the 60s and 70s, when they started to reject halakha wholesale.

    To my knowledge, many Conservative synagogues will still go through the entire sedrah in the course of a week; they just break it up differently (so that a little is being done at Shabbat Shacharit, a little at Mincha, and a little on Monday and Thursday). However, considering everything else they do against halakha, recording a service and doing havdalah in the morning doesn’t surprise me one bit.

    in reply to: What are they thinking? #964832
    rebdoniel
    Member

    The Conservative movement, to my knowledge, didn’t mess around too much with Nusach Ashkenaz (which is what their siddur is based on). Traditional nusach hatefillah is something that they actually retained more than many Orthodox, since they actually invest in training qualified cantors.

    I don’t know of any synagogue ever to do havdalah on Shabbat morning. Maybe you were watching an instructional video taped outside of Shabbat? The movement has a teshuva where they don’t allow recording to take place on Shabbat.

    in reply to: Mozzarella cheese doesn't need hashgacha? #964553
    rebdoniel
    Member

    GF matza squares aren’t what I had in mind. If you know anyone on the Paleo diet, or anyone who eats GF bread made by Udi’s or Katz’s, you know what I am talking about. An actual loaf of sliced bread that you can eat sandwiches on, and tat generally can be used like bread. The GF breads don’t currently have a KFP hashgacha (although Rav Abadi says that Udi’s bread is fine for Passover); the issue could be that they use kitniyot derivatives (there are no actual kitniyot in them, since R’ Abadi says that Ashkenazim could eat it). Cross-contamination with hametz couldn’t be much of a concern, since the company would lose its credibility among celiac sufferers and would be subjected to lawsuits galore. (Recall that for many Sephardim, they hold that there is bitul hametz before Pesach, even le chatchila, and that they aren’t concerned; I just don’t have the industrial knowledge to know what it is in that GF bread that causes it not to be KFP).

    in reply to: Stupid ASPCA commercials #1040099
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Morally, human beings take precedence over animals. If a person would donate to the ASPCA before doing anything to help people, they’re denying the idea that humans are made in imitatio Dei, not animals, who lack rationality and the Divine imprint that humans have.

    I do donate to the ASPCA, but I also do donate to groups that actually feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and liberate the oppressed.

    in reply to: Dating Places near the Catskills? #964087
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Nu, go some place with a good old-time tummler (Do any of those places in the mountains still have tummlers, or did tummlers go by the wayside like a decent pastrami sandwich?)

    in reply to: Mozzarella cheese doesn't need hashgacha? #964548
    rebdoniel
    Member

    You’re now getting into issues of ne’emanut.

    in reply to: A Generic Shidduch Resume: One Size Fits All (or most) #976045
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Beautiful. It has a Shir haShirim feel to it (the first part at least). May you be zoche to meet your one and only soon!

    in reply to: Marrying a Good Wife #963794
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Same here. Brisket, ribs, burgers, steaks, kebabs, sounds good to me.

    in reply to: Mozzarella cheese doesn't need hashgacha? #964539
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I hold like you do. It’s important to eat matzah each day of Pesah. However, that doesn’t mean that matzah is the only food that should be eaten; many frum Jews don’t even eat anything made from matzah. There’s no good reason why a widely-available, lower-priced GF KFP bread couldn’t be made available to the public. And not the KFP bread products made from potato starch that cost $10 a loaf nowadays. Some Sephardic rabbis allow us to eat Udi’s GF bread on Pesah, anyways. No reason why a bread made from tapioca or coconut flour couldn’t be marketed to the public for Pesah.

    in reply to: Hakadosh Bar-b-que #963707
    rebdoniel
    Member

    It’s very good ‘cue. I sampled some on Sunday at a street fair on Lexington Avenue. His cholent is also delicious.

    in reply to: EICHA at Citi Field?! #963665
    rebdoniel
    Member

    A ta’anit is not a proper time to go to a ball game. Like immersing in a mikvah holding a sheretz. It’s not appropriate.

    in reply to: About the Government of Israel, I do shudder #964176
    rebdoniel
    Member

    And Rav Soloveitchik.

    in reply to: Kosher Electric Shavers? #963327
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I know many who hold le ma’aseh like Rav Abadi. It does make sense (as does R’ Abadi in general).

    Let’s be glad nobody is offering the limud zechut of the Malki be Kodesh on use of the t-razor nowadays.

    in reply to: What Not to Share With Your Spouse #1000273
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Some things in life are best kept swept under the rug.

    in reply to: How do you understand "Vesimach es ishto?" #964367
    rebdoniel
    Member
    in reply to: Marrying for Kiruv #963281
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Belief in the Zohar and danger? Hmm. Now there’s an intriguing idea.

    Since when is belief in the Zohar synonymous with Orthodox Judaism? Lots of Orthodox Jews believe in its teachings, however, plenty don’t. R’ Yaakov Emden opposed it. The Hatam Sofer believed it was not written in the time of Rashbi. Certainly, Rav Kafih, zt”l, author of Milhamot HaShem didn’t believe in it, either (my father’s great-grandfather, IIRC, was fairly close to the Dor Dai’im in Yemen).

    in reply to: Kosher Electric Shavers? #963322
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I found that I look better clean-shaven. Some people look better in a beard.

    in reply to: Kosher Electric Shavers? #963320
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I use a Norelco 6945XL model shaver, in accordance with the above psak from R’ David Feinstein

    in reply to: Watching the trial live #964404
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Racist vigilante groups are a danger in our midst. Too many civilians like playing cops, whether it’s Zimmerman or the Shomrim. My guess would be that frum people who defend Zimmerman are the same types who defended Werdesheim. One case, granted, involved assault, and the other murder, but the same, underlying attitude of racism and white privilege is at play in both cases. It saddens me, since warm ties between the Jewish and African American communities is something I always valued. A tear is always brought to my eye when I look at the image of Dr. King, z”l, marching with R’ Abraham Joshua Heschel, zt”l, and R’ Maurice Eisendrath carrying a sefer torah, arm in arm. R’ Saul Berman was also marching that day; how far have we deviated. The words of Amos haNavi have been forgotten by our community; HaShem cries with all the oppressed peoples of the world: ?????? ??????? ?????????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????????, ?????-??????: ?????? ???-??????????, ?????????? ??????? ?????????, ????????????????? ????????????, ??????? ???????.

    ???????? ?????????, ?????????; ?????????, ???????? ??????.

    in reply to: About the Government of Israel, I do shudder #964171
    rebdoniel
    Member

    On kol isha, the psak of Rav David Bigman, Hakham Avraham Shammah, and quite a few others is that kol isha is entirely contextual.

    in reply to: Marrying for Kiruv #963279
    rebdoniel
    Member

    That is not an ironclad an idea as you think and it is also potentially a very dangerous idea.

    in reply to: Who Is Your Favourite President #963858
    rebdoniel
    Member

    The Labor Party is also a member of SI; I am not referring to that as a bad thing, but in the context of what American leaders (Reagan) stood for, that was obviously a source of tension.

    Things in SA did generally stabilize under Mbaki, though.

    If America followed Jefferson’s economic plan, we’d be all spewing dumb things like Paula Dean and America wouldn’t be much different from Anatevka. Without urban life, the Jewish population never would have grown to what it is in this country. Surely, there were Jews in agriculture and Sephardic plantation owners in places like Charleston and Savannah, but an agrarian America would have never worked.

    in reply to: BBQ on July 4th?? #963096
    rebdoniel
    Member

    The Maharik, in his famous teshuva (#88) forbids Jews from doing things purely for the sake of imitating idolaters.

    He permits Jewish doctors wearing academic dress in the teshuva. There is nothing inherently pertaining to non-Jewish religious practices in the observance of Halloween or Thanksgiving. The Beit Yosef there (178) says (d.h. ve chen) that chukot hagoyyim applies in two cases: one is if there is no revealed reason for it, like ‘Chok’ connotes. Since he does a strange matter without a reason, it looks like he is drawn after Nochrim and admits to them (their creed). The other is due to tzeniut.

    A person does not have a BBQ on the 4th of a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving to imitate goyishe religions. He does it to be an honorable, patriotic American, out of love for his country.

    in reply to: Who Is Your Favourite President #963854
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Obama will probably go down in history as a very memorable president.

    in reply to: Who Is Your Favourite President #963848
    rebdoniel
    Member

    You cannot deny the anti-Israel attitudes of people central to the anti-apartheid movement, like Desmond Tutu, y”s. Also, why do you think so many whites, including Jews, had to leave South Africa once the ANC took control? Any South African Jew you would talk to will tell you that they had to leave because of the violence that Mandela and his cronies caused. If that was such a benevolent movement, than why did the USSR back it and America oppose it? The ANC is supported by its Tripartite Alliance with the South African Communist Party and COSATU, and the ANC is a member of the Socialist International. Under Mbeki, the ANC did make some concessions to capitalism, but the ANC is still marked by a leftist, anti-white, anti-colonial agenda.

    The ANC, in December 2012, also voted in favor of BDS.

    Mandela, when visiting Israel in 1999, came in a spirit of peace, but did acknowledge the fact that apartheid South Africa enjoyed good relations with Israel. (Recall that Arik Sharon in 1981 visited SA troops in Namibia and said that South Africa needed more weapons to fight Soviet influence).

    in reply to: Who Is Your Favourite President #963842
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Mandela turned South Africa into a banana republic. His party, the African National Congress, is/was a Soviet/Russian-backed anti-Western socialist organization.

    in reply to: Marrying for Kiruv #963277
    rebdoniel
    Member

    A person should not marry for the sake of another person making them better, per se. A marriage should involve 2 people who are complete, independent individuals.

    in reply to: BBQ on July 4th?? #963093
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Chukat hagoyim refers to specific idolatrous religious practices. I don’t know of any goyim who grill hot dogs as a korban to some deity. People should take the time on July 4th to remember what being an American means and to engage in patriotic activities, such as doing something in service to our troops abroad or at home.

    People should remember on this day, and every day, “Ask not what America can do for you, but what you can do for America.”

    And I fully support above comments regarding Jews on the dole.

    What chukat hagoy issues could exist with Thanksgiving? No Christian church has established any holiday around the last Thursday in November.

    in reply to: Who Is Your Favourite President #963832
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Definitely George Washington. Wilsonian foreign policy is ill-conceived and global governance is a bad idea (although R’ Haim Daivd HaLevi, zt”l, even attributed messianic significance to the establishment of the United Nations).

    in reply to: Marrying a Good Wife #963784
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Nu, why here?

    in reply to: About the Government of Israel, I do shudder #964156
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I doubt that hayalei tzahal are being “forced” to violate halakha. The army even goes out of their way to get Haredi kosher food for those who won’t accept normal kosher food.

    in reply to: What's your favorite thing about summer? #963375
    rebdoniel
    Member

    I like the long Shabbat afternoons, the opportunity to learn Pirke Avot be iyun, and the opportunity to reflect on our purpose this world and hashgacha pratit during the period of ben hametzarim.

    in reply to: Making Nazi references about the Israeli government #962848
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Comparing Jews to Nazis is typically not a good policy or advisable course of action. It trivializes the memory of the 6 million Jews and 5 million non-Jews who were systematically exterminated by that wicked regime.

    in reply to: Popcorn #963226
    rebdoniel
    Member

    Depends on the status of the machine (were treif oils used in it?). I wouldn’t think bishul akum would apply to popcorn.

Viewing 50 posts - 551 through 600 (of 1,881 total)