rebdoniel

I will eat a piece of matzah and wash on it prior to eating matzah brei, to avoid sfeikot.

For some people, maybe franks are the only meat they can afford. I’ve been in the position many times where a $4 pack of hot dogs were the only meat I could afford for chulent (franks in chulent are actually gevaldig).

If you follow R’ Yosef, R’ Elyashiv, R’ Shteinman, etc. your wife wouldn’t wear a wig.

There are those who hold a wig is good, and those (myself included) who don’t.

It does the mind and soul good to disconnect from the world for a little bit, to connect with family, friends, and to increase one’s time in shul, davening, learning, etc.

Gut yontiff, Big Brother

Read the sefer of R’ Haim Amsallem, the teshuvot of Mishpetei Uziel, Melamed LeHoil, Drishat Tzion, and others.

Even R’ Moshe Feinstein was sensitive to the concept.

I learned thoroughly the Sefer Zera Yisrael. I am thankful that there are rabbanim who hold like the Mishpetei Uziel.

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In addition, almost every major bet din in America gives special consideration to people who come having already identified with Judaism in one way or another. Obviously, a complete gentile who knows little or nothing about being Jewish is a different case than someone who has been already a part of the Jewish community.

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My mother had a “questionable” conversion, thereby resulting in many of the issues I had later on life. I wouldn’t want my children to suffer the same fate.

I would not marry a convert, absolutely not.

I was raised Jewish, in any event. With Sephardic minhagim (my father is Sephardic and married a non-Orthodox “giyoret”). I was chozer be teshuva, and in all of my years of being Orthodox, was never treated as anything other than a baal teshuva. It was treated as a pro forma, administrative matter that had to be dealt with for halakhic reasons, and it certainly didn’t mark any major changes in how I felt about myself.

I always identified with my father’s “half” and never felt anything but. The concept of zera yisrael is a most powerful one, and was dealt with thoroughly by the Mishpetei Uziel and other poskim.

In any event, given the situation today, I would not encourage marriage to a female convert, as that affects the status of children. If someone decides the father isn’t adequately Jewish, the children aren’t affected l’kol davar.

I also would not be able to relate too well to someone raised with Xmas, treif food, going to church, or with Catholic or Protestant cultural norms. Zera yisrael recognizes a genetic component to being Jewish, and that is something that the giyoret lacks (unless she was raised similarly). There are just certain norms, attitudes, and cultural identity markers that you get from being raised by a Jewish parent and in a Jewish home. I carried a Jewish upbringing and Jewish experiences for 20 years before dipping in a mikvah- Jewish camping, brit milah, bar mitzvah, Hebrew school, learning Pirkei Avot, learning Humash with Rashi, Onkelos, and both modern and traditional commentaries, learning Nach, even taking introductory Talmud instruction, Temple membership, Pesah sedarim, High Holidays, kashering the home for Pesah, Shabbat dinners, building and decorating the sukkah, birkat hamazon, kiddush, a kosher home, not ever eating non-kosher meat, mezuzot, participation in Jewish pluralistic forums and venues, Jewish communal involvement (UJA, JCRC, AJC, Israel Day Parade, anti-missionary work, 92 Street Y, my local JCC, etc.) Zionism, NFTY, nusah hatefillah, trope, etc. I am proud of my upbringing, and see it as giving me a good foundation. I merely decided to enhance my observance level later on in life, and in accepting the halakhic system, I had to acknowledge that I had to make my own status in line with the halakhic system. In fact, before becoming frum, I was determined to major in Jewish Studies, go to Pardes in Israel for 2 years (a pluralistic yeshiva founded by haRav Doniel Landes, shlita), and go to HUC-JIR in either NYC or Cincinnati for ordination, and get a PhD in Jewish Studies. But HaShem had other plans for me, and here I am.

So while technically, I did have to dip in a mikvah, sociologically and psychologically, I am really a baal teshuva, not a ger. I changed denominations, not religions.

Vilna Gaon, Chatam Sofer, and many others ate gebrokts.

I wouldn’t get involved with a woman who had any chashashot with conversion; a woman’s status affects children, and with the mishegoss nowadays with conversion, that is a big risk to take.

The whole idea is to say over the pshat of the haggadah.

Hazal ate rice and gebrokts. They also say it is preferred to use romaine lettuce for marror, and did a bunch of things many don’t do.

You check your Romaine for bugs, just as Jews have done for centuries.

What is the obsession with not wanting to check yerakot?

If a moderate is elected to the Rabbanut, than much needed changes can be made to the administrative positions undertaken.

Shor Yoshuv and Ohr Somayach in Monsey.

Are you a BT or a ger or both?

The Grush Lieberman never once denied any of the ikkarei haemunah.

And if he was so bad, than how did he maintain a kesher with Rav Soloveitchik, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Hutner, and scores of other gedolim?

His Tosefta Kifeshuta and Yerushalmi Kifeshuta are found on the shelves of any serious talmid chacham and are found in the libraries of many yeshivot.

I am fortunate to have many of his students as teachers.

The “Edah” is a non-Anglo religious entity, largely, that does beit din, hashgacha, etc.

I don’t understand what you mean by a yeshiva affiliated with a particular beit din,etc.

You seem ignorant on this.

My advice would be for you to seek out a BT yeshiva, like the ones I mentioned, or Shappells, or any of the others.

Ahh, the narishkeit over shiurim never leaves us, year after year.

The problem is that this has the potential to embarrass us. When you argue that the volume of an olive changes year after year, people think we’re nothing more than silly frummies.

Marbeh Torah is top notch. So is Ohr Somayach and Aliyos Shmuel.

Vegans I know eat nut loaf on Pesah- matza meal, sauteed vegetables and mushrooms, onion, garlic, herbs, spices, oil, potato starch, and lots of ground nuts.

Quinoa I can take or leave. I can also live without rice. I eat corn on the cob and chummus on Pesah, as well as corn pasta (my Pesah grain of choice).

The Grush Lieberman’s Tosefta Kipeshuta is in every yeshiva library.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe held by him, and so did the Hazon Ish, a cousin of his.

He resisted feminism, his followers are now within Orthodoxy, and for as long as he was at JTS, they had a mechitza.

The Gemara says that romaine lettuce, chazeret, is preferable. Rava says chazeret is calles chasa because HaShem was chasa al yisrael, and R’ Shmuel ben Nahmani says “Va’Ymareru Et Chayeihem” alludes to the Mitzriyim like Maror to teach that just like Maror is initially soft and is hard in the end, also the Mitzriyim were initially soft and hard in the end. Lettuce is initially soft, and if left too long in the ground it becomes hard.

And regarding a hashash of gebrokts- the same daf says you are yotzei if the marror is wet (but not cooked, shelukim, or kavush). If they were worried about gebrokts, Hazal wouldn’t have stated you are yotzei with marror that’s wet.