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Gasut haRuach and Baal tashchit.
There is no reason why secular and traditional and Dati Leumi soldiers should have to bear the brunt for Haredim.
If you don’t want to serve your country in the event of a draft, then leave. Torah is very important, but le ma’aseh, an Uzi is shmira against Arabs shooting rockets into Sderot. G-d helps those who help themselves, which is the entire thrust of the argument of Religious Zionism (that humans act as partners with G-d in affecting geulah)- see R’ Menachem Mendel Kasher’s perush on Shir haShirim.
I wonder if Haredim would serve in the army in the event America had a military draft, or if they would get bogus semichas and yeshiva exemptions, such as what happened during Vietnam.
I believe, like Hakham Uziel, and R’ Chaim Amsalem, and the Rambam, in Pe’er haDor #211, that the tragic phenomenon of intermarriage constitutes a hora’at sha’ah, as Jewish unity and the cohesion of the state of Israel is threatened. We need to utilize conversion as a means of averting a crisis, which we are on the verge of, sadly.
A situation where people who speak Hebrew, go in the army, eat matzah on Pesah, and fast on Yom Kippur can’t marry others who are on the same wavelength religiously, demands a response from the Rabbanut.
On the other hand, we believe that those who come to a shul, let’s say, have a chazaka of being Jewishness. Rambam says we only investigate status when marriage is involved.
If parents know they won’t abort, why waste money on all these expensive tests?
Reb Moshe paskened that one shouldn’t have amniocentesis, because he paskened against all abortions except to save the mother’s life.
Karaites use a patrilineal system (since matrilineality was instituted by Hazal in Masechet Kiddushin) to determine status, which leads me to wonder why some kind of tevilah or hatafah isn’t necessary.
It would be a boon to the manufacturer, in most cases.
There aren’t too many hechshers people don’t hold by on processed foods. Tablet K is the only one that comes to mind. Triangle K is not problematic in most cases (unless you only eat glatt).
Get flour in bulk and a good sifter to make homemade bread (you can be assured it’s pat yisrael like that).
Chicken wings are often as cheap as 99 cents a pound. You can bread and fry them and put different sauces on them, like buffalo sauce or bbq sauce, for a cheap fleshig treat.
Soups are always a good idea- Osem bases, veggies, barley, beans are cheap.
I’ve had to cut back in recent weeks.
This shabbos, we ate out Friday night, but for Shabbos morning, we had homemade challah, tuna salad, and hamin made from beans, barley, potatoes, bbq sauce, ketchup, garlic, onions, oil, spices, and cut up franks and a package of cheap chulent meat. On the side, we had parve kishka (homemade and very cheap), homemade potato kugel (very cheap), salt and pepper kugel with fried onions, an apple kugel made cheaply, and some deli slices.
They are considered Jewish, yet Karaites go by patrilineal descent, which is obviously not how we define Jewishness.
Karaim came several centuries after Tzedukim.
Cole Haan are incredibly expensive.
Their kashrus is reliable. I never heard anything bad about it.
What did R’ Gukavitzky translate? And who is he?
I find that I need a dress-looking shoe that is also very comfortable for shabbos, since I frequently walk miles on shabbos for the sake of bikur cholim, etc.
You think that’s cheap?
I am assuming these are per pound prices.
Artscroll is brilliant, but we need more of the me’akev texts translated, which would to my mind, mean the main Rishonim on Shas that constitute the yeshiva curriculum (Ramban, Rashba, Ran, Tosfos Rid, Meiri, Ritva, etc. on each daf). Such texts would sell like hotcakes.
(Rambam, Shulchan Aruch are mostly available now, just leaving a hole of rishonim and acharonim, and with the shiurim of R’ Shalom Rosner and Shas Illuminated, I am confident we will see some development in this area).
147,
Thank you so much. Your words mean a lot to me. My approach is generally to be forward and tell things like it is.
I am not afraid to express myself, since I don’t tow the party line for any group. I am proudly frum and grounded in my worldview, but learn from seforim and rabbonim of all atripes and feel at home among many different kinds of yidden. My mentors/teachers include YU-trained Jewish Studies Professor-Rabbis, Litvish roshei yeshiva, the Richmonder Rebbe, the Tyrnava Rav, and Sephardic hakhamim, all of whom I love and have learned a great deal from.
If you’re Hareidi and have separate seating at weddings, why bother inviting the friend’s spouse? It’s not like they’d be able to enjoy a night out together. If you have separate seating, than I don’t see why you’d need to invite a spouse.
I definitely find things cheap like Bimbo bread (Kof K Parve), parve Duncan Hines cake mix and parve Pillsbury frosting, etc. at drug stores.
I also recently purchased leftover Kretchmas candy at Duane Reade for insanely low prices- OU-D Hershey items like Snickers and Reese’s, star-shaped Stouffer cookies coated in chocolate (OU-D), etc. that I will use for shalach manos (in all honesty, many Valentines chocolates are also OU-D and will be very cheap post-chag).
Paperific has good sales, too.
As I said above, though, the only things I typically purchase from davka kosher stores are cheese, meats, deli, etc. I buy Acme lox and herring and other appetizing at the factory Friday mornings for very good prices, I bake my own challah and make desserts from mixes. I also recently got 2 ice cream makers (one for year-round and one for Pesach) that I use to make parve ice cream and sorbets, although I have a weak-spot for Trader Joe’s parve ice cream and Sharon’s Sorbet, which I get on sale and stock up on.
I find that not buying “heimishe brands” saves me a fortune. I love having a copy of the Chodosh guide, and coordinate my purchases of yashan items accordingly.
I also make my own ravioli. Yoni’s and Unger’s are a fortune, and it is fun to make the dough with eggs, olive oil, flour, salt, and I buy Polly-O ricotta on sale and The Cheese Guy pecorino to make the filling. Delicious.
A caveat: There is a brand of cheese sold in Pic-n-Pay, Holon, and other stores in Flatbush called The Good Life.
They look nice and have a hechsher on them, but I looked on their website, and they claim their cheeses are supervised by Rabbi Dovid Katz of Flatbush. They have an article from Rabbi Sholom Klass, zt”l, saying that their cheese is made from all kosher ingredients, but the issue is that their cheese is not gevinat yisrael according to how the Rambam understands it.
OU cheeses actually involve a Jew pouring the rennet in the cheese. Tosafot (Avodah Zarah 35) say that in Narvonne, they ate cheese made by goyim using vegetarian rennet because they felt that the gezera was made by Hazal because goyim then used animal rennet. Nobody uses animal rennet anymore, but those of you who are familiar with my approach to halakha know that I don’t deviate from the simple halakha of the Talmud and Rambam. Since I believe that we don’t have the right to overturn codified halakha decided by a Sanhedrin, and because I believe sof hora’ah Ravina u’Rav Ashi, I cannot possibly eat cheese that would be okay according to Tosafot, who happen to believe that changing social realities are doche Talmudic law, which is why they allow clapping on shabbat, not washing mayim achronim, etc. I am therefore more than happy to spend the extra dollars on cheese that is truly halakhic. The flip side to this is that if a person (incorrectly to my mind) claps on shabbos and doesn’t wash mayim acharonim, there is no reason logically why they couldn’t eat cheese made by Cabot or The Good Life.
Shavua tov and a chodesh tov.
I am looking through the catalog from Torah u’Mesorah and they have the sefer described by snowbunny 3318.
I think the key is to develop strong skill sets. I was told that there are about 500 milim that appear all throughout Chumash, and slightly more that appear all throughout Shas.
I hear good things about the Zobin Method, as well.
R’ Shlomo Aviner allows Down Syndrome fetuses to be aborted b’chlal.
When Rav Soloveitchik, zatsal, was asked about aborting a Tay Sachs fetus, his psak was pashut- we have a Tay Sachs kid in Brookline, look at him, and you tell me what to do.
There is also a big Lubavitch presence there, and the Habad BT Yeshiva Tiferes Menachem is there.
I recommend buying things like beans, canned veggies, pasta, rice, cereal, spices, etc. in chain stores, especially when they offer double coupons, as above.
Costco in Brooklyn, Hackensack (Serves Teaneck) and Five Towns each have a kosher bakery, and offer kosher meat and cheeses at good prices.
The only things I typically need to buy from a kosher store are cheese and meat and deli. I do my own baking and cooking on most things, and save a lot like this.
Pic n Pay has cheese at very low prices, and I don’t know if you eat from the hashgacha of Rabbi Gavrielov (a Chabad hasid), but they’re meat is also cheap. They sell Marvid and Empire, as well as Jacks Gourmet, Tirat Zvi, etc.
We need a good curriculum in place to teach people the vocabulary needed to master Shas, Rashi, Tosfos, and Rishonim/Acharonim.
Translations are rarely exact, since many words can’t be translated, but elucidated conceptually. For example, if a rishon refers to something as a nafka mina, you have to explain what that is.
Writing a review of a place that happens to be negative is the responsible thing to do when you’ve been the victim of bad service and bad treatment.
You’d save many yidden from financial loss/hefsed merubeh possibly, as well as heartache by warning them of which places to avoid.
I’ve sadly wasted hundreds of dollars over the past few years eating in bad restaurants, for an example.
Akuperma is sadly correct. Jacob Lew has a reputation for being overly ideological and obstinate in his love for welfare programs.
If I were a senator, I’d proudly vote against him, with my kippah on, unlike many of our Orthodox-affiliated politicians.
I refer to politicians such as these as Orthodox-affiliated because affiliation with an Orthodox synagogue does not necessarily mean a person is a shomer mitzvot yid. There are many people who belonged to Orthodox Jewish Centers, Young Israels, etc. who are not religious.
When a Jew is in a position of great responsibility in a political office, certain heterim are made.
R’ Dov Zakheim, an official in the Defense Department, with semicha, and a top adviser to Mitt Romney, authored an in-depth analysis of these issues in the last volume of Conversations, the Journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, a wonderful organization directed by my rebbi, R’ Marc Angel.
Itche Srulik’s answer is halakhically correct, though. A person has a chiyuv to learn certain texts, and knowing halakha le ma’aseh is paramount.
Kli sheni eino mevushal.
This is what I believe about translations.
However, if one doesn’t have at least 4-5 years to go to a yeshiva and develop the vocabulary and skills to learn Gemara, Rashi, Tosfos, Rishonim, and Poskim in the original, they shouldn’t absolve themselves of the chiyuv to learn.
Many major mefarshim on Chumash are in translation- Rashi, Ramban, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Baal haTurim, Tzror HaMor, Shadal, Torah Temima, Meam Loez (written in the vernacular tongue of Ladino), Onkelos, Rav Hirsch (written in the vernacular tongue of German), and many others, mostly from R’ Munk.
Thanks to Chabad and Breslov, much of the classic Chasidic sefarim of these movements are available in translation.
Mishna Berura is in translation, Kitzur, Ben Ish Chai, and a project is underway for there to be 33 volumes of Yalkut Yosef, the sefer of R’ Ovadia Yosef’s psakim, in English. Much of the Chagim are already complete.
Rambam is available, and R’ Michael Broyde from Emory and the Beis Din of America was translating Aruch haShulchan, but is in need of funds and a major sponsor to complete this project. I believe Hilchos Shabbos was completed.
In Lubavitch, they continue to put out translations of the Shulchan Aruch haRav (as a student of halakha and its historical development, I welcome many opportunities to study the Baal haTanya’s Shulchan Aruch, since this sefer basically set the tone for and defined Hasidic halakhic scholarship, and continues to do so). Kehot is publishing this, and a brilliant talmid chacham from Eretz Yisroel, R’ Yaakov Goldstein, is producing translations of much of the hilchos chagim, and has done so for Shabbos and Basar v’Chalav from the Shulchan Aruch haRav.
Shulchan Aruch and Nosei Kelim are available in translation from Pirchei Shoshanim on a variety of inyanim.
Artscroll is ubiquitous. Kollel Iyun haDaf has translations of Tosfos on many masechtos, as well as pshat-style mefarshim.
Master a Mesikhta Series is excellent in its presentation of many mefarshim, similar to the Shas Illuminated series.
I would like to see a translation of major rishonim and acharonim on the important perakim studied in yeshivos and on major sugyos a ben torah should know, from Nezikin, Nashim, and Moed, that will give you Rashi/Tosfos/Ritva/Ran/Rashba/Rif/Rosh/Rambam and mefarshim/Tosfos Rid/Meiri/Pnei Yehoshua/Ketzos/Nesivos/Shev Shmaysa/Aruch LaNer/Maharsha/R’Akiva Eiger and others as needed.
Someone said this would be like an English Shas Mesivta.
R’ Yonoson Hughes, a talmid chacham in England, also came out with a translation of parts of Reb Chaim.
A Mesivta Shas in English would sell like hotcakes.
You WILL NOT refer to me as Danny. I was zoche to be named for a navi, not an Irish song.
The Gemara does hold that Sinai is greater than Oker haRim.
The Sephardi approach historically seems to lend itself to bekiut more than pilpul, hence the opposition to codification found among those like the Maharshal, famously, in his hakdamot to Hullin and Bava Kamma.
Rav Herschel Schachter. Ari Lamm, Volume 1, Issue 3).
Yet, shiurim in YU are like iyun shiurim everywhere- the emphasis is to learn how the Rishonim think and learn, and to see how the Acharonim conceptualize this, as well.
My own derech in learning is to learn Gemara with Rashi and Tosfos, Rishonim, and Shulchan Aruch with the nosei kelim, and also to learn sugyos aliba d’hilchasa/ al derech pshat, seeing how the rishonim and later poskim learned these sugyos. This is the Sephardic approach to learning and is also popular in certain Ashkenazic circles, as well.
In addition, in the same interview, R’ Schachter explains that the laws of talmud Torah were completely revamped by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, in the Shulhan Arukh Harav, who says that the
actual text of kol hatorah kulah, consists of the twenty-four Sifrei Hatanakh, the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Bavli, the
Yerushalmi, Sifra, Sifrei,the Rambam, and the Shulhan Arukh.
If the 3 members of the bet din were shomer shabbat and otherwise kosher l’edut, you are fine.
And let us not get into the kabbalat ol hamitzvot debate. I’ve made the shita of the Rambam, as understood by Reb Chaim Ozer and others well-known. And the principles of hora’at sha’ah also apply b’zman hazeh, per R’ Goren, R’ Uziel, and other brilliant poskim.
And R’ Akiva Eiger, the Maharshal, the Mahari Algaz, and many others did believe that the child of a goyishe father and Jewish mother required giyur, while R’ Uziel, R’ Kalischer and many others felt that the child of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother still possessed some degree of kedushat yisrael because they’re mi zera yisrael.
My advice to you would be to stay away from Haredim and their institutions, since they annul conversions and declare lifelong Jews invalid all the time nowadays.
What programs are there where you can type a teshuva of Igros Moshe, let’s say, and get a sensible translation?
Not all of us want to sit there and look every other word up in a Jastrow.
That is an awful thing to do. Leading someone on is a terrible avera that you need to ask mechila for.
I can’t be with someone that I have no intellectual shaychus with. I want to marry someone who shares my interests, not a short-order cook and baby-machine.
Moshiach on a donkey sounds like a Xtian concept.
Riding horses seems unbecoming of a talmid chacham, just like going rock climbing, dreing around at amusement parks, other frivolities etc. seems unbecoming of a learned man.
Artscroll is limited in the scope of what it produces. An employee over there told me that originally, they wanted to publish a digest of rishonim on each daf, but this was knocked down, on the grounds that this would basically take prestige and usefulness from rebbeim.
I see no reason why your Jewish status would be suspect. Your mother is still Jewish, even though she is violating halakha. One’s Jewishness does not depend on their level of observance; a ger becomes Jewish once they leave the mikvah and bet din and this cannot be revoked, despite what some demagogues say b’zman hazeh.
I once took someone to a milchig dinner and after to Eichlers, followed by ice cream. Foolishly, I thought she would have shared my love of seforim, but boy, was I mistaken. At least I found out then that we were incompatible.
I don’t need to go into the politics of yarmulkes.
I know rabbis who learned under Rav Weiss haLivni who wear exclusively white shirts and black velvet size 8 yarmulkes, and I know those who have semicha from R’ Wozner in Monsey who wear kippot serugot.
As for me, I usually wear black suede or velvet, although occasionally, will wear a seruga. Also, if I daven in a black hat shul on Shabbos/Y”T or go to a Litvish or Hasidishe wedding or simcha, I will wear a hat in deference to the customs of these milieus. Tzitzit, I usually wear out, since this is more in line with the purpose of the mitzva, per the Mishna Berura, although those who tuck them in are acting properly, also.
A translator program that would be able to translate rabbinic texts into English.
WIY,
That would be nice. Let me know when it’s the proper zman and we’ll come and make birkat hailanot come Nissan time.
Le ma’aseh, nothing, except waste our taxpayer dollars.
I loved their buffet and the ribs were heavenly.
What a shame. We need another good Cantonese-style kosher restaurant with good ribs, wonton soup, etc.
Organic is fraudulent.
Buy stam apples and peel them and wash them and that should eliminate any chashash of pesticides.
Peanut butter isn’t so cheap these days, sadly.
A favorite supper of mine is potatoes and eggs. I take 2 potatoes, peel them and boil them, and chop them into chunks once cooked.
I fry the potato with onion, margarine (butter, if you’re milchig), and many spices- onion powder, paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, salt. Once the potato has some color, I add 2 beaten eggs and I eat this with ketchup and some toast with margarine.
Another thrifty meal I like are pierogies. Mrs. T perogen are a lifesaver to me since I can get them in any “stam” supermarket, and they have one parve variety and the rest are OU-D.
For about $3.99 a box, I am satisfied with about half the box and I eat them in the following derech: I boil them, and in a pan, chop an onion and fry it with butter or margarine and a little sugar. Once they get crispy, I eat with sour cream (either dairy or parve sour cream).