Red Adair

I don’t know treecutters, but supplying the following details may be helpful:
1) Which area is the service needed in (e.g. Lakewood, NYC)
2) How high is the porch (e.g. a few feet off the ground, third floor)
3) How high are the branches? How thick are they? How high is the tree?

You may need a tree cutting service, you may just need a gardener, or you may only need a handy guy with a pole saw depending on your answers. I suggest you keep your answers as generalized as possible (e.g. “In the Flatbush / Boro Park area”) so as not to reveal any personal information unnecessarily. Starting your search well before Sukkos is a good idea.

Interesting thread topic.
I imagine as far as the actual halacha of what’s acceptable there’s a percentage, similar to how much sediment is allowed in a wine or oil barrel, and under which conditions of sale must it be free of sediment.
With hand shmura matza, I expect there may be some broken and even a couple slightly burned, but more than that seems (to me) to be excessive. Also, a box that costs $13.99 a pound I’d expect to have fewer perfect matzos than a premium brand sold for a lot more money. Even the “best” brand of matza is going to have some broken, and the law of averages says someone may end up with a mostly broken box simply because of rough handling by the delivery people, shippers, or other customers handling the box. If matza is sold at a premium with the explicit statement that the only broken pieces will be those included to round the weight up to a pound, that would presumably obligate the seller to replace any shevarim. As far as the bakery deliberately including broken matza, I don’t know what’s OK or how much is OK – that’s a shaila for people more knowledgeable than yours truly.

Ideally, you would have an orthodox rabbi you’d be comfortable asking this question to, not only because he’d be better able to answer your questions, but also a spoken conversation is more conducive to the back-and-forth questions that can arise in this type of discussion.
I’m not a rabbi (far from it), but I can tell you what I look for when participating in or helping to organize an event where not all attendees reliably keep kosher:
1) Plates, bowls, cups, and cutlery: Disposable items only. Nothing that could have been used previously should be anywhere near the food.
2) Uncut fruits and veggies only. Also, no fruits or veggies that require careful checking for bugs.
3) All prepared foods must be in sealed packages and have a reliable hechsher. You shouldn’t use an unreliable hechsher any more than someone with a deadly allergy should risk an unreliable assurance that the food doesn’t contain an allergen. Don’t worry about having enough of a variety of foods – there’s plenty of bread, chips, dips, cakes, cookies, chocolate, spreads, soft drinks, and loads of other foods with an OU, Kof-K, Star-K and other reliable hashgachos so nobody need go hungry.
4) In the U.S. milk and bottled water are OK without a hechsher. Plain (unflavored) coffee from Dunkin Donuts is kosher. Plain coffee from other establishments without kosher certification may be problematic.
5) If any attendees eat only cholov yisroel dairy products they will be a lot more stringent, for example they won’t eat products from Hershey, Entenmanns, and any other non-CY items. You may want to ensure that there are non-dairy choices for those people (or, better yet, cholov yisroel items, if available).
6) Many orthodox people in New York City will not drink tap water unless it’s been filtered. If you’re serving ice water, lemonade or any other drink that’s made with NYC tap water, you may want to include bottled water as a choice, too.
7) This is not a comprehensive list and (once again) I am not a rabbi, just someone trying to be helpful. Good luck & happy birthday.

It hasn’t been removed.
On the main page scroll down to “Latest Videos” on the right side of the page and the link is there.
Here is the direct link (now with 73 comments): https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2238938/shock-video-man-with-yarmulka-rips-hostage-posters-down-in-flatbush.html

Yoel Hecht is a photographer we’d gladly recommend. We made a bar mitzva about 1-2 years ago that he was the photographer for and we were very happy with him. He’s a mentsch, a nice person and was easy to deal with. He wears many hats as he also did the music and even made some balloon animals for the little kids to play with. I don’t remember what he charged, but it was reasonable. Google “Yoel Hecht” and his website will come up.
Mazel tov!

shlucha22,
I don’t see this as any different than buying day-old bread from a bakery or the young guys who wait for sushi to be reduced to half-price before buying. There’s no deception, no dishonesty, no coercion, nor any other improper behavior on the renter’s part. The company wants to rent it out for that two-week period and you want to rent it. Sounds like a win/win to me.

Chovos HaLevovos
Mesilas Yeshorim
Hilchos Loshon Hora
Hilchos Shabbos (good suggestions above for specific seforim)
Hilchos Kashrus
Hilchos Tefila
Hilchos Taharas HaMishpacha
Hilchos Pesach
Brachos / Brachos Achronos list for common and uncommon foods
150 Year Calendar

Kaddish is a zechus for the neshoma of the niftar and a nechoma (comfort) for the child, sibling, spouse or (R”L) parent who is saying the kaddish. It is never, ever a tircha to listen to and respond to someone saying the mourner’s kaddish. As a matter of fact, I wish those who talk during kaddish would be more aware not only of the halachic problem, but also how it may hurt those saying the kaddish who may perceive disrespect and uncaring toward the niftar.

Even those who have never been frum tend to highly value the saying of kaddish. At work we’d regularly have non-frum people come in to our minyan on yortzeits, put on a yarmulka, and say the kaddish for their relatives. Sometimes they couldn’t even read Hebrew or say the “ches” properly, but they’d do their best reading the English transliterated version they had. My wife paid a yeshiva a few hundred dollars to say kaddish after her non-frum friend’s father passed away and her friend was immensely grateful. Please, don’t ever undervalue the importance of kaddish.

Trump voter here.

I believe the chances of Trump prevailing are 0%. Not .000000000000001%, but 0%. It’s like asking “How would you feel if it was conclusively proven that the Earth is flat and the moon is made of green cheese?”; it simply ain’t gonna happen.

Putting the blinders on, let’s say it DOES happen:
-I’d want to see conclusive evidence that fraud, ballot-tossing and/or other illegal methods were employed in each and every state where the vote is reversed. I’d need to see that it occurred in a number great enough that we are sure the vote legitimately went for Trump.
-I’d be horrified that the U.S. election is so vulnerable to fraud.
-I’d be extremely concerned about civil unrest, or worse.
-I’d be concerned that bipartisanship would be a quaint, archaic word, no longer used in a vicious zero-sum state of gridlock between Democrats and Republicans. The polarization that currently exists would be a picnic by comparison.
-I’d wish Trump the best of luck in fulfilling his duties and hope that his pro-Israel policies and conservative judicial nominations continued. I’d also hope his personal behavior was less boorish and more presidential.

I very much wanted Trump to win a second term, but I absolutely don’t want him to be given one at the tremendous cost that overturning the election would entail.

Denying reality doesn’t change it. He lost. I didn’t expect him to graciously concede, but I do hope that at some point he will work toward a smooth transition, for the country’s sake if nothing else.

CTLAWYER, props for trying to help, but you may have been misinformed. Mixing oil types (synthetic, blend or regular) is not a problem at all. There are some engines that manufacturers recommend use synthetic oil, but even those won’t be contaminated or damaged by mixing in some regular.
If you mix regular into synthetic, you are lowering the level of protection from pure synthetic to somewhere between pure synthetic and pure regular; i.e. you have created a blend. If the synthetic is diluted enough, you may want to drain it and refill with pure regular, but you certainly shouldn’t need to flush the system.