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Acuperma, Clearly large cities like Minsk or Vilna had many shuls. I don’t know about other shtetlach but the town my father came from, which had perhaps 500 Jewish families (which constituted the entire population of the town), had three shuls and a couple of shtieblach. It’s an old joke but it’s true. Every Jew has to have a shul that he won’t set foot in.
In the times of Bayis Sheini, most Jews lived in Chutz La’aretz. Being oleh regel from Bavel or from Greece was a major undertaking and not one that could be done every year, so when a family from, say, Bavel was able to make the trip for Yom Tov it was a very big deal. Many of the kehilos in Bavel maintained guest houses in Yerushalayim so when any of their mispallelim were oleh regel they had a place to stay. Reservations were, of course, required and had to be made well in advance, maybe years in advance, of the trip because, as you may imagine, finding a place to stay in Yerushalayim for Yom Tov wasn’t easy. Come to think of it, it’s not so easy today either.
You know what? I dislike the term “Modern Orthodox”. Both of my parent’s (AH) came from Europe between the wars. They were Orthodox Jews. I was born into, and grew up, an orthodox Jewish home, went to an orthodox day school and Yeshiva. I’m an Orthodox Jew. It is Chareidism that is the modern innovation. Chareidim today are attempting to rewrite history by falsely claiming that they are carrying on an ancient tradition. Perhaps Chassidish tradition more closely resembles modern Chareidism but Chassidus, itself, is also a fairly modern construct. Any Jew from Talmudic times down to, perhaps, the time of the GR’A would simply not recognize modern Chareidi pracice and normative Judaism.
Durn those Mayans!
See a doctor immediately! N.B. Meesah (CVS) is also a kaporah but don’t think you’re ready for that
It is my impression that such a switch requires hataras nedarim by a chacham
Oomis, that’s what I said in my first post/
You will notice that I qualified my post with phrases like “I think” and “it seems to me”. The above posts are are my opinion. Nothing posted on this blog by anybody should be taken as psak halacha. My views on the matter apply to me. If you agree, fine. if not, also fine. Gemar chasima tova.
First cousin marriages aren’t just socially unacceptable. They are illegal in 23 States.
I wish to completely associate myself with the words of VM. As a talmid (albeit a poor one) of all three of the previous Roshei Yeshiva and as the father of a NIRC musmach, it is clear to me that R’ Feldman, Shlita public writings and utterances are significantly at odds with many of the views expressed and hanhagos followed by those who have gone before.
Actually, buffalo hunting is pretty boring. Most huntable buffalo are raised on private reserves where shooting one is like shooting a dairy cow. No “hunting” involved.
Descriptions of personal hanhagos on shidduch questionnaires can get to the point of not describing anything. Can anyone tell me what “Chassidish but with it” means? (I’ve actually seen that self description on a shidduch questionnaire).
Yes Poskim have ruled on this, and yes, as I mentioned above, it is not “eating” but what about the assei? I think me and R’ Moshe, ZTL are on the same page about this. If a person has a legitimate medical reason, as determined by his or her doctor and competent rabbinic authority, to be oiver the assei, mutav, but just being uncomfortable, even very uncomfortable, doesn’t seem to me to be sufficient to be doche. And the less said about caffein suppositories, the better.
More than the actual subject matter, the real danger is the culture shock. After being taught for eighteen years that modern secular culture is venal, shallow and a pointless pursuit of pleasure, our BY meideleh (or our BM bachur) gets to college and sees that it ain’t necessarily so. She observes that seculars can and mostly do, have happy, focused, fulfilling lives, and that college involves real intellect and scholarship. This often engenders doubt and causes her to begin to question what she was taught. Can you say, “slippery slope”?
It has always seemed to me that it is counterproductive and dangerous to teach such derogatory things about the secular culture when anyone with half a brain and two eyes can see that it isn’t true. A better course would be to inoculate our kids against doubt by focusing, not on the superiority of our culture but on the singularity of our mission which is to be mekadesh shem Shamayim and Standard for the Nations.
P.S. In the interests of full disclosure, I went to Engineering School where we only dealt with the minimum required Humanities.
P.P.S. College or otherwise, I feel it is important to learn as much as one can about as many things as one can. There have been many times in my 43 year professional career when some random bit of unrelated information has proved relevant to a problem at hand.
Not sure what the OP is about. A person who needs an IV started is usually a choleh sh’yesh bo sakana in which case, what’s the shaileh? Are you speaking about folks who take regular infusions like for chemo?
If a person is not really sick, just very hungry or thirsty, maybe feeling a little head-achy, An IV is cheating. Yeah, it lo c’derech achilah but, c’mon! It says v’anisem es nafshoseichem. your supposed to feel a little crummy.
Another real cheat I’ve heard is coffee fiends using caffein suppositories to get their “fix”.
OOMIS, An actual minhag to get sloppy drunk after a bad date? Ich hab kein mal night gehert. Can anyone define a “bad date” that would require drinking to oblivion?
WIY, re: ‘shmutz” on the internet. Are you speaking from experience? You know, I’ve heard lots of horror stories about the evils of the internet, how it drives kids (and adults too) OTD, how it destroys marriages, ruins lives, etc., but I have never actually met anyone or knew anyone so affected. It’s always, ” heard it from a friend of a guy who knows someone…”. I’m sure that some folks, somewhere have a problem with Internet obsession (not “addiction”. See Just My hapence above) but I just don’t see it as a community crisis.
Re: Filters. If you install a really effective filter on you machine, don’t expect to be able to do useful work on it and do expect occasional lockups. The best filter is the one between your ears.
I’ll solve your problem. I dislike you. Oh! you mean someone in particular.
Are you a board member or officer of your shul or is it just you being anal? Son, tznius isn’t for you to enforce, it’s for you to observe. We are now in the aseres yemei hateshuva. I’d be careful about judging other Jews if I were you. better worry about your own failings.
As a practical matter, there is no way to physically enforce a shul dress code that won’t land you in court or, worse, jail. Just look the other way.
Live Right, there is a remarkable similarity between your post and kishuf. What you are recommending is, essentially sympathetic magic. If you want a good year do the ratzon HaShem. Live right, do right, be right and be sameach b’chelkecha.
the Dead Eyes” that freaked out the OP’s sister were just unfocused eyes. Generally, when you are speaking to someone your eyes are focused on that persons face. Occasionally, when you might get momentarily distracted, you might loose let your eyes go to infinity focus so it looks like a dead stare. My wife gets on me for this once in a while.
Those of you who opine that the din is that a married woman’s hair may not be seen are wrong. the ikkar din is that a married woman’s hair must be covered. A woman’s hair is so obviously not an ervah that it doesn’t require hesber The hair covering is a siman that the woman is married. A married woman who goes about with her hair uncovered is a prutza because she is, in effect, masquerading as an unmarried, and therefore available, woman.
“I am with the parent who would not want the daughter to go out with a guy with such a minhag.”
That’s okay. I wouldn’t want to go out with her daughter either. But, frankly, I can’t imagine a date so bad that one would feel the need to blot out the memory of it, unless the date involved the police, thousands of dollars in damages, a wrecked car, Mexican drug runners, etc.
Having said that, however, there isn’t anything wrong with taking an occasional nightcap and you don’t even need an excuse for it.
Yehudayona, If Johnson hadn’t stolen Texas for Kennedy, Nixon WOULD have won. The 1960 election was crooked as a redneck smile.
One message could be, “learn how to change a tire”.
Charliehall, you are absolutely correct. Es iz, doch, a rayyah that current fashion should be the criterion for the din.
The issue is not Hotzah on Shabbos. When wristwatches were introduced in the late 19th century, they were intended for women. Men carried pocket watches which were obviously an issue on Shabbos. After WW1, when the utility of having a watch strapped to one’s wrist where it was instantly available rather than having to fish it out of a pocket, it became an article of men’s wear as well. Many Rabonim in Europe, including, apparently, R’ Kanievsky felt that a wristwatch was still an article of women’s adornment and , as such, was assur als lo yilbosh.
I think the following maaseh is relevent:
“The Orthodox professor Dr. Avraham S. Avraham mentions in his sefer Nishmas Avrohom the opinion of R. Sherira Gaon and Rabbi Avrohom, the son of Rambam, that the remedies that are mentioned in the gemara applied only in Talmudic times, and that nowadays, people should follow the medical advice of their present physicians.
R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach wrote a letter with critical notes to Professor Avraham in which he stated that the aforementioned opinions are a minority view, but that according to halacha, if current medical wisdom runs counter to Talmudic remedies, one should use Talmudic medicines.
When Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Lerner was in the process of publishing his work Shemiras Haguf Vehanefesh, he asked the Rosh Yeshiva for the sources on which he had based his opinion…. The Rosh Yeshiva replied that at the moment he was not able to recall the source…
(He later wrote a letter to R. Lerner citing the laws of the Shulchan Aruch that use Tamudic medicine as basis to permitting desecration of Shabbos for certain, presumably life-threatening disease)
R. Lerner wanted to publish this letter but someone advised him against it…”it is disrespectful to publicize a letter in which the Rosh Yeshiva admits that the does not recall something”…
As it turned out within only a few months R. Lerner received a letter from a Talmudic scholar indicating that the Rivash (447) explicitly disagrees with Rab Sherira Gaon and R. Avroham ben Harambam. A short time later another scholar remarked that Rashbo in Mishmeres Habayis 4:1 also disagrees with the two Rishonim.”
Reb Shlomo Zalman by Y. M. Stern, tr. A.Y Finkel, CIS Pulishers, 1996
Not a babysitter but if I were a teenage girl I would certainly ask that if you and your husband are coming home at different times, please try to avoid leaving me in a awkward yichud situation. Ishah ba’ir is not a p’tur.
Relativity does not have to be explained logically, it can be proved experimentally and has been. “Proving,” or disproving for that matter, the existence of G-d by logical argument is simply an intellectual exercise, not proof by scientific standards. We believe in G-d because of the testimony of eye witnesses. Vaya’ar Ysroel es hayad…vaya’aminu baHaShem…
Relativity does not have to be explained logically, it can be proved experimentally and has been. “Proving,” or disproving for that matter, the existence of G-d by logical argument is simply an intellectual exercise, not proof by scientific standards. We believe in G-d because of the testimony of eye witnesses. Vaya’ar Ysroel es hayad…vaya’aminu baHaShem…
I don’t think that this haftorah needs any hesber at all. The message is quite clear and poignant. If a visiting Rav came your shul for, say, shalosh seudos and delivered the haftorah as a shmues in the vernacular, you wouldn’t have any trouble getting the point. Sometimes we obfuscate the obvious by trying to explain it. Frankly, I have always thought that the Rashi afn ort identifying the atzamos yeveishos as the Bnai Ephraim who tried to leave Mitzraim on their own and got killed out for their presumption, actually detracted from the message of the nevuah.
Milk needs supervision for Pesach. When I was a kid we did not eat melchigs on Pesach.