Annonymouschochom

ghj613,

That’s why we don’t pasken from Gemara. Take some time and read the teshuvos. (Sh’eilas Yaavetz, SH”T Teshuva Mehava, an others, some referenced above.)

It’s not so simple.

Almost all guys nowadays use the word “geshmak”. It has nothing to do with being Yeshivish. The Yeshivishe guys say “geshmak”, and the non-Yeshivsh guys say “it’s freekin’ geshmak”.

I am in that world and know it well.

Just be very cautious. There is a lot of very scary stuff going on in the teenage world nowadays. Even in Yeshivos. So while trying to protect your child from words like “geshmak”, he might get exposed to many things you would have never dreamed of when you were a teenager. I cannot specify on this type of forum, but I can warn you. bIt’s better to send to a sheltered place like Philly, who also take English seriously, then to send to other places, even if your son might use words like “geshmak”.

I do not know anything about Chofetz Chaim. That might be an option. However, as mentioned above. it is a little cult-like. They have their own way of thinking and their own way of living. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Just different.

shuli-

If the flavorings are problematic, which the Kashrus experts say they are, then it is a problem. You are swallowing those flavors. That is why people choose their flavor of gum. They don’t want to chew on a tasteless rubbery object.

Toothpaste might be different. Toothpaste is not really edible at all, and we try to rinse and spit out all the toothpaste. The flavoring just masks the icky flavor of the toothpaste, but does not make the toothpaste edible. If too much is digested, it would make a person sick.

I don’t know if I am allowed links, but both the OU and the cRc have excellent articles explaining the difference of opinions about toothpaste. Some hold it needs to be kosher, while others do not.

Although the Dayan of cRc holds toothpaste does not need to be kosher, they do list the kosher toothpastes on their site for those who are stringent. It is on their list of “Over the Counter Medicines”.

Gum, however, needs to be kosher. PERIOD.

For the toothpaste articles, you can google “does toothpaste need to be kosher?” and you will find the OU and cRc articles.

Or, if I am allowed to link: For the OU article, you can look here https://oukosher.org/blog/consumer-kosher/kashruth-issues-of-toothpaste/ and for the cRc article, over here http://www.crcweb.org/kosher_articles/status_of_toothpaste.php

zahavasdad-

Ever heard of ???? ????? And besides, don’t think it’s a miracle if it’s for just 9 days!

Sam2-

Either you missed the post where I quoted Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l word for word, or you don’t understand Hebrew….

Sam2-

Your comments are not even worthy of a response. Either you are trying to provoke DY and feivel, or you are seriously misguided.

But I must admit, I truly appreciate your comments. It helps me realize how lost and confused we are in this bitter galus, and how badly we really need the Beis HaMikdash to be rebuilt!

Sam2-

Let’s not forget how this thread started. It started with a comment “Can the man that stands next to me in shul and absolutely stinks have a shower. We don’t all have to suffer for your aveilus.”

The implication of that comment is that there is no room to be “stringent”. The comment was shaming anybody who is.

Let’s get it straight. Not taking a shower is not, as you call it, Lifnim MiShuras HaDin. That is the Din. Or as you call it, the Ikkar Din. PERIOD.

There are leniencies which allow certain showering in certain circumstances with certain guidelines. But those are what we call “kullas”. And not all poskim are so happy with them.

So to clarify: There is always Din, Lifnim MiShuras HaDin, and Kullas. Din is not to take any showers. Lifnim MiShuras HaDin may be not to even wash your feet for Shabbos, only hands head and face with cold water and no soap. A Kula might be to take some kind of shower during the week.

Just remember- if you do take your shower during the week, there are rules. Some say only every other day or less frequent than what you are used to. Some say not to wash or immerse the entire body at once; only part by part. You may only stay in the water as little as necessary. And maybe don’t use your best body wash and shampoo that has your favorite fragrance. Remember, you are only allowed to “remove the dirt”, no pleasure is permitted!

Sam2-

Just to give you a little taste of the true Torah perspective, I will quote word-for-word what Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztl writes with regards to washing oneself during the Nine Days:

??? ?????? ??? ?? ?? ????, ?? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?????, ????? ??? ??? ??????? ???’, ???? ?? ?? ????? ???????? ???? ???? ????… ?????? ???? ??? ???? ?’?

He clearly says that the point of the aveilus is to feel the pain, not merely not to have simcha.

Sam2-

I feel for you and encourage you to speak to you Rov for proper hashkafic guidance.

If you learn the Halachos, you would see that Halacha requires us to lead a pretty depressing life during the nine days. No clean clothes. No haircuts. No simcha. No dancing or music. Minimizing business down to what is required for bare necessities. We are supposed to take some time out of each day to cry about the Churban….

In strict Halacha (M.B.), there is no leniency for showers. Not even for this coming Shabbos. We are only permitted to wash our head, face, hands, and feet with cold water for Shabbos. No soap or shampoo.

The leniencies were created mainly for our pampered desensitized generation here in America who can not handle the strict halacha. In the previous generation, nobody even asked to take a shower during these days.

I had the privilege to speak to an older lady who lived in Europe. She told me that where she lived, the entire atmosphere was different during the Nine Days. She related that when you walked in the streets of her town during this time period, there was a feeling of sadness, depression, and even fear in the streets. Everyone, even the regular “baal habayis” felt the Churban. They realized what these days mean for our Nation.

So why not the rest of the year? Why just the Nine Days?

The Gemara in Bava Kama 59b relates the followin story.

Eliezer Zeira was walking around the streets of Naharda wearing black shoes. He was wearing the shoes of mourning during the year. When he was asked why he is wearing those shoes, he answered he was mourning the destruction of Yerushalayim. At first, the people from the Beis Medrash of the Reish Galusa were upset at him. They asked him “Are you such an important person that you feel you can mourn the destruction of Yerushalayim all year?” He answered them “Yes. I am a Gavra Rabah!” I am a great man. Then he proved to them that he was a great Talmid Chochom.

There are many different explanations to that Gemara. But one thing is clear. A regular person is NOT ALLOWED to mourn the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash all year. Only a Gavra Rabah can do that. We are only given a small time period each year which we have the opportunity to mourn our great loss.

Perhaps, Chazal were afraid that if we were allowed to mourn all year, we would lose the feeling of sadness that we are supposed to have. We would get so used to the motions, they would be meaningless.

But during this period of time, we are all Gavra Rabas. We are all allowed to mourn the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. Why let that opportunity go to waste!

Let us remember the famous Shla Hakodesh. We all know that this year, we will not be fasting on Tisha B’av. We do not mourn on Shabbos. We will push off the aveilus until Sunday. But why? Isn’t the Churban Beis Hamikdosh important enough that we should fats on Shabbos!?

The Shla offers an amazing incite. He says every tear we shed over the Churban, is actually building the Beis Hamikdash. When we cry enough and enough tears are collected, the Beis Hamikdosh will be completely built.

But on Shabbos, Binyan is one of the 39 melachos. We are not allowed to build on Shabbos! Therefore we cannot cry on Shabbos. That is why we postpone the mourning until Sunday.

Maybe if we stopped looking how to get out of the aveilus, we would feel the Churban the way we are supposed to. Maybe we would even shed some tears, build the Beis Hamikdosh and get out of this bitter galus quickly!

Just saw this post. The opening post is extremely bothersome! “We don’t all have to suffer for your aveilus.”

First of all, it is not just “his” aveilus, it is all of our aveilus.

Secondly, the answer is yes, you also have to suffer. Do you not realize the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed?!? Do you not realize the Shechina is in terrible pain without a place to dwell? Can you imagine the pain of the Shecchina observing who is in His dwelling place?!? Do you not realize how much we are suffering in galus without the Beis HaMikdash? Do you realize how many of Hashems children our suffering and/or completely lost as a result to the Churban?!?

We are only asked to mourn for 9 days out of the whole year. Are you mourning properly? Do you feel the Nine Days? Do you have a constant reminder of the aveilus throughout the day? Are you doing anything different?

Of course there are poskim to rely on to take a shower. But is that really what Hashem wants of us? Do you think that the smelly guy feels good not taking a shower for a week?!? Let me tell you, I haven’t taken a shower yet and I feel disgusting 24/7. I don’t take my mind of of the aveilus for a moment because I have a yucky feeling. And I know the Shechina feels even yuckier in this bitter galus!

Maybe think about how many Yidden throughout our Galus suffered and couldn’t take a shower for more than a week. They also couldn’t eat sleep either!

Do you know why that person next to you smells?!? It’s because you DID take a shower. If we would all be mourning properly, we would all smell the same and wouldn’t be paying attention to the person next to us. We would be standing in Shul crying “V’l’Yerushalyim Ircha B’rachamim Tasshuv”! We would all be wailing in tears through the entire tefila begging for the end of this bitter Galus. We wouldn’t even notice the person next to us, certainly not how he smells.

Galus smells. We need to get out of it quick!

?? ?????? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ??????. Let’s mourn properly so we can rejoice with the building of the third Beis Hamikdash speedily in or days!

Two things:

1) apushatayid- You are simply mistaken. Without Reb Msshe zt”l’s heter, there are only two type of milk; Cholov Yisroel which is kosher, and Cholov Akum which is not. Reb Moshe is the one who classified the milk of the companies as Cholov Stam, not Cholov Akum, and permitted the milk, albeit not as a l’chatchila.

2) It is important to note, that the heter of butter no longer applies. Although many poskim permitted butter because it can only be made with cows milk, nowadays their are dairy additives which are added to the butter. Those additives/ingredients are Cholov Yisroel sensitive, and therefore for those who are makpid on Cholov Yisroel, there is no heter to eat Cholov Stam butter.

Syag Lchochma- You obviously did not understand my post.

With stickers and without stickers is exactly the same. They are all under the same supervision. All of them also have the issues I mentioned, both with stickers and without. There is no difference between the ones with the stickers and the packages sole in Walmart, besides the price.

nishtdayngesheft, They do not have any certifiers. They are not certified at all. They list those certifying agencies as examples of what might be found on their products.

They also list “K” as one of the certifiers they accept and sell. This company is obviously not run by frum people. They are a bit misleading. I wish there would be a way to let everyone know that although they sound like a Kosher company, they are not.

But someone should contact the frum companies who sell them their products. Especially their rainbow products. I am sure they would not be happy knowing people are buying/selling their products to celebrate toeiva.

I hope this question is theoretical- not l’maaseh. If it is l’maaseh, you should pose this question to a kashrus organization like the cRc Chicago. They do not have a problem telling people which products do not require certification.

The Lakewood posek quoted above has many leniencies which are not accepted by almost any of the reliable kashrus organizations.

Listen up fellow coffee drinkers!!

This has nothing to do with Rabbi Falk. All the men who have frum female workers understand why they should not be calling females by their first names. Let’s not fool ourselves.

In our society it has become normal to call females by their first names BECAUSE our society has sunk so low. It has also become “normal” for bosses to have improper relationships with their co-workers.

In our times harchokos are needed more than ever before.

I heard from Reb Moshe Aharon Stern zt”l that couples calling each others spouces by their first names is one of the most common causes for Shalom Bayis issues. When men become friendly with the other gender, and visa verso, it makes people compare others, albeit subconsciously, to their own spouse. This is not healthy.

I have heard from girls who were extremely uncomfortable with their frum male boss. I have also heard of girls who, unfortunately enjoy their relationship a little too much.

When a female gets dressed in the morning and, even if subconsciously, tries to look nice for the “people” in the office, we know there’s trouble.

If one of the Gedolim would be sitting in the office, would the men and women act the same? Would they address each other in the same manner? The SHECHINA should nor be viewed as any less.

You are all correct, in the previous generations things might have been different. They may have called each other by their first names. I don’t know. But the taivos were certainly more tame back then, And the women dressed a lot different then!!

Let’s not all fool ourselves!!

once your on the sheitel topic, Does anybody know about Miriam Wolpin’s sheitels?

How do they compare to other brands like Sussman’s?

yitayningwut-

First of all, in this case the goy for sure has no neemanus. The worker does not care about any “bad name” that might come out of how he claims he washes the dishes etc..

Second of all, according to CRC, who did moths of research on Starbucks, the Frappuccino base is not certified and has kosher sensitive ingredients. See the link I left above and here:

http://www.crcweb.org/Starbucks%20cRc%20Full%20Article%20April%202011.pdf an extensive report on Starbucks.

As is clear on the CRC’s report, they were not looking for chumros at all. They are also not a “right wing” hisachdus type of organization. Rabbi Fishbein of the CRC is one of the leading kashrus experts in the U.S.A. and heads the A.K.O.- Association of Kashrus Organizations of America. If he has a problem with this drink, so should you.

As far as your Rov, I do not know who he is, nor do I want to know who he his. However, very few Rabonim are experts in the kashrus field. They might be able to answer kashrus questions, but many of them are not up to date with the modern complications which are presented with today’s advanced technology, even in coffee shops.

I am not at all familiar with the Star-K. All i know is that they are far from leaning to chumros. They permit what many kashrus organizations do not.

If it is true, as posted earlier, that they also feel one may not drink a Frappuccino, it might be time for your “Rov” to pick up the phone and speak to some kashrus vaadim who are familiar with the situation.

It’s all of the above!

Chareidi, centered, left of center, right of cenetr, Frum, MO, right of MO, left of MO, and Lubavitch!!

Whatever it takes to sell their magazine.

And that is why some people do not want their children to read it!