simcha613

R’ Yosef Dov Soloveichik and the Brisker Rav

S”A 235:3- Lechatchila one must say Krias Shema at Tzeis (M”B- because of zrizin makdimin leMitzvos) and its zman is until Chatozs (M”B- and if you say it later then you are violating the words of the Chachamim) but if you violated this and delayed past chatzos, then you are yotzei as long as you say it before Alos (M”B- that’s if you did it on purpose but if you were oneis you can even be yotzei if you say it before Neitz).

You must say Krias Shema before Chatzos. Assuming you did that already (by davening Ma’ariv after Tzeis, or if you davened Ma’ariv at shkiah then by repeating Krias Shema some time after Tzeis), then you can say Krias Shma al Hamitah as late as you want until I assume Alos HaShachar.

For those who don’t accept the pre-nup- how can we protect women from men who want more than a Beis Din or secular court are willing to give them, and will not give their wife a get in order to get what they want?

Tomche- easier said than done. You have to look at the other side too. If you look through Chazal, you see the tremendous concern they had for agunos, and how they sometimes “cut corners” to protect them. The answer to the issue is not to ignore pre-nups, because unfortunately there are men who take advantage of the system and are willing to make women agunos for their own benefit. If according to major poskim that prenups do not create a get meuseh, and they protect women from becoming agunos, that also has to be taken into account. I don’t know the answer- safek mamzerim vs. agunos, but it’s not that simple.

We know Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai had major machloksim about yibum to the point that perfectly valid marriages for one of them led to mamzerim according to the other. Yet the Mishnah still says that they didn’t stop marrying into one another’s families. The question is, does that mean because they respected each other’s psak, and therefore if Beis Hillel called someone a normal Jew, Beis Shammai would rely on that even though according to their logic he would be a mamzer? Or does that mean they respected each other to the point that even though Beis Hillel may have thought someone was not a mamzer, he would make sure to tell any Beis Shammai followers not to marry him because according to Beis Shammai he’s a mamzer? If it’s the second case, then if you are a talmid of R’ Willig or R’ Schachter, then of course you can use the pre-nup… just keep track to warn any potential R’ Elyashiv followers from marrying into that family.

When I was younger I decided to wear a black hat “lekavod Shabbos.” I guess I felt that where I was in my spiritual growth, it was kedai for me to start wearing it. As I got older, I realized that I didn’t need it for kavod Shabbos because I already wear a suit (something I don’t wear during the week) for Shabbos. I also felt, that it gave me a sense of ga’avah, like “I’m frummer than you” when I wore it in places that it wasn’t the norm. I felt like I was losing more than I was gaining. I stopped wearing my hat in shuls where it’s not the norm, and I wear it when I go to places where it is the norm.

I’ve said this in the past- it seems that the Benei Torah who are sitting in learning would make the best soldiers. In Sefer Shoftim, Hashem told Gidon to take the Talmidei Chachamim as soldiers. He didn’t say that they should sit and learn while the non-learners fight. The zechus of Torah is what protects us, but maybe it protects us in the form of the Talmidei Chachamim on the front lines.

Again you miss the beginning- “ishah shelamdah Torah yeish lah sechar aval lo kisechar ha’ish mipnei she’einah metzuvaeh ve’oseh ve’af al pi sheyeish lah secahr tzivu chazal shelo yilmad etc…”

So you have to reconcile the beginning of that halachah that they have sechar with the end that it is not allowed to be taught to them. If you say that there is an issur for women to learn Gemara, why would S”A add the part that they receive sechar? What does that add practically?

So, you could argue that it adds nothing practically, and the S”A was just saying that theoretically they receive sechar but Chazal made an issur for them to learn. IMHO, if that were the case, S”A should have left it out. Are there any other Mitzvos that women are theoretically allowed to do and probably receive sechar for it but Chazal assured it, and the S”A told us all that? Does the S”A say that women receive sechar for wearing tzitizs or tefilin, but Chazal said they aren’t allowed to?

The way I’ve learned it is that a woman is allowed to learn Gemara and she receives sechar for it, as long as she genuinely wants to learn for lishmah reasons. However it cannot be taught to her, in other words it cannot be imposed on her. The issur is on the male (or female) teacher, not the female learner. The teacher has the responsibility to make sure that she wants to do it for the right reasons, and only then can she be taught.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with what R’ Teichtal did for his haskamos. He knew no one would give haskamos to the content of the sefer, probably because it was so controversial. So he used haskamos of his previous seforim not to praise the content of the sefer, but the competency of the author. I don’t see an issue with this at all.

I think it makes a lot more sense to say that the hakamas hamedinah was Hashem telling all of us to return to EY. Many at that time were homeless following the Holocaust, and the time was ripe for all of Klal Yisroel to return. We chose not to and we planted ourselves in the USA instead of EY. If we all would have went together, Mashiach would have joined us.

147- R’ Willig holds that one should not daven with a minyan if it’s a tartei desasrei problem. The question is, which tefilah do you daven beyechidus?

avhaben- I don’t know about yeshivah, but in terms of work, R’ Schachter says that since the din is you have to go a mil (which is 18 minutes) out of your way for a minyan, which is essentially 36 minutes if you count both ways, that means halachically you are required to incur up to a 36 minute loss for minyan. More than that you aren’t required to do.

“And as far as utilities and protection and street paving, etc, the Chareidim lived without it in EY prior to the Zionists and never asked for it.”

I think the Gemara says that the halacha is is that if someone goes onto your property without you asking for it, and does a benefit for you, then you have to pay him for it. So even though in our case the Charedim did not ask for it, you cannot argue that they don’t benefit from it, so they are are chayav at the very least to show hakaras hatov to the ones who gave it to them.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Yom Haatzmaus falls out every year when we are mourning those who died for not treating others with respect. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this year Yom Hatzamaus fell out in the week we read the parshah for the punishment for loshon hara. The amount of disgusting disrespect and near-hate that is going towards our fellow Jews who are Zionists, whether religious or not-yet-religious, seems to imply that we have not learned the lesson of the death of the Talmidim of R’ Akiva.

dersooger- you cant have your cake an eat it too. The 1929 riots probably had more to do with Jews making aliyah then with their ideological opposition to Zionism. So you want to blame the Zionists for inciting the Arabs, but not give them any credit for Jews moving to EY.

What probably happened is Zionsim inspired more and more Jews to move to EY. That also upset and incited the Arabs. So the Zionists took it upon themselves to protect the Jews in EY (both the ones who they inspired to come and shared their ideology and those that didn’t).

Health- I understand that most of the government officials don’t thank Hashem publicly. First of all they are probably not frum, and they wren’t raised that way. They are tinokos shenishbu and they probably aren’t so responsible for those actions. It’s more likely our responsibility to help them see the light. And also, why can’t you be a little dan lekaf zechus? They probably do thank Hashem privately, and while we know it’s a wonderful thing to do so publicly as well, maybe they just feel uncomfortable doing so.

Either way, this is all irrelevant. The fact is, is that since hakamas hamedinah there are more Jews, Torah, and Tefilah in E”Y since probably the end of Bayis Sheini. Derech Hateva tells you that it is because of the medinah, which means in reality that it was Hashem using the medinah as a messenger. I’m not sure why so many people want to think that the Torah and Tefilah and everything good that came since 1948 is in spite of the medinah. That doesn’t make any logical sense.

Assuming that Hashem was using the medina as a messenger to deliver all of these wonderful things to Klal Yisroel, doesn’t it make sense to show the medinah hakaras hatov? Doesn’t it make sense to show Hashem hakaras hatov for giving us the medinah and everything good that comes with it? It just seems like bad midos to try and look for every little bad thing the medinah has done just so we can ignore the good and pretend that we don’t have a responsibility of hakaras hatov.

The source for the “segulah” of schlissel challah is that the Gemara in Ta’anis says that only HKBH has the “key” to parnassah. So some developed a minhag to bake a key into challah as a reminder that only Hashem has the key to provide for us parnassah (represented by the challah) and it should be inspiration to have more emunah, bitachon and daven harder. Anyone who thinks that baking a key into a challah somehow magically leads to parnassah violates the issur of lo senachashu.

Marriage is a three ring circus- engagement ring, wedding ring, suffering

I always assumed the rules were that to accept food stamps or welfare you have to be actively looking for work, and you have to prove to the government that you are trying but failing. If you aren’t even looking for work, then you don’t qualify for food stamps. If that’s the case, then kollel members on food stamps are most likely lying to the government and stealing which wouldn’t be okay. However, if the rules is that anyone under a certain income level can accept food stamps, even if they aren’t looking for work, then lichorah there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. It’s probably stupid for the government to just give out free money without putting pressure on those people to actually contribute to society, but it’s their choice to give out free money, what’s wrong with taking it?

Come on, he’s not saying he’s a bigger authority than R’ Scheinberg. Sports has no inherent value, but sometimes it can be used as a mean towards an end like kiruv. For what R’ Scheinberg was doing in life, he had no need for sports, so it was his achrayus to remove it from his heart because there was no point. For someone in kiruv or even highschool (and younger) Rebbeim, it may have a constructive purpose.

According to R’ Schachter, the issur of lo sinachashu is attributing significance to something which doesn’t make sense logically, like if a deer goes to the right it must mean that I should do this. By this logic, most segulos would fall into this problem. They usually have good sources, but have been abused. For example- the segulah of shlissel challah (a key in the challah) which is a “segulah” for parnassah. It began because there’s a Gemara that says that one of the “keys” which Hashem and only Hashem has is the key to parnassah (I think this is in the beginning of Tanis). So the minhag began to put a key in challah to remind us that the key to bread/parnassah belongs to Hashem and we have to have bitachon in Him. When the shlissel challah became a “get rich quick” scheme, and now many people think that somehow magically a key in a challah leads to money, this would be the issur of lo senachashu.