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I’m not going to debate this issue but to be clear as I said in my initial comment the UNDERLYING issue of the incredible Emunah Peshuta towards what scientists say and the quick and easy dismissiveness towards what LeHavdil Chazal said,turned me off from MO a lot more than most of the actual positions they took on this question.
I used to be semi MO
I left for two reasons
(1) Difficulty in finding a shul or community that really lived up to some of the MO ideals I was looking for. Not saying they don’t exist. Just saying that I couldn’t find them in my area.
(2)They were on the wrong side of the Slifkin issue.
I’m not even debating the actual issue itself It is just that the incredible Emunah Peshuta towards what scientists say and the quick and easy dismissiveness towards what LeHavdil Chazal said, which is very prevalent in many segments of the MO, seems to be a major factor in their lack of ability to keep an enthusiasm for Torah. In my case it caused me to leave,
Against.
At first it will help the frum community but the government isn’t going to indefinitely give a $666 monthly check or pay for childcare vouchers. Pretty soon down the line they will start saying that if you want us to pay you have to follow our rules and send to a daycare that meets certain legal requirements …
Those requirements (1) will be very difficult for a frum daycare to meet (2)will greatly increase the cost of daycare wiping out the $666 monthly (3)probably decrease the quality of daycare being given in frum playgroups. Dedicated morahs will be replaced by indoctrinated “child care provider specialists”
It is true that if the liberals get too much power those regulations will be put in place anyway only without the the $666 monthly even so they will be easier to ignore without the loss of government funding
It will also hurt the frum community in the sense that many of the major frum philanthropists make their money from real estate
The question in itself shows an obvious bias.
There is no work requirement for any welfare recipient. Those who are in Kollel also benefit from that. And people in Kollel are technically students. More welfare loafers are not.
As a vehement opponent of programs, I see the Yad Hashem in this to encourage kollel. Why else (other than getting voters and supporters of course) would rational people support a system where working makes no sense, you can be better off financially as a loafer than a taxpayer?
If there were (are?) statues in Germany for people like Field marshal Rommel or Paulus I would not make an issue about it. No these people weren’t Tzadikim. They were Nazi generals but I would still understand the German point of view that these people were ostensibly apolitical military people fighting for their country .
To be clear: No, they weren’t. Even though by the time Paulus took over all the Jews in the area had been murdered already, there is no way he was completely unaware of and completely uninvolved with the Einsatzgruppen. Even so he is still thought of in exclusive apolitical military context.
Therefore if Germans want to honor them, with the other parts of their lives being swept under the rug it would not be something I would protest.
Today, however, things have gone the other way. The systematic racism and discrimination is affirmative action which discriminates against white males.
There is plenty of institutionalized racism in the US but it isn’t directed against blacks. It is directed against white people
Sotomayer, that “wise Latina lady” who thinks her race makes her superior would not be on the Supreme Court if she were a white male making the equivalent comments about Latinos.
It would be unthinkable for a politician to talk about looking for a white male to fill a position . It is totally acceptably to express a preference for hiring a non-white.
Elizabeth Warren didn’t lie and claim to be a minority on her Harvard and job applications because whites have an equal shot in this country.
etc.
It boils down to the demographic and ideological changes that the US is undergoing.
Thirty five years ago the frum world had a lot of clout .Secular politicians would come and speak by all sorts of frum dinners and events. (Chuck Schumer came to my YTV elementary school graduation thirty years ago. There is no way his replacement would either come or be welcome at such an event today) People like Reb Moshe Sherer had access to virtually all politicians. etc.
The reason for this shift seems to be that the American values have moved much further away from frum values over the past thirty five years. Thirty five years ago even non-Jewish politicians and most of their constituents still valued things like religion and family values. Thirty five years ago even secular Jewish politicians strongly identified as being Jewish and had empathy for the Jewish community. Frum Jews included.
Today however with the lurch to the left and progressiveness we no longer have common ground. A progressive politician who isn’t openly hostile and actively promoting policies that are adverse to the frum community is a good guy already.
A progressive politician who actively promotes policies that are good for the frum community simply doesn’t exist.
Because going out of town had many problems of it’s own that were only by those who went OOT themselves.
The parents thirty years hadn’t done so and were blissfully unaware of them
To give but two of the many (1)the difficulty of getting enough sleep in a dorm (2)having a vulnerable teenager in a situation of 24/7 peer pressure.
When I was in my early twenties in the late 90s I was at a large debate about OOT with about thirty bochurim present. The only ones who said they would send their children OOT were the ones who hadn’t gone OOT themselves. Some of those who I remember as the biggest talkers about how they would only go OOT thirty years ago are now some of the most vehement opponent of OOT
It depends on the Yeshiva that issued it.
If they are accredited by AARTS then most community colleges will accept it or at least credit asif it were a degree in humanities or any other non specialized knowledge.
Call up COPE or PCS to discuss it. They also work with colleges like Fairleigh Dickinson University and can give you a masters degree through them
The name is Trotsky and he grew up secular in a secular farming community.
The story usually told is that he wanted to go to Cheder but they were unwilling to take him in. Based on his completely secular upbringing it is very unlikely to be true. I’m sure he spoke no Yiddish and that the ONLY language most frum people spoke back then so how could he have gone to a Yeshiva.However, on a different note, Bernie Sanders went to a frum run Sunday school. He was completely uninterested, his mother was upset that his father insisted he attend and even his father only kept Yom Kippur and made a Seder with neighbors (apparently he and his mother didn’t attend)As such there was a next to no chance that the Sunday school he went could have had any influence on him. Even so, I still had only they realized who they were dealing with they would have made so much more effort to influence him. With any child, you never know who you are dealing with
I’m unaware of any obligation a renter has to stay in a neighborhood no matter who will move if in if he leaves but it’s not so simple in Halacha for a homeowner to sell his house in a changing neighborhood and cause further deterioration.
Obviously there are many factors involved and this is beyond a coffee room discussion but from the viewpoint of Halacha it isn’t simple to tell people just sell your house and too bad on those who can’t move
Realistically speaking Flatbush like all frum neighborhoods (including Lakewood one day) will wither. That is just the way the world works. America always has changing demographics in all frum neighborhoods. In the 1970s when Boro Park and Flatbush was the new “in” neighborhoods and shuls and school building in the old neighborhoods were closing down and being abandoned people thought it would stay that way forever too.
In a place like Flatbush where there is no predominant Askenazi group that is determined to stay and keep their Kehila there, the factors causing people to move ultimately will have to prevail.
The question is how long will the process take.
Thirty years ago during the Dinkins days, I and everyone I knew, was sure there would be no significant frum community in Brooklyn today. We were also sure that neighborhoods like The Lower East Side or Washington Heights would be completely gone. We were clearly wrong.
Therefore I predict that Brooklyn will go the same way The Lower East Side did. Losing frum/Jewish population for almost a hundred years but still having people who are interested in staying.
Side note. In the 1970s when I went to the LES everyone seemed old back then. Presumably, those people are no longer alive. Yet the LES is still around.
I’m sorry for the pain I caused you.
That does not take away from my opinion that giving acceptance and an audience to those who were identified with the Conservative movement would be hurtful to Orthodox Judaism as a whole.
Are you sure that I’m the one who has the blinders on when it comes to accepting Liebermann and Heschel? Do you protest anytime a controversial Talmid Chochom (like the Satmar Rebbe) is written against online? Or is only people like Liebermann and Heschel who you feel shouldn’t be written against? (I attacked neither of them on a personal level)
Believe me that I feel bad writing this knowing that it causes another person pain. But I still don’t think what I’m saying should be censored.
Amir certainly shot Rabin.
There are conspiracy theorists that he was shot again by the police on the way to hospital but they are conspiracy theories.
Amir certainly did have Israeli secret police agents encouraging him to kill Rabin. There are plenty of witnesses to that.
I’m not going to debate Liebermann or Heschel. End of the day they cast their lot with the conservative movement. (Now their opinions aren’t valued even there…)
Liebermann was childless. Heschel did not raise his only child (daughter) to be a frum woman.
Given the circumstances they faced and the situation they were in only Hashem can judge them as people and as Yidden.
But one thing is certain. There is absolutely nothing the frum world should be turning to those people for.
There is a difference between Lieberman and Heschel as Lieberman was exclusively known as a scholar who wrote on Talmudics.(actually Tosefta) His personal views on Torah, Mesorah and Halacha were less well known and clear giving him more room for those looking to accept him.
But as Rav Ruderman once put it when he was in his eighties and Lieberman who knew him from Slabodka (according to some they were roommates) wanted to visit him in the hospital, “No! The Alter warned me to stay away from that Bochur!!!”
Herschel, on the other hand, is even less of an anything in the frum world. No one has a hava amina of taking him seriously. His sociological view of Torah with some Greek philosophy thrown in does not give him a reputation as having been a person that anyone in the frum world has a reason to take seriously.
Of course, those who want to push the envelope in the frum world are going to claim that Leiberman and Herschel were these great Talmidey Chachomim who actually were 100% frum with a wonderful approach to Yiddishkeit that we should all respect. Um… in the 1950s the proponents of JTS said the exact thing and look where it got them.
For a change, I’ll actually with those who want to push the envelope in the frum world and say “stop these hagriophies!!!”
It is about Rav Hutner and others who straddled the world of Slabodka and Berlin university.
(Actually that is inaccurate. Rav Hutner is the only one on the cover who learned in Slabodka and according to Berlin University records he was never a student there but you get the picture)
People pay a lot of money for such books because it is very validating for them to read that Gedolim from the Yeshiva World went to Berlin University along with allegations that they didn’t necessarily agree with all of the Yeshiva World Haskafa.
Why should Rechnitz have spoken? Moshe Reichman z’l used to come to the Siyum HaShas too but there was never a hava amina that he would speak.
The Siyum Hashas is made to celebrate learning Torah and to encourage people to do so. The program and speakers are clearly designed with that in mind.
Rechnitz for all the many wonderful things he does is not the first name that comes to mind when looking for people to encourage others to be Kovaeh Itim. Secondly, there would be a tremendous in danger in having him speak. It would give all the haters an excuse to say that the Siyum HaShas is all about money and rich Baal HaBatim. Of course the organizers were uninterested.
Republicans:
Nikki Halley will be either be the presidential or vice-presidential candidate.
Democrats:
A Bernie Sanders wannabe will either be the presidential or vice-presidential candidate.
Analysis of predictions above:
These types of predictions are usually wrong so the above WON’T happen.<i>only rav miller zatzal felt that this was a policy worth making an issue over even if it meant losing clout, funding</i>
That is not true at all. Read some of the Jewish Observers articles on this issue. Particularly abortion.
Both of the predictions made back then came true
(1)that abortion would be more acceptable by frum people even in cases that are not life and death. Ditto for many other liberal anti-Torah ideas
(2)the pro-abortion crowd would not stop there and move on to things like infanticide and euthanasia
Even though those things were unquestionably wrong back then to supporters of abortionThese days abortion is no longer a question by Democrats.
They have moved on to supporting worse forms of murder like euthanasia and infanticide.
Initially I questioned the wisdom of spending this money on Trump but figured “well anyone could spend money on whatever they want. Anyone who went made his own decision and spent his own money .There was no communal funds or pressure involved in this anyway…”
Thinking it over I appreciate this event
.Bottom line as the values of the United States keeps moving further away from Torah values the frum community is at a nadir of its political power. We no longer have (e.g.) a Rav Moshe Sherer who was in close contact with powerful government politicians. Secular politicians no longer attend frum political events in support like they once did. etc.
Therefore to have a large frum PAC which has someone as powerful as the president of the US attending is a wonderful development.
Bloomberg has no chance of winning the presidency
To the liberals, he is an old white guy who supported stop and frisk and represents evil greedy corporate America
To the conservatives, he is a guy who raised taxes and spending like crazy as mayor of NYC and too pro-immigration.
His ideas like big cup of soda bans would be antithetical to middle America
And as a frum person, I’ll never forgive him for saying “Who wants 10,000 guys in black hats outside of his office”?
(Just imagine the outrage had he simply said “Who wants 10,000 black guys outside of his office”?)
<i> I was told that the Hamodia came out while Moshe Sherer wasn’t well. He said that the 1st thing he will do when he gets back to work will be to shut down the Hamodia. Alas, he didn’t get back. This what I heard.</i>
Difficult to believe because Reb Moshe Sherer would have had little ability to close down Hamodia without making a MAJOR machlokes fight that he probably would have lost. Even had he won, the fight would have caused major damage and r two or three years later another Hamodia type paper would have opened anyhow.
According to his family and others who visited him during his final hospital stay, he said that if he gets better his next three projects are (1)kids at risk (2)Shidduchim (3) I’m not sure about this one but I think it was dealing with the increasing hostility to religion in American pseudo-intellectual liberal circles
The good that comes from the internet does not elevate it to “the biggest source of bracha in the last generations”
I personally make my parnosh mostly online. Even so, I would prefer that it did not exist. So do most people who I know.
Hashem found parnash for people before the internet too.
The Yetzer Horah did not have any comparable agents when I was growing up in the pre-internet days
This is a complicated topic. I still remember the horrors of Elul in a certain very extreme Yeshiva.
Much as I vehemently disapprove of their approach the Rambam in Periush Mishnoyis does say that Rosh HaShana is a day of fear and trembling and not a happy day. Also, those Rebbeim and Masgichim were repeating what they heard from their Rebbeim and Masgichim who were Gedoloy Olam who knew Shas with Rishonim Baal Peh.
That said, listening to their smuzin alone you would not have known that Yomim Noriam are days of Rachmim, you would not have known about being Mamlich HKB’H on Rosh HaShana. Had their Rebbeim been speaking to people like me they would not have said such things and would have emphasized other parts of Rosh Hashana as well/instead.
Imagine a fifty year old would come to the police and tell them that forty years ago when he was ten his next door neighbor John Doe tried to poison him. John gave him a bottle of soda and he drank it. After he drank it he fell down feeling extremely ill while John taunted him saying that it was poisoned. The boy was unconscious and vomiting for hours until he gradually over several days recovered. The boy never went to a doctor or called the police or told anyone about what had happened because he was afraid of revenge from John Doe. Now that he has gotten older and summoned up the courage to turn John Doe in. John Doe, a well respected elderly family man with no prior criminal record, vehemently denies it. There is no other evidence of his guilt
Would John Doe end up convicted? Not in any fair court.
OTOH if instead of poison soda, the crime was molestation, (assuming no statute of limitations)then John Doe stands a very high chance of conviction with a sentence on par with a murderer. Why is that exactly?
This morning I heard on the radio that three more women just stepped up to file suit against the estate of someone who killed himself last week.
This is transparent. Within a week of someone killing himself and no longer able to defend himself you already have three more women who jump on the bandwagon to make allegations against him and sue his estate.This is the climate we are now in.
I would not be so opposed to this new law if I believed that there would be semi fair trails, guilt would have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the primary defendants would actually be the guilty parties, not those who have the deepest pockets to bankrupt, etc.
In reality, some will be little better than witch trials.
To an extent, this is a valid concern.
Partners in Torah warns their Torah Mates not to discuss politics because you can only lose.
(1)If you disagree you can alienate a passionate supporter of the opposite side of you (2)waste energy on politics rather than Torah (3)some of these people’s current religion is liberalism. Their whole value for Torah is largely only to the degree that they believe it supports liberalism. They believe in liberalism with such a religious fervor that if told it conflicts with Torah they won’t accept Torah.OTOH when it comes to Zionism I’m not sure this is such a big concern because the younger generation anti-Zionist crowd would not be receptive to Kiruv either way. They don’t identify with Judaism as a religion in any way. Their anti-Zionism seems more motivated by an effort to fight and deny their Jewish heritage and assimilate than a principled understanding of the issue. (It is also motivated to fight the emptiness they have in their lives by rallying around self-righteous self-aggrandizing causes like being anti-Israel)
They would never agree to sign up for Partners In Torah to being with. They aren’t coming for a Shabbos meal either way. Or if they are only to make fun when they leave.
So Zionism won’t make a difference either way to them. Can you imagine doing kiruv on a guy like Bernie Sanders?
That it is who you dealing with today
Comments (1) that comment is stupider than saying all trump supporters are white supremicists, including the Jews.
Pure motzei shem rah on any number of people and totally ignorant.Comments (2)but I guess I should be thrilled that you didn’t have pretend statistics to “back it up”
Whoa, Syag Lchocma,
I knew my comment would hit a raw nerve but I still was expecting a more intelligent response. After all, you have the entire anti frum social media world to copy them from…
Here is a rule of thumb I see when reading comments about this law.
Those who hate the frum world and are the type to automatically take the anti frum side see it as a wonderful development.
Those who are not anti frum see it very differently.
e.g. On the anti frum blogs the law is being lauded
Even Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz with his consistent advocacy for protection for abuse and for abuse victims is against it.
The rest is all commentary.
Comparing Trump to Hitler is evil. I won’t dignify the comparison with a response.
Instead, I’ll make a different point. If It’s not just Brown and Hispanics being rounded up for deportation then don’t accuse Trump of being racially motivated with these roundups.
If a non-Jew is anti-Zionist but not ALSO anti-Palestinian then they are an anti-Semite.
Every single current complaint the anti-Israel crowd uses are things the Palestinians are or would be a lot more guilty of if they took over. They don’t even pay lip service otherwise.
I do not believe the OBSESSION with anti-Zionism in some circles in the frum community is really motivated by Kovod Shomyim. There are a lot of worse Jewish groups and a lot more things to worry about. Fighting Zionism (with repeated reference to people and ideals that are long dead) is the wrong battle for today’s time.
And the endless seeking of confrontation in some circles in the frum community is a big part the CAUSE of a lot of the problems the frum community in Eretz Yisroel has today.
No anti-religious candidate shows footage of Bochurim learning in say Chevron Yeshiva in his campaigning. They do show the confrontations and protests of the anti-Zionist groups to get votes. With a lot of success.
And here we are a few days before Shavous and of course, the paper did not actually come out…
In most states and many countries, hospitals are not allowed to charge for blood that was donated to them. Those places usually charge about $125 for blood collection costs. In places where they are allowed to charge for blood, the cost can be anywhere between $300 to $800 a pint. Platelets are $1200.
As far as the actual question being asked here ask a Rav and let us know what he says.
Seems like a trial balloon at making a new newspaper and not an actual decision
I googled this and couldn’t find it on any other site.
Nothing written in Hebrew posted here has anything coming from Rav Chaim Kanievsky. In fact the only indirect reference to him mentions “BAIS H’Rav Kanivsky” which implies that it is his gatekeepers and not him personally looking to make a new paper.
Rav Chaim Kanievsky is certainly NOT known to have such an involvement in politics that he would want to start and be on top of a newspaper. If anything it would be people looking to start a newspaper trying to claim his support
Why do they share names unless there’s a shaychus between the American and Israeli Yateds?
Thirty years ago when the American Yated first started it was affiliated with the Isreali Yated
They have long since parted ways
The 70s were the heyday for the American Kiruv movements for a few reasons that are no longer true
(1)Back then even secular American Jews had a very strong Jewish identity
(2) Back then there was more of a general turmoil and seeking in the world.
(3) Back then the truth of Torah M’Sinai was much more accepted by most Americans, Jew and non-Jew alike.
Over the past thirty years, however, the atheists have very become much more aggressive in the general America media and public life, which have become way more hostile to ALL religion (with the exception of Islam)
Hence the continual decline of American kiruv success
The above is only true about the US. In Israel, the BT rate is not really less today than it was twenty years ago
Based on your last two questions it doesn’t seem like BMG is for you
If the developer is asking for a variance OR building something that will inconvenience everyone else by putting an extra strain on the limited infrastructure (parking) then yes he should be required to(1) have affordable housing and (2)pay an impact fee for all the inconvenience he is causing everyone else.
If he does not need a variance and his building won’t impact anyone else then he has no other obligations
“if a rav opens a shul on his own even though he solicited funds for it ,its still his own private shul ”
This is not so simple in halacha. The donors to a shul sometimes do have a say about it’s being closed down or sold.
I’m not saying that is the situation here. I just talking in general.
Go through the sugyos of Beis Medrash shel Krachim/Kefarim
There are many complicated halachos about closing down and selling a shul building. Particularly if it was built with funds solicited from the public. In the 1970s when many neighborhoods were deteriorating and many shuls were closing down it was a major contentious issue with many Diney Torah and L’havdil law suits.
There are too many factors involved to discuss it here.
I know of some shuls that made a deed restriction that if the shul ever closes down and the building is sold then some external organization like the Agudah or the OU will (1)decide where to distribute the money but (2)can not distribute the money to themselves in order to avoid a conflict of interest when the shuld gets sold
Firstly the Rishonim didn’t write nearly as extensively on the Yerushalmi
Secondly being that the Bavli was written later , halacha K’basrah, we always pasken with the Bavli over the Yerushalmi. Therefore if you are looking to learn a sugya aliva d’hichasa it has to be done based on the Bavli. The Rambam, Shulcha Orech etc are primarily based on Talmid Bavli.
Therefore there is a much greater focus on it.
It’s not just frum people. Most religious people are Republican/Conservative. (with the possible exception of Muslims).
Without going in some of the many other reasons the democrats and liberals are becoming increasingly hostile to religion. The pundits wonder why the evangelicals support Trump even though he isn’t even nominally religious in his personal life. The answer is simple. Much as Trump makes fun and insults other people , one group he NEVER starts up with or makes fun is religious people or religious leaders .
Yes Obama is a family man who went to church for twenty year listening to Jeremiah Wright deliver his message of hate. But when he talks about “clinging to guns and religion” instead of joining his enlightened crowd, when he tried t force Catholic employers to violate their religious principles it’s easy to understand why religious people don’t want his ilk in office.
It’s not just frum people. Most religious people are Republican/Conservative. (with the possible exception of Muslims).
Without going into some of the many other reasons the Democrats and liberals are becoming increasingly hostile to religion. The pundits wonder why the evangelicals support Trump even though he isn’t even nominally religious in his personal life. The answer is simple. Much as Trump makes fun and insults other people, one group he NEVER starts up with or makes fun is religious people or religious leaders.
Yes Obama is a family man who went to church for twenty year listening to Jeremiah Wright deliver his message of hate. But when he talks about “clinging to guns and religion” instead of joining his enlightened crowd, when he tried t force Catholic employers to violate their religious principles it’s easy to understand why religious people don’t want his ilk in office.
I think he is confusing Anim Zemiros with a different song sang on Shabbos that is alleged to have been composed by Shabsei Tzvi. I’m not saying which one.
(most people attribute that song to the Arizal)
Are any of the current Roshei Yeshivos of YTV considered to be the primary RY, in the same sense that Rav Pam zt”l held that title?
Rav Pam held that title only because of how well known he was in the outside world.
He didn’t have the power that most Roshey Yeshiva have
He needed permission from the board of directors for many decisions. Even for things which he didn’t need the board’s approval the power in the Yeshiva wasn’t exclusively his. He shared it with other hanhala members to a much larger degree than most other Roshey Yeshiva do.
Rav Yitzchok Lichtenstein will probably find himself in the same position.
(1)A taxable transaction doesn’t require buying or selling
(2)Why would anyone charge tax on a free item if the law didn’t require it?
There are things that I wish were different in the Yeshivos I learned in but the stress on Lomdus is not one of them.
When I go online and see how bungled Torah topics are by those who don’t know how to learn I really appreciate the focus on Lomdus and knowing how to learn. The focus on Lomdus also teaches people not to understand Torah superficially. Those who don’t understand that seem frequently misled about Torah concepts online. Etc.etc.etc.
<i>J Street and their ilk do not fear generally fear antisemitism (I suspect that many Jews on campuses who publicly espouse anti-Israel positions do so out of fear). They are ideologically opposed to any form of nationalism.</i>
If J Street’s issue was nationalism then they wouldn’t be pro Palestinian either because the Palestinians are way more nationalistic than the Israelis are.
Their issues are that they very much want to assimilate completely but (1) it is difficult for them to be pro-Israel when the prevailing feeling in the left is so anti-Israel (2)anti-Semitism masked as anti-Israel makes them realize it isn’t so easy to assimilate .
To drown out those thoughts they take a very anti-Israel position to tell themselves there is no anti-Semitism in the anti Israel bias and to tell the non-Jews. “No we’re not like those Jews. We are just like you . Let us assimilate among you.
It isn’t for no reason that the head of J Street frequently takes a salami-ham-and-cheese sandwich to interviews. He is trying to make a point that he has nothing to do with “Jewish” Jews.