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Viewing 50 posts - 101 through 150 (of 476 total)
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  • in reply to: Hypothetical Agunah Question #715417
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    No. Being placed in cherem is not a cause that allows her to be entitled to a get. A wife in not entitled to a get just because she wants one.

    in reply to: Rav Amsalem #714375
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    TheChevra: “twisted” will then tell you that Rav Yosef and his like is the rant of small minded fundamentalist non thinkers that degenerates into lunatic paranoia and other good stuff leaking out the seams.

    My response is that I take Rav Yosef’s opinion over “twisted” and his ilk’s.

    in reply to: Gaming Systems in a Jewish Home #826686
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    haskalajew: Don’t kid yourself.

    in reply to: I Feel Disenfranchised #716116
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    mikehall: It’s not such a horrible idea, if the idea of getting stuck being single all your life – after pushing it off – is not so horrible either.

    in reply to: ATTENTION ALL YWN/CR confessed addicts #714748
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    Hi eclipse!

    in reply to: How important in loyalty when it comes to a shidduch? #714156
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    So he had his eyes on a girl he never dated. (And thinking of this girl he never dated so much that it caused him to be blind with others!)

    Doesn’t sound too kosher to me.

    in reply to: French Jokes #1118875
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    Must one visit Germany to judge the Nazis?

    in reply to: letting your child get his/her liscence #1164956
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    Oh please aries2756. Stop blaming women’s driving failures on their husband’s. Even the unmarried women can’t drive. Women have been incapable of driving since… well, the Model T.

    in reply to: Heter In My Back Pocket #715069
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    Bezalel cited an LA Times article. Homeowner, you dismiss things much too quickly. Unanswered questions floating in your head does not render a story fictitious.

    Thank you Bezalel.

    in reply to: Heter In My Back Pocket #715068
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    I heard the same story WIY related about the lawyer interview. I heard it a long time ago.

    in reply to: Screen Names #1176066
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    And I am after all …………… so right

    in reply to: Rav Amsalem #714360
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    If some of these so-called “geirim” from the IDF would even keep one Shabbos in their life (post-geirus), there may have been what to talk about.

    in reply to: What is the inyan of a mitzva tanz? #714647
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    While little things always change with time, the ikkur of the tantz comes from the machzor vitri. As far as other minhugim, they all have sources in the Seforim HaKedoshim.

    in reply to: The Making of Talmidei Chachomim #1056763
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    Bezalel: Au contraire.

    in reply to: What is the inyan of a mitzva tanz? #714640
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    The tantz does shtam from the Vitri Machzor. Other than perhaps the nusach, most Chasidishe minhugim long predate them.

    in reply to: What is the inyan of a mitzva tanz? #714627
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    cantor, the Mezhinke has no shaichos to either yiddishkeit or the mitzvah tantz. It is a newfangled thing, with no historic custom, and is pritzus considering the lack of shomer negiah between non-immediate family members.

    in reply to: letting your child get his/her liscence #1164925
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    21.

    in reply to: Gaming Systems in a Jewish Home #826654
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    If you don’t mind killing your children, its a great idea to have.

    in reply to: French Jokes #1118859
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    And a really messed up – goyish – nationality at that!

    in reply to: Rav Amsalem #714347
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    Amsalem can have whatever opinions he chooses, so long he does not do so under the banner of being a Shas MP. Since Shas put hin 10th on their MP list and gave him his Kenesset seat conditional to his supporting the Shas program, if he breaks that pre-election agreement he made with Shas, he must resign that seat back to Shas.

    Before Shas put him on their MP list and made him a Kenesset member, Amsalem was a nobody and no one heard or knew of him.

    in reply to: Mixed-Up Minhagim #713313
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    Wolf, you misunderstood about covering hair. My point was not *why* she covers it, but rather your observation that since she covers it, _that_ point differentiates you from the mo. (A point that I’ve seen some mo’s here take umbrage to.)

    Point 2; It is correct to insist that they don’t answer the questions incorrectly.

    in reply to: Agudah Convention Updates? #712902
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    WIY: How do you plan on doing teshuva for speaking about Gedolei Yisroel with such azus and chutzpa, and being mevaze talmidei chachomim — which surely you know what the Gemorah says about such folks.

    in reply to: Scammed Help #713337
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    Never pay by Western Union. It’s like sending cash in the mail and hoping they send you what you paid for.

    in reply to: Thanksgiving: Church Holiday #1146307
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    charlie, how long have you been praying in Avi Weiss’ synagogue?

    in reply to: WARNING about BEST BUY #714072
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    The 15% fee only applies to opened electronic items.

    From the above link:

    Restocking fee

    A restocking fee is applicable in some product categories, unless you are a Reward Zone Program Premier Silver member, the item is defective, or the fee is prohibited by law. The restocking fee charges are:

    25% for Special Order Products, including appliances

    15% for opened notebook computers, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, radar detectors, GPS navigation and in-car video systems

    in reply to: INCREDIBLE DEAL ON IPOD TOUCH 64GB!!! #712871
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    WIY: What’s your commission?

    in reply to: Mixed-Up Minhagim #713303
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    in reply to: Give Gentiles Presents During Their Holiday Time #724691
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    Firstly, it’s perfectly okay to call the goyim, goyim.

    Secondly, I would definitely avoid giving anyone a holiday present on a goyishe holiday, especially an overtly religious one like this one.

    in reply to: Thanksgiving: Church Holiday #1146305
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    That isn’t the basis for Rav Moshe’s psak I believe, but Thanksgiving is a religious holiday nevertheless.

    in reply to: The Title of "Rabbi" and Smicha #1066331
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    So if your cook got smicha from somewhere once, you ought to always refer to your cook as “Rabbi”?

    in reply to: What Does Modern Yeshivish Mean? #713491
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    Just because someone is not in Kollel doesn’t make him not frum. (Which some people seem to think unfortunately.)

    That’s pure slander. Not once, since this site started, has anyone ever said anyone who isn’t in kollel is frei because of that. Link to one post that claimed that. There is none.

    Indeed, no one anywhere takes such a position, in any frum society. That kind of comment is a strawman used to attack the Torah world.

    in reply to: Thanksgiving: Church Holiday #1146281
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    I am thankful that I live in the United States, a country that allows us to freely practice Judaism, even at the cost of allowing abusive speech, abusive press, and other abusive behaviors activist judges have falsely allowed in the name of the Constitution.

    Good Thursday afternoon.

    in reply to: Come Play The Rumor Game! #1164516
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    I heard the Korn family are being held without bail.

    in reply to: Come Play The Rumor Game! #1164510
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    I heard the Cornbagel family were arrested in Atlantic City.

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712324
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    mdd, Kovetz Mamorim quotes the Chofetz Chaim as saying the Zionists are the offspring of Amalek, not the Communists or yevsekim. Look at it inside instead of speculating. Additionally, Mishkenos Harayim (3:1-108) relates that when Rav Kook said about the opening of the Hebrew University, that it is a fulfillment of kimitzion etc. – immediately the gedolim in Poland and Russia organized a protest against this chilul Hashem – and the Chofetz Chaim came in and said with disgust, “Kook Shmook!” and then he left.

    in reply to: Modern Orthodoxy, Chassidus, and the Rambam #712204
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    Hmm. Okay, so now we’ve further refined that a modern orthodox person must dress like the goyim (they are after all “most people”) and speak like a goy.

    Any other factors determine if one is MO?

    in reply to: Modern Orthodoxy, Chassidus, and the Rambam #712201
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    Mod80

    Question: what is meant by modern??

    Feif Un

    Answer: Modern in the sense that you can integrate Modern society into an Orthodox lifestyle.

    So a Satmar Chosid computer programmer is Modern Orthodox?

    Is Rabbi Abraham Twersky MD, Modern Orthodox?

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712320
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    mdd, you are wrong. Rav Elchonon in his sefer quotes the Chofetz Chaim in a letter saying that that the Zionists are “real Amalekim”. Of course, he didn’t necessarily mean the Kerem B’Yavneh students, who are religious, but Rav Elchonon Wasserman, the Chofetz Chaim’s talmid, writes in Kovetz Maamarim that Zionism (nationalism he calls it) is Avodah Zorah, and so religious Zionism is nothing but Avodah Zorah mixed with religion (shituf).

    in reply to: Modern Orthodoxy, Chassidus, and the Rambam #712181
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    Feif:

    You are correct that there was opposition to Chasidus and the Rambam etc. long ago, and that therefore opposition in and of itself does not prove someone is wrong. But you also cannot use the fact that the Rambam had opposition to negate charges against MO, because the Conservative and Reform etc. can say the same thing: Maybe in 100 years everyone will agree that Reform is right, like they agree that the Rambam was right?

    So now my question to you is, how do you know if the opposition to MO is like the opposition to the Rambam, or like opposition to Zionism or Reform? Isn’t it true that although there has been mistaken opposition in the past, there has also been legitimate opposition as well, and therefore, the most you can say is “I dont know if I am right or wrong. The Rambam had opposition but so did Reform. I do not know if I am like the Rambam or Reform.”

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712315
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    YU is a business, not a Yeshiva, and it is run by the Board of Directors, not the Roshei Yeshiva (except to the extent that leaders – the board – can be pressured by its constituency – the Roshei Yeshiva and students). That’s fine, except when business decisions are understood to be philosophical positions you have big problems. And although many Boards of many institutions wield influence, please note that YU has and never had any Rosh Yeshiva who was the official leader and policy maker for the institution. The Board has always been the official “Rosh”. Even Rav Soloveichik was merely an employee, and, although he was called Rosh Yeshiva (and even went raising money like a Rosh Yeshiva), his power was still that of an employee, much less than a real Rosh Yeshiva should have.

    Nowhere else will you find the “President” of a Bais HaMedrash constantly representing (and creating) the Torah positions of the institution without reviewing every single word of his speeches with the official Rosh Yeshiva. In YU, Dr. Lamm, though he was merely President, and not Rosh Yeshiva, had full right to get up and speak to the world about the official policies and positions of YU, even though the Roshei Yeshiva may not have agreed with him. Nowhere should a lay leader become a setter of policy for a Yeshiva.

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712309
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    That year, the school joined the Mizrachi Teachers Institute. Revel had hoped to attract more orthodox people with this move, since at this point many Orthodox shied away from RIETS, unable to recognize much difference between it and JTS. In 1923, Revel unveiled a plan to create a four-year yeshiva college (sic). The board approved, and Harry Fischel donated the first $10,000 of the five million dollars needed for the project. Plans were made for a building. It would be modeled after the architecture during the time of King Solomon. There would be 8 buildings, with twelve pillars representing the 12 tribes. However, other than a small Shul on campus, there was nothing there to make it look distinctly Jewish. Revel died of a burst blood vessel in 1940, partly attributed to the strain of supporting his institution during the impossibly difficult financial period of the Depression and post-Depression eras.

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712308
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    in reply to: Thanksgiving: Church Holiday #1146241
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    The Agudah convention is not a seuda or simcha.

    And Rav Moshe said that a Baal Nefesh shouldn’t make a simcha on Thanksgiving (since someone might think he is celebrating Thanksgiving); not that its assur outright to make a Chasunah or Bar Mitzvah on that day.

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712300
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    Rav Moshe Feinstein ZT’L also denounced college in a Teshuva, and in a famous speech delivered to his students, published under the title “The Counsel of the Wicked” (Vaad LeHaromas Keren HaTorah, New York, 1978). There he reiterates that everyone has an obligation to become great in Torah, we should not care so much about Cadillac’s (yes, this was said in the “olden days”), and that learning Torah is what we should be pursuing, not secular stuff. He says in America you do not need college to make a Parnassa, and we should be willing to live on little, not a lot, for the sake of Torah, and that R. Nehuray’s statement of abandoning all skills in favor of Torah applies all that more today that we live in a country where you can make a parnassa without college, with no miracles needed.

    There is a tape available in many Seforim stores called “The prohibition to learn in Colleges” (Yiddish), which contains addresses by Rav Moshe Feinstein ZT’L and Rav Aharon Kotler ZT’L condemning college.

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712298
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    mdd: Reb Elchonon Wasserman ZT”L, a talmid muvek of the Chofetz Chaim, in his sefer Kovetz Mamorim quotes the Chofetz Chaim as saying the Zionists are the offspring of Amalek. You also misunderstood the Birkas Shmuel, who allowed learning a limited amount of secular studies if it were for parnassa purposes only.

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712293
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    HaRav Shimon Schwab zt”l said “Sometimes the Modern Orthodox halachic foolishness which is flirting with the anti-Torah establishment, may border on heresy. This is all part and parcel of the spiritual confusion of the dark ages in which we happen to live”. (Mitteilungen, Bulletin of Khal Adas Yeshurun April/May 1989.)

    Part of the problem with MO is that it was not created in the same way Torah movements such as Chasidus or TIDE were. There were no rabbis – great or otherwise – who articulated a philosophy that they referred to as MO. MO began as a behavior of people without any reasoning, and ex post facto became a philosophy. For example, secular studies in RIETS developed when some students went on strike because their friends were expelled from school for attending secular studies. The rabbonim in charge of RIETS at the time were against secular studies, but the board of directors and financial backers made a business decision to incorporate it into the curriculum. Later more influences came upon the scene, none of which were Torah perspectives but rather business or secular ones. Furthermore, even the ex post facto definition of MO is a hodgepodge of opinions of many different people, none of whom have more of a copyright on the term than others. I have no interest, nor is there a need, to deal with every individual opinion on the street in this matter. And almost none of the opinions address the pertinent issue anyway: What’s the point of Modern Orthodoxy? But some do. Those are the opinions that I am using here. Rav Soloveichik articulated a reasoning, namely, survival. Obviously, he was wrong. His reasoning was based on his vision of the future, his own opinion of what will be, and what needs to be done. He stated clearly that only his derech will be successful and the others will fail.

    in reply to: Thanksgiving: Church Holiday #1146234
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    Did they also teach you to say merry kratsmich?

    in reply to: Moderators' Hours #712097
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    Maybe they can find more volunteers to moderate, to fill in when the other mods are not available.

    in reply to: Jews Were Protected From Assimilation By Being Despised and Uncivilized #712285
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    Actually the members of the Sanhedrin were required to have a lot of secular knowledge.

    ONLY the Sanhedrin (etc.) learnt that as they required that knowledge. The hamon hoam did NOT study these secular subjects.

    The Chasam Sofer in Parsha Beshalach states clearly that certain secular knowledge is useful for learning certain Torah topics, such as cow anatomy being useful for shechitah, and arithmetic for Eruvin and Sukkah. But that before we embark on obtaining secular knowledge – and of course that means only to the extent that it is useful for our Torah studies – we must first fill ourselves with Torah-only knowledge. After we are strong in Torah, only then can we move to acquire the useful secular knowledge that we need for our Torah studies.

    He quotes the Rambam, who he describes as “the father of philosophy” in our religion, in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, stating that a person may not learn philosophy until after he has “filled his stomach” with Shas and Poskim, which are the things, and only the things, that bring us Olam Habah. Then he quotes the Rashba, saying that there is a cherem against learning any secular studies if you are under age 25! The he quotes the Gemora in Brachos “Keep your children away from science” (higayon, as some meforshim translate it), noting that the Gemora is directing its prohibition at “your children”, but not at the adults, for adults, who are already advanced in Torah knowledge, need some secular knowledge, such as cow biology (I keep emphasizing that so that we do not make the error of thinking that the secular knowledge that we need is a college education). But it is dangerous for us to pursue it until we are armed and ready with a Torah foundation. This is because someone with a Torah perspective looks at the value and culture of of secular studies differently than does someone ignorant of Torah. And we do want to get the proper perspective.

    It’s kind of like firemen putting out a fire. They have to (a) dress in their heat-resistant protective outfits, and (b) run into the fire and put it out. But of course, they have to do it in the right order.

    And that is indeed what it boils down to – do we value the Torah’s standards of education more than that of the secular world or vice versa? The choice is simple: All the secular “education” that you get will be useless to you in the next world. There, they will not ask you if you know how many US presidents were re-elected in history, or whether you are familiar with the policies of Chairman Mao, or if you know how to program a computer. They will bring a Sefer Torah scroll to you and ask “do you know what it says in here?” The more you know of that, the more you will be considered “educated”. The less you know, the more you will be considered ignorant. So the question is – do I want to be educated on this world or on the next?

    And please note, there is no minimum threshold for the amount of Torah you are obligated to know. The rule is: more is better; less is worse. And the difference between just a little more and a little less is staggering. As the Vilna Gaon points out, one word of Torah knowledge gives you more holiness than an entire lifetime’s worth of doing other Mitzvos.

    And here we thought that a secular education is expensive! Its much more expensive than you think – you can acquire it only at the expense of your time and effort that you could have been putting toward becoming educated in Olam Habah.

    in reply to: what does "greasy" mean? #711494
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    It’s what you become when making Latkes.

Viewing 50 posts - 101 through 150 (of 476 total)