One of the most fundamental principles of our constitution and this country is that people are free to live their lives as they see fit. The government is given certain limited powers to make laws for specific purposes. It is not the place of the government of a free people to enforce their definition of health on its citizens. Every person is entitled to choose what they consider to be healthy or choose to be unhealthy and live with the consequences of those choices. I know that I will be better off making my own food choices without bureaucrats in Washington declaring what I may or may not eat. I will teach my children to eat healthy without any help or guidance from Uncle Sam.

In short, the government has no authority to legislate matters of personal choice.

In maseches taanis where the gemara tells us “mishenichnas adar marbin b’simcha”, rashi says that the increase in simcha is due to the miracles of purim and pesach. Clearly, the simcha does not end before pesach.

“Feif Un: I don’t think the Shulchan Aruch says we say six chapters of tehillim and sing a piyyut before maariv on Fridays either. So?”

The aruch hashulchan does mention it in specific detail 267:2

What is the source for skipping tachanun on a yahrtzeit?

Sliced turkey breast on whole wheat bread. Add whatever veggies you like (i.e. lettuce, tomatoes, pickles etc.).

My wife and I have been through this Parsha for many years. Baruch Hashem, at this point, we have two wonderful children. I know the pain and heartache oh so well.

There is a wonderful organization called ATIME. They have a website and an online support forum. Please check it out. You will find thread after thread of discussion, information, and chizuk.

Hatzlacha Rabbah in this painful but sacred avodas hakodesh.

I am having a hard time understanding your exasperation. We are talking about a man choosing the woman with whom he will spend the rest of his life and be his partner in all that he does. If a guy wants to be particular in this decision, I think that it is understandable even if it causes some shadchanium a a bit of frustration. Do you really expect someone to say “I don’t really think that she is for me, but this is the third girl that Mrs. Ploinis has redt to me so I guess I will marry her”?

Poppa – did you just quote and comment on yourself?

“Esther was also placed in a position where she had to breach her concept of tzinyus and apporach the king while Ruth was never put into the spotlight like that.”

She most certainly was. When she was told to go to Boaz during the night. That certainly was outside of what was/is considered tznius.

To address the OP:

Rus lived in a palace and gave it up to live as a “simple Jewess”. Esther lived the life of a “simple Jewess” and was forced to give it up and live in a palace. However, both of them valued a spiritual life more than all of the luxury in the world.

gavra-

Would you not agree that standing at har sinai during kabbalas haTorah constituted proof that it happened. Yet our ancestors who had that experience, sadly, just forty days later, went on to worship a golden calf and say the words “These are your gods, Yisrael who took you up from the land of mitzrayim. Now, I am well aware that there are many explanations as to what the actual sin was. However, no matter what it was, it certainly constituted a lack of emunah. Clearly, with all that proof, the nisayon of emunah had not been removed.

Hashem has provided us with enough evidence of His existence and the truth of His Torah. He has also given us temptation (both physical and psychological) which cloud our vision and make it very difficult to see this truth.

Emunah is when we remain committed to truth and look past the murkiness and confusion to see Hashem and remain loyal to Him.

Wolf-

You seem to take for granted that emunah means “blind faith”. From where do you get that idea?

I would start with the following question:

Suppose G-d came to you and revealed Himself without a shadow of a doubt that He was the Creator of everything. He then told you that a certain person had sunk to such an immoral level that their very existence ran contrary to the purpose of the world and that as the Creator of the world (and that person) He was commanding you to kill that person; would you not do it? Would you stand up to the Creator of morality and take the moral high ground?

Now, you may not believe that G-d commanded us to wipe out the seven nations, but that is the narrative that the Torah tells us and the Torah is the single historical source that the Jewish people wiped out the seven nations. Therefore, if you believe the story in its entirety, there is nothing about which you should be ashamed; we were merely advancing the purpose of the word as defined by the Creator of the world. If you don’t believe the story, then of what are you ashamed; nothing happened. If you choose to believe only certain details which seem shameful out of context, then you are clearly looking to find fault and nothing can stop you from doing so.

As far as halachos that differentiate between Jews and non-Jews:

Don’t most people have a different standard for family? We are commanded to treat everyone properly and fairly. Beyond that, we have special privileges for family. A family, as pointed out by someone else, that everyone is free to join. It is not racist to treat your family as special. This is not just a cliche. Look around at Jewish society; we operate as a family. When there is a family celebration, we all rejoice. When there is a tragedy, we all take it personally (events from this past summer can attest to that).

In short- a racist looks down at certain groups. The Jewish people consider one another as family. Big difference.

I will not take sides on the issue of weather or not more Torah Jews should serve in the Israely army (at least not here). However, I would like to address your point.

The Macabees were fighting under the banner of Torah and were led by those who were solely guided by the Torah. Today’s Israely army does not seem to be guided that way nor do they profess to do so.

Again, I am not saying that I think religious people shouldn’t serve. I am merely pointing out that there is a difference between fighting for the land of Israel and fighting for the ideals of our Torah.

A personal trainer must also study nutrition in addition to everything else.

The process of deciding one of the biggest decisions of your life can definitely be draining.

Analyzing everything one hundred different ways is exhausting.

Hopefully the end is in sight.

Hatzlacha!

“Also during Malchus Chizkiya.”

I am aware of the gemara that says that they were all chachamim. Where does it say that they did not work?

One of the icons of tznius in the gemara (brachos and megilla) was Shaul Hamelech (a man).

Chazal tell us that to fulfill the mitzvah of learning yomam valayla one needs to…

I cannot finish the sentence because chazal said not to publicize the minimum requirement so that people will not satisfy themselves with this amount. Rest assured that this amount can be easily met by someone who works.

Never in our history did the masses learn all day. Never.

For those who can do so PRODUCTIVELY it is wonderful. But there is no requirement for everyone to do so. Those who waste their time in Yeshivos and Kollelim will have to answer for bittul zman and depleteing the funds from those who are shteiging with mesiras nefesh (not to mention taking money from hard working baalei baatim who give from their hard-earned money to support their learning).

QTpie – Perhaps you are confusing the terms “half-brother” and “step-brother”.

A half brother is a brother with who you share one parent. According to the Torah a real brother for almost every halacha.

A step-brother is someone with whom you share no parents and merely live together because one of your parents married one of his parents. This is not considered a brother and yes, they may get married.

If you want classics, try any of the Regesh (Rabbi Shmuel Brazil) albums. My particular favorite is Regesh 3. My shabbos starts off differently when I listen on Erev Shabbos.

As for more recent stuff, if you don’t mind a chasideshe havara, there is a wonderful set of CDs called Lechaim Tish. My personal favorite of those is volume 4.

There is a simple answer to your question. To take the dalet minim or make a bracha on the sukkah would be a zilzul (disgrace) to the independant yom tov of shmini atzeres beacause you are clearly declaring the day to be sukkos in some way. On the other hand, eating in the sukkah is not considered a zilzul because people will eat outdoors from time to time. Therefore, doing so does not necesarilly indicate that we are still holding in sukkos. (pe’amim shusukaso areiva alav.)

That being said, when living in a cold climate (i.e. Poland or Russia) some did consider it a zilzul to eat in the sukkah because no one would ever eat outddors in such conditions if not for the mitzvah of sukkah. Hence the minhag of many communities was born to not eat in the sukkah on shmini atzeres.

PBA – for the record, I did catch you and your answer to my question (assaf!?). And we are told that Dovid Hamelech brought karbanos on the bama in givon.

Which navi gave the nevuah that it was time to build the second beis hamikdash?