The Chassidishe Gatesheader

See http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/how-to-send-belongings-from-ey-to-chul-cheap .

Other way around (from chu”l to E”Y) is much more expensive, I assume, but it might still be cheaper than taking it as extra luggage.

It does take a long time, maybe 6-8 weeks or so (maybe it’s shorter from the US, I don’t know). But it’s worth the money and you can manage for a few weeks with the things you can take in one suitcase.

Toshiba is great, we had two Toshibas (still have 1). Working fine after 4 years still.

HP is also good, but only if you stick to their high-end lines (EliteBook or ProBook), which is probably not what you’re looking for. My primary laptop is an HP EliteBook which is amazing.

However, 2scents is right. It’s like saying, “which car is better, Mercedes or Audi?” Or Renault or Peugeot? Nissan or Toyota? Without mentioning which one in particular and without mentioning your intended usage of it. So basically, there is no answer. The above is all only based on a few personal experiences.

Davening with a minyan *is* an obligation.

However I myself have several issues that prevent me from making it to a minyan as often as I should.

I lived there for a year in 2004/2005.

Chabad is a nice frum place – very decent people.

Recommendations: personally I didn’t like the ‘old’, eastern side of the city center; I preferred the so-called ‘new’ side on the western side of the river, since it is much quieter, more authentic. My biggest recommendation is to walk all the way up to the castle at night from the eastern side, exit from the western side, and walk back down from there. You start walking uphill near Malostranska metro station, and back via Malostranske Namesti and the old bridge.

Personally I think Prague is much more beautiful in winter, with snow, than in summer. But it’s a wonderful city anytime of the year.

Just be aware that there are quite a lot of pickpockets and quite a lot of anti-Semites around. (Statistically maybe 1/10000, but meeting one can be enough to seriously wreck your day.)

Kashrus is difficult – that is, there *is* kosher food, it’s not really a problem, but the kosher bread is not very amazing (ehm, ehm) and getting things like cheese can be challenging. But I do think it’s easier nowadays than when I was there – for example, Chabad opened a small simple restaurant now; that didn’t exist back then.

In any case, it’s a great place to visit and I myself hope to go there some time soon with my wife as well.

@rabbiofberlin

Same minhag in The Netherlands as in Germany. Nowadays people tend to try and be stricter, but still, as far as I know the general position is that in situations where not shaking hands would be awkward / problematic, one is allowed to do so. For example, the most relevant (and pretty much the only relevant) scenario of going on a job interview, or, related, meeting your new boss for the first time. In those situations I do not avoid it at all, I simply see no point in giving myself a bad reputation. (Of course this applies specifically to Chu”l with non-Jewish women – in Israel it is / should be completely acceptable for any frum person not to shake hands with the opposite gender and one may assume that non-frum people there respect this.)

I had to shave this Friday, since I have a hair disease (affecting my head only) that recently started affecting my beard also – I had a big bald patch in my beard, looking a bit strange, so I decided to shave this Friday. (Usually I shave once every 6 weeks or so, always leaving something). Went a bit too far this Friday though, but given the situation I didn’t really have a choice. And yes, I did get some strange looks over shabbos and this morning…

In The Netherlands, virtually nobody wears a helmet. Keep in mind nearly all cyclists are on the way to something, not using it for fun: 99% are on the way to work, school, shopping, or whatever most Americans use cars for. Therefore most people wear whatever dress they wear – nobody wears a helmet. And the number of cyclists dying davka from traumatic brain injuries isn’t all that high, I believe – in fact the number of cyclists getting killed on the roads is quite low.

The critical difference, as some mentioned above, is that in other countries, car drivers are rude and do not respect cyclists. In The Netherlands cyclists are considered full participants in traffic, plus, there are separate cycle lanes near all major roads, inside and outside of cities.

I think that’s what the problem is; I experienced it in Israel, where the attitude to cyclists seems to be similar to the US. Cyclists are considered an annoyance, just jokers fooling around and bothering the innocent poor car drivers who need to get to work, so it seems. In Israel, cyclists have no rights at all. In my first few months in Israel I had a bicycle; when I moved from Bnei Brak to Yerushalayim I sold it since I felt it was way too dangerous there as well, plus the hills make it impractical. (I sold it to someone who wouldn’t use it in Yerushalaim either, by the way – no lifnei iver).

Here in the UK, there is maybe 3% the amount of cyclists one sees in The Netherlands, which is still 10x more than in Israel. But here all of them, including the ones going to work, *all* seem to wear helmets and hi-vis vests. And many of them wear not 2 lights, but 4 lights – like, regular bicyle lights and helmet lights, and even have them on during the day. Recently I saw a cyclist with a front light *brighter* than that of the cars passing him!

I think somewhere in between the UK and Netherlands would be best.

5 years ago I travelled with El Al and I had 6 kg over – I had 26 kg where 20 is allowed (flights inside Europe and from Europe to Israel allow only 20 kg, unlike flights to the US which are usually double that).

I was so scared I would get a huge ‘fine’ for this (it could have been +1000 NIS easily)… Then I got to check-in, got boarding pass, handed over luggage, and … “have a nice flight”?! I just walked off when I thought, “huh?! wasn’t I supposed to pay for that?!” – so I actually walked back and asked about it. I was told it was ok!

+1 for El Al.

Patri – no, some don’t light for each child. (Most do – I never met anyone who doesn’t, but I know that minhag exists.)

As for us, my wife liked to add extra candles stam, but our rov told us not to do that, only light 2 (+1 per child, once the time comes, ??”?).

“if a Jew lights the oven on last day yomtov and gets a goy to make a dough in the oven on shabbos for himself but lets the Jew take some”

You forgot about challoh. Though for really small amounts it wouldn’t be an issue, but then again, it wouldn’t be practical…

You are a minority!

Matzos always give me digestive trouble. And I don’t like staying up too late for the sedorim. 2 AM is the limit for me.

But your enthousiasm is praiseworthy!

Ehm Marvafan….. I kind of think you’re looking for a different type of forum, something like http://www.welovekahane.com ? (mods – that site doesn’t exist)

You’re obviously just here to provocate, please stop doing that.

And I may add, that I have known many others who fled Israel after getting stuck in severe financial trouble, and managed to build up their lives again in their previous countries.

So what? Are you going to punish Volkswagen in 2012 over what they did in 1940? Do you think the bosses of Volkswagen nowadays are anti-Semites?

I would propose a boycott on the USA, because it is just about the only country in the world where openly Nazist movements are allowed to exist and have ‘freedom of speech’.

“Mishpacha is Zionistic.” As is unfortunately most of the chareidi world in the US, in particular, and in the UK to a much lesser level ?”?.

Personally, I have heard of all the criticism. While I don’t specifically buy it, I do sometimes read it somewhere or occasionally buy it and have never seen anything shocking.

(Then I should note I also use BBC, CNN, Haaretz, Ynetnews, Arutz Sheva and numerous other sources, so I am not quite inside a protective cocoon like some chareidim are, especially children. For those who really want to shield their children from the Big Bad World, Mishpacha might not be the greatest thing to have in the house – same goes for all magazines and papers, then.)

The risk in leaving your WiFi open intentionally doesn’t lie in you getting slow speeds, but in crime. Imagine someone uses your internet connection to commit serious acts of crimee. It’s one of the few ways a person with evil intentions can access the internet absolutely anonymously since he has absolutely no link to the account holder.

Anyway, for me, I think it would depend on the network name also. If it’s a default network name then you can assume it’s not ok. If the name obvious like “Reuven’s Free WiFi” then you can assume it is ok. If the name is “Shlomi’s Lunchroom” and the door to Shlomi’s Lunchroom says “Shlomi’s – Free WiFi for customers”, again, obvious.

Generally I don’t get into this issue though since I use 3G and my data needs outside of the house are limited, so I never need WiFi anywhere.

If this is about one living somewhere and using it from a neighbor on a permanent basis, then one should simply go to that neighbor and discuss it. Most likely, if he isn’t a heavy user, he’d happily share it with you and share the cost – or maybe he doesn’t mind paying it all. Depends on the type of person etc of course, but I myself really wouldn’t mind if it’s just for limited usage. Several neighbors regularly used my WiFi in Yerushalayim with my approval (and my WPA2 key).

I had to blink twice when I saw this topic. Wonder whether I was the only one?

Mods, please close and ban, obviously advertisement.

Satmar does not have 250,000 chassidim. I have seen a figure of 100,000 mentioned – I think even that is a bit exaggerated, but closer to the truth than 250,000. I do think Satmar is the biggest, though.

I think shein is pretty close:

“Satmar, Bobov, Ger, Vishnitz, Munkatch, Lubavitch, Breslov, Skvere” in that order. However Klausenburg also fit in somewhere, I’m not exactly sure where (depends on also on whether you count them as 1 or as 2 groups I guess). Same goes for Vizhnitz.

Chabad should not be mentioned in one sentence with the rest of them, really – they are not chassidim, but a sect.

@Avi K: “Having a short vacation for the Chagim makes sense but ten weeks per year is exaggerated.”

I fully agree. However, I do think bochurim need a little more time than aveichim. In particular, I think a solution would be to learn a little less so that they would not get so ’emotionally tired’ and then need these huge breaks.

For example, learn from 9:00 to 16:00, and have 6-7 weeks of vacation per year – that would sound reasonable. Maybe even 8 weeks. Learning from 8:00 to 22:00 is what causes people to burn out. Learning a little less can actually make one learn more.

Of course everyone is different.

Such things only cause havoc. Being a good person is what makes a marriage work. Lots of talking, open communication, honesty, spending time together and not secluding yourself. There, that’s all you need for married life summarized in 3 lines.

I agree with yitzchokm, also.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I think these rules are definitely a good thing. I don’t see why it should cause any problems. Maybe at some point another store will open, on different hours for bochurim and girls, which would make any criticism pretty much irrelevant. But even without that, the rules are definitely justified. Stenhouse can be busy enough, but Dansky’s can be a disaster, to the point that I as a married man voluntarily avoid it during busy hours when many girls are there, because avoiding any accidental contact is nearly impossible during some hours. But usually my wife does most of our shopping there, anyway (my task is big/heavy Tesco shopping).

As notasheep says. Quite a few people here work in all sorts of areas, quite innovatively, and make it quite well. We have physicians, real estate people, small business owners, internet entrepreneurs, Lehmanns (the European Artscroll distributor), and much more. I myself work in an IT job in Newcastle (the bigger city right next to Gateshead across the river) with Israeli customers.

Safta: how are we supposed to know that? And who decides what “locally” means? Plenty of people here are in E”Y, and exterminators are much more commonly needed in E”Y than in the NY area, I believe.

No insult intended, but I think calling Brooklyn “locally” is a bit denigrating to the rest of the world. Why not write “I am looking in the NY area”, “I am looking in Brooklyn”? Is “locally” synonymous for “NY”?

I know two regular readers from Gateshead and one abroad (and I think there may be others as well). Actually, I guess I’m quite famous.

Not that that’s a good thing…