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BS”D
I’ve been using power drills since before bar mitzvah and I still cannot stand the noise and just about shudder when someone else uses one. I think it is just natural – even the fastest, smoothest working cordless emits a horrendous noise.
Ditto for vacuums – if I have to work in my home office when she comes, my cleaning lady gets a break from vacuuming because I leave the home so as not to hear the vacuum.
BS”D
I got one so classy I had to explain it to the DEA.
BS”D
I think you are confusing Upstate New York with northern E”Y as the kever you describe really sounds like that of the tanna Yonason ben Uziel in Amuka. I checked to see where the Ribnitzer ZYA is buried – also not upstate – his kever is in Monsey.
There is a website that lists many kivrei tzaddikim in the US – do a search and see if you find it there.
BS”D
Are there any more refined words than psukim? What refined words do you ever find with secular music? If you take the most “pop” of our world, you have Yossi Green. He can be defined as a commercial composer, but he is an eved Hashem who really doesn’t need the money (he is a successful businessman). Boruch Levine is a very well respected mechanech, and so is Shmuel Brazil. The Chassidishe composers all compose for their rebbeim and it is only afterward that the tunes make it into the commercial Jewish music world. Ki Hierbeiso is a perfect example of that – it was so good that Avraham Fried and Lipa bought it from whoever wrote it for the Lelover (?) simchas beis hashoeva. Avinu Malkenu Psach Shaarei Shamayim was a Belz nigun that I think was also composed for an SBh”S and it spread into the popular Jewish sphere. Mendy Werdyger puts out albums of such new Chassidishe neginah every so once in a while as well.
And even Yossi Green’s music clearly fits the lyrics and has the right beat and feeling to enhance the message of the psukim that it accompanies.
The secular composers just turn out whatever the market will bear. Some of their messages – rebellion, drugs, free love – are completely against Torah.
BS”D
Those words meant little to their composer – some say that it was a metaphor for some political event in what became Italy but chances are that Giuseppe Verdi, despite the fact that his name in Heimish would be Yossi Green, just knew of those words from studying what to him was the “Old Testament”.
Let My People Go is not kodesh either, and the same goes for Turn Turn Turn which is a translation of Koheles. This is simply dragging kodesh into places where we don’e belong – OK and then some for a ben Noiach but NOT FOR US!
Boruch Hamavdil ben koidesh lechol!!!
BS”D
Bear fur is coarse and therefore hypoallergenic. If you don’t want to keep a room cold enough for polar bears, black and brown bears have the advantage of sleeping through the winter and keeping you warm by serving as rugs and footrests.
BS”D
Buy the newer albums – they often include the words in the cover booklet or on PDF for downloads :). When Lipa first hit the scene, I needed the lyrics because his Ingarish Yiddish pronunciation is so different from mine (and even from the Poylisher dialect such as Belz which was the closest thing I had heard to his dialect) that I thought he made some of his words up at first.
BS”D
My big white furballs Fluffy (m, 1350 lbs) and Cloud (f, 730 lbs) repel any klalois that would dare enter my dalet amois – intruders, burglars, the meter reader, the property tax inspector, the gas man, the cops, you name it.
BS”D
Ummm..the Lubavitcher Rebbe is not buried anywhere near Albany! He is buried near where you can get a flight to Albania 🙂 – in Queens on the way to the airport (using a roundabout route which I no longer remember).
The only kever of a tzaddik I know of anywhere that could be called upstate is that of Reb Yoilish in Kiryas Joel, Monroe – but that is not all that far upstate. I have never heard it being associated with shidduchim, though.
BS”D
Always Here – 30-45 years ago was worse than now – the drug culture, the rebellion etc.
Actually, except that one of the singers of that era hanged himself in prison while awaiting felony charges, and there were allegations of organized crime involvement in the production end, muzika mizrahit 20 – 25 years ago was far cleaner than anything the US or UK secular music world had to offer.
Some words even came from kodesh – the overplayed Shabchi Yerushalayim came from that era and culture and we adopted it. The love songs were full of psukim from Shir haShirim and tehillim. Jo Amar A”H started that type of singing and he was always shomer Torah umitzvos; at least half of his popular songs were pure kodesh even at the beginning. At the end of his career he sang only kodesh because B”H his audiences accepted it.
Now, because those who want kodesh can find pure kodesh, what is left of muzika mizrahit is shmutz shebashmutz.
BS”D
Non-Jewish music is just fine – for non-Jews. Pork is just fine too for non-Jews.
BS”D
And there is nothing that will change my feelings about the fact that Rav Soloveichik ZTL and his version of MO belonged to an earlier time when you just could not observe on a level that we can today.
I experience this in very minor ways in Eastern Europe – for instance kosher certified mustard, chrein and canned vegetables don’t exist here and we have what to rely on to use what we use. But even in London and Paris where there are kosher lists that accept such things I would not use them, let alone in the US or E”Y.
So too, I listened to non-kosher muzika mizrahit 20 years ago when there was no kosher alternative. I had one mp3 of such stuff on an old computer that was stolen and I have no intention of replacing it because I don’t need it. I don’t even have the time or inclination to listen to anywhere near 50% of the kosher albums out there because I find that they are too good and therefore distract me when I am working.
Now, there is no excuse to listen to goyishe music. The words are prust and grub, and that includes classical music as well as pop. Mozart was on no higher a level than Michael Jackson was, and there are well known classical performers who are into M”Z and other severe violations of the 7 Mitzvos Bnei Noach. Besides, when I bought 2 Lipa albums this week, I am sure a few cents went to his shul and his other chessed work. You don’t want to know what the popular and classical music world supports.
You don’t have to listen only to niggunim and chazzanus – few people are on that level – but there is plenty out there for every taste including alternative.
BS”D
What matters are the words. Yom Tov Ehrlich AH did not compose a single song and every street musician in Moscow used to play half the tunes he used for his songs because they are old Russian folk tunes. His niece Rebbetzin Dina Storch (Kaluzhoweveryouspellhermaidenname) used old American tunes for Someday and Daddy Dear.
On the other hand, we also have composers like Reb Chaim Banet, the Belzer baalei menagen, Reb Yankel Talmid AH (Ger) and Reb Moishe Goldman AH who sadly left us far too soon about a year ago IIRC, who may have used themes from Eastern Europe but their music has a true Yiddishe taam. Interestingly enough, the famous Habibi (not Shwekey’s but the more common one) seems to have been composed for both the words we know and secular lyrics simultaneously. Most of the other tunes from the Middle East and North Africa come from the popular music of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, before the complete end of Jewish life in that part of the world.
And some of those secular tunes were composed or made popular by Jews, like Salim Halali, the Bob Dylan of Morocco, or Samy El-Maghribi (real name Salomon Shlomo Amzalag, also left us within the past 2 or 3 years) a perfectly kosher Jew who was a hazzan in Montreal after a long career as a popular performer in Morocco and Paris. Today in Morocco there is a popular singer named Pinhas Cohen; sadly he is very far from Yiddishkeit and his wife is not Jewish.
Just as the US had Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, the Arab Jewish world was full of popular composers, the difference being that Berlin and their ilk were porkei ol malchus shamayim whereas the Jewish composers in Morocco etc stayed close to tradition until now (“Benhass” is not the only Jew I know who married out in Morocco – it is not a shanda anymore, unfortunately).
Pop music is pop music – but the words stick in the mind and neshomo, especially because composers are using less and less common psukim (Yedid, Ki HaTov, Shiru laMelech come to mind).
No reason to listen to secular words because we have enough music of our own.
BS”D
Figure out from my screen name what creature I proudly keep as a pet (a breeding pair in fact) :)))).
BS”D
Yes, that is correct. Here in Ukraine that kind of bread, at least at our kosher bakery, is called “aromatic” and is clearly labeled as being regular bread colored and vaguely flavored with some sort of malt extract IIRC.
BS”D
Friedman’s closed? Or is this a former location of Friedman’s which is now in what used to be the public market years ago?
The only way to beat KRM is to issue your own food stamps :). Alternately, they can change the name to THOMAS Friedman’s so all the Arabs from Midwood and Ditmas Park shop there :)))).
BS”D
They are made by Mageifa Bakeries :).
BS”D
and what about Lipa?
BS”D
A23 – that is a special placard called “Ethically Disabled”. I can sell you a couple far tzvy hinnert tolar – meet me after Mayriv behind the mikveh at Igid HaGanovim shil where 15th Avenue intersects with New Utrecht Avenue. I’ll be driving the Lexus with a VAS plate, lights, and three “Ethically Disabled” placards on my rear windshield.
BS”D
I have used it to cover scratches on painted metal and I find it as good as appliance or auto touch-up paint so long as I use black or white (colors which are available thanks to the teenage “goth” mishegoss). As a card-carrying frumyak I don’t buy any metal goods in any color besides those 2 so I have never had any experience using custom colors to touch up fancy appliances, bikes or whatever.
BS”D
Umm..whenever anything has to do with food you should go only to a frum professional who understands kashrus. Otherwise, you can get recommendations for something that the nutritionist claims has no animal products but is actually chozzer treyf.
BS”D
BDE. I know of him going way back. He was one of the first of the real Torah askanim in the Syrian community. His firm is one of the largest shoe importers in the US.
BS”D
I can’t tell you the name of the person who influenced me the most because he would shoot me if I revealed it.
BS”D
I hope so. I know of at least 2 men who are doing this. There is a tremendous shortage of nurses in the US and it will only get worse – because nurses are less expensive than doctors they do more and more under managed care. Male nurses from the community would also make it easier for frum choilim L”A or even frum patients who go for a medical exam.
BS”D
Needs to have the antivirus, spyware remover and disk defragmenter run more than once a day is the definition of high maintenance for me. After a few weeks of that treatment, I try saving all the data and reinstalling the operating system. If that doesn’t work, out she goes, the useless old bag…………..:)))!
BS”D
Yes, voluntarily during the 1993 parliament building siege curfew in Moscow, Russia which came out Chol Hamoed Sukkos. I was in the shul sukkah past curfew and wanted to leave to go to sleep. I knew the only way I could get a taxi was to have the cops arrest me and take me home. They patted me down, asked me to show them my Walkman, and charged me a 500% premium for the ride.
BS”D
1) Depending when this was, there are a lot of unqualified FSU doctors in EY who should not be practicing.
2) The Gerrer Rebbe’s brocho came to be via this doctor. It may not be an example for anyone else. A similar story is told of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA who sent someone to a doctor who was a chossid of his to get an RX for a creme that might as well have been a placebo. It worked and the patient did not need surgery. Would that creme work for anyone else? Not without the brocho. I think I know what it is, and the FDA allows it to be sold only because it was around for so long and is harmless.
3) I have a nuisance skin condition on the backs of my hands. Simple Vaseline works better than any RX I have ever used and I got many RX’s because when I first noticed it I had a very comprehensive insurance plan. Had I not asked a rov whether I can use hand creme on Pesach and gotten a “no” answer with a recommendation of Vaseline, I would never have tried Vaseline.
BS”D
Now with Dor Yeshorim it is safer and I think it is really because of American culture that it seems unusual. Still, more than once every couple of generations is looking for problems that won’t necessarily show up on DY.
Lehavdil, Saddam Hussein YMS was born to a very inbred family, and he married a cousin. His sons YMS made him look like a tzaddik.
bsd a very minor one when I was a teenager. I could have gotten damages but I did not realize my neck pain was not from lifting weights until it was too late and long over with.
BS”D
Are sulfite free wines permitted in the US? I think our local kosher wine is sulfite free and I can really tell the difference.
BS”D
We had someone here start Mizmor leDovid using the Carlebach “tune” every Friday night. Why they let him do it is beyond me; Carlebach means nothing in this part of the world, but as I figured it was not worth a fight.
The novelty burned out after three weeks, and if our Carlebach fan (who just likes the music anyway) has the amud or if someone else decides to do it, no one pays attention and he’s basically singing to himself. When Shabbosim start later no one will want to put up with it anymore anyway.
edited
BS”D
In my community we do use shaois zmaniois and not secular clock hours to determine when not to make kiddush. We come out between 5.40 and 6.40 or so during the three or four shabbosim when it is an issue here.
What happens if you have Martians as Shabbos guests? Can they say kiddush at that hour?
BS”D
???? means “killer” You see it on cans of insecticide and disinfectant in Eretz Yisroel. That would be pronounced KOYTEL in old Ashkenazi loshon hakoidesh (if the word is authentic and not a Zionist coinage – I would think it is indeed authentic) but if you asked someone which bus goes to the koytel, you would not be understood.
I don’t think you would use the word ???? at all in daily speech.
KOYTEL is wrong – all of the others are fine.
BS”D
I serve sponges cooked in tomato sauce on Purim; it is an old minhag in Chelm and Szarkonosvary.
BS”D
Yes, let’s use our tax money so our kids can be taught Yinglish/yeshivishe reyd rather than on teaching Shaniqua Ebonics :))).
Better yet, the secular education programs would start teaching frum kids Ebonics.
“I be a Yid. Di iz a shygetz.”
BS”D
It would not even work for secular studies. You would have forced integration, in which children would be bussed in from parts of the city that are barely safe during daylight hours.
BS”D
Being male, I handled hair loss the old fashioned way. A zero cut to get rid of a lot that remained :). Meanwhile the water where I am makes my full beard curl up and even shed hair – and the hair on my head which I don’t really want grows too fast, along with my mustache.
BS”D
1) Peter is not Shimon. Peter means a rock – cf petroleum – oil from a rock.
2) Satmar = Satu Mare = Big Village. Any word for saint in any Latin language, or even Hungarian, has an N in it. The Satmar = S Mary was an old error that even some Satmarer Chassidim perpetrated by mistake (probably because they spoke Yiddish and not Romanian).
3) Risha is very common. I know 2 Risha’s, each one from a very different geographic origin. One is named for her great-grandmother who was from Belarus or Ukraine; the other one is from a Hungarian family.
4) The one Rasha I know is also of former Soviet – Pale of Settlement origin. She was born in EY and I think she pronounces it in a way that would be very embarrassing if she were Sefardi.
bs’d
1) Do not assume anything when you ask about Purim
2) Google eau de Javel
3) I drink 96. This year I have mint flavored 96 which I am making by letting dried mint leaves soak in 96, and star anise 96 – ditto but with star anise. 96 has no sugar and hardly bothers me so long as I eat enough.
BS”D
A mandated reporter is supposed to report REAL abuse, not drinking on Purim (or Simchas Torah or even by a chassune).
Which color bear reaches a weight of 600 kilos? Not black, not brown…but the only bear that would be awake all winter :)).
And it looks like someone has fallen for my wine recommendation. Distributing THAT “wine” WOULD be child abuse – hint – do a Google translation if you don’t know what usually is sold in white jugs at a strength (NB: I did NOT mention alcohol) starting at 5.25% :))))!
bleach. reminds me of swimming pools.
Yes, and mesira is the answer to our problems. Ask any of Solomon D”ek’s victims.
Instead of moisering, if it means so much to you give up your OWN drinking and go ferry kids home, quietly and discreetly so there is no trouble with the cops.
Everyone needs one day a year to go wild and that is why Hashem gave us Purim. You cannot imagine how many students are frum today because of having fun with kiruv rabbis on that one day (or on Simchas Torah).
Drunk driving is another story but that isn’t what you intend to moiser, is it? I forgot – was it Lakewood or Flatbush (or Queens) where Chaverim ran free rides – THAT is how Yidden deal with sakonos nefashos – NOT mesira.
And given all the benefits of drinking one drink a day, I would be very happy to encourage any kids I may have to drink one beer or one glass of wine at 15 as is probably done in France and Italy. Thankfully, I don’t live in a place where there are mandated reporters – we still call them moisrim.
sheini. cf: Purim.
I am a mandatory reporter and I have, and will continue in the future to report distribution of alcohol to those under 21. Even on purim.
—
BS”D
Knowing how many of my friends never met their grandfathers because of “mandatory reporters” in what used to be the Soviet Union, I have “mandatory reporters” of everything except real child abuse in mind when I say Velamalshenim.
However, I am not sure what the laws really are in terms of distribution for religious purposes. I do know that it is rightfully overlooked and I even bought wine when I was retroactively made underage by the law changes in the mid 80’s. In fact the only time I was ever carded was when I was already 23, at a store in Manhattan that was later shut down for tax games. I was tempted to ask them “where were you when I was 19”?
BS”D
The chasers play on your emotions and you often agree to their services without checking their records.
They are desperate because the legal field is overcrowded and personal injury attracts the least competent lawyers (other than the real and successful personal injury experts like the Rothenbergs, the late Harry Lipsig in his day etc).