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Maybe where you come from, what you said holds water. That is why you are misguided.
In the Torah world, we don’t boycott those who make it easier for us to keep the mitzvos.
Those companies are headquartered in major cities where they do know there is a difference between believing and non-believing Jews. They also know why they bother to get certification – because believing Jews are good customers who don’t abuse their products and give them a bad name (except maybe 2 days a year LOL). Non-believing Jews were the worst alcoholics and drug abusers when I was in university. Even now I say – shikker vi a goy, shiker un gedruggt vi a fryer Yid.
In the Torah Jewish world, we show gratitude to those who help us and we explain the difference between we who do right and others who do wrong in the name of other ideologies that are mislabeled as Judaism. We thank Hashem for separating us from the wrongdoers, and sadly that doesn’t always mean only non-Jews. And we remember when Jews were boycotted for no reason and we don’t do the same to others unless we know there is anti-Semitism involved.
A bunch of letters were sent to these firms with absurd messages and borderline threats. Anyone who ever bothered to read something as simple as the fine print on a Chivas or Auchentoshan ad or label would know that the counter-boycott doesn’t hurt West Dumbbelton one bit. One Google search would have put an end to the whole deal.
The boycotters got responses that actually showed some impatience at the ignorance of the writers, who did not do any research. I don’t need a response, but I am sure I will get a simple “thank you for your support” with the same name as that on the response to the boycotters.
If you were boycotting products made at plants owned by the head of the local council, or even locally owned plants, you’d be 100% right. But the owners of those distilleries have no connection to the area. The distilleries themselves have been there since time immemorial and they’ve been through at least 3 industry consolidations in the last 50 years.
Whoever started the boycott, probably the guy in EY who doesn’t have much access to good mashke and doesn’t know who makes what, just went off like a loose cannon. The name of his blog shows that he’s out for attention.
If I were a distillery worker and heard about these Jews threatening my livelihood, I would be the first one to go to my local council and demand that they continue to boycott the state of Israel. I’d also ask that they stop letting “the men in black” or “the beards” or “the J-killers” into the distillery to certify it. That is assuming I wasn’t a true Scotsman with a hot enough temper to go to Glasgow and turn over some tables in the little kosher restaurant they have over there.
The worst part is that I am sure many of the men’s club armchair activists from yenner movement were the first to boycott Rubashkin for their (probably barely kosher anyway) shul cholent based on unfounded rumors of animal cruelty started by activists of their own ilk that then set off a horrible chain of events. In fact I am sure that one chutzpanyak from that movement, who I know personally and who made a lot of noise against Rubashkin, is part of this miserable men’s club movement that sends tefillin to self-proclaimed “anusim” in South America who use them to pray to J and to non-halachic Jews in Asia who have no idea what to do with them either.
I once got a boycott notice from another known loose cannon. She had about 10 brands on her list that were owned by ISRAELI firms in Europe, and another 2 that were huge supporters of Israel. Loose cannons like this don’t do their research because they want to shock people and get attention.
Ho Chi Minh City
What’s the difference between Monroe and New Square?
In Monroe you have a few shuls and even a Beis Chabad.
In New Square there is only one shul, and if you don’t like it there’s always AISH!
Who learned you English? Lipa Schmeltzer or H*Y*M*A*N*K*A*P*L*A*N?
Is there any issue in banging glasses when drinking l’chaim?
Some say it is a minhag avoida zoro. We do it here in Ukraine but even here I have heard some people with deep local roots saying we should not because it is zecher a particular unacceptable non-Jewish practice. I’ll double check.
I ran my first Ponzi scheme when I was 14. The teachers who lost their money in it were too embarrassed to report me. All twenty of the ones who lost and even the three who made at the beginning still have their 60 per cent shares in a twelve-lot parcel of swampland in the Mojave Desert.
THe problem is also that most of the kodesh teachers and some chol aren’t certified at all! they are young woman who are busy with family and need some money.
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Certification means nothing when there is dedication but you are right about the money issue. Some really would just as soon do office work if they could find it with flexible enough hours. And a few of the best ones I know of do it because they believe it is what Hashem wants them to do. They have family money and don’t need to get paid.
I haven’t been there in a long time but my recollection is that it is a smallish airport, not hard to get around at all when compared to mammoths like Frankfurt, Vienna and Zurich. I happen to read Italian but I didn’t need to when I was in the airport.
Things there are probably very expensive; if you’re on a tight budget best that she has food with her so that she does not even have to buy fruit or a coke in the airport. If she wants to bring someone a gift, no sense buying it in any European duty free; no savings over US regular price or EY duty free.
Chabad in Rome is now very well-staffed. Alitalia does stand for Always Late In Takeoff Always Late In Arrival so if a flight is cancelled and she needs to go into Rome itself the shluchim should be able to help her (in English and Ivrit – I know who they are and each of them speaks one, the other or both fluently because of where they or their parents are from originally.)
During Communist times, Jews risked their LIVES to send their children to cheder. They also had to support the melamdim through black market deals, managing to get money in from abroad etc – all of which were considered back then what a Madoff scheme is considered in the US today (grounds for imprisonment or even execution).
Today, those children who learned in basements and hidden huts are grandparents of 20, 30, 50, even 150 or more KAH ken yirbu frum grandchildren. The grandchildren of those who did not make that sacrifice are just “Russians” in EY or Brighton Beach today, with all sorts of halachic status questions.
There is a huge difference between a siddur party and an xmas party, making a lulav out of paper and making a tree out of paper etc etc. And if you don’t think there are books like “Heather Has Two Mommies” in grades K-4, think again.
And there is a huge difference between a sem graduate who comes from a large family, and a secular graduate who has one or two brothers or sisters and a dog, teaching nursery school.
This is what I wrote to Morrison Bowmore. I wrote a similar letter to Pernod Ricard.
BS”D
I am writing to express my support of your products, and my thanks for the large number of kosher certified and approved alcoholic beverages that Morrison Bowmore produces. Unfortunately, Auchentoshan is temporarily or permanently unavailable in my area, but I understand it is certified or approved by a reliable British kosher supervision authority, and as the issues regarding kosher status of whisky are very complex, we kosher consumers truly appreciate this certification.
Unfortunately, a misguided group of Jews who are guided mostly by a desire for publicity, are boycotting your products because of some remote connection to a region in Scotland where the local government is boycotting Israel. We understand full well that Morrison Bowmore and its distilleries have no connection to this boycott of Israel and we know better than to counter-boycott innocent businesses, especially those that produce products we can enjoy according to our dietary laws. We also understand that your employees in that region may or may not support the boycott or even know what their local council has done regarding Israel.
The original proponent of the boycott is an anonymous blogger. The group that has followed his folly is one that belongs to a Judaic movement that is considered excommunicated by those who truly believe in and practice Judaism, and the majority of kosher consumers treats this group with extreme disdain.
They do not speak for the worldwide observant Jewish community, and at the end of each thrice-daily prayer service, we say of such people: “They will say something, and it will not come to pass.”
I am truly ashamed at the actions of these misguided fellow Jews, and knowing how small a market we are in any case, I hope that their absurd boycott does not cause Morrison Bowmore any financial loss or moral damage. I am sure that the boycott will be over soon when those individuals and groups behind it find a new cause celebre so that they can get attention.
Sincerely,
(my real name)
And yes, I do follow something close to the Satmar shitta, (or original Reb Amram Bloy NK which is NOT the Ku Klutz Kartel of today) but not based on the three oaths. The difference between me and Satmar is that I would have liked to have seen Rav Kook’s vision work out, but we know it was a pipe dream (if we even know what he really held and who he really was) and we now have to focus on saving the land and people of Israel from the tuma that the state has wrought.
Sorry, but anyone who would boycott these companies that make it possible for us to enjoy kosher products does not have Jewish values. Many of the frum right-wing Zionists are basically followers of the very anti-Torah Jabotinsky who happen to wear kippot srugot and are shomer Shabbos. Meir Kahane HYD was just that, and so is Moshe Feiglin. You can’t mix lye with sugar and make a cake, and you can’t mix zionism with Torah. When you do, you get ill-advised boycotts, fake conversions and a lot worse.
And the main boycotters are not the guy who started it (who probably can’t even afford scotch in EY at the crazy prices there), but clubs that belong to a kefira movement and that raise money to spread their kefira to small communities where real Torah organizations also work.
Sometimes, you need to call a spade a spade.
Fortunately, this is one of the few boards out there that has not fallen for the left-wing political correctness that is seeping into the frum world as well.
Fermenting of grain into alcohol is so ancient that some scientists believe grain was first grown for that purpose.
I still have wine from the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA so I also use wine on Shabbos morning for kiddush, especially because I make kiddush for several shifts of people in shul before I leave to eat.
Lechaim afterward and on Friday night is another story. I prefer vodka which is expected considering where I am and what Chassidus I follow, but davka because of this misbegotten boycott I will try to buy Auchentoshan scotch for Shabbos.
When we flew to Israel with a stopover in a particular European city, I just couldn’t understand how so many of the frum passengers on our flight were sitting in the Starbucks type place not only drinking coffee, but using the milk that was served.
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Either a possibly misapplied use of Rav Moshe’s heter or members of a certain large Chassidus whose Rebbe told them they can use things they would not use at home when traveling. Both are acting well within halacha as they were taught it.
Those who were not using the milk are not in violation of any halacha whatsoever, except maras ayin as interpreted by Rav Yenteman. I was told very clearly by several of the most reliable sources in kashrus that drinking black coffee with sugar, hot cocoa with no milk (if it exists outside of where I am), and of course tea, is 100% mutar in a “Starbucks-type place.”
Sarah Schenirer AH did not go to any professional school. Neither did Rebbetzin Kaplan AH.
The problem is that some teachers, male and female, are in chinuch as employment of last resort. They lack dedication because they fell into chinuch rather than wanting to go into it, or they burn out because of low, late salaries and discipline problems (and parents telling their kids that their rebbeim and teachers are losers who could not find real jobs.)
I think the frum world needs a teaching corps, where the community pays schar limud for yeshiva or advanced seminary as well as perhaps professional training in exchange for a 5-10 year commitment to teaching.
When they opened the KGB archives in the early 90’s, I was living in Moscow. The information in the archives made it very clear that both Rosenbergs, of less than blessed memory, were guilty as charged.
Ethel’s brother was a moiser; he, too, should have been executed but he cut a deal.
Too bad kids have no spine.
I would say, “you better stop threatening, or I’ll accuse you of molesting me.”
–p
“shudders” This is what will soon happen with all the reports of molestation, and we will soon have the frum version of the McMartin case if we haven’t had it already.
even if you were Lizzie Borden
Rebbetzin Borden will be starting a school for ill-behaved girls herself next year and it will be called Bnos Makkos.
Also, the fact that the firms are sending out form letters is just PR. They are probably laughing at best – and angry at the chutzpadige Jews at worst. Jameel Rasheed and the CON-servatives should reimburse the firms for those letters, except that there is no way to do so as they are not expensed separately.
I stand behind what I said.
To boycott firms that go out of their way to accommodate us is just beyond the pale.
Those multinationals will make up for the piddling lost sales with one or two events like the royal wedding. We need their willingness to accept hechsherim if we want to enjoy scotch. As you see from the letter from Pernod Ricard (which has a whole host of kosher products, including the flagship Pernod anise mashke that went kosher within the last 10 years as well), these whiskys have little connection with the West Dumbbelton nonsense.
You do not support anti-Semites by buying Scotch distilled by multinationals. You support firms that produce kosher certified products that otherwise would be hard to purchase because of all the issues involved. If Rav Landa approves Chivas as I believe he does, he knows that it is as kosher as water from the deepest spring.
The highly skilled employees who deal with scotch are craftsmen who don’t know or care where Israel is on a map, because scotch making, like wine making in France, is an obsession that is handed down from generation to generation. If anything some are evangelical notzrim who support us.
And I cannot call a Zionist blogger who hides behind a silly Arabic name (meaning handsome/righteous IIRC LOL) anything but strange.
The real religious Zionists, like Moshe Feiglin and Baruch Marzel, and Rav Dov Lior, fear nothing and don’t hide. I don’t agree with their basic premise but who can help but respect them. I can’t even read the silly Muqata blog; it is in my filter and has been for as long as I’ve had a filter.
If I were “Jameel Rasheed”, I would worry more about answering in the world to come for causing trouble for innocent businessmen and not even having the guts to use my real name than for my children’s shidduchim. And I have never seen such a dumb threat; a nameless blogger taking someone to beis din LOLOLOLOL over another nameless commentor’s comments LOLOLOLOLOL.
Dead animals are subject to sreyfa, usually when an amateur cooks them on a crummy barbecue grill or when someone forgets to put enough water in the cholent.
In such instances, people often want to give the cook skila but that’s ossur too.
Wrapping your legs with aluminum foil at the beach even though you are wearing a burqa.
Torching your braces before Pesach.
Torching your home rather than just a tzioinish flag on Hay Iyar.
Stealing from the government is not a kula. NO responsible rov says it is mutar unless you consider the Admou”r meCreedmoor responsible. It is ossur and a chilul Hashem.
It is a minhag that goes back to the times when we were persecuted and singled out for special taxes or sudden business closure by the Czars, Communists, Nazis and Muslims.
Fraud against government agencies has no place in the US, Canada, the UK etc although if Obama ruins the country during any second term (Hashem yishmor!) it may well be that the only way to survive will be by working under the table as is the case in many socialist or overly bureaucratized states including EY.
In France and Italy, drinking milk of animals other than cows is common. Same with the former Soviet Union, where horse milk is commonly consumed by Tatars and other Muslim tribal people who sell it in open air markets throughout the region.
I think horse milk is the real concern, not useless pig milk.
The reincarnated lawyer story is very spurious. I thought the dead dog was allowed to lie already after the story was disproven. As usual, the coterie of leftist Jews and Orthoskeptics that dredge up garbage to cover for their own shortcomings did their usual and this dumb story is back in the news.
I only mention Rubashkin because when they went under, the kosher supply was threatened. I feared that without them and without any other dominant and reliable nationwide supplier, imported meat would come in from who knows where – including places where it is rumored that there are cattle (and even more so smaller livestock) that are chayavai skila.
Yes. You do not want to know what those circumstances are. All I will say is that when Rubashkin went under I checked to see if we can eat from a cow that would be chayav skila as rumors of certain behavior on rural farms abroad are not 100% inaccurate.
I think you can legally demolish your own property so long as you don’t try to collect insurance. They should have done that rather than sell it to a beis avoido zoroh. Then a developer could have rezoned it for residential, commercial or whatever (I have no idea where it is or how it is zoned now).
The only communities in which women must shave their hair are Hungarian Chassidishe communities. Claiming that is a reason for OTD is spurious at best considering how low the OTD rate is among women in these communities (as opposed to men who are less sheltered).
Pony hair is not recommended for making sheitlach. The pony may have been used for avoida zoro.
The 600 Kilo Bear lives in climates where the only louse it ever encounters is one with a camera that tries to come too close to it to get a picture to show to the folks back home. If one growl is not enough to scare such a louse away, 600 kilos is more than enough to pulverize the camera and give the louse a very memorable experience.
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Nope. One more Jewish baby could have been born instead of one more Muslim baby. That baby could have seen what a schmutz her father’s life is and done tshuva and had an ehrliche Yiddishe mishpocho.
Would I have rather seen Solomon D-ek or Sholam Weiss marry out? Nope, and for the same reason – their children can go in the exact opposite path of their fathers and probably will.
Failing that, is there still a Gambiner Rebbe of the Gotti dynasty in Queens or are they all in Brooklyn, Leavenworth or deceased?
I think he should be replaced by the most famous and most hyliger Jewish resident of the Borough of Queens – the Admou”r meCreedmoor!
I know that the boycott has nothing to do with kashrus. It is started by people who hardly care about kashrus or any real Jewish values.
It also has NO impact on the state of Israel or anything else. It is a foolish idea started by people who do not have Torah values.
And you are 100% right. I have nothing but anger at those movements that mislead people into believing that they are practicing Judaism. They are the reason there are fewer and fewer Jews in America every year. Instead of taking advantage of the freedom of the US to live as Jews, they took advantage of the lack of state religion in the US to make up new Judaic religions of no value and no authenticity.
People like me come to this site because we don’t care to hear from the peanut gallery of Judaism. If I need to know how to respond to a heretic in his own words, there are other sites I can go to for the secular “Jewish” opinion.
Sure, they let an occasional post through, but from the name of this site I think you should know who it caters to.
Also, sadly, in today’s crazy day and age, all you need is one yente to report you for potching a kid in public and you will have the full force of the law come down on you. Best not to risk it unless you’re in a frum area, in a frum store or restaurant where you know no one will “moser” you for doing something totally legal and normal.
The three younger men had and have very peaceful and fulfilled lives and grew up and continue to live in very fortunate circumstances KAH so that they spend their time spreading Yiddishkeit without having to worry about financial matters. I am somewhere in between.
In any case, stress has nothing to do with hair color. In extreme circumstances such as malnutrition or L”A hair growing back after medical treatments health can have something to do with greying.
If the child is causing a problem for the owners of the premises or other customers, then it is your responsibility to get him to stop IMMEDIATELY whether or not you haul him off the premises. Best probably to get him out of there because you create more commotion by potching him on premises.
It indicates nothing. I have substantial hair loss and little discoloration. An older friend of mine has minimal discoloration and no hair loss at age 70. Three people I know, two brothers and, oddly enough, their brother-in-law (no blood relation and no ancestral geographic connection besides Har Sinai), have full heads of white hair and all went grey in their 20’s.
Stress is not a factor. Neither is weather; one of the 2 brothers moved from a warm climate to a very cold one (and that is what I thought caused his premature greyness), but the other moved from a warm climate to a downright hot climate. The third grew up in and remains in a colder climate. The older man went through the war and the Communists and lived in many places. He had a very stressful life and still does as an askan. I also moved from a warmer climate to a colder one.
Assbergers
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Please tell me you meant Asperger’s!!!!
Assberger’s was an old restaurant in London where the meat was so bad people assumed it came from a donkey.
When ChaimShmeel Assberger closed his restaurant he became a full-time breeder of E.coli samples that he saved from the old place.
There are different kinds of not-frum and different eras as well. I suspect, for instance, that many BT’s from 60’s era parents get along well with them because for 60’s era parents Yiddishkeit is just another alternative lifestyle.
My parents and their friends are of the post-immigrant assimilationist generation for whom being “Jew-ish” was a neurosis that they could not shake either by becoming completely not Jewish (not possible) or by accepting Torah. They had no values whatsoever except to find the path of least resistance. As bad as the 60’s were and as bad as the times of the Bundists and other misguided Jews were, at least those people lived for something more than themselves and did not just want to take the easiest way out.
When I look back at history, I see how little my parents’ generation achieved and how slowly things happened during their peak years. Everything we take for granted today, except perhaps air conditioning, was for the most part invented before their birth or in the past 20-30 years. Most of the medications that really make a difference in people’s lives, like the new cardiac drugs, better antibiotics and immunological drugs, are newer inventions. The Internet – of course it was invented by Al Gore but those of us who know better know it started to become practical in the 90’s. As a teenager I took pictures on the same old basic film Eastman invented, just updated with a few twists, and I developed it myself in the same old smelly, dangerous developing solutions that were around in 1920. Now we have digital. Computers – how old is Steve Jobs?
They sought only stability and theirs was a vapid not really Jewish but not really goyish culture. Their ways are dead; a few of their descendants did do tshuva but most are part of the New Age mishmosh and don’t identify as Jews.
Maybe it was beyond their control because they were children during the Depression and WW2, but most of that generation of secular people from the US has little to teach us, and the secular Jews of that era are the second son, not the fifth son of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA’s teachings. When Reb Aron Teitelbaum of Satmar said American Jews are not under the category of tinok shenishba, I was shocked at first, but then I realized I would say the same about my parents’ generation, who could have stood as proud Jews but instead chose non-Jewish, yet non-gentile mediocracy that reduced Judaism to a few pejorative Yiddish expressions and a few abridged yomim tovim observances. (Those who are the same age and survived the Nazis, Communists or the upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East and remained true to Judaism are of course heroes.)
Then, there are those who are referred to as the Rav only after shkia :))))!
The Baal haTanya is not referred to as the Rav/Rov except when people speak of “Shulchan Oruch haRov.” We in Chabad refer to him as “the/der Alter Rebbe” or “Admou”r haZaken” and everyone else refers to him as “the Baal haTanya.”
One point per kilo as per my stated weight.
(In reality I think it is about 1.3 times my weight but I don’t know how much I weigh and my last IQ test was online and not very official).
I have little in common with my parents, who sadly absorbed the secular, almost self-hating Jewish malaise of their times even though my mother, in particular, knew better. They also know about as much regarding parenting as I do regarding how to build a perpetual motion machine. My feeling toward them is like Avraham Avinu vis-a-vis Terach; sometimes you just have to break down all their idols and lech lecho!
Indeed, frum parents who have children because Hashem commanded them to are selfless. In the secular world, parenting is often a selfish decision that stems from a desire for control and a desire to live unfulfilled dreams out through the next generation.
Yes I know you are just regurgitating. But you failed to mention a certain detail regarding the Federation of Jewish Mens Clubs. This is not a secular Jewish site or a Zionist site and we don’t care at all what those clubs do.
I am making it clear that those of us who follow Torah and know what hakoros hatov is should not follow the erev rav.
The boycott was started by a very strange extreme Zionist blogger and was picked up by a group of misguided Jews and insincere, improper converts whose values are inimical to Torah. The boycott, unlike some of the whiskys, is not kosher and doesn’t send any message to anyone. Jewish liquor consumption is a drop in the bucket (or cask), but nevertheless these distilleries want and deserve our business.
For those of us who care about kashrus, a hechsher on whisky is very important. That hechsher is far more important than the foolishness of a ragtag group of Jews who think they can somehow influence huge companies that happen to have operations in some remote part of Scotland where some idiotic local council decided to boycott the state of Israel.
I laugh at the idiocy of some basically frei Jewish mens clubs boycotting Chivas, which even Rav Landa says is kosher and therefore will always be found at real Jewish simchas and Shabbos tables. If any whisky from Dumbbelton or whatever that place is called finds its way into Chivas, it is meaningless anyway because Chivas is a blend.
I also continue to eat Turkish halva because if a firm in a Muslim country is willing to get hashgocho, they want and deserve Jewish customers regardless of their country’s government’s views on the state of Israel.
And I’ll make a special lechaim and sing “utzu etzo vesufar dabru dovor veloi yakum” in honor of the Mens’ Clubs and the Magen Tzedek and every other plan that movement, in which I was mis-educated, belches out before it runs out of steam.
And what should we make lechaim on? Laundry bleach?
As for that ban – I’ll save my boycott for the CONservative “Magen Tzedek,” thank you.
Those scotches are now owned by multinationals that go out of their way to get hechsherim on their products so that we can enjoy them without getting mixed up in the endless kashrus debate about mashke. The locals will not be hurt by the boycott at all. Some Jewish distributors and retailers may be hurt.
If I can find a bottle of Auchentoshan (the only one on the list I like that is 100% kosher) over here, I will davka buy it for Shabbos even though I prefer vodka.
Yes, I am also adding YWN to my filter. Bomb has enough agmas nefesh without YWN’s monopolistic and cruel ways (which I have also had a taste of) compounding it. I cannot help but being reminded of New Square rules here.
The article is a service to Yidden and it needs to go in print.
Peak period. Changes in weather cause circuits, pipes, appliances etc that are older or poorly maintained to develop problems. Emergencies mess up the repair people’s schedule and especially in hard times when they don’t have help, no one bothers to contact you.
No excuse, every repair shop today can easily take care of this with a PC connected to the Net and some cheap software.
Just keep trying units from the Wal-Mart 14 day gemach until you find the one you want! By the time you’re done trying them summer will be over!
Come on. You take the hardest object you can find, throw it at her and yell “Shiksa” at the top of your lungs. That alerts the tznius patrol, who deal with her as a pritza should be dealt with!
Sometimes looking the other way, as I once did when a woman (who turned out to be my friend’s wife) is improperly dressed. She got the message judging by her reaction (and fortunately she did not see who it was because it was dark and I was wearing black).