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1. Young adults should be ready for marriage at 18.
2. Husbands should work, wives should stay at home.
3. Young ladies who go to seminary after high school should do so close to home.
4. Don’t dump Zaidy or Bubby into a nursing home.
skripka: None of your expressed opinions here seem especially controversial or unpopular.
Dorah: Do you also go around saying that one man’s porn is another man’s art? And then insist on no “censorship” of such “art”?
CA: By time you hit the Loshon Hora button, you were already oiver the issur.
WB Toi!
There’s a software program that lets you enter your shaila as well as the answer to it that you want. It’ll then give you the name of a rabbi that says you can do what you want to do, as per the question you asked.
Yeridos Hadoros
Dr. Pepper, I love your posts and commentary and have been an avid follower of you over the more than 16 years you’ve been active here. I look forward to continue reading your valuable shared knowledge and opinions.
I wanted to mention that beginning with this election season, this year (and possibly late last calendar year), the tone, vibe and style of your comments have been unlike what I’ve been accustomed to over the past decade and a half. It’s just much different, I’m not saying better or worse. But I’m curious if anything might account for this change?
Kuvult: Yet, Lincoln, indeed did save the Union. And Lincoln is held up as a true American hero, ever since the end of the Civil War through today, by all sides of the partisan divide. So, perhaps, it can be argued that even the excesses you describe above may have been the right medicine for those dark times of war when the Union was threatened with disintegration — a fate Lincoln saved America from.
I answered your questions. You missed the Rav Chaim?
Then there was the officer who, after issuing a motorist a ticket, was yelled at by the driver that he was giving it to him to meet his quota. The officer replied that he already exceeded his quota for the day and was now giving the ticket just for the fun of it.
I’m not following how a ticket can get lost before the meter maids come to check it; it is supposed to be put inside the car on the dashboard, showing from the windshield. I never saw anyone put it outside the car (on the windshield, with the wiper blades.)
Thoughts are that he shouldn’t have volunteered in the first place.
Who is this legend I keep hearing references to but is seemingly never seen? Do we really have such a whispering phantom in our presence? He or she must be the Hastur or Keyser Söze of the Coffee Room.
It has nothing to do with me. I didn’t call anyone an apikorus; I simply quoted to you the Rishonim and Achronim call them an apikorus.
Take up your complaints against the Ran, Aruch Hashulchan, et al.
Okay, mbachur, still love ‘ya. 😝
CA: What kind of disability?
skripka:
“The point I was making about converts ws that according to what @UJM said, there should be a genetic change when someone becomes a Jew, That is to say, a doctor who is treating a recent convert shouldn’t assume that what worked earlier would work now, because the man has changed from Non-Jew to Jew.”
I said no such thing. The Gemora clearly said it is related to the gentiles having a different diet than Jews. Therefore, you certainly cannot assume a convert has the same medical status as a Jew. In fact, as the Chasam Sofer said, it is a generalization — not a hard and fast rule. You simply can’t *assume* that what worked for a Goy will work for a Yid.
“I am absolutely certain that I can find certain things you do that would be deemed apikorsus by somebody….”
Don’t be so certain. Certainly not by anyone of any authority. It simply isn’t the case
And none of your examples (wrong havara/pronunciation, Zman Tefila) carry the severity of rendering a person an apikorus and thereby forfeiting his chelek in Olam Haboah.
Would you eat some unknown substance if some medical authorities maintained that it is likely to kill you within three months of digestion — if another medical authority asserted it was completely fine to eat?
(And that’s before even getting into the fact that the consensus throughout the centuries of Tannaim, Amoroim, Rishonim and Achronim is that such a belief renders one an apikorus, yet you rest your eternal future on one Rishon (Reb Avrohom), where he is a daas yochid on an issue that the full corpus of Rishonim and Achronim never really even dissected his comment throughout the subsequent Seforim HaKedoshim. It, effectively, was a buried daas yochid until Mr. Slifkin trotted it out to defend his own apikorsus. History has proven correct the Gedolei Yisroel who declared Slifkin to be an apikorus, as Slifkin today is an open apikorus, who for the last decade plus is engaging in clear, open and unabashed mevazei talmidei chachomim on a daily basis.)
The Zionists kidnapped the frum Yemenite children and put them up for adoption with irreligious families.
What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.
A machlokes over whether maintaining a given belief makes one an apikorsus? Personally, I wouldn’t want to have a belief that many shittos would deem the person an apikorus — even if according to another shitta he wouldn’t be deemed an apikorus.
As far as the rest is concerned, I’d cite Rav Chaim Brisker: “Fun a kasha shtarbt mir nisht… S’iz besser tzu bleiben by ah kasha vi tzu zugen a krumer teretz.”
I’m not the one who taught that it is apikorsus; the Ran (see above) taught us it is apikorsus, as did the Aruch Hashulchan (see above) and others.
Are either of you disputing the Gemora regarding the Shichvas Zera of a Nochri?
And why is their a lack of concern regarding how Ivrit (Modern Hebrew) has butchered Loshon Kodesh; and that Ivrit speakers carry over their incorrect/problematic pronunciations when davening?
ZSK: It seems to me that you missed my point. I was pointing out that their are significant differences in pronunciations of Loshon Kodesh between Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Teimanim, Litvaks, Chasidim as well as some additional variations.
Are you arguing that some of those are incorrect and/or that
between the varying pronunciations of Loshon Kodesh between Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Teimanim, Litvaks, Chasidim, etc. only one is correct and the rest improper and problematic for use in Tefila?skripa: I provided numerous sources above that Chazal’s scientific knowledge was not limited to the knowledge of the secular scientists. Chazal knew earlier many things that the secular scientists only discovered later.
Kuvult: The Gemara suggests that the Shichvas Zera of a Nochri has different properties from that of a Jew, since the Nochri eats non-Kosher foods and is physically affected by his diet. The Chasam Sofer (Teshuvos YD 175) writes that this Gemara is relevant in practice. He rules that we cannot assume that a medical treatment that was tested successfully on a Nochri will also be successful on a Jew.
What that means is that you can’t automatically assume how a Goy reacts to a treatment will also be how a Jew reacts to it. It doesn’t necessarily either automatically imply that it won’t work for a Jew.
Rav Elyashev pointed out that the Chasam Sofer writes that the physical characteristics of a Yid are different than a Goy, and that what applies to one may not apply to the other. Therefore, said Rav Elyashev, how much more so regarding the mind/soul?
skripka: What are you האַקן אַ טשײַניק about? I said nothing about electricity and vaccines.
All that was said — and not by me mind you but rather by the Tannaim, Amoroim, Rishonim and Achronim cited above (more available upon request) — is that the science that Chazal espouse comes directly from Har Sinai and from the Torah. Not from the contemporary scientists of their times. In fact, Chazal at times *disagreed* with the scientists of their day.
Chazal didn’t espouse anything about electricity or vaccines.
If you disagree with this fact you need to argue against Rav Yochanan, the Ran, Rav Breil, the Aruch Hashulchan, the Chasam Sofer, the Raavad, et al.
HaKatan: How, then, do you account for and reconcile the differences in pronunciations of Loshon Kodesh between Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Teimanim, Litvaks, Chasidim as well as some additional variations — both historical and contemporary?
Richmond: Did you read the sources (Rav Yochanan, the Ran, Rav Breil, Aruch Hashulchan, Chasam Sofer, the Raavad, etc.) I cited above, in the second comment of this thread?
Chazal’s scientific knowledge came from the Torah. This fact isn’t a Chareidi invention.
Square: ujm didn’t present a logical argument. ujm simply pointed out a fact and asked a question.
Reb Eliezer: Isn’t there a Gemorah that says if a wife truly loves her husband she’ll give birth to a b’chor rather than a firstborn girl?
It proves the lie that it is somehow discriminatory or sexist to have gender separation.
Just as women are permitted to demand sitting only next to another woman for being concerned about the small chance of being attacked, so too members of either gender ought to be permitted to demand to sit next to a member of their same gender for reasons of holiness in order to avoid unintended contact with a member of the opposite gender.
Israel has been at war since 1948, over 75 years straight. Every few years the war gets hotter.
Should American Jews (or gentiles) go on vacation when America is at war (Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.)?
We see that Chazal learned their science from the Torah. Rav Breil, the Rebbi of the Pachad Yiztchok, teaches us that we do not even entertain the possibility of a scientific statement in Chazal not coming from the Torah. This we see from Rav Briel’s answer to the Pachad Yiztchok’s question regarding the killing of lice on Shabbos. The Gemora permits it, based on a scientific fact. The Pachad Yiztchok asked his Rebbi that due to the possibility that this scientific fact is incorrect, perhaps we should be machmir and not kill lice on Shabbos, just in case.
Once we establish that the scientific knowledge that is incorporated into Torah Shebal Peh is derived form the Torah, it has the same status as all of Chazal’s interpretaitons of the Torah — they are binding:
The Gemora in Sanhedrin (100a) tells that R. Yochanan derived from a posuk that when Moshiach comes, the gates of Jerusalem will be made of jewels 30 amos long and 30 amos high. Some student said that such big jewels do not exist – “we do not even find jewels as big as doves eggs,” he said. Then, one day the student saw angels (!) cutting such big stones, and he asked them what they are for. The angels answered: “They are for the gates of Jerusalem”. When next he saw R. Yochana, he praised his qualifications for expounding the Torah, based on his “scientific observation” that confirmed the Rebbi’s interpretation.
R. Yochanan responded, “Bum! You only believe because of what you see? You dishonor the words of the sages!”, and the student died.
The Ran (Drashos #13) points out that the statemnt of R. Yochana had no halachic relevance at all – it was merely an Agadic interpretation, and the disagreement was regarding a scientific fact, yet the student was punished for not believing in its truth. Therefore, he concludes:
“Just as we are commanded to follow their opinions regarding laws of the Torah, so too are we commanded to follow all of what they say from tradition in Hashkafa (“Deos”), and medrash on Pesukim. And someone who veers from their words, even in something that has no relevance to any Mitzvah, is an Apikores and has no share in the next world.
Particularly interesting is a statement on this topic in the Aruch Hashulchan (EH 13). Quote:
“I will tell you a great principle: Chazal, besides their holiness and wisdom in the Torah, were also greater scholars in the natural sciences those savants (“mischakmim”) who would argue against their pure words. And someone who disagrees with them testifies about himself that he does not believe in Torah shebal peh, even though he would be embarrassed to admit it outright.”
Chasam Sofer (Beshalach) writes that this is the meaning of the posuk “Ki hi chachmascha ubinascha l’einei ha’amim” – Chazal were great experts in the secular sciences and disciplines. In fact, you need to know much secular knowledge in many areas in order to properly understand the Torah – and he gives several simple examples. However, since we are supposed to be busy learning Torah – not secular science – all day and night, and Hashem has no “nachas ruach” from us learning secular studies at all, how would Chazal have known all the secular wisdom that they clearly knew, as we see they did from all of Shas?
Answer: They know it from the Torah, since the entire body of secular wisdom is included in the Torah, for the Torah is the blueprint of the world. And so, when the Goyim see that we do not study the secular science books at all – and we even disagree with them! – yet we derive all the secular knowledge, in the most precisely accurate form – from only the Sefer Torah, they will exclaim, “Am chacham v’navon hagoy hagadol hazeh!”
A similar explanation is given by the Raavad-ibn Daud. He says that the posuk refers to the philosophical truths that it took the nations centuries to develop, we knew all the time via tradition from Har Sinai.
RW/OP: Why do you think Harris will win against Trump?
“kugel, cholent, kishka, alcohol and
various cakes”All are traditional Jewish foods.
I’m the last one who can be accused of being anything close to pro-Biden. But in regards to his actions with Israel in general and regarding October 7 specifically, Biden has certainly not been terrible. He’s been fairly good. Certainly there’s a lot more to be desired and he made some wrong decisions, moves and comments regarding Israel and October 7, but overall he’s been okay. He’s notably better than Barack Obama. But he also is definitely not even 10% as good as Donald Trump, regarding Israel and Jews.
Cross-Currents is left-wing (religiously, not politically) trash.
Yes, Torah Jews do see themselves apart from the rest of the non-Torah nation. Correctly so. And that will not change no matter how much the anti-Torah crowd stamps their feet.
Does anyone care to explain or define what “fade no Peyos” is or means?