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The first time I met my father-in-law was when he was sitting shiva, so no, I did not eat.
The Wolf
A problem with her using the title of “Dutchess of Cornwall” is that Charles daughter in law inherits that title.
Actually, that’s not true.
If Charles predeceases his mother, William will not become Duke of Cornwall. That title is reserved solely for the oldest surviving son of the sovereign. However, if the next in line is not the oldest surviving son (as in this case) the Dukedom would merge with the crown until the Queen dies, whereupon William would become King and George would become Duke of Cornwall.
However, even if this were a normal dukedom, it would still not be a problem. The widow of a Duke is still styled as a Duchess, even if her daughter in law legally acquires the title. So, consider this scenario:
Prince Phillip dies and Charles inherits the title Duke of Edinburgh. Camilla, by marriage becomes the Duchess of Edinburgh (in addition to her other titles). If Charles then dies before ascending the throne, William becomes Duke of Edinburgh and Catherine becomes Duchess of Edinburgh. However, even so, Camilla could still be styled “Camilla, Duchess of Edinburgh” as a dowager duchess.
The Wolf
Wolf: We disagree about the likelihood of Camilla officially and publicly using her title of Queen.
That’s fine. Ultimately, time will tell whether you are correct or I.
The Wolf
Of course the queen (technically, she’s the Queen of the United Kingdom, not the Queen of England) is married. Where do you think her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren came from?
Also, since she is the Queen, he did not get the title “king” but remained “Prince”.
Phillip was a Prince of Greece and Denmark since birth, but renounced those titles upon naturalization as a British citizen. When he married Princess Elizabeth in 1947, he was no longer a prince. He was not a prince again until 1959 when Queen Elizabeth made him a Prince of the United Kingdom.
Charles, Prince of Wales, will become the next King. At that time, Camilla, currently the Princess of Wales and Prince Charles’ wife, will become Queen Camilla.
Technically correct. When Charles ascends the throne, Camilla will (absent an Act of Parliament) be Queen, just as she is now, legally, the Princess of Wales (although she does not use the title). However, it is unlikely that Camilla will use the title of Queen in public, and will likely be styled “Princess Consort” as per the announcement. Nonetheless, despite that, she will legally be Queen.
Charles is only in direct line for the throne because his Great Uncle Edward VIII abdicated because he was not permitted to marry an American Divorcee (Wallis Simpson) and be King of England
Not true. Edward VIII (later Duke of Windsor) ended up having no children, so had he married Wallis Simpson and kept the throne anyway, the only change would have been that George VI would never have become king and that Elizabeth would have ascended the throne in 1972 instead of 1952.
There are rumors that the Queen will bypass Charles and hand the Kingdom to William. I don’t know if she is legally allowed to bypass Charles…..
She is not. Succession is a matter of law set by Parliament (and the governments of the states where the British soverign is the head of state). The Queen has absolutely no say over who succeeds her.
George V absolutely did not want his oldest son to follow him on the throne. He was convinced that his son’s behavior was ruinous and that he would not last a year on the throne. As it turns out, he was correct, but there was nothing he could do to change the law regarding who his successor was. Succession is in the hands of Parliament and Parliament alone.
In fact, there is no provision in British law for the sovereign to abdicate. When Edward VIII wanted to abdicate to be able to marry Wallis Simpson, it took an Act of Parliament to allow it to happen. His final act as king as to give Royal Assent to His Majesty’s Abdication Act of 1936.
The Wolf (who’s done more than just a little reading on the subject).
Why is the title about speaking and the actual question about eating?
The Wolf
What do you want to know about photography?
The Wolf
Eees and I went for pizza on our first date.
The Wolf
FWIW, I did it this year. Other years, it’s been up to my wife, my kids or myself, depending on who was available.
The Wolf
Is there something wrong with drinking on simchas torah?
No more than there is the rest of the year. If it can be done in a responsible manner, without drunkenness, then by all means.
The Wolf (who does not drink).
In other words, he advocates enacting Biblical law into American law.
Allow me to correct that for you.
He advocates enacting Biblical law according to Christian understanding into American law.
Given Judaism’s long and horrific history under states that where Christian religious law was the basis for the law of the land, I find it utterly amazing that any Jew with any sense of Jewish history would favor any step towards basing the law of the land on Christian religious doctrine.
The Wolf
Tov is an adjective. Tuv is a noun.
וְרַחֲמִים וְחַיִּים וְשָׁלוֹם וְכָל טוֹב. וּמִכָּל טוּב לְעוֹלָם אַל יְחַסְּרֵנוּ
The Wolf
But are the rest of us really on his madreiga?!
You have to be on a certain madrega to love your wife?
The Wolf
Even if, for the sake of argument, it’s true, so what?
The Wolf
The Chareidi rate is about 2%.
I’d love to know how you came up with that figure (assuming it wasn’t just made up on the spot).
The Wolf
If a baby pulls on my beard, I let him. And if he pulls so hard that it’s too much, then I give him back to his parent.
The Wolf
We do the ones mentioned in the machzor… plus the lettuce-raisins-celery one.
The Wolf
FWIW, I wouldn’t even think of asking someone to move from my seat… even if I did arrive on time.
Yeah, I put potentially embarrassing someone over makom kavua.
The Wolf
I have yet to discover an instance in which someone contracted HIV via technology.
I believe that a syringe and devices used for blood transfusions are both forms of technology.
(Yes, I know that’s not what you meant…)
The Wolf
My learning skills (and my desire to learn) increased dramatically after I left yeshiva.
The Wolf
OK, and…?
The Wolf
One of my major fears in life is that I am actually severely mentally disabled (albeit somewhat high functioning, as I am capable of holding a job) but that everyone is hiding it from me.
The Wolf
Wolf: What flavor was the candy engagement ring, that you shared with her?
I don’t remember, largely because I didn’t share it with her. I gave it to her. She ate it.
The Wolf
The only reason Eeees and I are a couple is because she recognized me from a previous meeting and came over and said “hello.”
Not quite the same as her proposing, but the relationship did start because of her action, not mine.
The Wolf
(and, FTR, while I did formally propose, we both knew within about three weeks that it wasn’t a matter of “if” we were going to get married, but “when.” The proposal was really just a formality at that point.
Actually, all this could be solved by simply not having any women, including the Kallah, at the Chassunah. There is no reason for any of them to be there.
All you need to do is have a shliach accept the kiddushin for the bride. Have the chassunah and then, later on that night, after everyone has left, have the bride delivered to the chassan’s residence in the presence of two witnesses and watch them close the door. All done. True, you will not be able to recite sheva b’rachos after the seuda, but that’s not essential for the wedding to be valid. The marriage is 100% valid even if the couple never has a Sheva B’rachos.
So, let’s just ban all women (including brides) from weddings. That will solve all of Joseph’s problems.
The Wolf
moment of the sun’s transit
Transit of what?
The Wolf
I was away on vacation and only returned right before Shabbos, so please forgive me for not answering before now.
First of all, I was not in South Carolina. I have not set foot in South Carolina for at least 35 years. Oh and the sky was clear where I was.
As to your actual question —
First of all, you can’t state unequivocly that my picture will be the same as anyone else’s. There are two main ways to photograph a total eclipse. You can photograph a “big sun” where the sun is the only object in the frame. You would do this using a long lens (preferably at least 400mm). However, you could also capture a landscape shot with the total eclipse using a shorter lens. In such a case, my photo would almost certainly be different from anyone else’s (unless they happened to be standing right next to me).
As it is, I went with the “big sun” type of photo. Truth to tell, my primary goal was to experience the total solar eclipse. However, as long as I was there, there was no way I wasn’t going to try to photograph it as well.
As for it being similar to many people’s pictures, so what?
1. I enjoy the process of creating photographs, regardless if it’s the same picture as anyone else’s.
2. It presents a unique opportunity for me to photograph the sun in a way that most of us do not see it.
3. I don’t really care if other people take the same photograph. There are umpteen million photographs of the Empire State Building, and yet I shoot it anyway.
4. Even if my photo is the same as everyone else’s straight out of the camera, there are some techniques that I can use regarding bracketing, exposure blending or other methods that might make my shot just somewhat different than everyone else’s. Maybe that will work, and maybe it won’t — but if I don’t try, it’s an automatic failure.As for your concerns about experiencing the eclipse… have no fears on that account. I did not spend the entire two minutes of totality behind the camera. I spent quite a good chunk of it simply looking up at the sky with my bare eyes and marveling at this wondrous sight that HKBH has created that does not exist anywhere else in our solar system (and given the odds against the seeming coincidence between the sun’s and moon’s apparent diameters, perhaps anywhere else period) and feeling truly awed and inspired (so much so that I almost forgot to get the final bracketed shots I wanted to get).
The Wolf
Aardvarkian Cello.
The Wolf
WolfishMusings does your Rav say to make a bracha on a lunar eclipse? What’s his svara?
I don’t know. I did not ask.
However, if I had to guess, I’d say that the difference is that lunar eclipses are a lot more common* and less dramatic than solar eclipses and hence not “worthy” of a b’racha.
Ps – The MB brings down the Sefer Chasidim who says to fast when there’s a lunar eclipse.
Not when it occurs on Shabbos, Pesach or Sukkos, of course.
The Wolf
* Actually, they both occur with about the same frequency, but a lunar eclipse is visible all over the night side of earth (as opposed to a small area of the day side during a solar eclipse), and so any given spot on earth sees far more lunar eclipses than solar eclipses.
Wolf: You have a psak so you should do as you were told.
I certainly intend to.
I heard from Rabbi Dovid Heber that we do not make a brocha.
If you asked and were told that was your p’sak, then by all means, you should not make a b’racha.
The Wolf
I asked my rav, since I plan to be in the path of totality. He said to make a bracha of “oseh ma’aseh b’raishis.”
The Wolf
Begins on Aug. 21.
Why? Because of the eclipse? You do know that there are at least two solar eclipses EVERY year, right?
The Wolf
I will actually be in a location where the eclipse will be total on the 21st. Camera gear is ready to go.
The Wolf
Boy babysitter ? That’s weird never heard of such a thing
I guess I’m weird then. I babysat quite a bit back when I was teen (many, many years ago).
The Wolf
Whatever song means something to you and will elicit in you the emotions that you wish to have elicited at that time.
Mazal Tov!
The Wolf
It’s the type of community where, if you commit the grave sin of davening in a nearby nursing home so that elderly Jews can have a minyan, you will be subjected to intense harassment until they get rid of you, but if you attempt to burn down a home with a family sleeping in it, you will be welcomed back with open arms and celebrated when you are released from prison.
The Wolf
When someone’s car horn went off (and wouldn’t stop) at two in the morning, I called the police. I did not wake up my rav first to ask him if I was allowed to call the police.
If you believe that makes me a moser, so be it.
The Wolf
Are You an Apikores?
Yes. Next?
The Wolf
No big deal.
And any employer (barring certain well-defined cases where you probably need to pass an eye exam anyway) who would hire or not hire you on the basis of wearing glasses or not, is foolish and probably not someone I would want to work for anyway.
The Wolf
Thank you. Just to make sure I understand please, not everyone who attends yeshiva gets semicha right?
Correct. I attended yeshiva and did not receive semicha. Furthermore, I protest whenever anyone calls me “Rabbi” precisely because I have not earned the title.*
(And those who excuse it by saying “but we call everyone rabbi nowadays” are only helping to cheapen the credential for those who *do* put in the effort to earn it.)
The Wolf
* However, I will admit that there are certain times when a person should be called “Rabbi X” even if he didn’t earn it. A grade school rebbe is the prime example, IMHO. His talmidim should call him “Rabbi X” even if he is not, actually, a rabbi. But he should only use the title ex officio.
Several of people I knew in high school are not Frum anymore, and the responsibility for that is squarely on the shoulders of those who ran that site.
WADR (and, keep in mind that I am no fan of Rabbi Shapiro and Frumteens), if a rabbi on a internet message board can make you go OTD, you probably weren’t all that strongly on it to begin with.
IOW, he may have played a role, but to lay the blame “squarely” on his shoulders as if he is the sole (or even main) reason someone went OTD is far-fetched, IMHO.
The Wolf
but avoid saying “We do this because it’s a commandment from G-d.”
Whenever I speak to people, that’s *exactly* the reason I use when people ask me about the mitzvos. Yes, there may be other, incidental reasons, but ultimately, it boils back to “because God said so.”
The Wolf
What would prompt or be a reason a bochor would choose a different Beis Medrash at that age?
Because BMG would have been completely wrong for me and had I gone there, I would likely have ended up completely off the derech. (Yes, I know that some of you think that I am that way now anyway, but that’s your opinion, not mine).
And who are the most popular alternative Yeshivos for them
The one I went to was a small beis midrash and clearly not one of “the most popular alternatives.” But it was right for me in ways that BMG never could have been.
The Wolf
He said it as a certainty? If so, I’d like to see a citation of that, please.
Never mind, I found it.
He said it *could* collide with the earth. And, a few months later, as he took better measurements, he corrected himself. Correcting yourself when you’ve made a mistake or have better data is good science.
The Wolf
You’re certainly no worse than a mamzer, who is not blamed for his status and is surely not considered a rasha.
The Chofetz Chaim disagrees with you. He clearly states that I am wicked.
And, of course, the sword is double-edged. If I agree with him, I’m a rasha by his statement. If I disagree, then I’m a rasha for daring to disagree with the Chofetz Chaim.
The Wolf
Why would you think such things make you a wicked person?
Because the Chofetz Chaim explicitly stated so. Sefer HaMitzvos HaKatzar, Mitzvas Lo Sa’aseh 132.
The Wolf
Brian Marsden at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 1973 made such statements.
He said it as a certainty? If so, I’d like to see a citation of that, please.
The Wolf
Go someplace else. The name already smells bad.
And, at the end of the day, he didn’t say it’s forbidden.
Now רבותי, that’s a very important question. I must tell you that all the things, the specific things, that you want Hashem to do for you, you should say it then. Don’t rely on שמונה עשרה, because שמונה עשרה itself is too general
I sometimes find it very difficult to justify asking for anything when my very existence is the result of not following the mitzvos and that, because of this, I am a completely wicked person with no opportunity to actually go back and correct matters.
Now, you really shouldn’t ask me that question because I don’t want to say anything about ספרים. However, you’ll find better history in other ספרים. Better than the ספר הישר. Better history. It’s a form of מדרש but it’s not guaranteed to be on the same level as the מדרש רבה and other מדרשים.
I would be highly skeptical of anyone who supposed that מדרש רבה was a history text.
We should say, “Ah nechtiger tog.” It’s an absurdity! We shouldn’t even bother repeating such foolishness. It’s a waste of time.
I highly doubt any astronomers made any such statements with certainty.
It is true that Swift-Tuttle will pass close to the earth on Aug 14, 2126. However, no reputable scientist would have stated that a collision was a certainly, but that there was merely a chance of it happening. And, as it turns out, further observations since then have ruled out a collision.
There’s no rule that you have to accept all the luxuries and use them.
Guilty as charged. I won a Megillas Esther at an auction one year and I kept it. Yes, I use it to read to homebound people every year, but perhaps I should have given it back after all. 🙁
The Wolf
There is a “yesh omrim” that Independence Day should be celebrated on July 2.
In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams wrote on Jul 3 1776:
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with4 Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
However, it seems like the halacha is not like him and we celebrate on the fourth.
The Wolf
You should have written Hagaon Harav Aron Kotler Ztz”l. You are just proving that your whole post is demagoguery.
Perhaps he was in a hurry. Perhaps he was typing on a difficult phone. Perhaps he just plain didn’t think about it.
How about a little “Dan L’kaf Z’chus” and actually answer his question rather than deflect it based on a few words you feel are missing?
The Wolf
That’s not a defense of your position.
It wasn’t. In fact, I didn’t state a position at all. All I said was that it was not clear to me that numerical superiority is the criterion that should be used. I very well could be wrong.
The Wolf