Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
If you were at the White House for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, you can be sure that you would “forget” to turn off your ringer after a while.
Or, you could do what I do… leave it on vibrate all the time. This way, if I do forget to turn it off, it’s barely noticeable and easily ignorable.
The Wolf
shmutzdiker goy
And what if it came from a non-Jew who wasn’t “shmutzdiker?”
The Wolf
Firmly agree. There is no reason for anyone to have their phones on in shul. If you *absolutely* must be available for contact (i.e. your wife is due to go into labor any minute, etc.), then put it on vibrate and when it rings, go OUTSIDE and answer it.
The Wolf
Yes, it is right.
A person is required to give 10% of his income to tzedaka. He can even go as high as 20% if he likes. Beyond that, he is not required to go at all.
Using your logic, no one should ever spend a cent on any discretionary item, since there is *always* someone in the neighborhood who doesn’t have food for Shabbos, can’t get the funds for yeshiva tuition, needs money to marry off a child, etc.
The Wolf
YOU ARE A KOIFER, my friend!
So, if someone doesn’t believe that a girl sat in a coma for 73 years that makes her a kofer? Gee, I wasn’t aware that that was one of the ikkarei emunah.
The Wolf
No, that’s not what I’m saying… and I’ll thank you not to put words into my mouth.
I believe that bodies don’t decay on occasion for both reasons. Just like I believe the sun will rise in the morning because Chazal tell us this and because I can see it with my own eyes.
And you still haven’t addressed my point. A person in a coma for 73 years in the modern era would have left behind an enormous amount of evidence. The fact that there is no such evidence is a fairly strong indication that it didn’t happen.
(And the comparisons to Choni HaMa’agol are invalid in any event… Choni’s 70 year sleep would not have left behind any evidence that we can find today, so I would not rule it out on the basis of there being no evidence. A modern-day coma, on the other hand, *can* be ruled out based on the lack of evidence).
The Wolf
For what it’s worth, whenever I daven for the amud, I always say it audibly too.
The Wolf
<i>Have you ever attended an evening where a famous speaker adressed the public?
MOST of the time you will not hear him telling a story while including the ‘name, rank and seriel number’ of the subjects involved. That doesnt mean the story aint true!</i>
Correct… but that doesn’t mean that it is true either. Don’t you think it’s within the realm of possibility that the story teller was either mistaken or embellishing a story to make a point?
As for non-decaying bodies, I would believe it over the story of a 73 year coma for two reasons:
1. Bodies that don’t decay *do* sometimes happen.
2. The amount of evidence left behind by an undecayed body that was quickly reburied would be very small. The amount of evidence left behind by a 73 year coma patient would be great. A great deal of medical record-keeping and literature would have been generated by such a case. And yet, not one shred of evidence has turned up.
‘ONCE a NON BELIEVER, Always a NON BELIEVER’!
What is that meant to imply? Are you implying that because I don’t believe a girl was in a coma for 73 years that I don’t believe anything? Please tell me what you meant by that statement.
The Wolf
nameless,
And again, I’m not denying that God has the power to make it happen… I’m denying that it actually happened. Can you see the difference?
Jospeh,
My primary source is the Guinness Book of World Records. Elaine Esposito, of Tarpon Springs, FL, went into a coma on Aug 6, 1941 and never stirred again. She died on November 25, 1978 — over 37 years later. If you google “Elaine Esposito coma” you will come up with numerous sources.
Other than a “it once happened…” nameless has not provided a name, place or date for his story. Usually that’s the hallmark of an Urban Legend.
The Wolf
If the Almighty decides that he wants someone to be in a coma for over 70 years, thats exactly whats gona happen
That’s right. And if He decides that a huge sea squid is going to swallow downtown Johannesburg, then it will happen to. But that doesn’t mean that it *did*.
The same applies to your coma story. Sure it can happen – but that doesn’t mean it did. I’m still calling it an Urban Legend.
The Wolf
You could ask the same question about anything less than one’s best. Why not ask how anyone can daven in anything less than one’s finest?
I suppose you can state that since we have this audience with the King at a minimum of three times a day (and, in reality, as often as we want, since you can daven at almost any time), we have (for better or for worse) a familiarity with Him which allows us to approach Him in our less than best.
That being said, however, I would tend to agree that Crocs are probably inappropriate.
The Wolf
Reliable enough???
Not for me. Not everything said by a rebbetzin (even if she’s the daughter of a rav covered in a book) is true.
As I stated above, the longest known medical coma is 37 years. Now, you’re telling me of a coma that lasted 73 years, more than double the length of the known record. I would think that if someone was in a coma that long, it would certainly have been written up in medical literature. There would certainly be records available to corroborate the story. Can you provide any? A name, a place, dates? Anything?
Until then, I’m calling the story an Urban Legend.
The Wolf
I still find it interesting that no one answered my question from the first page. The best WHAT?
The Wolf
There was a 17 year old girl who got into an accident which left her in a coma till she was 90 years old.
Sorry, but I find that hard to believe. The longest coma on record has been for 37 years. This sounds like a Jewish Urban Legend. Can you provide any more details to corroborate the story?
The Wolf
I don’t mean to say that you have to stop & take in people in your car , but on the other hand – you will get only schar from above- did you think about that?
That’s why I said:
So, by all means offer them help. Give them money for the bus, offer to call them a cab, etc.
The Wolf
OK, leave him (her?) be. I’m sure it was just a poor choice of words.
Wolf
How do you say no to people like that.
Very simple… you tell them no. If it’s illegal in your jurisdiction, you can tell them that too. If you have a cell phone, you can offer to call them a cab.
I suspect that more often then not they’re just poor innocent people(Chassidish or Yeshiva Bochurim) looking for a bit of extra help.
You’re right, probably the vast majority are fine, upstanding people. So, by all means offer them help. Give them money for the bus, offer to call them a cab, etc. But don’t let them in your car unless you know who they are. The risks are, IMHO, just too great.
The Wolf
personally i feel bad for these boys so sometimes give them rides
And you are thereby encouraging them to do it again.
My personal rule is that in the city where public transportation is available, I don’t pick up anyone whom I (or a member of my family) doesn’t know personally.
The Wolf
At the risk of sounding silly, let me ask you to qualify your statement:
Yidden are the absolute best WHAT?
The Wolf
That’s would a laugh, if it weren’t so serious. WAKE UP!!! If she doesn’t stop immediately, it may be too late.
Cherry… you may (sight unseen) disagree with my statement – but please don’t laugh about my mother’s medical condition. I didn’t bring it up for your amusement.
She is well aware of the risks of smoking. She knows what it is doing to her. She has tried on multiple occasions to stop. Every single one of her children and grandchildren want her to stop — and she knows it. And yet, for whatever reason, she cannot. I’m very glad that you have been able to overcome this, and I hope that she gains the same chizzuk that you had.
That being said, you can’t take someone with my mother’s medical history (of which you know nothing) and just toss another drug (Zyban) into the mix without first consulting with her numerous physicians. If you don’t trust me on this, well… I don’t know what to tell you.
The Wolf
My wife worked for a chesed organization when she was single. She didn’t get her paycheck at the end of the month. When she inquired about it, she was told that there was no money available. When she asked when it would be available, she was told that since it’s a tzedakah organization, she should deduct this payment off of her current or future maaser money. Needless to say, she quit right then and there.
That’s outright theft! Not only would I have quit, I would have called them in to a din Torah or to court.
The Wolf
Rav Eliyashev holds that dina dmalchusa dina does not apply on issues of ben adam lchaveiroi
So, Rav Eliyashev would allow insider trading*? He has no problem if I photocopy someone’s sefer (which I bought legitimately) and start selling it on the street for 50% off?
The Wolf
* Using inside information may be unethical in a fair market, but it’s not stealing.
<i>Someone cannot prevent the dissemination of Torah.</i>
And yet, that flies right in the face of the historical data that we have. Rabbonim *have* granted copyrights and monopolies on Torah content in the past.
The Wolf
Yoshi,
I don’t know if she has or not. Unfortunately, my mother has a host of medical issues which might prevent her from taking it. I’ll mention it to her, however. I know she *wants* to quit… but is just physically unable to do so.
The Wolf
My mother is a heavy smoker and has been so for over forty years. She knows that it is bad for her… but she has a physical addiction that is very hard to break. You can tell her from here to tomorrow that it is against halacha, but in this case, the physical addictions acts as a VERY strong ta’aivah. She’d love to quit… but she just can’t.
Josephf — so then I assume that a mechaber sefer would have no complaints against me if I copied his sefer in a country where copyrights are not recognized?
In any event, the idea that rabbonim allow willy-nilly copying is certainly not true. In the past they have recognized the need for protection of people who put efforts into work. For example, very often, if a printer put out a new edition of Shas, the rabbis of the area would protect his work by granting him the exclusive rights to print a Shas in the area for a term (usually 25 years or so). They understood that if this were not done, no one would invest the time and effort into producing new sefarim. The same could be said for almost any intellectual property.
The Wolf
(As a side point, ripping the files to your MP3 player is not the same thing as distributing the files to others for their use. The producers of CDs expect you to rip the file to your MP3 player… they know you’re not going to purchase a second CD for that purpose alone. In addition, if it’s on your MP3 player, it’s still for your personal use. That’s a long way from copying it for others.)
The Wolf
How about just not doing it because it’s not an ehrlich thing to do?
Seriously. Put aside copyright for a moment. Put aside whether it’s halachically permitted for a moment. Just ask yourself this question — if the situation were reversed, and you spent a lot of time, money and effort creating a CD, DVD, book, etc., would you want people to copy and redistribute it for free to everyone and their brother?
The Wolf