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We got engaged when buying a diamond was tantamount to supporting apartheid. Since we weren’t comfortable with that, we didn’t have an engagement ring. Many years later, my wife expressed a desire for a CZ solitaire, so I got her one for around $100 if I remember correctly.
ZD wrote, “I think automobiles cause more accidental deaths than anything else.” He’s wrong. For adults in the U.S., the biggest cause of accidental deaths is drug overdoses.
It’s not true that gedolim don’t assur texting. Kosher phones are voice only — no texting.
As sdd said, in most states, it hardly matters for whom you vote. The electoral college essentially overrides the idea of “one man (person), one vote.” If I lived in a swing state, I might vote for the lesser of the two evils, but since it’s unlikely than my home state will be a swing state this year, I’m planning to cast a protest vote.
Vermin’s looking better and better. Time to research how to do a write-in.
One doesn’t eat dandelion flowers. One eats the leaves.
There are many reasons not to vote for Trump, but that’s a really dumb one. Lincoln was arguably our greatest president, but he was also one of the ugliest. Supposedly, when a detractor called Lincoln two-faced, he quipped, “If I had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?”
Good luck with you’re spelling.
Do the minor rebbes ever get called up from the farm team?
ZD, you misspelled it. If you’re going to mispronounce it, say Lie-sester.
Most Americans don’t know how pronounce that city in central Massachusetts that begins with W.
ZD, you’re wrong. The Syrian community prohibited marrying gerim, plain and simple. If a Syrian Jew marries a giyores, he is no longer considered part of the Syrian community. I’m not sure if it works the other way (female Syrian marrying ger). The edict has been supported by generations of Syrian hahamim.
AFAIK, horseradish isn’t bitter at any stage of growth. It’s sharp. If you grow romaine and let it bolt (produce flowers), it’s allegedly bitter.
Newbee, it’s quite possible for a kohen to have a dark complexion. Besides people of (relatively) pure Jewish ancestry who are dark, it’s also possible for a kohen to marry the daughter of gerim. So I wouldn’t worry about the PR.
Are women allowed to wear chassidishe men’s shirts (which button on the same side as women’s shirts)? What about chassidishe women?
mik5, but not worse than eating a pork sandwich. Unless it’s on matzo instead of bread. Extra points for hand shmurah.
But it wouldn’t make the bowl chometz.
Could somebody explain why it’s OK to use keilim for gebrokts on the eighth day and then use them the next year on erev Pesach? It’s not a full 12 months. Is it miktzas hachodesh k’kulo?
ZD, why are the poor single mothers buying factory-made cookies and cakes? They’re way overpriced whether they’re made with potato starch or matzo meal. They can make their own cookies and cakes much more cheaply. The potato starch recipes are probably actually cheaper than the matzo meal ones.
Dov, you’re assuming the OP is male.
Why? This whole topic has been nicely rehashed this year in other threads, including ZD’s claims that bread can be made from potatoes and that it’s hard to shop for non-kitniyot in E”Y. As Yogi Berra said, it’s like deja vu all over again.
ZD, every kosher store I’ve shopped in here in the U.S. has a big sign saying that you should check every package to make sure it’s kosher l’Pesach. Have you personally shopped for KFP food in Israel or are you surmising it’s more difficult than in the U.S.?
Although Sefardim are the majority in Israel, there are plenty of frum Ashkenazim. I find it hard to believe that it’s difficult for Ashkenazim to find food that has appropriate hashgacha. I could ask my daughter, but she’s probably asleep by now.
In Chutz L’Aretz, many who don’t eat gebrokts make a point of eating gebrokts on the last day. Do they use separate keilim? If not, how can they use them for the first days the following year?
Meno, paper bags seem to be pretty rare in Israel. Here in the U.S., I use a Trader Joe’s paper bag for my chometz (they are the only grocery store I shop at that uses paper bags).
cherrybim, what about talking in shul? Or the gabbai who feels compelled to shake the pushke vigorously every 10 seconds as he walks around during chazaras hashatz?
Is it OK to use Taster’s Choice if you use a Maxwell House hagaddah? Or is that considered kilayim?
I used to daven at a minyan where I would often see $50 bills or $100 bills in the pushka. Where I am now, the big spenders put in a dollar. CTL, I take it you don’t get hordes of collectors in your shul. If I gave each of them a dollar, I’d reach maaser level without ever giving anything to a tzedaka that I know for sure is legitimate.
When my kids were young, (1) they couldn’t be trusted to not lose their library cards, and (2) the library wasn’t in walking distance. That means we kept their library cards and we went with them to the library and supervised. There are many non-frum children’s books that are acceptable and are vastly superior to the typical frum children’s books. Also, where we lived at the time, there was no frum library. Later when we moved to a place where there was a frum library, it didn’t take them long to read everything there that interested them.
ZD, you’re too literal. Strawberries aren’t berries (at least botanically). I don’t know where you get the idea that quinoa is a berry. Wikipedia says it’s a pseudocereal (like buckwheat, which IS considered kitniyos).
DY, three of the four fats you list aren’t derivatives of seeds that some people consider kitniyos. I’ve heard that some people consider cottonseeds kitniyos, but I don’t know of any use of cottonseeds as food for humans.
So that was you behind me, ZD.
When Welch’s came out with kosher grape juice years ago, there was quite a fuss because it was a non-Jewish firm taking away business from a Jewish firm. Manischewitz had a from-concentrate grape juice a while ago that I thought tasted pretty bad. Apparently it was a failure, because it was closed out at a low price. This new Manischewitz-Welch’s mixed marriage will probably taste pretty good since Welch’s has been making grape juice for a long long time.
And he’s promising a free pony for every American! He’s also the only candidate who has a plan for dealing with the zombie threat.
Avi K, that’s what oy-oy-oys are for.
I think it’s remarkable that you’re in touch with your third cousins. I have only a vague idea of who my second cousins are.
There are full page ads on opposite pages in one of the local papers. In one, the mayor defends the meters. In the other, an anonymous group of merchants says they’ll drive away business.
I don’t think it’s contrary to halacha to piggyback on an unexpired non-smart meter, but I’ve never asked a shaila about it. I usually do my shopping when the meters aren’t in effect.
A related question: I had a muni-meter ticket that had a lot of time left on it (I went to the DMV and expected the worst). As I was leaving my spot, I offered the ticket to a non-Jew. He expressed his gratitude. Was my act a kiddush Hashem, or was it assur?
Many Russian speakers have difficulty with the h sound (as in the fifth letter of the aleph bais). I’m told that’s where the name Kagan comes from — a Russian version of Kahan.
It’s interesting to ponder how any of the four front runners (Clinton, Sanders, Trump, and Cruz) will deal with a Congress that basically hates all of them. I predict four more years of impasse.
I have received robocalls from a frum-owned furniture store. They are doubly illegal — not only to they ignore the Do Not Call list, they also don’t free the line when I hang up, which endangers me (suppose I had an emergency). I haven’t had a call from them lately, but then I no longer pick up calls from unrecognized caller IDs.
Abba_S, since all meds for ADHD are prescription-only (at least in the U.S.), it’s kind of hard to self-medicate. That said, make sure the doctor you go to is a specialist in this, probably a psychiatrist or a neurologist.
I once heard Ned Hallowell speak on the issue of medicating kids with ADHD. He advised parents to give meds a try, saying that if they work, they’re wonderful, and if they don’t, don’t use them. He himself is very ADHD and he said meds don’t work for him.
The real question is how long the hostility to the converts lasted. It’s been over 500 years since the Jews were expelled from Spain.
I do home-based early intervention. Several of the homes I go to have dogs (mostly the little yappy types). As long as they’re kept from interfering with my work, I don’t care. At one of the homes I used to work at, I once saw another frum therapist who clearly had a fear of the dog. I wish the frum world weren’t so anti-dog, since fear of dogs is an impediment in this society.
A while ago, we had a dog, one that my daughter brought home. I found that while I was walking the dog, my non-Jewish neighbors, who usually ignore the frum people in the area, were quite friendly. I guess owning a dog doesn’t make you seem so alien in their eyes.
It seems to me unlikely that there are lots of halachic Jews who don’t know they are Jewish. In order to be Jewish, your mother’s mother’s mother’s … mother has to have been Jewish. That doesn’t seem too likely in a place like Spain.
Or all of the above?
Did he have a Christmas tree?
Interesting that the ads that appear here are for things like “cheap Christmas trees” (I should hope they’re cheap in February) and “Christmas tree decorations.”
Christmas Tree, ask your Rosh Yeshiva if it’s permissible to charge interest to Bernie Sanders.
You could dress like a married chassidish woman (shaitel, pillbox hat, bulletproof stockings with seams) and be completely tznius.
Dov, how can you use the term statesman to describe Cruz? He’s totally opposed to compromise.
He’s the most narcissistic candidate in a field of narcissists.
I’m wondering how a male physician (for example) can “stay far far away from women.”
It’s OK as long as you call the other couple Mr. and Mrs. Ploni. It could get confusing if they have sons, because you should also call THEM Mr. Ploni. (For example, “I think Mr. Ploni needs a diaper change.”) Daughters are easier because they’re MISS Ploni.