A few responses, as this is part of what I do for a living. DOn’t know if it is the same elsewhere, but where I live, our CRA (Like your IRS) determines an acceptable proportion of expenses to be spent on administration. It has an acceptable level, a “flagged” level, and an unacceptable level. I imagine the IRS is the same.

As for events, our system has a component called “value advantage” so that any proportion of a donation at an event that gives some value to the participant is not tax receiptable. OTOH, as someone said above, if there are sponsors who have covered all of the costs of an event, this does not apply.

One of my favourites from the Rambam in Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:10.

Unfortunately somewhat out of fashion these days.

“Anyone who decides to be engaged in Torah [study] and not to work, and will be supported by Tzedaqa – this person desecrates God’s name (Chillel es Hashem), degrades the Torah, extinguishes the light of our faith, brings evil upon himself and forfeits life in Olam haBa (The world to come); since it is forbidden to derive benefit from the words of Torah in this world. The Rabbis said (Avot 4:5): Anyone who derives benefit from the words of Torah in this world, forfeits his life in Olam haBa. They further commanded and said: (Avot 4:5) Do not make them [the words of Torah] a crown to magnify yourself or an axe with which to chop. They further commanded, saying: (Avot 1:10) Love work and despise positions of power (Rabbonus). And: (Avot 2:2) Any Torah which is not accompanied by work will eventually be nullified and will lead to sin. Ultimately, such a person will steal from others.”

Loaded question, loaded answers. First of all, Jewish writers, good ones, have been publishing “secular” for a very long time. They’ve been writing in many languages, including Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and Russian. Did you ever hear of Boris Pasternak? Michael Chabon? Primo Levi? CN Bialik? Jean Jacques Bernard?

As a writer, I know that one of the first elements of good writing – for anyone – is to be a voracious reader. There is something in our culture, clearly the imperative of learning, but something more, which breeds well read individuals. If they have talent, opportunity, and an experience worth writing about or injecting into their work, they will do so successfully.

Without exposure to good writing – and Akuperma, I completely disagree with your statement

“There is no “inherent” quality in literature other than what the readers will pay for. “

– a nascent writer will have no examples to emulate, no style or structure to model, and no foundation upon which to build their own unique literary vision.

(For example, the structure of the second half of the sentence I just wrote utilized the threefold example structure that I gleaned from novelist, poet and Professor of English & Anglo Saxon Literature JRR Tolkien)

If you mean “frum” writers when you describe “Jewish” writers, there are a few, like Joseph and Faye Kellerman, who have been able to make a successful go of it in the secular publishing world. Unfortunately, though, for those who restrict themselves from reading secular literature, especially the classics of earlier eras and some of the best writing of the 20th century, there is no substitute. Their writing will demonstrate the lack of influence they suffer from.

There is indeed a very well founded “quality” in literature that the late Professor of English Literature Northrop Frye wrote about in his seminal work “The Secular Scripture”, which demonstrates that tropes and themes that have influenced individuals throughout history are the foundations of any good novel.

I suppose that frum writers can be as “good” as anyone else in publishing pulpy, plot deprived, grammatically challenged, character thin novels, but I wouldn’t call it literature.

I wish you luck. You do need to grasp that an advisor is not, or not only, a teacher. He or she needs to understand and relate to a teens world. If that teen is a yeshiva high school kid, as in some NCSY regions, it might be easier to relate. If that teen is a public school kid with no affiliation and little or no Jewish knowledge, as in other NCSY regions, it might be harder.

There’s also age to consider. I don’t know how old you are; and there are some advisors (I’m thinking in particular of one very dedicated woman in Minneapolis)who are older (she is in her 50’s) but its uncommon, and 20-30 is the norm. There are also chavrusa and other learning opportunities with NCSY kids where age and relatability are less material to the kiruv relationship.

Yes, we are lacking in leadership.

We aren’t lacking in gedolim.

We aren’t lacking in Yeshivos, mesivtos, kollelim.

We aren’t lacking in self righteous middlemen, askonim, and the like.

But we are lacking in hundreds, in tens of thousands of Yeshiva and Seminary educated men and women standing up and relying upon the rock solid foundations of chinuch that their parents and past generations of our manhigim were moser nefesh to build and provide.

Are we lacking in emunas chachomim? Maybe. But if we don’t behave as educated, choice making, God fearing Jews, who don’t have a need to ask a “leader” which shoe to tie first in the morning, we are for sure lacking in emunas hashem. And kibud av voem, and hakoras hatov.

If you can sit in Yeshiva for 5 years and not have the confidence to look up a teyrutz before feeling the need to read a “leader’s” pashkevil about a halachic issue, there’s something wrong with your worldview.

If you can sit in kollel for 10 years and not have the concentration on living a holy life that will let you walk down a street upon which there are non frum people walking in their normal dress without feeling a need emulate what you perceive to be the will of a “leader” to castigate them for their impiety, you may have missed the point of view of Hillel Hazokein.

We are lacking in leadership, indeed. We have families to lead. We have neighborhoods to lead. we each have our flocks. We’ve been given good guidance, we have incredibly learned people to ask for help when we can’t figure things out for ourselves.

But we have only one shepherd.

Thank goodness we have guidance to subvert our use of common sense. I mean, really? Some gedarim are mandatory; some are appropriate in context. This one seems to border the ridiculous. Consider the environment – open, with other family members around; consider the people involved; bnei and bnos Torah, with all the benefit of their upbringing and education, so painstakingly created by the previous generation of gedolim, so expensively paid for by parents;

Have all their years of learning by example and in schools been for naught? Is this what we say – we immerse you in Torah, we teach you day and night, but we don’t trust you or the years of education we have provided for you to have a civil conversation with your cousin?

This is naarishkeit! It is the footnote to the creation of a generation of robots who can not make the simplest, most obvious proper choices for themselves not because they are incapable, but because the power structure of our families and communities demands that they not make choices as HKBH created them to do.

Yiddishkeit is NOT about the creation of a two tier society – decisors and sheep. The whole point of talmud torah from a young age is to create thinking Jews! So let them decide to have a conversation with a cousin, or not, and let them use everything they have been taught to recognize when and if it may become inappropriate.

I find myself (surprisingly, considering how often we disagree) siding to a large degree with WIY here.

One might be able to make an argument that there is SOME non Jewish music that is not objectionable and unlikely to have a negative effect on the Jewish soul.

One might also be able to make the separate argument that, say, instrumental music is inherently spiritual and without words to taint it can be uplifting.

One could even go so far as to look for and find heterim, leniencies, or personal justifications for listening to non Jewish music even with words. I can think of many songs with positive messages – but not necessarily Jewish ones.

But none of these ascribes positive Jewish attributes and outcomes to this music. Josh Groban singing about J but using Tanach verses to do so isn’t uplifting, its as depressing as combating a missionary doing the same thing, only Groban is doing it for money and the missionary is doing it for neshamos.

Lets not make an idol out of Groban just because he shaves and wears a suit instead of showing off bling and tattoos. At the end of the day it IS a particularly important time of year to have a particularly Jewish perspective on how life should be lived.

For the past 10 years I’ve been spending RH and YK in a very small town with a tiny mostly non religious Jewish community as their baal tefiloh and baal koreh and mechazek. They get little enough Yiddishkeit in their lives, it is sometimes the simple Jewish tunes I use in davening that make a huge impression of memory and tradition on them that I can then expand when I give a vort or a shiur.

I am a big proponent of taking what is good and useful from chochmas hagoyim, and even to a lesser extent, their culture. But that doesn’t mean we have to give it a mantle of holiness, even if we can get our heads around giving it a chezkas kashrus.

Hakatan, i know Rav Gil Student. The work he has done @ the OU Press, Through his Hirhurim halacha blog, through his anti missionary work, and through his tireless efforts to bring Jews together brings more strength to any of his assertions to the palpably weak argument you put forward in the name of the Satmer Rov that Rambam didn’t need to mention them? Hey, remember R’ Yishmoel? 13 principles of interpretation? we say it every day? Remember the gezeiroh shovo? Why wouldn’t it apply here? why would rambam leave it out but discuss and describe similar heresies elsewhere? ayn al ma lismoch

Actually, I am joking, referencing an oldie but a goodie.

crisis +1

You know, Voltaire was a nasty anti Semite, but he wasn’t stupid. So when he writes in Candide “First, tend your own garden”, I think he’s onto something.

As well, living in a free society is not a zero sum game. You don’t get everything you may hope, wish or pray for, and you shouldn’t expect such from your government. What you should hope, wish and pray for is the freedom (as an individual in golus) to do what your God tells you to do, and for everyone else, the govt, other individuals, other faiths, to leave you alone with your freedoms.

If you want those freedoms for yourself, in a free, democratic society, you have to recognize that others with other agendas and other perspectives want their own freedoms, and unless you can demonstrate in a free judiciary that such freedoms of theirs impinge upon yours or cause you physical harm or loss of property, you must accept for them what you demand for yourself.

I have no argument about how you interpret what the Torah expects your perspective to be. None at all. As I wrote earlier, I am not pro-gay marriage either, because the only meaningful understanding of marriage I hold is a halachic one, and marrying anything other than a man to a woman halachically is like marrying a parrot to a rubber band.

But that isn’t the issue. The issue is – are you prepared to live in a free society or not? Do you understand what that means? Do you get that when the supreme court makes a ruling, you have no other recourse under law to advance your perspective, other than electing someone who shares your views to the presidency, and hoping that he or she will be able to change the complexion of the court and reintroduce the matter in another way?

What it boils down to is this. Orthodox people who are pro Gay marriage I don’t understand either. But Orthodox people who reconcile themselves to the reality of living in the medina shel chesed I do understand. They don’t and cant live in a fantasy world where all their taines are answered and all their perspectives are shared.

If you want to continue to enjoy the freedom to be a halacha observing Jew in America, you will, sooner or later, need to understand that the other 330 million of you have equal access to those freedoms. HKBH put you there, not in Iran. I’m pretty sure he knew what he was doing. But if you disagree, you can go to Iran. I hear they don’t have any M’Z there, so you can be pretty sure that marriage won’t be an issue.

Zushy. We don’t have stam nationalistic aspirations out of some 19th century political zeitgeist. If that were the (only) motivation, R’ Avigdor Miller’s assertion would indeed apply.

We have, and have always had, national RESPONSIBILITIES. For valid reasons over a very long time, these were downplayed or ignored. Now that we have the opportunity to perform them again, turning away from them is a choice, a chiddush, essentially cutting off part of what HKBH made us when he took us out of Mitzrayim. It is little less than a new religion.

Here’s what I don’t understand. Someone so insistent (rightly so) on defining their own religious prerogatives and safeguarding their religious practice from the interference of the state having an opinion AT ALL on the state’s definition of marriage.

I stand to be corrected, but Torah doesn’t recognize ANY relationship outside of the halachic union of a Jewish man and a Jewish woman as Nisuin.

That’s the definition of marriage for a Torah Jew. Period. Anything else, anyONE else is like marrying a doorstop to a cuckoo clock. It has no halachic meaning AT ALL. And once you get out of a halachic discussion, we’re just talking about your personal opinions.

If you want the state to start getting involved in Torah definitions of marriage, interfering in how we define and practice marriage, the ONLY definition of marriage that matters, the best way to do it is to invite the government, the ACLU, the Gay rights movement into your living room for a discussion YOU started.

I want the government to have nothing to do with the Jewish definition of marriage. So when they start legalizing unions that are contrary to Torah, I add that to the other things they permit that are contrary to Torah, and I say – boruch hashem that I live in a country where I have religious freedom and can define my own religious practice for myself.

All that being said, I’m not pro gay marriage, because the only union I consider to be a marriage is a halachic Jewish one, and the government isn’t demanding that religious denominations MUST sanction their government defined unions. These people were cohabiting before the government’s position changed, and they will be doing so afterwards.

Well, Derech Erets, in the 13 minutes you have been a member here, I see you have got to the nuts and bolts of what it means to write in the CR. Insult, denigrate, obfuscate.

My point was that the removal of national responsibility from what it means to be a Jew is the chiddush, and it doesn’t reflect maamad har sinai. Let me ask you something – When bnei Yisroel were in the desert, after leaving Egypt, before maamad har sinai, clearly they were elevating from the depths of tumah, but our mesorah tells us they hadn’t reached the level they would at har sinai.

When they fought Amalek, did anyone say “I have my responsibility to HKBH figured out, and it doesn’t include fighting these guys in a common army”? NO. They all fought. This was even BEFORE getting the Torah, and they understood what Moshe, what HKBH expected of them.

After Har Sinai, the shvatim made their contributions to the armies, they marched and camped and governed as parts of a nation.

It is what you are advocating that is new. I don’t have to proselytize for something that is and has always been part and parcel of authentic Torah true Judaism.

Pretty clear that British and other European royalty is descended from the Angevins. Less clear their descent from Guillaume de Gellone, but probable.

On the other side, ancestries of the rashei galuta are also well known.

So the challenging part is the connection between the resh galuta natronai and the house of Machir/Gellone. There is circumstantial and some documentary evidence, as I described above, but it isn’t 100%.

On that note, neither is our tradition of Rashi’s family being descended from Dovid Hamelech. Even accepting the line to R’ Yochanan Hasandlar, the 30 generations from Hillel Hazaken to Shefatyah (I think) are undocumented. We have our mesorah, but as far as documentation goes, no.

Squeak, we don’t have to return, the Queen is still our Head of State.

Apparently I’ve just heard that our Head of State has a new great grandchild.

He won’t be very interested in American beer either, when he’s old enough to drink.

Newsflash: Canadians are happy with the status quo of good friends with a distinct identity. And we have no interest in your lacklustre, flavourless beer.

Utah – “bad enough they are next to us?” – Hey, OK. take all the millions of jobs you’d lose without your biggest (by far) trading partner and go jump in the (Great Salt) Lake.

Charlie – appreciate the appreciation, but where I and 2/3 of Canada’s Jews live in Ontario, there is NO public funding of our schools, and in fact the current government has reached into our pockets and stolen, 10 months after it was budgeted by the previous government, thousands of dollars in tax credits for every Jewish family sending kids to Jewish schools.

One thing you could all appreciate is the strong support of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canada’s Conservative government for the Jewish community, the Jewish people around the world, and the State of Israel.

Yes – my agenda is that young Jews should not be pawns for anyone, and that they should have all the information they need to make informed decisions.

Their parents, their rebbes, their chevre should not keep them so cloistered that when they make the admirable decision to go into the IDF, they are unaware of their rights and the army’s responsibilities.

When I was much younger, I seriously considered aliyah and service as a chayal boded. This was before the internet. I sought and found the information and resources I needed to know what benefits I was eligible for, what my responsibilities were, down to the extra 25 shekel a month for overseas phone calls. And I didn’t actually do it, and at the time I was not in EY. These boys live there, made the good decision to go, and had access to information in a manner more instant than I could have imagined at their age.

These young men were doubly vicitimized. They were victimized by the either wicked or idiotic barber and the barber’s CO, and they were victimized by too many people they depended on for guidance who encouraged ignorance of too many practical things.