Go to a zemanim website* and look up the time for “Plag” or “Plag HaMincha.” This week it’s 6:54 in NYC. Plag is the earliest time for making an early Shabbos.

*Here’s the OU’s: http://www.ou.org/holidays/calendar/

The Rambam says the story of Creation is allegorical.

ignore the troll

This is horrifying.

Sam – I find that hard to believe.

the Halacha is that we are not supposed to mention the name of an Avoda Zara, Lo Yishoma Al Picha. That is what we are doing by not mentioning his name.

The halacha does not apply to Jesus.

You have no idea whether he is frum or not. Stop being motzei shem ra.

It’s a Yiddish nickname, like Miritchka for Miriam or Shmelke for Shmuel. Yoshke is for Yeshu or Yeshua; Jesus’s Hebrew name.

Jesus

The halacha is not like the Debreciner. End of story.

You’re 100% right – money talks. If enough people complain, they might switch back.

I’m not sure if you’re referring to the company or the hashgacha agency…

musser zoger – i think the logic is that if my hat can go on top of my head kol shekein it can go on top of seforim…

Beethoven wasn’t born deaf, he went deaf after his hearing began to deteriorate in his late twenties. He certainly wasn’t tone deaf. And besides, he wrote down his music. It sounds kinda weird that a tone deaf person would be composing music and people would be carefully inclining their ears toward the person to make out the tune. Not very realistic.

Also, of course it’s theoretically possible for anyone to put together the right notes to make up a song that is coherent. The same way it’s theoretically possible for my four year old sister to put together the right words for the president’s State of the Union address. But there’s a reason he hires professionals to help him and not my four year old sister. Same with everything.

Oomis – +1

I find it hard to believe there is a composer who is tone deaf. Besides, why would anyone need to figure out his tunes, why can’t he just write them down?

Sam – the shaila is with wearing them on Shabbos.

147 –

…except that the most relevant source on the matter is the Magen Avraham on the topic, which is, of course, in Orach Chaim. Maybe your semicha program didn’t cover that.

R’ Aviner obviously means that it is the common denominator between the Jewish citizens of the state of Israel; religious and non-religious. He is making a political point with that statement. If others want to think that despite not significantly contributing everything will be taken care of for them, that might be fine, but from a political perspective the fact of the matter is that by doing so they alienate themselves from the rest of the citizenry. That doesn’t mean you have to care. I’m sure this political point alone is not the basis of his psak. He simply has the hashkafa of others before him, such as R’ Chanina ben Tradyon: ??? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??? ?? ?? ????? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???… (A.Z. 18a)

Was avhaben your guest? That is very interesting info btw.

It depends on how good you are, how dedicated you are willing to be, and how much you understand about publicity. If you were willing to put in a lot of effort and you are good enough, you could probably make yourself famous on YouTube without a very big budget. You just have to do it right. For example, don’t just post randomly; that won’t get you anywhere. Instead, post video responses to other videos which have just begun to go viral, and your videos should be covers of the songs you’re responding to, with your own original feel. Getting your videos to go viral is a science; you just have to study YouTube well enough. With enough publicity you would develop a large fan base and you could go anywhere from there.

At the same time, the Jewish market is definitely much easier to break into. Though I’m speaking as a guy (I sing as well); we generally gain publicity and break into the market through wedding gigs and stuff like that. I don’t know what it’s like for a woman.

Truth be told according to the Rema one could return something to the blech b’dieved without either of the conditions, as long as it is not a liquid item that has cooled off completely. In that case it would be a problem even if both conditions were fulfilled. Ask your LOR. If you’re asking me, I go with the Rema in this case.

While traditional Jewish literature indicative of both schools of thought is extant, I am not sure that either one is especially prevalent in Jewish thought today.

i’m not sure what the n00 means, but i agree with the rest

yekke2 –

There are two things to consider.

1) The Rambam’s shita isn’t uniquely his – it is simply a machlokes in the Gemara and he is “paskening” like Shmuel. So no Midrash can really be a kashya, because Shmuel can disagree with it (????? ??”? that the Rambam himself cannot, which is not entirely a valid argument itself).

2) All of the things you cited can easily be interpreted allegorically, or in ways similar to Wolf’s mehalech above. For example:

Yetzer hara being abolished: Since knowledge of the truth will be so clear, people pashut won’t have any yetzer hara to do what’s wrong.

Pig being kosher: Scientists will figure out how to genetically alter the pig so that it chews its cud. (See Ohr Hachayim in Shemini by the four animals, where he brings down this Midrash.)

Lions and lambs living together: An allegory to the lions and lambs of the world. Meaning that people will stop fighting with each other.