YosefSebrow

The war changed many things. Many small groups became big and vice versa. America became dominated by chassidim, Eretz Yisroel became dominated by Litvaks.

I know in the past Reb Meshulam Dovid was viewed as #2 behind RAY. I heard that Reb Shalom Shechter was a tier behind that. But if you had to make a list in order of preference, what would it be? EG your typical “not aleph aleph” bachur with no pull to get into RAY.

We know many people died from covid a few short months ago. We know people are still dying from it in Israel. We know flu is worse in the winter than the summer. I understand that people want to ignore the realities.

I think this year we have a legitimate taana to the Soton on Rosh Hashana. Usually the soton says, you wouldn’t ignore sakana so why did you ignore the possibility of Gehinnom? This year we can say, Of course we ignored the yetzer tov. We ignored actual sakana as well.

honestly though, we know fish and meat used to be sakana. we are still makpid even though it no longer seems like sakana. We should treat Covid like fish and meat- sakana even if it doesn’t appear that way right now.

We know there is Covid spread in camps and bungalow colonies.
We know that many going to hot spot states have no intention of quarantining when they get back.
We are hearing of various weddings in frum communities where many of the attendees came away sick with Covid.
So the seeds are there for a huge outbreak. And schools open in a few weeks.
Given these facts, i don’t see how a 6-7 hour tefilla indoors can be viewed as safe in any way, shape, or form. We say mi yichye mi yamus, but why force the issue?
I know I am a daas yochid on this.

I use Wyzecams. At $25 apiece they are amazing for the price. I created a task for erev shabbos to set all the cameras to continuous record instead of motion record. (It’s a shaila if you can use motion record on shabbos, ask your LOR). I then do regular motion record after shabbos. I have to run the tasks manually but it works.

Shirts are also begadim, and when it comes to heresy you can’t make up your own kulos.

The Gemara in maseches shabbos (119b) says that Rav Anan used to wear black shirts on Friday to show the contrast between Friday and Shabbos (As per the mesilas yesharim’s understanding of the gemara)

People choose to be reshaim. Nobody is created that way. the question is why do they continue to live. The Rambam says they live to provide company for the tzaddikim so they aren’t so lonely.

The Rambam is rather clear. Once someone dies, they are no longer eligible. Claiming the Rambam meant only killed not dies is kind of laughable, especially since the Chasam Sofer says quite clearly Rambam meant either or. Claiming the Rebbe didn’t die is also laughable. We all saw footage of the funeral. Plus I know one of the people who transported the body from the hospital. Tight chain of custody. No yechi chanting will change that.

There’s a list of self-declared Moshiach candidates throughout the years- Yoshke, Shabsai Tzvi, Jacob Frank, R’ MM Shneerson, et al. Each time people say “this one is different”, he isn’t.

The rules of nevua are clear. If you say a bad prophecy and it doesn’t’ come true, then it doesn’t mean you’re a false prophet. If you say a good prophecy and it doesn’t come true, you don’t get to qualify it and say “he meant this but now it’s up to us to finish it”. No beis hamikdash today, we’re still in golus, and the rules of golus apply. Even die-hard Lubavitchers will agree that we’re still in galus and that there’s no beis hamikdash, even if they view 770 as the beis hamikdosh in golus.
You’re a false prophet. The Rambam is rather clear on that. The Rebbe predicted multiple times moshiach was coming in the 80’s. So if you call him a navi, he’s a navi sheker.
The answer is given in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had been prophesying national disaster. The people had drifted from their religious vocation, and the result would be defeat and exile. It was a difficult and demoralizing message for people to hear. A false prophet arose, Hananiah son of Azzur, preaching the opposite. Babylon, Israel’s enemy, would soon be defeated. Within two years the crisis would be over. Jeremiah knew that it was not so, and that Hananiah was telling the people what they wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear. He addressed the assembled people:

He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”

Jeremiah makes a fundamental distinction between good news and bad. It is easy to prophesy disaster. If the prophecy comes true, then you have spoken the truth. If it does not, then you can say: G‑d relented and forgave. A negative prophecy cannot be refuted – but a positive one can. If the good foreseen comes to pass, then the prophecy is true. If it does not, then you cannot say, ‘G‑d changed His mind’ because G‑d does not retract from a promise He has made of good, or peace, or return.

It is therefore only when the prophet offers a positive vision that he can be tested.

In every generation there is a living moshiach, as per the Lubavitch pamphlets of my youth. The Rebbe died. Ergo, as per official Lubavitch belief of 30-35 years ago, it must be someone else. To say it’s still the Rebbe is to say that Lubavitch belief of 30-35 years ago was completely wrong and the Lubavitchers of that generation promulgated sheker.

כָּל הַפּוֹרְשְׁים מִדַּרְכֵי הַצִּבּוּר, וְהֵם הָאֲנָשִׁים שֶׁפָּרְקוּ עֹל הַמִצְוֹת מֵעַל צַוָּארָם, וְאֵין נִכְלָלִים בִּכְלַל יִשְֹרָאֵל בַּעֲשִׂיָתָם, אֶלָּא הֲרֵי הֵם כִּבְנֵי חוֹרִין לְעַצְמָן, וְכֵן הַמּוּמָרִים וְהַמּוֹסְרִים וְהָאֶפִּיקוֹרְסִים, כָּל אֵלּוּ, אֵין אוֹנְנִים וְאֵין מִתְאַבְּלִים עֲלֵיהֶם, אֶלָּא אֲחֵיהֶם ושְׁאָר קְרוֹבֵיהֶם לוֹבְשִׁים לְבָנִים וּמִתְעַטְּפִים לְבָנִים, וְאוֹכְלִים וְשוֹתִים וּשְׂמֵחִים עַל שֶׁאִבְּדוּ שׂוֹנְאוֹ שֶׁל מָקוֹם. וַעֲלֵיהֶם הַכָּתוּב אוֹמֵר, הֲלֹּא מְשַׂנְאֶיךָ ה’, אֶשְׂנָא. וְאוֹמֵר, וּבַאֲבֹד רְשָׁעִים רִנָּה. (יו”ד סימן שמ”ה).

All those who separate themselves from the ways of the community, such as those people who have cast off the yoke of mitzvos from themselves, and do not include themselves among the Jewish people with regard to observance of the mitzvos, but are like a liberated sect of their own; for all these, including apostates, informers, and heretics, the laws of Onein are not observed, and their death is not mourned. Their brothers and other relatives dress in white and adorn themselves in white, eat, drink, and rejoice that the enemies of the Almighty have perished. Concerning such people, the Scripture says,4 “Behold those who hate you Adonoy, I hate” also it is said, “When the wicked perish there is joy.”5

Yiddish PseudoHebrew. Same way balabatim is a real word, or shabbosim.
If you view Yiddish as its own language instead of a jargon, you need to respect its pseudoHebrew words as well.

If Yiddish is holy because Jews used it in Europe, then outdoor outhouses are holy as well, along with spittoons. Both of these were prominent features of life in Eastern Europe.

Plenty of people argue on the Mishna Brura if they have another big source backing them up. The problem is, the Aruch Hashulchan doesn’t argue. Neither does the Shulchan Aruch HaRav. And Reb Moshe emphatically agrees to the mishna brura, saying there’s no difference between Yiddish names and English names in halacha when it comes to gittin. The Rema paskens it’s ok to read secular books in Lashon haKodesh. if Yiddish was holy then there would be a similar psak for secular books in Yiddish on Shabbos. Nisht da kein psak. I know the Divrei Yoel said otherwise- he said Yiddish is heilig vayl durch yiddish mir zennen farshidit fun di goyim. But the stimas haposkim overwhelmingly says otherwise.

Rav YB Soloveitchik switched from Yiddish to English when the bochurim no longer understood Yiddish. I was told by someone who listened to his shiurim that they got noticeably watered down once Rav YB Soloveitchik switched to English, as it wasn’t his natural language, and he had to focus on saying his Torah in English rather than the Torah itself.

I’m willing to believe Rav Matisyahu Solomon said that. There were even similar statements from Rav Avigdor Miller zt”l as Joseph can attest.
BUT…neither of them are bigger than the Mishna Brura. And the Mishna Brura called it a lashon chol.
So in psak this debate is over. Nobody can argue on him. Me’kennisht hubben kein machloikes vayl der mishna brura hut gepaskent.

Now, to be honest, Rav Solomon and Rav Evigdor miller zt”l are not arguing. They are holding it’s a lashon chol but still holier than English in some ways, a hashkafic nafka mina not a halachic. I’m maskim kana”l. But lemai nafka mina? I went through the possibilities one by one and eliminated all but one of them, even if you hold it’s holy.

They didn’t mean to use it as an elitist litmus test, that if you can’t speak Yiddish you’re just a worthless Harry and on a lower level. They meant that all things being equal there’s a preference for Yiddish, but not that it’s holier than lashon hakodesh or you are yotzei reading a tefila in Yiddish if you don’t understand. Unless someone paskens you should spend 500+ hours learning Yiddish instead of Torah, this whole subject has no shaychus anymore. It’s not spoken in Litvish circles anymore. In terms of lomdishe geoynus, Rav Asher Arieli’s shiurim are amazing. Linguistically, a rebbe of mine who shtammed fun Europe and listened to his shiurim on tape hated Rav Arieli’s Yiddish, as it uses just a small subset of Yiddish, and not used like a native would use it. It’s creole Yiddish, not the reyne shprach spoken by those who were born in der alter heim. Another rebbe of mine whose father came from Europe told me it hurts his ears hearing the way Yiddish is spoken in Lakewood. He knows how it should be spoken, and the handful of words mixed in with other languages may be yeshivish but it isn’t mame loshn.
קען איך אידיש גאנץ פיין ,אבער עס איז נישט קיין היילעגע שפראך

The gedolei haposkim of the last century spoke Yiddish. They also declared it a lashon chol.So I agree with Joseph- if the poskim called it a lashon chol, there can be no debate.

When it comes to Brisk, we need to make Brisker chilukim and be me’ayein into the sugya. A few basic questions:
1. When one learns in the yeshiva but doesn’t go to shiur, is he a Brisker? Also, If you go to Brisk for a year but never have a rebbe long enough to be a rebbe muvhak, did Brisk really shaff a chalois lomdus for you, or was it just legabey shidduchim?
2. Reb Avraham Yehoshua shlit”a is the son of Reb Berel. also, it’s yadua he’s saying over his father’s teyrah. So why, if Reb Meshulam Dovid is the actual son of Reb Velverl, is the velt more machshiv Reb Avraham Yehoshua’s yeshiva? Bishlama when Reb Berel was alive, but now why? Is it a din in the actual yeshiva being better or is it a din in dimyoinois havelt?

Once we answer these questions, we’ll get a better understanding of Brisk and does it deserve the mystique.

I have heard both ways from 2 different people who went to Reb Avraham Yehoshua’s. So it could be it’s talui on the gavra, but it’s not a vadai. One person who went there was a big lamdan before he went, but told me it taught him how to read a piece of gemara and break it down. This person takke married a good shidduch after passing the shver’s farher. Another person who went there told me most people never go into shiur and learn there on their own. So oyb azoi it’s hard to see how Brisk would shaff a chalois to make them worth more on the shidduchim market.
I never did Brisk, but from reading through Reb Chaim and spending solid hours on it on nights and weekends in order to write my balabatish notes on it, I can testify that the hours spent have changed my way of looking at things. That’s just from a sefer without a rebbe.
zeittige shailos to be asked would be a bout the 3rd tier, Reb Tzvi’s and Reb Sholom Shechter, and what other yeshivas would be in that tier.

Ubber soif kol soif the ikker is lernen. If your yeshiva teaches you how to learn and to not varf tipshus, it’s a good yeshiva, whether or not it has the mystique and aura of Brisk.

As pointed out , no halacha sefer gives Yiddish a status of a holy tongue lehalacha. it is a lashon chol like English. The only question is if it’s holier because it has lashon kodesh and phrases that hint at Torah.

The question is, what’s the practical difference, even for those who claim it’s holy? Let’s go through each possibility.
1. It takes between 500 and 1,000 hours to learn a language. If a man asks a posek if he had choice between learning Torah and a language which one should he do, even those who claim Yiddish is holy would admit you should learn Torah instead. Actual Torah >Yiddish, even if you say it’s holy.
2. If a woman asks , she will be told to learn lashn koidesh instead since it will help out her davening. Yiddish is nice, but a practical language is better. If she already knows Lashon kodesh, she would be better off learning Spanish or something practical. Or she should laern Tanach.
3. What about teaching Chumash in Yiddish to kids who don’t speak a word of Yiddish, and neither do their parents or Rabbeim? This is obviously ridiculous. There is a chiyuv to teach kids torah. teaching them in Yiddish ensures they don’t understand and is Bittul Torah, forgetting about the terrible chinuch of making kids unhappy in school over a narishkeit. Whatever mitzvah kklusha there is in Yiddish becomes a mitzvah habaah beaveira over the bittul Torah caused by teaching kids in a language they don’t understand. If we’re not mevateil tinokos shel beis rabban over Binyan beis hamikdash, surely we’re not mevateil them over Yiddish. There are those who insist that “the kids pick it up” but practical experience shows it’s not true except by a few iluyim. And even if they pick it up, how much bittul Torah happened before they picked it up? And if you insist on teaching kids in another language, you are better doing Hebrew ivris like the beis yaakovs do, as the ivris will help the kids understand Tefilla and Torah.
I am aware of a few schools that do teach American English-speaking kids Chumash in Yiddish, but I can’t imagine any daas Torah advised this stupidity. It’s pashut bittul Torah.
4. The only possible nafka mina to this whole debate is with kids who come from a a bilingual home and are fluent in both, though the kids get easily confused as to which language is which. I still remember hearing a kid ask “How do you say ‘apple’ in English?” While this is relevant in Chassidish circles, it’s absolutely pointless in litvish circles, where Yiddish is just an academic “shtultz shprach” but nobody practically speaks it anymore. Many shiurim in Eretz Yisroel have already switched to ivrit since giving them in Yiddish is a waste of time. Expect that trend to continue.

I also admit that if you ask a poseik should you spend 500-1000 hours on Facebook and other social media sites like ywn cr or learn Yiddish, he would tell you to learn Yiddish if you’re not going to learn, if only to be productive.