I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that a Yeshiva I am affiliated with are dragging their feet. They claim that their refusal to do an organized online class is to accommodate those who don’t have Internet access. But they haven’t come up with an alternative and so far are acting like this will all blow over by the time Bein HaZmanim is over, which is really infuriating.

Two things:

1. Dr. Zelenko tested on hundreds of patients with coronaviruslike symptoms. When he was stating those numbers, there were less than a few hundred positive cases in the whole US. He simply tried it out on everyone with flu-like or respiratory issues.
2. France and China did small studies on it and found that it was no more effective than a placebo

@rightwriter So let me get this straight: You admit that you were wrong about almost everything. That no scientific authority claimed the virus was man made. That it makes sense for Bill Gates to have talked about it years ago. That everything played out like the Event 201 scenario was not a coincidence, but because it was a realistic scenario. That “coming out of China” does not mean it was man made, but that it originated from Chinese failure to contain it.

And yet you’re hung up on tiny details, like minutae in what Trump said and vague questions about “biowarfare”. Hung up enough that you’re willing to just toss logic into the garbage?

Do you know why it’s hard to believe it’s man made? Because not one expert claimed it was. Literally every virologist, epidemiologist, and biologist who is studying this state it’s a natural virus. So I’m not going to believe otherwise until there’s a significant evidence that has significant expert backing that it’s man made.

I’m glad you felt better from taking garlic, but please don’t publish folk remedies at a time like this. People read things like this and take it far too seriously. There are stories of people who let their children suffer and nearly die from preventable illnesses because they stuck potatoes in their socks instead of taking them to the doctor.

Please please please, if you or someone you know is feeling ill, call a doctor immediately and heed their advice.

Here’s a few you’re missing (in no particular order)

• Acheinu by D’veykus
• Yerushalayim Oro Shel Oilom by Avrohom Fried
• Moshiach by MBD
• Mama Rochel by Journeys ft. Yakov Shwekey
• BiSiyata DiShmaya by Miami Boys Choir
• A Little Bird is Flying by Tzlil V’zemer Boys Choir
• Yedid Nefesh by Aish
• Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh by someone (I have a tape with Amudei Shais singing, but I’ve heard it’s not theirs originally)
• Cholent by Country Yossie and the Shtiebel Hoppers
• Ivri Anochi by Benny Friedman

I think for illogical anti-Torah people like @Joseph and @akuperma there’s no point in arguing. I wish you both (and everyone else here) good mazel and good health and may Hashem watch over all of us. But in a few weeks time, US hospitals will begin to look like Italy with overloaded ERs and not enough staff nor equipment to deal with the regular load plus all the respiratory problems. May Hashem keep us all safe and give those who put us in danger the understanding to do what’s right.

If you want to exclude any album that has goyish tunes or is influenced by goyish tunes, you won’t find any Purim music at all.

Even this very Yeshivish amateur CD someone gave me that they found in a random discount bin in Yerushalayim had issues. I recognized “Final Countdown”, “Pick a Bale of Cotton”, and “Seven Nation Army”, all very goyishe songs.

Programming languages are tools. Asking what’s the best to learn is like asking a carpenter whether you should level up your hammering or sawing skills.

Python is huuuuuuge these days. Especially data processing and machine learning with the pandas and Tensor Flow libraries.

Javascript is used in nearly every single webpage in existence and very popular.

But my personal opinion is to go with C then C++. They are far more complicated and not used as much as they used to, but learning them teaches fundamentals of programming that you wouldn’t get from most other languages. Once you have C++ down, learning a new language should be a cinch.

@Burnt Steak Ruby on Rails for computer animation? Huh? RoR is an MVC web app framework. Animation would be something like Unity or Maya.

I love the irony about how frum communities are so aggressively socialist on the state level, but turn into rabid capitalists once things go national.

@klugeryid

I applaud the government pushing for getting rid of incandescents. For one, it gave us the Shabbos Lamp. Two, I find LEDs so much better and surprisingly cheaper since they don’t need to be changed every other month.

Oy gevant here we go again.gif

How Chassidish are you?

Are you OK with a Nusach Sefard shul where the Rov wears a streimel, throws apples on Shmini Atzeres, and speaks Yiddish but there are perhaps only two or three bekishes in the whole shul? Or do you need a full-on Rebbe with Chassidim following every word, cheder, Yeshiva, girls school, zilber schtock, and tisches and all that?

Since we’re discussing Baltimore, there are several shuls that fit the first description. The second description is something you don’t really find outside of NY/NJ with the exception of Tosh in Motreal. Even Baltimore has a “Chassidishe Kollel” but there’s no Rebbe and it’s socially isolated from the rest of the frum community.

@Gadolhadorah We would say OK, that’s nice. What does the location of Moshiach’s HQ matter?

@YC GEVALDIG I can’t address every point you made, and a lot of them have been addressed in previous comments, but I’ll pick a few low hanging fruit to focus on.

In Halocho, Rishonim and Achronim there were many opposing opinions and each had different Pisukim to add credence to their claim.

Pisukim to add credence to their claim. The “extremists” (who are much more mainstream Chabad than you make them out to be) do not. They have Sichos and Likutim from Rav Schneerson ZT”L which are not only possible inaccurately recorded, but are often vague and out of context. Which brings me to the next point “from the point of view that they are heretics”. Yes. If they believe in something that goes directly against the Torah and meforshim with the only basis being a line on a 20th century sefer written by some random Chabadsker claiming to quote his Rebbe ZT”L, that is heresy.

As for taking advantage of all the good Chabad does in the world, I do not see a stirah. As a frum Jew, I assume every Chabadsker is a frum Jew unless I have good reason to believe otherwise. So until I see a picture of Rav Schneerson ZT”L on the Aron Kodesh (Ch”VSh) I will assume that the Chabad house is a regular frum shul, hechsher, sukkah, whatever.

And no one is denying the gadlus of the previous Rebbe ZT”L. He was a gadol b’Torah, that is certain. It’s certain things he may or may not have said, along with the actions of his followers, that people take into question.

Middle of second seder in my Israeli yeshiva in Yerushalayim. My chavrusa got up for a minute, came back and told me. I thought he was joking so I insisted we keep on learning/batteling until another American walked by that I was sure knew. Reports were really erratic at first, which made things scarier. No one knew how many planes there were, what was hit, whether any were shot down. After seder the whole Yeshiva was made up of groups of guys huddled together talking in nervous whispers. I heard one English speaking Israeli repeat to his friends what he heard on the radio and ended his sentence in English, “both of the towers fell”.

I had took out my phone and for about 2 hours straight was just redialing my parents number until I got through and heard that Baruch Hashem they didn’t hear any bad news about anyone we knew or cared about. Later we learned that one relative who worked near Ground Zero was missing for about eight hours because he had to walk from Manhattan back home to New Jersey and couldn’t find a phone (cell phone service in NYC was suspended that day, and pay phones had hour long lines).

Personally, I think it should be טראמפ.

@ubiquitin the problem with “8÷2(2+2) =” is the inconsistent notation. In general when you use x(y) to multiply, you will use a bar to divide, “8/2(2+2)” which makes it a lot clearer that “2(2+2)” is the denominator and “8” is the numerator.

@Whatsaktome That’s not a shitta held of by a single authority outside of modern Chabad.

Rav Chaim SHLITA has a lot of chumras based on numerous acharonim about how Yidden should dress, talk, walk, and style. Most people don’t follow even a quarter of them. One example is that there is an acharon who refers to watches as beged isha. My father was once by Rav Chaim and his gabbai Rav Amar came into the room wearing a watch. Rav Chaim motioned to him, and he smiled and put it into his pocket. Take from that story what you will.

It’s a divided issue among poskim. Aderet music used to put this really bizarre “contract” in their CD cases that basically states “This is not your CD, this CD and all of its contents belong to Aderet and you are a renter. If you copy anything from the CD the rental agreement is annulled and the CD must be returned”.

Nowadays, the music industry has learned to live and cope with piracy. There may be nothing technically wrong with pirated music, halachically (again, big machlokes poskim) speaking. So they make their music readily available and easy to get to for anyone who has the Internet and a credit card.

@Yeshivishrockstar if LEGO Star Wars is a problem, I will have a lot of angry children and nephews on my hands. None of them have watched or read anything Star Wars related, but they can tell you with absolute certainty how many minifigures come with the Death Star and how many radar dishes are on the Millennium Falcon.

The correct answer, that Yiddisheit is not about personal emotional feelings, would not be the right thing to say. So nodding along and saying something noncommittal like you did is the only response.

@🍫Syag Lchochma Not at all. I’ve been reading about him for years in the frum media, and not one article makes a defense for the things I mentioned. The failure to print the full story is on the frum oilom.

Pidyan Shavuyin, according to most poskim, only applies in cases where the subject is arrested because of anti-Semitism or his/her life is in danger. Pollard directly violated the law and he was never in danger, just uncomfortable.

Took me months of off and on memorization from the official Rubiks Cube website. Now I can do it in about 5 minutes. It’s pretty difficult and requires a lot of pattern memorizing.

I don’t think there are any hard and fast statistics. And it’s kind of a grey area. What constitutes going OTD and what would constitute getting back on?