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- This topic has 17 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 5 days ago by yankel berel.
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November 9, 2025 12:42 pm at 12:42 pm #2469404Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipant
Here is an drash I read from a Yakkish Rav. I think he addresses directly some of the concern people have about army & separation from society in general. What do you think?
Right before Yitzhak birth, Avraham & Sarah decided to move to the south [yoshev] – which is a rural area, but near Palestinian city of Gerar that Avraham would visit [gar] [and Yitzhak will live there even more]. Why?
Yitzhak needs to be educated in isolation, removed from negative influence. on the other hand, complete isolation that denies student all contact with people who think differently .. is a dangerous educational mistake. A young person who never saw a way of life different from parents never had an opportunity to compare and appreciate the difference and value what parents taught him. He will surely fall victim to outside influences at his fist encounter with them, just as one who fears the fresh air and closets himself in the room will catch cold as soon as he goes outdoors.
Avraham’s son, his heritage, should – from time to time [sic!] – enter the world that is alien to the spirit of Avraham. There he can evaluate opposing ideas and strengthen himself to keep to the ways of Avraham in a world that is opposed to them. For this purpose, Avraham chooses the capital of the Philistine prince.
November 9, 2025 5:02 pm at 5:02 pm #2469776Yaakov Yosef AParticipantRashi explains why Avraham and Sarah moved, because there was no longer traffic in that area (to invite guests and teach them about Hashem) after Sodom was destroyed. Avraham was constantly interacting with all kinds of pagan wayfarers who he hosted and fed and taught about the true God of the Universe. Yitzchok grew up in the ultimate Kiruv house, he had no need to go anywhere to see the local yokels, they were right there all the time. On the other hand, Sarah was adamant about kicking out Yishmael so he wouldn’t be a bad influence on Yitzchok, and Hashem agreed with her. So there are in fact multiple layers of chinuch decision making and strategy going on in last week’s parsha, but the “vort” about going out to shpatzir in – Gaza – seems off the mark. In fact, we find at least two examples where Chazal clearly recommended AGAINST such a mehalech. One by ותצא דינה, and one by וישב העם בשיטים that the Midrash interprets as a lashon of שטו העם or ‘strolling around’. We also find that Yosef made sure to settle his brothers and their families in Goshen, far from the center of Egypt, to keep them AWAY from the locals as much as possible. When Bnei Yisroel entered the Land, there were also multiple ציוויים to eliminate the locals – so that they may not lead you astray… In other words, stay away from bad guys, period. The “vort” sounds more like an anachronistic projection of modern German style hashkafa than an actual pshat in what was going on then.
November 9, 2025 5:02 pm at 5:02 pm #2469778Yaakov Yosef AParticipantAAQ – Excuse me, I started reading straight from the ‘drash’ and skipped the first line. Then I noticed that this is yet ANOTHER dig about Chareidim serving in the IDF. Even אם תמצי לומר that there is something to be gained from exposure to outside ideas (something by no means מוסכם לכל הדעות, and even in the “Yekkish” context was seen as a הוראת שעה and not לכתחילה), so you think the way to do that is to conscript teenagers to a 24/7 forcible שעבוד to all-powerful Chiloni (often OTD for good measure) commanding officers with a hostile agenda? That doesn’t even jive with the (contrived) ‘drash’ you quote, let alone with any normative concept of Torah Chinuch.
November 9, 2025 5:02 pm at 5:02 pm #2469780Yaakov Yosef AParticipantAAQ – According to your ‘logic’, instead of going for three years to the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever, Yitzchok should have enlisted for three years of service in Avimelech’s army…
November 10, 2025 2:07 am at 2:07 am #2469858yankel berelParticipantAAQ
gerar is NOT a ‘palestinian’ city
it is a pelishtim city
substantial difference
another example of AAQ playing loose with reality ….
.November 10, 2025 2:07 am at 2:07 am #2469878Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipantYYA> ‘drash’, ‘logic’
Look I am sorry for setting you up, this was a direct quote from Hirsh Chumash, Ber 20:1. You can doubl-check in case I shifted some of his points.
Hope you’ll be able to forgive me for that. I am flattered that you assign this to “my logic” and “my digs”. So, we’ve proven that my position here has some grounding in R Hirsh. And I hope this will help you recalibrate your intuition so that you don’t stumble into making fun of talmidei chachomim.I actually do agree with you that this is not so much peshat, but an occasion for R Hirsh to express his opinion. I was also shocked by his directness expressing this with little connection to the text. I think he also was – I omitted his introduction “Unless we are totally mistaken, we would venture to say that what prompted Avraham and Sarah …”
We can probably understand where he is coming from – from observing German Jewry totally disintegrating based on their previous Jewish educational system that R Hirsh was updating. He experienced this 100 years before Eastern Europeans did. I agree that tools we developed by now, including yeshiva education, better protects than whatever was taught at the time.
As to application to current politics, I am not using this as a call to arms, but simply to illustrate that some exposure (as R hirsh says “time to time”) combined with high quality education (by Avraham Avinu) may improve chances of surviving intact if an exposure in inevitable. If you really need my practical advice form this – don’t wait until your child meets IDF, teach him how to swim (including how to live along non-religious people) before that encounter.
November 10, 2025 12:21 pm at 12:21 pm #2469946Yaakov Yosef AParticipantAAQ – De facto Yitchok Avinu saw plenty of the surrounding population in the home of Avraham, and how Avraham interacted with them. That is still different from going out to learn about them, which according tho Chazal is not a good idea.
November 10, 2025 12:21 pm at 12:21 pm #2470003Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipantYankel> gerar is NOT a ‘palestinian’ city
Just for yankel, r Hirsch said pliishtim, I changed it to Palestinian which is the same word in Latin. Check r Hirsch original German for the word he uses.
November 11, 2025 9:23 am at 9:23 am #2470337Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipantYYA> De facto Yitchok Avinu saw plenty of the surrounding population in the home of Avraham, and how Avraham interacted with them.
I think R Hirsh means that Yitzhak needed to observe people who think differently, not just those who were already talmidei Avraham.
If you want to put it in statistical terms, if Yitzhak’s role was to expand on Avraham’s teaching [although this contradicts a popular idea that Yitzhak was mostly following what Avraham did, like wells …] – then observing talmidei Avraham is not sufficient – he needs to observe those who were not yet affected.
November 11, 2025 8:47 pm at 8:47 pm #2470747Yaakov Yosef AParticipantAAQ – I think R Hirsh means that Yitzhak needed to observe people who think differently, not just those who were already talmidei Avraham.
The thousands of yokels who walked in the door for the free food were not yet “Talmidei Avraham”, and most probably didn’t end up ‘going all the way’. Probably more like a Chabad House, and less like a Yeshivah.
November 11, 2025 8:48 pm at 8:48 pm #2470870yankel berelParticipantHebrew: פְּלִשְׁתִּים, romanized: Pəlištīm; LXX Koine Greek: Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: Phulistieím; Latin: Philistaei – were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia.
[pasted from wikipedia]
—————————————————-note : latin – philistaei
not ‘palestinian’ as AAQ would have us believe
AAQ is playing loose -again- with the facts
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this is the second time ….
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.the first time AAQ ‘changed’ it , by his own admission , from ‘plishtim’ to ‘palestinian’
this is part of an established pattern of inconsistency with fact and reality ….
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.November 12, 2025 12:02 pm at 12:02 pm #2470916Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipantYYA> The thousands of yokels who walked in the door for the free food were not yet “Talmidei Avraham”, and most probably didn’t end up ‘going all the way’
maybe you are right. Then, what does R Hirsh mean that Yitzhak needs to go to the city of Gerar? Maybe, it is not just about observing individuals but seeing their political & cultural system in works – to compare?
Maybe this ties into Avraham own story, according to Rambam – that Avraham was a Socrates-type philosopher/speaker in Uhr, where he argued in the markeplaces against prevalent views. He then moved away to fully develop his approach and relationship to Hashem. According to what I learned, Rambam really does not have sources for such image of Avraham, but modern archeology seems to support his view – Uhr was a major center with marketplaces and schools confirmed by grammar & math tablets.
So, maybe Avraham felt that Yitzhak will need a view of similar world to fully develop? I feel similarly sometimes towards my children and their friends who live more sheltered life than I did, and not every knowledge can be passed in theory, so the question is how to do the balance that R Hirsh is talking about.
November 12, 2025 12:02 pm at 12:02 pm #2470923Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipantyankel, it is great that you got interested in philology. Let’s look at it:
Egyptian archeology has the word PeLeSeT – which to my untrained ear sounds like in between Hebrew PeLeShetim and Palestina – shin/sin are same letter; -im plural does not matter; and the Latin version just adds a suffix. We can stop here, but let’s look at interesting history:
early greeks such as Herodotus and Aristotle used the word Παλαιστίνη for the general area.
At the same time Septuaginta uses transliteration of PlishtimJosephus – who straddled Jewish and Roman traditions – explicitly uses Palestina as the transliteration of the ancient (already to him) nation of Phlishtim.
So, I am at least following Josephus here.After Bark Kokhba rebellion, Romans (poss Hadrian) explicitly renamed Judaea into Syria Palaestina ( Συρία ἡ Παλαιστίνη). This is apparently the only case when Romans renamed a province as punishment for rebellion, essentially extending areas of “plishtim” and Suria to Judaea. In modern language “canceling”.
November 13, 2025 5:23 pm at 5:23 pm #2471497yankel berelParticipantGerar in the time of Avraham – the subject of the discussion …
unless we are moving some goalposts – again !
was definitely NOT a ‘palestinian’ city
no matter what Josephus would write some 2 thousand years later ….
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third example of AAQ playing loose with the facts …..
in the span of so many days ….
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.November 13, 2025 8:32 pm at 8:32 pm #2472023Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipantyankel, as I just showed Josephus uses “palestinian” for Pelishtim – historical ones, Gerar, as there were no plishtim any more in his time.
As a non-professional, I do not see grammatical difference between “palestinian” and “pelishtim” – seems like same word just different accuracy of transliteration in a different language. Same as Jerusalem v. Yerushalaim.Anyway, maybe you can get of this minor point – and respond what yuo really think about R Hirsh’s views?
November 13, 2025 8:32 pm at 8:32 pm #2472024Always_Ask_QuestionsParticipantR Hirsh says more about education:
he criticizes Yitzhak and Rivka for educating Esav in the same way as Yaakov instead of developing special path for him. [this seems to be open to criticism as there are many derashos about Yitzhak treating Esav differently, so he at least tried]. Maybe in support of that is the midrash that Esav was asking Yitzhak about maaser from salt “fooling him” that he is interested in halochos. but maybe it was his response to parental expectations. If Yitzhak would say – go earn parnosa and support your brother learning, then Esav would not need to ask those questions, he could talk with his father about college tuition.November 14, 2025 9:05 am at 9:05 am #2472057yankel berelParticipantIll respond about a major point – not a minor point
the major point is that your comments are not reality based
you play loose with facts and
you move the goalposts in the middle of the game or discussion
not trying to be mean
but someone has to call it out
this is a common thread in 90 % of your comments
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that’s what I really think about your commentarysorry for the personal distress I might be causing you with this comment
but you asked what I really think
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.November 15, 2025 8:58 pm at 8:58 pm #2472143qwerty613ParticipantTo yankel berel
You’re absolutely right. I don’t get angry at AAQ because he’s pleasant, but he never takes a stand and so my best advice is just to let him make his comments and ignore them. He’s part of a long list of people who aren’t interested in the truth.
November 17, 2025 10:06 am at 10:06 am #2472727yankel berelParticipanthave no reason to doubt AAQ’s personality
am referring only to his suggestions and observations
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