akuperma

Among goyim that is the last time anyone sees them for a week or more as they go off to some place else for a “honeymoon”. Halacha doesn’t allow for a “honeymoon”, so their friends see them frequently the next week at “Sheva Brachos”. The limosine is tied to their custom of the couple departing the community, and has no relevance in our’s. It’s arguably in the class of “two ring ceremonies” or raunchy “bachelor parties”, that is not merely alien to our traditions, but contrary to halacha.

Most major Jewish books have been translated into English, though the quality of translations is poor, even if the translators didn’t deliberately leave things out on the theory that non-Hebrew readers are too simple to understand certain concepts, and assuming the translator had a solid command of both language (otherwise one gets a translation into Yeshivish or Brooklynese, not standard English). A major problem is that Hebrew had totally different syntax than English, and only two tenses (what we call the “present” in modern/zionist Hebrew is a gerund being used as a verb). As an example, if you say in Hebrew that Ha-Shem created the world, you are saying he not only did it at some point in the past, but he is still doing so. That has a profound difference in meaning, and can’t be translated. While translations are helplful tools, if you think you are getting “the whole story” you are deceiving yourself.

Our schools have never been solvent and they never will be. Teachers in our community will always be underpaid. The minhag going back millenia is to be inclusive meaning poor kids get an education. We don’t have special schools for the rich kids, unlike the goyim and arguably, the modern Orthodox as well. Given that most frum Jews will be poor relative to the goyim (and to the modern Orthodox), and that we choose not to exclude people from our institutions due to poverty, we will always been in a perpetual “chapter 11” (American reorganization under the bankruptcy law). It’s inevitable. That we survive is a נס.

Because they lack money since tuition is kept low compared to private schools where tuition (actually collected, after “scholarships” are figured in) is tpically around $30K per year, and they have a huge number of subjects involving almost twice as much time on instruction than in public schools. From the perspective of economics, out education system is not viable. Fortunately, we work from the perspective to Torah, not economics, and it seems to work out (we are here after several thousands years of ignoring the realities the social sciences scholars claims to preclude our existence),

Mrs. Plony: Jules Verne was associated with anti-semitic political movements in France. While it doesn’t figure into his books, can you fail to take that into account in reading his works?

In considering Tolkien’s works, consider the following:

1) No hidden “Christian” messages (unlike many of the author’s discussed by others above, e.g. C.S. Lewis)

2) While it’s based on European folklore, all theological aspects are deleted, and it has become the pattern for a significant genre of secular fiction. If one rejects Tolkien, one pretty much has to reject a large amount of western literature. Whether one should reject literature is a different issue – one could argue against all fiction, but that would mean the issue of which fiction doesn’t arise at all.

3) Tolkien was very clearly anti-Nazi, well before the war, and at a time that the British establishment had yet to decide what it thought of Hitler (his correspondence with a would-be German publisher as whether he was “Aryan” make that very clear). For some authors, such as Jules Verne, even if the book has no “Jewish aspect”, one probably needs to remember that the author was involved in anti-Semitism movements of this time, and these movements eventually led to the Holocaust (or at least to decision of many in France to collaborate with the Nazis).

1. Should the question be “is entertainment okay?”. Perhaps is having “fun” okay? Are you arguing the relative merits of watching a baseball game versus learning gemara, or perhaps as opposed to going to a concert, or perhaps compared to reading a book (as opposed to learning a sefer).

2. Certain sports have specific halachic issues (swiming and “beach volleyball” come to mind very easily). While the ancient Roman “sports” were clearly avoadah zarah (yes, gladiators were a human sacrifice – not an athletic contest), one might find certain aspects of modern sports questionable as well (boxing, dog fighting, etc.).

3. If a sport is permissable to participate in, is it also permissable to watch?

Up until the invention of printing, books were expensive (e.g. a humash would cost as much as a sefer does today), and it facilitates book sharing.

1. Britain is hardly going to give up its unique monarchy and constitution. A more like future change would be Britain (or pehaps just England, if Scotland and Northern Ireland want to stay European) joining NAFTA (USMC trade group).

2. Politically, the British are significantly to the left of the Americans, at least on economic and social matters. They also have far fewer civil rights. Also note that if the whole the UK joined the USA, they would get 1 in 6 House seats and radically tip the country to the left. Their Tories are for the most part similar to Democrats, with their Labor party significantly to the left for the USA Democrats.

The rich pay most of the taxes. When their incomes fall, the government revenue takes a hit. Remember that taxation is basically a form of theft, and as any smart thief will tell you, it makes a lot more sense to rob from the rich than from the poor.

Politically, the problem is that the Democrats consider anyone not living “hand to mouth” to be rich, whereas the Republicans perceive “rich” as someone who really doesn’t have to worry about money. So to the Democrats, most of the middle class is “rich” and fit for heavy taxation.

Healthy yes. The print is quite large and won’t strain his eyes.

Intellectually, using a translation will probably prevent him from developing the ability to read the original. While artscroll is a good source for looking up a word in context, it is a very dubious translation. Many words are ambiguous and artscroll claims there is only one meaning. Out of necessity, it murders the grammar (which is inevitable in translating between a Semitic and an Aryan language). Many gemara terms are in “legalese” and artscroll is inconsistent in translating them into “street” English rather than into “legal” English.

The all-Hebrew artscroll gemaras (or the Steinsaltz all Hebrew) are excellent provided one is already able to read modern (Israeli, zionist) Hebrew, Posing gemara language into modern Hebrew poses few of the problems of translating into English.

“The Little I Know” — Think of the Plaintiff’s lawyer. He might end up spending tens of thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to hire expert witnesses, and litigates, and he ends up a judgement against a yeshiva that turns out to have no endowments, no assets, rents its building, and has more debts than assets. The best he can hope for is to be at the head on the queue when the yeshiva files Chapter 7 (and probably the faculty would get their back pay before the lawyer). The landlord then rents to a new yeshiva (which perhaps bought the trademark to the old yeshiva’s name, and hired the same teachers).

With Catholics or Episcopalians (Anglicans), there is a large corporate body with endownments and oodles of real estate (church buildings) to seize when executing a judgement,but with Yidden the lawyer is confronted with yeshivos that are perpetually one step away from filing for bankruptcy.

Have pity for the lawyer. A third of nothing, is nothing, which is what he’ll get suing Jewish schools.

There will be many disappointed lawyers (they typically get a third of any judgements, and often more). The Catholic Church is a single legal entity, so that the assets of the whole can be used to pay for damages committed by any part. Their clergy are employees of the Church, meaning the Church as a whole is liable for misconduct by indviduals, even if they had no control over them, Also the Catholic Church has large endowments and large amounts of tangible assets. In legalese, they have “deep pockets”. This attracts lawyers looking to make money.

Jews, along with most Protestant and Muslim organizations, are highly decentralized. Even if one corporation (e.g. one school, one shul, one yeshiva, etc.) incurs massive debts, the judgement creditor can only look to that entity. While a given organization might be forced to file for bankruptcy, it will generate minimal payouts for the lawyers. And frum organizations tend to live “hand to mouth”, so there are no large endownents to attach. For all purposes, our community is “judgement-proof”.

One should remember that the first thing a lawyer looks into when considering a lawsuit is not “justice” or “facts” but “will I get paid”, and suing Jewish schools is not potentially lucrative enough to attract tort lawyers. Frei Jews may spend their own money to sue as a form of harassment, but that is hardly an existential threat.

What about American, British and French cars.? It isn’t like there government’s were blameless.

Should we boycott goods from the European Union on the theory that it is a successor to Rome?

Mind you, virtually no one now owning stock in, or employed by, any of those corporations was a Nazi.

Did you ever compare notes with African Americans who blame all whites for things that happened in North America in the 17th through mid-19th centuries? You would find you have a lot in common.

The only beneficiaries are the non-essential employees, who get paid without having to come to work. It is a mild inconvenience to miss some paychecks, but they get the money in the end, and they end up having received large amounts of time off without having to use up leave.

The leaders of both parties (Trump and Schumer/Pelosi) benefit by showing their “base” they stood up for their principles, but they alienate the rest of the country which isn’t amused by the idea of giving a chunk of the tolerably well paid service a “no show” job at public expense.

Do you have any evidence that anyone, anywhere, any time was “ready to get married”?

Proposing a peace offer that allows for Israel to continue as a viable Jewish state is guaranteed to be rejected by the Palestinians. If the Arabs ever change their mind and offer to agree to anything that would permanently end the war and lead to Muslims recognize that a large chunk of Eretz Yisrael is no longer part of the territory of Islam, it would end the war, but that won’t happen. Trump knows that.

Hiddush here?

Joe Stalin was the Russian version of Adolph Hitler, yet the British, Americans and politically correct people everywhere fawned all over him.

1. A cousin is someone with whom you have a common ancestor. Unless you hold ourself out to be descended from a bunch of apes, we are all cousins.

2. Closeness to cousins depends largely on geography.

The “hatred” between Jews and Muslims is largely a function of the “real estate” dispute in the Middle East. Note the during the pre-zionist period, roughly 700-1914, Jews in most Muslim countries tended to regard themselves as better off than Jews in Europe, and rarely were inclined to flee unless they were conquered by Christians, whereas European Jews were in a state of constant turmoil due to annoying goyim. While Jews were second class citizens in Muslim countries (similar to African Americans in the “Jim Crow” era), that was a lot better than the frequent genocide in Europe.

Most Muslims come to America with the hope of being free of the constraints of living in an Islamic country. While the current wars in the Middle East are a problem, in all fairness America is treating them better than Germans (especially in World War I) and Japanese (during World War II) were treated in America.

1. Given that anti-Muslim feelings are stronger among Republicans than Democrats, that number 2-1 for Democrats seems about right.

2. Defining a Muslim, like defining a Jew, is tricky. Most Americans would say anyone from a Muslim (or Jewish) background who is not a Christian is therefore still a Muslim (or Jew) even if they aren’t very religious.

3. Most Muslims who came to America did so in the hope of assimilating into a majority culture where they will be free of many aspects of Islam (same for most American Jews).

1. Collecting taxes is an essential function. Interestingly enough, paying refunds is not.

2. It is bad for “contractors” but no one else is horribly affected since they pay the money at the end. The government doesn’t save money by a shutdown, but it loses some fees it would have collected. Non-essential civil servants in the affected agencies (about a quarter of the agencies) get bonus vacation as a result of a shutdown, i.e., they get paid for not working.

3. We should all be proud of the politicians of both parties who are keeping their promises. Trump promised to build a wall, and the Democrats promised he wouldn’t.

A professional pilot (meaning someone whose full time career is flying) is not a “private pilot” – even if he or she works for other than a major carrier. Someone who flies his own plane when he needs to travel, but is not a professional pilot is “private”.

1. Private planes have a much worse safety record than airlines. One reason is that private pilots don’t get as much experience as professional pilots, and few have sufficient funds to provide the same level of maintenance as airlines or the armed forces.

2. While planes may have a better safety record than surface transit, the liklihood of surviving an airplance crash is much less. Remember that if your car, bus or train develops mechanical trouble, you are at most delayed. If a plane develops mechanical problems in flight, it is likely to be fatal.