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Shouldn’t the question be: May a shopkeeper use force to stop a thief who runs off with merchandise that wasn’t paid for? I believe the answer is in almost all legal systems is that the shopkeeper would be charged with murder for killing the thief, though in countries such as the USA the shopkeeper might be acquitted due to jury nullification (but don’t count on it).
There is a reason that one of the first mitsvos, applicable to goyim as it was one of the mitsvos of Bnei Noach, is to have a legal system. Settling disputes over trade good by blood feud is not a good policy.
charliehall: At the end of World War I, the Arabs, led by the Great-Great Grandfather of the current Jordanian King, who up to that point had been based in western Arabia, believed he had been promised a unified Arab state including all Arabic areas east of Suez (then as now the exact boundaries where the Turkish and Farsi speaking areas blend into Arabic areas was unclear). The zionists (e.g. Chaim Weitzman, then the universally respected leader of the zionist movement) and the hareidim (Dr. De Haan was their emisary) supported the idea. It would have led to a stable Arab state, with Jews able to move in and build a homeland, but not to subjgate anyone or make the Arabs into second-class citizens in a non-Arab, non-Islamic country. The partition was dreamed up by the Brits (with the help of the French) in order to prevent such a state as part of their “divide and conquer” strategy. The war between the zionists and the Arabs was originally a plan devised in London, and the zionists (and the Arabs) fell for it.
AZOLIS: I tend think that partitioning big countries to make small ones is “Balkanization” and doesn’t work. My opinion is that the partition in 1947 was a mistake, as well as the one’s a century ago, and that they should look at the boundaries proposed in 1918 (all Arab countries east of Suez, with a Jewish homeland within those boundaries). Its unreasonable to expect Arab Muslims to ever agree to be rules by others in that region, and that the zionists made a fatal mistake by switching from building up the Yishuv to building a medinah in which the Arabs are ruled by us.
However most Israelis and most American Jews support a two-state solution, so it isn’t reasonable to complain about a Jewish businessman supporting a policy that most American Jews also support.
Most Israelis prefer a two state solution (a Jewish zionist state and a Palestinian Islamic state). The alternative would end up being a state in which Jews and zionists are a minority (which is why the zionists favored in 1918, but very few do). Indeed, only the hareidim would find it tolerable to be in a non-zionist state dominated by Arabs – which is what a single state would lead to.
Maybe the person asking the shailoh intended to go to a co-ed gym to work out with improperly attired females, in which case the tseuvah “working out is asur” would be quite correct.
A second hand account of what a rav says, especially out of context, is meaningless. In published responsa the author makes the context clear.
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It has never been done, and cloned animals have some serious birth defects since apparently some cells reflect the age of the animal cloned, so you get a baby that may look like her mother but genetically is quite inferior.
No has claimed to have cloned a human. Therefore no Rav has ever poskened on the matter, and a posek based on a sci fi novel is meaningless except on Purim.
My guess is as as the woman cloned (it can only be done to women) and the woman who carries the baby to term (can be the sameone), are Jewish, the baby would be Jewish with the same halachic status as any other clearly Jewish baby whose father is unknown (though it might be argued she is the daughter of her maternal grandfather).
To the person who complained: ‘I’m kind of annoyed with all of human society’s rules about how a person is supposed to dress. “
1. It used to be worse (think about corsets and hoop skirts for women, and for everyone when wool was worn even in the summer)
2. Perhaps next gilgul you want to be dumb animal? Clothes are a human thing.
3. So you want to be nudist? (no problem with clothes)
4. So you want to be a hermit? (able to ignore what others think)
Penguins wear feathers (albeit brown ones when young). They have no choice. They are birds. They do keep kosher for the most part (eating only fish).
Among humans, only penguins, there are diverse styles and if you don’t wear what is in style people think you are weird. Among Americans, consider the problems of a man, other than Scot, who wants to wear a skirt instead of pants? And if you want to be well dressed in the US, you are very limited in the styles and colors of your suit (Obama got in trouble for dress code violations last summer since his suit wasn’t formal enough for his rank and was considered disrespectful). Fashion can be bizarre (look up what proper undergarments for a well dressed western European or American woman were in the mid-19th century – utterly weird — fortunately that style never caught on in frum communities in Eastern Europe or the Middle East).
So really its not that the frum community has weird rules, its that humanity has a weird way of doing things, and the criticism directed towards the frum community reflects the limited knowledge or perhaps sheltered background of the critics.
In America, a minority ideology that is, say, 20% of the country, will end up with little or no representation in the Congress, since you need a majority in any district to get elected. In Israel, such a minority would get 20% of the seats.
For example, Hareidim are roughly 10% of Israel. They typically get 10% of the seats. If Israel has a single member system, you would probably get an hareidi elected from Bnei Brak, and maybe two or three for Jerusalem (depending on how district lines are drawn), but that’s it. There average district in Israel would be over 50000 people, and in the rest of the country you won’t find areas that size that are majority hareidi. You would have perhaps three hareidim in the kenesset (there were 18 in the outgoing one), all focused on the local interests Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.
Lior: The American threshold is 50% (in some states you can squeak with about 40% in a three way race). The truth, is under the American system, none of the small parties would be in the kenesset – only Labor and Likud (and only a handful of others). The chaotic Israeli system reflects a Jewish tradition of trying to include all factions in the community.
old man: They are not using the word “boycott” correctly. Switching to a cheaper brand is not a boycott. It’s called “shopping around.”
If for example, they were refusing to wear Borsalinos and switching to a more expensive hat that would be perhaps a correct use of boycott since it clearly didn’t have an economic motivation. The fact the some kollel yungerleit aren’t aware that there is no halchic requirement to wear Borsalino hats is amusing at best.
Re: ” Today it seems local government is Big Poppa Dear Leader, that takes us all for fools, maybe they partially right “
Who voted Big Poppa Dear Leader into office.
The North Koreans have an excuse for having a fool as president – he came to power at gunpoint and stays in power at gunpoint. Americans looking for someone to whine about need only look in a mirror.
charliehall: Even Arabs and hareidim who oppose the existence state are allowed to vote (though many choose not to). Also unlike America, there has never been a serious problem of dead people voting, or of fictitious voters (having a population registry helps), whereas in America one party (the Democrats) have frequently relied on all sorts of shenangians.
Israel does have free elections, with the ruling party frequently being voted out of office. That’s fairly rare outside of western Europe and North America. And due to proportional representation, every ideology has a chance at being in the kenesset (even with a 3% threshold, in the US the threshold is 50%).
Isn’t snow what used fall from the sky back before global warming changed the climate?
All companies are in it for the money. That’s how capitalism works. It isn’t like their is a “Ministry of black hats” or a “Joint rabbinical committee on man’s hats” comandeering factories and giving exclusive contracts to manufacturers. Someone seems to think there is a clause in the Shulhan Arukh requiring purchased of Borsalino’s products rather than someone else’s.
If Borsalino is overpriced, other companies can (and do) offer competing products.
In a capitalist system, it isn’t a “boycott” if consumer look elsewhere.
to A jew who cares who wants a way to bring prices down:
1. Buy less expensive (less attractive) goods
2. Substitute goods
3. If the price is high relative to the cost of production, that will attract new suppliers, which will result in lower prices.
Observe what happened to the high price oil (with many screaming “peak oil”, and oil companies making record profits). Demand fell, supply increased, and prices fell.
Welcome to capitalism 101.
I suspect that many frum housewives would prefer a female plumber coming to the house (however it would be difficult from a frum girl to get trained as a plumber, but that’s a different issue).
There is not now, nor was there ever, a halachic requirement to wear a wig. Wearing a wig doesn’t even correlate with how frum you are. It is a an issue of fashion and style, which is of great interest to sociologists, economists and fashion mavens – but has nothing to do with Torah and Mitsvos.
Most rabbanim I know would dress respectably to meet you. Dressing respectably in public has nothing to do with the rank of whom you are dressing for.
We hired him. He’s our employee. Can you criticize the janitor in your shul if he leaves a mess? What about the cook in the pizza who messes up your slice? Your cleaning lady if you are rich enough to have one?
America is a democracy (small “d”) and a republic (small “r”), and the president is at most the senior civil servant – if there is an analogy to a ??? in American law, the constitution makes it very clear it is the “people”. Note how in England laws begin with “I the king/queen …” am making this law, whereas the American laws begin with “We the people…”. In a democratic republic, the leaders are just are fellow citizens whom we have assigned to do some work for us. Nothing more. If they want respect, they need to earn it.
1. Tznius (immodesty) – since in most countries people participate in a gym in short clothing
2. Pritsus (mixing) – even if everyone was fully dressed (e.g. wearing a sweat suit), there still is the issue of mixing of men and women
They read the graduation requirements, in advance, and meet them. Given that yeshivos teach students to master the materials, colleges with there “all you need to know to pass” standards shouldn’t be a big problem.
Photoshop!
Actually the leading movements in France are the socialist and the nationalists. The classic European liberals really aren’t a factor. France has had a significant migration of Muslims from its former empire including most of the terrorists and many of the security personnel killed by said terrorists.
1. In the original cases, the second one (Conservative conversion including milah), it might be a shailoh if it was valid? Would you use the person as a Shabbos goy or to buy your Hametz on Pesach? If the person is Shomer Mitzvah (as we understand it), it would be a shailoh.
2. Referring to Middle Eastern Jews (including Yemenites, Iranians, etc.) as “Sefardim” is a misnomer (just as referring to people who hate Jews as anti-semites is a misnomer). Their siddurim say “Sefardim v’Edot ha-Mizrach”, since the nusach of the Middle Eastern Jews (excluding those from Arabia) is closely related (study migration patterns to see why). Someone suggested using the term “Afro-Asian Jews” which is technically more correct but sounds too funky.
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HaLeiVi:
1. Only if it was dry land
2. Only if the water was above your head (one can easily drown in a swamp)
3. Only if those chasing you were drowned through no effort of your own
P.S. The idea that they crossed a giant ocean comes from a Christian mistranslation. Jewish sources never claimed they crossed the “Red Sea” (which is quite deep, and there is no reference to them going down and up and incredible slope, nor of any sort of bridge over the chasm popping up).
Has itg wasn’t in the Red Sea, it wasn’t anywheres near the Gulf of Suez or Arabia. The name implies a swamp, not an ocean. If it was important to know exactly, Humash would have included GPS coordinates.
Using “it” for a person is insulting in English.
Using the wrong gender (i.e. addressing a man as “Miss” or “Her”) is vastly more insulting than using “he/she” or “sir/madam”. Be happy English is less gendered than it used to be (at least the 2nd person, “you” is gender-free, and we don’t have to deal with an informal/formal 2nd person which in many languages is a good way to insult someone).
I am impressed the moderators had the linguistic skills to approve the posting. It’s been many years since the secular departments of American yeshivot taught Latin (which they did, back when it was a required subject for college admission).
Its possible to survive with using email and online banking, but it isn’t easy. If you avoid using credit or debit cards, you won’t need to check balances online to prevent identity theft (a.k.a. crooks raiding your account). The law still measures the period to report fraudulent transactions based on printed statements, though the card will usually stop working long before that. Some banks still send printed statements and return cancelled checks, but they might charge extra. Non-digital media do report news, weather, etc., albeit more slowly.
Obviously some lines of work are impossible, such as anything to do with finance, law, sciences, most retailing, etc. Applying for jobs without the internet is also a problem as most large employers expect applications to be online.
It might be easier to have one computer in an open area (no “sneaking a peak” without other family members knowing it) and limiting what it can be used for.
If forced to fight to survive, haredim would, but there are usually alternatives. At the time there were really no Torah centers outside of Israel (those wanting to learn Torah in Bavel and Egypt turned to Israel, and political conditions in Egypt and Bavel were problematic anyways). Under current conditions, hareidim would flee Eretz Yisrael rather than go to war with the hilonim.
Remember that at the time of the Hashmonaiim, the problem was primarily with the secular Jews who when defeated called in their Greek sponsors -this could happen again. However one has to remember that the other two regional powers at the time, Egypt (also Greek, but not friends with the Greeks based in Syria) and Rome (growing but not yet trying to conquer the eastern Mediterranean) supported Israeli independence as a way of weakening the Greek regime in Syria. Because the Arabs are scared of Israel, Israel isn’t likely to be buffer state in their eyes (though that explains most western support Israel – as a way of keeping the Arabs disrupted).
1. How do you define diesease?
2. Many medical conditions are largely the result of lifestyle.
3. Are you arguing wither addiction should be a factor in criminal liability? Should health insurance refuse to cover lifestyle related conditions (e.g. type 2 diabetes which is caused by eating too much and exercising too little)? What about cancers that correlated and may be caused by lifestyle choices?
4. It should be noted that the medical professions generally make more money by treating deseases, especially with drugs and surgery, then from preventing them through lifestyle counseling. Selling Janumet and insulin pays well, encouraging people to eat less and exercise more doesn’t make money for the health care industry.
Vaccines often hurt at the site of the vaccination. That’s normal. Anything more is a (very unusual) bad reaction.
Even if it works just as well as the “real” thing, both government law and the customers reliance or you to provide authentic goods would create many issues. Counterfeit goods usually are inferior to the real thing, but not always, so if it is counterfeit there is reason to worry.
1. Its actually a very broad number of countries if you base it on how they vote at the UN. If instead you look at whether these countries trade with Israel, the number shrinks significantly. For many countries, it is normal to condem Israel and then to buy Israeli goods. Indeed, many countries both denounce Israel at the UN, and buy Israeli produced weapons. An example of the “bark” being worse than the “bite”?
2. In many countries, the major products we import are produced by the local Jewish community for the kosher market so it wouldn’t accomplish much to boycott these products. The fact that a product has a kosher certification is probably much more important than the politics of the government of the country of production (and if the product doesn’t have a hecksher, why buy it to begin with).
Like African Americans, we are quick to assume a “hate” motive when subject to violence. It’s a function of history (some would say “paranoia” but then you get to the joke about is it really paranoia if someone is out to get you).
It turns out to have probably been an insane person, though his choice of target may reflect prejudice factors in his life or his community.
The “custom” began when Jews started coming in contact with Christians whose minhag was to give gifts for their winter holiday (details vary among countries – the custom goes back to the Roman holiday of “Saturnalia”, which is the origin of the holiday the goyim observe in December). A good argument can be made that giving presents at this time is clearly avodah zarah, since gift giving has always been part of the avodah of their holiday.
The “Hanukah gelt” custom involved giving a few coins to be deposited in a pushka.
popa_bar_abba: “they’re uncomfortable with the ethnic/racial element of Judaism. “
I believe they are uncomfortable with the religous element of Judaism. Gairus is basically naturalization. When you become a citizen you give up your previous loyalty, adopt the culture of the new country. In “normal” countries (US, France, Britain), becoming a citizen does not require you to adopt a religion. Frum Jews regard being Jewish as a matter of religion (being Jewish is about mitsvos), and secular Diaspora Jews see Jewishness as ethnicty (being Jewish is about gefilte fish and bagels), whereas zionists see being Jewish as being about being a loyal supporter of the State of Israel which is why they want the process of becoming an Israel, which includes geirus, to focus on zionism rather than Torah.
The Israeli left-wingers are fanatic zionists in the original meaning of the word (non-zionists lefties leave Eretz Yisrael as soon as they can). As good zionists they want Israel to be a normal state, which do someone whose focus is Europe, means there is a national religion in which everyone is a nominal members (note that piety isn’t a factor, this is a matter of patriotism). While they can tolerate a few non-Jews who are members of other religions, they want all non-Palestinian Israelis to be Jewish. Thus is someone wishes to be a good zionist, i.e. a patriotic Israeli, that is good enough for them to be Jewish. Their model would be the historic desire of many immigrants to join the established church, not out of a theological belief, but out of the desire to be normal. That’s good enough for them To the leftists, all the “Torah” stuff went out when Herzl and Ben Gurion replaced Avraham Aveinu and Moshe Reabbeinu, and they object to tying geirus to ideas that most Israelis have long rejected.
Elections are good entertainment, even in this case when the results are probably going to simimlar to the last election (Nationalist parties in control, but forced to form a coalition with the hareidim and/or the centrist block consisting of ex-Likudniks).
And at least the Israelis have elections. Many countries have other ways of picking leaders (see neighboring Syria for a popular alternative method).
A frum gym might be a good business oportunity. Remember most gyms are for-profit businesses. It could have separate hours for men and women (with separate staffs). While a JCC/YMHA might have separate hours, they really could do no more and the building would stay un-frum.
By “talk back” do you mean to disagree or contradict, or rather do you mean to be rude, crude and sarcastic. The former is always acceptable if done correctly, and the latter (which seems to be the primary method of communication online) is never correct regardless of whom is speaking. I have met many gedolim and never heard them “talk back” even to an Am ha-Aretz, kal ve-homer, it is incorrect for an Am ha-Aretz (or talmid) in speaking to a “rebbe” (regardless of whether one means an elementary school teacher, or a gadol).
Both parties agree that if you got rid of the other, the country would be much better off.
If both parties move to extremes, a third party would develop, but that isn’t likely since the American system is rigged to elect middle of the road (which is why an election between Elizabeth Warren and Rand Paul is highly unlikely).
Why would anyone do such a thing? In our community (unlike among the goyim), age gains respect and adds credibility. Why would anyone want to look younger than they are?
Employment is a good thing. Not all that easy to come by. Assuming one’s father isn’t setting up the propsective spouse in a business, employment is the next best thing. It turns out that those who are employed tend to stay that way, and those that are unemployed have a problem.
1. The phrase is normally used after the name of someone who was murdered. It expresses the confidence that He-Shem will take care of the matter. Note that there is no “should” in Hebrew, so it really should be translated as “Ha-Shem WILL avenge his/her blood” – as a statement rather than a request.
2. When used after someone killed by someone not universally considered to have been our enemy (e.g. Jacob Israel De Haan, murdered by an IDF precursor in 1924), it becomes is a very loaded political statement.
The mailing it to yourself works for copyright, not patent. For patent you need to file with the Patent Office, which then has to agree it is indeed an invention. This gets tricky which is why one tends to use professionals to help.
Grand theft auto — NOT
consider:
Chess (many versions)
Firaxis (originally Microprose) such as Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, etc.
“Without the yishuv, Hitler would have killed Judaism.”
Actually, it should say “without the Americans”, Hitler would have killed Judaism (okay, the Brits and the Russians deserve some credit to). While one can (and should) perceive the Allied efforts to defeat Hitler as an example of Hashgacha Pratis, the yishuv did not play a significant role. Indeed, the efforts of the zionists were a major factor, and perhaps the only factor, explaining why the British were anxious to keep Jewish refugees out of Palestine, and in fact, out of any other other place, and one can argue that it was due to the zionists that the expulsion of European Jews (which was Germany’s original plan) became the genocide of European Jews.
Until 200 years ago, virtually all Jewish communities in the world were hareidi and were autonomous. In the 18th century, when a Jew wanted a divorce, he or she went to Beis Din, even in what is now the United States. All Jewish communities were expected to run their own institutions, without government funding, and all Jews were expected to use the Jewish institutions rather than the government’s (which, at the time, were usually run by the local church in Christian countries). With the “enlightenment” we started losing autonomy, and when some Jews responded by demanding control over the goyim’s institutions, we started having troubles.