akuperma

Health: That depends on how you define “hareidi”. Most Israelis define “hareidi” in part by not serving in the army (so if a hareidi serves in the IDF, he isn’t hareidi), along with not being employed (so if a hareidi works other than in a yeshiva, he’s not hareidi), dressing “funny” (so if a hareidi wears a modern suit, he’s not hareidi), and so on. Needless to say, the typical Israeli is a bit confused. That’s without getting into the fact that many Dati Leumi learn full time in yeshiva and some where funny clothes (okay, at least a frock and a homburg, both of which went out of style a long time ago in the western countries).

I prefer to use terms such as pro-zionist (supports the state), non-zionist (tries to ignore the state but will work with it as necessary), and anti-zionist (wishes the state would go away) ,

rabbiofberlin: Discretion to a government official is fairly meaningless. So someone gets a job, and next election the discretion changes. As it is, most jobs outside of “informal sector” or the “hareidi economy” are closed to hareidim, and having revocable permission isn’t going to help. Its like saying “you can work as a temp, but that’s it”. A law prohibiting discrimination (rejected last year) would help.

And it doesn’t solve the threshold question of conscription which the Israeli courts have held is non-discretionary (absent a Basic Law to overrule the courts). If any hareidim are being thrown in jail for refusing to serve in the army (whether because they insist on learning full time, or feel the army discriminates and fails to accomodate them, or because they hold that zionism is contrary to Torah), then most hareidim will refuse to serve.

If the zionists were serious about compromise, the only sanction for hareidim refusing to serve would be loss of yeshiva subsidies and being treated like a Palestinian citizen in terms of welfare state participation. If they were serious about hareidim contributing to the “official” (on the books) economy, they would legislate that hareidim are able to work to the same extent as those Palestinians who don’t want to serve in the IDF, and pass an anti-discrimination law.

popa_bar_abba: Anyone who believes that halacha is settled both as the establishment of the State of Israel being a mitsvah, and that the Dati Leumi/Modern Orthodox holdings on halacha are all correct (and anything more strict is just a humra), will be puzzled by the hareidi opposition. In all fairness, most of the Israeli leaders seem puzzled as well.

benignuman and DaasYochid: However Lapid’s goal is not to either increase soldiers (the army needs more jobniks like a hole in the head), nor to increase hareidi participation in the workplace so they can better support hareidi institutions without relying on the government (ending conscription would accomplish that). The goal of Lapid (and Netanyahu and Bennett) is to “break” the hareidi community before its so large it can overwhelm the zionists electorally. They are relying on the past success of conscription in turning many frum recruits into less frum and more “modern” and more likely to vote for Likud, Bayit Yehudi or Yesh Atid. Assuming the Israeli leaders aren’t idiots, its rather obvious that their goal is to destroy the hareidi community, which explains many of their policies in addition to conscription.

MDG: The webpage for the kashruth agency in question boasts about inspectors in Hindi, which is spoken in one area of India (where few Jews live, and not in the most commercially active areas such as Mubai/Bombay)- but the site claims to be providing services in both India and adjacent countries.

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They have a website. One needs to ask whomever one relies on for an evaluation of their competence.

The fact that they post having inspectors fluent in Hindi makes me worry since most of the the places they claim to give hecksherim in, and most of the places where Jews live in the region, speak languages other than Hindi.

nfgo3 – beyond the need to to honor our treaty guaranteeing Ukraine’s borders, the US has no interest. In fact, if Ukraine got rid of the pro-Russian provinces, it might be better off. The boundaries are very artificial.

As Jews we have less interest to be involved given the history of Ukranian nationalism, beyond hoping for peace in the region.

charliehall: The hareidi community insists on staying as frum as they have been for millenia, and their opponents insists on the hareidim becoming “normal” (stop being hareidi). There really isn’t room for compromise.

Up until the last election, Israel was a tremendous supporter of learning Torah (even if it was done as part of a political deal rather than out of love of Torah). Israel also has been great for frum publishing (suggesting we should aspire to disband the IDF and give the money to Mossad ha-Rav Kuk and the other Torah publishing houses – we’ld all be better in the long run). If you are the equivalent of “modern orthodox”, its great for Yiddishkeit and having a secular career (America has hassles for “conservadox” or frummer, Israel only has hassles for those frummer than the kipad srugah crowd).

How much impact Israel would have had on the holocaust is questionable. If the British, French and Dutch empires (at the time huge, globe encircling empires upon whom the sun never set) couldn’t stop Hitler, its doubtful we could have made a difference. And a very good argument can be made that the reason the British blocked Jewish emmigration from Europe was to keep the zionists from going to Palestine (i.e. if the hareidim and De Haan had prevailed in making peace with the Arabs, there would not have been any attempts by the Brits to keep Jews from fleeing, and most European Jews would have ended up safely elsewhere, though only the fanatics would have preferred Eretz Yisrael). And in all fairness, American opposition to holocaust rescue was based on the fear that most Jews would be socialists and communists, and if not left wing radicals, they would be frum which to Reform Jews was just as bad (Reform Jews then were both very anti-socialist and anti-frum — and were politically the dominant group in the Jewish community, and led the opposition to holocaust rescue plans).

If you are really concerned about goyim trying to wipe out the Jews, you should favor having Jews widely distributed in many different countries, or perhaps should consider space exploration (something the Americans looked into to solve the “Jewish problem” – but not workable in the 1940s). As it now, nukes on Jerusalem and Bnei Brak would be devasting to the frum community. Of course you could trust Ha-Shem to protect us, but that would make you a hareidi fanatic.

In the eyes of those who look at people who choose to study Torah over “normal” secular goals, it is a kiddush Ha-Shem. In the eyes for whom the measure of a person’s worth is how much money they earn, or how many people they rule over, or how much power they have – it is a sacrilege. To those Jews who have made the pursuit of wealth and power the central tenet of their version of Judaism, the demonstration is ridiculous. However just as many people will respect people who consider Torah and Mitsvos to be more important than getting rich and killing goyim.

The different minhagim go back at least to the separation between Bavel and Eretz Yisrael which goes back to Bayis Sheini. However the pot is constantly mixed as communities move around and intermarry. Note how the Arizel was a mixture, and his minhag is the basis for all hasidic nusachs, and mixes aspects from different mnhagim.

Linguistically, the temanim are probably the most authentic since they pronounce all the nekudas and dageshim, which no one else still does, but its clear Hebrew must have been pronounced that way since the mesoret includes the dageshim that everyone else ignores (e.g. a gimel or daled, with or without a dagesh).

The three parties that sit in the Kenesset have grown very zionist over the last 65 years. They accept and cover government money. Most of their Kenesset members have served in the IDF at some point. They have encouraged future baal ha-battim who drop out of yeshiva to join the IDF. They have politically been fully involved in the wheeling and dealing of Israeli politics. One might say they forgot their roots in the hareidi opposition to zionism of 90 years ago. The current events are a rude awakening (similar to when German Jews discovered their countrymen didn’t like them, similar to American isolationists who discovered that their view of the world was totally disconnected from reality, similar to many American leftists when they discovered that “Uncle Joe” was really not a nice guy).

I’m hasidische, dress modern during the week, with a kapote and homburg on Shabbos, and daven in a shul where the announcements are still in Yiddish.

Veltz Meshugener: The calendar isn’t so shocking. They obviously knew about the solar calendar since the Egyptians used it, and the scrolls reflect materials from the period in which the Romans switched from a luni-solar (what we use) to a solar (they encountered the problem of the people in charge cheating on adding the month to enhance revenue or terms of office – an issue we resolved be excluding those with ulterior motives from the calendar Beis Din). Also the Beis Din clearly was using a modern calendar in order to know where to look for the new moon and when.

1. If you were on Medicaid (including various CHIPS programs), which many frum people are, you still are. You might even be eligible. Minimal change.

2. If you had good insurance (typically from a major employer such as the FEHBP or a state or local government or union), you still do. Be happy.

3. If you had lousy insurance, you still do but it might be lousy in different ways.

4. If you are a healthy, single frummie – stop whining about health insurance and find your beshert (and then you’ll be in the class causing health care spending to increase, baruch ha-Shem).

Are they required to accept testimony from apostate moslems in America?”

Since in the United States religious courts are private courts of arbitration, the rules would be governed by the contract signed by the litigants and the courts. If the parties stipulate that heretics’ testimony is inadmissable, so be it. “Private” means the government doesn’t get to tell you what to do and how to run your life.

Some Muslims want a situation similar to what exists in Muslim countries in which Muslims would be required to use shariah courts and they wouldn’t be a need to gain their consent. That is very unlikely to happen. The danger is some people want to make it illegal for a Muslim court to exist and such laws would prohibit arbitration according to legal system other than American law – such laws would probably violate equal protection, freedom of religion, and right of contract and would severely restrict the rights of Orthodox Jews, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and many groups of businesses that rely on private arbitration according to non-US law (which include major companies engaged in international transactions).

Absolutely none in theory. From the point of view of the American legal system they are private arbitration tribunals, meaning that if the parties sign a contract to accept the ruling it is legally binding (with the same exceptions as apply to any arbitration). Sociologically there is a difference since Muslims aren’t used to being a minority group and are more likely to forget that they aren’t in charge in America (Christians have the same problem, Jews on the other hand have centuries of experience at being a minority and negotiating life in a world we don’t control).

Most fiction is about tzarus, and how the character overcame (or didn’t). Reading about someone who gets up, has a normal happy day, and goes to bed contented would be somewhat boring.

Except for law (which an accredited undergraduate degree is legally required in most states), graduate schools don’t even require a BA to get in, but it certainly helps. Getting accept to a graduate program requires, typically, an undergraduate degree, and a transcript that shows you can do the work required, and it helps if you can convince them you know what you are doing. Fro example, if you come to an interview and can switch between Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic (a.k.a. Syriac), Farsi and Turkish — they will be very impressed if you are applying for a program in middle eastern languages. Want ancient near eastern studies: write your application letter in Akkadian.

But for normal people, they look at your undergraduate transcript, references, and anything else you can use to “sell” yourself, and a BTL from a yeshiva is not especially prestigious. It does mean you are qualified to apply without asking for an “exception”, but if all your transcript has is evidence of studying in a yeshiva you may not be in a great position.

And of course, many schools are very happy to admit people who pay full tuition, and even more so if your family wants to endow something.

Measuring devices predate most surviving written records (okay, that’s cheating since a cup may last thousands of years, and most writing materials survive centuries at best). The oldest measuring cup predates the oldest surviving recipes.

Israel is a client state that feels its about to be deserted by its patron, or at least Bibi thinks so (Karzai feels the same way, by the way). Think of the Brits (we’ld see them as Welsh)when Romans said they were leaving, or Franco when he realized he had backed the wrong team in World War II (be grateful, it encouraged to become very friendly to Jewish refugees), etc. And Obama is certainly doing a good job of convincing Israel that their back’s need watching.

The US couldn’t care less about Israelis (even dual citizens) killed in was the US is increasingly disinterested in. If settlers get killed, it isn’t Obama’s concern. You may disagree, and if eligible, there will be a vacancy for Obama’s job in two years, but until then, he’s in charge.

For zionists it is painful to realize that after all these efforts and money and blood, Israel is just a small impotent colony getting abandonned by its masters, and realize it might not be able to survive in the long run. Bibi hopes things will change, and needs to stall. He does have the Iranians making the Arabs nervous, which helps, but he also needs to keep a lid on the Palestinians. Letting out middle aged prisoners seems to be a strategy, and probably does less damage that can’t be repaired that, say, withdrawing from more areas of the West Bank. The prisoners after getting their hero’s welcome, are much more likely to want to get a job and a family than to become suicide bombers – so Bibi isn’t totally irrational.

Absolutely none of the prisoners released by Bibi has ever killed an American and they pose no threat to the United States.

Karzai may believe that his best chance of survival is to make peace with his enemies. Bibi might feel the same (the US is rapidly losing military strength and moving to isolationism, and left to its own devices it isn’t clear what Israel’s long term prospects are). Releasing people who for the most part were young when captured, and are now middle aged, is a low risk way of trying to open a door.

Do you say Tefilas Haderech between Washington and Boston, since you have to pass through an uninhabited area, and the area is almost 100% built-up in the middle. The trees you see along side the highways are there to hide the fact (and the noise) that there are houses immediately on the other side.

His views are typical of “Modern Orthodox”. He’s on the border between them and “Conservadox”. In Israel, the army uses female singing to weed out hareidim (from the Israeli equivalent of modern orthodox) in an officers course. So if you hold that the Medinah is “glatt treff” there is no way you’ll find any limud z’chus for him, but if you consider the “Dati Leumi” to be religious Jews with misguided views on many matters, he fits right in.

What is important about Washington is that he played the key role in extending civil rights to Jews. Remember that Jews had no rights in any colonies before the Revolution, and were officially banned from about half the colonies. As part of a policy of establishing religious pluralism (which was critical for national survival given the diversity of the colonists/rebels in 1776), he went out of his way to make sure that pluralism included Jews. The stuff about his clever intelligence operations is interesting, but his role in establishing American religiousity combined with religious diversity, is critical (especially to us).