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Artscroll is a “for profit” corporation that sells what its customers which to buy. That’s how things work in capitalism. If they tried to sell something their customers weren’t interested in buying, they would go broke. It should be noted that Jewish bookstores, both in Brooklyn and throughout North America, stock large amounts of materials but multiple vendors, and if a vendor does not correctly gage the feelings of the market, there are others ready and anxious to take their place. Unpopular ideas are “censored” since they don’t sell books – they are unpopular — that’s true of the publishing industry regardless of religion or ethnicity.
Until relatively recently, one usually bought the chicken LIVE and brought your chicken to the shochet, and then brought it to the person who checked it, and then took it home and butchered it. Frum girls learned how to do this, as it was typically part of being a housewife. This was normal back in the early 20th century.
Today, virtually no one knows what to do with a dead animal until its been properly butchered, salted and packaged. That is the complication with live kapores since few people can have their chicken killed and then redeem (or gift it), and expect it to be served shortly.
It’s a style. Styles vary, constantly. You can probably guess the year from a picture based on the styles, even of frum people in yeshivos. While there are some halacha (dress up for Shabbos, follow what your Rosh Yeshiva says at his yeshiva, don’t embarass your spouse, etc.) – it’s fashion. If it really turns you, study anthropology and write a thesis on frum fashion.
Threaten to repeat what he/she just said to his/her kids. Be wary your parents won’t have similar message for you.
If Ha-Shem wanted teenages to act like adults, he would have programmed their brains accordingly. There are some species where the brain is fully developed at birth (generally, these are the less intelligent species). Accept that teenagers usually act like teenagers.
The Talmud is an encyclopedia compilation of sources. If you want something nice and organized consider the Shulhan Arukh or the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah.
1. Different people have different takes on matters. While neither is lying, YWN and Haarets appear to be discussing different worlds.
One wouldn’t expect Nach to match the other side’s account of a war.
2. The hilonim “higher critical” were saying that everything in Taanach was myth, and that finding any document discussing Sancherivis seight was as likely as finding a first person letter from one of the Greek or Roman “gods”. Archeology can’t prove details (especially since we wrote on perishable substances, not clay tablets), but it does show that Nach happened and wasn’t the figment of some modern frum rabbi’s imagination – which is what they were claiming until Archeology proved otherwise.
It is likely the comment is either out of context or refers to a specific situation not a general rule. As various forms of exercise goes, weight lifting does not require immodest dress, does not inherently involve pritsos, and is a lot safer than many sports (and few sports offer equivalent strength training) – and for the most part can be done in the privacy of one’s home. Of course is the person asking the question is in a situation where he plans to go to a co-ed gym where people wear few clothes, it would clearly be explicable why his rebbe told him not to go.
Does your rebbi always take a car even for short distances? Does he prefer a diet rich in fat and sugars, while avoid fiber, fruits, vegetables, etc.? Perhaps he stays in a wheel chair to avoid having to use his body for anything?
It’s cool. Digging up stuff our ancestors played with. Sometimes it helps understand things, but never really something important (e.g., when the Avos were acting in a way that reflected Mesopotamian law, but we would have expected it since our tradition was that in those aspects of law weren’t usings Jewish law since it was pre-Sinai). It’s also fun when archeologists dig up stuff that contradicts the hiloni’s “higher critical” theories and they have to come up with a revised edition of their theories (remember that the “critical” refers to literary criticism rather than research into ancient history, which is why it is so amusingly wrong – they make it up as they go along for obvious ulterior motive).
All filters are inherently problematic since the filters’ AI can’t tell whether the words in question are respectable or not. For example, if you target the word “naked” you block out halachic discussions about what one wears in a mikva, married women’s hair, and how much clothes you need to wear when davening.
The best solution is to remember that Ha-Shem is monitoring at all times (not to mention your boss, the NSA, perhaps the Mossad, and that any clever teenager can hack your computer to see what you’ve been looking at).
1. Set a good example.
2. Look at anyone who appears in public inappropriately (e.g. too short a skirt, too low a neckline, too expensive a suit, too flashy a necktie, too expensive a car) as being weird.
3. Consider how a law firm looks at someone who shows up for work in sneakers, shorts and a flashy “vacation” shirt — or how a geek-oriented hi-tech firm deals with someone who insists on wearing a suit and tie. Most of the human race has strict and intricate dress codes – without have to write them down.
If they are Yidden, they are certainly not strangers. If why shouldn’t people try to “set you up” assuming you are single, frum and have no serious defects (such as antlers, tail, or antenas). If you don’t like the attention, get married, and then you won’t have the problem.
If you are studying Jewish law or Jewish history, it is impossible to do so without familiarity with Talmud. An analogy would be like studying American law without looking at cases and statutes, or studying American history without reading any historical documents. As it is, everyone holds it is permissable to study Pirke Avos, which is clearly one portion of the Talmud, most of whose halachas are relevant to botgh women and to understanding Jewish views on the world.
The only issue is “studying for fun”, without regard to it being useful. That’s what men do, and most consider it a mitzvah to do so (and in any event, its what we like to do). Pilpul on questions that will never arise in the real world is a “boy thing.”
Urban areas generally restrict activities incompatible with being a residential area, such as slaughtering animals. If you want to be free of zoning restrictions, move to a rural area.
Leave skunks alone and you won’t have a problem.
Jews needing to adopt used to benefit from a baby gemach run by the goyim. Women (non-Jewish ones, usually not of the higher classes) who didn’t want their babies left them in a designated field, and people (Jews included) could go to the field and pick one. They usually went by which ones were crying the loudest. Then the goyim got a bit more civilized and now they can only kill babies during the nine months prior to birth.
“A family with more than 6 kids with only a father in kollel and maybe a mother making a little extra cannot expect to send their kids to yeshiva, pay bills and dues, donate to tzedakah, and afford good quality food and healthcare.” — No but they can expect to earn enough to eat but maybe they’ll have to skip the junk food, nosh and eating out. They’ll be able to afford adequate health care, at a level that the Hafetz Haim would have considerable unbelievable – but not a fancy doctor with the latest experimental medicine. No one expects kollel families to play an important role in terms of financing community institutions (but many provide very useful warm bodies to actually get things done). Most frum organizations adjust fees based on ability to pay (one might aruge that if it doesn’t it isn’t really frum).
So do you mean they’ll live like families that afford a large detached single family home in Brooklyn, a second home in the country, full tuition (and all the protectsia that goes with it) at the fanciest most modern Jewish schools, a really fancy doctor who doesn’t let cost bother him in practising in medicine, etc. — of course they won’t. And if someone’s goal in life is a high level of material goods, they will do something else for a living (and if the past is an indication, they will give up a lot in terms of Yiddishkeit to do so). Jews who consider gashmius to be a principle goal rarely stay frum all that long – remember the mere act of keeping Shabbos, wearing a kippah, eating only kosher and living in an unfashionable neighborhood (i.e. one with too many frummies) means giving up perhaps 2/3 of your parnassah.
Learning is work. It pays horribly, and you end up after a few years as a teacher, which is even more work and pays horribly.
If someone wants to live in great poverty in order to learn, that’s there business. If they expect to have a middle class standard of living, that’s being ridiculous. However the working conditions of learning full time, or teaching (and in Hebrew, “learn” and “teach” are just different binyanim of the same verb), are very good (no Shabbos hassles, no calendar hassle, no problem with treff lunches or seriously rude and immoral coworkers, etc.), which is probably why many people prefer poverty in a frum “job” (learning or teaching) to the riches of working for the goyim.
You need a lawyer.
The original posting in this thread referred to some hareidim dancing in a memorial fountain. YNET (a leading hiloni, meaning anti-frum) site now questions that these were really hareidim, noting that the people undressed in public which is very rare for hareidim.
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In American, if women are situated so men are staring at them (sometimes referred to as a “meat market” approach to dating) it is considered harassment of the women. Note that the objection is to separate seating, not to who sits where. In fact many cultures have separate seating options in public transportation – its considered a way to protect women.
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Remember that we are descended from someone who was a radical extremist, accused of heresey and high treason by his countryman, considered a betrayer of the family’s cult, thrown into a fire and finally exiled to a remote no-mans land. You may not like it, but extremism in defense of doing the right thing is a family trait going back 4000 years.
Each receives according to their needs, each contributes according to their abilities — works fine for most families (don’t try it with strangers).
Sam2: What I am see is that people still disagree about cheese (some kosher Yidden insist on vegetarian rennet, others allow even rennet derived from a treff cow, most are in the middle), and it is wrong to say this is settled.
The possible “meat” in question will be debated. Some people will definitely hold that the stem cells come from a kashered slaughtered animal and that the product is fleishig. Others will probably be less fussy. It is unreasonable to expect a definitive agreement to be reached any time soon, since we like to debate such matters.
1. It isn’t known how the stem cells will be derived, or what sort of nutrient will be used to grow the “meat.”
2. Many people hold by rennet from meat, and some even allow it from a treff animal – and some people insist on vegetarian rennet. It’s an ongoing dispute. Anyone who believes this is a settled manner is in error.
3. The original wild Turkeys, which in no way resembled modern Turkeys (they fly, feed themselves and are quite wild) were not universally accepted in the early 16th century and there was much discussion (so amusing, as many thought they came from India and were a type of chicken). It was no slam dunk they would be accepted. Over time a consensus was reached, but one finds discussions and debates lasting until quite recently.
Sam2: In the 1500 they did NOT know what a potato was, not a tomato (for years they thought it was poisonous), nor tobacco (many thought it was a health food), and certainly not what American call “corn” (a.k.a. maize). The initial consensus was that Turkeys (“hodu” in Hebrew) were non-kosher.
I’m suggesting that with the possibility of artificial “meat” (and perhaps something like “replicator” produced food similar to science fiction shows such as Star Trek, involving 3D printers that are now getting invented) – it will be an interesting time, but in this case, interesting in a food sort of way.
Sam2: You may not be aware that many people hold that even if rennet is derived from a dead animal, the cheese made with that meat abstract is kosher. There are shitahs that hold that even if the animal was treff, the cheese would be kosher. Those people who allow cheese made non-vegetarian rennet, will probably hold the “meat” made from animal stem cells is kosher and parve (depending on the nature of the nutrients used to make the “meat”). Those who reject cheese made with non-vegetarian rennet will probably hold that the “meat” is kosher only if the initial cells were from a properly kashered animal.
Since this is still really more science fiction than anything else, its a bit early to worry about the matter.
nitpicker: I’ld assume they decided quickly on that. Remember that around 1500, they were introduced to Corn (American Corn, Maize), Potatoes, Tomatoes, Tobacco and all sorts of new things, and it took a while to settle down and decide what was what.Turkey actually swtiched from being treff to kosher. It will be fun to watch people decide what to do with artificial meat (my guess is that the solution (which will probably be parve)it is grown in must be kosher, and that the initial initial microscopic cells must be from a properly slaughtered kosher animal – and that the debates will focus on whether the resulting food is fleisig or parve (with rennet, we hold that since the solution the product is grown in is milkig, the product is milkig – which would suggest the the “meat” in question might be parve — but anyone who insists on using parve rennet would probably hold it to be fleshig).
The closest thing to that now is Rennet used in making cheese. There are lots of different opinions on that one. Based on how long it took to decide on the status of potatoes and turkeys (are the former hametz or not, are the latter a kosher bird), it will probably take a generation or two for a consensus to build. It will be an interesting case study in halachic decision making.
There is very little that doesn’t affect us. It isn’t like we live in an isolated bubble. Everything is interconnected.
Re: A-ROD.
Do you realize many frum Jews use drugs (ritalin, for example, is sometimes eve endorsed by schools). And many people look at goyish celebrities, for better or worse.
This is still science fiction. At some point the questions will be: 1) is “meat” grown by cells considered “meat” at all; 2) does it need to come from an animal that was slaughtered and kashered? Its very similar to the issues involving Rennet (an enzyme derived from an animal that is used to produce some cheeses). Many people that rennet, derived from an animal, does not render cheese non-kosher, while some even hold that the rennet can even come from a non-kashered animal, and other prefer rennet derived from non-fleishig sources.
to comment such as “b) mentally and physically boys aren’t ready at 18.
Physically not ready? What’s the major physical difference between an 18 year old and a 23 year old? Emotionally and economically you’d be right.”
I would aruge that people are “”ready” to get married (and become parents) until they are in late middle age, whether from an emotional, economic or mental state — but since that would lead to extinction HaShem biologically programmed people to feel an urgent need to get married when they are young enough to have children. Since HaShem designed people to get married before they are emotionally, economicly or mentally ready, this is obvious a “feature” and it isn’t for us to speculate on “why.”
The shidduch crisis is the normal result of people (not just boys) responding to worsened economic conditions by delaying marriage in order to have parnassah to support a family. It is happening worldwide, among all people and cultures. A rational response to loss of income is to delay marriage. Ways to reduce the crisis:
1) Encourage children to be happy living with less, and to have lower expectations, so they won’t object to idea of having a one-room starter apartment, and move up to a single bedroom when the baby gets too big to share a room with the parents.
2. Encourage women to follow news of finance and economics better, and to focus on the bad news. Then they’ll worry that their husbands can’t support them, and will also want to put off marriage.
If you guys hate the hareidim so much, why do you want to give them guns and have them watch your back? It’s surprising that instead of drafting hareidim, you would want a law prohibiting them for bearing arms. You consider it a privilege to ignore the draft yourselves (note that most secular avoid the IDF, usually moving overseas if needed, which is where most hiloni Israeli citizens live).Just leave them alone in their own little ghettos to live their own lives unmolested.
All they want is to be left alone. They are going on to the Tel Aviv-Haifa bus and demanding that the hilonim dress modestly – they just want to run their own buses, their way, preferably without you hilonim meddling.
The current job market is that unless you have respectable grades in a leading law school (Columbia, NYU, Georgetown, or better), or really outstanding grades elsewhere – your chance of getting a job out of law school is poor. You’ll end up either taking a non-law job to support yourself, or being in a “build up the practice mode” meaning nominal pay or no pay. If you ran up large debts in getting the degrees, you may have a serious problem. Large firms are laying off partners and associates
If your goal is to be a neighborhood lawyer, and you are sufficently entreprenurial to build up a practice, the grades don’t matter (but learned skills do), and having gone to a fancy law school doesn’t matter much. But you’ll hardly be affluent until and unless you build up your practice.
Those ultra-secular extremists, such as Lapid, are really getting out of line. Publicly saying their goal is to bankrupty 10% of the population solely because he doesn’t approve of their religion. Trying to use the army to coerce them into giving up their religion, even though the generals who defend the country say they want no part of using their army to be a tool of religious coercion – especially as it would seriously weaken the army by undermining unit cohesion which has been shown to be a key factor in military operations.
If these extremists aren’t stopped, the end result will be that Israel will be put into a very awkward situation of having to explain to its supporters, not to mention hostile “neutrals”, why they are engaging in religious persecution in violation of international law, and how Israel can claim any rights as a “Jewish” state that most of the world believes was founded to protect the religious freedom of Jews, when religious Jews are the ones Israel persecutes.
If the extremists aren’t stopped, The zionist enterprise may be doomed. And at this point, it appears that only the Religious Zionists are in a position to stop these anti-Jewish extremists. And if not, this might be a very good time for those who wish stay in Eretz Yisrael to get Arabic lessons.
jewishfeminist02:
A medical resident, albeit with the 24/7 work schedules (except in the few states that have banned it), get a middle class salary even as a resident, and is guaranteed professional employment unless he horribly screws up.
Most law school graduate have serious troubles finding professional work. While the job market is good for the top of the class at the leading (NYU, Columbia, etc.) law schools, but the bulk of the class at the bulk of the law school, there is no “pot of gold” at the end and for many, if not most, the choice is between taking non-legal employment or starting at the bottom (perhaps unpaid) and building up a practice. The well paid associates at “Big law” are quite rare and getting rarer due to the economy.
If someone wants to be a lawyer, realizing the pay can be very mediocre, but its the thought of job you want – its a good career choice. But if they think its a way to become rich, they are making a horrific mistake.
But whose army? Hareidi who see that Muslims as mortal enemies have enlisted for years. Do you really want them to take “fighting” to the next level? Remember the Hareidim did beat the Greeks (and we all know it was really the hiloni Jews they were fighting – we say Greeks so as not to hurt your feelings), but usually the rabbanim talk them out of hitting people.
jewishfeminist02 who said “In the long term, lawyers have a better financial outlook than doctors. 8 years of education (and therefore loans) versus 3 years makes a big dent in a doctor’s salary.”
1. Virtually all MDs become doctors, whereas only some JDs become lawyers. Most doctors serve a fairly well paid apprenticeship (“residency”) with horrific hours, even if they are required to get sleep in states (and then only due to lawyers suing for malpractice). Most JDs entering the practice of law have to scramble for a job, and only a handful get well paid “associate” positions.
2. Virtually all doctors are employed as doctors, even if they were at the bottom of the class in a not famous medical school. Many JDs have trouble finding a job that requires a law degree, and the bottom of the class from a good law school, and anyone from other than the dozen or so elite law schools, will often find himself as entering a “solo practice” whether they like it or not.
3. There are inexpensive law schools, and they tend to be easy to get into (and there is the option of “reading law” in many states). The inexpensive medical schools are very hard to get into. It is sometimes possible to get a free medical degree by agreeing to work for certain employers (not just the military) after graduation.
4. If someone wants to be a lawyer, or a doctor, they should try. If they enter a profession they dislike since they think it is a meal ticket, they will probably fail miserably, and still owe on the student loans.
Formal sessions of the full houses are rare. Most legislation is routine, and each party sends a few people to make sure the other doesn’t sneak anything through, and they pass everything on a voice vote. Unless someone asks for a quorum call, they can ignore the fact the room is largely empty. Full sessions are only for really important business.
The real work is done in committees and conferences, many of which are scheduled in advance and open to the public, and occasionally televised.
It is hard imagine the primitive cuisine our ancestors endured before the introduction of SOY.
Virtually everyone bans biking on SHabbos.
Since many Hasidische Rebbes are also concerned about everyday life in their communities, they may ban biking in their community for safety reasons.
to Jewishishfeminist02 who wrote “You’re describing older singles who have roommates/suitemates. Nothing wrong with that, but I’ve never heard of an arrangement in which they share assets.”
Its quite common for long term roommates (housemates, whatever) to end uphaving joint accounts, shared assets, often buying a house or car together. When the relationship ends (voluntarily or through death), it can create great complications (and of course, great opportunties for parnassah for lawyers).
And it has nothing to do with gender or sex.
Isn’t that the operation for people who over very overweight but don’t want to go on a diet and get regular exercise?
The people and politicians of New York City are doing a great hesed for the rest of the country by providing political race, and candidates, that are so entertaining. Really, if Hollywood dreamed up, even for soap opera, people like Weiner and Spitzer, the show would flop for being too unbelievable. This is even better than Baltimore having a mayor whose defense when charged with theft was to say that she thought it was actually a bribe. Frankly, people like Obama, and Romney and Bush, and Hillary, and Rand – are dull — all they want to talk about politics (now Bill Clinton, there was an amusing politician to follow).
Americans (not just Jews) meddle in many other countries politics, and the rest of the world meddles in American politics. It probably has to do with the fact that Americans come from countries all over the world.
In all fairness, the future of American Jews is very closely tied to Israel, and vice versa. Without US support, Israel would have been wiped out in all its wars (i.e. American objections kept the Brits for delivering Palestine to the Arabs, and kept the Soviets from marching in on behalf of their Arab allies). Even today, American neutrality would probably cripple Israel. What happens in Israel, the growing crisis between the hareidim and the dati leumi, and to a lesser extent, the gap between religious and secular, have a major impact on the American Jewish community. One should note that a high percentage of Israeli citizens live in the United States, and American Jews are an significant community in Israel (especially if you including returned yordim such as Netanyahu).
Since a bike is a more complex mechanism than a stroller, it is likely to break and on Shabbos it would involve doing a melacha. All complex mechanical things are banned on Shabbos.
In urban area, it is halachically allowed but very dangerous since if you bump into a car, the person on the bike loses. In places with no motor vehicles, there is no such problem.
It is very clear that the minimum the Arab Muslims will accept is that there be one state between the desert and the sea, and in that state Arab Muslims will be first class citizens – the official language being Arabic, Islamic law being respected and follow to the extent they want to follow it, and the rulers being Muslims. Anything else is temporary. This is unacceptable to virtually all Israelis other than a small number of hareidim (which might become “most” hareidim if the Israelis serious attempt to implement conscription of hareidim). The only possible peace solution would be for the Jews in Eretz Yisrael to settle for autonomy and rights while respecting that they are in the Arab middle east (and while they might insist on a nuclear equipped milita and right to use Hebrew in dealing with the government, they couldn’t insist on things that Islam opposes such as gay rights or liberal abortion laws).
From the Arab perspective, they have no “peace partner” since the minimum Israeli demand (a zionist state with boundaries the Arabs will respect) is totally unacceptable.
This arguing over the West Bank is silly, as most Muslims (and many Jews) to not distinguish between East and West Jerusalem, or between Hevron and Haifa.
Given that an increasing number of Israelis are unwilling to bear the burden of perpetual warfare (and note the number of non-frum draft evaders and non-frum Israeli Jews who fled the country and live abroad), the Israelis would be well advised to negotiate a peace agreement now, from a position of strength, rather than wait until one is imposed on them.
sam2 who wrote “Akuperma: It’s a dead dispute. The world holds like R’ Moshe. “
Many of the Religious Zionists, in Israel, in fact hold that marriages involving non-Orthodox Jews are valid, which is why they are so insistent that the Israeli government closely regulate marriage and divorce (a “frummer” approach is to follow R. Moshe and say that only frum Jews can possibly have the intent to be married “kdas Moshe v’Yisrael” and therefore there is no danger of the Am Ha-Artsim being safek mamzerim). Note that many new Baalos tsuevahos who were either married or “in relationships” before becoming frum do try to get a “get” to be certain, though since we are several generations into the “sexual revolution” the damage is done (if you have a “makel” attitude as to getting married).
Mountied who said: Common-law-marriage is ONLY available in nine States. Anywhere else a religious marriage without a civil marriage will NOT result in legal (secular) recognition of the marriage. Such a couple CANNOT file a joint tax return.
1. In states with common law marriage it isn’t even an issue that a hupah is a valid marriage.
2. In other states, it depends on state law. In New York, the lack of a marriage license doesn’t affect the vallidity of the marriage – though it is a nuisance if you have to prove you are married (in effect you’ll have to sue to get a marriage certificate if you need if, e.g. for inheritance or child custody purposes). However the marriage is valid, meaning you could be prosecuted for tax fraud if you pay taxes as “single” (as would be the case if a two-income family). If you want to avoid having to file as “married”, one might consider a contract to be a concubine (2nd class wife) since under common law the status of concubine is not recognized – however if you have a proper kosher marriage you are probably married under the state law.
jewishfeminist02: If they don’t file a joint return, they are required to file as a married couple filing seperately (which is usually expensive). If they file as unmarried (separate returns), they are violating the tax code and could be prosecuted if in doing so they pay lower taxes (as would be likely if they both have substantial incomes).
to charliehall: “”unmarried couples publicly living together””
There are many views that in such cases, assuming they are both Jews, they have made a kiddushim by bi’ah, and she requires a “get” if she ever wants to marry anyone else. The complication is that if you are a “liberal” as to what is required to make a marriage you end up in a situation in which within a few generations most non-frum Jews are safek mamzerim. The “stricter” opinion requires intent to be married by halacha, which means regarding all marriages involving non-frum Jews are void which is very insulting to them but means their children can’t be mamzerim. It’s an ongoing dispute – that has nothing to do with “gay marriage”