akuperma

The real issue is that there are two competing, and mutually exclusive paradigms pertaining to the Jewish community of Eretz Yisrael. One is based on a “Torah and Mitsvos” idea of what it means to be Jewish, the other is a secular, ethnic and nationalistic one. They can’t coexist indefinitely. One will eventually force out the other, and thus conflict is inevitable.

None work perfectly, and anyone with moderate computer skills can evade them. If you set the standards too high, you’ll end up blocking things you might want to access. At work, they have filters but they have to tell people how to go around them when needed. However they cleverly have told everyone that someone high up and see what you are doing every minute on your computer, so don’t do anything you aren’t supposed to. So if you are worried about your kid looking at “naughty” sites, make sure the kid is afraid of Ha-Shem (even if he regards you as harmless).

Those aren’t “government” regulations, those are school rules. Meaning you don’t need to talk to the legislature if you don’t like, you merely need to talk to whomever is in charge of the school. Of course, if it is a public school, their school rules may be enforceable in court, meaning the Board of Trustees would have to follow the administrative procedure law to make a change.

If one wants something out of the ordinary it pays to decide on it before going to the school, and get them to say they’ll allow it before you even apply. Normally, for degrees, they want you to have paid two sets of tuition. THe school catalogue sets the rules. Most schools expect you to complete the final year or two at their insititution to give you a degree.

If there are separate schools (e.g. a secular university and a yeshiva licensed to give a B.A.) each school has its own policies.

Also if you want some courses and the school doesn’t offer it, you can usually get permission to take it elsewhere and transfer the credits, as long as you ask in advance.

Their point is that the zionist movement that began in the 1880s is a “dead end”. A Jewish entity in Eretz Yisrael that wants the trappings of a goyish state will not be compatible with Torah, and anything “Jewish” that isn’t based on Torah will eventually disappear. Either it will give up the trappings of a sovereign state or it will give up any pretense of being “Jewish”. Medinat Yisrael as well know is probably doomed in the long run.

If the growth of the yishuv had occured under Orthodox leadership, even “Modern” or “Mizrahi” leadership, they would have focused on sufficient autonomy to allow Jews in Eretz Yisrael to peacefully live a frum lifestyle, rather than starting a fight with the goyim by demanding political control (meaning non-Jews reduced to “second class” status, something that Arab racist pride will never accept) combined with building a western (Euro-American style) and secular (meaning anti-Islamic as well as anti-Torah) state.

Has R. Yosef Hayyim Sonnenfeld, probably assisted by Dr. Jacob De Haan (rather than David Ben Gurion) been the dominant figure in the politics of Eretz Yisrael in the first part of the 20th century, Eretz Yisrael would today probably have a Jewish majority but would be part of a much larger Arab/Islamic state (probably a great Syria led by the current King Abdullah II). While we would be “second class” citizens politically (something Orthodox Jews never had a problem with), we’ll have the economic and communal autonomy that would allow Orthodox Jews to flourish without being forced to fight “tooth and nail” for the right to follow a Torah based lifestyle. And in this “alternative history” and interest side effect is that at worst, Hitler would be remembered for expelling Jews from Europe, since the Brits would have had no reason to close their Empire to Jewish refugees (especially since the frum ones would have preferred to join the large and secure Jewish community in the Arab state that almost was established in the post-World War I period).

To: PoPa Bar Abba

And what do you think the guys who wrote the treatises read?

You do realize that the Shulhan Arukh is mere a “restatement” based on the case law, designed for those lacking the competence to read the originals. In a system based on “common law” (meaning cases, as opposed to decrees and codes – which include both Jewish and common law), all law goes back to previous decisions. Note that in “code” systems such as Roman law, you read the code and decide for yourself what it means today based on original intent and your understanding – past practice counts for little.

Because law is based on precedent. This applies to halacha as well as western legal systems. You could have a system based on what you think is “good” based on how you feel today, but how would anyone know what is legal? Indeed, China abolished its legal system in the mid-20th century, roughly for the reasons you suggested, and finally had to reestablish it. With a set of rules based on established practice, no one knows what to expect. Therefore a lawyer needs to learn those rules, and the rules that resulted in those rules coming into existence.

Suppose you had to decide if was permissable to cross the street. Due to laws based on past practices and customs, we know which side of the street the cars are coming from, what a red light means, who has to yield. Suppose everytime you got in a car, you had to decide which side of the road to drive on, or whether a “red” light meant stop or go. Suppose you had to determine if the right of way went to the person with highest social rank (as was the case until recently).

Suppose you had to determine the meaning of the prohibition of “milk and meat” anew everyday? No checking precedents or past decisions. Some days a “cheeseburger” made with chicken is kosher, some days it isn’t. Some days the prohibition can effectively be ignored by getting meat from a cow certified as a beef cow, precluding the chance the milk came from its mother. But no, we look back at years of case law.

In truth, medicals also consult the past. Did you really think they have to invent a new antibiotic everytime you get sick? Do you think they dream up a way to set a bone or deliver a baby without finding out what millenia of experience have determined.

Why wouldn’t you want to buy a baby gift for a Muslim neighbor with whom you are on speaking terms with? Except for the unpleasantness in the Middle East, we get along fine with Muslims when we have to (cooperation in food matters such as opposing those who want ban kosher slaughter, tzinus issues, etc.).

For example, if you want to argue that Israeli hareidim are lazy cowards, define as “hareidi” anyone who is learning in kollel (excluding those who hold non-kollel jobs) or who serves in the army (excluding those who do). This is what many Israelis do. If you definie “hareidi” as dressing “funny” (from a secular perspective), than all hareidim dress funny. Of course you have a problem since there are many people who might be considered hareidi based on observance of mitsvos and halachic perspective who hold jobs other than learning in kollel, do serve in the Israeli army and who wear modern western style clothing.

If you want to understand the political ramifications of being “hareidi”, define “hareidi” as believe that if Torah as understood by orthodox rabbanim take priority over Israeli law as enacted by the Knesset or the Israel Supreme Court, you get a measure of those who do not accept the legitimacy of the Israeli government. This is the number of Orthodox Jews who might if sufficiently provoked consider rebellion against the zionist establishment, and probably includes most people who are Shomer Shabbos Just consider what happens if the government were to establish a day other than Shabbos as the national day of rest, and to order the demolition of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, or to require all students to go to secular schools – these being ideas that have had considerable support from Jewish parties in past Israeli elections. Good zionists accept the legality of a law passed by the knesset, and hareidim might rebel.

Well the Reform Jews (the ones we beat this time of year, they were called Helenists then), hold that any Jewish ancestry makes one Jewish. And certainly they don’t mind if someone isn’t following halacha. And given the ways genes tend to flow over time, and that some Jews have always been wandering off getting into mischief (and being into mischief, it does encourage gene flow). You let one guy lose in a population and 3000 years later, everyone is related to him (do the math, his descendants come to something like two to the hundreth power after a few millenia).

So to show we aren’t “sore winners”, we’ll use the Reform’s definitions of Jewishness (indeed, being so unfussy, they’ll probably want to extend it back to Noach, rather than just to Avraham)– and you can assume anyone you want in the world is Jewish.

The price in the United States would be unaffected. Oil is a global market, and the law of supply and demand governs. As it is, the United States gets most of its oil from the Americas (produced in the US, or in Canada, Mexico or Venezuela). The Saudis try to keep the price down for long term economic reasons, and if Israel were in the same place, the Israelis would as well. Control of the Israeli oil would probably be firmly in the hands of the Israeli socialists, which would be bad for frum Jews.

If Palestine had been oil rich in 1947, it probably would today have a Governor appointed by either the British or the Americans. One major factor for Israeli independence was the lack of any “plus” to owning Eretz Yisrael, enough to justify the high cost of occupying it.

We could get in the spirit and go attack some Reform Jews (we whooped them back good during Hanukah, even though they sent for the main Greek army to help), but that might not be politically correct so we content ourselves with extra davening and lighting candles.

If you hold that Cholov Stam is prohibited, that’s your business. Certainly if you were in American 150 years ago, all milk had to be considered non-kosher (back in the era when middle class people owned their own cows, and milk sold in stores was sold by “quality” depending on what it was diluted with).

If you are going to college for amusement or education it is cheaper and easier to go to a library and read the books for free.

If you are getting an degree so you can function in the goyim’s world, it is rather silly to attempt to be ignorant of aspects you feel might be against Torah such as, to use examples mentioned above, which aren’t all that clear: “Big bang” (some think they got the idea from kaballa), “Evolution” (yet “natural selection” is not even a shailoh or Psychology (which is a huge subject with many specialties). What you might consider is that if you are entering any field with such controversies, is whether one needs to have a level of Torah learning that allows discussing such subjects with frei Jews and goyim, and learning the halachos of such matters (which get complex if they involve Torah she baal peh, especially kaballah’dik issues, and especially for women who customarily get only a limited Torah education in such matters).

If you really want a subject that raises no problems (no ethical concerns upon which you’ll have to know halacha, no issues of subject matters verging on kaballah, etc.), avoid the humanities and social sciences, as well as most of the sciences. Mechanical engineering should be okay as long as you avoid modern physics. Math shouldn’t be too bad. If you really want to avoid all possible halachic issues, consider something dependent on manual labor.

Anything can be password protected. One doesn’t need to share passwords with one’s children.

And of course, one can raise children with the common sense, whether online or in the “real world” to know what is assur and what is mutar.

Jewish Republicans are sharply divided between the largely Orthodox (or at least, sympathetic to traditional Judaism, think Eric Cantor or Dov Zakheim) who are social conservatives, and the more traditional sort who tend to be “country club” Republicans (think of the likes of Alan Spector or Jacob Javits). To avoid getting into fights, they avoid talking about what divides them the most: religion.

The military analogy is good in many ways. While the military someone deciding what is the required uniform, and the frum community doesn’t (just look at the variety between different shuls), there are similarities. Military fashion continuously evolves even though at any point there is an “official” uniform. Note how virtually all armies in the world dress alike (something not so 200 years ago), yet many have distinctions, though often you have to know where to look. Can you tell the difference beween a Hasid and a Misnagdid when they are both working in Manhattan? What about between a Marine and a Soldier in their Battle dress? Also the military, like us, have different styles for different occasions (BDUs for work, formal dress, class A, etc., and we have different ways to dress for Shabbos, weddings, shopping in Boro Park, shopping among the goyim, relaxing in the country). And interesing, both military and frummies have a problem when thrust into the “outside” with its much less rigid dress codes (but where your choice communicates a lot more information about you).

All fashion is a matter of how you want to be perceived. Styles in clothing are constantly changing. Most people wait until they see others adopt changes, and others prefer to be last. Over the last 20 years, I’ve witnessed a serious decline in double-breasted suits for me and also a decline in homburg hats relative to fedoras. I’ve seen the introduction of large one-piece light-weight raincoats with attached hoods, which caught on fast after some daring individualists started wearing them. I’ve also noticed a serious decline in people rolling their own wicks at Hanukah (prefering store bought ones).

When halacha is not an issue, styles and fashions change among us just as they do among all other humans, albeit based on factors internal to our community.

Jews traditionally abuse alcohol only on days we don’t drive (other than Purim). Also whereas the goyim drink to drown their sorrows, we only drink to heighten our simchas (alcohol is a mood intensifier). These two facts, plus the genetic predisposition to fall asleep before we get into too much trouble (at least among those with realtively “pure” Jewish ancestry) explain why public drunkedness isn’t a big problem in frum communities.

You are getting old when you remember when:

1. Jews were banned from Jerusalem other than its western suburbs

2. guides to keeping kosher emphasized how to check the list of ingredients

3. it was largely unheard of for anyone to wear a yarmulke in public outside a frum neighborhood

4. “quotas” referred to a maximum number of Jews allowed to be admitted to a college, and only good colleges had quotas (they were referred to in Latin “Numerus clausus” to make it sound less offensive).

5. Brooklyn has a major league baseball team

6. American money was backed by something other than faith in the government

7. There was general agreement that Yiddish would be extinct as a living language by the end of the 20th century

Remember that the equivalent of the IDF during the Hashmonean War were the Mitsyavanim, who assisted by the Greeks, were fighting the frum fanatics. We like to refer to the defeated enemies as the “Greeks” to avoid hurting the feelings of the non-Hareidi Jews, but in truth the war was against those Jews who, like the zionists, which to transform Yiddishkeit and the Jewish people into something like all the other nations of the world.

If you have internet access with a graphic browser installed (a lot of sites don’t work well with a non-graphic browser such as Lynx), the internet offers more choice and a greater ability to select.

Broadcast news will never be more than a headline service feature out of context “sound bites”

One needs to remember that most “Jewish” journalists are highly anti-religious secular (frei, hiloni Jews) who are used to routinely accusing people of sex crimes. This is a common theme among our enemies (note the style of Julius Streicher’s Der Sturmer). Note recent cases of sex accusations that ended up being politically motivated hoaxes (the “satanic” child abuse in Massachusettes, the Duke lacrosse team gang rape).

Obviously if a newspaper prints such stuff, we should refuse to buy it, and should avoid thier advertisers.

Yeshiva College (and Stern) have higher academic standards and higher tuition, and are designed to integrate Torah with their academics. Touro is primarily a way for frum kids to get a degree without too many problems, with lower standards and tuition. It also depends on what one plans to major in, and whether one wants a profession that requires a graduate degree, or a certain level of accreditation.

Public universities are cheaper but there are more problems especially if you don’t like associating with goyim. It shoulde be noted that public and private universities tend to be liberal with financial aid for large families. Another option is online (there are several places with full accreditation).

We should avoid discussing the matter with goyim, whose terms we are using since any Jewish discussion of the matter involves matters of kabbalah which we can’t discuss with goyim, and any attempt to discuss the subject without reference to kabbalah distorts the Torah perspective.

Remember that a “fundamentalist” by definition believes that what they call the “Bible” must be understood without reference to any external source, meaning without reference to our oral traditions – which precludes a meaningful discussion with them.

But if there is a surplus of women (or so they say), shouldn’t they be giving them away for free??????????????????