akuperma

That is a shailoh for the local posek. The word “local” is important since it would all depend on local conditions. If a community can easily support competition, competition is good. Where it is a problem for the community to support even one kosher grocery store, it might be a problem.

In Boro Park, opening up a frum supermarket is probably never an issue, whereas in a small city it is more likely to be an issue. Similarly, opening up a unique business (consider a supermarket selling only organic foods with good hecksherim) next to its competitor, that is to say another supermarket selling only organic foods with good hecksherim, may be an issue.

Since there are all local factors, you can’t rely on predcedents from other situations and places.

The current theories are that the “dinosaurs” were actually big birds, are in no way extinct, and most of us eat them on Shabbos. Animals frequently change size and shape, and this has been observed even in recent years (for examplemedieval cattle were only the size of large sheep, and the variety of dog breeds are quite recent).

There are all sorts of traditions of multiple worlds, so almost anything is possible. The whole concept of “time” is discussed in kaballa (and physics), and is very unclear.

We should also learn from zoology that HaShem can and did create creatures that can reproduce unisexually (i.e. one gender), and that we can assume HsShem has a good reason in requiring human to reproduce sexually (two genders, totally dependent on each other, and incapable of long term surival if they don’t cooperate).

So what is the objection to an iPhone as compared to any other brand?

Cost? Internet access (then the objection is to internet access, not to any specific hardware – a netbook or tablet is just as problematic)?

I can see reasons to object to portable phones, or to computers, but why a specific brand? If a hot dog is treff because its made of pork, it’s still treff if instead it’s an expensive pork roast.

What can you do with an iphone that you can’t do with a PC and a regular landline telephone?

Do frum familes, almost all of whom have small children (or grandchildren visiting) actually use drinking utensils made of glass? For most people the shailoh will never arise.

There are some communities that do use glassware, and would allow having milk from it one meal, rinsing it out (but not kashering it), and then having chicken soup out of it. Most people would insist on not mixing milkig and fleishig utensils regardless of what they are made of.

popa_bar_abba:

Bobcats are indeed small and cute. The feline type are nice to watch, preferably at a distance – not suitable for petting. The other type (found in Brooklyn, even in frum communities if you look hard enough) are also quite small and cute, and remain so until they turn into teenagers whom we then then try to eat us out of house and home until we find a shidduch for them.

Because we wrote the bracha. Frankly, Men have a good deal. We not only get lots of fun mitzvos the women don’t share, but to be honest, the whole business of life is having children, and I’ld say men have a good deal (details left out since this is a family website).

When I was single, I always to be eating by people with my minhag (in house at night, kiddush in sukkah, lunch in house). If one doesn’t like not following the host’s minhag, find a different host. It isn’t like there’s a shortage of hosts.

There really isn’t much correlation between being a “liberal” or a “conservative” on economic, social and international issues. It’s not just orthodox Jews who often don’t fit into the 2-party holes since we tend to be liberal on economic issues (we like getting stuff from the government), but are conservative on social issues. A large amount of the African American community has a similar problem (they like handouts, but don’t approve of homosexuality, and aren’t happy that aborted babies are disprortionately from their community). Many gays have a problem since while they are social liberals, they tend to be economic conservatives (remember that their “community” lives only for this world, so why pay high taxes for things like educating children or supporting families). Being isolationist or internationalist correlates with nothing else.

If we has an Israeli style proportional representation system, we would support a party favoring social conservatism and economic liberalism, along with a strong foreign policy. In America, there are never more than two meaningful choices since we have a two party system.

WolfishMusings: The law the was received by the United States was the law of the Church of England, which was derived from the Canon Law as it existed at the time it split off (as the Catholics claim, the English officially maintain they are actually good catholics but the pope is a bit confused about his role). Therefore American marriage law is derived from pre-16th century canon law, received via the Anglicans (who made very few changes that affected marriage and divorce – Henry’s infamous divorce was an exception by all standards – America didn’t allow divorce except by act of the legislature until the mid-19th century).

Except for things like wearing a kittel, “Shanah Rishonah” (or “being a newlywed” in American English) is not a legal concept. It’s more like saying your just got married and you don’t have to act like grownups yet (since marriage is, in our community, what makes you an adult and gives you adult responsibilities). Of course, when she starts to “show”, that sort of ends being “Shanah Rishonah” since you move up (higher social status) to being a parent (and be realistic, only parents have meaningful social status in the frum community).

“i said so” – the reason many states (and many Christian countries) restrict marriage between cousins has to do with the way in which canon law (the law of the Roman Catholic Church) was assimilated into the local legal system. Canon law restricts marriage of cousins, which is why many states/countries do. It has nothing to do with genetics (there are situtations where cousins are at a high risk for genetic disorders if they marry, but the law on the books dates to well before genetics were discovered).

YehudahTzvi:

You are aware that the daughter of a giyores is perfectly kosher for a kohen to marry????

Halacha only require a kohen to marry someone born a Jew – it is irrelvant what the persons mother or grandmother is. That’s why the search for a “kohen” genetic pattern focuses on part of the the male chromosone unaffected by the female genetic materials.

When they distinguish genetics in a way that limits it to male and female ancestry, it turns out that their were probably a lot more female than male converts (logical for many reasons, conversion didn’t mean the same loss of legal status for women since women often had limited rights, mikva is less scary than a bris, when Jews migrated to a new area men were more likely to go than women, and in the case of Ashkenazim many if not most came to Europe as Roman prisoners – men were more likely to survive captivity). It’s also interesting that the evidence is that conversion was very rare after ancient times – which matches what our historians have claimed.

Many people feel that we are neglecting our daughters’ education, especially in Torah studies. The traditional girls curriculum is designed for a frum housewife who has only limited contact with anyone outside our community, and for most women, that isn’t a “real world” scenario.

We probably should upgrade the curriculum, though the girls (not the women) will scream that it will result in a much longer school day, Sunday classes, etc.

Of course they are. That’s why in Jewish law, and almost everyone else’s law, they get rights earlier. In virtually every society they marry earlier. A girl has to be be ready for motherhood much earlier than a boy needs to be ready for fatherhood. Remember that the average man is substantially older than his bride. If girls weren’t more mature, it would go very badly for the babies, and the culture (or species) with immature mommies would go extinct.

Insider trading. In halachic terms, the offense is that of a disloyal shliach, who is hired to serve as the shliach (agent) and someone, typically in return for agreed upon compensation, and instead the shliach “double crosses” the person who hired him and make a big profit at his boss’s expense. — In halacha, this would be solely a matter of damages for breaching a contract of agency (using English terminology). In the United States, this has always been considered criminal, and since the money involved is so great they have made this into a serious crime if the agency involves ownership of large corporations (which are critical to the American economic system). Halacha respects the right of a goyish king (in this case, the American people who exercise sovereignty over their own country through elected leaders) to criminalize behavior that in halacha would be prohibited but not criminal — What popa_bar_abba may not understand, and something many people on Wall Street are infamous for ignoring, is that the owners of corporations are the shareholders, and the managers (which includes employees and contractors such as outside law firms) are hired agents of the shareholders and owe a duty to be loyal to their bosses and not enrich themselves at shareholder expense.

Why are you called a Jew? How do you know you are from the tribe of Judah? You are at least as likely to from Levi, Benjamin, or stragglers from the other tribe. Based on DNA, most of your ancestry is probably from converts (at least on the female side). However we use the term Jews.

We call millions of people “Indians” even though they have no connection to India.

It’s been a convention for millenia to refer to the Arabs as “Yismaelim”. While their is probably a connection for the Arabs who live near Eretz Yisrael, most are descended from whomever was living there when the Arabs conquered them (e.g. Iraqis are descended from Babylonians, Palestinians are descended from Hellinized Jews, Greeks and Romans- and of course the Egyptians are descended from the ancient Egyptians though the “white” Egyptians who run the country are largely of Arab descent).

If you don’t need books from the “canon” of literature considered worthy of being taught in universities (and tested on for college admission), consider historical fiction and science fiction. The problem is you won’t have “cheat” books available.

A pet cat is privately owned property of someone, so you are destroying their property.

While feral cats may seem like a pest, they really don’t live off garbage. They live off rodents. Rodents are quite bad. Some have said a major factor in the introduction of the Bubonic plague (Black Death) in parts of Europe was a wave of “cat killing” (the Christians decided they were really witches).

Killing some insects may raise a similar problem. For example, most spiders are harmless to humans, they eat meany mean and nasty (from a human perspective) insects.

Then of course, there is the halachic issue of causing unnecessary pain to animals, which would apply even to animals that are annoying or dangerous to humans, and all the more so to those that are beneficials (such as ones that kill rats, or mosquitoes).

They outgrow being roudy. Then you’ll find Shabbos to dull, but not to worry, children who are grown up enough to act like mentsches, mean grandchildren (and payback time, you can tell them about how their parents were even more wild).

Poster (who asked: What about the fact that he is spending well beyond and creating debts that can’t be payed?

Also, what is this talk that he is turning america into a communist country). Many people spend well beyond their means and create unpayable debts. Jewish communities historically did so. Yes, it may bankrupt the country in 10 years, but at least my kid will get fed, my road will be paved, etc. Remember the story of the the fool offering to teach the king’s dog to talk. Most Yidden deal with the most immediate problem.

Obama would hardly qualify as a communist. He’s pro-gay, all for the “crony” version of capitalism (why do you thinks the bankers supported him in 2008), etc. He’s basically a typical “Jewish” liberal in temrs of positions on all issues, which is probably why he has overhwhelming support from the non-frum Jews. Given tht communism finally disappeared over 20 years ago, those who accuse him of being a communist are probably too young to have ever met a real communist (they really should have saved a few to put in museums).

Especially if made abroad, you should look for the “Shatnez-free” label or be prepared to send it for testing.

Children always find things to be new and exciting. Old people remember from before.

lesschumras: We’re here, are we not. We have survived. Where are the Romans? Where are the Egyptians? Ever run into an Austro-Hungarians? or a Czarist? or a real Nazis (other than the clowns who are the neo-nazis)? Throughout the world there are whole nations known only from archeology, yet we survive. The Celts were once the domiant group in all of western Europe – they survive as quaint minorities in a few fringe areas, with little left of their language and culture. The American Indians once ruled a continent with a civilization that managed to surpass the Europeans in some areas – now they survive as memories of people who are 1/32 Indian and in reservations which are in some ways no more than nice concentration camps in remote areas.

You are greedy to expect that HaShem should let us live like rich kings in what is only a mere corridor. We should be grateful that he has allowed us to survive in spite of enormous odds.