akuperma

After all, those Yidden in the Midbar were probably a bunch of old fashioned fanatics, and even they celebrated the victory over the Egyptians by celebrating Of course some hareidi types object and dreamed up some argument that we should not celebrate victories on the ridiculous idea that you know who doesn’t approve of killing goyim. Those same fanatics even dreamed up the idea that the mitsva of Hanukah had something to do with some miracle in the Beis ha-Mikdash, when we all know that the thing we were celebrating was having trounced the Greeks in a good old fashioned war.

Fortunately, the Israelis have learned their lesson, and thus we celebrate military victories in honor of defeating the British in 1948, and the Arabs in 1967. Isn’t that what have a modern state is all about?

Humash limits us to stoning, beheading, burning, and strangulation.

Something as slow and painful as killing someone by tobacco smoking is not listed, and is therefore presumably prohbited.

lesschumras:

I totally appreciate the mesiras nefesh of those who managed to stay frum in America in the pre-WWII period. But there weren’t all that many of them. For a typical pre-war frum Baal ha-Bayis, the army was possible following the same level of heterim they relied on to survive in pre-war America. The handful of yeshivish type people were in yeshivos and were exempt – but they too were only a handful. The pre-war frum generation built a foundation, that the Holocaust survivors were able to build upon (with no small contribution from the huge number of Baalei Tsuva in the late 20th century).

1. The United States always exempted yeshiva students. Respect for religion is ingrained in American culture. Even our current president has to pretend to be religious. It’s one the “exceptional” things that distinguishes us from Europeans or Israelis.

2. If someone was “yeshivish” frum, but not in yeshiva, the army would decide they were not suitable for the military. If he insisted on serving, they’ld find a “jobnik” (Israeli term) position for him. If you were willing to improvise and rely on heterim given for Jews serving in armies that executed people for refusing orders on religious grounds, it would be possible to serve in the military – a big factor is that America has never been as anti-religious as secular Israel.

3. The person who said “1941” doesn’t realize that while there was a limited draft in 1941, the US didn’t start serious conscription until 1942 (and in all fairness, probably could have relied on volunteers).

4. The person who said Canada didn’t read the “1941” – Canada entered the war in 1939, and had a policy of not sending conscripts overseas.

If you use a narrow definition of “Orthodox” (for example, man always covers his head even at work, married women likewise – perhaps including refraining from discussing secular business and politics and Shabbos), and then use a broad definition of Hareidim (holds that if halacha conflicts with Israeli law, which includes orders in the army, halacha must be followed at all all times) – then I wouldn’t be surprised is 80% of “Orthodox” are “Hareidi”.

But if you include as Orthodox people who merely refuse to go to work on Shabbos and don’t do malachos on Shabbos, hold by checking ingedients not just checking hechsherim, wear a yarmulke only for davening, etc.) and limit Hareidim to those who refuse to participate in any aspect of the secular economy, insist on dressing in a way that isolates them from the rest of the world, etc. – the the Hareidi percentage falls.

Are you using “jeans” to mean “denim” or “pants”. Are you talking about work or dress?

In general, “denim”, the fabric form which “bluejeans” or “dungarees” are made is used for physical work, and is considered to be undressy. It is what you would wear to work if you are on a construction site, not what you would wear to work in an formal office (especially in the well dressed East Coast of the US, other areas are less formal). It would be inappropriate to wear when visiting the President or the monarch, or appearing in court – so, kal vehomer, in shul.

If you are talking about “jeans” to mean “pants” the answer is the same as to whether you wear “pants” – which depends on a variety of personal factors.

Gloi arayos (can’t discuss it on YWN – it rarely happens except in wartime – unlikely to occur to a soldier in a modern army)

Avodah Zarah (particularly if done in public)

Spilling blood (e.g. if a doctor was order to perform an abortion and threated with death for disobeying – not an everyday issue)

However on all the things that one must give up your life rather than violate, just because you arent’ threatened with death doesn’t mean to ignore them – it means you should be very willing to give up your parnassah to avoid them, since Kal ve’Homer you would be required to give up your life to avoid doing them.

The problem with a Ger (or a Baal Tseuvah) becoming a Rov is that by the time they get started, even in their early adult years (children rarely have the independence to change religiously), every else has a 20 year head start. Ask yourself what chance someone who was illiterate at age 25 would have of becoming a great writer (some had, but not many)?

Are you suggesting he should run on the basis of his economic policies? With the growing problems in Europe, that might not be something he’ll want to talk about.

Most conservatives will vote for Romney anyways, but this way he can rally his base (frei Jews, gays, etc.). It might backfire since a big chunk of his base (particuarly blacks and Hispanics) won’t be amused, but that’s a risk he’s willing to take.

rabbiofberlin:

The Jews of Eastern Europe were hardly anhiliated, nor was the “the beauty of European jewry totally destroyed”. We survived. We won. The leading yeshivos are alive and well and bigger than before the war (can you say the same for the non-orthodox seminaries of central Europe). We are still around, and thriving (the Nazis are considered a total joke in Europe). Yes we had casulties, but we won that battle. HaShem against all odds managed to get some of our other enemies (Stalin of all people, with some belated help from the Americans and Brits) to rescue us (how Purim-dik, and we didn’t even have to get them drunk first).

1. One was acquitted.

2. Due to denial of a jury trial and use of hearsay evidence, the appeal of the convictiom has a good chance.

3. The kid who was convicted doesn’t seem all that innocent. He was seriously violating Shomrim’s policies. Note that when the Shomrim arrived, they appear to beieve the “victim” had been wrongfully attacked.

Isn’t that when you are supposed to be chatting or texting or something like that???????????

The best heter is to ask the author/performer and get permission.

It is probably “fair use” under everyone’s law if the work in question isn’t available commercially so you aren’t depriving anyone of their parnassah. And under American law, it becomes

“public domain” after a certain time – so an original Breslov melody can be used under American law without paying R. Nachman’s descendants a royalty (and halacha was usually more conservative about the time periods than the goyim).

Airports don’t have baggage policies. Airlines do. The only thing the airport management worries about is smuggling a weapon, and teh federal government has largely taken away any discretion in that area.

As with most other peoples (e.g. Blacks, Hispanics of Native American origins), we have a cuisine designed for people who are starving. One should remember that calorie deficiency leads to an immediate and painful death. Our cuisine lacks many meat dishes (we could never afford much meat) and has minimal cheese (also a luxury item, even if most Ashkenazim weren’t lactose intolerant as adults). Sugar is a recent innovation in Europe, and it isn’t part of our traditional cuisine (same for corn produces). Bread and potatoes won’t kill you unless you overeat. Diabetes is largely a function of too much food and too little exercise, rather than a specific cuisine. High chloresterol could never be a problem with traditional Jewish cuisine since we couldn’t afford red meat and cheese. Given that Pizza (and hamburgers and hot dogs, not to mention sugar) have become the most popular foods of American Jews, I would attribute the health problems to American, rather than Jewish cuisine.

In all fairness, Americans at that age (18, fresh out of high school, away from home for the first time) have a global reputation for “partying” instead of learning. We would prefer greater studiousness and piety from our children, they do behaive a lot better than the goyim the same age.

Arguably, they would be better off staying at home with their families, but children that age think they are grown up and are restless to leave home.

Traditionally, this is when they got married. They are too old to be children in their parents’ houses.

Mistakel implies looking intensively, perhaps more like to stare.

If a man avoided looking at women he would keep bumping into them since he wouldn’t see them coming, and that would raise many more problems.

1. The people saying it was “murder” have a reputation of “crying wolf” (e.g. the Duke Lacrosse team “rape” case, which ended with the prosecutor being disbarred for falsifying evidence). Note that the broadcast network making the charges was caught editing the “911” tape which as broadcast made it appear that Zimmerman was foaming through the mouth racist, but in the original version before editing makes him appear to be someone under attack who discussed race only when the police asked for a description.

2. The overwhelming tendenacy of the leading Democrats to regard urban crime as a non-issue, while they tend to live in comfortable suburbs or buidlings with private security. The liberal media are indifferent to urban crime – which has been a problem for many people who follow YWN.

3. Under American law, Zimmerman is supposed to be assume to be innocent, meaning under the poltically incorrect version of law in the American constitution, the prosecutor needs to prove he wasn’t attacked (assume he pleads self-defense). Given the fact that it was Zimmerman who contacted the police (something very few criminals do — usually its the victim who calls 911), there appears to be some substance to Zimmerman’s defense.

America is a democracy. We tax ourselves. If public opinion favored closing down government services and abolishing taxes, it would come to pass. The fact that most people favor high services but without the taxes to pay for them is an interesting problem, and potential crisis. Note the absence of people demanding they pay more taxes, as well as the absence of people demanding fewer services and benefits.

Torah is not a democracy. Torah states much of what we as a community must provide, and gives a framework for raising the money. Given the needs of supporting the poor, educating all children and supporting a high level of scholarship, there is a problem that needs always exceed income. So we rely on Ha-Shem and since we’ve survived this long, we must be doing something right.

OF course we CAN eat hametz on Pesach. We CHOOSE not to do so since it is a mitzvah not to do so. Most of us are so attached to the mitzvah we even avoid anything that resembles hametz, such as foods made with a little grain mixed in, or even non-grains that look like and can be cooked in a manner similar to grains. But if we COULD NOT eat hametz on Pesach, where would be the zechus in refusing to do so.

The modern English equivalent is “Samuel” which is a common English name. “Sam” is a common abbreviation. The name is found in their translations of Taanach so it isn’t “strange” sounding to them.

Names such as Sherman and Seymour or Sigfried are non-Jewish names with different meanings that are adopted in order to obscure your Jewishness. The different meanings can be a problem (“Sherman” is actually a family name that is popular in America since it was the name of a great general who liberated much of the south during the civil war – making him a hero to northern whites and southern blacks, but not to many southern whites who didn’t quite see it the same way). Shmuel is slightly problematic for English speakers since the initial consonant combination is unknown in English, as is the vowels combination in the end.

Of course one can always use the Jewish name “Shmuel” on official documents, and use “Sam” as a nickname when going among the goyim.

It shouldn’t be a big problem. Remember what our kids do in high school is the same materials, and at a higher level, than what the goyim’s universities do in graduate school (e.g. classical materials in original language, with medieval texts in the original). If he’s a good learner, it means he can prepare on his own as needed for whatever subject he’s interested in, even a hard major such as ones requiring serious math such as the sciences, engineering or economics. All it takes is brains and hard work, and if he did well learning Torah, college will be piece of cake.

Of course “easy” schools like Touro are fine if you are rich, but if he’s smart he probably can get a scholarship for a much better school. And of course, there is always the option of distance education or a public university.

Our continued existence is a refutation of the core beliefs of Christiantiy and Islam. We were there. We are the only independent witnesses. And we say the New Testament and the Koran aren’t true by the very fact we refuse to convert.

Other than Christians and Muslims, we get along fine with the goyim.

Some would say it is actually about politics and economics during the turn of the century, though that was watered down in the movie.

It was the American military to promote its own internal communications, and scientific research. Al Gore, then a Senator, along with the of the Congress voted to authorize the military to open it up to civilian use, though since it was used to communicate with civilian scientists it had been somewhat demilitarized already.

THe World Wide Web was invented by some Swiss scientists looking for a better way to use the “internet”. Previously (and if you don’t use a graphic brower, even today), the internet was largely for text email and sending files (the ftp system).

Arguably the origin of the internet was the telegraph invented in the early 19th century (which at the time caused complaints about its social impact not unlike those heard about the internet today, e.g. female telegraph operators “chatting” with male telegraph operators).