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NP > one does not mitigate the other.
Intellectually, I am with you. But we have an idea that someone involved in communal affairs is recognized and also might lose out in learning (Pirkei Avos, Mordechai). All the shluchim with their children growing up in non-religious towns – not all of these children are going to become talmidei chachamim. According to the logic of the “tzahal” threads – what they are doing is too risky and it is safer to sit at home and talk about hesranos of others.
Most of sephardim are into “real chassidim”. The ones mentioned in gemora.
IzoBar, it is legit to look at our own sins, this does not excuse the murderers. We have this discussed re:mitzrim who prosecuted Jews eemingly to fulfil Hashem’s promise.
I don’t think it is likely “zionist” fault, as they were a significant part of those who survived and prospered after that. I heard from R Steinsaltz that we are too close to WW2 to understand it – gemora writes about reasons for BM destruction hundreds years later.. Now, 30 years later, ot may still be too close
YYA > Hashem created this force to keep us the עם הנבחר, even when some don’t want to be.
Well, this does connect with Zionism. R Schach writes that because early Zs were ready to go to Beirut University, antisemitism had to be activated – to protect them from intermarriage. Inter alia, this means that R Schach thought that Hashem cares about Zionists …
But while the hesranos of Zionists are obvious, their achievements are also easy to see – all Jews who were saved through their efforts. If you want, they diagnosed the problem well – that Europe is not just dangerous but more dangerous than before. Their solution may not have been perfect. But those who had perfect solutions but missed out understanding urgency of the question were less helpful. It may be not a surprise that Herzl that lived the modern life understood Dreyfus affair and what it implies while some rabbonim who were not involved in the world.
yankel > if you would substitute the word OTD , with “serious major sickness” , you would not be so flippant …
Is it so important to avoid major sicknesses? How many charedim went into medicine to help deal with them?
yankel > fact is that RZ tried for years and still suffer a 30% OTD rate.
I am not qualified to analyze this number and who is included. I’ve seen some pretty political and extreme people who call themselves RZ. I think they became like that due to ideological education rather than army. And if they go further away in the army, it will be their previous experience and not the army’s fault. I see same in MO community in US. On one hand, a number of day school grads going in a wrong way, but then many of them came from problematic families to begin with.
But practically speaking:
1) charedi community had 80 years in the desert to adapt, courtesy of Israeli taxpayers. This is double of what Hashem thought is necessary to fix a generation of yetzey mitzrayim. If 80 years is not enough, then you have to plan to come back to society when Moschiach comes and establishes a perfect society – but it will be achieved by mitzvos of others.2) continue repeating your (reasonable) conditions of joining the army instead of flat rejection, Look for ways to do something productive. Organize a unit of delivering food, another – giving divrei Torah, another – watching over neighborhoods. Do it on your own, dont wait for army to come knock on your door.
YYA > what about the burden of raising the next generation of כלל ישראל, or even just maintaining a large enough Jewish majority in Israel?
This is a good point, or rather two: Torah and population.
On Torah – so, many/some chilonim do not value that, so we can’t make them pay. I think we agree on that. But then, RZ and traditional Jews surely value torah learning, If you unite with them, this will be prob > 70% of Jewish population, How do we achieve this unity? Maybe by extending some good will towards them? not just sending someone to the army, but that too. Also, fnding a way to have classes, maybe respect to those who have different shitot. It is really a hillul Hashem when people professing being so religious are not always finding hen in the eyes of their brothers.
On population – everyone should appreciate it, and I think Medinah is providing reasonable resources assisting in raising children. Again, I think, the support will be higher if they’ll see charedim as their true brothers.
I don’t like the idea, but you can even claim that these “extra” children do not decrease the draft – that will be the same wree these children not born.. To make this legal, have a law that first 3 children are drafted.
yankel > katan is still stuck in the 1800’s where colonial powers rule and indigenous populations still live ‘peacefully’
this was not just 1800 – colonial system worked until WW2 and even later in Africa. But you are right that there is a systemic problem here: Judaism is long-term and conservative. This works well most of the time – except when it does not. This is lfe in general – Avraham is going around teaching for years, which is his great achievement, and then he needs to make a decision in one second to stop shechting his son and switch to a ram. Similarly, we have crossing of Yam Suf. And then establishing new approaches after destruction of beis hamikdashim.
So, our times change pretty fast (siman of Moschiach?) – we barely learned to open fridge on Shabbos and then we have whole Torah on our phones and chatgpt paskening. So, it is understandable that people cling to old ideas for too long. Does not make it right, though, when it contrqdicts the facts.
chief,
I would not fully discard the theory that it is Zionist fault. Of course, arrivals of so many people trying to establish a state ignited opposition.
But this has to be balanced against the real need to save Jews, both physically and spiritually, from the dangers of Europe and later Arab countries and USSR. Was Uganda an alternative to create a safe place for all Yidden and keep EY for only a small religious community? Possibly. But then everyone who hold by 3 shevuos should have spend their energy looking for the right Uganda, As it stands, Zionists saved lots of people, and RZ influenced them to the degree they could.In some cases, Zionists under-performed because of their ideological bias. for example, starting mid-20s, they consolidated funding via sochnut instead of previous private efforts. As a result, money were directed to kibbutzim – both to hold the land and to propagate the “way of life”. Kibbutzim always required support, as all socialist enterprises anywhere … The alternative, previously advocated by gevirim, was to invest in the manufacturing base in Tel Aviv – that was creating jobs. As a result, many in Europe, including Germany, were reluctant to come because of the lack of jobs.
yankel> for haredim this is totally unconceivable .
You need to “pay the price” for the luxury of living in the modern world. I presume if someone wants to live the ways of R Shimon b Shetach, there are still caves in the world where one can settle. But, apparently, most people prefer having chairs, food from the store, phones without wires, roads without manure. This price can be paid either by working or serving and it can be paid by teaching in schools how to interact with the world, including chilonim and the army – so that 20-y.o. go there without becoming OTD. This is not such a high price to pay, historically. Imagine you live 500 years ago – how much time you’d have to spend getting your food, cooking, walking, earning to have a couple of seforim – this generation is doing ok in terms of time available for learning.
yankel, thanks for putting it all together. I kind of knew all pieces, but not necessarily in the temporary context. It seems that the problem is that nobody wants to work towards a compromise. It appears that part of SC reasoning was that Tal Law did not lead to any meaningful enlistment of charedim, so your opinion that Tal Law specifically lead to increase in anti-draft behaviors is not supported.
To summarize the timeline: in 1940s 400 got exemptions, in 1970s – 2% of draftees were affected by the exemptions and roshei yeshivos were strict about who gets the exemptions. By the 1990s, there are 5 to 20% of all draftees getting exemptions and R Schach _making an _effort_ to clean up the rolls of those who are really learning… So all of that before Tal law became a reality and Tal law did not bring significant draft increase. So, post-Tal SC might have made army environment worse – but it is not the source of draft resistance. Maybe, the difference is that initial resistance was against the wishes of the leadership and current one is seemingly with support.
Just Visiting > Israel is a Jewish State. We can’t demand the law force the seculars to keep the Torah, but we can demand that the law accommodate those that wish to do so.
I think I agree with you on this statement. And, B’H, there are a lot of Israelis who do. I don’t think Israel treats religious Jews worse than other benevolent countries where Jews live in our times. In US, many observant Jews work, some learn some of the time (in hours or years), some get government payments as if they are poor by necessity. In some countries, not US, government pays for Jewish schools.
If you are demanding more than that, I am not sure what is your basis? I can only think that you expect more from a Jewish state. I sympathize with that feeling – but it really means that you view Jewish state as a great institution that is supposed to fight for your desired environment. This is more Zionist than any Zionist I ever met.
> Zionists made a tremendous mess, especially for Jews,
The world at the time was a mess. Growing nationalism and communism in Europe was a great danger. Zionists were among those who understood the danger. In hindsight, the best solution for Jews would have been to all join together in trying to find safe places and maybe try to make those countries they lived in stronger ad wiser. We see that Jews play significant role in US politics, see people like Kissinger, but many others also. Let’s go back to Poland in 1920s – where the newly reconstructed country (was partitioned from 1790) enjoyed democracy – Poles fighting each other Polish Jews fighting each other, while being surrounded by Nazis and Soviets. If some Yidden instead of arguing about pro- and against Zionism, would gather information about tanks and airplanes Germans and Russians were building and explain the danger to Polish government, maybe they had a chance.
hakatan > Had the Zionists never invaded, the land would have presumably been ruled by the Christians, with individual religious councils for Jews and, liHavdil, Muslims, living peacefully in their respective areas as they did prior to the Zionist invasion.
Great, thaanks for articulating your assumptions! This sounded reasonable in 1915. So, I would very much understand Rabbonim who said it then. But, again, look at the last 100 years – how many countries in the Middle East, or elsewhere, are still controlled by Christian colonizers? Statistically speaking, EY would eventually be like one of the neighbors – Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon. Most likely ruled for some times by militant anti-religious fanatics like Syria, having civil wars, having ISIS run it for 5 destructive years. As it was Syria and Egypt briefly united in an Arab Socialist Republic, this would probably be stronger if they had a direct link through Palestinian socialist republic. Probably, joining arab and USSR oil production into a stronger cartel; Sephardim and Soviet Jews staying under their power. All of that is the most likely outcome of that anti-Z vision. Again, I am not blaming rabbonim for not being naviim, same as those who told Yidden to stay in their European communities. But we have the benefit of knowing history, need to start paying attention.
yankel > Litvish do not have a ‘problem’ with lubavitch .
One problem is that (people you call) Litvish tend to ignore the great work Chabad does with non0-religious Jews. When they finally decided to join, they called it “kiruv” as the first point of reference is that they are closet to Hashem. This is not the same as Litivish R Salanter, for example.
Izobar > Again the point is that Jews arrange living together has not been a peaceful coexistence so it cannot just be blamed on zionists.
There is also a difference between a small group of poor scholars in a couple of towns and large community. To insist that the small community could have lived happily thereafter also implies that the fate of those other Jews does not matter. So, those hundreds of thousands who sometimes ignored psak of their rabonim and were saved in EY; Sephardim who found themselves in unfriendly socilaist/muslim countries [yes, part of the hatred was due to forming of Israel, but as we see by now, all of these countries were bad for everyone in their countries]; those USSR Jews who were able to get out of communist paradise – all of that does not matter as long as several tzaddikim in Yerushalayim would live happily under President Yassir Arafat. I wonder whether any of gedolim ever suggested that?
yankel > .Steipler clearly permitted maintaining the “State”
I am trying to understand why a dialog on certain topics is clearly not happening. I think the reason is that people who were reading or, more likely, hearing stories about events in previous 100 years, hear censored narratives where all rabbis were following certain shitah and never talked with anyone else – they are not able to believe any information that contradicts that narrative – and they come up that every quote that is not from their narrative is obviously fake. That might explain the story of “making of a gadol” that was a very well researched book – but allowed information that is usually censored, This is an example where a desire to have strong social bonds within the community clash with Torah value of Emes and, while admiring how it kept large communities away from dangers, the danger of developing non-Emes community in the name of Torah is also immense.
yankel > the word unelected here means that the SC do not derive their power directly from the people
> only from the law , which in turn derives its power from the people
> since the state of Israel was founded as a democracyDirect democracy was practiced in Athens where citizens were voting on all issues and that fell up pretty quickly. Most modern countries have various mechanisms that limit voter participation. Courts are part of that – as well as of Torah law. This is not a problem in itself. I agree that unelected parts of the government should be limited in how far they can go. Many such systems have some flaws or undefined areas that lead to disputes. As Israeli law is mix up of Turkish, British, Jewish legal systems and was not built by philosophers or Talmudists, the fact that there are flaws is not surprising.
If you are right and they are not “legitimate” then the system will work it out – Knesset will vote for ignoring them or write an explicit rule that defines what courts can do. But at the end, it will come to public opinion – if it supports certain actions, politicians will find a way to deal with that.
katan> then they should also never stop to eat and drink because learning is more important.
how is that a chiddush for you? There is so much written that a learner should eat so much as to sustain himself to learn.
coffee > I don’t think Yehoshua was the same scenario because he could’ve asked the urim vteumim and that was a milchemes mitzvah
That is making things even clearer: after consulting and having a milchemes mitzva, Yehoshua is still told that he needs to learn – at night, after fighting. Not that you can do one of them and Hashem will count. Not that you can even have one group fighting and another shteiging.
“you suggest transformation between different substances upon Rabbi’s decision?”
Can you rephrase that in simpler English?I understand that you mean – Rabbi looks at the demonstrators and says “you are learning” and get same benefits?
katan > the Jews lived peacefully there.
You keep repeating this. And I understand where it is coming from: people at the time who were affected probably had a lot of things to say. I think I saw Chofetz chaim writing about this tragedy, I don’t think he blamed any Jewish groups. But this is one event. Look at the bigger historical picture beyond one tragic event – what would happen if Zionists were not there?
1) as I described several times and you did not reply – pattern of arab politics in 20th century shows Jews would be in big danger like all other minorities
2) what would be the story of all Jews who found safe haven in Israel? Do you insist that you should all have stayed in Europe before WW2? Went to Argentina and Uganda after WW2? Sephardim stay in Arab countries, see item 1? Russians stayed in USSR and now being deployed to the war in Ukraine?
yankel > Reality is shifting . So arguments which are a response , are obviously shifting too.
Maybe I was not clear. I am not talking about a historical shift. I am saying that there is simultaneous PR that lomdei Torah need to be protected and value of learning, but then not allowing anyone who is member of the community to join. This is using the crown of Torah for something else.
I also may not be familiar with the reality on the ground – what is the formal definition of who is exempt? I understand the system of yeshivos certifying that someone is learning there and possible problem with verifying that. Is everyone having those papers? Or there are people who are not enrolled in the yeshiva but having some other status? based on the neighborhood? family?
Is a war between Iran and Iraq with a million killed a Zionist fault? Prosecution of christians in all Arab countries? Saddam Hussien regime in Iraq and Hafetz Assad in Syria? Ayatollahs in Iran? ISIS?
Would you think if EY was under Arab rule, none of that will apply to Jews who were there? What about Jews from other countries that needed a place to escape? Would US take everyone? Or Uganda?
Even threads like that are useful – they tell us more about posters and those they represent, rather than about what they write about. So many people profess their utter respect for Toirah and gedolim, and then go low when they think they have a license to do so.
yankel> by some satmar guy …
I don’t think any of people who love quoting Satmar Rebbe have anything to do with Satmar Chassidus. Nor are they learners of R Elchonon Torah. They only bring them to support their own opinion, That is, they would quote a Rav because the Rav happened to agree with them. Olam afuch.
YYA> The fact that about a century ago some people came along and decided they want to create עם חדש בארצו on their terms, and a few decades later they seemed to get their wish and called themselves ‘Israelis’, has nothing to do with us. … Our job is to keep the Torah = listen to the גדולי הדור.
Look, I am not a chosid of Ben Gurion. It may be a complicated historical discussion who did what and what it means. Most people in Israel now are not even descendants of those early Zionists – so many people came from Europe after WW2, from Sephardi countries, from Soviet golus, from USA …
We are mostly talking about how to relate to the current situation. Yonah learned from the kikayon that people in the city matter for Hashem. Surely, the same applies to citizens of Israel.
And as to “giving over”, we need to do it honestly. There are varying halachik opinions about modern life, and it is not really “giving over” when you present one of the position as unquestionable halakha. Beis Hillel would present position of B Shammai before theirs.
YYA> our job is to GIVE OVER the Torah, as we got it, and not to DEFEND it on whatever terms happen to be in style today. When you do it that way, and you are sincere about it in your own life, then people respect that, even if they aren’t perfectly comfortable with your position on every issue.
This is beautifully said. I don’t think we should not defend positions when this becomes possible. There is a story about R Salanter who encounter a free-thinker in an inn. He suggested to have a debate and the loser will take off his jacket (conservative v modern) and wear the other one. They sat down and R Salanter took off his jacket, preparing to either win or lose. His opponent refused to take his jacket off. The R Salanter refused to have an argument with someone who is not prepared to fight till they find emes … on the other hand, maybe you mean the other saying of R Salanter: you should always advocate for Yiddishkeit, sometimes even with words …
yankel > It was the unelected SC which illegally nullified this law. There have no legal power to nullify laws.
Notice your language is loaded – “unelected SC”. SC is a legal structure. Unelected is part of taht structure. I don’t take positions here. If they have “no legal power” that really means that at the end of the political process, they’ll lose. Israeli law is an amalgam of multiple legal traditions, so there might be things that allow different interpretation. Hopefully, it will done while keeping shalom between people.
coffee> Thanks for teaching me the Halacha
either I am not getting the irony or they did not discuss that in your cheder?! Or everyone was such a tzaddiq that this never came up?
And, according to your opinion, it is possible for a gadol to declare that going to the Army is equivalent to learning?
Then, I suggest 2 approaches:
1) follow RZ gedolim
2) respectfully approach your gadol and ask whether he is amendable for such declaration l’ darkei shalom. Maybe, just a tryout for a week before end of bein haazmanim.coffee > therefore it follows that what they were doing has the same benefits as learning Torah
you suggest transformation between different substances upon Rabbi’s decision?
When malach told Yehoshua that he came because Jews were not learning during the war – Yehoshua could just say that when I order the fight, it counts as learning?! Or why he did not designate bnei Levi to sit and learn?
Just Visiting > They have to understand that in our eyes we are sharing the burden.
I think in the current matzav, you also need to start understanding what others think. Your thinking is really extremely zionist – you would not dare make similar demands in a goyishe country, whether in US or i Czar’s Russia. You require that the country provides you with a mehadrin kitchen and a tzanua dress. Jewws were drafted into Czar’s army – did they refuse and said that they’ll rather die in the Siberian camps? No. It was a tragedy but those who could not get out, went to serve.
yuda > our personal opinion doesn’t matter we are doing what Gidolei Yisroel have
Don’t hold yourself so low. Of course, your opinion matters. You were either born into or chose to listen to a certain Rabbi. Or maybe you or your parents chose a local Rabbi and he follows a certain godol. But it is your original choice. After yoi did that, it is reasonable to follow him.
A less legit approach is used by some people who explicitly “choose” a gadol based on a specific opinion. for example, some are fond quoting Satmar Rebbe or R Wasserman. I don’t think all who quote are either Satmar Chassidim or follow all mussar following of R Elchanan. So, they essentially select their opinion first and then use a godol as an excuse. This is total disrespect to the godol – you are not respecting him, you are just using them.
yuda > and 2 pirkei tehillim after all tifilos
I see something similar here in US: more modern places say tehilim and explicit tefila and charedim say tehilim. Sephardim are in between – when the rav is there, it is tehilim. When the rav is not there, it is sometimes tefilos that seemingly everybody answer.
I do understand problem people have with the RZ tefilos, but I also do not think that avoiding saying what you are davening for also makes sense. It is like they are marranos, hiding their Zionism from themselves.
At some point, I explained to my kids that charedim say “EY” to avoid saying “Israel” as a medinah – even like “I took a flight to EY”. They first accused me of loshon horo, but eventually agreed and sometimes excitedly say that a certain teacher said “Israel” (when other teachers were not there).
You need to work to reconcile your heart and your mouth.
Just visiting > So why is the “learning protects” argument used so often?
For me, this sounds as a dishonest argument: talk about learning, but then refuse to send everyone. I understand that this is politics, but I am sadden that such a crooked argument is used in the name of Torah. It is in essence a self-defeating argument – if you are not honest when you claim that you represent Emes, you don’t get a positive response.
With this in mind, back to your question “why is it used so often”? I would not presume that those respectful figures who do this are doing something they see as halachically asur. So, my best guess is that they see that this issue is so important and that the opposition is an enemy, so we are allowed to deviate from Emes. If you have a better explanation, please share.
It gives me some hope that the pig will start chewing the cud when Moschiach comes! And presumably acquires 2-3 extra stomachs. Then, maybe some of the posters here will be able to change their minds.
Nechama Lifshitzeit,
yeshivaman > they don’t realize the value of the spiritual contribution the charedim are making.
you can’t force your spiritual contribution on others. You can join Yassachar/Zevulun partnership – with a willing partner. Maybe, you can think how to make non-charedim appreciate your contribution – either by teaching them, or extending chesed, or behaving in life so that parents look at you and tell their kids – you should be as nice as this yeshivaman.
It is actually a klal – people tend to worry about spiritual well-being of others and their own material well-being more. Halakha is actually opposite – you should do the opposite.
yeshivaman > every single one told me it was a significant yerida.
Look, gemora says that Mordechai reduced his rank in Sanhedrin after he got involved into politics. Did he make a mistake hanging around the palace instead of sitting in the yeshiva?!
All this talk about army not providing perfect environment might pass during (relatively) peaceful time, but when the war goes for months and months, I can see how Israelis are not relating to this argument, especially when you start nitpicking that army really does not use all soldiers, and there are other people avoiding. Maybe, you simply sincerely do not understand what others are thinking of you because everyone around you brings these arguments.
I suggest having a listening tour – go to a non-charedi commuity and ask them what they think about this issue – not confront them or argue, but simply listen to how they think and feel. Then, come back here and report.NP > t’s funny you say that. I was literally considering doing just that.
they really create a bad name – to a reasonably respectful position that give some food for thought. We can only conclude that really good anti-Zs are not yet venturing online. But I think many people, both historical figures we described as well as now – are ambiguous – finding different positives in various positions. As we should be – we do not always know where things are going. Even R Yochanan till the end of his life was not sure whether he was or was not correct asking just for a little but from Vespasian and was afraid of a possible punishment …
YYA, ok I agree on mutual influence. Same happened before between chassidim and misnagdim. A similar issue is discussed in how is better to learn – one place or rmany? General advice is – firest learn basics from one place to make sure you are not missing material and then go earn from multiple places to learn different methods.
HaKatan, would you mind helping us all out: file a reference to one of your opi magni and paste it in your posts instead of repeating same thing over and over? You’ll save yourself time in typing and save a lot of trees.
coffee, see CM 228:5
יזהר שלא לכנות שם רע לחבירו אע”פ שהוא רגיל באותו כנוי אם כוונתו לביישו אסור:
One must be careful not to give a negative nickname to another person. Even if the person is regularly called by that nickname, if your intention is to embarrass them, then it is prohibited.based on BM 58
Although the victim grew accustomed to being called that name in place of his name, and he is no longer humiliated by being called that name, since the intent was to insult him, the perpetrator’s punishment is severe.Mentch,
I think none2 clearly believes in Oral torah as he engages in the oral discussion about the Torah, expressing his opinions and listening to others. He is simply partly not familiar with the Oral Torah that is already written down or does not understand how it worked out. But this is ignorance or mis-education mixed with some skepticism due to weaknesses he observed in reading opinions of those who claim to believe in Oral Torah.Just look through this coffee room – I would count any post that ignores Jewish tradition of honest arguing is posted by a non-believer in Torah Shbaalpe.
katan > vadai shmad
One of my ancestors was a cantonist in the Russia Czar’s army, and came out Jewish.
How do they teach in your yeshivos if you are not able to survive an encounter with a bunch of young non-religious Jews?!Red Adair > I see it as no different than a store that offers a great sale on one item to entice customers –
thanks for the discussion. I see the difference here – 1) the offered sale brings people to the store physically 2) it is pretty hard to do that repeatedly given that a number of people come after limited number of physical objects 3) stores rarely sell with a true loss over their wholesale value
for the CC – it is easy to do multiple times in the virtual world, this is clearly not what the offer is for.
this is all trying to explain my gut feeling when I first heard of someone doing this, maybe the real test would be to ask random people on the street – what they consider yashar.
The fact that some people here know of such a little technical detail as 5/24 really scares me – how would a normal person encounter that? this is obviously from the experience in the community.
amom > opening and closing too many credit cards can strongly affect your credit score.
R Yohanan said – be afraid of King of Kings like you are afraid of an earthly king … so, credit score is scarier than inappropriate behavior?
nisht, I agree, but this is the closest I found so far. Let me know if you find something else.
YYA> do more for their Yiddishkeit, is מחזק the MO/RZ.
that might be. I see it mostly through Charedi teachers in MO schools. Maybe by some MO professionals coming to learn with kollelnikim. Mabe, some youngsters starting coming to a Charedi minyan feeling “frummer”. Otherwise, those in MO community who are serious about their observance and pretty self-sufficient. Those who are less serious, look up to those who are. When I mention an opinion of one of the Charedi rabbis in the community, some of MO people never met them and barely heard of them. Maybe it is different in other places.
> I didn’t understand what is the connection with the שיטה of R’ Moshe vs. R’ Yoshe Ber WRT entering non-Orthodox places of worship.
I meant that R Soloveitchik is stricter towards non-O because he, and his community, has more chances of interactions and it is both a more frequent issue and a need for more strictness. For Rav Moshe, it is a question whether you can enter for a funeral. For R Soloveitchik, a question from a student whether he can be a Rabbi in a shul with mixed seating; or an invitation for a shul opening dinner in honor of the Rabbi who is a personal friend; or an issue of listening to Shofar on R’H when there is no alternative (answer in all cases is “no”, the last one – “the easiest question I was ever asked”)