Always_Ask_Questions

ujm, are you by any chance a gilgul of Robespierre?

Mod, you decide whether this should be a public or private post.

I noticed on Russia-related front page posts several posters provide in-your-face pro-Russian defences are posting 1st or 2nd time and were registered recently. This is a classic example of Russian paid activists that are active on web and social media all over the world. I wonder whether you or your provider provides any screening for such things (repeated IP and other simanim) to make your life easier. Possibly, you already rejected 1,000 of them and we see only a couple.

If this stays private, I’ll send specific links

If you send names we’ll delete them if they show up on this side

All these tuna-eating yidden, do you know whose daas Torah were they following?

When L Rebbe was paralyzed and moschihism was igniting, a local Rav called Rebbe’s secretariat and asked them how he can be of help in these difficult times. They asked him to publicize that this craziness is not coming from them. So, the Rav said it publicly. So, while this is not a direct testimony of what the Rebbe himself would think about it, but as close as it gets.

Clearly, multiple wives exist on halakha, but what about real life?
Tosefta Ketubot 5:1 : R Tarfon engaged 300 women eat terumah during hunger. (on this note, one of my relatives engaged or faked marriages with several women to take them to the safer side of the war front during WW1)
Tosefta Yevamot – saus 2 families of cohanim come from tzaros
Yerushalmi Tevamot mentions R Yehuda HaNasi telling one brother to do yibum to 12 sisters-in-law
Agrippa
Raban Gamliel II (through yibum)

Archeology: found a ~ 440 BCE ketubah saying that the husband agrees not to take 2nd wife

source: Goldfeder, Mark. “The story of Jewish polygamy.” Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, vol. 26, no. 2, 22 Oct. 2013,

MRS. SEMINARY GIRL

How do say oxymoron in Yiddish?

Somehow I agree with syag when she chastised someone else 🙂 the lesson learned is that everyone fills in the blanks with assumptions. In this case, it was a simple fact, other cases might be more subtle and stay undetected, reinforcing biases even further. I was also confused by lack of a location, so suspended judgment until I saw the references.

I don’t suggest the boy to break shabbat at all. My first idea is to make it public by just coming there. Separate suggestion to do experiments that might be allowed might be wrong in this case when Muslims did not change the rules, so this became an issue of principle rather than pure melocha

You can’t patent this solution. A matrona tested it at the beginning of sotah and it didn’t work well. But it maybe not so much the precision of match needs to be relaxed, but what the features you are matching on. Some suggested here that tie for Mincha is a good siman, another rosh kollel told me that he had only one question – are mehutonim honest in business. Maybe rosh kollel takes tie for Mincha and being in business as obvious, and maybe your rav presumes that honesty is there and only the tie needs to be checked.

Great kid. I wonder whether he could have gone there and just told them what to do so they felt bad about it. I guess it would be easier with questions rather than labs. Any chemistry would be mutar? Heating using a blech? Mix into food and drink? Might have worked for some experiments… Or just say there learning Mishna as a protest, maybe other kids would support him

Those who admire Rashbi and aspire to emulate him in avoiding derech eretz, should recall whether they were able to stay in quarantine for two weeks eating just carob

> if you are first a big person in learning, politics will not affect your halachik jurisprudence.

politics was never easy and there were places/times to stand tall or compromise. For example, R Yohanan b Zakkai successfully asked Vespasian for what could have been saved – and dreaded later in life whether he made a mistake and could have asked for more … Chofetz chaim successfully ran away from Soviet Russia and later regretted that he, and other Rabbis, abandoned remaining Russian Jews

this approach of first having gov mess things up and then use the crisis to blame others and take more power is not unique to baby formula. for example, Obama switched student loans from private to federal programs “to save money”. Now, the government has power to “forgive” those loans on our behalf.

jackk, missing facts seem to be: FDA blames manufacturer, manufacturer does not see their fault, nothing was found. Investigation was going for 3 months. FDA did not see to realize or warn superiors what it means to close a major plants for 3 months.

Bigger issue – states issue discounted one-supplier contracts leading to industry consolidation, so that one plant closure is catastrophic.

Avira, looks like my position is slightly different from the Rav you are quoting. I simply think we should not get involved into controversial topics where our stakes are low and controversy is high. For example, fighting Nazis was somewhat controversial in US but was important for us and also very clear morally. Advocating for Soviet Jews was important for us, clear morally, and while opposed by some commies, did not really intrude on most Americans. Supporting civil rights in the 60s was reasonable morally, but ventured into controversy and while satisfying some, lead to mixed results (as I heard from people who participated). In this case, this is a very peripheral issue for our community (possibly affecting an Alabama Chabad House), very controversial, and with somewhat mixed morality. So, I would simply stay away. I do admit that other positions are possible (except rabid defense of abortion for the sake of liberal dogma which is disgusting).

Do any kids read any of world classics, whether at school or not? And if yes, what is your secret?!

jackk, reposting gov propaganda without critical reading makes us suspect that you are posting from North Korea. WSJ is already writing that the case involves some heavy-handed gov regulation. I am not convinced everything they mention is true, but you may want to read that before posting and somehow integrate the information.

In my humble industry experience, every D- administration unleashes all kind of auditors and regulators swarming around businesses, trying to claw back money here and there, generally behaving like Chinese commissars that businesses need to apologize to them for doing something at all and thank them personally for the favor. During early Obama times, it was so ridiculous, that Congress got involved and slashed funds for some of those regulators and suddenly you start getting occasional email from a far away office instead of menacing visits from a local one (that got downsized). So, without knowing exactly who drank the formula, I would suspect gov first nd business second.

Syag, all it was in my suggestion that if someone chooses to cut into the traffic (and I was tempted) that one will probably think about not looking Jewish. Someone will not. I thought of a black hat as a visible sign of a driver. If someone says a sticker “darchei Torah noam”, they might think of taking that down too. On that note, yes, I was a couple of times embarrassed when I looked at a driver who cut me off, and he had the hat on. Bu this would be, as you say, unfair – I am sure I was 1000 times cut off by someone else and did not pay attention. I guess the question for the kahal here would be – when you know that people see you as Jewish, does it affect your behavior in some way? Would you not drive in front of someone, or grab something because of that? I am sure there are people who will behave properly anonymously, and there are those who do not anyway, being so used to their levush and not thinking how the world sees them.

Syag, I am only complaining about my lack of middos and asking for an advice. I did not say this was in Monsey!

Gadol, Litivishe v Yakkish, look it up on the map. Not my words.

This is not my taste. I don’t like people that much.

Here is a really tough case I encountered lately in a long commute that is really difficult from the point of view of middos, your advice is appreciated:

two lanes narrow into one into a turn to another highway. 90% of cars organize into one lane long before the turn and move slowly for 5-15 minutes. 10% of cars speed by and then merge in right before the turn. Of course, more than 10% ends up merging in, significantly delaying the rest.

What are the options?
1) Ignore them and stay in the slow lane, observing this injustice and cheated of time, getting agitated and higher blood pressure
2) Accept suffering as punishment for other avonos
3) count how many Jews fly by
4) spend time in traffic to complain about it in CR
5) Get into fast lane and cheat others. Maybe use a Sombrero instead of a black hat to pretend to avoid hillul Hashem
6) block slowly in the fast lane, showing them how to behave and praying that those drivers are not armed
7) drive a different route with extra 10 minutes to avoid seeing this ugliness

which one would you choose or any better suggestions?

common, a funny misconception, and I can explain why. One Rosh Yeshiva describes Lakewood after maybe 1960s as exactly that: “Litvishe Rabbis teaching Hungarian students” … So, maybe that is what you see now. This is not to deny existence of Litvakim with yichus, but there are too many pretenders.

Hashem sent this traffic to make you better! Slow down, learn Mishna by heart, listen to a tape, talk to the kids in your car, call your mother, let a couple of people in front of you, drink coffee slowly, review LSAT, meditate, solve Fermat theorem. All provided you can do it safely, of course. I notice that when I am doing something productive, I am a safer and better driver as I am not in a hurry to get somewhere, I am OK to let others go before me – I would even break on yellow (not a minhag in my area) just to finish the sugya!

Gadol > Find a guy who was a ski-instructor out West

Indeed. Note that historically most people lived on farms and then moved to “town”. But, in modern America, immigrants mostly arrive to big cities with the ethnic communities and then graduate to suburbs or out West. So, Avira’s assumptions that most people in small towns are country bumpkins who wait for towners to teach them or accumulate funds to buy a bus ticket to NYC is incorrect. It was in-towners who were accumulating funds to pay tolls and gas to cross the bridge from the island into America. I am not saying that one way is better or another, just general direction of movement.

Same is still true: big NE cities grow by immigration. while previous residents move to NJ or FL or TX.