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RebE, as I mentioned shooting strawmen is not useful. Obviously you need some compromise between gevurah and chesed. And this compromise depends on the community it is applied to. For example, feds might provide minimal assistance to unemployed and illegals, CA may decide they will help unemployed more, San Francisco may decide to help illegals more, Jewish community may want to help parents and learners more. We can apply additional favorable assumptions about people within the community that will not be true for the country as a whole, such as half payment for animal damages that gemora brings in Roman analysis of Jewish law
R Twersky highly recommended AA despite the religious origin. What if I just stand on my head with crossed over legs – without even knowing where this comes from? Not in shul , of course.
On the other hand, why would one need yoga other than sound fashionable? You can walk for exercise and meditate before davening.
Shimon, I don’t think this includes embarking, does it? Going to maariv and staying there is not the solution I am looking for. On the kulah side, I see that “for the purpose of a mitzva” may extend to doing business and seeing a friend in some cases.
Theory behind deficits as used by Reagan:
government programs are hard to eliminate. Every benefit relates to a specific group of people with whom it is popular. At the same time, cost is dispersed. It is just $2 for every citizen. So, every program has a voter block that will defend it, and fighting to close these programs one by one is hard.Instead, you reduce the total amount of money available to the government. Here people see substantial savings and support it. This leads to immediate deficits but eventually forces government to live within the means. This is like instead of convincing your teenager that ice cream is bad for him, you simply reduce the allowance if money is not spent well.
So, your real disagreement with Republicans is not “deficits” but whether we need more or less government involved in economy. Obviously, the right place is somewhere in the middle – we don’t want people without charity help, and we don’t want to live in Communist China. As to American reality, I think there is this place of compromise by having multiple layers of government and private charities. Each state, city, community is capable of doing a lot of things on their own. Then, people can choose where to live. I understand people who want to have political decisions different from my own, whether to the left or right. What I don’t understand when people want to restrict themselves and others from having peaceful choices. Especially those who had hasdei Hashem to escape totalitarian world. Another Hungarian, von Neumann, who witnessed (a little) both Nazi and Commie powers, became very committed helping US Army rather than participating in world socialists dreams as many educated people of his generation did.
RebE, you can’t study economy as Indian blind men were studying an elephant: each describing the part that he touched. In your personal finance, you can be a college graduate or a home owner with “deficits” due to acquisition of knowledge or assets. That is ok. So, just point that out without analyzing overall impact on economy is silly. And it is not even the country’s deficit you are talking about, but the government.
R Twersky describing how we are all affected by personal biases, recalls a rich man who had a socialist driver, who went to daily meetings where they railed against the rich, but the two were ok with each other. One night, the driver stayed home. The rich man asked him – why he is not at the meeting. The driver said – today that explained that after the revolution, they’ll divide all assets and everyone will get $4,000! I already accumulated $4,100 from your wages, so I am not interested anymore.
I think the problem with discussing movements and institutions, that one uses personal knowledge of one side and an external, based on papers or other lashon hara. No surprise, such fair comparison confirms your original bias.
So, to be fair, one needs to have personal experience in both, or be equally clueless about both! Or simply be a little more tolerant to other opinions.
Ujm,. A litvishe rosh yeshiva Ben litvishe Rosh yeshiva in Philadelphia
When we talk about colleges, we need to define the terms. 80 years ago, 3% of US 20 y.o. population was going to college. This was an elite thing. In 1970 maybe 30% of men and by 1990, 30% of women. Now, it is 60-70%.
So, first, an “average” American now goes to college and work prospects for those who do not are diminishing both in quantity and quality.
Second, college education is not what it was to be, 90% of it is simply preparing people for routine jobs, not engaging in medieval philosophy. So, issues are completely different from what R Feinstein, R Hutner, etc were confronting.
Note a worrisome new argument by a former supreme court wannabe: we have to talk about the investigation because the other side is saying dad things about our department. This is more like French or Russian revolution: you talk about the government, we are opening your files.
This sounds like a high stake poker. We have to presume that DOJ knee how public this going to be, so they got to have good reasons.. Trump also knows what he has and doesn’t want to get in real legal trouble for no reason because of some nuclear codes that he will get back soon anyway. So something else is playing out. For example,. Trump knows he doesn’t have anything there and he sends a fake informant to the feds to help him launch the campaign and clear away the competitors. Or/and bidenistas are misjudging reaction same way they did in Kabul and Ukraine.. for example, yesterday they were asking to open the warrant saying; see T himself is afraid. That sounded as a brilliant political move by supposed career politicians.. for less than 24 hours
I respect the lurkers who have enough seychel and self constraint
not to say anythingRebE I don’t have to read him as I don’t agree with him
I am stunned hearing this from such a tzadik. I hold the same position regarding Einstein, never agreed with him on anything.. Surely MF heard all bala batishe explanations before doing his Nobel prize winning research.. and note that there is way less inflation in the world after his theories got accepted. I would be interested in your opinion after you read MF. Some of his writings are quite accessible. Not saying that he is always right. He has an early paper comparing two similar sized economies, Hong Kong and Israel. His conclusion was that Chinese capitalism worked better than Israeli socialism. Of course, things changed in the long term,
Don’t buy shirts better than your spelling, it is geniva daas for future mehutonim. That’s a real dilemma
I sometimes have a minyan near me, 10 minutes by boat.. are there any kulos allowing getting there on shabbos!? A non jew rowing? Having food posted on the other side before shabbos?
Common, cultures merge. Someone chashuv wrote already 40 years ago saying that Lakewood is litvishe teachers with Hungarian students.
Avraham sent some kids to the East with gifts and -maybe- told them not to eat cows so that Jews have enough
I find it very useful when people put they/them on the resume so that I can toss theirs without having an awkward interview as in this thread
It is not always about quantity… 24000 early students of r Akiva were less successful than the later 5.
I heard a similar story about r Schwab refusing to give kibudim to non shomer shabbos people, majority of the congregation left, but modern Baltimore grew out of remaining small shul.
Menachem, I had nothing to do with this but it is indeed ironic that Shlomo was not able to apply his approach to his own son… I wonder if there are any perushim on this
Jackk, are you claiming that because you were cheating by less than a perutah, we should still consider you an honest person? Unfortunately your claim is not valid because you are cheating again saying you cheated by less of a penny as you were off by 1.6 pennies
RebE, and who is your source so that I could review? Or is this your reading of Milton Friedman?
MDG, as mentioned above, a Jew always have heirs. If there are no children, you go generation up to children of person’s father and check brothers, then children of grandfather – uncles, then grand-uncles. Thus, everyone has heirs unless someone in the chain is a ger. Then, I believe the property becomes hefker and whoever grabs it, has it. In the case of Hashmonaim, they are kohanim, so there are no gerim there.
Maybe Cohanim now can join together and claim to themselves the ruins of everything Herod built.
I aalso lways use quotes around “frum” – because most people are using the word to improperly look down at some undefined mass of observant Jews who “ain’t frum”. To appreciate, I never heard someone who excels in chesed, or tzedoka, or middos be called “frum” because of that, it is usually based on more trivial things, like levush or limiting food choices. As in: “a driver stopped to let a pedestrian cross the road, I did not know he is so frum”
We have halakha that your local poor come first with concentric cirlces of increase of “local”, with EY adding priority. Many people say that their place of birth and yeshiva are their “locals”. But, this is of course, presuming have some credibility. I don’t use levush to jusge people either way – nor presuming that they must be tzadikkim if they dress like some T’Ch or judging them to be presumptuous for daring to dress like the Rov. But you can usually see middos by how people talk and act.
jackk, thanks for sharing. I felt so down for the guy thinking that the only positive thing going his way were covid tests ..
There is one and only one basic cause of inflation: too high a rate of growth in the quantity of money
Milton Friedman
You are a trustee fór the poor and should treat their money at least as careful as yours, maybe more. Shmuel’s father would keep money hidden in 3 layers, 2 of his and the middle of yotomim, protecting them on both sides – from genavim and from water.
And it is easy to spend their money more efficient than your own, as there’s so much need … If you are buying house for yourself, you are limited to a neighborhood and your family members preferences. If you are looking to buy a house for poor people, you can invest where you can find a good property. If ny is overpriced, buy in Lakewood. If poor in Lakewood are getting free government food, buy food for poor in Florida. If you meet a person looking for help with a wedding, but looks suspicious, go to a gemach and find a worthy recipient. A possible argument against would be that Hashem sends you a mitzvah and you should do that rather than looking for a better one. So a need in front of you should have preference over slightly higher need in another place, as halakha says
Dofi, great argument. Ujm, punishment is right in the Mishna – poverty and inability to give tzedoka
GH, you mention specific declassification regulations, my Dershowitzian argument is that president can use his own procedure. The only problem would be if he were to take anything after 1200 on the inauguration day or maybe after the new guy takes a shvuye. I think a ganav acquires movables when he picks it up with the intent to take it even while still on property of the baal habait. In this case, T was still baal habait lavan when he picked them up and had declassification powers.
Again, if he were to sneak in later while new guy was sleeping at the wheel as usual, T would be hayav. I am sure this is discussed in halochos of renting real estate somewhere
AAQ> , but I think Dems attempts to federalize it as well as other issues will help here.
Today’s FBI raid proves this point reviving Hillary and Hunter for elections. a great point, AAQ.
jackk, thanks for starting posting correct numbers.
inflation in real life: I stopped by a retail non-Jewish grocery store (usually as all Jews I “don’t buy retail”), tried to pick up a 1.5 lb pack of chicken from the usual place, but the bottom park of the pack fell off! Turns out, they now sell thinner packages with 0.8 lb per pack… When I jokingly mentioned this shrinkage to the store employee, he claimed to “know nothing” about it. Next they’ll rename “chicken thighs” into “chicken thigh”.
again, Antipater was the slave in question and he was not a king, but a powerful king-maker. There was no reason for him to fail given his political talents, so surely his owners had yiush.
common,
as I understand old-days halakha, baaley tzedokah were responsible for checking out the recipients. So, this mishna may presume common practice (and seychel!).Maybe, there is more leeway if you give your own money. Still, a more detailed reference will be needed to make a decision.
> “Get a job!” yelled the rav,
I actually observed the Rav always calmly getting a thick pile of money out of his table and giving to them, while I was hesitating (in deserving cases, he might announce who it is and why).
I then asked whether to give in suspicious cases. He answered “give a dollar”. So, I don’t need to wonder any more how is a Rav in possession of such think pile of funds – these are all single dollars prepared for such cases.
So, the halakha seems to be – do not over-indulge, but do not offend either.
Avram, re:educational system. Note that Bava Basra directly relates to the age of schooling. At least one of the methods tried during that period was to start at teen ages (and the result was that they did not listen to parents). So, they were not following Pirkei Avot. Maybe not surprising – avot misha is either by Yehuda b’ Tema or Shmuel HaKatan, both late tannaim who seemingly lived after the school experiments.
I accept a possibility, as you say, that avot advice may be normative and BM2 period was an exceptional period. But so are other periods, especially current one. Modernity uprooted so much and created so many opportunities – including our capability to measure results. So, I would say Bava Basra experimental approach is so relevant.
Also, Ketubot 50 discusses ages and seems to suggest that 6 and then 10 or even 12 are _earliest_ ages to teach, that is, one should not force a younger kid. This is discussed in Usha, so it is post-BM2 when things got even worse …
He could have easily found a way to dismiss her without showing his attitude …
As Berdichever would say – look Eibishte how honest are your children, they’ll risk a lawsuit but will not lie! Hopefully, after this story, more nashei hayil from Bnei Brak will get jobs at Ichilov and Tel-Avivians
will start changing their attitudes when they encounter these nurses.Avira > rather a university which has a judaic studies program.
I don’t think this is how they see themselves. I heard one of their leaders saying, not sure how seriously, that they fashioned one of their advance learning programs as an Masters degree to placate parents and so that law schools do not ask question – what did you do for these 2 years?!
As 1 says, other yeshivos also give transcripts. YU happens to on a more expensive side and a more advanced program.
Well, previous surveillance warrants against Trump’s people are now known to be deeply flawed. But then they expected those warrants to stay in secret court. So, hopefully, this one was more legit.
I presume when Dershowitz will be defending Trump, he will use a Talmudic argument: as President can declassify any document, then any document he took with him are by definition declassified, as him taking the documents shows his intent to declassify.
But for those who are wondering what is in those 10 boxes, you came to the right place! Last time I was at Trump place, I had a chance to peak into his safe while he was distracted pouring liquor. So, here is a list of what was in the safe:
– love letters from Dear Leader
– Hillary’s emails, neatly wiped, in a big envelope with return address: Kremlin
– Hunter’s memo on how to fight corruption in Ukraine
– password to twitter account
– wedding pictures, several separate envelopes
– Obama’s letter to the new President, pleading with him not to lose to Biden
– Presidential seal with a note to give it to Biden in case Biden remembers he needs itChaylev,
this is an interesting tosfos, but historically speaking Yidden at the time did not learn tosfos, But the logic is relevant: one might assume that the owners gave hope already for Antipater, who might have been haughtly inside, but politically astute – stayed in the secondary position. Even Herod himself was very sensitive politically – he did things for Jews and for Romans, so we are talking about owners not being despaired about like fifty years. Imagine if Qaddafi were your slave – do you think you would not have an yiush for 40+ years he was in power?Roe is a result of decades of conservative efforts, and culminating thanks to focus and cooperation between Trump and McConnell, despite all odds. Disregard immediate confusion and media outrages, the issue will move into state politics and courts and will play out itself accordingly. Roe v Wade in Google Trends web search spiked on June 27 and was back to nothing one week later. Possible danger is that conservatives who were motivated by Roe v Wade will now stop coming to vote, but I think Dems attempts to federalize it as well as other issues will help here.
There was an influential paper published about 2000 explaining how Hispanics are growing and will make this country fully Democratic in 20 years. 20 years passed and, gasp, Hispanics are voting R-
jackk,> Current gas prices. Florida 3.76 National 4.05
I hope you have an innocent explanation but your numbers copied from AAA site are off:
Florida 3.776 National 4.059 or rounded as you did: 3.78 and 4.06
numbers are updated daily and show “down” trend, so even they were updated between your and my posts, they were higher before.Can’t trust a dem even on a penny … now do you understand why people are checking silverware when dems distribute hundreds of billions of dollars
jackk > I doubt anyone is going to vote Republican, who isn’t already a Republican, due to inflation.
I don’t think you appreciate how inflation affects majority of people., outside of your affluent circle. Inflation is very regressive, it hits people who spend most of their income on necessities and do not have assets that appreciate, like housing and stocks.
Also, at the higher end, you will mostly notice (or not notice) decreasing quality of the things you buy. At the lower end, there is nothing to cut already, except raising prices.
jackk, if I understand correctly, you point of posting prices is to show that they’ll be down soon and everything will be dandy by election day. I don’t think this will work – people just spend their vacation travelling during summer and they’ll remember that. Also, inflation is cumulative – prices went up and slowing down of further rate will not help people pay for groceries that increased in price.
> homeowners typically pay out $100,000-$200,000 in interest, and much of the interest is paid early in the life of the loan, which slows building the equity
I think this is bad math. It does not matter in a long-term, when you pay just interest or principal. There is cost of capital that you pay as interest and you are paying it regardless. You are only losing when buying/selling often due to closing and related costs. So, it is often a good idea to buy house early in marriage. In olden times, Rambam recommended buying house before marriage, but in our times, you got to be ready that the bridge will not like the neighborhood, or the view from the windows, so you’ll need to move anyways.
Maybe a machlokes between Avram and CTLawyer may be explained by their surroundings. Avram gets more in-town poshute shnorrers who are trying to help their offspring. Ctlawyer may be getting more organized ones that travel between towns having lists of shuls, wealthy people, with netflix-type reviews from the previous visitors. The latter may either belong to organizations or be not-fully-vetted types.
netflix: a friend with a local business pointed to me that once he gave a visitor more than usual amount, and the next week visitor insisted on exactly the increased amount.
Avram > tannaim are passing down the mesorah
Avrah, how do you explain Bava Basra 21 that explicitly describes the trial and error process that Tannaim (or earlier) used to come up with a working educational system?
Maybe we can agree that yes they had a mesorah of what the goals are; that one should try; and one should not be shy of rejecting what does not work; and respect empirical research
In general, note that some of the classical science was rejecting empirical approach in favor of nice-looking theories. There are a number of places where T’Ch are more empirical than Greeks. I read a paper about it but can’t recall the source right now.
Menachem, agree, I know a haredi Rav who interacts frequently with non-observant Jews and when asked “are you a Zionists”, he answers – “yes, as in ‘hamehazir shechinato l’zion’ “. That is, he does not want to be negative on the idea, just does not support specific implementation.
with radar detector, you are not warning the masses, just yourself. So, if you are driving correctly otherwise, you may hope it will protect you when there is some unfair play from police, such as putting a sudden 30mph sign on a 50mph road and waiting behind the corner. I am not sure it will help you though. His radar should see you same time your radar detector sees his radar. And you will waste your precious mind on anticipating being caught all the time. Much better is to go at a safe legal speed while learning from a tape. Then, when there is a traffic jam, you can say B’H, I can review this sugya for longer!
In this bill, the money is brought in and spent, or, more precise, spent and then possibly brought in. I mean, Pres Manchin made us feel better about this – it is 3x lower than the previous idea, and there is even something for mining and oil, I think. But, still if your main idea of raising funds is by spending more on IRS upfront in a hope they find something, this is somewhat desperate. As it is, they send insane notices to validate $0.02 and similar, what will be next.
Ashkenazim in Northern Europe were not farmers, as Jews were usually not allowed to own land in Europe. So, they lived in dense towns and villages with non-Jews and communal kitchens readily available.