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Gadol > gadolei yisroel in the Alte Heim during the late 1800s looking ahead.
I don’t recall a source, probably a British rov, someone was musing about Jews picking up various valuable midos from each country in galus. For America, he mentioned – scale, ability to create institutions that scale in size amazingly, from McDonalds and MSFT to Yeshivos …
Without denying these successes of Torah institutions in America, we can’t be complacent just with numbers without worrying about middos and haskafos. R’Akiva’s mega-hevrusos were somehow less deserving than the four high quality students.
Avira, while I agree that sometimes “modern” movements create bad ideas that we should not follow, still we can’t deny that humanity is creating useful things and ideas sometimes. I understand that one might be careful with internet, music, cars, or COVID vaccine. But I wonder whether we need to insist on things like slavery. We already use many social norms that the world adopted – one-wife-only marriages, elections, corporations, welfare, summer vacations, two-day weekend …
coffee > But to believe your party is ה׳s gift to humanity and the other party’s as the worst thing in the world?
Taht is avoda zora and lack of sechel and historical knowledge … We can obviously observe sonaei Isroel like commies and Nazis, but the rest – you never know …
I like Larry Summers explanation of predicting inflation or recession: economy is lkie a skidding car with driver trying to control it. You don’t know l’hathila whether it is going to fall in the left or right, or survive in the middle. Same is true with politics: a country can end up on hard right or hard left, or stay in the middle. We can help by not over-reacting, same as in skidding, and, of course, davening for Hashem to give leaders chochma.
others who were elected in Sejm:
Alexander Zusia Friedman, R Rabbi Yosef Nechemya Kornitzer of Kraków, Leib Mincberg. So, we have 5 out of 6-7 that probably served in Sejms. R Mordechai Dubin served in Latvia.Last par typo: 1928, not 1922
Polish 1922 elections: 35 Jews (10%, about percentage of Jews in general population), of which 6 Agudas Isroel, incl R Shapiro. Apparently, he worked on his Polish a lot, not just Daf Yomi, while serving in Seim.
In 1922, 65% of Jews voted for minority parties, in 1928 – only 33%, 49% for Pilsudski’s block, 7% for Communists. 44% of Orthodox Xians voted for Commies. 16% of majority Catholics voted for Pilsudsky, 45% for left, 15% for right, 4% for Commies
I don’t know about chazal, but the Author of Chumash and Navi is clearly limiting slavery among Jews themselves in various ways. Thus, slavery, is not an ideal state for a human being. We have a brocha for that. It seems like a good reason, that if you live in a country that is reasonably good to you, you would not want bad things for them. In our days, most things that slaves used to do, free market, machines and computers can accomplish. So, it is hard to make a case that some human being need to be enslaved to facilitate your Torah learning – beyond those who work in the fields to grow coffee, then those who transport it from overseas, then package it, send it to you and send you a coffee maker. If you really need someone to press a button to brew the coffee, your wife might do it for you.
As to attitudes to EY, someone asked Satmar Rov when he was leaving EY – who should I now give my kvitelach? The Rov said – go to any shul, see a person who puts a tefillin and has numbers etched under the tefillin; you can give your kvitel to that person.
Keep in perspective that early 1900s to say 1950-70s, this was an ideological struggle – whether Jewish population will follow some of the Rabbis or follow some secular movements, whether Zionism, Bundism, or Communism. People had strong opinions about that. When you are trying to protect your community from the infectious ideology, you are not going to give them slack for still using Hebrew rather than Polish and Russian. In a long term, those who followed Zionists, fared better, both physically and spiritually, than those who followed other socialist movements.
Later on, it is more of an issue of interaction between different communities. If someone is leaving observance in our days, it is not because of Zionism, but of general secularism and of their teacher’s failures. So, we don’t need to re-fight those old wars.
My guess, R Aharon would be looking at google maps, planning a remote location for a place where Torah learning can happen without distractions. Maybe WV or KY.
As an insight into his thinking, one prominent South American Rav was thinking about moving to Israel. He asked R Aharon and he replied: I think the Jews in your country still need you. Maybe later, we will both go to EY … When many years later, that Rav finally decided to move, he encountered R Aharon’s levaya joining him on the flight from Paris to TLV and recalled that conversation.
Ukrainian Kozaks did not succeed in that rebellion – their strategy was to “partner” with Russians against the Poles, but Russians had other ideas and annexed the area. Eastern Ukraine (this is where Kozaks were) is paying for that strategic mistake now.
Of course, there was anti-Semitism in Poland, but it has to be put in the context of alternatives – Prussia, Russia …. Jews willingly moved to Poland when invited as described above. Jews had their own government – Vaad Arba Artzot that was a pretty powerful entity for some time and declined in parallel to the Polish state itself. Poland fell behind economically – while other countries industrialized, Poland was charging them high prices for (in large part, Ukrainian) wheat, but this wokred only for some time. Politically, Seim had a 1 vote veto power leading to worse filibusters than US Senate, especially when Russians were able to buy off a couple of members. After Poland/Lita was divided by Germany/Austro-Hungary/Russia in 17xx-s, Jews mostly supported Polish rebellions against Russia. The short period of independence in 1920-39 had lots of stuff happening with both Polish and Jewish nationalism, socialism, and external attacks by Germany and USSR. A lot of Jews complained, but also a lot were pretty pro-Polish. When religious Jews in Warsaw saw planes over the city, they were sure, like all Poles, that these are mighty Polish planes on the way to repel German army. So, the bombs were a complete surprise. Turns out, Poles (and Jews) took years after WW1 to fight against each other while maintaining cavalry, and Germany and USSR were building tanks and planes together.
Politics determines how the world is run and also, i nsome places, is expression of our common will. Both are clearly of Hashem’s interest. We know more about ancient kings from Tanach than from any other source.
Avira, you are right that Zionists have their Jewishness at the center of their agenda, while other non-religious Jews did not. Still, many Bundists, Socialists considered themselves Jewish. Also, even many German Jews who converted did this out of convenience and felt some affinity to Jews and often married other Jewish converts. From Henrich Heine to Fritz Haber, they experienced their Jewish affinity at times of trouble.
Opinions change quickly sometimes. Whole of Europe were disgusted with Poland for their supposedly anti-democratic policies for some time. Lately, Poland is trying to drag Old Europe along to fight for democracy. Also, Poland is totally frustrated with Hungary
The Madame speaker went for a day to give a speech at Brown, can’t leave a husband for a day without a drunken accident!
mentsch > Don’t marry that optional second wife and instead use your extra time and energy to learn.
If you have 2 boys and 2 (or maybe even one) girl, then you fulfilled minimal pru urvu by both B Hillel and Shammai. If you went thru Tanach and Daf Yomi, you fulfilled minimal learning requirement. Now, you can choose which mitzva you want to do b’hiddur according to your preferences.
You can also marry a seminary graduate and learn Halocha with her, and a Stern graduate as the 3rd wife and learn Gemora with her.
A good question, whether Rambam would live in Tel Aviv … On one hand, he suggests emigration and even desert if you are in a bad community (as Chazon Ish quotes him); on the other hand, he moved several times himself: from crazy kind of Muslims in Spain to Fes, a place of the first dual-track school (medrasa/university); then to Mitzrayim under Muslims with who he interacted daily, and with Karaims. None of these places had perfect communities at the time, and he did not go to Sahara. Maybe, he was satisfied by having some community in the location? So, he might be able to find a minyan in Tel-Aviv or even in Bnei Braq (if he were to accept modern psak allowing shanda of taking some else’s money). Need to look more into this.
Avira > Dovid hamelech fought for Hashem. Zionists fight against Him
Ok, this makes sense. But before you were assigning guilt by association: chilonim are wrong, thus R Kook is wrong by associatign with them; Reformim are wrong, thus oilam does not need tikkun, etc, etc. The problem with this approach is that it takes you on a subjective route – you can easily accuse anyone you don’t like by association: MO are associated with Bible criticism; scientists with college parties; baalei tzedoka with communism; baalei batim with heartless capitalism; anti-zionists with anti-semites; Torah scholars with Nazarenes; etc, etc. You can choose any of the above just based on your own biases: some choose part of that list; others – the other part and none will be wiser.
For those who hope to convince the other side that there is fire behind these smoke signals, you are confronted with powerful psychological barriers: there were so many promising leads that most convincible people in the middle checked out already. We all worried about pings @ Alpha bank and read Mueller thriller, including footnotes (and I am skipping 100 stories in between). Most turned out to be untrue provocations or just disappeared from public view. Turns out Mueller could not even see that his sources were paid by Hillary and making “typos” on affidavits. This is not unusual for American politics, just more intense and one-sided with Trump. So, my free advise is to stop trying throwing more accusation and just wake us up in case you found something material. I am frankly shocked – shocked – that none of the unseemly claims about T were not proven yet. Given his middos and type of business he was involved in, there should be something. Look harder.
> always a matter of an appearance of Chillul Shabbos in public.
just drive by shinui – backwards, pushing gas with your hands, and steering with your feet
Avram
>> FIRST ARE THESE COMMERCIAL OR MEDICAL? COMMERCIAL ARE NOT THE RIGHT ONES.”
> Why not?My understanding is that medical standards call for different filtration. Masks include special materials, such as electrostatic layer. I did not study this in depth. Look it up.
Overall, I agree that it looks like there are enough cases where wearing a valve makes sense. Maybe worth to revisit the original message. Tzarich Iyun.
> your sick, immunocompromised grandma.
I suggest being careful with your healthy grandma, don’t wait H’V until she gets sick. For one, under mild conditions, you can be in N95 and the grandma may enjoy your visit without. As in Bava Basra – when 1 roof is higher than the other, the top one has to build the wall not to see the lower one. In Roman/British/US law, the lower one would have to protect yourself.
I am confused – melech David was able to fight for a Jewish state, but somehow a modern Rav supporting that is an apikoires?
Our petty concerns about non-religious Jews in Israel, about zionists not funding our schools as much as we ask for, about clown scenes in Knesset obscure a miracle of massive Jewish settlement, including religious life, in EY – after several catastrophes, both military and spiritual.
If you were to say to, say, Ramban, that at the place where he was trampled by a knight, there will be Jewish police standing post, would he be upset?
This hearings are a great idea. 18 months of investigation to get hearings as close as possible to the elections. If I were a D- congressperson, I would not waste such a great show on already lost midterms – unless they have a secret plan to get free oil from Putin. Keep it going until the Biden-Trump re-run.
Just because Reformim abuse tikun olam, does not mean that we should go destroy the oilam.
re> tuition crisis
just don’t take wives that did not finish high school/seminary yet.
Avram,
first are these commercial or medical? commercial are not the right ones.2nd, one common use of N95 is for people near someone immunocompromised or elderly. In this case, you would need a 2-way protection.
3rd, there are enough people around who use them and also those who should even if they don’t (elderly), and settings where enough people use it, like medical, so you would need to wear/change different masks.
4th, just because many people do not use, doe not mean you should not be courteous towards them.
I understand, though, if you have to sit whole day with Bigbochur and chaverav, you may want to wear big exhaust, dark glasses, and noise-cancelling headphones.
Yeserbius > “People Live in Cities Fallacy”
I don’t think so. I was reviewing murder rates per 100K of population. I was indeed neglecting that most safe states are less urban, but I don’t think this affects the conclusion: there are some places in USA where it is possible to have European-level murder rates even with American gun laws.
there is also a size – we often compare US, a large and heterogenous country, with relatively compact select countries. At minimum, we should compare with EU (including Greece, Serbia, etc), or even better “former Spanish empire” (both Spain and South America).
> shidduch crisis for men.
are you sure that men will see this is as a crisis? You can always regulate it further by increasing age difference in the marriage. Presuming continuing high birth rate in the community, ken irbu, if men will marry at 50, then they’ll probably have 3-4 wives to support their learning, as mentioned above. Someone can do the math. More than 4 may be not OK, we need to be yasharim at least in the eyes of Muslims who see that as a limit.
Re: Mormons, I don’t think they do this openly in US, some moved to Mexico to avoid Uncle Sam/Rabbeinu Gershom issues. Maybe we can do it also, as Mexico was under Spain, so Sephardi halochot apply.
R Twesky Z’L brings a story that he heard from his father that seems relevant to all group-based judgments:
a Chasidishe Rebbe was visiting Berlin. He prepared a grande kiddush, prefacing it with this speech: one really needs to make kiddush in Berlin. Kiddush is testimony, and you need testimony where there is a sofek. In our shtetl, there is no sofek, but here in Berlin, there is – and it is great to make a kiddush here!Then, he suddenly stumbled in his speech, sat down and was quiet for several minutes. Then, he got up and finally made kiddush.
He then explained: I was ready to make kiddush but suddenly lost it. I realized that because I said inappropriate things about Jews of Berlin, my connection to Hashem got severed. So, I spent several minutes and resolved not to talk like that again, and got back the ability to day kiddush.
You guys have some circular logic here: if someone is quoted and happen to confirm with your exact position, then he is a tzaddik gamur; if he disagrees with you on one item, then he is a rasha gamur. And you are confused if someone happened to say two things, one in each category. Why don’t you give some benefit of doubt to people with different views, try to see where they are coming from, and see how we can all live – and think – together.
> poor and modest talmid chacham
do organizations mention the level of modesty of their talmidei chachamim?
specifying currency is important as I was taught some years ago: when a gabbai in Israel paused in his misheberach asking for a specific value after Torah reading, I replied “meah” presuming a local currency, but my accent “confused” him and he repeated “meah dollarim”. This was at times when full tank of gas was less than $100 … I could have saved 10% by using Canadian dollarim.
Yserbius, look at my stats: there are a number of states that have relaxed gun laws and number of deaths are comparable to Europe. Looks like these are Northern rural states, maybe with older population and less urban crime areas.
Note also that the murder problem while bad is not getting worse (except maybe last 2 years due to society upheaval in general). Some of the stats may be mildly misleading – you need to look at murder rate rather than gun-murder rate: less and less people axing each other and switching to guns does not affect the crime rate!
But, again, even reasonable reform will be seen as “attack” of anti-gun to pro-gun, especially when using biased arguments. hopefully, someone can come up with measures that have both restrictions and giveaway to gun owners? could you come up with a list of things you can include that gun owners will like? say, a federal law allowing most reliable gun owners (by time of use, test results, psychological testing, military training) to have a federal license that they can use in other states? and, if it works, continue expanding this program in return for restrictions on the most dangerous groups?
I had a shiur a couple of years ago on a serious question re:self-driving cars. The car will have an algorithm dealing with sakana nefashos situations, such as having a choice whom to hit. What if the algorithm is against halakha, then by agreeing to drive it, you sign up to doing a wrong thing. One can imagine the algorithm not just choosing to turn into someone instead of doing nothing as halakha requires when there is such a choice, but, say, doing face recognition and checking who has insurance and who has family to sue and choosing the best option from the damages point of view.
A segulah for parnasah on erev Shavuos: in the remaining 15 hours, send out 104 resumes. After yom tov is over, you might have 104 job offers. Please let us know whether this worked or not.
some interesting numbers:
2/3 of firearm-related deaths in US are suicides, very low in other countries – but total suicide rates are same as in Canada, UK, France …. So, firearms here is just a tool … slowly increasing thru Obama years thoughhomicide rates in US are 3x times more than in West Europe. It increased 2x from 1960 to 1975, stayed flat till 1994 and then starting decreasing 2.5x till 2010 (welfare reform, good economy?), with a slight bump in 2014-16 and then back, 2019 (latest I see) is the lowest point. So, it is a problem, but not really an increasing one.
Rates very significantly by state: NE and NW are mostly 2-3 per 100K per year, south and MidWest is 6-8. New Hampshire is lowest 0.9 as in Europe. Some looked at gun-friendly states, they include both highest (MS) and lowest (NH) by murder rate (of course, which causes what is not clear). Strictest states have mostly low murder rate (NY,NJ, but also some higher than average (MD, DE,IL)
So, it is possible that strict laws prevent worst murder rates, but it is quite possible to have low murder rate while being gun-friendly (
Syag, I don’t have insights in how sefaria works and they ain’t “my guys” in any sense. I use it to look up basic commentaries and references and never found an objectionable rishon or acharon there.
I saw that they have open pages for divrei Torah, I presume they do not police those, so I won;t be surprised there will be something bad there.
How they dress indicates who they think they are. I saw Reform ladies in kipot but not in tichels, but I am not up with modern fashions. Could there be some militant feminists or OO? Possibly, I just did not see.
As to “new paths”, I am all for old paths as much as possible. Everyone now is on new paths, though, whether they wear a shtreimel or a modern jacket. Rambam wore neither. And we here discussed enough Rambams that are not followed in “frum” communities – all with good sources, but they are all “new paths” that Rambam would not recognize or be upset about.
RebE > I take on the aveira of learning before Shavuos.
Rogachover was braver than that, he was learning on 9Av, saying that he is ok being in gehinom for people who learn on 9Av. I think, Chazon Ish replied that there is only one Gehinom though …
Inflation
Well, you can probably pre-program Tesla similarly to a shabbos elevator so it will stop and go whether you are there or not.
Note that Tesla is not supposed to be left unattended. Maybe a way out is that the driver only gets involved when there is risk to life and that becomes mutar. Then the question would be – how often one needs to get involved. Can we assume that most trips will not require intervention? depends on your route, I guess. If you are going through a neighborhood where buchrim will be jumping in front of the car shouting “shabbos” at you, you (or them) may be out of luck.
BAN YWN (or is it YNW?). I found lashon hara there.
It seems that some bochurim are not aware of recent Jewish history and use “Reform” simply as a swear word. There is a difference between a non-halachik movement, like Reform, and possible halachic disagreements, even vehement ones. Say, R Feinstein was against women learning Gemora, his son on law respectfully disagreed. I am not sure where R Feinstein’s daughter stands on this, but at least one of granddaughters learned Gemora … would it be an insult to R Feinstein to say that he married his daughter to a Reform Rabbi?!
Again, your position might have strong support, and you may be able to explain gemora Kidushin to Beruriah (is it the one that teaching daughters Torah is teaching her silliness or the one that if someone does not teach his son a job makes him into a gangster?) – but don’t call people inappropriate names.
> על חרבך תחיה living by the sword was given to Eisov
RebE, nobody forces us to carry, but we are discussing laws for a country of mostly bnei Esav and Knaan, so why can’t they solve problems their way? we should help them do it in a better way, but I don’t think we should force (sic!) our solutions on them.
ubiq > but shouldn’t be or hasn’t been enacted becasue people won’t listen?
this is actually a Gemora’s approach to gezeros: only those that will be listened to in the next year become permanent. Of course, in American system, voters can to elect those who will overturn unpopular laws.
How did this post get past mods or is this humor? Do laws of lashon hara applies to only some Jews? I do not know any of the people who run the site, but the pictures of the team show guys with beards and women in tichels. Siddurim are Ashkenazi and Sephardi, none are “Reform”. As this is a somewhat open platform, you need to see whether you are reading a classical text or a sheet by a site user.
jackk, what do you think about testimony in the case and what it explains about the events that happened? I did not read carefully yet, but it appears from possibly biased reporting that the Alpha bank case was handled in a strange way – outsourced to a rookie investigator in Chicago, who was not told who is the source of allegations, but told that bosses insist on the case being opened; the paperwork at the beginning and even later claimed that the case came from Justice dept. Again, I am not vouching for this interpretation, just curious if someone looked at the testimony already.
ubi, you seemed to imply that all these states are not doing reasonable background checks as relevant to the recent event. It looked like an attempt of genivas daas. If it was not, I apologize.
YS > I am far more worried about random shootings by maniacs today than I am about some far off imagined potential revolution.
I understand your emotion. I just think it is wrong and myopic. Maye after you’ll re-read what you said above when in less emotional state, maybe you’ll also think that this is a mistake. Why not look for solutions that do not increase long-term risk.
> What kind of big game are they hunting with such a weapon?
how is this question relevant to the right to form a militia?