Always_Ask_Questions

what are world classics that we think Jewish kids should/could read and which ones they should not?
keep in mind not just what is talked about in current America – as a lot of classics (such as Mark Twain) is already banned in USA.

you can make 8-minute daf into 16 or 4 minute if you play it at different speeds. Playing at 1.5x speed seems to work better for my mind for a normal speaker, as I have less time to go into other thoughts.

If you don’t know whether to trust the producer, take a topic that you know well and listen on that topic and see how he stands against what you already know. If you are concerned about political slant, take a topic that you know that touches on that item. There is a story about I don’t remember who, who was asked whether a certain sefer on Chumash is kosher. He opened it briefly in 3 places and said – no it is not. How did he know? He opened in places where Chumash hints to Olam Habo (Yaakov buried, etc). In all places, the author chose not to discuss the issue, so he does not believe in it (a typical type of kefira at the time)

I also hear an interesting argument repeated by the libs, up to Pelosi – historically SC ignored previous decisions “to expand liberties” and this is somehow part of the founders’ wisdom. But ignoring it to “decrease liberties” is unheard of! In other words, we can do it, but you can’t. A very entertaining idea.

jackk> They will have to rule on the legality of cases coming from all 50 states.

I did not study this close at all, as I feel that the issue is so controversial and not germane to our role in society – that Jews should stay away from this in politics. But it seems to me that the Supremes are moving towards decreasing federal role in these cases. So, they are not going to rule on legality, but simply defer to states. In modern Us, some issues, like slavery and discrimination, see so outrageous that the country is not willing to tolerate individual states having separate policies. But on abortion, the country seems to be far from agreement … So, after we will have states fully developing their positions, then it will be possible to see viability and morality of those positions and, hopefully, there will be some conversion of positions across states over time – something Roe prevented. It may actually be good for liberals that conservatives will be less motivated to get to elections and vote in order to approve conservative Supremes.

Avira, it is possible to not want to impose halakha in US politics, and respect constitutional restrictions and federal/state issues. I am not sure where the boundary is. On some issues, I feel like we should try to improve the world, on others to stay away. Maybe different people feel differently about specific issues.

Shakespeare lived in the period when Jews were not allowed in England (1280s-1650s), so Jews were probably just a theoretical concept for him and his audience.

common, you are right, I am more interested in improving our behaviors than bashing grandchildren of Nazis. I am with you on maintaining behaviors as we are always looked at and represent am Isroel and Hashem and his Torah. Looks like those with less contact with the world and less aware of these issues. Maybe you can help educate the kahal more.

ujm, you probably using circular logic here: you call “frum” those who live in your community and non-frum those who are not. Then, by your definition, frum move towards your communities. My impression was that the impressive growth of the communities was mostly due to childbirth, not immigration from Deep South and Midwest, but I may be mistaken. In the OOT communities, there is definite in- and out-flows, as everywhere in USA, but I see more, as Avira says, arrivals from the “in towns” into teaching, kollels, colleges, jobs. Those who leave into “in towns” usually have previous connections to those places, or go for learning or Jewish colleges. Others leave to other communities or EY.

jackk> If anything, overruling Roe would expand court involvement by inviting action in state courts, testing the scope of what is protected under state constitutions.

pls, do not mix up federal and state courts. It is legitimate for state courts to resolve state issues. States are, at least as originally envisioned, full-fledged decision makers, they are not limited as federal government is/was to specific issues. And, as you mention later, some issues will probably come back to the federal courts, but it will not be such a problematic issue as forcing decisions for the whole country when different states hold vastly different opinions.

ujm, how are Jewish pattern different here? Are you claiming that Jews lives among Indian tribes first!?

During most migration, most Jews arrived to NY and other big NE ports. There were minor periods when there was migration to small NE towns, and eary on Reformim sponsored Eastern European plebeians to go to Texas not to embarrass them in from of the society. Then, they started moving out of big cities to suburbs and to the rest of America just like the goyim. True, Jews go to NYC for yeshivos and colleges, pick up cheap(er) kosher food, and on the way to EY, but this does not deny the main thread that they (or their parents) previously left the cities. This is _way_ different from Jews in Ukraine Pale who are moving to a big city.

Avram, great advice on timing! It is actually better works other way – first, you organize your trips well, then you look forward to time when you can enjoy your learning, coffee time, or with your kids or spouse, or friend – and then it is easier to leave 30 minutes earlier. Positive motivation. For example, I actually found that elementary school kids interact well with parents when confined to car seats, so morning was great time to teach them something important before school injects their priorities.

Communist revolution will not work in USA. People will immediately rebel when bread lines will grow and Amazon will not deliver in one hour.

Democratic mis-management is the answer! By gradual mis-management and destroying the market, Dems create minor problems, turn around and blame markets for those problems and propose “solutions”. Meanwhile, population get used to the “new normal”.

Simplest to understand: discourage oil & gas investment but without fully killing existing production; insult all potential oil producers; then any disruption will raise the prices and there is no capacity to add; blame producers for gauging, introduce price controls, extra regulation; fully destroy industry.

Probably same with baby formula – high gas prices, regulations lead to increase in delivery prices. Bad labor policies lead to lack of qualified workers. Maybe bad regulation and supervision leads to the major factory contamination.

Gadol > we are now seeing the consequences of medical conditions that might have otherwise been treatable .

I agree with the rest you are saying, but I would be curious to see statistics by condition. Would not be surprised that for some conditions, there will no or positive effect. For example, there is always speculation that early detection of some (not all) tumors causes extra biopsies, surgeries, without effect on survival. Also, there is famous research that mortality of heart surgeries decreases on the week when all senior surgeons are away for major annual conference.

Kalev does not count, he was a Zionist

Common,
(1) is ignoring a person’s behavior unless it directly affects Jews
(2) is a message for Jews that we should see in every action

(1) would be to say that Dama b Netina is a goyishe kopf who first lost money and then charged Jews too much, ignoring his middos towards parents
(2) would be to learn a lesson from him on kivud av, as Gemora does

Yevamos 64 connects them – a man is not a full man without isha and karka, BUT

hurry up to buy real estate, but take your time in selecting isha.

what heter? you are not allowed to do non-interest loans to non-Jews. Are these loans predatory? if you are serving small sums to very unreliable clientele, and there is sufficient competition, you will probably be lucky to make even. But consider that you might need to start dealing with shady people in order to enforce proper payments. Not sure why one needs to go into such business in our times v. the times when non-Jews restricted our activities to such industries. Father is supposed to teach a son a business that is clean and not very hard.

ujm, I wish your arguments would be as strong as your convictions, and the arrows of your enemies as precise as your quotations!

As to assimilation – just because I might quote an occasional scientist, I am not more assimilated than those who smoke second-hand social media without realizing it (also witnessed on this board). Note that chochma of goyim is valuable, while stupid superstitions are not.

> I doubt any political personality has enough clout to force Pfizer

All I know is that (as was reported somewhat later and not well distributed) they reached pre-planned number of cases before the election and then someone, presumably from FDA, said that that it will be better to open it up with more cases to be more sure. This is all reading between lines of obscure explanations, I never read anyone fully explaining what happened. Maybe I missed it. If you saw it, please suggest where to find it.

Given how fast Russians are burning literal and figurative bridges, I would not invest in one going to an island with Russian speaking population (are they still on Brighton Beach or did it “gentrified”?).

I used to laugh at Clinton’s “bridge to 21st century” but would now gladly take to to get back to the 1990s. And it will be great to pay tolls with inflated 2022 dollars

Common, I indeed was not zoche to learn from R Miller in person, only from writings and tape, but I am familiar with his views on the topic. I don’t understand how his views on the topic contradict his equally strong views on learning from history (see above) and taking personal responsibility, like in his moshal of a kind person who invites a stranger into the house, goes to pour another cup of tea, and the crazy stranger meanwhile pouring hot tea into baby’s face. Someone would ask – how is the person punished while doing a mitzva of hesed?! The answer – while doing his hesed, the person did an aveira of leaving a baby with a crazy stranger – and was punished for that. Not understanding this leads people to say crazy things like we do not understand how Hashem can be so unfair (his words up to hear to my best recollection).

If you want to reconcile here the possible (unproven from the article) rudeness of Germans, you can say that Hasidim, while in the middle of their heilicke trip, tripped on following simple regulations and ahavas briyut, not talking about health of themselves and others, and were punished by given to the cruel German rule-enforces. Those who had masks on (if such exist) were punished for associating with bad neighbors and not preventing hillul Hashem. They were especially punished for associating this embarrassing story with a tzaddik who was such a gentle person that he would not even send a mouse to a galach if he was not prosecuting Jews.

why half-quote Rambam?!
וְזֶה דֶּרֶךְ בְּנוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל – this refers to both men and women referring to the previous para explaining hw the man should behave, not just women. For example, the 2nd par that she should do maaseiah al piv “everything that comes out of his mouth” sounds conditional on 1st par – not make her fear him veihe diburo benahas. So expressing “your will” in a fear inspiring or even strict manner seems to be out of question.

One thing that is clear from this Rambam is that nobody should talk H’V to his wife the way people talk on CR – and expect to be treated as a King!

Marxist, great to see a real marxist on this board. Viva diversity! As relevant to this board, one of your namesake’s early writings (that is indicative of where he comes from) is a polemic with some German anti-semite pastor who wanted to assimilate Jews. Marx turns the question around and shows that all the world evil comes from Jews who initiated trade and capital accumulation, so he suggests saving the world _FROM_ those evil Jews. Sounds like an ominous starting impulse both for Soviet and Nazi anti-semitism. You probably know more on the matter and can enlighten us on this.

Avot d’Rabbi Natan supports this position: Hillel, I think, on the road – asks some farmers how much is their wheat. They say two dinars a bundle. He goes further, meets another group – they answer 3 dinars a bundle. Hillel tells them that he saw another group for 2. They say – we travelled from far away and worked hard, so we deserve 3 and quote “the reward according to the effort”. He tells them – (communist) fools! Meaning that reward goes by the effort in Torah learning, but not in business! In business, you charge according to market price that signals to you that maybe you should not shlep wheat to another country and lose money! Those were early commies who demanded to be paid according to planned economy, whether their work was efficient or not.

Note that the tzaddik first asked about pastor’s middos. I wonder how would the tzadik paskened in a machlokes between a goyishe airline plagued by the tzadik’s unruly followers. Maybe he would call the mice to return.

n0, you may have learned from a Trotskite idealistic haver, playing to the sorrow of the bloodily axed revolutionary. Trotsky innovated using bullets on his own army.

Just checked out wiki to make sure: Trotsky organized Soviet army in 1918, mobilizing 1 mln people, and installing political commissars to monitor commanders of every unit. EStablished death squads for his own army. In his own words ” Masses of men cannot be led to death unless the army command has the death-penalty in its arsenal…the command will always be obliged to place the soldiers between the possible death in the front and the inevitable one in the rear. The following applied to small businessmen as many of Jews were: The bourgeoisie today is a falling class… We are forced to tear it off, to chop it away.

And this is just the first page of wiki.