Always_Ask_Questions

Syag, I am very interested in your or others’ challenges, but please talk to the substance rather than just saying that you disagree.

Syag,
I also tried a mediator, I asked shailos, etc.
I appreciate your help trying to manage my affairs over the newsgroup. I am fine, thanks. I am trying to discuss general issues here, using my experiences as an illustration. you are questioning my every word, pushing me for more illustrations, and then you don’t believe those.

TVOP > I’d rather get infected and not lose my job. A statistic you might want to bring would be deaths.

I know this would be better number. I do not work for either CDC or KGB. This was from the phone opinion survey, and those of your interest are hard to reach that way, unfortunately. Deaths would be proportional to infections only if age distribution were similar, and we do not know that. Still, this one variable was the most predictive of everything else they cited. Tzarich yiun.

Re: lockdowns. Good question. I think initial lockdown was justified by the fear of unknown. It was clearly something extra-ordinary. There were no tools to measure anything. There was also initial hope that lockdowns will prevent entry into the country. Note that AU, NZ, and some other islands used lockdowns successfully. As to reduced mobility and SD overall, it continues helping. This not only shows up in cases, but also in severity. There is some research that confirms the obvious – the more people are exposed initially, the more severe the disease is. If that is true then short exposures give immunity at small risk, while longer ones carry more risk. So, any kind of caution matters. It is literally as Rambam says – imagine the world being 50% on a good side, and your one decision matters (a difference between exponential propagation factor R0 being 0.99 and 1.01 – same as difference between a nuclear reactor and Chernobyl).

Correction: yohrtzeit of Jan 6th was declared a long weekend off already (evening of Dec 25/morning of 26th Sunday)

RebE > AAQ, aren’t you preaching water but drinking wine with the word “and”?

Great, someone passed the grammar test but not the hummar one. Alliteration of “ands” in several sentences was your clue for the second one (that I presume most people passed).

TS, mods don’t need me as a mod, they need me as the poaster – to point out to their employer how much work they have!

I suggest mods add another button near “submit” – “submit for rejection” that I could use as a courtesy to make it easier for them to reject.

jackk > >One of the immediate reactions was that Afghanistan will embolden Russia and China, and this has already been proven to be true, unfortunately.
> This is your opinion and is not based on facts.

Jackk, this is how you test theories. There was a prediction above made by many 6 months ago and it turned out true now. Russia surrounded Ukraine and demands US/NATO pull out forces from whole Eastern Europe. US non-essential personnel evacuated. We can’t say there is a direct link between two events, but the fact of prediction is telling.

Who were military leaders who supported Biden’s direction for Afghanistan, specifically reducing personnel so that Bagram had to be abandoned. Afghani government/military is obviously not perfect/third country, but they had forces willing to fight, but not when US left them in the middle of the night leaving them without air support and repairs (all contractors had to leave also).

Some indeed said that if we were to not pull out because Taliban did not fulfil Trump’s conditions, then Taliban would start attacking US forces again. But this was a conjecture. There was a possibly viable plan to keep small force continuing supporting Afghans. Same as US has in Syria now supporting Kurds. It might have not worked, but Bidenistas did not even try – because of their internal political considerations.

if you wear it long enough, it will become thinner and lighter. Try your grandfather’s tallis.

Unfunded pension obligations are improper accounting, most likely introduced by politicians to push projects through and pay off supporters. If those politicians are still alive, they should be sued for damages, or maybe even their families if they inherited money or jobs.

I think Sec Pompeo was talking about it. Trump preferred to press China using other points but in the same direction. Jewish community used to be more in tune with world politics when we campaigned for Soviet Jews and for Israeli against Arab tyrants. Makes sense to write to your senator.

Syag,

and I don’t believe that our schools are so way worse than all other perfect places. I did hear good things about schools in your area, though.

It may be that I get more information because we are not always flowing according to directions. If a kid comes home and says “I wonna go to seminary!!!” and you say “great, let me know which one”, then it is the end of the story. When we said “not great, let’s discuss what are your plans for the future”, the kid goes back to the teacher, and the teacher says something they did not say to your kid, etc. This is not always a bad experience also. We had great discussions with principals who were willing to change teachers, do other adjustments, and shared with us difficulties of what they are confronted with. We would also go a long way to support such great principals/teachers.

I may be guilty here of quoting only difficulties because this is worth discussing to make our communities better.

> The American trained and supplied Afghanistan military couldn’t win in their fight against the taliban, so the taliban took over

There is exactly one person who claims this – Joe Biden. All commentators agree that the exit was done badly. How could you expect Afghanis to fight when they know they are losing, when there are no parts to repair airplanes, etc. Biden went against military advice and it is on him. It is on military leaders that none of them resigned. And they are still there. One of the immediate reactions was that Afghanistan will embolden Russia and China, and this has already been proven to be true, unfortunately.

> getting a MBA does not make you an apikores.

indeed, MBA would be a good education for a Talmid Chacham

Many of Talmidei Chachamim in Gemorah were in business. On this daf, there are two that partnered, each one contributing a bull to the working pair. Others have workers collecting figs, buying real estate, etc. It seems that T’Ch has an extra challenge – as others are looking up to him, he can not use some kulos that others do so that people will not get confused what halakha is, so they need to accept some extra losses, for example, on chol hamoed.

GH, I understand. Still, it may depend on a teen and on parents. If the experience is so transformational and inspiring (and I think for many it is), then why delay it. Maybe send a responsible older teen with younger ones to learn in the same place.

Again, I understand that this is an obviously right choice for those who will become chinuch/ community professionals, my question is for those who will go into professions. How many years are required to form a responsible Jewish person, who will continue to be shomer Torah and mitzvos and continue learning and participating in the community? We are often creating a hard step off – the kid learns, learns, and then suddenly he is responsible for family, work, college, all at the same time. I’d rather see kids gradually becoming responsible – go to work or college under parental supervision to make sure they continue mitzvos and learning in that environment, and do not acquire bad ideas, and then know how they’ll support family before getting married. Rambam writes along similar lines – get a job, house, get married.

YS, a more important question is why do people lean so much on this “gap year” to bring enthusiasm in children. Why not send them to EY during middle or high school years? On one hand, they are less capable of being away from family, on the other hand, they are not yet at the age of getting in trouble ;). What surprises me is the uniformity of acceptable behavior.

Avira > There’s also a mitzvah to know lashon kodesh, so it’s productive even if it would have been considered M”L if in a different language

Did someone forge this, or Avira is actually endorsing reading Tzioni books on Shabbos? read in ashkenazis pronunciation of course.

I think the mod challenged me on the idea that cultural issues need to be addressed with a psak from
today’s poskim, it is not sufficient to quote Sh’A. I am pretty sure this is an accepted position, maybe I used some flippant wording that triggered the mod (did I say “modern”? I include R Feinstein in that) . Hope this clarifies.

Avira > increased anonymity of mask mandates is related to the dramatic rise of crime and political unrest

any serious societal upheaval leads to unrests. Romans built a global civilization and suffered global pandemics.

pre-covid, there were people who would go to school and work when sick. Maybe it will be less acceptable now, especially if there is no loss involved, you can simply WFH.

But “if you are sick, stay home” is not working enough for covid, given high infections before symptoms. But you are right, this should update my forecast. No symptoms is due to novelty of the virus and immune system lag until it starts fighting. After several exposures/infections, the running nose, etc symptoms will occur earlier and then the rules will be to stay home with symptoms and no need for masks after that.

Avira, I understand moshav leitzim is people actually talking something inappropriate. I presume sport watchers also do, but don’t have to. So, I see it is close to gambling in terms of wasting time non-productively. You are right that if you throw in drinking beer and talkin stupid stuff, then it becomes moshav leitzim. But if not, would a person be allowed to have some relaxation time, leading to more productive life otherwise both in working and in learning? I don’t see why not. Probably same goes for novels.

Do you really expect lines like that to go through?

EJM, I think the disparity was bigger 100 years ago. From some lady’s story in Poland: father and brothers went to Rebbe’s tisch for yom tov, and mother and us were sitting at home, not knowing what to do…

As to the younger Rav, I would never vote to fire an old one and hire a new one without a cause just because “we need to attract younger people” or something like that. I also haven’t been to tristate for more than a quick visit for the last decade.

look at halokhos of gamblers as eidim. One of the issues is non-productive behavior – that should surely cover watching sports (and betting will bring the rest). BUT, the issue is less severe for someone involved in productive employment somewhere else. So, it might be that some moderate waste of time is OK for a person who learns or works for a living.

CS, it is a good illustration how many things are done as a routine and nobody dares to try until something happens. In the Jewish context, consider Bayis Yaakov schools that Chofetz Chaim supported to begin with, but did not start until one brave lady did.

jackk > Biden is not responsible for people not listening to the advice of the CDC

I am not sure. At the end of Trump’s term, vaccine reluctance was about the same by party. During Biden’s time, Republicans became more reluctant. Maybe it was supposed to be given that R-s have this large segment who do not trust any government no matter what, but surely Biden’s general ineptness and lack of credibility did not help. Remember how he claimed initially that Trump left him no vaccine stockpiled. He could have said – thanks to Trump for developing vaccines, now we will rump up production. He then dismissed the whole Op Warp team without cause, preferring to rely on his official team, and now, one year later, Dr Walensky talks about a need to re-organize the process. It is clear that Trump’s approach of developing multiple new approaches worked better.

CS, I think you are right. Employers were reluctant to let employees work from home. Now, it is an accepted model. Not all, but many will stay. This may be akin to great plague in middle ages where reduced labor force created a new environment where labor became more expensive and more respected.

ujm > business owners v uber drivers

this is a great example. I think Uber drivers are always on an edge to get the new ride and not “lose time”. An Uber Talmid Chacham can sit and learn and then pick up a more profitable ride. As a business co-owner, I agree that it takes time. Still, I am working “24 hours but not in a row”. Ability to be there for the family without going and asking the boss every time is priceless. Those who started WFH lately are probably have similar feelings now.