Always_Ask_Questions

> Don’t you think Issachar could benefit more from this?!?

First, Zevulun ideal is not a lawyer, but a merchant. Real business. When I thought lawyers are making real money, one of them said – how do you think I feel assisting people making deals while just charging per hour?

Second, Issachar did not talk like that.

R Lebowitz 10-min lecture Dec 29, 2009. As he quips “here is the STANDING psak of many gedolim”: (each line below has a page reference that I omitted).

Standing – to have better kavana, or as a servant, like bringing karbonos, Avraham stands “amida”
you can sit on a donkey and daven (Rebbe, brochos), on a boat (brochos 30a) because it is scary, shaky. Getting off the donkey prolongs the trip. You can make donkey go 3 steps back. Standing will ruin kavona. On a wagon, if you can – stand, if not – sit. S’A If you daven sitting, then re-daven standing. M’B says no.

on plane – R Moshe: if you daven sitting on the plane, do not repeat later, better to sit to begin with, but get up for bowing. R Wosner paskened for El Al’s Rabbi to direct passengers to daven in place and not do minyanim. R Auerbach – daven sitting on a plane, not to stand – you will be distract and distract others.

Davening on a bus – not proper, just to save time. R Kanevsky allows getting off a bus when you are davening (including – it is better to continue davening off the bus!). So, if stewardess tells you to sit – you just sit down and contiue davening.

I learn from hashgaha pratis: put a dvar Torah on youtube and put it on autoplay.

RebE > The mandate is a last resort to encourage people to vaccinate.

There may be smarter ways. Seems that making some requirements pushes the group that is on the fence, but not those who are totally obstinate. So, a hard mandate creates a conflict. Maybe, softer mandates would work better – charge people more, make them test weekly and pay in part. Also, there are lots of government programs that could be used as leverage – why not pay extra welfare or free food to those who vaccinate.

R Twersky reports that he had a group of CEOs that were routinely late (because they were busy people). They all agreed that a late comer should throw $20 for tzedokah – and this small change worked. Today’s Daf talks about a teacher of little children who would give kids a little piece of fish to interest them in learning. Being nice might work.

Avira > then use their chessed as an effective cajole to silence opposition,

Most of those who do preach their own ideology are sincere believers. We should expect them to fairly present other movements and many fail at that, but that they teach their own approach is understandable. Go open your own brisker houses and preach your approach. Competition between Torah teachers is allowed and encouraged and is good for the teachers in halakha

Avram > Chabad certainly is not the only group doing kiruv,

First Chabad does not do “kiruv”, they do no not (or at least not supposed to) look down at other Jewish people. Others have organizations that work on this. Most observant Jews, whether charedi or YI, go through their day without worrying much about their non-observant brothers. Jews used to have missions sometimes. For example, supporting Jews in EY, whether yeshivos or workers. There were wedding announcements in newspapers with a lists of guests and how much each donated for EY. The fate of disappearing Jews is not on the radar. This does not take away from shortcomings and problems that exist in the movement. but need to be modeh al haemes.

Syag, this AAQ guy you met somewhere and are describing here is a weird guy.

Does anyone use non-professional shadchanim? Parents, friends, teachers – people who know you.

Re: classes on campus.

Is this considered bad to have college classes on the yeshiva property? Is this decreasing kedusha of learning? Would people start reading math books during mussar shmoozim? This may be a valid concern, but on the other hand, would it not be better for bochrim to study college classes together rather than go to a different campus with all kind of problems there? In one of the high school yeshivos that starting using online public school for secular subjects, they have 2 floors – so they physically go to another floor to learn non-Torah subjects, use laptops there, then go back.

Furthermore, if they learn humanities or sciences like physics and psychology, it would be good for someone in yeshiva to address hashkofa questions that arise from there. I do this with my kids all the time – when they were at schools, where “goiyishe teachers” sometimes were disconnected from the Jewish curriculum and even better in online schools/colleges. In a recent class on astronomy, we did possibly whole maase bereshis 🙂 In psychology, read R Twersky’s teshuvos. In US Gov, discussed Jewish view of government starting with Shmuel…

phil, I am getting info from scientific articles. I do not read them all due to lack of time but a representative sample, as I am professionally interested in the statistical methodologies. You generally say “many experts”. You quoted Bob Malone. I looked up his linkedin page. He does not look like a world-famous person. He runs his 1-man consultancy for last 20 years, and he lists 10+ pages of companies that he either consulted or worked for over the years. Looks like almost all of them less than a year. I clicked on five – they all have linkedin descriptions but when you click ona web link – none currently exist. He has several references that seem pretty straightforward and do not even hint to his value to the world. Here is a typical one: Robert is a very knowledgable and detail oriented individual capable of managing multiple project timelines to meet deliverables on-time.

Torah learning should be free, but you need to pay for music.

> Where are you getting your info from?

I am not insisting on that, but several people in my community had a second sickness seriously harder than first . It may be that Jewish community was hit early, so with passing of time and change in variants, maybe some become vulnerable again, and will be again with new variant coming.

Actually, a fresh Lancet article from Britain talks about this: Reinfection with new variants of SARS-CoV-2 after natural infection, Dec 2021 says that re-infection was 8x less likely than new infection in nursing homes between spring 2020 and Jan 2021. Most importantly, it says that those who will re-infect all had low antibody levels.

So, the right thing to do seems to be at least measure antibodies. Previous advice I saw was to get at least one vaccine dose.

Avira, I think most are going off campus with some classes/programs on campus. Do you have a problem with second? when you get a college program without getting into classes with questionable behaviors and wasting commuting time. In recent times, you should be able to get an online degree also at any yeshiva – Floria State, Arizona State, New Hampshire Southern. From my kids’ emerging experience, it is much better to have a group – at least 2 kids – who enroll in the same class. Added bonus – kids learn to balance their learning with life responsibilities so you have more assurance that they are not falling apart after yeshiva.

agree with ujm: Esther became Rebbe of Mordechai not because she knew more rishonim, but because she was ready for mesiros nefesh. I don’t think our Torah learnt from seforim equal to the one of the Yidden who lived it.

On your shoulders?
In your suitcase?

> and ONLY removed the bag with Teffilin .

maybe because it was a small bag that took extra place? I am sure if there were a muslim prayer mat there, they would have removed it too (and it would be ok to put it on the floor).

To follow on commons call for cautiousness, Maybe there are limits to public lighting when there’s opposition: don’t sue town hall for your first amendment rights, don’t do it where antisemitic feelings are high. Or join with other religions to have everyone access public property. We have an example in NY where Jewish schools join Catholics in fighting public health measures. An effort as admired in the unity aspect as misguided at its goal.

Speaking of titles, someone commented that, ironically, Rav Feinstein was addressed as “Rosh Yeshiva” while Rav Soloveichik as “Rav” – while R Feinstein is mostly known for his teshuvos and had a small Yeshiva, while R Soloveichik is mostly known for raising students.

One matronah tried that in an argument w/ R Akiva in Sotah

very timely

Daf Yomi Taanit brings examples that unless someone is a Tzaddik Gamur, you don’t drive into Ramlallah, not on purpose, not by mistake.

phil > Aren’t we as Jews supposed to keep our opinions in the community and to ourselves?

yes, but you also should examine opinions that are embarrassing and see if you need to fix them. Torah says that nations will look at our laws and say “how wise nd understanding this nation is”

We tried to help you with information but you keep referring to “numerous experts’ that you are not able to quote or name. Maybe time to ask your posek.

Daf yomi Taanit discusses a need to fast when there is a magefa at nearby place as it is inevitably coming, so we value foresight. The potential danger of new variant is a combination of higher transmission with escape of immunity from previous vaccines and infections. T cell protection seems to be holding better, protecting from severe disease bit not initial infection.

I have a new hypothesis that vivid with variants is continuously circulating in some communities. Most become protected from severe disease, but time to time get infected again. Most of infections aren’t noticed, but some do incremental unseen damage, like myocarditis.. so, after several times, an unusually large load cause a hard case

This would explain anecdotal observations that natural antibodies stay high: they do because they go down only when they stop encountering virus. Also, I am hearing about families who do tests to fly and turn out positive, then they remember yes some kids were not feeling well… Anyone else heard about such things happening?

I humbly suggest we let nonjews to figure it out on their own. Extremists on both sides are not our good friends: neither those who matir asurim, nor those who Asur matirim. There are many less divisive issues where we can contribute positively to the public debate: education, hesed, unity of Hashem..

As Charlie said, there are Jews out there. The proof – you apparently saw them, unless it is a purely theoretical complaint!

Seriously, we discussed already how these chabadnikim are almost the only ones doing something for the millions of disappearing Jews, so let’s discuss whether they are has vesholom doing too much.

Ash, agree with most of your points, but
– death rates in US and UK are about the same, Israel is way lower
– covid became a political pawn in many countries, and USA being the free country it is, is taking it to the extreme. Most of the blabber about vaccines you see here is simply a quote from some cable channel or website. Some Yidden are watching it secretly in their mothers’ basements, others are hearing it from friends in shul or fbook. This country gives people the blessings of freedom and some choose to use it to waste their minds.