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There is a fascinating discussion there about rain being on par with giving of Torah, etc. I think what Gemorah is saying that natural sustenance that Hashem provides is no less miraculous than big events, and we need to pay attention and be grateful and study them. Appropriately, this is followed by a scientific discussion where the rain is being formed.
Today’s WSJ has an op-ed bya Chinese guy. He says his kid is shocked by the lack of both work and homework in American schools.
One down side of the homework is that it sucks parents into devoting time encouraging/ pleading/ monitoring doing homework instead of influencing their kids directly. So, parents become teaching assistants, enjoyment is taken out of learning. I got sucked in early into thst, took me some time to realize. try to see what the kid is not learning rather than what he does, and try to enrich him with that.
currently, people get benefits before investing. You get house first and then pay mortgage instead of saving first as Gemora and Rambam recommend. So, it is possible to satisfy both opinions: marry early if a person is on the way to earn a living, whether a good solid job, like a plumber, or an uncertain one, as a lawyer. Those who reach the age without preparing to support the family are either relying on the emergency measure from 80 years ago, as mentioned above, or plan to marry someone who will agree to life in poverty, whic is a heilecke ting to do, or expect to live at someone else’s expense (hopefully freely giving in-laws and donors rather than unwitting taxpayers)
jackk > How many other people were killed during the Kenosha protests ?
What I am saying is that the jury decided that he had a reasonable fear for his life. That is, those other guys possibly were a real threat to him. This is similar to halakha when someone digs into your house at night, you can presume that he is ready to kill you if needed to avoid arrest. Thee was a lot of property damage and when someone tried to stop them, they did not stop.
ujm> if someone (other than your parent etc) breaks into your house
in the dark, I believe. Otherwise, you can safely retreat. In this case, one might argue that he is defending whole community law & order so retreat was not an option (similar in halakha when a border city is attacked is different from regular robbery)
> for under $80, now it is $13 a month which is $156 yearly.
that’s as fast as the price of gas.
Hazora is important for all subjects. Material goes away without it, whether kodesh or secular. Where hazora is happening is immaterial. Preferably, hazora is active – not just writing pages of boring material, but discussing, learning how to use material that you learned.
School leacture/homework approach was good when it was needed, but current technology, I think, calls for opposite. Currently, everyone goes to his little school for a lecture, and then reviews on his own. Lectures should be listened online or via recording from best teachers, and then local teachers
should help in active review. That is, you first do homework by listening material and then you go to school to discuss with the teacher. This is happening in some places with large lectures and then small seminars – both in good colleges and probably Talmud time academies (with metargumans).While we are waiting for this system to come back, parents should make sure that homework is something that activates knowledge rather than repeats the material. Someone from Brisk mentions that his father was asking him questions while walking about anything around – houses, bricks, just to make a kid think actively. Avira probably knows who it was.
2400 baud modem and sefaria
I did not follow it closely, but it seems if the jury decision is reasonable, this is essentially a statement that those rioters were potential murderers en masse – that is, if KR acted in self-defense, he had a reasonable fear for his life three times. So, the other side is upset and the story might not be over and whatever happened today may the next part of it.
Re: CDC recommendations.
CDC/FDA seem to be totally unprepared for the modern information warfare. They have virus specialists who are trained to follow conservative pathways to approved products. Then, they make public policy decisions based seemingly on their intuition. I never saw any public policy or psychology experts involved. It is not just early in the pandemic (like do not wear masks to not confuse people), or even not early in new tenure (Walensky declaring in spring that it is almost over). I listened to FDA discussion between gov personnel and questions they were asking advisory panel. It was pathetic, there was no preparation, FDA was pulling ideas out of their sleeve, they obviously never talked to these doctors in advance. At the same time, advisory panel took their job seriously and delivered reasonable results. There are lots of “leaks” and now books complaining how Trump/Warp speed “overrruled” CDC – and rightfully so, in my opinion.
RW, please tell us what is your source for all this information. We gave you numbers and references several times and you continue stating absolute statements like “It wasn’t effective against delta variant”. Please specify what it means and what is the source for your data.
Syag> all different kinds of opinions and speakers, even if it is heretical or apikorsus,
where did you get it, I am not sure.> laud the Rambam’s secular knowledge because you think it is proof you should go out and do the same.
I am not saying everyone should. And I would think if Rambam would think that he should be the last Jewish person to learn science, he would say so. Please provide a citation. I would not be surprised that he would define some limitations, I would be interested to learn specifically.
I do not want to get into personalities, but I am not sure what is your issue w/ R Steinsaltz. I never heard anything inappropriate from him, and I saw with my own eyes totally non-modern yeshivish and Chassidish Rabonim (including at least one from your town) either sitting at the same table or participating in worthy initiatives started by R Steinsaltz.
RW > vaccines will take at least 2 years but suddenly we have 4 vaccines in less than a year,
I think this demonstrates total infantilization of the population, Jewish included. We are fortunate to live in a country that did not have major upheaval for a long time, everyone is used of having government and businesses to provide consistent service and information. When there is a pandemic, someone is supposed to tell us when and how vaccines will be provided. This is total denial of Hashem’s power over the world and total ingratitude to those people – scientists, Trump’s Warp speed team – who worked to try to save you from this magefah. All you care about inconsistencies in what they told you.
good news – Austria is not doing a lockdown on unvaxxed only, they are switching to locking everyone!
Also, you need to appreciate the difference between a culture that is based on obedience is different from USA that is based on personal freedom. Those people would not cross the road on red light if there is nobody around. And we know that they follow the leaders even in most immoral endeavors …
So, in general, I prefer American independent spirit, but there is a place for everything. “Middos” mean “measures” – they need to be applied appropriately.
klugeryid, thanks, you presented a logical argument that I can follow. I would still be interested in a source of the facts you claim, but can reply regardless
>> But it doesn’t prevent you from getting covid ??
Vaccines reduce rate of infection and transmission, just not to the same degree as hospitalization
Most clusters seem to be based on an unvaxxed person to a group of vaxxed and not much after that. I did not hear about big vaxxed clusters (other than a case of Provincetown where thousands of people packed into bars for several days)>> they can infect grandma.
absolutely true. again, vaccine reduces a chance of this happening and reduces amount of transmitted virus giving grandma a chance to survive. I think anyone who is in regular contact with older people should be up on their vaxes and boosters, including kids. Among many Talmidei Chachamim who passed from Covid, I was particular struck by petirah of R Dr Twersky. He has medical background, so we can presume that he understood the danger, but he was in a wheelchair and at mercy of people around him. I saw the video of the funeral … sad.>> Kids: it might be dangerous for them, and kids are basically safe from covid
If your kids are in an institution with lots of people, bad ventilation, and uncareful community, your kid has a high chance of getting COVID. Then, the question is – what is more risk in a long term: a novel vaccine or a novel virus. Vaccine was at least designed by people who love life and tested as much as possible, while virus came either from a bat or from military scientists. Also, vaccine generates mostly a “fake” response, while virus actually destroys internal organs.If your kids are not exposed to the virus, then it is a different issue. I would also test kids for antibodies before giving vaccine.
Syag > One day he said something a bit off. Later he did it again .. He was “un acknowledged”.
This is good as long as you define “a bit off”. A typical “off” (from today’s Taanis Daf) would be a talmid chacham whose middos are not appropriate, who is not doing what they are preaching, rough on people, etc. On the other hand, some people define “off” as a thought process departing from accepted in their community. In the latter case, there is some benefit of listening to a T’Ch of a different approach just to appreciate different aspects of Torah, even if you do not plan to subscribe to his views. But maybe you get enough of this medicine here.
Gadol > Studies on benefits for those already infected seem to suggest some benefits
I think it is clear that at least one vaccine is beneficial for anyone who is suitable to learn Kabbalah or does not spend their time building up their muscles. I suspect this covers all of us.
I am not sure how to deal with the excessive requirements of “full vax” for those who were sick once or twice. Is this policy excessive or is it “lo plug” to make sure everyone gets something, or maybe policy makers are afraid of providing wrong incentives? Imagine if a certified sickness would let you get on a plane or into the stadium? Imagine how many idiots will actually go out of their way to get sick quickly. Virus parties …
Maybe we should have such virus parties for remaining anti-vaxxers and natural immuners after new drugs are available: expose them in a controlled environment for 15 minutes instead of waiting until they meet their virus for 5 hours somewhere. If they had previous immunity, they would be protected, no problem. So, instead of weekly PCR tests – weekly 15 minutes in a room with aerosoled COVID.
Every Jew is a celelbrity. Especially if you “look Jewish” or “dress Jewish”. People are looking at you and judging Jewish people/Torah/Hashem accordingly. Not my words.
Syag,
you are right that immune response is not like medicines that are often proportional to amounts and body weight. That is, an even small amount of stimulus can generate a response. Still, I saw papers claiming that there is correlation. not a perfect comparison, but Moderna has more vaccine than Pfizer and stronger response and side effects. Maybe the difference is hard to discern due to many other factors, genetics for example.in no particular order – Einstein, Trotsky, Chomsky, Marx, Rothschild, Moses, Avraham, Kushner, Sharon, Kissinger, Haber, Brin, Zukerberg, Friedman, Brandeis, Disraeli.
RebYid, refuah shleima, which one was stronger?
do you think these were based on random exposure or based on prolonged interaction (sitting for many hours together at home, school)ujm > I don’t think anyone argues that the vaccine is more protective for someone who didn’t have Covid compared to someone having recovered from Covid but not having vaccinated.
This seems to be an unsettled question. There are papers going both ways. It may depend how you define “recovered” and “protective”. If someone had a quick brush resulting in a positive PCR, his immune response may not have been large. Vaccine gives controlled exposure. On the other side, exposure to virus goes thru mouth/nose, generating some response there, as I understand, while vaccine does not. So, this might give better relative protection from initial infection (v. sickness when it gets to blood). How it all interacts with time, T-cells, personal health, all unclear.
Again, the reasonable advise seem to be that people who got it to get at least one vaccine.
> Maybe all the chasidim got wiped out in 1870 and new people arose (out of nowhere) and started pretending that they were always chasidim.
sidetracking: you have a point here. Gemorah talks about real chasidim. then there were Ashkenazi medieval chasidim. modern chasidim took over a name.
RebE, I also had J&J and recently Pfizer without waiting for CDC. It is not really a booster, just a delayed second dose by a different vaccine. Also, for those who hesitate about side effects: you can take one dose, and then think about second dose after some delay. There are already reports that side effects of the second dose are due to the short interval between them. Recommendations of 3-4 weeks are based on what was tested in phase 3s. The longer the time between doses, the less side effects are.
Yserbius, I concur. I would like the OP to disclose – are these all his original thoughts or did he hear it somewhere and came to a conclusion that those sources are right. RW, did you hear this in shul? on the radio? on YWN? please, we want to understand how you can find information that we can’t.
facetiously, lfog from long covid can explain some posts that laud natural immunity and, picking up an analogy, daily drinking as protection from alcohol effects.
To serious questions mentioned above:
vaccine after covid: some recommend one vaccine. Two doses work in tandem: immune system learns the pattern, and then applies it. So, disease works as one dose and second is beneficial. Both wane with time, may require a booster, testing for antibodies makes senseantibodies are not an only source of protection, B/T-cells that are not easily measured provide protection even after antibodies fade, both after vaccine and after disease. Protection might grow with time.
vaccine decreases both infectivity and transmission, but to lesser degree than serious disease and decreases faster with time. If you consider a chain reaction, decreased transmission rate significantly decreases overall transmission. I am not hearing about prolonged transmission of several steps among vaccinated, it usually jumps from unvaxed to vaxed and then gets stopped soon.
look up what general health approaches are recommended for long covid. I am pretty sure it is not posting on YWN, most probably exercise.
Flu seems to be very low last year and this so far. you might be having something else or even repeated covid? this might explain constantly high antibody levels.
ujm, a quick google search reveals a YWN article “Talmidim of the Philadelphia Yeshiva say the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ and sing the National Anthem before their graduation ceremony.”
Stephen Flatow writes: .. late Rabbi Avigdor Miller. A student asked, “should we celebrate July 4th?” … He answered “yes,” in order to show we “appreciate the great gift of America.”
I also wonder about early yeshivos, and also times when observant children were going to public schools and were exposed to civics there.
Avira > their slogans, identify as one כת or another
Agree 100%. When my kids were at schools, lots of kids were mindlessly quoting some right-wing slogans, sometimes in subtle conflict with secular teachers who more often than not were stock liberals. I watched several debates with the kids and half of them did not even figure out who I am voting for, as I wanted to expose them to the issues. I don’t think opinions without knowledge will protect them from anything in the future. Of course, they for Romney when they heard Obama saying that he will hire 100,000 extra math teachers!
not sure about pledging, but reciting brochos in shul would be appropriate. MO do it for Israel and IDF, I know some shuls do it for US President and some for US Army, but I don’t think it is wide-spread. All old sidurim have that. I have two that daven for the opposite sides of WW1: Austrian Emperor and Russian Czar. I presume they had to publish those and also say it. I don;;t know whether masses supported it.
Now it could be a great time to ask Hashem to give wisdom to our government…
> are the same people today calling themselves Beta Israel?
seems like grasping for straw instrad of admitting someone has a better argument. Are you saying several Jewish communities existed in Ethiopia and one disappeared? Get yourself an Occam razor.
We need a list. It is important to know who is and is not a real gadol. Chofetz Chaim says you are not supposed to praise a not-100% tzaddik as it invites people to immediately find something negative about him, as we clearly see here.
refuah shleima. In regards to your observations, yahser koach for working in frontline. maybe you were fully protected when you did that, and now you are less careful? You can safely presume that you had it easier due to having a vaccine. If many months passed after the vaccine, presumably your antibody level went down but you still have B/T cells that will deal with the virus after you are infected.
If you and not the kids were the primary vector, your effect on them may have been low. So, I would suggest testing kids first for antibodies before deciding on vaccination. Maybe even if they tested positive on PCR, not sure about this.
Biggest logical error I see people doing is thinking that either vaccine or previous infection fully protects them and stopping all protections. If you are for a long time with an infected person, you will get a huge amount of virus load that will overwhelm your defenses.
I always wondered why recommendations here are similar to each other, now I understand. Try searching.
> some secular Jews that visited them in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
I recall reading that when someone who visited them did not keep shabbat, they questioned his Jewishness.
maybe it would also help if more people will take steps not to get it and not to give it to others
American system works through compromise and has currently two parties, rather than 100 as Israel and Italy have, within each multiple compromises are made to come up with a coherent position. Nobody is 100% happy. Not too many people killed, though, comparing with other countries, for which we all should be 100% happy.
Women were making sure that their husbands and sons are learning rather than shmoozing!
Also, women get their knowledge about the behavior at home from their mothers. First generation needed to learn on their own. They also heard ten commandments.
> When we made aliyah to a yishuv in the Shomron, I switched from davening nusach Ashkanaz to Sfard.
I did not realize it is a thing to switch your minhag based on what the closest shul is. You can have your nusach and daven with a different minyan, reading privately what you can in your nusach. I guess, if you were in Ethiopia, you would be a Falash Murah by now …
TSB> it was not a break-off from Nusach Ashkenaz
?! Sephardi communities are either refugees from Spain or lived for long times wherever they are. Ashkenazi Jews – a small group – came to G-d-forgotten Northern Europe about 1000 years and grew together with Northern Europe thanks to advances in medieval agriculture (possible connection between a new northern European trend of growing wheat and beans to kitniyos)
philospher, you said “Ethiopians” are mostly Christians. So are Americans, as you are. Maybe I missed the context of the discussion.
Avira > use the term sefard because they’re basing it on
this is eactly what I said – “with justifications”.
Health, I mean that the OP did not answer how he came up with the post.
We need to realize how much people are influenced by stupid ideas. There is an important economic indicator called consumer confidence. It is now down from say 80s to 70s. But it is a mixture: before election 95% of Rs thought things are good and 50% of Ds. After election, 85% of Ds thing economy is good and 40% of Rs do. On one hand, you can say that people are actually thinking and projecting their economic theories ahead, so if you expect better things ahead, you evaluate your current position as favorable. That is, if you are an oil-man and gov is planning to tax your job, you rightfully evaluate your position as unfavorable. Still, the magnitude of a switch is mind-boggling: most people’s wellbeing depends on their skills, family, job and do not change that dramatically from an election.
> hopefully your life revolves around ruchniyus not gashmius.
It takes a lot of ruchniyus to deal right with gashmius! or, sometimes, or sometimes not to deal. And this is where I find family needs most direction. Kids can learn basar& halav fine, but prefer to explain humros to their Mother instead of helping in the kitchen.
> your nusach is no one else’s concern
as in an urban legend story of a yeshiva bucher questioning host’s kiddush cup size that turned out is a yerusha from Brisker Rav or something like that.
One thing I do not understand is when Chasidim insist on nusachim. Whole Chasidic thing started as a radical departure from Ashkenaz with various justifications.
Another thing we do not appreciate is where the variety is: all Ashkenaz come from a narrow set of people, both genetically and as nusach and minhag goes, while “Sepharad” represents a multitude of tradition – real Spanish and all other countries where Jews lived for a millennium and more.
See if you or your parents or grandparents have a siddur or a machzor from older times. I usually use one of them for Yomim Noraim, making me juggle between the shul piyutim and the siddur piyutim.
> where President Reagan would be considered a RINO
true, but also any Federalist would be a Republican by now. What would Hamilton say seeing federal government allocating funds to fix bridges in Arizona? A dream come true or will he eat his hat?
At the last election, I tried to register as a Democratic Republican, but they told me I came too late.
Avira> he was not in the top tier of influencers among the already religious.
True, but not a reason to dismiss. We have currently “6 mln” Jews or somewhat Jews in USA (*), of which only 2 mln are on a projectory to survive (with increasing progeny). Is losing 4 mln not a huge tragedy? Is not saving any of them a huge things?! Most shuls do not have this on their radar. Consider late 19th/early 20th century when so many shuls (I guess except yours) had pushkas for EY, even if a small number were actually going there, so many were involved. When I was doing genealogical research, I found info about one relative on wedding lists in a newspaper, listing people who donated to settlers in EY. At which wedding did you recently see people donating for saving Jews in US, Europe, Tel Aviv, Ukraine, Russia?
coffee> I thought ימות המשיח we’ll have servants do everything for us
you don’t have a dishwasher and a car? Still using your horse’s manure on your fields? 99% of what people were dreaming about for Moschiach to bring (in gashmiyus) is here.