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Avira, ok. There was a Rav, whom I also can call a Rebbe the way you do, who moved to EY and was asked – which party do you support? He answered firmly: party of Moshe Rabbeinu!
TS Baum, I hear you, but we should take that learning mood and project it to the rest of our lives.
Little frogie, pay attention: the czar already switched to gregorian calendar and learn how the knight moves!
coffee > why you are asking the CR instead of a rabbi
if you discuss first with hevrusas, then you can clarify your question. Furthermore, I once asked a Rav what is important in answering questions (it is his main occupation, after all). He answered – most important is to help the person clarify his question.
shlucha, please let us know the answer and the references!
There is no doubt that the concept of a gadol/gaon/etc existed in various times, but to what degree it matters might have changed. I am wondering whether litvishe world got influenced by chasidim to some degree – having an identifiable leader seems to be popular.
In general, it is a republican idea: you ask a shaila of you rov, he asks of his rosh yeshiva, and he asks someone higher. This graph generates one or more figures at the top. Some may be specialized in certain areas, others – more general. Say, Rav and Shmuel were both gedolim, but we accept their psak based on the topic. Not sure whether the difference of expertise was apparent at their time or established over time. We see something similar now – there are people for whom Rav Chaim is a posek for learning, but for covid halokhos they don’t hold by him and go to ploni ben shapiro.
jackk,
first Tevet 23 was on Dec 27!Furthermore, I bet this would not have entered your mind, if you wouldn’t be tuning into some news or site or paper. Please, please tell us what caused your mind dwell on that, I am really curious how this enters our community.
Also, it is a yohrtzeit of 3,000 Americans who died from Covid on that day and 1,300 who died today – 6 to 12 months after Brandon “shut down the virus”.
>> and my 3rd answer, Rav chaim, made him very settled… I have never met Rav chaim, but I knew it would make him happy to say it.
maybe this was not worded accurately? What is the heter to change words even if you are speaking to a drunk, and even if he is a husid. Or was he physically threatening you?
smerel > An unheard of 19th century author
avira >> On the other hand, klal yisroel has adopted this story – when we start dismissing such traditions out of hand, we are on a slippery slopeThis is a slippery slope. Kuzari principle states that the Torah is proven v. other religions because it was given publicly to millions of people, rather than a small band of people, and then passed thru generations and could not have been conceivably introduced later on. If we take our trust in Golem to the same degree, we will successfully disprove Kuzari.
Re: Ravina,
front page article provides this explanation for a more drastic case:
> there can be a complete disconnect between an individual’s talent and the evil that he commitsI don’t agree with this. I think this is downplaying what a Talmid Chacham is.
> I don’t follow so Sherlock Holmes, and Peter Pan have some truth because they are so well known?
Can we stop destroying everything!? I personally was in Sherlock Holmes’ home and I have a (Purim) hat to prove it.
Avira, why are you questioning someone’s ability based on a klal and a book you read. This is unbecoming.
Avira > I’m not going to cry over others’ misbehaviors;
Do we have a source that condemns women who learned Gemorah properly? R Eliezer says it is like teaching them shtus, but b’deavad – if they did not learn shus, would it be OK? R Yehuda talks favorably about Beruriah – not for learning Gemorah, but for learning Gemorah well – and from multiple teachers. Or, would you say, if someone did something risky and survived – she did an aveirah? Even with this, R Eliezer’s position seems to apply to the teacher, not to the student.
If you think Maharal is so awesome, you should cling to each of his words. Let’s raise hands here – how many books by Maharal did you learn?
Syag, are you saying that there were no people who refused to wear masks? We had lovely discussions here with people explaining how bad masks are. Same in person, here and, as reported by reliable witnesses in other towns. Maybe I am not understanding your definition.
same article on applicability of the Harayot priorities:
Rabbi Auerbach states it is impossible to apply these rules in our times.Rabbi Feinstein seconds this approach.
Minchat Shlomo, 86:60
Iggrot Moshe Choshen Mishpat 2 73:2, 75:2
Along these lines the Mishnah Berurah states that we have no Torah Scholars in our time and this cannot be used as a way to decide, which person should be saved fi rst (547:12), the Magen Avraham states this as well.From the same article on pandemics, fascinating references:
Tzitz Eliezer vol. 9 28:3 – if you can spend same amount of vaccine on 100 old OR 1000 young patients saving, on average, same number of lives. for older people, you reduce chance of dying, for young – eliminate completely. We give vaccine to younger – claim for certain saving is higher than uncertain.
based on Pri Megadim Siman 328 in the Mishbatzot ZahavTzitz Eliezer 9:17 a physician should put himself in danger in order to stop an epidemic and save
more lives, as opposed to the regular situation where a physician is prohibited from placing his life in dangerRabbi Daichovsky told the author, we must vaccinate the super-vectors, a.k.a. young children, because they are considered Rodfi m, one who pursues another individual to kill him. we vaccinate health care workers before anyone else. This is because health care workers are needed to fight the epidemic
quoting from a secondary source Rationing During a Pandemic Flu Aryeh Dienstag (this is pre-covid article!). There are multiple reference to value of people to society
Horiyot 13: men over women (in saving, but not in ransom), kohen over israel over mamzer, but Talmid Chacham before Am Haaretz, even if a King [T’Ch is irreplacable, King not]
Mishnah Berurah (OC: 547:22) – there are no Talmidei Chachamim at our times [AAQ: this might have changed 🙂 seems not to be the current opinion, though]
Rambam on Mishna Haroyot 3:8 – we do save King before Talmid Chacham because people need him
R Tendler: human life is infi nite and therefore cannot be prioritized objectively. Practically, however, society may need certain persons more than others and therefore prioritization can be used
R Oshry (Shoah, selecting people to send to die): duty of community leaders to take courage and operate in any way they saw fit to save as many people as possible
R Auerbach: age does not go into the equation of whom one saves first. What one should only look into is the level of danger and the chance to save the most people
private communication with Rabbi Daichovsky he told the author that there is a value in saving people whom society needs in order to preserve a functional society
Gadol > in some deep Red jurisdictions
I am sure this is also happening. The path on both sides, seems to be – we will counter their lies with our lies, and then double them. This is not going to end well. At least as public schools are going, they are funded by the taxpayers and should generally reflect taxpayers’ will (which may differ by state).
A typic al example would be a US government high school class where in one of the first classes the teacher starts explaining that Senate is not representative and he wishes that would be changed. I am sure this is his opinion and he is very sincere. Still, this is not what he was hired for. But a possible solution is not that hard:
1) publish curriculum
2) do random testing of students and see if an abnormal number of them hold biased opinionsa MUCH more problematic case is a story about illiterate peasants coming to a Jewish mill. The miller will count the sacks by putting a penny for every sack. Then, the miller will go to the back to get the money to pay. The peasant will see the pennies and steal them …
Red > any different than buying day-old bread from a bakery
difference is that the store sells day-old vbread as “day old”. Here they advertise “one week rentals”, they do not suggest “two for one week”, they just cannot accept a return during their week off. At least, this is how I understood it.
You seem to have 2 concerns:
1) taking away business from the company. Chofetz Chaim would tear up a post office stamp whenever he would send a letter with someone travelling to the same destination. So, this is definitely a valid concern but also a hiddur. Furthermore, in his case, this is an ongoing and self-initiated problem – if a lot of people will stop using mail, the losses will disrupt the service. In your case, it is a once-a-year thing and they made the rules.2) appearing to be scheming. How about you just tell them your plans and ask their opinion? Only you had to ask an owner, not an employee who does not care. Maybe suggest a small extra fee to make it agreeable.
actually 3) doing business with non-Jews around their holidays. If nobody comes, and here is their regular Jewish customer who helps fill the season, will they praise whoever for that?
There are productive ways to deal with CR: Soth Carolina is considering bill that will require schools to post detailed curriculum. This sounds like a great idea for transparency – along with testing (for knowledge, not just covid).
Syag, are they now sequencing for individual patients? I thought it is done only “on average” for like 1% of cases. Interesting.
It makes sense that communities that had previous waves will be mostly affected by omicron, plus also high propagation in schools. By the way, we can also learned from the ways of non-Jews: see what propagation is happening when they celebrate and travel and then they stand in long lines to test? Similar things were probably happening in our communities during holidays, it just did not get in the news.
Gadol > CRT is a great social wedge
It has substance. You can grapple with a specific “CRT” wording, but it is a fact that schools do propaganda, in many cases left-wing one. If you want to be talking to people with different views, it would be helpful if you recognize the facts before arguing an opinion.
ujm, I just quoted a psak by R Grodzinsky that uses profound (long term, for others) priorities that evaded the Rabbis who were asking the question (who looked at short-term risk to the people themselves). This should make you think and research what else is out there.
You need to be careful evaluating halakha in some cases. If it was looking at an abstract case dealing with just one parameter – status of people involved – then it does not mean that decision might not be different in other cases. I just brought a psak, there may be more complexities here. Feel free to expand.
ujm > maximum number of passengers possible given the fact that there are insufficient space
ujm, in practical situation, there are additional factors that will be used:
sort everyone by weight and size (lowest to highest), although one could argue that a fatter person have higher chance of survival (both food and buoyancy)
more important – skills that will help everyone to survive – rowing, doctors, radio amateurs
most important – those whose survival will be important in a longer term – when they land on an island, or even when they come back home. See Teshuva by R Grozdensky in Vilno, 1940 a month before it was occupied. They asked who should get Sugihara visas – older Rabbis who will be first to be arrested and killed, or the younger ones who will lose their children to shmad. He answered older ones – because (1) they’ll be able to help remaining ones better when they come to America, and (2) they are more important for American JewsHave a check-out system like bottle deposits:
you take a book, put a dollar. you return a book, take a dollar.
if someone does not care and leaves a book, someone else can put it back and take a dollar.Use tokens on shabbos. Use same tokens for aliyot. You run out of tokens, no aliyot.
Syag > My symptoms were seemingly unaware that the omicron was supposed to be mild
Refuah shleimah. Sorry if I was harsh on you, did not know you are posting under distress 🙂
Given that your previous covid was wuhan long ago, this one might have been delta, not omicron. There is almost as much delta now as a month ago, it is just a “low percentage” of the total.yehudis > can be truly heroic .. And on the flip side …no one is intrinsically better than anyone else
I agree and disagree. Truly, a moment of challenge reveals a lot. Gemora defines these moments as “kiso, koso, vekaaso”. And in this case, we had all of this – a lot of financial issues clouding decisions; anger at others for whatever reason, and, I suspect (supported by purchase stats 🙂 – some drinking also.
I disagree with “kulanu shavim”. People whom I respected and looked up to mostly continued doing good things, often more than usual; and those whom I avoided before, it is now easier to keep 4 amot/6 ft away. What was interesting, the Syag’s “third option”, beinoni, I guess, which was the majority of people I know. Many of those revealed to belong to one of the 2 groups Either I did not notcie before, or their character revealed in crisis.
sounds like it is an open secret that every regular customer would know. They understand in advance that they are giving it to you for 2 weeks.
The only question might be that you would otherwise have it for 2 weeks and pay them more, so you are depriving them of livelihood. It sounds like absent this opportunity, you would pay for the week and use for the week, right? Then, they have no loss and you an extra convenience. Of course, it is a slippery slope to convince yourself that you really need 1 week, but in this case, you actually did it already.
n0 > Modesty is the opposite of needing attention
when a certain senator was trying to define tznius into legislation, he was asked to give a strict definition of what lack of tznius is. He answered: I know when I see it.
cheating businesses will lose out: they now post prices as $9.99 to make you feel it is less than $10. now, they’ll have to go to $9.95, losing 4 cents.
RW > psychological reason that they don’t see the actual money leaving their hand
exactly! Paying with a card requires higher psychological efforts to limit yourself from over-spending. Any invisible object is harder to perceive and react accordingly. Same with virus (v. wild animals). Same with Hashem (v. idols).
YS > paid cash for anything besides a babysitter?
quarters for parking. Pennies for kids to pay into a pushka in a store. Never paid cash or anything to a babysitter. My wife barely lets me to stay with kids.
Rw > how do you explain math of a 100 cents equate to a dollar,
you won’t. With Brandon’s inflation, dollars will be new cents soon. Italians used to pay in “milli-liras” (one word) rather than liras.
Ha, that explains all the posting bursts here! Tell us what new and productive things you were able to do at home?
Kuvult > treat everyone like a Mensch.
HaGaon Henrich Heine gives a practical advice – try everyone once, just make sure that if someone breaks your trust, make sure you don’t give hi a second chance (this is what we call now “abuse”). you will have some losses, but you can live carefree with some minor losses.
Also, this story tells you about long-term ramifications of a minor act. This old Yid’s chocolates and brachot reverberate half-century later. Imagie if he would just called the boy, said “nu”, and then sent him away with a quick nod?
YWN, it is hard to change yourself, but it is almost impossible to change others. So, start with an “easier” task:
– learn the next week parsha and the next masechet for daf yomi.
– have an alternative sefer that you can learn when you can’t find the current one. Something that is not likely to attract attention: uktzin, halakhos emes vesheker, humros in bein Adam l’havero, yiddish edition of Artscroll.
– bring your own sefer
– learn mishnah by heart like in good old times
– just actually daven.> $900 which, in Los Angeles, is not a crime.
Is 4900 a new prutah? checking my watch – how fast is inflation going?
Orange > Users could report tzinius violations while driving
“report while driving” is not safe, unless you meant ” tzinius violations while driving”. This is done better automatically. Online platforms already have skin detectors to censor inappropriate images, just add two lower notches, one for Jews and a lower one for Muslims.
Syag, thanks for your questions! I think I already answered above – I care more for Torah learning than other endeavors.
But, of course, while Gemora says that work/learn balance people are generally more successful, there are other nisayonos in life as you mention! If I am talking to friends, I would surely suggest them not studying towards non-productive degrees, and doing PhD at a faster rate and part-time. Not bragging, but I got PhD without being on welfare, first having a fellowship and then getting a job, and my wife was able to stay with the kids as long as she wanted (which she did). I surely missed out on some exciting opportunities that required long work hours for future reward.
But, anyway if there are some people here getting PhD in gender studies while staying on welfare and neglecting kids, please reveal yourself so that we can straighten you out!
amom, I apologize and sorry for using wrong assumptions. Anyway, for teacher’s salaries – did you look at starting a class teaching in a town that has ore working people and less people capable/having time for teaching. As I put above, $5K x 15 kids = $75K – $25K expenses would give you a salary higher than now. With 2-3 friends and a shul that is willing to give you use of the building, you can thrive and use your talents.
On a bright side of this serious problem, there is something about serendipity of reading a sefer you find on the table! I sometimes leave seforim that are under-read by the tzibur (usually, mussar and all bein adam l’havero) and then count number of people who peruse the book that they will never open it otherwise. The book with the most catchy title that attracted a lot of random users both here and in my father’s O’H shul was a small pamphet called “Lying for Truth”. Seems like everyone was interested in what heterim are available, but ended reading it more learned but slightly disappointed (not too many are).
n0, the point was taking public money to support Torah learning when it was not the taxpayer intent.
We had these discussions before. It is obvious that this was not an ideal in olden time, then it becomes an “emergency measure” for the times when community is in danger. But by mow, it is becoming accepted as core value to the degree that here is resentment to people who disagree, do not sufficiently support, and a challenge – support my Torah or some homeless dude.
I am afraid we are losing our values – while trying to preserve them. Again, let’s presume we still need these emergency measures, but somehow we need to ensure that this emergency character is remembered – and, when possible, moved towards a better one. Can a talmid chacham spend two hours a day working, or training to work? If not, maybe one hour? Do we have economic disincentives – he will lose gov benefits and stipend doing that?
If true, the numbers for 2nd generation immigrants are very encouraging. We do not have a similar success in USA. What percentage of R- and C- Jews eventually have kosher homes? 5? 10? Here we have Jews coming after several generations of total assimilation and having 25% kosher homes and their children – 50%?! Consider those 20-30% of non-Jews as the price we paid for saving a mln+ of Jewish neshomos from communist gehenom.
amom, you got to take the whole package. These are same democrats that bring all government programs that help you. More “law and order” republicans tend to tie public assistance to work encouragement/requirement. Current welfare work requirements are due to mid 90s Republican reform that reduced number of people on welfare from 13 mln to 3 mln.
I don’t know whether kollel wives are not on internet, but I think most are on the sister site.
amom > Years ago I think it was more common, but today
I think this is because a couple of generation ago, there were working families that spent their meager earnings to send their kids to yeshiva and then even kollel out of love of Torah and out of fear of devastation that was happening with the Jewish community in America. Currently, you often have (statistically, I am not trying to stereotype) parents who do not have serious earnings with, Baruch Hashem, large families, and they are not able to support everyone. Others, and this sounds like your MiL, discovered that there is now a strong community that can support ehriche yidden who earn a living and stay true to Torah, and so they see that their children can combine both. This is a difference of opinions and everyone can easily bring proofs for their side and the answer may be different for different people.