Always_Ask_Questions

> I’m a professional babysitter, since that’s the heter

I presume you charge competitively to other babysitters. I heard one Rav in my Father’s O’H shul explaining along the same lines that he finished law school to be able to charge them more for rabonus.

I’m saying that statistics like politics are local. You are affected by statistics of your neighborhood, your community, your friends. This statistics is not published, but you can collect it from the anecdotes and personal experience. So, personal experience useful addition to the statistics you read.

> our own experiences carry very little weight o

not always true. We read “average” numbers – for the world, country, state. You should also pay attention to your community and immediate environment. Your risk is much higher if people in your shul are coughing. Same goes for how many people are vaccinated, previously infected, etc.

you do need to tie your observations with the bigger picture, of course.

> sends a telegram in Aramaic.

might be shorter than English when paying per letter. But Chinese is even better.

Yserbius, what if you had $1 mln of uninsured merchandise in the store that you mortgaged your house for? you would still do nothing? just trying to see how far your attitude goes?

GH, yes, but Hamas is mainly digging in the wrong direction – parallel to the beach instead of from sea to sea. Maybe need to mess up with their compasses.

Also, when we compare viral load of a sick person with and without vaccine, this is AFTER they are sick. Vaccinated people are at least 5x less likely to get sick across all age categories.

re: Sanhedrin 72a. CM 425:1 if we are clear that he does not intend to kill, we are not allowed to kill – as clearly seen in Gemora’s discussion about father/son

interestingly, Gemora is also discussing a difference between owner and a vigilante

Pesachim 2b is ganav and a similar discussion that if it is clear to you that he is not planning to kill, you also do not.

Klugeryid, also why does it bother you that immunity is for 6 months? his is what the virus is and what scientists were able to create and test in one year. Next, let’s complain why a day has only 24 hours…. You need to learn to live with a reality provided by Hashem. If you have ideas how to improve it, please do.

RW, Israel up to Jordan is part of African tectonic plate, Jordan is part of Arabian. The easiest way to see how different plates match (and the source of original idea) is to cut Africa and South America from your map and then match them to each other. Play with the kids.

Abba: Israeli oil is not same as what Saudis have. In general, oil was mostly a curse for most countries except he most developed ones: Arabs, Iranians, Venezuela, Russia, etc.

klugeryid > any other vaccine that requires a booster less than a year
n0 > Immunity can be as low as fifty percent with the annual shot.

indeed, I think flu vaccine last for 6 months. The reason for annual shot is because flu is not circulating during summer. Possibly covid will adapt to a similar cycle. Note Southern sates had higher rates during summer, northern during winter – whenever people are more inside with closed windows.

ujm, what is your source hat you can kill someone who is not a threat to life, but only to property. Or maybe I misunderstood your words.

GH > high welfare dependency in certain communities are well known and politicians have refused to limit those payments

I don’t know who is using what sources, how would you know. There are bunch of yeshiva bochrim selling iphones on amazon. They might be losing on storage fees or be millionaires based on a hidden brochos.

as for using welfare sources, if you would have payments clearly going to Jewish recipients and community understands what it is for, then, I guess, you can say that the community is willing to support Torah studies and this is kosher. I doubt that this is the case, though. In most places, Jewish recipients are subsumed among larger numbers of non-Jews, and even when this is not so, a lot of government payments are coming from non-local sources, including federal.

Syag, if I remember correctly, claimed that government worker said to her that she is ok with supporting wonderful Jewish community. I think this is the same as when a store worker gives you free stuff – he is not the owner.

> LIVING LANAGUAGES EVOLVE OVER TIME

it was also spoken over multiple countries leading to geographic differences.

Brain processes less video frames per second with age, so the time literally goes faster with time if you count in frames. This is not bad. I think this means that an experienced person does not need to look at the table 60 times per second to see that it is still there. Like you, I know that my sukkah is in the same place it was 2 months ago, I don’t need to look..

> Why is 300 or at least 1200 baud insufficient?

tircha detzibura, I can learn faster than that. I also remember wanting to upgrade to 2400

> And a bunch of paper to print what we are studying for Shabbos!

Save the trees! If you have good memory, you can learn by heart what you learned during the week. If you do not, you can continue learning the same small sefer again and again, like I do.

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.

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)

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.