Always_Ask_Questions

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?

farby, you are really looking at very superficial issues. You seem to consider Daf Yomi a biggest modern accomplishment of modernity.

philosopher? I stand by what I said. Most Ethiopians who came to Israel are practicing Christians

You are repeating this without any proof or at least an explanation how you came to this conclusion. There were similar claims about Russians here, I looked at the numbers and they were not correct. I started looking up numbers here and they do not look correct either.

If your claim is based on personal observation, you may be confused by the timeline. Judaic Beta Israel were the first to come to Israel, possibly before you were born. Many of them did not want anything to do with remaining converts. The more time passes, the more remaining ones are those who come from converts. I do not know enough whether they are serious about their teshuva or just opportunists to get out.

> Did you seriously think we were going to approve that?

I would apologize, but it looks like an idea of apologizing for your acts is verbotten.

I don’t know where you got that idea. Other posters seem to have no problem with it.

Go hundred years back and think whether people could have predicted current events. Go 200 years back and think whether people could have predicted events 100 years ago.

Yserbius, a minor correction – RR Kaminetsky, Feinstein, Soloveichik came to US before the war. And by looking at current communities, it is hard to appreciate how manhy shuls and schools operated in 1930-50s working with Yidden many of whom lost a lot of tradition. What is true, many of these communities with time became more insular and less interested in reaching those who were not. And also true, that assimilated Jews are moving further away, so Chabad is indeed working with different types of people (Berdichever talking to a guy smoking on shabbos – this is maybe 2nd son from Hagada, intellectuals attracted to early YU – third, and students that Chabad finds now is 5th or 6th …). Also, Chabad was able to sustain this energy over time via their organizational focus. On the other hand, as mentioned, some less-educated Chabadnikim are not aware what else happened in the world and behave accordingly.

> Get a wooden beam, make a pear-shaped hole,

you missed one step – your beam should be within running distance from where gorillas live!

> why are most Ethiopians claiming to be Jews and emigrating to Israel practicing Christians?

And when did you stop hacking your spouse?

These are separate issues – whether they are halachik Jews and whether they are descendants of Jews following some remnants of Judaism. In regards to the second, there is a remarkable number of opinions here claiming “without evidence” that these people are Christians, Karaims, etc. This would be remarkable if similar opinions would not have been here regarding multiple other groups that are not like a group you are coming from.

you spend a couple of thousand yeas in a jungle and we will see what you will remember. Some people I met are pretty dedicated to what they do. for example, they would not let those relatives who convered to another religion into their dwellings, treating them as tumah.

From personal (Jewish) perspective, it would be an equal aveira to indulge in any other unhealthy behavios and then expect society to pay for your costs. Specifically, to your claims:

ACA allows for insurance companies to charge smokers up to 50% more

Starting in November, Delta Airlines will charge unvaccinated employees an extra $200 a month for the company health plan, citing the high cost of COVID hospitalizations…self-insured companies can more easily increase premiums for unvaccinated employees.

Also, I think currently, ort recently, full costs were covered. Copays can be high:
Still, patients won’t be responsible for the full cost of treatment, which can reach up to $50,000 for a severe case. Fully insured patients hospitalized with pneumonia — which involves similar treatment as for people with COVID-19 — typically end up owing around $1,300, for example.

> its always according to party lines!

indeed, when Agudah was forming after numerous other Jewish parties were formed, Chofetz Chaim was skeptical: even if party consists of only Talmidei Chochamim, the power will anyway belong to the Party Secretary.

I recall pennies became popular when Chicago Tribute publisher decided to sell papers by a cent, but nobody had them. So, he convinced merchants to sell things for $0.99 instead of $1.00, and then you would have a penny for the paper. If this is not an urban legend, interesting how papers not only had genivas daas inside but also corrupted the marketplace (as people think for a second hat something is $5 when they see $5.99)

Did you seriously think we were going to approve that?

> I never understood why Sleeping in a Sukkah was pinned?

this seem like an only genuine question in this whole thread.

at Weimar speed – a penny at the beginning of a thread is worth a dime at the end

Is it wrong encouraging kids to put pennies in tzedokah? are they now less than a perutah?

> chasidim chose not to follow Mishna berura?

this is a murkier case to defend, as Chasidim started as a group disregarding traditions of their communities. If you accept this shita, then they should be the only ones to actually need a Mishna Berurah.

> translating it into a goyish language is a good thing?

Rambam. He used to write in a goyishe language.

> whether as a wife one is required to carry out the requests and instructions her husband gave her.

One guy asked that, and was told in no uncertain terms: listen to everything Sarah told you.

Some of this discussions remind of the hypothetical asked by an orphan in Gemora – what if both my Father and my Mother ask a cup of water at the same time. They should not. Question dismissed.

Syag, agree. There are many saying about Talmidei Chachamim that can be used as the definition of the term.

For example, if you see a T’Ch doing an aveirah at night, then you don’t have to tell him next morning because he surely did teshuva already. That is, an aveirah does not disqualify, but a lack of introspection does.

Similarly, T’Ch-im merabim shalom b’olam. So those who do not, do not qualify.

Avira, you are employing circular logic: using your dislike of one group to impute another. What is common here that you dwell on fine theoretical points of mesora to fully disregard reality: Zionists creating a vibrant state with both parnosa and Torah and saving Jews from multiple countries; chabad saving multitudes that nobody else thought of finding. For each of these, you have an explanation why what looks good is bad. I am perusing my Chumash for a mitzvah to judge the world like that, but didn’t find anything yet.

Health, do your patients have access to insurance or Medicaid? I presume these drugs will be well covered. I don’t know what the halacha is when someone ends up consuming 1000s of dollars of medicine instead of using $40 of vaccine. Should such person refuse insurance payment or at least make a donation to, say, cover others like him?

Maybe the understanding of the situation is different? Girls feel pressure to start shiduchim earlier because they would rather be early than late, they have a larger selection of hatanim of different ages, and they have more time to find the right one. That is, they are investing themselves in the process instead of relying on the nes.

If you push boys to go earlier, you take away most of the above opportunities from the girls.

This is an interesting case: inflation was higher than income growth, so real wages went down 0.5 percent. So why would someone post sheker? I doubt that someone would do this on purpose, as there seems to be no hanaah here. Maybe he actually read it in some partisan source, then he needs to review where he is getting his info. Would love to understand how this happened

> rambam or a mishnah berurah? I should hope it’s the latter.

My limited understanding is that MB is trying to develop a comprehensive halakha harmonizing multiple sources, including some old less known ones. As such, it is not really representative of possible specific traditions. This makes a lot of sense in the modern world when people are exposed to multiple approaches, but if you do have a specific tradition, you do not have to look MB at all.