Always_Ask_Questions

meirG, koneh leha haver, indeed!
please help a poor Talmid Haham to send a way just one kid for half a summer has a ring to it …

mier can be right and your friend will really appreciate a financial gift. It may though change a relationship to a more financial one … I find I have better relationship with Talmidei Chachamim who had time for my questions when I was dirt poor with no financial payoff in mind.

Ctlawyer, I understand her emotional reaction and social environment. I am just trying to look at it from first principles:
– being asked to teach is a great honor. Shabbos ~ 60 – when Hillel corrected bnei Betira, he started teaching them (and then made a mistake of being too haughty).

– Were they rude, yes? imagine, you get a call at 3 am from Nobel committee (as it often happens, I hear). Rude, yes, but I bet you’ll accept the prize. Was the guy asking Hillel about Ethiopians’ feet rude and a racist? yes, but Hillel answered.

– it actually makes sense to presume that she is capable to teach. Honor of talmid chacham applies to his spouse: when his wife comes in, you need to get up. R Nachman sent geese into the courtroom so that everyone jumps and it will not be visible that he gets up for the lady, so that others will feel he will judge in her favor

– you can’t charge for Torah, but you can for missing time. So, at minimum, she could have agreed and suggested a price, confirmed by her receipts (without firm profit and maybe a nice 10% discount).

– a little pushing it: she could have just given a class and sent a bill. This is based on halakha that when you hire someone and do not ask for a price, you should pay reasonable rate that the person will charge.

– And take them to beis din if they don’t. I would be shocked if a shul would not value Torah at a measly $200.

n0 > to go with her wife’s

this is inappropriate language for a family site, or just inadequate English 🙂

Syag, I am very pro-mix, the only group I am not fond of are those who insist that their group is always right. And First A in AAQ stands for always, regardless whether I favor that opinion or not. I probably sound harsher hear as I am mostly discuss hard topics that bother me and I am interested in your opinions.
To clarify:
There is no insult to call people who learn volunteerly unemployed. Decrease in business is one of the qualities for learning Torah. The question is can they take OPM to do that. Many sources look down at it. Feel free to bring opposite ones

When I speak about unworthy Torah teachers, it’s because I value the profession and don’t talk about those who are honest and capable. If I meet an inept lawyer or a professor, I just don’t work with them, but Torah teacher is more important and problem needs to be addressed

While we are on stories, once, when a grad student and had a conference on a Friday, I called a local Rav and asked for a place to stay for Shabbos. He asked me nicely whether I am X, Y, or Z group of Jews. I replied “Jewish”. He stopped the questioning and invited me immediately.

Common, really? so he was not even good at that? reminds me of a sevorah of a 100 years ago I heard of: some American Jews were suspicious of quality of the Torahs coming from Europe. Of course, Europeans would send worse sifrei to America – where else would they be able to sell those!?
so, it is a consumer fault, not only a producer …

re: Bobover. I did not come to disagree! I just did not own a shtreimel – and could not afford it at a time! According to his nephew R Twersky, Bobover had a party line that cut his conversation off should his neighbors start theirs. It happened frequently, despite reminders. He would suddenly interrupt an intense conversation in the middle of the sentence, sigh, and say quietly, let’s go and remind them again.

RebE: ask your father and he will tell you, go to the zaida, my father and he will answer you.

teaching grandkids Torah gives a person olam haba .. why? the father can teach simply by example and by words. The kid will understand. The grandfather is too far away from grandkids in his experiences (do your grandkids always get your stories about Communist Hungary?). So, grandfather can’t just show and tell. So, he has to elevate the topic and explain the concept in general terms so that he and the grandkid have a common language. So, if the grandfather is able to learn like that, he gets olam haba.

what your Rebbe seem to have joked about is that in most cases there is no such direct transmission – kid asks father, who goes asks zeidi, and then explains to the grandkid. Sholom bayis, everyone does what they supposed to do, but no guarantee of higher learning and olam haba. Go speak to the grandkids directly. Well, RebE, you are talking to many of that generation here ..

Amil,
we were discussing overall policy in the country. I think it is a Jewish thing to strengthen families – whether for Jews or non-Jews. I do not doubt that many women would benefit from childcare support. My point was that Democratic policies consider increasing female workforce as a specific great thing, dismissing the value of mother staying with kids. For example, there are (I understand, never used them) some tax deductions for (legal) childcare expenses, but I can’t find any for parents doing it themselves. Maybe I am missing some – please let me know.

I always felt a little sad when you fill out online taxes, get some credits for kids, and then you start seeing credits decreasing and then going away with all the income filled in. Like, why did I just lovingly filled out all the names and DOBs?! There is no reward for that in olam hazeh?!

When the credits suddenly survived after Trump tax reform (even at the expense of SALT), I called kids and showed them that Fed Gov now appreciates their value! I guess I should also appreciate Obama’s letting them stay dependent on us ad shesh veesrim ..

and everyone else’s searches too, so ywnjudy has a point
you may think of how you search

for example,
“meron” patient injured hospital
or
“meron” patient condition hospital

try “meron” “blood” victim to read uplifting stories about people donating blood …

use double quotes to mark words or sentences that “must be” in the response

n0mesorah – I don’t know whether we can read their psychos correctly. Again, take into account that Biden is more polished. He is a politician. That is all he ever did. He does not need to run after cameras and tweet, they respectfully come to him. Trump had to fight for the spotlight even when he was a president. Yes, he had personal tragedies. He needs to be respected for that. And yes, he is willing to say what is needed to get elected or achieve his other political goals.

One sign of who the person truly is – is what the person does when he has a free choice, that is he is not benefitting from what he says or does. That is why it was sad, but instructive, to hear Biden and others disparaging Trump’s vaccine efforts. He would not lose much by acknowledging what was done, but he did not. Well, maybe I underestimate what the left-wingers would say, I don’t know.

Another siman – look at the children = they follow parents and often lack skills to pretend like parents do. Biden’s 50% good, 50% bad. Happens. Trump seems to have at least one very bright, 2 reasonable good and active, and two seemingly pareve. The latter can not be by chance. The guy has to have some values. Or maybe some of his wives.

Another siman – what we do not know. I am amazed that all investigations did not damage Trump (so far). To be in NY real estate business and then have FBI, NYT and other 3-letter agencies after me for years – and nothing criminal so far, just minor infractions? Should be presumed a tzadik gamur until proven otherwise in the court of law. What would a similar effort show on Biden, given that he was not involved in (legal) business, who knows.

RebE> machloket between Magen Avrom v. Sma’s wife

Women in my family have no problem understanding the difference between nerot shabbos and yom tov. Maybe this is a good example where halakha makes sense according to education of the generation.

Hard question, worthy of Rabbi Yermiyahu’s chicken legs: if the husband is a direct male descendant of Magen Avrom and the wife is a direct female descendant of Sma’s wife – how does their daughter light? [wife obviously does according to her female masorah]

I am proposing the answer: she lights by her father when she is in his house out of respect (mother needs to also respect father), but follows her mother after she marries. Teiku if she divorces and comes back to her house.

does YWN have a economist on staff to verify postings 😕

>> During Trump’s 4 years there was inflation,

inflation was 2.1%, 1.9%, 2.3%, 1.2% with being 2% or slightly below is considered good.

>> real wages were stagnant

reached pre-carter levels for the first time, equal to SIX term of Clinton and Reagan taken together, with Obama thrown in for free, all in ONE term:
median earnings went
Trump: from 110 to 120 (with 1980 being 100). +10
for comparison:
Obama – from 107 to 108 +1
Bush II: from 104 to 107 +3
Clinton: 98 to 104 +6
Bush 1: 102 to 98 -4 (decline all the time, not just depression)
Reagan 98 to 101 +3 (flat, then up, then down)
the plot modestly stops mid-Carter, showing 104 to 98: -6
[using FRED Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings:LES1252881600Q]

n0: Regarding the current pandemic, the chaver will be better off just by not mingling with all the unmasked amei ha’aretz.

yes, I think so too. It is just feels very uncomfortable in our times to consider a swath of Torah-observant Jewry to be in a such category. We are all feel close together being beseeched by outside forces and internal challenge from Reform, socialists, etc so that the classical idea of am haaertz sounds foreign. I think Gemora has dual feelings towards Am.H – we can rely on them doing certain things, we remedy demai, not fully reject it, the person who ate at R Yannai …

CTLawyer, I am not trying to criticize the learned lady, just trying to analyze the situation:
shul is giving her an honor to teach. Why refuse? More importantly, why laugh? I agree with Syag.

Teaching Torah should not be for people who are otherwise not employed. She should have taken on the challenge and bill them accordingly. Take them to beis din if they dont pay. Oops, this is probably not correct. If I learned it correctly, the beis din would have to come to the lady’s house instead of requiring her to show up.

This would have been a teachable moment for everyone!

RebE > Biden is more religious than Trunp.

He does often sound sincerely religious. But you have to remember that Biden spent his life in politics, focusing on messaging and scheming. He can recite slogans smoothly and knows which segments of population he addresses. Trump is focused on action. Was there anything religious in his strengthening of Yerushalaim, or was it purely political calculation?

We have midrashim about various rulers – Alexander, Cyrus, and worse ones, relating to Hashem in some way, especially when their actions affect Jews and Eretz Israel.

When thinking about that, you probably need to think about people when they are at their best, not their worst. When Trump is for his own ego, or when Biden pretends that he couldn’t find vaccines under the table in the oval office, there is nothing religious there.

N0, I am not calling to 19th century idea that Torah can be reduced to health regulations, but that a haver holding by taharah will likely avoid a lot of unhealthy contact. Halakha takes medical facts into consideration: we feed cohen godol before yk so that he reduces bathroom trips…

Amil, analysis coming out of administration and related economists is that we “lost” decades of progress with women now staying home more because schools are remote
Proposed remedies are to subsidize childcare. Women being at home with children is considered a bad thing..
This ignores the fact that at least 30 percent of children now stay at home even where schools are open. Wsj had an article that kids missed kindergarten, might be ruined for life, and a significant portion of comments protesting and suggesting that socializing and learning with the family may be also good.

And here are some numbers on civilian labor participation rate (LPR) for men from 20 years old to put current events in perspective:
men:
Bush II: 76.6 to 75.9 in 2008, falling to 75.3 in Jan 2009
[-0.2% per year]
Obama: slowly going down to 71.7 (-4%) in 2016, consistently over whole 8 years, not just after recession
[-0.5% per year]
Trump: staying same until Feb 2020, -3% in 2 months March/April, +1% in 2 months, then stable
[-0.5% per year even with COVID]
Biden: same for 3 months

Summary: nobody made things better in last 20 years
Bush decreased LPR by 1%, 2008 recession by 1%, Obama by 4%, COVID by 2%,

Maybe it would be more precise to take men of prime working age, say, 30 to 50 and do it separately by race and education

n0, I agree on most points you are mentioning. Some comments:

Lack of education in Pale: it was very attractive to get education. If you are a doctor or a merchant at certain level, you were even allowed to live in central cities. Whom do you think R Yitzele _Peterburger_ was a Rav of? (in truth, the only thing he liked there – streets are clean so it is possible to think Torah while walking there). At that time, education correlated heavily with conversion and assimilation.

Value of education now: it is well possible to go study gender studies and then appeal to the government to forgive the debt. As any tool, it has to be used correctly. A lot of professions ensure comfortable life-long middle class employment – engineering, software, accounting, office management, nursing, therapists, technicians … Are there dangers here? I think they are less than in previous generation.. We have Jewish colleges in NY and NJ, we have online degrees. Maybe we need consultants within the community who can guide students towards right approaches. Of course, lack of necessary skills at high school level may be a problem.

Businesses in the community: I am all for that. We do need more Jewish business interacting with each other. If our ethical/business values are strong, all Jews (and non-Jews) would love to sign up Jewish accountants with arbitration according to the local beit din. Trump said that, so some people see value… but when work opportunities in the community are limited, it is not healthy. A lot of people see chinuch as an only job venue. This seems to conform with halakha – make teachers numerous and poor but provide best value for teaching children. Except, the key halakhic instrument is missing – unrestricted competition between teachers. Instead, we mostly have schools that “sell” teachers as packages and partition the market between each other by hashkafos. So, we end up with (some) unworthy teachers who are not happy themselves and are not helpful to kids. Many of them would have been great accountants.

Earning a living – It is not problem to be poor and learn Torah whole day. I don’t know – is it popular? Make your shabbat like chol – and Rabbi Akiva knew what it means to be poor … How many people skip shalosh seudos in order not to rely on charity? I think being an erliche Yid (old fashion value, I know) precludes relying on taking money from others, whether Jews or state.

MadeAliyah, I think Yserbius is making a point that flu transmission is symptomatic (there is also existing immunity – thus adults being more protected). So, flu transmission wuold go dramatically down were the people/children stay home when visibly sick. Maybe you are right and after this pandemic, there will be more understanding or even shaming of people who contribute to flu pandemics. Or maybe more chumros in natilas yadaim …

We might be in general exposed to a lot of stuff that we are not paying attention to. When my older kids went to school first time for K (in a small school), being solely at home previously, the whole family was continuously sick with multiple symptoms for 6 months from getting the whole load in one shot.

TLIK > There is no halacha that a boy should be dependent long term on anyone
> pay far more attention to … money related issues

maybe these issues are connected? If the man is not capable (taught) to earn a living, then he has to rely on the shver. This might have been reasonable in the 19th century Pale, but, from basic principles, most people should be able to have a decent job or business and be able to learn without relying on family, community, or government welfare.

Could it be an unintentional result of the success? Keeping community apart from society undoubtfully helped to keep Jewish community intact through European haskalah, American melting pot, and Israeli hiloniyut. But the closed communities lost a lot of basic Jewish values while trying to survive. This is akin to side effect of medicine.

I agree – there is no reason to check references. I never checked them for any of my wives, and they all had wonderful personalities.

>> Under Reagan. we had the highest deficit at that time,

RebE, please define “we”. I am sure you were managing. _Government_ had deficit because they returned money to the people and spent some to affect the world. What did we get for that money? We freed (a large part of) the world from Communism, taking away major supplier of sonei israel in the middle east; leading to ~ 2 mln Jews to leaving USSR; freeing whole Eastern Europe. All these millions of freed people surely increased demand eventually!

Maybe, we should have candidates signing their plans under oath. While Mr. Biden publicly denied progressive plans in the debates, now Bidenistas point out that all these policies were somewhere on the website, so why are we surprised…

RebE >> Supply side economics, voodoo economics, has been shown that it does not work.

I think a lot of proofs are heavy on rhetoric. First, a strawman (or an exaggerated claim of pro-suppliers): reducing taxes will increase collected taxes (quickly). Then, you can show that this is rarely true. this is, of course, is a crude logic of a roman tax-collector – how much can I farm from people?

In truth, the first question is simply – would society be more productive with less taxes. According to wiki, Greg Mankiw _criticizes_ suppliers saying – ” “Tax cuts rarely pay for themselves… about one-third of the cost of a typical tax cut is recouped with faster economic growth”

In plain Yinglish, this means that if government returns $100 to the taxpayers, taxpayers will generate $133 from it. Or, if gov takes $100, it leads to a collective loss of $33 ….
Given that government spends almost 40% of US GDP, we are talking serious money lost here …

Can you suggest _any_ policy that can help poor without throwing away 1/3 of it? (and 1/3 is average, the worst of policies are even less efficient)
then, it should be implemented before doing what we are doing now.