Always_Ask_Questions

Avram,
this is was said by a couple of Rabonim on the phone. I also do not hear the same from the Rabbis in the community, regardless of their affiliation. Maybe some speak differently when addressing a larger audience.

It looks like for now Biden keeps Trump’s sanctions on Cuba in place despite the left wing pressure.
Biden seems not be very creative, but he does not always destroy things. IT may be he is in a political bind, does not want to lose further Hispanic vote that moved slightly Republican way in 2020.

RebE, uniforms for tu bAv is a good example, but even then there were limitations: king’s daughter will wear kohen godols daughter’s dress, etc. Maybe the message is to try to improve gradually and not plan for total equity, then people will accept it.

Syag, the writer has a subject cost of living and talks about shirts for say 5 kids for $500 and not $25k for their tuition. You think this is just because he likes to complaint. Fine, then he doesn’t need our advice. If he is still here, he might clarify.

I agree with your friend on teaching frugality. Besides general middos, there’s a practical issue that kids might not be able to afford the same lifestyle based on their own earnings. I know of a billionaire who had his college aged son helping serve dishes to people at the end of the table ( me) at the yeshiva dinner in the honor of the big donation from the father.

These are minhagim, that is nedarim taken by our fathers and grandfathers. So, RebE’s grandfathers took on different observances than someone else’s. No need to argue…

What about Sephardim, who exchanged wine in av for selichot in elul. As this year a week before tisha bAv is same as rosh hodesh, do you have shorter selichot? Or you still need to atone for rice on pesach?

Syag, if you pay say 5000 tuition, would you complain about 100 shirt? You know the story about someone who asked a Rav whether he can do arba kosot with milk? The Rav gave him money to buy not only wine, but meat also. Listen carefully to people instead of stereotyping!

Pesachim 112a: Rabbi Akiva, who said: Make your Shabbat like an ordinary weekday and do not be beholden to other beings. If one is unable to honor Shabbat without financial help from others, it is better for him to save money and eat his Shabbat meals as he would on a weekday rather than rely on other people.

this should apply to clothing also.

All said, I am not aware of schools where clothing is a significant item comparing with tuition. What’s the deal?

why can’t the author pass uniforms from older kids to younger ones or exchange with neighbors?

RebE, yes, there are multiple other cases of boycotting high prices, including Manischewitz in NY, I think in 1930s. The answer might be for school to give people a little leeway and require some overall standard rather than a specific uniform that is produced by one manufacturer and sold by one store.

> most health care expenditures (and almost all of the procey ones) are not governed by the free market
> As to why they aren’t implemented I dont know.

Well, if we continue voting for people who do not want or do not attempt, then you will continue seeing all expenditures not governed by the market… You can only see what is possible after you try. There are a number of industries that were presumed to be non-market that were successfully deregulated – air, phone, some of mail and utilities.

As an example of how corruption and self-dealing prevents easy solutions: at the beginning of the pandemic, I asked my local politician to immediately increase enrollment into existing online schools, while they were struggling re-inventing the wheel via Zoom. He first agreed that this is a good idea but later replied that the effort stalled “because of local opposition”. I presume same reason market solutions for medicine are not done.

emes, thanks for agreeing on Trump. I agree that structure of US society matters. US is good at the top percentiles – called when vaccine is required, or a Manhattan project, and maybe even at the median (strong, more educated middle class going back 100+ years, more than most Europeans), but less controlled at the lower percentiles (not just vaccines, but also violence, etc). Maybe analogous to Babylonian learning – best at top and worst at the bottom. Maybe for the same reason – European society develops from their old source, while American is built on independent search ….

But the “fault” of Biden is that he presented himself as capable of saving country from the chaos of Trump, but in reality he has no idea what to do. He tried federal vaccination sites that probably took energy away from hospitals and pharmacies, slowing down the initial process, now these are closing and Biden is proposing going with barbers in Black areas (I did not hear – is he proposing anything for white Republicans?). WSJ has an article interviewing such a barber, who was very impressed by a celebrity visit by … a husband of Biden’s VP .. mostly that he dared to get into the place where more people are killed than dying from COVID. Barber himself, though, was not vaccinated and still does not plan to, so I am not sure whether he will help convince others. I don’t know whether biden has other ideas beyond this barbarism. So, it was definitely a smart political strategy, but it is pure genivat daat and denied the country a chance to be led by some more capable people.

> because it is relatively easy to be a frum girl.

I came to a similar conclusion – it is easier to want to marry T’Ch than to actually become one. Even your list of a “frum” boy missed a “couple” of things – derech eretz and derech eretz (middos and earning an honest living).

Is it really easier to be a yeras shamaim young lady than bocher? Probably not, if her education would focus on middos, professional education on how to be a teacher (future family or school), earning an honest living, etc

At the end, the explanation is probably biological – males of all species and nations are prone to more risk and deviation from the norm.

I second the Sephardi idea. It was explained to me that this is simply a method of education – so that everyone can repeat after chazan and learn. Beats the tuition.

For the issue of faster davening, just have a sefer (or ADHD-style, several seforim) that you can learn while others are still davening. Not only you got your bakashot before everyone else, you also support them thru learning!

I have to admit to a shameful joke: a pashute yid asked me once why I am davening so fast. I replied that the Rav understands tefilah more, so he davens longer. I understand less, so I daven faster. He then suggested that I take a siddur with translation…. If you are that person and are reading this, please accept my sincere apologies.

RebE, mazel tov!

Yoma addressed the issue of Chief Rabbis at the end. R Hanina refuses to accept an apology from Rav for 13 years because he saw a dream that Rav will be a Rosh Yeshiva (hanging on a palm), so he did not want to retire or die, and made Rav make yerida to Bavel where he became the Rosh yeshiva. So, this is clear that there is one Chief Rabbi at a time, Israeli and Russian customs notwithstanding.

IYK, the question about children depends on the risk. If the kids are constantly exposed, then you are choosing a chance between the exposure to a wild, or created by an enemy, virus v. vaccine that was created and tested to be good. Of course, test for antibodies first, maybe the kid had it. Some recommend one shot in such cases. Choice is less clear for kids that are not exposed.

So, you may be better off reading or listening to a class that covers a topic in depth, maybe looking up multiple sources yourself. When you go through several sugyot like that, then you may want to go through whole text.

Color is cultural. If I recall, an appropriate present to the wife in Israel was linen clothes, in Bavel, colorful, and I don’t think the colors were fifty shades of black. Red wasn’t appropriate, though

Avira, and what is do great about Sephardic kids assimilating into black hats? What would be wrong with them wearing turbans and learning Ben Ish Hai? Ironically they are wearing black hats for opposite reason that you do: to be like others around them..

But it seems the main contention point is your view that nonreligious Jews building a Jewish society in eretz Israel is a pure evil… Understandable perhaps when seen through the lenses of multiple bitter battles of european history, but maybe we need to take a bigger view, as Chafetz Chaim did when he refused to go settle in petach tikva: I will have to visit eida and Rav Kook, and I’ll have to go to one of them first and then the other will not learn Mishna Berurah. I’d rather see Mishna Berurah in EY than be there myself.

Bonus question: where in Petach Tikva he was supposed to live?

balagan is probably original Persian and then Turkish before Russian, but it did find a home in Israel!

bitachon, kibutz – you are mixing up the word core meaning and context: I presume Baal worshipper will have bitachon in their idol.

agada = true story – I think Rambam will put this in the first category of those who repeat words of Sages respectably, but do not understand science. Again, the way people use it reflects their attitude, not unique to Ben Yehudah

Chashmal – you have a point here. In defense, Septuaginta translates Chashmal as elektron (amber), suggesting an easy translation of electricity, that was derived from elektron. This was a trend common to all nationalistic language devlopers. See French academy that defends the language by forcing translations of English terms.

But a bigger picture – while early Zionists had a choice between Yiddish, Russian, and Hebrew – and chose Hebrew for ideological reasons – think what would happen in 1950s when Jews from Arab countries came to Israel – they might have either stayed in their countries and end up under Saddam/Assad/Ayatollahs, or came to Israel and either have to learn Yiddish or created a multi-lingual society where people understand each other even less than now.

Avira, my point is that the fashion is for everyone in certain communities to dress like talmidei chachamim had pluses and minuses. Pluses are increased self esteem and increase in desire to be like talmidei chachamim. The minus is that after some time people delude themselves that they made it even when they are not, and people from outside judge Torah by them. When I am cut off by a car driven by someone in a black hat, I don’t have time to see what brim it is.

> Succahs should always be kept dry

I thought we were moving to Sukkah to fill vulnerable and not depend on all the protections we have at home. If you insist on maintaining perfect temperature, humidity and acidity in your temporary dwelling, you might be defeating the purpose

Syag, I am confused and intrigued – what exactly you don’t believe in the “murder theory”?
A. that people died? this is confirmed by “excess deaths” statistics by now…

B. that our actions affected how many people died? As a kid understood it, if the world would stay home for several weeks, the plague would have stopped. You said before that early period deaths were hard to avoid. This might be. But most deaths were later on, from fall 2020 to February 2021.

C. That your community consists of such tzadikim that melech hamaves skipped it? Still, can you rely on the miracle, and with some many Talmidei Chachamim passing, are you saying you are more deserving than them?

D. Maybe you are saying that this is just a small number of people who died – 2 in a 1,000 that it is barely noticeable and you can’t really connect their deaths with a specific behavior? Hashem does not have this problem though. Sad to think about a person who arrives to Olam Habo with a bunch of humros b’yado, prepared for questions: were you honest in business? I never wasted my time on that! Did you have a learning seder? every day, even during pandemic. Instead he is taken to the room with common criminals and shown a video: you coughed at your hevruta, then your hevruta coughed at his father, who coughed at Rosh Yeshiva ….

> They’re on the same page.

Being on the same page is a good place for arguing. Like Rashi and Tosofos.

Avira, you are wonderfully sensitive to your heritage, you should e as sensitive to people coming from different perspective – Hebrew, English, Hungarian … As Herman Wouk’s grandfather said, departing for Israel after years of trying to find Yiddish-speaking students in US: I probably should have learned English, but at first impression it sounded too crude …

Also, note that some of the fights of previous generations do not have to be fought a century later: Hebrew of anti-religious Zionists does not affect current Israeli Hebrew-speakers; going to University 200 years ago was a haskalah statement, and is a getting a job statement now.