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what alerted terrorists? maybe gunfire and bomb explosions? Tzahal was going thru that whole area.
Despite all the passions, the fact is that holding the border is an important issue. Ask yourself – why it may be a “red line” for Hamas? Obviously, because they intend to use the border for re-supply. So, even if you don’t have detailed information Israeli government has, you can conclude that this is an important issue. I am not telling you what the right solution is in the difficult situation, but at minimum this is not some personal preference by Bibi, but a serious security consideration that one needs to consider. Making the issue into a political pressure point against Israeli government is exactly what Hamas and other sonei Yisroel want to happen.
Sechel > vilna gaon was fed lies by the misnagdim, thats why he made a cherem against chassidim,
could you tell us whose opinion this is? Most chassidim and misnagdim made peace by now, and I think the prevailing view is that Gaon’s position against excesses helped Chassidim to become a better movement. I think Alter Rebbe also contributed to that process.
R Sacks quotes Amos Oz that in 1930s antisemites shouted “Jews to Palestine”, now they switched to “Jews from Palestine”
yechiell > Maybe, but hers is as good as any other politician’s.
Not the same. She is mostly known for her political statements, not actions. So, repeated 180 degree turns are jarring. There is no underlying substance there to understand her. for comparison, when Joe Biden says something positive towards Palis, we can go back to his previous relationship with Israel and Israeli leaders and make some conclusions. Mine were that he will generally be helpful to Israel during an acute crisis, but will also try to cover his political bases. With her, I have no idea what positions she will take. And there is no other middos that can compensate – I can’t say – well, she is a smart and honest person so I hope she’ll figure it out. No record there also. So, you are playing Russian roulette here hoping for the best.
It has to fit your personality. It is not just math, it is knowing numerous government rules, and then following them through and explaining/reminding your clients about them. I would first look at accountants you know and see if your personality is similar. Then talk to them about what they do during the day.
The good part of the lifestyle is that you can be an independent contractor serving multiple clients and be in control of your time, so that you can be there for your wife. children and hevrusa
Yankel, thanks for the exposition. As Koreh lrabo applies to one’s rav, you use muflag b chochma. I understand the latter as applying to one’s own generation as much as we are commanded to listen to rabbis of our own generation. Are you saying that this applies to anyone who was in HIS generation? Is there a source for this or your own idea?
For me, r Chaim certainly qualifies as gadol merabanan, as I don’t think he is not recognized now by any of the modern groups. Every Yeshiva that calls itself yeshiva attaches themselves to r Chaim. For example, I think I write r Salanter, because even as maybe there is not much open opposition to mussar, not many groups follow his approach.
Anyway, as one measures offense by the other person’s sensitivity and not his own opinion, I’ll certainly try blind neder to follow your convention.
about vacations:
school summer vacations are historically so that kids could work in the fields. Winter vacations – to celebrate saturnalia and such.
Jews in Bavel indeed had vacations twice a year between harvests – so that they could go to yeshiva to learn.
Netziv went to lakes in Lita when doctors insisted that his health requires it. He ran away on a second day back to yeshiva.
R Salanter took vacations seriously: when he was told that his health requires visits to a spa, he was noticed there re-reading doctor’s instructions to make sure to do exercises as prescribed and at prescribed times, and also eating non-pas-yisroel bread because someone donated money to help him improve his health, not his chumros.
It could be both sides are right – R Falk is a machmir and, among those who say R Falk is a machmir, there are those who dress inappropriately.
There was an incident in NYC a couple of years ago – a redneck attacked a Jewish lady, thinking she was a Muslim. This is now my personal test for tzniut excesses – when you are confused for a Muslim.
I also do not understand black fashion both for men and women. Gemora disapproves red, but not other colors. IT also disapproves black and recommends it only when someone cannot control his yetzer hara and needs to do something inappropriate. It may be that some were wearing black because of poverty, or maybe we are mislead by old-time grayscale photography. Similar, l’havdil, all these Greek statures that are white does not mean they were all wearing white, just the colors wore off.
coffee > The virus has become so much more tamer because of the mutations not because of vaccines
while general theory says that viruses are generally mutating to weaker versions, that may not be true early on. For example, delta was worse than original Wuhan and Bidenistas were not prepared for that. but I did not see that later versions are milder, it is just accumulated immunity both from both vaccines and infections. With most of population exposed, their next infection produces less viruses and also the asymptomatic period decreases.
See, for example, devastating effect of European viruses on Native Americans. Lack of immunity is the most important factor.
yankel > Why can’t you write R Chaim Volozhiner ???
just to clarify, I did not mean to deny his semicha from (sic) Vilna Gaon. See, you don’t need to say R Kramer, just Gaon is enough. Same with other famous people – Hillel, Shammai, Berdichever. At the same time, not using with less-known people or using Dr but not R is usually an intentional opinion disparaging not just the person but also the movement that gave him the semicha.
If someone continues disreardging danger, he is either a rasha or, l’tzad zechus, a meshugene. The latter one is patur m’mitzvos, so he does not need to go anywhere for Rosh Hashona (other than his doctor).
> And the spiritual destruction of Western Europe and the US is an after-effect/because of that same Zionist-caused Holocaust.
Zionists were not the major cause of that destruction (and why are you excluding most Jews who lived in Eastern Europe?) – most Jews assimilated, intermarried, converted, became communists, bundists. Zionists might have been beneficial for assimilated Jews as it kep them within Jewish circles, and brought many to ISrael where they both survived physically and gave their einekels a chance to be part of Jewish nation. What was the source of all those plagues? Tremendous changes in modern society, and also Jewish community’s inability to counteract. We can’t blame leaders of communities at that time – many tried, it was unprecedented time, etc, but the fact is that it took us a couple of hundred years to partially figure out how to safely either separate from or live inside modern society.
hakatan > This is pathetic and sick. It’s like if someone asks if you’re a Jews for J member then you say, yes, in the meaning of Jew. Zionism is the total opposite of Judaism
Well, you will have to live with the fact that this Haredi Rav felt that way. If you call a Talmid Chacham sick, you may want to go to the doctor yourself then.
modern > Well Justin Trudeau didn’t downplay anything and Canada’s COVID death rate was 60 percent lower
comparing rates across nations is complicated due to different health profiles, travel patterns, and social customs. Canada is built upon loyalists who preferred a steady hand of the king to a turbulent revolution. And a vastly smaller country with isolated settlements. Most states were following their governors anyway. The way to estimate possible Trump negative effect would be to look at health differences between R-s and D-s. Some of this effect (that exists) can be seen as Trump’s fault. You also seem to be counting deaths under Biden as Trump’s fault.
I myself was guilty accusing Biden of cynical statement when he came to power that “he did not find any vaccines”, rather than acknowledging what Trump did. It is now clear this was not a political stunt, just an early sign of cognitive decline. Maybe Dr Jill should have helped. Still, does not excuse that there were as many or more deaths under Biden – his admin dismantled all the task forces and further Covid spikes were managed same way Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Hamastan are managed…
modern > Pfizer sent huge quantities of its vaccine to Israel, angering Trump and saving lots of Jewish lives. Albert Bourla is the greatest living Jew.
Bourla has a book out. He is obviously not politically aligned with either Trump or Bibi. He is a little evasive on several issues, such as refusing to go to Israel when his visit would be politically helpful to Bibi, not going to early meetings that Trump had with industry leaders. Even with that, he mentions great attitudes of both Bibi who convinced him to prioritize Israel, and Trump and Kushner. In one episode, he had some slowdowns from medical admins, and while he was thinking how to solve the problem, he got a call from Kushner who heard from someone else about the problem, asked Bourla to clarify the issue, and the problem disappeared the next day.
> Huge clinical trials proved that neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna had major side effects.
clinical trials suggested that side effects are not likely and any chance will be less than benefit as a public policy. Actual experience with billions of users are a bigger proof (including tweaks with some of the European vaccines on doses).
I think many ehriche Yidden are sympathetic to Zionism even when disagree with something. I saw one such charedi British rav being asked by not-so-observant Yidden whether he is a Zionist, and he replied “yes, in the meaning of hamechazir shechinato l’Zion”. As he explained later “I just do not have a heart to say No”. I understand him – with centuries of Jews davening towards Yerushalaim, having Jews there, both those who are observant and the others also is something our great-grandfathers were dreaming about. So, focusing on the issues that someone is not paying “enough” to support “yeshiva students” is a very shorts-sighted and misguided vision. As to non-religious Jews having a large vote – same was happening in European communities before WW2. The only reason we do not feel it so much in modern US is because everyone separated into their own community. Not having pressure because those Yidden are disappearing is not such a good thing.
qwerty > Let me complete my thought from above. Since Lubavitchers are pathological liars they assume that everyone is like them.
again, please limit your thoughts to specific people guilty of something. It is just not OK to talk like that about a group of Yidden that includes kosher ones.
Also, stretching it, you can judge l’tzad schus: do you expect someone who barely handles English to be able to have a serious judgment on someone who wrote books in comprehensive English? So, his opinion is 2nd hand and it is simply bad manners, not malice.
Just to add to this wonderful post: Chofetz Chaim did not limit himself to quotable calls of generic love. He was often calling for very specific action to help other Yidden: organize kosher schools (at least one per city in Poland); for literate women to read laws of niddah to those who do not know how to read; to regularly send packages of food to Yidden trapped in Communist Russia; to help WW1 refugees find affordable rent, not raise prices and not use shuls for permanent housing; to go vote for religious candidates in Polish Seim, etc.
akuperma,
you don;t need to speculate about “with/from” any more – there are solid numbers of actual deaths by country/state/county over several years that can help you count actual effect of covid. These might indeed conflate deaths from covid and deaths from anti-covid measures (isolation, vaccines, zoom call boredom, speeding on empty roads, work from home marital murders), but these can probably be separated by looking at ages and clear death causes (drugs, murders, car accidents). So, if you have a position to state, you could support them by numbers rather than “your numbers are suspects”
> who were dying of something to begin with
Of course, disregarding life at any age is not a Jewish position. If you want to count years of life, this is already reflected in death and longevity statistics> federal handouts, which led to inflation (conveniently, after he left office, and for which the Democratic Congress was equally to blame)
Not equally. Trump’s handouts had an economic reason, whether he addressed it optimally or not; Dems just used the crisis to pursue their favorite policies. It is easy to criticize what happened, but you can also compare with what “might have happened”. Without handouts, who knows what economic displacements could have happened.
I just took world bank report on post-covid economy. I looked at GDP relative to 2019 for 12 countries including USA, China, Canada, Israel and large European countries.
In 2020, US was 6th out of 12, right in the middle – 97.2% with 6 countries with very similar results. China was best 102% (to the degree we can trust Chinese numbers). Worst were Canada 95% France 92%, Italy 91% Britain 89%, Spain 89%
In 2021 (relative to 2019), US is 4th (103% – recovered) after China – 1st 110%, Israel and Switzerland 106%.
Spain is 94, Brit 96, Germany, France 99 …This concludes the time that Trump had influence on. So, it is between average (if you look only at 2020) and above average.
US is 5th in 2022 (106%) and back to 4th for 2023 and projected to 2024 and 2025, so Biden’s policies stayed the course – same slow growth as others (1% per year).
In 2024, the best for 4 years are China 120% and Israel 117%. Switzerland 110%, Sweden 106% like US.
Most European countries are at 100% – that is they are now at 2019 level!It was somewhat understandable that people were concerned about vaccine safety during the emergency and were not able to balance great measurable benefits with way smaller potential side effects. If someone continues holding these way till now several years and billions of doses later, either they can point to specific medical work that supports their views or they are at total disbelief in anything that comes from official sources and prefer to believe Chinese and Russian online bots.
qwerty, I am not sure what is your problem with R Posner – he was a wonderful person. I heard him speaking, I do not recall anything that caused an alarm.
I am not sure what is so concerning in a thought about Akeidah. There are many drashim about this. I am not sure where I heard something similar, maybe it was a Chabad source…lost> Maybe he should have learned chassidus to avoid this terrible aversion to the derech.
R Soloveitchik, to my knowledge, did not endorse any clubs. Are you trying to make a parallel between L Rebbe and later behavior of chabadnikim with RYBS and current YU leadership (was it a grad school?). This is an interesting question indeed – what a person proclaims and what it leads to in a longer term is a fair question to ask. Similarly, is Chaim Volozhiner responsible for modern excesses of your local yeshiva?
specifically, I don’t think RYBS had same influence on YU outside of his own teaching. For example, in his article explaining why it is good to have a medical school at YU, he says that his approval is b’deived as nobody asked his opinion l’hatchilah.
I think Gemora gives an algorithm how to deal with this davening v learning situation. It concludes that chasidim rishonim were able to keep up with their learning because they got a brocha of retaining their learning. So, anyone can try davening 9 hours a day, and then learn for an hour before going to work get the brocha and continue. If you don’t get this brocha, then you obviously not on the right path for whatever reason and you have to stop.
Qwerty, thanks for R Miller/Chabad story, so I am glad I am following in the steps of the giants – he has a very similar reasoning to what I am presenting here. There is always a mixed story – R Soloveichik’s father was a Rav in a chabad-majority town, and his melamed was a chabadnik. Rav S remembered fondly the studies and a picture of Alter Rebbe on the wall … At the same time, his mother noticed that he was learning chassidus to the detriment of the gemora, and directed the father to take take from his all-important position and teach the child himself.
sechel > Dr berger knows more about Christianity (which is an issur to learn in this weeks parsha)
I skip your words of disrespect to a Talmid Chacham that for some reason made thru our generous mods or maybe only some semichos are protected here?), but here you are misinformed. It is not assur to learn it in order to argue and this is exactly what R Dr Berge is doing. Ramban participated in a disputation and won it, do you think he did not prepare for that meeting?
Of course, Trumps team developed vaccines at unprecedented speed and started distribution, better than other countries. Certainly he is not the only one responsible, but it is no doubt that his business skills served the country and the world well.
You may keep strong opinion on other issues but this is undeniable. You can read a book by Pfizer ceo who is no friend of Trump if you are not sure.is it clear that they were doing it 3 times a day? I had in my head that this was for shaharis only, but now when I looked at it, this might indeed be for other tefilos also. Still, if they did mincha/maariv, I don’t think they meditated between them rather than listening to a Kitzur class!
For shaharis, this is not that remarkable – we are talking an hour before/after shmone esre (tefilah), not before pisukei zimra/shir shel yom or, for chabad, tehilim for rebbe’s age.
Also, given that they probably also worked, their daily calendar is not clear. Maybe they did not sleep much; started a shaah before sunrise, or it is really taking just an hour from the work day.
And – nobody said that shaah is an actual hour and not just a “significant amount of time”
Btw, some say Dr Berger, some say Berger, this should be Rabbi Dr Berger, whether you disagree with his opinions or never read his books.
I did not learn his positions on Chassidut, but I had an interesting interaction with him many years ago – he made an oral presentation that was pretty strict on how to relate to another religion. I asked him on one articular nekuda where his presentation explicitly disagreed with a sefer he co-authored. He replied that his position is what he said and that particular chapter was written by the co-author and they could not come to an agreement on the issue. I guess, a good argument for “oral learning”.
xCTL > The proposal for vouchers would give those taxpayers paying $7000 in local property taxes $25,000 a year in local tax dollars to spend outside the public education system. I object to this
> I do not trust the honesty and ability of private operators spending public education tax dollarsI agree with you that there should be oversight – as of any public money spent. I did not see – maybe I missed? – your response to my argument that this country spends a lot of public funds via private means. Are you insisting that only public servants produce Patriot missiles? that public servants decide what welfare recipients should eat – specific menu, that is. So, when you live in AOC district, you’ll get veggie diet, in JD Vances’, red meat. Surely, this does not affect anyone’s freedom – you can always move to the place that serves meat, same way people now need to move to get to better public schools.
As to specifics, a lot of your concerns can be either alleviated or, at least, tested out: testing 3Rs is a simple thing that many states already do. You don’t need to give $25K vouchers (the insane amount public school spends). Start with $10K, see how many takers will be there, then give more to the schools that give best results. As a result, your struggling public schools will have (temporarily, hopefully) more money per person to spend while they are adjusting to having competition. There are other things you can do – allow online classes where appropriate (high schoolers who can handle it; extra classes not available in small schools); allow easier competition between public schools. If people like you with experience in both public and private ed themselves will approach this problem with all creativity you have, instead of dogmatism, things will start improving – for those poor people especially.
Gadol > Right now, the Dems are actually aligned with a large segment of the Israeli electorate that believes Netanyahu is slow-walking
We need to keep in mind that Israeli government is actually fighting several wars right now, and need to balance many issues – and often are
not able to give full information to the public. So we can’t really have a firm opinion about what kind of agreements will work or not.So, at some point, we need to give some leeway and benefit of doubt to those who have serious security credentials. And in this, I include people like Bibi, Eisenkot, major generals, (even when they publicly disagree with each other), not minor party demagogues on all sides. They could be wrong, but their opinions are more informed than ours.
When I read these heated discussions, I want to point out that there is hopefully a difference between ways we discuss Tanach with missionaries v. inter-Jewish discussions. Missionaries are brining gotcha psukim and we point out errors. When we talked among ourselves, we are here people who learned some Torah, not just quoting Rebbes and anti-Rebbes. So, we can see beyond line-by-line debate and wonder whether certain shitot fit into Yiddishkeit as a whole.
For example, yes, it is reasonable to have a Teacher, and learn from him and even follow him and not others. At the same time, students of Beis Hillel were not running around having daily recitations of bas kol that halakha is like their teacher and them, and point it to beis Shammai, and Beis Shammai were not siting in a circle meditating and dancing “moschiach, maschiach” that halakha will be like b Shammai then. So, if your religion becomes so biased, it might be a problem. I welcome disagreements with this, of course, but I hope you hear my argument.
qwerty > What I and all the others in the thread are saying is that Chabad is no longer a valid expression of Judaism since it posits that the Rebbe is god.
I hear you. I frankly avoid people who look like they could have such opinions (and they literally “look” this way), and I did not interrogate others who I knew for years to be ehrliche Yidden to how they hold or deal with it. I do presume that in a Venn diagram, there are those who are both mashichists and who do great with non-observant Yidden as well as those who are non-maschichists and doing great work also. I am primarily concerned of the honor of the latter ones that you might be hurting.
> Your argument is similar to the popular Chabad refrain, “How can you criticize us? What happens if you’re in Mozambique and you need a Kosher meal?”
First, I am surely on record to discuss burning issues with Chabadnikim both seriously and needling, from bringing Vilna gaon books with me to wondering whether a person they are teaching should follow their minhagim or minhagim of their forefathers (such as sefardim or litvishe).
I do see though that you repeat mentally equating pikuach nefesh with providing kosher food to Yidden wandering in Mozambique. This is an echo of a chasid shoteh who hesitates saving a drowning lady.
> You’re a follower of Rabbi Miller and he endorsed Chabad.
FYI, I am not a follower, just a reader/listener and I did not recall that he endorsed chabad
A good question. Interesting, it seems that gemora and meforshim are not even suggesting that we follow that practice.
Could it also be that this was before having siddurim and maybe even before having a fixed prayer? So, then preparing would be more extensive to make sure your prayer goes well.
To expand on your question, Bava Kamma 30 says that hasidim used to be extra careful not to do something that hurts other people. Nobody drives like that anymore. When did this change?
Gadol, you are right. I am just pointing out a problem. You would not call an airline “kosher” if it were serve strictly kosher meat, except there is nobody checking kashrus of meat after shechita … Same, I am asking who is a posek that is answering their shailos on monetary issues. And pricing during hostilities sounds like a reasonable question. See, for example, Bava Basra 90. This also might be relevant to Ms Harris’ price controls.
Fandango,
pro-Biden campaigning in 2020 made an explicit reference to him being more understanding of Israel predicament than others in Obama administration.
Right now, it is official that Iran is against Trump
Hard to say what will be Ms Harris-Emhoff policy as she did not declare any positions or has any record, but she showed some antipathy to current Israeli policies and leadership.DovidBT > School vouchers enable us to reclaim some of our tax dollars
I don’t think there is a strict halachik or “Jewish” view on social issues, we are somewhat pragmatic – whatever works to achieve the right goals, as seen from a sequence of school systems during BM2 as described in Bava Basra. I don’t see how an experiment with vouchers would not be welcome. If results are unfavorable, then the society can always turn around. And US system that allows state experimentation is a perfect place for such pragmatic experiments. So, my only objection is for those who make federal government in charge of everything drastically reducing ability of states to experiment. This applies to education, medicine, welfare, not defense obviously.
yuda > the love American Jews have for America reminds me of the love German Jews had for Germany until the holocaust
We all are not naviim and don’t know what awaits us. Indeed, when Fritz Haber, a Nobel prize winner, was visiting US a couple of years before WW1, he was shocked to discover that some places did not allow Jews (although it did not apply to respected people like him, he was told) – and said that nothing like that could ever happen in Germany … Still, there are many countries where Jews lived for hundreds of years in a reasonable way (Spain, Germany, Poland, Persia …) and, to a various degree, interacted with the country.
r Avigdor Miller brings a moshal that might be applicable to Chabad activities: if a house is burning and you run into the house and save the child, you are getting burned also. It is not a punishment, it is a natural consequence of your – laudable – action.
Qwerty > ’m not clear what point you’re making. I assume you have a question or challenge.
I think you are “misunderestimating” what Chabad did for myriads of Yidden, neshomos saved, many turning out ehrliche Yidden and having great families. Yes, there are side effects and I am acknowledging them (and did them to the face of people that have some reason in them), but those groups that were so engaged with the Torah that they did not pay attention to their brothers being lost should be less judgmental and more helpful, if they can.
xctl > a mandatory basic education is necessary to provide functional and employable citizens.
I think we agree here, and maybe even more than basic
> private institutions cannot be trusted with public money.
This is what I think is “unexamined”. USSR had indeed such economy, but in this country, government routinely spends money on private businesses – from buying munitions to doing medical research to providing medicaid services and foodstamps. I agree that education is not a simple good as potatoes are, but medicine and defense are also complex industries. So, your premise needs more nuance.
gadol > It will be an interesting 2 months until November.
I know UK and other countries run their elections in weeks, but America has this tradition of vetting candidates over time through primaries, press coverage, debates. Are you comfortable having a candidate that took over the position in some back room deal – when one day Pres B was pressured to quit, and Pres O and others wanted to have a mini primary, and 30 minutes (?) later Pres B endorsed his VP who he did not care for during these 3 years, and somehow everyone got in line. This sounds like CCP election style. And nobody seems to plan to ask her – how did she sit behind a President who is now admitted to have diminished capacity for years, or what her platform is, or how did she succeed in politics via her boyfriend. I don’t think these are partisan points, this is basic stuff.
Gadol, not that simple. Machine learning works well (or at least with predictable performance) in a “closed world” (olam satum?). When events change, or even just their probabilistic distribution, then you would need contemporary poskim to re-train the system. This is what parsha Shoftim teaches – go get training data from shoftim of your generation. So, here (computer) science and Torah are in full agreement.
The problem would be that when most of psak will be given by AI, how do we ensure that new generation poskim will be ready to step in? Same as how do we keep pilots to be ready to step into a complicated landing when they are sleeping through the flight most of the time.
Gadol, right, I saw him stepping in after I posted. Still, halakha prefers pro-active actions rather than reactive, and a kosher business should check the halocha before the medina forces them to a “peshara”.
Be careful though (as with any online advice). If you don’t know what you are doing, better pay the company than risk your life on this ladder.
I think it would be up to גואל הדם to make sure nobody shoots him first. Put a peace flag on his machine gun.
XCTL, there is a good reason you did not see any anti-semitic activities, as they were happening in “undisclosed (to you) locations”
>> Abraham Foxman expressed concern on Wednesday that the situation for Jews in the US had deteriorated to the point that they had to meet in secret at events like the Democratic Party National Convention.
Kuvult > But anyway, my unpopular opinion is about bombing the tracks being impossible & wouldn’t have changed anything anyway.
I think you are right. Look at current war in Russia by Russia. Bombing tracks does not work even now with precision targeting. It does not take long to rebuild tracks. It only makes sense at bridges and tunnels, maybe. During WW2, you would probably need thousands of bombs to have one hit on the tracks – all of this beyond the front lines from the West. You could have destroyed another Dresden for the price of bombing one track for a week.
There are a lot of emotional myths like that. One example is a sustained negative campaign against Poland, amplifying anything negative that Poles did to Jews, totally disregarding reality of the time that Polish state was destroyed from two sides by Nazis and Commies and their government did not control anything.
SACT5 > My mom interviewed her grandfather for a family history project. He told her “our surname was changed at Ellis Island.”
There are a lot of recorded interviews at Ellis Island. You can find them online and listen to what people actually said.
Froggie > You can tell what a person is from what he /she writes, talks about….
This works with kids and maybe teens, which might be your peer group. Adults learn what is appropriate to say and say that even when doing something inappropriate, they can present aveiros as mitzvos. My Rav’s advice: listen to what children say and make conclusions about adults in the family.
xCTL > I oppose school vouchers, if anyone wants to send their children to private schools then the taxpayer should not pay.
Sometimes, I disagree with someone but can understand their position. In this case, I can’t. Maybe coming from a Teachers Union leader.
Your premise seems to be that it is government job to _directly_ provide education to ALL the children. Not thru shaliach, and not just to poor children. I do not see where this premise comes from, maybe just an un-examined assumption that somehow creeped into your mind,
And without that premise, why not let other institutions provide the same goods (vouchers, under proper controls and testing of results) or make it into program for only those can’t afford it and then let everyone else use a market solution.
I mentioned before Baba Basra story of several attempts of establishing a working educational system, changed when the previous version did not work good enough. Same here, why not any solution that might work? We have lots of ways to experiment and measure results in this country.