Always_Ask_Questions

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 50 posts - 101 through 150 (of 8,633 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: Going OTD in the IDF #2452893

    While looking for Chofetz chaim quotes disapproving RZ, I found this in his speech @ Agudah convention in 1930 – someone recommended a village to install water filter because there was sediment visible in the tea they offered. Next time he came there, the city was burned down. He inquired what happened. They said – the filter was not producing enough water to put down the fires! The nimshal is that when the fire is burning, you shold not be a purist but use all means you have.

    in reply to: Going OTD in the IDF #2452892

    Rav Elchonon was student of the Chofetz Chaim. So far, I was not able to find in Chofetz Chaim expressions similar to R Elchonon. In many articles and letters, he is using clear language of disapproval of various groups, but I did not see RZ among those groups. Did you see any?

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2452848

    yankel >my great grandparents immigrated from Russia in the 1800’s

    yasher koach to them, so not really “old yishuv” but still. 1800s is a long time period – were they students of Gra or part of one of the Zionist waves at the end of the century?

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2452847

    yankel > This BG-Agudah agreement is nothing like a treaty between nations

    right, as I showed ^, (1) that pre-medinah agreement did not even talk about the army, other issues, and (2) it explicitly says that this agreement is not binding on the future state – (3) even at that time, not 80 years later. So, with these 3-strong argument, I am sure the poster will change his mind.

    in reply to: Out of Town – Chassidish community options? #2452785

    Rocky > You can not apply the words of R Avigdor Miller, which were said probably 40-50 years ago, to today

    I agree with you. At some point, it was a problem that Jews settled in multitudes of small towns with almost no Jewish infrastructure. This was part of normal American path: there are probably 100 mln of people who arrived into NYC and 80% left for the rest of USA when they could afford to pay toll over the bridge!

    There were several ways to address it: R Miller, L Rebbe wanted their followers to stay “in town”. R Soloveitchik had a plan to raise many rabbis at YU who would be good enough to run these small communities. R Kotler specifically created a yeshiva-centric community far away from NYC.

    Nowadays, there are multitudes of either medium sized cities and NYC suburbs that offer Jewish environment and medical system better than NYC.

    in reply to: Moshe Rabbeinu criticizes 2 tribes for not wanting to fight for the Land #2452850

    yankel, I agree with you that SC moved into an ill-defined area. I also agree that Iranian regime claims to be a democracy with restrictions.

    So, there are levels here. So, lets compare: Economist has a democracy index out of 10 in 2024: Sweden 9.9, USA 7.8 (was 8.3 20 years ago). Israel 7.9 (was 7.3). Iran 2 (was 3) – same as Russia (was 5) and China and Saudi Arabia. I am sure this is not a pro-Israel organization. So, Israeli democracy is doing OK – despite all the problems.

    But again to your particular beef with SC: your attitude is legit, but it is simply that Israeli law had areas that were not defined well and it is natural for one of the competing branches of government to move in when others are not able to. It is problematic, without being “illegitimate”. For comparison, US congress is often unable to make important decisions, such as declare wars, sign treaties, and make major economic policies. Presidents end up making temporary decisions that they should not be doing according to constitutional design. So, some of those decisions are challenged in courts; others expire when government changes, etc.. Sometimes, public outcry – and a threat of the next elections – is such that presidents rescind their policies. It is a mess, but it is a legitimate democratic mess.

    Same thing in Israel – your plan should be to build a bigger coalition that will enact new laws changing the system. This bigger coalition HAS TO include people with whom you don’t fully agree. Last I read was that proponents of judicial reform are now considering compromise measures that will bring more people onboard.

    And to history of that – my humble understanding is that Tal’ laws was an attempt of such compromise – and there was no progress in bringing charedim into the army, community simply used this as an opportunity to continue previous arrangement. So, it may be that other groups are fed up with this behavior. You have to accept that and see whether you can restore trust.

    in reply to: Moshe Rabbeinu criticizes 2 tribes for not wanting to fight for the Land #2452851

    yankel > where the haredim overall are prepared to work together with the majority to hammer out a compromise but in reality [!], which is the only factor which really counts …

    so, maybe you can clarify what are your suggestions for the compromise? And presume that it has to be a verifiable compromise. That is, if, say compromise is that those who learn f/t are exempt and others are not, then there will be checks like fingerprinting at the yeshiva entrances, random attendance checks, learning tests by non-charedi rabbis, restrictions on travel to Uman, etc.

    in reply to: Why Jews are Quitting the Democratic Party #2452310

    Ms Kamala says in her new book that her perfect VP match was a man married to another man (and seemingly no other redeeming qualities), but she has rejected him that this was too much for Americans to buy on top of asking to elect .. a black woman (that she is not) and … having a Jewish husband.

    So, apparently a Jewish husband is a hesaron in the eyes of some as much as having a male wife.

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2452201

    yankel > because …. returning as cripples – is a clear calamity ….
    > whereas returning OTD … in your opinion …. is obviously not .

    by the way, your analogy is not necessarily correct. See Avoda Zorah that shows that sakanah has to be treated stricter than a spiritual matter.
    That is, if you follow halachik methodology and arrive to a conclusion according to majority, you are sort of covered even if you made a mistake.
    If you drink water that was not poisoned according to majority opinion, but actually was – the poison will work.

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2452200

    yankel > I treat both SR and r YB soloveitchik with reverence.
    > Both were outliers and clearly a minority amongst the chachamim in their views.

    > All chachamim seeing the current draft problem with all its current realities and all its repercussions , agree not to enlist ..

    I believe most MO and RZ Rabbis, including many students of R Soloveitchik, disagree. I am not bringing names as it is usually not leading to a discussion on merits.

    in reply to: Gun control #2452077

    xCTL, thanks for the examples. But I hear that your position is still more emotional than rational: you admit that you 5Towns friend uses the gun right, but you still were not comfortable davening near him. This idea is not without a source – David did not build Beis Hamikdash and iron was not used there.

    But rationally, I do not understand. I may also be not fully rational – for me, pacifism is a movement that objectively was used by communists to keep opposition divided. Maybe I do not fully understand what you are saying – what exactly makes you “uncomfortable” when someone was davening with a gun? That Hashem is not accepting prayers of violent people? That he can shoot accidently in the middle of the amidah? a gunfight for a shishi?

    I davened in shuls with armed guards, and nobody seemed uncomfortable. Would armed congregants be worse?

    in reply to: Moshe Rabbeinu criticizes 2 tribes for not wanting to fight for the Land #2452076

    yankel, again, a modern democratic system is not a (discredited, unstable) Athenian version where everyone votes on everything. It might consist of multiple centers of power, some elected, some appointed. These centers can, and are expected to, compete for power between each other. Look up literature on American theories of “separation of power”. Israeli system is probably less thought through than others as the founders had a lot of things on their hands; and it is also under stress all the time. So, there is no surprise that there is a stand-off based on unclearly defined rules (and lack of constitution).

    The best way out of this situation is to formulate a solution that will be supported by a super-majority of population. Then, the politicians will find a way to change situation, whether legally or politically. Such a solution necessarily has to be a compromise, not necessarily giving you everything you want.

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2452072

    > This was not “private positions of politicians”.

    Separately, there is October 1948 defence ministry regulation that exempted (400) full-time learners from service [Torato_Umanuto]. This is not a part of the pre-state agreement (see previous post). Ben Gurion was both prime minister and defence minister.

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2452068

    katan > . Agudah predicated their “acceptance” of that “State” on the guarantee that this be the established and unchanging rule of their “State”.

    Let’s clarify confusion here: 1947 letter
    1) clearly says that this is not a legal commitment as Sochnut can’t obligate the future state (something we are arguing here)
    2) does not even talk about military service.

    Here it is, quoting from the June 1947 letter:
    From: The Jewish Agency for Palestine, etc.
    To: The World Organization of Agudath Israel, etc., Jerusalem
    … We were satisfied to hear that you understand that there is no body authorized to determine in advance the constitution of the state, and that the state will be, in some spheres, free to determine its constitution and regime according to its citizens’ wishes.

    Still, the Executive appreciates your demands, and is aware that these are matters that worry not only the members of Agudath Israel, but also many of the religious faithful in all Zionist parties or in no party, and it is sympathetic to your demands that the Agency’s Executive inform you of its position regarding the issues you have brought up, and what it is willing to do, as far as its influence and directives reach, in order to fulfill your wishes regarding the said issues.

    The Agency’s Executive has authorized the undersigned to formulate its position regarding the issues you have mentioned at the meeting. The position of the Agency’s Executive is as follows: shabbat … kashrut … marital law … education

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2452057

    > Like the Indians in America, the Chareidim predate, by far, the Zionists in living in Eretz Yisroel.

    Position of Indians is defined in treaties and laws. What is the document behind the charedi claim, let’s analyze that?

    > Like the Indians in America, the Chareidim predate, by far, the Zionists in living in Eretz Yisroel.

    An interesting claim. Maybe Israel should let charedim have casinos. Indians though have strict lineage rules. You can’t just dress up in feathers, pick up a tomahawk and join. So, those Indian rights should be assigned to those whose relatives were part of the old yishuv. The rest are in EY _thanks_ to Zionists and should show hakarat hatov.

    Show of hands – who is here a descendant of the old yishuv?

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2452051

    Katan,
    there is nothing surprising that some gedolim disagreed. This was always the case, and especially in our times, when world changes so fast that nobody really knows what is the right direction. R Yohanan b Zakkai did not know till the end of his life whether he was right in his meeting w/ Vespasian or maybe he could have asked for more. And that was dealing with one general and a ragtag of Jewish rebels. Do you think he would be more confident if he was surrounded by Communists, Nazis. Arabs, and a bunch of Jewish ideologies. The sad fact is that you surely read our previous discussions and you know, for example, that R Feinstein had better relationship w/ R Soloveitchik. and that R Kotler respected him and partnered and respectfully argued in person. The fact that you bother bringing one-sided arguments (aka lies) to the group that knows better, is very strange.

    Note that R Soloveitchik was not the head of Mizrachi. He supported and partnered with them, gave speeches at their conventions, but he is writing on multiple occasions that he is not a member, he has his own views, and especially protests any attempts by the political organization to make pronouncements on religious matters.

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2452041

    yankel> don’t see any connection to ‘no true scotsman’ in any of my writings …

    I meant that – in this case – you seem to only consider chachamim those who agree with your opinion.

    in reply to: Tiferes Shlomo and the modern State of Israel #2452036

    Katan, you are using circular logic – everyone related to zionism is a heretic. Therefore, all the people saved by Zionists and who are observant today are heretics and their lives do not matter. This is against anything I ever heard from gedolim of any direction. R Schach, for example, writes that Hashem caused Arabs to hate early Zionists to prevent them from assimilation into local culture. Clearly, Rav thought that Hashem cares. Even if taking your position, Israelis stayed Jewish, while similar Jews in other countries intermarried or were killed.

    > President Trump

    We don’t know what will happen in the future. We were discussing definite events in the past – none of the middle eastern countries stayed under Esav, they went thru communist and islamic phases. Your “solution” would have condemned all Jews of EY, Europe, Sefarad, USSR to either assimilation or physical suffering. Again, if you have a Rov to ask – I’ll be interested to hear his opinion on this hypothetical future.

    in reply to: Is It Assur to Report Police on Waze? #2452019

    GH, it is not assur. It may be saving his life and lives of others. My kid was once in an accident caused by a “frum” person (who did not even show any remorse or concern after it happened). I asked the rav whether I could sue him to maybe cause him re-think and maybe others around. Rav said that not only I could, but I should. I did not pursue though.

    in reply to: How do we know that anti-Zionist posters are Jewish? #2452010

    somejew > I don’t remember that ever being request or the subject of debate around here.

    First, I’d like to know whether your rabonim hold by the shevuos as halakha.

    If they do, what would be their preferred position say in 1920s. One of your haverim suggested to keep EY in the hands of Esav. Several of us objected based on historical evidence that Esav retreated from the colonies and most of Middle East went through a lot of savagery in the last 80 years. There is also a question what would have happened with European survivors; Sephardim; Soviet Jews. At best, they would have gotten to the safe shores of democracies where they would have suffered same rates of assimilation as other Jew there. Again, this is not a shailah on the rabbonim who were against Zionsts at the time, those views had good sevorahs behind them. It is a question for rabbonim who already know what happened after.

    in reply to: The Amazing Frum Community We Are Part Of #2451931

    common > On a related story, my Irish neighbor wishing me a gut yom

    A sephardi friend of mine always wished me “gut shabbos”, while I reply “shabbat shalom”. Less refined people look at us, confused.

    in reply to: Spam fundraising #2451521

    Calls are done because they work. Check IRS 991 form (or some charity-following sites) for the charity to see whether they are spending too much of your donations to solicit further donations rather than the core mission.

    in reply to: Is It Assur to Report Police on Waze? #2451499

    I am with the OP! I also do not report with the exception of obvious speed traps that are not there for safety.

    Munkatch, I don’t think your sevorah works directly – the driver will avoid this police officer, but will get speeding in other places. Also, many drivers are so machmir on police that they go half speed-limit, creating danger and bitul zman for tzibur.

    There might be a case for posting fake police reports to slow down the traffic, maybe around the time kids go home from school? You can even post it in front of your own path to ensure safer travel. This is similar to gemorah Avoda Zora that recommends telling gazlanim that you plan to travel further than you actually do. It goes against sheker tirchok, though, not sure where permissible line is. Maybe if you see actual speeding traffic.

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2451497

    some > So be it.

    so, you don’t feel responsible that your arguments made me into a Zionist? So, you and havereha repeat views of gedolei yisroel ad nauseum and then fail in defending their kavod by bringing feeble arguments? I think you started well by quoting solid sources, but it is not sufficient to deal with reality of today. I think you are duty bound to go to “judges of your time” as Torah requires and ask them to explain to you, and to us, how those views transfer to modern times. I know you yourself have no shailos, so you don’t feel such a need, but you should do it for the of the reading public.

    in reply to: How do we know that anti-Zionist posters are Jewish? #2451489

    Here is a case to analyze, as it was temporary:
    when Russia Ukraine war started, there were a number of posters recounting Khmelnitsky and other events from Ukrainian history – some of it was from regular posters who suddenly acquired knack for historical studies, but only from russian perspectives; others were from new posters. This was at the time, when russian trolls were playing in comments to major publications, even paid ones, like WSJ. Hard to say, to what degree YWN was included into that campaign, or it was simply propaganda from other places infected the feeble minds. Maybe mods can check IPs of those new posters.

    in reply to: Mochel Loch… time to forgive and be forgiven! #2451455

    ZSK> You had those thoughts, you wrote them down, you posted them.

    look, these guys did not come up with these thoughts out of nothing. These are real views of some other people, except the other ones keep it among themselves and did not really have a chance to check those views out with others. They just keep them pure, unexamined within themselves.

    just an example from real life. One nice rabbi extended his hesed to have a hevrusa with me, we were learning nicely, he would bring tosfos and current poskim, I’ll bring some questions and real-life situations. At one point, I told him a story how someone reacted to me being Jewish in a remote location. He was very shocked – “are you saying you are wearing a kippah to your job”? So, this pretty reasonable and not closeted charedi internalized stories that all Jews who interact with non-Jews have to hide their kippot. Maybe, if you are not wearing a top hat, you are in that other group ….

    Back to our characters, I think they give us good inside information and help us understand what is happening inside their communities. No apology needed.

    in reply to: Gun control #2451448

    mentch > Not to mention zombie apocalypses.

    well, ability to stay a democracy is one of the major features of a stable democracy. xCTL’s family came from Germany, he might have heard what happened with that country.

    in reply to: How do we know that anti-Zionist posters are Jewish? #2451371

    The most suspicious part is that they claim to follow their gedolim, but when we here have a discussion on an issue, they are unable to go back to the gedolim and clarify the issues. We still do not know whether yeshivos have statistics on OTD in the army, or what was current path to non-Jewish government in EY and scores of other issues. I do not recall anyone saying on any topic here – I went back to Rosh Yeshiva and he clarified …

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2451364

    katan > But, regardless, yes, he certainly could obligate future governments.

    I am not sure how this works in a legal sense. There are laws and then there are private positions of politicians. Then, politicians lose elections or retire. New politicians have new views. I understand that Israel early on had a one-sided government with many long-term politicians, so negotiating with Ben Gurion felt to some as negotiating with the medina itself. Still, this does not change legal reality.

    And,, again and again, it seems that you are referring to a position that was reasonable in 1950, when Ben Gurion was in power, but somehow you are frozen in time and did not give a thought how things changed 70 years later.

    in reply to: Going OTD in the IDF #2451174

    Avi > one of the rabbis quipped that daat torah had not yet been invented.

    I heard this in the name of R Zelig Epstein. I am not sure whether this was related to another psak by R Chaim Ozer – when asked whether (Sugihara, etc) visas should be given to old people (who will be first to be prosecuted by Soviets who were invading Lita) or young ones (whose children will be taken to communist schools), he replied – to the older ones, because
    (1) they’ll be in a better position to help those who remained when they reach US
    (2) they’ll be of more use to the American Jews

    So, depending on the timeline, this shows that R Chaim Ozer did not have a blank policy against leaving, and the reasoning was pretty sound in this grave situation.

    in reply to: Gun control #2451157

    I am not sure why xCTL is so rigid on guns. I do not carry, but I have a warm feeling that if there was ever a dictatorial government in US or a russian/chinese invasion, H’V, there will be millions of people with guns to protect us from the worst. Given how much left-wing people are concerned about dictatorial/populist direction of the government (when republicans are in power), I think they should revisit their opposition to guns.

    in reply to: The Amazing Frum Community We Are Part Of #2451154

    At the time when cellphones were new, I asked a passing by charedi guy directions to a certain bus near thanah merkazit in Yerushalaim. He got out his pelephone and started calling his friends until he figured out how to find the bus.

    in reply to: The Amazing Frum Community We Are Part Of #2451155

    On a shabbos, on a way from Yaffa gate to the Kosel, I saw two American shabbos-dressed teen brothers in a minor play/argument. A standing nearby traditionally dressed Arab addressed them in English: don’t fight on Shabbat. They stopped, embarrassed. I turned to the Arab and said “shabbat shalom”. He returned the greeting.

    in reply to: Tiferes Shlomo and the modern State of Israel #2450774

    Katan, I went to re-read a sefer of articles and letters from Chofetz Chaim in 1930s. He writes about different tzoros and wrong things people were doing, including sending children to non-Jewish gymnasia, non-religious or “cultural” schools. I could not find so far any criticism of RZ or even Z activites or schools (the publisher is charedi).

    The fact is that those who followed Zionists to EY mostly survived and are Jewish. A large portion of them is shomer shabbat or “traditional”. Even those who are not observant (and most likely whose grandparents were not observant with or without Zs) are still Jewish and have a chance. A large number of people who never heard about Z, either post-WW2 or Sephardim came to EY without any ideology, but still benefitted. Those who listened to R Elchonon in large part perished, as did he. Those who survived and ended up in other countries also suffered high intermarriage rates. I am not sure how else you interpret these facts.

    > You can look up the Satmar Rav’s holy words and see what he wrote. You can then take that to your LOR and ask him for details and see if he can provide to you those details if you’re really that curious.

    You provided the words. We provided analysis that shows that the Esav idea, while reasonable at a time, does not match recent history. If you do not have an answer in your mind, maybe you can ask or write a letter to someone who share your views and share their answer with us?

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2450766

    Katan > The Zionists invaded that land over a century ago against the wishes of the Jews there.

    First, whatever the history, if you are a citizen of the country, the laws apply to you. Second, most charedim are not descendants from those who were there, but arrived later thanks to Zionist help or/and visas. But, you know, Russian governance over Jews was also not legitimate: Jews did not live in Russia with few exceptions, and then Russia occupied Poland where Jews had certain autonomy rights. That did not save Jews from the Army.

    > made an unlimited deal with Agudah

    Now, you are worshipping a prime minister of 80 years ago. A prime minister is not able to obligate future governments with private agreements.

    You are continue disappointing us by staking out principled positions and then revealing that you really did not think through any serious arguments to defined them. You made me more of a Zionist than I was before I started talking to you.

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2450761

    Avi > what do your gedolim say about Internet usage?

    Not sure where is this coming from? I presume everyone in this discussion got a psak allowing using internet!

    To your question, I do not recall asking shailos on this. When internet was starting, I did help a couple of rabbis to set up websites and mailing lists. The only negative reaction was form one rebetzin that vetoed posting family pictures on the website. Presumably, ayin harah, not strictly privacy. This was before instagram, obviously. I did listen to some Jewish organizations focused on kids & internet, and took some of their advice to heart.

    The closest possible answer – I asked recently whether yeshivos need to teach safe driving (based on a gemorah in avodah zorah that R Akiva and Rav Yehudah were teaching safe travelling). Rav acknowledge the need but refused to switch from teaching gemorah and poskim to common sense, suggesting instead to rely on “good math and English education” that will enable you to read and understand literature on the subjects you need in your life, starting with marriage. So, this position should also apply to internet.

    in reply to: The Eruv — Halachic Tool or Glorified Shabbos Loophole? #2450700

    Also, ghettos were pretty solid eruvin

    in reply to: The Eruv — Halachic Tool or Glorified Shabbos Loophole? #2450699

    Rocky, right, up to recently, majority of people lived in small villages and towns, who never saw number of people that make eruv meduaraita in their life.

    in reply to: The Fourth Reich of “Israel” #2450697

    BY student does not have a mitzvah of learning and should not be affected by the view of female soldiers, what’s her excuse? uniform not tznua enough? cavalry requires pants? she can ride F-16 instead? is there an issue of yichud if someone needs to fly the plane?

    in reply to: The Amazing Frum Community We Are Part Of #2450396

    Some mothers want to home-school their kids. Others have to work. If they work at school, they usually stick with the same subject and class for years. I know a mother who could not afford to stay home with her numerous kids. She taught for ten years from 1st grade to tenth to continue teaching her oldest child.

    in reply to: The Amazing Frum Community We Are Part Of #2450395

    On a more philosophical level, a Rav working at an out-of-town college campus, mostly with Jews from NY published an article strongly advising parents to avoid American “tradition” of “going away to college” and send kids to a local college instead (undermining his own job),

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2450394

    yankel > learning horayot reminds us how pervasive mistakes are.
    > so – why do you consider AAQ as more immune to mistakes than the collective of our chachamim ??

    We are bringing here different perspectives exactly to examine them. I enjoy listening to people with different views.

    You also reflectively fall into “no true scotsman” pitfall that you usually avoid. My positions have support in some chachamim. I am most fond of R Soloveitchik’s approach. I did not start out as his talmid, but I found enough common points between my own thought process and his writings that I am paying attention to the other things he is teaching.

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2450391

    yankel > you have not internalized the calamity of OTD

    so, I made several posts discussing how to deal with the danger. You did not seem to care about that, and it is me who does not care?

    Historically, I agree with your point that charedi approach saved many people from assimilation and OTD. As Chazon Ish suggested, this is the “desert” approach. A minor issue – Hashem punished us by 40 years in the desert; here we are about 80 years into that. Bal tasif, anyone? Would you agree that 80 years in the desert creates some negative impact? The negative impact does not mean that the decision was wrong. R Avigdor Miller writes that one should not be surprised that his hand is burnt if he saved the child from the fire …

    In my opinion, the negative effect is that the kahal gets used to the desert and considers it the only Torah in the world – and even becomes aggressive towards the rest of the world. If Torah is Emes – is it worth changing the Torah in order to “save” it. R Soloveitchik asked a more philosophical question
    early on after WW2: if we claim to know the Emes and we now have an ability to participate in world affairs, can we hide in the caves? This ignores the practical aspects discussed above, of course, but it is a serious long-term issues.

    So, what is the “exit strategy” from the desert?

    in reply to: Moshe Rabbeinu criticizes 2 tribes for not wanting to fight for the Land #2450389

    yankel, I am not sure why you start throwing insults all over, it obscures the points you are making and takes your mind off the points I am making.

    A (modern) democracy does not mean that majority can always get their way. There are various mechanisms to keep the system stable despite the – often – ignorant and hot-headed majority. Courts are a natural anti-majority mechanism. In this case, you evidently need way larger consensus in the country than 51%. So, you need to think how to create such majority, partly by educating people, partly by modifying your position to include more of other groups. Presuming SC is occupying an extreme left-wing position, you should be able to unite 60-70% of people around some way of judicial reform that may look as insufficient to you, but moves the position enough to change the current situation. As I understand, there is actually a discussion of such ways in knesset.

    in reply to: Gun control #2450388

    xCTL > but as much as I disagree with your opinion I will defend your right to make it known

    will all due respect, redleg is better armed to defind your right not to bear arms.

    in reply to: Should Chareidi demonstrators be drafted. #2450234

    Katan, you are trying to solve complex problem, while lacking awareness of the discussions you yourself held several days ago. We are not even talking about ideologies of 100 years ago that seem to touch your heart so much. We are talking about a person who lives in a country and has certain obligations as a citizen.

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2450232

    > its time you should be mitchazek a bit more in your emunat chachamim

    right, I am doing it by learning maseches harayot.

    in reply to: Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and the modern State of Israel #2450233

    yankel > They will not transform the army. The army will transform them .

    This is yeridas hadaros.

    R Chaim Brisker was told about a (anti-religious) Yiddish theatre making a show of forming a Jewish army where future soldiers are being asked – did you build a new house, etc. When asked – are you afraid, everyone leaves and only R Chaim and R Spector left in the army… R Chaim remarked that this was all right, they just did not play the finale – they won the war …

    So, you are saying, that out of, bli ayn hara, thousands of students you can not find a hundred that will withstand the view of ladies in the Jewish army? This is beyond pathetic. And, again, this is childish talk about someone owing you something. If there is a need to go to the army, you deal with that and Hashem will help you.

    in reply to: Moshe Rabbeinu criticizes 2 tribes for not wanting to fight for the Land #2450231

    yankel > you seem to be [sorry] ok with

    I am not ok with this. I am saying they are playing within a certain political system of rules. Political system depends on political will, especially when the system is not perfectly defined. Historical example from USA SC. Number of judges is not defined. When FDR started controversial reforms in 1930s and SC was vetoing them, he threatened to simply increase number of seats and appoint additional judges. This was undefined in the reasonably well-defined American system. It wolud have been de-stabilizing, as the next president would do the same and double number of judges again. There was political backlash, and FDR did not do that, but also SC changed their behavior.

    Same thing here – if 60% of population would see SC actions as illegitimate, politicians would create a way to stop them. It is possible that voters do not care for the law and just want their side to have an advantage. That is an even bigger problem then with the civil society and you need to work to educate people about that. Calmly, with arguments, without shouting explain that healthy democracy requires a well-defined rule of law. Run candidates and advertisement that talk about that instead of demanding handouts for your group.

    in reply to: Tiferes Shlomo and the modern State of Israel #2450230

    yankel. I think we need to thank Katan for clarifying his and his rebbes’ position. To summarize my underatanding:
    – anti-Z was a very reasonable response at the time, when Jewish society was destroyed from within with all kind of -isms.
    – in retrospective, Z turns out to be different from communism, bundism, german-jewish nationalism – as it created a place for those non-religious Jews to survive both the spiritual and physical abyss.
    – also, in retrospective, as Katan helped us to understand, there was no alternative. If we were, H’V, follow other paths, our losses would be much higher.
    – Why Hashem used non-religious Zs as a kli calls for us to do teshuvah – why the religious leaders, aside from a small number of RZs and similar, were not able to lead the nation. This was probably a culmination of the whole haskalah period: Jewish communities played defence against the onslaught of modernity, and we only now are figuring out how to live in this new world.

Viewing 50 posts - 101 through 150 (of 8,633 total)