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What about a katlanis who had a zechus to be married to three tzaddikim? Do they form a beis din and vote on her fate?
You need to read T seriously, but not literally. He already was a President and did a lot of good things for Israel. Can he change his mind, who knows, but we have a pretty good record.
Kamala already showed her attitude towards Israel and, especially, the current government. At best, you can hope that Israelis will be accommodating, elect a left-wing government, and follow Kamala’s policies and so she will not raise her accusing finger at Israel the way she did with Biden. Given that Israelis stopped voting for real left like 10-20 years ago, this is not likely. Even a centrist government will be difficult to maintain as it will include some economic rightwing, some commies, some Arabs, Sephardim, etc.
Non> how LLMs (Large Language Models) AI work,
Well, first, nobody, even LLM, knows how exactly it works, of course …
Note that while LLM is not fully coded by the programmer, it is dependent on the training data that programmer fed into LLM. One hypothesis from an expert is that the current generation of LLMs is the best we will have (contrary to the usual always-improving tech). Explanation: LLM learns from publicly available texts. Next generation of human writers will be writing with the help of current LLMs, directly or indirectly, leading to decreasing quality while increasing quantity. Thus, next generation of LLMs will be essentially learning from the noisy data it generated. This is an AI version of “yeridas hadoros”.
This is somewhat believable as we already see now that people using Internet are not always smarter than people reading seforim… I am hopeful, though, that we still have enough of informed individuals who will understand the problem and start training LLMs on a combination of Plato, Aristotle, Gemora and Rashi.
As some say here, situation is not that simple. Keep in mind that Israeli government has more information than CR posters. If they need certain conditions, they are most likely basing them on specific information they have. Do they have perfect information and doing perfect analysis, not necessarily, as evident by the posture they had a year ago. If you are so smart, you should have complained on Sep 7, 2023. If not, give the decision-makers some benefit of the doubt and do not participate in political actions that makes their work harder even if you are “following your feelings”.
First, Ms Schneirer did not offer olam habo to anyone. She tried to help others the best way she could. Some rabonim, like Chofetz Chaim (*) and Beltzer Rebbe, favored her efforts, many others did not and made it not easy for her. Be realistic – she is not supervising BY brand min hashmayim, the way McDonalds Corp does with their franchise. So, a school claiming BY label is run by specific people the way they see fit, within certain limits. OOT BYs are different from in-town ones, for example. And what is “asur by gedolim” in one, would be OK in others.
So, the main lesson from Ms Schneirer is that educating girls is important. To clarify the problem she was solving: boys went to schools that were paid for by relatively affluent Yidden and poor ones got included. As there were no established schools for girls, rich Jews used tutors and poor ones were left ignoramas. So, maybe apply the same approach today. Find a small group of girl parents who can afford paying tuition and want companionship of several other girls and start your own classes. Find a kollel yungerman who will teach them chumash and Rashi, his wife to teach them davening and middos, enroll online to get English and Maths. This will not be a full-blown BY with entertainment, but you can always enhance it later, maybe apply for Jewish Federation grants to help you or find a Rav who will be willing to give high quality classes a couple of times a week. This is way better that sitting around, complaining about out-of-control school admins. Think what lessons you want your children to learn.
There are reports from WW2 of most “secular” Yidden changing, or revealing, their better parts at critical moments, such as Polish Bund members running to save sifrei Torah from a burning shul and being killed for that. Given the background of most “secular” Jews today, you can safely presume their neshoma is in place and will reveal it.
Why not spend your time helping widows and widowers, and others, to find shiduchim b’olam haze instead of speculating? The only issue l’maase I see here is that some widows were reluctant to re-marry to 2nd husbands who were not at the level if their first ones. If anyone here is such a lady, please press on. If you are a bachelor wooing such a lady, the solution is simple – be a better mench… Although gemora warns about second marriages – not all etzavim shavim, four people in bed, etc
I think google search now makes a decision (or combines one after another) whether to (1) do simple search (2) look up a knowledge graph that contains previously collected structured info, such as people’s northplace, job, etc – this is partially taken from wikipedia/wikidata (3) call AI similar to chatGPT. In this case, it seems that this original decision-making was at fault and calling a GPT directly is better.
qwerty, I understand your feelings, but am not sure I understand your argument about Avraham. How’s caring about other people an insult to him, given that he was arguing to save Sdom, etc?
yeshivaguy > Rav Yisroel Reisman many years ago that Bein Hazmanim is to learn things that you normally wouldn’t learn in a yeshiva setting. For example, a short masechta.
A good idea. Or, as R Twersky suggests to learn physiology to appreciate miracles of Creation, but do it outside of yeshiva hours, you can do that too. Also, learn things that help understand Gemora but are not part of the curriculum: Nach, logic, Jewish and World history, chochmas yavanim 🙂
I’ve played a lot of chess, but this is the first time I see both sides shouting CHECKMATE. Moschiach is coming.
sketch > .Bein Hazmanim furloughs started in the times of Gemara ”I don’t want to see any of you (in Yeshiva) in the month of Nissan and in the month of Tishrei.
I think you have it backwards. Rather, then bein hazmanim for 2 months, it was meeting (kallah) for 2 months – Adar and Elul, indeed at the end of the harvest season. Most students worked and “learned from home” the rest of the time. They were not “extra hands”, they were primary workers. For example, R Aha b Yaakov sent his son to learn full-time, and when the son did not do well, he left the son to work on the farm and went to learn himself.
> your hashkofos have moved leftwards.
maybe he moved to DC? This is an observable trend – politicians moving to DC (such as Supremes) move leftwards over time.
Also an observation relevant to this topic: hemlines vary with the stock market. So, tzniyus is up during recessions.
What did Volozhin do with bein hazmanim? I am aware that they made sure that there is at least someone learning there at all hours 24/7/354 or 384
But maybe majority of students had “time off”? Were they financially supported by the yeshiva/ate “days” during bein hazmanim?
Even during the last year of unfortunate problems, the revolting students supposedly confiscated Rav’s lulav and Esrog – presumably during yomtov.
Parents (that are capable) should teach their kids usingall means available. I didn’t think it is controversial until I got here. People here, who recite shinantem levanecha twice daily, explained to me that this is controversial. Thanks, I learned a lot from these discussions.
Communists are as bad or worse as nazis and both should be mentioned when we talk about our prosecutors. This used to be controversial but less now, as the term “Russian Nazis” became widespread.
It looked at the beginning that the murder of hostages was done by retreating terrorists who could not move hostages and did not want to leave them. But it appears now that they also pre-planned using the murder for propaganda purposes. Hopefully, Israeli public will understand this process and that their emotions are being manipulated by terrorists.
@yankel berel
I think we settled on a lot of point already, great.
> R chaim kanievsky did not have smiha and certainly [over]qualified as a talmid haham al pi hahalaha.
of course. I reviewed a little of modern history of “rav” and it seems that it was “exceptional T’Ch in _his_ generation” in the times of Sh’A and became a “knowledgeable in Torah” by Mishna Berurah. R Chaim qualifies for both, of course.
> Muflag behohma bedoro is found in shulhan aruch hilch kvod rabo in YD .
I think YD refers Muflag re:standing up, while reserving “Rav” to the primary teacher. Given changes of “rav” by now, your inference looks reasonable.
> RCV is not gadol meraban shmo .
In my mind, he does, given his role in establishing _the_ yeshiva and the role yeshivos play now. (yes, “yeshiva” changed the meaning faster than “rav” but still).Interestingly, there are sources that stress danger of over-titling. R Akiva Eger, I think, minimized his own titles and maintained that you can be a Rav or a Gaon but not both … with danger being once you give all titles to person A, then person B also demands them, and ein ledavar sof, and public becomes mislead who is a real T’Ch. R Akiva Eger lost this battle by now just by looking at how we dress…
Introduction to “Making of the Gadol” offers a great solution – the author uses R in front of all names giving permission to the reader to choose between Reb/Rav/Rabban/Rav Gaon.
lost > I attribute it to the spiritual corruption of limud l’chol in the MO system, which Baruch HaShem is on its way out soon.
You see if you don’t have limudei chol, then you write run-on sentences where you thank Hashem, but only He understands whether “which” applies to corruption or limud or MO system. Gemora in Bavas spends many dafim trying to figure out how to understand documents written by amei haaretz, you don’t need to add to them.
> opened an Igros Kodesh and was excited to find a letter that said “ברוקלין נ.י. שלום וברכה
Not a joke. I was at the Kosel shortly before my wedding, and a suspiciously looking individual said he is collecting for a yeshiva. Skeptical, I asked what yeshiva. He named the yeshiva from a mid sized town my kallah was from.
Shomer > What are you complaining about??
If I understand complainers correctly, that feeling comes in response to the position that limud torah protects in lieu of Army service. Of course, army soldiers also get time off, but the whole army doesn’t go home for pesach, at least after Beitar. So, maybe there should be a dedicated group of talmidim continuing thru chofesh with shiurim available online for the whole country to see and join?
Shtell > I assume the gedolim knew a little bit better .. It is well known that after they cancelled bein hazmanim because of the yom kippur war, that was the worst winter zman for many of the bnei torah.
This is unclear – are you claiming that gedolim know better because they are gedolim – but then how they made “the worst winter zman” in 1973? Or you are saying that gedolim know better because they absorbed experience of 1973? (the latter corresponds to Bava Basra description of creating a school system through “trial and error”).
I don’t know who is right in this debate, but I am concerned that a couple of posters claiming to represent bnei yeshiva use rude language when confronted with different opinions and can only bring argumenta ab auctoritate and ad hominem to support their view. What is the point of shteiging if you are not learning how to be mench and how to construct a logical argument?
yechiell > Trump has hinted at dropping support for Ukraine. Where is the guarantee he won’t do the same 2 weeks later, to Israel? He is too weird to trust mo
you are right, he is not predictable .. when my kids asked me (pre-covid): do you think Trump’s presidency is successful, I answered – yes, so far, ask me on the last day ….
But the choice is between T who has a track record of doing a lot of stuff right, yes, unpredictably and with a lot of drama, partly generated by him, partly by liars in the media; – and a lady who has no track record other than making her way through politics. She is less predictable.
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”