Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
sechel> all the gedolim supported the rebbe and held of his as the gadal hador and many held he was moshiach
At minimum, I think LR, R Moshe and Rav YB Soloveichik had respectful relationships between each other. Maybe, as I once was told by a Rav about another Rav with whom I suggested a cooperation: “at least we learned not to hurt each other’s work”.
Qwerty > I’m surprised that you think it’s a Chiddush that Lubavitchers would lie. …To blatantly lie and think you can fool others as well as Hashem is, perhaps, worse than idolatry.
All I am saying that intellectual honesty is a prerequisite for a debate. Especially when you are talking in an anonymous forum. What is even the point of lying to someone you do not know personally? Self-gratification? then, go to your own group and talk to each other. We have here a rare chance of having a free-flowing discussion between people with different views and experiences. Lies just waste everyone’s time at best and, at worst, makes your own view less respectable.
So, as you have strong opinions, maybe you can go and re-check that podcast, and maybe someone pro-chabad can do that also, and report to us?
PS Interesting in Bava Basra 41, if we have two witnesses, one saying the loan is $100, and another $200, we do not conclude that at least $100 is owed – as one of the witnesses is evidently lying (or off his rocker), we have only one kosher witness. This underlines that if someone mis-reports something, we should not listen to the rest of his speech.
> That’s subjective.
This is not the real problem. The real problem is that true answers will attract creeps, not well-matching candidates. Maybe booking system should simply ask users for their match com or CU@Sinai profiles and manage the bookings.
> win back Arab American voters
There are also articles discussing whether Gov Shapiro is a problem because he is so pro-Israel or because he is stam Jewish … This D party left Joe Liberman way behind.
Maybe Israel should time wars for bein hazmanim so that bachurim could lead the troops with their true Torah attitude and not miss classes.
How about airlines provide additional information during seat selection: gender, ethnicity, age range, girth, attractiveness level – all publicly observable when you are in the plane, marital status (optional) – I am sure they can charge more then.
here are some sources oft-quoted in such discussions:
Pesachim 94b
The Sages of Israel say, During the day, the sun travels below the firmament, and at night, above the firmament. And the scholars of the nations say, During the day the sun travels below the firmament, and at night below the ground. Rebbi said: Their words seem more correct than ours, for during the day the wellsprings are cool and at night they steam (due to being heated by the sun passing beneath them—Rashi).Sanhedrin 5b
Rav said: I spent eighteen months living with a shepherd in order to know which blemishes are permanent and which are transitory.Rav Sherira Gaon (or possibly his son, Rav Hai Gaon) Teshuvot Ha Geonim, no. 394:
Our sages were not doctors and said what they did based on experience with the diseases of their time. Therefore, there is no commandment to listen to the sages [regarding medical advice] because they only spoke from their opinion based on what they saw in their day.Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim 3:14
Do not ask me to reconcile everything that they (the sages) stated about astronomy with the actual reality, for the science of those days was deficient, and they did not speak out of traditions from the prophets regarding these matters.Maharam Schick, Teshuvas Maharam Schick 7
Matters that were not received by Chazal as halachah leMoshe miSinai, but rather which they said according to their own reasoning – and with something that is not received [from Sinai] and has no root in our Torah, but rather comes from investigation and experience, it is difficult to determine [that it is true]. And there are many occasions when the sages determined, according to their own intellects, that a matter was a certain way, and the subsequent generation analyzed the matter further and disputed the earlier view.Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Trusting the Torah’s Sages, Chapter 4:
We find that Chazal themselves considered the wisdom of the gentile scholars equal to their own in the natural sciences. To determine who was right in areas where the gentile sages disagreed with their own knowledge, they did not rely on their tradition but on reason. Moreover they even respected the opinion of the gentile scholars, admitting when the opinion of the latter seemed more correct than their own.
Imagine if a scholar such as Humboldt had lived in their times and had traveled to the ends of the world for his biological investigations. If upon his return he would report that in some distant land there is a humanoid creature growing from the ground or that he had found mice that had been generated from the soil and had in fact seen a mouse that was half earth and half flesh and his report was accepted by the world as true, wouldn’t we expect Chazal to discuss the Torah aspects that apply to these instances? What laws of defilement and decontamination apply to these creatures?Chacham Yosef Chaim, Benayahu, Bava Batra 25b
Know that regarding what R. Eliezer and R. Yehoshua say here regarding the motion of the sun, was said according to their intellectual assessment, according to whatever seemed true to them in the science of astronomy. And they did not determine these things and establish them as true; rather, each went according to whatever appeared to him in accordance with his principles of astronomy; they did not say these things as a tradition from their teachersSo, let’s define an Yid who lives safely avoiding major sins according to anyone.
First, he should not be angry at all. That’s by all opinions A’Z. 2nd, he should not disparage any other group of Yidden who are shomer shabbos by some opinion because they are in danger of a cherem if that other group is announced kosher.
Is eating treif a biggie? Is there a shechita that is kosher by all opinions? super-glatt.
Hametz on Pesach is a thing. Luckily, Mishna tells us not to worry about mice from neighbors, otherwise there will be no end.
How many times we would need to read zecher Amalek to satisfy all opinions? And will we violate tircha detzibura by some opinions while doing that?
On the main topic of believing in Gemorah medicine. I am not going to hunt for quotes, but I would think that Rambam himself demonstrates same attitude that his son is referring to. He is clearly using science of his time. Also, Gemora itself describes multiple cases of Amoraim knowing or not knowing various medical facts and relying on factual proofs to make decisions. Just study Shmuel’s approach and try to describe how he would behave in our times. I think he would go to medical school.
Also, just a simple observation that amoraim argue with each other on all kind of points makes it clear that none of them has access to the absolute truth on anything. Their overall approach to the argument is such that they are able to develop a coherent system of making decisions. And even then, they leave multiple questions without a clear answer or to defer to Eliahu. This is indisputable and should be a starting point for any logical argument on the topic.
>> In fact, most of Ashkenazi Jewry can have their DNA traced to about 350 people in Germany in the 1300-1400s. Which is why there is a relatively high number of Recessive diseases among Ashkenazi Jews. Be that as it may, we still do not differ much from the Non-Jews of the Mediterranean area. (arabs, etc.)
the fact that Ashkenazim come from a small group of _men_ (the way I heard it, more variety and European admixture on female side) makes us different from even Sephardim. Mathematically, think about this way – you have a large multi-dimensional population. Take a 100 random samples – distribution of that small sample will be different from the whole population. That is, you can find some out of 1,000s variables that will separate these 100 from the whole. With time, those differences are reinforced. So, it is not by chance that medieval Europe starts depicting Jews with specific features, like long noses. I don’t think Romans or Persians ascribed specific features to Jews.
And also diet and public health make impact. It is in halakha, I forgot the source, that modern Jews are weaker – because weak children are saved by medicine. In older times, people who have a hard time fasting for a day would not be asking shailos about it, as they would have died in childhood on a day there was not enough food.
which Gemora are we talking about, btw? I do not see a reference ^
DaMoshe, I tihnk R Moshe answers your question in the teshuva where he argues that it is not necessary to go to college. He says, paraphrasing, you do not need to try to live like top 5%, you can live like a median American without going to college, as the median American did not at the time. He is clearly not suggesting the charity route or pas b’melach, or at least he is conscious that it will not be accepted by the majority.
Also, please differentiate between pas b’melach, which is a very respectable approach, v. relying on scholarships and government welfare.
> when he saw that the destruction of the mitzyim brought the Jews to emunah.
That was when Yidden saw the Mitzri army fully destroyed. At this point, it is appropriate to continue tehilim for safety of Yidden in EY.
akperma> So stop worry, and say Baruch ha-Shem that Lashon Kodesh is a living language, richly able to absorb new words, and never suffered the fate of Etruscan or Minoan Linear A (languages which never get butchered).
excellent point. BTW, I think theory says that language changes more in the center while preserved more in far-flung provinces. That is why, American English is closer to old English than British (excluding NorthEast that continued communicating with Britain and getting new sounds from the metropolis). This might explain relative fidelity of Teimeni Hebrew.
But, generally, Hashem put us in this world to develop it and humanity, with some side turns, is successful at that, and the language is supposed to give us tools to reflect current reality. Gemorah is full of words related to agriculture. Surely, Amoraim of our times would add words related to math, chemistry, computers, and AI.
So, it sounds like a better option is to use the app or park in Monsey,
Dr Pepper, Catholics do not believe in divorce
YS> Neither did I hear any of those other Rabbonim say such a thing
This is a serious matter, more important than potential A’Z! YS who seems to be a reliable poster says that the claim of what was in podcast is incorrect. Could we clear this item? Hopefully, this a misunderstanding/misinterpretation or a poster referred to a different podcast? Otherwise, using a deliberate wrong reference makes this whole discussion meaningless. Why argue with people who can not be trusted in their argument? I hope there are other volunteers to listen to the podcast (not me, sorry).
I don’t know guys if you can convince each other, but can we agree on this:
apparently, Pres B was not in a good condition for a couple of years, getting worse with time, a lot of people suspected that, but
a “blue wall” of advisors together with media were able to maintain the mainstream view that the President is functioning OK…A day after Pres B admitted his condition, there were multiple well-sourced articles describing the situation. For example,
President visited Dem meeting in, I think, Oct 2021, to lobby for his infrastructure bill. Congressmen could not hear what he was saying,
and what they heard, was not comprehensible. After President left, Ms Pelosi got up and said “here is what President wanted to say” …
President did not speak to Congressmen after that. This was in front of 200 people and this did not become public knowledge. I think it
is frightening that the government can keep people reassured of a falsehood for quite some time. And if they were to ditch the debates, President would have made it to elections. Were he to have a better economy or suddenly a win in Ukraine, he could have won another term. So, now the group of people who created this charade (to include cabinet, VP Harris, D congressmen, media) are moving on to the next candidate without being
accountable for what they did. Ds would be better off at the convention by electing a clean candidate – Josh Shapiro or exCTL, for example.someone said> ? Personally, I wouldn’t want to have a belief that many shittos would deem the person an apikorus — even if according to another shitta he wouldn’t be deemed an apikorus.
I presume this person would not eat a kugel unless there are all haskamos on it. What if someone considers it treif?
So, Melech Shlomo had Sephardi consonants, Teimeni Ayin, Litvish vowels and Yakkish knowledge?
skripka > Eliyahu question isn’t a question, because he only ever came to my rebba. The stories about other rebbas are made up
catch-22: You just described the attitude that stops Eliahu from coming!
I am confused with the statement that there is no difference between Jew and non-Jew. There are genetic differences between nations. There are nations that do not tolerate milk or alcohol.
Maybe you mean that a non-Jew may convert and will he acquire Jewish traits? That maybe not what sources mean, giving a general statement about Jews in general … But even then, if someone changes his lifestyle from hunting & heavy drinking to sitting with a sefer and drinking weekly, his condition will change.
Another interesting question: absorption of iron is decreased when milk is consumed. Iron comes from meat that was historically limited … So, Jews might be better at absorbing iron, leading to major metabolic differences.
Right. We should check with Mossad every morning whether there is a reason for no tachanun based on whatever else they are doing.
When I asked once, I was told – you can say tachanun now, but will not need for Mincha …
I heard Waterbury yeshiva is equipped to deal with boys whom other yeshivas fail.
As R Kestenbaum of that yeshiva writes “we are losing our resh lakishes”. We don’t know the circumstances, but you also need to consider whether it is the best for your child to be in this place where they do not want him. He might be better at a place like Waterbury or learning with his parents and private tutors. See if a change improves his situation. Deal with the child first, do not get distracted to deal with the yeshiva.
without going into kabbalistic issues, effect of medical treatment differ based on genetics and cultural norms. Some examples
– there are certain foods that people eat and tolerate based on their genetic history. Jews would be way different from majority of USA population in terms of the diet, and thus microbiome …
– effect of treatment depends on how one follows the regimen and diet. R Salanter was known to follow doctor recommendation to a minute …
– psychological effects. A book on ethnic psychology has chapters on different ethnicities, I scanned the Jewish chapter – for most people, the doctor gives instructions to every family member how he should behave in different situations. Not so Jews: they will sit together and discuss each others roles instead of just following their own instructions …Bottom line, we can read Melech Shlomo, but might not understand him if meeting in person… Of course, everyone thinks he will because he surely speaks the genuine version of loshon kodesh …
And, also, how is Eliahu communicating with tzadikim – does he speak a different loshon with each of them?
On a more pragmatic note – is there research in how old Hebrew sounded? I heard simulations of old English … A simple thought would be that a version that differentiates between more sounds is more likely to be genuine, such as Teimani ayn, and patach/kamatz, but I am sure linguists have more to say.
spot on,
to start, see below some numbers from Annual Statistical Report on Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Society in Israel 2023 by Lee Cahaner Gilad Malach
does not answer our questions directly, but gives some statistics2023 population – hareidi 1.3 mln (14% of Israel) in yeshiva/kollel 145K in college 17K (3K post-graduate)
poverty rate 34%, 15% for other Jews (OJ)
monthly income per capita 3900 NIS, OJ 7400 NIS
monthly expenditure 3000 NIS, OJ 5200
employed 25-66: men 55% (haredi women and OJ 80-85%)
income from employment: men 10K OJ 19K, women 8K, OJ 12Kspot > Are they not entitled to a drop back for their yeshivos?
a group of people who work less than the average population will generally pay less in taxes, and as coffee mentions, they use other services that are covered by taxes. More significantly, hpw can one dream about supporting Torah Learning by forcibly taking money from other Jews?
Why can’t we have people paying for their own learning, like many Amoraim did, or a genuine Zevulun/Issachar partnership where both parties willingly share zechus?
> Jill was married to someone else when Biden started living with her.
Is she also catholic, by the way?
apparently, some snakes some times can give birth years after mating. What is the point of gemorah polemics with the scientists? There is no such argument about donkeys – everyone knows that, right? Snakes are harder, but it is easy to take one snake and watch it. The greek scientist says that it took him years to study the topic. Maybe, the discussion is about those rare cases, rather than a typical case that can be easily observed.
> The Torah says that gender is determined by the woman.
Well, the men sends out multiple options of males and females, and – as usual in life – the woman has a final word which of them is taken 🙂
skripka > were experts in THE SCIENCE OF THAT TIME
Chazal did not always follow everything the “current” science said, modulating it with masorah and common sense that not all scientists have. Creation v. eternal world would be one example.
Right, so if takes upon herself to serve her father first, the husband can stop that 😉
yeshiva man (?) > If the American government would decide to suddenly not give any of these benefits to people who are learning in yeshiva or kollel, I would certainly think that is wicked discrimination.
Many of benefits you listed are intended to help people who are not able to work and also for those who study to be able to support themselves. So, you might or might not be within the law by using these funds for other purposes, but you are definitely not using them the way voters intended. So, as you describe this as “normal”, you need to rethink whether Torah approves of such crooked ways. It is well may be that perception of how one could use public assistance is skewed by the person’s environment. While many sub-cultures in US would not take public assistance unless they can’t find other work, there are also communities where using that assistance is normalized as part of life over several generations…
If these laws also provide benefits for people involved in religious/spiritual studies, please provide a reference, I’ll be happy to change my opinion.
RCP has now state polls for Harris and they are very similar to Biden
Battlegrounds Trump Harris Spread
Wisconsin 48.0 47.3 Trump +0.7
Pennsylvania 48.2 44.6 Trump +3.6
Michigan 47.0 45.5 Trump +1.5
Arizona 49.7 43.3 Trump +6.4
Georgia 48.5 44.0 Trump +4.5
Trump Harris
Betting Odds 57.1 35.1of course, these numbers were very stable for Trump/Biden, and we can expect more volatility now as people learn about Harris, and she might get some from convention and VP choice.
I think Eshes Chail summarizes it pretty well.
Ex-CTL,
for a lawyer, you are pretty loose with laws. HIPAA applies to medical professionals.What you are saying that we descended to the depth of China and USSR, where leader’s health was a state secret. I can give some slack to cabinet members – they serve the President and most of them can not earn parnosah outside of the government, so they say what they have to keep their jobs. I am not saying it is ethical to mislead the country for several years, but at least I understand. She is a politician. Even as she was selected by Biden, she can not be fired by him. She is there to be a responsible political voice. If she knew that Biden is not capable of running the country and continued publicly saying the opposite, she has no excuses, and should pay political price for that. If she did not know, then it will tell us how involved and understanding she is. I think it is important to find out and you are in the unique position to bring clarity.
Israeli newspapers end it with Hey, so it is not exactly Amalek
but pretty close
I agree with some posters ^ it is questionable whether this Israeli shver gets sechar. Yes, they give money, but for this money – that they gave away in a political agreement and did not supervise appropriately – they got multitudes of students who do not seem to be great at following Torah commands of chesed, gratitude, derech eretz, and even a desire to force others to work and fight for them. This is unfortunate result of all the shver’s donations ….
There is some hope. I learnt that if you give a beggar who ends up being a dishonest person, you still get a sechar for the giving, but not for the chessed … Still, if the shver did not ensure that the “boy” learns appropriately instead of just satisfying his demands, it might be his fault….
You need to consider the following: before this election, there was a certain segment of the society that liked R- and Trump’s policies but were conditioned that they can not be responsible for “letting democracy die”, so did not vote for Trump. When confronted with an alternative of a Wizard of Oz presidency, some of them decided that voting for Trump is OK, and that was reflected in polls. So, now with a live D- candidate, these people may reconsider, but they passed the psychological barrier and now need to be actually convinced to vote for D-.
Well, you can also say that he stepped down only after assassination of his opponent was not successful …
you can also quote Pres B who said that he will only step down by the direct message from Almighty… Did he receive such a message? I think we believe that there are no non-Jewish naviim after Bilam, is it a firm position or just a dig at other religions? Maybe one of his Jewish subordinates or relatives got the message? Or maybe he got an indirect hint from Almighty (he is smart than the Gadol of his site!). Maybe it took him a couple of weeks to realize that his debate performance was such a message … or poll results are also a message.
> I do not expect the President to resign and let Harris ascend. The backlash would be too great in a close election.
XCTL, could you ask Ms Harris-Emhoff at the convention “what did you know about President condition and when did you know that?”.
When reporters jump on you, tell them that you are also a reporter and YWN CR readers want to know the answer.a publication from Ner Le’Elef (*) touches on the idea of osek b’mitzvah, and does not find it fully convincing as a halachic instrument. I frankly did not mean it as a strict halachic argument, just a sentiment that they seem to find at least reasonable.
WOMEN’S ISSUES BOOK TWO Women in Mitzvos, p. 32-34
In a sense, a woman is considered to be continuously עוסק במצוה , and we have a principle that Osek BeMitzvah Patur Min HaMitzvah. Indeed, there are some Rishonim who hold that even if one has a lost object in his house it is considered sufficient to exempt him from doing another Mitzvah like giving Tzedaka (even though he could actually manage to do both mitzvos simultaneously) However, most Rishonim disagree with this approach. They hold that the definition of an עוסק במצוה is quite stringent. As the Meiri (. ברכות יא ) …. “one who is engaged in one Mitzvah is exempt from a second Mitzvah, [they only intended this to apply] so long as he is still actually involved in the first Mitzvah, and the second Mitzvah can only be done at the expense of the first.” … We would then question why a single woman or a widow whose children are all grown up etc. would have these exemptions at all. Perhaps these Rishonim would say that a woman is exempt from time-based מצוות because her entire approach to serving G-d is one of constant readiness to respond to changing realities. For example, although one can easily provide for children’s physical needs according to certain schedules, if one is really going to allow children to develop as unique personalities, fulfil their creative faculties and fine-tune their moral sensitivities and values, it requires constant alertness, availability and engagement. Under such circumstances, even when one is not actually busy with the Mitzvah one would be
exempt [Sukkah 25]. In addition, one may ask why women should only be exempt from Zeman Gramas. According to this approach, a woman is considered permanantly Osek BeMitzvah and should therefore be exempt from all other positive mitzvos as wellThis is answered by saying that it is true that a woman is not always considered Osek BeMitzvah. However, her situation is such that she can never know when she is going to be Osek BeMitzvah. Therefore, it was specially time-based Mitzvos, which require a woman to free her schedule at a particular time, from which she was exempt. And even though many time-based mitzvos can be done for a whole day, a woman can easily be busy the whole day. The Torah did not want her to have to figure out just when she is Osek BeMitzvah and when not since even Tirda Demitzva is enough to exempt one ( סוכה כה ). However, this is difficult. For we do know that the Torah, for whatever reasons, did obligate a woman in some time-based Mitzvos. Now, although a woman does not have a general exemption form these mitzvos, why can she not exempt herself from them whenever she is busy with her family? And the same goes for any other mitzva with which a women is obligated. Perhaps we can modify our original logic by saying that, although a women isn’t truly Osek BeMitzva when she takes care of her family, but the Torah wanted her to get the message of how important this is, and regarded her, with respect to time-based mitvahs, as if she is an osek bemitzvah. This might also explain why all women are exempt from this category, because it isn’t because of the actual business with her family that causes the exemption, it is the message of how important taking care of her family is, which is the source of the exemption.
Yserb, Most of jobs assigned to women seem to be the ones done at home. It does not mean they were “homemakers”
Before the industrial age, most people did not “go to work”, unless they were farming in the fields or travelling as merchants. Look at Nezikin, say Bava Batra discussing all kind of businesses in the mavoy …
RebE, just my own peshat, no good source. I’ll ask.
The “asmakhta” idea is from a rav who said he, at some point, started making a list of time dependent mitzvot that apply and those that do not – and the lists were of equal length.In older times, weak children died out when they were young. In our times, an average surviving adult is weaker than an average surviving adult 200 years ago, so he can be harmed by a traditional diet of kishka and mashka. Also, as people live longer, the diseases that develop later in life become of more importance.
well, mostly _men_ worked on farms, women worked more at home. Gemora lists all jobs a woman is supposed to do in the house, with part of that could be done by the her maids if she brought some. She had to do at least some work to occupy herself. When women had capital and capabilities, halakha allowed them to run those businesses.
Nowaways, men invented a lot of machines that perform the jobs in the house, and society started schools, and recently free pre-Ks, to take care of the children.
exemption from time is an asmakhta – there are more exceptions than not … I am thinking women are exempt by the principle “osek b’ mitzva patur mimitzvah”. Almost anything the women is doing when taking care of the house is a part of the mitzva – chesed, assisting in learning, chinuch, etc so she does not need to interrupt to do _other_ mitzvot
While I am not a fan, I think that Jews who married a non-Jew are doing a wrong thing, but a non-Jew who marries a Jew might be a tzaddik/tzadekes, unless s/he is doing it because of perceived Jewish power & money 🙂
xCTL,
there are now multiple articles describes (with names) all the people who noticed that Pres B had cognitive issues starting 2021 and how they asll re-assured themselves, or were reasssured, or ignored, or were not given access, or were threatened. This is getting close to how members of Chinese Communist party behave, simply playing their voting role.Could you please look these formerly “pledged” electors in the eye and ask them how they chose to become part of this game, agreeing to vote for the candidate about whom they knew they did not have enough information? And if they did have enough information, they should show integrity and vote for Pres B. I am sure he will reconsider if the electors will vote for him.
I hope it will be a good lesson for the citizens of this country to understand how Chinese and Russians feel and how we got to be led in the same direction …