Always_Ask_Questions

Menachem, your ref is interesting but most of the material appears to be not Alter Rebbe, but a self-described shochet, posek, and more. Story of Berdichiver and L Rebbe wishing Yidden new year is interesting, do you know more of their motivation?

coffee, T Ch pay taxes that are user fees for services they use. They also are known for following dina dmalhuta
pekak, if goyim abandon az, it has no significance. Jan 1 is not a religious holiday anymore as far as I know

Saw R Soloveichik rejecting joining C- rabbis in some organization in 1950s, bringing a hiluk – we as Eida, community of witnesses, can not cooperate or compromise with those who are not eidim of that tradition. On the other hand, all Jews are connecte thru our common history. In concentration camps, ashes of tzadikim were mixed up with ashes of atheists … Am has shoresh im – together. So, in all political issues we should stand together with other Jews and there should be no disunity in front of non-Jews as this will endanger some Jew somewhere.

It is that you know current events in detail, while old events from brief descriptions in bad history books. Maybe go to a library and open papers from hundred or fifty years ago and you might see opinions even worse than current.

coffee, my father oh had an engineering degree. Transferred well between continents.

Bava Kama discusses the right height for skilah to make it most comfortable – given the circumstances. so, ahava applies to everyone

> unlikely that the country will remain a good place for Jews,

there was a poignant letter to NYT recently
..My father fled [Germany] in 1939.. My father had passed the German law bar and was taking postgraduate courses to enter the German diplomatic corps. When he fled to the U.S. his German law degree was useless. So he started sweeping floors in a factory .. Eventually he was able to go back to college at night in the U.S., .. He got his bachelor’s degree in economics.
When I asked him why he didn’t pursue a law degree here as he had in Germany, he said, “If I ever had to flee this country I didn’t want to have another useless law degree.”
I said, “Dad, you’d never have to flee the U.S.!”
And he replied, “That’s what I thought in Germany.”

> when we had to walk to school uphill, both ways?

you had to actually get out of the house to log into a class, grandpa?

> Why do Jews vote progressive Democrat?

If you are not a liberal when you are young, you do not have a heart. So all Jews have a big heart.

Menachem> Is this really appropriate from someone who is the purpose of creation and the entire universe is being created for him to behave this way right now?

Exactly, so you are not going to take advantage of the nonJew in any way, even when it is possible al pi din – say, he makes a mistake.

> If a fellow’s grandfather lit your house on fire, and then his grandson had a change of heart

in addition to this correction, only a multi-generational Yerushalmi can complain like that. Other anti-Zs came to EY under Z protection.

R Dessler – it gets you a higher initial position on a sulam Yaakov, but it is up to you whether you’ll go up or down from there.

Menachem
> I would DEFINITELY add extra tefillos for you – regardless of your ideology.

A good question that people need to confront. I am thinking of those who are adding tehilim but avoid any mention of soldiers. Say, you are jumping into a fire to save someone’s child and the parent says – thank Hashem for saving my child, would you appreciate his deep religiosity, and will Hashem ?

Menachem, thanks, so Lubavitcher shita is to do as locals do … what do shluchim do in Russia or Muslim countries or in EY?

I found an interesting idea in R Soloveichik letter about our relationships with nonjews: if we were more open about Jewish ideas during Hellenism times, then the world would have accepted these ideas from us rather than seen them as Chiddushim of a new religion.

I once jokingly asked a Chinese restaurateur whether he finds it hard to deal with such clientele. He said – no, it is great, customers do not get into fights and pay their bills …

But, seriously, hope everyone here behaves so that their non-Jewish neighbors invite their friends to see what real chesed is.

I understand why people want to get to the higher level quickly, but you may be underestimating prerequisites … people talk about age, knowing halocho, but look at Kiddushin 71: The forty-two-letter name of God may be transmitted only to one who is discreet, and humble, and stands at at least half his life, and does not get angry, and does not get drunk, and does not insist upon his right

Are you even at minimum level in these middos? Are you saying that your rebbeim figured out shortcuts to skip these? If yes, why are you so interested in taking these shortcuts instead of working on yourself? This is like running a marathon and getting a ride for a part of it.

not my idea: we eat oily burned food to show that we are not going to stay in shape to run in Olympic games

my idea: we are rejecting greek idea of determinism by playing random games. So, dreidel looks like a perfect symmetric polygon that greeks loved so much, but we ten take it for a gut yiddishe spin – in circles – with irrational lengths and, most importantly, into an predictable trajectory destroying the idea of determinism. In the simplest and most visible way.

It is like Albert – “G-d does not play games” Einstein visits Nils Bohr for Chanuka and Nils, instead of spewing quantum formulas, simply spins the dreidel and asks Albert to predict the letter. Tiuvta Einstein Tiuvta.

A modern version is low predictability of weather despite all sensors and computers we got.

> “Sin” is the word for China

and WAR is short for Wa-gne-r – disbanded russian militants who probably helped out also

> SINWAR = Sin + War

and if you remove capital letters from above, you get iran in atbash.

> so you could use it l’chatchilah.

this is a great goal, but we have to be realistic and balance with conflicting goals. I read about someone asking a shaila of a rav and then expressing concern that the permitting psak is based on b’dieved considerations. The rav sighed, pointed to seforim in his bookshelves and said – all of these are also b’dieved (ie written v oral)

sechel v common sechel … exciting …
common asked you a common sense counter-question about your erudition in non-chabad seforim. you seem to ignore that and continue pressing yours. please respect the age!

Is flag such a goyishe idea? Shvatim had flags. We didn’t need flags for a long time that we didn’t have an army so the idea became foreign. Also, we should appreciate tzionim for their position:
1. Original flag had 7 golden stars for a 7 hour work day… at least not 7 work days … I guess they couldn’t agree on number of work hours, so then they grasped for talles colors
2. Compare with bundists who were as non religious sans EY
Their flag was half red, half black, a bilbul of communists and anarchists

Being in business is great, but there are a lot of nisyanos. It is much easier to be in a business as a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer. Much harder to run an honest and profitable business selling online what everyone else is selling or having medicaid pay low rates for cheapest service provided to poor and elderly. I am not saying it is impossible but it is hard to compete honestly and provide quality work that you can be proud of when you are in industries that are full of fraud, illegal workers and untaxed payments. But you would know this if you learnt Kiddushin.

Average income mixes up different populations and income sources. Maybe compare government payments, including to single mothers, free lunches, title 1, etc

Lighting in your home is supposed to be done in a public way, right? that should at least cover cars with menorahs, not that I have one. In general, if this will help to wake up some Yidden, this should be done. If it is going to annoy locals then not. So, yes in Manhattan, no in Alabama and ask your local rav in between