Always_Ask_Questions

common > AAQ, “so you should probably ask a Rav …”
You don’t believe in that.

Stop trolling me. I explained already – I do not believe in Daas Torah. Why? Because I asked the Rav and he said so.

Avira > so all the working amei haaretz have impeccable manners?

I was pondering the same question. hillel in Avos 2:6 is pretty sure that bor is not yere het and am haaretz is not chasid, a shy person can not learn and an angry person can not teach (my kids had a question on the latter – so how do we call angry teachers!?), but then a strange expression (my translation) “_not everyone_ who increases in selling becomes wiser”. It does not say – “a businessman can not be wise”. So, this seems to be saying – as you do – that while it is reasonable to presume that engaging in business will make one smarter, it is not always, especially of you overdo it. Unless, Hillel is using this for irony to mock those who think that selling is beneficial, and it went over my head. As a reference, Alter from Novordok would teach his students chochma in addition to mussar – “someone who can not buy a wagon of wood without being swindled must be lacking in his ruchniyous also”, referring to Rivka and Eliezer’s camels.

I also did not mean this as a general statement, but specifically for your situation and what you are lacking. Also, most modern jobs are close to trades than business and that is what I recommend (even as I am nominally in business, most of my day is spent on tradecraft rather than running the business). Yitzele Peterburger married his son to a daughter of a craftsman and people were appalled. He replied – if he were to mayy into a shopkeeper who possibly swindled a lot of people, this would be ok, but somehow a person whom Hashem loves for earning his bread honestly is not ok … Not sure whether this was in Yerushalaim or Kovno. And no mention of marrying into a rabbinical family either ;).

> I just would rather give a yid parnassah but only if he gives me the products that I want.

“I want” seems like such a goyishe attitude, you should probably go to walmart lehathila!

Posters here raised good objections that this chumra is a kula towards the Jewish sellers, so you should probably ask a Rav …

In defense of the poster though – if you are in a place where a Jewish grocer raises prices thanks to the monopoly in the Jewish commuity, you might be justified going to walmart not only because it is 20% cheaper for you, but in order to break the excessive pricing for the whole community.

By the way, current estimates of Jewish casualties are lower than it was before – in tens of thousands rather than 100,000 and higher, primarily because Jewish communities in Ukraine were small and dispersed, as the Jews were managing Polish farms, and probably had 50,000 people total. By those times, it was understandable that stories and rumors created an impression of an even bigger suffering that it was, given the high proportional devastation.

At the same time, this rebellion led to further occupation of Poland by Sweden and Russia, leading to huge losses both in Polish and Jewish population immediately then, and eventually bringing Jews into Russian empire, with all the suffering that this entailed. So, maybe the focus of remembering 1648 is in a longer term effect rather than immediate.

which is mostly the same as niftarim from the wars.. does this override the minhag of using the date the person was last seen?

for people looking for chumros – why not do chumros in this issues?

If you are not currently able to fully avoid being supported, try to minimize relying on kulos. Say, return part of government subsidy back to the government. Even a small part, just as a statement of intent. Then see if you can increase that. Consider all your expenses with a fresh eye as Alter from Novordok did – if I live at someone else’ expense, how can I reduce my spending and return the money?

It is not just tannaim and amoraim who paid their own way, pretty of modern T’Chachamim did that (including not working as a Rav). Chofet Chaim sold his books and had a story. R Salanter refused Rabbinical position. R Yitzele Peterburger served as a Rav but then went back to having a pub with his wife, if I am not mistaken. Someone asked him whether pouring mashke was better than being a Rav?! He said – of course. I can think of Torah while filling glasses, but I can not while dealing with balabosim.

From razors back to learning. We went through this sugya before and I fully admit that modern poskim are ok with taking funds. Aveira inference from “rav of the city” to anyone with a desire not to work is unfortunate, probably just an accident, he used to give better sources. I can’t say to what degree poskim accept funds – nobody quoted Moshe Feinstein allowing using welfare and such, if I recall, but given wide acceptance of the practice, I presume someone paskens this way privately.

I am not against looking shulchan aruch haRav, just don’t call it “a shulchan aruch”, as if it is a legit series from Mehaber to Alter Rebbe to Kitzur.

Reminds of someone who was willing to do a shevua on a monetary issue. The Rav said – our sul has a special minhag, we are not using sefer Torah [turns to the gabbai]: BRING SHNEI LUCHOS HABRIS. The person shrieks and runs away in horror. The gabbai brings the sefer.

Unless you live in Medinas Yisroel or in certain enclaves or on a kosher farm, the trade-off of cost and quality should be an issue.

So, especially, if your lifestyle is subsidized by a generous shver, or you rely on kulos to accept communal funds or goyishe welfare or pandemic emergency funds – and spend that money on less healthy amd more expensive foods? Then, H’V spend additional funds on treating health of children who were not eating healthy. I am not saying this is a clear cut issue. Just wondering whether people thought of the issue and have enough health education about this.

references:
R Salanter disregarded pas yisroel when on a health trip to waters, subsidized by a friend.
Alter from Novordok would not let his daughter buy new dress as they were paid as part of yeshiva funds.

Avira > Imagine if someone(and there were) convinced me that I wasn’t cut out for learning, and i would have just gone to college

So, then by now, you will work for 10 hours a day and spent the rest of the day in learning. Your middos would be also better because you’d learn some manners, as when you are talking inappropriately in business, you tend to lose customers. I am puzzled how so many hours of learning did not have similar effect – up to now, at least. Maybe it is an indicator that a system of learning by hours of Gemoras not always affects the person, despite the promise of lo lishma not leading to lishma. Please note, this is not personal.

edited

CTL,
it is fair to say that religious education should not be publicly funded according to US minhagim, but why we need to pay double for professional education? As we both seem to agree, it is proper for at least some Jews to have both just because we want our kids to be “separate but equal”. In the current system, poor chareidi parents are against a lot of odds – from the government that would not reimburse them for general education, and those in their community that do not value general education. And currently in the cases the government does pay in some roundabout ways (lunches, transportation), the funds empower the schools and not parents, so general education is not getting better off. And middle class educated parents are spending ridiculous amounts of money to afford day schools and have no time to spend with kids. No wonder such lifestyle is not attractive to the kids. Straight vouchers to parents would solve lots of these problems.

food prices fluctuate … in Gemora, chicken was a delicatessen, now it is viewed inferior to meat. Maybe our chicken is not like their chicken.

Also, maybe CTL owns a fleishig farm somewhere in Texas. US probably was the first to have general population eat a lot of fleishig after railroads in 19th century enabled delivery of meat from Midwest to Northeast. I presume CTL’s forefathers bet on a farm early on.

hm,, maybe this pool is too smal. Let’s widen it – do you know of any 2020 T voters who will not vote for him in 2023 genera;?

> “time for people to stop spreading hate and realizing the lubavitcher rebbe was a גאון עולם

I don’t think this says what you meant it to say! A more serious point is that if you have seforim (witnesses) that have verifiable inaccuracies, the eid is posul (or at least uninformed), and you should view such books accordingly. It would be especially sad if people put misleading information in books about their Rebbes. So, if I were, I would get to emes on this and maybe confront the publishers.

To put chumros and kulos together: what if one can learn more by eating cholov hacompanies – cheaper and healthier? would you rather be machmir/meikel on the milk from a factory or on limud Torah? Maybe your answer would be – stay on bread & water, respect.

And, as we discussed before, “tzedoka” here may not include using non-Jewish programs to support poor, or taking money from unwilling public. I am sure there are kulos to support (pardon the pun) these positions, but, as we established in other threats, you could expect others to consider this treif. And the value of learning that general public might see as treif may not be kashered (what is crooked …)

Ok, ujm, thanks for the psak on touro, do you also have gedolim on record against columbia medical school and against asu online?

I am not against languages. Not everyone did. Chofetz Chaim did not speak Polish and there is a moving story about Polish minister agreed with him based on seeing him speaking in Yiddish even before the translation. Of course, he was born before the Poland was back. Not sure whether he spoke Russian.

> And the fellow who threw out the Hershey’s chocolate holds it is treif, per the psak of his posek. So he cannot give it to someone else, even if the other fellow holds otherwise.

This. is what keeps us apart. You could at least give it to your goyishe friend or cleaner crew, or to your dog.

> Ice cream truck frequency

Just find out what the frequency is, jam it with white noise, and the kids will not hear the sound.

RSo, that is why Kotzker chasidus is not so popular in our times! That, and the preference for emes before sholom.

I would even say that fasting on shabbos till midday is more questionable than eating a cholov isroel cake.

As discussed in Nedorim, chumras are a double-edge sword, it can elevate you and it can make you into a rasha. Someone in Boro Park surrounded by Yiddishe stores would be silly to suddenly rely on the heter just to eat M&Ms. At the same time, someone who is from a family where the heter is used and who has, say, temper and attitude and learning problems – going for cholov isroel might help in some cases, leading to more observance, or deceive in other cases , making him presume that chumros will make other problems go away.

a quick search for kelm shows several images with streets and markets with men only, also an image of children with various parents of all genders accompanying them, and a 1920 photo of non-yeshivish school with parents with no assigned seating at all. Was the takana for separate street sides at some specific times?

CTL,
I understand the realities you mention. I am talking about an ideal view of how things should be. There are so many discussions on how to deal with side effects of over-centralization. This is like chinese government in Beijing issuing edicts about lack of healthcare beds in a remote province. Same happens even in Great Britain with a PM spouting number of new beds built in some town that the MP just inquired about – due to central ownership of the issue. These issues are intractable, and each “cure” creates additional “inequalities” that yet another government office will “resolve”.

Jewish educational system, as described in Bava Basra, suggests a local system with each town being responsible for hiring enough teachers. you are using a threat of segregated schools to oppose improved education of most of the country, including Jews – as if most of schools are not segregated anyway due to segregated housing. If you are so serious about the issue, and I respect that, then you should propose a limited solution for that without holding back millions of kids. for example, allow vouchers for schools that are in areas where there are no mixed areas, or where schools are not segregated. This would allow most of your state to move ahead in education. You yourself received wonderful religious and general education, how do you feel that others are not able to afford it?

I would say this affects even those who can afford it – can you open a Jewish school that will serve only rich children and hope to have good Torah and middos to happen there? From Gemora to Chofetz Chaim in 1920s Poland say that rich kids are not learning Torah well, talmidei chachamim will come out of poor children.

Maybe we need to clarify what “going to college” means in practice. Are we talking about sending a BY girl into a remote party school with a reform clergy for gender studies, or, someone going to a local or online college for a technical degree? Some non-Jews understand this also. I had a young Saudi girl in a CS class I was teaching as a grad student. Before the boys were able to approach her after the class, her father’s chauffeur was already there. Worth the expense.

Just tell the kids that you don’t trust the truck kashrus.

I used to worry when I went to the store with several little kids that they’ll consume or destroy all the attractive items that are on display at the lower level while we were waiting for the cashier. Then, I inspected the aisle more carefully and realized that these items are there on purpose to attract the children’s attention. So, I turned to simply defending the cart from kids adding items to the cart. The rest would be store’s problem.