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Putin indeed had a plan to remove the legitimate Ukraine government and put their supporters in. That is why he is going directly to the capital thru Chernobyl. It seems that population is so much against Russia and has guns in their hands that such government would not be able to govern for long. It will be hard to find candidates for the dictator position. Ujm may want to apply, I think you can still fly through Switzerland. Ywn may be blocked in Russia, but do stay in touch.
Anyone remembers how Trump called on Europeans to pay more for NATO? This was considered rude, but they started paying more. That would include javelins they are finally ready to send to Ukraine (on trucks, after air path is closed).
Gadol, I am not discarding in person college at all, I am just calling for always looking for safer options, whether it is online or local. For example, doing first two years online, local and then transferring at a higher maturity point. Now I am thinking that is how seminaries work: delay for a year, and give antibodies for another one…
One question is whether parents are estimating kids correctly. One campus Rav told about a call he got from a mother asking him about details of kashrus at his dining room. Getting annoyed, he asked her back: did your family go hiking. She said yes. He said, did your son take tefilin with him. She thought and said,. I think not…. Then he said, are you sure he will take it to college?
I heard Pfizer came up with a TDS pill, but has trouble testing it because nobody is asking for a cure. The good news is that we reached herd immunity, with 50 percent already sick, and the other 50 sick of hearing those who are sick. So, with no new anti Trumpers to infect, the main problem now is long TDS. I heard some are cured by taking in videos of vitamins b, d,e,I,n for several hours daily. This finally brings sleep and mental relaxation to the sufferers. Refuah shleima
Avira, I counted on your help :)!
Gadol, RebE, lofty concepts, but the reality is that majority of the people expect to live (at least) like others around them. If they don’t get a legit profession, they’ll get it another way. This is mefurash Kidushin 30. The modern machloket is whether we can be meikel and allow collecting money from non-Jewish social programs. But if you not a tzadik he can live poorly (married to a tzadekes) and you are machmir and insist on earning your own living – then your choice is between college and manual jobs. Many talmidei chachamim are not good at plumbing and hairdressing and would prefer accounting and computer programming. So, then, the question is – is it possible to acquire a profession without spiritual risk (Gadol’s approach to disregard the risk entirely sounds like an ostrich policy that failed in previous generations).
Er, thanks for acknowledging that Trump’s unpredictability was a deterrence against Putin. I agree.
And, I think, this is a risk we have to take when dealing with such serious threats. Mitt Romney had a clear anti-Russian position and was laughed at by everyone. So, in the current environment, we can’t get a President that will deter Russia/China/Iran without having some middos problems. I am thinking of Trump like Iftach – someone who is needed under certain circumstances. And then some perspective – I would rather some Brazilian president behave badly possibly influenced by Trump than Putin breaking up post-WW2 order in Europe.>> And Trump’s support of Bibi was a show for evangelicals, who largely support Israel for their own religious doctrine, not for us.
This is a classical example of why midah of gratitude is so difficult. As Kotzker responded when told that someone says bad things about him – “strange, I don’t recall doing anything good to that person!”. Whatever his reasons were, he did a number of steps that sounded outrageous, were predicted to generate a war, and served to strengthen Israel. Is it not good enough to say “thank you”? I understand your larger point that tolerance is good for the Jews in general (Berel Wein remarks that most atrocities happen when Jews are not religious, and non-Jews are; it is better to be other way around). I do disagree with that point, though – with tens of millions of people killed by communists in last century, I weigh the risk of intolerant tolerance higher than you do.
coffee, looks like I misunderstood you, you seem to be streesing that now mothers don’t respect fathers due to feminism, while fathers still follow their obligations respecting their wives. I mean, I would probably show disrespect, but I am just never given that choice!
interesting thought, maybe Rambam davka writes at length about mutual respect because the surrounding culture is different?
bored_teen, I tihnk you got more point that it is hard to deny bombs falling. This was R Yohanan’s point when he tells his students to be afraid of Hashem as of regular kings that can inflict tangible punishment.
coffee seem to imply that fathers did not have respect for the mothers (or at least did not have to). I would appreciate if coffee could tell us (maybe he already did) what yeshiva he went to – want to make sure my grandkids don’t end up in the place where they teach this.
Crazy, if I could get a dollar for every time I read an outrageous quote from trump and found out that it was a misquote or out of context or a joke, I’ll be rich like Hunter. So forgive me I am not going to double check this one. And you could spend your energy instead by calling your democratic senator to demand full sanctions on the aggressor instead of every second Russian bank. Pity that Churchill didn’t think about sanctions on Germans instead of declaring a war…
Stay, I am also amused when posters here repeat a complicated round about argument from TV, whether it is left or right… It well maybe that the person is not watching it himself but gets it from friends or social media.
I think this is like Noah who didn’t go into the Teva till the last minute. People knew intellectually that it might happen, but couldn’t imagine it actually happening.
Preparing buses to start escaping under bombardment is not usually a recommended prudent action. We can see a difference between lack of fear when Hashem is punishing people with an invisible virus v. immediate recognition of danger when melech basar vedam starts bombing… Why not say that bombs are not real, and buses killed more people than bombs? (True)
To clarify: online education is not sitting on zoom instead of class and chatting. It is having a regiment of lectures and labs, with mostly recorded talks, asynchronous chat rooms with other students sharing information. Having a hevrusa really helps – a friend or sibling who is in the same program, without it parents need to engage more, and kids are less independent.
One trick I learned from kids is listening lectures, going back and forth and at different speeds, see super fast. Using it now for some classes I am listening. In some cases, I am absorbing information better at higher speed, as my mind doesn’t get distracted by implications of what I just learned 🙂
Gadol, besides my own experience, I have two buildings full of students near my house, so I am well aware of student lifestyle. My kids didn’t know that we have neighbors until they (kids) became teenagers: when kids were awake, students are asleep, when students party, kids were already sleeping
Show me a gemora advocating purposefully sampling everything. Or wait just got one in daf yomi Hagiga: a talmid haham who had Greek books falling out of his pockets
And, as I said before, it depends on a person, what degree of engagement is safe
Random, hundreds in the country of hundred million… Kol hakavod to them, of course, and understanding the risks others are afraid to take, but still… Check out Putin’s popularity, even if you can’t fully believe those surveys
We always had more tzoros from those with whom we lived nearby – Poles, Ukrainians. We had less problems with Germans whose Jews assimilated and Russia that did not allow Jews in the country even after it concurred neighbors with Jewish population. Of course, Jews moved from Germany to Poland on their own during middle ages where they had their self-governance and moved on their own to Ukraine as shluchim of Polish aristocrats. And Germany and Russia spend 20th century killing Jews, each other and everyone else. This is not to deny whatever problems there are, but they need to be seen in perspective.
Gevalt, TDS virus is rapidly mutating and evading all known vaccines.
Your xplanations seem not to pass Karl Popper’s test: a theory is something that can predict a hypothetical fact that can be later shown to be true or false. If a theory is not disprovable in this sense, then it is not a theory. Similar notion exists in complexity of data analysis: if you have a model that has so many parameters that they can be changed to fit any data that you might have, then this model is not good.
In this case, you are giving explanations to the past events. Go back to your thoughts (and maybe posts) pre-election, pre-inflation, pre-Kabul airport, pre-Ukraine invasion and ask your old self –
would you consider such events signs of strength or failure? similarly, go back to Trump election night and list everything bad that you thought will happen. Interestingly, people who are putting money where their mouths are took about 8 hours to do this analysis: when it became clear that Trump is winning (2016, not 2020, just making sure), the market tanked. In several hours, it starting going up for next 4 years.HaKatan, I understood Lieberman’s party name referring to his party leading Russian olim towards being – and being accepted – as part of Israeli society, rather than “Rusim”.
I looked up 10 principles that his party was formed for. True he refers to Jabotinsky’s ideas, but if you count from the top – most of it is about being “strong on defense”. Maybe we need to define what you see as “Zionism”. Are you accusing him of too much hishtadlus instead of “relying on Hashem” to protect Jews? I would say this is a legitimate haskafa disagreement.
Security policy based on initiative and preemptive action.
Solution of the conflict through a comprehensive regional agreement and the exchange of territories and populations.
Without loyalty there is no citizenship – Military or National Service for everyone who reaches the age of 18.
Death penalty for terrorists.
Adopting the Shamgar Report (which restricts the things the Israeli government can offer as part of a prisoner exchange) as the sole basis for all future prisoner exchange.
In the case of a dilemma between the unity of the land and the unity of the people, the unity of the people comes first.
Yes to Judaism – no to religious coercion.
Support for Jewish settlement as part of the Zionist ideal and concept of security.
Immigration of Diaspora Jews as a central national goal.
A socio-economic ideal in line with Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s five basic needs that should be guaranteed by the government: Food, Housing, Clothing, Education and Healthcare.Gadol, Stern is a good option and I know many people who had good experiences, but, again, for those paying full price, way overpriced over quality. I hate sound so materialistic, but may I use a car analogy: it is wrong when all I need is to commute to work and I am forced to buy a Ferrari “like everyone else”. I understand that contrary to regular colleges, YU counts high/elementary school tuition as part of parent burden, so it may work reasonably for many.
Could you say more about limudei kodesh groups for college women – this sounds like a reasonable approach.
As to “where”, there was a striking article in something like OU magazine ~ 30 years ago by a non-NY Hillel Rav at a big university – where, contrary to his financial interest, he strongly advised parents _NOT_ to send their children (both boys and girls) out of town for college, saying that this is an American tradition with no Torah support. This is the age where you have a chance to teach the kid – and you are sending them away?
Another weird point from Putin: he says that Kiyv is the historical capital of Russia, therefore Ukraine should belong to Russia! Another example of hutzpah: what he means is that Kiyev is not in Russia because Moscow had only remote connection to Kievan Rus.
(cont) and if you don’t value your time to the degree that from 9am you wait when it is gonna be 5pm (and eventually, when is it going to be a vacation, and them retirement), then you will take same attitude to your davening and learning after 5 pm. “Hashem pours wine into a full cup” (Brochos ~ 5)
sam > ? The one that his money & business won’t effect his relationship with Hashem
not so fast. A major aspect of avdut is not being able to control your own time. And the eved doesn’t have a lot of mitzvos because of that. So being an employer or an independent contractor is definitely preferable. And if you learn how to be responsible for your actions in business, you will also use this attitude towards Hashem.
very appropriately, a topic on insults ended with them.
midwesterner +1
kanoy, I apologize for mistreating your post. I appreciate complexity that indeed exists in these matters and I am all for considering them. Still, I think we first need to review simple things before going to esoteric.
Biden did not have that many tasks from Obama. He needed to be sure that his son is not doing dirty business in the country he is … fighting corruption. And not flying with him to meet Chinese “investors”. I am not sure why Obama sent Biden to Ukraine given the embarrassing situation. In real life, everyone related to Hunter would lose government security clearances due to possibility of blackmail.
By the way, it is not fully clear how this fighting corruption was good business. On one hand, we do want to have clean countries. On the other hand, Ukrainians just got rid of pro-Soviet president and needed, and still need, all the help they can get. Their President said at Munich that even now, emergency help they get is tied to corruption benchmarks. Biden’s people are as full of “theories” that blind them to reality as Germans – who just now are starting to reconsider their gas supplies – as Trump told them repeatedly.
Gadol > hard to tell which tyrants are acting “rationally’
Gemora mentions power as one of the avoda zara types. I can understand dictators from olden times – first “everyone did that”, second, if you wanted to have a decent life with servants/wine/ladies, you want to be a somebody; and if you are a somebody, you need to concur others before they did same to you. In our times, Kim or Putin could have opened a cyber-security company and become billionaires and have worry-free life without subjugating millions of people. In fact, they live lives of fear worse than a simple unemployed person in America. Not rational.
> Crimea has historically been part of Russia for hundreds of years
kill parents and ask for forgiveness as an orphan?! Crimea was populated by Tatars, was first conquired by Russian empire, and then Stalin deported them en masse, Sanheriv style, with a large part dying on the way. After that, it became mostly Russian.
I was always wondering how during cold war we had people focusing on minor US faults and what is Nixon’s fault, and fighting nuclear weapons and energy, rather than confronting the evil empire, and now I see that the same thing happens again. At least Covid is new and invisible, so you can understand ignorami, but this is a 300 year virus with known side effects (to borrow a phrase from Ukrainian ambassador) – and posters seem prefer entertainment at the expense of human lives.
crazy, you are going into some complicated question ignoring simple facts. R Twersky writes that the hardest to treat are smart alcoholics – they can always convince themselves why they still can’t drink. So, you seem to say that bad things during Biden are due to Trump, during Obama – due to Bush , etc – while there is some logic here, there is a limit too.
the only place where Russians advanced during Trump times was in Syria where they were already allowed in during Obama times. Given multiple successes US had in Syria and facts on the ground that Assad survived with Russian and Iranian support, it is not clear what else US could have done.
Maybe take a bigger picture – Cato’s latest human freedom index for 2019 shows decreasing freedom between 2008 and 2016 in Eastern Europe and MidEast and stabilized from 2016. If you want, look up other indices.
Gadol, maybe I was not clear, but I am suggesting something similar. I am not suggesting a diploma mill. I more and more prefer online because of dangers on campus. Another option is a local college with kids living at home. But this might protect from wild parties, but will not protect from hearing what professors are saying and you will never know. With online, I discuss with kids in real time when bad ideas are mentioned, both college and high school.
this is personal. In previous generation, I saw kids who already came as learners from MO schools, going thru college without apparent damage, but I am not so sure about those who were not so strong after high school. In this generation, kids who went to non-MO schools, are ready for overpriced “frum” colleges that are possibly a reasonable option if you can get a good discount. Otherwise, it is throwing a lot of money into the wind.
Light? Chagiga 12, Hashem hid it so it will not be misused by reshoyim. Whether it is laser, nuclear, or radio….
Yes, I mentioned Haber’s connection to poison. He stopped at home after testing gas on the western front on the way to eastern, and his wife committed suicide because of this issue… He was one of the last Jews still employed in Germany – due to his stature, and he made a huge effort to help his fired employees to find jobs in other countries. Weitzman invited him to rehovot, but he died in Switzerland from a heart attack
Hakatan, you are not listing facts, just expressing your feelings. How can we discuss? Just going by need, I see people complaining about financial and work related battles. Is Lieberman Zionist? I don’t think so, he may not like charedim, although his son is, he may not appreciate Torah in general, but his issues are not Zionism. Unless you are calling everyone who disagrees with you politically Zionist
I don’t know how you define am haaretz, but you use t.ch. too loosely. T ch can make a mistake, but is expected to review his actions and fix it. If you see t ch doing aveira in the evening, don’t approach him in the morning, as he already did teshuva
I had to double check that this 2022 not 2021 thread… You guys need to get yourself out of cnn news about soft issues – who said what, platforms… It is very easy to turn any of these to left or right. Look at facts, Trump gave weapons to Ukraine, moved troops to Poland, defeated ISIS, gave weapons to Kurds, shot at Russians there. You can legitimately point out things he didn’t achieve and we can discuss, but when you deny simple facts, you are not going to convince anyone. Why waste your time?
Random, thanks for looking up wiki for me…
Avira, it is not anti learning to say that some girls are being pushed into lifestyle they are not prepared for. Those who are, and prepared by their family accordingly – gezunte heig.
A constructive question – anyone knows good short term learning options for post high school girls? I would think that in town girls could have 1-2 days a week, out of town + a couple of weeks at a time, with learning, socializing that they continue following remotely the rest of the year, while they are getting their degrees and helping mothers
Gadol, you can’t be serious about Ukraine. First thing Biden declared was – we are surely not going to send soldiers. First thing Trump did when Russian contractors moved towards US base in Syria – bombed them. Trump also supported Eastern European countries in their armament, posting US troops there, and blocking Nord Stream2 that Biden immediately rescinded.
(To be fair, I don’t think Trump issued the command, he simply put capable people in charge, and delegated this decision to Pentagon; Pentagon delegated that decision to the local commander, who did what he needed to do).
indoor plumbing – invented at least 2,000 years ago in Rome, but Rashbi criticized all their inventions. But people lived with outdoor plumbing and had no problems with it. So your disgust would not exist without being exposed to indoor plumbing. Another one of Roman inventions – well-paved and straight roads: using several layers of different materials and special instrument and work process to make roads precisely straight and digging up the obstacles.
Credit cards – credit in general enabled society to live way better, and Jews were in front of this banking revolution for centuries. Without credit, men would need to work 10-20 years before getting a house and then marrying.
Covid vaccine – I think saving millions of lives is worth irritating people who do not believe in them. You speak like a gemora that saving one life is saving a whole world is not in your religion.
Random, a good point on melachim. This would exclude Kims, while Hu and Putin exist by some quiet agreement of their countries who did not come to rebel against them. Not different from melachim of the past who did not have frequent elections. The idea of democracy was considered unworkable for most of history between Athens and modernity – and, for me at least, it is still unclear whether it works and clearly pure democracies are bound to fail.
jackk, Twitter: Obama has 131 mln followers (potus44 – 14), Trump had 90 (potus45 – 32), Biden 30 (of which 24 before Presidency, Potus 18). I am not subscribed to any of them, I am just looking up occasionally as a webpage. Interesting, that Trump was of more relative interest as a Potus, while Obama as a person. Biden seems was most of interest as a candidate.
Biden’s latest post is 3 days ago (long weekend, staffers not working, I guess) on high-speed internet. On Russia – Feb 18. Not a source of news.
Gadol, I was not using it to form my opinions for which as you suggest the best places is primary sources, but just to see the issues of the day. Most of other press was re-posting his tweets cloaking them in a commentary and opinion, so it took time to read thru it to find out what actually happened.
Avira, there were early amoraim interested in moving to E’Y and Israeli ones that considered leaving E’Y an aveira. This does not happen later on – probably a combination of hardships in E’Y and Bavel becoming true center of learning. Would help if you bring the quotes that you referring to so that we see both sides of the issue.
Let’s consider a “what if” history – Zionists do not move to E’Y and current E’Y looks like Jordan and Iraq at best or Syria and Iran at worst. There are several Jewish communities existing peacefully in general, with no mmodern avoda zora, under duress, and occasional mass murder. Would you move there?
CTL, thanks for history. My question is – that feds ability to extort policies by withholding money does not seem kosher to me. This essentially confirms the fears that federal government becomes too powerful. Literally, highway robbers. This is like Russia threatening to cut off gas from Europe.
I forgot fertilizer (Fritz Haber) in ~ 1910 – saved billions of lives from starvation. On the least of most forgotten greatest inventions. Stricken out of history for being a German patriot during WW1 and inventing poison gas. He fully did teshuva though for his German sympathies before his death in the 30s.
There is such a thing and it is worth pursuing. Rambam and others write that one should teach a child a clean and easy profession. Something, where he can earn respectable living and not requiring undue hardships. I think most people help their children not so much by providing them enough money to live but by teaching them right skills and trades and then helping to ease into jobs or business.
In our times, you can achieve same things even if your parents are not able to fully help. Get a (good) online degree, get a respectable job to feed your family. Then, you can divide remaining time between learning, teaching your kids, and trying risky ventures in Amazon selling and real estate to become richer.
R Yohanan says when dying “be afraid of King of Kings (at least ?) as the mortal Kings”. Given lack of power for the current monarchs, we should observe carefully remaining dictators – Hu, Putim, Kim, to appreciate what yerat shamayim is.
Gadol said it best. Read original documents and speeches, or at least scan. 9 out of 10, their main point is different from what is quoted.
ok, so we agree on big picture here. Practical question is which medicines are seriously affected by possible quality problems… I think I heard of synthroid issues also, as ubi says.
for politically minded, this seems like a lose-lose – choosing between “china” and “big pharma”. Hope you side with US pharma for a change. And also note that those who attack “big pharma” implicitly support “big China”, similarly as those who fight “climate” help Russia as previous generation those who were fighting nuclear were helping USSR to sell their oil/gas.
jackk, I am currently out of time to read that report. Did I post any claims from it? I quoted some of my previous recollections. You posted
> The Durham report does not say that the Clinton campaign spied onposting “does not say” is a strong statement – presumes you read the whole thing and did not find that claim. So, either confirm that you did that or please go and verify what you posted. And let’s our discussion standards not be affected by media standards (that is what this thread is about).
I think if we all (not just YWN posters, but the community in general) use “media standards” to approach political problems – be it Trump, Israeli government, Covid, or whatever, we violate “sheker sheker tirhov”. In practical terms, we will soon start (if not started) using same attitude in our Torah learning, Ch’V – and we see this sometimes in our Torah discussions where posters bring “proofs” for their side by using distortions and omissions, rather than true learning attitudes.
Where can I get sefer of teshuvos by Achashverosh, could you ship it by Purim?
Seems like respect would require indeed talking to the husband in his language, you can also consider that women have more feelings and prefer to talk to children in appropriately called “mama loshon”.We have an example of a bilingual family, right? A woman who had to spit into Bava’s eye due to language problems with her husband. Any piskei halakha coming from there? One thing is true (and is evident in that story) that men are less flexible and more fixed in their ways, so the wife might consider speaking his language as it is hard for him to change.
But it would be also wise to look long-term: do they plan to settle in E’Y, or go back & forth? If they are planning fully Israeli life, then the husband, and future children, would be better off talking the language of their neighborhood. OTOH, if children are planning to earn a living, speaking American English and having American business attitudes will help them land a job in one of the above mentioned IBM, Intel, Rafael, so that they can have a good-paying job and spend half a day in learning.