Always_Ask_Questions

I think we defined well several positions regarding acting on our own, and at least it is clear that one should not rely on ourselves, excluding Hashem from the picture. Masechet Taanit, for example, focuses more on davening as a response to natural calamities. Maybe, we can get some inspiration from people who focused more on davening and learning. What changes were introduced during covid, what additional tefilos were said … please

Ok, you did not take the bait 🙂 the suggestions above are straight from the Gemora Bava Kama 60b: “The Sages taught: If there is plague in the city, gather your feet, i.e., limit the time you spend out of the house, as it is stated in the verse: “And none of you shall go out of the opening of his house until the morning” (ישעיהו כו, כ)… and “Outside the sword will bereave, and in the chambers terror” (דברים לב, כה). Then Gemora explain we need two verses to make sure we don’t go both in the morning and at night. .. And even when there is “fear inside” (pandemic is already in the community and houses ? AAQ), still do not go outside.

Rava would close the windows of his house, as it is written: “For death is come up into our windows” (Jeremiah 9:20). (that is Rava paid attention to air propagation also AAQ).

Now Rashi on Yeshayahu rhymes with your allegoric approach: Go, my people, enter your chambers:… enter your houses of prayer and study. Another interpretation: reflect upon your behavior in the chambers of your heart. So explained Rabbi Tanchuma.

But this does not, I think, rejects the pshat of pandemic prevention. (the context of the Gemora – next line is how to act during famine – like Avraham, leave the city).

So, to summarize, there is enough support for several things: doing practical things, praying, learning, and reflecting on your behavior.

thanks for explaining your position!
the difference here is a highly transmittable disease. So, you are ok with eating vitamins yourself, but not ok with doing something to protect the community. So, I see the priority here as opposite: someone eating unhealthy hurts primarily himself. And even as much as it is a Jewish thing to worry about each other, somehow we do not snatch the unhealthy food from our friends (maybe we should, and this stand-offish approach is goyishe influence). With Covid, behavior of one person affects health of others. So, if you are running a shul, you should do something to protect your kahal rather than ignore the issue. If you did not, then you have some responsibility for what you did not do. How is it caring about other people even controversial? Maybe that was the challenge that Hashem sent, some passed, some failed …

Just take this outside of politicized covid discussion. Was the person with strep that you described was an erloche yid walking around in public places, presuming he was contageous?

thanks. Your interpretation of his words does not match anything I learned from multiple sources – that we are not supposed to rely on miracles and deal with issues in our world. During each calamity, we had leaders who would try to deal with issues. R Yannai would review psukim of encounter between Yaakov and Esav when going to Rome, but went there instead of staying in EY davening. R Yohanan confronted Vespasian near Yerushalaim (and was not sure till his death whether he spoke the right words).

The author’s criticism (and similar one historically) may be directed towards those who deny Hashem’s role in the world and apply efforts that are contrary to Torah. This is totally legitimate criticism. Here, we are talking about a mitzva of protecting human lives and some people say: never mind, this piece of cloth is bothering me, I am running to the vasikin.

you would need to expand on what he is actually saying for me to understand this intriguing quote.

what is it about vaccine met with “flaming rhetoric” – by whom, flaming which way. given that the whole world is flaming one way or the other, I am not sure what is he saying.

Common, you are focusing on apparently one person who attacked you for not wearing mask. Think about probably hundreds of people that you encountered while being a mazik. Most of these dignified people walked around you (and possibly murmured something anti-Semitic). This still does not explain why you were behaving this way..

then why some Yidden wear hats and coats in the style of old-times non-Jews?! What is the original Jewish levush anyway?

common, if you were doing it in violation of state low, then the irony of you complaining about someone else’s behavior is too much here …

but let’s ask the serious question – what is halakha when 2 people have different opinions and need to act together. Say, you invite me to your house and your food is perfectly kosher by you, but I hold by some chumros. Would you feed me the food according to your standard or mine?!

another way to look at this: you treat the person according to what he needs/wants. If you like to tell funny good-natured jokes, but you know someone is a sensitive person and will get offended – then, you do not tell him the joke. You do not say – my jokes are good, and he had to deal with it … Similarly, we support a poor person according to his former standard (if we can). Same thing here, you have a person who is afraid of something – why would you not accommodate him just because you have some machlokes with the government. Just show some chesed.

RebE, unemployment is not a handout, it is a state-run insurance funded by your employer as percentage of your salary.

I don’t recall whether I told this story before. There was a gentleman in a nursing home in Ohio who did not have a family and was reasonably healthy. He watched when Covid started the building divided into with/without covid and gradually the covid part was increasing with more people seriously sick … he was first trying to make personnel to be more careful, but then switched to extreme measures. He would let only nurses he trusted into his room. One guy came “just to take his temperature”, so he called the manager to get the guy out … when things became even worse, he simply sealed his room leaving an opening for food and slept with open windows … They had to convince him to open the door when the vaccine came … all of that to confirm the Gemora that hakol b’yaday shamayim except cold and heat …

Nazi Germany was not a democracy. Weimar Republic was a democracy, with a weak political system that allowed plurality (not majority) Nazis to take over the government. In 1932, Nazi got 37% (19% jump over 1928), Commies 14% (so you can say totalitarians got more than 50%). Most of this 19% increase came at the expense of very small parties, who each lost 1-3%. Social Democrats lost only 3%.

That is why it is important to watch out for “experiments” in the American system that will not lead to similar problems.

lostspark > can respect them fighting against the liberal secularism that seeks to destroy Russia.

this sentiment that the country feels culturally under attack and is, therefore, justified to strike back is exactly what lead Germans to support Nazis. They felt threatened by Russian Bolsheviks, British Navy, Polish nationalism, Communist and Jews playing role in 1918 revolution that they felt did not let them continue fighting in WW1 – and that, somehow, made it acceptable to lash back and murder millions. Something similar is happening in Russia right now, so let’s continue with the “blame everyone” game, surely it should work better this time.

CTL,
so CT is doing well here, I understand that is what is lacking in other places. There might be also an issue of what counts as ID. Preferably, something that verifies citizenship. And similar procedures for mail voting.

This is not about the kid. It is to illustrate how lax the rules often are and how millions of people perceive it. . For a good reason, we are a country with generally educated population. But current confusion deserves making it stricter so that there will be no doubt.

Amil, I am explaining what people see: the printed instructions clearly say that new voters need to show ID. Then, they are not asked for an ID. I do not know why. Maybe Sec of State instructions do not correspond to the law. So, now this first time voter understands that anyone can come in and sign up. Would it be better if everyone would have to show an ID and people will keep faith in election integrity?

Note something that did not exist earlier: any little doubt can now be exploited by online trolls. whether paid by parties or foreign. So, the system needs to be clear and verifiable beyond any doubt.

CTL, my kid read the rules issued by our state. So, now he might take fraud claims by either Americans, or Russians and Chinese trolls as possible, despite all your good efforts. So, I think you should be the first to advocate for more stringent ID rules, reduction in mail vote, etc – so that integrity of elections is not questioned. Yes, you may lose some stray D- votes from people who misplaced their ID or who were helped by neighbors to fill out the ballot, but you should put the good of the country in having trust in elections before minor partisan advantage. At the end, if your party will have to gain votes from people with IDs, it will be better for everyone.

Common, apologize, I took your accountability mention as a fighting word rather than direct meaning. So, let’s do accountability in earnest. What are your estimates of lives lost and what balances it in different places?

This could be an old minhag as during gemora times wine was always diluted before drinking

Ome Polish chosid explained a similar minhag that we show that we are not drunkards like others

Common,
I said that before that I am in a pickle regarding daas Torah – the Rav I ask such questions, told me long time ago that there is no “daas Torah”. So, I am following DT in not following it. And if I were to follow DT, I would be in violation of DT _and_ show disrespect to my teacher, which is mefurash b’ Gemoro. But, anyway, the question on DT was for you, not for me.

Avira, I had to search wide to make sure I am not selecting authors that you will dismiss. So, here is an artole from Lakewood Bayis havaad on abortion, they call TzE – perhaps the most lenient major recent halachic authority, and they quote in thsi order – Ben Isha Chai, TzE, Rav Moshe, R Bleich,

The most report explanation is that UKR fired an air defense missile to intercept the RUS missile that was attacking something not far from the border. The air defense missile (made in USSR, I presume) did not catch the other one and then failed to explode in the air as it supposed to.

UKR are currently worried that the West is interested in a “peace” settlement too soon, letting RUS keep occupied areas. Achasheverosh advisors are now saying “up to UKR to decide when to negotiate” while applying pressure behind the scenes (these are same chachamim who were so successful in AFG and then preventing RUS start of war with “stern warnings of future sanctions”).

So, UKR are very sensitive that people in US and Europe will stop supporting them, falling for RUS propaganda, as we see some here.

Ysserb, good to hear. I looked up a couple of research articles and I see that ADHD diagnoses increased from 6% to 10% of all kids between 1990s and 2018. (14% boys and 6% girls; poor 13%, rich 9%; up to 11y.o – 8%, 12-17 13%).

The first ref below mentions that UK rates are also increasing while being lower, shyly not mentioning the numbers .. UK estimates I can find are 3-5% of children as of 2013 (estimates in population, not actually treated) – so, something strange might be happening all across US – school incentives? bad parenting? overdiagnosis?

1. Twenty-Year Trends in Diagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Among US Children and Adolescents, 1997-2016 Guifeng Xu, MD; Lane Strathearn, MBBS, FRACP, PhD; Buyun Liu, MD, PhD; Binrang Yang, MD, PhD;Wei Bao,MD, PhD

Indeed, Mentch & IITFT. Mir was in Poland before WW2. Then in 1939, it was in the Soviet zone of occupation. Yeshiva (and many others both from the Soviet and German zones) fled to Lithuania that remained independent until occupied by Soviets during summer 1940 – and Sugihara continued writing out visas until Soviets forced Japan to recall him.

It is clear from a question posed to R Grozdenski at the time – who should use the visas – that they were afraid of Soviets. The question assumed that senior Rabbis would be immediately killed, while younger ones will lose their children to anti-religious education.

you need to look at the events with the view of people at the time, rather than with hindsight:

1) Perception which plague was more dangerous depended somewhat on the locale and personal history: those who had experience personally, or in a family, with Soviet oppression, or who had property or involved in religious and political activity – were mostly more afraid of Soviets, except those who were involved in communist political activities who were more afraid of Nazis.

2) Experience of WW1 in that area was of awful Russian army and disciplined German one. Read Elie Wiesel, among others – even in 1944 Hungary, many people relied on that history.

3) At the time, Soviets were running murders and labor camps for 20 years. Nazis, up to invasion of Poland, had pretty benign detention camps in their own country from which people were often released…

I am very confused by this constant ranking of Talmidei Chachamim, mostly because someone wants to totally reject an opinion for personal reasons. The fact that arguments between Tzitz Eliezer and Rav Moshe are often discussed should give you a hint that they are of authority that can be compared (specifically on medical halakha).

(I have nothing else to say on this amusing topic)

Beitza somewhere 25 addresses this excellent question. Bear with me:

you have a cow that coughs suspiciously at the end of yom tov,, maybe she casiught covid, who knows. In order not to encounter huge loss, you would like to shecht it, but there is not enough time to cook it. Can you schecht, cut a piece and eat it raw? R Akiva says – no. Maybe because it is not kosher because you are not checking the lungs, etc? No, you can presume (mduaraita) that majority of animals are healthy. Then, the only explanation is that you can’t shecht it because of lack of Derech Eretz! That is, we proved that Derech Eretz is mduaraita!

Gemora then goes on the “tangent” – lots of mitzvos are given for us to develop Derech Eretz and ability to wait (kashrus, niddah, etc). And then: answer to your question:

.. Dogs among animals, roosters among birds, Jews among nations – all have azut (boldness? hutzspah?). So, Hashen gave us Torah to train us to limit ourselves. Otherwise, Jews will not leave space for other nations to live …

And this is exactly what is happening with Jews who do not know better but try to “save the world” through all kind of means – communism and other “activism” comes to mind first lately.