Always_Ask_Questions

Avram, I mentioned local Rav not r Moshe because you want to be sure you get unbiased advice. If you read r Moshe and then read someone else paskening differently, how do you know you didn’t select the cheapest option? Unless you always go by IM.

I see what you are saying about taxes. This is an argument that welfare is not my community charity. Otherwise you could claim you fulfill tzedoka through IRS… I see welfare as nonJewish collective charity. Note that they let you to sometimes subtract your charity from taxes, do they see the kesher. Politically, people definitely see difference between types of spending. Most people are okay going getting unemployment and social security, but many wouldn’t sign up for subsidies for the poor and look down at people who use those without a need. This may be old fashioned and outdated, but I think it still exists.

I agree that the fact this is not coming from a king may changes that SA refusal to use the funds. But it could cut both ways. As stealing from a tzibur is hard to atone for. So, if you inappropriately spent NJ funds, you got to go to all towns and build water fountains there!? It maybe sakanah

Moishe, try using this approach when saying morning brochos: shoes hurt today, so skipping kol tzarki, back hurts, so much work feel like an even. Ingratitude is a bigger problem than even TDS

So, Yidden with medical degrees should go work in areas where Yidden live, and Yidden in areas where there are not enough doctors, should go get medical degrees.

RW > why nach and Mishna are written in a much simpler tongue than Torah.

Where are holding in Nach to say this?! Mishna is cliff notes of scholarly discussions, not necessarily full spoken language, even if it brings examples of common speech.

common, you are talking different centuries. People looked way closer at your time. Nowadays, there are now 2-3 times more people attending college. Observant people from Jewish schools work in many places already and either are a testimony or a facilitator for the younger ones.

My experience is similar to yours: I was a butt of (friendly) jokes in my first post-grad workplace – I was the first hire whose PhD was not from top three schools in the industry. Now, that firm routinely hires PhDs from my school, not sure whether I started the trend or, more likely, they lowered the standards. As for me, that was the only time when the school was looked at.

Gadol > social welfare transfer programs

Social welfare? I thought it is inflation reduction 🙂 If I can speak for all (200 mln) of us, this is very grating for some many reasons:

it is a transparent giveaway of common funds to interest groups, timed to elections, attempted to look like benign: President before said that he will consider “up to 10K” – so the headline is 10K, then another 10K for many, then another several perks, some with special preferences for government workers, so that nobody really knows the price and details, without Congress, with insane moral hazard and unfairness, and zero positive effect on improving future policies.

It is beyond anything King George was accused of, more like late Roman Emperors who were increasing Legions’ pay to keep them happy.

Would it be then yichud for mods to read, and sometimes rely, to posters? Oi vei.

> “it’s a tircha, as AAQ said.”

here is a good illustration. Give someone a kulah to hang on, and it is gladly accepted 🙂

Capitalization started somewhere in late Rome, before that everything was UPPERCASE like Hebrew. Then, almost every noun was (Germans still do that), first words, Divine names, etc. Overall, there seem to be two rules:
1) capitalization correlates w/ kavod. So, the weightier your Subject is, the more Capitals… Maybe you should be saying Hashem as The G-d, as, l’havdil, you are supposed to say The Queen (two Capitals)
2) Still, There are no exact Rules, They do change over time.

fascinating discussion surely honoring Satmar Rav and his sense of humour. Need more Yiddish puns though.

A practical solution for phone users to look more menchlich: does your keyboard has auto-complete? when you typed “Rebbe” once and it lists that and 3 more words, click on the word and it should be added to the dictionary. So, next time, you’d quickly get to the right word and form. At least, I made sure that my phone “knows ‘Hashem’ “. This should also tie into speech-to-text. I think I am using gboard, not sure about other keyboards. Alternatively, don’t drive-and-post, come home and use your computers after kids finish their homework.

Zuchy, when they travelled on shmita – what was their message? Is this before various technical solutions were proposed to make it easier, and solutions were different?

jackk> Republican’s love to keep people in debt.
Until they gamble and lose and then Bankruptcy.

Jackk, you are right, the American system is corrupt and we should all move to USSR where government kindly cancelled all the debts, together with bankers and gamblers. Oh, wait, no, it is not better there – how do you explain THAT!?

common, nachon, hu adam gadol, ani choshev, using lashon harambam

I heard that a stroke survivor in PA had hutzpah to make fun of a doctor eating obscure vegies and got back a retort that he would not need to be a stroke survivor were he to know of veggies … apparently, this worked and the stroke survivor is doing teshuva, going down to 200 lbs.

AAQ> “I THINK I FULLY APPRECIATE SUCCESSES OF YESHIVA/HAREIDI MOVEMENT IN GETTING US TO THE CURRENT MOMENT.”
Avram> I don’t, or at least if it is so, you are not communicating it here.

I just did above. I can expand on what seems to be common between most of us, so it is boring to recap. Here is my view of modern history, standing on one leg: most of Jewish world was unprepared to modernity; Jews who learned the old-fashioned way – between mincha and maariv – has their children swept up in socialist and capitalist lifestyles; first positive responses to modernity, see Mendelhson, were intellectually honest, but did not protect their communities and children. Eastern Europe got the virus later and had time to develop some protective measures, going insular and increasing institutional learning w/ yeshiva movement. As Chofetz Chaim says: oilam thinks one should be frum, frum, and then klug. while he suggests: klug, klug, and then frum. DEfinite plug for improving education! Sometimes isolation had to the level of “midbar” as Hazon Ish describes his Israeli system of separating from society. R Salanter and R Hirsh developed more integrated approaches that allowed people to interact with the world with less trepidation (R Salanter specifically mentions r Hirsh).

This is even further true in America – before Eastern Europe arrivals, there was no learning, almost complete assimilation. Furthermore, “frum” behavior would not transfer from European parents to American kids as you don’t look up to parents who are not respected in the new society (source: R Nosson Sherman), so education was the key. In most cases, successful mass education was possible only within communities that isolated themselves upon arrival. Those who did not were assimilating way faster than educating. All of these ensured survival of a strong dedicated community that can sometimes even help the rest of American Yidden (Chabad and occasional others) that, upon survival, should say hallel and start addressing how to maintain strong ehrliher Jewish community. A lot of what was achieved was done by efforts of dedicated survivors of Nazi and Soviet prosecutions, who are not with us anymore, so even continuing on the same path may be a challenge that needs to be addressed.

Avram > do you calculate maaser on your income before or after taxes?

after, psak from a local chareidi Rav. A good question – does this decision affect how you see taxes and getting them back? This is what I mentioned as a possible window of actions due to a sofek how to see taxes. Go ahead, what is your approach?

1, right. I am not against BTLs, just wondering what is the use, other than law school?

I am also interested in applying yeshiva/seminary credits to other colleges for those who are not in commuting distance from heilicke Brooklyn. Many people ponder sending to a local college v. YU or Touro. this does sound more like a question for ani-ima site, although halakha makes fathers responsible for teaching kids Torah and professions, not mothers.

RebE> Rambam Hilchas Kiddush Hachodesh (17, 24)
T his seems to be in a wrong thread ..

thanks, he says astronomy and geometry. He also says that Chochmei Israel bnei Yassahar knew this also but we lost their writings and that it is not so much that we trust “scientists” but that we judge their argument by the merit of their proofs, not their identities.

And this may be a good reason for people to study math and other hard sciences before they get to philosophy and any serious Jewish studies. It is a simple kal vehomer that one’s ability to see true argument in hard sciences is higher as there is usually an answer in the back of the book. Without it, and with “positive learning” popular today, everyone becomes convinced of his own thinking abilities because he always comes to the right conclusion (according to his own judgment or the judgment of his teachers). If you once struggle to prove a geometry theorem that a Greek guy using two instruments in the sand near Athens could, you’ll be humbler claiming that you understand hidden ways of Hashem.

RebE, I presume he is typing on the phone and it is a tircha to press buttons to get to caps. It is not a mitzva meduoraita as Hebrew rarely uses capitals …

If you do it once though, you can try the phone according to your derech. Phone will know who deserves the z’l and who not.

Seems like you are zeroing in on the key question: what is the purpose of communication?

Business matters are OK. At the same time, some conversations here are osur for any combinations of genders. Maybe a rule of thumb should be – do not type anything you would not say face-to-face to a reasonable person. Again, should work for all genders.

Syag> You haven’t given a halachik source

We had R Akiva and Rambam discussed before and I referred to several siyufim in Shulchan Orach, Yoreh Deah 255 above. True, I did not trace it further to our times, but you probably know this is how halakha is discussed, starting from earlier sources. So, either I am not applying S’A terms correctly to modern realities (as Avram is suggesting) or there are later sources that explain why and how halakha changed.

Avram > Who says that the U.S. Government entitlements are halachically considered tzedakah?

It is a good question. What are alternatives? I see halakhic sources mentioning a goyishe ruler giving to charity and we have problem with that seemingly due to his personal involvement. Maybe having a law-based society, treating Jews as equals in all aspects, changes that. So, this argument might allow taking payments from non-Jewish government in a legitimate way, especially as we pay our taxes.

So, just general thinking about halakhic status of payments from government:
– explicit insurance: unemployment, flood, FDIC, medicare, social security (even if a trick somewhat)
– payment for accepted services: school transportation, public services
– old-style political hegemon payments, like I hear student loan forgiveness for slackers.
– charity: welfare, food stamps, medicaid: any payments based on low income, maybe even taking low-income tax deductions, I guess.

Why are the later ones charity? It is an organized system of supporting poor. Again, an interesting question: do we consider it “non-Jewish” or some more neutral form. Let’s say it is a sofek, then you can have two possible set of rules: some for Jewish charities, some for non-Jewish (I don’t think these are kal vehomer – one may be more stringent in some cases, another – in other). So, appropriate behavior would be somewhere between these two versions.

If anyone has better halakhic sources, I am all ears.

Avira > using kiekeergard to explain adam harishon is enough reason for me not to accept him as authoritative.

yet another condition for a T.Ch – not to read books unapproved by Avira … you inspired me to read some boring theses exploring the theme, mostly uncovering the hidden in order to be eligible for thesis defense, not very convincing. I found an article Rav Soloveitchik’s New World View By: DAVID P. GOLDMAN, 2018 (that confirms the connection) interesting to understand Rav’s relationship to Western philosophy with this metaphor: It is surely valid to speak of such influences, in the same way that we might say that a man who observes a train wreck is influenced by trains.

He also quotes an interesting idea from Plato and apparently something similar from R Soloveichik: first study math before philosophy. Meaning: if you can’t master math, don’t go further.

Also, here is an interesting quote from the Rav that explains how he looks at influences as both possible but not overwhelming:

…would help us to discriminate between the living and the dead in Jewish philosophy. What, for instance, is of halakhic nature in the Guide and the Kuzari, and what merely an echo of Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy? The purpose of such an analysis is not to eliminate non-Jewish elements. Far from it, for the blend of Greek and Jewish thought has oftimes been truly magnificent.15 However, by tracing the Jewish trends and comparing them to the non-Jewish, we shall enrich our outlook and knowledge. Modern Jewish philosophy must be nurtured on the historical religious consciousness that has been projected onto a fixed cognitive screen. Out of the sources of Halakhah, a new world view awaits formulation.

Gadol> Inspector General of DHS/Secret Service is himself under investigation for failing to disclose the “coincidental” deletion of SS text

It is not the first time I see that SS was apparently fond of Trump, as long as multiple stories of some other presidents not being their favorite. These are people who see Presidents daily and closely. Is there any good reason for their preferences?

y1836 > your definition seems to be, Gedolim who were anti-Zionist

The problem of his definition is that it ls self-serving. We look at “gedolim” to see something that we might not figure out ourselves. With this definition, you simply re-define any gadol who disagrees with you as lower-level human gadol. Then, the whole notion is meaningless and serves simply as a way to find louder arguments for your own position.

> Henkin “grappled’ with this question

Just guessing: maybe this was a common question among his hevrah and he thought it important to give this answer in public and explain it so that they understand.

> some do not want to write zatzal because of the damage he caused,

R Yochanan was not sure until his death whether he made a huge aveirah by asking for too little from Vespasian. Sofek on his zatzal also? what about crowds that became or stayed observant because of Rav Kook? Don’t count?

Avira, thanks for quoting this teshuva!

> the world is ok with jews coming to “their” land, and they see it as “natural” – has he ever heard what they say at the UN? They hated Israel from day 1…

By the letter of the law, UN voted to create Israel. Don’t take zechuyos from people who need them .. Maybe Americans wanted to stick it to Brits, and Soviets expected a client communist state, but their vote is what mattered.

> Poskim are human. Unless they’re the gedolei olam,

You are refining further and further your system of rejecting Talmidei Chachamim who don’t agree with you. In this case, you may forgive some of the gedolim for being emotional like many other Yidden when an event of such historical magnitude happens – at the seemingly very lowest point of
Jewish history. As one chacham writes in his memoirs at that time: “European Jewry is destroyed, Russian Jews are permanently under Communists, there never was a yeshiva in America and never will be, EY is under Brits and not allowing anyone in, ehat is going happen with the Torah? …”. I am sure you can reply to this Chacham that Zionists did not support Torah directly, but if you put yourself back at that time, it gave hope and any hope mattered. Think for a minute what if American Jews stayed fully secular – EY would be the only place for Torah. I am sure you’ll go there to learn of there were no other choices. Would rather learn there under an Arafat or an Assad? Do you think they will let Chazon Ish to have his “midbar” peacefully?