Always_Ask_Questions

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.

common, repeating, I only wanted to show that the careful position has serious Rabbis behind it. So, you can’t call people names for holding by it. R Heineman was answering shailohs that someone asked hi, he did not call for people to storm Lakewood. Continuing saying that you and your chevrah “do not give a hoot” to opinions of other Rabbis just underscore the sad picture of where are communities are.

In the interest of historical truth, Mir Yeshiva did _not_ run away from Nazis.

Avira,
I am saying the fact that so many people left the community is, in some part, the hesaron of the community itself.

People were looking and trying different approaches. You can’t blame Mendelsohn for trying, and you can’t blame those who opposed him for trying. But I am sure there were people then also who were sitting and criticizing everyone who tried to find solutions. Maybe some became Reform, etc because of the lack of effort and not because some efforts were not successful.

How could Taiwan secede? from what? Communist China never had a fair election. Just use the right words. Ok, so US recognized the dictatorship in 1979. It does not change the fact that the only Chinese province where there were legitimate elections is Taiwan. Compare with current Ukraine – areas under Russian occupation lost their votes in their parliament and will get it back when the Russian armies go home or into the fertilizer. same with China. When areas occupied by communists will become free, they will vote. Until then, Taiwanese represent the country.

Avira, you love finding the worst in everyone (Briskers excepted). It is an easy-to-verify fact that there are shuls full of people who learned by Chabad shluchim, and even in other places there are people who learned by them. If Lakewood kollelim have a similar effect, then great. Now, if some of them are not doing things right, you are free to direct them to better understanding and mekarev them into Brisk.

Again, we are confronted with 4 mln drowning Jews and we are barely saving 1% of them.

Re: shuls that “did not enforce rules”

I am thinking there is a difference:
at one extreme: rules are very conservative (masks outside), most people follow them, and easy to avoid rule-breakers (big shul, ventilation or open windows, part marked for masks, etc).

at another extreme: rules are written up for the health department, most people do not follow them and no consideration given to elderly, etc (small hall, closed windows)

common > who threatened members after they daven in a porch minyan,

Again, R Henneman said that people should not even daven in several nearby yards when it was verbotten by the government. Presuming someone was following R Henneman (I am not saying this was the case, who knows), can a Rav or a beis din enforce their opinions?

We in our days are used to beis din limiting itself to kashrus and gittin, but public policy is obviously within the beis din rights. Again, I am not litigating this particular case, speaking generalities.