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ymribiat, a great point. Maybe there should be a joint Toeva Anonymous club, a system endorsed by R Twersky Z’L, with both financial and sexual abusers eligible to attend. They can ponder together how these issues came together.
I understand the issue is important, but why two threads!?
Avram, I agree that we value age, even without wisdom. Gemora in kidushin seems to leave it ambiguous do we primarily honor wisdom or stam old age, as every old person acquires experience that is worthy honoring… Definitely, many people write that the current president showed empathy by relating to either his tragic family or people he met, including Holocaust survivors..
Still, when we elect a person who was not bright when he was young and in middle age, he gets set in his ways and prone to flattery and start acting with hubris, leading to disasters.
Ujm, I am reluctant to read research on this topic, but could you check whether they traced these numbers through time and countries? Making a behavior normalized might increase number of people who follow it. The more teachers put they as their pronouns, the more kids are following them.
Whoever compares Chevron with suffering under Nazis and Soviets has no credibility. I read, in an unreliable source, that after the war the Beltzer Rebbe didn’t move to Yerushalaim because he felt he is not deserving due to advising yidden to stay in Europe.
I got warnings several times when I fully admitted that I was wrong, saying something like – I drove here for years and knew where you are hiding, but still pressed the gas too strong! (the road goes down there right after a turn).
In another case, long time ago, while driving in a different state, a policeman pushed behind me in the left lane in an unmarked car at night and when I accelerated to let him go, he ticketed me. I wrote a nice letter to the judge with a map of the location and all details – and the case was dismissed. I am thinking: if a policeman did something questionable to you, he most likely did this to others also, and a judge would know.
In the parking case – mail in pictures.
interesting topic connecting Gemora in Ketubot with the next one – Nedarim :_
what is the date on the oath shtar? If it was on in Bavel, then we had semi-state and then a state – with the permission of Persians. After that, Jews defended their state from Greeks and others during BM2. Similarly, Jews went to EY with permission of Brits and then approval of UN – literally, all goyim, something that most other states do not have. This seems like we are following the conditions of the shevua. the fact that some other goyim, who were not in charge in EY at a time, disagreed does not seem to matter. Of course, we should keep them in mind and not aggravate unnecessary (such as picking on Muslims on Har Habayit) …
Also, note that things are not better in galus/aka shtetl. Jews promised not to rebel against the governments and then participated in all kind of revolutions in Europe… And these were not some mythical “reform” Jews for whom we are not responsible. At some point, Slobodka had to send new students to Telshe yeshiva because all the current students joined socialists.
common, a good question. Possibly R Kotler’s talents will be wasted on being a mayor, and possibly he will not be succcessful at that! R Soloveichik talks that Jewish community evolves around teachers, not politicians. So, you just to need to expect less of politicians, and try to elect those who are helpful both for out klal and humanity in general.
“Torah world” always knew about dangers in the world, including child abuse. For example, Gemora at the end of Ketubot says that when a husband is deceased, the child should be raised by the mother rather than husband’s brothers. Why? Because brothers will inherit from their brother in case the child dies and gemora refers to a case where this happened. Not necessarily killed, just neglected – at the times when child mortality was high.
look at the jokes Amoraim did when started a class. Also, try joking about yourself not others.
Did you consider a possibility that if everyone drives responsibly, we will see less terrible news of people dying and maimed in car accidents? I do not know enough to say this is so, just asking you to consider.
For example, you may think that you personally able to drive responsibly at 100 mph and did so for 60 years already, but the city in general benefits from it. Automatic cameras seems like a better solution that cops hiding in the bushes – more objective and predictable, and less expensive.
People generally continue growing in their mental abilities until they reach the peak and then start going down. Age of the peak varies greatly. Many achieve at 20, but others are growing into their 90s.
So, for a politician any age past 50 may be a time of decline and by 80, they are a danger to the world, while a talmid chacham is still on the way to the peak and may refuse a position (yet). Just has this in the end of Ketubot – a Tanna refusing to become Rosh Yeshiva in favor of an (even) older colleague and taking it after the death of the older one.
Avira, not sure why are you asking me about what R Moshe knew, I am not an expert on him. But as long as you asked, r Moshe in the teshuva you quote writes that even reshayim do not have this taava but react to it being prohibited (by Torah!?). I am not sure how to understand it, as this aveira was historically popular among nations who did not prohibit it. Maybe he means among Jews (there is indeed halakha that a man can not sleep near a male non-Jew, but can near a male Jew) or in our generation/ culture. Maybe he is simply looking here for words that will affect, but not offend, the LW.
This has nothing to do with squirrels. Magid shiur speaks at the speed most appropriate for his own thinking and an average student in the class. Some may need faster, some slower. It may depend on the topic.
It is also not about speed of listening, but how you react based on speed. I asked a Rav who know how I learn (but not the one who leads the shiur, for obvious reasons :), and he surmised that if one wants to simply absorb information without getting distracted into other issues, it may be better to listen at faster speed.
If there is a mitzva in the Torah to not do X, then there are at least some people who are interested in doing X. Otherwise, there is no need for the mitzva. So, whatever feeling some people might or might not have, has no relevance to the need to adhere to halakha.
any shiur can be made into a 30 minute shiur by running the recording at faster speed.
some say that we would not be able to understand Gemora without Rashi. So, everyone, except “gaonim” that RebE mentions, rely on Rashi
Ellis island records are online, including ship manifests. So, you can check them out. There are also later recordings of people who went through that. Most scary was medical test that could have sent you back heim. After that, the officers would ask your job – brick layer, accountant, gabbai and suggest where you should go to meet haverim. This is by the way what Jews did also. We used to have professional shuls – just for shoemakers – so that they could help each other professionally. One lady was mostly shocked (in a good way) that US had free high schools, something her family was desperately saviing money for back in Eastern Europe.
I am not so sure that Queens have advantage over Kings. There were way more Kings in history and so there are more memorable Kings famous for their misadventures. In Jewish history, there was were good Queens during Chashmonaim times, but then there was Jezebel…
We have many psukim, inclduing in daily and Shabbos davening that connect talmidei chachamim with good community feelings – darkei noam, merabim shalom, etc. That is, a true talmid chacham is the one whose speech results in such. That is, those whose speech results in insults and discord are engaged in bitul TDorah even if they think that they are “speaking in Torah”.
> give it to me.
everyone gets his own mazal. If you get his money, you also get his (possible) mafiozi brothers… who probably have other relatives who can come back to talk to you. That might have been a good reason to refuse the money.
one example quoted in Chabad Fredrike Rebbe memoirs: when Russia took over Vilna district at the time of Khmelnitsky, Polish landowners abandoned their property and ran to Poland. Some Jews rented the land from the Russian government. Litvishe Rabonim issued a takanah that Jews should send a portion of the profit to the Polish owners, or put money aside if returning money immediately is impossible. This worked long-term.
Most opinions here are emotional outcries. Voting is our interaction with non-Jewish world and is often a complicated matter. It is not just short-term gain or preference but long-term effect on our community and relationship I suggest with non-Jews. Given that this one is close and complicated,
I suggest you contact a talmid chacham who is a bokeh in these issues.> What stopped the “winners of history”
this is indeed what separates TaNach from the “historical” records that we find from the ancient kings who usually left records of only their victories. Nowadays, you can easily go back to sources of 100+ years old. Not just books and papers, but military records, marriage certificates, census records filled out and signed 100+ years ago are available. So many of “babe maisos” can be literally checked out by looking at grandma’s handwriting…
RW > CDC had on their own website info about vaccine trial lengths in which they stated takes around 15 years before being released and approved. During COVID- the page was still available but upon clicking the link it said “site under maintenance”. Soon after the page was completely removed and led to error not found.
this is a great example of an attempt to rewrite history. See below. I think you would need to look up halochos on lashon hara to see how you need to compensate CDC for your post.
I googled for CDC vaccine trial lengths and my first click went to CDC page that had a link to a page on historyofvaccines org (that is an outside page) that has first paragraph: Vaccine development is a long, complex process, often lasting 10-15 years, and involves a combination of public and private involvement.
Before that, there is a note added in May 2022:
Many anti-vaccine people and organizations are not presenting the information in this article in full context. The article below mostly covers vaccines before the current COVID-19 pandemic. Please see the section on the COVID-19 pandemic and Operation Warp Speed for information on the COVID-19 vaccines.I am expanding on R Soloveichik’s quip that we discussed before: he learned philosophy while other talmidei chachamim (sic!) were saying lashon hara about him.
Take a broader view here: learning chol is an aveira by some and in some circumstances and a worthy thing to do by others, depending on circumstances. There are a lot of bitul zman options that are negative without having a possible positive side. So, start by eliminating them.
I read in an old book: if the Czar would know the value of Torah, he would put a soldier with a rifle near every learning Jew.
This was the end of the page and, while turning the page, I finished the paragraph in my mind “and the soldier will defend the Jew from anyone who is attacking him”.
The next page actually said: and every time the Jew will get distracted, the soldier will prick him with the bayonet…. I overestimated external and underestimated internal threats …
> Reb Moshe’s psakim are irrelevant to the non-Yiddish speaking
Great example for the nearby thread on bitul zman. What is the point of deliberately skewing my post? To repeat, I am pondering here that there is less interaction between non-observant and observant Jews, it is more superficial, and the quality of Torah one would see when encountering a religious Jew may not be sufficient to impress.
We also need to consider the internet effect. One might say that nobody is a tinok any more as he can easily access all kind of halakha and kaballah online … Is this sufficient? Or do we need to make sure the person has meaningful interaction with someone who can impress him? for example, would you consider someone who googles a topic and ends up reading CR discussions – is he still tinok or his expose to our inane discussions should have made him do teshuva?
indeed, anything online will be manipulated.
Keep your offline copies of Tanach and Britannica!Even Jewish books would quote you Rashi and Rambam .. just the part that a particular author wants you to pay attention to … So, keep your Bromberg Gemora edition also.
The wife is the one who needs to feed the family …
There are multiple ways to do ????? ????, and learning science and profession are not the worst. Maybe comes before posting on CR.
Avira, if you accept a Munkachever story, why don’t you accept Munkacheve humility?!
Without ad hominems: It is not hard then to invite Moschiach by moving far away from “reshoyim” in EY. I am, though, not aware of Munkachever enclaves in Area C or on the other side of the Golans. The one I davened at is under Tzioni protection in Petach Tikva.
> He was really saying that it’s declassified by ????? and ???? together.
Indeed, by raising the documents, he is performing meshihah and lawfully acquires them. “classified” simply means proprietary to US government. So, as T has a right to make them “unclassified”, in effect, hefker, and then acquire them, they are his. So, I suggest T takes USG to a beis din for arbitration and win using this argument.
There is also a problem with the government position: if they maintain that these documents are classified, then allowing them to be not a secure location for so long is a breach on their part. They should have investigated and sealed the documents on day one instead of sending polite emails. This is at least second case like that, see Hillary’s server, and these people should be fired, at least. Of course, if they are lying and the documents do not represent any danger, they should be fired also. So, in both cases, they are posul for edut.
> there is no mitzva to financially benefit a heimish Jew over any other Jew who is shower Torah umitzvos.
Your local community has priority in tzedoka. So, if you feel someone is closer to you, you should patronize him, I think.
Do we still live in the same world? R Moshe paskens for mostly Yiddish speaking public, say East side where people mingled together. R Ovadia – for sefardim who didn’t have the rifts Ashkenazim had during haskalah. On our times, a person who lives near an observant community, whether haredi or mo, only sees them driving by or walking to shul. Even if he comes by a shul, he might be ignored. Maybe we should drive and walk to shul the way that makes people to follow us to shul before it is too late
Avrom > And if they find out 6 months later that you’ve been reading their chats, searches, etc. and never told them, that could humiliate them.
Fair point. In most cases, you don’t have to be that invasive to see if there is a real problem. And you don’t need to tell them in 6 months either. Again, this is not an ideal case, but if there is a kid that needs such supervision, then the parent needs to do what he has to do to keep the kid safe. And at the same time, work on other things to divert his attention to better things in life.
Avrom > halachos that say if your fellow is sinning, you should just watch and see how it goes for him.
fair correction that I generalized your statement too far. On this point, we have a notion that those who should give tochacha should, but those who do not know how to do it properly should abstain. Of course, parents do not have the luxury… I am not saying though to totally abstain, just to consider what are real consequences of the information you provide. Of course, in many cases, it is the right thing to report, I am just suggesting full consideration. Say, parents are abusive – will you still report thing to them?
> Therefore those brothers were likely brought up frum
what does this mean in our days? We don’t know. Unless they were in a family of a well-known tzadik, they might have been raised in an orthoprax family without much learning and went to schools that did not inspire much. I don’t know if there is a term for such people, but they are in a worse position than tikomos shebnishba – they rejected something that was not real Torah and now have bad attitude.
maybe poskim advised him to take the money, but to say publicly that he did not to make his life easier?
They do it so that you do not overeat candies on shabbos and then spend years paying for implants and monitoring glucose. Tzadikim.
Maybe the question reveals philosophy of the minim, where they do not comprehend Hashem that is beyond world experience. If He can get tameh, then He can get a kid also.
> You think surreptitiously spying on a child’s rule-breaking online activities is a better parenting approach than direct conversation about what’s going on?
Please show me halochos that say that being direct with people is always the right thing to do.
Kids are also people … So, if direct conversation works – gezunte heig. But let’s say the parent tried it 3 times already and the kid just evades it, gets a different VPN, for example (kids don’t read this). Then, yes, let them have their innocent fun and monitor for the signs that something bad is happening. Are you afraid that this violate R Gershom herem on reading letters? Then, just monitor IP addresses or inform the kid electronically as businesses do: “this device (network) is subject to monitoring”.Avram > So if you feel the parents aren’t perfect, it justifies disempowering them?
has v’sholom. I am trying to analyze expected outcome. If the parents are “one trick ponies” and are continuing using same approach, then you should expect that and evaluate whether your information will do any good for anyone. If parents will use this information to ponder what to do, maybe try something different, maybe go ask someone to help – then, of course, help them in that.
Menachem > “Am I doing this in order to help/save/protect that person/others, or just because I enjoy being a snitch and getting the guy in trouble?”
Indeed. I just asked a shailah about whether to tell another person about something that is happening with his property, and the Rav re-phrased the question – so, what will be achieved by saying that? So, the action is justified by the expected outcomes (to be more precise by probability distribution of expected outcomes).
So, before learning halochos on how to do something You want without offending Hashem too much, better think what He wants and see how your behaviors fits into that.
RebE, thanks for all these explanations. The message seems to be that we can come up with a lot of terutzim for disobeying direct ratzon Hashem, but He is not accepting them.
huju, I accept your addition, unless your ancestors were Sephardim in the colonies or were possible illegitimate father of Hamilton.
FYI, R Arye Lebowitz YU says that his smarter brother was supposed to be a doctor and he only a lawyer and then he switched to Rabbanut. By free association – Saul Lieberman offered Elie Wiesel a smicha so that he could get a job if journalism does not work out, to which EW answered “I am not suited to be a Rabbi”. SL replied “me too”.
Avira, thanks for clarification. Question is whether their statements, whatever they are, I am not planning to read up about it, has any Torah value? Can it be classified as zecher to hakhel, or a Torah lecture, etc – then it is an expansion of a mitzva that may be right or not, but not bal tosif.
I would ask a _competent_ Rav whether to inform the parents.
On one hand, parents have a reasonable approach and pursue the best for their kid.
On the other hand, they are failing and it is not clear that doubling-down will help. For example, if kids break through filters on a computer and parents discover it: if they close the break or confront the kid, he will find another way and parents will never know about it. It may be a better idea to monitor the break and see whether this is benign or not. So, in this case, maybe a Rav and friends can help the kid using some other approach instead of encouraging parents to follow the path that is failing. For example, maybe the kid has questions that need to be answered, or he needs more warmth and understanding.
Zaphod, thanks for the summary. I don’t like it based on this description …
Orange > While Tintin and his friends’ methods can be subversive, the results are positive
Well said. BUT this is exactly what we do NOT want the kids to learn. Leads directly to joining commies or whatever current equivalent is that claim to have positive goals justifying subversive methods.
Bein adam l’havero is hard to summarize in a sefer that survives a lot of time as society changes and people are different. I would look for a narrow specialist in each area. Chofetz Chaim for lashon hara, R Twersky for self-esteem and addiction issues, R Pliskin for marriage, etc.