Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
A site called Homesnacks rated cities with populations of 200,000 or more according to voting records. The liberal list in descending order is:
Washington
Baltimore
Philadelphia
San Francisco
St. Louis
New York
New Orleans
Oakland
Fremont
NewarkThe most conservative in descending order are:
Lubbock, TX
Plano, TX
Tulsa, OK
Colorado Springs, CO
Oklahoma City, OK
Wichita, KS
Fort Wayne, IN
Bakersfield, CA
Arlington, TX
Fort Worth, TXWhy Joseph? If she marries at 15 and averages one per year that will only take her until age 42.
whistling, gum chewing
Midwest, that non-Jew is like Rabbi Yishmael (Mishna, Negaim 2:1).
Smerel, many leftists oppose “white nationalism” while supporting “self-determination for oppressed peoples”. Thus Palestinian nationalism is not really nationalism but self-determination. Some have suggested that European Unionists would really like to see an Israeli-Palestinian federation (which is why they loved Peres and his idea of a “new Middle East”). Some have even suggested joint Israeli-Jordanian sovereignty over Judea and Samaria as a solution. If the JStreters just want to assimilate completely they can change their names and pretend not to be Jewish.
Smerel,
Those secular American Jews who sabotaged rescue efforts did so because they feared that more Jews would mean more antisemitism. They also feared that WW2 would be labeled a Jewish war.This was not without foundation. In a 1938 poll, approximately 60 percent of the respondents held a low opinion of Jews, labeling them “greedy,” “dishonest,” and “pushy.”41 percent of respondents agreed that Jews had “too much power in the United States,” and this figure rose to 58 percent by 1945. In 1939 a Roper poll found that only thirty-nine percent of Americans felt that Jews should be treated like other people. Fifty-three percent believed that “Jews are different and should be restricted” and ten percent believed that Jews should be deported. Several surveys taken from 1940 to 1946 found that Jews were seen as a greater threat to the welfare of the United States than any other national, religious, or racial group.
J Street and their ilk do not fear generally fear antisemitism (I suspect that many Jews on campuses who publicly espouse anti-Israel positions do so out of fear). They are ideologically opposed to any form of nationalism. I think that this is also why the Right is pro-Israel. In fact, one politician once commented that Netanyahu could be a Republican.. BTW, the feeling is so mutual that there was once talk of Netanyahu bringing the Likud and several smaller parties into an Israeli Republican party.
Rambam says (Guide 1:7) that they are humanoids who lack a tzelem Elokim and are therefore capable of causing great damage. I read in Rav Soloveichik’s name that if you see someone like Hitler and Stalin ym”s who has no human feeling you can be sure that he is one of them. This is more or less the definition of a psychopath.
As for Poe’s Law, Agnon was once asked what he meant in one of his stories. He told the inquirer to ask a certain literary critic.
In what sense was Mill an outlier? His ideas informed 19th Century America and Britain. He is still considered one of the foremost modern political philosophers.
Lady Astor denied that the Clivedon Set was pro-fascist (although she was very antisemitic) and in fact, their names were in the Black Book of those to be arrested after a Nazi invasion of Britain.
Lincoln was not a liberal. If he was he would have let the South secede. He would have even let slavery continue if he thought that both it and the Union could be preserved. He was a conservative in the sense that he believed that law and order are the highest values.
Wilfrid Laurier? Now there is an outlier.
J.S. Mill who wrote “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community [but explicitly not what he considered to be a barbaric community], against his will, is to prevent harm to others” . Friedrich Hayek is another example. Another is Robert Nozick (Anarchy, State, and Utopia ).
As for British political humor, when Lady Astor told Churchill that if he were her husband she would poison his tea he replied that if she were his wife he would drink it. When MP Bessie Braddock MP said “Winston, you are drunk, and what’s more you are disgustingly drunk.” he replied “Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.” The Americans are also not slouches. Sam Houston said about an opponent “He has all the characteristics of a dog save loyalty”.
The 18th Century Whigs were not classical liberals at all. While they supported individual freedom it was only because they saw it as an English tradition (and thus viewed voting as a privilege rather than a right) rather than Natural Law. This was echoed in the original demand of the Americans for their rights as Englishman, implying that Frenchmen, for example, had no rights.
Time, the author of that quote, Edmund Burke, was not a classical liberal but a conservative who believed that societies must maintain their traditions and that change should be evolutionary (see his disciple Russell Kirk’s Ten Conservative Principles /em>. Classical liberals believe that government should be limited to preventing force and fraud (a.k.a. the “night watchman state”). See also the “non-aggression principle”. For further reading see Mill, On Liberty and Hayek The Constitution of Liberty.
Joseph, why not marry another one? Then you can have mothers-in-law on all sides telling you how much you are not good enough for their daughters.
BTW, two women argued over whose daughter got the shidduch. The suggested dividing the boy into two. One mother agreed and the other said not to hurt him. The first woman was ruled the real mother-in-law.
Joseph, I think that they would have been very surprised to be called Yidden. In any case, one cannot learn from what was done there. They also married off pre-pubescent girls whose fathers died (in order to keep them from being given to Moslem families by the authorities). This was also why boys married at very young ages. Rav Kapach was married at fourteen because he had been orphaned several years earlier and was thus in danger (BTW, he only had one wife).
Syag,
1. You obviously did not read the article. The overweight charges are because of fuel costs (the heavier the plane the more fuel it uses).
2. There is a simple solution to your problem Do not bring overweight or extra luggage (and if you really need more stuff bring an extra if that is cheaper) . If you can’t so the time don’t do the crime.
3. Here are a few more money saving tips:
a. save exorbitant tuition costs and homeschool your kids
b. don’t buy your sons tefillin – let them use he shul’s loaner pairs (for that matter you can sell yours and also use the shul’s)
c. don’t buy a car – use public transportation
d. don’t buy a watch – ask others the timeRY, maybe she should look into other societies. Today with Internet shidduch sites it is not a problem.
Joseph,The Gemara calls a co-wife a tzaara. Chazal also say (Tanhuma Ki Tetzeh 1)
כי תצא למלחמה – שנו רבותינו: מצוה גוררת מצוה ועבירה גוררת עבירה.
וראית בשביה וגו’ וגלחה את ראשה ועשתה את צפרניה – כדי שלא תמצא חן בעיניך. מה כתיב בתריה? כי תהיין לאיש שתי נשים וגו’. שתים בבית – מריבה בבית, ולא עוד, אחת אהובה ואחת שנואה, או שתיהן שנואות. מה כתיב אחריו? כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה. כל מאן דנסיב יפת תאר – נפיק מינייהו בן סורר ומורה, שכן כתב בדוד, על שחמד מעכה בת תלמי מלך גשור בצאתו למלחמה – יצא ממנו אבשלום, שבקש להרגו, ושכב עם עשר פילגשיו לעיני כל ישראל ולעיני השמש, ועל ידו נהרגו מישראל כמה רבבות, ועשה מחלוקת בישראל, ונהרג שמעי בן גרא ושבע בן בכרי ואחיתופל, ולמפיבשת ולאיש בשת הרג, והשליט ציבא על כל בית שאול.
Yitz,
1. Hundreds? I dispute that.
2. The only polygamous Tanna was Rabbi Tarfon – and as the number given is 300 it could be that they were only pro forma marriages so that they could eat terumot and maaserot as he was a cohen. In fact, Chazal call a co-wife a tzaara.
3. One can also say that polygamy among Sephardim (which was actually very uncommon) was influenced by Islam.Syag, actually it is questionable if they have a halachic right to be flexible as it is not their airline.
Lit,
1. See Why do airlines make a big deal out of single-piece baggage weight limits? on quora.com. See my previous post for the rates of different airlines, some of which are even higher.
2. So be late in NY and early in Israel.
3. I would like to hear their stories of rude customers who scream and yell about another &200-$300 on a trip for which they are paying thousands, especially when it’s their fault. I have been on both sides of the bureaucratic desk so I can tell you that there are always two sides. Maybe you should read one of the “dan b’kaf zechut” books.Yitz, whenever polygamy is mentioned in Tanach there is trouble. By Talmudic times it was not the custom. In fact, not one Tanna is mentioned as having more than one wife at a time.
Syag,
1. I obviously meant seven overweight.
2. You had an extra suitcase plus overweight?
3. You should have done due diligence yourself. In any case, as I posted some airlines charge even more.Lit,
1. You branded all Israelis.
2. Before I made aliya I went to an aliya convention where a speaker commented that Israelis say the same thing about the American bureaucracy . An Israeli in the audience jumped up and said “It’s worse”. If you want an airplane story (just out of curiosity, i presume that your luggage was overweight and that you meant seven kilograms as no one outside the US uses pounds – Air France charges €75-€250 per bag, Lufthansa charges €100-€200 if oversized €50-€300 if overweight and Qatar Airways charges $25-$55 per kg online and
$30-$70 at airport), about fifteen years ago an Israeli couple came to NY on vacation. The baggage inspector found a picture of the Ben Ish Hai and decided that it was a picture of Bin Laden ym”s. The couple were detained for thirteen hours, interrogated and sent back to Israel.Joseph,
1. I think that the Jews in Teiman would have been very surprised to be called Yidden.
2. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate ruled that it is now minhag Yisrael to have only one wife at a time (@Milhouse, their authority is that of a bet din kavua, at least for Israel). In fact, the Mechaber says that the Sephardic ketuba has a clause prohibiting the husband from taking an additional wife without his current wife’s permission.
3. Someone I know told me that an Arab co-worker (he worked for a while in construction) bragged that he can have four wives. My acquaintance replied that that means four mothers-in-law.
Joseph, because of the friction having them in one home will cause. I know of an Arab who is mehadrin. He has one wife in Abu Ghosh and another in Cairo, whom he visits on his vacation.
Lit, you now have to come to Israel to ask forgiveness from each on of us for your hotzaaat shem ra.
Joseph, not so far as I know but it is better that way. I heard that that was the custom at least after they came to Israel. In fact, Yaakov’s wives and concubines each had her own tent.
Winnie, I once had to leave for what turned out to only be a few months. I did not owe anything on the period when I was abroad. I was billed much later and they tried to impose a late penalty but I argued with the clerk and she cancelled it.
Ben,
1. Serving IS one’s ruchniut.
2. On the contrary, the Zionists offered to send armed men to guard the yeshivot but they refused saying that they had an good relations with the local Arab leaders. The only “provocation” was refusing to sign away the Kotel (both Rav Kook and Rav Sonnenfeld steadfastly refused despite British pressure).
3. The state is the state of all Jews. If you do not think that one Jew has the obligation to protect another if he can then there is a tremendous hole in your chinuch.
4. Rav Ovadia also said that Israel’s wars are milchemot mitzva. He also said that without the IDF there would be no yeshivot.
5. FYI, only 20-22,000 have been killed since 5708. Who is to say what would have happened to them if they had had to stay in Europe and Arab countries? As we say here ,every bullet has an address. Once someone drove wearing a helmet and bullet-proof vest. The bullet struck in the tiny space between them. On the other hand, once Arabs fired over thirty shots at a girl waiting at a hitchhiking station from the other side of the highway. She was only lightly grazed and was released from the hospital the same day.
If not for the state of Israel there would have been mass conversion. Xtian missionaries were using the Holocaust as proof that Hashem rejected us c”v. They even accosted Rav Soloveichik during his travels between Boston and NY. If there had been a state twenty years earlier there would not have been a Holocaust.Winnie, you do not have to pay Bituach Leumi while in Chul if you have actually changed residency. One who is making an extended trip can exempt himself by notifying them that he is leaving for an indeterminate time. of course, when he returns he will not be covered for that period.
Joseph, an even bigger benefit is enlisting and doing a great mitzva.
Lit, an American citizen must leave with his American passport. I presume that there is a computer match to the Social Security number. Snowden left before being discovered. As for Israel, extraditing residents to the US, that door swings both ways (although Israel has conditions like no death penalty and right to serve sentence in Israel). The Tzitz Eliezer discusses the halachic rationale for allowing it in Torat haMedina (while Rav Shaul Yisraeli disagreed it could be that the service of sentence in Israel clause did not exist then).
Joseph, if they are not at least legal residents they all have to leave periodically when their visas expire.
Akuperma, that is a spy attitude.
Regarding allowing criminals to stay, there is currently a dispute over the guy who sent threats to JCCs in the US. Israel claims that the crimes were committed here and therefor triable here and the US claims that they were committed there.
Are you referring to a newsreel or a movie reel? Perhaps a Virginia reel?
1. It is a mitzva to serve in the IDF as all of our wars are milchemot mitzva . See THE HAREIDIM AND THE MITZVAH TO SERVE IN THE I.D.F by Rav Eliezer Melamed (online).
2. American courts have suspended passports of American Jews even if they do not have Israeli passports as they are eligible for immediate citizenship under the Law of Return.
Joseph,
1. If they are born in Israel they will be citizens even if their parents are not.
2. It is a great mitzva to serve in the IDF.Joseph, FYI they come from Hungarian backgrounds as did their founder Amram Blau.
Among their activiities:
1. Conducting a prayer vigil for Arafta ym”s
2. Seeking an alliance with Louis Farrakhan ym’s
3. Spying for Iran against IsraelYou can visit the US without a visa (there is a bill pending to add Israel to the list of countries with waivers).
If you are otherwise eligible you can collect Social Security while living in Israel (into either an American or Israeli account).
You can vote in both countries’ elections.
Some jobs are reserved for citizens.
Disadvantage: you will be required to report income (if you receive more than the mean amount for reporting)and assets (if they total at least $10K) to the IRS although a bill is pending in the Congress to change to residency-based taxation.Ubi, the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics defines fascism as socialism with a capitalist veneer. That is to say, nominal ownership along with profits is in private hands but the government makes the decisions.
Time, one can say that she was off-track but she intended for tikkun olam. Similarly, the ACLU, with if also often off-track was founded by a Jew (Arthur Garfield Hays). Aryeh Neier , who is observant, led ion from 70-78 when he founded Helsinki Watch, later renamed Human Rights Watch.
RJ, anti-Zionism has nothing to do with keeping Jews frum. It is inertia and psychological denial and the belief that people have the right to tell Hashem how to bring about the Geula. Maybe also a subconscious happiness about being in exile. It spares frum Jews from having to go about running a state.
Ubi, I once read an article by someone who recalled that her German professor reprimanded her for her Yiddishisms. Assuming that the German word “nation” has the same as the English meaning (and English and German are also related) it does not mean “state” but is similar to the Hebrew word עם. This is contrary to fascism where control (although not nominal ownership) is in the hands of the state. Thus the Nazi party was correctly called National Socialist (and is still called that in Germany).
Health, actually there is a common thread between various movements that have attracted Jews. All seek tikkun olam. One can throw in Ayn Rand (born Alissa Rosenbaum), Paul Samuelson, Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman. In fact, the argument between Trotsky and Stalin ym”s was that the former wanted to foment world revolution and the latter wanted to concentrate on Russia and its sphere of influence. A Jew can never get away from his Jewish destiny although he can be totally non-observant. Rav Soloveichik referred to this dichotomy as “two covenants” – the Berit ben haBeitarim and Berit Chorev.
Ubi, are you a commentator on Engels? Marx said that the state will wither away. Of course, it could be that something was lost in the translation from the original German.
Ubi, that sounds like fascism. Communism and socialism believe that the means of production should be in the hands of the workers. Marx, in fact, envisaged the state “withering away”. there are also variations and hybrids. For example, libertarian socialism calls for businesses to be workers’ cooperatives free of state interference. Classical liberalism (today’s libertarianism) is socially liberal while believing in laissez-faire economics. The common thread is individual rights as expressed in the non-aggression principle. What today is called liberalism is really akin to corporatism in that it views rights and responsibilities as accruing to groups rather than individuals.
Shopping,
1. Anything? If he praises her intellectual achievements? If he sings of his devotion and loyalty to his family?
2. I do agree about the “beat”. On the other hand, BTs often need a “halfway house”.Shimin, what do “ehrlicher shomrei torah ” say about the Internet?
BTW, it is well known that Rav Ovadia very much enjoyed listening to Egyptian singer Um Kulthum.
DY, eiva and chillul Hashem do intersect. One can do a chillul Hashem without causing eiva (e.g. a Jew who cheats on his taxes). There can be eiva without chillul Hashem (if the anger remains personal). However, as every “religious” Jew represents Judaism they often go together. For example, in an article about the alleged legal violations by Chassidim in Brooklyn a certain newspaper pointed out sarcastically that he English translations is “pious ones”.
Dor, even paranoids have enemies. Why do you think that split-screen was shown? Many things are “newsworthy” but are not conflated on TV.
Dor,
1. Apparently he has done teshuva for his past statements.
2. How do you know about those split-screens? Do watch (please excuse the expression) TV? I saw at least some of the speeches on Arutz-7 and there was no split screen. In any case, you should blame the station manager not the chief rabbis. He is obviously some antisemite or self-hating Jew who wanted to ruin the public joy.Sammy, would you let your kids learn the Pythagorean theorem? That came straight from the head of a pagan. Rambam says in his intro to Shemoneh Perakim that one should accept the truth from whoever says it.
Shopping, what if a man sings “Gd Save the Queen”?
I see that Hagee spoke at the end and did not mention him at all.
HaKatan, the SR was a daat yachid and admitted it. The oaths are definitively no longer in force and may never have been. My only admission is that at one time they MIGHT have been. You are simply in denial.
Dor, I just saw the video (I presume that you are referring to Dr. Robert Jeffress). . He prayed to “the Gd of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. At the very end he referred to that man as the “Prince of peace” and “our (a presume he meant Xtians) lord”. “Lord” can simply mean “leader”. If they want to consider him their rebbe I have no objection. BTW, another Chabad rabbi was right there with him and spoke right after him.
How does sitting at an event not in a church (which is ordinarily a problem of marit ayin that one is praying there unless it is obvious that one is not) imply agreement? Jeffress also praised Netanyahu and Trump. Does sitting there imply endorsement of either?
For that matter, Chabadniks sing to one of Napoleon’s marching songs – even though the baal haTanya supported the Czar.
Shopping & Mentsch, were the souls of those who composed zemirot to non-Jewish tunes damaged? These are conjectures without basis. As for Acher, he also delved too deeply into Kabbalah and misinterpreted pesukim about the reward for mitzvot. It was everything together (and maybe the Greek songs were immodest).
If something does not bother the Halacha why should it bother anyone? Children are not expected to keep middot chassidut. First a person should achieve, zehirut, zerizut and nekiut. Only then should he work on chassidut. The Gra said that Judaism is like a ladder. If you try to jump steps you will fall. Rav Kook said that this is because a person must always be balanced. Keeping an inappropriate (for one’s general spiritual level) chumra will lead to inappropriate kulot in other areas.
There is a program that allows one to close the site in each zone according to when it is Shabbat there.
I asked a rav and he said that checking artichokes is so difficult that he does without. Ask your LOR. The OU does not allow artichoke hearts in restaurants it certifies due to this. Apparently the leaves are less difficult although they must be checked.