Avi K

Akuperma, in a way “right” and “left” are appropriate as the leftists in the French National Assembly were republicans (every Jew decides for himself how to be holy) and the rightists monarchists (Hashem is King). However, Rav Kook (“March of the Camps”) decried the use of chareidi and chofshi (the only labels in his time) as they prevent teshuva. The former thinks that he has nothing for which to repent (after all, he shakes at the word of Hashem) and the latter thinks that as a religious term it does not apply to him.

The Terumat HaDeshen (1, 294) says that which is the real Adar depends on the machloket (Nedarim 63a) between Rabbi Yehuda, who says that it is Adar I, and Rabbi Meir, who says that it is Adar II. Rambam paskens like Rabbi Meir but the Rif, Rosh and Ran pasken like Rabbi Yehuda, which is the general rule. You can access Rabbi Larry Rothwachs’ source sheet on the YUtorah website.

As for ways to be marbeh b’simcha, the Shaagat Aryeh (65) says that each person has his own simcha so you must answer for yourself. However, I would go easy on the meat and wine.

What if the uncle/aunt is a woman younger than the nephew/niece? This is not far-fetched at all. If someone has a child at age 20 and another at age 42 and the older child also has a child at age 20 the nephew/niece will be the older of the two.

In any case, the father Joseph saw was over on embarrassing someone in public, which some poskim say is yehareg v’al yaavor. This is especially severe in the case of a child.

Hashem does not want neurotic servants. We cannot be expected to do more than we can. If you really want to go at it, how do you know that you are you? Maybe a switch was made in the hospital and really you are not Jewish. Maybe really an heir to a great material fortune and the victim of a conspiracy to cheat you out of your share.

It is not clear from his hesped but Rav Kook held that either Herzl or the secular Zionist movement in general was MBY. In “Kol HaTor” Rabbi Hillel Rivlin says in the name of his rebbe the Gra that the job of MBY is kibbutz galuyot and the material building of EY.

DY, thye are much less dangerous than American cities and malls. however, if someone feels that another community is more appropriate for him ain hachi nami he should live there. Rav Kook said that just as Am Yisrael can only develop spiritually in EY an individual Jew can only develop spiritually in his portion.

Sam,the boundaries of EY are a subject of much discussion. Apparently they depend in large part on settlement. The first mishna in Gittin gives Akko as the northern boundary and David considered Gat to be Chul (Ketubot 110b). However, in the time of the Tanach southern Lebanon was part of EY (Laish) and it is definitely part of the Promised Land.

Joseph, Eilat was conquered by Shlomo HaMelech (Etzion Geber) and later by the IDF. Both were kibushei rabbim.

Joseph, Lebanon requires US citizens to obtain a visa. According to the State Department “travelers who hold passports that contain visas or entry/exit stamps for Israel will likely be denied entry into Lebanon and may be subject to arrest or detention. Even if their travel documents currently do not have Israeli stamps or visas, persons seeking entry into Lebanon who have previously traveled to Israel may still face arrest and/or detention if this travel is disclosed. The Government of Lebanon has the authority to refuse admission to U.S. citizens and to detain U.S. citizen travelers for further inspection”.

DY, c”v. In fact, I live on a settlement. I am also in favor of settling all other parts of EY. In fact, some of my best friends do not live on settlements.

Zahavasdad, then Rabbi Rechnitz should have made his speech to the gevirim? Actually, it might be easier to convince a few gevirim than many regular Jews. If York University pulls its mural it will be because of Paul Bronfman.

Sheker, so far as I know there is no source for that statement. Certainly iut cannot be according to its simple meaning. I did hear that in the time of Mashiach we will be able to live according to middat hadin alone.

Ubiquitin, all are equal before the law. A cohen gadol and a mamzer receive the same punishments for aveirot.

WM, they opposed favoring or disfavoring a particular denomination and supported freedom of worship. However, except for Hamilton who was a blasphemer, they believed that law must be based on religion. John Adams said that the US Constitution is only appropriate for a “religious and moral people” and Washington said:

“Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?”

Queen, for that matter all American universities required their students to study Tanach in Hebrew. Hamilton wanted it to be the official language and Madison was fluent in it. However, today almost nobody fights for it, not even Superman.

Health, how is the US better? Almost every day we read about some anti-Semitic attack. Not to mention the atmosphere on campuses – and a few years down the road these will be the people in professional positions

Queen,

1. No place is 100% safe. In America one cannot even go to a shopping mall or an office party without fear. Not to mention home invasions. The fact of the matter is that the intentional homicide rate in Israel is much lower than in the US – and much of it is “family honor” killings among Arabs. Americans, however, have come to accept their situation as normal. When the first Gulf war broke out the hevruta of a friend of mine received a frantic phone call from his mother. When she calmed down she said very matter-of-factly “BTW, last week your brother was held up at gunpoint”.

2. Ramban says (Sefer HaMitzvot – mitzvot that Rambam “forgot”) that there is a Tora obligation to live in EY in our time.

Avram, very often grandmother herself has relocated to warmer climes (or to Israel in the case of frum Jews). In any case, what is more traumatic, relocating of having to live on charity? Not to mention the fact that the welfare state encourages break-ups of families and a culture of dependency that spans generations. Eventually it implodes as there is no one left to pay. A far better program would involve job re-training, incentives for employers and paid national service work for those who suffer from age discrimination, which is the largest cause of unemployment among those who want to work. This would also benefit the public as older workers will not leave after a few years for higher paying jobs in the private sector. Besides leading to a stable civil service this will obviate the problem in regulatory agencies of employees feeling that they have to kowtow to those they are ostensibly regulating in order to get plum jobs in a few years.

Gavra,

Joseph, Rambam says the opposite about the Hasmonean state. Kal v’chomer our beloved medina.

HaKatan, more nonsense. In fact, if not for the British the Zionists would have been able to get out all of the Jews in Germany who would have been willing to come as well as large numbers of Polish and Romanian Jews. Up to almost the beginning of WW2 all three countries were only interested in expelling their Jews but there was no place to which to expel them. This led to the victory of the faction in the Nazi party that saw Zionism as part of a plot for world domination over the faction that saw it as a movement for separating Jews and gentiles.

Tirtza, did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, they are guilty. Documents have been found containing plans for terror attacks.

Health, basic human rights? What about the rights of women to walk on certain sides of streets or stand in certain places in the ultra-Chareidi sections of Ramat Bet Shemesh?

HaKatan,

Stuff and nonsense. The Jews in EY were constantly at the mercy of some ruler’s whims. Just to give a few examples, Ashkenazim were forced to wear Sephardic dress as the Moslems would grab any Ashkenzai they could find for the debts on the Hurva synagogue. During the Peasants’ Revolt under Muhammad Ali of Egypt’s occupation, Jews were targeted in the 1834 looting of Tzefat and the 1834 Hebron massacre.

You can fulminate in denial all you like but the fact of the matter is that the establishment of the State of Israel has not only been a great blessing, and was greeted as such by almost all of the gedolim, as a restroation of national independence (see Rambam at the beginning of Hilchot Chanuka regarding the Hasmonian state, which after the first generation was largely controlled by the Tzaddukim) but, as Rav Soloveichik noted, pulled Am Yisrael out of the national depression that resulted from the Holocaust (which according to Rav Teichtal in “Em HaBanim Semeicha was caused by opposition to the return to EY brought about by the sin of the spies, a sin which apparently is still reverberating).

Avram,

Almost forty years ago there was a program called CETA which paid municipalities to hire welfare recipients for clerical jobs. At the time I worked for the City of NY (I was civil service) and I personally knew CETA workers who eventually took exams and became full-fledged employees. Of course, if there would not be welfare recipients the bureaucrats who administer the programs would then have to work for a living.

As for relocation, people in America do it all the time. I knew several people who left NY for other areas in order to advance their careers.