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Health,
1. On the contrary, this will grant them their wish to completely separate from Israeli society. It might even have other salutary results. Both Georgia (in the American South) and Australia started as penal colonies.
2. I scream when people try to take the law into their own hands. I would also scream if some group would kidnap extremists and plop them into the middle of the Negev.
3. That is what these aggrieved women have tried to do. However, with Chareidi control of City Hall on the basis of one tombstone one vote a court suit is necessary.
Tirtza,
1. If the detainees in Guantanamo are POWs then they should be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
2. Why believe the lawyers? They also have an interest. If the court finds that the confessions were coerced they will be thrown out just as in the US.
3. I agree that here should be an independent investigation in order to clear the air. Either way it will be for the good.
Health,
2. What difference does it make if vigilantes violate rights without governmental interference? This did much to keep Jim Crow in place.
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.
Queen, Rav Ovadia said taht without the IDF there would be no yeshivot. Obviously Hashem gives them the strength but they do the hishtadlut. The Zohar says that Elisha asked the widow to borrow utensils and supply some oil because a beracha cannot come on emptiness.
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,
Health, the laws are supposed to be the laws of the state. However, a vigilante group is trying to prevent women from walking on certain sides of certain streets or stand in certain places. They are turning Bet Shemesh into a version of your pronunciation – Base Shemesh.
Joseph, Rambam says the opposite about the Hasmonean state. Kal v’chomer our beloved medina.
It’s either denial or an attempt to soothe a guilty conscience for not making aliya.
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, TY for the clarification. There is a dispute among those “in the know” as to whether there was actual torture of “special measures” (e.g. sleep deprivation) which were only used because of the severity of the charges (in “price tag” attack they were not used because these were only property crimes). These were not only used with the approval of an AAG but also with the approval of courts – and it is the “Jewish way” (see Baba Metzia 24a – which I quoted in a post of two weeks ago). If you find that scary, what do you think of what goes on in Guantanamo?
Health, as they are attempting to enforce it is an abuse of basic human rights.
Moi aussi, the Left says that they are racist right-wingers who persecute Arabs. YAWN!
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?
Joseph, Iran is a tightly controlled totalitarian state. No one is killed without official permission. Is this the kind of state in which you want to live? If so, all you have to do is join the US Navy and ask for asylum after you are captured.
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).
If its good zivug so she changes her sheetot as the wife takes on her husband’s minhagim. BTW, Nechama Soloveichik, granddaughter of Rav Aharon, is a BY alumna and she is a freelance media consultant for conservative Republican candidates, which sounds pretty modern to me.
As for mainstream, it depends on which stream.
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.
Mammele,
Actually polls show that Israelis are becoming MORE religious. In fact, secularists have been wringing their hands over an imminent religious takeover of the IDF for the last several years (in fact, already a majority of those in junior officer courses are religious). The garinim Torani’im (groups of DL avereichim and their families who set up communities in weak reas) have had great success in kiruv – including secular families sending their kids to religious kindergartens.
As for olim from France, they go where they please and send their children to those schools they choose. A large number, in fact, go to yishuvim (including mine). The newspaper you cite is simply publishing non-factual statements.
Health, then you screen name is sagi nahor? Refua sheleima.
Anti-Zionism is the yetzer hara. It is also a psychological phenomena known a “denial”. The Mayo Clinic says:
Refusing to acknowledge that something is wrong is a way of coping with emotional conflict, stress, painful thoughts, threatening information and anxiety. You can be in denial about anything that makes you feel vulnerable or threatens your sense of control, such as an illness, addiction, financial problems or relationship conflicts. You can be in denial about something happening to you or to someone else.
When you’re in denial, you:
Refuse to acknowledge a stressful problem or situation
Avoid facing the facts of the situation
Minimize the consequences of the situation
Rav Tzvi Yehuda said that the term “religious Zionist” is a redundancy. Being religious means being Zionist and one cannot truly be Zionist without being religious.
Crawley,
You write like some anti-Semitic blogger.
1. The bachurim in Geula were rioting (and davka against their own neighborhood). Why weren’t they in seder if they are such big learners?
2. Nonsense. Ethiopian Jews in fact are beneficiaries of affirmative action.
3. How do you define poverty? Except for the mentally ill the poverty described in the Gemara does not exist here. If you want to make things even better come and open a business.
4. More nonsense. Those professionals are not the ones engaging in terrorist activities.
5. Since when are you and your ilk running the country?
Health,
There were signs, such as Hebrew graffiti, that it was done by Jews. One of the young men in administrative detention put out papers describing this and other measures to be taken in an attempt to forcibly overthrow the governmental system.
Joseph, the Mechaber only permits polygamy where the current wife agrees (it is a clause in the ketuba). In fact, true Sepharadim (= descendants of gerush Sepharad) have not practiced it. Some of the Eidot HaMizrach, in particular Yemenites, did, but not all. The Ben Ish Hai, for example, only had one wife, as did his rebbe Rav Abdullah Somekh.
A person who takes money to learn and goofs off is just as much a robber as an employee who goofs off.
This e-mail was sent by the Chafetz Chaim Heritage Foundation:
Day 117 – A Good Job
SEFER AHAVAS CHESED ? Part II Chapter XXI
To strengthen a businessman who is faltering takes savvy, and it takes money. Not everyone is positioned to be of real help in such situations. That does not mean, however, that the commandment to strengthen one?s faltering brother is out of reach for the average person. There are many situations in which even a middle-class person with no money to invest has the opportunity to perform ? and reap the rewards ? of this life-giving mitzvah.
The Chofetz Chaim points out that those on the middle and lower rungs of the economic scale often live in constant danger of falling into dire straits. A car-service driver, a handyman, a woman who helps with housekeeping or baby-sitting, the owner of a small store ? any of these individuals may be one job or one bad business week away from disaster. Patronizing their businesses, employing them and using their services fulfills the commandment to strengthen one?s brother just as completely as does the act of investing in someone?s thousand-man factory. Even a person who has the wherewithal to be of help to a large business enterprise is obligated to help the simple, struggling worker to stay afloat as well. He is not relieved of the burden of looking around him at the everyday people who cross his path, simply because he is putting a large sum into saving his neighbor?s business empire.
Even if using the services of a struggling fellow Jew will cost a person additional money, the Chofetz Chaim says, one should do it nonetheless. The additional cost is simply money spent on the mitzvah, money which Hashem promises to recompense at some point, in some way. Whatever a person seeks to accomplish, Divine assistance is the essential component for success. One who chooses his employees or contractors with attention to their need for the income channels Hashem?s help into the endeavor. Conversely, saving money at the expense of a Jew in need will not, in most cases, save any money at the bottom line.
Helping people who are locked permanently into a financial struggle can be a discouraging experience. People who have few assets with which to cushion their setbacks may find themselves in need again and again, creating a sense of futility for those who help them. The Chofetz Chaim sees this factor as no reason to cut off one?s help or support. As many times as a person stumbles, one is obligated to step in and prevent his downfall. Even if one saves the same person?s life a hundred times, each and every time he acts, he is saving a life.
????? ???? ??? ????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ??? ???? – ????? ? ? ??
??? ?? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??? ???? ????? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ?????? (????? ?, ?) ????? ?? ?’ ????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ????? ????? ?”? ???? ???? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??? ????? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ????? ???? ??? ??? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ???? (?????? ??, ?) ????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ??? ?? ????? ??? ?? ????? ????? ????? ?”? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ?? ????? ????? ???? ??? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ???????? ????? ???? ??????? ????? ????? ????? ???? – ???? ?? ?”?.
According to reports the baby was shaken violently. This can result in shaken baby syndrome (SBS).
In a din Tora two witnesses and warning would be required. However, the secular authorities may execute murderers even on circumstantial evidence See http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/capital-punishment/page/3 . As for an autopsy, a Swiss team has invented a non-invasive “virtopsy” conducted with scanning and imaging technology. This should solve the halachic problems.
According to Faranak Margolese (“Off the Derech”) the main cause is negative experiences with religious figures. However, the Arizal says that there is no tzibbbor without the three letters of the root: tzaddikim, benoni’im and reshaim. So there will be OTDs no matter what. Anyone who learns the responsa literature knows taht some hair-raising aveirot were committed in the holy shtetlach.
Akuperma, Cruz does not swear at people. In fact, he handles hecklers very well. You are correct, however, that Rubio has the “establishment”. The question is whether he can attract the Fundamentalists. On the other hand, he will do better with Hispanic voters but could lose anti-immigration hardliners. Perhaps a Rubio-Cruz or Cruz-Rubio ticket would be good. Another possibility is a deal whereby Cruz will support the nominee in return for an important judicial appointment. It should be noted that four of the current justices on SCOTUS are over eighty or will turn eighty during the coming term. While he is bit young and has no judicial experience he is an outstanding attorney. The Repubican establishment might just support him to get him out of the Senate.
Ted Cruz. He stands foursquare behind Israel and believes in the sheva mitzvot. Trump’s Islamophobia could easily morph into antisemitism (and someone has already written a letter demanding that Orthodox Jews be put on reservations). Moreover, his plan to strongly penalize American companies that invest abroad will harm Israel greatly.
????? ???? ??? ???? ?
???? ?????
(?) ??? ?????? ??????: ????? ???? ??? ?????? ????? ???? ??????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ?”? ????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ???? ???? ???????? ???? ????? ??”? ???? ???’ ?????? ???? ?? ??? ????? (????’ ???? ??? ???? ????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ??? ????”?) ???? ????? ????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ??”? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ??????? ??”? ???”?:
As for who is a talmid chacham in our time some say that it relative to the generation (and see Shulchan Aruch Even HaEzer 38):
???? ??[
?? ??? ???? ?????, ?? ??????? ???? ??? ??? ???????, ??????, ????? ?????? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ???:
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?? ??? ???? ???, ?? ??????? ???? ??? ????, ????? ??? ????? ?????, ??? ????, ??????:
Joseph, Rambam said that about a person who has a trade. I imagine that that would also go for people who can set themselves up for a long time with one or two deals (e.g. chazanim who make enough during the Yamim Noraim to learn the rest of the year or diamond merchants). He himself had a grueling work schedule as he wrote to his translator Samuel ibn Tibbon.
Avram, Judge Learned Hand (yes, that was his name) said “Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as
possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the
treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.
Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister
in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone
does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any
public duty to pay more than the law demands.” The same should go for benefiting from Section 8. However, IMHO it does not “smell right” to deliberately have a low income in order to qualify. It should not matter who owns the house. Chazal (Avot D’Rabbi Natan 11:1) believed that “A person should love work and not hate it; for just as the Torah was given with a covenant, so too was work given with a covenant.”
The are opinions that bnei Noach are also obligated in tzedaka. In any case, they can certainly accept it upon themselves (Biur Halachah, end of 304, in explanation of the Magen Avraham). However, the welfare state is not true tzedaka as it encourages family break-ups and is a disincentive to work. The best baalei tzedaka are entrpreneurs who create productive jobs (Schach Yoreh Deah 249:7).
Golfer, I have seen laundry detergents thath ave hechshers even though they also warn against consuming them. I even saw “glat” lettuce and “glatt” freezer bags.
DY, Rambam was a talmid chacham and worked. In fact, as si well known, he execrated those who take communal funds in order to learn.
M.A., we are not supposed to be monks. We are supposed to elevate the material by being active in the world. All of the Tanaim and Amoraim either worked or lived from the rents paid by sharecroppers (which required knowledge of how to deal with them). They dealt with real-life legal problems and discussed psychological insights (e.g. “ain adam meiz panim bifnei baal chovo”). This is the true realtionship of the Jew with Hashem. Thus, when the Bet Mikdash is in place we can bring shelamim and eat them b’kedusha. A goy can only bring an olah, which is completely given over to Hashem.
Neville, isn’t here a general mitzva to listen to one’s doctor, assuming that he is a qualified professional and not a quack who is self-certified?
DY, maybe he should do both. Work half a day and learn half a day as some do (some employers even offer “job sharing” plans to avoid layoffs). Some can also make enough money to retire early and live on investment income iy”H or can get pensions while they are still active. I heard about someone who started learning five hour each day after work at age 40. At age 50 he convinced his employer to let him work half a day and learned the other half. At 65 he retired and joined a halacha kollel. He achieved “Yoreh Yoreh” and “Yadin Yadin”. At 88 he was learning Kabbala.
In have a friend who has MS and uses medical cannabis although not when he is the US. Here in Israel the law is being relaxed. As of now it requires a special permit from the Ministry of Health and can only be prescribed by certain doctors and sold by certain pharmacies.
[the prescribing of marijuana]
However, I don’t understand why it needs a hechsher, especially in Chul where there is no issue of terumot and maaserot, as it is a medication and not just a food supplement like vitamins.
It depends. If the kollel guy is goofing off he is just as much a robber as the guy who spends the day in the office surfing the Web. On the other hand, if the working guy is productive he is building the world. If he does it in EY it is a great mitzva (Chatam Sofer Sukka 35a). There is also the matter of knowing what Hashem wants each one to do. The Netziv says on “what does your Gd ask of you” that Hashem asks different things of different people, communal leaders, talmidei chachamim, baalei battim, etx, and it is almost prohibited for someone in one group to do the job of someone in another group. The Chafetz Chaim likens this to someone who is assigned to one army unit going to another against orders. The biggest avoda is knowing what your avoda is.
Mentsch, Rmabam also says at the beginning of Hilchot Chanuka that it was the beginning of 200 years of national independence. For that matter, many of the days on which Megillat Taanit says it was prohibited to fast were commemorations of Hasmonean military victories. This despite the fact that after the first generation they became Tzaddukim.
Ubiquitin, I am not sure about that. In the case of the Good News Community Church of Gilbert, Arizona SCOTUS ruled that the town would have to show why an ordinance regulating signs was needed. There the sign was deliberately made to stand out. With an eruv only someone who knows that the lechis are there and why would notice – maybe (thus shuls put out eruv maps).
BTW, there is a story about a Reform group that challenged the eruv. The gentile judge asked the eruv committee’s lawyer how much it would cost the taxpayers. When he replied that the committee would be paying a fee to the municipality the judge told him to put up two. On the other hand, when the Prussian army entered Strasbourg during the Franco-Prussian War they took down the eruv because they thought that it was a communications wire. The rav of the city explained to the commander that when the Jews look at the wire they see a wall. He replied that the Jews can look at air and see a wire.
Rav Kook says (Ein Aya Shabbat2:5):
???? ?? ?’ ?? ????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ???? ????? ???? ?? ??? ????? ???? ?”? ???? ?????? ???????, ??”? ???? ??????? ?????, ????? ????? ??? ???? ?’ ?? ???? ??? ???? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???. ???? ?????? ???????? ??? ??? ??”? ????? ??????, ?? ???? ??? ?????, ????? ???? ?? ????? ??????, ?? ????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ???????? ???????? ???? ???? ????, ?”? ???? ?????? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ??????. ??? ?? ??’ ?????? ???? ????? ?”? ???? ????? ?? ??????? ?????? ?????, ??? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ?’ ????? ???? ???. ?”? ?? ?’ ????? ????? ????? ????? ????’ ???? ?????? ??? ???? ?”? ????? ?????? ????????? ???????? ?????.
There are aspects of gentile ideologies that can undergo “giur” but much is outside the pale such that the ideologies need only be referenced when they are popular.
As for American culture, much was taken from us as the Anglo-American philosophers of the 17th-19th centuries were lovers of Tanach. The English legal philosopher John Selden even learned from Rabbi Menashe ben Yisrael, who also taught Hugo (DeGroot) Grotius, the father of international law. Of course, much is distorted as they saw it through a Xtian prism but much is actually Jewish. IMHO, those who are seeking to preserve American traditions realize this and this is why they are so supportive of Israel.
Zahavasdad, not even Ladino? Lett he dead language (if it is a language) rest in peace (or, to be more exact, pieces considering the different dialects).
I am an astute observer, giver of advice and e-debater.
Ask the man who started “Yeshiva Tuitions”.
Rebyid, what about ??????? ???????? ??????? ??????????? ?????????? ???? ?????? ??????? ????? ???????
Can non-Yekke Ashkenazi women wear them before marriage (@Oomis, you would have to have a control group of Yekkim and Sepharadim to see if there is a correlation).
Karl, Hashem only reimburses where a person has a business which naturally has ups and downs (Aruhc HaShulchan OC 242,44):
Joseph, in which senses? In fact, there is a wide cultural gap even among Chassidic groups. For example, when the Satmar rebbe came here once his American followers shocked the locals by videotaping him. As for inappropriate pictures, Rav Reisman once complained that he receives phone calls from employers who complain about baalei battim who go into inappropriate Internet sites on work time. As Charlie mentioned, there is such a big problem with honesty in business that Chareidi groups are sponsoring talks on the subject with both frum attorneys (Benjamin Brafman is a big on this) and dayanim. To be fair, it cuts across the spectrum. I heard of a prison in the US that has two minyanim: YI and Aguda.