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A more appropriate analogy would be Achashverosh. A rude, self-centered clown who fell tuchis-backwards into policies that saved the jews from the anti-Semites and began the process that led to the rebuilding of yerushalayim and the temple. Maybe that’s what the definitely not blind gedolim see.
do we also have to wear it down to our knees the way he does?
wolf: leave it up to god to allocate where your prayers go and whom they benefit. just because you think you are saying a prayer “for such and such” does not make it so.
ujm: there is a custom not to say kaddish before you are required to do so but it is not halacha. in fact, al pi din, kaddish is just a prayer and anyone can pray.
wolf: it says “kol haneshama tehalel yah” that includes you.
Achashverosh had a lousy personality but his policy was good for the jews. If the story of purim happened in some enlightened western town instead of shushan there would have been a loud cry from certain segments of the jewish population to reject the assistance of such a flawed character.
I agree. The media points to the imperfections of the candidates and labels them evil. This is true of all politicians. How many times have you heard trump or Biden or Hillary are evil? They are not evil just imperfect.
Do you know when we will get a perfect candidate? When Mashiach comes. Until then we will always be choosing from a group of imperfect people.
Gadolhadorah: I reject this idea that we are choosing the lesser of two evils or that we did so last time. The same bogus media that sullies Trump has sullied the reputation of two long-time public servants. Yes, none of them are perfect but that does not make them evil. Trump is not evil. Biden is not evil. Hillary is not evil. I wish people would stop with this nonsense. I will be voting based on hakaras hatov principles and daas torah for an imperfect man who has done some great things. I also like the other candidate’s character and moderate approach to government and can see myself voting for him, too, if not for the aforementioned reasons.
Always_Ask_Questions: I really appreciated your post. I find it hysterical that these people who purposely stunt their science education at the fourth grade now come forward and pontificate about a brand new virus that no one knows anything about. What a bunch of funny people. Like how they don’t want to wear masks because they don’t want to look funny but the men walk around in public with white tights and a fur hat in summer with no shame. Funny people.
That said, I would encourage 11219 and all the others to lift these gzeiros which ARE unfairly targeting MY funny people by doing a simple thing: every single person who already had the virus in March/April should go today and get tested. Not a one can be positive. You will dilute the positives and get your percentage to where they claim it needs to be in order for them to leave us alone.
Most reform “jews” claim to be liberal, tolerant and loving of others but there is no belief system that is more the opposite of these ideals than reform’s idea that judaism is “tikkun olam.” as if the jews are the only ones who want to make the world a better place and as if you cannot be a good human unless you are a tikkun-olam-jew. There are many, many more good-hearted people trying to improve the world who are christian and muslim than there are such people who are jews. the jews do not have a copyright on being good-doers.
I once heard r’lamm ztl explain it this way: God made a covenant with noach, avraham avinu and moshe rabbenu. With noach, applicable to all mankind: be a good person and make the world a better place; with avraham: love for the land of israel and with moshe, the torah. to be a yid, you need all three, but the first one is not exclusively jewish.
jack and charliehall: the quotes from the standup bit mcinnis did in israel in 2017 are not fair. he was in israel on a pro-israel comedy tour and was doing standup comedy. yes, it was beyond our tastes for humor but it did not cross the line that is accepted (letza’areinu harav) as valid in the comedy circles. Among my sins, I enjoy listening to the comedy stations on siriusxm all the time and trust me, this is par for the course. I suppose people see it as acceptable because it is in the context of someone trying to be funny and is clearly someone overexaggerating things for the sake of humor. Whatever the case, it was very clearly said tongue in cheek and when taken in context was not hate speech. Mcinnis is not an anti-Semite.
tachles: i very much liked president obama but he completely undermined the arab spring which was a real opportunity for change in the middle east. instead, he empowered the muslim brotherhood and iran for no noticeable reason. while obama was a huge supporter of israel and i am grateful for it, trump goes far and above. in other words, trump can tell the difference between good and evil while president obama could not. and biden is to left of obama on foreign policy and israel (shamelessly condemning israel for building apartments in ramot and gilo, for example).
jerusalem and the golan is tachles. UAE and Bahrain is tachles. reducing the tax burden on large families is tachles. rubashkin is tachles. justice reform is tachles. creating the best economy of my working life is tachles.
as for the proud boys, i do not view them as a white supremist organization.
i am, like most decent people, disturbed by trump’s strongman, bullying tactics but i will hold my nose and vote for tachles.
Wallace: You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out antifa and other extremist groups. Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland?
Trump: **Sure, I’m willing to do that.**
Wallace: Are you prepared to specifically—?
Biden: Do it.
Trump: I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing.
Wallace: So what are you saying?
Trump: I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace.
Wallace: Well, then do it, sir.
Biden: Say it. Do it. Say it.
Trump: You want to call them—what do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name.
Wallace: White supremacists and—
Trump: Who would you like me to condemn?
Biden: Proud Boys.
Wallace: —and Proud Boys.
Biden: Proud Boys.
Trump: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left. Because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.
lets be fair. trump was asked to denounce white supremacy and he did. he then instructed proud boys to stand down and standby. perhaps like me, trump does not view the proud boys as a white supremacy organization.
my takeaway from last night: trump was a bully and reminded me why i dislike his personality and hope and pray none of my children look up to him as a role model. at times, i felt bad for biden who just looked like an old man being bullied. as biden spoken i learned that he is really not a very articulate person and i also began to fear putting this recovery into his hands. even more than the fear i have of trusting biden with the recovery, i began to yearn for a recovery in the hand of a trump presidency, whose strength projected poorly in general but well in when it came to the economy. I also saw trump speak enough about liberal causes, like justice reform, that assuaged my overall left-leaning politics. i began to see a vote for biden as taking a huge risk economically, in order to further liberal agendas I believe in. Sof davar, the decision on my vote, which is ultimately based on hakarat hatov, did not change.
Akuperma: I respectfully disagree with your analysis from a tax/welfare perspective for the following reasons:
1) Child tax credit – Under prior administrations, the child tax credit was $1k per child. Under Trump it became $2k. Under the prior administration, the credit began to dissipate at an income of $150k. Under Trump it dissipates at $400k. We all know that frum families can use the child tax credit not only because of the size of frum families but also because frum families are generally at a much higher income than the general population. The direct savings to the frum world is tremendous and quite frankly the savings trickle on to the mosdos. A frum person with 7 kids and an income of $200k is putting an actual $14,000 directly into his own pocket because of Trump.
2) Assistance: while government assistance is helpful, it is much more vital to people without a community structure. BH we have each and other and Satmar. We believe in chessed. We believe is Tzedaka. We take care of our own.
So while there certainly will be many frum Jews who did not benefit from the Trump structure, when taken as as a whole, Trump’s tax plan fits much better with the frum community.
Hakatan: I suggest you read as much Amir Hetzroni as your stomach can tolerate. He very much holds the views that the Brisker Rav (rightfully) was thinking about when talking about the Zionists and (rightfully) abhorred. He very much stands for all the values rejected by the Torah world when Zionism was created. But he calls himself either “post Zionist” or “anti zionist.” That is because in his mind, the state of Israel represents Zionism and he is against the current values of the state of Israel.
So if a person (Chetzroni) who subscribes, to the T, to all of the horrible things that you accuse Zionism of being, considers himself anti-Zionist because he is anti-Israel, this means that today, the State of Israel is the antitheses all of the horrible things you think of when you hear the word Zionist.
In essence, this is yet another piece of evidence that Zionism ended when the state of Israel was created. The evidence is actually overwhelming but I am afraid that to lay it all bare is not appropriate for a Coffee Room post.
You will not understand this post after the first read – it would be unfair of me to expect you to be able to. I suggest you read as much Hetzroni as you can and then come back and re-read this post and then you will be the first person to move to Israel – the land slowly but surely becoming more and more, every day, the land of Torah and Kedusha and Am Yisrael.
HaKatan: The Zionists were members of an organization that was started in Europe in the 1897 and ended in 1948 with the creation of the state of Israel. The organization’s stated purpose was to the create a homeland of the Jews. With the creation of the state, the purpose of the organization became moot.
Many people who were members of this Zionist organization went on to take ruling positions in the state of Israel but most of them are now dead. There are some people, born after Zionism ended in 1948, who subscribe to the same values of this now defunct organization but they are very few in number.
In fact, the values of the Zionists are now widely accepted, in Israel, as corrupt and disgusting. As proof, take a look at how the Israeli public views the one person who, to this day, proudly continues to proclaim these values as truths: Professor Amir Chetzroni. He is a pariah.
Those people in power in Israel today are made up of a wide variety of Jews and non-Jews, most of them do not hold any of the same values as that organization that was established in 1897. And, despite the horrible things the Zionists envisioned for Israel, it is trending in the right direction, not only economically and socially but also religiously. The Zionists had their plans but ultimately, Hashem laughed.
Like Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who was not told that World War 2 ended until 1974, some people never got the memo that the war against Zionism is over. We won. You can put down your weapon and instead roll up your sleeves and help the rest of us continue to make the State of Israel what Hashem wants it to be.
Someone in Monsey: The medina exists only in your own mind. The moment you recognize that you are nothing more than a modern day Hiroo Onoda, you will find peace and sanity.
N0mesora: anything is possible. But suggesting that Israel was willing to put up with a nuclear Iran in order to gain a fiscal edge sounds much like a conspiracy theory and I’m not very big on those. I’d like to believe Israel thinks that the Iran deal brought Iran closer to a bomb.
Rev al sharpton called those who call t defund the police latte liberals who debate academic theories and lack the perspective of being “on the ground.” Those who defend Obama on the Iran deal sound very much the same to me.
Charliehall: besides anti semites, the state of Israel also prefers the current situation (as does SA).
jackk: The Israelis and Saudis have much more at stake than you do, wouldn’t you agree? And would you not also agree that the Israelis and Saudis understood, with reasonable certainty, that by pulling out of the deal, Iran will, in fact, expand its stockpile of enriched uranium? This did not surprise the Israelis or Saudis – they probably expected this. And still, they preferred this over the Iran deal because as bad as Iran stockpiling enriched uranium sounds to you and me, the Iran deal sounded worse to the Israelis and Saudis.
Of course not every frum jew is pro-trump but an overwhelming majority of frum jews will vote for trump, whether they are pro trump or not, whether they are liberal or conservative or neither, they will vote trump. The frum vote is more lined up behind trump than any prior presidential candidate since Reagan. There will be frum jews, many of them, who will vote Biden – there is nothing wrong with that – we all must respect each other’s votes and opinions – but this one is not even close – most frum jews, across the entire conservadox/blackhat spectrum will vote for trump in November.
I would imagine playing with your tzitzit is in the category of מתעסק and would be permitted in all circumstances according to all of the דעות irrespective of whether separating the strings is permitted or not (see the last few lines of masechet shabbat, as an example).
R’ Ovadia held that you can (and should) separate the strings on shabbat except for the first time wearing the tallit – if it is on shabbat you cannot separate the strings. I am going off of memory so I do not have a source. Sorry.
I will withhold judgment. The incident looks terrible from the two videos I saw but I think it only fair to let the investigation run its course. I can see a scenario where the officers opened fired because they feared for the lives of the children in the car. It may be unlikely but there is no need to rush to judgment. (Unlike the George Floyd incident where there was no possible justification for the officer’s behavior). Can’t we just wait and see how this develops?
When MO was the only version of frumkeit that embraced higher education and a Baal Bayit lifestyle, many frum Jews would have no choice but to camp out beneath their tents. But now that such a large percentage of the haredi yeshivish world also embraces some from of higher education and a majority of “black hat” boys end up in the business world, MO has less to offer.
Additionally, the quality and capability of the MO/YI rabbonim is on a steep decline, in my view. With few exceptions, the Rabbi Yudins and Rabbi Schonfelds and Rabbi Lerners are being replaced by rabbis who are more akin to kiruv rabbis or political talking heads than poskim and talmidei chachomim. There is a serious religious leadership problem, which trickles down.
Op written by a rebbe who never paid tuition.
Jackk: Islam is not a race. Islam is a religion and not a race.
You may want to point to those statements and call trump a bigot (I don’t think he is one) but those statements are not evidence of racism.
In fact, I never heard trump say a racist thing and accusations that he is a racist are simply not supported by any evidence.
Sam klein: black hats can be made of felt or wool. Within felt there is beaver felt, rabbit and for the truly discerning, mink. A good rabbit fur felt costs at least 100, probably closer to 150. A good beaver is twice that and a good mink is twice that. If you want a brand name, expect to pay for it, like everything else.
The difference between one type and the other type is pretty visible to the naked eye and after six months the wool felt will not look anywhere near as nice as a fur felt. A beaver felt will look new for 25 years.
the best prices and selection are at stores that cater to the jewish markets because the consumer is usually a lot more knowledgeable.
A secret of mine: if you really know the hat market, buy on ebay. even second hand. huge savings.
stop and frisk.
Dear mklyb: this virus was never a threat to young people (and the fear mongering (edited) you’ve been watching over the past few months which highlight exceptional cases in young people is just feeding you fiction premised on statistical nullities). An environment where young people are detached from those as risk and placed in their own protected bubble is the ideal way to move forward safely making sleepaway camps much safer than day camps.
takahmamash: not exactly. traditionally it was may 15 to sep 15. i suggest you study about the straw hat riots of 1922. fascinating stuff.
Joseph: the conflicting data would make more sense if we explain that most of the felonies the blacks are convicted of are drug offenses and not violent.
By1212: amalek and the 70 umot are nationalities not race. I actually do not know what the word race actually means.
Joseph: I suppose if a new 600,000 are added to the figure each year that number may make sense but that seems highly unlikely. Or maybe a large number of felonies were non violent? צ”ע
I was using milhouse figure that half of violent crimes are committed by blacks then I worked backwards and that’s what I got. 37.2 million blacks, 600,000 criminals.
My instinct tells me that the percentage of blacks who commit violent crimes is well below 10% for the little my instinct is worth.
joseph: i just punched in the numbers. Could be they are inaccurate and its possible my math is off. Where did I go wrong?
Another thought I had after I wrote that post, there is a concept in Halacha called Miut Hamatzui or significant minority. The most stringent opinion I have seen (like R’ Vaye’s) is that Miut Hamatzui is 10%. Anything less is halachacly insignificant.
Milhouse: There were 1.2 mm violent crimes in the US in 2018 (the last year I found stats on). Lets say 600,000 of those were committed by blacks. Lets further assume that each crime committed by a black person was committed by a different person. That means in 2018, 600,000 blacks committed violent crimes. There was a population of 37.2 million blacks in the US in 2018. So that means that 1.6% of the black population was criminally violent in 2018. Does that mean, then, that it justifiable to assume that when you run into a stam black person you have a statistical reason to suspect he MAY be a violent criminal? Or is a person who believes that 98.4% of a race should be tainted with the wrongs of 1.6% inherently a racist?
The little I know: I don’t think you’re reading my posts. I know there are many reasons to be against an Arab state. I can give you a few dozen more reasons that you missed. But the right never offers any alternative. Ok, you don’t like the two state solution. Fine. So what is the plan? The right has never pushed a different idea.
Eliminating local police will only make police brutality a bigger problem because the void will be filled by county or state police. Local police tend to hire police officers from the local area and tend to engage in community policing (where officers get to know their beat and become a part of that community). If you bring in officers who are foreign to the community (like state and county), you will increase the likelihood of police brutality.
the little i know: my point was not that the arabs need to stay and have a vote – it is that if they stay, they get to vote – even if that means that voting will result in a state that is totally different from the one that exists now (or as you describe it, they are destroying the state).
Let us pretend for a moment that a 95% majority of Israeli Jews woke up tomorrow and decided that they wanted to change the law in Israel and they elect leaders that pass a law that effectively razes the Kotel to the ground r”l and in its place, builds a giant mosque. Would you then say that Israeli Jews no longer have the right to vote?
My point is that in a democracy, so long as you work through the legal channels, the law is supposed to reflect the will of the voters. The fact that the Arabs’ will is far different from yours cannot be the only reason they do not get to vote. At least not ethically.
So you need to either give them a vote (and let them destroy your country), give them a state of their own or figure out a way for them to vote somewhere else. And that may even be true of the Israeli Arabs.
The only solution ever seriously considered in Israel is giving them a state. That is not something I decided, that is a simple fact. So if that is your only option then best better do it on Trump’s terms before you will have to do it on Ahmad Tibi’s terms.
joseph: the status quo is unfair to the Arabs. We have evolved as a society to a point where it is almost universally agreed upon that people should be able to chart their own government by way of vote. This is a basic human right. We do not believe that anyone should not have the right to vote and “Palestinians” do not have that right. That’s not fair. The Arabs should be able to vote for their government just like any other free person. If someone subscribes to the view that they must remain in the land then they must be given a vote.
I am not familiar with the studies you mentioned but I would venture that systematic bias, assuming it exists, varies in degree from place to place. If one study finds systematic bias in a small town in Georgia, another may tell you it doesn’t exist in Queens.
As for Chanaya, in my professional career I have found that there is most certainly a strong anti-frum, systematic bias, most often committed by the frei jews, r”l.
Defend Chabad: is there an alternative plan being discussed or proposed? As far as I can tell, the only plan anyone in power ever tried to implement is the two-state solution. The only difference between the different politicians from the left and the right are the borders. The left wants to give away more and right less.
Every time anyone on the right proposed an alternative idea – transfer (Rabbi Kahane), make them Jordanians (Avigdor Lieberman), make them Israelis (Yoram Ettinger); the idea is immediately quashed and everyone returned to the two state solution.
So if the only game in town is the two state solution you may as well get yours while the getting is good.
Schnitzel bigot: I’m not sure everyone protesting is doing so to promote radical socialism although many are. There are vile people everywhere looking to hijack everything popular for their own cause and the vile among the socialists have best perfected the art.
I am basically referring to some of the things mentioned in this thread by some of the other posters – a system which unfairly and disproportionately exposes the black community to law enforcement. The system is rigged so that two individuals who lead the same exact lives, one a person of color and one not, the person of color will have to deal with law enforcement 10 times more than the other person.
I also love your username.
someone in monsey: are you aware of the fact that you can click on a person’s name and see all that person’s prior posts and how long they have been registered with YWN?
This is both about race and not about race.
The underlying problem is police brutality. The OP poo-poos its extent but it is something that happens much too often and quite frankly – we have all had enough of it. A few in the Jewish community have not been paying to this problem the same way they did not pay attention to prison/justice reform problem until it bit a few of us in the rear but the fact is, police brutality is a huge problem in America. How long are Americans going to turn a blind eye to police brutality as it gets worse and worse every year? We have become numb to the news but if you paid attention there was a story of police brutality every day. Yes, police brutality is color blind and (a small minority but still) too many cops are brutal towards everyone, equally and so we should all be protesting against it.
But this is also about race. Even though there is no reason to believe that this violent police officer was motivated by racial hatred (or that police brutality, in general is motivated by racial hatred) the facts are clear that the black community bears the overwhelming brunt of police brutality. Most of the victims of police brutality are people of color because those communities have greater exposure to police interaction. The more often a community is exposed to the police, the greater the likelihood someone in that community will fall into the hands of the minority of police officers who are not necessarily racist but violent and become a victim of police brutality.
So why does the black community have a much greater exposure to the police? There are a myriad of reasons (many of which are the fault of black communities and individuals in those communities and many which are not) BUT systematic racism, in my view, certainly plays a big, big role in many parts of this country. And so that needs to change, too.
The only logical explanation I can think of for why Arizona, Florida and Israel ended up with such a different result even though thousands upon thousands of NYers traveled to those three locations on a regular basis in February and March of this year (when the virus was in full gear and spreading like wildfire in NY) is the sun.
they had their own program which included its own tefilla, tehillim, siyumim (kids and shas) dancing and some speakers. a good chunk of the speeches from metlife was simulcast into barclays.
joseph: it was better because Barclays had the rosh yeshiva of mir say the kaddish (even though he isnt wealthy). Also the dancing was much better than MetLife because it included the whole crowd on the floor of the arena. Downside: the air conditioning was pumping (maybe they wanted Barclays to feel like its MetLife) and it was too cold. another downside: the rebbe who read tehillim made a complete mockery of it.
sorry for the hijack post.
Joseph: the gemoro in perek chelek sanhedrin teach that when mashiach come all disabilities/illnesses – even the minor ones – will be removed from those who arise. It is a safe assumption that the maladies that befall all of us as we get older will also be removed. So is it really emes what you say?
Mine. By genre, three per category:
Folk: Dveikus, Rabbi’s Sons, Carlebach
EuroPop: MBD, Shweky, Avrohom Fried
Alternative: Karduner, Eitan Katz, Chaim Dovid
Choir: Miami Boys, YBC, Kinderlach
RockPop: Lipa, Yitzchak Fuchs, Yehuda!
Music Writers: Debbie Friedman, Moshe Mona Rosenblum, Yishai Lapidot
Akapella: AKA Pella, Maccabeats, 613
Mizrahi: Moshe Habusha, Yechiel Nahari, Moshe Eliyahu
Reggaeton: Gad Elbaz, Mordechai Shapiro, Zushato the OP, a simple piece of advice: look into your heart and be honest with yourself. If you can then state with certainty that (1) you have no ill will – at all – towards the person you are talking to and (2) the reason you are talking to that person is only to help HIM and for no other reason, at all – then you can go ahead and Hochayach Tochiyach.