DaMoshe

An eruv is not a kulah from the 1960s. It goes much further back – there are Gemaras that discuss it.
Eruvin 68a brings a story where Abaye was asked why there is no eruv in his town. Many meforshim (Birkei Yosef, Chasam Sofer, Avnei Nezer, and R’ Moshe Feinstein) use this Gemara as proof that there is actually an obligation for a Rav to make an eruv where it is halachically permissible to do so.
I don’t think people today treat them with no awareness.
Where I live, yes, I use the eruv. Do I trust the eruv? Considering that it’s not a person, no. But I do trust the Rabbonim who oversee it!
I don’t personally check the eruv. The local Rabbonim check it every week, and I rely on them.
I’m not sure what chumros of the past you refer to when asking if they were discarded, so I can’t really say.
To say that R’ Moshe was hesitant or opposed to “many” of the eruvin… I’m not sure what you refer to. Do you mean in places like Brooklyn or Manhattan? That is well known, because he felt it was not halachically permissible to make an eruv there. In places where it was permissible, he held (as I wrote above), that it was an obligation to make one. Obviously, it needed a knowledgeable Rav to oversee it, to ensure it was done correctly. But he wasn’t opposed to the idea of an Eruv.
I’ve been told that in Elizabeth, NJ, R’ Pinchas Teitz zt”l built an eruv, but was nervous that people would forget the halachos of carrying on Shabbos. Therefore, one week each year, the eruv was taken down. It was usually done the week after Parshas Zachor – since everyone came to shul to hear Zachor, he’d be able to announce to the entire community that the following week, nobody should carry, as the Eruv would be down.

somejewiknow: you said: “I say zionism is bad because it rejects fundamentals of Yiddishkeit: moshiach, schar v’oesh, and the definition of “Klal Yisroel”.”

Please elaborate. How does Zionism reject these things? I am a Zionist. I most definitely believe in Mashiach. I believe in schar v’onesh. I define Klal Yisroel as including all Jews, with Jews defined by Halacha, through matrilineal descent.

Hakatan showed his ignorance – or maybe apikorsis – earlier. He claimed “It is Zionism that bothers the gentiles, not Judaism.”
Maybe he just chooses to ignore the fact that it says “Halacha B’yaduh Sh’Eysav Sone L’Yaakov”

R’ Chaim Vital wrote in the introduction to Etz Chaim that the oaths only lasted for 1,000 years. That time is long past, so they’re not in effect anymore.
R’ Meir Simcha, in a letter to the Keren Hayesod, said that the oaths are only aggada, and even if they were halachically binding, the Balfour Declaration removed any issues.
R’ Shlomo Kluger held that since the other nations persecuted the Jews unjustly, the oaths on the Jewish nation are removed. He quoted the Shulchan Aruch that says that if 2 people take an oath and one breaks it, the other one is not obligated in it any more.

So there you have the 3 opinions that the oaths aren’t in effect anymore, and therefore Zionism doesn’t break them.

There were some major Rabbonim who held that the oaths are NOT in force anymore. Notably, R’ Chaim Vital, R’ Meir Simcha of Dvinsk and R’ Shlomo Kluger.
Additionally, even if they are in force, there were many Rabbonim who held that they weren’t violated – since the UN voted to establish the state, it wasn’t done via force. Also, the oath not to go up in large numbers requires more than half the Jews in the world – this is the opinion of the Shittah Mekubetzes, the Maharal, and R’ Yonasan Eybshitz. The Torah Temimah held that it only refers to when people are forced to move to Eretz Yisrael, not when they do so voluntarily.
So don’t claim that all Rabbonim hold that they’re in effect, and that Israel violates them.

If only we’d already discussed this before… oh wait, we have! Over and over! And you just bring it up again because the day after Tisha b’Av, you go ahead and promote more hatred! What a rasha you are.

I posted this a few times already, posting it again:
The Riva says the left/right mentioned in the pasuk refers to Rabbonim telling us not to do a mitzvah such as Shofar on Shabbos, or Arba Minim on Shabbos. It only refers to a mitzvah that they are telling us NOT to do.

The Yerushalmi says in Horios that the pasuk means only if they say right is right and left is left. If they say otherwise, you do not listen.

There are many shitos against Rashi. Indeed, both Rambam and Ramban do not pasken like Rashi in this regard. There is a Sifre which Rashi bases it on, but again, many question the Sifre, and there are Gemoros in both bavli and Yerushalmi that say otherwise. R’ Ovadia Yosef reconciles the two views as I mentioned above – you have to confront the Rav if you think he erred. Until you confront him, you do not listen. The Yad HaMelech states that if you listen when you think he erred just because you think you have to listen, you are required to bring a korbon chatas. Only after confronting the Rav with the opposing view, and he stands by what he said, are you required to listen.

somejew, you did not post any such source. It was said about one person. He never said the word Zionist. In fact, it doesn’t even say if it was said in jest or not – and it doesn’t say if he led the benching or not. If he really paskened that way, it would have been written in one of his seforim. Many poskim have said that people shouldn’t listen to what was given as a psak to someone else – the only piskei halacha meant for the public are the ones written as a teshuva meant for the public, or in a sefer.
As for the small one’s posts, he just keeps on repeating himself. It won’t make anyone agree with him. Yes, many early Zionists did drive people away from Judaism. But that doesn’t mean that Zionism as a whole is bad. Those people were bad. There were also many Zionists who brought people closer to the Torah. Yes, there was access to the kotel long before Israel was founded. But Jewish immigration was not allowed except for in very small numbers. The learning that exists today in Israel would not exist without the state.
You really need to differentiate between secular Zionism and religious Zionism.
Small one, now is where you quote a few people who opposed Zionism in any form, then go on about shmad and how terrible Israel is. Actually, now you don’t have to write it – I just did it for you.

HaKatan,
You’re correct, it was a non-answer (although I don’t think it was pathetic).
It was a non-answer, because as I said, its pointless to engage with you. This isn’t a discussion. In a discussion, people are open to hearing opposing viewpoints. You are not. You are simply full of hatred, and keep repeating the refrain that Zionism is idolatry. You have nothing to back up this claim, you just repeating it.
Since you don’t really care what my opinions are, and will disagree with them even if they make perfect sense, there is no point engaging with you. So I’m done with it.

AAQ: Don’t bother engaging with Hakatan. It’s pointless. He is filled with hatred, and it blinds him from actually listening to opposing viewpoints.
He belongs to the group that the Netziv said was responsible for the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. Just have pity for him.

I read from R’ Schachter that galus refers to a lack of gilui Shechinah. Even in Eretz Yisrael now, there is no gilui Shechinah, so yes, Jews there are still in galus. When Mashiach comes, and the Shechinah comes out of hiding, the galus will be over.

wtsp: why is it hypocritical?

wtsp: wrong. I can support the State of Israel, without supporting the apikorsis of many of its founders. I can want the state to exist because it is OUR land, which Hashem promised to us – and it has nothing to do with proving anything to the world.
You are arguing about semantics. You claim that the beliefs define the label. I disagree. I think that the state of Israel is the incarnation of the state until Mashiach comes – and only then will it truly be Eretz Yisrael. That doesn’t mean I can’t support it until that day.

Small One, you are not convincing anyone. You, just like the Satmar Rebbe, are blinded by your hatred for Israel. You are not thinking rationally. The Satmar Rebbe was so blinded by hatred that it caused the deaths of almost all his followers in Europe. This is what you want to glorify?
You can keep posting your twisted views here, but as I said, you’re not convincing anyone. If I had to guess, most people here just view you as a pathetic hypocrite.

So they’re just using the “No true Scotsman” argument.
Claim RIETS hasn’t produced any Gedolim. When some are named, claim, “Well, they’re from RIETS, so they can’t be a Gadol!”

HaKatan: Ben Hecht didn’t read the history when he wrote Perfidy. Researchers have shown that numerous things he claimed as facts were flat out untrue. As chiefshmerel wrote, Hecht had an agenda, to attack Ben Gurion, and he did so by going through Kastner.

You also completely ignored my other post, and just kept on attacking Zionists as a whole, without differentiating between the secular and the religious. They are not the same. Get that through your thick skull.

As for the Six Day War, the fact that R’ Yaakov said Hallel Hagadol means that he recognized it as a good thing. All the other excuses (whether it’s Satmar claiming it was from the Satan, or claiming that the CIA knew it would happen) don’t matter. Besides, even if the CIA claimed it would happen – do you deny that everything is Ratzon Hashem?

People say that R’ Kook zt”l was blinded by his love for Eretz Yisrael, and made incorrect choices because of it. I say that the Satmar Rav was blinded by his hatred, and made bad choices because of it.

Written by R’ Dovid Landesman, who was learning in Torah Vadaas during the Six Day War:

And then we heard the broadcast that will remain in my mind forever. Michael Elkins, the correspondent for the BBC and Newsweek, imbedded with the paratroopers led by Motta Gur, announced: “the IDF has captured the Temple Mount.” We heard his live broadcast of Rav Goren blowing shofar, of Motta Gur’s static filled message to his command post, “haKotel b’yadeunu, haKotel b’yadenu.” We heard singing, yes singing which turned out to be the soldiers themselves. Elkins described that most incredible and improbable scene: paratroopers, in the midst of battle, rushing toward a wall of stone, oblivious to the dangers around them, to the snipers and enemy soldiers, spontaneously breaking into song and dance. Elkins began to cry on the air, and we listening in Flatbush cried with him.

For as long as I live, I will never forget the expression on Rav Yaakov’s face or the sparkle in Rav Schorr’s eyes. It was as if the burden of history had been lifted from them. Rav Yaakov ran into the beis midrash and gave a bang on the amud. There was immediate silence and he said “shehechiyanu” – I do not remember if it was with shem and malchus. He then began to recite Hodu with tears streaming down his cheeks.

yankel berel: I heard it from numerous Rabbonim. It was also printed on YWN in their article about Ponovezh in 2020: https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/1854765/in-long-standing-minhag-israeli-flag-flies-from-ponevezeh-in-bnei-brak-on-yom-haatzmaut.html

R’ Ahron Soloveichik (who was a magid shiur in MTJ, then was appointed by R’ Hutner to give the highest shiur in Chaim Berlin, then at RIETS, before moving to Chicago where he was Rosh Yeshiva in Skokie before opening the Chicago branch of Brisk) also observed Tom Ha’atzmaut, and had his yeshivos say Hallel.

YYA – you clearly don’t know how the WZO gets its funding. It doesn’t come from private donors.
Every time a property is sold/bought in Israel, there is a special tax that is paid. That tax goes to the WZO, and that is where the funding comes from.

There are just a few days left to vote. As is being reported on the front page of YWN, the push to oppose voting was orchestrated by the Conservative movement, to block the frum groups from getting votes. They also now showed the letters between R’ Shmuel Kaminetsky and R’ Chaim Kanievsky, where R’ Chaim said to vote.

Many poskim forbid listening to fast accapella music during sefira. R’ Belsky, notably, was very against it, and bemoaned the fact that people were lax in observing a period of aveilus, and were al says looking for ways to get around it.

I did some more research on the issue, and found that the exemptions for sleeping in the sukkah are not so modern.
The Mordechai on Sukkah states that most people in his area did not sleep in the Sukkah, because it was cold.
The Rema quotes the Mordechai, but rejects the reasoning of the cold – he says it’s because a man shouldn’t be with his wife in the sukkah. However, he encourages couples to have privacy within the sukkah, so they could be there.
The Taz says that if a woman wants her husband to be in the same room as her inside the house, then that is reason enough to sleep inside. The Chasam Sofer agrees withe the Taz.
I also read that R’ Moshe Feinstein did not sleep in the sukkah when he was at his own home – but he lived in an apartment building, and there was a large communal sukkah there, with no privacy. Some have reported that when he was at his daughter and son-in-law, in Monsey, he did sleep in the sukkah.

In short, there are definitely those who hold that there are valid exemptions to sleeping in the sukkah. However, to say that it became a minhag not to do so is just ignorance. Even according to the opinions that there are exemptions, if those don’t apply, then one should sleep in the sukkah. So a single man, in a warm place, really has no reason at all to sleep inside.

HaLeiVi, there is a middle ground. I’m happy to have my kids say Divrei Torah, but there are 2 other things I bear in mind. First, the mitzvah is on me to tell over the story to them, not the other way around. Second, I try very hard to have the Afikomen before chatzos, and if possible, to finish the 4th cup by then too.
So I tell my kids beforehand that I want to hear what they have to say, but we do need to bear those things in mind. I tell them to keep some of their Divrei Torah for the daytime meals, and we can hear it then!
I believe my seder will be great this year. At first, I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be having guests. I invited a number of people, including some whom I believed could use a place, but didn’t get any acceptances. But just the other day, my wife found someone who needed a place, and she accepted our invitation. So now we will be having a guest at our seder!
My Rebbe, R’ Bender, always says that Simchas Yom Tov isn’t complete unless you’re sharing it with others.

My Rebbe, R’ Bender, says that one should make the Seder exciting for children. He says that R’ Reuvein Grozovsky used to act out the story, and especially by the makkos, he would literally get down on the floor to entertain the children by showing what the Egyptians had to deal with. R’ Bender does the same for his family (when his children were young for them, and now, for his grandchildren.)