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Joe, you are twisting the words of the Rambam. He says (Mishneh Torah, Talmud Torah, 3:10, and thanks to R’ Eliyahu Fink for the translation):
Anyone who comes to the conclusion that he should involve himself in Torah study without doing work and derive his livelihood from charity, desecrates name, dishonors the Torah, extinguishes the light of faith, brings evil upon himself, and forfeits the life of the world to come, for it is forbidden to derive benefit from the words of Torah in this world.
Yes, in Hilchos Shemitah v’Yovel he goes through the benefits that the Levi’im got, and says that anyone can get the same benefits if they want to dedicate themselves to serving Hashem. However, in his commentary on the Mishna (Avos, 4th perek) he lays out exactly what benefits those are. He also says that many people twist words to allow themselves to learn without working to earn a living at all, and that it is completely wrong. He maintains that even someone who is learning needs to have some kind of business/job in order to support himself and his family. He brings as proof the fact that the Tanaim and Amoraim all had businesses to support themselves.
Congrats, Joe. You are doing just as the Rambam said – twisting words to mean what you want them to mean.
I saw another scam on the front page – Kupat Ha’Ir, who R’ Matisyahu Salomon said are thieves, had an ad.
If the guy running the scam was a Zionist, Joseph’s views would change.
Joseph, what does MO have to do with it?
IIRC, a bunch of Daati Leumi Rabbonim came out and opposed the parade.
It really depends on what you’re looking for. You ask for Modern or Yeshivish – does that mean you want a right-wing MO yeshiva?
RTMA is a good school, if you’re looking for somewhere that will give your child a firm foundation in Judaism, but not a kollel lifestyle. Pretty much all students there go to Israel for a year or two after graduating, and then go to college. They do get a love of learning, and many learn daf yomi, or have a chavrusah every evening.
Someone told me a great story about kibbudim.
This guy married a geyores. Her family was used to family being “part of the wedding”, like bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc. They didn’t understand how a Jewish wedding works, and they wanted to be participants.
The couple came up with a great idea. They told her family, “Did you ever see in movies how at a Jewish wedding, the bride and groom are lifted up in the air on their chairs? That’s something reserved for very close friends. We’d like to honor you with lifting the chairs!” Her family was thrilled with it!
When I was growing up, my father wore a leather or suede kippah. My brothers and I all wore velvet ones. When I got older, and was able to buy them for myself, I started wearing plain black knit kippot, as I found them more comfortable than the velvet ones.
My wife told me she liked the ones with the designs, and asked if I could wear them, as she just preferred them. To make my wife happy, I now wear a kippah srugah with a pattern. The exception is for the Yomim Noraim, I have a plain white knit kippah.
So I don’t do it to identify with a group. I do it out of comfort and to make my wife happy.
147: I believe that the Yekkes give a speech at the chuppah for that reason.
At my wedding, I gave Krias HaKetubah as the 2nd “highest” honor. I’ve mentioned that I learned in Darchei Torah. I was in a smaller, half-day yeshiva while I was in college, which was also the time I got married. That Rosh Yeshiva was my mesader kiddushin, and R’ Bender shlita read the ketubah.
We almost had to switch things up – R’ Shteinman was in the US at the time I got married, and my father-in-law is close with him. There was a possibility that he was going to come to the wedding, and how can you not have him be the mesader kiddushin if he’s there? In the end he couldn’t make it, so things stayed as planned.
I believe the only teshuvos which make it into a sefer are those which the Rav feels apply to the general public – meaning there are no special circumstances which apply to a specific case which don’t usually apply to everyone else.
I purposely avoid these threads, but I am going to clarify one thing here.
True, the RCA didn’t kick out Avi Weiss. There was a special meeting held to discuss it. The decision was that if they kicked him out, it would only draw attention to him, which they wanted to avoid.
Instead, they reaffirmed the decision not to accept YCT ordination as a legitimate semichah, so none of his students will be RCA members. They said either he’ll leave, or eventually he’ll die, and the RCA will be finished with it.
The RCA also put out many statements against ordaining women and other things that Weiss did.
OO may claim to be MO, but that doesn’t make it true. In fact, it only shows the fallacy in the argument posted many times – that people say they do things which are wrong “because I’m Modern!” YCT claims to be MO, and the RCA wants nothing to do with them. I can claim to be a Satmar chossid, but it doesn’t make it true. OO is a completely separate entity than MO.
That’s all I’m going to post about this now. I’m going back to avoiding these threads. Maybe I should avoid reading them, not only posting in them.
Because almost nobody says that Memorial Day shouldn’t be celebrated.
shlumpy shlom, this site is definitely not appropriate. Talking to the opposite gender is the least of the concerns here. There is lashon harah said almost every day. It’s definitely a moshav leitzim. Don’t stay here!
Originally, everyone wore a tallis even before being married. During the black plague, when people were dying at an extremely high rate, they wanted to encourage people to get married earlier, and have children, so that the communities would survive. To incentivize it, the Rabbis at the time changed the rule to be that you wear a tallis after being married. People married earlier to wear the tallis. (At least, this was what I was told by a Rav a number of years ago.)
I would assume that the groups which wear a tallis before marriage never had the rule changed, so they still follow the original customs.
I believe that a Rav I used to use to sell my chametz structured it as a down payment, with a balloon payment due after Pesach ended. If the balloon payment wasn’t made, the chametz would revert back to the original owners – not retroactively, as that would be a problem.
Since this was the contract, the Rav isn’t buying it back for you, it’s going back because the contract stipulates that. Since you authorized the original contract, you can’t change it.
A bigger question might be if you found chametz over Pesach. Let’s say you sold all chametz in your home to a non-Jew. Then, you find something that you missed while cleaning – let’s say a cookie was found inside a cabinet. How can you burn it? It doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to the non-Jew that you sold it to!
When I was in Darchei Torah, R’ Yaakov Reisman (Rav of the Agudah of Long Island) gave a shiur on this topic. The son of a Rebbe had gotten engaged during the beginning of sefirah (before Rosh Chodesh), and a vort was held at the yeshiva for him, with music. The shiur was to explain how to deal with such a situation.
R’ Reisman told us that if there is a wedding, there is a mitzvah to be misameach the new couple, so dancing is allowed, as the mitzvah overrides the minhag of refraining from dancing during sefirah. However, if it was just an engagement, or a bar mitzvah, one should not dance, as it isn’t a special mitzvah to be misameach anyone.
I had this situation. I asked my Rav, and you should do the same.
Rabbi Bender shlita could possibly be a good source of information about R’ Shlomo Heiman, as his father was very close with him.
R’ Bender once told us a story about R’ Heiman. He spent a lot of time learning the seforim of R’ Akiva Eiger, and felt a close attachment to them. When he was on his deathbed, his students were in the room with him. Suddenly, he sat up, and said “Bring a chair! R’ Akiva Eiger is here!” Moments later, he passed away. They said that R’ Akiva Eiger came to escort the soul of R’ Heiman up to Shamayim, since he had dedicated himself to studying R’ Eiger’s teachings.
I used to work as an actuary, so I can give some input to the question asked earlier.
The questions asked on the actuarial exams are the highest level of difficulty. They spend days coming up with each question, trying to make it as difficult as possible. Not only that, they do research on the most common mistakes made while solving the questions, and offer them up as answers in the multiple choice questions.
I went into those exams thinking I knew the material really, really well, and walked out knowing I failed miserably.
To answer another question that was asked:
The Novominsker Rebbe graduated from Brooklyn College
R’ Hutner zt”l went to college in Berlin, and studied philosophy
R’ Avigdor Miller zt”l graduated with a BA from Yeshiva University
When it comes to being somewhat moral, I think Sanders is the best. He’s more honest than most politicians, and he stands by what he believes in. It’s a shame I disagree so strongly with his positions.
Clinton is a pathological liar. M’dvar sheker tirchak – stay away from her!
Trump has no filter, and yes, he says some crazy things. But he’s (for the most part) also honest about things, brutally so at times. I’d much rather have him than a pathological liar or a Communist. While I’m not a fan of his, I think he’s the lesser evil.
Maybe from Rabos Banos on Dveykus 5? It’s the 5th track.
It’s from Eli Gerstner’s first album, Hinei. 3rd track, Eishes Chayil.
This thread started with Romney, so I’m going to ask a question about him: what’s the big deal with Romney? The Republicans bring him out as this big guy who can save them. Why? He doesn’t have much actual political experience. His only position was one term as governor. He has been in 3 elections, and only won one of them. So what’s the big deal with Romney?
I’ve been very selective about what threads I’d post in since I returned. I’ve been trying to avoid anything which would lead me towards negative thoughts. I thought a thread about a yeshiva recommendation would be ok. Unfortunately, Joseph and HaKatan have proved me wrong.
Perhaps I was mistaken, and no threads are “safe”.
KBY (Kerem B’Yavneh) is an excellent yeshiva, where they are extremely serious learners. Again, not every yeshiva is good for every boy, but KBY is an excellent option.
I was taught that emunah means believing that something can/will happen. To M’s example above, emunah would mean that someone who wants to sit and learn would trust that Hashem will provide for his needs.
Bitachon is belief that whatever Hashem does is for the best. So in the same example, if the person is sitting and learning, without going to earn a living at all, and he ends up getting evicted from his home, bitachon would be believing that this was the best thing that could have happened to him.
DaasYochid: Don’t chassidim claim they are following in the derech of the Besht?
Why would someone want to learn VaYoel Moshe? According to the Gra, chassidus is apikorsis! Why would I want to read the works of someone the Gra described as an apikores?
HaKatan, you claim the MO was invented by HaGaon R’ Soloveitchik zt”l about 50 years ago. Can you please specify, what did he invent? Did he change halachos? What halachos were they? What did he invent that was a change? How did it differ than “inventions” such as those of R’ Moshe Feinstein and R’ SZ Auerbach zt”l? They “invented” halachos as well – for example, the question of a Shabbos clock, or for medical situations that never existed before. They “invented” the piskei halachah for the new situations that arose – as did R’ Soloveitchik zt”l.
There were times I didn’t go to shul because of bad weather. One Shabbos the temperature was very low, it was very windy, and it was snowing heavily. It had snowed earlier in the week, and many of the streets were still icy. I didn’t walk to shul, because it was dangerous. There was once a bad storm on a Shabbos, and there were big branches falling in my neighborhood. I didn’t walk to shul for Mincha or Maariv, for fear of a falling branch.
But I never missed going to shul just because of a fear of getting wet! I’ve walked to shul in downpours, in snowstorms, and temperatures in the single and triple digits.