enlightenedjew

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  • in reply to: Chinuch: Would you allow a game console (Wii/PS3/XBOX) or not? #719738

    Mikehall, a child of the 80’s, I see..?

    😉

    in reply to: Plasma or LCD #719375

    mikehall, agreed. In some respects, I’d RATHER be @ home with some friends watching a game in HD than at it. Games these days = HUGE expense + hassle to get to + uncomfortable seats. Big games, OTOH, far better to be there in person.

    Just out of curiosity, what make/model/type of HDTV are you looking into (or have)?

    in reply to: Plasma or LCD #719371

    Ronrsr, have you ever watched sports on standard definition TVs? Compare the two images – then come back and ask “what’s the big deal?”

    in reply to: Chinuch: Would you allow a game console (Wii/PS3/XBOX) or not? #719736

    Also, Phil Rosenthal counsels on Internet addiction, which is an addiction that the scientific community generally acknowledges, I believe. Video game “addiction” is a completely different animal since it’s not something generally accepted as an addiction by the scientific community. Games have a very different type of appeal than internet surfing.

    in reply to: Chinuch: Would you allow a game console (Wii/PS3/XBOX) or not? #719735

    Full disclosure, I have both systems – Wii and PS3. And I am far older than 15.

    If your child is someone who’ll become comfortable or OK with monitoring (both content and time), I’d recommend the PS3. It is a much better deal than the Wii, since it can play DVDs/CDs and games in HD and has a hard drive where you can store pretty much anything (like photos). YES, it can be connected to the internet, BUT so can the Wii, PLUS the PS3’s connectivity is NOT designed for a great web browsing experience, rather so that one can log into Playstation Network (PSN) and buy content from there. There are some very good, entertaining, wholesome games on PSN. Just because something can “connect to the Internet” doesn’t mean you could or would want to do the same thing on that connected device as you’d on a PC.

    The Wii is a fun console, content offering for it are a little thin and it doesn’t have the visual and aural “pop” that PS3 content does. I’d recommend a Wii if a family was looking into a family console, but a teenager wanting to buy one is different, if monitored OK, I wouldn’t want to see him sink all that $$$ into a console he’ll use for a month then discard.

    in reply to: Plasma or LCD #719368

    I second mikehall12382

    in reply to: Chinuch: Would you allow a game console (Wii/PS3/XBOX) or not? #719733

    Mother In Israel-

    If you have no idea what a PS3 is, how would know that a PS3 is part of “these contraptions tend to be addictive”? Obviously you do know what a PS3 is, since you do know what “these contraptions” are as well as their nature, and you do seem to group a PS3 with “these contraptions” in your statement…

    in reply to: Plasma or LCD #719364

    Feif Un, I think it’s the other way around. Plasma has a higher refresh rate, allowing for a smoother picture during intense motion scenes (like sports). LCDs are very close, though, if not pretty much on par. The big difference to me is in color reproduction and energy use. LCDs (primarily LED backlit LCDs) are much less of any energy hog than are plasmas, though that gap has narrowed a bit lately. Plasmas, generally, offer more faithful color saturation and reproduction; LCD colors tend to be more vivid and saturated than plasmas tend to be, so it depends on your preference. Plasmas also have the potential for image “burn-in”, where an image is “burned in” permanently to the screen if that image is left up on the screen for too long. They’ve pretty much licked this issue though over the last few years with some interesting technology, so burn-in is still an issue, but only if you leave the same static image or color on the screen for like 15-20 hrs straight.

    Do some research on LCD vs Plasma b4 any one buys…

    in reply to: Do you have a TV at home #722487

    Yes. 55″ of HD plasma gas… NFL never looked so good…

    in reply to: Gaming Systems in a Jewish Home #826687

    So right-

    Meaning… what?

    in reply to: Gaming Systems in a Jewish Home #826685

    Video games, as a genre, have been grossly mis-characterized. They don’t on the whole represent a ‘dumbing down’ form of media, on the contrary. Read a bit about some of the more involving and immersive games and you’ll see that the complexity of games causes the player to use a fair amount of cognitive acrobatics, critical thinking, and problem solving skills while playing ’em. Also, it’s not fair to compare books to games – they are completely different forms of media and should be evaluated as such. Both have detracting and redeeming qualities.

    in reply to: Gaming Systems in a Jewish Home #826676

    WIY – “It wrecks one’s ability to focus. This has all been proven by studies”

    I’d STRONGLY suggest you pick up the book I mentioned earlier and read it. Your statement above isn’t as cut and dried as you make it out to be.

    in reply to: Gaming Systems in a Jewish Home #826663

    Onegoal, well said. I agree. I have a PS3 and Wii in my house. Like anything else, you need to PARENT your child.

    That said, games get short shrift these days. The title is a bit hyperbolic (on purpose, I assume) but if you want some interesting reading, check out Everything Bad is Good for You, by Steven Johnson.

    in reply to: Goodbye friends! #710192

    Reuel? Don’t you mean Bilbo?

    in reply to: An important lesson from last weeks parsha for married people #702589

    Mosherose:

    “I guess Sorah became pregnant, exactly how?”

    “A neis, obviously. Of course it was a neis. How many ninty year old woman do you know who give birth?”

    I just had to laugh – you do realize that there are a few billion people in this world that believe this happened to another woman as well???

    in reply to: Tuition and Report Cards #701437

    SJS – I do agree on some level that a YESHIVA education is a luxury – if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. What got me in a twist (and every one else, apparently!) is that you seemed to deign to determine what is considered luxurious spending for everyone.

    If I’m off on that sentiment, my apologies!

    in reply to: Tuition and Report Cards #701419

    SJS, please clarify what you wrote:

    A) “A Yeshiva education is a priveledge (sic), not a right.”

    in reply to: Bilaam #688122

    Mosherose- I don’t think the OP meant that it’s ‘unsatisfying’ in the literal sense – he obviously wants to understand what exactly Chazal meant with the questions he has in his mind.

    And another thing – you need to ratchet down the tone of your posts if you want to accomplish anything with them. They come across as shrill and annoying cries of “my way or the highway”. You’re not going to convince anyone of anything when you come across as being shrill and preachy.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684880

    GAW – that’s not a bad idea.

    SJS, I understand your response. But maybe we should really sit and think whether the “prep” place really is inferior based on what we’re trying to accomplish

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684872

    Squeak-

    A voice of reason in the wilderness. Thanks.

    Agreed 100% on your response to using equity to fund schools. I would add as a corollary that tapping equity to fund, say, a kitchen remodel might not be a bad idea either, though it has a recurring expense element – ie debt payments – since that kitchen THEORETICALLY will add more equity and value to the house.

    Off that tangent – SJS, if we all scrimped BIG TIME we may very well scrape up that amount – to fund a sinking ship. Who’d want to do THAT? The problem is the cost and structure itself – not the amount we spend!!! In a few years, tuition, tax and inflation increases may very well wipe out that savings – then what, hmmm???

    I fail to understand why discussion of hard dollars and cents economics must go out the window when we discuss the sacred cow of chinuch? We don’t have the luxury of just spend spend spend spend on chinuch these days. The structure and modality need altering. Why is it that few are seemingly paying attention to K-12, NNJKids, or Yeshivas Ohev Shalom in LA? They may not be perfect or have the Answer, but they are trying to shift the discussion’s focus from slapping our heads and moaning “oy, what can we do” to “let’s explore alternate ways of funding and thinking about our children’s chinuch.

    The Torah says we must be mechanech our children. The Torah also says one need not become impoverished to fulfill a mitzva. If you can’t afford, realistically afford tuition, you’re impoverished. If you spend more than you take in, you’re running down the garden path to poverty.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684867

    SJS, I don’t care about how public schools are funded. I care about yeshivos and our chinuch funding structure. (Actually, I do care about PS – my gargantuan property tax bill helps fund it. So I’m actually paying 1.5X – I assume not all of your 15K figure is funded by my tax – for my kid’s education).

    Again the wrong focus. Why are we ignoring the elephant in the room!!!??? We are ASKING THE WRONG QUESTIONS AND MAKING THE WRONG statements. I don’t care how PS is funded AS MUCH as I care about yeshiva since, if I had 4 kids and paid 10K in property tax, my yeshiva bill will FAR outstrip my tax bill. The whole system is more of a problem that what we’re spending COMMUNALLY. yes, I think weddings can get too fancy and pesach spending on cruises is disgustingly luxurious, but the beauty of a market economy is that spending may be largely “in-house” (ie, within the community – it’s usually frum ppl who own catering businesses for example) and that trickles around the communal economy. That spending is also discretionary, while tuition is not – I can turn the spending spigot off if I want when I deem it unaffordable, and economic equilibrium can be maintained. MANDATING unaffordable spending, on the other hand, is a recipe for disaster.

    The ECONOMIC structure is almost completely flawed. For example, determining socially what is and isn’t a valid ‘extraneous’ expense vis a vis who qualifies for what discount is a ridiculous way of making chinuch ‘affordable’ and is going down a very, very slippery slope. It’s completely unfair to make one’s committment to chinuch hinge solely on cutting living expenses to the BONE and living on bread and rice, walking all over the place while ditching the car, cell phone, and budgeting for some of the expenses that bring a little bit of comfort an joy into our otherwise stressful and busy lives (a new sheitel once in a blue moon, going out to eat on a birthday, buying a little something for our wives, buying a beautiful new sefer, etc etc etc etc etc). Not wanting to live like a complete ascetic does NOT mean you don’t value tuition – spare me the righteous quid pro quos.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684861

    SJS, in asking “is a Yeshiva education worth it to you?” you’re asking the wrong question. Sure it’s worth it, in theory! But if it comes at such a steep cost that it means sleepless nights and mass hypertension, is it REALLY worth it? I’m not doubting its necessity, just it’s WORTH in its current state. I can’t tell you how many times I heard “if only my tuition were lower, I could sleep at night” from friends, acquaintances and colleagues. We all put on a good show and facade in public, in shul, at the shabbos table, but in reality, many, many of us are hurting inside and carrying full time, unhealthy stress because the question of “but isn’t it worth it?” is being asked instead of the statement “it’s no longer affordable in its current state” being said.

    We need to alter the focus in the whole discussion. Please see my previous post where I ask what’s more important to yahadus – schools or families. Your posts operate with the assumption that the status quo is fine and WE need to change. That may be true – but only a in small part. We don’t need to change as much as the entire structure needs overhaul.

    EDITED

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684860

    SJS-

    I don’t disagree. But what if you’re so busy, both spouses with full time, that you literally have no time for cleaning yourself? Do you let the condition of the house/apt go to pot? Or you spend every waking moment either cleaning or working? And cleaning help doesn’t have to cost thousands per year. But that’s not my point.

    So let’s say you’re saving $3.5-$4.5K per year in ‘extraneous’ expenses. That’s nickel and dimes compared to a full tuition burden for, say, 4-5 kids. So you’re still underwater, just not as much. So what have you really accomplished? And, no, tapping equity is not the funding answer because AS WE’VE SEEN real equity can disappear with terrifying speed.

    SJS, you’re making good points but we’re talking around the issue. The problem isn’t really what we spend as much as the horrid economics of the system we’ve built for ourselves. We can cut expenses to a point, but one property and/or income tax hike could wipe those savings off the map and we’re right back to square one. The issue really is that tuition costs too much for your average family living in the US. The cost structure based on the infrastructure is flawed. The continued delusion that we can expect average families to pay 60%-70% of after tax income on tuition while being able to afford to live without worrying themselves into a heart attack is ludicrous, ESPECIALLY with all the other (albeit smaller) financial burdens being frum entails.

    The issue is that it’s UNREALISTIC to expect all frum families here to sell all their cars, ditch all cell phones, bunk 3 to a room and crowd into a 500 sq ft house and never, ever spend a penny on relaxation ever again in order to afford tuition. People need relaxation and leisure – not being able to relax carries serious health risks. People have the right to spend MODESTLY on relaxing activities and pursuits. The problem is that tuition costs too much money. The problem isn’t that we ALL spend too much.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684855

    To add to my last post, in response to Squeak – thanks for the encouraging post. My wife and I each take home respectable salaries. We live fairly simply in a nice, but modest home in the NY/NJ area. Yet I find myself struggling at times to just make the monthly bills, and all we have is a baby right now. Just COLA alone will get worse. I look into my family’s financial future and see the strong probability of strained finances until both my wife and I are in the grave amu”sh. It’s disheartening, when you make a good living and work like a dog, and I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks this way.

    And let’s not shrei “shver to be a yid!!” The tuition crisis is of our own making; we’ve ignored the economic consequences for far too long and will be paying the price soon. HKBH created the world, and everything in it – the laws of physics, biology, etc – and economics.

    EDITED

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684853

    Thanks, Squeak. I don’t mean to come off as anti-yeshiva education, or being anti-school. At LEAST some sort of Yeshiva education is nearly a requirement to ensuring the spiritual health of the next dor. Schools are battling rising costs themselves. Admins aren’t evil, they’re just trying to ensure the viability of the institutions that pay their salary. But schools are amorphic entities. They don’t live, breathe, interact on an emotional and physical level with their peers and family members, etc – families do.

    What’s frustrating me is that many are advocating for schools and education (“they’re already tapped”, “we need to give the chinuch for our kids”, etc) – but schools and the idea of “chinuch” are inanimate, amorphic objects and concepts. Families aren’t – they’re organic, dynamic entities that need more TLC than bricks and mortar. If all yeshivas nationwide were to spontaneously combust tomorrow, we as a community will still be around and still soldier on. Yahadus would still exist. If many, many families were to break up ch”v, Yahadus would take a serious, serious blow and could be on life support.

    In the end, what is more important – preserving the traditional family structure with shalom bayis, etc, or schools and infrastructure (brick and mortar buildings, teachers, administrators)? I’m not saying it’s the old “guns and butter” argument – it’s not necessarily a zero sum game (at this point – it may be 20 years down the road). But what’s more important should be leading the discussion on the subject.

    If we let THAT lead the discussion instead of accepting the educational infrastructure at status quo, we may collectively find some interesting things. Things like online education initiatives (K-12, for example) which bends the school structure in possibly sacrificing something for what’s more important – sane, healthy families. I’m hoping my point here is clear…

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684851

    This conversation is taking a very disturbing tack. Everyone here, except puppydogs and laguy, is carefully skirting around the elephant in the room – yeshiva tuition is a financial backbreaker for most families and can and will contribute to a severe financial crisis for frum Jews. YES, we all know yeshiva education is a necessity, But over the last 10-20 years, yeshiva tuition costs have skyrocketed alongside general COLA increases, even in markets outside NY/NJ. Economics works on the basic principle of scarce resources: using a resource (money) to pay for X will mean less resource to pay for Y. Tuition eats up more and more of our families’ incomes (POST-tax, mind you) so that there’s increasingly less and less available for retirement savings, savings for bigger ticket items (weddings, brisim, etc, even if modest they do cost some $$$), or savings we can put away for our children. There’s less and less available for everyday expenses as well, forcing families into tighter and tighter budgets as our COL rises, and our property taxes rise across the country to fund, in large part, an education system we don’t ever use. This creates not only financial problems, but mental and shalom bayis problems as well.

    Laguy is right. I’m as sick as he is watching schools, heck, our coummunity, expect hardworking, dual-earning parents to pony up 65%-75% of their AFTER-TAX pay to pay for tuition. I challenge anyone here to tell me how an average family living anywhere can get by in today’s world on 25%-35% of their take home pay after tuition is taken into account. Don’t tell me “I put my kids through it, you can too” – housing costs ALONE (let alone other cost of living areas) have increased exponentially, making the current generation’s experience somewhat more harrowing than previous generations’. And don’t tell me to sell my car, get rid of my cell phone, etc. That’d be like digging yourself out of a hole with a teaspoon, not to mention that what many consider “luxuries” are today quasi necessities (I’m thinking car and cell phone here, at least for suburban dwellers).

    How are our families going to save for their retirement or their children? Who’ll take care of the current generation when they can no longer work and have little to no savings because they’ve “invested” it in tuition?? Their kids? Who will happen to be struggling with their own, exponentially greater tuition problems??

    I’m sick of people just assuming “yeah, it’s hard, but hey, we have to do it.” I’m sick and tired of all the hot air being wasted with discussions and gatherings and diatribes and etc etc etc while we all watch our tuition bills creep up and up and up and up and eat away an ever increasing portion of our finances, making our lives one step closer to financial insolvency.

    I’m really tired of seeing the ignorance of basic economics that seems to be prevalent in these discussions.

    EDITED

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684818

    Coupled with NNJKids, my tax point is that the “tax” should apply to the Jewish community – the ENTIRE Jewish community (non denominational – conservative, reform, etc). The tax should be progressive.

    That’s the best way to get our schools the funding they need and help our parents who are shouldering this burden. Economic strength in numbers.

    There’s almost no economic way the frum community can shoulder the burden for all of its many schools alone.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684817

    Squeak-

    “As many have said, Torah education is not a luxury but a necessity.”

    All the more reason to treat tuition economically as a tax

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684816

    BPTotty-

    Good point about healthcare and maaser. Unfortunately payments for tuition at private schools are not tax-deductible as charitable contributions, I think.

    SJS, I beg to differ about NNJ, I wouldn’t dismiss it so readily. My reason for mentioning it was to respond to Cherrybim’s comment that the obligation rests squarely on parents’ shoulders and it’s their shoulders that should bear the brunt.

    BP, back to you – yes, education does pay. We want to see our children succeed in yahadus and have a chance at making a respectable parnassa. However, it’s coming at an increasingly higher cost these days and takes a bigger emotional, social, and financial toll than it once did. That price is becoming very steep. Furthermore, tuition payments help keep money out of retirement and targeted (eg saving for making a wedding, etc). Who’s going to fund parents’ living expenses when they can’t work anymore and have little or no savings? Their kids? Uncle Sam (and then he’ll raise taxes? Something to consider.

    The problem here is that many families just cannot theoretically afford tuition these days. I know it’s nice and easy to say that tuition always pays, but that doesn’t even begin to answer what is a firmly entrenched economic problem.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684809

    SJS and BP-

    Thanks for the clarification – $1K seems a more sensible #.

    Cherrybim, tuition payments (full tuition) are budget busters for countless families. How can you never saw anyone become poor from paying tuition!!!??? Many, many families borrow (i.e. pay other expenses on credit and carry balances) to meet tuition requirements – if you HAVE to borrow and carry a balance, you can’t afford it.

    Also, have you ever heard of NNJKids? They operate on the very philosophy you so blithely dismissed – that future Jewish education is incumbent upon the community, not the individual. Instead of nit-picking on minutiae, NNJKids is trying to think creatively outside the box to help families cope with burgeoning tuition costs. Narrow views will lead us on down the garden path to economic ruin.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684805

    Cherrybim, I’m not saying I agree 100% to this way of thinking, but I think I can argue somewhat plausibly that certain services and payments that are one’s communal “obligations” should be treated as progressive taxes and not commodities. American income tax structure is theoretically progressive on the whole – the more money you make the higher your tax percentage (bracket). The government understands that simply dividing the cost of running the nation equally by the number of (legal) residents or households is an extremely inequitable undertaking and, more importantly, can be unsustainable. Our society understands that government expenditures funded from tax money generally, eventually, benefit the country as a whole – thus, we have a progressive system.

    The same might be said for tuition. Communal pressures, stigmas, and logic leave frum Jews little or no choice but to give their kids a Jewish day school education. No one will argue that mass Jewish education will at the very least spiritually benefit the Jewish community as a whole. Because of the obligation, one could possibly argue for modeling the school funding structure after our progressive income tax system.

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684803

    Cherrybim- you’re going down a slippery slope. By your logic one should live in a one room bungalow and eat bread and water and walk everywhere if that’s what one has to do to pay tuition in full. After all, decent food, 1000 square feet, automotive transportation – those aren’t REALLY needed, right??

    in reply to: Tuition Assistance Guidelines #684802

    SJSinNYC-

    I agree – but take issue with some of your assumptions.

    1. You are not mechuyav to give ma’aser at the 10% of gross figure if it will entail financial hardship. There are also many ways one can calculate ma’aser (after tax, after tax minus essential expenses, etc).

    2. Where are property tax and insurance bills in your calculation? Included in the $2,500 mortgage figure? Hardly, at least in the NY/NJ area.

    3. That tax figure is high, I think, for the average homeowner. Remember that contributions to charity are tax deductible – so assuming the couple is in the 25% tax bracket, that $9,500 maaser amount is really $7,125. Commuting costs can be tax deductible up to $230 per month, so that reduces taxes by another $690 ($230*12*.25). Add in some mortgage interest, state income and local property tax deduction, exemptions for self, spouse, and children, and possibly some child-care deduction (if young children) and that $55K tax bill can be a bit lower.

    4. $1,000 per parent per year for life insurance?? I think that’s quite high, unless the parents are smokers weighing 250lbs each. 😉

    in reply to: iPod Touch Free/Cheap Great Apps #723060

    iSiddur

    Pandora

    in reply to: What Newspaper / Magazine do You Read / Trust Most? #681652

    Wall St Journal, Financial Times, The Economist. All top notch papers/publications with excellent writing.

    in reply to: Shidduch Issue in Israel #684582

    “…why cant the boys parents also put down 150 thousand dollars?”

    How about NEITHER side puts down the $$$ and people get married when they can demonstrate that they can (by and large) support themselves? The economics of the “marriage model” the OP described is unsustainable.

    in reply to: What Do You Do When There Is An Incentive To Be Irresponsible? #664154

    Wolfish – I’m not entirely sure what you mean by irresponsible people being ‘rewarded’ by the current system, unless you mean that they can buy things, go on vacations, etc, that Steve can’t.

    If so, VERY good point. The tuition superstructure that we’ve created for ourselves is riddled with unintended consequences like this one. It’s broken and in desperate need of fixing, and is rapidly becoming unsustainable in its current state.

    in reply to: The Bus Problem #665959

    “Perhaps separate busing needs to be provided by Yeshivas and BY Schools. This might cost some $’s, but at least the genders would not mix going and leaving. “

    As if tuition doesn’t cost enough $$$ in itself…

    in reply to: The Working Poor Crisis #663809

    Yiddeshemama-

    +1

    I couldn’t have said it better myself.

    That and the fact that renting can lead to being intransient – renters can be subject to the selling whim of the owner, med to long term.

    in reply to: The Working Poor Crisis #663802

    Bloggerman2-

    I agree on your points, but – “5)Out of town prices are cheaper but job opportunities are scarcer in Jewish community(ask around you will see)”

    Not sure what you mean by “…in the Jewish community…”? If you’re moving to another Jewish community, you only look for “Jewish” jobs?

    And Texas, BTW, has a much more dynamic economy than NY/NJ right now…

    in reply to: The Working Poor Crisis #663794

    Bloggerman2, see my post above – I agree wholeheartedly that it’s tough for even $100K earners, that’s exactly my point. I’m in the working world, have bills, etc.

    I still think that, today, you’re basically shortchanging yourself by not getting an education or not encouraging your kids to get one. College, etc doesn’t HAVE to be expensive, plus it’s an investment. Many studies have demonstrated that, on average, higher education translates to higher earnings. See this- http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa072602a.htm – as an example. Even if $100K don’t quite cut the mustard, I’d still rather $100K/year + moderate student loans over my working life than $40-50K/year without.

    AND – the fact that even over $100K doesn’t work is, in my mind, a sad, sad commentary on how far our financial life has devolved, at least in this part of the country.

    in reply to: Shidduchin as a Business #663421

    Just a thought to chew on:

    Does anyone here see a conflict of interest in making shadchanus a livelihood?

    in reply to: The Working Poor Crisis #663789

    Much has been said already in this post – I agree that education and advanced skill building are keys to success (note – success doesn’t have to mean becoming a millionaire) in our world today.

    Cost of tuition coupled with the horribly relentless cost of living increase (especially in the tri-state area) is flat out unsustainable. I think it’s disgusting that a guy can slave for years through an advanced degree and through work in the hopes of making enough to cover costs and then by the time he gets to tuition, boom, all that slaving was really not enough. With tuition at like $15K per kid it never will be. Something HAS to give with tuition or the cost of frum living will become literally unsustainable over the next few years for all but the highest net worth individuals and people will just not have kids or not send them to higher cost Jewish schools.

    I’d say though that people can be encouraged to just move away from the NY-NJ area. Costs of taxes and housing (the number 1-2 expenses for your average family) have just spiraled out of control here. We pay an enormous amount of taxes to these states and get appallingly little for it. I find it repugnant that hard working people pay enormous amounts of tax cash to local municipalities for public school education that they never will use. I also find it repugnant that on top of all the other costs a frum person must shoulder, housing costs rise another 15%-20% as well for the privilege of living in a Jewish area. Taxes and housing are sharply lower in out of town communities (no state taxes in Texas, for example, where there are vibrant Jewish communities) and it’s possible to save nearly $30K a year or more in housing and tax costs alone. So why don’t more people turn their back on this area and leave for greener pastures if they can (job, etc)?

    There’s a head in the sand mentality about this though. I was speaking with someone who responded to my above argument (I was arguing about Texas) with “but are there yeshivas in Dallas or Houston?” To which I responded yes, there actually are a few. He said “but are they {certain type of hashkafa} places? I’d only want to send my kid to {type} of place”. I thought about that a little later and realized how ridiculous an argument (on its own) that is for staying in the NY-NJ area. Why would someone trade more financial peace of mind and shalom bayis etc so that their kid can be not just educated in a Jewish manner, but educated only to be yeshivish, modern, litvish, etc? You can’t have your cake and eat it, too, in economics. You always need to make a tradeoff. If you don’t, that could be leading yourself down the road to financial doom.

    No, popularly waving the phrase “shver tzu zein a yid” around doesn’t answer the problem nor is it proper. Saying that shows an appalling lack of thinking and initiative in combating the ingrained financial problems we face. It shows a remarkable ability to keep one’s head firmly in the sand while the world crumbles around them.

    in reply to: Fresh Coffee on Shabbos #662539

    Wait a minute-

    Doesn’t a coffeemaker take cool or cold water and boil it? Isn’t bishul much more of an issue with regular coffee grounds vs instant coffee?

    in reply to: Ban Against Texting #662137

    R’ Schorr can restrict access to his own yeshiva/shul in whatever way he wants, as long as it’s somewhat reasonable and within halachic bounds. While I really don’t think I would react as drastically to texting, he does have that right.

    in reply to: Get Involved! #661814

    600KBear-

    I’ve seen this Creedmoor thing some 50 times already in posts, and can’t figure out what this is.

    What IS it??

    in reply to: Eruv in Brooklyn #761341

    HIS, you got issues.

    I use the eruv in Boro Park, don’t use in Flatbush. I heard from a talmid muvhak of a major gadol (zt”l) about BP eruv that the BP was OK, but he didn’t want to go public with it b/c he didn’t want to stir machlokes.

    I haven’t gotten a definitive answer on Flatbush, but I do think it a bit childish to accuse those who do use it (or BP) of chillul shabbos. There are very learned people who take both sides.

    I do know that appearances and politics also seem to creep into this – someone I know asked a local rav and he said they can use the Flatbush eruv for their baby (carry/push baby) and baby things, but nothing else. Does that make sense, logically? Not really, in my mind.

    in reply to: Music and “Spiritual Health” #661443

    Just-a-guy, good point.

    Listen to the 9th or the 6th, the “Pastoral”, which is Beethoven’s paean to ‘nature’ – there’s little question in my mind that his talent for producing beautiful inspiring music is from Hashem. You could argue that Hashem gave him his musical ability solely to test Jews, but I’m not buying that; that’s a cop out answer. When I listen to Beethoven’s 9th, I believe I can just get a gist of what the Beis Hamikdash music must have been like. Maybe that’s why Hashem gave Beethoven that talent. Or Mozart. Or Brahms. or Dvorak. Or maybe even Jimi Hendrix, except he maybe badly misused his God-given talent?

    in reply to: Non-Jewish Books #658751

    “1.written by a goy vs written by a Jew” So?

    “im sorry, i cant explain it to you”

    I think I’m aware of what you’re getting at – that the soul of Jew infuses itself into his/her creative works, and the soul of a goy infuses theirs. Disregard if I’m wrong.

    OK. But does that mean automatically = BAD? What if the goy creates something spectacularly amazing and beautiful without tznius, etc issues (say, Beethoven’s 9th, 5th, 6th symphonies) with the intent solely on creating something wonderful, ex nihilo almost? Take Beethoven. His soul went into it but with very possibly pure, simple intentions of translating the natural, physical vibrations in his head into weaving a pleasant tapestry of musical notes? Is that a problem, given the circumstances? Maybe LVB was trying to reach the divine in his own way. Maybe. Maybe Mozart was as well, as was Vermeer, Conan Doyle, Michelangelo, Dante, etc?

    in reply to: Refinancing / Mortgaging To Make A Chasunah?!? #659168

    Squeak, only would’ve been a problem had the friends been male

    😉

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