Gadolhadorah

“if you live above/opposite me, I can force YOU to build a wall to not look at me..”

AAQ: Stipulating that under no circumstances would I willingly WANT to look at you, could you clarify your assertion and perhaps include some source. Specifically, I have lived in my hillside home for decades and paid a premium for a lot where I could watch the sunset. You come along and build your house down the hillside with lots of floor to ceiling windows. You then run to a beis din to demand I spend whatever the cost might be to build a wall on my property line to block my view of both your home (and partially obstruct my view of the sunset). Would I then respectfully tell you to take your head out from where the sun doesn’t shine and suggest you put shades on your windows??

“But they (JBS, etc) are flawed torah scholars with some opinions based on foreign influences and as such have biases that prevent them from being termed gedolei yisroel to whom i must be machniah.

Sounds like you would subscribe to the views of the late Justice Scalia who was famous for stedfastly refusing to join any portions of his colleague’s opinions that implicitly were based on foreign influences and sarcastic dismissal of any judicial citations of foreign law to establish that the position was consistent with chukas hagoyim. However, that disagreement never spilled over to a personal level as noted in a hesped of Scalia by the infamous RBG who (along with the Court’s other Yiddeshe Justice) was probably the most frequent author of opinions with such citations.

Agree with huju….I’m a UAL 1K and reasonably high FF miles on Delta, much of it on overseas flights and cannot recall serious incidents in 30+ years that might have been construed as overt”anti-semitic” actions by iU.S. based airline crews. I have seen such incidents initiated by passengers (such as today’s news page story) but I think they were quickly defused by the airline crews and/or airport personnel. Notwithstanding recent stories about AA, etc. to some extent, and I cannot verify, these incidents seem more frequently reported on discount airlines or on foreign carriers with code-sharing arrangements with U.S. carriers. Again, I’m not saying these incidents don’t happen…just that I’ve been fortunate not to have experienced such behavior.i

“How about hezek reya”

AAQ. I’ll certainly defer to your familiarity with the gemorah in Bava Basra but my vague recollection is that the issue was not entirely clear as to whether ‘gazing’ on to your neighbor’s property and activities is to be considered is a real hezek and was assur or whether there had to be some real physical damage to trigger compensation or whether the concept was more applicable to private activities undertaken by your neighbor which if witnessed by others could cause an ’embarrassment’ (a component in determining compensation for injuries). I thought that halacha put the obligation for building a wall or some physical barrier was derived from a socialized obligation to avoid real physical damages in common areas for the common good. A clear, line-of-sight view from one neighbor’s property to another doesn’t obligate either to block their view of the other but certainly each has the option of doing so to the extent they wish to protect their privacy.

When the Lerner family built the Nationals Stadium, they left a portion of the center field wall open knowing that new condos in the neighborhood would have a view of the playing field. I believe the gemorah contemplated tha if one neighbor repeatedly performs activities without active protest from the other neighbor ( a form of chezkat tashmishin?) Would chezkat tashmishin apply to gazing rights? I have no clue but perhaps there was an implicit waiver of any rights to seek damages since the Rav living in the condo had no obligation to close his window blinds and block his view anytime the Nats were playing a home game. I could see a potential haalachic issue (along with an obvious tort under civil law) if he publicly advertised tickets to sit in his living or on his balcony to watch the Nats game.

Hopefully, they can sell out all the tickets at $500…..Camp HASC is one of the most unique mosdos doing incredible work with both children and adults with special needs, intellectual and physical disabilities. The more money they raise, the more they can expand and sustain their programs.

Reb E: You were fortunate to have heard a vert directly from R’ Miller. I was not familiar with him so I found several videos of his presentations on YouTube. The most memorable was where he was saying the Badchunes at a shevah barachos for the grandson of Rav Chaim Kanyevsky. Never have I seen 20 minutes of R’ Chaim sitting at the dais laughing almost non-stop along with the other guests to a brilliant exposition of divrei torah presented with skillful humor with an Ungarishe nusuach.

As CJ Roberts said (paraphrasing) “since the original 24 weeks was arbitrary, why can’t a woman just make her (abortion) decision within 15 weeks”?? We can retain Roe v Wade but just substitute one arbitrary time limit for another since we are not dealing with a constitutionally guaranteed “right” (at least from the perspective of 5 or 6 justices).

“And that’s how we ended up with 2 Jewish Willie Wonkas”

Or was that TWO Uncle Moishys. You may recall the articles here in Ami magazine (and I think also reported here on YWN) several years ago about the food fight between Moshe Tanenbaum, the “original Uncle Moishy,” and an upstart imitator. Yossi Berktin, the “new Uncle Moishy,” . I forget how how that one was resolved

“All of the kosher chickens sold come from a coupme corporate poultry farms that have been determined to be reliable. So I dint think every duck would need a Covid test..”.

Agree…..should be sufficient to have the chickens wearing face masks and only requiring a Covid test for the katshkes, with a plumba pasted on each egg showing it tested negative.

Since we are on the subject of chicken farms and plumbas (how’s that for a really bad segue) there is an old joke from one of the heimeshe resorts in the Catskills where a guest complained to the mashgiach in the dining room that his wife nearly choked on a plumba, and that he would sue the resort for all its worth. The terrified mashgiach ran over to the resort’s owner sitting nearby who quickly grabbed a microphone : “I’d like to announce that Mrs. Gevornlick has found the hidden plumba and won a free week at the resort.

There are cars and minivans parked near Chabad houses throughout the world this week with menorahs on the roof. I guess these are owned by the same “idiots” who drive around with a small succhah on the back of a flatbed truck or Your respect for other yidden continues to shine through

UJM: “I was called a troll…”
Outrageous….the offender should be permanently banned from the CR, absent extenuating circumstances.

Interesting that CJ Roberts floated several “middle ground” positions on “viability” et. al. that would avoid having to reverse RvW hoping that either Kavanaugh or Barrett would bite but neither seemed interested. Alito, Thomas piled on and said only real options were to reverse or affirm. Goresuch was a bit of a enigma based on his questioning of the SG.

If you daven vasikim, you will have the benefit of davening at a reasonable speed but with the assurance you will finish earlier

“What normally is innocent (like this case) becomes something we avoid when it smacks of goyishe hashkofos’

This very clear and truthful explanation goes to the heart of many machlokis debated here in the CR. Someone decides that an otherwise mutar, rational or functional form of behavior or activity has morphed into “goyeshe hashkafos”, creates the potential for “maris ayin” or is simply inconsistent with how our grandparents acted, dressed, spoke etc in the Alte Heim. When that “someone” is a big daas torah, we obviously stop and consider his argument. When that “someone” is a chashuvah CR poster (other than Reb E who is our virtual LRP) we give it thoughtful consideration but don’t feel any obligation.
As others have noted, there are multiple reasons why a woman might legitimately want to retain her maiden name or hyphenated name after marriage. Feminism along with other “isms” and practical reasons are possible drivers but there is NO chiyuv to do something that is really important to you as an individual or a member of a family in order to conform to some abstract psak about a non-existant geder under halacha. Proudly keep your name if thats your preference and if gives you a positive sense of kavod to your father’s name.

CNN should have fired him after the first round of exposure on his involvement with his brother’s bullying and harassment allegations. I can’t imagine that his ratings were so high they were reluctant to fire him sooner.

As noted above, there is no inyan in halacha to have a “last name” nor are many of the most chashuvah rabbonim in our early history known by a surname. Perhaps ask your husband to change HIS last name to yours so as to make it easier for the kids. As to the shtus about retaining your name being derivative of a “feminist” trend which is alien to yiddeshkeit, I would respectfully suggest that misogyny cloaked in halacha is also alien to yiddeshkeit.

Reb E: Good point… I guess its all relative. I

Is there a generic heter to be mechalel shabbos if done so pursuant to a lawful order of a government agency? While the purported intent of the travel ban was pikuach nefesh, its hard to make the case here that there was a real or imminent public health threat. As a practical matter, I agree that short of being detained or arrested, these individuals had no choice.

Multiple potential issues regarding various formulations of “work” assur on shabbos including, but not limited to your incremental weight/baggage requiring additional kerosene consumption/thrust by engines, techum shabbos, electronic tools used for check-in and onboard, etc. If you must travel, consider using a shabbos compliant “transporter” as per Captain Kirk and Scotty on StarTrek.

“and YWN puts a nice spin on to keep me happy….”

Like linking every article about Biden, Pelosi, or Obama to some really wierd and unflattering photos of their subject? At least there is no claim of “fair and balanced”.

“They [government employees] can almost never be fired, thanks to the union thugs, even if all they do is clock-in and clock-out on time, but otherwise sit and do virtually nothing other than slack….”

UJM: I was not referring to the jerks hired in the prior administration, who were forced to resign for flying home on weekends first class or using government aircraft for personal vacation travel, padding their payrolls with 20 yo Schedule C appointees who worked on the campaign and hung-out at the Trump hotel bar etc. I’m talking about career government employees working at NIH, staffing FEMA emergency centers, getting disability payments andsocial security checks mailed and treating veterans at VA hospitals. Yes, there is deadwood in the federal government but you could go into a large number of Fortune 500 companies where non-performing employees and poor service is the norm. The wait-time for a service call to your bank or cable provider can be as long as that to the IRS.
As to benefits, government employees don’t get stock options, paid-“team building” retreats at luxury resorts, free meals at company cafeterias and a lot of the other “free stuff” you hear about at tech companies anxious to attract and retain talent.

CTLawyer: I’m sure you’ve done the research but my understanding is that the largest wave of Jewish immigration was in the first several decades of the 19th century and in general, was less affluent than those who came over in the 1870s-1890s. Again, I’ve not done any research. Your point regarding some of the early German-Jewish assimilation is fairly important in looking back at yidden in America. We often focus narrowly on a few merchant and investment banks with Yekkishe ties but it goes much deeper than that.

AAQ: Congress established the Federal Salary Council (FSC), an advisory body made up of academics, private employers and public employee leaders to study the question of comparative compensation of federal versus private sector employees to provide input into annual federal salary changes for budgetary purposes. Their most recent study showed that federal employees are underpaid by as much as 22-35 percent compared to their private-sector peers although most of the differential is skewed at the higher compensation levels.
However, federal employees shouldn’t expect a big spike in comparability pay since virtually all presidents of both parties ignore their recommendations and link any increases to the lower of inflation and/or the increase separately decided for military personnel. The rationale is that federal employees willingly accept lower salaries for job security as well as many benefits NOT factored into the FSC criteria.

However, as an example, the top federal government lawyer in the SG’s office with 25+ years of arguing cases before SCOTUS is paid LESS than the starting salary of a FIRST YEAR associate at one of the top D.C. litigation firms. Indeed, if that first year associate goes into private practice having clerked for one of the Justices, there is a separate $200K to $300K signing bonus separate from their annual salary. I’m sure there are other cases where government employees leave for private sector work at lower salaries, but that is generally NOT the norm in the D.C. area. It could be more likely in more rural areas or outside major cities where CoL is lower and mean private sector salaries are lower than those in D.C.