koma

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  • in reply to: Buying at a Jewish shop vs. a Non-Jewish shop #690893
    koma
    Member

    The EY perspective on this is a great deal different. It is not really hard to patronize Jews, but the perfusion of cheap Arab labor is sometimes hard to avoid. I regard as a rare treat doing the shabbos shopping in a supermarket with Jewish stock help. In my sector, home repair and construction, Jewish labor is really rare, in part because most Jews are averse to physical labor, and many wrongheadedly judge only by price. There is also and issue of lo sechaneim, but who would worry about a simple lav when there is shekels to be saved?

    in reply to: Feminism #1162204
    koma
    Member

    yitayningwut: I am alarmed that you regard halachic terminology meaningless. Heftza shel mitzva is my take on the opening statements of hilchos ishus. When I do my homework, I regard the specific terminology of Hazal very meaningful.

    in reply to: Feminism #1162196
    koma
    Member

    To SJS: The rishonim and acharonim wrote with often very nuanced language. The S.A. in particular sometimes uses elegantly blunt terms, and in places indicates that a woman is an object. At times a cheftza shel mitzva, but an object non the less. Of course the daughters of Sara Imenu are much more than just holy objects. But yet, it is still ok to be just a holy object.

    in reply to: Where Do You Buy Your Challos For Shabbos?! #686366
    koma
    Member

    This topic lead me do some chazora to find a relevant statement I once filed away. The Bayur Halacha in Resh Mem Bais: opening title: vehu mikavod shabbos: ” and for this is an allusion in the scripture ‘and on the sixth day they will prepare that which they bring ( reffering to the maan) that which is baked should be baked’… inferred from here that one should bake on erev shabbos to prepare for shabbos, also in the time of the gemara this was the established custom, as brought by the Magen Avrohom. And in our great spiritual decline (ba’avotenu harabim) today ~ some women~ have abandoned this custom, and buy from a baker, and this is not proper for they lessen by this the honor of Shabbos.”

    My, how the times is a’changin.

    tranlation and accents mine.

    in reply to: Worms In Fish #771067
    koma
    Member

    In Rav Vai’s book, there are full color pics of what to look for. And there are very visible parasites.

    in reply to: Musical Instruments #684942
    koma
    Member

    musiclover 29; In my youth I was taught to play violin. The tips of my teacher’s fingers has visible callous pads with string indentations in them.

    in reply to: Breach in Tznius: Recent affliction attacking Klal Yisroel #1025038
    koma
    Member

    << Your neighbor in McDonalds>> In chutz laretz I was a baal melocho who dressed in shmates, 6 foot plus and bearded. In town was another baal melocho, in a very very different business, but also in shmates, 6 foot plus tall and bearded. People routinely were confused as to who was who, and we often received messages and complaints that belonged to the other. In EY, I still work in this business, I dress in shmates, and am often dusty or worse. Children,who because they are socialized that way, (and their parents are too cheap to ever use Jewish labor) generally see me as an Arab. The point? Human perception is a blunt instrument and highly subjective. How can you be judgmental when your lens is warped from the outset? Always be dan l’kaf zechus. You are mostly Americans, are you not?!

    in reply to: High Cholesterol #713981
    koma
    Member

    And the trademark of a secretive statin user is that they dont eat grapefruit or its products. This is because grapefruit can mess with the delivery or concetration of the drug. The irony is, that grapefruit itself is helpful in lowering choleaterol.

    in reply to: Musical Instruments #684938
    koma
    Member

    HiE: The sax is a recent arrival, it’s keywork was pattered after the modern flute, though it is a heavier touch and can be spread out further in the as in the baritone. It also involve a reed and reed care, where the flute is just an issue of embechure (mouth position and set.) The trumpet gets all it range from three valves and like other brass horns, lots of embechure.

    in reply to: High Cholesterol #713977
    koma
    Member

    I was tagged by my doctor at 50, after 10 years of near or full vegetarianism. This is with being very active, relatively trim, and doing physical work, and still taking steps two at time B”H. I had a long argument with the doctor about taking the statins. Tnere is no family history of heart disease, the previous generation lived into the 80s and 90s or to 75 with lifelong untreated high blood pressure. The cholesterol is produced in the liver, and is in a chain of chemicals including coQ10. The statin interupts the chain before the coQ10 is made. I, with joints at risk NEED my coQ10, and I did not want the possible side effect of memory loss and joint pain. With attention to diet, almonds, garlic, select greens, and seeds, I knocked down my #s but not to the docs satisfaction. He stopped arguing with me, but you can only do this is the doc is younger than you and you are in way better shape, and you don’t darken his doorstep to often.

    Shmos 23:25 ” va’avadtem es Hashem Elokeichem, u’verach es lahmecha v’es maimecha v’hasirosi mahala mikirbecha

    in reply to: Shavuos: Cheese-Cake Reason? #1156795
    koma
    Member

    Indeed. Depending on your cultural baggage, you may or may not be familiar with the guy who died for piece of Mamas apple strudel. Also implicated in the health tzoros is that the beef bearing critters of today are not as those of yesteryear, when the thing ate only grass, and you had to run to catch it.

    in reply to: Shavuos: Cheese-Cake Reason? #1156790
    koma
    Member

    cherrybim: Thats a tough call. Its like me saying that all the heart attacks I handled as a Hatzolanik were avid cheesecake eaters.Its just accepted medicine that the Western diet with high animal fat and yesh omrim ANY fat is a good predictor of bad health. Not that a one time fling ( with a cheesecake) is going to harm a body.Good Yomtov.

    in reply to: Shavuos: Cheese-Cake Reason? #1156788
    koma
    Member

    and in MHO, the only civilized way to do a cheesecake is with a farmer cheese and sourcream filling. Just a little less of a heart attack recipe that the Satmar Rebetzin’s.

    in reply to: Shavuos: Cheese-Cake Reason? #1156787
    koma
    Member

    Chumash lesson: on Devarim 13:20, Hulin 84a. Tannu Rabanan: That which he hunts (kissui hadam) meaning only what he hunts, what of captured or domestic birds? These are included by the word ‘tzed’. So what does ‘that he hunts mean? The Torah hereby teaches you derech eretz: That you should not eat meat without this preparation. Rashi on ‘this preaparation’: as if you needed to hunt, that is is not readily available, iow, don’t eat meat frequently, so as not to become poor.

    Tannu Rabanan: “when Hashem broadens your borders”: the Torah taught us derech eretz–that a person should not eat meat except in ‘teavon’ (not a common state?). Should then a person buy from the market and eat? Talmud lomar” and you shall slaugter from your cattle and sheep. Should then he slaughter all his animals, Talmud lomar ” from the cattle and sheep” and not all of them.

    The import of the gemara here is there is a problem with frequent, casual meat consumption. In contrast, if one brings a korban shlamim, there is a great deal of meat to eat, and matanos to leviim and to kohanim. The diet of the kohanim certainly included a great deal of meat. The common denominator is there is spirtiual danger in eating meat,and there are means of protection.

    . Either you have the kodesh component, or you have the bother of shehitah, melicha, kissui for birds or wild things, the removal of fat and the gid hanasheh. This would seemingly exclude the concept of going to Moishes supermarket to pick up a roast, not that the concept was unknown to chazal.

    in reply to: Where Do You Buy Your Challos For Shabbos?! #686356
    koma
    Member

    I once had a service call to a kosher bakery on Thursday evening, and I witnessed the 8 or so bakers preparing to do the braiding. The dough was 20 feet long, of a “saftey yellow/green” color and greased like it came out of a deep fry. I noticed the large cannisters of stabilized egg yoke with 10% sugar and who knows what else. Bakereries, like any other business produce what sells, and what sells in not always in your best nutritive interest. As NYmom is onto, there is also some less than honesty regarding the claim of “whole wheat”. Even whole wheat flour is not whole. The germ must be removed because of its poor shelf life. If you want the good stuff, you’ve got to grind it yourself, and as I know from matza, fresh ground is truly delicious!

    in reply to: Sefira Music #882842
    koma
    Member

    Wow! a year old thread touching on Halacha that is not closed yet. The real kasha is how we got from S.A. tav kuf samech: gimmel, to what we have today with a multilayered music industry of our very own, and people plugged into ipods all day. For the really adventurous, contemplate what the Navi (Hoshea 9:1) and Mar Ukva (Gittin 7) were trying to communicate. If Hoshea or Mar Ukva were magically tranported to the Flatbush of today, would they recognize us as Jews?

    in reply to: Shidduch Issue in Israel #684595
    koma
    Member

    rwndk1: What you describe as the “more businesslike” Israeli mindset, is what I call a lebedik velt, an anything goes, midos deficient hardness of people playing hardball, borne of a hardscrabble life. It is not anything near what a yid should be, hard realities or not. My two marrieds, A listers, are living in rented flats at the largess of my machatonim, God bless them. The insecurity dose not bother them, and this itself is a level midos that I doubt you would find in the siddur maleniks.

    in reply to: Most Uncommon Frum Names #740930
    koma
    Member

    In EY, any positive character in Tanach is fair game among the RZ. Among the secular and not so secular is an alarming trend to de-gender names. I came across a couple Ro’i and Maan. Guess which was which? Tal, Shemesh Tzohar, Gal, Gil, Noam and it conjugates can be either a she or a he. And the best Jewish name I ever came across was Seboriah, belonging to my very goyish ( from the Islands) body shop guy. He had no idea and really enjoyed my interpretation.

    in reply to: Mothers Day: Yes, Or No? #684392
    koma
    Member

    Volvie, you cropped the quote. I saw this quoted in Yalkut Yosef, and roughly quoted from memory: “I have always questioned why we do not have our own medical schools but rely on the goyish institutions and their experts who are naught and their knowledge is naught for their experience is based on goyim who eat shkatzim urmasim,, how does this apply to a Jew who avoids (d’d’igi) skatzim uremasim.” Now if we held by the Rema, why would we need medical schools when we can access the big medicine from the bais medrash? Clearly few people trumpet this viewpoint ( shitta) and fewer still act by it. Personally, I don’t like the word infallible. We (some Jews) have the concept shegga for the Nasi and Par Helem Davar for the Bet Din.

    in reply to: A Moment of Silence #683478
    koma
    Member

    in the case of the yom haatmaut, and yom hazikaron, it a zecher in this society. If you are unfamiliar with the device of zecher, take a look at your seder plate. The two tavshilin are evocative of the korbanot. It can be an egg and a bone, pickeled beets and egg salad, or the gemaras recipe, beets and rice. An arbitrary device or action to link to a larger concept. Chapst?

    in reply to: Eishei Tanach Who Portray The Middah Of Zrizus #682501
    koma
    Member

    The people as whole in bringing Trumah, Aharon Hakohen in stopping the Magefa in parshat Korach,

    and in the negative sense, Chamor ben Shechem, Doeg haEdomi Avimelech ben Yiftah, not all specifically zrizus, but alcarity certainly.

    in reply to: Once a Year Brachos #682337
    koma
    Member

    eruv tavshilin can come once a year too.

    in reply to: Kitniyos #1105398
    koma
    Member

    There have been de’os that took expansive views of the minhag, such as the Aruch Hashulcha saying “rice and beans and `anything else in the world”, and there is the school of Havu delo losif aley. Even the Rema (sourced to Maharil) lists some spice seeds as exempt. From the latter view, you can exclude from the issur anything native to the Americas, which were not known at the time of the gezerah. As an Askenazi in EY the choices of oil, l’mashal, are the non kitniyot olive, nut, and palm, all rather pricey, and the palm of questional health. The reasonably priced stuff is corn, soybean canola and sunflower. Corn and sunflower is native American. I use sunflower, and would use corn if I lived less in fear of my wife and other wagging tongues. There are also indications that the original parameter was dried kitniyot cooked into porrige, and that in the green state, there was no issur, such as fresh green peas, green beans, and say, CORN ON THE COB. Lastly, and this is perhaps exportable to the What to East on Pesach thread, Reb Moshe ztg”l ridiculed the inclusion of peanuts, and peanut oil was marketed by Rokeach in the 60s. Peanut butter (home made) and jelly on machine matzo is a real comfort food.

    in reply to: Your Favorite Matzohs #865319
    koma
    Member

    Anuran: Yes, I did orignially two matzos at once, but because of the size went down to one. For chometz it held of course many loaves in loaf pans. It was a one to 1.5 hr heat up, and then I would sweep out the fire and bake with a cookie sheet or two to close the front. No chimney this was fire in the back and rolling out the front. For matzo a banked bed of coals at the back and no door, so the matzo could be flipped and watched. It worked with one layer of brick, but later I did another layer on three sides. This is what you call a high mass stored heat oven, and simple two cents plain. The cost was minimal, the most expensive part was the steel base, somebodies mistake that I got from a welder. At the time fire bricks were .37 cents, and red brick even less. If you want to schmooze technical, maybe contact me by email if allowed. chag kasher vesameach.

    in reply to: Your Favorite Matzohs #865314
    koma
    Member

    Anuran: I think thermite lights with a spark or blasting cap. For a masonry oven in siman tav samech alef the accepted hechsher is that ‘ the coal go on its entire surface” taken to mean the whole baking floor. I found this much easier than cleaning the GE and some fun as well. The arch in my little oven would be over 1000f at the stage where I had enough coals to cover the floor. My floor was yellow firebrick about 17″ wide and about 48″ long, 14″ high walls and a shallow arch of red brick, and a second coat of brick on the outside and a hump of cement to seal my poor arch job. It stood on a table of three inch angle iron and a cement pad. I am sorry I didn’t take it apart and move it to EY with me. If you are a “stick it on the wall” baker, you should ask what the do to kasher the walls because in reality you cant fill the entire void with charcoal. Maybe try to build a clay or adobe tanduri and keep it for matza, but I found the matzo oven heated and with the fire swept out made the best chometz sourdough bread ( in about twenty minutes). If you go for the big rig, the one we did was supported on a base of seven courses of soda crates, 7×7 (crates) had walls hemmed in by standard blocks pinned with steel into a slab, so the wall were less high that the length of a block and the top of the pinned blocks held the outer edges of the arch. It had a low flat arch, and fire brick floor and sides. The beauty of this was it really held its heat, and with tossing some wood on at say, dayenu, at motzee matza you can go out and whip up some hot matzos. Its a great way to add some hitlahavut to the seder and also a good way to do two or three full size whole wheat pizzas.

    in reply to: Your Favorite Matzohs #865308
    koma
    Member

    Anuran: Beware, if you are ashkenazi, there is i think a KolBo referenced in the Tur that says you must stick to rekkin dakin (our hard matzos) because of Al titosh toras imecha. On the other hand, if your are of the Sfardi that used soft matzos, you should not use the ashkenazi crackers for the same reason. And tangentially, I have been looking for a way to get away from burning wood, and today a Mizrachi customer showed me the way. A skillet on the gas stove with an electric Saluf pan inverted over it is how she does thick pita, and she says if she gets distracted it burns to a crisp… perfect for a thin crunchy. Nothing as sweet as kibbutz galuyot. Chag kasher vesameach!

    in reply to: Your Favorite Matzohs #865306
    koma
    Member

    here I blow my cover again. My very favorite matzos are the ones I bake myself. This started many years ago, I had no clue and grew the grain myself. It was rye which grew like a very beautiful weed in NY, and after the harvest, threshing, grinding and baking, I got these oh so ugly dark grey matzos that had jagged edges ( rye has little gluten, the protein that makes dough stretchy, we discovered at the seder that the matzos tasted like peanut butter. Fresh ground (+24hrs–halacha) whole grain matzo is a absolutely not cardboard experience. Ultimately I learned to get grain from Shatzer or the Spinka bakeries, Shatzer because they kept grain for meshugaiim like me, and Spinka because they grind on premises. Over the years I got good at it, and my legend spread to a chaver new to our neighborhood and together we built a full size oven. We did a hilchos matza seder for six months behabura, and then opened up the process to the community. This, I believe was the inspiration behind the new 5-Towns bakery( but we were non commercial) In the course of our studies we looked around at bakeries big and small( and family based) and we saw lots of things we didn’t approve of. I still make my matzos one or two at a time, and can give them hidurim that can’t be had otherwise. Now in EY, I was asked by my chaver to find a source for the stainless rolling pins. Based on some advice I sought out a bakery in Jerusalem that used them. This was a two table, continuous production facility, meaning there were multiple doughs worked on the crushing tables and at 18 minutes the rolling crews would switch tables. The baal habayis was fast asleep in a chair, so I waited for the 18 minute break to ask the mashhgiach. He was of no help, but I had come there for diferent limud. To my utter disbelief, they did not wash their hands between runs. I said to myself then that bli neder I will never again eat a commercial hand matza. I will end with these recomedations: Learn the halachot and see that they were written for a Mom and Pop operation, and in the Sh”ut of the Rogachover, you will find a piece on machine matzo, where he bemoans the commercialization of matzo.

    in reply to: Istanbul Layover Safety #671757
    koma
    Member

    Recently went through istanbul and back. I did this because I refused to go through Spain or France. We found the security somewhat strange, scripted, backward and incompetent(not speaking Hebrew, and not very intelligible in English. All in all, though, not much worse than the TSA folks. No feeling of being unsafe. I was unable to wiggle much on the plane due to seatmates much less get into tallis and tefilin, so I davened netz as best as possible and did T&T in the airport lounge. There were all manner of far off, odd dressed strangers that I drew zero attention.

    in reply to: Hashgocha Protis #671850
    koma
    Member

    While the soul of this thread is the Harmony story, it is the lighter moments of wow! that we should be sensitive to, and as her story tells, it is that sensitivity we gain from the big events. Here is a hashgocha lite story a little out of season, and a little long, but one of the favorite ones I tell, so I hope this doesn’t blow my cover. I like very large esrogim, and while in NY I would scour the avenue in Brooklyn asking the vendors for etrog hatzi kilo.In the course of time, I came across the maamar of Rav Ovadia Yosef, loosly translated as “most of EY’s etrogim are murkavim, and thus one should only buy from a known source and yere shamayim. This was a precious example of the broad shouldered fearlessness that only a posek can have, and I filed it away in the depths of my head. Also stored in one of the back files is the factoid that all citrus freely cross pollinate.

    One year, I had gotten my prized lunker esrog, but my shul was selling that year as well, and after one maariv, the guy selling waved me over and held up an esrog, perfectly tapered, all bumps, and a lovely green fade into yellow– it was love at first sight. Now with two esrogim, I decided to use the little one for the bracha, and the large one for Hallel.

    Another little habit of mine was to recycle the esrog into a cordial or into candy for Pesach to connect the chagim. This is before I knew THAT COMMERCIALLY PRODUCED ESROGIM ARE POISON, that they are sprayed mercilessly and that an organic esrog is indeed a very ugly thing. ( This is the H.P. for those of you still making jelly out the collected esrogim.) That year, I was intent on making esrog whisky, so at closing time erev yom tov I got 5o or so unwanted esrogim from a worn out seller for $10. To my mild surprise, cutting them up to process, I found about 2 percent had full fruit centers, identical to a sliced lemon. Then I cut open my large beauty and the maamar of Rav Yosef came back to me like a hit on the head. This was the largest lemon I had ever seen, as full and developed as a grapefruit. With tears, I mouthed the morning bracha ( without shem umalchus) “blessed be he that guides the steps of man” that I was motivated to use this unfit esrog for Hallel and not for the bracha

    in reply to: Recipes for People Who Don’t Know How to Cook #672168
    koma
    Member

    more recipes and clues from a guy (with no patience for, or specific dyslexia for written recipes: First rule: Plain foods plainly prepared, or simply, keep it simple. Second rule, dont be afraid, and if you are creative, let it flow.

    Chicken Easy. Skin the bird, trim fat, sprinkle crushed dry basil, paprika and garlic, and bake in oven at 350 or so for @1 hour. Crushed garlic is nice, but powdered will do.

    Any large fish fillet has enough fat in it to ease its cooking. No liquids need to be added. Lay fillet skin down in a pyrex pan (lots of things cook better in pyrex or cast iron pans because of the thermal mass) and spice with pepper/ and or onion flakes,and or ground corriander and or tarragon, and in a pinch, Montreal steak seasoning will do. 30 or 40 minutes at 350 is enough cooking, and often the skin will stick to the pan, giving you easy skinless fillet. The pan will need some soaking and metal spatula scraping to clean of the baked on skin, but not too terrible

    Acorn or similar hollow neckless squash: Cut a small plug out of the top with the stem. With a spoon and flushing scoop out the seeds and the strings. Stuff with prunes/rasins/nuts. Add a touch of honey, brown sugar, or molasses and some water to plump the dried fruit. Dont overstuff, take into account the expansion of the fruit. Reset the plug in the top and pin in with toothpicks. Place in a pan (pyrex best) with a half to inch of water and lighly cover.The squash should stand up, so as not to spill. Bake till you can dent the hardened skin with a finger,40 to an hour depending on the bulk of the squash. Serve in longitudinal slices with a dollop of the stuffing. For people who like squash, this one is “oleh al shulchan melochim

    Greenbeans. Trim, break into thirds. Steam lightly, or cook with very little water at the bottom. They should still be relatively bright green when you let them cool. Drain. Toss in pot with oil enough to make them slightly greasy. Toss again with sesame/ saute’d onion/ coarse salt and hot paprika. Done. serve warm.

    A pot of rice (how to cook on the back of the bag) and a pan full of saute’d onion is a yummy thing that pleases most.

    A pot of rice, smothered with minced dill, a pinch of turmeric for color. There is a Persian variety of this which is refried in a tall pot, but first try the plain mix. If you can get dried vegetable flakes, or natural pilaf mixes, or have patience to dice fine beans peppers, peeled split pistacios — all these things make rice into a marvelous main dish. The dry additives go in toward the end of the simmering of the rice. Mix and match and enjoy.

    My easy to clean yummy vegetarian cholent appeared in the “how to clean a cholent pot” post.

    in reply to: Miscellaneous Plumbing Tips #683818
    koma
    Member

    ICOT: Some of the old pipe here is from the Brit influence when they still used inches, and most of the cast iron is inch sized. Then there is asbestos pipe and concrete pipe, and clay pipe in whatever size the unsteady supply supplied. The modern media are plastic sized in 110mm, 50mm 40mm and 32mm closely matching 4″ 2″ 1.5″ and 1.25″ The wall thickness, and the way they do gas pipe here would land you in jail if you did that in NY area. In threaded pipe there is a mix of NPT, the American way (9 degree taper) and BSPT, the British strait thread. This gives one way too tight, and one way too loose. We also have stuff influenced by the European tzarut ayin mistaken for economy. Life for and American plumber here is challenging, but fulfilling. You can also walk into any hardware store and buy really caustic stuff with nary a safety label.

    in reply to: Miscellaneous Plumbing Tips #683817
    koma
    Member

    anuran!! Avoid RR or any of its clones, or the other extreme, shops advertising $x any clog. The big boys are expensive and rigged like a casino. They never lose. The cheapos are using a flat rate as a hook and they cant be in business at their advertised price. a local mench who deal in emes is best.

    in reply to: A Mouse In My House #993969
    koma
    Member

    Trap tactics: Sweep the kitchen floor and counters so there is no competing food supply. Lay out spring traps baited with peanut butter, or squashed raisin around the perimeter, and perpendicular to the wall or baseboard. This should be done at bed time,and lights out. When all is quiet and the coast is clear, the mice will come exploring, hugging the perimeter for safety. When you hear pop pop pop, you can drift off to sleep knowing you were successful. Rise early to clear the mess before the ladies or toddlers find it or any unsprung traps. Used traps can be washed with plain water and used multiple times.

    in reply to: How To Respond to a Brocha/Mazel Tov #684246
    koma
    Member

    “Besimchot Etzlechem” puts smiles on most peoples faces.

    in reply to: Hechsher Question #670889
    koma
    Member

    Lesson in Kashrus; Long time ago in E”Y, I attended a wedding in Bnei Brak. The baal simcha was an erliche mentch, and the hashgacha was premium. This was right after the 73 war,and the hall was filled with all manner of haredi and other commers and goers. A hasidishe guy sat down next to me, pulled out an apple, made the bracha and ate it, made a borei nefashos and left. That left an indelible impression on me. If you want real kashrus, keep it simple, and make it yourself from “primary ingredients”

    in reply to: Cholent Pot #767097
    koma
    Member

    Vegetarian cholent: Start with a base of carrot and onion mushed in the food proccessor with a bit of oil. Beans of many varieties, chick peas, lentils, wheat or barley. Potato sliced. Liberally spice ( my mix, whole coriander, whole pepper, cumin, ketzach (black “cumin”) fenugreek, bay leaf. In stainless pot on plata. Motse shabbos, wash pot. No stick no mess.

    Heard from adam gadol: “you cannot die of protein deficiency without concomitant general malnutrition.”

    in reply to: Memories of Bubby and Zaide #670585
    koma
    Member

    Bear, there are many of us. I am the ud muztal from my mothers side. Recently someone commented that I have such amazing kids. I told them that the zechus of those temimusdik people and their yisurim had to show up somewhere. I never knew that grandfather, he was niftar when my mother was 18, but we were told he worked on a farm in Conecticut for eight years to be able to bring my grandmother over to the US, ( they were from rural Poland,) and he was a yoshor in his community in Brownsville. It was a common fate for those who came before the war, to lose the next generation. Baruch hashem for grandchildren (some) and great grandchildren (yishtabach shmo)

    in reply to: Miscellaneous Plumbing Tips #683812
    koma
    Member

    I can only try:I think that is how all the grama jigs by the Institute for Science and Halacha work, with a random (within limits)delay. I could also be melamed zchus for those instututions based on grama. In a really big system, there is not an immediate delivery of waste to the tank, and there can also be variability, and there can be multiple flushes at once as well. I don’t know if the hanhola of these places ever entertained the question, and the size of those tanks was 1000-1500 gallons, with monster 4″ discharge twin pumps. In the modern home size, it depends on the length of the float switch tether. If set short, one flush will do it, even the 6l flush. If left long, it can be three flushes, but then the float is subject to hanging up and other problems. You also have to figure the slow failure of the check valve. Before it totally fails, it leaks, and raises the level of the tank. About your on/off, I would not rely on ploni almoni to check that the flush was during the off cycle. I have the same kasha with the RY’s system, about flushing when the pin is in, it would be hard to tell, and a hard habit to learn. Being in the business made me an astute observer of human nature.

    in reply to: Miscellaneous Plumbing Tips #683810
    koma
    Member

    Hello folks.I,Koma am the plumber in this chabura, and you are all guilty of “Mishtamesh b’tachsisei malchus. Tsk Tsk. About the basement bathrooms, a quality pump is worth its price, but still has limitations. They are designed to handle the waste, and just toilet paper. Nothing else should be flushed, and kitchen connections and laundry connections are risky because of the grease, and because of lint and the occasional lost sock. In a power outage, obviously it won’t pump, and the average installation can only store two or three flushes. They are also maintenance heavy.

    In terms of psak for use on Shabbos, I have seen, in a long career psak from every angle and flavor. My own Rosh paskined not to use them at all, I saw in a RY’s house a shabbos clock with one pin in one pin out (plumbing roulette), in a shul of an adam gadol, there were two canisters, one flowing into the other, and some large mikve sized industrial setups in large shuls and yeshivas where the size made psik reisha a non issue.

    The best solution I saw was someone holding by my RY. He lived in a basement and had no choice but to use the pump. He rigged a washing cup on a hinge, with a faucet dripping into it. When full, the cup tipped and spilled into the sink, pulling a string, which by means of small pulleys mounted on the ceiling and floor, pulled the flush handle to flush the toilet. The drip was timed to flush once an hour,and a counterbalance brought the cup back into the fill position. Mi K’amcha yisrael. Just not a conservationist, or EY solution.

    in reply to: Music – Musical Instruments #668405
    koma
    Member

    Was trained as youngster in violin. I left it after many years, and when I tried to go back, after many more years, I found my workman’s musculature made it uncomfortable. (and mid-life wrist tendonitis!). Not wanting to be musically mute, I am mostly self taught on alto sax. I have ideas of trading up (down?) to a soprano, flute or piccolo, and also looking for a nice wooden alto recorder. Nothing special about me, I just like to do old nigunim and some really special nusach pieces. Its much easier to get some regeh out of wind than out of strings.

    in reply to: Anyone Else Worried About Today’s Frum Music? #793146
    koma
    Member

    Orach Chaim Tav kuf samech. The gezerah against music zecher lchurban. Sometime, somwhere, the cat got out of the bag. Klezmerim were always there and allowed at weddings,and chazonnim in shuls, but particularly with the advent of recording, and particularly on the american scene, the portzei gader spawned an industry. One doesn’t fully understand his rebbe for forty years, but sometimes there is a bright spark that you can catch. My rebbe regarded musicians with deep derision. We assumed it was because the degree of work and practice required was a huge bitul torah. A few rare attendances at “concerts” gave me perspective. It seemed that at every performance, after the performers had the audience emotionally hooked, they would put down the instruments and open their mouths with all manner of krum philosophy. Thats were the most damage is done. That said, I have seen music be the glue that held children together between rebellion and mentchlich.

    in reply to: Coffee Room = Rabbi? #667948
    koma
    Member

    coffee room=bais medrash of de’os. And there is no bais medrash w/o a chiddush. And the anonymity can be covering for some professionals or even a rov, or someone over the age of etza and so gifted. It is also a safe haven in which, sometimes, an intellectual conversation can emerge, but takeh, some topics do not belong.

    in reply to: Flatbush vs. Out of Town #667400
    koma
    Member

    Keeping Entertained: You mention the impermanence of community. This is the makas medina of our times. Our zeidys and bubbies often were born, lived and died in a twenty mile radius. There was no confusion of minhag hamakom, or what was expected of a Jew, no dysfunctional wandering unless it was from outside hostility. I left a community in which I spent 32 years of my adult life, to go up to EY. Such a feeling of achva and connectedness is very difficult to reconstruct. The disconnect remains painful, and this is one of the yissurim with which EY is earned.

    in reply to: Dealing With A Bully #667308
    koma
    Member

    The man on the street concept is that a fat lip (metaphor) is very educational for these “troubled people.” I have had success in business broadcasting a distinct ‘dont mess with me’ message to those for whom it was necessary.

    in reply to: The Importance of Yiddish #666577
    koma
    Member

    Bear, I suggest you learn some humility fast. I have some other choice ideas from the novi why and what the Jews in Europe feel and felt, but you have excused yourself of serious conversation with your attack on Rav Kook.

    in reply to: Are Some Yeshivas Too Large to Function? #666254
    koma
    Member

    jphone nailed it. Fit the mold. The Yeshiva bizmaneinu produces a product, not individuals. The blame lies with oilam that is comfortable this way. What was Mir in Europe? The famous picture showed 50-ish people. One of my former neighbors, a Shanghai Mirer Ztl, told me there were a few missing from that “picture day” including himself. Also at fault is the plain fact that economically, it makes sense to run a larger institution with division of responsibilities. I was zoche once to be one of 30 or 40. I once heard a congregational Rov speak at some fundraiser, and he marveled out loud how “Rav so-and-so’s talmidim were all so different from each other.” True, but nobody liked us. About coming back to learn in places “not beneath their dignity” (mottel1), what could be if the returnees from EY could be sent to learn in large chaburos in the empty shuls across the country? The Kallas could the qvell ” my chosson is marbitz torah in a place where they are starving for it.” My son’s EY yeshiva is one that keeps its talmidim long term. The R”Y favored a request from some nidachim in a far off galus and sent ten lively bochrim for five months. They brought a chiyyus to a less fortunate community and it was not ‘beneath their dignity’. There is a strong theme in chazal against the machnis ve’eino motzee.

    in reply to: The Importance of Yiddish #666566
    koma
    Member

    Bear: We. the faithful in EY rely on the land vomiting out those which it can’t abide. All that remain, we are dan lkaf zchus that there is a purpose in them being here. As to your disdain for the spoken language, it too has been zocheh. I was taught by my rebbes to never ignore the Mussar of the Neviim, and though Novi is not a strong suit of the yeshivish velt, we are exposed to it through the Haftoros. One little book we read on YK is Yonah, who when asked ‘1) what is your profession, 2) from where have you come 3) What is your ‘medina’ and 4) of what nation are you, had one succinct and awsome answer: IVRI ANOCHI! AND I SERVE YOU KNOW WHO!

    in reply to: Jewish Socialists and Venahapoch Hu #665813
    koma
    Member

    I nominate 600kilobear, three comments ago as comment of the year.

    in reply to: Jeans #665111
    koma
    Member

    Ok, just for fun, someone up above asked what came before Borsalino. So here we go: The upper limit location for shechita on the trachea is a cartilage structure called shipui kova in halacha. Rashi comments that is called so because it looks like a hat! Now y’all go an pull out a Sichos Chulin and look at the pictures. If that was hat enough for Rashi, does it go with the jeans or does it go with hat and jacket to the Bais Medrash?

    in reply to: Question re: Ben Sorer U Moreh #664751
    koma
    Member

    PY. The fact is some people have no hope. That is the concept of a rosha merusha. Sifting through the medrash on Lech Lecha, I found a ma’mar that Avraham did not cede the children of Sdom to the king of Sdom but the adults he did. IOW, the children raised in such a society are recoverable, but the adults were not. Any kiruv professional will tell you it way easier to work with the children, and that some cases are “hopeless”.

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