Milhouse

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Viewing 36 posts - 901 through 936 (of 936 total)
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  • in reply to: Sefiras HaOmer Issues #1515488
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Neville, most Chabadniks are Ashkenazim, and the poskim accepted in Chabad were Ashkenazim, so they held like the Tosfos that women do say brochos. I don’t know what Sefardi Chabadniks do.

    in reply to: It should be legal to eat dog and cat meat. #1515490
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Why should scientists use cats and dogs over cows?

    Because they’re smaller.

    Edited -use em and /em tags for italics 🙂

    in reply to: Can a “Kosher” Restaurant Advertise it also is “Halal” #1506323
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Yehudayona, which way the animal faces is not me’akev.

    Avi K, you just admitted that on Chanukah Sefardim pasken one way and Ashkenazim the other. That undermines your entire position and demonstrates mine. If a Sefardi has a shayla of some sort about how to light on Chanukah, he can’t ask a rov who only knows the Ashkenazi psak on the matter, and vice versa. He must either ask a rov whose learning and semicha is from those who follow the same derech as him, or else from someone who knows both drochim, and is informed which one he’s from.

    in reply to: Can a “Kosher” Restaurant Advertise it also is “Halal” #1505955
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Avi K, the difference in psak between chassidim and Litvaks and Yekkes is very small compared to the difference between Ashkenazim, Sefardim, and Temanim. It’s more like the difference between Iraqis and Moroccans, which is significant but manageable. But ein hochi nami, on those topics where there is a difference one must ask ones shaylas of a rov who knows how to pasken according to one’s own community’s standards. And a rov who is asked by someone from another community should pasken, if he can, not by his own standards but by those of the asker’s community.

    in reply to: Can a “Kosher” Restaurant Advertise it also is “Halal” #1505039
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Avi K, what matters is not who he is but what kind of rov he is. An Ashkenazi person can become a Sefardi rav or vice versa, simply by learning the derech hapsak of that community. The Chacham Tzvi was a pure Ashkenazi by birth, but he learned in Sefardi yeshivos and got his smicha there, so he was a Sefardi chacham. But someone — whether A or S — who was educated only in A yeshivos, and knows only the A derech hapsak, cannot pasken shaylos for a S community. It’s not just Rama/Mechaber, it’s whole different sets of poskim, and different approaches to weighting them. Someone like Rav Ovadia or the Sdei Chemed knew both drochim, so they could pasken for each person according to his community.

    in reply to: Are you selling your pet for Pesach? #1504518
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Once again, I have never seen a brand of cat food, dry or wet, which is mostly chometz. Many/most brands I’ve seen do contain chometz (wheat, barley, or oats) but it’s a minor ingredient somewhere down the list. Therefore since cat food is not something normal people eat, and it’s not something one would absent-mindedly eat, it is PERMITTED to own it and derive benefit from it on Pesach. The fact that some exceptional people do eat it is not relevant; the criterion in halocho is שאינו מאכל בני אדם הבריאים.

    As far as walking a dog on Shabbos without an eruv one may hold the leash by the end. Whatever is between your hand and the dog is not called carrying, no matter how long it is; only what’s on the other side of your hand is carrying. Scooping itself is not a problem, since it’s removing a public nuisance. But carrying the empty bag in the first place is a proiblem, and putting it in a garbage can is also, because the can is a reshus hayochid. I don’t know how dog owners manage it.

    in reply to: Chabad Minhag #1503334
    Milhouse
    Participant

    This is not a Chabad minhag, it’s a general Ashkenazi Jewish minhag, which only Chabad and maybe a few other groups have kept. It’s an explicit Taz that this is the minhag, and the Taz was long before there were Chabadskers or any other Chassidim. If Neville Chamberlin thinks there’s an issur to spit in a shul, let him explain the Taz. In the Beis Hamikdosh there is such an issur, but not in a shul.

    If in a Chabad House you didn’t notice people spitting, look more closely. You will notice the actual Chabadskers spitting, perhaps very discreetly. There’s no need to expel a large and visible glob of whatever, if you swallow before you start Oleinu there won’t be a lot to spit, and you can do it without disgusting people.

    in reply to: Can a “Kosher” Restaurant Advertise it also is “Halal” #1502966
    Milhouse
    Participant

    OK, here’s the genuine info.
    Within halacha we have several different schools of psak, e.g. ashkenaz, sefarad, teman, which all recognise each other as perfectly valid, but nahara nahara upashteih, and one must follow ones own school’s psokim. So an ashkenazi rav who is asked a shayla by a sefardi person should either answer him according to the sefardi psak, or refer him to a sefardi rav. The same is true with the Moslems; they have at least four schools of psak, called madhab, which pasken differently on certain shaylos.

    Here the shayla is the brocho. Moslems hold that the brocho on shechita is me’akev, and without it the animal is haram. They also hold that there must be a separate brocho for each animal, and it’s not enough to say one brocho for a whole session in which many animals are shechted. Where they differ is bediavad, what to do if the shochet didn’t say a separate brocho on each animal.

    So when it comes to Jewish shechitah, lechol hade’os the first animal shechted in a session is halal, because the shochet said a brocho on the shechita, and all imams agree that this makes it halal. The problem is the rest of the animals shechted in that session. The Hanafi psak is that even bediavad the brocho is me’akev, and so the rest of the animals would be haram, and therefore one can’t eat kosher meat without ensuring that one gets from the first animal (“tanur rishon”, so to speak). all the other madhabs pasken that bediavad it’s OK, and all kosher meat is halal.

    Even some Hanafi imams permit kosher meat, because they have a psak that if the shochet meant to say the brocho and simply forgot, then it’s as if he said it. So some Hanafi imams rule that since our shochtim do have kavonoh on the brocho the whole time, and are not mesiach daas, and the only reason they don’t repeat the brocho out loud is because we hold that it would be a brocho levatoloh, therefore it’s as if they said it on each animal.

    in reply to: Are you selling your pet for Pesach? #1501933
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Yes, it makes sense, if your pet’s food is mamash chometz. You give or sell the pet *and* the food to a goy, and now you are doing him a favor, feeding his food to his animal. Since the food is presumably not anything you would ever dream of popping into your mouth, no matter how absent-minded you are, it’s not a problem to store it on your property and use it in this way.

    But if the food is not mamesh chometz but only a mixture of chometz, i.e. if you look at the ingredients you find that wheat is down the list, and therefore is less than 50% of the total, then you don’t need to go through any of this. You can keep the animal and the food, and feed it as normal. As far as I can tell, this includes ALL BRANDS OF DRY CAT FOOD. I have never seen a brand of dry cat food where grain is a majority of the mixture. Even if there is any grain it’s way down the ingredient list. So there’s no shayla, it’s completely muttar to possess and use it. Of course it’s forbidden to eat it, not only on Pesach but all year, but you would never do that.

    in reply to: Whistling #1496281
    Milhouse
    Participant

    “Since when do we pasken according to kabbala?”

    Since the kaboloh was revealed. Kaboloh is an integral part of Torah sheb’al peh, and denying it is kefirah. And yes, the Ari Zal, whom klal yisroel has accepted as a definitive posek whose torah came directly from Eliyohu Haovi, paskened that interleaving the fingers is forbidden.

    in reply to: Neo-Nazis Running For Congress #1495917
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Jones only won the primary because nobody else bothered running for a district that is guaranteed to go Democrat anyway. If there had been *any* other candidate Jones would have lost. So the only way to stop something like this, if you care to, is to make sure someone is running in every district, even if it’s completely futile. Do you really think it’s worthwhile?

    The main point is that the GOP has no control over this, and is not responsible for him in any way. He is not a Republican. Once nominations closed there was nothing the GOP could have done to take him off the ballot.

    in reply to: Whistling #1495918
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Christians do NOT pray with their fingers interleaved. They put their hands flat against each other.

    Interleaving the fingers is forbidden al pi kabolah, because the five fingers on the right represent the five chasodim and the ones on the left represent the five gevuros, and they must not be mixed. This is brought in many sifrei kaboloh, including the Ari Zal.

    There is no issur on whistling, even al pi kabolah, but it’s traditionally regarded as goyishe behavior. It’s a cultural thing, not a halochic or kabolic thing; a sheigetz whistles, so a yid doesn’t.

    in reply to: Eating Gebroks on Pesach #1491919
    Milhouse
    Participant

    lesschumra, if the kitniyos are less than half of the ingredients in the final product, and it has a reliable hechsher that it has no chometz, you <i>can</i> eat it. Kitniyos is botel berov. You can’t make such a product lechatchila, or give your hechsher to it, but once it’s been made and is botel you can eat it gezunterheit.

    The same applies if you’re eating in a Sefardi house on Pesach. If they serve a dish of rice and meat cooked together, you can’t eat the rice but you can eat the meat. And you can certainly eat from their keilim without any qualms.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1491053
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Sorry, Joseph, you’re wrong on both counts.

    The VP together with a majority of the cabinet can vote to remove the president, either temporarily or permanently, and if he doesn’t object that’s it. If he objects, then it goes to Congress and if 2/3 of each house agree with the removal it stays in place, otherwise the president comes back.

    And no, there is no automatic replacement of a cabinet member. The position remains vacant until the president nominates someone else, and the senate confirms that person. An acting secretary is not a cabinet member and cannot vote on removing the president.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1490791
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Sure, so they can seize power for 21 days. And what happens then? They’ve got an enraged president, who will immediately fire the cabinet members who conspired against him, and exile the vice president from the White House. What will you have achieved?

    No, to remove the president via the 25th amendment you need two thirds of each house. And if you have that, why bother using this cumbersome procedure, when you can impeach and remove him within a week, tops; and you can do that <i>without</i> the VP or any cabinet members, and with only a simple majority of the House rather than 2/3.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1489673
    Milhouse
    Participant

    chiefshmerel, I don’t get my news from Fox, but you are so taken in by the lies of the major outlets that you’re not even aware of the correct spelling of “Fox”. Fox is from from perfect, but it is the network that at least aspires to tell the truth, while your “news” sources are fully functioning arms of the Democratic Party, and barely bother hiding it. Every single one of the claims you made is a blatant lie, and you transgress the posuk מדבר שקר תרחק.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1489605
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Avi K, all talk of removing the president through the 25th amendment is silly. The 25th amendment requires all the same people who are needed to remove him by impeachment, *plus* a whole lot more.

    To remove a president by impeachment you need:
    1. A simple majority of the House
    2. Two thirds of the senate.

    To remove a president by the 25th amendment over his objections, you need:
    1. The vice president and the majority of the cabinet
    2. Two thirds of the House
    2. Two thirds of the senate.

    The 25th amendment is designed to remove a president who does not object but is incapable of resigning, or to remove a much-loved and respected president who unfortunately doesn’t understand the need to go, but without embarrassing him by accusing him of wrongdoing.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1489593
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Joseph, no, she does not have that right. She <i>must</i> act on the Privy Council’s advice regardless of how much she disagrees with it. Her opinion is irrelevant; she doesn’t even get a vote on the matter.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1489552
    Milhouse
    Participant

    No, she doesn’t. The decision whether to assent to legislation is made not by the Queen but by the active members of the Privy Council, which is to say the Cabinet. She has no say in the matter.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1489054
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Laskem, the Israeli president is not permanent. He serves a single 7-year term and is then done. He can’t be reelected, and he can’t return to politics for five years (if I recall correctly).

    CTLawyer, not only is the normal profit from business conducted at arm’s length, in the open market, not an emolument, the clause doesn’t apply to the president anyway. The presidency is not an office under the United States, so the president is entitled to receive outright gifts from foreign princes, if he likes . George Washington had absolutely no qualms about doing so, made no attempt to hide it, and the Congress made no protest or attempt to stop him, or even to give him preemptive permission. That proves they saw no violation either.

    in reply to: Should Donald Trump be Crowned King of the United States? #1489055
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Anyway, there’s no shortage. From refusing to implement Russian sanctions, to signing executive orders against religious liberty, to accepting money from foreign governments by making foreign dignitaries stay in Trump Hotel rather than Blair House, to “very fine people”, to the comments against Haiti, to obstruction of justice, to Flynn’s violation of the Logan Act, to firing Comey once he was about to potentially be exposed,to refusing to divest from his businesses, to undermining freedom of the press, and much more which is too much to list right now.

    Every single item on this list is a lie.

    in reply to: Cholov Yisroel VS Cholov Stam #1466579
    Milhouse
    Participant

    There’s a lot of nonsense written about Reb Moshe’s shita, by people who’ve never cracked a sefer in their lives, and wouldn’t know how to read a teshuvah. Here are the facts:

    1. In the machlokes whether Cholov Yisroel is a dovor shebeminyan, i.e. a decree by Chazal that can never be changed, or merely a takono that applied only when there is a real concern for treife milk in the supply, Reb Moshe absolutely and unequivocally sided with the Chasam Sofer, that it is a dovor shebeminyan, and therefore there is no heter to drink milk that is bought, e.g., from a goyishe farm.

    2. Having said that, Reb Moshe then goes on to pasken that all commercial milk is cholov yisroel. He is emphatic that this psak is not merely a heter bish’as had’chak, but is 100% his opinion of what the halacha really is. To understand why he holds this you must learn all the teshuvos in Igros Moshe on the topic, not just the short ones. But those who dispute that he held this are simply liars. Stupid liars, because they rely on people not looking inside at the teshuvos.

    3. Having said that, and having made it as plain as he could, Reb Moshe then says that it’s a hidur not to rely on his heter. That a baal nefesh should not rely on it, that he himself doesn’t rely on it, and that Jewish schools, which exist for the sole purpose of educatig Jewish children to be mehader bemitzvos, must not rely on his heter. He never says why one should not rely on it, since he repeatedly insists it is the true halacha. Nonetheless, this is what he says.

    4. The fact is that although he himself did not drink commercial milk he did allow it in his home, and his Rebbetzin and children did drink it, even though regular cholov yisroel (i.e. not just according to his shita) was available in NYC.

    in reply to: Names that are used for both boys and girls #1444055
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Hendel.

    in reply to: Davening from phone in shul #1195475
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Oy vey. First, there is no such things as “da’as yehudi”. “Jewish knowledge”?! “<i>Das</i> yehudis” is the <i>rule</i> of a Yehudis, i.e. the established way that a Yehudis behaves. As in “vedoseihem shonos mikol om, ve’es dosei hamelech einom osim”. But none of this has to do with “Jewish dress”, or that there is an inyan in preserving it and not dressing like the surrounding culture.

    Kisuy harosh for men is discussed in terms of “chukos hagoy”, since the goyim have a religious commandment to go bareheaded in church, and from this comes their insistence that one go bareheaded indoors. (Going bareheaded outdoors was unheard of, both by goyim and yidden, until about 50 years ago, so it just wasn’t an issue; the issue was only indoors.)

    The medrash you quoted about names, language, and dress, says that this was their only zechus.

    in reply to: Chief Rabbi #916440
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Go look up this Tosfos that allegedly says Xianity is not AZ; you will find that it doesn’t quite say that. At most it’s one option given, and not the final one. The basic position of the Baalei Hatosfos is that it is AZ, but that for one reason or another we’re allowed to do business with them, and to derive benefit from buying and selling their wines, despite this fact.

    All this discussion though is beside the point: rather than explain why going to churches is really muttar, etc., let’s accept what seems pretty clear, that it is assur. <i>However</i> there is a whole area of halacha for shtadlanim, which has very generous heterim. Nor is this some modern mishguas; it goes back all the way to Nechemiah, who was called Hatirshoso because he received a heter to drink goyishe wine! Have you heard of such a thing?! Imagine anyone today daring to drink goyishe wine becuase he’s a shtadlan! And yet Nechemiah did so, and he did it with the permission of the chachomim of his day. Because shtadlonus has its own gedorim and one can’t learn from that to other things.

    in reply to: Davening from phone in shul #1195473
    Milhouse
    Participant

    The Jews in Mitzrayim had no Torah, so their only zechus was that they stuck to their identity in external matters such as names, clothes, and language. Where do you see that post-mattan-torah these things are still important?

    in reply to: Davening from phone in shul #1195472
    Milhouse
    Participant

    rebdoniel, the Romms were not the most traditional of Jews, but they were certainly not Christians!

    in reply to: When & why did we start giving children more than one name? #916326
    Milhouse
    Participant

    yytz, since when did the Tur have two names?

    in reply to: When & why did we start giving children more than one name? #916325
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Actually the pasuk says that Hashem, who is Pele Yo’etz, Kel Gibor, Avi Ad, said to call the baby Sar Shalom. So even if you count Sar Shalom as two names, that’s all he had.

    in reply to: Nittel #1121671
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Sam2, next you’ll be complaining about Tisha B’ov and Yom Kippur. The whole point is that you don’t want to be bringing down a neshomoh when ???? ????

    in reply to: Matza Ashira cookies #866274
    Milhouse
    Participant

    So who says the halocho is like the Ritvo?

    And we are not obligated to accept a chidush of achronim when it is neged hachush.

    in reply to: Matza Ashira cookies #866272
    Milhouse
    Participant

    hello99, see the very next siman, 463, where it’s clear that even sea salt is OK if it’s only the small amount that one would put in cookies.

    Bichlal, the distinction between sea salt and rock salt doesn’t make sense; it’s exactly the same substance. All salt is originally sea salt, it’s just that some of it dried up hundreds or thousands of years ago when the sea receded and the area became land. It’s all NaCl, and has exactly the same effect. And this distinction is not something we received from Chazal; it seems (from the little I’ve seen) to be the Darkei Moshe’s own chidush, so we are not obliged to accept it if it’s neged hachush.

    in reply to: Matza Ashira cookies #866264
    Milhouse
    Participant

    What are you talking about? Salt is like water?! Since when? And which poskim exactly hold that baking powder or soda can make a difference? Please list them.

    in reply to: Rav Ovadia Relates to Soldier�s Needs #619514
    Milhouse
    Participant

    The rule is “i ato metzuveh al shevisas kelim”. You have to keep shabbos, your stove and your candles and your air conditioner and your washing machine do not.

    in reply to: Rav Ovadia Relates to Soldier�s Needs #619513
    Milhouse
    Participant

    Willi, you put a cholent on just before Shabbos, to cook on Shabbos. Why shouldn’t you do the same with a washing machine or a dryer (assuming it’s not so noisy that people passing by on the street will think you’re breaking shabbos)?

    in reply to: Rav Ovadia Relates to Soldier�s Needs #619509
    Milhouse
    Participant

    What kind of “hashmo’as kol” is there with a washing machine? They’re not that loud! Hashmo’as kol is about a mill or something equally noisy, where any passerby in the street can hear it going, and will think that you’re doing melocho on Shabbos. (And even that is allowed if there are no Jews within a techum shabbos, who might walk by.)

    But it should be emphasized that you cannot remove the laundry from the washing machine on Shabbos, to dry it. Once the machine turns itself off you have to leave the clothes there a whole shabbos, and I don’t think that’s such a great idea for the clothes. Hanging the clothes to dry is ossur mishum mar’is ho’ayin (this is the classic case of “afilu bechadrei chadorim ossur”).

Viewing 36 posts - 901 through 936 (of 936 total)