Redleg

Sorry, KB613, brown eyes and dark complexion are dominant traits.

To summarize, a couple’s relationship with each other isn’t based on their relationship with the Eibishter. Rather a couple’s relationship with the Eibishter is modeled after their relationship with each other.

Here’s another question: The mesorah is that, for all except the most irredeemable reshaim, the neshama is only Gehinnom for 11 months. Is there duration in Gehinnom? Can an eternal neshama experience the passage of time. For that matter, is there time in Gehinnom?

The profession with the highest starting salaries is Petroleum Engineering. In fact, all of the engineering disciplines are doing well. Of course, taking an engineering degree requires some aptitude and means real work in school. It also requires and attitude adjustment among unzerer who seem to think that technical knowledge and interest is “Goyish”.

I’ve been a professional engineer for 43 years and have been involved in power projects all over the U.S. and overseas. Besides making a decent living, engineers have the additional psychic income of passing a place like Indian Point or Kennedy airport with the feeling of “I built that!”

Froggie, can you play and sing?

I’m sorry, what’s the big deal about getting retested? Do they charge a lot for retest?

Nothing is impossible to the person who doesn’t have to do it himself.

Outsider, You are correct in stating that a buffalo is a different animal, but the fact is that American Bison are commonly called buffalo even though they technically aren’t. Beefalo is a domestic cattle/Bison hybrid

Re dogs. All domestic dogs, coyotes, dingos are, in fact, genetically wolves.

I have raised this issue with our local Rav. Is conventional taxonomy and halachic taxonomy the same? If animals don’t resemble one another are the different minim, even though they are the same species according to conventional taxonomy? Are juvenile forms a different min than adult forms? As stated above, a great dane and a dachshund are taxonomically identical, are the different minim al pi halacha?

I know some people like that. The don’t like asking for help and don’t like when people offer to help and I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the reasons is they feel that outside help requires reciprocation and they sort of resent that.

Someone once told me that one of the most charitable things on can do is to let others be charitable to you.

SecFrum, Don’t know about that. domestic dogs, no matter what their size and shape, are still dogs and have all of the features, however modified, of the ancestral form, the wolf. If you could come up with a dog that’s, say, a strict herbivore with the dentition and digestive tract to match, you might have something

I don’t see how Rabbi Brody’s combat experience has any bearing on how depression should be treated. As a former combat soldier myself, I can attest that faith is key, and not only faith in the Divine. One needs faith in one’s comrades and in one’s own skills. I guess I was a pretty good soldier but neither I nor anyone else should have any faith in my ability to treat clinical disease.

SF, Ok, How did we get the Cavendish banana? I know that there has been or is an effort being made to breed back the domestic cow to it’s ancestral form, the Aurochs. But an Aurochs is still a ruminant. How would one go about doing what you propose? How many rungs on the evolutionary ladder do you have to go back to get a critter that has cloven hooves but isn’t a ruminant?

the psak from Outsider’s Rav illustrates a major difficulty in paskening practical halachah. The Rav is undoubtedly correct that it is assur to crossbreed animals. The question is, what constitutes crossbreeding. Everyone agrees that breeding a jack donkey on a horse mare, thereby producing a mule, is assur. What about breeding a Limosin bull on a Holstein cow? Limosin cattle are hardy and disease resistant so their heritable traits are desirable. Here’s a case where the Rav really needs some hands-on (or hands-in) experience.

Secular, what you imagine cannot be done. The animal that has cloven hooves but does not ruminate is the pig. It is impossible to crossbreed any ruminant with a pig nor is it possible to crossbreed two ruminates and end up with a non-ruminant. On second thought, It might be possible with modern genetic engineering and recombinant DNA, but not through the normal, barnyard variety of gentech.

LR, As one who has quoted the RAMBAM vis a vis having parnassah, I agree that in addition to a job, a chasan should also have a house or, at least an apartment, before he gets married. One must also remember that the likelihood of a bachelor’s house or apartment being fit for human habitation is rather low, so someone will need to muck it out before the kallah moves in.

There are two kinds of domestic cattle. cattle without shoulder humps like European cattle and humped cattle like the Zebu and other Indian and eastern breeds. both varieties are inter-fertile. Zebus and zebu crossbreeds relatively resistant to heat and so are more commonly raised in the southern U.S. and South America. Humped cattle are shown in Egyptian friezes and were undoubtedly known in ancient Israel and Bavel. When Abaye and Rava had a barbecue, the steaks came from a Zebu or related variety..

Bison, on the other hand, were never farmed until recently and while kosher, may very well be chayos. Other kosher wild animals that are currently farmed are deer, American Elk and Eland (a kind of big antelope) in South Africa.

Interestingly, besides the American bison that we all know, there is a European variety, called Wissent, that is found in eastern Poland and Belarus. The RAMAH must have been familiar with it.

WIY, I was a man last week, I think. At my age, my memory isn’t so good. Seriously, if you’re a man, you know from your own experience that what you say isn’t so. Certainly there are menuvalim in the world, but you’re not one of them. You know what feelings you have and you know how to control them. Why do you suppose the rest of us aren’t the same as you are?

P.S. I apologize for the harsh tone of my last response to you. The above is what I should have said.

Leeb W, I think that your analysis is correct except that you have the “some people” and “most people” reversed. Most folks go to casinos for entertainment and excitement and don’t gamble more than they can afford to lose. Some people can’t control themselves and get into trouble.

From a halachic perspective, my opinion is (and i’m sure some of you will be fighting to be the first to disagree with me) that recreational casino goers are not considered mesaseik bekuvya and are not pasul l’eidus.

The difference between eating turkey and eating bison (beefalo) is that beheimos and chayos have explicit simanim clearly enunciated in the Torah. The Torah does not specify simanim of kosher ofos. the simanim for birds are from divrei sofrim. A better question would be is a bison/beefalo a beheima or a chayah requiring kisui.

I have seen bison meat with chashuva hechseirim. Bison is very lean and one must be careful not to overcook it. An overcooked bison burger very closely resembles a hockey puck both in appearance and texture.

TorahMom, I think you are confusing means and ends. What you, what all of us, want is zaarah chaya v’kayama. Zaarah d’lo yifsok v’lo yivsul mi pisgamei Oraisah. I think you would have a better chance of obtaining that result if you were to emulate Needs Seminary Help’s mom.

Sanity, that only applies to animals.

If anything, reading the posts and comments here has made me hold more firmly to the opinions I had to start out with. My hope and intent is to change the opinions of the others in the CR.

Keepitcomming, you correctly differentiate between “wants” and “needs”. That’s Management 101. But you left out one very important, if not the most important, “need”. Chemistry. You’re not hiring an employee, you’re looking for your helpmeet, your ezer kenegdo, your life companion, the father of your children. “Emotionally healthy, good midos”, etc. are important but don’t leave out mutual attraction. Most married folks have occasions when they disappoint their spouse. Look at me. I’m no prize. I’m not always what my wife wishes I were (although I make an effort) and, truth be told, my wife has been known, on rare occasions, to disappoint me, but we’ve been married for 43 years and have, thank G-d, beautiful frum children and grandchildren and I couldn’t imagine not being married to her nor she to me. Whatever your “wants” and “needs” are, if you can find a shidduch like I did, you’ll be doing fine.