Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
DY: Wolf makes a good point. There is no Chelek in Olam Haba, but Mistama he gets S’char for the Tzedaka.
I won’t claim to know the Cheshbonos of the RBSO, but if you would take the fact that an Apikores is Dino K’goy to its logical conclusion, then maybe he can only get S’char like a Goy, in which case he would (according to Pashut P’shat and Tosfos; though other Rishonim do argue) only get S’char if he did it Lishmah and not to make any money off it.
DY: Doesn’t Popa say he has Smicha?
WIY: I don’t know who Rabbi Becher is but I will assume he is a Talmid Chacham. The Poskim (YD 179 I think) say that any practice that started with an Avodah Zarah remains Assur. Even if the Makor is Persian or Alexandrian as Wikipedia states, it is still an Assur practice because it stems from religious reasons (even if the origin wasn’t religious itself the widespread practice-from where kneeling while proposing comes today-is indeed a church practice). And even aside from that, the Gra holds that anything done Stam by non-Jews gains a D’oraisa-level Issur of Chukas Akum if there’s no obvious logical reason for it. (The Minhag in America doesn’t seem to be to be Machmir like this Gra, though, as the major Nafka Mina is ties and most Frum people in America wear ties. I may have quoted here earlier a second reason that a tie is meant to represent a cross. Apparently, that is a myth with no historical basis.)
HaLeiVi: Are you saying you’re R’ Eliezer Silver? Do you bentch after having cookies at Kiddush Shabbos morning?
I believe it’s brought down in the Ben Ish Chai. It’s a Kabbalistic issue.
(A Rav I know claims it’s because by Sephardi Hagbah, someone will point out directly where they are going to read from. But it’s not Mashma that that’s the reason from the Ben Ish Chai.)
I just Googled the story. Apparently the person making money to “keep” Shabbos is an Apikores. So he probably still gets a slightly smaller Onesh, but his Chelek in Olam Haba is still 0.
Torah: In Hadar, women count for a Minyan.
I don’t know about a Mitzvah (probably does count; don’t see why not), but not being M’challel Shabbos is still a huge gain. Worth more than all the money in the world.
Aaron Chaim: Are you referring to the “two-hole” Shittah of the Ba’al HaIttur, which is how Chabad Taleisim are made? That’s not about being tucked in; it’s about being over the K’naf.
PBA: I’m not saying it is. But when you lump together everyone who ever goes to YCT you end up a lot, lot closer to that line.
Torah: I don’t think anyone who knows what they are ever had a Hava Amina to think that Hadar is anywhere close to Frum.
PBA: The line between making fun of Ovrei Aveirah and being Mevazeh someone who doesn’t deserve it is thin. Tread carefully.
DY: There’s only one Frum person on earth. Everyone to my left is an Apikorus and to my right is an extremist.
HaLeiVi: The Midrash (Tanchuma B’reishis, maybe) says that David was supposed to be a stillborn but Adam HaRishon gave up 70 of his 1000 years to David. That’s why he only lived 930.
Aaron Chaim: I think you’re confusing this issue with another one, namely that the Tzitzis have to fall over the corner of the Begged and not the front.
pixelate: I’m not sure what you’re saying, but the M”A says, “Lamah Neivosh B’mitzvos Hashem” by tucking in your Tzitzis.
WIY: It’s actually funny, some of them were disappointed (and confused) that we didn’t have the same type of farbrengens that their Chabad Rabbi had. But we did have times where we would get together and learn things of a more… mystical nature. I was far more Halachically oriented than their first Rabbi though, that’s for sure. Anyway, it’s a great story for me but I don’t really tell it. To this day it terrifies me that maybe it’s my fault that some of them who didn’t finish becoming Frum might have actually become Frum if I had done things differently. Trust me, it’s not fun being a Rebbe.
WIY: Long story short, there were a group of people becoming Ba’alei T’shuvah through a Chabad guy. Then the guy couldn’t deal with them anymore (I don’t need to reference the personal details of their life), but one of the basic things they “knew” about Judaism was that you need a Rebbe to guide you through life. So, through a ridiculous amount of what I can’t call anything other than Hashgacha, I became their “Rebbe” for a little while until they (one by one) found someone more suitable.
I would say I see what you did there, but I’m two days behind.
PBA: I was a Rebbe for a while. That was an interesting time.
Was Popa a guest at VM’s house?
rd: It’s a B’feirush Gemara in Peshachim that Da’atan Kalos is in no way an insult.
It’s a B’feirush Gemara. He’s Chayav for the chair. He’s Pattur for the bench unless he was ridiculously overweight and the bench didn’t have so many others.
Froggie (Zees?):
There is a massive middle ground between being a male bigot and being the direct word of Hashem. Sociological statements (especially an economic one) can come from that middle ground, without any bigotry involved.
HaKatan: While there is nothing at all okay for anyone to be involved in such a relationship, you are being unfair. There are many children raised by same-gender parents who have perfectly normal, okay lives. And being in a community that is more accepting increases the likelihood that they grow up normally.
Now, we cannot be accepting of Assur relationships for the good of the children who are raised by them. It is indeed a challenge to not be accepting at all of anyone who engages in these practices while at the same time being completely accepting of their children, who have done nothing wrong.
By the way, PBA, I’m pretty sure the Gemara itself (or Rashi) explains P’shat as anon1m0us just said. So, I think this is a case where the Gemara itself tells us it is a sociological statement.
Come on PBA, that’s a little unfair. There are certainly things in the Gemara that are said because they went with assumptions based on their society. The Gemara is still the embodiment of Torah Sheba’al Peh. But everyone agrees that some things int he Gemara were not recordings of Torah Sheba’al Peh but rather recordings of Stam Chachmah also (the obvious example is Refuos). I’m not going to comment on any particular case, but I strongly protest your assertion that there is no point to the Gemara if the Gemara took some sociological assumptions from their society. It would still be our Mesorah and our Torah Sheba’al Peh.
Redleg: The fact that Protestants aren’t polytheists is a myth. Unitarians don’t believe in the trinity. According to almost everyone (basically except the Rema), even Protestants are Ovdei Avodah Zarah.
Lost: The modern definition of “strong atheist” probably only qualifies as agnosticism in the dictionary. It’s still Apikorsus.
The Maskana of most Poskim seems to be that chatting is without a doubt Assur while sending the email isn’t because you’re not directly causing anything additional (i.e. they have to be checking their email to begin with anyway). This would then become Assur if the person has a smart phone which immediately alerts them to an incoming email.
Many Poskim are Machmir on both, though, whether M’ikar Hadin or as a practical reality.
R’ Schachter has a massive Chumra that there is an Issur (he might even hold D’oraisa) of having your Ma’aseh have a Totza’ah come from it on Shabbos. Thus, chatting with an open chat window in Israel (or an open email inbox) is an Issur on yourself, not just a Lifnei Iveir-type Issur.
The Rambam held that real Kishuf never existed.
The Gra said what Sanity claimed.
Karagnostic: Try Rambam Melachim… 1:6 maybe? Or maybe it’s 6:6? But it’s in there.
mobico: They did not do Shekalim (or Kinnim and Middos) in the first few Machzorim, so that theory falls through. The simple answer is that around 6-7 Machzorim ago we switched to include everything printed with the Bavli.
Shekalim was printed with the Bavli to just include the entire Seder.
HaLeiVi: Are you sure? I thought the Gemara in Chagigah (second Perek, if I recall correctly) does. It talks about one Amora Davening to forget all his learning in one Shas so he could relearn the other.
Binyamin: Based on your name, I’m guessing he did Shkalim as well.
Bookworm: Getting down on 2 knees as a form of worship is a separate Issur.
Charliehall: Who was the polytheist? Maybe they’re Meikil like the Rama’s reading of Tosfos, even if it does seem incredibly Dochak.
The Aramaic of the Yerushalmi is more difficult because we are used to the Shakla V’tarya of the Bavli, which the Savoraim and early Geonim went over meticulously to establish a Girsa and rules of Shakla V’tarya to ease learning. No such thing happened to the Yerushalmi. Therefore there is a much less uniform Shakla V’tarya and it’s much more difficult to understand.
(The same is true of parts of T’murah, M’ilah, and to a lesser extent Nazir.)
WIY: Maybe show them the Wikipedia article on genuflection then ask if they still think it’s not a problem? You don’t need to find a Rov who knows of the Goyish concept. If you tell a Rov about the concept (and he believes you) then he should be able to decide whether it falls under Chukas Akum or no.
Writersoul: Getting on one knee as a means of supplication (and you are asking someone to marry you) without a doubt in my mind constitutes an Assur form of genuflection.
Wolf: I think I once made that same claim (that a proposal isn’t Kiddushin because it’s D’varim Sheb’leiv Uv’leiv Kol Adam). In fact, I think I made it in the CR. I’ll have to think about this more. It could be that you are right.
Chazal use names of constellations. We just can’t because it’s the Greek (Latin?) word instead of Hebrew? That’s silly. Especially because I’m guessing the Yated article was referring to the word “Sartan” anyway.
And saying we don’t do horoscopes is silly. Mazalos play a key role in a lot of Jewish tradition, even if they have fallen out of disuse. Chazal thought they were important.
Besides which, like I said, cancer is just the Greek word for “crab”. Or should we start calling them “yenne crustaceans”?
Just Smile: That’s not what I said. What I said was it could be Kiddushin in certain circumstances, even if you’re not thinking of being M’kadeish with it. Proposals almost certainly count as those situations. Learn Even HaEzer Siman 26. It’s fairly clear that giving an engagement ring with Eidim present is Kiddushin.
WIY: Rare as it is, Joseph happens to be right in this case.
There are a few Kosher movies out there. Why not stick to those? (The Brave Little Toaster was an excellent, excellent movie, for example.)
LAB: Not in regards to this person, but, in general, what’s the line?
frumnotyeshivish: The Gemara quotes a Machlokes and says which way HKBH Paskens. The Rambam follows his rules of P’sak in Machlokos Tannaim and Paskens against HKBH anyway.
You would need to give more context, but that sounds like a very strange statement.
Let me rephrase: Getting on one knee to propose is an Issur D’oraisa of Chukas Akum.
Just smile: What you say is not entirely accurate. If there are two male friends present when you propose then that probably does constitute Kiddushin, even if you don’t have explicit Da’as “L’sheim Kiddushin”. Look up EH 26 (maybe 27?).
It’s really quite a problem.
Don’t be embarrassed in the slightest. Honestly answer that it helps your Davening. It’s the same reason (well, one of them) I often use an Artscroll Gemara, even though I very rarely uses the English side.
Getting on one knee is an Issur D’oraisa of Chukas Akum.
Unless I’m mistaken, many Yemenites still signed the Samech Tet throughout history.
rd: Meh. I compared it to adultery because that was the first thing that came to mind. I wasn’t making a direct comparison. I’m sorry you took it that way.
But, since according to most of the Gedolim of the last generation, both are Yeihareg V’al Ya’avor, the comparison might not be so asinine. And no one you mention, respectable though some might be, holds even close to a candle to any of the Rabbonim on the list signed against interfaith dialogue. Even the main leaders of “Modern Orthodoxy” (R’ Schachter, R’ Willig, the Rav, R’ Aviner, R’ Melamed, R’ Rimon, and more) are very against interfaith dialogue of any sort.