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WIY: You missed his point. He was saying you can make up Simanim and stuff because that’s what we’ve done throughout history. It’s not brought down in the Gemara or the most major of Rishonim but is still the centerpiece of the modern Leil Rosh Hashanah Seduah.
HaKatan: That explanation doesn’t help. Asking the Malachim anything is Apikorsus according to the Rambam.
I believe the current atmosphere seems to be, “Oh, you’re a Frum Jewish single boy aged X-Y? I know a Frum single Jewish girl in that same age group. You should date!”
Charlie: No. What is intellectually dishonest is to use Rabbi Shapiro’s book to be Mattir Apikorsus across the board. What Farber said is Apikorsus L’chulei Alma. That is true regardless of whether or not debate also exists about other Ikkarim according to the Rambam. He ran himself out of Orthodoxy when he said that the Torah wasn’t Min Hashamayim.
Ben Levi: And the Gemara brings down Refuos that would be called “superstitious” nowadays. What’s your point?
Unique: Gemara Sotah 21a (around there); Rambam Hilchos Talmud Torah 1:13, Shulchan Aruch YD 246 (I think).
Nice post WIY. I like it.
Twi He’aros. The Gemara in Chagigah is misquoted. That’s not what it actually says.
Also, it took the Shittas Hageonim on the beginning of Machlokes as a Davar Pashut and did not mention the Rambam’s Shittah. But I guess that’s okay since the Geonim’s Shittah seems to be the accepted one in the Yeshivish world nowadays.
WIY: My point exactly. You know that because you can see it in the Gemara. She doesn’t because she can’t.
Ben Levi: That is a gross misrepresentation of the Rambam’s opinon. He says that it’s Assur to follow Chazal in medicine because they only knew what was known at their time and that following such medicine is actually Assur because it’s Sakanas Nefashos.
charlie: See, this is something I really don’t like that’s been done with Rabbi Shapiro’s book. His point wasn’t to say that since not everyone held by the Rambam forever that we can just throw out the concept of Ikkarei Emunah. His point was just that the rules aren’t as set-in-stone as many want to say nowadays. The fact is, what Farber said is Apikorsus according to everyone, ever. That is undeniable. Apikorsus does exist. And while Rabbi Shapiro might be right that the rules aren’t has clear as some might be, the fact is that that doesn’t give us license to ignore all Apikorsus.
MDG: I’ve been saying that exact same thing for years. “Hashkafa” is just an excuse to say “I’m better than you”. (I think I’ve posted that here before.)
WIY: But how do you know they transferred the Mesorah? How do you know they dedicated their lives to Torah? There is definitely something to be said for not being able to properly appreciate something without some firsthand knowledge. She wants to appreciate Chazal but currently has no way to because she can’t relate to them in the slightest. So she wants to find a way to relate to them so she can appreciate them. I don’t see anything problematic in that statement.
LevAryehBoy: The Drisha on the Tur is M’dayek the Lashon of M’lamed.
Also, the Rambam in no way says that everything written in the Gemara is a Halachah L’Moshe MiSinai. The Rambam holds about as far away as you can from that Shittah.
Ben: R’ Ovadia has a T’shuvah where he quotes that a bald woman would have to cover her head because the top of a woman’s head constitutes a usually-covered area (i.e. with hair).
It’s on a related issue (though not this one directly), but see T’shuvas HaRashba 1:10 (maybe it’s 1:9).
Oh Shreck: I thought he meant letting the Waqf control Har Habayis for dozens of years and allowing them to attempt to remove any shred of evidence that Jews were ever there.
Oh Shreck: I would highly doubt that the Rambam said something like that as the Rambam says that that level of direct Hashgachah Pratis is reserved for only the highest of Tzadikim.
Now, there are many other legitimate opinions who hold of an individual Hashgachah Pratis for all Jews, but it certainly wasn’t the Rambam.
truthsharer: You mean the Arab folk talk that somehow was absorbed into Yiddish lore? Yeah, there’s a quirk of history for you.
Avi K: I strongly disagree, honestly. Forget this case for a minute. What actually happened is irrelevant to the point I’m about to make. Think about the following entirely hypothetical situation.
What happens if someone in court, through both their demeanor and reading between the lines of their statements, spends an entire case giving off the following vibe: I’m guilty and I know I’m guilty, but you can’t punish me because I’ll make everyone think I was innocent and you’re an anti-Semite. That would be a blatant attempt to undermine the entire justice system and yes, I think that someone who cries anti-Semitism in that case should be given the maximum sentence and then some.
dafyomi: Moshe Rabbeinu also only said Shema once to K’lal Yisrael (okay, 4 times; sort of). According to this part of the Gemara, we have a Mitzvah to say Shema because Yaakov sons did. So, since at the time that happened Yaakov added in a line, we do too. Just not out loud because it wasn’t recorded in Chumash.
I’m not going to comment on whether or not she did anything because I don’t know and have no real way to know.
I just want to point out that even if she did steal a few dozen thousand dollars, getting six months in prison seems like adequate punishment. We should be happy that she was paroled. And maybe the community will learn crying anti-Semitism instead of working with the justice system (whether or not she was guilty) is not a good way to get leniency in this country.
Oh, and Epclipse: You should look up the story with the Rashash. It did not have the happy ending that we tell kids it had.
There’s a difference between being embarrassed to wear your Tzitzis out and tucking them in in a situation where it would appear improper. You’re not embarrassed, you just know that it would look bad for your job.
writersoul: Maharat? That’s a demeaning term to wimmin because it implies inferiority to men. Torah would be a Rabbi, plain and simple.
Are you asking why we should say it at all? The Gemara’s point is that we say it as a Zecher to the Ma’aseh and what Yaakov and his sons said.
I second DaasYochid’s nomination. I have enough stress with actual people relying on my Halachic opinions. I don’t need more from people who may or may not (but hopefully not) be listening to what I say, especially when I write far more off-the-cuff and less detailed things here.
RF: 🙂
PBA: I read all of the responses and such. I still don’t see anywhere where Avi Weiss (or Asher Lopitan) defended Farber. I don’t think it’s fair or Muttar to say that Rabbi Weiss doesn’t believe in Torah Min Hashamayim. For all of the valid Ta’anos against him, this isn’t one of them.
I do not know if the letter is real or fake, but if it is real I cannot see how the wording is not a Torah violation of Lo Sosifu. If the letter is indeed real, I would be very tempted to go up to every single signatory and ask how such a letter is Muttar.
Just curious, but how is this judge’s ruling in any way, shape, or form not a massive violation of the Establishment Clause?
I believe there was a professional Israeli athlete (tennis, maybe?) with the last name Mashiach.
PBA: What are you referring to? I’m sorry if I’m not holding in this. Care to elaborate?
To Be or not to Be
the Gettysburg Address
Moshe Rabbeinu’s final address to Am Yisrael
PBA: To be fair, when has Avi Weiss ever done anything like deny Torah MiSinai? Even if you hold he’s someone it’s Muttar to say Lashon Hara about, you can’t just make things up.
bless you: You can’t change Mazal, by definition. Of course, I think most Poskim hold that Mazal doesn’t affect us anyway, so that’s not really relevant.
I will relate one of the saddest stories I have ever witnessed. It’s purpose is not to prove anything, other than be anecdotal evidence that if girls are taught how to learn then they will be able to learn similarly to boys.
I once saw a Chassidish man chatting up a very modern girl for an extended period of time. Afterwards, I asked him what happened. I assumed that she was a cousin or something. He said he asked her something because he needed assistance with something and then they ended up talking in learning for 20 minutes. I asked him if he thought it was okay to talk in learning with a girl. He said absolutely not. I asked him why he did it. He said that he couldn’t stop thinking of his mother. When I asked him to elaborate, he said, “If my mother knew how to talk in learning like this girl did then I might actually have something to talk to her about.”
Now, there are a lot of things that can be drawn from this story, the first and foremost being that this guy’s family has some issues and nothing more than that. But I think it does show that girls can at least learn in similar fashion to boys if given the same upbringing. (I am not commenting on whether or not it is Muttar for girls to learn and such; this is only about physical and intellectual capabilities.)
When the desire to do such things in the future arises, learn Torah.
I would highly doubt that any mainstream Poskim allow using an electronic device on Shabbos (though the logic is definitely workable). Using an electronic wheelchair on Yom Tov, on the other hand, is much easier to be Meikel with. All you would need is for it to be constantly running at very low power on a battery and have pushing a button just increase (by orders of magnitude) the charge in the circuit.
on the ball: A non-Jewish woman is still an Ervah according to the Rambam. If she wasn’t, the whole handshake Shailah would be moot. (Tosfos holds that she isn’t an Ervah and that a non-Jew is only 4 Issurim Mid’rabannan, but the Rambam holds otherwise.)
Until they get rid of the spam bots peddling Shmutz, Twitter has the same problems that the rest of the uncensored internet has.
42: I strongly disagree. It’s a P’gam in Bechirah Chofshis and a much bigger Neis to say that HKBH didn’t let people notice them. It’s much more Mistaber that Hashem directed nature so that no rainbow was visible to human eyes during his lifetime (and maybe only in his vicinity).
This is Rabbi Shay Schachter’s (R’ Schachter’s son) Shiur on this precise question: (Mods, please let the link through. It’s from yutorah.)
http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/796173/_Shay_Schachter/Mishenichnas_Av,_Magic_&_Mazalot_
See, this is something I don’t like. It’s taking concepts like Hashgacha Pratis way too far. Yes, a rainbow is a bad Siman. However, why would someone think that just because you, personally, happened to have noticed them more often recently that there’s something more wrong in the world than usual? Maybe you’re just noticing more rainbows? Or maybe you thought you were noticing more and now there’s a nice little confirmation bias telling you that you see more than usual when it’s not even really true. Or maybe you’ve been leaving your sprinkler on too much. 🙂 Take anything you want as inspiration. I have nothing against that. But don’t think that just because you’re noticing more rainbows it means something about every other person on Earth.
Interestingly, I saw the Igros Moshe EH 3:63 at Shul this morning, and his last three lines are interesting. He says a Davar Pashut that a man with 2 sisters is Yichud but a man with a mother and her daughter isn’t. Is anyone aware of somewhere where he elaborates on that? Because he seems to be splitting up the two reasons and Paskening by one in one case and the other in the other.
This name: Nah, because you should eat dinner before sunset (in theory; if we didn’t have electric lights) so breakfast comes first.
Gamanit: The article said the cells came from shoulder muscles. But that aside, stem cells should need to come from lymph nodes or bone marrow, both of which would have a Din of Basar.
Cherrybim: No one who actually ever saw a turkey thought it was Treif. The turkey has the Simanim of a Kosher bird. The only Shailah is about whether a Mesorah exists for turkey (which it doesn’t), as I explained above. But yes, the complete consensus nowadays is that it’s an issue of a Chumras HaRama and not an actual Tarfus issue, so they won’t Assur Keilim for that.
(Then again, it’s not so relevant because real Briskers won’t eat anything cooked at a non-Brisker house because Briskers have a large number of Chumros, more than just the turkey. I’ll have to ask R’ Schachter at some point if Briskers would hold that a turkey would Assur the Keilim.)
nitpicker: I knew about 15 guys who all went to the Mir who don’t eat turkey and they’ve told me that they have convinced other Bochurim also. I don’t know how many there are now, but they claim to be growing.
You entirely missed the part where I explained that the reason for those who are Mattir Treif rennet is not at all what you said. I wasn’t saying it was a settled issue. I was explaining that you were wrong in your reason. And, as I explained, I cannot see how anyone would be Mattir if the cells came from a live or Treif animal. Ma’amid and Basar Min Hachai are issues you can’t get around here.