Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
August 24, 2022 2:31 pm at 2:31 pm in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2118135ujmParticipant
Syag, what’s your position on a man and woman being Pen Pals or Email Pals?
ujmParticipant… with pubic funds (not their own.)
ujmParticipantThis is how Democrats buy votes.
August 24, 2022 1:51 pm at 1:51 pm in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2118116ujmParticipantReb Eliezer,
“‘It is permitted for a man to talk to a woman regarding work or business related subjects… See Beis Shmuel 21/4 “However hearing her voice during speech is permitted”; There is no prohibition found in Poskim regarding interaction with a woman for business related matters”
The CR isn’t business related matters.
August 24, 2022 1:50 pm at 1:50 pm in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2118114ujmParticipantReb Eliezer, you’re saying that writing a letter or an email to a woman (or a woman to a man) is a Yichud problem, correct?
August 24, 2022 3:03 am at 3:03 am in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2117938ujmParticipantReb Eliezer, your comment about אל תרבה שיחה עם אשה, seems to indicate you’d have no problem with a man having a female Pen Pal (or email pal) that they write letters to each other every few days, for long periods of times, since it fits into the criteria you established that they haven’t met each other and they don’t see each other or hear each other.
Is this your own boich svara or do you have any source for this criteria you established?
ujmParticipantKosher phones are lousy for voice calls or for data?
You can have a kosher phone with Verizon; is that what they switched to?August 23, 2022 6:21 pm at 6:21 pm in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2117871ujmParticipantReb Eliezer, what about Al Tarbe Sicha Im Haisha?
ujmParticipantRW: You keep confusing Ivrit with Loshon Kodesh. Different languages.
ujmParticipantY1836, anyone who can write a “teshuva” regarding one of the foremost Gedolei HaDor, such as Yehuda Herzl did regarding one he didn’t like, questioning whether it is “muttar” to refer to said Godol HaDor with “zatzal”, demonstrates that the person is unqualified for anything serious and is — at best — no more than a little joker.
ujmParticipantAvi, there’s a vast difference between sending a child to a mixed high school versus an adult attending a mixed college or workplace.
ujmParticipantWhat kosher activities needs 5G, that can’t work at a slower speed??
ujmParticipantAvira, where did you learn with Rav Leibel Katz?
ujmParticipantAvira, I read them. (And I’m sure I’m not the only one.)
ujmParticipantMH does have its roots in Loshon HaKodesh, but its adjustments of it make it the worst of both worlds – since it has Loshon HaKodesh elements we dont want to use it for our mundane purposes – and since it has non-Loshon HaKodesh elements, we do not want to accept it as our national language. So to speak MH is one thing, but to say it is the “language of the Jew” is just not so. Neither is Yiddish the “language of the Jew”, any more than a black hat is the “clothing of a Jew.” But just as the purpose of the hat is “lo shinu es malbushayhen” – we want to dress differently than the seculars – thep purpose of Yiddish is “lo shinu es shemom” – we want to talk differently than the seculars.
There is no Mitzvah to speak in Loshon HaKodesh. Without the modernizations, its not much of a speakable language (we don’t have that many words). And if you do add in a bunch of words and tweak it, youll just end up with another Yiddish, but based on Loshon HaKodesh, which is only a bad thing, not good, as per above. Plus, the Responsa Chavtzeles HaSharon (I:OH:10) writes that Loshon HaKodesh is only Kodesh if its used exclusively for holy things. Once you start using it to speak mundane things, its not holy anymore. It’s like an Aron HaKodesh – once you use it to hold your model racing car collection and not Sifrei Torah, its not an Aron HaKodesh anymore.
In the Sefer B’Tuv Yerushalayim it relates that the Maharil Diskin refused to speak to a certain Talmid Chacham of Yerushalayim because he used to spek only Loshon HaKodesh. Said the Maharil Diskin, “For generations we are accostomed to speaking Yiddish, not Loshon HaKodesh.” He saw in the speaking of Loshon HaKodesh a contradiction to historical percedent, which originated based on the ideas in the aforementioned issues. The Chasam Sofer is in his comments on Shulchan Aruch, OH #65 – the reason we do not speak Loshon HaKodesh is to prevent undesirable people from speaking it, plus to prevent its being used in Tameh places. The posek Hagaon Rav Akiva Yosef Shlezinger in his Sefer Lev HaIvri says we should not change our spoken toungue from Yiddish, and he draws parallels with our usage of Yiddish in modern times, to our usage of Aramaic in ancient times.
What about giving a Shiur or Dvar Torah in Loshon Kodesh? The reason that was not done is because Loshon HaKodesh is very hard to use in a speaking manner – its much more suited to writing. Would you start a sentence with “hinei”? And even when Divrei Torah are writen in Seforim, they add in many Aramaic words and expression, to the point where someone who only know Hebrew but not Gemora language would have a hard time understanding it. There simply aren’t enough words or expressions in Loshon HaKodesh to do that. Its awkward even when it can be done. So since theres really no reason to do it – there is no Mitzvah to speak Loshon HaKodesh – but there is a Mitzvah to understand your learning as best as you can, it was deemed by Klal Yisroel better to use foregn language – or at least a combination of Loshon HaKodesh and foreign language, which is really what is needed to get a complex Torah idea across.
Remember – the Gemora itself was done in Aramaic – a foreign language, and not Loshon HaKodesh. And thats because it was more easily understood. Foreign languages still are. And the point of the Chavtzeles HaSharon by saying that Loshon HaKodesh loses its holiness when spoken for mundane matters was that doing so is a Bizayon for the Holy language and it therefore should not be done. Historical precendent is valid only when the past generations could have done somethign but clearly chose not to. Speaking Loshon HaKodesh was an available option for them just as it is for us – and they could have created a “speaking language” out of it if they wanted – just like they did recently. The fact that they didnt shows that they chose not to. We should, too. But Loshon HaKodesh – with the Aramaic and foreign words mixed in, which is what is used for Torah – is not really speakable. But it woks best from the written Torah word. Its not a coincidence that after thousands of years, those who finally came up with the idea to speak Hebrew were atheist Apikorsim who did it specifically for heretical reasons – because in order to be a “nation” you need a language.
ujmParticipantOther reasons why MH is not the “language of the Jew” are:
(a) Its origin is actually anti-Jewish. The creators of MH did so because “it is not possible to be a nation without a national language” (see Eisentein’s encyclopedia, ‘Ivrit’). This of course is Apikorsus, because Jews are a nation not like other nations – whereas other nations need a common spoken language, we only need the Torah to make us a “nation”. We are no more or less an “am” if we have or do not have a common language, common food, or common geographic boundaries. The idea was that MH will make us into a “nation like all nations”, in the same way that some fool may say that all Jews should eat bagels and lox because without doing so, we will be less of an “am”. And even though those who speka MH in Bnei Brak today do not subscirbe to this heresy, we do not consider this language the “Jewish language” because it was created to actually change the definition of what “Jewish” means. In The golyon Maharsha, quoted by Rav Reuven Grozovsky in “Bayos HaZeman”, there is brought a responsa of Rav Yaakov Sasportes, a great combatant in the fight against the Shabse Tzvi y”s. He says that Shabse Tzvi actually intorduced some positive, even obligatory practices into Judaism. Performing Birkas Kohanim daily, even in Chutz La’aretz, was foremost among them. But, says the Ohel Yaakov, even though this is a good and positive practice, and perhaps even obligatory according to Halachha, since its origins came through Shabse Tzvi, we should not do it. The same applies, all the more to making MH our “national language.”
(b) The changes in Loshon HaKodesh that were made, both in accent and content, are unacceptable. The changing of accents from Ashkenaz to Sefard for Ashkenaz Jews is wrong. Rabbeinu Bachye writes that if you change even a komatz to a Pasach in the language, it will lead to heresy. Also, certain words in Hebrew are definitely against the spirit of the Torah. (Ben Yehuda once said that he designed the language specifically to “shtoch” the religious). Example: “Chashmal”, which means electricity in MH, comes from the Loshon HaKodesh word found at the beginning of Yechizkel which is the name of the Angel of Fire. The idea of taking the name of the Malach of AIsh and using it to mean “electricity” was the implication that whereas in the olden days we believed in angels as explanations for things, today we believe in technology. It would be the same as calling penicillin, for instance, “Rephoel.” The Debreciner Rav ZT’L actually discusses if it is permitted to use this word.
ujmParticipantRW: Modern Hebrew is not different than Turkish or Farsi – it is the language of a secular culture complete with all those things that we want to stay away from. The fact that some of those who speak Modern Hebrew are religious Jews is not different than the language of any country Jews are in where they speak the language of the land. The point is to stay away from the language of the land and only talk the language of the Jew.
The Radak (Sefer HaMichlol, introduction) writes that Loshon HaKodesh is all but forgotten to us, and all we have left is what is in Tanach.
The Chasam Sofer notes that while Chazal used many words and phrases borrowed from the Greeks and Romans, they never coined a new word, as has been done in modern hebrew, for in their holy opinion it was preferable to use other languages rather than create even a single new word that did not have its like, its example, in the Torah, since it could not be rooted in sanctity.
The Chasam Sofer EH 2:11 says that in ancient times Jews used to use a modified version of the non-Jewish languages for everyday (divrei chol) talk, similar to what Yiddish is.
The Rambam writes that even in the days of Ezra they had a translator to explain the Torah readings to the people – clearly, they did not speak Loshon Hakodesh, even before the Churban.
Maran Hagoen Rav Elazar Shach told American educators that Yeshiva boys should be taught Chumash in Yiddish, even if the boys speak English amongst themselves. He furtermore said that both boys and girls should learn to be comfortable in Yiddish. He also said that Yiddish is spoken by “all jews” (that is his phrase). He referred parents to send their children to Yiddish teaching yeshivos. And there is good reason why Rebbes and Rabbonim give ma’amarim in Yiddish.
ujmParticipantThe Chasam Sofer writes that the reason Jews do not speak Loshon Hakodesh as a speaking language is because it is inappropriate to use a holy language while enveloped in Tumah, which is our current status. The Rambam writes that a love song in Hebrew is more repulsive to Hashem than the same song in Arabic, for instance, because the pollution of the Holy language is an additional crime. If someone wants to store pornography in his house, thats bad enough. But to store it in the Aron HaKodesh is unspeakably worse. So to cause Loshon HaKodesh to be used as a street language, complete with all the disgusting ways it is used today in Israel, is just more of a reason why we should make sure it never gets into the streets. For our Creator to look down at the world and see His holy language – or even elements of it – used in magazines such as are sold in Kiosks on Yaffo or Dizengoff Street, or spoken by the lowest of the low trying to make a sale, is not something that he or we are happy about.
The Kuzari writes that Avrohom Avinu, therefore, spoke 2 different languages. One for holy speech – that was Loshon HaKodesh, and the other for mundane speech – that, the Kuzari says was some non-Jewish language that Avrohom Avinu took and changed around a little on his own. And thats the idea behind Yiddish. It is a non-Jewish language that we took and twisted a bit in order to make it exclusive among us.
Even though there are Yiddishistin who speak Yiddish, they took it from us, not vice-versa (as is the case of Modern Hebrew), and since we do not live in a country or society dominated by Yiddish-speaking shkotzim, there is no benefit of Lo shinu es leshonam by not speaking Yiddish. But there is such a benefit by not speaking Hebrew.
ujmParticipantDonald: Which non-tznius permitted acts did the Chashmonaim execute for?
ujmParticipantRW: Ivrit is a new language. It wasn’t spoken by Jews prior to Zionism and it’s atheist inventor Ben-Yehuda around the beginning of the 20th century. Prior to that Jews mainly spoke Yiddish, Arabic and Ladino.
ujmParticipantMDD: You need proof of guilt. They don’t need to prove their innocence.
August 22, 2022 1:52 am at 1:52 am in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2117166ujmParticipantCA, why might he have Yichud? He knows to avoid such a setup.
August 22, 2022 12:00 am at 12:00 am in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2117150ujmParticipantAAQ: But Bruria committed suicide.
August 22, 2022 12:00 am at 12:00 am in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2117149ujmParticipantReb Eliezer, your comment seems to indicate that you believe unmarried people shouldn’t be conversing over the internet due to intermingling of the genders. Correct?
August 21, 2022 11:59 pm at 11:59 pm in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2117147ujmParticipantGefilte Fish: You are mixing up and confusing two different and separate issues. Kol Isha has nothing to do with the prohibition against unnecessarily chatting with a woman.
ujmParticipantDofi: You must have asked the same questions on Pinchus.
As a separate but related question, do you think Kanoim Pogim Bo is no longer applicable today?
ujmParticipantrichashu: Your comment is full of hogwash. Rav Ahron Kotler, the Satmar Rov and Rav Moshe were the three leading postwar Gedolei HaDor. All three were close to with each other and worked with each other on Klal matters, despite any Halachic disagreements they may have had. None attacked the others. The people who met Arafat etc were never under the direction of the SR. Nor was he a Daas Yochid on the primary issue of the State. He along with virtually all the other Gedolim opposed the State’s formation. What to do about it after it was formed was the only area they disagreed.
Rav Chaim Kanievsky agreed with Rav Shach as well as with his father the Steipler and the Chazon Ish regarding opposing settlements and other provocations against the Arabs, the could trigger them to violence against Yidden. If you disagree and feel we must settle all of Halachic Eretz Yisroel, then I suggest you start settlements in the parts of Eretz Yisroel that are in southern Lebanon and in Jordan, and live there.
ujmParticipantGotAGPoint: Beis Din has the right, when it deems it necessary for the public order, to impose capital punishment for crimes that Al Pi Halacha aren’t capital crimes.
ujmParticipantKlal Yisroel needs more Yidden like Yishai Schlissel, who was moser nefesh for Torah in Eretz Yisroel.
ujmParticipantAvira, while most Chareidim in Israel speak Ivrit, most of them (especially Chasidim) also speak Yiddish. As to which is their first language and which is their second language, you might have a better idea. Among Chasidim it seems to me that most use Yiddish first, though by certain Chsiduses (Ger?) it can be the opposite.
ujmParticipant“and HEBREW”
Did you capitalize that to hint to us that the Hebrew speakers litter more than Yiddish speakers?
ujmParticipantY1836: I saw it over a decade ago. I didn’t note the volume. Henkin in his published “psak” says that it is okay for women to dance in front of men, since he says “there not going to look anyways”(!!!). I just looked at my notes and need to correct the point above regarding the Godol, which I went from memory until you asked me to look it up. He questions if it is “permissible” to call the Satmar Rebbe “Zatzal”. (I’m not kidding.)
ujmParticipantBesalel: If you delete irreligious Israelis, Ivrit has only a small percent of Torah observant Jewry speaking it; especially as a first language. Many can make it out based on our understanding of Loshon Kodesh but nevertheless do not use it as an everyday language. Yiddish is still the fastest growing language among Torah observant Jews since Chasidim, who are the fastest growing segment of observant Jews, use Yiddish as their first language. Whether they live in the United States, Canada, Israel, England, Belgium or elsewhere.
ujmParticipantHe isn’t.
ujmParticipantModern: Ivrit is not the language of Jews. The vast majority of Jews do not know Ivrit; especially outside the State.
Yiddish has historically been the lingua franca of Jews across countries.
ujmParticipantHerzl Henkin, in one of his books, has a “teshuva” discussing whether a particular Godol HaDor (that he didn’t like) is an apokorus or not. In another “teshuva” he permits men and women dancing in the same open room.
ujmParticipantAvira, the Ran in Nedarim paskens that Dina Dmalchusa does not apply in Eretz Yisroel.
ujmParticipantWhat’s interesting about that, Amil? That it was The Deplorables that sunk Cheney?
ujmParticipantPersonally, I’d say to limit the languages on the sign to Yiddish and Arabic.
ujmParticipantIf the Democrat Justice Dept politicizes a political persecution of President Trump and tries to imprison him, they know that the next Republican Justice Dept will return the favor and find every traffic infraction to failure to report any political contribution to bust multiple top national Democrat politicians to bust into their home in middle of the night and lead them out in handcuffs, where the tipped of media will be outside taking pictures (just as the Democrat prosecutors did), and they’ll be charged with every imaginable and unimaginable crime under the sun.
Don’t forget the old adage that a Federal prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. There’s a real truth behind that.
The Democrats know their political persecutions will have this result and are afraid. They may still choose to engage in political persecutions; but they won’t be surprised when the favor is returned when the next time the political pendulum swings to a Republican Administration (maybe even President Trump, second term — that’ll be fun as the Left has four years of heart attacks.)
ujmParticipantCA: How does your response address Avira’s point?
ujmParticipantRay: Au contraire. It is when we forget that we are golus that keeps us in golus much longer.
August 18, 2022 9:07 am at 9:07 am in reply to: I personally view ben gvirs rise concerning #2116312ujmParticipantIsraeli pre-election polls are notoriously and historically highly inaccurate.
ujmParticipantWe are in golus. We must not impose ourselves on the Goyim.
P.S. During the times of the Beis Hamikdash, there were signs in foreign languages giving the Goyim instructions.
ujmParticipantYes, the New York one is still around. Opened in the 1700s, I believe. It is Sephardic.
August 17, 2022 8:55 pm at 8:55 pm in reply to: The coffee room is ussor and I’m trying to make sure people chap #2116193ujmParticipantYou need to be a mother to use that site. It even tests you to prove your motherhood. What about the single maidelech?
August 17, 2022 5:38 pm at 5:38 pm in reply to: A I Stone versus Tyrwhitt or Brooks Brothers #2116100ujmParticipantKinderlach, kinderlach, kinderlach.
ujmParticipantWho are you referring to as Maran Sar HaToira?
These hilltop kids sound like they got caught up in Zionism but forgot to ditch their black hats.
ujmParticipantWasn’t the Spanish-Portuguese Sheriath Israel in New York City, which I believe existed from pre-revolutionary times, also strictly frum?
ujmParticipantubiq: Not “after the reality of Auschwitz was known” (to quote your question to me). Kastner knew of Aushwitz (he was very closely working with Eichmann ym’s on a daily basis and he received a copy of the Vrba-Wetzler Report); Hungarian Jewry at-large was not aware of the reality of Aushwitz in 1944.
-
AuthorPosts