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Viewing 50 posts - 1 through 50 (of 1,967 total)
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  • in reply to: Anyone else long for when restaurants were simpler #2248498
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    I want all my restaurant food served to me Israeli style. I have to walk up to a counter and wait for the attention of an extremely irate looking man who acts like he is doing my THE BIGGEST FAVOR even though I’m the only one there. Then I place my order (obviously without bothering him to ask what’s on the menu) to have him shout back at me “WHAT TO PUT IN?”. Then one to fifteen minutes later hear my name shouted where I grab some mess of bread, vegetables and grilled turkey wrapped in wax paper served on a plastic disposable plate.

    in reply to: Anyone else long for when restaurants were simpler #2248496
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Give me a Dougies beehive any day. A blooming onion topped with chopped brisket, fries, and honey barbeque sauce. It’s perhaps the least Instagrammable food imaginable outside of cholent.

    in reply to: The Amelia Bedelia interpretation of “antisemitism” #2242624
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @Amil Zola “Bartleby the Scrivener”? In what way? Bartleby didn’t take things literally, he (for some unclear reason) had a drive to be a scrivener, copying down legal documents, and was mentally incapable of doing anything else.

    in reply to: Demonic Dogs #2230468
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    The story was in the “Golem of Prague” book by Gershom Winkler. I just looked it up out of curiosity, and it’s in Reb Yudel Rosenbergs’ נפלאות מהרל which is the origin for pretty much all the Golem stories, but it’s of highly questionable accuracy.

    In Prague, there was an abandoned building that people saw strange things around. One merchant passed the building and saw a scary black dog come out, run around him, and go back inside. The man then started having dreams where he was riding a giant dog like a horse in a cavalry charge with other men and they were all barking and howling like dogs. The people in his house noticed that he was sweating, and barking in his sleep. During the day, the man was visibly weakened. After three nights they brought him to the Maharal. The Maharal checked his teffilin and tzitzis and found both to be pasul. He said that this merchant is missing his Malachei Shmira and that’s why the tumah from the building affected him. The man fixed his tzitzis and teffilin, put on an amulet with the pasuk “ולכל בני ישראל לא יחרץ כלב לשונו” and some Kabbaladike letters inscribed on it, and was told to trade beds with Yosele Goiloms for a week. After the week was up, the Maharal instructed Yosele Goilom to burn down the building and no harm came to anyone from the building again.

    in reply to: Hydroxychloroquine #2228679
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Dear coffee addict,

    Mayo Clinic was the only major health provider that took HCQ as a serious treatment for COVID. However, unlike what some (many unfortunately frum) people would have you believe, they never treated it as a magic bullet that is a cure. For a period of time (probably between six months to a year) they used it as part of a regime under strict supervision of medical professionals. They stopped using it when better options became available, and when its effectiveness was questionable, at best. Last week some blogger noticed that it was still listed on their website, a holdover from 2020, and made a big fuss about it. So they removed it from their website.

    That is all. This is all public knowledge reported in multiple sources that can easily be checked with archived websites. Do the research.

    in reply to: Frum daytraders #2225615
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Making consistent profit day trading was only possible for a brief period in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was then when people had high speed internet access and services to trade with minimal cost, but before algorithms cornered the market. Right now, if you think you have a good tip on a stock that’s going to rise in a few hours, guaranteed there’s a bank of computers somewhere that figured it out before you and is already trading massive quantities of that stock so by the time you click “Purchase order” the price has risen significantly.

    in reply to: Shidduchim Between Litvish Girls and Chasidish Boys #2223761
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @Fanatic: In certain large Chassidish communities, such as Satmar, Vizhnitz, Belz, Ger, and Bobov, the overwhelming majority of married women shave their hair.

    in reply to: Is there a Drug Problem in the “Frum World”? #2222053
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Yes. Is it as prevalent as it is in some other societies? Probably not. But the fact that not only frum teens but also frum adults in stable, happy (seeming) lives can sometimes resort to drugs already makes it a huge problem. Opiod addiction is a real danger and has ruined countless lives, probably some of people that are close to you.

    in reply to: The final word on Moshiach from the meisim (hopefully!) #2221911
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @bentorah32 What made Rabi Akiva realize that Bar Kochba wasn’t Moshiach? He died.

    in reply to: The final word on Moshiach from the meisim (hopefully!) #2221825
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @anypotatokugelleft That’s nice. Not one gadol b’Torah outside of Chabad agrees with Mr. Lieberman’s pshat on Moshiach min hameisim. I’ll take their word over his.

    in reply to: Thought on Chabad #2221824
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Ah yes, Rehov Chabad, a wonderful street! It goes from the Rova parking lot all the way to the Armenian Shuk, right near the main entrance to the Churva. It has such a rich history, like everything in the Old City. Did you know that the name “Chabad” is actually a ta’os sofer? It was originall “Habad” with a hay because of the mill that was there, but the sign was fading and people misread it.

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2217011
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @Menachem-Shmei One second, didn’t Rav Schneerson ZT”L make some very clear cut statements saying that he isn’t Moshiach? And send angry letters to people who claimed he was telling them to cut it out?

    in reply to: Daas Torah for Gashmius #2214448
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    If you read Shaylos v’Teshuvos of some Acharonim, they mention asking experts on subjects about certain questions. I believe both Rav Moshe and the Steipler ZT”L have well known teshuvos where they give the answer as “I asked a doctor and he said…”.

    in reply to: Chris Christie – why can’t Jews rally around him? #2211144
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    The GW is my answer. I supported him up until that cruel childish piece of revenge which severely inconvenienced pretty much all of Rockland County just to get back at one man.

    Then he closed the beaches during Corona and took his family on vacation to the Jersey Shore. I can’t even imagine what he would do as president.

    in reply to: Which filter should I get #2211142
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    I use OpenDNS which is far from perfect, as you need to install it on your home router and it doesn’t filter if you go to a coffee shop or something.

    I’m looking in to getting TechLoq. It’s not expensive, and it has content filtering, so it checks the words and pictures on a webpage before serving it. It also does not have spyware. I frankly don’t want all my passwords and emails available to some anonymous guy in an office somewhere, which a lot of filters do.

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2209603
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @ujm When Rav Shach made his statements against Chabad, he was speaking as his role of Gadol HaDor and merely voicing what the opinion of his peers was.


    @Menachem-Shmei
    Yeah, I’m going to go with what @Neville-Chaim-Berlin is saying. You’ve already admitted to multiple beliefs that the rest of Klal Yisroel holds of as (at the very least) tipshus with a heavy apikorsus flavor. I’m not going to press the issue if there are Lubavitchers that literally pray to something other than Hashem, since I think at this point the issue is moot.

    in reply to: YWN Coffee Room in 50 Years: A Trip up Memory Lane #2209274
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    I’ve made it? I guess I should lay off the CR for a while.

    in reply to: Forgotten Halachah MB 167 #2209273
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    I have a mixed family of some Levi’im and some Yisraelim. Benching (especially when the teenagers lead) is always a funny stumble around Birishus’s between Ba’al HaBayis, Levi’im, Avi MoRasi, Chumi, Saba, etc.

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2209225
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @Menachem Shmei I don’t make it a habit of going to many Chabad houses nor Lubavitch shuls. I’ve been to maybe seven in my life. I know of one that has a picture of their Rebbe front and center. By simple logic it’s highly unlikely that this is the only one and I happen to have stumbled on to it.

    There are people in authority in Chabad (you know their names) who have gone on record saying things like “Asking the (dead) Rebbe for help”, “The Rebbe is listening to our teffilos”, and “This is happening because the Rebbe wanted it”. You may be in denial that people literally daven to a man, but in the opinion of most of the Gedolim in Klal Yisroel, it absolutely happens and Chabad does nothing to discourage it. In fact, it’s encouraged with things like giving an invisible man an Aliya l’Torah, and telling people to ask bakoshois of a dead man at his kever.

    in reply to: Maharal’s Golem #2209221
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @ujm The rationalist in me says no. We do not have Gedolim on the level of the gedolim of previous generations, and compared to the Maharal and the Gra, even our Gedolim are dust. The misnaged in me says “Maybe. But who cares?”

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2209039
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @Menachem-Shmei At least one in Tzfat. Can’t say the specifics, because I don’t recall. Can you state with absolute honesty that no one davening in 770 believes him to still be sitting in his chair up front? Or that there’s no significant amount of Chabadskers that have their Rebbe in mind when davening Shmoneh Esrei?

    in reply to: Maharal’s Golem #2209037
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @ujm It’s a Chassidishe mindset to write books and tell stories about fantastic things that Tzaddikim did in order to inspire awe in people regarding those Tzaddikim. It’s a Litvishe mindset to derive awe from a Tzaddik’s Torah and look at stories as nice things, but inconsequential compared to their Torah.

    in reply to: Maharal’s Golem #2208935
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    The most Litvishe answer to this question is a story I heard from a Rebbi of mine.

    Sometime in the 70s, a man who worked for Philly (The Philadelphia Yeshiva under Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and Rav Elya Svei L’havdil) wrote a whole kuntrus documenting all the sources of the Golem of Prague and cross referencing them with historical dates, other mentions of golems, the Maharals writings, etc. His conclusion was that there is no way that any of the Golem stories were true.

    Anyways, he brought his sefer to Rav Shach for a haskama. Rav Shach asked him, “Do you think it’s possible for the Maharal to have made a golem?”. “Of course he could of!”. “Then what’s the difference whether he did or didn’t?”.

    in reply to: Goldilocks and the Three Bears #2208931
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    I want you to walk over to an elderly Ungarischer woman and tell her that hair color has no significance, even blonde and gingy.

    in reply to: Summer camps #2208203
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @common-saychel Everyone had EconoPhone/Presto cards to call home. One year the waiters got fed up from not collecting any tips in first half or visiting day, so they ganged up on all the kids making them call home and beg their parents to tip the waiter $25.

    in reply to: have you ever been to tosh? #2208199
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    I still don’t have an answer as to where Tosh is?

    in reply to: Camp Deal?? #2208101
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Was it a Federation camp back then too, with so many scholarship kids?

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2208099
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    And can I just say? I find a lot of minhagim that are not my own to be weird. I think a lot of people do. Not anti-Torah, like still very much within the realm of Yiddishkeit, it’s just I don’t get it and quietly laugh at it (as I’m sure many people do about my minhagim). Mitzvah Tantzes are weird. Ladies loodoodoodooloodling at simchas is weird.

    But I find the Chabad minhag of “We are now mechabed Menachem Mendel Schopitzkivover to press the button on the tape player so we can hear a five second recording from forty years ago” under the Chuppah to be a little weirder than most.

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2208098
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @menachem-shmei I don’t mean to be rude or insulting, but I have a hard time believing you about how strict people were about not davening towards a picture of your Rebbe ZT”L. The reason being is that this is the type of thing I hear a lot from Chabadniks discussing their practices with frum people. The frum person will mention some Chabad thing, and the Chabadnik will gasp in horror and say “Oh no! Only a few real crazies do that! All of Chabad hates that sort of thing!”

    Which is fine. Problems start when I see or hear something that directly contradicts this notion, which happens very very often. Like one day on CR a Lubavitcher will adamantly deny that there is such a thing as an Elokist. However, within the same thread a different Lubavitcher will go on a whole thing explaining how his Rebbe is “Atzmus Nasi HaDor” and we can direct our teffilos to him and he will answer them. Every time the Moshiach discussion happens, there’s someone who will claim that it’s really just one rich guy who spends all his time and money on the signs and everyone hates him. Meanwhile, you can find YouTube videos from last week of hundreds of people declaring Rav Schneerson ZT”L to be the Moshiach.

    As for your claim that no “real” Chabadnik will put a picture of a Lubavitcher Rebbe by teffilos, there are literally Chabad houses and synagogues with a giant picture up on the mizrach vant. And quite a few people who do these sorts of things are in massive positions of authority.

    in reply to: The final word on Moshiach from the meisim (hopefully!) #2207695
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @NevilleChaimBerlin rabid foaming at the mouth screaming shouting sitra acher ikviseh d’meshichteh rav kook rav blau gimmel shavuous apikoros fool

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2207583
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @NevilleChaimBerlin Hey hey lay off of us Yekkes! The older crowd absolutely detests the term, probably because they recall it as an insult, “A kleineh yakkeh Yid”, and prefers a confusing mouthful like “Frankfurter am Main Juden” or some such.

    in reply to: have you ever been to tosh? #2207586
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Question from an ignorant Misnaged: Where is Tosh? I’m assuming it’s not the original Tosh in Europe. Are we talking about Otremont Montreal? A Toshe Shtieble in Brooklyn? Eretz Yisroel?

    in reply to: The final word on Moshiach from the meisim (hopefully!) #2207580
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @anyPotatoKugelLeft You keep telling people “read the book, read the book”. I can also write a book using Gemaras and Rishonim to say whatever I want. Point is, that no Talmid Chacham worth his salt will approve my words.

    That’s what’s happening here. Mr. Lieberman wrote a book that goes against what all Gedolim, Rabbonim, Rebbes, and Talmidei Chachamim say. I will take their word against his without even glancing at what he has to say.

    And that, my friend, is the final word on the subject.

    in reply to: The final word on Moshiach from the meisim (hopefully!) #2207379
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @anyPotatoKugelLeft Find me one, ONE respected non-Chabad Rov from the last 50 years who says that the idea that Moshiach can be a resurrected person is acceptable in Yiddishkeit.

    in reply to: Yeshivish/Chassidish vs Frumkeit #2207337
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    sigh Mods, my intention was not to say that every letter written by a certain Gadol B’Yisroel is inane, rather that people study every word he wrote as equal to Chazal, whether it’s Torah or a simple Mazal Tov postcard.

    I understand,  but emotions run high and the way it was worded begged extra sensitivity.  I appreciate your understanding.

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2207294
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @sechel83 And we are all waiting for anyone to find a non-Chabad Rav who says that the Meshichist way of belief has legitimacy. someone?

    in reply to: Yeshivish/Chassidish vs Frumkeit #2207292
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @sechel83 No, you’re wrong. The things that people are against Chabad for don’t exist in any other Chassidus and never did. A dead Rebbe becoming Moshiach, ignoring all Torah written after the 20th century to focus on a Rebbe’s edit letters and speeches, claiming that a dead person sees everything happening in the world and directly answers teffilos, etc.

    No matter what excuses you make, seforim you bring down, or explanations you give, these (and others) are things exclusive to Chabad and it’s for these reasons that people are opposed to Chabad.

    in reply to: Summer camps #2207120
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    So nu? Go to day camps. Summer camps these days fulfill a very different need than they used to. One that many would argue is contrived. It’s a special opportunity and shouldn’t be seen as a necessity that has to happen every year from age 9 through 18.

    in reply to: Chabad Inspires all Jews to Yearn for Mashiach #2207069
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Dear Esteemed Bicephalus President of the Galaxy His Honourable Zaphod Beeblebrox,

    I think the “zero common ground” argument is a little like this. There have been several decades of Chabad Rabbis developing a philosophy and movement that the rest of the frum world is extremely opposed to. Chabadskers who follow those Rabbis by definition will ignore any Torah or Hashkafa from the rest of the frum world that doesn’t suit them.

    So there’s no common ground, as any argument will be “The Rabbonim say that this is how to interpret the Gemara” with the response being “But my Rabbonim disagree”. It’s the same with Conservative and Open Orthodoxy. If you choose to follow a Rabbi that plays loosey goosey with the words of Chazal and ignores everyone telling him “No”, you can’t even begin a debate.

    in reply to: Ads in Jewish Publications II #2207065
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @MenachemShmei I would argue that Ami should be assur to read during the week too…

    in reply to: The final word on Moshiach from the meisim (hopefully!) #2207055
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @anyPotatoKugelLeft You don’t get it. None of you Yellow Flaggers do. You can bring me alleged rayos from here to Timbuktu, it doesn’t matter. Because Talmidei Chachamim and Klal Yisroels leaders have all weighed in on this topic and know far more than some guy who wrote a book. And the unanimous view is that no, Moshiach cannot be mim ha’meisim. The only (and I stress only) dissenters on this topic are some Chabad Rabbis (but certainly not all Chabad Rabbonim) and they only started saying this after 1996.

    So keep your Da’as Yochid beliefs and fringe opinions. I’ll stick with what the greatest Gedolim say that the Torah says.

    in reply to: The final word on Moshiach from the meisim (hopefully!) #2206449
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    The final word is this:

    A subset of Chabad Rabbonim are the only talmidei chachamim alive today who say that it’s possible for Moshiach to be a resurrected dead person. Literally every other frum Rov and Talmid Chacham says it’s not possible, and many say that it’s apikorsus to say so.

    So that’s the final word. If you’re a follower of one of those Chabad Rabbis, gezunteh heit. Go and believe whatever you want to believe. But have in mind that the entire rest of the frum world looks at you like we look at Conservative Jews: Heart in the right place, but believes in things outside of Yiddishkeit.

    in reply to: Being a Jewish democrat #2205981
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    There’s a frum community that had a direct hand in getting Hillary Clinton in power in a tit-for-tat trade when President Clinton was lame ducking. The oilom, by and large, called it a massive chillul Hashem, but I know of at least one major Jewish publication that held the opposite, and called it a kiddush Hashem. From their point of view, it doesn’t matter what policies Democrats hold of, as long as they can help Jews.

    in reply to: Being a Jewish democrat #2205875
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Would you rather support Netanyahu, the leader of a party that has repeatedly allowed Jews to be mechalel Shabbos and eat tarfus?

    Both parties are bad. You have to pick which candidate is best for the Jews. And unlike Yiddishkeit, you are allowed to be a Salad Bar Democrat/Republican. Pick the policies and ideas you like, and discard the rest.

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2205334
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @sechel83 The Meshichisters created a l’mafreya concept of Moshiach from the dead, claiming it’s always existed. At no point in (literally hundreds) of false Moshiachs and Moshiach cults that we have spawned in the last 2000+ years, has anyone announced a Moshiach who was dead. Until 1996.


    @vdnrtakh1
    AdirBMelucha. I disagree with points one and two. Most frum Jews are reluctant to allow their children to marry someone from a different background. Shtarkeh Chassidim won’t marry Litvaks, many Sephardim won’t marry Ashkenazim, a Yeshivhishe family won’t marry into a Vizhnitzer family. Especially Chabad which expects a certain lifestyle of shlichus and other practices that a non-Chabad family may not want. As for beards, it’s a Chassidishe thing. The issur of shaving also includes scissoring away the entire beard.

    in reply to: Should Israel reduce its massive affirmative action for Arabs? #2205143
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Call me a filthy liberal, but it is in my completely amateur opinion that the Zionists bit off more than they could chew and are currently in a lose-lose situation with the Arabs. They cannot keep the population of the West Bank under Israeli control forever. If they give them citizenship, it will be the end of Israel as a Jewish State. If they expel them all, it would be war (not to mention an absolutely abhorrent thing to do). If they keep status quo, the Palestinians will just get angrier and angrier.

    If nothing else, it’s proof that Zionism was always against the Torah. There’s no way following Ratzon Hashem should lead to such a dead end outcome.

    in reply to: Trump Voters #2205134
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @Always_Ask_Questions What gets me is the hypocrisy of it. Everything Hunter Biden is being accused of, Trump has done ten times over (used political influence to help a family member close a deal, shady money, election fraud, etc.). Everyone screaming to arrest Hunter should be shouting just as loud to arrest Trump.

    in reply to: Trump Voters #2204983
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    I still don’t get why people are all up in arms defending the first charge against Trump, with the Cohen being oiver on Esnan Zoinah.

    in reply to: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher #2204982
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Dear Yechi HaMelech @chochom,

    If you’re going to accept Likutei Sichos as an important basis of your Yiddishkeit, than surely you accept the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s repeated statements that he’s no Moshiach and begging the messianics to stop their activities as true too, no? So then by that logic, it’s impossible for the Lubavitcher Rebbe to be Moshiach.

    in reply to: Trump Voters #2204981
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Hey Mister Mysterious Mod Man, what do you think happened? I’m not going to post what most news sources say, because you’ll probably dismiss them as too liberal (and frankly, I can’t blame you). So I’ll stick with FoxNews, New York Post, and NewsMax as top what happened:

    Biden’s lawyers were going through his documents and found “a small number of documents with classified markings”. Some reports numbered them as totaling ten. The documents were immediately turned over to the National Archives, and Biden consented to having the rest of his properties searched, where they found three more documents.

    So yeah. 13 documents in total is a handful. Especially compared to Trump who had more than that in a single box in a single room.

Viewing 50 posts - 1 through 50 (of 1,967 total)