I love the irony about how frum communities are so aggressively socialist on the state level, but turn into rabid capitalists once things go national.

@klugeryid

I applaud the government pushing for getting rid of incandescents. For one, it gave us the Shabbos Lamp. Two, I find LEDs so much better and surprisingly cheaper since they don’t need to be changed every other month.

Oy gevant here we go again.gif

How Chassidish are you?

Are you OK with a Nusach Sefard shul where the Rov wears a streimel, throws apples on Shmini Atzeres, and speaks Yiddish but there are perhaps only two or three bekishes in the whole shul? Or do you need a full-on Rebbe with Chassidim following every word, cheder, Yeshiva, girls school, zilber schtock, and tisches and all that?

Since we’re discussing Baltimore, there are several shuls that fit the first description. The second description is something you don’t really find outside of NY/NJ with the exception of Tosh in Motreal. Even Baltimore has a “Chassidishe Kollel” but there’s no Rebbe and it’s socially isolated from the rest of the frum community.

@Gadolhadorah We would say OK, that’s nice. What does the location of Moshiach’s HQ matter?

@YC GEVALDIG I can’t address every point you made, and a lot of them have been addressed in previous comments, but I’ll pick a few low hanging fruit to focus on.

In Halocho, Rishonim and Achronim there were many opposing opinions and each had different Pisukim to add credence to their claim.

Pisukim to add credence to their claim. The “extremists” (who are much more mainstream Chabad than you make them out to be) do not. They have Sichos and Likutim from Rav Schneerson ZT”L which are not only possible inaccurately recorded, but are often vague and out of context. Which brings me to the next point “from the point of view that they are heretics”. Yes. If they believe in something that goes directly against the Torah and meforshim with the only basis being a line on a 20th century sefer written by some random Chabadsker claiming to quote his Rebbe ZT”L, that is heresy.

As for taking advantage of all the good Chabad does in the world, I do not see a stirah. As a frum Jew, I assume every Chabadsker is a frum Jew unless I have good reason to believe otherwise. So until I see a picture of Rav Schneerson ZT”L on the Aron Kodesh (Ch”VSh) I will assume that the Chabad house is a regular frum shul, hechsher, sukkah, whatever.

And no one is denying the gadlus of the previous Rebbe ZT”L. He was a gadol b’Torah, that is certain. It’s certain things he may or may not have said, along with the actions of his followers, that people take into question.

Middle of second seder in my Israeli yeshiva in Yerushalayim. My chavrusa got up for a minute, came back and told me. I thought he was joking so I insisted we keep on learning/batteling until another American walked by that I was sure knew. Reports were really erratic at first, which made things scarier. No one knew how many planes there were, what was hit, whether any were shot down. After seder the whole Yeshiva was made up of groups of guys huddled together talking in nervous whispers. I heard one English speaking Israeli repeat to his friends what he heard on the radio and ended his sentence in English, “both of the towers fell”.

I had took out my phone and for about 2 hours straight was just redialing my parents number until I got through and heard that Baruch Hashem they didn’t hear any bad news about anyone we knew or cared about. Later we learned that one relative who worked near Ground Zero was missing for about eight hours because he had to walk from Manhattan back home to New Jersey and couldn’t find a phone (cell phone service in NYC was suspended that day, and pay phones had hour long lines).

Personally, I think it should be טראמפ.

@ubiquitin the problem with “8÷2(2+2) =” is the inconsistent notation. In general when you use x(y) to multiply, you will use a bar to divide, “8/2(2+2)” which makes it a lot clearer that “2(2+2)” is the denominator and “8” is the numerator.

@Whatsaktome That’s not a shitta held of by a single authority outside of modern Chabad.

Rav Chaim SHLITA has a lot of chumras based on numerous acharonim about how Yidden should dress, talk, walk, and style. Most people don’t follow even a quarter of them. One example is that there is an acharon who refers to watches as beged isha. My father was once by Rav Chaim and his gabbai Rav Amar came into the room wearing a watch. Rav Chaim motioned to him, and he smiled and put it into his pocket. Take from that story what you will.

It’s a divided issue among poskim. Aderet music used to put this really bizarre “contract” in their CD cases that basically states “This is not your CD, this CD and all of its contents belong to Aderet and you are a renter. If you copy anything from the CD the rental agreement is annulled and the CD must be returned”.

Nowadays, the music industry has learned to live and cope with piracy. There may be nothing technically wrong with pirated music, halachically (again, big machlokes poskim) speaking. So they make their music readily available and easy to get to for anyone who has the Internet and a credit card.

@Yeshivishrockstar if LEGO Star Wars is a problem, I will have a lot of angry children and nephews on my hands. None of them have watched or read anything Star Wars related, but they can tell you with absolute certainty how many minifigures come with the Death Star and how many radar dishes are on the Millennium Falcon.

The correct answer, that Yiddisheit is not about personal emotional feelings, would not be the right thing to say. So nodding along and saying something noncommittal like you did is the only response.

@🍫Syag Lchochma Not at all. I’ve been reading about him for years in the frum media, and not one article makes a defense for the things I mentioned. The failure to print the full story is on the frum oilom.

Pidyan Shavuyin, according to most poskim, only applies in cases where the subject is arrested because of anti-Semitism or his/her life is in danger. Pollard directly violated the law and he was never in danger, just uncomfortable.

Took me months of off and on memorization from the official Rubiks Cube website. Now I can do it in about 5 minutes. It’s pretty difficult and requires a lot of pattern memorizing.

I don’t think there are any hard and fast statistics. And it’s kind of a grey area. What constitutes going OTD and what would constitute getting back on?

@zahavasdad Completely false. Some law schools that are frequented by frum men may take issue with a BTL because they’ve seen so many of them, but for the most part it’s an excellent way to skip a huge chunk of undergrad requirements. Many graduate schools will accept a student with a BTL and a few required courses.

Are you makpid on differentiating between ג and גּ? What about תּ and ט?

Excuse me! But according the yesterdays Scripps National Spelling Bee, it’s spelled YiddishKEIT.

Excuse me? The Force not a religion? Please allow me to quote from the canonical Fourth Movie in which Admiral Tarkin speaks with Darth Vader and refers to said Force as (and I quote) “hokey religions”.

It’s my right as a member of a just society to fire my AK-47 in the air everytime I liberate a land of infidels. That’s protected by the 1st amendment, no?

@NevilleChaimBerlin So they share a mesora (sort of)! So what? My point was that Yated Israel and Yated US are different unaffiliated publications just like Vizhnitz Monsey and Vizhnitz Bnei Brak are different unaffiliated organizations.

@Joseph Vizhnitz Monsey and Vizhnitz Bnei Brak are not officially affiliated and never were. Several other branches, like Seret Vizhnitz, are similarly unaffiliated to either. It’s similar with Satmar Williamsburg and Satmar Kiryas Yoel.

There are no affiliations between Ner Yisroel Toronto, (the former) Ner Yisroel LA, and Ner Yisroel Baltimore either.

<quote>I am discovering many people that are “frum-b’di’eved” -thay keep all b’di’eved muttar halachos, and many others are “frum-light” – a watered down frum-lifestyle, like the foods that are “kosher-style”. </quote>

That’s been going on for as long as Sinai. I like to refer to them as “Orthodox but not frum”.

This sounds like real sensationalizing. I’ve said in another thread, the only things Rav Chaim can say that will have an impact on my life would be if he personally wrote it and had it published. Everything else is just his legion of fans getting access and asking loaded questions that they know what his answer will be.

What does it mean that he “left” the Yated and the new paper is under his “auspices”? He is a pure tzaddik who cares about nothing that doesn’t involve the Torah. Politics is basically meaningless to him so his alleged political positions should be meaningless to everyone else.