rabbi speaks to new bt

 

why you shouldn't live in ny

 KEEPING GOOD COMPANY

We can understand why Eisov wanted to come out, but Yaakov was being taught Torah by an angel at the time, so why would he have wanted to come out? The Brisker Rov is said to have commented that even being taught Torah by an angel is not worthwhile at the cost of having to live in close quarters with an evil person. Even though there was no obvious detrimental effect, just being in close proximity to a person like Eisov is damaging, especially for someone like Yaakov, whose image is engraved underneath the Kisei Hakavod.

Rav Sternbuch was once asked whether a child should be sent to a cheder with excellent teachers and a very high academic level, but the class in question also has some boys with bad middos, or to another institution with a much lower level of learning but in which the boys in the class did not have bad middos and came from strong homes. Rav Sternbuch instructed the parent to choose the institution with the better boys because that was the most important issue, since even a minority of children with bad middos can have a very detrimental effect on their friends.

listen to your rav? maybe not

 for the rabbi who told me not to move to cleveland because it wasn't growing:

There really are rabbis and mohalim like this

 

Does it have to be EVERY TIME?

The name Harlan Ellison doesn't sound Jewish to me, at least not the Harlan part. So when I read this, I figured we were dealing with a low class Southern gentile. But no.

Who is the rudest celebrity you have met, and who would be the nicest?

The rudest was celebrity I ever met Harlan Ellison. My husband, a famous science fiction author, introduced me to Harlan Ellison, also a famous science fiction writer. I was about five months pregnant at the time, and Ellison said, “You got him trapped, didn’t you?” My husband came close to socking him. At a conference several months later, my husband was on a panel discussion and I was in the audience. When Ellison had his turn to speak, every third word had four letters. The entire audience as shocked. When one lady left, Ellison yelled at her that she had a weak bladder.

The nicest was Robert Heinlein, also a science fiction writer. I can’t even count the number of kindnesses he and his wife Virginia bestowed on us. Theodore Sturgeon, author of “More Than Human”, came in a close second.

--------------------

Ellison was born to a Jewish family^[8] in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 27, 1934, the son of Serita (née Rosenthal) and Louis Laverne Ellison, a dentist and jeweler.

Heinlein, born on July 7, 1907, to Rex Ivar Heinlein (an accountant) and Bam Lyle Heinlein, in Butler, Missouri, was the third of seven children. He was a sixth-generation German-American; a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war, starting with the War of Independence.

Brilliant

 

When a man wakes up.

This applies to frum men too.

Listen don't watch. 

 

guess which two are jewish

 

for Boston fans

 

Is YU Hirschian?

 

Not really. YU is Litvish Judaism with lots of Zionism and enough feminism to emasculate the men but not enough to challenge the rabbis. See Zev Ellef's articles: Between Bennett and Amsterdam Avenues: The Complex American Legacy of Samson Raphael Hirsch, 1939-2013 and AMERICAN ORTHODOXY’S LUKEWARMEMBRACE OF THE HIRSCHIAN LEGACY,1850-1939.

Being more open to things, YU will have some talk about Rav Hirsch and some Chassidus, but even those are approached Litvish style, which means analytically and coldly. They are more open to careers in part because Modern Orthodoxy is very expensive with the million dollar houses and day school tuition at $40,000 a year per child. Nobody is encouraging fulfilling careers for men, just ones that make lots of money. Women on the other hand go into whatever careers they want. I know a Modern Orthodox woman who left Israel with her husband who quit his job to go study in a theater program in Colorado.

I once told a MO rabbi that it was nice that we are doing so much to improve the lives of women but I believe we need to do the same for men. He said, "I don't know what you are talking about," turned his head and walked away.

The lives of men aren't nurtured in that world any more than they are in the yeshiva world. There's the same pressure to become a genius and to 'learn more Torah,' as well as the pressure to move to Israel, which also can destroy your life. They have little sense of caretaking of the soul in either the MO or yeshiva worlds for they are after all Litvacks.

Hirsch was neither a Zionist nor a feminist nor a Litvack so YU can be a problem but so can be every other group. 

To be a Hirschian you will walk alone because what's left of the German community is either Modern or Litvish. The few people who describe themselves as Hirschians are usually Zionistic, sometimes intensely so. They rationalize that if Hirsch were around today, he'd be a Zionist. That's what you call delusional rationalization as most Zionists have replaced God and Torah with State and that's exactly what R' Hirsch said not to do. He also said to be cognizant of the dignity and purpose of gentiles. Show me a Zionist who does that. 

So, no, YU is not TIDE. You have to be TIDE on your own. Go for it. R' Hirsch will be by your side, and all the gadolim who praised Hirsch are by your side too because they understood that he was sent by Hashem to help people in their Judaism. 

But you won't be entirely on your own. You can have a foot in many communities. In the Israeli Haredi world you get the anti-zionism of Hirsch. It's a militant anti-zionism because Israel is a militant country but you ignore that part. You also get the religious intensity that was true of Rav Hirsch, although he didn't impose that on others. In the Chassidic world you get the sense of community, more of a focus on God, and a pursuit of happiness. In the Modern O world you get more of a tolerance for earning a parnassah. In the small Yekke world, mostly Wash Heights, you get the German Minhagim. And they all respect Hirsch so you keep that in your back pocket. 

 

The Litvaks of Gateshead

Read this astonishingly obnoxious letter, but read also between the lines because you'll see a large part of what's wrong with the neo-Litivsh world. It starts with dishonesty as the fake warmth is followed by palpable hostility and an open threat. The empty greeting of "warmest greetings" is there only to butter you up for the kill. So, too, is the promise of talking in a "respectful manner," the favorite term of yeshivists, which is followed by absolute condescension. 

These anonymous rabbis who wrote this unsigned letter, whoever they are, see themselves as owning Gateshead. They want total control. What's the harm if a guy opens up a little Chabad house? I have seen many small Chabad houses in Litvish communities. They don't take over the city. They barely get a minyan. What they get is a person or two who is not receiving what he needs from the Litivsh world--he might even have been destroyed by it-- and he's helped by Chabad. Passaic is like that. Manchester is like that. 

Perhaps they feel threatened because a year ago several hundred men attended a farbrengen. (article from December 25, 2024). The photographs show mostly Chassidim (non-Lubavitch and Lubavitch). The bearded ones wearing fedoras and untucked shirts are Lubavitchers. There's a Modern Orthodox kid in blue jeans.  There are few yeshivish people in the room.

See them as Jews who are benefiting from Chassidus, not a threat to the Litvish way of life, unless it exposes how barren that life can be.  Litvish people are so brainwashed against Chabad -- that includes the authors of this letter -- that they generally don't go anywhere near it.

The condescension in this letter is so palpable that you need another word for it. It's disgust, and reminds me of 1940s era Aryan ideology of you know who. We must maintain religious purity as if the Litvacks of Gateshead have it. 

And of course, everything they are doing is in reverent obedience to "the gadolim." Nearly every stupidity of rabbis and principals in our times is in effect blamed on the "gadolim" because really it is  stupidity that is projected onto "the gadolim." 

This letter displays arrogance, sinas Yisroel, tyranny, and dishonesty. It's gross which is funny because you can tell that the authors see themselves as dignified and upstanding men of Torah. Let us hope that the clowns who wrote it spent hours and hours in bitul Torah debating each point as they usually do. And let us hope they hired a writer because Lord knows they lack the education to write it themselves. But the writer doesn't know how to spell check as he signed off with "parners for and on behalf of the Gateshead Kehilla Committee." Parners? A mangled word for mangled rabbis. 

Is Barbra Streisand as rude as she seems?

More of Jews without mitzvos, especially the ones from Brooklyn

Is Barbra Streisand as rude as she seems?

Robert Blough

Former Pilot (1973–2013)

Yes she is worse. She considers herself royalty. I know an airline flight attendant who had her and her personal assistant in 1st class. The attendant walks up, smiles and says, can I get you something to drink Ms Streisand? So Babs gets a big frown on her face… she had the window seat… she turns her back on the flight attendant and looks out the window without saying a word. Her assistant proceeds to scold the flight attendant like she had done something wrong. She says, You do not speak directly to Mz Streisand. You speak to me and I’ll speak to Ms Streisand. It would have been nice if she’d taken Bab’s drink order through the indentured servant and then came back and dumped it on the pompous, arrogant biches head.

--------------

Karyl Lawson

I had always been a huge fan of Streisand when I was young. I had all her albums, memorized every song she ever sang and used to force my brothers to sit and listen to me sing them…they were so tolerant.

One day my one brother and I were at garden park when I saw her walking along alone. My brother, knowing how much I liked her, encouraged me to approach her.

I took a deep breath, walked up to her and said, “hello, I know you hear this all the time but I need to tell you how much I admire your talent”.

Her response, “just leave me alone”.

-------------------

Shane R. Swensen Sr.

I witnessed the film crew’s distain for her while I worked as an extra on ‘A Star is Born’ in 1976. Every time Babs would ascend the camera platform to bark out orders the crew would hold up hilarious but very rude hand painted signs behind her.

---------------------

Heather Bradley

Have you ever met a famous person you admired but who ended up being a jerk in person? If so, who was it?

Barbara Streisand. Years ago, we stayed in the same hotel in Venice Italy where, over several days, I had many opportunities to observe her behavior. She was rude, entitled, and demanding. I was so disappointed because I had admired her for years and, initially, was excited to see her. None of us are perfect and we all have bad days but she never once showed any humility or grace. I have met quite a few celebrities over the years, some were warm and gracious and others not so much, but she took the cake. I continue to admire her talent but not the person. Sad.

Mamdani

Rabbi Sternbuch said the following: "An anti-Semitic Muslim mayor was elected in New York, and there are Jews there who are afraid of him. However, we must remember that Hashem is with us, and therefore that Gentile cannot do anything to us, and Heaven forbid that we should be confused and think that he can do us harm."

I like Rabbi Sternbuch. He has many good things to say, but he has no idea if the new mayor is an anti-Semite. I promise you the rabbi has never heard Mamdani speak and doesn't even know what he looks like. This is the effect of Zionism, assuming every Moslem is an anti-Semite, or that anybody who criticizes anything about Israel is the same. And it's also just hating gentiles in general. Litvish rabbis are all fools on this topic.

Similarly, Rabbi Kamenetsky, who I also like, supposedly said if a goy in Monsey walks by you and doesn't punch you, say Hallel.

Also a dumb comment. Has it happened even once in all these years? This is Jewish supremacy in action. Litvish rabbis are all stupid on this topic, except for Rav Soloveitchik and sometimes Rabbi Miller.

every single time?

 

Who was the rudest celebrity you’ve met?

I used to work for a place that made custom storage cabinets for your garage, and closet organizers. Our business was in Las Vegas, NV.

There was a gated community that was having new construction going on. You could access the community through a wide open back gate, but you had to report to an office to sign in.

A co-worker and I had those little fliers that you could hang over door handles promoting our business. We signed in like we were supposed to. The community had one day out of the week where those who did interior designs could come in to advertise their wares. So we were allowed to be there and hand out fliers.

As we left, the security guard motioned to us, and told us that one of the residents had complained…and had demanded that all fliers be removed from all doors. We had spent the better part of three hours hanging the fliers.

So we turned around to go back in. We decided to go all the way to the front and work our way back to the back gate and remove the fliers. We called the boss and let him know what happened.

As we drove to the front, a guy standing in his front yard motioned for us to come hither and “get our asses in gear, before he got pissed”. He then berated us as we took the flier from his door, and told us that he’d better never see us again, or else.

He pissed us off so bad we said, “Screw this. He can f**k himself.” We left, removing NONE of the fliers but his. The man was a total rat bastard.

And that, gentle readers, is how I met Jerry Lewis.

obsessed with intelligence

 We are so smart. You are so smart. Smart, smart. Always about being smart. It's too much.

00:35

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxWhAYyQAB6NBEpafN6Na-frn0rDqBE_xB?si=kzbWicp2PjIQuUOM

sang for their dying teacher

 

There goes those goyim again. 

it's the men

 A man will sacrifice his happiness for his family. A woman will sacrifice her family for her happiness.

this is smart

 

Instead of making you feel that you messed up, they put the blame on themselves and show you a photo of a nice dog. 

Sort of the opposite of the yeshiva world. 

Finally a rabbi with a humble and gentle speaking manner.

 https://www.torahanytime.com/lectures/14695

Two Approaches to Kiruv; Avraham's and Yitzchak's

MW

R' Moshe Wolfson ZTL

just sent to me

 This just occurred to me that the religious society's approach to a BT (in our days) was that a BT is attempting to do tshuvah not with God but with the frum society, as if they themselves "are" God and that the BT's are coming before them, to be judged as to whether their intentions are true. And that positioning gives the uneducated within that society (often these are easily found in yeshivot, as much or more, than in general frum society) the impetus to engage also in "hazing." As in, the BT must prove himself, constantly prove himself, in order to be normalized even more so than a convert for whom the Torah commands one to love. The Jew (whose family line who at one point departed from the rabbinic-controlled societal forms & approaches of Europe (since the 1800's) must be tested/tried. “If we are going to let them back into the religious society, we have to cleanse them...and keep reminding them of their status...and find ways to denigrate their status". 

I point to the irony & ridiculous approach to BT Kohanim...which challenges the frum community at all levels.

Oh those goyim, they are awful

 

Humility, gratitude, and common sense

 from a rock star, Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones

it's about respect ladies

 

ny again

 

Was Rick Barry's all-around offensive game in the 1970s underrated by players he competed against?

If NBA players underrated Rick Barry in the 1970’s, it’s because he was incredibly unlikeable, not because he was a bad player.

He was pretty well-known around the league for being a very abrasive, condescending, and rude individual and later developed a reputation for being racist. So you can see why most players didn’t respect him very much.

BUT…he was definitely a great player at the time. He was averaging 28 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals in the 1975 playoffs, ultimately resulting in the Golden State Warriors winning a championship with Barry as the finals MVP.

So I don’t think people ever questioned Rick Barry’s basketball ability, they just questioned how he treated people on a human level.

Barry was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Roselle Park, an urban middle-class community. 

Jews need mitzvos

The studio heads were Jewish. 

 

trust him

 

most pleasant from where?

 

Jonathan Lee writes "I was in the live Sports and Entertainment industry for about 35 years, so I had the opportunity to be around quite a few celebrities. There have been quite a few pleasant celebrities. Carmelo Anthony did a commercial shoot at the LA Sports Arena during my time there and could not have been more pleasant. Arrived precisely on time, with an entourage of exactly one and introduced himself at the security guard station, assuming people didn’t know who he was. It seemed like he had a smile on his face the entire day, and even shot around with the staff and extras and gave some shooting form tips. There have been plenty of others that were very pleasant to be around (Dwight Howard, Lebron (once he had been in the league a few years), former 49ers Linebacker Patrick Willis, Joe Flacco, Dick Butkus, Paul McCartney, etc) but Anthony stood out."

So I looked up Carmelo's bio and was surprised to see that he was born in New York City. Such a gentleman from NYC? But I read further. "When Anthony turned eight, his family moved to Baltimore."

So that explains it. 

no anger

 In the 1960s, Harvard graduate student Jean Briggs made a remarkable discovery about human anger.

At 34, she traveled beyond the Arctic Circle and lived in the tundra for 17 months. No roads. No heating. No grocery stores. Winters dropped below –40°C.

Briggs convinced an Inuit family to “adopt” her so she could observe their life in its natural rhythm. Soon, she noticed something extraordinary: the adults had an almost superhuman ability to control their anger. They never lost their temper.

One day, someone spilled a boiling kettle inside an igloo, damaging the ice floor. No shouting. No blame. Just a calm, “Too bad,” before fetching more water. Another time, a fishing line—painstakingly woven for days—snapped on the very first cast. The only response? “Let’s make another one.”

Next to them, Briggs felt like an impulsive child. So she began asking: How do Inuit parents teach their children this emotional mastery?

One afternoon, she found her answer. A young mother was playing with her angry two-year-old son. She handed him a small stone and said, “Hit me with it. Again. Harder.” When he threw it, she covered her eyes and pretended to cry, “Ooooh, that hurts!”

To Briggs, it seemed strange—until she realized it was a powerful lesson. The Inuit believe you never scold a small child or speak to them in an angry voice. Instead, they use gentle play to teach empathy and self-control. Even if a child hits or bites you, you respond with calm, not rage.

Maybe the rest of us could learn something from a culture where anger isn’t feared... because it’s understood.✍️

TA Junior

The TA Junior this week says the following:

“Tell me, boys,” Totty asked. “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

“We always thought we’d learn in kollel for as long as possible,” said Shimmy.

“And then if we needed parnasah, we would maybe get a job as a rebbe or a

rov or something,” Yitzy added, as Shimmy nodded in agreement.

“Beautiful!” Totty said. “Now in Parshas Noach, which of the people I

mentioned were saved from the mabul?”

“Uh…” thought Shimmy. “None of them. Only Noach and his children.”

“Exactly!” Totty said. “Hashem didn’t save those so-called important people.

He saved the tzadik and his family, regardless of what the rest of the world

thought of them. By striving to be the best eved Hashem you can possibly be, you

will be more important in Hashem’s eyes than any doctor, lawyer or scientist!”

This is a contrast to the following words from Rabbi Miller:

Question: “How can one cope with the stress of having chovos. He has debts,” 

Rabbi Avigdor Miller:

Number one is that you have to have a job. Very important to learn a parnassah. There are so many ways of making a living. America is the land of opportunity. Only if you think you’re a choshuve person and that it’s beneath your dignity to work. You want to act like a talmid chocham and live on charity and on debts. You should know, Ha-Kadosh Boruch Hu is not satisfied with you.

     יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ, שיגיעת שניהם משכחת עון  

You have to work and make a living, together with learning, and if you work, you’ll pay off your debts. But if you don’t work, your debts will increase and multiply. It’s a very important principle in life not to live a life of idleness. You’ll say, “I’m learning all day long. I have bitachon.” No, no. That’s not bitachon. It’s just wildness. It’s just wildness. It’s just yielding to the yetzer ha-ra. And therefore, it’s so important for people to learn a parnassah.

Now, you might say, “That’s a contradiction. We should sit and all day and learn all our lives.” You’re contradicting the Torah. הרבה עשו כרבי שמעון בר יוחאי ולא עלתה בידם.  Many people didn’t succeed like him. No, it’s not for many people. It’s for a mi’ut. The majority of people cannot do that.

And therefore, it’s necessary for people to be honest with themselves and go out and make a living.

The TA Juniors should reflect Rabbi Miller's views. They should not be propaganda pieces for kollel culture. We already receive that every day of the week. 

looking at history differently

 

Jean-Marie Valheur

lover of history1y

What is something in history that you strongly feel was lied about or exaggerated?

The French aristocracy pre-Revolution weren't the careless, luxurious bastards lording over everyone cruelly as they are made out to be. This is demonstrated most perfectly by the fact that many of the most prominent revolutionaries were, themselves, noblemen.

In the same vein, Louis XVI wasn't overthrown because he was a tyrant, he was overthrown because he was NOT a tyrant. If anything him being friendly, indecisive and soft-willed moreso than his war-minded predecessors Louis XV and Louis XIV, made him into a target. The Kings before him stayed reasonably popular. By going to war a lot and spending obscene amounts of money that would ultimately lead to the Kingdom's downfall, these rulers were generally rather respected by much of the population. Much like with the last Tsar of Russia, the King who ended up losing his head to the guillotine was a pretty chill, open-minded fellow open to reforms.

There’s this stereotype of these lavishly spoiled big spenders in powdered wigs, Marie-Antoinette telling the hungry should just “go eat cake”, completely removed from reality… and truthfully, this is bullshit. A ton of noblemen were social reformers, generous to the poor, conscientious and cared deeply for the common man. The revolutionaries who took over, quite a few of them were blue-blooded themselves. And were far worse than the elites they ended up killing.

George Orwell

 George Orwell - 1984 - Part 1, Chapter 7

The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.

the eagle soars higher

 

How well did the cast of "Gilligan's Island" get along?

 IMHO - There was the cast and then there was Tina Louise (Ginger). Tina had already done some film work and was moving nicely. Her agent brought her the contract for Gilligan’s Island and sold it to her. She signed despite misgivings. The story goes that at first table reading, Tina complained that Bob Denver had more lines, was getting more laughs and it seemed like he was the star of the show. Everyone kind of looked at her with looks of pity, confusion and, just one or two, with contempt. This was when she was advised and reminded that it’s Gilligan’s Island, not Ginger’s Island. Tina Louise was not happy with that at all.

Now there are stories of how Tina Louise would do her lines, perform her character and then would stay separate from the rest of the cast. ... Further stories go on about how Tina would be vocal about not enjoying doing the show. And so you had 6 cast members who would laugh, joke and work well together and then you had Tina Louise. It got to the point that when certain pictures were being taken, Bob Denver refused to take any with Tina Louise being in the shot.

There were several reunion movies but Tina Louise would have nothing to do with them. She wanted to distance herself from the character as much as possible. She did show up for reunion interviews like on the Fox late show with Ross Shafer in 1988. But if you watch these shows, you can see that there is a finite space between Louise and Alan Hale Jr. When she comes out, there are no embraces or kisses. Barely a hand shake. Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson practically don’t acknowledge her. Louise kisses Jim Backus when he comes out and Natalie Schafer gives her a quick handshake but nothing more. Louise spent more time in the interview promoting her indy film The Pool then she did chatting about Gilligan. The host has to draw it out of her by asking her to talk like Ginger.

In an earlier reunion on GMA with Kathie Lee Gifford hosting, Hale Jr. is on her right and leaning away from her and Russell Johnson has defined space away from her on the couch. She has the gall to say they were a family and all had fun. Ha!! Gifford asks her about not having done the reunion flicks and Louise stammers for a moment in response. It was obvious she had to choose her words carefully.

On the whole, the cast was tight and happy together and all but Louise said they would do it again.

---------------

Louise was born Tina Blacker on February 11, 1934, in New York City.^[2] An only child, she was raised by her mother, Sylvia (née Horn, later Myers), a fashion model. Her father, Joseph Blacker, was a candy store owner in Brooklyn, and later an accountant.^[1][3] Her parents divorced by the time she was four. Louise attended PS 6, Scarborough Day School and Miami University.^[4] She is Jewish.^[5]

for those who struggle with davening

 https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/havinenu-a-shortened-version-of-the-amidah

Havinenu: A Shortened Version of the Amidah

When and why Jews say an abbreviated Amidah. Full text and translation of Havinenu included.

By Max Buchdahl

 https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/havinenu-a-shortened-version-of-the-amidah

Grant us understanding, Lord our God, to know Your ways, and sensitize our hearts so that we may revere You, and forgive us so that we may be redeemed, and keep us far from our suffering, and satisfy us with the pastures of Your land, and gather our scattered people from the four corners of the earth, and those who go astray shall be judged according to Your will, and raise Your hand against the wicked, and may the righteous rejoice in the rebuilding of Your city and the restoration of Your Sanctuary, and in the flourishing of Your servant David,  and in establishing a light for Your Messiah, son of Yishai. Before we call, may You answer. Blessed are You, Lord, Who listens to prayer.