mold in israel

 I just had a guy over my house to give an estimate on cleaning up the mold. He said it was coming from a leak from the upstairs neighbor. He said there was no point in explaining the problem to them if they are Israeli. He's done it 100 times and every time the Israel says, "I'm not fixing it." I asked it it's toxic mold. He said you have to send a sample to a lab and there is no lab in all of Israel that checks for this. He sends it to Florida.

The odds are in your favor.

When a contemporary yeshivish rabbi accuses you of being disrespectful you probably have done something right, because you either 

A) Asked him a question that he cannot answer 

B) Showed him information that he had not seen before 

C) Correctly criticized a public facing action of his or any other yeshivish rabbi. Even if you were not correct, expressing yourself as such is not disrespectful.  

D) Said something mildly disrespectful, but not anything the typical rabbi doesn't do or actually said something genuinely disrespectful. 

The odds are in your favor. 

Rav Schachter Q&A With Derech 2023 - YouTube

 Rav Schachter Q&A With Derech 2023 - YouTube

14:00-14:34

One of the many considerations in choosing a profession is how much time will you have to learn. Another important consideration is will you have sipuk hanefesh in what you’re doing. Let’s say, I’ll be miserable in my job, but I’ll have more time to learn. But I’m going to be miserable because I’m not happy with that kind of work. Then I’m gonna be in a miserable mood from my job then I’m not going to happy when I learn. So the learning is not going to be too successful.”[1] 

---

[1] Rabbi Hershel Schacter, “Rav Schachter Q&A With Derech 2023,” Ohr Somayach channel, youtube.com

You'll note that he is speaking to Modern Orthodox kids at Ohr Somayach, not BTs because the large kiruv schools are now mostly populated with FFBs. 

He also says here that the chiyuv in learning is just a minute in the morning and at night. 

anybody who is responsible

 

"If a Jew is unwillingly the cause of serious harm to somebody else, how should he feel? Now the question is what is meant by ‘unwilling’? You know, if a man kills somebody b’shogeig, he didn’t want to kill, the law is that if the goel hadam catches him he can kill him; a relative can kill him. Because a shogeig is also blameworthy. If it is an oness, something entirely beyond his ability to prevent,  you can’t blame him; but otherwise there is a very great blood-guilt on a person who even indirectly has a share in somebody’s death. There is a teshuvah in one of the teshuvah sefarim. A man sent a boy, a youth, to drive a wagon at night through the forest. Now at night it is not so easy to drive on the road, and the wagon overturned and the boy perished. And therefore the chacham who answered the teshuvah said it’s a very serious matter. He said you have to fast so many days every year, and you have to give away so much money to establish a fund to do mitzvos instead of the the mitzvos he lost. A very great and difficult teshuvah. Because anybody who is responsible for somebody’s life even indirectly, unwillingly, has to have it on his conscience always. Very serious matter."

 

Rabbi Avigdor Miller, TAPE # 405 (May 1982), 1:33:15-1:34:58.

this has to be relevant somehow

 When people are freezing, the most important thing is to keep the brain and vital organs functioning. So, the blood vessels at the ends of the body naturally tighten up to ensure a good blood flow to those vital organs.

After being in this stressed state for a while, the muscles handling the blood vessels get tired and need a time to "rest."

Now, the blood vessels on the body's surface open wide, making the blood rush quickly to the limbs. Suddenly, those cold limbs feel all warm, creating the illusion of being "crazy hot."

When this signal reaches the brain, it misguides the instructions, making people believe it's scorching hot, leading them to take off all their clothes.

At that point, people who are on the verge of dying get up and struggle to undress, thinking that undressing is good.

Sarah Moore

Why isn’t the study of Tanach stressed in the yeshivos?

 Why isn’t the study of Tanach stressed in the yeshivos?

Rabbi Avigdor Miller:

The answer is that today we’re less organized than we used to be.  In the days of old everybody first studied Torah; the entire Torah.  Then they studied Nevi’im and they studied Kesuvim. And we find in the Gemara that even the Sages used to come together—the greatest chachmei hatanaim—and study Tanach together. They called it pirka.  It says when Rav was in the yeshivah of Rebbe, Rabi Yehudah Hanasi, so because he was the youngest one they gave him the function of reading aloud the possuk.  He used to read the possuk aloud and all the chachamim gave their comments.  Then someone came in late so Rav had to start from the beginning again.  It’s a whole story there.  But whatever it is we see that was the practice – they studied Tanach.  In the yeshiva of these great men they studied Tanach.  Certainly it’s a valuable study.

But over the course of time, we became disorganized. And now, especially in America, we don’t have enough time for everything. Now, if they would throw out from the mesivtas all limudei chol—which they’re not able to do because of the state requirements—if you could get rid of limudei chol, you would have time for Tanach. But as it is now, we don’t even have enough time for gemara.  Gemara is a subject that requires a great deal of study, a great deal of time.

However, if you want to appreciate the quality of the devar Hashem and learn some of the secrets of the darkei Hashem, it’s imperative to know Tanach. And therefore it’s recommended for people who are looking for shleimus.

However, it does not make you a lamdan.  A lamdan must put in whatever time he has in learning gemara and mefarshim; but if he wants a perfection of character and perfection of mind, it’s essential to learn Tanach.

Now, I would recommend even if you have no time, at least to read the Tanach in English. At least once.  Get an idea of what happened.  You won’t understand anything but at least know what happened in the days of Yehoshua, what happened in the days of the Shoftim.  All of that glorious era should be a blank in your mind?!  What happened in the days of Shaul and Dovid Hamelech and Shlomo Hamelech and all the kings of Malchus Beis Dovid?  What happened to the Aseres Hashevatim?

And even Tehillim.  And Iyov too. You never learned Iyov even once?  Mishlei! Whole treasure troves of wisdom! And even though if you read it in translation you won’t understand many things, it’s better than not having the slightest contact with this great heritage of our past.

By all means, Tanach is very important, and every ambitious person should have in mind that someday he’ll study Tanach.

TAPE # 729 (March 1989)

Greenland

 

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

I have three (3) very positive encounters. All occurred in airports:

Chuck Norris - he was about 25 feet from me. I didn't want to intrude, so I didn't approach him, but I was looking his direction. We made eye contact and he came straight at me with a huge grin, grabbed my hand and said, “How you doing, man!”, with a warm, genuine smile.

Donny Osmond - I was assisting him with a minor issue. He approached me and threw his arm around my shoulder and greeted me like we were old friends. We spent about 5 minutes just chatting about his old TV show, his residency in Vegas with his sister, and what he was off to do on his trip. Absolutely a stellar human being.

Mike Lookingland - I was checking identifications and read the name, looked up and asked him, “THE Mike Lookingland?” He grinned and replied, “Yes.” Five minutes later ! Had to assist him with a bag. He and I spent about 5 minutes chatting about his trip and career. He was the kind of guy you would invite over to a barbecue and just have a great time. 

Darren Somsen

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Democracy?

A neighbor called the police on a man claiming he married a woman under the age of 18. I don't know her actual age, but it's close to 18. The police came, threw him on the floor, zip tied his hands and feet, and kicked him in the ribs when he asked to know why they were doing what they were doing.

This happened in Israel of course. I know the guy.

Part of democracy is professional police conduct. The police are not employed to dish out punishment, only to prevent crimes or to investigate them. It's the job of the courts to judge guilt and issue punishment if appropriate.

Now American police are quite harsh when a person resists arrest, but throwing a man to the floor and hog tying him over something like this? You are not likely to know a person this happens to, not in the USA. But in Israel, well, I do.

The mitzvos you lose

The sales pitch is come to Israel and get a continuous mitzvah, and if you don't move you are violating a chiyuv. 

Let's start with the second part of that. It's not a chiyuv. It's an optional mitzvah that you get credit for if you do it, but you don't have to. So says the posek Hador Rav Moshe Feinstein. And so many tzadickim didn't live here: Lubavitcher Rebbe, Satmar Rebbe, Rivnitzer Rebbe, Rav Avigdor Miller, Rav Yaakov Kamenestky, Rav Shimon Schwab, Rav Yosef Breuer, and many, many more. The Yekkes, bless them, are even buried in America as is the Ribnitzer. I believe this is proper as one should not encourage moving to Israel in any way.

Didn't the Ramban say it was a mitzvah d'orita to live in Israel? The Ramban didn't come until the last two years of his life. 

Is that because it wasn't safe? Is it safe now? Israelis keep telling me how they have to draft the Haredim because we are under an existential threat. That means danger. People get killed here every week from terrorism.

So if you come, putting yourself in danger, there's still the optional mitzvah that you get. OK, but you lose so many more. Here's what you are likely to lose:

Torah study - you work now six days a week, under stressful conditions so even when you study concentration is poor. If your Hebrew is weak, you'll suffer because the shuls, even in Anglo communities, don't have books in English.

Ahavas Yisroel - the hatred and internecine hostility here is overwhelming. People don't try to understand one another. You get drawn into it. Israel teaches you how to hate other Jews.

Tzedukah - you'll have far less money for giving.

Hachnachas Orchim - your tiny apartment has no room for guests.

Seichel - you'll learn to shut down your mind, not take an interest in alternative opinions, not be objective, live in intellectual isolation.

Honesty - the financial pressures causes it but so does the influence of Arab culture - you'll learn to be dishonest. 

Middos- Derech Eretz Kadmah l'Torah, and in Israel your derech eretz will decline significantly. You will not be the first to say hello anymore. Your sensitivity to the feelings of other will decline. Your anger will increase, and anger is one of the biggest sins.

Faith - That goes out the window too. Israelis have faith in their army that couldn't watch a fence. It rubs off on you. Faith is one of the six constant mitzvos, in fact all of them concern faith. So you are living in the land every minutes, which his optional, but lose out on the six constant mitzvos, which are obligatory. 

In sum, you lose far more mitzvos than you gain by moving to Israel.  In doing so, you are bringing sin onto the land because we are supposed to grow not decline. And bringing sin onto the land is osur.

Schteiging

Now, the sefarim tell us that in the matter of coming close to Hashem in this world there are all kinds of degrees. Of course any degree is better than no degree, and we should try to accomplish whatever we can. Anyone who tries to gain even a little bit of perfection is successful. Of course, however, there are higher and higher degrees.  And the sefarim explain, that you cannot ascend to the higher rungs of the ladder you unless first you put your feet on the lower rungs of the ladder. That's an important principle. We call it schteiging. Schteiging is a yiddish word which means climbing up the steps of the rung. That's schteiging. You cannot immediately put your feet on the top rung. 

Rabbi Avigdor Miller, 592 Loving the Mitzvos, 26:15

applies to rabbis too

 Commenting on the abuse of government power, Thomas Sowell said, "One of the real problems is that you have people making decisions for which they pay no price when they're wrong." Thomas Sowell

Consequences Matter: Thomas Sowell on “Social Justice Fallacies” | Uncommon Knowledge, 7:45, youtube.com