do you really want to live in new york?

 Jamie Dimon was born in New York City 

https://x.com/i/status/1890202488596492620

Chas v’shalom to silence one who disagrees with you

 Igros Moshe(O.C. 1:109): This that you apologize for disagreeing with me in a halachic issue – this is totally unnecessary. That is because this is the way of Torah that it is necessary to establish the truth. Chas v’shalom to silence one who disagrees with you – whether he is being more lenient or more strict. [While there is a discussion about disagreeing in a formal court session Sanhedrin 36 where the court is deciding on the guilt or innocence…] it is not a problem to disagree with the gadol (greatest scholar) when he is saying something in the course of teaching the material or even if he is making a practical halachic ruling but he is not part of a formal court. We see this in many places in the gemora where students question their teacher’s view. … It is obvious in these cases the rulings were not part of a formal court session. Furthermore it is apparent that there is no one today who has the status of gadol for this law that no one can disagree with him… Therefore even if you consider me to be a gadol – it is permitted to disagree with me and consequently it is required that you express your opinion and there is no need to apologize. Nevertheless regarding the halachic question that was raised, my view -that I wrote that it is prohibited - is the correct one.

Daas Torah - Issues of Jewish Identity: Rav Moshe Feinstein's view of Daas Torah

NY Loves Money

Decades ago, while visiting Los Angeles and liking it, I phoned a NY rabbi and asked his advice on whether I could move to LA. He said, "In life you have to stay away from tuma and LA is tuma par excellence."

To my credit, I thought immediately, and NY doesn't have tuma? To my discredit, I obeyed his directive and returned to NY where I was miserable. I would have done much better in LA.

So what's the tuma in New York? For starters, it's the obsession with money. They don't stop talking about money. I once attended a funeral for a non-religious Jewish man where the hesped was given by an Orthodox rabbi. The rabbi said, "He wasn't rich but he knew every stock on the New York stock exchange." That was the praise.

NY Jews in particular, and worse, NY Jewish rabbis never stop talking about money. I know one who mentioned Bill Gates every time I met with him. Those were the days when Gates was the world's richest man. I would say that he mentioned Gates 50x for every time he mentioned a talmid chocham. Maybe it was 100x.

I had a consulting job working for New York City. I was pretty thrilled to be out of corporate America and always wanted to work in government, which to me is much more interesting and worthwhile. A friend's father, a NYer, asked me what I was doing these days. I told him. He said, "You aren't going to get rich that way."

A friend told me he was at a Simchas Torah celebration at a yeshiva in New York where someone asked the shiur rebbe, "What's the best kind of talmid?" Said the rebbe, "One with a six figure income."

This is NY talk, not even in the yeshiva world but especially there.

Here's another example. The person talking here is somebody who has good things to say. I like him. He's talking here about belief in G-d, which is a great topic. But because he's from New York, he can't help himself but talk about millionaire's and money, money. Examples:

A "life goal" is one that brings you to a heightened state of being. For example, a businessman's goal is to be rich. Trading stocks or investing in real estate is the means to help accomplish that goal.

The U.S. Defense Department spends millions of dollars each year to send broadcast signals to distant stars, on the chance there's life out there. It may take 2,000 years for the signals to get there, but they're still listening 'round the clock.

If your parent gives you a dollar, you're actually diminishing his net worth – even if he's a multi-millionaire. But if the Almighty gives you a billion dollars, it does not diminish His net worth. God has all the power. He created this universe from nothing. He can make you a genius. He can heal your child. He can do anything.

Everything God does for you is a gift. And whatever you want from God is nothing compared to what He's already given you. If you're asking for a billion dollars, it's nothing compared to a pair of eyes that He gave you for free. 

If you heard about a business opportunity that would bring you millions, is there any limit to how far you'd go to make it work? If I said I'd give you a million dollars if you'll memorize one page of the phone book by next week, could you do it? 

The Chofetz Chaim (20th century Poland) says: If you're going out to raise money, the amount you ask from people depends on their status. If you're speaking to a newspaper vendor, you're not going to ask him for $500; the guy is struggling. But if you ask for a penny, you'll insult him. So you ask for $50. He'll argue a bit, and if he gives you $20, you did okay.

Ask the successful businessman for $5 and you're insulting him. Ask him for a million dollars and he says you're crazy. So you ask for $5,000, you have an argument, you come out with $500, and you've done well.

Now you come to the billionaire. (If he gives you an appointment!) If you ask for $500, you're wasting his time. So you ask for $5 million, you argue back and forth, he gives you $500,000, and you've done well. 

That's six refences to business and wealth and millions and billions in one short article.

Another person talking about this man, praising him, talked about the school that his wife started. He said she hired "the best women teachers in Yerushalyim, everyone an expert in what whatever they were teaching and that costs money you know." (doubtful that they were experts) .As soon as I heard the word "money" I thought, he must be from New York. Sure enough, "Raised in Borough Park, Brooklyn." I have nothing against this person. I have heard good things about him. So all the more so we see that NYers are obsessed with money, even the good ones!

Of course, all of this amounts to pressure on the man and dissatisfaction by his wife.

So when you become frum and move to New York or deal with NY rabbis you can get a warped picture of Judaism. No, Judaism isn't obsessed with money. The money worship is something we got from WASPs and other ruling class gentiles. In the shtetl they didn't talk about getting rich as least not as far as I can tell. How could they? They lived in poverty.

Ignore the money talk. Even good people do it, so you learn to subtract out that part and take the good they offer. 

The need for a good coach

Charlie Lau was my hitting coach in 1974. At the time I was hitting .200 with 200 at bats at the all-star break. He put his arm around me and he said, "George I think you got a chance to hit but you're gonna have to change a few things." I said, "Well what do you have in mind?" And he said, "Well I'll tell you what. We have two days off for the all-star break. We have practice at 5 o'clock on Wednesday and then when we're going to jump on a plane and fly to Baltimore. Why don't you meet me at the stadium at 2 o'clock and we'll sit down and we'll discuss it and we'll try to figure out a philosophy and a theory that will work for you. Well we got out there and we looked at video of players that he's helped before and other players that maybe he wanted me to model myself after. And we started to take batting practice. Everyday that I think as long as Charlie Lau was our hitting coach, he and I had extra batting practice. 3 o'clock on the road and 4 o'clock at home. Some days it was for 5 swings, 10 swings, just to make sure you didn't lose anything from the day before. And some days might have been for 15, 20 minutes trying to find out what's happened from the night before. But Charlie thank you so much for molding me as a ball player and making today possible.  

Baseball player George Brett at his Hall of Fame induction speech talking about Charley Lau, hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals, who help a young George Brett go from a .200 hitter to a career .306 hitter. Lou Piniella, who played for the Royals from 1969 to 1973, called Lau "the greatest batting instructor of them all." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB1c_SBcMtA, 10:12 

live as a lion

 "They offered me $5 million to shoot Ibrahim Traoré from behind specifically when he bends to pray to Allah. They even promised my family and me citizenship in their country. They called it 'an offer I couldn’t refuse.' To them, money matters more than humanity.

But I asked myself. Is $5 million worth carrying a guilty conscience to my grave? Will that money make me a king in a foreign land, or a fool mocked by their sons and daughters? I’d rather live as a lion in the wild than as a dog in their city."

~ Ibrahim Traoré 's guard

It's a lot like this

 

atheism is so silly