Heather McDonald on criminal illegal aliens.
People have a right to protect their lives and property. This should go without saying.
People have a right to protect their lives and property. This should go without saying.
21.3.16
Getting married and having children seems to be a regular part of the yeshiva experience.
You might not get the best shiduch that you think you deserve, but the tendency is to find a good marriage partner.
But the yeshiva world is highly sensitive to factors of social desirability. Especially on the East Coast.
Age and what kind of family one comes from are very important factors.
My own experience with this was that I saw when I got to yeshiva (in NY) people were getting married right and left. Every few days there was another "Vort." This went on a few times per week.
[A Vort is the announcement of a marriage engagement. But the actual event of the Vort is a meal after Shabat. on Saturday night.
Of course coming from California I had no idea what to expect when I got to yeshiva. But I also got the shiduch"bug." The only reason I was there was because I wanted to learn the Oral Law. But this Shiduch thing was infectious. So after some time people were interested in offering shiduchim to me. The only thing was the Rosh Yeshiva had dibs on me (for one of his daughters). So I had to wait until he felt the time was right to make what was unofficial to be official. However, I screwed things up because I was unfamiliar with social norms on the East Coast. Not only that but I no longer found any favor in the eyes of the Rosh Yeshiva. So I went to the Mir. But in the Mir I had no social standing.
[I should mention I have no grudge about the Shiduch thing. First of all God gave me a great Shiduch later in any case. And as far as I can see I am not much of Rosh Yeshiva material. As Rav Freifeld saw in me eventually that I am just too wild and searching. --free thinking I guess you could call it. I go by reason and evidence. Not tradition--unless tradition happens to agree with reason and evidence.]
So it is not necessarily easy. Certainly in my case the whole business was a disaster. Still a nice girl I knew in CA came out back East and started chasing me, thank God! Not that I was so happy about it at the time. I still was in the impression I had good possibilities at the Mir. Still this girl from CA turned out to be a great shiduch for me.
Why is all this important? Because today the social structures of the world are collapsing. So in the larger world even if one is what should be considered a good partner that will not necessarily result in n anything. Also there the problem of cults that use the instability of the larger society as a means of attracting converts as they present themselves as a better option.
At any rate, after my wife left, I decided I was not going to depend on anyone's favors and I found myself a nice girlfriend. Still I do not think this is best idea idea as a rule. [The girl friend option is an option because of Chronicles I 2:46. That is the Caleb the friend of Joshua had a few girl friends and wives. That is the פלגש is not reserved for kings alone contrary to the Rambam as the Gra pointed out in his commentary on Shulchan Aruch.
You might not get the best shiduch that you think you deserve, but the tendency is to find a good marriage partner.
But the yeshiva world is highly sensitive to factors of social desirability. Especially on the East Coast.
Age and what kind of family one comes from are very important factors.
My own experience with this was that I saw when I got to yeshiva (in NY) people were getting married right and left. Every few days there was another "Vort." This went on a few times per week.
[A Vort is the announcement of a marriage engagement. But the actual event of the Vort is a meal after Shabat. on Saturday night.
Of course coming from California I had no idea what to expect when I got to yeshiva. But I also got the shiduch"bug." The only reason I was there was because I wanted to learn the Oral Law. But this Shiduch thing was infectious. So after some time people were interested in offering shiduchim to me. The only thing was the Rosh Yeshiva had dibs on me (for one of his daughters). So I had to wait until he felt the time was right to make what was unofficial to be official. However, I screwed things up because I was unfamiliar with social norms on the East Coast. Not only that but I no longer found any favor in the eyes of the Rosh Yeshiva. So I went to the Mir. But in the Mir I had no social standing.
[I should mention I have no grudge about the Shiduch thing. First of all God gave me a great Shiduch later in any case. And as far as I can see I am not much of Rosh Yeshiva material. As Rav Freifeld saw in me eventually that I am just too wild and searching. --free thinking I guess you could call it. I go by reason and evidence. Not tradition--unless tradition happens to agree with reason and evidence.]
So it is not necessarily easy. Certainly in my case the whole business was a disaster. Still a nice girl I knew in CA came out back East and started chasing me, thank God! Not that I was so happy about it at the time. I still was in the impression I had good possibilities at the Mir. Still this girl from CA turned out to be a great shiduch for me.
Why is all this important? Because today the social structures of the world are collapsing. So in the larger world even if one is what should be considered a good partner that will not necessarily result in n anything. Also there the problem of cults that use the instability of the larger society as a means of attracting converts as they present themselves as a better option.
At any rate, after my wife left, I decided I was not going to depend on anyone's favors and I found myself a nice girlfriend. Still I do not think this is best idea idea as a rule. [The girl friend option is an option because of Chronicles I 2:46. That is the Caleb the friend of Joshua had a few girl friends and wives. That is the פלגש is not reserved for kings alone contrary to the Rambam as the Gra pointed out in his commentary on Shulchan Aruch.
The religious world outside yeshiva is of course just cults. So if one is not in an actual Lithuanian yeshiva it is best to seek one's spouse among classmates in university.
An integral domain has sub domains. All together you get ten. We know there is an close connection between groups and manifolds. Can you have a kind of Mayer-Vietoris sequence between domains?
What I mean is let's say you have a map from an integral domain to a commutative ring, and another map to another commutative ring. And then you have a map from either commutative ring into a larger group. So now can you put an "H" (homology groups) in front of each map? and if so would this work for all the sub-rings underneath the integral domain?
For example could you do the same with a Noetherian Ring and another Noetherian Ring. And you have an intersection between them. And you map into some larger ring. Can you apply the Mayer Vietoris theorem? Or would there be an obstruction?
Apparently someone has already dealt with this question at this link
I put this on the internet because I do not want to ask a math or physics professor this question unless I think about it some more.
What I mean is let's say you have a map from an integral domain to a commutative ring, and another map to another commutative ring. And then you have a map from either commutative ring into a larger group. So now can you put an "H" (homology groups) in front of each map? and if so would this work for all the sub-rings underneath the integral domain?
For example could you do the same with a Noetherian Ring and another Noetherian Ring. And you have an intersection between them. And you map into some larger ring. Can you apply the Mayer Vietoris theorem? Or would there be an obstruction?
Apparently someone has already dealt with this question at this link
I put this on the internet because I do not want to ask a math or physics professor this question unless I think about it some more.
How to learn Musar [ethics]
How to learn Musar [ethics]? You would think this would be simple after all the effort put into the idea by Reb Israel Salanter.
Some people emphasized one particular area of value. A good example is the Hafez Haim.
[Not to slander.]
What to me makes sense is in fact to take the Musar books of the rishonim [medieval writers] and plow through them. But to get a wider perspective what I think is the best thing is to have one session of going through all the works of classical Musar [about 30 books] and another session of going through the writings of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter. Plus one more session in classical Jewish world view issues like the Guide for the Perplexed of the Rambam and the Faiths and Doctrines by Saadia Gaon . What happens is that this last step is omitted by most people and the result is people end up with view totally contrary to Torah,-- but think their views are from the Torah.
To learn Musar in yeshivas at all was subject to debate. But what I am suggesting is a further step to add השקפה. World view issues. I see this as very important because I see that without this later step people really get ideas very much opposed to the Torah but think their ideas are OK because they heard them from some delusional maniac in the name of the Torah.
I have not given this much thought but I can say based on what I have seen that Musar [learning ethics is important, but without world view it can be highly distorted.]
The Hafetz Haim's books about not to slander and general Musar are in fact a great starting place to begin with.
[I should add that not to slander does not mean you can not warn your children about bad cults. That is even if there is one or two decent people in that cult you can still say the cult is bad. The reason is there is such a thing as group behavior, a social meme. Not only that but if the social meme itself is evil, then the group itself is evil.
_______________________________________________________________________
Appendix: For the general public: Musar means mainly medieval books of ethics. But also refers to books by the disciples of Israel Salanter.
Most Musar books do not go into world view issues except the Obligations of the Heart who makes in he first part of his Musar book. However Rav Moshe Haim Luzato did go into world view issues in detail but not in his Mesilat Yesharim.
Some people emphasized one particular area of value. A good example is the Hafez Haim.
[Not to slander.]
What to me makes sense is in fact to take the Musar books of the rishonim [medieval writers] and plow through them. But to get a wider perspective what I think is the best thing is to have one session of going through all the works of classical Musar [about 30 books] and another session of going through the writings of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter. Plus one more session in classical Jewish world view issues like the Guide for the Perplexed of the Rambam and the Faiths and Doctrines by Saadia Gaon . What happens is that this last step is omitted by most people and the result is people end up with view totally contrary to Torah,-- but think their views are from the Torah.
To learn Musar in yeshivas at all was subject to debate. But what I am suggesting is a further step to add השקפה. World view issues. I see this as very important because I see that without this later step people really get ideas very much opposed to the Torah but think their ideas are OK because they heard them from some delusional maniac in the name of the Torah.
I have not given this much thought but I can say based on what I have seen that Musar [learning ethics is important, but without world view it can be highly distorted.]
The Hafetz Haim's books about not to slander and general Musar are in fact a great starting place to begin with.
[I should add that not to slander does not mean you can not warn your children about bad cults. That is even if there is one or two decent people in that cult you can still say the cult is bad. The reason is there is such a thing as group behavior, a social meme. Not only that but if the social meme itself is evil, then the group itself is evil.
_______________________________________________________________________
Appendix: For the general public: Musar means mainly medieval books of ethics. But also refers to books by the disciples of Israel Salanter.
Most Musar books do not go into world view issues except the Obligations of the Heart who makes in he first part of his Musar book. However Rav Moshe Haim Luzato did go into world view issues in detail but not in his Mesilat Yesharim.
20.3.16
I have had a fascination with Halacha [Jewish Law] for a long time. I know that in one previous essay I must have sounded like I was knocking it. But I really meant to knock the misuse of the concept of Halacha and the pretense of people that pretend to know and keep it.
But now I wanted to deal with this subject in the correct way. And this is not hard to present. In fact my very first year in yeshiva I was shown right away the correct approach towards halacah.
[Yeshiva has in general four years. The first year is for beginners.] The yeshiva [Shar Yashuv] was doing Chulin which deals with ritual slaughter and things like that. It was perfect to show how to learn Halacha. For every law was more or less a self contained unit. So we would learn the law in the Talmud itself--the source of the law. Then we would trace it down through the Tur, Beit Joseph (by Joseph Karo) and Shulchan Aruch. (The Shulchan Aruch was also written by Joseph Karo and meant to be a short version of the Beit Joseph so people could do fast review.)
But that is really just to provide an introduction to the subject. To get a general idea that takes in the big picture what I recommend is this: To get Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's book, Chidushai HaRambam, and the books of his two disciples, Baruch Ber and Shimon Shkop. But even more important I would run out immediately and buy the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach.
If you have just one Tractate at home and just one of the above mentioned books, now you are prepared to learn Halachah.
What to do is to take one essay from and of the above mentioned books and learn it with the subject matter in the Gemara. Do not worry of you do not understand it at first. Just keep going over the same essay every day until it sinks in.
This small blog entry is not supposed to be exhaustive. It is rather just an introduction. I should go into the fact of the Maharaha, and Maharshal, and the Gra and the Beit Joseph that all shouted and yelled about people that decide halachah from short versions of Halacha without knowing the actual Gemara.
But now I wanted to deal with this subject in the correct way. And this is not hard to present. In fact my very first year in yeshiva I was shown right away the correct approach towards halacah.
[Yeshiva has in general four years. The first year is for beginners.] The yeshiva [Shar Yashuv] was doing Chulin which deals with ritual slaughter and things like that. It was perfect to show how to learn Halacha. For every law was more or less a self contained unit. So we would learn the law in the Talmud itself--the source of the law. Then we would trace it down through the Tur, Beit Joseph (by Joseph Karo) and Shulchan Aruch. (The Shulchan Aruch was also written by Joseph Karo and meant to be a short version of the Beit Joseph so people could do fast review.)
But that is really just to provide an introduction to the subject. To get a general idea that takes in the big picture what I recommend is this: To get Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's book, Chidushai HaRambam, and the books of his two disciples, Baruch Ber and Shimon Shkop. But even more important I would run out immediately and buy the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach.
If you have just one Tractate at home and just one of the above mentioned books, now you are prepared to learn Halachah.
What to do is to take one essay from and of the above mentioned books and learn it with the subject matter in the Gemara. Do not worry of you do not understand it at first. Just keep going over the same essay every day until it sinks in.
This small blog entry is not supposed to be exhaustive. It is rather just an introduction. I should go into the fact of the Maharaha, and Maharshal, and the Gra and the Beit Joseph that all shouted and yelled about people that decide halachah from short versions of Halacha without knowing the actual Gemara.
Then to actually decide any particular Halacha what I do is to get to know the relevant sources. The first step is to know the subject in the Gemara itself with Tosphot. Then you need to see the Geonim. Often their opinions were not known, so this takes some digging. Then the Rishonim, Rambam, Rif Tur, Shulchan Aruch. After that there is usually no issue that does not become clear.
But if you need an immediate idea, then the best bet is to go directly to the Tur Beit Joseph.
If only more people would learn Halacah properly, a lot of issues would be resolved. Knowing what idolatry is or how to act in many situations would be clear.
If only more people would learn Halacah properly, a lot of issues would be resolved. Knowing what idolatry is or how to act in many situations would be clear.
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