Natan if you are reading this (I know you probably will!), I wanted to comment as follows:
"The problem with your theory is that Judaism is absolutely permeated with mysticism all the way through Torah, Neviim, Kesubim, Medrash, Mishnah, Talmud, the RAMBAM and the entire Mesorah through our present day. Creation, miracles, Matan Torah, tefilah, hashgachas Hashem, s'char v'onesh, Olam Haba, Techias Hameisim, Malachim (which the Rambam calls non-physical 'intelligences"), Hashem Himself, a very large number of mitzvos, these are all obvious reflections of the mysticism you so revile. Sorry, you have invented a completely fictitious new religion.
Meanwhile, while perhaps excessive mysticism can be loosely blamed for some deaths (although only through a very twisted and convoluted thought process) , the excessive rationalism of the Haskalah can be blamed for the sorry state of Judaism today, where 80% of Jews raise their children to chillul Shabbos, znus, and functional atheism."
IYH HaRav HaGaon Mecharker will have a post tomorrow or the next day (but we hope tomorrow) debunking this new religion that Natan and his friends invented.
(This doesn't mean that you should celebrate Lag Baomer with bonfires etc. That's not my minhag either!)
WADR to RJ, already the first word of that post is lopsided: "*Many* people find it difficult to get excited about Lag B’Omer..."
But many many more aren't confronted by that problem. This isn't mentioned. Where's the balance?
If silence during the siren can be reverse engineered to come up with some meaning, why not do it for any and all customs that you don't understand?
R Melamed, is said to have criticized the phrase “aliyah to Meron”; rather, aliyah is something that we do to Har HaBayit.
But RD Ganz in Nechmad Venahim ch. 90 says (memorably in the name of De Rossi) that "aliya" is appropriate anytime you go to an important place or person, such as when Tzidkiyahu went "up" to Nevuchadnetzar despite the latter being in a lower place than the former.
I don't find balance in the discussion of mysticism either. Mysticism is a great or maybe the greatest tool in Judaism's fight for survival. So it appears from statistics. Is this no counterweight to its problems? Doesn't that aspect of mysticism deserve mention?
You know what all good cross-examiners say in court. If you can't attack the evidence, attack the person.
Whether or not they agree with Slifkin, in some cases they can produce reasoned arguments (torah v science and similar). In other cases, they can't produce reasoned thought through argument so you get a cholent of leitzonus, rudeness and general rant.
They can't even suggest that some of slifkin's posts have merit some do not, or some of half. Like all chareidim, it's either black and white.
Even this post has many good posts. And I understand why some people would like to write personally against him. I just think we should control ourselves and stick to the point.
You, on the other hand, are a lost cause. Bye bye.
Who says I missed it? I wrote clearly in some cases reasoned arguments, some not.
But pleased to see you did not dismiss my main point. There is an example above of an unstructured straw man fake flag rant;
....absolutely permeated with mysticism all the way through Torah, Neviim, Kesubim, Medrash, Mishnah, Talmud, the RAMBAM and the entire Mesorah through our present day. Creation, miracles, Matan Torah, tefilah, hashgachas Hashem, s'char v'onesh, Olam Haba, Techias Hameisim, Malachim (which the Rambam calls non-physical 'intelligences"),...
Look at that long list. Each element therein has different parameters, different attributes and needs to be considered separately. How much of the mishnah is mysticism? What is meant by 'absolutely permeated'? What is actually meant by 'mysticism' in that sentence anyway? And of course 'the mesorah' has to make a random mention.
"I learnt in kollel for 10 years, drinking the kool-aid just like you. But eventually you realise how fake and hypocritical that world is, apart from a relatively few yechidi segulah. They chase money just like everyone else despite all the claims to ruchniyis. And once you look at the non kollel branch of chareidi society, it's shocking how they preach virtue but ultimately its all walking the walk and talking the talk (especially gossiping about yenem's money). The corruption and how a few gevirim run the show is disgraceful."
This is basically every comment of yours, no matter what the topic.
"How much of the Mishnah is mysticism?"- certainly whenever it talks about Olam Haba. Or Hashem. Or s'char v'onesh. Or Tefilah to Hashem. Or come to think of it, korbanos. And much more.
"What is actually meant by 'mysticism' in that sentence anyway?"-the same thing that is actually meant by "mysticism" when Natan talks about it.
"What is meant by 'absolutely permeated'?"- I doubt anybody else here has trouble understanding words like you do.
The quote from Michael Avraham seems unfair. One is allowed to say whatever they want as long as they don't pasken. I don't know that Michael Avraham regards himself as a posek, so what's the problem?
Wow, what a great post! Hagaon R’ HGL shlita’s style is truly amazing and I enjoyed this post immensely! One comment I have: If Rabbi Slifkin is an apikorus, which I believe he is, why should he do the biking himself? Aren’t there many sources in Chazal about how to deal with apikursim? I’m not advocating anything, chas veshalom, especially bazman hazah, see Chazon Ish YD 2:16. No need to ban or delete anything. Nothing unethical over here. I’m just saying.... Unrelatedly, I’m curious why Chazal spoke of “moridin velo maalin?” Why not “serve him to your dog”? Maybe the answer is that an apikorus’s body is so repugnant that you shouldn’t have any benefit from it, even as dog food. In which case, maybe we shouldn’t harvest its organs either, even if it would benefit people greatly. Similarly, we could understand why it doesn’t say anything about working an apikorus until he expires. Maybe we don’t want to derive any benefit from him whatsoever (though there’s no indication that you can’t get a good laugh from him). One additional point is that we find some authorities who understand the halachah of not nursing from a non-Jew that it’s because we don’t want part of an impure non-Jew inside a Jew, not necessarily because of eating non-kosher food (see Ran, Avodah Zarah 7b, Rama YD 81:7, see also Rashi, Sotah 12b, s.v. Ess Me). According to Rambam (Hilchos Avodah Zarah 2:5, Hilchos Eidus 11:10, Hilchos Mamrim 3:2, Hilchos Eivel 1:10, and elsewhere), an apikorus is not a Jew. Thus, it makes sense not to want part of an apikorus inside a Jew. Maybe we could be meikel for serious cases, but it seems like a question for the poskim to consider. Maybe it’s comparable to the discussion about artificial insemination from a non-Jew, and maybe this angle is already addressed, I don’t know (or I don’t remember).
I’d also like to comment on what R’ HGL shlita wrote, “Natan’s robust, handsome body.” What does handsome have to do with anything? Maybe he meant Natan looks like he’s in good shape, but that’s a bit of a stretch in the definition of the word “handsome,” and also I’m not so sure if he’s right, maybe it would be worthwhile to investigate.
One final comment about the shtikel at the end on Lev 24:14. I don’t quite get why the Torah would condition the transplant on there being an attack. Is that the only way to determine if one person is more worthy than another? Especially if being an am haaretz or talmid chacham is already considered a valid metric for determinig worth, like R’ HGL shlita wrote previously, that certainly is something that can be determined other ways. Perhaps the Torah is simply giving an example where one person is less worthy than the other and the more worthy person requires a transplant? That seems a little bit of a dochek, veyesh le’ayin.
Again, this post was really terrific! Brilliant and well written as usual! Keep up the great work!
Human milk may be always kosher, yet (as per the sources provided) it is frowned on for a Jewish baby to ingest it when there are alternatives. Go and learn a bit.
(Unless you mean "tikkun olam" according to the Reform cult, which means whatever crazy nonsense the progressive left in the US professes to believe at a certain moment)
are, shall we say, "not a good look". In fact, if he was trying to look like as much of a scumbag as possible, I don't think he could have done better.
Agreed. I am a Slifkin fan (?) because of his (past) valuable work in explaining this past weeks parsha, not because of anything chareidi-related he says. Unfortunately, he seems content to focus on the chareidi area while ignoring his potentially valuable vol 2 of his encyclopedia. Warped priorities.
Really? I'm surprised you see it that way. In this post I basically mock his halachic "reasoning" and call him an ignoramus, a fairly uncontroversial position that we have stated many times before on this blog.
You may not realize it, but you are basically telling him to commit suicide. It is not a good look. I found this to be FAR more vicious than previous posts.
You must be the only person who took this seriously! Obviously I don't mean he should actually kill himself! As I made clear in the post, this whole idea (lesser life sacrifice) is against basically all the poskim and even the Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid is a middas chassidus, something he is surely not holding by!
The many posts and comments where he cynically suggests that yeshivos go to the front line in order to take advantage of Torah protection.
The many posts using the Walder case to attack the chareidi community.
The many posts about telling desperate tzedakah collectors that they should have gotten a job.
And these posts are dead serious, unlike mine which was clearly meant in jest. But I will try to take your input into account and be cognizant of such bad impressions in the future.
"But I will try to take your input into account and be cognizant of such bad impressions in the future."
No need. Use your own judgement.
Natan literally mentioned Rav Yehudah Hachassid as a legitimate halachik source. Nothing wrong with calling him out on his chicanery and suggest he takes his brilliant hypothesis till the end.
Of course, he knows very well that his Halachik arguments are absurd. The only reason he supports organ donation is because he does not believe in the Torah's value of life.
None of those posts are attacking an individual by name (unless you count Walder, who deserved it.) The only post that comes close is "The Lakewood Suicide Squad" and even there, I think Natan had a good point.
There's a difference between criticism of a community as a whole and calling names and making fun.
Actually, you demonstrate everything wrong with the typical chareidi mindset. (Not that you are really chareidi using words like 'hell' and BSing. Just a typical chap who thinjs he is chareidi, walking the walk and talking the talk.) Like many chareidim who lack self awareness, you don't have any self-awareness of the viciousness and rudeness of your post. No doubt you will provide 20 halachik 'sources' that make it ok notwithstanding chazal's derachoh darchei noam. Its 'not about taking it seriously or not'.
It's too funny seeing a lecture in self awareness and rudeness from a guy whose main exposure to chareidi life was his 10 years spent in the kollel coffee room after shambling in from 10:00 minyan, the rest of his exposure was (and still is) looking at women's sheitels, and then he comes to this blog and posts endless off-topic comments about these subjects.
Proud of it? A 'kosher' substitution for the most disgusting nivul peh? Shows how you are influenced by non Jewish/secular society just as much as anybody else, even being charedi.
Do you treat an eight month gestation age premature baby as muktzah? Presumably you wouldn’t be mechalel shabbos for a cardiac arrest victim who has stopped breathing. After all, chazal say he is dead.
May 7, 2023Liked by מכרכר בכל עוז, Happy, Rational Traditionalist
I truly pity you, and I'm not being sarcastic. According to your own perspective you wasted decades of your life withering in kollel. I can't imagine a more worse feeling than the realization that you wasted your own life.
(That's if we actually buy your BS of having been in kollel (I used this slur purposely in light of your comment). In all probability you never even saw the inside of a kollel, much less learned in one).
Yes you occasionally make good points about the state of "chareidiodom", but it never has anything to do with the topic under discussion. And all your rants can be summarized as follows; chareidim are not perfect. Nobody really disagrees with you on that, which is another reason your comments are always irrelevant.
It does not seem that anybody really hates you, though. You are at most a minor nuisance. At best slightly entertaining.
Not exactly, all we know about you is the Slifkinesque kind of generalizations. One rabbi with a black hat is reported as saying something untoward that is spread throughout the internet, and henceforth, unrelated Haredim are lumped together all because you had bad experiences when learning one tenth of Bava Kamma, and all Haredim 'obviously know nothing.
Testi, not every statement of Chazal is defined as a halachic imperative in light of conflicting statements that are equally imperative. That doesn't detract from the cogency of each particular statement as an independent entity. When practicing Halacha, there are numerous other statements and perspectives that also need to be consldered.
For example, if someone makes a comment like: 'haredidom is stupid because I learned in Kollel'. Yes, it may be true that this guy had bad experiences, but of course, despite his testiness, there are, thank G-d, about 2 million Haredim in the world, and only people who like Slifkin would generalize to all Haredim based upon his own bad experiences.
But of course to generalise to all Modox is perfectly acceptable.....as is to generalise all chareidim as the ONLY ones that understand what an 'intimate connection to Hashem' really is.....
I think we've said only two dozen times that we have nothing against RW MODOX and DL who are careful about Torah and Mitzvos. Our only gripe is with the LW like Natan who try to undermine the Torah in all sorts of ways.
Basically Slifkin is trying to create a new vision of Judaism. Since he is an idiot, he cannot attract religious and sincere adherents, who will be drawn instead to people with more Yiras Shamayim, so he is left with nothing more than ridiculing Haredim, which has become his main pastime. I think he needs therapy. Or, perhaps he can open a political party like Lapid and Lieberman. His father-in-law in Beverly Hills can pump in the money, and their headquarters could be at the Zoo (oh sorry, I meant: the 'museum'.
Friends, on Natan's new post, https://www.rationalistjudaism.com/p/are-you-a-lag-bomer-grinch, he has limited comments to paid subscribers! I wonder why? Maybe he is sick of our well-intentioned, constructive criticism?
Natan if you are reading this (I know you probably will!), I wanted to comment as follows:
"The problem with your theory is that Judaism is absolutely permeated with mysticism all the way through Torah, Neviim, Kesubim, Medrash, Mishnah, Talmud, the RAMBAM and the entire Mesorah through our present day. Creation, miracles, Matan Torah, tefilah, hashgachas Hashem, s'char v'onesh, Olam Haba, Techias Hameisim, Malachim (which the Rambam calls non-physical 'intelligences"), Hashem Himself, a very large number of mitzvos, these are all obvious reflections of the mysticism you so revile. Sorry, you have invented a completely fictitious new religion.
Meanwhile, while perhaps excessive mysticism can be loosely blamed for some deaths (although only through a very twisted and convoluted thought process) , the excessive rationalism of the Haskalah can be blamed for the sorry state of Judaism today, where 80% of Jews raise their children to chillul Shabbos, znus, and functional atheism."
IYH HaRav HaGaon Mecharker will have a post tomorrow or the next day (but we hope tomorrow) debunking this new religion that Natan and his friends invented.
(This doesn't mean that you should celebrate Lag Baomer with bonfires etc. That's not my minhag either!)
If this continues on his next post that he's not allowing comments, I will start a gofundme page to fund $8 a month to get HGL back on.
WADR to RJ, already the first word of that post is lopsided: "*Many* people find it difficult to get excited about Lag B’Omer..."
But many many more aren't confronted by that problem. This isn't mentioned. Where's the balance?
If silence during the siren can be reverse engineered to come up with some meaning, why not do it for any and all customs that you don't understand?
R Melamed, is said to have criticized the phrase “aliyah to Meron”; rather, aliyah is something that we do to Har HaBayit.
But RD Ganz in Nechmad Venahim ch. 90 says (memorably in the name of De Rossi) that "aliya" is appropriate anytime you go to an important place or person, such as when Tzidkiyahu went "up" to Nevuchadnetzar despite the latter being in a lower place than the former.
I don't find balance in the discussion of mysticism either. Mysticism is a great or maybe the greatest tool in Judaism's fight for survival. So it appears from statistics. Is this no counterweight to its problems? Doesn't that aspect of mysticism deserve mention?
Comments limited to believers only.
https://daastorah.substack.com/p/on-bans-and-kefira
"being the source of much mirth and entertainment for us at Irrationalist Modoxism!"
Also - If it weren't for NS, we would be denied the pleasure of reading the penetrating and witty responses of Irrationalist Modox!!
Sorry, but this article has too many personal attacks for my taste. As I wrote already, this way of writing is counter-productive.
You know what all good cross-examiners say in court. If you can't attack the evidence, attack the person.
Whether or not they agree with Slifkin, in some cases they can produce reasoned arguments (torah v science and similar). In other cases, they can't produce reasoned thought through argument so you get a cholent of leitzonus, rudeness and general rant.
They can't even suggest that some of slifkin's posts have merit some do not, or some of half. Like all chareidim, it's either black and white.
Even this post has many good posts. And I understand why some people would like to write personally against him. I just think we should control ourselves and stick to the point.
You, on the other hand, are a lost cause. Bye bye.
In this particular case, it was actually a direct attack on Natan's halalchik reasoning.
Not sure how you missed that.
Who says I missed it? I wrote clearly in some cases reasoned arguments, some not.
But pleased to see you did not dismiss my main point. There is an example above of an unstructured straw man fake flag rant;
....absolutely permeated with mysticism all the way through Torah, Neviim, Kesubim, Medrash, Mishnah, Talmud, the RAMBAM and the entire Mesorah through our present day. Creation, miracles, Matan Torah, tefilah, hashgachas Hashem, s'char v'onesh, Olam Haba, Techias Hameisim, Malachim (which the Rambam calls non-physical 'intelligences"),...
Look at that long list. Each element therein has different parameters, different attributes and needs to be considered separately. How much of the mishnah is mysticism? What is meant by 'absolutely permeated'? What is actually meant by 'mysticism' in that sentence anyway? And of course 'the mesorah' has to make a random mention.
That was not a rant. This is a rant:
"I learnt in kollel for 10 years, drinking the kool-aid just like you. But eventually you realise how fake and hypocritical that world is, apart from a relatively few yechidi segulah. They chase money just like everyone else despite all the claims to ruchniyis. And once you look at the non kollel branch of chareidi society, it's shocking how they preach virtue but ultimately its all walking the walk and talking the talk (especially gossiping about yenem's money). The corruption and how a few gevirim run the show is disgraceful."
This is basically every comment of yours, no matter what the topic.
"How much of the Mishnah is mysticism?"- certainly whenever it talks about Olam Haba. Or Hashem. Or s'char v'onesh. Or Tefilah to Hashem. Or come to think of it, korbanos. And much more.
"What is actually meant by 'mysticism' in that sentence anyway?"-the same thing that is actually meant by "mysticism" when Natan talks about it.
"What is meant by 'absolutely permeated'?"- I doubt anybody else here has trouble understanding words like you do.
This was very funny though it was a bit over the top. (cf. Ash's comment)
The quote from Michael Avraham seems unfair. One is allowed to say whatever they want as long as they don't pasken. I don't know that Michael Avraham regards himself as a posek, so what's the problem?
(And you missed a bit in the Hebrew).
Unfortunately, he does consider himself a posek.
Wow, what a great post! Hagaon R’ HGL shlita’s style is truly amazing and I enjoyed this post immensely! One comment I have: If Rabbi Slifkin is an apikorus, which I believe he is, why should he do the biking himself? Aren’t there many sources in Chazal about how to deal with apikursim? I’m not advocating anything, chas veshalom, especially bazman hazah, see Chazon Ish YD 2:16. No need to ban or delete anything. Nothing unethical over here. I’m just saying.... Unrelatedly, I’m curious why Chazal spoke of “moridin velo maalin?” Why not “serve him to your dog”? Maybe the answer is that an apikorus’s body is so repugnant that you shouldn’t have any benefit from it, even as dog food. In which case, maybe we shouldn’t harvest its organs either, even if it would benefit people greatly. Similarly, we could understand why it doesn’t say anything about working an apikorus until he expires. Maybe we don’t want to derive any benefit from him whatsoever (though there’s no indication that you can’t get a good laugh from him). One additional point is that we find some authorities who understand the halachah of not nursing from a non-Jew that it’s because we don’t want part of an impure non-Jew inside a Jew, not necessarily because of eating non-kosher food (see Ran, Avodah Zarah 7b, Rama YD 81:7, see also Rashi, Sotah 12b, s.v. Ess Me). According to Rambam (Hilchos Avodah Zarah 2:5, Hilchos Eidus 11:10, Hilchos Mamrim 3:2, Hilchos Eivel 1:10, and elsewhere), an apikorus is not a Jew. Thus, it makes sense not to want part of an apikorus inside a Jew. Maybe we could be meikel for serious cases, but it seems like a question for the poskim to consider. Maybe it’s comparable to the discussion about artificial insemination from a non-Jew, and maybe this angle is already addressed, I don’t know (or I don’t remember).
I’d also like to comment on what R’ HGL shlita wrote, “Natan’s robust, handsome body.” What does handsome have to do with anything? Maybe he meant Natan looks like he’s in good shape, but that’s a bit of a stretch in the definition of the word “handsome,” and also I’m not so sure if he’s right, maybe it would be worthwhile to investigate.
One final comment about the shtikel at the end on Lev 24:14. I don’t quite get why the Torah would condition the transplant on there being an attack. Is that the only way to determine if one person is more worthy than another? Especially if being an am haaretz or talmid chacham is already considered a valid metric for determinig worth, like R’ HGL shlita wrote previously, that certainly is something that can be determined other ways. Perhaps the Torah is simply giving an example where one person is less worthy than the other and the more worthy person requires a transplant? That seems a little bit of a dochek, veyesh le’ayin.
Again, this post was really terrific! Brilliant and well written as usual! Keep up the great work!
Moridin v"lo ma'alin is to provide an element of gromoh. And human milk is always kosher, irrelevant of whether the provider is Jewish or not.
Go and learn a bit.
Human milk may be always kosher, yet (as per the sources provided) it is frowned on for a Jewish baby to ingest it when there are alternatives. Go and learn a bit.
Yes it is frowned upon. I am aware of that, and nothing I wrote contradicted that.
A day where happy posts is a better day!
Wow, what pigheaded insensitivity. What happened to tikkun olam?
Why is tikkun olam relevant?
(Unless you mean "tikkun olam" according to the Reform cult, which means whatever crazy nonsense the progressive left in the US professes to believe at a certain moment)
I didn't think anyone played the all inclusive tikun oilam card in real life. Hilarious!
Did you read Natan's post?
Or are you coming in in the middle of a conversation?
Why the obsession with Slifkin? He has very little relevance these days in the Jewish world......
He's an easy target, because he says so many utterly dumb things, so often.
This is extremely vicious and personal. Not a good look, happy.
Hello again! I think you would probably agree that Natan's comments here https://www.rationalistjudaism.com/p/the-soldiers-are-really-doing-stuff-82e/comments
are, shall we say, "not a good look". In fact, if he was trying to look like as much of a scumbag as possible, I don't think he could have done better.
Agreed. I am a Slifkin fan (?) because of his (past) valuable work in explaining this past weeks parsha, not because of anything chareidi-related he says. Unfortunately, he seems content to focus on the chareidi area while ignoring his potentially valuable vol 2 of his encyclopedia. Warped priorities.
Really? I'm surprised you see it that way. In this post I basically mock his halachic "reasoning" and call him an ignoramus, a fairly uncontroversial position that we have stated many times before on this blog.
You may not realize it, but you are basically telling him to commit suicide. It is not a good look. I found this to be FAR more vicious than previous posts.
You must be the only person who took this seriously! Obviously I don't mean he should actually kill himself! As I made clear in the post, this whole idea (lesser life sacrifice) is against basically all the poskim and even the Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid is a middas chassidus, something he is surely not holding by!
It doesn't sound good. That's my impression.
It's more vicious than any Slifkin post I've ever seen.
I hear. Can't argue with impressions. What do you think about these posts?
https://rationalistjudaism.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-horses-of-chelm.html (part of a series of posts attacking taking advantage of the Meron tragedy to attack the chareidi community, while families still hadn't gotten up from shiva)
https://rationalistjudaism.blogspot.com/2021/05/denying-reality-of-physics.html
https://rationalistjudaism.blogspot.com/2021/05/dying-to-be-charedi.html
https://rationalistjudaism.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-chassidic-wedding-murders.html (calling people who ignore covid guidance "murderers")
https://rationalistjudaism.blogspot.com/2021/01/mazeltov-murder-tonight.html
https://rationalistjudaism.blogspot.com/2020/10/who-by-suicide.html
The many posts and comments where he cynically suggests that yeshivos go to the front line in order to take advantage of Torah protection.
The many posts using the Walder case to attack the chareidi community.
The many posts about telling desperate tzedakah collectors that they should have gotten a job.
And these posts are dead serious, unlike mine which was clearly meant in jest. But I will try to take your input into account and be cognizant of such bad impressions in the future.
"But I will try to take your input into account and be cognizant of such bad impressions in the future."
No need. Use your own judgement.
Natan literally mentioned Rav Yehudah Hachassid as a legitimate halachik source. Nothing wrong with calling him out on his chicanery and suggest he takes his brilliant hypothesis till the end.
Of course, he knows very well that his Halachik arguments are absurd. The only reason he supports organ donation is because he does not believe in the Torah's value of life.
None of those posts are attacking an individual by name (unless you count Walder, who deserved it.) The only post that comes close is "The Lakewood Suicide Squad" and even there, I think Natan had a good point.
There's a difference between criticism of a community as a whole and calling names and making fun.
Actually, you demonstrate everything wrong with the typical chareidi mindset. (Not that you are really chareidi using words like 'hell' and BSing. Just a typical chap who thinjs he is chareidi, walking the walk and talking the talk.) Like many chareidim who lack self awareness, you don't have any self-awareness of the viciousness and rudeness of your post. No doubt you will provide 20 halachik 'sources' that make it ok notwithstanding chazal's derachoh darchei noam. Its 'not about taking it seriously or not'.
Don't bother responding.
It's too funny seeing a lecture in self awareness and rudeness from a guy whose main exposure to chareidi life was his 10 years spent in the kollel coffee room after shambling in from 10:00 minyan, the rest of his exposure was (and still is) looking at women's sheitels, and then he comes to this blog and posts endless off-topic comments about these subjects.
Actually, I said hell and BSing. Get that straight.
Proud of it? A 'kosher' substitution for the most disgusting nivul peh? Shows how you are influenced by non Jewish/secular society just as much as anybody else, even being charedi.
You can't fight leitzanus with logic.
Do you treat an eight month gestation age premature baby as muktzah? Presumably you wouldn’t be mechalel shabbos for a cardiac arrest victim who has stopped breathing. After all, chazal say he is dead.
Wow I guess there was some learning going on in that coffee room after all. A regular talmid hakham!
I learnt in kollel for many years. That's why you lot all hate me. You know that I make good points about the state of chareidiodom.
Yep, you're a martyr. Reviled for your principles and unflinching intellectual honesty.
I truly pity you, and I'm not being sarcastic. According to your own perspective you wasted decades of your life withering in kollel. I can't imagine a more worse feeling than the realization that you wasted your own life.
(That's if we actually buy your BS of having been in kollel (I used this slur purposely in light of your comment). In all probability you never even saw the inside of a kollel, much less learned in one).
Yes you occasionally make good points about the state of "chareidiodom", but it never has anything to do with the topic under discussion. And all your rants can be summarized as follows; chareidim are not perfect. Nobody really disagrees with you on that, which is another reason your comments are always irrelevant.
It does not seem that anybody really hates you, though. You are at most a minor nuisance. At best slightly entertaining.
Not exactly, all we know about you is the Slifkinesque kind of generalizations. One rabbi with a black hat is reported as saying something untoward that is spread throughout the internet, and henceforth, unrelated Haredim are lumped together all because you had bad experiences when learning one tenth of Bava Kamma, and all Haredim 'obviously know nothing.
Testi, not every statement of Chazal is defined as a halachic imperative in light of conflicting statements that are equally imperative. That doesn't detract from the cogency of each particular statement as an independent entity. When practicing Halacha, there are numerous other statements and perspectives that also need to be consldered.
Absolutely agree. That's precisely my point.
For example, if someone makes a comment like: 'haredidom is stupid because I learned in Kollel'. Yes, it may be true that this guy had bad experiences, but of course, despite his testiness, there are, thank G-d, about 2 million Haredim in the world, and only people who like Slifkin would generalize to all Haredim based upon his own bad experiences.
But of course to generalise to all Modox is perfectly acceptable.....as is to generalise all chareidim as the ONLY ones that understand what an 'intimate connection to Hashem' really is.....
I think we've said only two dozen times that we have nothing against RW MODOX and DL who are careful about Torah and Mitzvos. Our only gripe is with the LW like Natan who try to undermine the Torah in all sorts of ways.
Basically Slifkin is trying to create a new vision of Judaism. Since he is an idiot, he cannot attract religious and sincere adherents, who will be drawn instead to people with more Yiras Shamayim, so he is left with nothing more than ridiculing Haredim, which has become his main pastime. I think he needs therapy. Or, perhaps he can open a political party like Lapid and Lieberman. His father-in-law in Beverly Hills can pump in the money, and their headquarters could be at the Zoo (oh sorry, I meant: the 'museum'.
He is not an idiot, he is very very smart.
That's the problem, that he uses the gifts that Hashem gave him to attack Hashem's Torah!