2015 BOOK OF THE YEAR

**BEST OF 2015 CONTINUED**

My choice for book of the year isn't going to be controversial. The obvious winner is Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

This book is a great rebuttal to Jews who believe we hold a monopoly on suffering and show zero sympathy to black people who currently endure struggles that are categorically similar to the struggles we once endured in Europe. (No, I don't mean the Holocaust. Jewish European history didn't start in the 1930s)

Some of the similarities include the inability to get justice from the courts, and the way local civil authorities act as enemies rather than protectors. Also, while we tend to focus on the intellectual superstars we produced in Europe, shtelt Jews were very much an underclass, with all that entails. Hitler didn't have to work very hard to convince white Europeans that we were a sort of subhuman. The idea was already firmly rooted in the European consciousness. I don't think its much of a stretch to say that black - especially third and fourth generation American blacks - are likewise viewed by many as something of a inferior species.

Pick your copy up today....

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Best of 2015: The True Blue Suit

"True Blue" is the suit color all of us wore in 2015... even if it did make many of you look like smurfs. (The one on the left is just 108 bucks!)

What were your favorite books, movies, songs, shoes, shirts and suits of 2015?

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It's all just a hat

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On Twitter I saw  a Richard Dawkins acolyte announce that the hijab and the confederate flag are more or less the same, in that both symbolize oppression and subjugation. I objected on the grounds that lots of woman choose to wear hijabs (or wigs and snoods if they are Jewish) while no blacks choose to display the stars and bars. This tells us that woman don't see their religious head covering in the same way that blacks see the confederate flag. (As a result of this remark, I suddenly found myself with loads of new Muslim Twitter followers.)

It comes down to this: All meaning is personal and subjective. Demanding that a woman see her head covering in the way that you happen to see it, is almost as offensive as demanding that she wear one in the first place. Lots of women find significance in their head coverings, and choose to wear them as a result, and you don't get to define its meaning on their behalf.

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Why Xmas makes no sense

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Viscerally(coming from emotions and not from logic or reason), here's what I don't get about Christmas: If you're doing melacha it's not a holiday.

All the Gentiles are driving and cooking and the rest.

What kind of Yom Tov is that?

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Aidel Miller, the fake healer, is back

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Scam alert! And if you believe on any level that this woman has the magical ability to cure your fertility problems or remove the "evil eye" I insist that you go and read some James Randi. 

I strongly assert that this woman is nothing but a cheap bunko artist wearing Jewish robes and shame on every Rabbi and every homeowner who facilitates her swindle by hosting her or crediting her.

 By the way, you people who shrug your shoulders and say "who knows, couldn't hurt" are also accomplices in the con.

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Monsey Yeshivas are Ignoring the Fire Codes

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What the hell is wrong with these idiots?  I saw this on Twitter a moment ago and its outrageous.

In brief, the overwhelming majority of Rockland County yeshivot are being accused of ignoring the fire codes.

What's not explained is why the fire department isn't doing its job and shutting down the schools that are in violation?

As outrageous as it is that Hasidim are flagrantly breaking the law, the fact that the Fire Department isn't enforcing the law strikes me as a bigger problem.

Vanity (Plates)

@azigra

Spotted this in Cedarhurst yesterday:

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Did Charedi Leadership Let the Cat Out of the Bag?

@azigra

As reported on Kikar Shabbos, during the emergency meeting which took place this week concerning women obtaining degrees, Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Dean of Chevron yeshiva said the following: 

חבר מועצת גדולי התורה הגאון רבי דוד כהן ראש ישיבת חברון אמר בכינוס כי "כשהאשה לומדת במוסדות כאלו הבעל" נהיה איזה אפעס אברך כולל והיא נהיית ה'חשוב', היא נהיית המובילה. היא התוארים, היא האקדמיה. כל הצורה של הבית משתנה".

Member of the Council of Torah Sages the Gaon Rabbi David Cohen, Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron told the conference that "when woman study in these institutions [academic], their husband became just another kollel guy* and she becomes the 'prestigious one', she becomes the leader, she gets the titles, she is thescholar,, the whole image/makeup of the house changes". 

(*my contextual translation) 

Was it ever really in the bag?

Fred MacDowell pointed out on FB: "That implies that the secular dudes who go to college are the "chashuv" ones more than the kollel guys" ....... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It is also interesting to note how far off the radar Israeli Charedi leadership is from American Charedim. Here there is a debate now about women studying rabbinic beyond any academic pursuits, In Israel the fight is about women studying anything beyond culinary pursuits.

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Charedei Miscellanei #4

@azigra

Is it time the Charedi world, and others for that matter, consider the unfortunate impacts of old age on people's minds, even of a once brilliant and popular leader?

Below is a very recent conversation between Rabbi Aron YL Shteinman and an 'avrech'. Rough translation below. 

A kolel guy asked him why his wife cant get a degree since they need income, the rabbi asked why do you need income, the fellow responded to be able to live comfortably (to get by) – the rabbi responds: I have a better idea how to live comfortably: steal....the guy asks are women studying academics really worse than stealing? So the rabbi responds it is worse, since with stealing you can repent and return the money, a woman getting a degree is not something she can repent from 

UPDATE: goes without saying this line of argument was obviously tongue in cheek 

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Peak-a-Jew: Julianne Moore

A little Nsfw

Jewish fellow at 3:30

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Gone until Friday...

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I won't be back here before Friday, but I do have some stuff scheduled for Facebook. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/DovBear/


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Yitzhak Alderstein inadvertently declares his opposition to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, accountants, and bookkeepers.

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In his new Cross Currents post Yitzhak Alderstein inadvertently declares his opposition to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, accountants, and bookkeepers.

Because just as he would never "entrust a nidah question to someome who could not independently study a Chavos Daas, or a Sidrei Taharah" Alderstein should be unwilling to let anyone aside from an M.D diagnose and treat his strep throat. Also, he should be unwilling to allow anyone other than a highly trained tax attorney from a big firm to sign off on his annual return.

However, if he agrees that insisting on a superbly-qualified expert for every single case is overkill in medical and financial situations, perhaps it's time for him to wrap his head around the idea that it might also be overkill in certain halachick situations.

Do I need smikha to confirm that pig is treif? Of course not. In the same way, a yoetzet halacha does not need smikha and years of training to properly handle the abundance of rote, mundane nidda questions she will encounter. And just as the PA brings the unusual issues he encounters to a supervising MD, the Yoetzek can bring unusual issues to a Rabbi.

Read: Yoatzot: An Exchange

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The Agudah Convention Moment We will be Talking About for Years

. @shearubenstein at #AIAConv15 pic.twitter.com/ng4t3wrLUU

— Yosef Rapaport (@YosefRapaport) November 15, 2015

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Agudah surrenders to the Zeitgeist

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An unblurred woman's face! Twitter! The Internet! OMG!! OMG!! Who is minding the Agudah store??

Also wan't it just  yesterday that Agudah hated the Internet? And now look at them tweeting like a boss.

Women Rabbis: KEEP YOUR HOPES UP!!!

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Spot the error in this headline

This headline has a mistake. It should read "Three loudmouthed clowns with misogyny issues tell us why women need to remember their place"

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Remembering Jewish Veterans

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For Veterans Day lets remember Maurice Rose, and the other 550,000 Jews who served in the armed forces of the United States during WWII

Major General Rose was the son of a Rabbi and the highest ranking Jew in the U.S army. He died leading his men at Paderman. Let's also remember the three WWII era Jewish soldiers who were awarded the military's highest distinction, the Congressional Medals of Honor - Ben Salomon, Isadore S. Jachman, and Raymond Zussman

Nowadays, we tend to forget about the rich Jewish life that existed in pre-war America, and we write out of existence Jewish American heroes like Rose who, also, were victims of the Nazis. 

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Here's how the New York Times covered Rose's death:http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html…

Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose Killed As He Leads Spearhead in Reich; Commander of Third Armored...

WASHINGTON, April 2 (AP)-- Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose, commander of the Third Armored Division, has been killed in action in Germany, the War Department announced today.

QUERY.NYTIMES.COM|BY THE NEW YORK TIMES (U.S. SIGNAL CORPS)

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Sauce for the Gil is good for the gander

In light of the recent revelations about how Gil Student personally manipulated the RCA into passing a negative, widely reviled resolution about women and ordination, I have this question: Gil Student is a modern 21st century Rabbi, by which I mean he teaches, answers questions and provides counsel without ever (1) exercising religious authority, (2)  operating as a dayan, or (3) paskening. All of the halachot against ordaining women relate to those three specific things: exercising religious authority, serving as a dayan, and paskening.

Like most 21st century rabbis, Rabbi Student does none of those things... yet he still gets to sit on the RCA and call himself a Rabbi and he is afforded these privileges simply by virtue of the fact that he completed a course of study and passed a test. So why can't a woman who also does none of those things likewise enjoy the privilege of joining the RCA and using a title provided she finished the same course of study and passed the same test?

Or to quote a Facebook friend: "Today we have watered down "semikhah" to being nothing more than a certificate of completion. Outside those who get it due to yichus or paying off the right people. Men are getting it after doing online coursework and don't become rebbeim, pulpit rabbis, Dayanim poskim or sometimes even decent Jews. If that's all it means anymore then how do you argue against giving THAT to a women?"

UPDATE:

A rumor is going around that Gil Student holds private smikha, which may mean something awesome, but likely does not - and because its "private" we'll never know.

Why can't a women get the same credential? 

So long as she never exercises religious authority or serves as a dayan what's the problem?

 If a man who has nothing better than "private smikha" - or worse, online smikha, or some other watered down facsimile of smikha -  can join the RCA and carry himself as a Rabbi with all the rights and privileges thereof, why can't a woman pull the same stunt?

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