Introduction 18
Dedication 19
The impact of the Daas Torah Blog 20
A person should always strive to be like others - Me'urav im habrios? 21
Abuse: If your child reports being abused - What would you do? 22
Abuse:Children are valid witnesses I 23
Abuse:Does a victim have to forgive abuser if he asks three times? 24
Abuse:Emotional abuse - Embarrassing with strong praise? 26
Abuse:Emotional abuse in Jewish sources: Reish Lakish 27
Abuse:Emotional abuse produces overly fragile children? 28
Abuse:Frum halachic concerns about abuse 29
Abuse:Verbal abuse is prohibited only if the person is helpless 30
Abuse:Verbal abusers mistakenly feel superior to Jewish victim - Alshech 32
Agada & Kabbala - learning things beyond comprehension 34
Agada must be accepted as true? 35
Age of the Universe 37
Aguna - What happens to celebrity media star liars when the truth comes out? 38
Altering Torah laws when they become a problem 39
Angels: Belief in Angels is required 40
Angels:Conscious beings with free will 41
Angels:Fallen 42
Angels:Free will and punishment 43
Angels:judge and kill 44
Angels:Natural forces 45
Angels:Not always intermediaries 46
Angels:Rav Tzadok 47
Angels:Worshipping angels is prohibited 48
Angels:Praying to Angels? 49
Ascertaining Ratzon HaShem: How do we know what G-d wants us to do? 50
Assisted martyrdom:Desirable or is it murder? 51
Astrology: Stars are intelligent beings 52
Astrology:Effort is worthless against mazel ! 53
Astrology:Jews - Meiri 54
Astrology:Jews not absolutely determined by Mazel 55
Astrology:Mazel is changed by G-d 56
Astrology:Stars are conscious beings? 57
Authority:Accepting G-d's authority is difficult for Jews 58
Authority:An Amora had the potential right to disagree with a Tanna 59
Authority:Chazal because of their superior knowledge of truth. 60
Authority:Gedolim Because they are accepted - not because of their knowledge 61
Authority:Making up sources 62
Authority:Midgets standing on giants 63
Authority:Obeying Rabbinic authority even when they are wrong? 64
Authority:Obligation to accept everything said by the tzadik of the generation 65
Authority:Psak is different for post-Talmudic authorites who lack ruach hakodesh 66
Authority:Rabbinic authority today? 67
Authority:Scientific statements of our Sages 68
Authority:Shmuel in his generation is like Yiftach in his generation 69
Authority:Shulchan Aruch is the default view only when Achronim are deadlocked 71
Authority:Words of our Sages are from G-d 72
Avraham and his descendants were punished 73
Avraham as source of magic 74
Banning a posek who errs and tells a married woman she can marry another man - Does it matter if the facts presented to the posek are not true? 75
Bar Kochbar - most doubted that he was Messiah 76
Bein adam l'chavero sins - only if done to hurt & vanquish the other 77
Belief that a Rebbe is like an angel and Emunas Chochomim 78
Believability 79
Beracha "Didn't make me a woman" - Magen Avraham 80
Best not to study Hashkofah but to have simple faith 81
Between a rock and a hard place 82
Bitachon 83
Blessing of Tzadikim 84
Brain Death - Rav Shabtsai Rappaport reports his discussion with his grandfather Rav Moshe Feinstein 85
Breslover Joke from Rav Yaakov Meir Schechter 86
Brothers and Sisters in Silver Spring - Wake up! It is deal time for Tamar and you are messing it up big time 87
Calling police for Jewish owned house of prostitution 88
Capital punishment:Rav Moshe Feinstein & Maharam Shick 89
Challenges are good or to be avoided? 91
Chanifa:Acting differently than what you feel is viewed by Chazal as a serious sin - So why do they require being me'urav im habrios (acting like everyone else) even while your true thoughts and feelings are never revealed? 92
Chanifa:Why flattering the rich is not only permitted but required 93
Chareidim and the reality of propaganda 94
Charity given with wife's assistance - still considered giving secretly/ Heter of Chazon Ish to speak lashon harah to wife 95
Chasam Sofer:Ruach Hakodesh of poslkim - is not binding authority 96
Chasam Sofer:Seek truth - don't be concerned to please others and win their approval 97
Chasam Sofer: Women superior to men? 98
Chasam Sofer:Explanations need to agree with scientific reality 99
Chazal believed in existence of demons and evil eye 100
Chazal have disputes only on correct viewpoint - all they say is true 101
Chazon Ish: Ruach Hakodesh is intellect joined with the Divine 102
Chazon Ish: True moderation can only be achieved as failure to achieve perfection 103
Child abuse:Bringing out the crazies 104
Child's education vs honoring father? 105
Chofetz Chaim:Chazon Ish & Rav Kook 106
Chofetz Chaim:Disagrees with Rabbeinu Yona about lashon harah said in public 107
Chofetz Chaim:Disapproved of the Netziv's criticism of the delegitimzing of religious maskilim and religious Zionists 108
Chofetz Chaim:Speaking lashon harah when angry at assailant? 109
Christianity:Avoiding 111
Commonsense is subordinate to Tradition 112
Commonsense morality and empathy can be corrupted by religion and theology 113
Consequences of religious anti-intellectualism 115
Contradiction between new 9th vol of Igros Moshe & older volumes regarding Magen Avraham & Shema 116
Conversion - Why Minor Mitzvos dissuade conversion 117
Conversion can be declared invalid 118
Conversion of intermarried couples is very problematic 120
Corporal Punishment & Gedolim 121
Corporality: Rambam's inconsistent views 122
Daas Torah A layman can never ever criticize a Rabbi. Even it causes some to sin 124
Daas Torah first failure 125
Daas Torah means not only total obedience but an inability to judge gedolim 126
Daas Torah: Divrei Chaim claimed heretic mislead gedolim to write that they agreed with him 127
Daas Torah:Ramchal - knowledge obtained through ruach hakodesh is infallible 128
Daas Torah:Wife disagreed with Daas Torah 129
Dan l'chaf zechus - What is the obligation to judge favorably? 130
Dangerous times - G-d's anger 132
Dangers of losing grasp of G-d's personality is worse than dangers of corporality 133
Dating:Don't play house: Rav Moshe's advice for shidduchim 134
Dating:Social Dating 135
Daughters inheriting: Forcing the involvement of secular courts instead of beis din 136
Dedication Hebrew Yad Yisroel 137
Dedication of Child Abuse Book to Mrs. Judy Young A”H 138
Demons 139
Demons:Abaye banished demons 140
Demons:Beis Mamikdash and demons 141
Demons:Going out alone at night is prohibited today because of demons? 143
Demons:Kotzer Rambam's psak eliminated demons 144
Demons:Nonsense 145
Demons:Rav Tzadok 146
Demons:Three weeks are period of danger from demons 147
Destroying Television to Stop Sin? 148
Disagreements are bad in Torah study? 149
Divine Providence 150
Divorce Tragedies - Letter to Jewish Press 151
Divorce:Who gets custody of Kids? 152
Divorcee covering head 153
Doctors:Are only a minhag 154
Doctors:Obligation to use 155
Does effort in observing tznius guarantee parnasa? 156
Does sending girls to collect charity violate "the honor of the princess is to stay inside" 157
Don't ask a rebbe for secular advise 159
Drinking water at night? 160
Dybuk is mental illness 161
Education interferes with faith 162
Education not to be a fool - "A fool is one who believes everything" Mishlei 14:15) 163
Eilu v' Eilu: No disputes in the Talmud, Agada or Kabbala - 166
Eliyahu - who was he? 167
Empathy deficit and Torah 168
Eve was the mother of life because she brought death into the world 169
Evil Eye 170
Evil Eye - concern? 171
Evil Eye endangers Windfalls 172
Evil Eye: Rabbis can damage with evil eye 173
Evil has power -Ramchal 174
Exile from Spain;Abarbanel caused exile from Spain? 175
Expert's evaluation is like a beis din & witnesses 176
Failed Messiah blinded by his hatred for Chareidim - becomes incoherent when contradicted by facts 177
Failure of rabbinical leadership to see the consequences of their actions 178
Faith and philosophy 179
Falsely claiming to have ruach hakodesh is capital offence of being a false prophet 180
Father's sins atoned by son's suffering? 181
For the times they are a-changin' 182
Forced to sin? 183
Forgiveness of sins against G-d depend on being forgiven for sins against man? 184
Free Will- even against Providence 185
Free Will:G-d's knowledge and free-will 186
Frum or Normal:Which is better? 187
Frum:Jews died in plague of Darkness because they were being frum 188
Gam zu ltova - comforting mourners 189
Gam zu l'tova? 190
G-d color of hair? 193
Gedolim:A British madrich asks: What are gedolim? 194
Gedolim:A gadol explains what a secret psak is and why it isn't taken seriously 195
Gedolim:Are fallible but woe to the person who points out teir errors 196
Gedolim:Are not infallible - and this should be obvious but unfortunately is not 198
Gedolim:Blemished Gedolim 199
Gedolim:Can a godol be evil? 200
Gedolim:Disagreeing with Gedolim 201
Gedolim:Even gedolim are required to keep the Torah 202
Gedolim:Mesorah versus gadol --- the authority of Chazon ish 203
Gedolim:Produce gedolim even if most students are destroyed. 204
Gedolim:Rabbi Akiva Eiger - like all gedolim - needed to make a mistake to show he was human 205
Gedolim:The sins of Gedolim - have their roots in Korach and his associates 206
Gedolim:When a Gadol is afraid to correct his mistaken Psak 207
Gedolim:Yiftach who was the godol hador - was an am haaretz 208
Geirim - Shidduchim Issues - Relationship with parents 209
Genetic disease: Checking for genetic disease 210
Get Forced: An apparent contradiction between Igros Moshe and Tendler's Mesoras Moshe 211
Get Forcing divorce on a mentally ill wife 213
Get: Forced Get –is it kosher bedieved? 214
Get:If a husband doesn't give a Get does he transgress Lifnei Ivair if his wife commits adultery? 215
Get:The sick reality of gittin today 216
Get:Withholding a Get is unjewish and evil "?! 217
Golden Calf reason for having children 223
Golden calf was an assistant G-d?! 224
Golden calf:There were 12 Golden Calves not one 225
Good Chanifa (chanufa) - the basis of personal mental health and a healthy society 226
Gra & Chassidus:Reason for dispute 228
Gra criticized Rambam regarding the supernatural 229
Gra: Scientific reality sometimes is used to decide between halachic views 230
Greater the person the greater his lust 231
Greatest Principle of the Torah - What is it? 234
Guma Aguiar lawyer's warning letter 235
Halacha: What is the halachic basis of EJF? 236
Halacha:Authority requires being committed to the Torah system 237
Halacha:By committee - Mishna Berura 238
Halacha:Innovation in halacha 239
Halacha:Majority rule in halacha 240
Halacha:Majority rule of halacha is not relevant in most cases 242
Halacha:Majority rules even if view is not factually true 243
Halacha:Problems are inherent when using mussar or agada as halacha 244
Halacha:Supercedes ethical principles /Chazon Ish 245
Halacha:The importance of accurately reporting the halacha 246
Halacha:Understanding Eliezer's process of identifying Yitzhok's wife 247
Harchakas of Rabbeinu Tam don’t make get me’usa 248
Harm of Talking a lot with one's Wife 252
Heretic:Denies the Mishna Berura and other major seforim were written with ruach hakodesh 253
Heretics:Answering heretics 254
Heretics:Learning from a heretic is prohibited - even though R' Meir did it 256
Heretics:Rambam - how could he learn from heretics? 257
His'orrus (stimulation) vs. Transformation - Kelm Mussar 258
Hitting kids is wrong because it causes emotional damage?! 259
Holiness is not asceticism 260
Halacha that a woman should stay in house? 261
Holy people transcend and can change Nature 262
Homosexuality - view of Rav Moshe Feinstein 263
Homosexuality:Caring for the Sinner 264
Honoring parents when a parent acts like a child 265
How Debbie Gross "saved" me from being abused physically and emotionally at her Convention dealing with abuse and violence in the religious community 266
How to have enemies suffer Divine punishment instead of you. 268
Idolatry: Principal purpose of Torah is destruction of idolatry 269
Idolatry: Support for Rambam's view of sacrifices? 270
Idolatry: The Temple and its mitvos mirrored idolatry 271
Idolatry:An attempt to concretise abstact religious belief 272
Idolatry:Changing 273
Idolatry:Mitzvos deal with people as they are to erase idolatry 274
Idolatry:Sacrifices were commanded to wean the Jews from idolatry 276
Idolatry:Shituf 278
Ignorance of pious people about sexual issues is problematic Rav Yitzchok Scher 279
Secular knowledge:Ignorance is Chillul haShem 280
Image of elokim - creation of man Chizkuni 281
Importance of having a Rebbe 282
Incest: Yichud of brothers & sisters 283
Independent opinion in the matter of Kabbalah is folly and the cause of great harm. 284
Informing on tax cheats 285
Internet Filtering: The false sense of security 286
Internet:Fighting the Internet - no holds barred & any twisting of truth is permitted! 287
Introduction to my new book on the Jewish understanding of marriage and gender issues 288
Is a person tested with a task beyond his ability? Two opposing views 289
Issues that people have a lust for leniences such as birth control are not to be presented to the masses 291
Jew: Can a Jew lose his status as Jew? 293
Jewish Calculus of Suffering:Stop sin or suffering? 294
Jews Were a primitive and uncultured people 295
Jews:In Egypt did not keep Torah & Mitzvos 296
Jews:Less likely to change from moral chastisement than goyim 297
Jews:Protected from assimilation by being despised and uncivilized 298
Kabbala is not for everyone - Rivash 299
Kabbala can increase sexual lust even amongst talmidei chochomim - Rav Tzadok 300
Kanoi a path in Avodas HaShem 301
Key to learning Torah is challenging Sages who are presumed to be correct 302
Kiddush HaShem:Mesiras nefesh which ignores consequences? 303
Kiruv for non-Jews with Jewish Identity II 304
Kiruv - Lying to make someone religious?! 305
Kollel:Leaving Kollel is dangerous 306
Kosher equivalents - why? 307
Kuzari principle and commonsense 308
Lashon harah: Not speaking lashon harah might be sinful 309
Lashon harah:About yourself? 310
Lashon harah:Chofetz Chaim permits for to'eles only when not motivated by hatred. 311
Lashon harah:Circumstantial evidence & lashon harah 312
Lashon harah:Defining Rechilus - Rambam vs Chofetz Chaim 313
Lashon harah:Informing his students or children of bad deeds of others 314
Lashon harah:Only prohibited when there is no benefit or to'eles 315
Lashon harah:Public knowledge is not lashon harah 317
Lashon harah:Sin of not saying lashon harah /Rav Ovadiah Yosef 318
Lashon harah:The nature of the prohibition of not accepting lashon harah 319
Leaders:Avoid justifying views with logical proofs or reasons 320
Leaders:Problematic leaders 321
Learning from a teacher who is not fit 322
Lesson of Pinchas: Leaders must protest evil! 323
Love neighbor as yourself 324
Loving another - only means their welfare 325
Lust and the nature of children 326
Magic is real - Ramban 327
Magic:Jews used to have magic beds 329
Malbim disappointed Rav Yisroel Salanter by neglecting halacha for Tanach in order to fight Haskala 330
Mamzer 331
Marriage:A man is more of a slave to his wife than she to him 332
Marriage:A man should love his wife just as he does his tefilin 333
Marriage:A woman's do it yourself guide to annulling marriage. 334
Marriage:Avoid Marriage if it results in Adultery 335
Marriage:Bad wife is desirable 336
Marriage:Chasan steps on Kallah's foot to be boss? 337
Marriage:Divorce 338
Marriage:Eishes chayil - the ideal wife? 340
Marriage:Every wife is to be ruled by her husband - Ben Yehoyada (Men 43b) 342
Marriage:Free will Rambam 343
Marriage:Good wife views her husband as her master - Menoras HaMe'or 344
Marriage:How Rav Aharon picked his son-in-law Rav Dov 345
Marriage:Incompatible with greatness 346
Marriage:Jealousy can only be removed by G-d 347
Marriage:Kiruv can be dangerous to marriage 348
Marriage:Love for wife is qualitatively no different than that of fellow man 349
Marriage:Maharal - BM (84a) discussing marital relations 350
Marriage:Man takes - Wife doesn't give herself 351
Marriage:Midos are the most important factor in choosing a wife? 352
Marriage:Misconceptions about marriage - a wife is not a shtender 354
Marriage:Misconceptions about marriage - asceticism is prime value 355
Marriage:Moshe why did he married Yisro daughter? 357
Marriage:Must husband be informed of wife's adultery Rav O. Yosef 358
Marriage:Must husband be informed of wife's adultery Tosfos Yom Tov 359
Marriage:Nullifying marriage with homosexual husband 360
Marriage:Pele Yo'etz 361
Marriage:Predestined? 363
Marriage:Rav Wolbe's advice to chasanim 364
Marriage:Rav Yaakov Kaminetsy's haskoma to R Travis's marriage manual 365
Marriage:Ropshitzer:Explaining shelo asani isha - to his wife 366
Marriage:Shalom bayis - wife's first obligation is respect of her husband - not her parents or children 367
Marriage:Subservience of wife was a punishment 368
Marriage:Taking care of senile ex- wife? 369
Marriage:Telling husband it is a mitzva to give Get/Sin not to 370
Marriage:Understanding Marriage through Divorce 371
Marriage:What is pritzus for wife - Different views 373
Marriage:What qualities to look for in a wife?" 374
Marriage:Wife is subordinate to her husband to the degree he is subordinate to G-d - Netziv 375
Marriage:Yibam (levirate marriage): A wife is considered as one of her husband's limbs like Eve was of Adam 376
Mazikim Erev Shabbos 377
Mechitza 378
Mechitza for how many women? 379
Meir Pogrow (founder of Master Torah program) has been determined to be a rasha by beis din and that it is prohibited for women to have any contact with him 380
Meir Pogrow: Learning Torah from morally disgusting individuals: The gag reflex 381
Meir Pogrow: Rav Chaim Malinowitz' response to the question of whether Pogrow's Torah shiurim should be removed 382
Meir Pogrow: Why wasn't he stopped by people who clearly knew he was a danger years ago? 383
Mendel Epstein - Gittin by torture trial: An urgent request for as many people as possible to attend the trial 384
Moderation is normally required but extremism is required in times of spiritual danger BK (60b) 385
Mordechai Tendler's "Mesores Moshe" - What is it? 386
Mother is main disciplinarian & should not show mercy when hitting kids 387
Mussar Movement as frum Haskalah 388
Mussar Movement did it fight Haskala by being a frum Haskala or by focusing on developing greater yiras shamayaim and character perfection? 389
Mussar Movement was haskala - a man-based vision to revive religion 390
Natural Childbirth 391
Need to apologize to maskilim who fought against hypocrisy 392
Netziv:Why Rikva couldn't communicate with Yitzchok 393
Not speaking to women 394
Obligation of loving gerim and not tormenting them 395
Occupation you like - only? 396
One who says This teaching is pleasant but this is not pleasant loses the fortune of Torah. 397
Order of protection in divorce cases 398
Original sin was to think woman equal to man - Chasam Sofer 399
Philosophy originated with the Jews - not the Greeks 401
Piety is primarily in motivation - not unique deeds 402
Pikuach Nefesh & mental health II 403
Pilpul without understanding text - stupifies 404
Pinchas was an angel 405
Powers of gemstones 406
Prayer -serving G-d 407
Proof of G-d's existence 408
Prophet can misunderstand his prophetic vision 409
Proselytizing is problematic - Aruch HaShulchan 410
Psychological Abuse - Identity & expectations/ Maharal 411
Psychologist's role in religious change - is there one? 412
Psychology:A Jewish therapist or a therapist who is Jewish 413
Psychology:Has it created an oversensitivity to torment or discovered it? 414
Psychology:How to explain Torah & Psychology to kiruv rabbis? 415
Psychology:Saving a suicidal gay man - by reconcilling him with his estranged lover? 416
Psychology:Torah Psychotherapy is learned from Torah or doesn't violate Torah? 417
Public challenge to any of Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky's supporters to defend his actions in a guest post! 419
Punishment of family is mida keneged mida 420
Purim and the Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter 421
R' Herzfeld's "heter" to publicly embarrass Aaron Friedman 422
Rabbeinu Tam's Shunning: Tzitz Eliezar & Rav Yosef 423
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin - president of the RCA - clarifies the RCA-Rav Belsky joint statement on child abuse. 424
Rabbinic divorce decisions need greater involvement of mental health professionals 425
Rabbinic infallibility: Examples of Rabbis apologizing for harmful mistakes 426
Rabbi's prime responsiblity is protecting people from harm 428
Rachel showed modesty by betraying Yaakov? 429
Raising children - curse or joy? 430
Rambam - does he agree with Ramban about sexual lust? 431
Rambam rejects Chazal because he was a rationalist 433
Ramban disagreeing with Chazal because of Zohar 434
Ramban's view of nature? 435
Rape - does G-d want someone to be raped? 437
Rashi indicates one's children are punished for not fighting molesters 438
Rationalstic and philosophical rabbis more negative to women than kabbalists or mystics 439
Rav Chaim Malinowitz: Rav Feldman is mistakenly transforming this outrage against the Torah into a mere dispute of poskim 440
Rav Chaim Malinowitz: Understanding suffering and revenge 441
Rav Dessler: Free-will & creation of Adam 442
Rav Dessler: Yeshiva should deny self-esteem to those not fully involved in Torah study 443
Rav Dessler:Failure of parents and teachers to hit children is producing Nazis and brazen people 444
Rav Eliashiv:Ma'os Alei - Get not required (1 174) 445
Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, shlita 446
Rav Ephraim Greenblatt:Interview from 1990 447
Rav Gestetner's letter regarding Tamar Epstein's heter to remarry without a Get 449
Rav Menashe Klein: How does calling an abuser a rodef - permit calling the police? 450
Rav Moshe Feinstein :A man is more of a slave to his wife than she to him 451
Rav Moshe Feinstein:Approches to psak 452
Rav Moshe Feinstein:Blessing the sun - and a child 453
Rav Moshe Feinstein:Honoring Conservative & Reform "Rabbis" with an aliyah? 454
Rav Moshe Feinstein:Medical screening and Bitachon 455
Rav Moshe Feinstein:The Obligation to Speak and to Act 457
Rav Moshe Feinstein:The statement found in Rashi (Menachos 43b) that a wife is a slave to her husband is nonsense 459
Rav Moshe Feinstein:Untrue story being circulated 460
Rav Moshe Feinstein:Validating conversion for non-observant gerim 461
Rav Moshe Shapiro: Meeting with Rav Moshe Shapiro 463
Rav Moshe Shapiro’s approach to kiruv and the month of Shevat by Rav Chaim Malinowitz 466
Rav Moshe Sternbuch - Authorized Translation 467
Rav Sternbuch's parsha sheet 468
Rav Moshe Sternbuch: Concerning the dreadful draft decree 469
Rav Moshe Tendler 470
Rav Noach Weinberg’s advice about my sefer Daas Torah 471
Rav Nosson Kaminetsky: Those who questioned the validity of the Chofetz Chaim's dibbuq 472
Rav Nota Greenblatt denounces those who claim they have secret poskim with secret reasoning 473
Rav Ovadiya Yosef: Forcing husband to divorce moredes 474
Rav S. R. Hirsch & his contemporary incarnation - Rabbi Slifkin 475
Rav S. R.Hirsch - we can't emulate great men who are portrayed as flawless 476
Rav Schachter joining with Rav Kaminetsky in disregarding the Baltimore Beis din and saying that Aharon should be forced to give a Get 477
Rav Shimon Shkop stayed at YU in order to emulate Rav Yisroel Salanter 478
Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach:Your spiritual (& physical life) comes before that of others 479
Rav Sternbuch: Get for civil & Reform marriages? 481
Rav Sternbuch: Tradition is not to teach Tanach - why? 482
Rav Sternbuch:Forcing Husband to divorce Wife 483
Rav Sternbuch:Husband should not be spiteful and should give a Get if there is no chance of reconcilliation and all issues are resolved 484
Rav Sternbuch's protest against heter for Tamar Epstein to remarry without a Get 486
Rav Triebetz: Does Rav Yisroel Salanter have a legacy? 487
Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky: Bean counting - Non-Jewish woman vs niddah? 489
Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky: Why he erred in thinking the Maharsham was senile 490
Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky:Zealotry is necessary - but only if guided by a clear understanding of Torah 491
Rav Yisroel Reisman: It is redifus to publish information about this particular sex offender - he is not a danger to the community 492
Rav Yisroel Salanter poskened: "It is prohibited to desecrate Shabbos to save my life." 493
Rav Yisroel Salanter tried being a chassid 494
Rav Ovadiah Yosef (3:20) - Forcing only sometimes 495
Reality Check: A frum Jew is supposed to be a nice person 497
Redemption from Egypt by G-d or angel? 499
Religion has replaced sex as taboo 500
Religious Bullying - "You are a shaigetz, I am a tzadik" 501
Religious criticism:Responding - Maharal in Be'er HaGolah 502
Remarrying after only secular divorce 503
Removing Mention of Michael Hersh/Hirsch 504
Righteous people can also change 505
Rivkah was afraid of Yitzchok and felt inferior to him - Netziv 506
Ruach hakodesh & Ruach hakodesh of the intellect are not the same 507
Ruach hakodesh is reason Biblical verses are omnisignificant - Netziv 508
Ruach rah - does it exist today? 509
Sanhedrin is not protected against error 510
Satanic abuse rings:Is there a ring of such pedophiles operating in Sanhedria Murchevet? 511
Satanic abuse hysteria: Dr. Joy Silberg - what is her role? 512
Satanic abuse rings A disturbing postscript 513
Satanic abuse rings: Dr Joy Silberg a believer in Satanic cults (and repressed memories) and Rabbi Yitzchok Berkowitz 514
Satanic abuse rings:Therapists say go back to America or switch to Mizrachi schools! 516
Satanic abuse rings:The problematic paranoid thinking needed to accept the allegations of Satanic Abuse Rings 517
Satmar Rav says Six Day War victory was natural - without Divine Providence 518
Satmar Rebbe:Criticism of his views 520
Scheslinger Twins:A personal Elul message for Dr. Schlesinger - "Have you no shame?" 521
Schlesinger Twins: Rebbitzen Rosenberg comes to Vienna community to help Beth and her children 522
Schlesinger Twins: Why does the court prefer a Filipino stranger as primary caretaker? 524
Schlesinger Twins:A day in the life of the custodial parent - Dr. Michael Schlesinger 525
Science vs.Torah 526
Scientific facts are not final even for Chazal 527
Science:Use of DNA to free an Aguna 528
Science:Validity of views R’ Sherira Gaon & Rambam’s son 529
Scientific statements of Chazal might only be according to the science of their day 530
Secular education and Rav Shach 531
Secular knowledge is from ruach hakodesh 532
Secular knowledge:The importance of secular studies 533
Seminary Scandal: "They call him Tatte" - How should male teachers relate to female students? 534
Seridei Aish:Need to apologize to maskilim who fought against hypocrisy 535
Sex and kiruv: Problem of the charismatic rabbi 536
Sex as a metaphor for love of Torah & G-d 537
Sex change by surgery - halachically valid? 538
Sexual relations: Prohibition of thinking of another person 539
Sexuality 541
Sexuality:Reading medical texts regarding sex 542
Sexuality:Importance of sexual satisfaction - and not just focusing on doing a mitzva 543
Sheitel and maris aiyen 544
Should I avoid presenting the Torah viewpoint because of threats of violence? 545
Shulem Deen: Truthseeker who had too many unanswered questions or an apikorus skillful in deceptively leaving out most of the important details needed to understand who he is 546
Simonim 547
Sitting next to women on buses 548
Slander for the sake of Peace 549
Snakes as servants 550
Social pressure to sin? 551
Sorcery 552
Sotah an explanation 553
Source of the berachos of a tzadik - heard from the Bostoner Rebbe 554
Spilling soup on someone to stop bitul Torah: Rav Zilberstein 555
Stealing in order to help others - is it permitted? 556
Stefan Colmer - convicted molester has moved to Passaic - Rav Eisenman requested that this be publicized 557
Steipler: There is no rebbe muvhak today since we learn from seforim - and not orally 558
Stereotypic thinking:Intelligent opening-minded chareidim is not an oxymoron 559
Strange tale concerning a man of simple but flawed belief & the Arizal 560
Suicide & Teshuva 561
SUMMARY HALOCHOT ON MO'US OLAY AND SHAMING A HUSBAND BY RABBI GESTETNER" 564
Superiority of Israel 568
Supernatural:Magic Demons and Astrology real? 569
Supernatural:Nature vs supernatural 570
Talmid chachom needs an attractive wife 571
Talmid chachom/tzadik is beyond criticism because he is presumed that he doesn't sin or because he certainly repented immediately? 572
Talmid chachom: A real talmid chachom needs to be insensitive to his family? 574
Talmid chachom:A seeker of truth must be rude (“navel") 576
Talmid chachom:A talmid chachom needs to be insensitive to his family? 577
Talmid chachom:Do talmidei chachomim really insult and belittle each other? 579
Talmid chachom:Is a worker superior to a talmid chochom? 580
Talmid chachom:Should be a nice person? 581
Talmid chochom is not necessarily kind and merciful 582
Talmud vs esoteric wisdom 583
Tamar Epstein Heter: R' Greenblatt said he simply accepted whatever R Shalom Kaminetsky told him 584
Tamar Epstein: Protest by Rav Shlomo Miller, R E B Wachtfogel, R Moshe Green and R Yechiel Tauber 585
Tamar Epstein: Protest from Rav Pinchus Rabinowitz' Beis Din 586
Tamar Epstein: Rav Sariel Rosenberg protests against heter 587
Tamar Epstein: What role did Rav Shmuel and Rav Sholom Kaminetsky play in the giving of the heter to remarry without a Get? 588
Tamar Epstein:A well known frum psychologist's two cents 589
Tamar Epstein:Rav Aharon Feldman's letter regarding Tamar Epstein's heter 590
Tamar Epstein:Therapists that saw Tamar and Aharon deny discussing Aharon with anyone 592
Tamuz letter of Baltimore Beis Din - removed at the request of the Baltimore Beis Din 593
Teacher beats student from anger at his inattention - must he pay damages? 594
Teaching child a trade 595
Telescope invented in his time to validate G-d's supervision 596
Text and verbal teachings are not the Mesorah 597
The dangers of being on a high spiritual level 598
The dangers of universal education and access of the masses to clear texts 599
The Emperor has no clothes - Eternal Jewish Family & Daas Torah 600
The honor of a Jewish women is staying in the house - moral value or halacha? 601
The insensitive condescension of the secular towards the Orthodox community 603
The necessity for Adam to sin - Netziv (Bereishis 2:4) 604
The need for WOW!! as an indication of the deterioriation of the system 605
The only defense for the Kaminetsky-Greenblatt heter is to attack me personally 607
The problem of a convicted sex offender using threats of lawsuits to prevent publicizing his activities 608
The relationship between G-d and the Jews is like a husband to his wife 609
The severe sin of going to a non-Jewish court 612
The Sin of Adam - inaccurate self-assessment 613
The Tiger Woods of the Chareidi world 614
Thoughts of sin are worse than the sin itself 615
Three Belzers & a Blogger trying to understand Daas Torah 616
Torah is medicine for soul not body 617
Torah is the word of G-d - no need to apologize 618
Torah law is used as long as society functions properly/Igros Moshe 619
Torah laws must be observed even if observance causes degradation or shame 620
Translation of seforim including Igros Moshe & making halacha seforim with psakim without sources & reasons 621
Torah Study & Working: Payment for Torah - Rav Moshe Feinstein 622
Torah Study & Working: Shulchan Aruch (156) vs Mishneh Berura 623
Tropper - Smear Campaign 624
Tropper doesn't know when to give up 625
Tropper says he is not taking me to court 626
Tropper scandal Is this what Lakewood is producing? 627
Tropper:Advice & appeal for Tropper and his opponent 628
Tropper:Former defender has regrets 629
Tuma is it real?Rambam vs Ramban 630
Two attitudes towards mitzvos 633
Tzadik described as being G-d 634
Tzadik is born because of a clothes line - and other false stories 636
Tzadik overruling G-d 638
Unity of G-d vs belief in His physicality - Rav Tzadok 639
Use of deception to get mitzvos & spiritual perfection 641
Varieties of hashgocha protis 642
Views which grate on modern sensibilities:Sexual abuse is less serious than using an inaccurate commerical scale 643
Vilna Gaon's Letter to his wife: Mussar, beatings & sensitivity 644
Walking with G-d 645
Weiss Dodelson: Divorce settlement required the Weiss's to ask me to take down blog posts 646
Weiss Dodelson: Rav Shlomo Miller's letter to Rav Malkiel Kotler retracting his support for Dodelson 647
What is a tzadik? 648
What was Adam's sin? Decision whether to live as man or angel 649
Why didn't Ezra convert intermarried couples? 651
Why Moshiach is descended from the convert Ruth 652
Why is EJF refusing to have open for-the-record dialogue? 653
Why does G-d repent? 654
Why is Earth spherical? 655
Why were religious Jews attracted to Haskala? 656
Wife & mother-in-law fight - who has to leave? 657
Wife refuses Get /Husband remarry without heter 100 Rabbis? 658
Women:Death 659
Women:Inherently materialistic 660
Women:Mature intellectually earlier than men because they don't study Torah 661
Women:Men are equally holy 662
Women:Misbehaving woman is ugly-Beauty only to serve G-d 663
Women:Prohibition of looking at women 664
Women:Reach perfection only through men 665
Women:Should not drive because of modesty and temperament which results in many accidents 666
Women:Walking behind a woman - prohibited today? 668
Women:Weak minded but have greater Binah (understanding) 669
Women:What do women want sexually? sources in Torah literature 670
Women:Why exempt from mitzva of Torah study Rav Feinstein 671
Women:Witchcraft 672
Women:Woman lacks the image of G-d and intellect 673
Yakov called g-d 674
Yakov was he referring to G-d or an angel? 675
Yakov was punished for calling himsel Israel (Dinah was raped) 676
Yashar (upright) vs Tzadik (righteous) 677
Yeshiva as hospital - women aren't sick 678
Yeshiva is an artificial institution - Rav Hutner 679
Yetzer 681
Yoel Weiss and Rivky Stein: Update 682
You should know that Rav Dovid Feinstein and Rav Nota Greenblatt are good friends" 683
Your disgusting blog 684
Zohar was not originally in the form we have today 685
Dear Rabbi Eidensohn:
You state: "I am merely responding to your accusation that for a community to ban conversion and converts because of the widespread failure to be able to discern sincere candidates is anti-halacha and against the hashkofa that we were sent into exile to gather gerim."
Indeed I stand by my assertions and I still cannot fathom how you cite these mekoros that you do as being potentially applicable "bechol asar ve'asar" meaning in any place anywhere which is just NOT something you can derive from the sources you cite. Do you reallly think that what the Syrian rabbis did in the 20th century has any real connection to the lomdus, hashkofa and halacha in the sources you cite? Not at all. They took a look at was happening around them and screamed bloody murder at the mutiny of their flock who were "voting out of the faith" by marrying non-Jewish women and they decided to take a radical step. Did they go around and ask every last Godol on Earth at the time, including all the Sefardishe poskim, if what they proposed to do was in keeping with millenia old Yiddishkeit? And I tender to you that they did not, they panicked, put up this notorious Takana, and then found a few opinions here and there that sort of back them up. Did Rav Kook or Frank institute any such similar things for the Kehillas and Talmidim they led in Europe or in Eretz Yisroel in spite of what they wrote and allegedly "meant" to the far-away Syrians in Argentina? Decidedly no! Why, because they understood and knew full well that it is unheard of to institute such measures.
By all means pasul the geirus of others, like Satmar that does not accept the rulings of most other Batei Din, not in geirus not in gittin and not in kashrus, that is within Halachah, that one tzad is not mechuyav to be mekabel yenem's piskei di as long as they have what to be somech on, but to stand up and say you are issuing a blanket Takana "AS IF" you were now Rabbeinu Gershom, is utterly preposterous, and that is why you will not find either Rav Frank or Rav Kook or any gadol doing such things for their own people. And that is why I say what the Syrians did is anti-Halachik because it goes against the norm.
In fact none of the Syrian rabbis who signed the Takana can be deemed to be what we would today call a "gadol" in the fullest sense of the word so why do we have to accept or be machshiv what they said when it goes keneged hasechel and keneged Torah peshutah?
Then you say: "I don't understand how you would extrapolate from these sources that I am advocating a universal ban. I am just defending the right of the rabbonim of a particular community to institute such a ban."
Which I find very hard to believe the longer I stick around on your blog and read the stream of things you are pushing that seems to me klor that you want to do do to every Bais Din in the world what Rav Shternbuch and the BADATZ did to EJF -- but that is not going to work and you will only marginalize yourself and make yourself seem like a crackpot trying to push a pet project that the whole world (meaning the world of reliable Batei Din) will just not accept.
It is all fine and good that you hold by Rav Shternbuch and the BADATZ, terrific, it's a huge madreigah, but you cannot expect every last Charedi and Orthodox Jew to accept such a supremely high and almost impossible madreigah too. And you seem to be using this whole Syrian Takana ma'aseh, that no-one in the Torah world is even goires, because very few people have respect for what the Syrian Jewish community has achieved in terms of Torah true Judaism, they are more famous in Brooklyn for their "heterim" to ride bicycles on Shabbos down Ocean Parkway, skinny ladies wearing pants jogginbg down Ocean Parkway, building huge mansions, vacationing in Deal and on the Jersey coast as if they were on the French Riviera, and spending tons of money on lavish luxuries and outlandish Bar and Bat mitzvas and playing wink-and-look-away games with their rabbis than taking grandiose Takanas not to marry shiksa seriously.
Other groups also have corruption, but two wrongs don't make a right.
Among other groups, like Chasidim and Yeshiva-leit there are also problems but of a different nature and scale. The takanos so far in recent times are pretty lame, the rabbonim made some takanos about not going to concerts but that does not come to not accepting geirim.
No doubt there are kanoim lurking everywhere waiting to strike and in good time we will hear about attempts to disallow ALL genuine geirei tzedek from becoming geirim, but this is a big jump, and there is a wide chasm between modern Syrians in their personal SUVs and sportscars for everyone in the family with Haredim packed one family into two rooms in Meah Shearim, for now...
There are better ways to fight assimilation than Takanos and gezeiros. Think Ahavas Yisroel, Chinuch, Kiruv, Yeshivas, Bais Yaakovs, day schools, shulls, youth movements.
But the Syrians are really still not ready to hear this.
Do you known that in the Sefardic bikkur cholim in Brooklyn dominated by the SYs that they know that they need social workers but they have set up a cocamamy system that a social worker must be tagged by a communuty worker so that no community secrets leak out. Have you ever heard of such things? You are a psychologist, would you accept that every patient you see MUST be co-handled by a member of the Kehila they come from and that you would have to share all session notes, consultations with colleagues, everything, with some community appointed watchdog less-than-a-rebbetzin? Well that is the way the Syrians function, they want "Orthodoxy" but on their own terms, and what they get is just hypocrisy and a huge mess that they then try to stop with silly "takanos" that only makes them into the laughingstock of the Torah world, like little Mike needs a monitor to keep him in check, and it gets them absolutely nowhere and it is surprisng that you are willing to defend such shtus and to even go digging up mekoros for them and shtel them tzu like arbes tzum vant.
Maybe that is why Jersey Girl has a chip on her shoulder against Aish HaTorah, Chabad, and other Kiruv operations and why you harp on and on about the "Lakewood Ger fiasco" (and it was a fiasco, I agree with you) because it's just a way of laying the groundwork for a total ban against all converts which Rav Shternbuch or the BADATZ may have in the offing but which will only isolate them further and thrust them into looking no better than the Neturei Karta anti-Zionists who have turned logic and Yidishkeit upside down in order to "save it from itself."
If you want to see where opposing something to the extreme can lead, just take a look at the nut jobs who travelled to Tehran and were even willing to deny the Holocaust just to make the point that they are against Zionism. Not that I am comaparing Zionism to geirus, but one needs to watch out for the danger of falling down a slippery slope of being "protesteth too much" when just a little moderation, even for those proposing extreme views, is in order, both humanly and Halachically.
Recipients and Publicity said...
Which I find very hard to believe the longer I stick around on your blog and read the stream of things you are pushing that seems to me klor that you want to do do to every Bais Din in the world what Rav Shternbuch and the BADATZ did to EJF -- but that is not going to work and you will only marginalize yourself and make yourself seem like a crackpot trying to push a pet project that the whole world (meaning the world of reliable Batei Din) will just not accept.
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Your comments seem increasing detached from reality. You are creating a conspiracy theory - which to put it politely is baloney.
As I have stated a number of time I have no problem with changes and varying standards which reflect the needs of the times. I do demand that the halachic rulings be presented in a cogent manner with the sources clearly explained as well as proof of who is poskening.
Thus I have no problem with a community such as the Syrian banning gerim they deem as insincere. I have no problem with Rabbi Tropper accepting intermarried couples - if he can show a written letter from Rav Eliashiv or some other gadol that clearly supports such action and why. I also would like some clear evidence that what ever rulings are followed actually improve the situation.
Your own creative interpretations and story telling about what happened and why - simply doesn't qualify as serious halachic discourse. Your conjecture about a wide variety of topics doesn't constitute objective facts
Why don't you come back down to earth. Your intelligence can be put to better use in helping clarifying the issues rather than villifying others.