en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/4196948 Comments by BZinBP http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/217245/#IDComment959197111 99% of all kosher wine is kosher for Passover. I'm Orthodox, and I've never had Manischewitz in my life. Mon, 23 Mar 2015 14:24:38 +0000 http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/217245/#IDComment959197111 http://forward.com/articles/215428/new-york-city-changes-policy-on-controversial-circ/#IDComment952868462 The community didn't sue. An organization that claims to be the mouthpiece for one sub-segment of the broader group lumped together by the outside world as "the ultra-Orthodox community" sued. It is absurd for the infecting mohel's name to not be released. In communities where members are typically socialized to be wary and suspicious of modern medicine, pointing to a link between the offending mohel and the infected child could be very instrumental in leading those who take part in the practice (which is hardly a "rite", as it is an unnecessary part of a separate mitzvah, founded in ancient medical practices not part of Torah she'baal peh) to realize the connection between infected mohelim and passing things on to babies. Tue, 24 Feb 2015 23:54:25 +0000 http://forward.com/articles/215428/new-york-city-changes-policy-on-controversial-circ/#IDComment952868462 http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/214377/#IDComment949292914 As someone who would be described by others as a part of the "chareidi community", I personally feel no need to condemn Kamenetsky. While a certain subset of members of the chareidi community that organize around the Philadelphia yeshiva may be influenced by him, I cannot name one person within my segment of the chareidi community who would even be aware that Kamenetsky has come out with any opinion regarding vaccinations. You give him much more credit than he deserves. The article itself cites a much more universal chareidi rav, Rav Auerbach, who held the opposite position of Kamenetsky. In my experience, as I have stated before in comments on other similar articles, is that anti-vaccination opinions within the chareidi community have zero to do with rabbinic opinions, and everything to do with the sociology of a community attempting to define itself as intellectually and scientifically superior to the outside world. Articles and opinion pieces that appear in both the Yiddish and English language periodicals in my segment of the community are generally written by women who believe in the "holistic" medicine practiced by their great-great grandmothers in Carpathian outposts, not by anyone who would even consider bringing the notion of daas Torah into the discussion. Mon, 9 Feb 2015 23:00:20 +0000 http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/214377/#IDComment949292914 http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/212633/#IDComment941293706 Halacha (Jewish law) does not see "maleness" and "femaleness" as unchangeable. Rav Eliezer Yehudah Waldenberg, zt"l, a very chareidi or ultra-Orthodox rabbi, and the foremost authority on medical questions as they relate to Jewish law, gives the legal opinion in his treatise "Tzitz Eliezer" that when one has the external trappings of their gender changed (genitals removed/changed, breast growth, etc.), that they are their new gender according to Jewish law. The change is so strong, and so complete, that it is considered the "death" of the previous person, and as such any previous marriage is nullified as if the former person had died. A transgender person also, according to Rav Waldenberg, makes new brachot (blessings) each morning that recognize and affirm the new identity. Wed, 14 Jan 2015 20:10:17 +0000 http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/212633/#IDComment941293706 http://forward.com/articles/210334/midnight-in-tennessee/#IDComment926104667 Most certainly true. My ancestors in New Orleans in the antebellum period were much more successful and welcomed than their relatives living in Philadelphia and New York. Mon, 8 Dec 2014 17:51:49 +0000 http://forward.com/articles/210334/midnight-in-tennessee/#IDComment926104667 http://forward.com/#IDComment906042590 Mizrahi, as the author states quite clearly. Sephardic Jews are those whose ancestors lived on the Iberian Peninsula in Spain and Portugal, then fleeing during the Inquisition to northern European locations, as well as places in North Africa, Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. The Jews who are descended from those refugees are Sephardim; Jews who were already living in the Middle East (as well as those living in Middle Eastern places where Sephardic refugees did not go) are termed "Mizrahi". Thu, 6 Nov 2014 07:18:45 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment906042590 http://forward.com/articles/208152/americas-six-decade-nazi-spy-cover-up/#IDComment901772507 As much as I think he is a conspiracy nut, I must say that John Loftus has been telling this story for years in his books and articles. Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:14:18 +0000 http://forward.com/articles/208152/americas-six-decade-nazi-spy-cover-up/#IDComment901772507 http://forward.com/articles/207802/anti-abuse-activist-joey-diangello-dies-of-overdos/#IDComment895631481 This already exists. Thu, 23 Oct 2014 15:52:15 +0000 http://forward.com/articles/207802/anti-abuse-activist-joey-diangello-dies-of-overdos/#IDComment895631481 http://forward.com/#IDComment886012837 You didn't have to go to Israel to write about this. We have it right here in America. Tue, 7 Oct 2014 21:36:26 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment886012837 http://forward.com/articles/205845/tktktktk-scots-jews/#IDComment877865241 I've worn a kippah and Chasidishe garb on the streets in Scotland and never encountered a problem. I've found the country to be incredibly welcoming and friendly. Thu, 18 Sep 2014 05:20:26 +0000 http://forward.com/articles/205845/tktktktk-scots-jews/#IDComment877865241 http://forward.com/#IDComment877689388 As a member of the ultra-Orthodox community, I'm always puzzled when the community latches onto odd things from the broader American culture. The obsession with questioning vaccinations did not begin with rabbinic leaders, but with the general populace. Magazines have been printing more and more "look what terrible things vaccinations did to my children" articles over the years. Because many community members have this seemingly innate drive to have "one up" on goyishe culture, they latch on religiously to anything that might seem to be avant-garde, giving them a more advanced or enlightened practice than the average way of doing things. That is the root problem. The community is also obsessed with occupational therapy for children for the most minor things, like not walking or talking by whatever age they have deemed appropriate, or not having full control of arm and leg movement in early infancy. Sociologically, the community is quite strange, presumably because so many feel so insecure in comparison to the society at large. Wed, 17 Sep 2014 17:03:06 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment877689388 http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/204255/#IDComment865899055 Hahahaha. That's a good one! :) Poor Kleinbaum. Sun, 17 Aug 2014 22:43:40 +0000 http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/204255/#IDComment865899055 http://forward.com/articles/204116/like-life-insurance-for-an-ultra-orthodox-communit/#IDComment865825131 That isn't the right organization. That's something unrelated that is based in Monsey. Sun, 17 Aug 2014 17:02:05 +0000 http://forward.com/articles/204116/like-life-insurance-for-an-ultra-orthodox-communit/#IDComment865825131 http://forward.com/articles/203243/new-york-city-bans-mohels-suspected-in-herpes-case/#IDComment861670698 Seems to be more than "some" as 3,600 babies undergo the practice every year. Tue, 5 Aug 2014 17:56:12 +0000 http://forward.com/articles/203243/new-york-city-bans-mohels-suspected-in-herpes-case/#IDComment861670698 http://forward.com/#IDComment861426325 Non-chasidim live in Borough Park as well. As you do not know me, and do not know how I live my life or with which communities/shuls I associate, your conclusions about me only stem from your assumptions/presumptions simply based upon the neighborhood in which I live. You do not know about how I dress, what matzah I eat, and what I do in regard to the outside world. The point that I made, however, as in direct relation to your desire to "do it like they did in the days of the Bible". That is outdated and antiquated. That isn't how Judaism operates. If you were actually a truth seeker, you would see that the Mishnah specifically and openly discusses a woman going out with a wig. You choose to ignore that. Again, enjoy your life in the dark ages, and living in a way that was dictated to you by your Bais Yaakov cronies. Tue, 5 Aug 2014 00:11:38 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment861426325 http://forward.com/#IDComment861417629 The Mishnah says straight out that a woman is allowed to go out with her hair covered in a wig, made of either human hair or horse tail, on Shabbos and it is not carrying. So clearly women wore wigs at that time. You can ignore historical facts all you'd like, but it doesn't make them any less real. Rochel Imeinu also didn't use a computer. She lived in a tent, and rode a camel. She likely wore wrapped garments that look very much like the chador and hijab worn by women in Iran. Should you also revert to that? She baked her challah in a clay oven over a fire, and the challah would have been quite similar to pita. She didn't have a cell phone, didn't have comfortable shoes, and slept on a sack stuffed with wool. Your presumption that we may only fulfill Judaism while ignoring the modern world is a slap in the face to Judaism. Judaism has always developed in tandem with the broader world, each Jewish community drawing on modern understandings of things to inform how that community fulfilled Jewish practice and halacha. Enjoy living in the dark ages. Mon, 4 Aug 2014 23:33:04 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment861417629 http://forward.com/#IDComment861408100 Obviously I didn't say that men find cancer patients attractive. But I did say that women who wear a tichel (outside of Israel) ATTRACT ATTENTION to themselves. When you attract attention to yourself, you are not being modest. So wearing an elaborate tichel is, essentially, immodest. You seem to think that all women who wear sheitels wear long, curly ones. I didn't say that. I didn't say that my wife wore one that is long and curly and attention-drawing. I would say that any hair that draws attention, be it a sheitel or natural hair, is immodest. But so is any other head covering that draws attention. However, this issue of drawing attention is one that is SEPARATE from the concept of kisui rosh. And you seem to consistently ignore what I am saying. You have INVENTED your own reason for women covering their hair that YOU read into it, which is outside of the reason why a woman is meant to cover her hair in the first place. So you are now trying to argue two separate points at the same time. Those two SEPARATE points are the overall idea of modesty (not drawing attention to yourself) and kisui rosh (a married woman covering her hair). Wearing a sheitel, a plain sheitel that is not overly fancy and beyond the basics that a non-Jewish woman on the street would have as her hair, allows one to cover the hair and to be modest according to the general standards of society. Wearing a tichel (which clearly draws attention to yourself) and wearing a fancy sheitel BOTH do not meet the "spirit" of modestly that you're arguing for because they draw attention. If you took the time to make a simple trip to a museum, or just have some intellectual curiosity, you would see that wigs DID exist in Biblical times, made both from horse hair and from human hair. They were popular in Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Turkey, and other places around the Middle East where Jews lived. The Mishnah itself actually cites the case of a woman covering her hair with other hair that was taken either from an animal or another person. So yes, sorry to burst your Bais Yaakov bubble, but your assertion that wigs did not exist in Biblical times is factually inaccurate. Mon, 4 Aug 2014 22:49:54 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment861408100 http://forward.com/#IDComment861381035 The reason why women cover their hair is because in the times of the Bible and Gemara, that's what women did, so to do differently would be to stand out and to be immodest according to the values of the time. This was largely the case until the middle of the 1800's, when married women largely stopped wearing bonnets and their hair up in public. Now, some people hold that a woman's hair is ervah, and therefore it must still be covered regardless of what the prevailing practice in society is. Others hold that ervah is based on a general understanding of modesty in the society at large, and therefore do not hold that a woman's hair is ervah today. Trying to find some underlying meaning in an age-old practice based on a general societal (Jewish and non-Jewish) standard might be meaningful to you, but it misses the point of the practice itself. I certainly am not a person who finds mitzvos to be hollow and follow them like a sheep; that's a rather offensive assertion. But I find inventing underlying reasons for them to be ridiculous. And if your point is that a sheitel draws attention, whereas a tichel does not, that's absurd. No man walking around is staring at women's hair. But people certainly stare at women when they look like they have cancer or alopecia, covering their head with some rag or scarf, or when they wear a sack-looking snood in public. I personally am of the opinion that ervah is based on the prevailing practice in society (as held by Rav J.B. Soloveitchik), and since most women do not cover their hair, then there is no significant reason for a married Jewish woman to do so. However, the custom of many frum women is to still cover their hair. Therefore, to cover the hair but to not go against the underlying spirit of the larger society, a sheitel is the best way to do that. Mon, 4 Aug 2014 20:50:44 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment861381035 http://forward.com/#IDComment861367662 Why do you say "right?" after your own added meaning/purpose? I would say that the purpose is to cover your natural hair. Period. End of story. So wearing a sheitel works. And I am a man, with a wife who wears a sheitel. Mon, 4 Aug 2014 19:54:35 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment861367662 http://forward.com/#IDComment861350568 Ask someone who shaves their head. Punks, neo-Nazi skinheads. Only women from the most extremist Chasidic sects shave their heads. Most women who wear a sheitel do not shave their heads. Mon, 4 Aug 2014 18:45:48 +0000 http://forward.com/#IDComment861350568