Year: 2017

Peace Begins at Home

Trouble with My Wife

My wife truly loves me. So much so that she tolerates my libertarian monologuing. She even reads books to better understand and contradict me. A while back I got her to listen to Walter Block’s Defending the Undefendable. She then took the initiative of listening to Murray Rothbard’s Libertarian Manifesto. A few days ago she downloaded Atlas Shrugged from Audible. All well and good, but she also downloaded Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and has started to listen to it. She did this knowing full well that I have not actually read Smith myself. Her intention is to know more about libertarian thought than I do and being able to stick it to me. I have thus have had no choice but to start listening to Smith. (It is not as dry as I thought it would be. Smith actually was an engaging writer.)

Having to read a book that I was planning on reading sometime before I died anyway, is a minor point. What happens when my wife decides that Smith’s labor based monetary theory is totally inadequate to describe a post-industrial revolution economy and therefore converts to radical Austrianism? My wife is already the more religious one in my family. It would not be be fair if she becomes a more fanatical libertarian than me. I will not be able to lecture random strangers about the innate illegitimacy of government for minutes on end until she drags me away, because I will be too busy trying to stop her from lecturing people. I will have to apologize to statists, which will be totally embarrassing. What if my wife decides that her conscious cannot abide being a government employee, using special-ed children as means to defraud the public and resigns? I will actually need to go out and get a real job for the two of us as my wife stays home to dedicate herself to writing an anti-government blog.

I married this woman on the assumption that she was an Obama voting California liberal. It says openly in our make believe social contract that her role in this marriage is to make me feel guilty about eliminating welfare and public schools so I could compromise with Milton Friedman moderate positions like negative income tax and school vouchers. It is just like my wife to be so dastardly and so wonderful as to make me read more books and push my libertarianism to the next level.

I love my wife!

From Izgad, here.

חומרא דאתי לידי גיוס בנות

נשים בפרשת זכור, וחומר איסור גיוס בנות

מימות משה רבינו עד הגאון רבי נתן אדלר זצוק”ל לא נשמע מעולם שנשים מחויבות בקריאת פרשת זכור ● העתקת דברי האחרונים שאשה צריכה לשמוע פרשת זכור ● אם נשים צריכות לסייע במלחמה להביא מים ומזון לבעליהן ● כמה מקורות שלא שייך מצות צבא בנשים ● מקור דברי הרדב”ז שאשה אינה יוצאת לצבא בגלל כל כבודה בת מלך פנימה ● לנוגע למעשה בענין קריאת פרשת זכור לנשים, כעת יש למנוע זה ● חורבן היהדות וחורבן הצבא בעקבות גיוס בנות ● חיידק אלים תקף את מוחם של ראשי הצבא

המשך לקרוא כאן באתר בריתי יצחק…

Torture: True Cause and Effect

Torture has historically been an instrument of oppression — not an instrument of investigation or of intelligence gathering.
Investigation is a subtle process, requiring patience and fine analytical ability, as well as a skill in cultivating one’s sources. When torture is condoned, these rare talented people leave the service, having been outstripped by less gifted colleagues with their quick-fix methods, and the service itself degenerates into a playground for sadists.

A Difficulty in Rambam Regarding Matanos La’evyonim

Rambam Hilchos Megillah 2:16-17 writes:

וחייב לחלק לעניים ביום הפורים אין פחות משני עניים נותן לכל אחד מתנה אחת או מעות או מיני תבשיל או מיני אוכלין שנאמר ומתנות לאביונים שתי מתנות לשני עניים ואין מדקדקין במעות פורים אלא כל הפושט ידו ליטול נותנין לו ואין משנין מעות פורים לצדקה אחרת

מוטב לאדם להרבות במתנות אביונים מלהרבות בסעודתו ובשלוח מנות לרעיו שאין שם שמחה גדולה ומפוארה אלא לשמח לב עניים ויתומים ואלמנות וגרים…

Translation (from chabad.org):

One is obligated to distribute charity to the poor on the day of Purim. At the very least, to give each of two poor people one present, be it money, cooked dishes, or other foods, as implied by Esther 9:22 “gifts to the poor” – i.e., two gifts to two poor people.

We should not be discriminating in selecting the recipients of these Purim gifts. Instead, one should give to whomever stretches out his hand. Money given to be distributed on Purim should not be used for other charitable purposes.

It is preferable for a person to be more liberal with his donations to the poor than to be lavish in his preparation of the Purim feast or in sending portions to his friends. For there is no greater and more splendid happiness than to gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the converts…

But the verse of “and presents for the poor” denotes two, because “Mi’ut rabim shnayim”, plural denotes literally two, not “at least two”. As the Rambam himself continues above, “and presents for the poor”; one present for each.