העורך Editor

Read it here.

An excerpt:

While preventing those here illegally from being able to gain employment may appeal to many who would like to protect American jobs, E-Verify is the worst possible solution. It is a police state non-solution, as it would require the rest of us legal American citizens to carry a biometric national ID card connected to a government database to prove that the government allows us to work. A false positive would result in financial disaster for millions of American families, as one would be forced to fight a faceless government bureaucracy to correct the mistake. Want to put TSA in charge of deciding if you are eligible to work?

…

How to tackle the real immigration problem? Eliminate incentives for those who would come here to live off the rest of us, and make it easier and more rational for those who wish to come here legally to contribute to our economy. No walls, no government databases, no biometric national ID cards. But not a penny in welfare for immigrants. It’s really that simple.

ניתן ללמוד מספר “על צפרני נשרים” המעולה, בהוצאת תורת אבות, בני ברק, תשמ”ח (ניתן למצוא בחנות “נוסח תימן” בבני ברק).

When the world changes, the Torah, too, must be re-examined, not to abrogate it, but to better observe it.

Take summertime vacation for Torah learners, for example. As things stand, there are two main camps on the issue, each one absolutely convinced they are in the right, of course.

One group proclaims: Our tradition is to continue learning during the summer as before, and our fathers and rabbis are obviously more righteous and infallible than yours (by virtue of our biological and intellectual relation). Therefore, you people are clearly wrong and at least a bit evil for ignoring the obvious truth. You must hate learning Torah the rest of the year, too.

The other group proclaims: Our tradition is to take a recess from learning, and our fathers and rabbis are obviously more righteous and infallible than yours (by virtue of our biological and intellectual relation). Therefore, you people are clearly wrong and more than a bit evil for ignoring the obvious truth. You must hate learning Torah the rest of the year on the higher level that can only be attained by taking a break.

Without deciding the debate itself, I would only point out the faulty logic underlying the unexamined self-confidence on both sides: Times have changed.

One could argue people are weaker now and must vacation, as seen from the fact we all minimize fasting. Alternatively, seeing as how the summer heat is less oppressive due to widespread, cheap air-conditioning, we ought to keep on learning exactly as before. Or we should meet somewhere in the middle.

But, no. Chadash assur min hatorah…

Tehillim 149:1:

הללויה, שירו להשם שיר חדש, תהלתו בקהל חסידים.

Halleluya, sing to God a new song, his praise among Chassidim.

Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz explained homiletically: A new song must be found for God because all the old praises have been appropriated by Chassidim for their Rebbes…

The trickery is the hint that it is bug-free.

Kashrus certification for nuts approves Ma’asros were taken, but proper bug checking is too expensive (I would blame the minimum wage). So some hechshers will state this on the package explicitly, and others, including Chassam Sofer [Bnei Brak], will not, assuming the consumer knows enough to check for bugs himself (just like grocery stores used to sell Tevel produce once upon a time). But when these nuts are covered with dough or chocolate or puffed rice or salt, this implies the nuts were already checked for bugs, and are ready to eat.

To see this more clearly, imagine someone selling fancy platters of delicious, freshly carved and sliced fruits, and not mentioning they need to be washed from truly dangerous pesticides…

And these rabbis are the ones we trust to look out for all the issues we are not even aware of?!