38 Comments
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Elizabeth Behrman's avatar

Reminds me of the physicist with the horseshoe on his door. When asked whether he believes in that superstitious nonsense, he replies, no, of course not, but I'm told it works even if you don't believe in it.

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Mark Rosenberg's avatar

Someone was once looking for a parking spot in an area where they are scarce. He circled and circled until finally, exasperated, he cried out "God please find me a spot and I'll give $100 to charity!"

Just then, he saw a car pull out and a spot became available.

"Never mind, God, I found a spot."

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Yosef Hirsh's avatar

Welcome back, achi!

Now here is a red bracelet that protects against ayin horas for 150$....

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Nachum's avatar

As the old joke goes, if they worked, the people selling them would be the most successful people in the world. And yet...they are not.

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Todd Shandelman's avatar

A connection between Yemen and shofarot can be seen in that section of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf itself, where we quote Zechariah 9:14 "וַֽאדֹנָ֤י יְהוִה֙ בַּשּׁוֹפָ֣ר יִתְקָ֔ע וְהָלַ֖ךְ בְּסַֽעֲר֥וֹת תֵּימָֽן". (Though it seems quite doubtful that תֵּימָן there would actually mean Yemen, or even what we today call Yemen, notwithstanding that the word took on that meaning in later Hebrew, including modern Hebrew.)

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Sir Frankie Crisp's avatar

Teiman (Yemen) is usually a remez to Edom and Paran is a remez to Yishmael. The Malbim writes at length on this when these references come up in Nach.

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Nachum's avatar

"תימן" literally means "right," because back then maps (and people) oriented themselves to the east (hence, "orient", and קדמה) and thus south was right. So any country to the south could be תימן- Edom was, and course Yemen is.

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Natan Slifkin's avatar

Is that drush or pshat?

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Simon Furst's avatar

It's a well known observation both in traditional and modern scholarship.

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David apple's avatar

Weird Coincidences occur by the thousands every day.

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test's avatar

I don't think it was intercepted. I think it landed. And only due to the torah learning in Eretz Yisroel was no damage done. Or, if you prefer, due to Hashem not wishing to damage the Tel Aviv night club scene.

Who knows?

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Nachum's avatar

Remember what I said about Ben-Gvir and the charedim? Here you go:

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/396298

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Gidon Ariel's avatar

Happy Purim

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Charles's avatar

You sure could have fooled us.

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Simon Furst's avatar

Be careful about what you post!! You have a lot of disingenuous enemies who will pounce on every possible quotento your disadvantage.

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test's avatar

With enemies like those, I doubt he is too concerned.

Just look at the comments to articles on 'Yeshiva World News' to ascertain the average intelligence and worldliness of chareidim. Brainwashed ignorant cultees the lot of them.

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Aron T's avatar

Ouch. Please don't judge us all by the YWN comments, they are mostly awful

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test's avatar

But what educational/cultural system produces those types?

Certainly no authentic torah system. Most of the non-Jews I know are more refined and balanced.

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Natan Slifkin's avatar

New York?

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Nachum's avatar

There's actually something called "Brooklyn syndrome," where Army psychiatrists in World War II had to norm personality tests for origin location: "He's not dangerously aggressive, he's just from Brooklyn."

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Aron T's avatar

I'm pretty sure the comments on YWN reflect a kind of selection bias and aren't representative of the general readership. It takes a certain type of personality to actually sign up, log in, and comment on their articles. I've worked with those types of people, I'd estimate they are around 1 out of every 20 from my experience with the US yeshivish crowd

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Moshe Averick's avatar

When I had 3+ hour bus rides in the army, I would occasionally check the coffee room for interesting conversations and even created an account in case I felt inspired, here's my personal favorite thread:)

https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/condoning-silence-t

(Of course, personally, in order to fully enjoy it, I would need to read to the end of it)

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test's avatar

That's relatively intellectual for YWN!

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test's avatar

You haven't actually answred my question.

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Aron T's avatar

It's a silly question. There are "unique" people that come out of all types of educational/cultural systems. Don't judge a system by its outliers

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David Staum's avatar

What is rationalism anyway? You believe in an invisible being that created us though there is no rational evidence for that being.

I believe in that being, too. Most of us commenters here do. Rationalism is a spectrum. We're definitely not rationalists when it comes to Hashem

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Nachum's avatar

No rational evidence does not equal no rational belief. A spectrum, like you said.

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Marc's avatar

The physicist was Neils Bohr.

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Dovid Dov's avatar

Can/shall I and other readers assume that you are not personally a rationalist?

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Todd Shandelman's avatar

>> I only write about rationalism.

>> I don’t actually buy into it.

Rabbi Slifkin -

I guess that means you don't expect us to do so, either.

Thanks for letting me know.

It's all for the best, then, that I have not opted for your paid subscription. ;-)

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Mordechai Gordon's avatar

On the contrary, since we don't write about it we should buy into it (after having read what Rabbi Slifkin wrote)!

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Todd Shandelman's avatar

Mordechai Gordon -

Thank you for showing me a different way of looking at it! ;)

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Simon Furst's avatar

Lol

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