Saturday, January 23, 2010

Blog commenter makes it just too easy....

So, some of you have been following the posts with which I have been featured on the Daas Torah Blog. So, the comments in the latest segment are pretty hot. There are over a hundred comments right now.

This is the blog where this woman who calls herself "Jersey Girl" has told me that, ""My kids are growing up "out of town" as I also did so they have to know the laws of Bishul Akum. It is inevitable that they will be out somewhere and get hungry. here is a lot that, according to our Rabbis, one can eat from a non kosher deli/restaurant and my kids know what they can and cannot have. "

It turns out, she seems to think that anything that the laws of bishul akum permit cooking by a gentile can be eaten in a non-kosher restaurnt. I have instructed her to go and learn the laws of "notain ta'am." It's the middle of night in Israel and so, she has likely posted a response but the blog owner is likely sleeping and so, in the morning, he will go through any comments awaiting moderation and we shall see what she has to say about that. Actually, it's the middle of the night here and so, I must go visit the schluffy monster.

19 comments:

  1. Don't expect logic or accuracy from her... she is chronically lacking in both. I still contend that she is a muslim missionary... but hey what do I know.

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  2. I really don't, but, I see she can't come up with any excuses as to why NOTAIN TAAM may be ignored. There are people who start with me and they know more than I really do. However, she went shooting off at the mouth about how much more she knows that "our rabbis" said she can eat in traif places. I'm not letting that go. I think her excuse for ignoring davhar chariff was lame, too. She speaks against Hashem and great rabbis with a good lot of what she says. My jaw dropped when I read her quote where she accuses the rabbis of second-guessing HKBH. How does she know what HKBH thinks? Even by her own admission, Hashem puts Jewish souls in non-Jewish bodies with intentions of the non-Jew converting. As one of those people, I didn't choose to be Jewish anymore than she did. Hashem would not let up on me.

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  3. The Curmudgeoly Israeli Giyoret says:

    I tried to get through the comments on "Daas Torah", but it just got to be too much. "Jersey Girl" is a real piece of work. I thank G-d every day that I come from a part of the country in which the word "Jersey" refers to a cow and not a state of the Union. "She gives us cream with all her might to eat with apple tart".

    Michalush--Don't buy by her.

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  4. Well the Notain Taam thing is essentially the same as the dvar charif thing. As in the dvar charif is based upon notain taam. Her failure to understand one, naturally leads to her failure to understand another. Her list of "sources" proving her point was laughable. I don't think that she expects people to call her on it. D"T defends her(when he can) I don't know what is up with that, and she basically assumes that he is the only one with the knowledge to track down her sources.

    If you become a regular poster on the site, you will come to roll your eyes like most people when her name shows up. She has some really X-file style stories. So enjoy.

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  5. or at least, few problems... it wouldn't be in the news every other day....

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  6. So, I am seeing. She should be banned.

    I noticed also, she said davhar chariff doesn't count if the knife is clean. That's exactly the point. It does. Also, even if they are using knives just for veggies, there is no cause to know how the knife was used yesterday. I learned well from all the classes I took. I freely admit that some gerim didn't and when people encounter them, they grow suspicious of all of us, which is why rabbonim do a disservice to all gerim for each and every bad case they put through the micky waters. Furthermore, they destroy their own credibility, so I don't understand why they aren't more careful. They gave me such a hard time... because of my job. Others with prestigious titles they grab that rubber stamp so fast. If they gave them all the time they gave me, I don't think we'd have any problems.

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  7. I get the impression that people on this blog "Daas torah" say a lot of incongruous things.

    They want to win the argument, and in order to winn their argument they will take quotes out of context, contradict what they said the other day, etc.

    None of the "permanent" commenters there seem excessively stable in any sense, except perhaps "Growin up", but I think he is quite new.

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  8. Mekubal has been good to me,but I guess not to you? Archie Bunker made me laugh... he called Aliza a loose canon. heheheheh

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  9. Mekubal is also quite inconsistent in his declarations, so I would not put too much trust in him either.

    He too can be all sugar and honey, and suddenly turn in to a wolf.

    He too calls himself a Rabbi but I do not think he is a community Rabbi or RAv Possek.

    He too likes to cite sources out of context.

    Therefore I would not rely on him...

    Actually I have to say, that apart her hatred towards Gerim, Jersey Girl is one of the "more normal" bloggers on the blog. In general what she says is quite honest and full of common sense.

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  10. Gioret

    Actually I am a Rav Posek, with semicha from the Rabbinute of Israel. I served briefly as a community Rav in the US, before moving permanently to Israel.

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  11. Michal

    There is a good bit of history between Gioret/Shoshi and a few people on D"T blog. Sometimes she was in the right, sometimes not. It is better that you make up your own mind about people.

    @Gioret- did you ever put together a list of times that D"T offended you, like he asked? I would be interested to see it, as well as his response.

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  12. ...meaning you are not serving as a community rav now

    ...meaning you do not have an awful lot of experience in applying your knowledge to actual cases

    ...which is the impression I get from both of you, daas torah and yourself: you seem to enjoy reading source texts (which is highly commendable in my view), but you both seem a bit unexperienced in
    1) appeciating what your source means practically, for the question that was asked
    2) giving a comprehensive review of applicable sources and their context and drawing the right conclusions...

    By this I do not at all want to say that you are completely incompetent. However, I recommend not to take everything you or "Daas Torah" say as "Torah mi sinai".

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  13. "Did you ever put together a list of times ..."

    All things considered I came to the conclusion that this question was rather of the rhetorical kind. It was a means of defense to what I had said before, but meanwhile I do not think that he is really interested in getting such a list.

    Look what he did to Michal: he asked her what exactely she meant when she said "the community treats me like crap" and also asked what could be done to fix the system. Michal invested quite a lot of work into writing posts that answer his questions, and all she gets is "Michal is trying to teach jews what judaism is about" and a post that cites "sources" to prove that the Gerim are at the bottom of the social ladder in jewish society.

    It would require a lot of work to look up the quotations from the threads where they are dispersed. I am not ready to do it so that he will put me down with sneering arrogance. It's just not worthwhile.

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  14. Yeah, but, I wrote the guest posts full well figuring that I would make use of them by double posting them here. I'm not so unaware. I figured he was up to something like this. I've been holding my own, although, this latest post about how gerim at the bottom... hmmmm, I suppose he was have to answer to HKBH for this stuff.

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  15. By this I do not at all want to say that you are completely incompetent. However, I recommend not to take everything you or "Daas Torah" say as "Torah mi sinai".

    By all means please don't. Please don't ever take what you find on a blog to be authoritative. As I have said, I blog for entertainment. Quite honestly I am often not trying to put together a well thought out Psak on an issue. I have done that at the behest of Rabbanim, and I have seen other great Rabbis do it. It usually takes weeks. Most often I am just shooting from the hip so to speak, to generate discussion on the topics at hand, and so that people can consider what the texts say.

    It would require a lot of work to look up the quotations from the threads where they are dispersed. I am not ready to do it so that he will put me down with sneering arrogance. It's just not worthwhile.

    Put it through to my blog and I will make it a main post. I will also keep the more inflammatory comments off of you. Any comment you would want eliminated because you find it offensive I will eliminate... Your choice. But I think the mistreatment of Gerim and B"Ts is something that needs to be aired. Your choice.

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  16. I take guest posts, as well. I can also shoot down all negative criticisms. Even if I didn't shoot down everything, something really annoying, I wouldn't post.

    Interesting tidbit, while BTs are usually nice to me, my rabbi is a BT. Yet he, even made a JG style comment about me not bothering people for Shabbos meals anymore. I had a couple more bad experiences like that. Then I said, I will only go to people who invite me so, people can't say that I should be grateful that they are having me. How can I feel good about the Jewish people when the two rabbis who defended me to the beis din seem to have turned on me?

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  17. Dunno about your rabbis...maybe they meant either 1) that you'd have more options for takeout, so YOU don't have to feel like you're bothering people, or 2) with more options, etc, you have an easier option of staying home if you want, and...well, when I was in Israel, I really didn't want to stay in yeshiva for shabbos. Generally, I planned ahead, but occasionally, it came down to the wire, and my lack of other good options left me making last minute phone calls, possibly impeding on people. Now obviously, the food isn't the issue. But, not sure if your rabbis realized that? or 3) maybe one person felt you were being too pushy, but didn't want to say anything to you.

    Personally, I always preferred people who were willing to say, "not this week." That way, I can feel comfortable calling, knowing that they'll say "no," and schedule a shabbos that IS good for them. Unfortunately, not everyone is like that.

    As an aside, re: being grateful that people are having you - that's something which is always hard, but worth working on. I don't mean like they're doing you a huge favor, which is SO taxing for them, but the fact is - they are doing me a favor! They're feeding me, having me over at their house, and possibly even letting me sleep there, then washing my linen (people I got very comfortable by, I'd bring my own linen, so they wouldn't have to)...although my personality is fantastic, that's usually only enough to pay for the first few courses - I still owe them appreciation for dessert!

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  18. Have I mentioned the fact that every time I see the phrase "the schluffy monster," I literally cannot restrain myself from laughing?

    No, I don't think I have.

    Thank you!

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  19. SM and SMB, two different people?

    I have brought people food for having me. I'm really sick of Jewish socializing. I'm going to make this another post, though.

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