@IsaacMoses Someone would have to interview you. You're not in the top 5 for rep this year, but I'd say your probably in the top 5 users most yodeyans would want to hear about
@Daniel Thanks. We'd probably get to me eventually, just going down the rep list. There's no reason there couldn't be more than one interviewer. Even more than one at a time, possibly.
@IsaacMoses The only two I see who are ahead of me who are inactive are Alex and Yahu... And I'm not going to catch up to Alex in the immediate future. He last logged in in 2013 but he only gained slightly less rep that I did this year
And many of the people are ahead of me joined much more recently than I did. If a few more of those people join, I'll probably be locked out of the top page for good :)
On tenuous positions, you know how when a site gets its graduation swag, they send to everybody on the first two pages of the all-time rep list? Somebody has to be the first entry on page 3. That was me on EL&U. :-)
@Daniel no, we don't want Shokhet to reduce his presence; you'll just have to ramp up yours.
It's both inspiring and intimidating when new users shoot up the rep page. yEz hit 10k before he was here a year, IIRC, and he's not the only one who's jumped in with a lot of solid contributions.
BTW, there are still a couple days left on that MSE contest for swag, so if you missed our swag and want the print or the havdalah candle, now's your chance. Isaac offered a frame to anybody who gets the print that way, too.
@Daniel HNQ is kind of a mystery to me. Sometimes I see our questions there and I think "Really? That question, of all the good, active ones we have?" But I can't remember any specifics right now.
Worldbuilding does have a knack for it, and without really trying. Meanwhile, people on some sites (like Workplace) try to avoid HNQ because they see the drive-by upvotes as damaging. (Drive-by users can't downvote to offset.)
@Daniel replacing jargon with English may help in some cases. I think, though, that you need quick answers with a few upvotes to get on the HNQ, and a provocative title is what'll draw in the additional votes that'll make it stay up there.
Suppose I find myself in a situation where I am not sure whether my life is sufficiently in danger to warrant halachot of pikuach nefesh to come into play. What should I do in this case? Am I supposed to (e.g.) violate Shabbat in this case?
To be clear, I am not talking about a situation where I...
According to Wikipedia, Heleni HaMalkah was married to her brother. Since she was a convert to Judaism, on a Torah level, her familial relationships were severed. However, as far as I know, there is still a Rabbinic prohibition to engage in incestuous relationships after conversion; she seems to ...
@IsaacMoses I have to admit that when I wrote that title I was hoping to attract some attention to a question that I thought might otherwise not receive much
@IsaacMoses "I thought she kept all the derabanans" was because I was asking about a specific quote from the Talmud that says that she kept all the derabanans
Since June, 2014, the excerpt for the money tag has been:
Questions pertaining to different types of currencies and the mechanics of currency in general, pertaining to Jewish Law.
However, of the ten top-scoring questions bearing this tag, very few fit this description:
What do you do if ...
@Daniel We could. However, if we want certain tags' application to be circumscribed in particular ways, their wikis are the natural place to document that.
In the story of Yosef Mokir Shabbat, Yosef is a Jew who honors Shabbat above all, and ends up becoming very rich because of it.
There was a very rich Gentile who was told that all of his wealth would become Yosef's. He sold all his possessions and bought an extremely valuable pearl, which he kep...
@IsaacMoses @Daniel Editing the question so it has the promises as its premise would invalidate Seth's good answer. So I think that's out. I recommend closure.
@DanF This was on the shelf in my college's Hillel, and I used to pull it down and read essays in it from time to time. — Isaac Moses2 hours ago
Very interesting book. Which college hillel? Who was Hillel director then? — DanF2 hours ago
@DanF MIT. The library in the Hillel Center there probably predated the Hillel director at the time. — Isaac Moses2 hours ago
@IsaacMoses I seem to recall that when I visited MIT I attended services at Harvard's Hillel. Therefore, until I saw the above-quoted comments I was under the impression that MIT had no Hillel. Did it have a Hillel but no Orthodox services? Or what?
@msh210 Haha, "simultaneously saint and bear." It's a takeoff of Martin Luther's "simul justus et peccator" which is "simultaneously saint and sinner."
@IsaacMoses ... hm, your profile lists you as "Gabbai Emeritus, MIT Orthodox Minyan", so I guess there was one. Maybe my memory deceives me that I attended Harvard's services.
Around 1999 or 2000 I went to Boston for a conference that started on a Sunday morning, which meant I had to arrive Friday afternoon (no later Shabbat-compliant, arrive-in-time options). I remember staying near MIT but walking a couple miles (? is that about right?) to Harvard Hillel for Shabbat services, but I don't remember why MIT wasn't an option.
@msh210 I'll refrain from delving further to avoid inadvertently revealing any personal details you'd rather not. I was at MIT until Summer of '04.
@msh210 and @MonicaCellio, in my day, which is roughly the same era you're talking about, MIT did, indeed, have an active Orthodox Minyan. It offered full services on Shabbat while school was in session, but its offering (and providing in fact) a weekday minyan was more consistent in some years than in others. During the summer, it did not meet, so people at MIT for the summer would tend to daven at Harvard Hillel (among other options variably relevant depending on where people lived and ...
@IsaacMoses oh, that could be it -- it is possible that this conference was right around the beginning of the academic year, so they might not have been in session yet. (It was definitely before the Yamim Nora'im that year, but I'm fuzzy on the details now.)
I was browsing meta.Christianity.SE recently when I noticed a question with a rather obvious (and good) answer that had not been posted. I was about to go ahead and answer it when I realized there might be a serious problem: by helping them out, we are in fact promoting that religion (or at minim...
@msh210 Whoops. I see it. I guess I thought it was next to the share button, not below the comment button. It seems it should also be at the very bottom under the last answer.
I asked at Aish's ask-the-rabbi service and listed the following possible factors (based on this comment):
Some considerations that occurred to me:
Teaching torah in front of gentiles at all (presumably ok because of sites like [Aish HaTorah], which can be read by anybody), or teachin...
Basically, no, because you would be "studying" an idolatrous religion and exposing yourself to that is a bad idea.
Judaism is one of the oldest religions, but there aren't many Jews compared to Muslims and Christians.
What are main reasons behind that?
Since June, 2014, the excerpt for the money tag has been:
Questions pertaining to different types of currencies and the mechanics of currency in general, pertaining to Jewish Law.
However, of the ten top-scoring questions bearing this tag, very few fit this description:
What do you do if ...
I asked at Aish's ask-the-rabbi service and listed the following possible factors (based on this comment):
Some considerations that occurred to me:
Teaching torah in front of gentiles at all (presumably ok because of sites like [Aish HaTorah], which can be read by anybody), or teachin...
