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1:01 AM
@IsaacMoses I have emailed R Slifkin with the two proposals - will post back when I hear from him
 
1:43 AM
@mbloch cool. Thanks.
 
2:04 AM
0
Q: What should we do with edits to questions that invalidate answers that found a way around the original question?

DanielOur current policy is that if there is a question with an upvoted answer, the asker should not edit that question to clarify his intention if it invalidates the answer. In my experience, when that happens, someone usually rolls back the edit. But what should we do when there is an answer to a qu...

 
 
3 hours later…
4:57 AM
When is it that Jews became bankers?
 
 
2 hours later…
7:22 AM
@AndrévonKugland the day non-Jews prevented them from other jobs ....
If you are seriously interested in the topic, there is a very good by Jacques Attali, translated into English as "The Economic History of the Jewish People" amzn.com/2747214575
 
 
7 hours later…
2:24 PM
@IsaacMoses R Slifkin answered "Hi Michael, nice to hear from you. Sorry, I'm going to pass on this one! But I'd be interested to see other suggestions in the future."
I told him that, paradoxically, the fact that he passes once makes us more comfortable sending more ideas knowing he feels comfortable saying no at times
 
@mbloch Ha! Thanks for checking. Maybe R' Student would take such a guest post, though ... I'll ask him.
Nominees for PTIJ posts to adapt for TorahMusings?
@mbloch Maybe we can do a Pesach post and slip in a promotion for Hagada - Mi Yodeya?, Second Edition.
 
2:47 PM
@IsaacMoses I definitely think we should try again for Pessah !
 
For TorahMusings, how about this one?
30
Q: Haman was Basar b’Chalav, so how could we eat him?

J. C. SalomonEsther 3:5 says, “וימלא המן חמה” Haman was filled with butter. This would presumably make his flesh basar b’chalav, but Shemos 16:35 clearly says “ובני ישראל אכלו את־המן” the Children of Israel ate Haman; how was this allowed? This question is Purim Torah and is not intended to be taken comple...

 
3:09 PM
in Updated Hagada, 54 secs ago, by Scimonster
I've posted some new suggestions to What should we add to “Haggadah - Mi Yodeya?”? -- feel free to [as in, please do] come and vote on the ideas, and add your own.
2
 
Getting ready for PTIJ.... I've a HNQ. (Not on MY.)
 
@msh210 Is this you, or is it just a HNQ that is relevant to Jews?
 
@Daniel That is not me.
 
3:28 PM
@msh210 Ah i see yours
@Daniel It pains me to see the users on webmasters make claims about Judaism based on a clearly flawed understanding
The top voted answer there doesn't even answer the question
It just makes a claim about Judaism that may or may not be true
 
3:46 PM
@Daniel I think "people" find it very difficult to imagine Judaism has something to say on everything, incl. how to manage your webserver on Shabbat. As the second highest-rated answers writes "Should never mix business & religion" ...
 
@msh210 Are you saying that your HNQ has something to do with PTIJ?
 
@IsaacMoses AFAICT no. Just that PTIJ often becomes HNQ.
 
@IsaacMoses What @Scimonster said.
 
I'm getting excited. When do the floodgates open? Are we saying at shkia Israel time tomorrow?
 
@mbloch, y'yasher kochacha, thanks for posting all those welcoming comments for new users.
3
 
3:54 PM
@Daniel Local time. Which means i will post one as i head to maariv, while all you on the wrong side of the pond have another ~7 hours. ;)
 
@Scimonster Please don't post while crossing the street (and certainly not while driving).
 
@msh210 thanks, am trying to remember what it was to be new 3.5 months ago, wonder how long one is "new" on MY - cannot be 13 years :->
 
-2
Q: Why do Jews look before crossing streets?

SSpokeIf Jews claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, why do we look before we cross the road? I'm a Jewish man myself and personally never look before crossing and have yet to be hit. It's not like we are going to die before our time.

@mbloch Eight days, then you can be slaughtered.
 
@msh210 I keep my phone's 3G off, and i don't have a drivers licence yet, so no worries. :)
 
@Scimonster Where do you see that it's local time?
 
3:57 PM
@Scimonster Someone driving without a license should kal vachomer not post while driving.
 
How is "sundown" and "the evening hours" marking the start and end of this period calculated when the site is on UTC? — Thunderforge Mar 2 '15 at 23:32
@Thunderforge not calculated, observed, imprecisely but strictly, by people. — Isaac Moses Mar 3 '15 at 2:20
Not explicit, but implied.
 
@Scimonster ... which links to:
@DoubleAA, They started in with the "Shoshanat Ya'akov" tune in my shul already this past Shabbat, at Birkat Hachodesh. I think the first day of Rosh Chodesh is fine. Note that in the post, I specified tonight at sundown as the start point for this year. Note also that as I said above, I think that we don't need to enforce the time limits with very close precision. We just want to keep this feature reasonably in check. — Isaac Moses Feb 22 '12 at 20:11
 
Call it a knas on those in chutz la'aretz.
 
@Scimonster ... west of Israel.
 
@msh210 Which is ~99% of PTIJ posters?
 
4:00 PM
I'm in Auckland now. Stopped by for a coupla days to start off PTIJ season.
 
@Scimonster But perhaps it only takes one (or two) eidim to observe the sundown and declare PTIJ season.
 
@Daniel But it can take up to a day for the smoke signals to reach faraway places.
 
@Scimonster So? That would just leave us observing an extra day of PTIJ just in case
 
@Daniel The smoke signals are advanced communication methods that include what day it was to retroactively correct the date.
 
@Scimonster I'm just saying that generally, if we don't know whether a day is Rosh Chodesh or not, we observe two days just in case. We don't wait for the signal to come from Jerusalem. See Rambam Kiddush HaChodesh 5:7-8
 
4:24 PM
> We're coming to you live from the Jewish Community Center of Aukland, where a crowd of Yodeyans have gathered, laptops poised, to be the first to grag in the Purim Torah season. This happens every year, but we've never seen such a large crowd. I guess they have a lot of pent-up jokes. OK; the guy with the diamond-shaped hat is looking out the window. Here it comes. "Sundown!" Wow; look at them typing furiously, and, here it comes ... Ahhh! The puns!
5
 
4:38 PM
I find this question rather disconcerting... It seems to be implying that the US president is a ruler. https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/68996/can-jews-be-rulers-of-countries-other-than-israel
How do you/we define rulership? A full king? An assistant in the cabinet (mordechai)? A congressman? — andrewmh20 10 hours ago
2200 views on that Q so far
@IsaacMoses I emailed him proposing it.
 
 
1 hour later…
5:54 PM
@IsaacMoses Maybe someone (you? @mi_yodeya?) should respond there. Something like, "How is he not a ruler? He's in charge of the country after all."
 
@Scimonster He's only in charge of the country if you have a very low bar for what qualifies as being in charge.
 
@Daniel He is the leader, and signs laws into effect.
 
@Scimonster That's very different from being a ruler
 
And there are those who allow you to make the bracha on seeing a king on an elected president (generally without shem and malchut)
 
@Scimonster Indeed, but I don't think that really proves anything. The president undoubtedly has more power than the average person but to say that he's a ruler is definitely pushing the boundaries of reality.
We can see that right now. The current president of the US won't be able to get anyone appointed to the Supreme Court unless he somehow convinces Congress to allow it. A ruler wouldn't even need a Supreme Court, let alone have trouble getting people appointed to it.
 
6:08 PM
I don't know why anyone is arguing here. We all realize that what constitutes a "ruler" is ill-defined. This is just a semantic game. Someone should tweet at him to stop making a fuss about ambiguous connotations.
 
@snarkyRedhd can't argue if bush is the barometer.
So maybe the president is a barometer rather than a ruler.
 
6:27 PM
@IsaacMoses they type furiously starting at sundown? Amateurs -- the posts should be ready to go, just waiting for a click on the "post" button.
2
Oh, that's why that comment link didn't work.
@DoubleAA, I was just coming here to continue that instead of there. If you want to know and an address would help you, let me know.
 
7:02 PM
@msh210 Or maybe the president is a weather vane
 
7:13 PM
@DoubleAA @Scimonster @Daniel Done.
@RenBussell Eh. Poor choice of words. Author presumably meant ~"head of state/government." This might interest you: http://mi.yodeya.com/q/48329/5323
Creepy reddit search (which I do much less frequently) latest result, from 18 days ago: reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/46m1at/…
 
@IsaacMoses does reddit not come up in your regular creepy search?
 
@Daniel It does not. Maybe they tell spiders not to follow their links.
In fact, they do.
 
7:57 PM
On the previous topic of other people totally not understanding Judaism, TIL that there is a Jewish wizard (?!) in Harry Potter.
 
@Scimonster fanfic about him referenced on Mi Yodeya :)
 
8:37 PM
@Scimonster That SE post infers he's "a practicing Jew", which is not what Rowling said.
 
@msh210 That SE post no longer infers that.
But still. Probably included in the first place for reasons of political correctness, when the result actually ends up slightly offensive.
 
@Scimonster That's... odd. Perhaps the author has an @IsaacMoses -style creepy search.
... or is a Rowling-style wizard.
@Scimonster Having Anthony Goldstein in Hogwarts is slightly offensive?
 
@Scimonster Eh. There are a decent number of Jews in England. It'd be surprising if Hogwarts didn't have any.
 
9:01 PM
@msh210 Oh, there was a comment. I missed that.
 
@msh210 Putting a Jew in a wizarding setting
 
@Scimonster More offensive than putting anyone else in a wizarding setting?
@IsaacMoses ... to Aragog.
 
@msh210 Davka a Jew, when it's forbidden in Judaism. I suppose for someone else, specifically putting one of them there when it's forbidden could also be offensive.
 
@Scimonster Ah. I'm not offended by an author's having a Jew do something forbidden by halacha unless it's in the work specifically because the Jew is meant to be depicted as violating halacha (which I doubt was the case here) or because the Jew is meant to be depicted as doing something non-Jews recognize as immoral (which I'm pretty sure was not the case here) or the like. But maybe that's just me.
 
@msh210 I find it slightly offensive to unnecessarily specify that it's a Jew doing something against halacha, as opposed to just anyone. But that could also be just me.
 
9:21 PM
@Scimonster 1) Set a good example of following Halacha. 2) Encourage other Jews to follow Halacha, until all do, as a matter of course. 3) Fiction writers who want to realistically portray Jewish characters will need to have them follow Halacha.
 
@Scimonster I have no reason to think halacha crossed Rowling's mind until after she'd already decided to put Goldstein in the books, and doubt it.
 
 
2 hours later…
11:15 PM
judaism.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/22728 @mbloch You can't just edit a quote from another site. That's lying. Use [brackets] to add info to quotations.
 
11:34 PM
@DoubleAA these are very strong words - I think you mean misleading - but I take the feedback
@DoubleAA and of course you realize I didn't do the edit, I only approved it, but maybe that is even more responsibility :->
 

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