V'dibarta Bam

2:49 AM

And dashing my hopes of the Pundit badge while your at it... How many votes did it have? — YeZ 8 hours ago

@YeZ two things: (1) I'm the one who deleted the comments, not him, and (2) it had 3 votes, so you didn't lose a tenth of a Pundit to my deletion.

(And now all the other comments there are gone too.)

YeZ

3:20 AM

@MonicaCellio I was purely joking there. I know he can't delete comments.

@Shokhet are you thinking of daat mikra?

Monica Cellio

3:38 AM

@YeZ I figured, but as long as I was going to answer the question you asked (about votes) I figured I'd clear up the rest. :-)

Shokhet

@YeZ Yes; thanks :)

^^^^ Daas Mikrah Chumash (h/t @YeZ) — Shokhet 11 secs ago

Meta-Man

5:12 AM

0

Q: Feedback for "Chanukah - Mi Yodeya?"

If you downloaded or read "Chanukah - Mi Yodeya?," we would love to hear what you thought of it. Are there any improvements you'd suggest? Is there anything about it you specifically hope we don't change? Do you have any interesting stories about using it on Chanukah? Anything you can tell us...

Isaac Moses

More importantly:

35

Q: Chanukah - Mi Yodeya?

חנוכה - מי יודע?‏ Chanukah - Mi Yodeya? Real questions and answers to enjoy while your candles burn Download and print (double-sided recommended): We are proud to present our third community publication, a collection of questions and answers from Mi Yodeya that you can print out, enjoy,...

discussion haggadah-project purim-project chanuka-project

Remember, for your mnemonic convenience, there's a really easy link to share: s.tk/miyodeya

3

msh210

8:26 AM

@IsaacMoses [Just catching up here in chat.] Perhaps vice versa, since the four questions tagged techum are not about eruvin?

@AJHenderson and the markdown shortcuts ([tag:foo] and [meta-tag:foo] and [meta] and [main])

Why was judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/49192/… closed as off-topic? How is it not about Judaism? (Pinging @YeZ because you're recently active here.)

Scimonster

9:00 AM

@msh210 I voted 'unclear' on that one, since it sounded ontopic, but i had no idea what it was talking about.

@IsaacMoses Yup, real easy... with no help to badges.

Isaac Moses

2:03 PM

@Scimonster You could do it like this: s.tk/miyodeya. That would limit the credit you get for viral sharing, though.

@msh210 Sure

@msh210 I support closure as "unclear" or something. Without any documentation of its assertion at all, it reads as purely frivolous. Actually, without such documentation, it's not demonstrated how it relates (seriously) to Judaism, so "off-topic" is appropriate, IMO.

Scimonster

2:38 PM

@IsaacMoses Yeah, i thought of that.

Charles Koppelman

4:21 PM

Can a mod clean up some of the comments here? judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/49223/…

Isaac Moses

@CharlesKoppelman The best way to request this is by flagging a comment or comments that need cleaning up. I've done this already for the now-obsolete "minim" discussion there.

Double AA

4:58 PM

@CharlesKoppelman unless we're in the room talking with you, a flag is always the fastest way to reach us.

ffr

Charles Koppelman

5:14 PM

Thanks @DoubleAA @IsaacMoses

YeZ

6:26 PM

@msh210 I voted as off-topic, because I see no evidence of Judaism taking on the polar bear. Jews might be, but not Judaism.

And now I see that @IsaacMoses has made that point.

Isaac Moses

6:43 PM

@YeZ No evidence of Jews doing so, either. If there was even a shred of serious evidence, e.g. "Last Chanuka, at my local shul, we were about to light the shul's menora, and the rabbi said, 'Wait. Who's got the polar bear?' We waited until a big, white, stuffed bear was brought in before we lit," I would not support closure (though I might DV, depending on how credible and relevant I thought the story was).

NB: Please do not copy this example into the post under discussion.

YeZ

@IsaacMoses NB?

Isaac Moses

Nota bene

Nota bene (/ˈnoʊtɑːˈbɛnɛ/; plural form notate bene) is an Italian and Latin phrase meaning "note well". The phrase first appeared in writing circa 1721. Often abbreviated as "N.B.", "N.b." or "n.b.", nota bene comes from the Latin roots notāre ("to note") and bene ("well"). It is in the singular imperative mood, instructing one individual to note well the matter at hand. In present-day English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the attention of the reader to a certain (side) aspect or detail of the subject on hand, translating it as "pay attention" or "take notice". While "N.B....

Shokhet

@IsaacMoses New word!! .....I've learned something today :)

Isaac Moses

(When I first started seeing that, in college, I thought it meant "no-brainer." It took a while for me to learn the truth.)

Saying 'what kind of an idiot doesn't know about the Yellowstone supervolcano' is so much more boring than telling someone about the Yellowstone supervolcano for the first time.

Shokhet

@IsaacMoses lol

@IsaacMoses lol :)

YeZ

6:46 PM

@IsaacMoses Evidence of Jews wouldn't mean very much to me. Your story of the Rabbi holding things up might pass the threshold of Jews and move into "some Rabbi's opinion of Judaism," but then we should tag it as heterodox, unless the Rabbi is identified as being Orthodox, in which case I'm just not sure how to proceed.

Shokhet

Nov 26 at 21:43, by Isaac Moses

@Shokhet That's a beautiful cartoon.

YeZ

To me the following is a gray area - if a random rabbi in a random shul somewhere on Earth decided it's a nice thing, as a religious practice, to eat cheese on Tuesdays, is that now on scope to ask about it because a Rabbi somewhere thought so? I would assume not.

Isaac Moses

@YeZ I agree, except for the assumption that "Orthodox," "orthodox," and "not off the wall" are identical

Shokhet

Amazing comment that I just got on a recently asked question:

I wrote an article about this which is due to be published in the coming weeks. I'll try to post a link when it is out. — Reb Chaim HaQoton 2 mins ago

Isaac Moses

@YeZ "Some rabbi," "my bubbe's tradition," etc. are, I think, enough to establish a question that doesn't need to be closed, though often a very weak one.

YeZ

6:51 PM

@IsaacMoses I wasn't assuming that either - I was just assuming that it's possible (although I'd disagree) that it would still be considered a practice of Judaism if someone was doing it as a Jewish practice, not a practice of Jews, and wouldn't be heterodox if the Rabbi is Orthodox.

Shokhet

^^^^ I think it's cool that he wrote an article recently, that has to do with a question I asked here :)

Isaac Moses

@YeZ Someone doing it as a Jewish practice makes it eligible to ask whether it is one, I think.

YeZ

@IsaacMoses Catholic Israel?

Shokhet

@IsaacMoses I agree; that makes sense. ......even if the answer must be "no, it's not a Jewish custom"

YeZ

@IsaacMoses oh you mean to ask if it is a custom. Right.

Isaac Moses

6:53 PM

@YeZ Even to ask if it is a Halacha. The answer, as @Shokhet points out, could be "no."

Example (hashkafa, not practice, but same idea):

-4

Q: Do Jewish people believe in God?

This may sound like a simple question, but every time I speak with a Jewish person and ask them if they believe in God they talk about all kinds of things but they never give me a straight answer. They say that they don't believe in anything that is not in the Torah, and I ask them well then who ...

theology faith-bitachon-emunah

YeZ

@IsaacMoses Right. I meant to exclude if they are assuming it is, and asking why it is done.

Isaac Moses

Off-the-wall, downvoteworthy, but not closeworthy, IMO.

@YeZ That makes the question worse, but still answerable, I think: "It actually isn't."

YeZ

@IsaacMoses "I saw some Jews using a Jewish polar bear as part of their Chanukah celebration. Why did they do this?" I think would be a question about Jews.

Shokhet

@IsaacMoses Don't we have a Meta post about answering a question based on A, that "A is incorrect"?

@YeZ Not unless there was a claim that it was a מנהג, in which case it would be a Judaism question

Isaac Moses

@YeZ If the asker expresses (non-crazy) suspicion that it was an expression of religious practice, then it's a question about Judaism.

YeZ

6:58 PM

@Shokhet Do you have an unintended double negative in that statement?

Shokhet

@YeZ I don't think so.....I meant to say "you're right, it's a question about Jews....unless they claimed it was a מנהג -- then it's a Judaism question," in case that was not clear.

Isaac Moses

@Shokhet One you participated in:

5

Q: I know A, and based on A, I'm asking B

One example of this is here, but I have seen several. If the questioner is asking B, presuming A, could a valid answer be that A is incorrect?

discussion answer-quality

Shokhet

@IsaacMoses I did; but comments are harder to keep track of than questions and answers are.

I currently have exactly 100 comments on Meta

YeZ

@IsaacMoses Really? A question about what any random person does as an expression of Judaism is a Judaism question? I understand they won't be good questions, but "Judaism" means "what anyone thinks Judaism is"?

Isaac Moses

@YeZ Like I said, the answer could be "no, it isn't."

YeZ

7:03 PM

@IsaacMoses Right. But the question to me seems to not be about Judaism. I am assuming that there exists a rigorous definition of what "Judaism" is which includes some standard of validity.

I realize the Help Section isn't actually clear about this - it starts with the assumption that we all know what "Judaism" means and goes from there.

Shokhet

@YeZ Interestingly enough, that's a question that might be solved either by a question on Main, or a question on Meta ;-)

Isaac Moses

@YeZ Q "I've heard of this woman who claims to use Kabala powers to fix your aura by casting lead. Is that Judaism?" A "No, it's very forbidden."

YeZ

@IsaacMoses Full agreement - an "is that Judaism" question is a (often bad) question.

Isaac Moses

@YeZ I thought that's what we're talking about.

Shokhet

@YeZ So then DV, but don't VTC -- bad questions aren't off-topic

YeZ

7:05 PM

@IsaacMoses But "I saw Bob the Jew juggling potatoes on days that have an E in them, for religious reasons. Why did he do it?" seems not to be.

Isaac Moses

@YeZ Depends on how it's written and whether there seems to be a credible inference that the witnessed practice may have been an expression of Judaism. My bar for "credible" here is probably lower than yours.

YeZ

wait don't click that

Isaac Moses

... I concede that the lead lady question is inherently stronger than most Bob-type questions, since she's an independently-verifiable cultural phenomenon with a significant following.

YeZ

Is this the Jewish polar bear?

Isaac Moses

@YeZ I have no idea what that is.

YeZ

7:12 PM

@IsaacMoses Well it was my top result for "Jewish Polar Bear"

this one's good too

Isaac Moses

@YeZ Here's the first GImages result for chanuka polar bear.

> We must be glad that the joy of the Hanukkah season, and all its traditions, is kept alive within the enthusiastic hearts of the next generation.

(emphasis mine) "Traditions" including ... polar bears? Time to go fix the question.

YeZ

@IsaacMoses I don't know if the polar bear is the tradition, or the book about the polar bear is the tradition.

Or perhaps the polar bear narrates the traditions.

Isaac Moses

@YeZ <thumb dives into freezing ocean water>

Incidentally, it's worth looking at Skeptics's policy on "notability," which, applied to the discussion above, would probably permit the lead-lady question and close the Bob-the-juggler question:

28

Q: FAQ: Must all questions be notable?

One of the key themes of Stack Exchange right from the start has been that you can't have a site about everything. Each SE site has a topic, users who are devoted to that topic, and who will ruthlessly exclude questions that aren't on that topic. This can be a bit confusing at times, especially t...

discussion faq scope notability

... I don't think we should have such a high bar here, since I think we do want people to be able to ask about, e.g., minhagim they've personally witnessed but can't otherwise document.

YeZ

@IsaacMoses Right, but a bar nonetheless wouldn't be uncalled for.

maybe the bar should be "unnotable is out"

Isaac Moses

@YeZ Not sure what you mean by "unnotable" if not the absence of "notability" in the WP/Skeptics sense.

YeZ

7:26 PM

@IsaacMoses No, I meant that which you could not conceive of being possible to note. What one individual does is not just "not yet documented" - it pretty much never will be.

I don't think I could come up with a rigorous definition of that.

But I think the attitude and general idea are there.

Double AA

8:21 PM

@YeZ How is it different than

6

Q: Is there a reason to cover your yawn?

My 9th grade Rebbi told us that we have to cover our mouths when we yawn to avoid evil spirits entering our bodies. Is there any source that says this? If not, is there any other Jewish reason, besides basic manners, to cover your mouth when you yawn?

minhag sources-mekorot derech-eretz-manners

YeZ

1 hour ago, by YeZ

@IsaacMoses Full agreement - an "is that Judaism" question is a (often bad) question.

@IsaacMoses an answer that I think goes into one of your categories of things you like.

Isaac Moses

@YeZ 8^)

Isaac Moses

9:27 PM

Anyone here also go by eitzpri?

reddit.com/r/Judaism/comments/2orz7b/chanukah_miyodeya_5775_pdf

One of the comments:

> This is really cool! I taught the Shehecheyanu last week in my class, so I'll print out that second-night page for our Chanukah module this week.

Monica Cellio

9:46 PM

I've only skimmed today's discussion of "is this Judaism?" questions, but just one comment: I don't think we should automatically tag customs we've never heard of, that are only claimed as "some rabbi" or the like, as "heterodox". If we don't know we don't know; if we can trace it to a source, whether that's some obscure Orthodox group or the secular humanists or whatever, then we know enough to tag.

.

@IsaacMoses et al -- great job with "Chanukah - Mi Yodeya?"!

Isaac Moses

@MonicaCellio On behalf of everyone involved, including you, thanks!

Scimonster

@YeZ Oh, that one's obvious. Bob is acting out Cookie Monster from the book Vegetable Soup each Tuesday and Wednesday, and he needs to juggle potatoes!

(For those unfamiliar, it's a Sesame Street book where Cookie Monster gets Ernie and Bert's vegetable order, and doesn't know what to do with all the stuff. Then they come and teach him to make soup.)

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