Shalom

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Feb 11	comment	The media in Shushan Well obviously Mordechai was Ish Yemini, a right-winger
Feb 8	comment	Eldad HaDani's Lasting Influence - Is there any? IIRC Eldad had ruled that women can't perform shechitah, which may have influenced Ashkenazic custom.
Feb 6	comment	When did the switch to matrilineal descent occur? Pre-Sinai, it was a matter of tribal identity, thus patrilineal. (Just as the laws pertaining to "Edomites" or "Moabite"s are patrilineal.) Thus the Jews had to keep Jewish names. Sinai -- i.e. the Torah as we know it -- changed all of that. A Jew is a different category of person, thus matrilineal; and what keeps us connected is the commandments, not the culture per se (hence no requirement on the names).
Feb 5	comment	What became of Moshe's sons and their descendants? @Fred, correct, we only know about this one. We do know that his offspring otherwise never got a mention, so they apparently didn't become leaders. It's also notable that Aharon was succeeded by his son, but Moshe wasn't.
Feb 1	comment	What are important topics to discuss before marriage? If someone's too immature to deal with conflict resolution, then maybe the parents need to be the one making that call. But someone needs to. And when the Nachlas Shiva's Tnaim says "if G-d forbid the couple will need a beis din, they will go to one and abide by it, or else he will pay several pieces of gold per day" - oh that's all rainbows and unicorns? R' Moshe Bick called for a more realistic approach to dating, which the Satmar Rebbe rejected. Rabbi Bick replied: you get all the honors performing weddings. I'm a mesader gittin, I clean up the messes! Listen to me!
Jan 31	comment	If my home is on fire on Shabbos or Yom Tov, what can I do? Just a drop further: if today it's generally recognized as a threat to life, we do whatever's normally done in that situation. For thousands of years women gave birth at home, yet today any rabbi will tell a woman to break shabbos to go to a hospital (even with no signs of complication), because that's the standard of medical care today for a potentially-life-threatening condition.
Jan 31	comment	What are important topics to discuss before marriage? @Shraga, ask YOURSELF, not your date! "When we reach genuine conflict, do we resolve it respectfully, or does someone play dirty?"
Jan 31	comment	Is every mishna mentioned in the Bavli? hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20463 Sidrei Taharos by the Radziner -- though he also includes other midrashei halacha.
Jan 31	comment	Is every mishna mentioned in the Bavli? the point is that mishnayos from all over get brought into conversations elsewhere. E.g. Pesachim quotes mishnayos from Kodshim as well as Taharos. The Ridziner Rebbe did a massive work collecting all the places that the Bavli discusses a Mishnah in Taharos, and printed them alongside the mishnayos of Taharos. Unfortunately this happened just as the fraudulent Yerushalmi on Kodshim emerged; legend has it that one edition of the Ridziner work was marked at the top of each page: "This is a synthetic work and not a real Talmud."
Jan 31	comment	If my home is on fire on Shabbos or Yom Tov, what can I do? BRAVO! Thank you!
Jan 31	comment	What are important topics to discuss before marriage? @SethJ, no I think R' Moshe only discussed Tay-Sachs a few decades ago. We know a lot more now about Ashkenazic recessive disorders.
Jan 30	comment	I want to be a Jew, but I'm born as a Muslim Just FYI: I know some rabbis who are used to dealing with ex-Christians who will ask as part of the conversion ceremony -- "do you reject the Trinity?" For an ex-Muslim the thought process is more like "same G-d, different prophet and message." The requirements are still the same, though.
Jan 28	comment	need for civil marriage license in the frum world FURTHERMORE, as from Rabbi Yonah Reiss: if they get a civil marriage license, then we presume they enter the relationship on monetary terms similar to the general population, i.e. if they divorce, then property will be divided on equitable-distributions principles, even if beis-din rabbis are doing it. But if they opt out of a marriage license, then we'd work with the assumption that there is no monetary commitment beyond halachic requirements, which means in the event of a divorce the best she can hope for is approximately $20,000 (or whatever the value of a kesubah is today).
Jan 28	comment	need for civil marriage license in the frum world I've heard that the rabbi officiating is supposed to check for a civil marriage license first. Regardless, I can say it's strongly normative.
Jan 25	comment	Pre-1948, what flags were found in American synagogues? Rabbi Moshe Feinstein felt that a synagogue [at least he sanctuary; his son-in-law's shul has them outside the building, flanking the main entrance] simply wasn't the place for politics, only prayer. However a synagogue-built-as-such with flags is better than praying in someone's basement, according to Rabbi Feinstein. That's all moot here; it was common practice, so I'm asking about practice (not rabbinic views towards it).
Jan 23	comment	Name of adoptive father in the Ketubah ben Ploni HaMegadlo. Or Chaim ben Ploni, haMachazik es Etzmo k'Chaim ben Almoni (shegidlo kivno).
Jan 21	comment	Earliest time for Mincha Gedola I know Rabbi Moshe Feinstein occasionally had a very different approach to Mincha Gedola -- I don't know exactly what it was. (Though Rabbi Hershel Schachter recalls speaking with R' Dovid Feinstein and agreeing they weren't quite sure where this view came from.)
Jan 21	comment	Explanation for couple not seeing each other before the wedding? Thanks; just can't help myself but to shout out that "those rabbis who say there's no such custom" includes Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (orally, not in writing). Don't get me wrong, it's still the standard custom, and CYLOR.
Jan 21	comment	Ashkanazim paskening like Rema I don't know how much of it are hard-and-fast rules, but quite often an Ashkenazi posek would see that the Mechaber had only considered Rif (Morocco), Rambam (Egypt), and Rosh (relocated-to-Spain), playing best-two-of-three; and that Ramah was considering Tosfos (France), Maharil (Germany), Terumas HaDeshen (Germany), so it made sense to follow that.
Jan 18	comment	How is it possible for a pot of meat to become pareve? Start with this case: 1 fluid ounce of milk falls into 60 ounces of beef broth. Everything's kosher. Chana"n means "if the mixture is prohibited, we treat its entire volume as prohibited." Same thing here; 1 ounce milk falls into 60 ounces of very, very weak beef broth. You are correct, if you change the order, e.g. mix 1 ounce milk with 1 ounce meat and then 59 ounces water, you'd have 61 ounces of non-kosher. (This actually came up in regards to a product involving clam juice made on the same line as beer; the solution was to change the order in which ingredients were mixed.)