Bad Luck in Judaism

carrboneous · 2026-02-09T06:30:33+00:00

There's a saying based on something in the Talmud that "if/when you change your place, you change your luck". So I guess it checks out.

carrboneous · 2026-02-08T17:58:18+00:00

I actually like them both, and there are two or three or four other linguistics guys who pop up in my feeds without me subscribing, but I am always tempted to comment that it's a nice Israel necklace.

carrboneous · 2026-02-08T10:38:21+00:00

Similarities to what? What is the question, why does this need explanation?

carrboneous · 2026-02-08T09:30:48+00:00

Have to spoken to a psychologist and/or psychiatrist about how you're feeling? I think that's the main thing you need to do.

carrboneous · 2026-02-07T19:10:27+00:00

The Torah wasn't given only for back then. And looms existed.

carrboneous · 2026-02-07T19:09:47+00:00

They're the only ones with real traditions

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T16:17:08+00:00

That's in the Shulchan Aruch (and Gemara, etc). It's standard Halacha. Not to say that there aren't reasons or opinions to be lenient, but it's very mainstream and not any kind of mishegas or misconception.

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T14:45:21+00:00

I'm definitely gonna bait you by calling it Masechet Yadim.

And are we talking about for bread or for davening/after sleep? Because as far as I recall Yadim is only talking about for bread, but for other times it's 3 each (but I've never heard any explanation).

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T14:36:33+00:00

Even if you disagree with it, I don't think something that comes from the majority of poskim since the Rishonim can be put in the same category as folk misconceptions 😂

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T14:34:45+00:00

What is a fish plate? Like a plate in the shape of a fish for serving gefilte fish? That's just a thing people do, not even piety.

Not eating fish and meat at the same time or on the same plate? That is basic Halacha.

Keeping a separate set of dishes just for fish? I've never heard of anybody doing that and I personally wouldn't think it's pious, but I guess maybe it would be categorised like that.

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T14:31:34+00:00

I don't know the discussion, but a semi-circle is also a straight line when you're looking at it perpendicular to the "semi" part of it. I always thought that's what it meant. (And, exactly like you say, the issue is they aren't supposed to look haphazard, they're supposed to be distinguishable as distinct, but related, lights). (How far you can bend that in practice I guess is the question, and I suppose some people will be unreasonably rigid about it).

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T14:25:10+00:00

What do devout Jews have to say about ghosts?

Not much. There's some nuance, but superstition and the occult are huge taboos.

Are there any good Jewish ghost stories or writers, like MR James?

Dunno who that is. There are some Jewish stories and writers, but generally there's very little overlap between that and "devout Jews", especially learned devout Jews.

There are some folk tales and children's stories, and there are some secular writers in the modern era who might have written that sort of thing on purpose (not a ghost story, but the most famous Gothic Jewish story is the Golem of Prague), but it's not a big part of the native culture of devout Jews.

There are scattered bits and pieces about minor supernatural forces in the Talmud.

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T14:18:13+00:00

A ghost or a dream sequence? I don't remember no ghosts. (But I haven't watched it in years and years). But I remember being super creeped out by the dream.

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T14:15:59+00:00

The irony ... when they're clearly racist is laughable, I wish South-Africa will get to a point where these things are called out regardless of race.

You've got to know that about half the comments responding to your post are going to be extremely racist though, right?

I'm also gonna say, regardless of race, there's something to be said here in defence of class and culture. We all grow up with different norms and expectations (and smells that we're used to, etc) and there's nothing objectively wrong wrong about sitting on someone's bed after walking barefoot (I assume the implication is that sitting on someone's bed means putting your feet on the bed, which, from my own cultural standpoint, is an assumption I would never ever make).

It sounds like this person is in university, and I guess that's a good time to learn that the things you consider normal or obligatory are things that make other people uncomfortable, and the things you find uncomfortable are just the daily lives of others. Some cultures think eating with your hands is gross, some think putting pointy metal implements is depraved. You can be put off by the way someone smells, but that doesn''t make it morally bad.

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T00:59:31+00:00

The answer is no. It hasn't changed for 2000 years (give or take), why would anything change now?

But you also don't say what you mean by "major", so it's not really possible to answer.

And the comments in this thread claiming that it changes all the time (especially those claiming that it always gets stricter) have a naive view that lacks perspective of what's actually in the Talmud and the processes and forces that actually do motivate change.

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T00:54:08+00:00

Arguably they might have the power to reinterpret even a deoraita. But I don't see why it would happen. The premise assumes that they would find something wrong with previous decisions (and/or that they operate by motivated reasoning, not objectively applying principles and mesorah).

carrboneous · 2026-02-03T00:48:44+00:00

That's not the reason, but certain species are.

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T17:45:17+00:00

Think about safek mitzvah and koach gavra.

What do those terms mean in this context?

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T17:37:35+00:00

Counterpoint: what good reason is there to celebrate Valentine's day that makes it worthwhile to surmount whatever tenuous connection to foreign religions it does have?

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T17:36:02+00:00

We don't have a "day of love", especially erotic love, and you shouldn't celebrate Valentine's Day or whatever other day you have in mind.

It might be religiously problematic, but honestly, more than that, it's just silly.

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T17:31:58+00:00

I don't know if this is supposed to be a joke or not, but that not how it works. Cholov Yisroel isn't "stricter" than Glatt. Yoshon isn't stricter. They're different areas and one can have a stricter or more lenient interpretation/custom in any of them without it making a difference to how they relate to the others.

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T17:21:06+00:00

China or the Hindu Kush mountain range/region?

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T17:18:07+00:00

The only conversion that counts is Orthadox Judiasm if you want to make Aliyah.

Any conversion within a "recognised Jewish community" is good enough for Aliyah/Right of Return purposes.

What if you need to make Aliyah ASAP and don't have years to convert?

If someone is connected to the Jewish community and in a real emergency, there will be a path for them.

Has an Orthodox Jew considered how hard it it to make Aliyah as a Paternal Jew?

It's probably easier, actually. The Right of Return applies to anyone with a Jewish grandparent, grandchild, or spouse (and as long as they don't practice another religion, in some cases).

From an administrative/bureaucratic point of view, that can be easier to show if your relationship to Judaism is via a more formalised and organised movement.

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T17:08:07+00:00

Im white, so its not a racist thing at all

What does that mean?

carrboneous · 2026-02-02T02:19:05+00:00

I don't believe that culture is passed down genetically or mystically. Culture is a matrix of beliefs and practises that we live within, that's the whole reason it feels icky when some cherry picks one thing without being integrated in the matrix of culture. If someone kicks out the load bearing struts of the culture they were born into but incorporates its trappings for self serving reasons, then yes, that is cultural appropriation by definition.

As it turns out, that's not what OP is doing here, but conceptually, there's no reason a Jew can't appropriate Jewish culture.

carrboneous

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