#halacha

I do not know the specifics of the wedding or the officiant, but can reasonably assume that the ceremony will not be religious in nature since my sister is essentially secular and the groom doesn't appear to be religious either.

Interested in multiple FORs, particularly people who have experience with this kind of thing.

- do you say bore pri ha'adama if the fruit was grown in space?

- does the space helmet count as a kippah

- on some planets a day is longer than an earth year. What do.

- is going to space even ok (see tower of babel incident)

- if the moon really is cheese. Is it dairy (bcuz cheese) or parve (because moon)

Hi, yeah, I think you have the wrong address. Like, I never said anything about such a thing being a fun, quirky thing. I don't know what gave you this impression. As a matter of fact, I don't know any place where you have to press a button to cross six lanes of traffic, and I don't think I would make light of this.

So, to clarify what actually happened that seemed to get you upset:

Someone noted that their friends, while walking to Synagogue on Shabbat, cross a six lane road without pressing the button. Said someone noted that it's crazy and that it's actually Pikuach Nefesh, darn it. A mutual of mine reblogged noting that such a situation really wouldn't exist in Israel, and I reblogged their post pointing out a number of other things in addition to what was already said - like that a six lane road is Reshut HaRabim De’Oraita, and that (again) such a situation just doesn't exist in Israel. None of it is to deny what was said before me - that it's life endangering.

If considering the Halachic situation there seems like treating it as "a fun, quirky thing", then that might be an issue. I added it because I think it's relevant - as was pointed out in other replies and reblogs for this post, many Orthodox Jews choose to live near the synagogue or at least within walking distance, and have Eiruv around their area. The latter can't include a six lane road.

And when I ended said post by noting I do walk to Shul, it was a response to the original question - and I also do it because there isn't a six way lane between me and my synagogue. I do not and would not risk my life just to go to synagogue on Shabbat.

So, let me get this straight... the entire religion (of Judaism) is built around legal loopholes? Is that what I’m gathering here? (Feel free to correct me!)

And it remains relevant to people (gentiles) who characterize Judaism as rules lawyering or all about loopholes or worse, who imply we are trying to be "sneaky" or "pull one over on God."

My answer:

the religion is built around living in an ethical society per our contract (covenant) with G-d. but you can’t just have a bunch of words without putting them to use, & understanding them in practice, you know? the fulfillment of the covenant is a living discussion.

it’s not legal loopholes, because a loophole is often an inadequacy in the law that gets taken advantage of, but these are all built-in, part of our understanding. In this case, we have a contract (covenant), and we’re going to put it to use in every way possible, explore every inch of it, turn it inside out, and apply it to real life examples, define the parameters, argue those definitions, and then survey the conclusions.

I can say “you need to say the evening shema (a prayer) in the evening” but we can’t just say that, we need to explore a bunch of related things, like:

when in the evening does this happen? is there a difference between twilight and evening? if we say the evening prayer can be said from the time the priests partake of teruma, then when is that? if it’s the first watch of the evening, how many watches are there? if you were out all night for a wedding, but it’s not yet dawn, is it too late to recite the evening prayer? — IN SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS, KE$HA WILL WRITE TIK TOK, AND WE’LL NEED TO KNOW WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF PARTYING UNTIL YOU SEE SUNLIGHT!

— when do they (the priests) ritually bathe in preparation for this [taking of teruma]? what about when poor people who cannot afford extra candles - do we consider how early they eat an evening meal in order to make sure they can afford the light [when we define evening]?

why did we discuss evening prayer before morning prayer? why does torah give us night before day? when is bedtime for most people? can we say the evening prayer until dawn? if yes, people might put off the prayer until dawn, which could lead to laziness or mistakes.

Also, when is dawn? but more prudently at the moment, when is evening? evening is when the stars are visible, but...how many stars? also, if you are lying alone in a dark house and can’t see the sky, how do you determine if it is too early or too late for your evening shema?

and that whole discussion is from the beginning of the Talmud, in its hyper-condensed form. That is what we do.

It’s not a series of loopholes and ways to weasel out of doing something. It's an intentional exploration of how something is done right, what doing it means, how we can accomplish it.

nothing gets taken for granted, everything is questioned, debated, discussed until it is understood enough to be applicable. and there may be lots of ways to understand.

if someone sees this line of thinking and goes “ah, loopholes to get out of it/wiggle away from it,” then you are mistaking lacework for loopholes.

....and if Kesha sees sunlight, it is now too late for her to say her bedtime shema. she should recite morning shema instead.

@nothing-an-iratze-cant-fix @the-beginning-of-somewhere This is a great explanation! The one thing I would add is that there are people who hold that electricity doesn't count as fire, but that completing a circuit does count as either building, or the "final hammer blow" ie the final touch that completes a work or craftsmanship, both of which are forbidden on Shabbat.

Halacha comes from the idea of “going,” of movement. Jewish law is called halacha because it’s about how a person actually lives and moves through life. So when Chazal use that word here, they’re not making a legal statement. They’re saying this hatred behaves like a natural law. Once it starts, it has momentum. It doesn’t need logic to keep going.

And you can see that because logically, this hatred makes no sense. If it were rational, it would have burned out a long time ago. People get tired of obsessions. They move on. No normal person spends their life fixated on one small group without eventually feeling embarrassed or exhausted by it.

In real life, the only way people build anything successful and stable is by taking responsibility. If you’re a provider, a boss, a parent, you know this. You look inward, figure out what you’re doing wrong, find your flaws, and adjust. That’s how growth works.

Antisemitism breaks that process completely. The moment someone starts blaming Jews for everything, responsibility disappears. Failures no longer require self-examination. Frustrations no longer require effort. Everything suddenly has an external explanation "It's the Jews".

That’s why it never burns out. There’s no internal correction mechanism.

You see it clearly now with the Epstein situation. Epstein was Jewish, and immediately people jump to conclusions about Jews as a whole. One criminal turns into millions of people. No one would ever accept that logic in any other area of life, but here it becomes automatic.

At that point, it’s not about facts anymore. It’s about needing a constant outlet for frustration. And Jews end up filling that role over and over.

That’s why Chazal, our sages, used the word halacha here. Not because it’s right and not because it’s moral, but because it keeps repeating. Once it starts, it runs on its own, like a natural process.