Better to Fulfill Mitzvot Than Indulge the Yetzer Hara

Regarding “From the Desk of a 17-Year-Old Yeshiva Applicant” (December 31, 2015), I would like to say the following. Broken Modern Orthodoxy? No. But perhaps the gap-year experience at a yeshiva or seminary is crucial for those who will attend secular universities instead of either YU or a university in Israel. Having attended a secular university myself, I can attest to the temptations of food, drink, companionship and dating that are neither “kosher” nor productive. Instead of wasting time, money and liver and brain cells like many American students do while “finding oneself” during university years, a gap year of immersive, intensive, serious religious and Torah study in a yeshiva or seminary among like-minded peers, or perhaps an enlistment in the military before university, can grow and set the maturity and the sense of yeud and tafkid (purpose and role) that a young, frum person should have to prepare him or her for career-oriented study, dating for marriage that normally follows and eventual parenthood. When you get to be my age, you realize that it is more important to have fulfilled mitzvot than to have indulged the yetzer hara.

Robbie Schwartz

New York, NY

Kudos for ‘Shop Til You Drop’

I love Nina Glick’s columns and articles. They are thoughtful, witty and down-to-earth.

Just wanted to give a shout-out for this amazing program. I would love to come, and unfortunately am not able to get away right now. But what a great idea.

Kudos to the Link for sponsoring, and you two for going! I hope you “sell out” and more!

One of your “fellow contributors,”

Ellie Wolf

Elizabeth, NJ

Main Event and Mauzone Merger Benefits Clients

I’m writing in response to the article that ran last week concerning the merger of Main Event and Mauzone (“Rivals Become Partners: Main Event and Mauzone Caterers Merge,” January 7, 2016). While I don’t know anything about what’s happening behind the scenes, I most definitely can attest to being a very happy customer, having recently used the caterer for a party. A few weeks before our event we were notified of the change, and I do admit I was nervous about what the change meant for us. Different chef? Different quality? No need for nerves. The food was fabulous, fresh and delicious. Eddie Iszo and his whole staff were a pleasure to work with, and we were truly able to be guests at our own simcha.

Tova Gerson

Bergenfield, NJ

A Message From the International Beit Din

Except under extenuating circumstances, generally speaking, Halacha does not mandate that a beit din provide a reasoned opinion for its decision. A decision is composed of a rendition of the facts of a case and a ruling. Except for the batei din under the Rabbanut, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate and the network of rabbinical courts under the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit network in Israel, the overwhelmingly majority of rabbinical courts around the world follow this mesorah, tradition, of refraining from giving reasons for their rulings.

Due to the nature of some of our decisions and our desire to educate others, following in the mesorah of Maharach Ohr Zarua and Havot Yair, we have chosen to provide transparency for our decisions. Depending on the case, in certain situations we have written extensive decisions and others have been drafted in a brief fashion. A review of our decisions on our website will show that the length and style has differed from one decision to the next.

During the past few months, various individuals have communicated to the IBD endorsements as well as objections and/or requests for clarification and elaboration for our decision which deals with case no. 105 which appears on our website.

Please be advised that an extended discussion of this decision, which addresses the invalidation of a witness to a kiddushin, can be found on our website www.InternationalBeitDin.org., under the tab “IBD Decisions.”

Rabbi Simcha Krauss

Rabbi A. Yehuda Warburg