Board Member @SephardicBrothe | חָכָֿם הַדּוֹר | Opinions are my own
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Joined July 2017
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"I have no enemies, O God,
but if I am to have an enemy,
Let his strength be equal to mine,
That truth alone may be the victor."
- Gibran Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam.
Isaac Choua retweeted
Yes, all education is a form of brainwashing. Especially when you're raised in a closed society where other ideas aren't allowed to challenge what you've been taught.
You have women entering marriages under Kethuboth that explicitly grant them rights, while spending 12 years being taught that financially supporting their husbands is a privilege.
How meaningful are those rights when they're raised in an environment that discourages them from questioning what those rights actually mean?
This is a cult-like system being maintained at the expense of the Tora.
And if you acknowledge that a woman can change her mind and her husband is then obligated to provide for her, you've essentially conceded my original point.
Isaac Choua retweeted
Taytsch: "No one actually cares what the Kethuba says."
So girls spend 12 years being taught that supporting a man who studies full-time is a privilege, and we're using that as evidence of their independent choice?
Regardless, I never argued that women can't be happy in these marriages or voluntarily support their husbands.
My question is halakhic. Does choosing this arrangement mean they've permanently waived their rights under the Kethuba?
If a woman changes her mind, or the financial burden becomes too much, does her husband then have an obligation to provide for her?
And your acknowledgment of the social pressure to maintain this arrangement makes that question even more interesting.
Isaac Choua retweeted
Not a single Arab voted for an Arab party near the Gaza envelope.
On October 7th, the youngest victim was an Israeli-Muslim baby still in the womb of his mother.
I'm convinced the secret ingredient in their simple syrup glaze is maḥlab, a spice made from the ground kernels inside the pits of the St. Lucie cherry (Prunus mahaleb).
It has a distinctive flavor with notes of almond, cherry, and a subtle floral aroma.
It's not about whether this is a middle school English class.
If you've made the entire holiday about dressing up, I can see why someone might argue that your version of Purim is pagan.
I explicitly pointed out that your custom of dressing up on Purim emerged in 15th-century Italy, apparently influenced by Christian Carnival traditions.
You condemn Halloween because of its pagan and Christian origins, yet dismiss those same concerns when they're raised about your own customs simply because they've become "Jewish traditions."
If you want to bring pagan customs into Judaism, be glad there's no Sanhedrin around to take action.
Are most Charedi women in Israel halakhically entitled to demand a divorce from their husbands?
Under the Israeli Charedi kollel model, many wives are the primary breadwinners while their husbands study Tora full-time.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute, only 54% of Charedi men are employed, compared with 81% of women. And 33% of Charedi families were living in poverty in 2023.
Are their Kethuboth (marriage contracts) rewritten to reflect this arrangement? Do these women explicitly waive their husbands' obligations? Or is that just assumed when marrying a kollel student?
The traditional Kethuba explicitly states:
ואנא במימר דשמיא אפלח ואוקיר ואסובר ואיזון ואפרנס ואכסי יתיכי
"And I, with Heaven's help, shall work, honor, support, feed, provide for, and clothe you."
HaRambam Hilkhoth Ishuth 12:4 codifies that a wife may relinquish her entitlement to maintenance, but her husband cannot unilaterally abandon that obligation.
The Mishna Kethuboth 7:10 even recognizes a husband's taking up leather tanning after marriage as grounds for compelling divorce because of the smell.
HaRambam (Hilkhoth Ishuth 12:11) also rules that a husband unable to provide even basic sustenance may be compelled to divorce, while still owing his wife her Kethuba.
And this isn't just about men studying in kollel. Even if a husband works, what happens if he cannot provide basic maintenance for his wife?
If a Charedi woman decides she no longer wants to be the breadwinner and demands that her husband fulfill his obligations, what halakhic grounds does he have for refusing?
Does agreeing to marry a kollel student mean she's permanently waived her rights under the Kethuba? Or do they rewrite them?
I'm genuinely curious how this is reconciled with the Kethuba, the Mishna, and haRambam.
Judging by the flags alone, this would be an absolutely insane blunt rotation.
And yet, 5 of the 6 were born in Israel.
It's almost as if there's something connecting them that predates all those flags. 🤔
Isaac Choua retweeted
There’s no “Hebrew Republic of Tel Aviv” or “Jewish Kingdom of Jerusalem.”
There’s one country: Israel. One people: Am Yisrael.
I can mock my fellow countrymen in Tel Aviv’s lifestyle & politics all day long. But I’ll never have the chutzpah to even imagine them as a different nation from mine.
We’re the same country. The same people. And that shall never change.
We don’t need to invent new borders between ourselves.
Many in the West Bank held Jordanian citizenship following Jordan's annexation of the territory in 1950, but they were sadly stripped of it in 1988.
Sadly, they can't vote in Jordan either.
Likud will be a different beast in two years. A major shake-up will happen if and when Bibi leaves. Shas is losing support and increasingly acting like a Charedi party rather than serving the broader public it originally set out to represent.
Charedim are primarily concerned with their own communities, so they can afford to be insular. But whether you like Shas or hate it, its original mandate was to represent all of ʿAm Yisraʾel, not just the Charedim.
Shas needs to return to its Sepharadi roots, which genuinely emphasize responsibility for all Jews, rather than clinging to this artificial identity of the "Sepharadi Charedi."
You can't be both. Either you're Charedi or you're Sepharadi.
Shas isn't like other parties. It has the potential to reinvent itself and return.
There's enough turmoil within the party now that real change is possible. I hope that means returning to its Sepharadi roots, breaking away from UTJ, and embracing military conscription.
A man can dream.
Israel and the Jews don’t exist.
They’re figments of everyone’s imagination.
BREAKING: 🇪🇸 At least 68 people have died and 80 others injured after a train crash in Spain.
Investigators say it’s due to an “inexplicable” safety error after a “widespread computer communications failure.”
It’s the THIRD train crash in Spain this year.
ISRAEL warned Spain they would pay a “heavy price” and for some reason an Israeli railway cyber firm recruited Spain’s former railway safety chief/transport secretary… 🤔
May God rest their souls and bring ease to their families 🙏🏼
