The Funniest Outreach Speech Ever

 https://youtu.be/5kaX-jOlmGI

Rabbis who want to dominate their students

Maharik (12:62) There are some rabbis who want to dominate their students more than is appropriate and they assert that whoever has been a student even as a child is forever subordinate to them and can never disagree with them on any issue. They claim that this is true even if the student has become their equal or even their superior in learning because they assert that even if the rabbi has clearly erred or behaves incorrectly, that disagreeing with the rabbi is the same as contradicting G-d or other such claims. The answer to this is that even if the student is forever subordinate to his teacher as the rabbis assert, nevertheless it is quite obvious that this is only in relationship to honoring him by standing up for him. However, concerning matters of Heaven, eg. Chillul Hashem, there is no requirement to honor his teacher. This can readily be seen in the many examples in the Gemara such as the events with Rabban Gamliel (Berachos 26b)

Train your mind

 Train your mind to be calm in every situation today

...... if you wish to lead tomorrow

Safety standards in Israeli society

  Compare these bleachers in America to those of Karlin Stolin in Givat Ze'ev

See the cross beam supports? There are many of them. And the whole thing is permanent, bolted into a concrete slab. Compare to this. 

Where are the cross beams? Is that what the wood and zip ties are supposed to accomplish? The main supports are much thinner. These are the bleachers that took the life of this sweet boy Meir Gloibermen z'l. 

and this young father:

Mordechai Binyamin Rubinstein, z’l, 23

The KS bleachers are temporary.  And unlike in America, where there is much more personal space between people, the KS bleachers get packed with people who are rocking up and down. 

Here's what bleachers at an American football game generally look like during a game:

Here's bleachers during this tisch:

The bleachers in israel are very steep, thus packing in lots more people.

You don't need government involvement.  You need an engineer who has been to normal countries and you need to listen to him.

There was an engineer, but he approved only the lower part of the structure. "“Everything was okay on Friday, when I made my inspection,” the engineer said. “I checked the bleachers and although I had one small objection, they were perfectly stable.” He added that, “For some reason, on Sunday they decided to add several rows above the existing structure, and they did that themselves. It seems like they didn’t have enough materials to do so, and what’s more, no one checked those extra rows that they added. No one authorized them.”  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306524

So we heard from the KS spokesman that they had the permits. But it seems, they didn't have permits for the part that collapsed, the part they built themselves.

Safety standards in Israel are poor. I see it all the time, whether it be electric bikes racing down the sidewalks, people letting 4 year olds roam around by themselves, leaning wood planks against walls, nails sticking out of metal. We Jews are so good at memorial services, weeping, and writing sifrei Torah for the deceased. We are not so good at preventing injury.

Rav Avigdor Miller on Crossing at a Red Light

Q:

Should a person wait and not to cross at a red light when there is no traffic?

A:

No, he shouldn’t wait. Only that he has to check to make absolutely sure that there is no traffic. It’s common sense.

However, I must tell you that the matter of crossing the street when there is traffic is not a simple matter. Because people all think that nothing could ever happen to them. People are careless with their lives because they think that nothing could happen to them. It only happens to other people. You know, that this is an instinct in human beings. Just as they lived until now, and just like they’re alive right now, so they think it’s going to continue. And then suddenly it happens.

You have to make it a policy of yours to learn from experience. So whenever we hear of an accident, we should never let that opportunity go by. We should know that it’s מן השמים that the news came to us, in order to warn us. Whatever happens to anybody should not be repeated by us. It says in the פסוק the following: ככלב שב אל קיאו – “just like a dog returns to what he vomited out,” כן כסיל שב באולתו – “so is a fool who repeats his foolishness” (Mishlei 26:11). It means this: A dog ate something in the street. He shouldn’t have eaten it but he did. And after he ate it, he saw that he couldn’t keep it down. So he gave it forth again. Now, that dog should have understood that it’s not for him. But because he’s a foolish dog, so he goes back and he eats it again. Now I don’t even believe such a dog exists. But humans like that do exist. If some misfortune happened because of your carelessness, it should have been a lesson, and you should never forget it. But even smarter than that, is a man who doesn’t wait that it should happen to him. If it happens to somebody else, that’s enough of a lesson for the wise person. He learns from others, from other people’s misfortunes. And that’s the great wisdom of experience – that you don’t wait for it to happen on your own hide, but you make sure to learn from other people’s misfortunes.

And that’s a very important principle. Whatever news you get, whatever you hear – and you’re hearing all the time – it should enter your ears. Somebody crossing the street was hit by a car. A child drowned in a pool. A grandchild was visiting his grandparents and he fell out of the window because there were no safety guards. When you hear these things, it should enter your heart like an arrow. And make it a principle, “I’m going to watch out for that thing.”

TAPE # 405

Mark Twain

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain