B"H
I was reading an article called Secrets of a Disappointed Life by David Harris. I mostly talks about how he learned from things about his father; how his father was a teen intellectual wunderkind scientist in Austria before he had to flee the Nazis.
Mr. Harris thought about his father's lost life, the loss of his potential as a great chemist or physicist. And, reading this, I thought about the macrocosm; I thought about how much potential the world has lost, not just because of the Holocaust, but because of all the potential lost when, throughout the centuries Jews were limited in what fields they could go into (for example, Benjamin Disraeli had to convert to Christianity to get into Parliament), Jews were kept from educational institutions, Jews were killed just for being Jews.
I wonder why people are so worried about us that they feel the need to keep us down. I wonder why they don't want to benefit from Jewish brains. I wonder how many Freuds, Einsteins and Salks never had the opportunity to rise to their highest potential because they were born in Syria or they had to flee from the Nazis or they were silenced by the Inquisition. I wonder how much the world has lost in brainpower by dismissing our contributions, by suppressing our creativity, by limiting us. I wonder if the world will ever learn, if they will ever understand what they are giving up by hating Jews and not accepting us for what we are.
And when I do, I wonder where this world would be if prejudice in general didn't exist and no boundaries were put on people and their potential.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, April 6, 2009
The 50 Most Influential Rabbis are Dead......
B"H
We talk about them as though they are still with us (my teachers didn't say "Rashi said" -- they said "Rashi says"). But, in my opinion, the 50 most influential Rabbis are all dead.
My list would include my favorite Rabbi, Rabbi Akiva, a man who was a shepherd and didn't even learn to read until he was 40. He spent 24 years learning and teaching (thanks, in a huge part, to his wife, Rahael's encouragement (courage being the operative part of that word -- Rahael was the daughter of one of the richest men and he disowned her for marrying a shepherd) and was one of the tannaim -- the Rabbis of the Mishnaic (early Talmudic) era.
My list would include several of the Gaonim (post Talmudic Rabbis). These Rabbis took the Talmud and explained it for the people in their generation.
My list would include Rashi, Rabbi Shelomo the son of Yitzhak, one of the most famous biblical commentators. His commentary is simple enough for any Yeshiva 2nd grader and deep enough for the most learned Talmid Haham (wise "student").
My list would include Maimonides, also known by his initials Rambam (Rabbi Moshe the son of Maimon), who is famous not only in the Jewish world, but also in the Gentile world. He wrote "The Guide for the Perplexed" and several other books about Jewish law and Jewish philosophy while earning a living as the physician to the Sultan.
My list would include Nahmanides, also known by his initials Ramban (Rabbi Moshe the son of Nahman), who defended Judaism in debates all over Spain until he was forced to flee to Israel.
My list would include the Ari (Rabbi Yitzhak Luria) (literally the Lion), a middle ages Kabbalist from Tzefad, and his student, Rabbi Moshe Luzzato who wrote down the Ari's thoughts and teachings.
My list would include Rabbi Yosef Caro, the author of the Shulhan Arukh, literally the "Set Table" -- a book of Jewish Law for the "everyman" Jew.
My list would include Rabbi Moshe Isserlis, who wrote a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh. And the Taz and the Shach (who also wrote commentaries on the Shulhan Arukh).
My list would include Rav Yisrael Salanter who started the Mussar movement (that encourages people to examine their lives and be the best people they can be).
My list would include Shamshon Refael Hirsch, who showed that you can still be Orthodox in a secular world. It would include the Gra (also known as the "Vilna Gaon") and the Hofetz Hayim, who encouraged people to watch what they say about other people. I would include Rav Aharon Kotler who was largely responsible for the Lakewood, NJ Jewish community. I would include Rav Soloveitchik and Reb Moshe Feinstein who were Gedolim (great men of learning) when I was growing up.
To be honest, I think these Rabbis were far more influential in the Jewish world than anyone on the Newsweek list of the 50 Most Influential American Rabbis (granted most of the people on my list aren't American, but, so what??? They did influence many Americans). I hope you agree.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Yocheved -- Mother of Moshe (Moses)
Purim, Esther et al
Being an internet small business owner
Why I'm a Red Sox fan
Pythagorean Theorem
My Blogs
Top 10 Presidents
Bottom 10 Presidents
How Can We Appeal to G-d for Forgiveness?
Math Tips 2
Searching for a Fashion Partner
Math Hints 3
One Actor, Two Shows (TV Quiz)
Presidential Tidbits
Why Should anyone hire Me?
Eat a Healthy Breakfast
My experience on Jeopardy
Project:Runway and how it got me excited about designing again
Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?
My Vocational Experiences
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Check out my Stress Release Mix list
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Everything Goes
We talk about them as though they are still with us (my teachers didn't say "Rashi said" -- they said "Rashi says"). But, in my opinion, the 50 most influential Rabbis are all dead.
My list would include my favorite Rabbi, Rabbi Akiva, a man who was a shepherd and didn't even learn to read until he was 40. He spent 24 years learning and teaching (thanks, in a huge part, to his wife, Rahael's encouragement (courage being the operative part of that word -- Rahael was the daughter of one of the richest men and he disowned her for marrying a shepherd) and was one of the tannaim -- the Rabbis of the Mishnaic (early Talmudic) era.
My list would include several of the Gaonim (post Talmudic Rabbis). These Rabbis took the Talmud and explained it for the people in their generation.
My list would include Rashi, Rabbi Shelomo the son of Yitzhak, one of the most famous biblical commentators. His commentary is simple enough for any Yeshiva 2nd grader and deep enough for the most learned Talmid Haham (wise "student").
My list would include Maimonides, also known by his initials Rambam (Rabbi Moshe the son of Maimon), who is famous not only in the Jewish world, but also in the Gentile world. He wrote "The Guide for the Perplexed" and several other books about Jewish law and Jewish philosophy while earning a living as the physician to the Sultan.
My list would include Nahmanides, also known by his initials Ramban (Rabbi Moshe the son of Nahman), who defended Judaism in debates all over Spain until he was forced to flee to Israel.
My list would include the Ari (Rabbi Yitzhak Luria) (literally the Lion), a middle ages Kabbalist from Tzefad, and his student, Rabbi Moshe Luzzato who wrote down the Ari's thoughts and teachings.
My list would include Rabbi Yosef Caro, the author of the Shulhan Arukh, literally the "Set Table" -- a book of Jewish Law for the "everyman" Jew.
My list would include Rabbi Moshe Isserlis, who wrote a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh. And the Taz and the Shach (who also wrote commentaries on the Shulhan Arukh).
My list would include Rav Yisrael Salanter who started the Mussar movement (that encourages people to examine their lives and be the best people they can be).
My list would include Shamshon Refael Hirsch, who showed that you can still be Orthodox in a secular world. It would include the Gra (also known as the "Vilna Gaon") and the Hofetz Hayim, who encouraged people to watch what they say about other people. I would include Rav Aharon Kotler who was largely responsible for the Lakewood, NJ Jewish community. I would include Rav Soloveitchik and Reb Moshe Feinstein who were Gedolim (great men of learning) when I was growing up.
To be honest, I think these Rabbis were far more influential in the Jewish world than anyone on the Newsweek list of the 50 Most Influential American Rabbis (granted most of the people on my list aren't American, but, so what??? They did influence many Americans). I hope you agree.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Yocheved -- Mother of Moshe (Moses)
Purim, Esther et al
Being an internet small business owner
Why I'm a Red Sox fan
Pythagorean Theorem
My Blogs
Top 10 Presidents
Bottom 10 Presidents
How Can We Appeal to G-d for Forgiveness?
Math Tips 2
Searching for a Fashion Partner
Math Hints 3
One Actor, Two Shows (TV Quiz)
Presidential Tidbits
Why Should anyone hire Me?
Eat a Healthy Breakfast
My experience on Jeopardy
Project:Runway and how it got me excited about designing again
Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?
My Vocational Experiences
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Check out my Stress Release Mix list
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Everything Goes
Saturday, March 14, 2009
He Madoff with all the cash.....
B"H
Bernie Madoff has been in the news for some time now. For those of you who don't know who he is, he has apparently been running a $65,000,000,000 (that's 65 billion dollar) ponzi scheme, an enormous shell game, a con of monumental proportions. In the process, he swindled a huge number of people and organizations, including many charities. I doubt he single-handedly created the economic turn down we are now experiencing, but I have a feeling he made a big contribution to the cause.
(It seems, from what I've been able to glean, this was originally designed as a small con, but it's been going on almost 20 years and mushroomed....)
In any case, it's hitting a bit of a crescendo with Madoff being sent to prison, away from his "house arrest" in his gorgeous, expensive penthouse apartment. Legions of "fleecees" (people who were fleeced by the billionaire swindler) were in the courtroom or trying to get into the courtroom when the judge sent him to prison.
But, despite my anger at this man, despite my embarrassment that he's Jewish, despite my strong feelings that he committed not only an enormous crime, not only a sin, but a huge Hillul Hashem (loosely, a black mark on the name of G-d by not reflecting G-d as good), despite all this, I get very little joy in sending Bernie Madoff to prison for the rest of his life.
Why? Well, probably because sending him to prison, from my perspective, accomplishes nothing except pure punishment. The Tora, in my opinion, supplies the appropriate response to this.
While I don't want to go into a long halakhic (Jewish legal) discussion about the ins and outs and specifics, Jewish law calls for the repayment to the victim of anything stolen, often having to repay double or up to 5 times the amount stolen.
I much prefer this as a solution for two reasons -- firstly, it takes the needs of the victim, someone largely ignored in the justice system, into account and makes those needs paramount. Secondly, this system makes robbery, thievery, burglary, a potential loss of income. How many movies, TV shows, books, plays have we all seen where someone makes a big "hit", was sent to prison, but hid the money and came out of prison to live well on the money "socked away". In Jewish law, however, this couldn't be.
In Jewish law, where the stolen money or goods end up is irrelevant. It's not THAT money that needs to be "returned" -- the perpetrator is required to PAY the victim. Part of the problem with the whole Madoff pyramid scheme is that different people got some money and who gets to keep what when. In the halakhic system, this would be irrelevant. All that would matter is who Lost money and how much they lost. That would be what Madoff would have to make good.
Selling Mr. Madoff's extravagant possessions might go a long way toward raising the money to pay the victims. But so would having him work to pay off the victims. I prefer having him work for money and having this money (or at least a huge chunk of it) go to pay his victims for what he stole from them. I prefer having him repay what he stole with interest.
Unlike a murderer, who can never compensate for the loss he has caused, Bernie Madoff can. He can return his ill-gotten gains to Hadassah, Yeshiva University and the scores of other people and organizations who swindled. I would feel as though justice had been done if Mr. Madoff can be in a different kind of prison, one where he works hard and earns money to repay his victims' losses. That is justice. Having him sit in prison with murderers and rapists may assuage people's feelings of vengeance, but it does nothing toward helping the people he swindled to rebuild their lives. And that, in my opinion, is a travesty of justice.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Yocheved -- Mother of Moshe (Moses)
Purim, Esther et al
Being an internet small business owner
Why I'm a Red Sox fan
Pythagorean Theorem
My Blogs
Top 10 Presidents
Bottom 10 Presidents
How Can We Appeal to G-d for Forgiveness?
Math Tips 2
Searching for a Fashion Partner
Math Hints 3
One Actor, Two Shows (TV Quiz)
Presidential Tidbits
Why Should anyone hire Me?
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Everything Goes
Bernie Madoff has been in the news for some time now. For those of you who don't know who he is, he has apparently been running a $65,000,000,000 (that's 65 billion dollar) ponzi scheme, an enormous shell game, a con of monumental proportions. In the process, he swindled a huge number of people and organizations, including many charities. I doubt he single-handedly created the economic turn down we are now experiencing, but I have a feeling he made a big contribution to the cause.
(It seems, from what I've been able to glean, this was originally designed as a small con, but it's been going on almost 20 years and mushroomed....)
In any case, it's hitting a bit of a crescendo with Madoff being sent to prison, away from his "house arrest" in his gorgeous, expensive penthouse apartment. Legions of "fleecees" (people who were fleeced by the billionaire swindler) were in the courtroom or trying to get into the courtroom when the judge sent him to prison.
But, despite my anger at this man, despite my embarrassment that he's Jewish, despite my strong feelings that he committed not only an enormous crime, not only a sin, but a huge Hillul Hashem (loosely, a black mark on the name of G-d by not reflecting G-d as good), despite all this, I get very little joy in sending Bernie Madoff to prison for the rest of his life.
Why? Well, probably because sending him to prison, from my perspective, accomplishes nothing except pure punishment. The Tora, in my opinion, supplies the appropriate response to this.
While I don't want to go into a long halakhic (Jewish legal) discussion about the ins and outs and specifics, Jewish law calls for the repayment to the victim of anything stolen, often having to repay double or up to 5 times the amount stolen.
I much prefer this as a solution for two reasons -- firstly, it takes the needs of the victim, someone largely ignored in the justice system, into account and makes those needs paramount. Secondly, this system makes robbery, thievery, burglary, a potential loss of income. How many movies, TV shows, books, plays have we all seen where someone makes a big "hit", was sent to prison, but hid the money and came out of prison to live well on the money "socked away". In Jewish law, however, this couldn't be.
In Jewish law, where the stolen money or goods end up is irrelevant. It's not THAT money that needs to be "returned" -- the perpetrator is required to PAY the victim. Part of the problem with the whole Madoff pyramid scheme is that different people got some money and who gets to keep what when. In the halakhic system, this would be irrelevant. All that would matter is who Lost money and how much they lost. That would be what Madoff would have to make good.
Selling Mr. Madoff's extravagant possessions might go a long way toward raising the money to pay the victims. But so would having him work to pay off the victims. I prefer having him work for money and having this money (or at least a huge chunk of it) go to pay his victims for what he stole from them. I prefer having him repay what he stole with interest.
Unlike a murderer, who can never compensate for the loss he has caused, Bernie Madoff can. He can return his ill-gotten gains to Hadassah, Yeshiva University and the scores of other people and organizations who swindled. I would feel as though justice had been done if Mr. Madoff can be in a different kind of prison, one where he works hard and earns money to repay his victims' losses. That is justice. Having him sit in prison with murderers and rapists may assuage people's feelings of vengeance, but it does nothing toward helping the people he swindled to rebuild their lives. And that, in my opinion, is a travesty of justice.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Yocheved -- Mother of Moshe (Moses)
Purim, Esther et al
Being an internet small business owner
Why I'm a Red Sox fan
Pythagorean Theorem
My Blogs
Top 10 Presidents
Bottom 10 Presidents
How Can We Appeal to G-d for Forgiveness?
Math Tips 2
Searching for a Fashion Partner
Math Hints 3
One Actor, Two Shows (TV Quiz)
Presidential Tidbits
Why Should anyone hire Me?
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Everything Goes
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The Slippery Slope to gods of Wood and Stone
B"H
I was talking with my friend today about Israel. She was telling me about how much has changed in Israel since I was doing my "year in Israel" (mind you, I wasn't 18 when I did this.... but I digress). She was bemoaning the "Chabadish Invasion" -- the ubiquitousness of Chabad all over the world (including Israel).
I need to tell you right off that I think Chabad has done a lot of good work. But I have a major problem with them. A large percentage of Chabad people are what my friend and I call "Jews for the Rebbe". The problem is Avoda Zara.
I was listening to a "Tora tape" (a download) by Rabbi Akiva Tatz. He was talking about how the world went from believing in G-d (Adam and Hava -- Eve) to idolatry in the space of 10 generations and then again from Noah to Avraham. He said something that made a lot of sense.
What happened was that people started to think that G-d was too busy for their petty little issues. So they would say that since their problem was so small and simple they would just pray to an angel or an ancestor... this eventually translated into the mental creation of "smaller gods" which translated into people making images of these gods and eventually to them praying to the little gods.
This reminded me of what a friend of mine said to me once upon a time. She asked me why I didn't pray to G-d for help with my problems and I told her I didn't think they were important enough to bother G-d about. She asked me if I didn't think G-d could handle my little problems and I told her of course I thought G-d could handle them. I just didn't want to take G-d away from more pressing issues. But, she continued, didn't I think G-d could take care of all the issues? That made sense to me and I began praying to G-d directly about even the most seemingly insignificant issue in my life.
So what does this have to do with "Jews for the Rebbe" and other "cult of personality" groups? These groups offer up an intermediary. The problem with that is that G-d is available to everyone and when you begin to believe that you need an intermediary, you begin to fall down the slippery slope towards believing that your intermediary is a god. This is especially true if you have pictures of them hanging on your wall. It's a fine line between pictures and statues.
So what's the bottom line in all this? Trust in G-d and pray to Him/Her directly. Don't get bogged down in the whole "I don't want to bother G-d with my insignificant problem/issue". It puts you on the precipice looking down on the slippery slope to Avoda Zara.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Being a New Internet Small Business owner
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Check out my other merchandise:
my Etsy store
my ShopIt store
my Zazzle store
I was talking with my friend today about Israel. She was telling me about how much has changed in Israel since I was doing my "year in Israel" (mind you, I wasn't 18 when I did this.... but I digress). She was bemoaning the "Chabadish Invasion" -- the ubiquitousness of Chabad all over the world (including Israel).
I need to tell you right off that I think Chabad has done a lot of good work. But I have a major problem with them. A large percentage of Chabad people are what my friend and I call "Jews for the Rebbe". The problem is Avoda Zara.
I was listening to a "Tora tape" (a download) by Rabbi Akiva Tatz. He was talking about how the world went from believing in G-d (Adam and Hava -- Eve) to idolatry in the space of 10 generations and then again from Noah to Avraham. He said something that made a lot of sense.
What happened was that people started to think that G-d was too busy for their petty little issues. So they would say that since their problem was so small and simple they would just pray to an angel or an ancestor... this eventually translated into the mental creation of "smaller gods" which translated into people making images of these gods and eventually to them praying to the little gods.
This reminded me of what a friend of mine said to me once upon a time. She asked me why I didn't pray to G-d for help with my problems and I told her I didn't think they were important enough to bother G-d about. She asked me if I didn't think G-d could handle my little problems and I told her of course I thought G-d could handle them. I just didn't want to take G-d away from more pressing issues. But, she continued, didn't I think G-d could take care of all the issues? That made sense to me and I began praying to G-d directly about even the most seemingly insignificant issue in my life.
So what does this have to do with "Jews for the Rebbe" and other "cult of personality" groups? These groups offer up an intermediary. The problem with that is that G-d is available to everyone and when you begin to believe that you need an intermediary, you begin to fall down the slippery slope towards believing that your intermediary is a god. This is especially true if you have pictures of them hanging on your wall. It's a fine line between pictures and statues.
So what's the bottom line in all this? Trust in G-d and pray to Him/Her directly. Don't get bogged down in the whole "I don't want to bother G-d with my insignificant problem/issue". It puts you on the precipice looking down on the slippery slope to Avoda Zara.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Being a New Internet Small Business owner
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Check out my other merchandise:
my Etsy store
my ShopIt store
my Zazzle store
Monday, October 20, 2008
Like Lightning (barak in Hebrew), Barak is nice to look at but potentially dangerous
B"H
I have a friend who keeps sending me political e-mails. Up until recently, I was ok with that. But within the past few months, I have been getting e-mails from him telling me how wonderful Barak Obama is.
I do have a problem with this. Obama is not a friend of Israel and is not a friend to Jews. Quite honestly, it doesn’t matter to me how many nice things Mr. Obama has done in his life, it doesn’t matter to me how many of the issues we would see eye-to-eye about.
I am sure if you look really hard you can find stories about Martin Luther and Pope Pius XII that show them in a good light. You can probably find such stories about Torquemada and Queen Isabella. But it doesn’t matter to me how heart warming these stories are, these people are still anti-Semites, they are still Jew haters. Martin Luther said that Jews eat the dung of the devil. Pope Pius stood by when 6 million Jews were murdered. Torquemada was the early leader of the Spanish Inquisition, a 15th Century to 19th Century organization that murdered Jews (in Spain, Portugal, Italy and the "New World") and took their assets. And Queen Isabella, besides approving and supporting whatever Torquemada did, also was a party in expelling the Jews from Spain in 1492.
When I was in college, I took an art history class. One of the pieces we viewed and discussed was a relief from the Arch of Titus that portrayed the Romans taking vessels and other things from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after they destroyed Jerusalem, burned the Temple and killed and exiled hundreds of thousands of Jews. When my instructor spoke about this piece she talked about the glorious victory Titus, the Roman general who destroyed 1st Century Jerusalem, had just experienced. I went over to her after class and told her about how this piece represents the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. When she put this piece on one of our tests, I spent the entire allotted time describing in minute detail how this frieze represented one of the most horrible destructions in Jewish history. I got full credit.
No matter how good a spin you put on evil it is still evil. No matter what nice things an anti-Semite might do, (s)he is still an anti-Semite.
It is the same with Barak Obama. No matter how you clean it up and spin it, Barak Obama is not going to be good for Israel. Barak Obama is not going to be good for Jews. So no matter how much I wish I could vote for someone who holds his economic and domestic political views, I can’t because being a Jew and supporting Israel are too important to me.
I have to tell you all, I am an unabashed Liberal. I believe in assistance for those less fortunate, I believe in higher taxes for the rich, I believe in a woman’s right to choose, I believe in women’s rights and gay rights and animal rights. I have never voted for a Republican for President. But, despite agreeing with a majority of the platform of the Democratic candidate for President, I can’t in good conscience support him. Why, you might ask? Because he supports the division of Jerusalem and he supports handing over to the Palestinians more land to be used to attack Israel. As Israel gets smaller and smaller and the PA territories (a.k.a. "missile launching pads" where the PA can launch missiles at population centers of Israel) get larger and larger, the Palestinians become more emboldened, asking for more and more.
And yet, there are people like Barak Obama who believe that peace will come if Israel hands over huge chunks of their already depleted land to these war-mongering murderers. I suppose he’s right – there is no one more at peace than a dead person. And if Barak Obama has his way, all the non-Muslims in Israel will be dead. And that’s the sort of peace I, for one, will not be voting for.
For those of you who think Barak Obama is not an anti-Semite, think of what you would do if your Rabbi stood up one day on Shabbat and started saying, if reference to other groups, the sort of things Obama’s minister, Reverend Wright, said about Jews. I don’t know about you, but I’d be out of that synagogue so fast. And I certainly wouldn’t be an apologist and I certainly wouldn’t want to consider him my mentor.
Obama has a commercial where Israeli generals show their support for him. There’s only one problem – these generals were lied to, told this was a documentary, and their comments were taken out of context.
Obama believes in appeasement. He believes, as did Neville Chamberlain, that terrorists and dictators can be mollified by reasonable people showing their willingness to find a peaceful solution. But students of World War II and the recent handover of Gush Katif (Gaza) know that people like Hitler and the leaders of Hamas see appeasement as weakness.
Senator John McCain and Governor Sara Palin, on the other hand, stand strongly with Israel and Jews. Sara Palin was planning on going to the anti- Ahmadinejad Rally and released the speech she would have given (which was a very good speech, in my opinion). McCain and Palin are behind Israel and understand the security issues Israel faces.
While I hate the idea of becoming a one-issue voter, I feel I have no choice. I feel the Democratic candidate for President is at best naive about the situation in the Middle East (thinking Israel can just decide to resolve it by doing anything less than handing over the entire country to the Arabs) and at worst anti-Jewish. This one issue then becomes a matter of survival: Survival of our rights as Jews; survival of the American Jewish community; survival of our homeland, our lifeline, our soul – Israel.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Check out my other merchandise:
my Etsy store
my ShopIt store
I have a friend who keeps sending me political e-mails. Up until recently, I was ok with that. But within the past few months, I have been getting e-mails from him telling me how wonderful Barak Obama is.
I do have a problem with this. Obama is not a friend of Israel and is not a friend to Jews. Quite honestly, it doesn’t matter to me how many nice things Mr. Obama has done in his life, it doesn’t matter to me how many of the issues we would see eye-to-eye about.
I am sure if you look really hard you can find stories about Martin Luther and Pope Pius XII that show them in a good light. You can probably find such stories about Torquemada and Queen Isabella. But it doesn’t matter to me how heart warming these stories are, these people are still anti-Semites, they are still Jew haters. Martin Luther said that Jews eat the dung of the devil. Pope Pius stood by when 6 million Jews were murdered. Torquemada was the early leader of the Spanish Inquisition, a 15th Century to 19th Century organization that murdered Jews (in Spain, Portugal, Italy and the "New World") and took their assets. And Queen Isabella, besides approving and supporting whatever Torquemada did, also was a party in expelling the Jews from Spain in 1492.
When I was in college, I took an art history class. One of the pieces we viewed and discussed was a relief from the Arch of Titus that portrayed the Romans taking vessels and other things from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after they destroyed Jerusalem, burned the Temple and killed and exiled hundreds of thousands of Jews. When my instructor spoke about this piece she talked about the glorious victory Titus, the Roman general who destroyed 1st Century Jerusalem, had just experienced. I went over to her after class and told her about how this piece represents the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. When she put this piece on one of our tests, I spent the entire allotted time describing in minute detail how this frieze represented one of the most horrible destructions in Jewish history. I got full credit.
No matter how good a spin you put on evil it is still evil. No matter what nice things an anti-Semite might do, (s)he is still an anti-Semite.
It is the same with Barak Obama. No matter how you clean it up and spin it, Barak Obama is not going to be good for Israel. Barak Obama is not going to be good for Jews. So no matter how much I wish I could vote for someone who holds his economic and domestic political views, I can’t because being a Jew and supporting Israel are too important to me.
I have to tell you all, I am an unabashed Liberal. I believe in assistance for those less fortunate, I believe in higher taxes for the rich, I believe in a woman’s right to choose, I believe in women’s rights and gay rights and animal rights. I have never voted for a Republican for President. But, despite agreeing with a majority of the platform of the Democratic candidate for President, I can’t in good conscience support him. Why, you might ask? Because he supports the division of Jerusalem and he supports handing over to the Palestinians more land to be used to attack Israel. As Israel gets smaller and smaller and the PA territories (a.k.a. "missile launching pads" where the PA can launch missiles at population centers of Israel) get larger and larger, the Palestinians become more emboldened, asking for more and more.
And yet, there are people like Barak Obama who believe that peace will come if Israel hands over huge chunks of their already depleted land to these war-mongering murderers. I suppose he’s right – there is no one more at peace than a dead person. And if Barak Obama has his way, all the non-Muslims in Israel will be dead. And that’s the sort of peace I, for one, will not be voting for.
For those of you who think Barak Obama is not an anti-Semite, think of what you would do if your Rabbi stood up one day on Shabbat and started saying, if reference to other groups, the sort of things Obama’s minister, Reverend Wright, said about Jews. I don’t know about you, but I’d be out of that synagogue so fast. And I certainly wouldn’t be an apologist and I certainly wouldn’t want to consider him my mentor.
Obama has a commercial where Israeli generals show their support for him. There’s only one problem – these generals were lied to, told this was a documentary, and their comments were taken out of context.
Obama believes in appeasement. He believes, as did Neville Chamberlain, that terrorists and dictators can be mollified by reasonable people showing their willingness to find a peaceful solution. But students of World War II and the recent handover of Gush Katif (Gaza) know that people like Hitler and the leaders of Hamas see appeasement as weakness.
Senator John McCain and Governor Sara Palin, on the other hand, stand strongly with Israel and Jews. Sara Palin was planning on going to the anti- Ahmadinejad Rally and released the speech she would have given (which was a very good speech, in my opinion). McCain and Palin are behind Israel and understand the security issues Israel faces.
While I hate the idea of becoming a one-issue voter, I feel I have no choice. I feel the Democratic candidate for President is at best naive about the situation in the Middle East (thinking Israel can just decide to resolve it by doing anything less than handing over the entire country to the Arabs) and at worst anti-Jewish. This one issue then becomes a matter of survival: Survival of our rights as Jews; survival of the American Jewish community; survival of our homeland, our lifeline, our soul – Israel.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Check out my other blogs:
Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Check out my other merchandise:
my Etsy store
my ShopIt store
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Bageling
B"H
While going through some old e-mail in a vain attempt to clear out some room from my 70+% full mail box, I found this hysterical article (I googled it to find a link -- this is a link to it:
Bageling Article
please read the article and then come back here)
This article reminded me of an experience that happened to me many years ago. When I was in High School, I used to travel on the bus to NYC. Being the only person from my HS who lived in my community, I spent long hours (the ride was about an hour in each direction) riding the bus solo so when I found out that a friend of mine, who took a different bus but one I could take too, though it would take me a bit longer in each direction, was also going to HS in NY, I changed to her bus so I wouldn't have to ride alone.
One Friday, while we were waiting to get on the bus (and the crowd was light since we got out early on Friday) we noticed a cute guy probably not much older than we wearing a Kippa. Being that we both found him attractive, my friend whispered to me, "we've got to talk about school but don't talk about your Mr. or Mrs. teachers, only talk about your Rabbi teachers." This seemed like a good idea to me, so that's what we did. She ended up having a bit of a fling (as in a Yeshiva girl sort of fling -- as in they sat together on the bus and "made out") with him and I ended up riding alone again (at least until his stop on the bus).
I guess that was one "bageling" incident in my life. I've definitely had others -- talking to friends in stores about shul and hagim (Jewish holidays) and Shabbat and the like within earshot of someone I know to be Jewish (or suspect to be Jewish and want to test).
A number of years back, when my hashkafa wasn't disappearing from the face of this earth, I thought about how I can look at a guy and know he's Modern Orthodox (if he dresses a certain way and wears a crocheted kippa, for example) but how would a guy know by looking at me (I rarely wear anything that would be pick me out as a Shomeret Shabbat Jew) that I was Modern Orthodox too (I don't look particularly Jewish, though I don't look particularly non-Jewish either). My idea was to create a necklace (I used "shrinky dink" for the job) with two letter shins on it (standing for Shomeret Shabbat). I thought if I were to wear it around, people would ask what it meant and the idea might catch on. It didn't.!
Anyway, I'd love to hear your "bageling" stories. Just use the comment section and let's see how many stories we can get here.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Check out my other blogs:
Jewish Sandwich
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Everything Goes
Bayit and Garden
Check out my other merchandise:
Other merchandise
While going through some old e-mail in a vain attempt to clear out some room from my 70+% full mail box, I found this hysterical article (I googled it to find a link -- this is a link to it:
Bageling Article
please read the article and then come back here)
This article reminded me of an experience that happened to me many years ago. When I was in High School, I used to travel on the bus to NYC. Being the only person from my HS who lived in my community, I spent long hours (the ride was about an hour in each direction) riding the bus solo so when I found out that a friend of mine, who took a different bus but one I could take too, though it would take me a bit longer in each direction, was also going to HS in NY, I changed to her bus so I wouldn't have to ride alone.
One Friday, while we were waiting to get on the bus (and the crowd was light since we got out early on Friday) we noticed a cute guy probably not much older than we wearing a Kippa. Being that we both found him attractive, my friend whispered to me, "we've got to talk about school but don't talk about your Mr. or Mrs. teachers, only talk about your Rabbi teachers." This seemed like a good idea to me, so that's what we did. She ended up having a bit of a fling (as in a Yeshiva girl sort of fling -- as in they sat together on the bus and "made out") with him and I ended up riding alone again (at least until his stop on the bus).
I guess that was one "bageling" incident in my life. I've definitely had others -- talking to friends in stores about shul and hagim (Jewish holidays) and Shabbat and the like within earshot of someone I know to be Jewish (or suspect to be Jewish and want to test).
A number of years back, when my hashkafa wasn't disappearing from the face of this earth, I thought about how I can look at a guy and know he's Modern Orthodox (if he dresses a certain way and wears a crocheted kippa, for example) but how would a guy know by looking at me (I rarely wear anything that would be pick me out as a Shomeret Shabbat Jew) that I was Modern Orthodox too (I don't look particularly Jewish, though I don't look particularly non-Jewish either). My idea was to create a necklace (I used "shrinky dink" for the job) with two letter shins on it (standing for Shomeret Shabbat). I thought if I were to wear it around, people would ask what it meant and the idea might catch on. It didn't.
Anyway, I'd love to hear your "bageling" stories. Just use the comment section and let's see how many stories we can get here.
Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
John and John Quincy Adams
Television Trivia Quiz
Tamar -- Mother of Kings
Jewish Perspective of G-d
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan
Check out my other blogs:
Jewish Sandwich
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women
Everything Goes
Bayit and Garden
Check out my other merchandise:
Other merchandise
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)