Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Sunshine for the Wicked

Well, its official folks.
I am banned from the Yeshiva World News's Coffee Room which is a nice online forum that Jews can get together and discuss our lives, Torah and anything that seems to inspire us or run over us on the highway of life.
I criticized a moderator or more then a one of them.
I may not be allowed to post online, but I assure you that the spirit that was behind the posts labeled "basket of radishes" goes on infinitely. 
It may not be a good day for a Jewish student to find friends on the internet, but the truth of the matter is that my commentary will never be forgotten.   I will live on in infamy as their moderators will constantly search for my "alter ego" on their web page so that they can ban me in infinitum.
War among the Jews? 
Indeed.  A war between the Jews who are adhering to Torah and a heretic or a few heretics.
Remember, Heresy steals from the Rich.
In this case, I am not going to be able to have a rich experience online.
My crime?  Well clearly multiple as I have tried to post topics of Jewish interest that were never posted. Things involving yeshiva studies and other topics that I felt would surely be of interest to a Jewish forum in a yeshiva section.
They once told me when I disagreed with their moderation that I should "devise my own web site and make my own forum".  This is about all I can come up with this day.

To All of my Jewish friends who shun the "secular":

Have you read the proverb in the book of Proverbs that says the following:
14:4.  Where there are no oxen, the troubgh is clean; but many crops come [through] the power of the ox.

The JPS version?
Without oxen, the crib is clean; but a rich harvest comes through the strength of the ox.

Roughly translated:  That which you think is unclean to you such as the secular music and movies and all the like that exists in todays culture is not your adversary.  True it may make for a crib that is not that clean, but your harvest will be much more rich.

Don't you guys get the Jewish scriptures that were written by King Solomon?
What is with the heresy of today that we must live in insular communities?
Some of your communities are so insular that you dont even let G-d in!!

This is my disagreement with the religious Jewish communities today.  I don't suppose any of them will take up my concerns. 

But I will not have a problem letting my children see Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark someday.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

My comment to the Yeshiva World News and their reply to me:

The unwritten rule of this chat room is that you can not post anything in any way that questions a rabbinic authority or a jewish practice that we really think is true. I have questioned a few concerns of mine quite a few times and it has all been moderated and censored. This is a foolish thing for a moderator. If I am the wicked, allow my post and show me where I am wicked. But if I am right and you are wrong, you have just violated G-ds trust.
FEEL FREE TO START YOUR OWN WEBSITE, WE ARE SURE YOU WILL HAVE LOTS OF TRAFFIC. IN THE MEANTIME, WE WILL CONTINUE TO MODERATE COMMENTS AS WE SEE FIT.

Monday, July 18, 2011

How are we driving?

I sadly have thought of this post and decided in fact to write it up. I do hope that the moderators have some compassion and let me post this scathing but really true commentary of some of our communities.
On one hand you have the reform Jews today. They do not keep the laws. They are like a person driving a car without a license.
On the other hand you have the orthodox who keep the laws.
They are like someone who drives a car with a license.
That is good and fine.
I am sure you all understand where that comes from.
But get this folks,
I see you may have a license and are able to legally drive that car of life, but do you have your headlights on?
I profess that I suspect that today, many of our Torah observant Jews drive without the headlights on in life.
That said, we are not bad people and we dont mean to do badly and put the future at risk, but sadly, our houses are not interconnected with the entire Israel Nation on this planet.
The drivers of the cars without licenses even sometimes have their headlights on. They wont crash in some ways even though they should go to jail for simply driving period.
But that said, what are we as a nation doing today when we don't educate the others and make ourselves inaccessable and undesirable in some ways to be a part of the entire Jewish Nation?
We distance ourselves from those who don't keep our ways and even ways that we just think we know are the true ways of our people.
We live a live that is good and fine, but who did we really touch on this planet?
We aim to please Hashem, but do we really please Him?
I ask this as this is my conversation with my own soul tonight.
I hope that you can forgive me for any nasty allegations that we are not infact doing the best we can as Jews. But you all know we all have a long way to go, right?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Killing Hitler

Hitler took his own life.  So he didn't give us the opportunity to kill him.... Did he?????

I propose that you can indeed give to a charity somewhere on this planet in a Jewish cause and that it will indeed kill Hitler if you send it to a place that you never want to visit.   
I also suggest that you make the check a substantial sum.
For me, I am sending a check to a Jewish community in Chile and though I will not send it out anytime soon, the envelope is written and stamped and the check for $150 enclosed.
I do believe that this kills Hitler entirely.
His wickedness endures as he killed himself.  But that is easily remedied.
And I will send the check out someday before I pass on I believe.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

The problem with your current orthodox paradigm

The orthodox in our Jewish religion are very special people.  Learned and smart.  Friendly most of the time.  Intelligent and blessed. 
But I must ask, are they really doing all that they should do as children of our Creator and children of Israel?

Today's orthodox follow a very specific pathway in life. They see the green smiley faces that Hashem has put before us and they follow that pathway near totally perfect. This is all good and fine.  They will have a somewhat happy life with lots of green smiley faces.  It makes sense.  Green smiley faces are really orthodox looking and they make you happy.  And green is such a fine color to placate your need for love and order.

But that said, our Creator has pathways of red smiley faces, yellow smiley faces, orange smiley faces and even blue purple and maybe once in a while a grey smiley face too. 
Should we not also take some of these other pathways in life?
The problem is that the orthodox see the other smiley faces as frowns.
They will never for the most part alter their wardrobe to smile at the light of their mood and happiness.
They will never in some cases watch television (a greenish blue smiley face).
They in many circles do not wish to have computers (reddish pink smiley face).
They will not play video games (purple smiley face).
They hate sports in many circles (red circle with, you guessed it, a smile).
So I guess that being a Jew today, I will pursue all of the other smiley faces that our Creator has put before us. 
That said, I think that our day is lived better when we enjoy the true God given music on our airwaves and even the seasonal holiday blessings of the non jewish world that seem to permeate our culture and give us a time to reflect on the time of the year. 
Sadly, I have much contention among the fellows of our faith that espouse that no other smiley face besides the way of the green smiley faces is "orthodox".  I disagree.  Orthodoxy is pursuing all of the smiley faces in different proportions.
That said, when you go to heaven, do you think that our Creator will say "well, you did a great job and only did the green smiley faces".  Or perhaps will our creator say "I gave you many types of smiley faces and you did not wish to smile back at most of them.  What did you really accomplish".  That is how I see it and if you want to attack me and ridicule me becuase my own life is not as pleasing to your world of the pure green smileys, I am sorry.
I also liked to ski (yellow smiley face), listen to rock and roll music (orange smiley face) and even I have listened to hard rock once in a while (grey smiley face too!).
So look for the smiley faces in life and keep yourself away from those which are really frowns (drugs, alcohol abuse and all the like). 

Friday, July 1, 2011

A Jews Perspective on Professional Sports

The following article crossed my desk this morning.
http://matzav.com/the-lockout-mussar-lesson-greedy-vs-whiney

I must say that I did not completely favor the commentary in this article and here is the commentary that I personally offer in this regard:

To the writer of this article:
I beseech that you change your perspective.
You are correct that the Jewish life is really not lived at the arena of course. But that said, you should be a citizen of our Great Nation and acnowledge the important and crucial role that sports do play in our national life. That said, this is a trying issue as the players do indeed make up the bulk of the show, but that said I do agree that there must be a limit to the needs that any one man has in his day. But that said, given their emotional and physical commitment, these people do indeed deserve to be compensated in a good fashion. But that does not mean that the owners and others who put on this production should be short changed either.
But to claim hedonism here, let it be what it is. Each person lives his or her life differently. I do not know that I would go so far as to describe a professional athlete as hedonistic, though I could indeed use the term “prima-donna” to its capacity in their cases some of the time.
So if you want to call them “whiney”, thats all good and fine. I would assert that they are prima donnas of the ballclubs and that they really do have their role in all of our lives as Citizens of America, though if I am not thinking of them on a daily basis, I will not be placating their need to be superstars in our culture.
So be sure that we as American Jews have a special interest in sports. True we dont watch many of the games when we are involved in study and other higher activities, but once in a while its a nice feature that rest assured, your Creator provides for our society. I will be watching some football this year and I will of course watch the crucial game 6 of the NBA championships. Maybe a few innings of baseball too, but that said, I am grateful that our Creator has provided for sports fun for all of our people.