Release your mind from the shackles of logic, reason, and understanding, so that it might be infiltrated by my unfounded opinion. You see my opinion can't stand up to the tests of a mind that isn't open and willing to accept any thing that comes at it. Your ideas are tied down and fastened by fundamentals, and principles , open your mind and let go of those ancient, time tested and proven ideas. You see I'm offering you something that hasn't really been tested yet, and if you don't open your mind you'll never accept what I'm selling.
Respect my beliefs because I don't respect yours. I have no intention to listen to your arguments because my opinion is the only one deserving of respect. Don't bother me with your logic and reason, I don't have the time and I will not bring my beliefs down to a level to meet with yours.
In general, when it comes to secular magazines and newspapers, it is best to follow the always wise words of the Chafetz Chaim, who writes:“Due to our great sins, the evil inclination, who is the Satan, has instigated mankind to pursue after a new demise - to cause our brethren, the Children of Israel, to sin the sin of leitzanut (cynicism) and thus cause the removal of Divine Providence from the world via the reading of newspapers, which has increased so greatly in our times. These publications are filled with cynicism, evil speech, libel, scorn, untruth, and the outright mockery of G-d…Everyone will have to pay for this sin in the end, when they come before the King of Kings - those who print newspapers, those who sell them, and those who read them. This habit has become so ubiquitous that many Jews are so addicted to it, they cannot pass one day without reading a newspaper and wasting away many hours.“And I have heard something even more scandalous - that the Sabbath day and Holidays which were given to us at Sinai to be sanctified, have sunk to the very opposite through the work of the Satan, through the publication on Erev Shabbat of twice the number of newspapers, whose editors outdo themselves by filling the pages with all sorts of cynicism, mockery, evil talk, and lewdness. And many of our brethren spend the entire Sabbath day reading these matters!!!”[9]9. Shmirat HaLashon, Letters of the Chafetz Chaim, 42.
Link to this: 18:40 2 comments
HiThis may seem an odd question, and it probably is, but I've been exploring my religious horizons recently, and with Passover coming soon, I was hoping to understand it more and how it is observed. I thought I could talk to someone I knew more personally about it first before maybe talking to someone more formally. But I know this is a fairly personal topic and I don't know what are the regulations in regards to discussing or participating in the observation, so I understand if it's unfeasible. But if you have any ideas of something I can read or talk to instead or beforehand I'd appreciate that as well.Take care,-John Q Non-Jew
Hello
Whoever accepts the seven commandments and is careful to do them, behold he is from the righteous of the nations of the world, and he has a portion in the world to come. And that is if he accepts them and does them because the Holy One Blessed be He commanded them and informed us about them through Moshe our teacher, that the children of Noah were commanded to obey them. But if he did them because of his own philosophical conclusions, he is not a "Righteous Gentile" and is not from the righteous of the nations nor from their wise ones
- Recognize and worship only The creator of the world.
- Do not murder.
- Respect the family, by not committing "sexual immorality"
- No stealing, even of an inconsequential amount
- Do not eat the limb of an animal while it is still alive
- Respect the name of The creator of the world.
- Set up courts to enforce the above.
The Measure Of Happiness
"When Adar comes in we increase in Simcha"
What is happiness? We are all familiar with it. But what is it? What is its essence?
Everyone knows what it's like to be happy. But what does happiness teach us about reality?
In the Talmud, there is a measurement known as a tefach sameach. A tefach is about ten centimeters. Sameach means happy. How can a measurement be happy? A laughing slide-rule? A smiling tape-measure? A tefach sameach is a large tefach. It's still a tefach - but it's a little more. Why did the Rabbis of the Talmud choose the term "happy" to describe a measurement which was slightly on the large side? Couldn't they have called it a "maxi" tefach or a "generous" tefach? Why a "happy" tefach?
The Last Horizon
The tefach sameach is still a tefach but it connects, it extends to that which is beyond itself. It becomes more. This is the essence of all simcha. To perceive the self becoming more. Extending one's boundaries and visions. Growing.
The tefach is the same. It stays within its boundaries but it reaches out, connecting to that which is beyond itself. That's the essence of happiness. Staying within the definition of who we are, but reaching out. Expanding our horizons without abandoning our borders.
A Measure Of Sadness
When we see ourselves confined within ourselves, defined solely by our physical parameters, that we are who we are and no more - that's the essence of sadness. When our definition of ourselves ends with our fingertips that is sadness in its essence. But when we perceive ourselves as being connected, reaching to that which is beyond ourselves, that point of connecting who we are to what is beyond is the epitome of happiness. The feeling that we can touch the most distant echo of the Ein Sof - The Endless - is the essence of happiness. Happiness itself.
When we broaden our existence - by getting married, by having children - we feel happy. For these are ways that we go beyond ourselves while still staying who we are.
from http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/1511
(Jan. 23) Steven Spielberg's controversial film 'Munich', about to be viewed in Israel, is sparking a firestorm. Former officials of Mossad, Israel's secret service, have lambasted the movie from start to finish. Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit accuses Spielberg of basing the film on a bogus book that bears no resemblance to what actually happened. 'Yonatan', a former Mossad agent, who actually took part in the operation to execute all the Palestinian terrorists involved in the murder of the eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, said there is nothing authentic in the film. That included the portrayal of 'Avner' the main character.
http://www.isracast.com/Transcripts/230106b_trans.htm
Link to this: 22:16 0 comments
Dear World,
It appears that you are hard to please. I understand that you are upset over us, here in Israel. Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry and outraged! Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset over us. Today, it is the brutal repression of the Palestinians; yesterday, it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War campaign. It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily. Of course, dear world, long before there was an Israel, we, the Jewish people - upset you. We upset a German people who elected a Hitler and we upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations - Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians. And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset. We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us. We upset, for centuries, a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through Inquisitions. And we upset the arch-enemy of the Church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit. It is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that we decided to leave you - in a manner of speaking - and establish a Jewish State. The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you, disturb you. What better notion, then, than to leave you and thus love you - and have you love us? And so we decided to come home - to the same homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset. Alas, dear world, it appears that you are hard to please. Having left you and your Pogroms and Inquisitions and Crusades and Holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state - we continue to upset you. You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Moscow is upset and Washington is upset. The Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset. Well, dear world, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel. In 1920, 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody. Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered hundreds of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron. Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron - in 1929. Dear World, why did the Arabs - the Palestinians - massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967? And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots in 1936-39? Was it because of Arab upset over 1967? And when you, World, proposed a U.N. Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a Palestinian State alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews - was that upset stomach caused by the aggression of 1967? And, by the way, dear world, why did we not hear your cry of upset then? The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who - when they had all the territories they now demand be given them for their state - attempted to drive the Jewish State into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of "idbah-al-yahud" - "Slaughter the Jews!" that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream - destroy Israel. What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today - but we should not "repress" them. Dear World, you stood by the Holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres. You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction. And since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians daily dream of that extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land. If that bothers you, dear world, well - think of how many times in the past you bothered us. In any event, dear world, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less.
Rabbi Meir Kahane, Zt"l (November, 1988)
(No less true today than it was 17 years ago - Moshe@Maccabee.Org)
Link to this: 21:57 0 comments
Link to this: 21:50 0 commentsAre you between the ages of 18-30?Do you want to study Judaism and Hebrew in Israel in a truly Zionist environment?Now is the time! Complete scholarships are available!A representative of the Machon Meir English Department will be in the LA area between January 24th – 26th.If you are interested in learning more about study opportunities at Machon Meir or to find out if you qualify for a scholarship, please contact us today at MachonMeir@hotmail.com
|
| ||||||
Borders: Ring item, select S1, highlight item, select S5, scan or enter coupon #159007490000000000, enter 30%, confirm, press Enter, and proceed. 
