I just realized that yesterday was the 5th anniversary of my blogging career! I started on February 28th, 2007 as “Yehudi Hilchati” on a blog of the same name, then became “DYS” on the new blog “Torat Ezra” in 2008, then changed my blogging name to “Rabba bar bar Chana” in 2009. Finally, in August 2010, I started this blog under the name “Philo”, and brought all my posts here under one roof (with the byline of each by whatever pseudonym I used when I wrote it.)
I don’t blog as much as I did during my busiest period in 2008 and 2009, but I hope you’re still reading.
Happy 5th birthday to me!
Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach has come out strongly against the decision of Israel’s supreme court to strike down the Tal law (which allowed Yeshiva students to avoid army duty.)
He declared that the decision was a
“terrible gzeira that strikes a blow at the heart of Judaism… a gzeira that uproots religion.”
Yes, it goes against every bit of Judaism.
After all, in ancient times no men fought in Shaul, David, & Shlomo’s armies. They sat and pretended to learn instead and the Davidic dynasty never reigned.
No one fought against Amalek when they attacked. They hung out smoking outside the mishkan. Our ancestors were all killed in the desert. We Jews are obviously are a figment of someone’s imagination.
No one fought against the Pelishtim. They were all too busy spitting on little girls who were just trying to watch their fathers’ sheep. The Pelishtim then overran the cities of Judea and established the ancient grand empire of Philistinia.
No one fought alongside Judah Maccabee. They just sat around playing dreidel, claiming that such play was really what protected Bnei Yisrael. That’s why today, instead of lighting something called a chanukiyah, we honor the gods with the winter holiday of Brumalia.
Yup – fighting to protect your people? TOTALLY not Jewish!
Park Slope Food Coop Israel boycott campaign
http://www.metro.us/newyork/local/article/1105510–park-slope-food-coop-mulls-an-israel-boycott
Note: I’m trying to post more often, which means posting from my phone. Which will be easier with simple bullet points. So here goes:
- The issue is very complex. But while I don’t support the divestiture, I can see where supporters are coming from. Israel is stronger so comes off as the aggressor, plus the RW insistence on mixing settlements up with security claims makes it hard to sympathize with their predicament. And a boycott is not terrorism. It’s a valid expression of protest.
- Is BDS really supported by Dustin Hoffman & Meg Ryan? Should Jews now boycott their movies?
- Is BDS really subversive and do they really want to destroy Israel?
- There should be a distinction drawn between feeling Israel doesn’t have a right to exist at all vs. supporting full equality for all residents, with no ethnic or religious preferences and no official state religion.
Chani Goldstein: age 19, kicked out of her Yeshiva High School for smoking, ended up doing drugs and sleeping around, has no real place to live, has no prospects or job skills. She does not keep Kosher or Shabbos.
Rivki Schwartz: age 26, defied her parents who wanted to send her to seminary, managed to get a full scholarship to college, then went to law school while working part-time as a paralegal. She just passed the bar and has a job offer at a prestigious law firm. She does not keep Kosher or Shabbos.
Neighborhood yenta 1: ”Oy, did you hear about Hindy and Shoimie Goldstein’s daughter Chani? Nebach, she went off the derech! Such a shame, such a shame. Such a waste. And, oy, her sisters and brothers will have such a hard time with shidduchim.”
Neighborhood yenta 2: ”Yes, and the same thing happened with Malka and Chaim’s Shwartz’s daughter Rivki! Nebach, she went off the derech too! Oy, such a terrible shame, isn’t it? What a waste of a Yiddeshe neshama! Her brothers and sisters are also going to have a really hard time with shidduchim.”
Both shake their heads sadly.
A friend posted this on Facebook this morning with the comment “this is just silly”:
Scientists say sugar is as toxic as alcohol – and there should be a drinking age for soda
I agree. Not that it’s all silly. Sugar is a serious problem, and our food culture is awash in the refined stuff, causing childhood obesity & diabetes, along with a host of other problems. The human body never evolved to consume so much sugar.
The silly part is the proposed solution. I’m no libertarian, but at a certain point, government regulations become excessive & ridiculous.
If they want to use governmental power to solve it, ending the insane corn subsidies would be a good place to start. Those subsidies result in way too much corn being produced in the US, which ends up making its way, in great quantities, into almost every processed food, especially in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
The corn industry, in the wake of HFCS’s increasingly negative image, is attempting to rebrand HFCS as “Corn Sugar”, which has a more natural sound.
I have a suggestion – for every rebranding, concerned people should just add adjectives. “Corn Sugar? Oh, you mean Industrial Corn Supersugar!”
On VIN today, there is an article on the commendable comments by Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovitch, that Charedi Jews must love Chilonim, not hate them. Some have applauded those comments and Rabbi Harry Maryles states that “[R. Edelstein's] words are my sentiments exactly”.
The problem with that, as I see it, is that despite his plea for tolerance, and his deeply needed and timely condemnation of Charedi extremists, Rabbi Edelstein still condescends to non-Orthodox Jews in his statement. He refers to them as tinokot shenishbu, which basically means that they sin, but that they don’t know any better.
Is that really how all Orthodox Jews see the non-Orthodox? How about respecting them as adult human beings who have made choices for themselves. They may not be the same choices as halachically observant people, but that doesn’t mean they should be pitied and seen as some sort of ignorant children.
How about simply approaching them as equals?
Philo
Yehudi Hilchati
DYS
Rabba bar bar Chana
