Judaism in its Own Words

I disavow the leaders and the political active far right. The papers in Israel feed the people half truths and sometimes lies. They choose to do this. No one is making them.
I am FASCINATED----alexa reads Israeli newspapers. I can manage with
a dictionary ---and lots of TIME----but Alexa is FLUENT in Hebrew
 
I read islamo nazi propaganda way back in
the 1950s---as a child. The garbage was
all over my semi-rural anglican fascist town. Since that time I have had even more
exposure to the same islamo-nazi filth that
alexa spouts because I have interacted with
people educated in muslim lands ---and,
ALSO escapees from that filth----to wit
christians from african muslim nations,
Iranian jews, Hindus who survived
Bangla desh etc etc. For reality---talk
to THEM ----in fact for reality on Iran talk
to people from Lebanon and Sunni muslims
from Yemen. You do not even have to talk
to jews-----like my hubby--- whose family
escaped the stench of shariah. Don't ask
anglicans---I have family--both maternal
and paternal ---which sojourned in merry
old england
suradie "disagrees" Since I provided a personal experience and my "advice" is,
simply, a suggestion that experienced
people can provide information, I am
mystified as to WHAT it is to which she "disagrees"
 
- can it be assumed you have retained your boarding pass you used to return to germany in the late 1930's ... to freely exercise your religion.

as a reminder for how the ship of fools boarders fared in their earstwile flights from reality.

well, sorry - it doesn't seemed to have worked - - who supported the anglo-nazi filth trump. funny how backwards a person can be and still claim to see the lite of day.
sorry breezie----I was born in the USA----and
CONSIDERABLY past the 1930s. Trump is
not a nazi----he is a WASP from Queens
which is a remarkably DIVERSE county of
New York City. It is the county of choice for
ethnic food shopping.
 
I am FASCINATED----alexa reads Israeli newspapers. I can manage with
a dictionary ---and lots of TIME----but Alexa is FLUENT in Hebrew
can you tell me, Alexa---what Israeli paper
you read? Can you tell me some of the
misleading information therein? Hubby read
that "misleading information" ALL THE
TIME. I would like to CLUE HIM IN
 
Trump was the best friend to the Jews we’ve seen in decades. He wanted legislation that would withhold federal funds from the leftist colleges that allow antisemitism to flourish, and he had Republicans in support, but the Democrats were opposed. Even NY Jews like Nadler and Schumer wouldn’t support it because they were afraid Muslims would be offended.

IOW, allow raging antisemitism on campus because it is more important not to hurt Muslims’ feeeeeelings than to ramp down on Jew-hate.
 
Trump was the best friend to the Jews we’ve seen in decades. He wanted legislation that would withhold federal funds from the leftist colleges that allow antisemitism to flourish, and he had Republicans in support, but the Democrats were opposed. Even NY Jews like Nadler and Schumer wouldn’t support it because they were afraid Muslims would be offended.

IOW, allow raging antisemitism on campus because it is more important not to hurt Muslims’ feeeeeelings than to ramp down on Jew-hate.

what exactly does that mean "best friend to the Jews we’ve seen in decades" ...

- can you imagine for those others their dislike for judaism, the desert religions the jews cower behind incessantly and their abject admiration for their own irrefutable personal innocence - l 558.

trump is a crucifier - right up their alley, they knew what line their was to tow and how to trample the innocent to do it. and those that would reward them for their effort.
 
I disavow the leaders and the political active far right. The papers in Israel feed the people half truths and sometimes lies. They choose to do this. No one is making them. This isn't necessarily something just Israel does but it means the people do not know what the situation is. To disagree with the far right as people like Breaking the Silence do is to be called Traitors which means that effectively people do not argue about what is going on. Although temporarily stopped Netanyahu has been working the show for about 20 years. During this time he has also been consulting with American Neo Cons and Evangelical Christians. They are the people who have spent the most paying for buildings in the West Bank. Without their help Israel would have had to develop in a more humanitarian way. Because Israel has made it impossible to have two states, the only just thing they can do is have a state for all citizens. Israel doesn't want that. They were warned that would be the outcome if they carried on as they were and it is. However Israel will be quietly getting rid of the Palestinians. Israelis believe they are sub human. Apart from the papers feeding them untruth, since Oslo Israelis don't get to see the Palestinians, Before Oslo they did and they supported a two state solution. So it is the Israeli regime I am against and there isn't much difference between the Parties any more. You know how if a far right party gets in all the others move to the right. So it is with Israel. Their best friends are countries who are far right even if they are antisemitic for Instance Hungary and Poland. I can't talk about this any more - too off topic but I don't support colonising and replacing the people who are living somewhere because you want to live there instead of them and that is what is happening.

what exactly does that mean "best friend to the Jews we’ve seen in decades" ...

- can you imagine for those others their dislike for judaism, the desert religions the jews cower behind incessantly and their abject admiration for their own irrefutable personal innocence - l 558.

trump is a crucifier - right up their alley, they knew what line their was to tow and how to trample the innocent to do it. and those that would reward them for doing it.
what does ".....what line their was to tow..."
mean------some sort of tug-boat?
 
what does ".....what line their was to tow..."
mean------some sort of tug-boat?

their perpetual, errant - persecution complex - and percieved erstwhile salvation no metaphysical savior would touch with a 10' pole.
 
what exactly does that mean "best friend to the Jews we’ve seen in decades" ...

- can you imagine for those others their dislike for judaism, the desert religions the jews cower behind incessantly and their abject admiration for their own irrefutable personal innocence - l 558.

trump is a crucifier - right up their alley, they knew what line their was to tow and how to trample the innocent to do it. and those that would reward them for their effort.
So your complaint is that Trump wasn’t a good president for antisemites like you because he was good for the Jews?

Thanks for clarifying.
 
So your complaint is that Trump wasn’t a good president for antisemites like you because he was good for the Jews?

Thanks for clarifying.

the desert religions ...

1659616645258.png


did you think she was jesus, their liberation theology, self determination - trump just knew what to do with his jewish accomplisses.
 

When Are You Making Geulah?


Antisemitism-vs-Aliyah-696x539.jpg


I’ve never been a fan of Kabbalah. I acknowledge that it is based in tremendous holiness and wisdom but it’s simply way over my head. I have tried to understand it – several times – but it goes in one ear and out the other.

I think the reason for this is because I am a Jew who is deeply rooted in the world of action. You want me to shake a lulav, put on tefillin, eat matzo and lend money to the poor? No problem… tell me how. Explain the details of the commandment and I will gladly perform the task. It is an honor and an amazing privilege to serve the King of Kings, but I need proper instructions and guidelines.




Telling me that the left side of my body is effected while simultaneously connecting me to the attribute of splendor makes me ask the great question; Huh?

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not a robot. I appreciate knowing the reasons “why” but the answer needs to be as simple and as direct as the question.

We say “Shema” in order to accept the yoke of the kingdom of heaven. We guard our speech to spare our brothers pain. We say “Kiddush” to turn Friday night into Shabbat and we dress modestly to protect the holiness of our bodies.

With that in mind, what is the reason for me begging you to move to Eretz Yisrael?

Let’s stay focused and really understand why. I will even avoid using the word “Aliyah” since nobody really knows what “going up” to the Land of Israel even means. The question is direct and innocent and deserves an answer that isn’t full of hype, desperation or illusions. The answer is simple; because when Jews move back to the Land, the “Geulah” – the redemption – gets much closer!

You should not move your family to Israel because tuition is cheaper than it is in NY. You should not move because of the political situation nor because of the great weather. A Jew leaves his/her job, sells their house and moves their family thousands of miles for one reason and one reason only: It ends the 2,000 year physical exile and brings the Geulah closer.

It saddens me greatly that very little is spoken about this.

Millions of words have been written about the destruction of the Bet Ha’Mikdash and the exile that ensued as a result. We have been taught about the root cause of the exile yet how many times has it been pointed out that this galut (exile) had two sides to it?

There was the physical side and there was the spiritual side and in order to rectify the situation – and reverse what happened – we need to repair both sides of that equation.

Yet, every shiur, every class, every book and every “scholar in residence” program focuses on the spiritual side only. Of course we need to be better in performing mitzvot and, as stated above, let’s all learn how to do that… but that’s half the battle. Imagine mixing the most amazing ingredients together for a delicious cake but never putting it in the oven!

Moving to Israel is the physical side of things. Think about it. When slavery ended in Egypt, did we stay there? Why not?

We had the greatest leader, the holiest kohen and a direct connection to HaShem. The Jewish nation could have built the finest yeshivot in Goshen and we would have served HaShem right away… without the 40 year schlep and without the wars. Yet, HaShem did not want that… He wanted more than spirituality… He wanted the Jewish nation in the Jewish land! Only then would the redemption be complete!

Fast forward about 3,300 years and what do you find?

A Jewish nation that thinks they know better. Its ok if we stay in Lakewood… have you seen how many yeshivot there are? We are fine in Kew Gardens Hills, Far Rockaway and Baltimore… we are keeping the mitzvot “mehadrin min ha’mehadrin”… and I’m sure they think they are! The problem with this logic is that these pure Jews are in modern day Goshen. The door is open for the final redemption… something we daven for 3 times a day but the cake stays out of the oven…

Therefore, as the year winds down, make sure to add this to your list. Ask HaShem for good health, shidduchim, children that stay connected to a Torah life, parnossa AND beg HaShem to help you, and your family, out of the physical exile. Daven to our merciful Father that He brings you home… but not on Aliyah… that He brings you home on Geulah!


(Comment)

I don't know how I'd behave in diaspora,
but I do know there's a way, that women make
the main move, or demand, on an individual family level,
not immediately seen in the historic forest of the collective event.

 
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On the movement of ideas in Israel | Preface and introduction by Rabbi Cherki

A new and unique series of lessons to learn the fundamental article of HaRav Kook: "To the movement of ideas in Israel", about the faith, Judaism, nationalism and their historic incorporation, and their activity in the nation of Israel and the whole of humanity along the generations.

This chapter is the introductory chapter and contains the context in which the words were written and the purpose of Rabbi Kook in his publication.

The article "On the Movement of Ideas in Israel" is an article published by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook, in 1912, in the Hebrew newspaper edited by Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, and was later included in Sefer Orot in its expanded edition, at the suggestion of Rabbi Yehoshua Hutner .

The article, which is considered one of Rabbi Kook's most important articles, gives a historiosophical overview of the history of humanity in general and the people of Israel in particular. The article analyzes many cultural phenomena such as pagan idols, Christianity, Buddhism, the Enlightenment movement and the like - from a Jewish point of view.

From the article emerges an innovative concept in relation to the understanding of Judaism, which stands against the concept that developed, according to Rabbi Kook, in exile. According to him, in the Diaspora Judaism turned from a national-divine culture into a 'religion', in the narrow sense, as laws that limit the flow of life, and deal mainly with the individual, while the original Judaism - and the future - is a way of life that embraces all expressions of life, material and spiritual, private and especially general, and leads to their implementation in a healthy and complete manner, and not to their reduction. In the Israeli nation resides the 'Shekinah', which gives 'divine pleasure' to life and causes its love, and not the other way around[1].


(B"H translations later)



(Comment)

What I've got from my first introduction to this article,
is the fundamental realization of 3 ideological camps in Israel,
as a projection of all humanity - the religious, national, and humanist.

With all their combinations and physics lyrically described by Rabbi Kook.
And the main goal being - the revival of Prophecy in Israel.

But for that one either needs a brave mind,
or a Jewish Neshamah to get at peace...

%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%A1.jpg

Orot.jpg

For me, Rabbi Kook is more about returning to the intimately known
rather than learning. Rabbi Kook is lyrically groovy, a paragraph
may take months of courage if You actually dare,
the books aren't long.

Anyway, for me the question remaining in the air,
is whether the "Hebrew identity revolution" of
Manitou and the universal Humanist trend
of Rabbi Kook's teaching are the same?
 

God Needs You To Stop Being Stressed!

Instead of trying to be 'a good something'...
just make Your wife/husband happy,
and what You can where needed.

 
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God Needs You To Stop Being Stressed!

Instead of trying to be 'a good something'...
just make Your wife/husband happy,
and what You can where needed.



- rather their paper contract for themselves, fulfilling their own obligations before those of the heavens as their goal for salvation.

and what they can - when made available.
 
just make Your wife/husband happy,

howabout it beanie ...

A young couple in Mississippi wanted their new baby to be baptized at their church, but said the reverend sent them a letter refusing to perform the sacred ceremony because they were not married and 'living in sin.'

that must be ...

Thou shalt not commit adultery. ...

- moses knows best. who they worship. must be hanging on the wall in full view covered by glass.
 

בס"ד

Exploring universal Judaism with Rabbi Oury Cherki

Intellectual Rabbi Oury Cherki speaks about universal – not cosmopolitan – Judaism, and ‘Holiness and Nature,’ his book now available in English.

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Rabbi Oury Cherki is difficult for an educated Israeli to pigeonhole.

One might assess his rabbinical appearance and correctly surmise that his alma mater is Mercaz HaRav, the flagship religious-Zionist institution of the 1970s. Someone a bit more in tune might connect him to his son Yair, the sidelock-sporting Channel 12 religious affairs correspondent. Some may question where Yair picked up his liberal and tolerant attitude, especially if his father’s cultural circles are very conservative.

But the problem becomes more acute once the 63-year-old Cherki starts talking.
In any given lecture, he will casually quote not just the usual rabbinical literature, but French philosophers, Kabbalah, Israeli intellectuals, atheist talking points or Islamic credos, if the discussion beckons them.


He is highly esteemed in rabbinical circles, but his fields of interest stand in stark contrast to any haredi ideal of cultural and intellectual isolation, an ideal even many religious-Zionist rabbis will not explicitly reject. Many would consider him the foremost intellectual in the Mercaz HaRav crowd, one of the few rabbis who can engage secular intellectuals head on. On YouTube, there’s an abundance of his Hebrew material, such as his popular “The Rabbi and the Professor” debate series with Prof. Carlo Strenger.

To the English-speaking audience, Cherki is a complete mystery in both style and content. Realizing this, his nonprofit organization, Ourim, has just released an English translation of his first book, titled Holiness and Nature: On the Roots of Life. A French translation was released as well, as Cherki is very well known among francophones.

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RABBI A.I. KOOK’S concept of ‘holiness within nature’ defines Torah as a central conduit for holiness,
but not an exclusive one. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Cherki was born in Algeria. His father was a businessman and an intellectual. They moved to Paris when Cherki was two, and his father became active in what was later known as the Paris School of Jewish Thought, a movement of observant intellectuals who saw their mission as reviving Jewish life and identity in France after the Holocaust. They publicly engaged French existentialist philosophers and adopted Zionism. Many towering figures were involved, but the movement was led by three of the most prominent thinkers of the day in France: André Neher, Emmanuel Levinas and Rabbi Yehuda Léon Ashkenazi. The latter, known by his nickname from the Jewish Scouts, “Manitou,” was Cherki’s primary mentor, and Cherki openly admits that he is the source for most of his thought.

Manitou was the kind of figure English speakers had never met – a Kabbalist from a family of North African Kabbalists, son of the last chief rabbi of Algeria, a Sorbonne graduate who studied anthropology under Claude Lévi-Strauss, a man who gave Bible lectures with his own original “anthropological” Kabbalistic approach to audiences ranging from priests to the Jewish youth in the Maayanot high school he founded.

After the Six Day War, Manitou made aliyah with most of his students and reopened his institutions in Jerusalem. After a few years, the Labor Party closed them down, in unabashed harassment for his right-wing political affiliation. Manitou was well known in the small religious intellectual circles of the day, but only in recent years have the transcribed volumes of his Hebrew lectures gained prominence in the religious audience. Ironically, the times were such that even as an intimate associate of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, he was not granted a teaching position in Mercaz HaRav.

In his final years, before his passing in 1996, Manitou became one of the most outspoken critics of Shas, which he viewed as a party engaged in identity theft, creating a fake Sephardi identity that was nothing more than wholesale sellout to Ashkenazi haredim. His critique of the entire haredi phenomenon was biting, leveling at them charges of resembling early Christianity – turning Judaism into a self-centered monastic order, apathetic or antagonistic to the project of building a living nation with a universal message, which is what he insisted the Bible claims Jews are. This critique remains as provocative today as it was then, and even some of his disciples have difficulty swallowing it.

In the 2015 wave of stabbing attacks, Cherki, whose son Shalom was killed in a car-ramming attack early that year, raised the ire of haredi pundits when he said in a videotaped lecture: “People say the solution is learning more Torah. This is nonsense. How will that stop terrorism? The solution is learning Krav Maga and enforcing Israeli sovereignty.”

Rabbi Cherki, how would you characterize the Paris school? What were they trying to do, and how did they differ from religious intellectual figures such as Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik or Rabbi Jonathan Sacks?

The Paris school was probing into Jewish identity, and I think they found one. You’re correct in assuming that all of the above were intellectual forms of Torah, but there are stark differences. Rabbi Soloveitchik was a Lithuanian and an existentialist thinker, much more Western than Manitou. Manitou was a Kabbalist, not just a romantic, but a true mystic, which led him to aliyah. Rabbi Sacks I see as an apologist, defending religion as a spokesman for a fragile minority.

What I am trying to do is to take part in what Manitou called the “universal stage of Judaism,” which he opposed to “cosmopolitanism.” The latter is erasing particular identities and being swallowed into the impersonal realm of reason, with concepts such as ethical monotheism, etc.

Universalism means first being deeply rooted in the Land of Israel and in the lessons of the Zionist renewal project, and then actively sharing with other nations what we have learned in our revival. Judaism is not a religious confession, even if in exile that is what we were reduced to. We are a nation, and one that was defined as having a universal message – ‘a nation of priests,’ or as Rabbi Yehuda Halevi wrote: “Israel is the heart within the body of nations.”

What is our universal message, which differs from other intellectual traditions with universal aspirations?

I could mention a few fundamental points. For instance, Western humanist thought places man at its center, taking cues from Protagoras, who made man the measure of all things. Islam takes the other extreme and demands complete human submission before God. Judaism posits that neither man nor God is the exclusive focal point, but rather the dialogue between man and God. God has not abandoned the world to its devices, and He pursues a partnership with man in his worldly activity and has spoken to man for this purpose.

Another point would be what Kabbalists would call the ‘Unity of Attributes,’ meaning the notion that Jewish faith requires believing in a holistic concept of God encompassing all emotions and situations. He is not found in just one attribute such as Christian love or Islamic severity but in a holistic balance of all emotions.

This unity is also the way we view the nations of the world. If each culture is one color, our color would be white light, a color encompassing all cultures and identities. There are countless divergent identities in the world, but one larger truth arises from the totality of them. The Jews were exiled between these nations to ‘gather Holy Sparks,’ essential spiritual elements within these identities; and upon returning to the Land of Israel, we are reassembling the full human profile here, uniting humanity into a greater picture. This is monotheism in a true, integral sense. The Zionist enterprise is the return of the Shechinah, the divine presence, to Zion, creating a new spiritual mode in the world. This is the sense in which Zionism has its full theological meaning.

What are you trying to do with your newly translated book? Who is the audience?

I don’t believe in a Homo religiosus, some sort of religious creature that has religious experiences that ordinary humans don’t have. This book is an editing of material I wrote years ago, but I think that the questions I ask are questions that can trouble any thinking person. I briefly highlight many paths that are worth thinking about, and one can decide to pursue and develop any of them. The mostly secular hi-tech crowd are entrepreneurial by nature and can try directions that the religious crowd might not have fully developed yet. Organized religion may be declining nowadays, but people are definitely searching for meaning and have a thirst for spirituality, even if they can’t quench it in religion as of yet.

What does the title of the book, “Holiness and Nature,” mean?

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook’s concept of ‘holiness within nature’ means the following: Torah is a central conduit for holiness, but not an exclusive one. There is holiness in nature as well. Historically, Torah was suspicious of nature and natural instincts, which were associated with paganism and sin. That’s what Nietzsche meant when he claimed religion was slave morality that beat the human spirit into submission. The rise of secularism in the Jewish people was the turning point. Secular Jews, with their free and natural approach to the world, are instinctively demanding the holiness in nature and refuse to suffice in traditional holiness, ‘holiness that is against nature.’

Nietzsche’s Übermensch solution was, of course, a disaster. What Rabbi Kook wanted was an eventual reconciliation between tradition and nature, which he believed Jews could only have in the Land of Israel. This would be a religious modality full of vitality, joie de vivre, shedding the dark and dreary nature of Judaism in exile. As the sages said: “In this world I have given you Torah, but in the end of days I will give you Life.”

Beyond your usual lecturing activities, you have two unique projects you founded – the Academy for Studying the Wisdom of Faith, and the Brit Olam World Center for Noahides. What are these projects?

The academy is a study program for outstanding students and people with a proven record of public activity. My vision is to create the beginning of an intellectual elite the State of Israel is worthy of. Note the name: “Wisdom of Faith.” Many people think that faith and intellectualism are negatively correlated. They are sure that religion is folklore, and the serious values of society are determined at the Israel Democracy Institute, Supreme Court, etc. We think otherwise. I believe rabbis should have a rich intellectual world, and I urge them as well to come learn with us.

My project with Noahides is to spread belief in the Seven Noahide Commandments, which the Torah says are incumbent upon gentiles. I believe them to mean not just the seven very basic commandments [prohibition of murder, sexual immorality, idolatry, blasphemy, theft, eating flesh of a live animal and the commandment to establish courts of law] but establishing gentile spirituality as a form of “satellite religions” to Judaism.

I composed a prayerbook for gentiles titled Brit Olam, which has been translated into five languages, and a religious legal codex called Brit Shalom, which has been translated into 16 languages. We have a website for Noahides, and we are in constant contact with thousands of our followers and their communities across the globe. We want them to have their own local community leaders. For instance, recently we have developed a relationship with a priest in Congo who has left Christianity and taken his congregation to Noahidism. I will eventually go there to meet them. We are planning a world Noahide Conference in Prague.

How would you explain to a culturally insular religious Jew that God takes interest in gentiles?

God is not the dean of a yeshiva or leader of some Jewish community. He created the entire world and placed Jews and gentiles together in this world, so apparently there must be a joint plan for us all, even if everyone has their singular role.

Many associate Rabbi Kook’s teachings with nationalism rather than universalism.

They’re simply mistaken. Any reader can see with his own eyes that Rav Kook has countless passages with universalist themes, and even Jewish nationalism itself has an end goal that is universal.

What does your book have to say to the Jews in the Diaspora?

I want them to know that Judaism has its own independent spiritual and intellectual path, and that this path is relevant to their life, and it is intrinsically bound to the Zionist project. Many Jews speak of stagnation in the rabbinical world, and I want them to know if they search seriously for spiritual rejuvenation in Judaism, they will find it.

 
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