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So that I could eat terumah on Maharat Weiss’s grave. See first medrash tanchuma this week.
Not that I’m hoping he dies; this is said in the spirit of masi yagiah tzaras habas liyadai v’esaenah.
Pray for his teshuva. See B’rachot 10a with Beruria, “al tikra chotim ela chata’im”
Popa, The New York Times is not part of my Daf Yomi. Mah Ksiv Bah?
@PBA – “Meanwhile I’ll daven v’lamalshinim al t’hi tikva.” I guess that works. 😛 Well said!
PBA: Can an idiot be a Malshin? I assume it requires a certain intelligence level (which he clearly lacks, from that article) to get yourself these statuses.
I found and just starting reading the article hinted to by PBA. SICKENING. Could not finish it. Malshin. Attention ore.
In the Gemara that I cited above, it says that the biryonim were causing trouble to Rabbi Meir with their bad interpretation of Torah. Rabbi Meir wanted to pray for their demise, but Bruriah told him to pray for their teshuva, which he did and it worked.
This case is different to me. This is blatant attacking for no reason. I see the biryonim as Jews who had too much pride and not enough sechel nor learning. They seemed like good people but terribly misguided. Weiss, OTOH, is not fueled by what’s good for the Jewish people or the Torah, but only what’s good for social activism and his name.
I’m not defending the article as a whole, but he has a point about this: “Religious choice would benefit all. When choice is available, religion in general and Orthodoxy in particular will fare better because people will have the freedom to embrace faith willingly.”
In countries with official religions (like Scandinavia and the UK), in which the government pays the salaries of the religious functionaries, the clerics are lazy and arrogant. Consequently, religious belief and observance tends to go downhill fast, leading to a secularized society that resents or ignores religion.
In contrast, countries like America, with a free market in religion, end up more religious (including more strict religions), because various religious groups have the ability, and an incentive, to attract new followers, and no one feels like they are being forced into anything by the government. Read Thomas Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom — and think about whether you agree with the underlying sentiment.
For demographic reasons, Israel is going to become more Orthodox no matter what. But if the Rabbanut were privatized, it would happen faster, because the chilonim would resent religion far less, and a thousand flowers of kiruv would be allowed to bloom. If privatization helps the heterodox, such an effect would only be temporary.
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=38070&st=&pgnum=147
Doesn’t talk about idiots, but I think Sam is being overly kind in assuming that the issue here is a lack of intelligence.
Weiss is a Kohen. Do you want to be like him?
Did you see the Medrash Popa referred to?
“Medrash Popa”? That’s going a bit too far, no?
Saw the medrash over Shabbos. Interesting…
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