Learning Karate

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  • #1380181
    Joseph
    Participant

    Q: Is there anything wrong with me going to classes to learn karate?

    A: There’s nothing wrong with it, but you should never practice it. If you listen to me, I would say that the best karate is to not go out at night. And not to ever dream of using it. Because if you’ll try to use it, you’ll discover that the bums know it just as well as you. And they’re often bigger than you.

    And therefore, the biggest hero is the fellow who is helpless and knows to avoid trouble. The skinny helpless fellow who doesn’t know karate, he is the one who avoids trouble. It’s always like that. Who drowns? The man who knows how to swim! If you don’t know how to swim, you stay on the shore and you keep out of danger.

    So although it could be that it’s not a bad idea, but I disapprove of going out with weapons at night, even with just a stick. I don’t approve of that. Because, first of all, the stick gives you a sense of false confidence, and then you’re liable to walk down a dark or dangerous street that you would have avoided otherwise. And secondly, the bum can grab the stick and use it better than you. Therefore, the best defense is to stay out of trouble.

    And I’ll tell you something else. When you’re walking down the street, and you see a few bums, or even one bum, walking towards you, even if you’re not sure if it means trouble, just cross the street. Just cross over to the other side. You’ll be surprised how lazy those bums are.

    Rav Miller, Tape # 234

    #1380258
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    So a ‘Lazy Bum’ is actually a good thing!

    #1380261
    Joseph
    Participant

    Good is relative. Better than a non-lazy bum, but I wouldn’t call him good.

    #1380274
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Karate isn’t something you choose whether or not to use.

    #1380289
    Joseph
    Participant

    You can often choose, as explained above, whether to place yourself in a predicament possibly necessitating its use.

    #1380580
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Joseph: Sometimes moving to the suburbs may be the biggest way for some Yidden to avoid stepping into such risky predicaments.

    #1380586
    Curiosity
    Participant

    Part of any proper self defense education is conflict avoidance and de-escalation, but what if you find the bum in your bedroom at 3:00 AM?

    #1380600
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    but what if you find the bum in your bedroom at 3:00 AM?

    Then go to sleep somewhere else.

    #1381385
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant
    #1381426
    Tzvi hersh
    Participant

    Rabbi Miller is right
    Most karate schools teach form and moves but real street fighting is attitude and how you train. I myself have trained ad thought karate many years. I was active with meir Lagan earlier and his group in the 1970s. I fought anti semitesall over the place but you really need to be trained with a fighting attitude. I recall the first time I cracked an anti semites head open at the age of 17. It was not karate for but anger at some one who called me a dirty Jew. Most Yeshiva boys can not rely on karate. You need to avoid trouble.

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