charliehall

Ben Torah,

No, I became frum as an adult. Having seen the competing philosophies makes me more confident in the Truth of HaShem’s Torah. Judaism has nothing to fear.

Ben Torah,

Are you really a Ben Torah? Everyone has known that Mike Bloomberg has been an outspoken public supporter of same sex marriage since before his re-election in 2005. Do you really think that the gedolim who supported him didn’t know that?

You have essentialy called gedolim ignoramuses.

vnishmartemmeod,

Would you also support an end to government inspection of meat processors so that anyone could sell diseased meat? Or an end to government inspection of egg processors so that salmonella would be even more common?

Sorry, but the Free Market doesn’t protect public health. You don’t know whether the egg you eat is dangerous until you are dead.

vnishmartemmeod,

I’ve looked at the epidemiologic evidence on second hand smoke. The effects on cancer are weak. The effects on asthma exacerbations are very strong.

There is little contemporary epidemiologic evidence on unpasteurized milk because (1) it have been illegal in most of the US, and (2) few people have been stupid enough to want to consume a dangerous product when there is a perfectly safe competitor.

apushatayid,

Would you also argue that any smoker who arrives at the hospital emergency room having a heart attack should not be admitted, because, after all, smoking causes heart attacks?

Sacrilege,

Actually the data on second hand smoke are pretty weak regarding its association with cancer.

And how can you say we are are free to abuse our bodies in any way? It isn’t my body, it belongs to HaShem! We have banned some recreational drugs that are far less toxic than raw milk. Do you support legalizing marijuana and LSD?

vnishmartemmeod,

I’m not aware of any such “fundamental right” either in Torah or secular law.

Raw (unpasteurized) milk is dangerous. There are other countries that ban it. Why a frum Jew would be arguing for the so-called right to do something that could amount to suicide is beyond me.

In Mexico and parts of the Carribbean, “formal wear” can be as simple as something called a guayabera shirt, with no jacket or tie. Men will wear it rather than a tux when they get married. We should not force European attire on those who have different customs.

SJS,

Betty Friedan certainly has a place in Olam Ha-Bah; by empowering kollel wives to work and be fairly compensated she may be personally responsible for more full time Torah study than any other Jew in American history.

Our goals in life as a Jew are the same no matter what: Keep all the mitzvot, improve our midot, learn as much as we can so we can do a better job at both. That is true whether or not the earth is warming or cooling. (And in fact it is warming.)

That doesn’t mean that there are times that the events of the world don’t demand action. For an obvious example, every Jew should have gotten out of Germany in 1938. For only a slightly less obvious example, we should all encourage each other and our non-Jewish neighbors to use less energy so that anti-Semitic Arabs and the Venezuelan Rasha don’t get as much of our money.

Others will be able to come up with other actions, but the Rabbi was basically right!

“Do you hold as true, that the existence of One G-d who created the world and runs it, is proven by logic and irrefutable?”

The answer to this question is an absolute, “NO!”. Any G-d whose existence can be proven by human logic is no G-d, at least not a G-d who is worth worshiping. G-d is far beyond any human power to comprehend.

There is also the problem that if you set out to prove the existence of G-d you admit that it is potentially possible to disprove the existence of G-d. I can’t understand why that would not be heresy.

“Do you think that is a necessary belief?”

Yes, at least for Jews. It is one of the few questions that prospective converts to Judaism must be asked.

“It really is absurd to think that they do support Israel.”

Huh? 51 of 57 Democrats signed the AIPAC letter! That is actually a slightly higher percentage than the 35 of 41 Republicans who signed. It is absurd to think that Democratic elected officials do not support Israel.

This thread is supposed to be about Republicans and Democrats, not the far left fringe of people like Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney or Cindy Sheehan, none of whom are Democrats any more than Patrick Buchanan or David Duke are Republicans.

Republican operatives have been trying to convince Jews that Democrats are anti-Israel left wing extremists like the three people I mentioned above. First, it isn’t true, and second, it causes huge damage to Israel’s cause here in the US to turn support for Israel into a partisan political issue. I won’t stand for it.

I would add that I do not subscribe to either of your propositions (A) or (B) although I don’t understand what (B) has to do with Israel.

I should clarify my previous statement in opposition to Marx. I actually an a big fan of Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo; I only oppose Karl. Groucho’s portrayal of Rufus T. Firefly in “Duck Soup” reminds me of some of the candidates the Republicans are running this year.

Almost any vegetarian recipe from any cookbook or internet site can be prepared in a kosher kitchen.

A great source for cookbooks is Kalustyan’s at 123 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. They have a wide collection of cookbooks for Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine including many that include recipes used by Jews from that part of the world. You may need to say a bracha before you enter because of the pleasant aroma from all their wonderful spices — CYLOR!

Another non-Eastern European food I often serve is spinach lasagna. Frozen spinach with a hechsher works fine. I even do it with Ener-G rice noodles for those who are gluten-intolerant. (Other brands of rice noodles tend to self-destruct.) There are lots of recipes and it also does well reheated for Shabat afternoon. You can try meat lasagna with pareve cheese but I have found that the pareve cheeses don’t melt properly when baked and therefore don’t work well in these kinds of recipes.

And a big plus to dairy/pareve meals on Shabat is that you can serve ice cream for dessert, which is guaranteed to make kids happy!

We don’t eat meat and never serve Eastern European food for Shabat.

This past Friday night I did the cooking. The meal was Indian food:

Tomato salad with scallions, cilantro, and lemon juice, from a book of Indian Jewish recipes

Toor dal (large yellow lentils with spices including cumin, coriander, tumeric, mustard seeds, cardamon, and cloves)

Fish curry, also from a book of Indian Jewish recipes

Rice seasoned with onion, pepper, tumeric, cardamon, cloves, and cinnamon

🙂

Halachah gives Jewish communal authorities the responsibility of levying taxes for education, public works, and care for the poor. Ayn Rand would of course be horrified, but she was an atheist hedonist. There have unfortunately been sinful Jews who think their money is theirs and not HaShem’s. Another example is the wealthy Jews of Prague who mosered Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller to the gentile authorities when he instituted what would now be called a Progressive Tax where the wealthy paid more. I am appalled that so many supposedly frum Jews would favor the policies of Ayn Rand over those of the author of the Tosafos Yom Tov.

There are several misconceptions here.

The first is that scientific hypotheses are assessed not based on some ideal standard of perfect prediction, but in comparison to other possible hypotheses. The confirmation of the predictions are the facts.

Basically, evolutionary theory is successful at predictions. For example, one would predict that human populations who life at high altitudes would develop over time some way to cope with the lack of oxygen, and in fact a gene variant was discovered in Tibetans recently that does just that. One would also expect that populations that have been at high altitudes for a longer period of time would have had time to develop better coping mechanisms; in fact that has been discovered to be the case as the genetic mechanisms of Tibetans is more efficient than the increased hemoglobin production of indigenous peoples in the Andes, an area settled much more recently by humans. Any theory that would compete with evolutionary theory would need to predict these and thousands of other facts; the opponents of evolution have failed to come up with any such competing theory. The theory that humans and apes have a common ancestor also makes a number of predictions: Fossils of creatures intermediate in form, DNA similarities the magnitude of whose correlation should correspond to the fossil record, and susceptibility to similar diseases. Again, these predictions have been confirmed. These facts do not make humans any less special, it just shed light on how HaShem went about the process of creation.

The second misconception is that evolution is incompatible with Torah. Nothing could be further from the truth. Evolution is one way that HaShem allows His creatures to adapt to changing circumstances. Understanding the scientific processes HaShem has created gives us an even greater appreciation of His greatness.

Evolutionary theory is so important to modern biology that if you reject it, you really do have to reject all of modern biology. Fortunately, there is no need for a believing Jew to do this. Nor is there even a need to doubt the scriptures and midrash that describe a different sequence of creation. As Rashi notes in his comments to the very first verse in the entire Torah, the Torah was not given to us for the purpose of explaining the sequence. The Torah instead tells us how to live in HaShem’s amazing universe.

Shloimies Shver,

What is wrong with a DL yeshiva?

yitayningwut,

The best proof that we don’t have to accept aggadata as literal comes from the fact that Avraham ben HaRambam’s essay on the matter has for generations been included as the introduction to the Ein Yaakov aggadata compilation.

mybat,

My wife was born in Mexico City.

I didn’t ask about Star-K; that was a separate statement having nothing to do with the Vaad.

The Vaad of Riverdale approves Birdseye frozen vegetables with the Triangle-K to be sold at the kosher groceries that they supervise. I personally buy them at the kosher stores.

From Paladino’s web site.

“I was born and raised a Catholic and have always believed in the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life. I believe the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. “

This would seem to indicate that he would follow the Catholic position which is that abortions are forbidden EVEN to save the life of the mother.

So right,

You are the one who is being dishonest — you fail to mention that Davis defeated Hilliard in the primary!

You get daled amot, so there is no reason to insist on a specific seat within the daled amot.

True story: I once visited an out of town shul for a Shabat that had seen better days. It had a beautiful 700 seat beit knesset but only about three dozen people in attendence. About ten minutes into the davening someone arrived and informed me that I was sitting in his seat. No wonder the membership is declining.

so right,

Check out the Republican named Jim Russell who is running against Nita Lowey for the 18th Congressional District in New York. He wrote a paper that suggested that it was important to keep the population of Jews to a minimum — a paper that was promoted on the web site of none other than David Duke! At least the Republican hierachy has distanced themselves from him, but the fact that he has managed to win not one but two Republican primaries might cause me to question whether Republican voters are all sympathetic to our cause. In contrast, Lowey is a pro-Israel Democrat.

Or check out John Dennis, the Republican running against Nancy Pelosi in the 8th Congressional District of California. Pelosi has been pro-Israel even though she represents one of the few congressional districts in America where that loses votes. Dennis, on the other hand, is an openly Gay supporter of same sex marriage who is an admirer of the famous atheist hedonist Ayn Rand and the anti-Semite Ron Paul who is supporting his candidacy.

Also, McKinney is no longer a Democrat. I personally contributed to the candidate who defeated her in her last Democratic primary, so it is not incorrect to say that we Democrats threw her out. Also note that none of the other names you mention have ever been elected to anything. Duke, on the other hand, served in the Louisiana legislature. (To their credit, most prominent Republicans actively opposed Duke, but you wonder how such a person can get so many votes.)