(i.e. not Palestine)

ZD (your posts about taxes) +1

The purpose of government is to provide the needs of society that can not be provided easily otherwise. Government has self-established rules, and ideally these rules represent the collective will of the society for which the government was formed. Included in these rules is providing for those who can not contribute as much (or perhaps any amount) due to poverty. Included are tourists, to an extent. These are basic understandable “exceptions” to the general rules. What does not fit with the general picture of government, however, is an entire group of people that, not for reasons of poverty (although admittedly they are very poor), but for reasons of ideology, do not contribute to the government while still receiving its benefits. If someone is so idealistically against a government that they will not pay taxes, and they can not live in the country without benefiting from the government, well maybe they shouldn’t live in that country.

With the rate of growth of the chareidim (I only this term because there’s no better one available, not because every self-defined chareidi lives like this), Israel will soon become what the chareidim seem to wish it be instead of what it is, i.e. a third-world country instead of a first-world country. And no, I don’t think the Israeli government is anything close to ideal, but it’s exponentially better than the alternative.

WIY – you are right that it may not necessarily completely remove bechira, but because many of our choices are based on the knowledge we have, and we are certainly affected by what others tell us, you might say that psychologically, if Eliyahu were tell me what I would do in the future, and I believe him, that may have a very strong influence on my decision to perform said action. Since I know that I will choose to do an action, my actions certainly FEEL forced to that action. Technically bechira may still be mine, but if I know the result then any perceived bechira is gone. As you said, “you will still make the choices you make for the the reasons you make them” – well in this case, the reason I am making that decision seems to simply be that I have been informed that I will make that decision.

Das – infallibility does not necessarily remove bechira; If you are reading a book for the second time, and you are up to the ending, you KNOW what the ending will be, but does that knowledge determine what the ending will be? No – it’s determined by whatever the author decided to write when he wrote the book. This is even though there is no chance you will be wrong, because you have already seen the ending. So imagine that Hashem has already read the book of history, from its beginning to its end. Although Hashem’s knowledge of events that will occur is perfect and flawless, that does not contradict the possibility that we humans, as the collective writers of the story through our actions and decisions, are using bechira to make those decisions.

WIY – I like it; thank you!

Thanks, HaLeiVi! Did you catch all the subtleties? I’ve never written something like this before, so I’m not sure if I was too subtle.

(Every time I’m stopped at a red and it turns to green, I check both ways for BaalHabooze and proceed)

(Being in parentheses exempts a post from the rules, right?)

(or if he’s mia)

Dear Popa,

Please provide advice for my previous query, as I am stuck in misery with no direction.

Lost and Searching

(It’s 12/21/12, oh and the Mayans don’t believe it will end then; it just happens to be when they stopped planning the last calendar until; it’s other people who are crazy 😉 )

Dat elbow…

yitzchokm –

The norm of today is not Islam, nor is it any other particular religion, view, or belief. The norm is knowledge and acceptance. The minute you believe in your own superiority is the minute you are no longer so. The only thing of merit in this world is action, not a belief, and not the beliefs of your ancestors.

Are you referring to with a tie or without? If without, the norm is to have the top button unbuttoned. If with, I think that’s more of a yeshivish thing, usually done when you’ve had your tie tied for 8 hours straight and are surprised that you haven’t yet died of asphyxiation.

Crikey! When did I become pareve?? You can have the latkes – please pass the Haagan Dazs.

Roger: Don’t tell me you’re getting antsy? (This was the first usage of the term in history and is the word’s source)

There’s nothing to be nervous about – yes, this is a new chapter in life, one that you have zero experience with, but you know that marriage will be good for you, and you know that you enjoy being with this person. You don’t have to know that life will be perfect, because it won’t. But you can be proud of the decision that you made, and you should realize that you and she are capable of working through any situation that may arise. I’m not such a big believer in the whole bashert thing – whether it’s true or not, I think that line of reasoning is counterproductive, and I believe that as long two people WANT to live happy, productive lives together, they will.

Hatzlacha rabba, and mazel tov!!

The end??????

I gauge how popular I think a poster is before I respond to their comment on a scale of 1 to 10, and base the length of my response on that scale. All the posts I have not responded to are because the poster ranked a zero or lower. BaalHabooze managed to rank at a 2, and that’s why this post is as long as (65 words plus one parenthetical max for rank 2).

math…….instincts……can’t……give in….AAAHHH!!!….dividing by ze….AAAHHHH!!!!

Continued Nancy Brodrick, our feline hero, “The reason we are here, my friends, is to prevent a tragedy that will befall humankind in the year 2015 if the timeline were to progress as is. If things were to go as is, the entire state of Wisconsin will turn into giant killer ants on August 14, 2015; they will then proceed to take over the world and force us, one by one, to watch the entire show of Twilight while listening to Justin Bieber on repeat, thus killing any brain cells of value.”

“Now this apocalypse is only able to occur because of an event that occurs in 1837, at which my ancestor, Brodrick B. Brodrick, was present. It is at this point in time that Vadim, a man notorious for eating red ants by the handful, is thrown into a furnace; this is no ordinary furnace, either. This is a deep furnace that connects to the very bowels of the earth, and as everyone knows, Wisconsin is the gateway to the core of the earth. Brodrick saw this event, and this information has been passed down to me, through 170 difficult years of persecution and sped up devolution from man to cat.”

“Now this is where we come in. The first red ant that Vadim ever ate came from a shtetl named Beerandcholent, and this shtetl’s roots go back to the time we find ourselves in now, i.e. the first beis hamikdash, and to a Persian town called Awannakillya. The only way we can prevent the red ants from breeding is to…

(This seems to be forming into some crazy breed of A Hitchhikers Guide and Doctor Who – it makes me smile 🙂 )

(I propose that when and if there is a conflict due to multiple posts going up at the same time, the next person to post be the one who decides where the story goes; he/she doesn’t need to specifically say whose storyline they are following; it can either be implied or they can just ignore the issue completely and continue on their own way. If you have a better idea for conflicts, please share.)

Henry turns to Muhammed and asks, “By the way, did you buy that chair at Gimble’s?”

Muhammed: What are you talking about?

Henry: Never mind. How did you know we wouldn’t die from that extreme heat?

Muhammed: I experimented first with a cat; don’t worry, it wasn’t mine. I borrowed it first from Shloime.

After a few moments, they hear a multitude of hoof beats nearing on the road; the entourage that follows is clearly of an aristocratic nature. A beautiful carriage is drawn by four well-bred horses, and is surrounded by several knights. They are clearly pursuing the crown. Peering through the window of the carriage, they see a well-dressed man with an intent look on his face. But there is another strange individual in the carriage with the aristocrat. He is (continued)

Brodrick slowly turned around and realized the entire population of the village, albeit fewer than 50 all told, were staring at him in a a way that made him think perhaps the head was not really partaking in his heated conversation at all. He quickly dropped the innkeeper’s most valuable possession and bolted into the dark of the night.

(continued)

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Simple, yet effective. haha

Don’t count your chickens before your eggs are all in one basket.