philosopher

Dr. Pepper, thank you for being respectful as well despite our differences in opinions regarding this topic.

We do indeed both agree regarding government waste. Where we disagree is whether individuals must pay taxes that cause them financial hardship and whether the government has a right to levy any tax amount on its citizens. Or if you agree with me on these two things, perhaps we differ only whether we believe citizens are “cheating” if they don’t pay heavy taxes that will cause them financial hardship. As we already discussed, I don’t agree not paying these taxes is cheating as I believe no government has a right to levy taxes on individuals to the point that it causes them harm, the governmenthas no right to that money.

I totally agree with you on Social Security. As almost all other programs, it is not run well. Because the government is too big and because there’s the printing money without gold backing and raising taxes with no restraint, money is not being spent responsibly and trillions is being wasted. The individuals running the US government don’t care much if the SS program crashes- the majority of elected officials are rich to begin with and most often get even richer in office so it doesn’t concern them personally. I am super-impressed with Trump and Elon Musk trying to make some order and i hope they will get to do that with Social Security program as well. I am wary though how it will all pan out long-term and what will be with future administrations.

Dr. Pepper, you wrote “At this point I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.” I agree on that.

Talking about social security, I’m really wondering if the Trump administration can save it. I am skeptical that future presidents/administrations will try to continue fixing the mess the us gov is in. The way social security was run till now places it on the brink, the program will almost certainly crash in the near future, imo. The system is unsustainable.

anonymous Jew, you write “It seems like, using your logic, I can refuse to pay shul dues because they are excessive, unfair and are robbing me of hard earned income. ”

If your shul dues are causing you such extreme financial hardship that effects you and your family severely, then i urge you to contact the many frum charity organizations who will help you out in your dire situation.

Dr. Pepper, you write “By the way- I did respond to your question about “ illegal activities” against the British king- I told you that you can fight for your independence.” Are you suggesting i take up arms against the US gov and stop paying taxes like the colonists did against the British monarchy? Please explain your comment how i can “fight for my independence ” from the US gov.

Always ask, I’m not talking about myself and my citizenship and my taxes. I’m talking about MILLIONS of Americans who cannot, and therefore do not, pay whatever the government deems to rob them of. You are living in a bubble if you think this issue is all about a few thousand Jews. MILLIONS of Americans whose lives are being affected by unfair taxes levied upon them have a RIGHT TO LIVE FREELY and to be taxed fairly. The US government has absolutely no right to overtax its citizens, period.

Dr. Pepper, here’s a relevation of a tiny portion of the US government’s ridiculous spending:

LEFT FLIPS OUT: Trump Shuts USAID Agency; The Shocking Waste Of Money Starts Being Exposed

I’m very impressed with the Trump administration trying to clean this up, but i doubt after the Trump administration the next administration will continue down this path. The fact is that the government is corrupt, they are cleaning up now, let’s see what the future brings…But at this time talking about following every law of a corrupt government that would cause severe hardship to many individuals is like condemning the black market trade under the communist rule where people had no choice but to do certain “illegal” things to survive. To tell people to give up their rights to American citizenship is ridiculous, they dont have to give up their rights just because the government is abusing the rights of US citizens. When the government cleans up their act, stop their overspending and borrowing money they cannot ever repay and enact fair tax laws for every single class of citizens, particularly the middle class that can get crushed, then every US citizen would need to step up to the plate and follow every single tax law. Until then, these individuals, who are simply trying to survive financially, cannot be judged.

Happy new year, I dont believe you are an IRS agent, and neither do I believe that you have a Jewish heart. Many, perhaps even most, of these people barely make ends meet and you are worried about the coffers of the criminal US government that spends billions on gender-mutilating “programs” for kids, medical help for illegals and education for their children, and on thousands of other non-sensical and non-essential programs with money the government steals from the middle class and also prints with no backing. The US government is at this point a criminal entity that is robbing hardworking Americans of their money.

CS,

You write:
“1. Do you believe the rebbe runs the world? As in instead of Hashem? No cvs. Perek Beis Tanya from the Baal HaTanya can explain further”

Why do you speaking ask ” As in instead of Hashem?”? That seems to be subterfuge to direct away from the question which should have a simple yes or no answer. Because you can believe the rebbe runs the world “with Hashem” too. I will rephrase my question. Do you believe the rebbe runs the world in any way?

I have read chapter beis of the Tanya and I see no reference to the topic of “rebbes running the world” . The chaper speaks about the souls of Jews, how we connect to Hashem, and that “lowly Jews” can connect to Hashem through tzaddikim OF THEIR GENERATION. Which actually begs the question of how Chabad can ignore the teachings of their holy rebbe to connect to a tzaddik of THEIR GENERATION. This is one of the reasons why Chabad needs their rebbe to be physically alive in this generation which they claim he is…

CS, my questions are not deep. The answers are either yes or no. But you, like the other Lubavitchers on NEVER answer my simple questions because it brings to light that you are avodah zora worshippers.

Arso wrote “I think a correction is needed. I was not taught in cheder that Gemoro or that Rashi, and I doubt that Neville or Shmei were either. We were, however, taught how to approach and learn a piece of Gemoro and Rashi, and based on that we came to the conclusion that Rashi holds that Yaakov is literally alive.”

Thank you Arso for saying the truth here. “The emes shvimt aroif” (the truth swims to the surface) as the Yiddish saying goes.

I retract my apology now. I personally didnt insult anyone for believing Yaacov Avinu is physically alive, but made light of the idea that Yaacov Avinu is physically alive in his kever, so I didn’t need to apologize for “insulting people” in any case. It is only later after I was personally attacked that I started defending myself and it got personal. Not only was i attacked, meforshim were misinterpreted and i was led to believe that “Yaacov being alive is the classic interpretation” of klal Yisroel. So who exactly is doing these “classic interpretations”? Some individuals in the cofferoom? None of the rabbonim and talmidei chachomim ive heard talking about Yaacov lo mes said that Yaacov is physically alive.

Anyway, as I’ve said earlier, it’s irrelevent to the discussion of Lubavitche ideology whether Yaacov Avinu is alive in his kever or not. So let’s get back to the point of this thread.

Menachem Shmei, while I’m wavering if an apology was warranted by me because I was I lied to on many fronts so I’m not sure what i should believe regarding what is taught in some chedarim about Yaacov lo mes, the truth is next time I won’t mock others’ beliefs if I dont know as a fact that they were not taught in that manner.

However, regardless of teachings and meforshim and ideas and minhugim and pshat, all these are irrelevant to the fact that one of the gravest sins is to worship idolotry. I have not changed my position on that because that is the core of Yiddishkeit. The bottom line is that one may not believe than anyone besides for Hashem runs the world, one may not pray to anyone besides for Hashem to help him and Lubavitche are doing all of that. There’s also issues with you believing the Rebbe has not died, that he never made mistakes, etc. You are turning your rebbe into a deity.

Menachem Shmei, you are right and I absolutely apologize for mocking people who learnt and understood that Yaacov Avinu is physically alive. At that time I didn’t know this was taught in many chedarim and yeshivas.

It is a deeply disturbing fault of one’s character to attack someone continously because they dared to say pshat on a Rashi thats different than what their rebbe in cheder taught them (and they cant bring even one talmid chuchem to back up their version of the pshat) and because they posted complete meforshim in their original Loshen Hakodesh instead of not accepting misconstrued versions of random people on the internet.

To say I can’t say a pshat on Rashi because im a woman is so stupid. Teachers do it every day, even Chassidishe teachers in Chassidishe schools ( just pointing it out because you are Chassidish). They teach straight from Chumash, they dont have the version with prewritten pshutim from the some Chassidishe Cheder. In addition, they teach meforshim also, often straight out of seforim.

Stop having a sense of entitlement. If your arguments would make sense to me is one thing. You are simply angry that I do not accept that your arguments are valid. And THAT is what bothers you, so you hide under the cover of “women can’t learn”.

The Muslim world, like the Christian world, has throughout the centuries risen and fallen in culture vs barbarism. In the last few decades, barbarism has taken hold (again) of the Muslim world. Jihadis have beheaded and murdered hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, and displaced millions, of their own Muslim people and other minorities in the Middle East and Africa. They have carried out terrorism globally. To think that they’d be viscous to everyone, including each other, but they’d make exceptions for Jews, if not for Zionism, is ridiculous.

I have not argued pshat on anything besides Yaacov lo meis. Whether you like it or not, Rashi doesn’t say that Yaacov is alive physically and I don’t have to take it as that particularly when the meforshim ive gone through, and the Gemorah, all state that he is alive in a spiritual manner. Regardless of you being a man, you don’t own the Torah. And you have bought no Rav to support your position that Yaacov is alive physically.

As for the other meforshim, I didn’t argue pshat, I simply bought them down in its entirety, the words of the meforshim themselves disputed anyone who tried minisinterpret their meaning. I have not argued “with the Or Hachayim or the Rif on the Ein Yaakov” as you claim i did. As usual, you lie.

Certainly, lying bullies like you and Neville will not tell me what the Truth of the Torah is. Neville has not bought meforshim, but you have tried to misinterpret them, I had to go to the source and find the meforshim in its entirety to learn exactly what was written and it was never what you claimed it meant.

Don’t you have any other hobbies besides attacking people who don’t agree with you on the words “Yaacov lo mes”?

Arso, your saying that I said that Yaacov is not alive because I said he’s not alive physically, only spiritually, is MISCONSTRUING what I’ve said.

As for what Rashi means with “Yaacov lo mes”, I dont have to agree with you and Neville, your arguments proved nothing more to me than your ridiculous assumptions that i have to accept your arguments because you are men and I’m a woman. That is absolutely preposterous.

Let’s talk about “the pot calling the kettle black”.

1. I was ATTACKED for daring to argue with apikorsim who believe that their rebbe runs the world. In fact, a special thread was opened just for that, to attack those who dare argue with “Menachem Shmei the Apikorus” which they defended as if he’s a Gaon and arguments with him “make the arguments against Chabad look stupid”.
2. The attackers attacked my reasoning that Rashi meant with the words “Yaacov lo mes” that he is alive spiritually, not physically.
3. I did not find their reasons behind their counterarguments to have any validity., it did not change my mind. In fact, I found the meforshim some of bought to “bolster” their argument to do just the opposite.
4. They ended up resorting to lying about what I said and demeaning me that as a woman I dont understand how to learn pshat.
5. Now, after yashardik said a valid point about getting sidetracked, and yes, I excused myself why I got sidetracked, BUT I agreed with Yashardik that it’s ridiculous to be busy with irrelevent topics, these two clowns, Arso and Neville decided to attack me again.
6. Clearly, they have issues. Instead of getting back to the topic at hand, they decide to squabble with me like little children simply because I don’t agree with them. They are bullies, period. Everyone knows bullies have low self-esteem.
7. I can only conclude that the topic of Lubavitchers believing the LR runs the world, believing that their rebbe is everywhere, that you can pray directly to him and that he will help, and all other apikorsishe ideology, is of little to no importance to them, otherwise they would stop with their stupid argument and talk about the core issues.

Neville, I feel bad for your family members… you enjoy squabling constantly with people who don’t agree with your opinions.

Yashardik, you are so right. The reason I argued so much about “Yaacov lo meis” is because Lubavitche think their rebbe has the same status as extraordinary human beings like Yaacov Avinu and Moshe Rabbeinu and always try to draw parallels between them and their rebbe so that they can “prove” that he’s alive, that he’s moshiach, that he runs the world…

A Lubavitche told me on another site that just like Moshe Rabbeinu ran the world, so does the LR run the world… which is of course absolutely apikorses, only Hashem runs the world from the moment He created it.

But indeed, the Yaacov lo mes argument is besides the point. The main issue is the unrealistic image Lubavitchers have of their rebbe which is just getting more bizarre as time goes on in their attempts to deitify him.

Square root, exactly that is the issue. IF there are non-messichisten in Chabad, we never here of them. Even worse, there are a lot of vocal “rabbis” in Chabad spouting kefira saying that humans don’t have to fear accounting for our sins- that there’s no gehinom, that Hashem created us to “fullfill His needs”, that the LR runs the world, that you can pray directly to the LR, etc. etc.

Unbelievable, unbelievable. I can never understand how people can lie. Some people can lie even when the reality is black on white, the written proof is readily available. Someone who can say, at this point where I’ve reiterated my opinion NUMEROUS times, that I said that Rashi cant be saying that Yaacov Avinu is alive, is extremely dishonest.

Arso disgustingly wrote, “You know what, philosopher, don’t respond to me anymore. I’m sick of your changing your views when you are stuck in a corner, and I reiterate, it’s not your fault that you are a woman, but you just don’t understand the derech halimud that men are taught.”

I’m not stuck in a corner at all. Arso is stuck in the corner and projecting it on me. My numerous posts on this thread and on the other thread are PROOF that i said the ENTIRE TIME, from my first post, that Rashi saying that Yaacov is alive means in a spiritual manner, he is not saying that his guf is alive. I have also said many times as well, that perhaps Rashi means that Yaacov’s nefesh is still attached on some level to his guf, but again, that doesn’t mean that Rashi is saying that Yaacov’s guf is physically alive. But never ever, have i said that “Rashi can’t be saying that Yaacov is alive”.

Saying that “it’s not your fault that you are a woman, but you just don’t understand the derech halimud that men are taught” does not change the fact that you are lying. And I don’t know what derech halimud he was taught but one cannot interpret a meforesh based on 2-3 words “that prove one’s point” while ignoring what the mefoiresh says in its entirety.

Arso wrote, “Btw, just for the record. I may have made mistakes – although in this case I did not as you definitely changed your view – but I haven’t lied.”
You definitely did lie.

Sorry for the trauma you will now have to live with for the next four years living under an imaginary dictator.

Non Political, those pesukim are proof that Yaacov Avinu died and the the Ramban and Rashi are not disputing the pesukim.The shevatim are much greater and smarter and holier than us and knew much more than we can comprehend. Certainly they did not make a mistake when they saw that their father died. They did not bury him alive. He died a physical death.

The Ramban’s understanding according to Rashi is that the brothers perhaps didn’t know that his nefesh was still attached on some level to his guf. The fact is that Rashi is not saying his guf itself is alive. As i said many times, alive forever can mean many things, including that Yaacov’s nefesh is still attached to his guf even if his guf is not physically alive. Many meforshim and the gemorah, say different thing on Yaacov lo mes, none, including Rashi, say that Yaacov’s guf itself is still physically alive.

Always ask, the moral of the story is that Yiddishkeit doesn’t change for anyone and gehenim is a fact for those who sin and don’t do teshuva, regardless if Chabad denies this basic tenet of Yiddishkeit.