Here is an interesting survey conducted by the Jewish People Policy Institute:
The annual debate in Israel about the placement of Christmas trees in malls or hotels – this year in Ashdod – shouldn`t fool anyone. For most Israeli Jews, the holiday season is celebrated in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, not in December. For a significant majority of Israeli Jews (78%), December 31st is considered a “completely ordinary day.” Only 2% say that they conduct “soul searching” on the New Year, and only 6% say that December 31st feels like their “real New Year`s Eve.”
The JPPI is releasing this data as part of its #IsraeliJudaism research project, based on an extensive survey of Israeli Jews. A new book based on the research: #IsraeliJudaism, a Portrait of a Cultural Revolution, was published a few weeks ago by Dvir Publishing.
I remember the Friday before January 1, 2000. A radio journalist called a random person on the telephone and asked him how he will be celebrate the new millenium. The person answered that he will do what he does every Sabbath: go to the synagogue and have a regular festive Sabbath meal with his family! The journalist was clearly disappointed with such a Jewish answer.
The survey contains some more interesting information. Read the rest!
The drama surrounding the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States of Amercia has dominated the press and social media for quite some time. It's over. Welcome to the SCOTUS, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Therefore, in answer to my original question,"Can Donald Trump make America great again?", the answer is a loud, resounding no. He does not seem to be a man of high enough moral fiber to pull Americans out of the sleazy cultural mud that there are drowning in. The change in America is going to come from the bottom up, if it is to come at all. It would take a miracle for the USA to reverse its moral decline, and only a miracle will make America great again.
I was of the opinion that, "The change in America is going to come from the bottom up, if it is to come at all." I still believe this to be true. However, this does not mean that progress cannot be made from the top down.
The new make up of the SCOTUS, with a 5 to 4 conservative majority, provides an opportunity for this kind of top-down prgress. Call it wishful thinking, but I would really like to the the SCOTUS overturn the disgraceful ruling known as "OBERGEFELL v. HODGES". This would be a positive step in the direction of making America great again, a major step in recalibrating America's moral compass.
However, as I already mentioned, this is not enough. Major changes will have to come from the rank and file American. They will have to reject the sordid culture and values that the MSM and major portions of Academia are spewing out. They will have to return to God.
We, the undersigned Jewish bloggers, hereby protest – in the strongest terms possible – the parading and glorification of an “alternative lifestyle”, one that is classified in the Holy
Torah as an abomination, especially through the streets of the holy city of Jerusalem.
The Torah demands that we live by a certain code of sexual morality, and as such, we are forbidden from certain relationships that a moral society cannot tolerate. These include incest,
adultery, bestiality, and homosexuality. All these are considered grave sins in Judaism and incur the punishment of Karet, or excision from the Jewish people. An act performed with witnesses during the time of the Sanhedrin would incur an even worse consequence
– namely, capital punishment.
And this is only on an individual level. When the sin is committed on a societal level, it is much worse. The Torah and our sages record how these acts were catalysts for both the Great
Flood during Noah’s lifetime and the destruction of the Five Cities of the Plain.
As such, we consider any attempt to glorify acts that the Torah vehemently forbids by parading any such lifestyle through the streets with horror and utter disdain. Such parades in New
York and San Francisco would be bad enough, but through the streets of the Holy Land of Israel is a thousand-fold worse. The Torah specifically warns us not to act in sexually abominable ways lest we be vomited out of the land. One can only imagine how it
is viewed in Heaven when people brazenly display to G-d how abominable one can be. And if the Land of Israel cannot tolerate such acts of utter gall, all the more so in the holy city of Jerusalem, a city that is overwhelmingly religious.
We in no way wish to minimize the struggles in temptation some may have in this area and view with positivity those who have such inclinations and bravely overcome them. But those are
not the people irreverently parading through the streets with rainbow flags, who show utter contempt for the Holy Torah and all we hold dear.
We therefore vehemently protest the “Pride” Parade in Jerusalem and everywhere else in the world where they may occur. We hope and pray that those who take part in such parades do a
complete Teshuva for their actions, and may we see a rebuilt Jerusalem, speedily in our days, Amen.
The modern consensus is that the sexual revolution in 1960s America was typified by a dramatic shift in traditional values related to sex, and sexuality. Sex became more socially acceptable outside the strict boundaries of heterosexual marriage.
Studies have shown that, between 1965 and 1974, the number of women that had sexual intercourse prior to marriage showed a marked increase. The social and political climate of the 1960s was unique; one in which traditional values were often challenged loudly by a vocal minority.
The moral decline continued as homosexual relations, once strictly outside of the consensus, gradually became acceptable to many. I will not be surprised if America's moral decline continues, and other deviants, encouraged by the successes of the Gay Rights Movement, will also demand equality and acceptance.
However, those of us who are obedient to God's Torah, will never accept any behavior that the Torah forbids. It does not matter how many risque movies get produced in Hollywood, or how many "Gay Pride" marches take place. The 18th chapter of Leviticus will always be our beacon and guide.
As a rule, people are ashamed of their sins. It seems that the militant homosexuals are an exception to this rule, as I once wrote:
Among the great acts of kindness that God has done for us is that he has built in to the human psyche the feeling of shame. A person with strong moral underpinnings will feel uneasy if he has done something wrong. He will feel shame. Usually this feeling of shame is magnified the more that the misdeed is publicized. This feeling of shame, when harnessed properly, will help the transgressor make amends and return to God. Returing to the Creator will bring him true bliss.
The whole idea of "gay pride" is the antithesis of the positive trait of feeling ashamed mentioned above. How is it that this great trait of shame has been suppressed in some individuals? Who in their right mind is proud to sin? Who is so shameless as to take part in a parade celebrating the transgression of the Torah's commandments? This is is abominable indeed!
The Torah clealy states, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination."
When one points this out to "gay activists" or their supporters, they often reply, "The Torah also says that one must love one's neighbor as oneself." To this I reply that if one truly loves one's neighbor, he rebukes him when he sees him sin. To be oblivious to bad behavior, or even worse to encourage it, is not a sign of love! It is the exact opposite!
"For whom the LORD loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." (Proverbs 3:12)
"Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; reprove a wise man, and he will love thee." (Proverbs 9:8)
An Israeli woman mocked a Chabad rabbi at Ben Gurion Airport as he helped another man don tefillin.
The woman, whose actions were captured on a cellphone video posted on Facebook, mocked the men, laughing and screeching on Monday morning as they practiced the religious rite. She yelled at them in Hebrew to “move because you are bothering me” and asked rhetorically, “Why are you doing this here? There are people here.”
Several people in the terminal ask her to tone down, but instead she became louder.
The video, which has had more than 300,000 views since Monday, was posted by Gad Kaufman, the businessman who put on the tefillin with the help of the Chabad rabbi manning a booth at the airport.
Kaufman, who was leaving Israel for a business trip, wrote a post in the Hebrew with the video.
“An amazing incident took place this morning at the airport, when I was politely asked by a Chabad man if I wanted to put on tefillin,” he wrote. “I said yes, and then a woman with a crazy look jumped up and started cursing, harassing and disturbing! It is really shameful that being a Jew in this country means being persecuted by leftist Bohemians. If I were a Muslim or a Christian, would it be more legitimate for her …?”
The woman was identified by the Israel National News website as Pnina Peri, the head of the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland. Peri, who formerly taught at Israel’s Sapir Academic College, is an expert in multicultural theories. Her husband, Yoram Peri, served as president of the New Israel Fund, which supports left-wing causes, from 1999 to 2001.
Many of the responses to the video criticized the woman for her actions. Several also praised the Chabad rabbi, identified by Channel 20, a religious news station, as Rabbi Meir Herzl, the director of the Chabad House in the Jerusalem suburb of Pisgat Zeev, for his restraint in not responding to her.
The lady has been throughly criticized for her behavior on Israeli social media. I would like to offer my insight into her unseemly behavior.
This lady has a pure and holy Jewish soul. When she saw a Jew happily accept the opportunity of performing the mitzvah of tefilin, that Jewish soul was aroused. That made Ms. Peri feel very uncomfortable. It is something that she has probably been educated to suppress. This outburst was just her way of stamping out this arousement of her holy Jewish soul.
One can certainly learn a lesson from this embarrasing clip. As the Mishnah states,
"Contemplate three things, and you will not come to the hands of transgression: Know what is above from you: a seeing eye, a listening ear, and all your deeds being inscribed in a book."
What will be with me when my time comes, and the heavenly tribunal will show me all of the "clips" where I am the star?
Tuesday night I walked down to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem to take part in the National Union Party's christening of their "Jewish Israel" platform. The platform lays out the party's stance on several of the issues facing Israel and the Jewish People today.
One of the issues discussed was the observance of the Sabbath in the public domain. This is one of the major points of contention in Israel. For the observant Jew, the Sabbath is the Holy of Holies, and he is ready to sacrifice much in order to observe it. For others, the Sabbath is less important, and what interests them is having public transportation and open stores to shop at on their day off from work.
The National Union is proposing that the Israeli work week be changed to be in synch with most of the world. Instead of working from Sunday to Thursday, Israel will work from Monday to Friday (finishing work on Friday early enough to prepare for the Sabbath). The idea is that Sunday will be the day off where Israelis can go to the beach, shop, etc. and the Sabbath will be more strictly kept in the public sphere.
This is a very major idea, a game changer. I think that it is worth a try.
“I have invested many hours in helping those who have difficulty in this area [of homosexuality],” he said. “But there is an illness that is spreading and taking over. We’re becoming a country that looks more and more like LGBT-stan.”
It's been a while since we've heard Aly Raisman talk about her Jewishness:
Aly Raisman, the Olympic gold medalist gymnast, told a BBYO conference she drew strength from her Jewish upbringing.
Raisman, addressing the pluralistic youth movement’s annual conference in Orlando, Florida on Friday, said she wanted to “talk about how proud I am to be a Jewish athlete,” which drew cheers.
“Being Jewish is all about family and I think being Jewish is all about being a good person,” she said. “I have so many amazing memories of being with family during the Jewish holidays.”
Of course she is right. Being Jewish is about being a good person. However, there are plenty of good people from other nations and faiths. I've met many fine Catholics, Protestants, Koreans, Irishmen, and Italians, just to mention a few. Being Jewish is also about being a good Jew: Being faithful to God, His Torah, and His nation. It is something that encompasses every aspect of life. It is something that one must devote a lot of time to learn.
But who is going to listen to me? I haven't won any gold medals.
See #Israel#Haaretz writer act like evil bully #HarveyWeinstein - Arrogant, Elitist, Egotistical, Chauvenistic & Disgusting he Violently Threatens me - a woman - coz its OK in his twisted #altleft world BUT i Stood Strong! ( @i24NEWS_EN edited out him shouting “F*** You” to me!) pic.twitter.com/PbAPKGSD0w
