He’s a baal teshuva. He was not raised in Orthodoxy. He came to it as an adult under the influence of Rabbi Beryl Wein and others.
Rabbi Union was in on the founding of Ohr Somayach. He came to Los Angeles circa 1985 to look after other baal teshuvot for Ohr Somayach and then he got in on the start of the current incarnation Rabbinical Council of California.
Rabbi Union has the zeal of the convert rather than the more relaxed attitude of the FFB (frum — religious- from birth).
Says a guest in my chat room: "There is a HUGE difference in the way a religious convert to the "true faith" a true believer-type views things and the way a person with long roots in Yiddishkeit views things, they are usually more relaxed and not on a "jihad" on anything."
"Rabbi Union saw something in South Africa that he had not seen before. He was hired to do odd jobs for the one and only Beth Din in Johannesburg in South Africa and he saw that it can be a vehicle for wielding POWER over a community. Hence the RCC and its enormous influence."
guest137: Just to clarify, Union was brought out to Johannesburg, South Africa to run Ohr Somyach and recruit fresh baal teshuvas for Ohr Somayach in israel, but he got interested in other things, like the workings of the Johannesburg Beth din with its POWERS
YourMoralLeader: who brought Union to LA?
RussianDragon: i usually roll myself on a ball too
RussianDragon: i can hear some cracking
Emma: Ah there good too
RussianDragon: when i roll :p
Emma: lol!
guest137: Not sure, you can find out, it might have been Ohr Somayach too when they wanted a branch in LA but I am not sure
YourMoralLeader: all the info you can get on Union and the RCC is appreciated, I’m not looking for just bad stuff, I just want to understand all I can.
guest137: BUt one things is for sure he very quickly set about building the EXACT same type of institution he had seen in Johannesburg, but this time with him as HEAD honcho instead of messenger boy like in Johannesburg wher he was a ZERO
guest137: He assumed a position in LA of a "religious leader" way, way far in excess of who he really was, just a mediocre brainwasher for Ohr Somayach
guest137: brainwashers should not be allowed to create and run Beth Dins
guest137: Just like dayanim on Beth dins make poor brainwashers!
IN LA he created a system that has the FORM of a Beth Din but it looks a deeper more profound Halachik mooring for such a presumed august institution.
guest137: It takes a deeper mooring in Halacha, not just going thru the motions of doing this or that function of a beth din
guest137: He has a big mouth, like a cheeky baal teshuva
Emma: Luke is sunbathing
924BiggestFan: lmao is that him
RussianDragon: what a sight
Emma: lol
Emma: yeah
Emma: Its him
924BiggestFan: lmao
Emma: Whats funny?
Emma: lol
924BiggestFan: hehe
Emma: He looks like a simpson…the colour I mean
924BiggestFan: yeah he does
Emma: 😛
Emma: It’s his camera
924BiggestFan: how long has he been out there
Emma: 10 minutes
924BiggestFan: k
924BiggestFan: looks hot there
churchchime: yeah lol its bart waiting to ki ck ball ……………………….
Emma: Are you female biggest?
924BiggestFan: yeah
Emma: I havn’t been sleeping very well latley
RussianDragon: about 23h
churchchime: isnt it rude to have the host to leave?
RussianDragon: but when i’m talking to interesting people
Emma: What do you mean Church?
RussianDragon: i make exception
Emma: lmao Luke
Emma: He is actually gonna sleep there
Emma: Won’t he turn into a crisp?
RussianDragon: probably
Emma: Oh no
RussianDragon: crispy jew
Emma: lol
Emma: omg lol
Emma: Does look nice there
Emma: wb Lukenese, german
Emma: Your upside down
Emma: 😐
YourMoralLeader: Emma, you’ve turned my world upside down
Emma: gee
Emma: Lol
Emma: Oh smooth Luke
RussianDragon: uhm some polish
Emma: Very smooth
QuietStorm: how can you "think" to write your blog while watching the conversation in the chat??
QuietStorm: avon calling
Gina: can we come too?
QuietStorm: you look rather pained now Luke
Emma: Wb Mysteryman
MysteryMan: He is pained because he has read that article discussing that Muslims now outnumber Roman Catholics, and he fears for his patrimony
MysteryMan: A world with more Muslims than Catholics is a world that is especially perilous to the Jew.
Emma: Gee wizz
MysteryMan: Ireland too, knows of this invasion.
MysteryMan: In fact, a paranoid Jew might regard liberal immigration policies as a form of antisemitism.
QuietStorm: Hey, is this SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE or something???
MysteryMan: His old lady on the phone again
QuietStorm: hey MM shalom
MysteryMan: "We are too weak to attack the Jews ourselves, too lazy, also. So let’s admit a few million fecund muslims to do the job for us"
MysteryMan: This is antisemitism, v3.0
MysteryMan: Hitler like Islam.
MysteryMan: I have read it in his Table Talk and in Mein Kampf
YourMoralLeader: How do you guys feel about a Torah sage sucking on a lollipop while listening to a Torah lecture?
MysteryMan: Evocative of fellation and pedophillia
QuietStorm: please repeat that ???
Emma: Its strange that someone would actually do that
MysteryMan: Likely such a person might be thinking impure thoughts for which another concentric ring of provity must be erected
MysteryMan: Since it looks bad, no sucking on anything in a shul
MysteryMan: Better safe than sorry
MysteryMan: Any other questions?
QuietStorm: I get it….MysteryMan is Luke
MysteryMan: Shhhhhhh
MysteryMan: Rumors
MysteryMan: Luke has been mistaken for all sorts of characters in years past.
MysteryMan: None of which he was so far as I know
Gina: it sucks.. not good middot
MysteryMan: Rabbis should also not have vaginal orificies, whether they were born with them or not
MysteryMan: No transfats and no transrabbis for me, thank you.
Gina: what flavor was the pop?
Gina: was it Kosher?
MysteryMan: Cherry, which is a further shanda
Gina: did it have a center?
MysteryMan: Because the associations with the cherry are impure
Gina: was there any chewing action?
MysteryMan: Jews should not eat cherries
MysteryMan: in public
MysteryMan: Only married couples should be free to eat a cherry in western culture
Gina: do you have a center?
Gina: what layer are we being exposed to?
MysteryMan: I will take care of the chat fear not
MysteryMan: Luke believes in outsourcing certain elements of his blogging empire
MysteryMan: Some Jew you are
Gina: are you still chauferring the kiddies?
MysteryMan: But how many here know that Luke is involved in import export?
QuietStorm: money laundering too?
MysteryMan: Luke does not violate any law that he is aware of
MysteryMan: Of course, he is rather busy uncovering corruption in the rabbinate to be fully apprised of every possible law
MysteryMan: Luke, when do you formally launch the new blog, "Rebbetzin Confidential?"
MysteryMan: Luke is a man with a plan to own Jewish Blogging
Gina: Shhh its a secret kept under her sheital
MysteryMan: Here is a man who went from flogging to blogging
MysteryMan: A man wth a plan for the moral transformation of the sewers of LA to green oasis of culture and faith
Kay: :O
MysteryMan: I know I am perhaps letting the cat out of the bag here, but since nobody here will believe me anyway, it does not count. Luke has been counseling Britney Spears
MysteryMan: You casual readers are in for a shock.
Kay: Like Dr. Phil 😛
MysteryMan: It was Luke who got her off the booze and back to work.
User guest200 left the room.
Emma: Is that true?
MysteryMan: So as to pick up the pace, I shall briefly touch upon the Fed’s bailout of Bear Stearns
Emma: woah
Kay: Is he our new leader?
Emma: Thats awesome…
MysteryMan: And the realtionship between Bear Stearns and certain weapons dealers in LA
MysteryMan: These are not jokes, but prophecy in real time
MysteryMan: Would that one of you stepped forward to be my redactor.
MysteryMan: I am as worthy of redaction as Mohammed
MysteryMan: Our Emma?
Emma: Ah right
Gina: was the horse there?
MysteryMan: Emma strikes me as a wise soul. My guess is that she has daughters in graduate school
Emma: lol…I get it all
MysteryMan: Emma, you could be my Redactor.
MysteryMan: One day people will want all of my aphorisms collected in one spot of the web
MysteryMan: A place where studious people can go to study
MysteryMan: And understand what happened in the days before the Great Chaos and thereafter
MysteryMan: When people busied themselves with blogs and gossip and other silly things
Kay: :S
MysteryMan: Before the darkness fell across the face of the earth, and every source of illumination became precious
DoooDaaa: he gets grayer every day
MysteryMan: In the beginning, there was darkness
guest203: nice copy and paste MysteryMN
MysteryMan: A man in his forties turns gray
Emma: lol
MysteryMan: I DO NOT COPY AND PASTE
DoooDaaa: at least
Emma: he wears it well
MysteryMan: The only limitation on my work here is my typing speed
YourMoralLeader: bless you
Emma: If I do say so myself
YourMoralLeader: emma
DoooDaaa: yeal hes a real sweety
Emma: lol
MysteryMan: My hair has long since turned white, such as there is any
User RamBam left the room.
Gina: can’t afford grecian formula 44?
Gina: against halacha
Gina: I guess the stilletos are out then as well 🙁
MysteryMan: Your descendants will marvel that you once were in a chat room with MysterMan, the man with a thousand internet names
MysteryMan: THe man who remained unknown until the end of time
User guest191 left the room.
MysteryMan: They simply pu8t will not believe you
guest203: the man that bored mortals to death
DoooDaaa: hey m@m are u gay?
Emma: Back to college for me tomorrow….holidays over
Emma: Damn
MysteryMan: I am glum
MysteryMan: What do you teach, Emma?
guest203: the man oif a thousand names because none fit
Gina: M, you’ll log in from school right?
Emma: I don’t teach.. I’m the student
MysteryMan: WOWW (The extra "W" is for extra "WOWW")
Gina: mature way beyond youe yrs Emma
MysteryMan: I advise you to study the practical mechanical arts and animal husbandry
Emma: Kind of already
MysteryMan: These are what will be most valued in the decades to come
DoooDaaa: oman
Emma: You think so Gina
MysteryMan: The Saracen is raising his terrible sword.
MysteryMan: What will Barak Hussein Obama do?
Emma: I look good for my age
MysteryMan: I do not
MysteryMan: Luke, your hair looks a bit thinner than I remember
MysteryMan: Or is it my transference
MysteryMan: It could bethat you simply never wash it. But it does look thinner
DoooDaaa: we can only hope that barack gets hot by a bannana truck and hillary gets hung by the KKK
Emma: Whats your favourtie film Luke?
YourMoralLeader: LEGENDS OF THE FALL
Emma: Oh Legends is a good one
MysteryMan: Battle for Soviet Ukraine
MysteryMan: that’s a good one
MysteryMan: Also "The Jazz Singer"
MysteryMan: Your van is going to rust out before you amortize the cost of that new engine
MysteryMan: Some men rely on power to win the interest of wmen, others on their wealth, otheres their intellect, and others ……
MysteryMan: Luke is taken. He is Torah’s bride.
Emma: Bride?
Emma: lol
MysteryMan: Bride of Torah.
MysteryMan: It is a special Jewish ritual
Kay: Sounds like a movie.
Emma: I see
MysteryMan: A man gives up on women and swears his love of the Bible
YourMoralLeader: not quite thereMM
Emma: Ah
MysteryMan: He then grows a beard and wears a head covering of the sort Luke has
MysteryMan: He smiles girlishly at others, as he knows his secret
Emma: Don’t get there
DoooDaaa: and turns gay
Emma: lol
Gina: Brooklyn, NY – Outrageous: Line of Clothing With Torah Covers Pinned topic Mar. 30 2008Call for action!Brooklyn, NY – According to JTA, controversial Fashion designer Levi Okunov has unveiled a line of clothing using parchment and velvet Torah covers for
MysteryMan: He wears a tallit katan forever
Gina: women’s dresses.JTA also reports that, Okunov said his latest dresses were inspired by a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, who said that every person is like a Torah scroll
MysteryMan: Let that designer try that stunt with depictions of Mohammed
Kay: and listens to the same song over and over again. . .
Kay: but i like it 😀
Gina: you can’t make this stuff up!
MysteryMan: Some scrolls are more tightly wound than others
MysteryMan: Luke, when did you last get your hair cut?
MysteryMan: I do not remember
DoooDaaa: i’ll say one thing luke u atract yhe most wacked out ppl. on camstreams….guess thats why im here
Emma: lol
Kay: ha ha
Kay: ha
Gina: why be normal?
MysteryMan: I get so little credit for inseminating this venture
Emma: Lol Gina
MysteryMan: Nobody who says, "he has a lot of spunk"
MysteryMan: who has been cutting your hair?
MysteryMan: I am the Alpha and the Omega of this venture.
Gina: do you give yourself a big tip?
MysteryMan: Show us the bowl you use
MysteryMan: Why not shave it off?
Gina: Dad has a nice full head
MysteryMan: Black men use that bald look to great effect
MysteryMan: BE black.
MysteryMan: Live Black
DoooDaaa: well u kids have fun.i’m gonna see if anyone is actually alive on here tonight….catch me later
Gina: lets get to the root of this
MysteryMan: The roots are greay
MysteryMan: Mine are white
Emma: ngfdjfvjf kghghgvtrcvubyghjijol;
MysteryMan: that is hipsterish
MysteryMan: lngo
User DoooDaaa left the room.
Gina: emma don’t do drugs!
Emma: lol
MysteryMan: Gina, where are yu from?
Gina: its a mystery man
MysteryMan: How international is this audience?
MysteryMan: nice
MysteryMan: good line
Gina: cut and paste baby!
MysteryMan: ?
Gina: not that thats what you do…
Emma: Never have. Never will
Emma: brb
MysteryMan: azz
Gina: juts playing with you
User guest201 left the room.
Gina: luke you look like you need some prune juice
Emma: Thas ok
Gina: your punim is all farklempt
MysteryMan: ABC News reports: The nation’s spymaster said the United States faces an imminent threat of attack from al Qaeda fighters training today along Pakistan’s mountainous frontier with Afghanistan.And the attackers, he says, will look like many of us.
Gina: or you need glasses…
Emma: Oh somthings up
Emma: I can’t spell
Gina: drugs will do that to ya
Gina: I’m counting.. this is 16.. I believe already
Emma: 16 what?
Gina: time he’s played this
Emma: Really?
Emma: I never noticed
Gina: no, but I can make believe
Gina: I usta like this song…. 🙁
Emma: Memories?
MysteryMan: No Ramones, no Cheap Trick
MysteryMan: No Joy Division
MysteryMan: No Yossele Rosenblatt
Gina: play some carlebach
Gina: his stuff really "touches me"
MysteryMan: Water out of a gallon jug
Gina: Rabbi Kolko is coming out with his gr8st hits
MysteryMan: Is this any way for a Jew to live?
Emma: Whats green tea like?
Gina: he tried…..
Gina: thats what probably killed him
MysteryMan: Luke, don’t you really pine for the order of a nice corporate job?
Emma: Lol just like you
MysteryMan: Imagine…you wake up tomorrowmorning, get a shove, cut your hair, put on a nice suite and tie, and drive your Korean built sedan to a job in Century City
Emma: a shove
Emma: lol
Gina: a shove to shave
MysteryMan: Emma, I like to think that if you were there, you would shave off Luke’s beard.
Emma: I would not
MysteryMan: Put him into a nice suit made by Chinese tailors
Emma: Nah
