March 26, 2012 Girl Flips Out In Class Luke Ford No sacred cows.

Girl Flips Out In Class

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Luke Ford

This is how many of the homeless act in Pico-Robertson.

Posted in Abuse, Homeless | Comments Off

Race-Baiting The Trayvon Martin Case

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Luke Ford

Anyone up in arms about this case does not have a life. We do not know what happened yet. To pile on to this case and say incendiary things reveals that you jump at the least stimuli and use it as a pretext to beat up on America.

Heather Mac Donald writes: Black boys do face a much higher chance than non-blacks that they will be shot when they are “out in the world.” Black males between the ages of 14 and 24 were seven times more likely to die of homicide in 2007 than white and Hispanic males of the same age group combined. But the danger they face comes overwhelmingly from other black males, whose homicide offending rate in the 14 to 24 age category was nearly ten times higher than that of young white and Hispanic males combined. (The federal government’s crime data puts Hispanics and whites in a single category of “white,” thus overstating the non-Hispanic white offending and victimization rates). Most homicides are intraracial, but the chance of a black being killed by a white or Hispanic is much lower than the chance that a white or Hispanic will be killed by a black. Seventeen percent of what the FBI calls “white” homicide victims in 2009 were killed by blacks, compared to 8 percent of black homicide victims who were killed by “whites.” There were two and a half times as many white and Hispanic victims of black killers in 2009 as there were black victims of white and Hispanic killers, even though the black population is one-sixth that of whites and Hispanics combined. If Hispanics were removed from the category of “white” killers of blacks, the percentage of blacks killed by Anglo whites would plummet, since a significant percentage of what the FBI calls “white”-on-black killings represent gang warfare between Hispanic and black gangs. (Needless to say, there is no reason to think that racism plays a more frequent role in white-on-black killings than in black-on-white killings.)

Blow’s fear that his children will be blown away by a white is particularly ludicrous in New York City. Blacks commit 80 percent of all shootings in the city — as reported by the victims of and witnesses to those shootings — though they are but 23 percent of the population; whites commit 1.4 percent of all shootings, though they are 35 percent of the population. Add Hispanic shootings to the black tally, and you account for 98 percent of all of the city’s gun violence. In New York, as in big cities across the country, the face of violence is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.

Posted in Blacks, Heather Mac Donald, Race | Tagged black killers, frequent role, heather mac donald, hispanic males, homicide victims, victimization rates | Comments Off

President Obama Fans Flames Of Hatred In The Trayvon Shooting

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Luke Ford

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager said: “Why did the president need to inject himself into this controversial killing [of black teen Trayvon Martin] in Florida?”

“It was a mob-creating, anger-creating, division-creating statement on his part. There was no need for it. He knows nothing about the case. Almost none of us know anything about the case. The recent history of media mob creation with regard to what happened at Duke, where many professors and the press generally were convinced that the white members of the Duke Lacrosse team had gang-raped this black woman. It turned out to be false. The Jenna six.”

“The left is so adamant about presumptions of innocence until found guilty are only too prepared to call someone guilty without knowing a damn thing about the case. The only thing the president did was to foment anger out of ignorance. This is unparalleled in my lifetime. I do not recall a president injecting himself into a racial issue to fan the flames.”

“Why does a president intervene in the Sandra Fluke – Rush Limbaugh incident? Did he ever condemn Bill Mahr for the far-worse language he used about women?”

“To suspend the police chief because he hasn’t arrested a man without any evidence?”

Jewish Journal blogger Brad Greenberg recently jumped to a bunch of hate-inciting conclusions without knowing almost anything:

Mother of five beaten to death for being a Muslim immigrant
Though on their face, the two deaths look different, they both come from the same hateful place—it’s just that one was motivated by race and the other by religion.

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A Photo Of A Teenage Rebbe Swimming Topless

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his second lecture on R. Meir Simcha of Dvinsk for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “I am in possession of a lengthy autobiography of an important rosh yeshiva who is no longer alive. This autobiography can never be published by any press in the haredi world because it is honest. The rosh yeshiva tells you about his dealings with various gadolim. It was given to me and I was told I could whatever I wanted with it. The rosh yeshiva wanted it to appear in print.”

“It will all come out. It needs to be edited.”

“The things people send me. They don’t want to publicize it but they want me to publicize it and for the most part I don’t mind.”

“I’ll say this now. I know it’s going to get picked up. There’s someone, a nice guy who I find interesting, who listens and for the last few years, he’s been excerpting Marc Shapiro’s greatest lines, or what he thinks are my greatest lines. He puts them all up on the internet.

“As those who listen to me know, we’ll have a whole hour shiur (Torah talk), and there will be all sorts of good history and stories and Torah, and there’ll be some strange and interesting stories, and he excerpts it.”

“There’s a main and there’s a secondary [in every class] and though the secondary is definitely interesting, the main part is the history. I think people who just see the excerpts think I’m sitting here and I just tell all sorts of stories because he’s only interested in excerpting the stories. Some of the stories are very good and I’m happy he does this. Someone created a Wikipedia page for me and there’s even a link there to all these stories. It’s an unbalanced thing.”

“I’m sure this is going to appear on his website. And that’s fine. Whatever I say, I know it can be put out there and I appreciate the effort he takes to put this online.”

“The only time I didn’t put something [online]. Someone sent me a picture of a great Hasidic rebbe [Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam] swimming and he said that in his Hasidic group, they tell stories of when this rebbe was young. They talk about this rebbe as though all he did was learn and here’s a wonderful picture… Although I’ll mention it, I won’t put the picture online because especially in that world it’s not tznious (modest) to see the rebbe without his shirt on.”

“It’s [a picture] of a young teenager swimming with an older hasid but it’s a violation of privacy. None of us want pictures of us [shown publicly] unless we’re in perfect shape.”

“The Chazon Ish loved going swimming.”

“I’m sure it will get out. In today’s day and age, everything gets out. There’s no more privacy unfortunately. Everything is put online eventually.”

Posted in Blogging, Haredi, Hasidim, Marc B. Shapiro, Personal | Comments Off

This Week’s Torah Portion – Parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6:1-8:36)

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Luke Ford

I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 7:00 pm PDT on the rabbi’s cam and on YouTube. Facebook Fan Page.

This week we study Parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6:1-8:36).

* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “This should set us to think about the importance of ritual in our religious and daily life. The secular humanists of the nineteenth century and their followers in the Jewish world attempted to create an idealistic and permanent Jewish life based on the abolition of ritual and the centrality of humanistic values. After two centuries, it is clear that this attempt to ennoble mankind and/or Jews has failed. The basic conclusion that if one does not eat matzo on Pesach, one’s grandchildren will eventually forget Pesach altogether has been proven, sadly and beyond doubt.”

* What should we as Torah Jews do about the rash of massage parlors doing business next to shuls?

* Why don’t many unmarried Orthodox women try to look their best?

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K Stands For Kosher

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his fourth lecture on R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinksi for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: Now Kellogs has a K, under the Vaad of Boston.

“Often you will have people tell you that when you find a “K” on hashgacha (kosher symbol) on a product, you can’t rely on it because it could just be just packaging. It’s not a trademarked symbol. The company could just put it on. Obviously you should find out who puts the “K” on. Call the company and they’ll tell you. In all the years, I’ve never found a product with a “K” on it without a rabbi behind it.”

Posted in Kashrut, Marc B. Shapiro | Comments Off

American Orthodoxy Has No Public Intellectuals

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his fourth lecture on R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinksi for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: Jonathan Sacks is in England. American Orthodox Judaism has no public intellectuals. After Michael Wyschogrod, Meir Soloveitchik may be the most distinguished public intellectual in Orthodoxy. Being that he is only about 35, that doesn’t say much for Orthodoxy. Even though he is brilliant, that we don’t have people older and more distinguished says something about Orthodoxy. The Reform and Conservative movement has many such people (people who try to change the culture from the standpoint of their religion), like what David Novak does.

Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy | Comments Off

Why Don’t Rabbis Condemn Their Own Jewish Terrorists?

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his second lecture on R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinksi for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: The Haredi community in Jerusalem did terrible things to Rav Kook. The Agudah leadership, including R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinksi were horrified by what happened but they did not publicly protest. You had violent haredim like you have today who did terrible things. Wild kids once burned Rav Kook in effigy. They had a so-called trial where they executed him at the end. And people like Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld refused to condemn these people. Why? Because they were afraid that these wild youths would turn on them.

“You have terrorists in Beit Shemesh today and their rabbis do nothing to stop them.” (Example)

Zvi Yehuda Kook would not attend an Agudat Yisrael conference in the 1950s because he blamed for shortening his father’s life.

In his third lecture on R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinksi for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “The Edah HaChareidis, (lit. “Haredi Community”) has to bear responsibility for what is going on right now in Israel. Until they condemn them. These people threw rocks. It is only a matter of time until someone is killed.”

“Every time the Edah HaChareidis call a protest, they’re letting the inmates out of the asylum. Every time these people protest, you have violence.”

“These crazy rabbis in Beit Shemesh and elsewhere, you can’t talk to them. You can’t talk to them about the terrorists throwing rocks, the people beating up kids, the people burning things.”

According to Wikipedia: “The Edah HaChareidis, (lit. “Haredi Community”), also known as the Edah for short and popularly as the Badatz, is a prominent Orthodox Jewish communal organization based in Jerusalem, Israel. It represents a large section of the Ashkenazi Haredi community and provides facilities such as kashrus supervision, mikvas, an eruv and a rabbinical court. The Edah HaChareidis is viewed as a continuation of the former leaders of the Yishuv haYashan, and is well known for being strongly opposed to Zionism, which it condemns as heretical and opposed to Judaism.”

Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy, Terror | Comments Off

The New Type Of Rabbi

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his second lecture on R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinksi for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: Rabbi Yitzkak Rubenstein serves as the spiritual rav of Vilna. He served as spiritual rav in Chaim Ozer’s place for four years (around WWI). Many people were impressed by him.

“Gershon Bacon, a professor of history at Bar Ilan, has written an article on the dispute over the rabbinate of Vilna. It brings to the fore a new definition of the rabbi that you’ve never seen before. The rabbi that you want most is no longer the greatest scholar but one who is of service to the community.

“Rabbi Yitzkak Rubenstein comes on the scene when Chaim Ozer isn’t there and shows that he’s not just a Torah scholar but is one who serves the community as Chaim Ozer never did. All Chaim Ozer did was what all rabbonim did — posken shailas (answers questions about Jewish law) and give shiurim (Torah lectures). Very different from Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik (the Brisker Rav), who thought the most important task of the rav was to help widows and orphans. Rav Chaim did not give shiurim in Brisk. He did not give Shabbos Teshuva drasha or posken shailas. He was involved in people’s personal lives. He helped them with their problems. He took care of children born out of wedlock.”

“That the community voted for Rabbi Yitzkak Rubenstein is the new model of the rabbi and the model we see today. Particularly in Modern Orthodox synagogues, how often is scholarship the deciding factor? How you preach a sermon was irrelevant in Europe. I think all of our shuls veto Torah scholars because they don’t have people skills or the like. I don’t know if being a Torah scholar is even a desire for most shuls.”

Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy | Comments Off

The Exciting Life Of Rav Chaim Tchernowitz aka Rav Za’ir

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Luke Ford

Bio: “TCHERNOWITZ, CHAIM (pseudonym Rav Za’ir; 1871–1949), talmudic scholar and Hebrew author. Tchernowitz, born in Sebesh (district of Vitebsk), Russia, studied in Lithuania and obtained semikhah from Isaac Elchanan *Spektor of Kovno in 1896. Moving to Odessa the following year, he founded his own yeshivah, eventually transforming it into a rabbinical seminary (1907) which attracted many students from the Jewish intelligentsia in Russia, including Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik and Joseph Klausner. Tchernowitz’s ambition was to combine traditional study with modern research in order to rejuvenate Jewish learning. His pseudonym Rav Ẓa’ir (young rabbi) reflects his aims. Tchernowitz received a Ph.D. from the University of Wuerzburg in 1914. Settling in the United States in 1923, he taught Talmud at the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.”

In his second lecture on R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinksi for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: Chaim Tchernowitz was the non-religious candidate for the post of crown rabbi of Vilna.

He gives the most famous hespedim for Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor. He functions as an Orthodox rav and Av Beis Din (head of a Jewish law court) in Odessa.

He later comes to America. He really leaves Orthodoxy. You see pictures of him not even wearing a yarmulke. He starts teaching at the Jewish Institute of Religion, started by Reform rabbi Stephen S. Wise. He has no involvement with Orthodox Jewish life.

“To have the Orthodox rav of a big city and then to give it all up and become a scholar and to leave the Orthodox world is unusual. The case that comes to mind is that of the Chief Rabbi of Rome who apostatized after the Holocaust. He was a strange character. He abandoned the community during the Holocaust.”

Posted in Marc B. Shapiro | Comments Off