The Fall of Reb Moshe

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his second lecture for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Moses Kunitz, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “Even among great Torah scholars, it is usually the case that their reputation declines naturally. Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rav Herzog, Reb Moshe Feinstein, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. Reb Moshe Feinstein has nowhere near the significance he had in his lifetime. If he did, they would not have put this eruv up in Brooklyn. When he was alive, he was able to stop that.”

“Rav Soloveitchik, Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, the Chazon Ish, the Ohr Somayach, their reputation just grows and grows.”

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Marc B Shapiro: ‘I Haven’t Seen Any Good Jews Named Luke’

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his second lecture for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Moses Kunitz, professor Marc B. Shapiro talks about rabbis with non-Jewish names. There was a tosafist (medieval Talmudic commentator) named Rabbi Peter.

“I spell my name with a ‘c’. Marc. So it’s not the Greek way, it’s the Latin way. The Greek way is the New Testament. Plenty of good Jews are named Marc or Peter or Matthew. I haven’t seen any good Jews named Luke.”

Orthodox rabbi Fabian Schonfeld — a student of Rav J.B. Soloveitchik — gave the invocation at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas.

The name “Fabian” is goyish. Rabbi Schonfeld got grief for having a Gentile’s first name.

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Jewish Ignorance Of The Bible

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Luke Ford

I was surprised when I entered Jewish life how ignorant Jews were of the Bible (outside of the Torah). The people of the book don’t know this book.

In his first lecture for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Moses Kunitz, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “It is hard today, certainly in the Ashkenazi world, to find a Torah scholar who’s studied the book of Daniel or Job or Malachi. Rashi says one needs to study these.”

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Just One New Idea

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Luke Ford

In his first lecture for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Moses Kunitz, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “Jacob Neusner used to say that if you find one thing of value in a book, then it is worthwhile. He said this because he would publish for every thing he did, he would publish ten books focused on the same thing but he said he would always put one new idea in there.”

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The Concept Of Fairness Does Not Appear In The Bible

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Luke Ford

There is no Biblical Hebrew word for “fair.”

When Israelis today want to say “fair,” they say the word “fair.” (Dennis Prager today)

By contrast, the Hebrew Bible is obsessed with justice.

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I Want To Write A Best-Selling Book

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Luke Ford

Suggested titles:

* “Luke Ford: The Terror of Torah Town”
* “Waiting for Moshiach: What ethical people can do to hasten the coming of the Messiah”

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The North Korean Approach To Teaching

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Luke Ford

First you break the student down and then you build ’em up. Something like this.

Just let me know which pedagogical style works best for you.

Joey comments: “It’s extraordinary how her kinesthesia awakens and her contractions release once her attention is focused on the looming attack with the stick. I think this is why the North Korean teacher here sometimes makes a sharp noise instead of actually swinging the stick at her: he’s proving to her that it’s her attention to an aspect of the present moment, rather than the incidental external stimulus of the stick, that is what is truly awakening her kinesthesia here. This guy’s a real pro. I guess the Pyongyang market must be saturated.”

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What Will We Get For $2 Trillion Of Obamacare Over A Decade?

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Luke Ford

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager said: “What you get from that is nothing except a mandate that all Americans buy health insurance. Healthcare will deteriorate. Doctors will be remunerated less than today. Morale of the healthcare community will drop. People will find it harder to get care as quickly as they do now. Insurance companies will gradually leave the world of health insurance, which is what the president and the left would like. They don’t like health insurance companies. They don’t like any companies unless they’re making solar panels and windmills.

“What he promised, nothing of it is true.”

“The left values material equality.”

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My Business Plan

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Luke Ford

I learned in a recent bootcamp for entrepreneurs that if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.

Working in conjunction with a personal coach, I came up with and have started to implement the following business plan to get more clients.

Come three o’clock most arvos, I put my massage table in the back of my van and head off to various high schools. I set up just off campus, leaf through the latest issue of The New Republic, and promise the kiddies that my work is banned in 17 states because their parents don’t want ’em to have fun.

After making them promise to not tell anyone, and in the course of the free mini-lessons on shady streets — hook ’em while their young and have customers for life, I figure — I use concrete examples to teach right from wrong. As in, this is wrong while this is right, so try to desist from wrong and embrace the right. Then, in my most avuncular tone, I encourage the littleuns to stay off the crack and to stay in yeshiva.

Afterward, I take the cute ones for icecream.

Here’s a photo of one happy student. I’ve changed his name so his parents don’t find out.

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I’m Trying To Keep My Mind On Holy Things

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Luke Ford

So I’m listening to Torah lectures and clicking through various Youtubes with the sound off. That way I can get enough excitement to properly concentrate on every concept that comes my way but not enough excitement to violate my Jewish commitments. With no visual stimulation, however, I might doze off and miss important insights.

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