Click here to join the fun. Complete video.
Joey Kurtzman is president of Jewcy Partners, LLC, and co-founding editor of Jewcy.com. Prior to joining Jewcy he was an on-air contributor to Ireland’s political and cultural radio program, The Wide Angle.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Kendra, and their diabetic dog, Maddie.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry on this week’s Torah portion Re’eh.
In his new book, “Why Faith Matters” (HarperOne), David J. Wolpe, the rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, trumpets the value of religion in the modern world. Using his personal journey with faith — from avowed adolescent atheist to true believer — as a springboard, Wolpe refutes the anti-religion arguments put forth by the “new atheists” and offers more than one reason to believe. In an interview with the Forward’s Rebecca Spence, Wolpe shared some thoughts on his work.
Rebecca Spence: What led you to write this book now?
David Wolpe: There were two things. One was the wild proliferation of anti-religion books, which I thought were angry, unfair polemics. And the other was going through the experience of cancer and chemotherapy, which renewed my understanding of what religion was about. It made me realize, as often happens, that if I had something to say, I should not wait, because life was very uncertain.
R.S.: How does your book fit into the dialogue spawned by the “anti-religion” books you mention, such as Christopher Hitchens’s “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” and Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion”?
D.W.: I answer many of their specific criticisms. I believe that the book makes a very compelling case that religion is not responsible for war, and that science is compatible with religion. The other way it enters the dialogue is by refocusing people on the real content of religion. Eighty-five to 90% of religion is not about abstract ideas; it’s about the way people live their lives, and when people are in trouble, or rejoicing or need community, or are sick, or have died, suddenly religion steps in as that which supports and cares for them. There is no real understanding or acknowledgement of that in many of these polemics.
Yisroel Pensack emails:
The NY State Supreme Court is not that state’s highest court, nor is it even an appellate court at all.
Trial court rulings do not establish precedents and are NOT binding on other courts whatsoever, certainly not on the NY State Court of Appeals, which is actually that state’s highest court, equivalent to the California Supreme Court.
Link:
Supreme Court Ruling, dated August 22, 2008 in the Satmar Case, virtually assures that the Gaboim, "Congregation Lubavitch", will win in the current pending, Court of Appeals case , against Krisnky’s attempt to Evict the Rebbe’s Chassidim from the Rebbe’s Shull, in 770.
Rabbi Aron Tietelbaum left, His brother Rabbi Zalman right
Brooklyn, NY – NY SUPREME COURT Judge:
"Court Cannot Get Involved In Any Religious Ideological Dispute in Satmar, even when it involves Real Estate and other monetary issues."
In The Supreme Court decision, this week, Judge Ambrosio points out that the court cannot get involved in the Satmar Leadership and religious ideological disputes.
It is expected that the judge will rule similarly regarding the courts inability to get involved in deciding, any issues regarding the current Lubavitch Leadership, where Krinsky is attempting to claim that Krinsky, (and Not the Rebbe) is now in control, of all of Lubavitch, which is apposed by the Gaboim, and is apposed by 99.99% of all Lubavitcher Chassidim.
Excerpt form the decision:
"Most importantly, the Court of Appeals has determined that a resolution of the dispute between the two factions would require “impermissible inquiries” into religious doctrine (supra, 9 NY3d at 286)."
Click Here for the Full Text of the Court Decision:
http://www.daashakohol.com/forums/showthread.php?t=218
A carton of cigarettes that doubles as a Christmas card. From back when America was free.
–Mary Q. Contrarian
Divers are continuing their search this morning for the body of a Los Angeles man who was presumed drowned after he went missing in Lake Piru Monday evening, authorities said.
Anatoly Smolyansky, 39, was in a boat on the lake with three children about 6 p.m. Monday when his 5-year-old daughter fell overboard and he jumped in to save her, said Capt. Ross Bonfiglio of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
The child resurfaced and made it back to the boat but Smolyansky did not.
After searching for about 90 minutes, recovery teams including divers and medical personnel took over from rescue crews.
Recovery teams worked until late last night but did not find Smolyansky, Bonfiglio said.
The search resumed about 8 a.m. today.
(PHOTO LINK AT END OF ARTICLE) [UPDATES BELOW] A massive search is underway in Lake Piru, California for a father who has gone missing after being swept away in a strong current, sources confirm to YWN. A massive search is underway in Lake Piru, California for a father who has gone missing after being swept away in a strong current, sources confirm to YWN. At approximately 5:00PM Monday afternoon, a 39-year-old father jumped into the waters of Lake Piru to rescue his daughter who had fallen overboard while on a boating trip. He successfully rescued his daughter, but was unable to climb back into the boat. Strong currents swept the boat away from the father. The boat was found by the Sheriff Patrol with the children inside a few hours later. A large search was initiated by the Sheriff Department, Fire Department, and Los Angeles Hatzolah dispatched numerous units as well. Divers were deployed into the waters, but as of 12 midnight, the search was called off until 6:00AM. Los Angeles Hatzolah plans on renting many boats on Tuesday morning when the search resumes. The rescue effort was concentrated on the north end of the lake, authorities said, in an area known as “The Narrows.”
A YWN reporter is on the scene, and will update as the search progresses.
Please be mispallel for Naftoli ben Anna.
UPDATE 2:30PM EST: The Los Angeles Hatzolah Command Center, along with local authorities have renewed their search efforts with a vigor, and are requesting as many volunteers as possible to assist.
If you are available to assist, please bring the following items with you:
*Hiking shoes
*Binoculars
*Hat (the sun is very strong)
*Flashlight with batteries
Click HERE for directions to Lake Piru.PHOTO LINK: For YWN exclusive photos of the search scene taken by YW-153, click HERE.
Fred Barnes writes for the WSJ:
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s choice as his vice presidential running mate, may be the most well-liked person in Washington. He’s affable and gregarious and nice to everybody, including the press and Republicans. When conservative Sen. Jesse Helms retired from Congress in 2002, the featured speaker at a luncheon honoring him was none other than Mr. Biden.
Brit Hume, the Fox News anchor, tells the story of having been asked by Mr. Biden why he put the Delaware senator in his TV reports from Capitol Hill so infrequently. "Senator, you’re a windbag," Mr. Hume told him. Several years later, Mr. Biden approached Mr. Hume again and said he’d been right in his assessment. It’s hard not to like a major politician who admits a fault, sincerely or not.
![[The Democrats Field a Liberal Dream Team]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AI104_barnes_20080824123216.jpg)
Mr. Biden’s popularity in the Washington political community — home to most of the pundit class — helps explain why his selection by Mr. Obama received such favorable reviews. True, some Republicans declared Mr. Biden a bad choice because he’s verbose, bombastic and gaffe-prone. And indeed those are flaws, but hardly fatal ones. The Obama-leaning media is quite capable of ignoring them.
The real reason why an Obama-Biden ticket is a vulnerable one is that it plays into one of the few strengths that Republicans and John McCain have in the 2008 election. A weak economy, a surge in Democratic voter registration, an unpopular Republican president, a sour public mood, a desire for political change — all those favor Mr. Obama and Democrats.
But what Mr. Obama has done is create an all-liberal ticket — a very, very liberal one, at that — in a nation whose electorate is still center-right.
Link:
Compare and contrast. Yes. I know we posted this already, but it is worth repeating.
From the Washington Post:
After a month of lessons, I’ve largely corrected my stoop and I now stand about 6’2".
A blog is a medium that people use for many different things. Some can use it to post news, some to post Torah, some to post their thoughts about knitting yarmulkas, some to post about their battle with disease, etc. The simple fact that we all use the same medium does not make us a community. I’m not saying that we can’t be friends but there is no natural bond between us other than that which exists between all Jews and all people. Do you think that the author of The Yeshiva World has some connection to an atheist, anti-religious blogger simply because they both use blogs? I don’t. It’s like saying that J. K. Rowling and Shmuel Blitz are in the same community of authors. It’s not that one is good and the other isn’t, but that they operate within totally different universes despite both being authors of books. To the opposite, I consider Ms. Rowling to be part of the community of Western popular culture and Shmuel Blitz to be part of the American Charedi community. Similarly, I consider blogs to be extensions of people’s regular communities. Jewish blogs are part of the Jewish community and its subcommunities. Torah blogs are part of the Torah community, Jewish cooking blogs are part of the Jewish cooking community, etc.
It’s most probably not a decision you have made, or a path you have deliberately embarked upon, but rather something that springs from some deep well inside of you, as does fear of the dark or a dislike of clowns. Whether your aversion is rational is beside the point – most fears are irrational. The important thing is that you should try not to act upon it, and also try not to feel guilty about it. Most attempts to make you feel guilty are likely products of someone else shifting a burden onto your back. And while it makes sense that gay people are nervous and angered by the thought of those who disapprove of them, frankly, that’s their problem, just as it’s the burden of the “homophobe” that there are so many ‘infuriating’ homosexuals about. He has no more right to tell the gay man to “be straight” than has the gay man to tell the “homophobe” to admire him. Neither of them has any right to tell the other to get @#$%ed.
