The Rabbi and I

We came up with 15 different actions that the lame duck could do. All are possible but which ones are probable. We threw the dice to determine the order of probability. Perhaps you have others to add to the list.

I don’t trust the polls either so let’s roll the dice to see who comes out ahead in the Midterms.

Since everyone is entrenched in their solution for peace in the Middle East why not let the dice decide!

In 1 Samuel chapter 8 the Israelites tell Samuel that they want a king. God tells Samuel to tell the people that a king is a bad idea. Samuel then lists all of the bad things God said would happen. That list is a list of all the bad things that are happening now!

In a past episode we taught when the Talmud says that you are required to lie. Why do we have so much trouble being honest the rest of the time!

An Israeli cabinet minister put out a government plan this week to move most of Gaza's population somewhere else. He's calling it voluntary.

Palestinian officials, Arab governments, and international law scholars say a choice made under blockade, with 80%+ of buildings destroyed and no way home, isn't really voluntary.

The core dispute is whether ‘voluntary’ holds up under the actual conditions in Gaza — and Jewish tradition doesn't settle that for you either way.

I open with a claim: the word 'Zionism' has stopped doing the one job it was created to do. And I'm going to make that case using the Torah and the Talmud, not a communications consultant.

Matthew Berger, a communications consultant, was hired by the Jewish Federations of North America to figure out what language actually works when Jewish groups talk about Israel and antisemitism. He got fired two weeks ago for saying avoid using the word 'Zionism.' His reasoning was that the word confuses more people than it persuades.

#Zionism#Palestine#Israel#antisemitism

The 1988 founding covenant of Hamas explicitly called for the destruction of the State of Israel through jihad (holy war). In 2017, the group issued a new policy document that was nothing more than a public relations stunt. Hezbollah is a surrogate for Iran and Iran has sworn the destruction of Israel.

First remove both if there’s to be any peace.

Second everyone has a valid argument why they are right and the other side is wrong. If there’s to be any peace everyone needs to stop the futile game of my reasons are better than yours.

Third accept the reality that Israel Is a legitimate country and here to stay and that the Palestinians are entitled to home not controlled by terrorist groups.

Real antisemitism looks different from anti-Israel: blaming random Jews for a government's choices, claiming American Jews are secretly more loyal to Israel than their own country, reviving blood libel language — or being fine with every other people having a homeland except the Jewish one. This is antisemitism.

The founding of the State of Israel held the promise of creating a country that was guided by Jewish values. American Jews were proud of the accomplishments of Israel as it took its place among the world’s nations. Unfortunately politics and survival in the real world took Israel away from being a spiritual and cultural home for all Jews and not just for for a select group favored by the government. It is time to separate Judaism as a religion from a political entity.

American Judaism is a religion not a political lobby!