Jewish Issues
This is easily the most amazing website I have ever seen (it somehow popped up as an ad on my page). I never knew that converting to Judaism could be so easy! Take a look at the photo album – I enjoy the group trip to the beach and the women in white laying their hands on the Torah. The shot with the Torah scroll unrolled around a group of converts is particularly fascinating and the rabbi blessing individual converts is moving and sincere. Upon more careful examination you will notice that the rabbi has replaced the 10 commandments with the 10 commitments! The list is pretty random, but non-threatening. I could go on but I think convertingtojudaism.com speaks for itself. Probably the best service we could do for this joker is to contact him and start “converting” on masse. At the very least – fill up his in box with silly requests and waste his time, maybe if we distract him enough he won’t have time to ruin people’s lives by lying to them about Judaism.
October 22nd, 2006
Sorry for the lull in blogland. Here are a few quick updates:
- Sassan hooked me up with this awesome video about the Jewish community in Iran. Very informative and important if you spend a lot of time with our Persian brothers – for example, did you know that over 25,000 Jews still live in Iran? It is the largest Jewish population in the Middle East (excluding Israel). Once you watch the video – call a Persian Jew and ask him to cook you something – my favorite is the meat with the green stuff.
- Joel sent me this link about the Mullet on wikipedia. Not only is the entry poorly written, but it is attempting to belittle a serious cultural trend that I happen to think still looks pretty darn cool. Back in the day, it wasn’t called a “Mullet” – it was simply “the haircut the cool guys have” – any true lover of fashion would do his utmost to bring it back.
October 18th, 2006
Today is Erev Yom Kippur (the day before Yom Kippur) – that means it is time for kreplach! Kreplach is a funky Jewish dumpling (the meat is a ground brisket, but ground beef works too, wrapped up in a noodle type pastry). On the three days during the Jewish year when we klop (bang on something) we also eat kreplach. We klop on Erev Yom Kippur (on our chests, during the pre YK confession), Hoshanah Rabbah (on the floor with our bundles of Aravas), and Purim (on the table and floor when we hear Haman’s name - boo) – these three days are also “hidden” holidays and hence the reason we eat kreplach (the meat is hidden in the dumpling). We have a tradition that anyone who eats kreplach three times a year until he is 120 will merit to live a long life. Gmar tov and have an easy fast.
October 1st, 2006
Moretorah received its first hate-post today. It is from “Tyler Kent” (I wonder if that is his real name) in a comment to my August 13th post “My upcoming flight”:
Giving money to CAIR means you’re a terrorist? You Zionists make me want to puke. It’s because of you and your —- (expletive deleted) little country that we’re being targeted in the first damned place. I say the war on terror could be ended in one fell swoop with a repeat of Nagasaki over Tel Aviv.
Besides Tyler’s use of offensive language (an obvious sign of extreme immaturity, lack of emotional control, and downright low class), he seems to be unaware of a few basic facts about the world we live in.
- CAIR is a well known front for radical Islam – click here to read all about it
- Radical Islam’s war against the west (and attacks like 9/11) has absolutely nothing to do with Israel or America’s support for Israel. Proof? Listen to what they are saying – they hate America (the great Satan), western values, and the shame of Islam’s inability to dominate the world (a humiliation they are constantly reminded of ever since the Ottomans second failure to conquer Vienna a few hundred years ago). Check out this movie for a great introduction to the issue.
Finally, it seems to me that Tyler’s suggestion that ‘we drop a nuclear bomb on Tel Aviv’ (i.e. “repeat a Nagasaki”) exposes his true colors. It is an unfortunate sign of the times that an ignorant and uniformed anti-Semite has access to the right technologies to post his misguided opinions in an open and intelligent forum like moretorah.
September 13th, 2006
Why? Because they are idiots.
“Some fellow passengers are questioning why an Orthodox Jewish man was removed from an Air Canada Jazz flight in Montreal last week for praying.”
According to this article, the man was “Hasidic.” I am sorry but:
- Hasidic men are VERY conspicuous. Even the uninitiated can recognize them a mile away. Among those who do not know what a Hasidic Jew is, they can still clearly recognize that they are NOT Muslim-Islamic-potential terrorist types
- Praying Hasidic men (while they may look a little odd) do not, have not, and never will highjack an airplane or pose any type of threat whatsoever (except standing in the isles and blocking the bathroom)
The airplane was heading towards the runway at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport when eyewitnesses said the Orthodox man began to pray. “He was clearly a Hasidic Jew,” said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. “He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book.”
“He wasn’t exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth,” Faguy added. The action didn’t seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous. “The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn’t a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave,” Faguy said.
Air Canada has clearly gone too far. As a matter of fact, the whole airline industry is out of their minds. Stop wasting our time, stop harassing us, learn how to identify the bad guys (start with Muslim men ages 14 – 45, they have committed about 100% of the terrorist acts on airplanes – hint – could be a good target group), and let the rest of us fly and pray in peace.
September 5th, 2006
I know this is old news – but the Mets now have a Jew on their roster. Many are shocked that a Jew is actually good at sports - there is stereotype that Jews have an athletic deficiency (except when playing basketball against each other) and it probably stems from our aversion to Greco-Hellenistic noodling and other empty, purely physical, barbaric wastes of time.
But I think it is mistaken to be surprised when a Jew turns out to be a good athlete. We descend from an ancient warrior people who at one time wreaked havoc over the entire near east. The Romans found us particularly terrifying and in the end it took something like 5 Roman legions to finally squash us. If we could club the heads off welled-armed Romans then I don’t think it is so far fetched for one of us to eventually be able to hit a baseball.
I live in Boston so I will still probably have to root for the Red Sox, although the rumor is that the Sox have TWO Jews on their team, as well as a Jewish GM, so rooting for them does not pose much of an ethnocentric dilemma. (How a self-respecting Jew can root for a group of barbarians like the Yankees – that makes no sense at all).
September 4th, 2006
Hitler and Stalin were possessed by the Devil, the Vatican’s chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth claims. “Of course the Devil exists and he can not only possess a single person but also groups and entire populations. All you have to do is think about what they did. Almost certainly they were possessed by the Devil.” Nice cop out Father Amorth. I know it is comfortable to think that Hitler and Stalin came from a dark other-worldly place, but they didn’t, they came from nice European cities and grew up to commit the most horrible, pre-meditated, calculated atrocities. Pretty scary huh?
Also according to Father Amorth, “Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.” Much more realistic and almost as terrifying. Please remind me of this the next time I think about becoming a Catholic.
August 29th, 2006
Speaking about kosher dining, in Mumbai, India (is Mumbai the former Bombay? Oh those silly British – didn’t they also come up with Safed for Tzfat and Peeking for Beijing? What will they dream up next?), the owners of the recently opened Hitler’s Cross restaurant (yes that’s right – Hitler’s Cross!) have bowed to international pressure, and particularly pressure from India’s minute Jewish community, and have agreed to change their name. “We wanted to be different. This is one name that will stay in people’s minds,” owner Punit Shablok told Reuters. “We are not promoting Hitler. But we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different.” Thanks for giving up the great name and marketing gimmick Punit, you’re cool…
August 28th, 2006
According to the New York Times, beards are in. I have noticed many bearded men recently – and now, as confirmed by the Times, it is a trend. Once again I am one step ahead on the fashion curve.
Peyos are next.
March 26th, 2006
Next Posts
