Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor | | | Be Honest About Your Faults Approval-seekers feel a necessity to put themselves in a better light than they really are. Because they try to hide their faults, they are nervous about others finding out what they're really like. Their situation is like that of a spy in enemy territory. If, however, they are honest about their mistakes and faults, they will be much more relaxed. They will also find that others behave more positively toward them for their honesty. While it is not worthwhile to go to the opposite extreme and tell everyone you meet about your faults, if you stop being defensive about your faults, you will live a more serene life. Love Yehuda Lave | | | When Rubashkin was released from prison last week, the staff advised him to seek professional help in readapting to society. But he just smiled: "That's for someone who's been in prison and gets out. I was never there in the first place." The man was never shackled.... Reminds me of Hurricane Carter: "They can incarcerate my body but never my mind," he told The New York Times in 1977, shortly after his second conviction. Back in prison, a defiant Mr. Carter refused to wear a uniform or work at institutional jobs. He ate in his cell, sustained by canned food and soup that he heated with an electric coil. Because his soul was free and never imprisoned. "Because that jury found me guilty did not make me guilty," says Carter. "So from the moment when they issued that verdict, I said, 'No, I will not be treated like a criminal. " The conviction KOd his boxing career, destroyed his family both financially and emotionally and robbed him of his best years. But Carter insists he is no longer the bitter, angry man he once was. "I should have the right to be a raving lunatic," says Carter. "If you were snatched away from your family, snatched away from your career, your life threatened for nothing but the lies of other people, wouldn't you have the right to be bitter? Wouldn't you have the right to be angry? But I learned in prison that bitterness only consumes the vessel that contains it. "My biggest joy in life," he adds, "is having been able to resist those [feelings] while being steeped in hatred, which is the nature of a prison, being steeped in violence, being steeped in anger, until that resistance has become second nature to me. But it's all there. It's just dormant. It will never go away. They were free men in prison. | | Another view point Joey Green I think all of the people that idolize Rubashkin need to grow up. He lied to a bank and inflated his receivables to get a better line of credit. It's very simple, people do that all the time. It's called fraud. He should have gotten ten years like all criminals who commit fraud. Instead they gave him 27 years and now he got out in 8. That's the whole deal. He's not the Messiah, not a Tzaddik, he's an unethical Lubavitcher businessman that committed fraud and created a massive Chillul Hashem and got out in 8 years. For the hundred thousand alcoholic and misguided Rebbe-less chassidic teenagers running around Crown Heights, it's a good excuse to keep their vodka addictions going | | Another view point- a taped interview with his brother in law https://www.mixcloud.com/zev-brenner/rabbi-milton-balkany-on-his-brother-in-law-sholom-rubashkin-speaks-out-on-talkline-with-zev-brenner/ Sholom Rubashkin's brother-in-law Rabbi Milton Balkany speaks out on Talkline With Zev Brenner about the behind the scenes efforts that led to his release from Prison | | Trump is why he is free. Rabbi Balkany says on his tape (above) that Representative Shumer (Jewish and well known in Jewish community) was against his release, but Orin Hatch was a big supporter. Trump allowed the release, under Oboma it would have never happened. Oboma gave out 1100 pardons and communincations. Every person who was released says Rabbi Balkany, was black or Purto Rican. No Jew had any pull or should have bothered to apply during the Oboma adminstration. Rabbi Balkany knew Trump from many dinners with Mayor Juliana. Jarad was also in favor, but he didn't speak to him directly. A lot of non-Jews helped | | Trump, Jerusalem & Rubashkin: The Hidden Meaning https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=2NV9il-BoHo Are the astonishing events during the past 2 weeks part of a bigger plan? by Rabbi Kessin the video is too long to have a direct link, so click on the address above. | | Rationalist Judaism Exploring the legacy of the rationalist Rishonim (medieval Torah scholars), and various other notes, by Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin How To Save Orthodox Judaism Posted: 29 Dec 2017 05:49 AM PST How do you stop Orthodox Judaism from descending into madness?
There are several manifestations of this to be found in popular Jewish weekly magazines. This week presents an extreme example. On the cover of Mishpacha, Ami, and all the rest is a smiling Sholom Rubashkin, who is being glorified as some sort of frum Sharansky. There are photos of his being paraded in front of adoring crowds like a Rebbe, and he is presented (at least in the Mishpacha article that I read) as innocent of any moral wrongdoing.
Now, many people agree that Rubashkin's sentence was excessive, and it is therefore wonderful that it was commuted. But he is nevertheless a convicted felon who committed some serious crimes for which he expressed no regret and does not seem at all concerned about the appalling chillul Hashem that he caused and continues to cause. What kind of message do we send, both outside and inside the Orthodox community, when we glorify such a person as a hero?
Yet this is just one of many examples of the shortcomings of the frum media. Another is how, contrary to recent Orthodox practice, they now refuse to print any pictures of women or girls, even if the woman is wearing a burqa! What kind of message does that send, when even covering yourself up with a burqa is still not enough to let your picture be seen?
Then there are all the other things that I and others have written about over the years. The notorious Ami puff-piece about Skver after the Rebbe's assistant set fire to a dissident (and continued to enjoy good standing in the community). The ridiculous Mishpacha editorials about why charedim should not go to the army and about how critics of charedi society are only motivated by hate. The enormous concern over the fate of frum people imprisoned for crimes, and the relatively little concern for captured Israeli soldiers. Ami magazine's interview with the pedophile Nechemia Weberman's defense attorney - but not with the attorney for the prosecution! The glorification of criminals and protectors of abusers and enemies of the State of Israel. The flood of advertisements from tzedaka and snake-oil organizations manipulating people with mysticism for money. And the general non-Torah u'mada, non-Torah im derech eretz, non-rationalist charedi outlook, which reflects the values of many Orthodox Jews, but by no means all.
(Mishpacha magazine, after the notorious YTT coverup of a pedophile, deserves praise for asking Rav Shlomo Miller "Why don't rabbanim take a firm stand on developments in frum life, such as denouncing perversions and corruptions, wrong agendas, wrongdoers?" But they did not protest when he replied that the Gedolim did indeed do so when they objected to the writings of Nosson Slifkin!")
Especially frustrating is that these magazines are not only read in the chareidi community. On several occasions I have praised Mishpacha for pushing the envelope of charedi norms and publishing some excellent critiques of charedi society, but there's no reason why other communities should be restricted to such publications. Recently I was in a frum supermarket in the Five Towns and it was distressing to see that the only magazines available for purchase were Mishpacha and Ami. I'm sure that there are many, many families in the Five Towns who do not adhere to such a hashkafah. But there is no other comparable magazine to read over Shabbos.
The solution is very simple. We need a weekly magazine to rival Mishpacha and Ami. It should contain articles of interest to people across the Orthodox spectrum, but it should primarily reflect classical/Centrist Orthodox values, both in terms of its editorial policy and its writers. It should have pictures of women (except perhaps where the picture is not of the subject of the article/advertisement and would only be to allure people to buying a product). It should quote from, and profile, religious Zionist, centrist and modern Orthodox rabbis, as well as charedi rabbis. It should not have puff-pieces for quacks, criminals or protectors of abusers, and it should not run predatory advertisements from tzedokos.
The simplest way would be for the OU to make its superb Jewish Action magazine into a weekly instead of a quarterly. But if that's not going to happen (and perhaps it would be best to have an independent magazine), someone else should step up to the plate. There could be a lot of money to be made from it, but even if not, it's a way to exert tremendous positive influence on the Orthodox community. | | 15 Clever Psychological Tricks I don't know if they are tricks, they are just ways to intereact with people | | THE CITY WITHOUT TAXES! If you hate sales tax.......I've got a place for you. | | WE KILLED THE DEAD SEA! If we don't act soon enough, the Dead Sea might actually be dead.
And I wish I was exaggerating.
The Dead Sea is one of my favorite places on Earth, and every year, it's dying slowly but surely. | | See you tomorrow Love Yehuda Lave | | | |
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