Friday, April 30, 2010

Rav Sternbuch: Natural disasters

8 comments:

  1. God punished with the holocaust because people didn't wear Yarmulkas to work. Really?

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  2. Very similar to the interpretation to the one offered by Iranian Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi. No coincidence that parts of Eidah Chareidit feel so close to Iran.

    CNN commentator Reza Sayah from Islamabad reacted to this interpretation by saying:

    "I am very upset at Mr. Fisher, my 6th grade earth sciences teacher in
    Wayne, Pennsylvania. He never told us that earthquakes were caused by women sleeping around and wearing skimpy clothing. He gave us some confusing explanation about the tectonic theory and tectonic plates, which sounded more like DJ equipment than causes for earthquakes. In comes this iranian cleric, he says "Forget about the tectonic theory, because indeed earthquakes ARE caused by women who sleep around..."

    Here is the link.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/04/20/iran.promiscuity.earthquakes/index.html

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  3. This is another reason why Pinchos Lipschutz and the heimish street should stop screaming "anti-Semitism"

    Here is a first time white collar offender who only managed to steal $200,000 and pleaded guilty (unlike Rubashkin who won't accept responsibility for anything he did). He was still sentenced to a record 309 years in prison.

    http://www.wdam.com/Global/story.asp?S=12000328

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A Louisiana man whom prosecutors said was the ringleader of an identity theft scheme with dozens of victims has been sentenced to 309 years in prison.

    U.S. Attorney David Dugas said the sentence handed down Wednesday to 43-year-old Robert Thompson, of Zachary, is the longest prison sentence for any white-collar crime in the history of his Baton Rouge-based office's jurisdiction.

    Thompson, also known as John Lawson, allegedly used the identities and financial information of 61 individuals, churches, financial institutions and businesses to steal more than $200,000 worth of cash and goods. Prosecutors said Thompson also tried to steal $20 million from an unidentified victim's bank accounts, but authorities foiled the scheme.

    Thompson pleaded guilty to fraud and theft charges last May.

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  4. It is interesting that the reason or csue given for the Nazi Holocaust is that German Jew would not wear their Kippot outdoors. IN and of itself, this is not even a halacha, and the Gra also stated it is not binding Law.
    But the idea of Jews wanting to be like goyim might have another explanation.
    Germany was a place where both Orthodox and reform rabbis jointly opposed Herzl's Zionism. They essentially rebelled against Kibbutz Galuyot, and there is more reason to suggest that this heresy allowed the nazi regime to take power in germany.

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  5. "and there is more reason to suggest that this heresy allowed the nazi regime to take power in germany."

    Except that it is exactely the opposite of the Satmarer Rebbe's theory, who said that evil zionism caused the holocaust.
    those people stand by and see catastrophies happen - natural or other- and do not know more than you and I. But those catastrophes are a welcome opportunity to "awaken their followers". It's a bit like a magician who acts as if a toaster ejecting the toast was a magic trick, or the sliding door opening when someone comes out.

    If the Satmarer Rebbe really had had Ruach hakodesh, he would have told his followers to leave Hungary/Rumania when it was still time. This did not even require extraordinary prediction skills, since the death camps were already operating when hungary and rumania were still independent. Jews could have fled if they had been warned. Most Rebbes (including Kossow and Satmar) not only did not warn, but told their followers to stay, everything would work out all right.

    If you do not know how darchei Hashem work, well, at least admit it and don't give us bullshit about skimpy dressed women causing earthquakes.

    It makes no sense to ponder "why hashem is punishing us". It helps much more to learn how those calamities happen, build accordingly (so that houses won't crumble), install warning systems to evacuate the population, etc...

    It is always easy to make a moralistic drasha out of other people's death. Personally, I think that it is highly immoral to do so.

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  6. >It is interesting that the reason or csue given for the Nazi Holocaust is that German Jew would not wear their Kippot outdoors.<

    I read somewhere that Reb SR Hirsch used to actually require that people remove any and all head-coverings when entering his Yeshiva in Frankfurt.

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  7. There were a number of rabbis who made the claim that it was specifically the anti-zionism that caused the Holocaust. These include R' Teichtal, who wrote Eim HaBanim Smeicha; R Tzvi Yehuda Kook; R Emanuel Hartom.

    Unfortunately, the logic of the anti-zionist brigade is deeply flawed - since it was they who suffered most. Furthermore, in Germany, the reform Jews were largley spared, they managed to escape, thanks in part to the leadership of Leo Baeck.
    On a practical level, many Zionisiats tried to save the Euroepan Jews - I limit this to religious zionist leadership.
    The grandfather of R Elyashiv came of Eretz Yisrael at the behest of R' A. Y Kook.
    R Tzemach Warhaftig procured visas for yeshivot - students and rabbis, to come to Israel. The only condition was that they set up some Yeshivot and do a bit of work ontheLand. He was rebuffed by the Haredi leadership. Of 20 Yeshivot he approached, only the MIr Yeshiva accepted his offer, and escaped. The rest perished.

    There is "Dass Torah" here.
    Rambam wrotes that those who can escape death, but choose to stay for glorious death are the biggest sinners and idolaters of all.

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  8. I made a typo or two in my post:
    I meant to say there was NO Daas Torah in Europe, as can be seen by the results.---

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