Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Goy who keeps Shabbos is liable to Death Penalty - Because the Earth Seems to run Naturally?!

 Rav Yakov (Bereishis  08:22) and day and night shall not cease.Sanhedrin (58b)  An idolator who keeps Shabbos is liable to the death penalty because the Torah said “And day and night shall not cease.” Rashi explains  that means they must continue working on Shabbos. Apparently, this  interpretation is not according to the Bible's simple meaning (pshat)  because the simple meaning is that G-d promises that the times and the seasons will not change so how is this connected to saying that an idolator who keeps Shabbos is liable to the death penalty? But it seems that the Gemara's intent is the depth of simple meaning of the verse. Here G-d  revealed to us that the conduct of the world will be in a different way after the flood than it was before the flood. Before the flood G-d behaved with His world in such a way that it could be clearly understood  that the world is new and is renewed in other words nature wasn’t fixed so it couldn’t be changed and thus it was clearly apparent that G-d was running the world at all times. Whereas now comes the promise of G-d that from now on the conduct of the world will be as if the world was ancient and eternal, that is, that everything is fixed according to order and as if everything behaves on its own without any leader and creator. 

Therefore the seed and the harvest and the heat and the day and the night will not cease but will behave according to a pre-determined order as if there is never a permanent overseer who determines the order of the world as it will be, this is the depth of the intention of G-d in the promise For all the days of the earth, it will not cease. Therefore it was derived by our Sages that an idolator who keeps Shabbos is liable to the death penalty. As I have explained a number of times that while the descendants of Noach (bnei noach) were commanded to keep 7 mitzvos as well as the belief in one G-d, they were not commanded to believe that the world had been created. In fact it is actually prohibited for a person to look what preceded the world and what comes after [Chagiga (16a)]. Regarding Jews, since they received the Torah at Sinai  which clearly states that G-d created the world from nothing, we are required to believe that the world is not eternal  but that it had been created by G-d. And Shabbos is the sign that G-d established for the Jews to remember "For in six days God made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested" Therefore the non Jew who were not commanded to believe in the creation of the world were are also not commanded to observe Shabbos. Therefore a goy who keeps Shabbos is liable to the death penalty. Because if he observes Shabbos, he may come under the prohibition of looking forward and backward. Any thing they are warned against not doing, they are liable to the death penalty . Consequently G-d reveals in this verse that His manner of running the World after the Flood will be different  than what it was before in that it will now seem that the world is eternal and not created. In other words after the Flood it will appear that the World runs by itself in a natural manner. It is no longer apparent that this needs to be investigated or that there are doubts about this and therefore it is obvious why our Sages said that a goy who keeps Shabbos is liable to the death penalty

Monday, November 4, 2024

Voting





I could not find this in the Igros Moshe though I don't know why it was left out. It is readily found on the Internet 

Racism -Judaism is not racist

 Rav Yakov (Bereisishis 9:25) And he said cursed is Canaan he will be a slave to his brothers   There are among our haters of the nations of the world who categorize Israel as a racist nation, because the Torah says that Canaan is cursed and he will be a slave to his brothers. They claim that is because the Torah degraded the race of Canaan to the level of a slave.  But in fact it is surely not so. It is clear that the view of the Torah is against racism, as I have already shown  this in my commentary to Bereishis  (1: 22) from the language of the mishna in Sanhedrin (37a]: which states “For what reason was man created as a single person – in order that a person can not claim that my ancestors are superior to your ancestors because G-d made the human species different from the other species and created only one person so that the human beings would not come to be racist. 

In light of this we need to explain the actions of Noach in cursing  Canaan to be  degraded him below the rest of humanity which seems to be a clearly racist act. In fact it has nothing to do with racism, racism means that one race is elevated above another race because of its origin and lineage and as if it was created from superior and better "material" and the like. But the reason that Noah divided between them was because of the corrupt personality of Ham and his son Canaan. This degraded nature was passed on to their descendants as is stated in Pesachim (113b) Five things Canaan commanded his sons: Love robbery and love fornication and hate your masters and do not speak the truth, and since Noah saw such corruption in the family of Canaan, he cursed them that they who will remain slaves all their lives and will not come in the congregation of Israel.

And similarly concerning what we say, "You have chosen us from all the peoples", which the haters of Israel claimed that from this we consider ourselves superior to the nations of the world. It is certainly not because Judaism is racist – G-d forbid! We say it because we have acquired  fair and honest attributes from our religious leaders and teachers  such as Abraham Yitzchak and Yaakov, and we stood on Mount Sinai and received the Torah of God from the mouth of our Rabbi Moses. Consequently we have become more refined and elevated than the other nations, but only because we have improved ourselves by involvement with Torah and mitzvos and by getting closer to G-d. But in fact anyone who wants can convert and join us and then he too can say about himself "You are our choice from all nations", which is not true in the other racist nations that do not allow anyone from outside to join them. 

And this is obvious from what we say, You have chosen us from all the peoples, and we say the same in the blessings of the Torah every day that He has chosen us from all the peoples, and yet in the order of Selichos we say, "We are more guilty than other nations ". It is puzzling, how can we say that we are the chosen ones and yet more guilty. But it is as we said, our virtue is not inherently in us or religion or our superior origin, but in the fact that we were chosen from all nations because of our refinement, so therefore when we sin and do not protect ourselves from doing wrong, we are are the guiltiest of all people, because the higher the level of man, the higher his sin if he fails.

Sunday, November 3, 2024

The Rank Double Standard in Trump and Biden’s Trash Talk

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-rank-double-standards-in-trump-and-bidens-trash-talk/

His running mate JD Vance, who just days ago told people to “stop getting so offended” over the rally (“I’m just — I’m so over it,” he continued) tweeted of Biden’s comments: This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country. There’s no excuse for this. I hope Americans reject it.”

But let’s not forget that Donald Trump does and says a lot worse than “garbage.” His rhetoric routinely pings from the offensive to the threatening to the violent. He calls liberals Marxists and Communists. He has mocked people with disabilities, referred to women who challenge him as dogs, called Mexicans rapists, called immigrants vermin, and said they are “poisoning the blood of the country.”

He has threatened election officials with prosecution, and he routinely says his opponents should be killed. On Thursday night, Trump said that former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney should be shot (he had previously said she and former president Barack Obama should be tried in televised military tribunals). He has suggested Gen. Mark Milley, his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, be executed; those who worked for him have said that he also talked about executing drug dealers, shoplifters, journalists, and members of his own administration who leaked information to the media.

The stereotype of every childhood bully is that they can dish it out but they can’t take it. Trump is a lifelong bully, and his base seems to genuinely relish his efforts to torment those who challenge him, or those who he sees as weak. He’s also one of the most thin-skinned people to ever enter politics. He believes a double standard should apply: He gets to demean and insult whoever he pleases in the crudest possible terms, but if the tables turn on him, well, that’s not fair.