I cant understand why that should be of any interest….

I composed this song in memory of Ofra:

youtube.com/sp...

Sincerely

ed

I’ve taken my time in reviewing the Madonna album, so I don’t jump to any conclusions, I’ve considered the album as a whole and as individaul songs, and here’s the backbeat-heavy, vocoder-infused truth: Madonna still knows what she’s doing in term…

You know, I bet Sean Penn thanks his lucky stars every time he sees Madonna on the news.

Then again, Sean Penn is kind of crazy, so maybe not.

I listed for you how they are able to manipulate the unknowing. People who would be compromised into spending hundreds of dollars instead of 99 cents + shipping on Ebay.

How they have created their own cottage industry of ‘Bible Codes’ that serves to impress the poor participants. BTW, the messianic Jews and missionaries have also taken to ‘Bible codes’ in their own propaganda, so who knows how many have been persuaded to join that? Thank you, A.T.

There are as you insinuate, grey areas in life, but this is not one of them.

Now they are starting w/ movies aimed at frum people. It will be interesting to see what they follow that up w/.

Or that if a (insert ethnicity of choice here) is a (insert crime of choice here), then that obviously means that all (insert ethnicity of choice here) are (insert criminal of choice here).

Something like that?

I am hard pressed to think of why someone would need to know alot of what is in there, because today, a Rabbi has to be more than a fount of minutae. People are coming to the Rabbi with heart breaking problems, not whether this sack or crap, I can pick up on Shabbos or not, it this a public domain and what are the 3 opinions.

The Rabbi has to deal with an epidemic of alot of divorces in the frum community, and the obvious difficulties. It seems like now, the courts are steering towards a more equitable time distribution of the kids w/ parent a/b. Whereas in the past, most of the time the woman was granted full custody, now it is thought that this is a disadvantage for the mother bec. she ends up being the tough guy, and the Dad, he is prince charming, just every other Sunday type of fine dining, museums, movies, and all that.

The Rabbi has to advise on millions of issues and complications that are new to the Rabbinical establishment. It is not easy. So obviously, we need a man, or woman, who is not only dedicated, but also is able to express his/her love and concern, in a very approachable and decisive way, all of the problems that arrise in a community, be it single parenting, teens at risk, poverty, lack of affordable houseing, and jobs.

Touchy-feely has its place. But is is very often just a cover for sloppy thinking and self-indulgence. You need to steer a middle course between the excesses of unfeeling legality and overblown emotionalism. Either extreme is no good.

Madonna? Chacun a son gout and degustubus non est disputandum and all of that, I suppose, but you can include me out.

But, hey, if you want, go to town. Don’t let me stop you.

Now we have a kollel in town, the Jewish Study Network (JSN). All young, srious yeshivish guys, with learning up the yin-yang.

They just kick ASS, man. No razzle, no dazzle, no fancy hooks or marketing. Just really solid scholarship and dedication, if you’re a mitnagid into the Litvish thing.

Which I am, so it’s cool. I’ve always distrusted the touchy-feely emotional approach anyway. I’m too much of a skeptical crank to go the ga-ga route.

If you want to buy direct, on Artscrolls website you get a discount.

You simply get so much more out of studying the original source, not listening to some dufus, who hung around their ‘yeshiva’ in Jerusalem for a bunch of years, and learnt how to Schmooze and deliver their monotonous ‘bible codes’ stories.

I have heard their speakers. They act like they are discovering the moon for you. I don’t know how it is that people fall for them.

As I tried to explain, you don’t need their stuff. There are so many books that are available that you can get more out of. Instead of taking their expensive ‘courses’ like ‘discovery’.

Do you think that people, cannot read their way into Judaism, everything must be through their con and shtick?

They exist, so that they can live an extravagant lifestyle, the money that they burn, could be put to better use, to lower the tuition costs, so that families w/ 3-4 children would send these kids to Yeshivas. This will do more for Judaism than making these aish rats wealthy.

Look at the famous auction site, you can get some books there for 99 cents. Good books, ones that you will enjoy and learn from. Would you rather give $200 to aish for an all day ‘discovery’ event, where they will ‘dazzle’ your mind w/ bible codes?