rabbijaffe

The founders of the US Constitution had a goal. They wanted to make it so that the principles for which they based the founding of our country would be preserved eternally. Nevertheless, recognizing that the world changes, they inserted a clause (Article V) that demonstrates the procedure for how one would amend the constitution should it become necessary.

The process is there, but extremely difficult.

The message: “Change me only under very extreme circumstances with excessive care and thought, since my ideas are meant to last forever.”

In this weeks’ Torah portion, Parshat Vaetchanan, we see words that have helped me and many Jews formulate who they are, as well as who they could never be:

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:2-

“You shall not add unto the word which I command you, nor shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”

The entire premise of Christianity is that God decided that Judaism was the old way, that He essentially changed His mind. All the commandments of the Torah existed for a period of time that we are now going to put behind us so we can start afresh. 

My question for anyone out there who may be listening:

What do you believe was the purpose of the verse I just quoted? What do you believe the Biblical Author’s intention was by including such a “clause”? And how in the world could Christianity exist when it seems like the book from which it spun off took all the measures to make sure it never could!?

This Thursday is the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av (Tisha B’Av). It is considered on the Jewish calendar to be the most tragic day the Jewish people know. This is the date when the Babylonians destroyed our first Temple (Beit HaMikdash), and the Romans later destroyed our second one, which remains unbuilt to this day.

One might ask the question: We have been living without a Temple for nearly 3,000 years. Why in the world are we still gathering in synagogues, weeping and fasting, praying to go back to the way it was so very long ago?

And why are we inserting things into our traditions to constantly remind us of the Temple? We have scores of traditions we call “zecher l’mikdash” to remind ourselves that the way we’re doing things is just a temporary method of worship and service of God until we can back to the good old days.

The answer to all of this really lies in the most extreme example:

Most people are aware of the Jewish custom of stepping on a glass at the end of a wedding. But few are aware of the reason, and of the those who are aware of the reason, few appreciate it.

You might wonder: Can’t we ever have any joy withouth misery? Is there anything such as unadulterated pleasure? Why in the world do we need to think of past tragedies at a wedding, at the peak moment of joy that we know!?

Why?

Because we’re NEVER supposed to stop thinking about the Temple!

It’s the end game. It’s the goal. It’s where we need to be. Even at our greatest moments of personal pleasure we should not be losing focus, we should not take our eye off the ball.  

May the Temple in Jerusalem be restored to the Jewish people speedily in our days.

In the spirit of discussing nothing of real importance when it comes to President Obama (Think: weeks of discussions about what dog they would buy), I thought I would add to the mix.

This is an excerpt from an article from CNN (full article):

“Last week, Obama said he called Crowley and ‘there was a discussion about he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House.’

Gibbs said: ‘I think it was Sgt. Crowley’s suggestion about the beer, and I think the president thought it was a good idea.’”

Now here are some suggestions for the media of good discussion topics:

1. Can, bottle, or out of a cup or glass?
2. American or imported beer?
3. Will the wives be joining them?
4. Will the president, God forbid, choose a flavored or non-alcoholic variety?
5. Cheapy and generic (Budweiser) or the good stuff?
6. Will they have more than one, or is the president going to stick to his words: “a beer”?

Gosh, the lives of such important people really do have endless, discussion value. Don’t they?

New bloggers have a bit of difficulty getting the word out that they have written a blog. Until they have a lot more content search engines are simply not going to pick them up, and this could get anyone frustrated.

A cute way of getting the ball rolling generating blog traffic is a website called Blog Explosion. With minimal effort you could pick up an extra 100 or so hits any given day.

Now, these hits are not fantastic. What I mean is: There’s a solid possibility that those who are looking at your site are just doing so because they know all it will take is two clicks on other sites for them to get one on their own. Nevertheless, there are still advantages:

1. If your goal is hits, you get hits.

2. If your content is appealing, people will stop to check it out. If they like it, they’ll come back again. It’s very unlikely they otherwise would have ever found your site, and this is away of attracting new readers.

Good luck getting started!!

Brief disclaimer: I am by no means an expert in health care, either in America or Israel. But with citizenship to both countries, several years of living in both places, and a child born in each country, I’m at least qualified to share my opinion (and stories) about the whole health care blah-blah going on in America right now.

I must say, I’m torn to pieces.

Here’s my story, and a whole lot of commentary:

Growing up in America I absolutely despised doctors. I felt they wasted mass amounts of my time, and were rather immoral and/or dishonest. I have horror stories from my childhood of doctors promising me a procedure won’t hurt, followed by the most excruciating pain imaginable. My strongest memory of doctors was waiting 45 minutes in the waiting room, followed by the nurse checking me, waiting yet another half hour, and then the doctor coming, grabbing me in all sorts of weird ways, and telling me I have a cough. I’m sure there’s no limit on how much you can charge for tons of wasted time and such a brilliant diagnosis.

And of course I remember years of asking the doctor why I was having severe chest pains. The answers I received were useless and varied, so much so I eventually gave up trying to ask.

So, doctors became a miniscule part of my youth.

Later on I moved to Israel, home of socialized health care.

My impressions:

It’s very nice and comforting to know that you are taken care of regardless of any prior conditions, indiscriminately, with a rather high level of quality… often.

Nevertheless, the story must be told.

When I approached an Israeli doctor about my chest pains (which I still had over ten years later), he sent me to get an endoscopy based on a theory.

 The day at the hospital arrived, and I wasn’t even slightly worried. Why? Friends from America told me about their endoscopies. They were put to sleep, and woke up to joyfully look at their results, as if the procedure never happened.

So what happened with me? I laid down and had a tube shoved down my throat. I felt every last drop. I basically gagged for ten minutes straight.

And then they led me to another room… and I fell asleep in a chair.

I had a sore throat for a week.

My cousin, who was in medical school at the time, looked over my file. Her mouth dropped when she saw how much they messed up on the amount of anesthesia they gave me (it was clearly poorly timed, as well).

But what could I do?

My wife had an experience with a socialized dentist which, to make a long story short, culminated in a dentist yanking an incorrectly cemented cap out of her mouth with zero anesthesia, nor warning.

In either of these instances we would have filed lawsuits in the States, and we would still be collecting money to this day.

But not under the socialized Israeli health care system. There was no one to complain to. Nowhere to go. If you were disappointed with the care, you could always move back to your country of origin.

(By the way, that doctor’s theory turned out to be correct, and under his care I started to have far fewer systems from my newly diagnosed acid reflux.)

So which system is better?

In Israel you have little control over when and with whom you will be treated. If you are disatisfied with the treatment, you have nowhere to turn. The system is definitely inexpensive and inclusive, but then again Israeli taxes are through the roof.

On the flip side, things here aren’t so hot.

To have a baby costs a fortune. Emergency rooms here are far less efficient than those in Israel. We recently brought my son to the ER worried that maybe he broke his nose. My wife waited for four hours in the ER with a five year old. It turned out he was fine… and despite our insurance it cost us nearly one thousand dollars!

We’ve also encountered problems with pre-existing conditions, as well as companies dictating when we could be covered with childbirth. 

I know plenty of people satisfied on both sides of the Atlantic, and plenty who are disatisfied. I know people who use the Israel medicine for small things, but for anything serious they come to America. In America it costs a small fortune to have a baby, in Israel not only is it free, but they hand you a modest check when you leave the hospital. 

So in the end what do we have? Two very imperfect systems.

Americans have every right in the world to be frustrated with the state of health care in the US right now. But they should think long and hard about what direction the country should be taking to solve its problems.

If you have a story about health care, socialized or not, positive or negative, please do share.

After several years of feeling inadequate with some of the most basic computer programs (Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, etc.), feeling awkward that my students know way much more than I do, I finally found a really good solution to my problem.

I needed something that could offer me motivation (CEU credits), quality, and online classes. And yes, I wanted all this for free. And I found it! This website has been a Godsend, and I want to share it with everyone else with my highest recommendation: GCF LearnFree.

There are tons of classes, but currently only four that offer a CEU certificate. Just a little warning: If you want to sign up for the CEU classes, and it says, for example, registration is in 47 minutes, you better be at your computer trying to register in 47 minutes or you’ll end up having to wait another couple of hours or so.

Enjoy!   

Israel ignores American warning? Unfortunately it’s the article title I always hope to see, but I’m rarely lucky enough to experience.

These are excerpts from two articles I read on the Haaretz website just this evening:

#1: “[The Obama administration] is demanding a moratorium on Jewish building in East Jerusalem until an agreement is reached on the city’s legal status, arguing that the cumulative effect of even small-scale projects would destroy any chance of a peace agreement and arouse fierce opposition in the Arab world, especially among East Jerusalem Arabs.” 

#2: Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism said: “Settlement activity at the West Bank is not popular [in the United States]. It never has been. It’s absolutely the last thing in the world you want to be involved in a public dispute over. Because not only you won’t have the support of this government - you won’t have the support of the American people either.”

Just a few words about these two statements:

I don’t care what the Obama administration says Israel should or should not do.

I couldn’t care less about Eric Yoffie’s opinion of Israel’s decisions.

And frankly, if Israel makes decisions that are at variance with every Jew throughout the entire United States of America, all I can say is: Go ahead!

Unless you’ve given your blood, sweat, and tears for the State of Israel, keep your mouth closed when discussing the possibility of a divided Jerusalem.

I’m not his biggest fan, but I am terribly glad that Prime Minister Netanyahu can at times be a voice of reason in this seemingly senseless world:

“A sovereign government must build in its eternal capital… United Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Our sovereignty in it is not subject to appeal, and among other things, this means that Jerusalem residents can buy apartments anywhere in the city. We cannot accept the idea that Jews should not have the right to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem.”

Right now I’m giving my own private standing ovation.

We are having a garbage crisis here in Baltimore.

But it’s not what you’re thinking.

You see, the city has recently severely altered its trash pick-up system and policies, and despite any and all hype surrounding these new laws, it’s about time someone called it what it is (or what it will eventually be): MANDATORY RECYCLING.

Now, I’m all for recycling (sort of), but I think all these new laws meant to save the planet are imminently going to backfire, are inherently against human nature, and are all overloaded with lies and flaws.

I can’t wait for the day I’m fined because the wind blew off my trash can cover. Or fined because someone walked by my garbage can and threw in some loose trash.

I also can’t wait for the first time we consider having guests on a Wednesday, but change plans because we didn’t want to have tons of trash bags sitting around for an entire week (despite the fact that the ONLY advantage of living in the city over the county WAS the twice a week trash pick-up).

I also can’t wait to watch people driving around looking for dumpsters to clandestinely and illegaly dump their extra bags, looking over their shoulders constantly as if they were dealing drugs. Or worse: Tossing trash on someone else’s lawn to get rid of it. Or heck, burning it in their backyards if things get really out of control and they don’t want to drive 40 minutes there and back to the dump. 

And you just wait. I guarantee we’ll soon be getting fined for putting recyclables into our regular trash cans.   

I used to live in Ithaca, New York, and my apartment complex had about five different dumpsters. Once I accidentally threw a cardboard box in the main trash dumpster (I know, I know, a criminal I am).

Unfortunately for me, this cardboard box was from a package mailed to me, so my name was on it. I received in the mail a photocopy of that name label and a letter warning that if this terrible offense happens again I will be fined!

You’ll pardon my rant, but in a society where we seem to be leaning toward the ability of people being able to abort unborn fetuses because a person should have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies, I think it’s only a little too ironic that I won’t have the CHOICE to throw out a soda can in the trash next to my house.

I also find it disturbing that despite our abysmal economy and a global jihadi threat, our current administration seems to feel forced hippy-ization is on par. 

Don’t lie to me oh high and mighty government.

We used to have trash pick up twice a week, and recycling twice a month, and now each one once a week. When I argue that it’s going to be terribly difficult to only have trash picked up once a week, I hear: Well, it’s not really once a week, since now there’s more recycling.

Yeah, that would be a fine argument (sort of) if there wasn’t a cap on how much trash we throw out, and no limit whatsoever on recylcing. What does that sound like to me? Mandatory recycling!

So society of folk out there who really don’t want these types of things shoved down their throats: Drive around and find that dumpster for your excess weekend trash. Knock off lids and throw loose trash into the cans of people who you don’t like and want to get fined. Complain to the city that you feel it’s unfair that our taxes are so high yet we’ve lost all of our benefits. And while you’re at it, complain that every time you come home you find your trash cans tossed all over the place.

Or just agrily comply.

XVII

Gabe: Interesting way of putting it.

I’ll never forget the weeks of hype surrounding Michael Jackson’s Black or White video. If you’re not fully convinced that he was a nutjob, or minimally that he grabbed his crotch just a little bit too much, please watch the full video.

It starts getting a little wacky around the 4:45 mark. Shortly after it was aired the first time MTV started playing the video without the last four minutes.

I wonder why…

XVIII

Nader Paul Kucinich Gravel: Thanks.

Good to get the real lyrics this time.

XIX

Brandon, you said it well, so I’ll just quote you in full:

“Michael Jackson was a blantant anti-semite. You guys are making him out to be some Godly being. He was a child molester, anti-semite and a drug addict. We are a better world without this scumbag in it.

I cant believe some of you idiots think it’s OK for him to use the word ‘kike’ because the word ‘nigger’ is used in rap songs. You do realize it’s blacks using that word, not white people. And the last time I checked, Whacko Jackson wasn’t a Jew (thank God for that). Instead of ‘Jew Me, Sue Me, Kick Me, Kike Me’ I guess it would be ok for me, a white guy, to sing ‘Black Me, Smack Me, Nigger Me, Trigger Me?’”

XX

Brandyn with a ‘y’ said:

“This is just another perfect example of a person that hates Michael and tries hard to make his fans turn on him.”

First of all, I don’t hate Michael Jackson. I don’t care enough about him to hate him.

Second of all, I’ve made very little effort.

Third of all, the last thing in the world I care about is whether or not anyone is a fan or not of Michael Jackson. Even I, a person who most certainly does not respect the person who Michael Jackson was, will continue to benefit from his music…

and from the superior remakes of recent years. Most notably Alien Ant Farm’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ and David Cook’s ‘Billie Jean’:

Love him all you want, Jackson fans.

But please don’t worship the guy.

XI

Yael said: 

“It’s one thing to like a person’s music, its another thing to stand behind his bigoted rants and defend him.”

Well put.

* * *

Well, there you have it.

This might very well be the last timeI will ever mention the words “Michael Jackson” in this blog.

But thanks for the hits Michael!

XIII 

Lilah said:

“I am certain that he did not molest little children. He helped millions of them all around the world and did more for victims of war and famine than any other entertainer in history, period.”

I really don’t get where this certainty comes from.

You have obviously not done too much research into the typical child molester.

Would a child come close to a person who was violent and scary toward children? I’m not saying a facade of philanthropy is proof of molestation (God forbid), but I also do not belief it is proof of the opposite as well.

Unfortunately, many a sick or evil individual will play the ultimate altruist in order to lure the innocent toward them, and then go over the top in their charity to cover their tracks.

So once again: I’m not convinced.

Lilah, you said something that disturbed me a bit, but I think is very typical of the average uninvolved Jew:

“I have to say though, the Jews with the most power right now are NOT making us look good…

If we’re going to criticize others for being anti-Jew, maybe we should stop worshipping a book where we proudly stomp on, mutilate, and enslave everyone else even after it happens to us… and then didn’t learn - we should also stop being complete idiots in Israel, and we should do something about the disgusting World Bankers that make us look so bad.”

1. I don’t know to which Jews you are referring, but my experience from THE INSIDE shows me that you are just an unfortunate product of what the media would like you to think. The Jews as a people do more good for the world per capita than ANYONE. When a Jew helps countless people, this is ignored. When a Madoff ruins peoples’ lives, this is a top story.

All I need to do is walk into the average synagogue in Baltimore and watch as every single person reaches into their pocket and despite any financial difficulty they may be having gives to each person who requests. Daily! And it’s most certainly NOT featured on the news.

You should give your own people a second chance.

2. I don’t know what you mean by being complete idiots in Israel. I lived there for eight years, and served in the Israeli army. Perhaps you are referring to security fences or fighting back against Hizbollah? Or is security checkpoints?

Whether you know it or not, or accept it or not, all these measures are essential for Israel’s continued existence. If we did not do them, our enemies would eat us alive.

You see this picture:

This is a picture of Yehuda Shoham. Yehuda was a 5-month old baby.

A rock was thrown at his parents’ car which crushed his skull.

Various strict security measures possibly would have saved this boy’s life.

Who’s being a complete idiot in Israel?

3. You have a profound misunderstanding of the Jewish Bible.

First of all, we do not worship it.

We worship God. End of story.

Second of all, there is no instance of Jewish mutilation of anyone in the Bible, and perhaps close to none throughout our entire history.

Thirdly: You make reference to those we kill or enslave. I don’t even know where to begin here. You are so greatly misinformed about the content of our holy Torah, my only recommendation is that you perhaps take some time off to study it before you lob criticisms against it.

XIV

Bud said:

“Is it possible to be a great talent, give tremendous charity and be a child molester? I think so.”

I couldn’t have said it better.

XV

“You should post the entire song’s lyrics, then you will see how obvious it is a song about HATE and how much hatred there is, the Jew slurs are clearly there to stress that Jews are victims of hate.”

First of all, the song lyrics were included in the side bar of the Youtube clip.

Second of all, I already addressed this at length (See V), but in short:

The terms “Jew me” or “Kike me” are very much not meant in the song to be thrown against Jewish people by a hateful person, but rather they are terms which perpetrate an erroneous stereotype that all Jews cheat underprivileged people. This seems to clearly reflect the opinion of Michael Jackson.

XVI

Ted (mis)quoted the song lyrics:

“Do me, Sue me
Everybody do me
Kick me, strike me
Don’t you black or white me”

Um, cute.

But not the correct words. At all!

The words of the song are not under dispute. The meaning, maybe.

But not the words.

You have cut and paste the alternative apologetic version.

Ted also said:

“Great job of editing the video.It seems odd that the words you claim exist are muffled and can not be understood. Like or dislike Jackson deal with him, or anyone for that matter, truthfully.”

a. I didn’t post the video on Youtube. Nor did I edit it. Heck, I wish I knew how… and if you do, please tell me. I’d love to learn how to do such things.

b. It’s not at all odd that those words are muffled. They’re obnoxious and offensive, and were muffled for THAT reason. If I’m not mistaken, they were muffled by Jackson himself, who was forced to apologize for his lyrics.

c. Oh, the irony. I’m being told to deal with a person truthfully by someone who just posted phony song lyrics.

Nice try.