Links

I was criticized about some links in my site.
I have reviewed the matter and removed the offending links to sites I'd wrongly believed that like me, are promoting respectful and constructive debate within the parameters of Orthodox Judaism. It looks to me now that these people are promoting a destructive debate against Orthodox Judaism rather then constructive.
The only one that I hesitated before removing was the un-orthodox-jew who is fighting to uncover cases of abuse within our midst. I still think that his work is important and not heretic, but I do not like his direction. I wish that the Haredi world would react positively to his criticism and do something about the issue rather then about the man. I am afraid that that won't happen though.

The current crop of candidates for the 2008 presidential election

Something appears to be fundamentally wrong with the current slate of presidential candidates regardless of party. For a while I thought it was only me, but when I began to ask simple people (rather than party affictionados), I began to get that I am not alone. None of these dudes seem to be a leader that anybody wants. Most are perceived as people who lie through their teeth and altogether are not trustworthy. Somebody even related to me that they make GW Bush look good in comparison.

This is bad - there is a gap between the leading oligarchy who seems to consider the people to be stupid and the people themselves who are all but stupid. Real people have different concerns then the oligarchy. They are troubled by the economics being suffocated by high taxes paid only by real people (not the oligarchy.) this suffocation causes the high prices of labour here and the migration of jobs elsewhere. But the migration of jobs mean actually migration of manufacturing jobs, which means that we are not a producing society anymore. We became a society of parazites and soon enough we will (as all societies who do nt produce) become a weakling that would be perceived as a easy target for being conquered and enslaved.

Real people do not have the resources (and power) to compete against the oligarchy in open election. And the oligarchy, leaving in simbyosis with the big corporations, would rather continue the status quo, in which manufacturing is exported to countries with lower wages and less boundaries on both human rights abuse, quality control, environment and taxes (on their own profits) while charging exorbitant amount of taxes here.

We need a new leadership but where would it come from?

Rabbi Berger in YU

I am very concerned that even YU seems to be infected with the Lubavich Meshichist bug and that people there were trying to actually reject Rabbi Berger's appointment. I posted this as a raction to some posts there to summarize my stand:

Without reading all the arguments, let me please say that I came from an older world, where the only Jew who was regarded by some as "Bor'einu" was Jesus and that belief was rejected up front by all Jews. I lament the fact that in my life time, yet another Jew got to be considered by some as "Bor'einu" and there are people who do not reject this. [BTW to the guy who claimed that the late Lubavitcher WAS the Moshe Rabeinu of HIS generation - after all he's died and is not coming back any time soon - I'd like to remind him that people who elevated Moshe to something close to Go-d and made the golden calf to replace him were REJECTED by no other then Moshe Rabeinu himself, something that the LATE lubavitcher failed, unfortunately, to do!]
Rabbi Berger is one who is trying to alert us to the issue and shed light on the phenomena of man worshiping in our midst TODAY.

אולי יש מקום לתקוה

לפני שנים רבות האמנתי ביכלת ההנהגה של אל"מ חיסדאי. חיסדאי היה אדם ישר שהיה מוכן להציג בפני הצבור הישראלי את תמונת העתיד המדאיגה ואת הסיבות לכשל הזה - השחיתות וההתרחקות מן האמת. לרע המזל חיסדאי לא הצליח בנסיונו הפוליטי אבל כבר בפגישות הראשונות עם חבר תומכיו יכלתי לראות שהוא יכשל. במקום לנצל את אישיותו ולכוון את הנוכחים למטרות פוליטיות רציניות הוא נתן לקבוצה להחליט כי הבעיה העיקרית של מדינת ישראל הינה תאונות הדרכים הרבות. כמובן שזו אכן בעיה אבל כבסיס למצע פוליטי זה לא בדיוק זה... וגם לא ראיתי יכלת מנהיגות
מטרת מאמר זה אינה בקרת על חיסדאי כי עם הצגת תקוה בקבוצה חדשה. ההשואה לחיסדאי וקבוצתו היא רק כדי להדגים שנראה כי הקבוצה החדשה אינה חוזרת על שגיאות העבר. הקבוצה הזו נקראת מפנה. אמנם היא נכשלה בבחירות ואולם נראה כי הקבוצה ממשיכה לפעול ומציגה מצע פוליטי ממשי שיש לו סכוי לעבד וגם להוות בסיס לרכוז המונים. יש כאן רכוז מאמצים לפתרון בעיה אמיתית שיש בכח ממשלה המכוונת על ידי מפלגה פוליטית ממשית לשנות וזו בעית החינוך. הקבוצה מציגה מצע מאוזן והגיוני, מדברת על בעיות סביבתיות (זהום הסביבה על ידי תאגידי ענק) וחברתיות (שכר הוגן ומניעת ניצול המורים ועובדי קבלנים) שניתן להבינן ולהזדהות עמן. ובעיקר, מטרה פוליטית מידית של סילוק הברית הבלתי קדושה של קדימה והעבודה מן השלטון. אני מקווה שקבוצה זו תצליח