Category: Politics

What Happens When the Bar Drops So Low

17/4/2019

Needless to say, my personal views fall on the side of the right-wing conservative camp, in both Eretz Yisrael & America.

But because the bar of decency and good values has been pushed so far down in America, conservatives end up catering to that level, even when better values and a higher level of decency are what people really need.

Conservatism Not Quite Up to Par

For example, when it comes to premarital hanky-panky, conservatives focus almost solely on preventing pregnancy rather than extolling the virtues of waiting for marriage.

(Yes, there are conservatives like Ben Shapiro extolling the virtues of pre-marital abstinence, but the discussion still focuses more on pregnancy-prevention.)

In addition to pregnancy-prevention, conservatives speak a lot about alternatives to abortion. It has never been easier to be an unwed single mother than it is today (which has its upsides and downsides) and adoption is also an option.

But there are problems with both unwed single motherhood (and unwed motherhood in general) and yes, there are problems with adoption. Yet while some conservatives do discuss the importance of marriage before motherhood (including the value of even shotgun weddings), the downsides of adoption are ignored, presumably because of the fear of a potential mother choosing abortion in order to supposedly “save” herself and her unborn child potential suffering.

Furthermore, many conservative female pundits have taken on dressing like bimbos (when all men still need to wear full suits and ties in order to be taken seriously as professionals), presumably to burst the stereotype of the staid religious conservative woman. To my mind, there’s a happy medium of looking classy and stylish without looking like a cocktail waitress, but despite the intelligence and integrity of a lot of these women, they obviously disagree.

Conservatives are having the Wrong Discussion

Finally, this whole thing with Joe Biden is just weird.

Now, many of you women reading this have been out in the professional environment. You’ve worked with men.

How acceptable or common was it for a male co-worker to stand behind you, put his hands on your shoulders and start rooting through your hair like a hog in search of truffles?

It’s wasn't! And it's not! And we all know that.

For those of you guys were not shomer negiah at some point in your life, how many of you pawed your female colleagues and snorted her hair — and did so in a high-level professional situation, like during White House ceremonies?

None of you! (Probably.)

It’s not normal behavior and we all know this.

And yet the conservative media focuses on how this is worse than Trump’s improprieties (to point out Leftist hypocrisy) and how the women didn’t seem to enjoy it and because they were in a situation with important dignitaries and on camera, didn’t feel like they could protest in any way.

Okay, these are good points.

But the main point is that HE SHOULDN’T BE DOING IT AT ALL.

ESPECIALLY to the little girls who are so obviously uncomfortable with his pawing and whose parents either don’t or won’t put a stop to it when they are standing right there (presumably, once again, because of the situation and the cameras).

And his whole obviously fake & lying “excuse” of just being a warm, friendly guy — why don’t we see him pawing male staff members, if he is such a warm and naturally touchy-feely dude?

How come he’s not snorting through THEIR hair?

And why is the deciding factor whether the women like it or not?

Decency Works Both Ways

Yes, it’s important to note that the women (and the young girls for that matter) DON’T seem to like it at all.

But let’s also look at it this way:

Let’s say that you’re a guy at a high-level professional government conference or ceremony, which is being filmed nationwide. Now let’s say one of your female colleagues whispers to you something like, “Hey, could you please start vacuuming my hair with your nose and pawing my shoulders?”

Would you do it?

Most likely not.

Why?

Because it’s REALLY weird and inappropriate to do something like that!

It just IS.

Torah Hashkafah Sets the Standard

The above conservative fail (or partial fail, if you will) highlights one of the many brain-straightening aspects of Judaism.

Halacha forbids Jewish men from looking at women, even if she wants to be looked at.

Halacha forbids Jewish men from touching women, even if the woman demands to be touched.

It’s just plain forbidden.

It’s not appropriate. It’s not allowed.

And while the halacha isn’t exactly the same for non-Jews, it’s suffice to say that throughout history and in the vast majority of cultures including and up until today, pawing women and rummaging through their hair with one’s nose was considered inappropriate (at best—I’d like to see someone try this in Saudi Arabia).

Anyway, the point is one of PERSONAL responsibility and PERSONAL decency, regardless of what the other person is doing or saying.

The other person’s response shouldn’t necessarily be the deciding factor for common decency.

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Why Attitude toward Culture Matters

14/4/2019

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When one of my sons was in yeshivah katanah (yeshivah for the high school years), he made friends with the non-Jewish Ethiopian janitor.

The janitor really liked my son because the janitor knew some English and my son was one of the only people in the yeshivah who could speak English, so finally the janitor had someone with whom he could communicate more easily.

The non-Jewish Ethiopian janitor nicknamed my son “the professor” for his English skills.

Once, the Ethiopian janitor expressed bemusement at Israel’s restraint with its enemies.

“I served in the Ethiopian army,” he said. “And when anyone antagonized our leaders, we were ordered to go in and gun everyone down.”

“Everyone,” he explained, meant “teach-a-lesson” massacres.

Without a drop of conscience, Ethiopian soldiers stormed huts and gunned down entire families — including children.

Why? Because these families were associated with some kind of enemy, who needed to be taught a lesson. After not only witnessing but actively participating in such brutality, he found Israel’s concern over not harming too many Jew-haters both bemusing and amusing.

While my son “the professor” was surprised at the janitor’s casual attitude toward mass murder, the truth is that there have been books and reports on this kind of thing for a long time.

Unfortunately, both criminal gangs (like those who kidnap, dismember, or kill albinos for their mythological healing properties) and state military in Africa commit horrific crimes against humanity without a second thought.

American servicemen shooting from helicopters have felt frustrated and appalled by the throngs of African women with a baby in their arms, milling around the battle zone as entertainment.

And this is very normal in that part of the world.

Culture: Rejecting the Bad while Retaining the Good

Needless to say, this doesn’t include all Africans.

As a positive example, an American Thinker article entitled What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump is Right lauds forward-thinking Nigerians who strove to improve their country (but who ultimately could not break through certain cultural practices than obstruct effectiveness in both business and government).

It goes without saying that those forward-thinking pro-active Nigerian innovators should be welcomed into America. Those are the kinds of immigrants who contribute to the progress and success of their adopted country.

And indeed some of these African immigrants or their children have earned awards for their achievements in their adopted country.

Yet those whose continue to embrace cultural practices and values that hurt society should NOT be welcomed.

Please note that I did NOT say that immigrants need to leave every last vestige of their culture at the door.

There are positive aspects in every culture.

However, if a culture’s values and practices prevent ethical government, productive businesses, and basic human rights (like the right to exist and not be murdered), and an immigrant REFUSES to reject those values and practices, then the adopted country will end up having a problem.

How to Create a Positive Association

When I was a child, immigrants tended to be more patriotic, more appreciative, and harder-working than the average American. Despite the need to start from scratch and to prove themselves, along with all the cultural adjustments, they knew they were in a better place and they knew they had better opportunities and they knew their sacrifice was making a better future for their own children.

That was the stereotype I had of immigrants. Pretty positive, right?

But it was positive because of the immigrants themselves, and not because of any brainwashing or shoving rose-colored glasses over my face to distort reality.

Why You Can't Ever Curb a Pereh Congresswoman

In Somalia, for example, the following are normal, unquestionable aspects of life:

A caste system exists (although not as defined and rigid as the one in India). People are divided by clans and loyalty to the clan determines everything.

Within some clans, people’s value is determined according to the color of their skin, with darker-skinned people being given more prestige in ceremonies.

Nearly all Somali girls are forced to endure FGM. This is the norm.

In general, murder and violence are common in Somalia. “Rehabilitation schools” carry out kidnappings and abuse.

In fact, Somalia is so dangerous that the State Travel Advisory suggests that a potential visitor to Somalia do the following:

Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney.
Discuss a plan with loved ones regarding care/custody of children, pets, property, belongings, non-liquid assets (collections, artwork, etc.), funeral wishes, etc.

The presence and acceptability of such violence can easily influence and desensitize its inhabitants (and future immigrants).

Furthermore, a hatred of the West and its values exists in some parts of Somalia. This can also affect the attitudes of Somalis.

In addition, Somali culture is dominated by a religion that has been widely “misinterpreted” (ahem!) by millions of people around the world for several centuries, resulting in the persecution and death of countless victims.

What's more, this religion relegates non-members to a second-class dhimmi status of severely limited rights — by religious law and with the approval of God (or so their misunderstanding goes…) — but shows particular animosity against any kind of Jewish sovereignty, particularly in the Land that their own religion acknowledges as belonging to King David and the Jews.

So if someone comes from Somali culture to your society and is enthusiastic about rejecting racism (like dark-skinned people receiving more privileges than light-skinned people), tribalism, religious discrimination, misogyny, Jew-hatred, and the devaluation of human life…then great!

But if someone from Somali culture ISN'T enthusiastic about rejecting all that, then maybe you have a problem.

And if you decide to vote such a person into Congress, then you might have an even BIGGER problem.

Putting all the above together, we can see why a Muslim-Somali Congresswoman who has clearly NOT rejected the negative aspects of her culture of origin might disdain Jews, despise Israel, and dismiss the mass murder of 9/11 as “some people did something.”

Because for her, such attitudes are not only normal, they’re even laudable.

And all the denouncements in the world aren't going to change her because her values are deeply entrenched (and she receives global accolades from like-minded fans). Plus American publications run by bobble-heads feature her on their cover, despite her anti-American heinousness.

And quite frankly, critical tweets and editorials, plus lectures on the floor of Congress are peanuts in comparison to what she witnessed or experienced in her country of origin.

In other words, you can take her out of power or put her in prison, but you absolutely cannot stop her or change her mind or convince her to conform in any way. Ever.

She's fully indoctrinated against & therefore immune to such namby-pamby methods, something that even the Right doesn't seem to understand.

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The Irony of the Left

12/4/2019

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Leftists are just so wacky and self-contradicting, it's hard to take them seriously.

That's why I left the whole Leftist-Liberal shebang.

For example, Israeli Leftists want to make peace with everybody (including remorseless terrorists) and want to reach compromises with all sorts of people (including remorseless terrorists)...unless, of course, those people are religious Jews.

But the latest irony is that in a country surrounded by some of the most powerful and most bloodthirsty terror organizations in the world, to whom do the Blue-White party heads direct the following threat?:

"Anachnu holchim l'marer et chayeihem - We're going to embitter their lives."

The lives of whom?

Hamas? ISIS? Al-Shabaab? Neo-Nazis? Planned Parenthood?

Nope!

"...l'koalitziyah - the Coalition." (Source)

How peaceful! How mature! How idealistic! How beneficial to the country!

What an amazing set of priorities!

Golly, with the State of Israel surrounded by such entities as they are, and with Jew-hatred on the rise worldwide, it makes perfect sense to target the somewhat right-wing and somewhat religiously influenced government Coalition of Netanyahu and "embitter their lives."

(Just kidding.)

There are enemies whose lives definitely could do with some embittering, but the present Coalition is not one of them.

Baruch Hashem, those ego-manical self-destructive dolts lost.

B'ezrat Hashem, may Hashem have great Mercy on us even if we don't deserve it and make it so that the current leadership won't be too awful. (Because honestly? Bibi isn't actually so much better than his enemies.)

David's Tomb: "And David was successful in all his ways and Hashem was with him." - Shmuel I:18:14

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What is Am Yisrael's Only Real Choice at Election Time?

9/4/2019

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Despite my best efforts to ignore it, Israeli election time is upon us again.

And yet again, despite the wide choice of political parties, I feel there is no one to vote for.

Too bad about Eli Yishai, who is really cut from a different (and much better) cloth of politician.

Anyway, I have one son who makes a decent living and has been offering 200-300 shekels to anyone of us that votes for Likud.

(Not a snowball's chance on Venus of that happening, my son.)

My other kids are in institutions and belong to a society that all benefits from Shas.

The majority of the Sefardi Gedolei Hador say to vote for Shas.

So I considered going with a minority daas Torah which says, don't participate in anything run by this Erev Rav government -- meaning, don't vote at all.

The truth is that whether you vote or not, it doesn't matter. Hashem runs everything and the heart of the ruler is in His Hands. So I don't really sweat elections too much.

Yet when I mistakenly blurted this out to my family, I was met with scandalized faces.

Then my offspring rose up against me (not in a bad way) using their best lomdus-attack skills (though not in a chutzpadik way), awakening me to the realization that I might be setting a bad example by not voting at all when the Gedolim they listen to have said to vote.

My Moroccan-Israeli husband was more good-humored and gentler about encouraging me to vote for Shas. But like me, he also believes in Hashem too solidly to get really worked up about politics.

Then a man who once tutored one of my sons in Gemara called up and made a special plea for us to vote for Shas because Shas pays for him to tutor and all the help he's able to grant struggling 8th-grade boys comes from Shas.

That kind of pre-election plea never happened to us before, so I took it as personal direction from Shamayim.

So if you see a frum lady with sagging shoulders and a grim face dragging herself to the polls on Tuesday, that's me. (Or at least, someone who maybe feels like me...)

But if you want to know what's REALLY in my heart, you can read this Q&A from Toras Avigdor:

Rav Avigdor Miller on Likud versus Labor

Q: What’s the Rav’s opinion of the Likud party versus the Labor party in Israel?

A: I must tell you my sincere opinion, I’m not interested in either of them. There’s only one party for us and that’s the party of those that are shlomei emunei Yisrael. That’s our party. The frum Jews, that’s our party.

The truth is that someday there’ll be a history, there’ll a Tanach written. The Gemara says that: אליהו כותב והקב"ה חותם - “Eliyhau Hanavi is going to write it and Hakodosh Baruch Hu will sign” (Kiddushin 70a). There’s going to be a great Tanach written. And in that Tanach, you’ll look in the back or in the front for references; who is mentioned in this book. Likud? No; no mention of Likud. Nothing! You won't find Teddy Kollek there either. You won't find Ben Gurion. No, nothing is mentioned of them. Nothing at all.

The history of Am Yisroel is being written by the frum Jews.

They’re the ones who make history, frum men and frum women.

Those who are raising families, they’re writing history. A mother brings up a family of sons and daughters, shlomei emunei Yisrael, she has made history and she’ll be in that history book. Yes. Women will be in that history book. Tzadikim and tzidkaniyos, frum men and women, not only gedolei Yisrael.  ויד כל אדם בו – “Everybody’s hand will write in that history book something.”

Every person will someday be in the history book and it’ll be a very well written history. Eliyahu HaNavi knows how to write. And all the tzadikim will be there, but nobody else! Likud, Labor, all of them be left out.

Now some people think it’s not a real Jewish history unless  it mentions also the names of this reformer, of that Zionist, of this other fellow.

No! These are just accidents of history, tragedies and they’ll be left out. Now, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will “take care” of them, don’t worry about that! He won't leave them out from getting what they deserve. He’ll “take care” of them! He has something in store for them! But they won't be in the history book of the Am Yisroel.

In that great Tanach, only the shlomei emunei Yisrael will be inscribed. And it’s very important to be there. That’s why we say: למה נגרע - “Why should we be absent?”  It’s a great tragedy not to be there. למה נגרע. We don’t want to be absent from that book. So make it your business that you should behave in such a way that you’ll be inscribed.

Moshe Rabbeinu was willing to sacrifice everything for the Am Yisroel. He said מחני נא מספרך – “Erase me from Your sefer.” Moshe Rabbeinu was moiser nefesh for the Am Yisroel. “Erase me,” he said. Moshe Rabeinu knew that being erased from the history book of the Jewish People would be the ultimate sacrifice. And Hashem said, “Don’t worry, I won't erase you. You won't be erased. For saying that, I’ll write you in the chumash too.”

And therefore, anybody who wants to be an oheiv amo Yisrael, so he has to love the frum Jews. Amo Yisroel doesn’t mean you love the Jewish nation. No; you love only the frum Jews. That’s a very important lesson. You have to love frum Jews just like Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves them. As much as you can you love amo Yisroel, the frum Jews. And by loving frum Jews, you’ll be inscribed in that sefer too.

TAPE # E-55 (April 1996)

Political parties aside, just as one example: Are you a frum housewife?

And even if you're not a frum housewife ;-), do any of the following apply to you?:

Do you do your best to love the Am that Hashem loves?

Are you sincerely trying to internalize wholehearted Jewish emuna?

Then you're doing more for Am Yisrael & Eretz Yisrael than any politician or political party.

You'll be written up in Eliyahu Hanavi's book and affirmed with Hashem's Stamp.

Why? Because you are the only real "party" there is.

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Enemedia: Who are the People Influencing Our Opinions?

8/4/2019

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My son got into a conversation with some former magavnikim (Mishmar HaGevul, i.e. the Border Police who aren't actually police, but a unit in the IDF) who served during the Second Intifada. (Or the third? There has been so much terror and senseless za'am, I simply can't keep track.)

Anyway, a photographer from a popular Israeli newspaper — let's call it Idiyot Rishonot — approached them and invited them to grab an Arab and beat him up while the photographer took pictures.

Now, they did not grab an Arab innocently on the way to grocery store. They grabbed one out of the stone- and Molotov cocktail-throwers.

Dutifully, they pounded the hapless Jew-hater while the photographer snapped some photos, then the photographer handed them the photos as a souvenir.

This turned my stomach.

Of course, I care not one whit if a pereh adam Jew-hater who screams "Slaughter the Jews!" (and means it) gets beat up, falls off a cliff, or is run over by a truck.

But this relish of violence, this frivolous attitude toward beating another human being -- not out of self-defense, but simply to have a "cool" photograph. And who wants to look at such a photograph?

Seriously.

And the fact that this photojournalist of a prominent newspaper suggested such a thing turns my stomach.

It's such a cavalier & callous attitude. Such a state of desensitization.

Let's whomp someone just for fun!

It's not entertainment.

Anyway, this post follows a previous post (Why You Can't Rely on Journalists for the Truth) that revealed several behind-the-scenes events of different Jewish publications, both frum and not.

It cannot be stated enough:
When you read things in publications and when you see the photos, you usually do not know the middot & mind of the person behind the writing and images.

They make themselves and their publications look convincing and professional.

But they could actually just be snakes with glib tongues and fancy cameras.

Related post on the appealing words of degenerates:
Mishlei 11-9: The Absolutely Charming Path to Destruction

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How My Great Aliyah Disillusion Opened My Eyes to the Social Manipulation

7/4/2019

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When I first made aliyah (before Nefesh B’Nefesh), I was solidly dati leumi/Religious Zionist.

During the one-year program for English-speakers at Bar Ilan University, I ended up spending a lot of time and many Shabboses with dati-leumi people and my friends were dati-leumi Israelis who’d just finished their stint in the army or sherut leumi (national service for girls).

I very much wanted to contribute to my beloved country by diving into sherut leumi.

Before I left Eretz Yisrael, I met with a sherut leumi coordinator (who was very nice) and made loose plans regarding my upcoming aliyah and service with her.

I returned to America and immediately started readying myself for aliyah by shopping and making some money.

But when I met with my region’s aliyah representative, he immediately discouraged me from sherut leumi.

I was dumbstruck.

Everything I’d encountered in Israeli society emphasized the importance of serving your country in some way, whether army service or national service.

Why was a government rep of Medinat Yisrael trying to shove me off?

Instead, he insisted that I go to a Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz.

At that point, I knew enough to know that Hashomer Hatzair was on the extreme anti-religious Left. I argued with him, saying stuff like, “Look at how I’m dressed! I’m religious! Why would you place me with Hashomer Hatzair?”

He just laughed and said that I should go, I’d enjoy it and meet a nice boy and get married and settle down there.

That’s when I realized that he had an ulterior motive to make me a secular socialist Leftist.

I argued with him some more while he smirked and chuckled, then he signed me up for a “religious” kibbutz.

I was crushed and felt helpless.

I so badly wanted to prove my loyalty and patriotism, and become part of Israeli society, but wasn’t allowed to by the very government that always insisted this was sooooo important.

Anyway, to make a long & convoluted story shorter & simpler, I arrived at the kibbutz and had a miserable time. It was barely religious and there were no resources for olim chadashim, even though they technically had an ulpan program supposedly catering to olim chadashim.

But the ulpan only went as high as teaching kindergarten-reading Hebrew and I was stressed out because I desperately needed to improve my Hebrew to get a job.

It was just a miserable, unfriendly place on top of everything else and I wasn’t the only one suffering. In fact, some of the olim (like one from Moscow and another from Iran) suffered much more with absolutely no other option — and no one on the kibbutz cared a whit.

No one cared about you and there were no resources to help you leave the kibbutz for employment or vocational training. I think it was just a money-making scheme where the kibbutz also enjoyed free labor from the olim.

Finally, I “escaped” (and I wasn’t the only one) and ended up at a chareidi seminary for baalei teshuvah, where I became very happy and fulfilled.

Fortunately, that girl from Moscow also made her way to a chareidi seminary for Russian girls, where she found fulfillment, and the Iranian boy also made his way to a yeshivah with a lot of Iranian boys, where he also found fulfillment.

Actually, a lot of the Russian boys on my kibbutz “escaped” to a yeshivah.

And all of us were so much happier in a vibrantly frum learning environment.

So we all had a happy ending, baruch Hashem.

But my point is that many government officials (and journalists) just like to browbeat religious people.

They don’t actually care about you serving the country or “carrying your fair share of the burden.”

They just want you to be soulless live-in-the-moment materialists like themselves.

(By the way, I have other stories of “official” hypocrisy on this subject. I didn’t come to this conclusion based on my one experience. But I’m just using my one experience as an example.)

Anyway, politicians and journalists are very good a whipping up innocent citizens into a frenzy about those who are not serving the country in “official” capacity.

And that’s a terrible rock to wedge between Jews who would otherwise get along quite well together.

May Hashem bring us together in genuine achvah under the canopy of Torah.

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Mishlei 11-9: The Absolutely Charming Path to Destruction

5/4/2019

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Mr. Cohen has left comments with quotes from the Vilna Gaon on Mishlei/Proverbs on a couple of posts. (See HERE, for example.) And the Vilna Gaon’s commentary on Mishlei 11:9 really caught my eye.

So I decided to zoom in for a closer look and it proved once again how eternal the Torah's insights are for us.

(Thanks for bringing it to attention, Mr. Cohen.)

Take a look:

ט בְּפֶה חָנֵף יַשְׁחִת רֵעֵהוּ; וּבְדַעַת, צַדִּיקִים יֵחָלֵצוּ

B’peh chanef yashchit re’ehu; uvda’at tzaddikim yechaletzu.

9 With his mouth the hypocrite destroys his fellow; but through knowledge shall the righteous be delivered.

First of all, the prohibition of chanifah (often translated as “flattery”) consists of praising deeds or people that are wrong.

That’s chanifah in a nutshell.

So a chanef is a person who commits chanifah.

Personally, I consider chanifah to be hypocrisy more than flattery because you could be flattering someone by gushing about something true. Yet chanifah means that you know that the person or deeds are bad, yet you are basically telling this person that he’s doing just fine.

Furthermore, Malbim defines a chanef as "his inside is unlike his outside; he won’t perpetrate evil openly."

That's a hypocrite.

Anyway, here is my translation of the Vilna Gaon’s commentary on this verse:

With his mouth the hypocrite destroys his fellow — “mashchit/destroy for no reason” is considered a transgression that occurs between a person and God, like they [Brachot 5b] said: “that he destroyed Yisrael for their Father in Heaven.”

And as is said [Mishlei 6:32]: “One who is no’ef a married woman lacks a heart; he destroys his soul — he will do it.”

Note: “Lacks a heart” means that such a person lacks sense.

It is a senseless act because, according to Rashi, it’s not like he was hungry or something & couldn’t stop himself from stealing what didn’t belong to him.

There’s just no excuse to be no’ef; it’s a senseless act that fulfills no real need.

Likewise, Malbim defines a mashchit as someone who "wants to destroy for no reason."

Senseless. No reason. Irrational.

There's a theme here...

The Vilna Gaon continues:

And he who comes to lead astray (l'hadiach) does so with a peh chanef — a hypocritical mouth. For without that, it’s impossible to lead astray.

And therefore, the majority of heretics are good-natured because he even steals the heart of his "friend," and destroys him and leads him astray from the good path.

And that is b’peh chanef — by means of the mouth, the hypocrite will destroy even his “friend.”

...uvda’at tzaddikim yechaletzu — Only the tzaddikim who always toil in the mitzvot of Hashem and know the ways of Hashem — only they will recognize his enticements, that his words turn away from the words of Hashem and they understand that whoever speaks “good words” is a chanef and understanding this, they will be delivered.

"Good words" — words that SOUND good. Appealing words.

And again, if one's "heart" is also synonymous with one's sense and discernment, then the above-mentioned "steals even the heart of his friend" means to completely deceive someone, which destroys that person who considers him a friend, God forbid.

Modern Examples of Harmonious Hypocrites

Look at how much we can learn just from one commentary on one verse of Mishlei.

We see it so clearly today.

Remember how incredibly appealing Obama was?

Or Bill Clinton?

In fact, it’s still hard to emotionally accept the brutal things Wild Bill has done to women despite copious & corroborative testimony. Sure, it’s easy to accept President Affable as an unfaithful dandy. That fits. But the more brutal stuff is very hard to see with his affable personality. Yet the evidence is undeniably against him.

Or look at the Leftist leaders in Eretz Yisrael, who are so full of hatred and disdain for anyone who is not exactly like them, yet convince so many people that they actually care — and that they even know how to fix stuff.

(I mean, do you really want someone who thinks that his time as a B'Machaneh propaganda writer qualifies as "military service" leading your country and making life-and-death decisions regarding national security? Of course not. Yet he has obviously convinced many people that this is a great idea.)

And while this blog has already covered the terrible character of feminist leaders, I didn’t even say everything because I’m always deliberating how much to expose because we already hear so much dirt.

But in addition to being really horrible in general and abusive to their own children, feminist leaders also tend to be just plain bizarre and disgusting.

I mean, let’s take the award-winning novelist & poet who REGULARLY preferred to wet herself in her luxury living room in front of her daughter rather than get off the phone and go to the bathroom — she’s the feminist icon and selected as one of America's Top 100 most beautiful & intelligent women?

Intelligent, eh. Seriously?

They are such bizarre and revolting people, yet they influence minds and policies.

Why? Because as the Vilna Gaon said, most of them are “tovim b’teva—good-natured.”

They’re appealing.

And yet they are so awful, they even destroy their “friend.” Or child too, I guess.

Ugh.

So what’s the solution?

Our Top-Notch Interpreters

Who is qualified to see through the chanef’s charm and to read between the lines of the chanef’s “good” words and appealing nature?

The tzaddik who always toils in the mitzvot of Hashem and knows the ways of Hashem.

Please note that the Vilna Gaon did not say “your local rabbi” or “your favorite speaker” or “the editorial section of your favorite publication" or “your parents” or “your husband” or anything like that—unless, of course, your rabbi/speaker/whoever is indeed a tzaddik who always toils in the mitzvot of Hashem and knows the ways of Hashem.

(The exception, of course, is if your rabbi/speaker/whoever ACCURATELY quotes a tzaddik who always toils in the mitzvot of Hashem and knows the ways of Hashem. But then you’re not relying on that person as the source, but as a faithful messenger of the real source.)

And even if you’re not a tzaddik yourself, my guess is that the more you occupy yourself with Hashem’s mitzvot and learn the ways of Hashem, the more successfully you too can see through all the twisty charm, the seemingly “good” words and catch on to the enticements and destructive ideas that lie in ambush behind all the allure.

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Looking Back on the Cracks in the Liberal Façade

24/3/2019

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It’s funny to look back and see how Hashem inserted events into your life to provide an opening for later opportunities & better ideologies.

For example, I grew up very liberal. My parents were dedicated Democrats and I was very influenced by the surrounding culture, which comprised a constant drip-infusion of secular Leftism.

And you could not detach yourself from the unending drip of:

newspapers with their exhortative editorials, their witty & (seemingly) sensible advice columns, and comics with a definite liberal slant (except for Family Circus);
TV & movies with their fine-tuned brainwashing in favor of secularism, paganism, degeneracy, & hedonism;
books written by enthusiasts of either secular liberalism or Westernized paganism;
university classes taught by only Leftist professors
the non-Orthodox Jewish community that embraced liberalism as their religion and tried to weave that into their Judaism (with disastrous results which they refuse to acknowledge to this day);

My situation should have been hopeless.

But like I said, Hashem inserted several cracks in the liberal façade along the way.

The "Crazy" Neighbor Down the Street

For example, an elderly but spry neighbor down the street sported an anti-UN bumper sticker on his car and voted Republican (gasp!). We laughed about him, calling him crazy—even though he clearly wasn’t crazy. He was a friendly & successful guy, both in his economic life & his personal life...something genuinely crazy people don’t usually achieve.

And even though I disdained him as a child, his bumpersticker at least introduced me to the idea that something might actually be wrong with the UN. It always seemed like an unquestionably good & necessary entity—sort of like the American Constitution.

If you grow up in an ideologically homogeneous society, it may never even occur to you that something could possibly be faulty or even wrong—even if it obviously is.

Now, of course, I think that neighbor was right on the money.

Too bad I never thought to ask him for his side of things. I think he would have been happy to explain things to me.

And I would've learned something.

The Boycott that Fizzled Out

Likewise, I passionately opposed racism and felt that all problems in the black community stemmed from white racism.

I even boycotted Coca-Cola for a while, writing them a letter of protest for their involvement in the then apartheid of South Africa. In reply, Coca-Cola sent me a copy of a letter from the obviously black Desmond Tutu, who praised Coca-Cola.

Included were also large shiny booklets featuring laughing black South Africans in Coca-Cola’s clean & brightly lit factory. They were even enjoying free cans of Coca-Cola on their break.

The accompanying text assured me that Coca-Cola provided employment for masses of black South Africans, enabling them to achieve a living standard they could never otherwise enjoy.

I realized that it might all be propaganda, but there was no way for me to know for sure.

It also taught me that these things aren’t so clear-cut as small yet zealous minds would have you think.

And thus ended my boycott.

Who's the Real Racist?

Then I met a sad Italian boy who attended a predominantly black school in the 1980s.

He was bullied there simply for the color of his skin and even drop-kicked in the back of the head walking down the hallway.

He told of a home life where he and his only brother were completely ignored by their parents.

“They only like each other, not us,” he said.

This extended as far as his mother making dinner for her and their father in the evening, and sitting down to eat—without the kids. He said that he and his brother tried to get their attention—including beating each other up to see if their parents would intervene or even look in their direction, but their parents never did.

Joe's words painted an image of him and his younger brother gazing at their parents as the parents sat eating at the dining room table in full view of their children.

So there he was, completely ignored at home and could not walk down a hallway or eat lunch without fearing a racist assault—with no one to stand up for him. Ever.

I very much wanted to believe that it was only that the black bullies needed more love and understanding, and that racism only worked one way.

But I couldn’t deny Joe’s side of the story or the sadness that never left his eyes.

Obviously, a white kid attending public school in the inner city is certainly not more “privileged” than the non-white kids attending the same school; the student population is drawn from the same neighborhoods. Furthermore, he was Italian. How many Italians owned black slaves in the South or enabled racism at the institutional level prior to the “Civil” Rights movement?

Finally, it's very likely that Joe ended up experiencing much more racism--and more aggressive racism--for being white than his aggressors ever experienced for being black.

In other words, all the liberal justifications for bullying & racist behavior against a non-minority (although he was a minority within his school) just didn’t hold water.

Irony of Ironies

Throughout high school, I had a teacher who’d escaped Germany at the age of 2 with her mother.

And no, they weren’t Jewish. Her Aryan father stood up to the Nazis and as a result, they dragged him off to Auschwitz, where he died.

Because of this, I felt an affinity with her.

At that time, however, I did not know that merely opposing Nazism did not automatically mean one opposed the Shoah. After all, Russian and Polish partisans vehemently fought the Nazis, even as they either ignored or actively participated in Jewish persecution.

Also, the first people dragged off to and murdered at the death camps were mostly non-Jewish political opponents of the Nationalsozialisten (AKA the Nazis). The Jewish annihilation came later.

So it could be that her father just didn’t like socialism. Or totalitarianism.

Or maybe he preferred Communism to Nazi Socialism.

On the other hand, the underground White Rose society of Germany definitely opposed the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

So who knows?

But based on my limited knowledge at that time, her father’s fate caused me to feel an affinity for her. And aside from that, she was an excellent teacher and one of my favorites in high school.

She was intelligent, straight-forward, and used her dry wit with a lot of skill.

And one story she told never left me.

When she first graduated with her degree in teaching, good jobs weren’t available for young & inexperienced teachers.

The only openings were in inner-city schools where no one wanted to teach. From there, you could work your way up to more desirable locations.

She related how her first teaching job was so dangerous that police patrolled the hallways and teachers taught from within a locked glass booth at the front of the classroom. If a student acted up, the teacher simply pressed a button in the booth and a policeman (what, not a policewoman??!!) came in and removed the problematic student.

Yet 100% protection was impossible. Getting to and from the classroom, plus lunch breaks, required teachers to leave the booths.

“I was thrown down a flight of stairs,” she once stated, “simply because I was white.”

And again, it was hard for me to blame white racism on such behavior.

It also offended my sense of fairness to hear that the once-little girl forced to escape Nazi Germany, the daughter whose father was murdered in Auschwitz for opposing genocidal proponents of a "master race," was assaulted for her race.

And it was also hard to ignore the question of who’d really suffered more discrimination in life.

And like Joe's tormentors, the student who attacked her likely grew up and interacted with only other people of his race. Where would he have had the opportunity to experience any racism?

Had a white person ever sent him flying down a flight of stairs?

In fact, had a white person ever aggressed him in anyway? (Hard to imagine, given the circumstances.)

Even if he’d experienced wary non-black storekeepers or non-black women who moved their purses out of reach as he passed them, it likely happened because of his gang-dress & mannerisms rather than the color of his skin. (And that’s if he experienced such things. He may not have, unless he'd left his neighborhood.)

But what about her, growing up in America with a mother who spoke in the enemy’s accent during WWII and after?

And what was it like growing up as a half-orphan, knowing what had happened to her father?

Her father died fighting an overwhelming force of some of the most brutal and bloodthirsty racists of the 20th Century—yet she was assaulted because of her own race?

I’m sure the irony wasn’t lost on her.

It wasn’t lost on me either.

The Torah is Right Yet Again!

Judaism is all about compassion.

But the Torah also states “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof—Justice, justice you shall pursue.”

And abusing or discriminating against people simply for the amount of melanin in their skin is never just—no matter what their race or the race of their abuser.

It's not compassionate either.

Try explaining that to today’s liberals & social “justice” warriors.

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How to Identify & Overcome the Amalekite Conspiracy

13/3/2019

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In Shemot 17:8 ("And Amalek came and battled with Yisrael in Refidim"), the Kli Yakar mentions the nefarious plot of Amalek:

And “Amalek came” to add spiritual impurity upon their [Am Yisrael’s] spiritual impurity by means of mishkav zachur as is written [Devarim 25:18] “asher karcha baderech — when they encountered you on the way.”

And all this it did in order to completely remove Hashem from upon them because His Blessed Holiness can only exist in a place where there is a fence against immorality…and they also had no rescue via natural means, like when a man assists his fellow…

According to our Sages, the word “karcha” has several implications:

occurred
happened
became cold
wasted seed

The Kli Yakar doesn’t detail further exactly how Amalek infiltrated male-male relations into Am Yisrael, but he does explain at length how the initial breach — the tumah of strife — created an opening for Amalek’s nefarious plan.

(You can learn more about Amalek exploiting our spiritual breaches in the Kli Yakar on Parshat Vayishlach.)

Unwanted Strife

In today’s Jewish world, the only Jews really striving for peace are Orthodox Jews —though not all of them.

Having been Conservative surrounded by a lot of Reform and very assimilated at times, then Modern Orthodox and Dati-Leumi, then chareidi Litvish BT to Sephardi chareidi (with a thing for Breslov) now, I can tell you that the only Jews who really strive to connect positively with all Jews — including those who are not like them and even reject them — are Orthodox Jews (though not all of them).

Maybe once (in a book) did I ever hear a non-Orthodox Jew describe Orthodox Jews with anywhere near the same understanding and compassion with which many Orthodox Jews describe non-Orthodox Jews. (I’m not saying that such non-Orthodox Jews do not exist. I’m saying that I did not encounter them, whether personally or even in a magazine article — except for a couple of passages in one thick book.)

In fact, many Orthodox Jews can be even more sympathetic & generous-minded toward their non-religious fellows than toward their religious fellows.

And Amalek has seized on this division, even though the connection between interpersonal strife and mishkav zachur is difficult to make.

The Ancient & Dark Roots of Today's Movements

I guess mishkav zachur is a particularly nasty way to cut down Am Yisrael with immorality.

The Kli Yakar emphasizes that the strife removes natural protection from us while the immorality removes spiritual protection from us.

This is why we are seeing such massive push for acceptance of mishkav zachur in our times. Even some frum Jews have adopted an embracing attitude.

Note: I don’t criticize the fact that someone has this taavah. I oppose acceptance of mishkav zachur as a perfectly decent & legitimate lifestyle—it’s like saying that other serious Torah prohibitions, like baseless character assassination or chilul Shabbat or stealing or murder, are totally legitimate lifestyle choices that can find leniency within the Torah.

Please see What of a "Lashon Hara Pride" Movement? for one analogy of that.

It’s no coincidence that as Germany’s Jews made strife against their fellow frum Jews (including outright disdain of ostjuden — their fellow Jews in Poland, etc.) that Berlin became the mishkav zachur capital of the world prior to World War II, with some assimilated anti-Torah Jews falling under that Amalekite influence and fighting for mishkav zachur acceptance in German society & law.

(Please see It's Berlin All Over Again for more.)

Furthermore, the current movement in favor of transitioning gender identity touted as “unprecendented!” actually has roots in ancient Mesopotamia.

Archaeologists discovered a hymn by a Sumerian priestess (circa 2300 BCE) from Avraham Avinu’s hometown of Ur, who boasted of her occult ability to have successfully “changed men into women!”

(Please see Why, This Reminds Me of Ancient Mesopotamia! & If the Torah is So Adamant, Then That Must Mean Something: Why Polytheism Really is So Awful for more on that topic.)

Clearly, all this mishkav zachur and gender identity confusion has roots in ancient dark spiritual systems.

It’s all kochot hatumah & avodah zarah — and it’s not new at all.

And they are trying to push mishkav zachur acceptance into Eretz Yisrael.

This is all an AMALEKITE STRATEGY to DESTROY AM YISRAEL.

Fighting Amalek as a Small, Powerless Person

Because the promoters of toeva orientations whomp everyone over the head with the club of "compassion," those with the correct moral & ethical attitudes are made to feel uncompassionate, cruel, insensitive, and ignorant.

That's why it is so important to remember that the acceptance of toeva lifestyles is an Amalekite strategy for destruction and not a real movement for compassion or social "progress."

So what is the regular powerless person supposed to do about it?

As a frum person who has worked in kiruv and was even a rebbetzin for a blessedly short while, I realize that I cannot convince Jews committed to anti-Torah ideologies (Reform, socialism, communism, feminism, Leftism, etc.) not to make strife. (Some frum people can — sometimes. But I discovered that I personally cannot.)

However, as a frum person, I can:

work on not making strife with my husband or my neighbors.
foster harmonious sibling relationships among my children
be careful of my attitude toward different yet Torah-true groups of Jews
give tzedakah to precious Jews with whom I don’t share the exact same hashkafah (like Chabad or the Gush Katif kallahs)
strive to judge favorably
see a positive attribute in even the yuckiest Jew
forgive those who hurt me in some way
struggle to overcome a grudge
I can pray positively to Hashem on behalf of all Jews.

I can do my part.

We all can.

It’s the only way to really fight Amalek.

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Peeling Off Esav's Mask of Deception

5/3/2019

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Ever since I learned of it, the concept of Esav as the blueprint for Edom (the Anglo cultures today) has fascinated me.

Essentially, the pig symbolizes Esav/Edom. Though a pig looks kosher on the outside with its cloven hoof, its non-cud-chewing interior establishes the pig as 100% treif.

And as has been written on this blog already, we see this conflicting Edomite duality in dozens of different ways.

Feminist Fascism

The feminist movement portrays itself as the best thing for women, girls — and thus, for the entire world.

Yet modern feminism perpetuated an assault on everything feminine, pressuring women to act like and dress like men.

No, correction.

Feminism pressures women to act like BAD men, not normal men: love-‘em-‘n’-leave-‘em rogues, bullies, cold-hearted snakes, ambitious climbers, power-obsessed magnates, foul-mouthed aggressors, faithless spouses & absent parents — these are what feminist hate about men, yet idealize when expressed in women.

Rebecca Walker suffered as a biracial child with no support from her black mother. Rebecca's father was Jewish, making her identity issues even thornier. Neither parent ever gave her support or empathy. In addition, Rebecca's world-famous feminist mother was just awful throughout Rebecca's childhood.

Then at one point, Rebecca's mother even publicly proclaimed her daughter’s birth to be “a calamity.”

The personal deprivation and then this public condemnation simply for existing understandably devastated Rebecca Walker.

Yet despite her mother’s psychopathic self-absorption (psychopaths think pain is only bad when it happens to them; they're fine when it happens to others), this feminist icon is still held up as a black feminist role model simply because she writes well, with both a novel & a movie based on that novel considered as some of the greatest in literature and film.

Ariel Leve's feminist-writer mother peaked before my time, so I never heard of her until I heard of Ariel.

But in her time, she was hoisted up on the pedestal of super-feminism simply for her poetry and novel-writing skills, then declared by magazines to be one of the most intelligent women and one of the most beautiful women.

Hosting parties in her elegant Manhattan penthouse for other literary elites, she gushed about Ariel being “my daughter, my best friend, my roommate!” while newspapers and magazines admired the way she filled Ariel's room with "books, stuffed toys" and "little poems her mother wrote to make table manners and other chores more palatable.” [People magazine, 1976]

How peachy!

But again, the truth was very different. Ariel recalls coming out of her bedroom in tears as she begged these artistic geniuses to turn down the music as it was a school night and she needed her sleep.

Not only did these literary social critics and social justice warriors ignore the pleas of the exhausted 12-year-old, they even entered her bedroom as an extension of the party and Ariel’s mother also burst in for spur-of-the-moment poetry readings.

A 2016 Guardian article quotes Ariel: “...works of art excused misconduct. Narcissism flourished. Bad behavior was indulged.”

Another prominent feminist friend of her mother offered Ariel a lit cigarette to smoke — when she was five. You’ve come a long way, baby!

Ariel has since described a childhood of physical and emotional abuse, gaslighting, and “games” invented by Sandra that were so bizarre and depraved, I’m flabbergasted how anyone would think up such a thing.

Moira Greyland's story is most disturbing. It's also corroborated by her brother, Patrick.

Though I was never a fantasy reader (except for Harry Potter and the Oz series, of course), I always saw their mother's name scrawled prominently across her novels in the promotional displays in every book store, in addition to seeing her books in many homes.

One of her fantasy series has remained a best-seller for decades and she created a popular fantasy magazine that gave many successful fantasy writers their start.

She was particularly encouraging of female writers in this formerly male-dominated genre.

She was also a feminist icon, plus attracted to her own gender to boot. Oddly, she married a man attracted to his own gender too.

Yet despite how outstanding she looked on paper, hints to her hidden monstrousness leaked out.

People who dealt with her personally sometimes found themselves on the receiving end of a verbal onslaught — including fans & novice writers who approached her at writing conventions.

Some readers found disturbingly sick elements in her oh-so popular series. "What kind of person would write something like that?" they wondered.

Finally, Moira worked up the courage to speak out. She also called the police on her father, whom she caught abusing another child.

Nauseatingly, both of Moira's parents also preyed on children.

And I won’t go any further than that, but their daughter has a truly heartbreaking story to tell of her upbringing (which included being trafficked by her own mother to other deplorables and a murder attempt by her mother).

Raised by utterly depraved soulless parents, Moira managed to escape her torment and is today a conservative Christian opera singer and harpist who is married and seems happy, though she says she struggles daily with PTSD.

Based on her experiences and those of others raised by depraved parents, Moira speaks out against the social push for toeva couples to raise children, occultism and paganism, and other immorality.

Many people do not know the real persona of their feminist icons, but even those who do often sputter incoherently about “the need to separate the artist from her art.”

Needless to say, despite the #metoo movement and society’s calls for justice and protecting children and exposing abusers, no one wants to hear what Rebecca Walker has to say and Moira Greyland has also met with resistance (despite court testimony and other evidence as corroboration). Ariel Leve's mother is no longer popular or iconic, so her exposé has found quite a charitable reception.

“Works of art excused misconduct.”

Couldn’t have said it better.

Note: What's chilling about the soullessness of literary superstars is that they have had and continue to have such a profound influence on culture and mentality.

Yes, the way we think is also shaped by movies & TV (some of which are based on these books).

But who can remain unaffected by the insidious influence permeating all the compelling articles & books written by volatile depraved narcissists who wish to both validate & promote their own depravity & self-indulgence?

Amish Angst

Who doesn’t adore the Amish?

Wholesome and appealing as shoofly pie and homemade ice cream, the Amish represent the nostalgic America of the 19th Century.

One of my favorite non-fiction books is written by a midwife who worked extensively with the Amish in Pennsylvania. Published in 1983, A Midwife's Story presents a compelling portrayal of her Amish neighbors and clients.

She presents the good and the bad, but she mostly views the Amish in a positive light.

Sure, I did wonder about the seemingly high rate of mentally disabling rare genetic diseases mentioned in the book (“Of the thirty-six children on the roll call, three quarters were named Stoltzfus” was my first clue as to why) and I also wondered why they went off the derech at such a high rate if Amish life was so heavenly. (Over 20% of Amish were leaving the fold at the time of the book’s writing.)

Over time, more ex-Amish started speaking up. For example, what the book described as “Amish women dearly loved news of others families” is described as oppressive gossiping and tale-bearing by those who’ve left.

The Amish tradition of Rumspringa (“running around”) kicks in at the age of sixteen and allows Amish youth to experience non-Amish life to enable them the free choice to decide whether to get baptized and join their church.

In 1983, Rumspringa consisted of Amish teens getting together in gangs with names like “Antiques” and “Luckies” and singing in somebody’s barn.

Girls wore a decorative stitch on the cuffs of their sleeves and the boys “might wear wristwatches, drink beer and — in extreme and serious cases — find musicians with plug-in guitars.”

Some Amish boys even managed to buy cars, which they kept in neighboring non-Amish towns.

Yet today’s Amish Rumspringa often consists of girls in heavy makeup and jeans with boys in rapper clothing and all of them completely inebriated and holding smartphones.

(Also, as a frum Jew, it surprised me to read of the total lack of shomer negiah in what looks like a very religious community.)

And despite the portrayal of the Amish has close to nature and respectful of animals, reports show the Amish working their animals to death and perpetuating puppy mills in miserable conditions.

Despite the impression of deep faith, many Amish orders discourage their constituents from studying the Bible (a superficial reading is okay, but actually studying it is not—although many orders also forbid reading an English translation at all and instead permit only Martin Luther’s 400-year-old High German translation, which lacks accuracy and is not understood by most Amish, who speak Pennsylvania Dutch).

The Amish belief system also discourages a personal relationship with God. The church elders tell them what God wants from them and for them.

Those who know the Amish report that suicide is double that of the general American rate, but the suicides are often reported as accidents — even when a suicide note is left behind.

Needless to say, not all Amish run amok during Rumspringa nor do they all abuse animals or suffer depression or abuse each other.

And even the ex-Amish express fondness over certain aspects of their Amish upbringing.

However, abuse runs rampant in Amish families and churches.

And when the former Amish leave and look for the support and validation so enthusiastically promoted in the secular world, they face rejection.

Accused of being “bitter” and their testimonies nitpicked for inconsistencies, the ex-Amish quickly learn that most people don’t want to hear the truth about a culture idealized in the American mind as gentle, charmingly quaint, and enviously wholesome.

This resistance even extends to the police, social services, shelters, and American justice system, making it even harder for Amish victims to get help and put Amish perps where they belong (in prison).

Handmade furniture, organic food, sweet bonnets, and gentle religiosity…please don’t wake us up from our Amish fantasy!

Note: It’s interesting that frum Jews are castigated for exactly what the Amish are romanticized: being ruled by their religious leaders, cleaving to traditions, rejecting the modern world, rejecting aspects of technology, wary of secular education (Amish schooling only lasts until 8th grade) and isolating their communities from outsiders.

That's all totally awesome when you're Amish, but inexcusable if you're Jewish?

Hmm...

The Secret Darkness of Facebook

The more layers you peel away from Facebook, the worse it gets.

Most people know that there are human moderators behind Facebook’s moderation policies.

What most people don’t know is that these human moderators must look at some truly disturbing stuff in order to block it.

Hour by hour & day by day, they read posts full of hatred and venom, along with watching murders and other horrors.

Not surprisingly, these moderators have a high turnover rate. Most people can’t last long in the job and those who leave often suffer severe PTSD afterwards.

Those who stick it out find themselves negatively influenced by their viewing material.

Some moderators have become Holocaust-deniers while racist “humor” becomes popular at work. Some moderators smoke marijuana on their breaks (it’s legal in Arizona now) and then moderate the posts while stoned.

For reasons I wasn’t able to understand, many current moderators fear their ex-colleagues, claiming that these former moderators could return and harm or even kill the current moderators. Why? I'm really not sure. But one moderator even carries a gun to work to protect himself from this possibility.

Facebook offers little support or counseling to protect their moderators’ mental health. (Although I’m not sure how any kind of counseling can help a person who consistently watches someone screaming as they are murdered on a video uploaded by a drug cartel.)

Moderators receive low salaries with few perks. There’s also a definite “Big Brother” environment, with their every move tracked and moderators asked not to use the bathroom (outside of designated bathroom breaks) or pray on their breaks.

It's not so social, this social media, is it?

No Such Thing as a Kosher Pig

So there you have it.

"I'm sooooo kosher," says the pig. "I mean, FABULOUSLY kosher. Just look at my perfectly split hoof! And I've got lots of meat at a great price! What do you need beef or lamb for?"

But inside? Treif, treif, treif. (Not to mention all the garbage they eat.)

"Be connected. Be discovered. Be on Facebook."

Be traumatized. Be suicidal. Become a psychopath!

*

And a lifestyle romanticized as pure, wholesome, innocent, gentle, and healthy actually isn't.

And that which promised females rights & freedoms has done more to violate, abuse, and even kill females.

Oink, oink.

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Conservatism Not Quite Up to Par

Conservatives are having the Wrong Discussion

Decency Works Both Ways

Torah Hashkafah Sets the Standard

Culture: Rejecting the Bad while Retaining the Good

How to Create a Positive Association

Why You Can't Ever Curb a Pereh Congresswoman

​ט בְּפֶה חָנֵף יַשְׁחִת רֵעֵהוּ; וּבְדַעַת, צַדִּיקִים יֵחָלֵצוּ

B’peh chanef yashchit re’ehu; uvda’at tzaddikim yechaletzu.​9 With his mouth the hypocrite destroys his fellow; but through knowledge shall the righteous be delivered.

Modern Examples of Harmonious Hypocrites

Our Top-Notch Interpreters

The "Crazy" Neighbor Down the Street

The Boycott that Fizzled Out

Who's the Real Racist?

Irony of Ironies

The Torah is Right Yet Again!

Unwanted Strife

The Ancient & Dark Roots of Today's Movements

Fighting Amalek as a Small, Powerless Person

​Feminist Fascism

Amish Angst

​The Secret Darkness of Facebook

No Such Thing as a Kosher Pig

Myrtle Rising

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ט בְּפֶה חָנֵף יַשְׁחִת רֵעֵהוּ; וּבְדַעַת, צַדִּיקִים יֵחָלֵצוּ

B’peh chanef yashchit re’ehu; uvda’at tzaddikim yechaletzu.

9 With his mouth the hypocrite destroys his fellow; but through knowledge shall the righteous be delivered.

Feminist Fascism

The Secret Darkness of Facebook