Eighth Day: Lubavitch Rebbe Tried To Bring Bobby Nazi Fischer Back To Judaism

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Chess Prodigy Bobby Fischer Versus The Rebbe

http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/121737/bobby-fischer-vs-the-rebbe

Yimach shemo vezichro to the Judenrat satanic fiend Bobby Fischer, truly one of the most evil Jews who has ever lived. 


LSDBR

[muman613]

I have not heard about this but on the surface it seems to me a noble thing the Rebbe did. Unfortunately I would not have the ahavat yisrael to ever even speak to such an evil ex-Jew.

[muman613]

It is odd that this should be the story you post for 'the eighth day'. I recently donated to my community for the Sefer Torah writing and the portion I sponsored is called 'Shemini' meaning 'On the eighth day'.

[muman613]

In another strange twist of fate it has been told (according to my memory of my youth) that one of my relatives actually dated 'Bobby Fischer' and I remember when I was young having a book on Chess which was signed by 'Bobby Fischer'. But my memory may be hazy about it. I do remember the chess book.

[Zelhar]

He might have been mentally incapable of discerning between reality and delusions and so between right and wrong.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

He might have been mentally incapable of discerning between reality and delusions and so between right and wrong.

Mental illness isn't an excuse with Hashem. Look at Nebuchadnezzar, the Stalin of the Tanach.

[muman613]

Mental illness isn't an excuse with Hashem. Look at Nebuchadnezzar, the Stalin of the Tanach.

Hashem makes people with mental illness, as a challenge for their soul. They are judged somewhat differently because they have been dealt a problem which affects their ability to process facts and to live a normal life. Their suffering is rewarded (as all suffering in this world is a rectification of past transgression) and their challenge is calculated into their judgement. But of course there is no excuse for transgression, every sin is counted, every positive commandment is counted, and a reckoning is made.

http://www.jewishanswers.org/ask-the-rabbi-date/2012/03/?p=4000

Is Mental Illness a Punishment?

Question: Did G-d punish me with schizophrenia?

Answer: What a fascinating question. I had never thought of considering schizophrenia as a punishment. I had always assumed that schizophrenia was and is the challenge that is meant to mold a person to become the special and unique person that he or she is meant to be. In what way would such a challenge, which is designed to shape the person, be a punishment? If we were to view schizophrenia as a punishment then we would have to view every challenge that way, and surely we could then ask what would be accomplished by all those punishments?

The loving G-d has made you as He wishes and loves you exactly as his only child. Work with the material that he has given you to develop into the person who can be close to Father forever.

With brochos,
Rabbi Becker

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Pharaoh wasn't just hardened for no reason. It was a final punishment to lock him into damnation after years upon years of stubborn evilness. The same is true of Nebuchadnezzar. Even if Zelhar is right that Fischer ultimately went so insane he was not accountable for his actions, it took many years of deliberate wallowing in hatred for him to get to that point and he was most certainly judged to the fullest for it.

[muman613]

Pharaoh wasn't just hardened for no reason. It was a final punishment to lock him into damnation after years upon years of stubborn evilness. The same is true of Nebuchadnezzar. Even if Zelhar is right that Fischer ultimately went so insane he was not accountable for his actions, it took many years of deliberate wallowing in hatred for him to get to that point and he was most certainly judged to the fullest for it.

We are veering off the OT... But concerning the hardening of Pharoahs heart... It was done in order to preserve Pharoahs freewill.

http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/139/Q2/

David T. Subar wrote:

    The Parsha refers to Hashem hardening Pharaoh's heart, and therefore not letting our people free. This hardening caused further plagues, including slaying of the first born. Therefore, Hashem's action (hardening of Pharaoh's heart) led to unnecessary suffering, since Pharaoh was of the mind to free the Jews. How is this explained by the Sages?

Dear David T. Subar,

Great question! Here are two answers:

The extra plagues weren't a punishment for Pharaoh's stubbornness; rather, they were punishment for previous actions, such as oppressing innocent people, throwing babies in the river and attempted genocide. All these actions were done with free will.

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart was merely a pretext, so to speak, for the timing of Egypt's punishment. It was timed so as to impress indelibly and historically upon the collective consciousness of the Jewish People that Hashem controls everything. But Pharaoh and company got only what they deserved, based on their previous bad deeds.

Here's another answer: Really, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart wasn't taking away his free will. Just the opposite! The plagues had taken away Pharaoh's free will (in the opposite direction) by making Hashem's existence too obvious. By hardening his heart, Hashem was merely restoring Pharaoh's free will to the point it had been prior to the plagues.

That is, Hashem didn't force Pharaoh to say "No." He simply gave Pharaoh the opportunity to do so. Nothing but his own stubbornness stopped Pharaoh from repenting.

Sources:

    Ramban, Exodus 7:3 citing Medrash Rabbah
    Sforno, Exodus7:3

[muman613]

More on Pharoahs hardened heart...
http://www.jewishanswers.org/ask-the-rabbi-1136/pharoahs-hardened-heart-and-free-will/?p=1136

Pharoah’s Hardened Heart and Free Will

Why did G-d harden Pharaoh’s heart? Are we to take this literally—that G-d effectively cancelled Pharaoh’s free will and made him nothing more than a puppet in the exodus of our people. Or, more likely, are we to interpret this “hardening” symbolically in that we deceive ourselves into thinking that whether for good or evil we act independantly of the hand of G-d. in other words, we are faced with something of a paradox: we act with free will which is a gift from G-d, but at the same time, it is impossible to act independantly in a world within which every breath depends on the creator’s active involvement.

Hi! Thank you for your interesting question. It seems to me that there are various opinions and various ways to approach the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. I’ll mention a couple.

The Rambam says very clearly that he understands that Pharaoh had no free will at all in the matter. Because of all the cruelty that he and his people had done to the Jewish nation, they were turned into being nothing more than tools in G-d’s plan to show his love for his people, and to demonstrate his absolute rulership over the world, and even over people’s thoughts. Yisroel was to be redeemed, with tremendous miracles and divine providence, and Egypt was the helpless vehicle for that demonstration. Don’t feel sorry for them, says the Rambam, they deserved it for what they’d done before.

The Ramban disagrees. He says that Pharaoh did not lose his free will at all. On the contrary, the norm would have been for a person to buckle under the tremendous blows that Egypt received during the Plagues. Therefore, G-d strengthened Pharaoh’s heart, making him capable of withstanding the punishment, so he could continue to choose evil if he wanted. After many of the plagues, Pharaoh collapsed and said, Enough already! Take the Jews out. But after G-d strengthened Pharaoh’s heart, he was able to follow his true inclination and hold out further (until the next plague).

It seems to me that you are suggesting a third possibility: This is an example of how G-d runs the world even though we continue to make our own choices. I like the idea, since it is true that he does that. I’ll just mention a concern about taking that approach here. In our days, we live in a world of “hester panim”, of hiddenness, where G-d’s presence and actions are subtle and behind the scenes. See for example the story of Esther. But, it seems to me that the time of the redemption from Egypt was different. In that time, G-d revealed himself openly, with visible miracles, open prophecy, etc. In that context, it could be that we should take the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in a more literal way.

Thanks again for your very fascinating letter.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

I don't care what anyone says (even good JTFers that I get along with), I refuse to believe that Bobby Fischer (ysv) was somehow not culpable for his actions.

[muman613]

I don't care what anyone says (even good JTFers that I get along with), I refuse to believe that Bobby Fischer (ysv) was somehow not culpable for his actions.

I do not disagree with you on this. Fischer was a Rasha (Evil one) at the end of his life.

[muman613]

Fischers Jew hatred was palpable... He made his own bed, and now he sleeps in it.

http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/rasha-2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer#Anti-semitic_statements
Anti-semitic statements

Fischer made numerous anti-Jewish statements and professed a general hatred for Jews since at least the early 1960s.[259][478] Jan Hein Donner wrote that at the time of Bled 1961, "He idolized Hitler and read everything about him that he could lay his hands on. He also championed a brand of anti-semitism that could only be thought up by a mind completely cut off from reality".[225] Donner took Fischer to a war museum, which "left a great impression, since [Fischer] is not an evil person, and afterwards he was more restrained in his remarks—to me, at least".[225]

Although Fischer described his mother as Jewish in an article he wrote as a teenager,[259] he later denied his Jewish ancestry.[30] In 1984, Fischer denied being a Jew in a letter to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, insisting that they remove his name and accusing them of "fraudulently misrepresenting me to be a Jew [...] to promote your religion".[479]

From the 1980s on, Fischer's comments about Jews were a major theme in his public and private remarks.[480] He openly denied the Holocaust, and called the United States "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards".[481] Between 1999 and 2006, Fischer's primary means of communicating with the public was radio interviews. He participated in at least 34 such broadcasts, mostly with radio stations in the Philippines, but also in Hungary, Iceland, Colombia, and Russia. In 1999, he gave a radio call-in interview to a station in Budapest, Hungary, during which he described himself as the "victim of an international Jewish conspiracy". In another radio interview, Fischer said that it became clear to him in 1977, after reading The Secret World Government by Count Cherep-Spiridovich, that Jewish agencies were targeting him.[482] Fischer's sudden reemergence was apparently triggered when some of his belongings, which had been stored in a Pasadena, California storage unit, were sold by the landlord who claimed it was in response to nonpayment of rent.[483]

Fischer's library contained anti-semitic and racist literature such as Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and The White Man's Bible and Nature's Eternal Religion by Ben Klassen, founder of the Church of the Creator.[484][485] A notebook written by Fischer contains sentiments such as "8/24/99 Death to the Jews. Just kill the Motherfuckers!" and "12/13/99 It's time to start randomly killing Jews".[486] Despite his views, Fischer remained on good terms with Jewish chess players.[487]

[Zelhar]

I have never heard till now that Nebuchadnezzar was mentally ill, where do you bring this from?

In any case since Nebuchadnezzar held power which enabled him to commit atrocities he was a rodef irregardless of his mental capacity.

Mental illness isn't an excuse with Hashem. Look at Nebuchadnezzar, the Stalin of the Tanach.

[Zelhar]

You have a good point in that he seem to have been harboring hatred for Jews even in his younger years when he was lucid. I don't think he sunk to the level of Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar, he was a pathetic sick individual with incoherent thoughts of hate, these other two were genocidal dictators.

Pharaoh wasn't just hardened for no reason. It was a final punishment to lock him into damnation after years upon years of stubborn evilness. The same is true of Nebuchadnezzar. Even if Zelhar is right that Fischer ultimately went so insane he was not accountable for his actions, it took many years of deliberate wallowing in hatred for him to get to that point and he was most certainly judged to the fullest for it.

[Tag-MehirTzedek]

I have never heard till now that Nebuchadnezzar was mentally ill, where do you bring this from?

In any case since Nebuchadnezzar held power which enabled him to commit atrocities he was a rodef irregardless of his mental capacity.

 At the end if his life he behaved like an animal. He ate grass and thought himself.to be an animal

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

I have never heard till now that Nebuchadnezzar was mentally ill, where do you bring this from?

In any case since Nebuchadnezzar held power which enabled him to commit atrocities he was a rodef irregardless of his mental capacity.

G-d struck him mad and made him eat grass, remember?