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Ask JTF For November 18 Broadcast
admin:
BS"D
Note To All Posters: Only one post per person is permitted. Please make it a single, short question.
Chaim would love to answer all of your great questions but (unfortunately due to the number of questions and time constraints), if there is more than one short question, it will have to be moved to The Future Ask JTF Section. We apologize for this inconvenience and only wish that every person has a chance to be heard on the show.
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Thank you for your kindness and respect regarding these rules.
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BS"D
Happy Thanksgiving,
I know you don't celebrate Thanksgiving but you can pass my greetings along to The Righteous Gentiles.
As you can see by the date, this is a continuation of our discussion on the subject last year. So please don't comment on what you think about Jews celebrating American holidays in America in general because I already know your answer from last year.
Below is the NEW stuff that I want you to address.
I don't believe Thanksgiving is celebrating being in America but rather thanking G-d in general. Some people say it is to thank America but it is idolatry to thank someone other than in G-d if it done as a religious holiday like Thanksgiving and we are really thanking G-d no different than Sukkot. Some religious Jews in Israel still celebrate it even after making aliyah and some celebrate it on Friday Night rather than Thursday and combine it with Shabbat by having a turkey dinner for Friday Night kiddush. What is your opinion on Jews celebrating it IN Israel?
Was there ever a point in your life when you celebrated Thanksgiving? If so, how did you celebrate?
Thanksgiving was based on Sukkot and Hanukkah was based on Sukkot as well. So Thanksgiving is like the American Hanukkah, unlike Christmas which The Left tries to compare to Hanukkah. In 2013, Thanksgiving will even fall on Hanukkah so Jews can light the menorah before they have their Thanksgiving dinner.
Even though I do celebrate Thanksgiving, I don't believe it is a Jewish concept to say "I'm thankful for..." but rather to pray to G-d in Hebrew over the food at the table. This means saying the blessings over the food like you're always supposed to do and I personally recite part of Psalm 118 where it says "Hodu LaShem Ki Tov Ki Le'Olam Chasdo" which means "Thank G-d because He is good, for His kindness is everlasting.". Hodu is related to the Hebrew word Hodaya, which means Thanksgiving. I wrote about this in the Torah and Jewish Idea section in the Thanksgiving thread. After any meal is The Grace After Meals which includes the above Psalm in it as well. I'm the only one at my family's Thanksgiving dinner to insert any religious meaning to it. The rest of the people just eat the food without even a bracha.
Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim,
Chief Administrator.
P.S. I'm posting this here because you asked me to correct your statement from last show. John Quincy Adams was not the fourth President. Madison came after Jefferson, and then Monroe. John Quincy Adams was the 6th and Andrew Jackson, the first evil President was the 7th.
TorahZionist:
I posting this on behalf of Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim.
The way I found out that July 4, 1776 was The 17th of Tammuz was by checking Chabad.org's online calendar which stretches back a few hundred years and lasts thousands of years into the future, not taking into account that The Mashiach will have already come by then so we won't have a set calendar anymore (Because The Sanhedrin will declare Rosh Chodesh by witnesses testifying that they saw The New Moon.). If we keep our set calendar, the current calendar drift will continue. This drift is that the earliest Passover can fall in the solar year has moved up 7.5 days since we got the set calendar. So it can no longer fall on The Vernal Equinox and can end as late as May now which will be a regular occurrence in a few hundred years. The calendar drifts by one day every 231 years.
What are your thoughts on this calendar drift?
q_q_:
I am interested in your fighting philosophies.. When that one black guy in the prison started on you and you stabbed him in the arm with a pencil, did you consider the possibility of what if the pencil didn`t go in, or slid off or the end snapped off. Or if he would still continue. Did you have a plan B.. Would you have bitten his ears off? Hit him in the nuts? Do you think you could`ve punched him into submission? Was the pencil your only hope?
Would you always respond when provoked? Would you ever back away from a fight?
Would you consider possible negative endings - Hospital, prison, (in your case-8 months solitary confinement).
Would you consider chances of winning / losing as a factor in going ahead or backing away ?
Would you respond equally or respond escalating it a bit, or go in full force straight away ?
Dr. Dan:
Shalom Chaim
We already know that there are many interreligious marriages and that Jews shouldn't marry non-Jews and vice versa. However, what if there is a current marraige between a Jew and a non-Jew that has lasted for many years and with children in the picture? Would you recommend that they get a divorce due to this halakha? Or is the peace which exists between the two much more important? (This by all means is not an indication that inter-religion marriages should be acceptable..i merely talking about ones which have currently existed for many many years and are going fine.)
Thank you
Dr. Dan
Daniel:
What are your views on organ donation?
Daniel
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