Ask Zvulun ben Moshe

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

This concludes my first round of answering your questions, my friends. Hope, I didn't offend anyone with my responses. That was not my intention any way.
I wish you all peace, but after a decisive victory.

[2honest]

Thanks for your answers, Zvulun ben Moshe!

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

It is my pleasure to anounse a new season for your questions, ladies and gentlemen. 

[Tina Greco - Melbourne]

Why did you change the name of your show?

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

Why did you change the name of your show?

It was done in the light of the surge in the number of Ask shows by JTF members

[Tina Greco - Melbourne]

Why did you change the name of your show?

It was done in the light of the surge in the number of Ask shows by JTF members

ok

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

Do you believe in the Torah both Written and Oral?

 If no, then no. But if yes, how can you say that their is no Heven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud and is definitly something that Judaism does believe in. It is also connected to what all Jews must believe that their is reward for the rightious and punishment for the wicked.

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

Do you believe in the Torah both Written and Oral?

 If no, then no. But if yes, how can you say that their is no Heven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud and is definitly something that Judaism does believe in. It is also connected to what all Jews must believe that their is reward for the rightious and punishment for the wicked.

Let's not mix everything up.

1)   I do believe in the Written Torah as the divine inspiration
2)   Talmud is a man-made collection of rabbinic commentaries, with some of which you may agree and with some you have the right to disagree. And I do disagree with some commentators. I may be too dumb to understand the wisdom of some of those sages, but the right to disagree is still there.

Therefore your statement “If no, then no” does not work here. I say, Torah – absolutely yes, Talmud – mostly yes.

Then you say “how can you say that there is no Heaven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud”.

Here is the trick: I can say that, because Torah doesn’t mention anywhere about Heaven or Hell.

If Maimonides talked about it in Talmud, with all due respect, that doesn’t make his opinion mandatory, since: 1) it is not in Torah, 2) it wasn't divinely inspired.

To continue on this, here is my hypothesis on where Maimonides got the idea of Heaven and Hell:

1)   First, we were given Torah, which does not mention afterlife ANYWHERE. The dry bones to me are symbolic, embodying Jewish souls that will return to G-d from atheism and secularism.
2)   Then when Greeks and Romans with their long and bloody occupation of the Land of Israel brought the myth of afterworld from the Greek mythology.
3)   Then Jesus was influenced by the myth and included it in his preaching, since the concept was very popular throughout the empire.
4)   Later Mohammed in order to “unite” everyone that he could, made Jesus a prophet and accepted the notion of afterworld as something very effective in rewarding or terrorizing people.
5)   Later, Maimonides, who lived among Muslims, decides to comment on the notion of heaven and hell, since in Islam it had a major place and importance.

History, even the most intricate, does not change the original word of G-d.

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

Do you believe in the Torah both Written and Oral?

 If no, then no. But if yes, how can you say that their is no Heven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud and is definitly something that Judaism does believe in. It is also connected to what all Jews must believe that their is reward for the rightious and punishment for the wicked.

Let's not mix everything up.

1)   I do believe in the Written Torah as the divine inspiration
2)   Talmud is a man-made collection of rabbinic commentaries, with some of which you may agree and with some you have the right to disagree. And I do disagree with some commentators. I may be too dumb to understand the wisdom of some of those sages, but the right to disagree is still there.

Therefore your statement “If no, then no” does not work here. I say, Torah – absolutely yes, Talmud – mostly yes.

Then you say “how can you say that there is no Heaven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud”.

Here is the trick: I can say that, because Torah doesn’t mention anywhere about Heaven or Hell.

If Maimonides talked about it in Talmud, with all due respect, that doesn’t make his opinion mandatory, since: 1) it is not in Torah, 2) it wasn't divinely inspired.

To continue on this, here is my hypothesis on where Maimonides got the idea of Heaven and Hell:

1)   First, we were given Torah, which does not mention afterlife ANYWHERE. The dry bones to me are symbolic, embodying Jewish souls that will return to G-d from atheism and secularism.
2)   Then when Greeks and Romans with their long and bloody occupation of the Land of Israel brought the myth of afterworld from the Greek mythology.
3)   Then Jesus was influenced by the myth and included it in his preaching, since the concept was very popular throughout the empire.
4)   Later Mohammed in order to “unite” everyone that he could, made Jesus a prophet and accepted the notion of afterworld as something very effective in rewarding or terrorizing people.
5)   Later, Maimonides, who lived among Muslims, decides to comment on the notion of heaven and hell, since in Islam it had a major place and importance.

History, even the most intricate, does not change the original word of G-d.

 What you just said is that in reality you do not believe in Judaism. Heven and Hell is one of the tenents of Judasim. Just believing in the Tannach, is not Judaism.
  You should see the DivineInformation video on Torahanytime.com , or the New video "Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi: A Night in Kings Point Great Neck   (04/01/2008)"
 http://www.kolyakov.org/Rabbi/Yossi_Mizrachi/

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

Do you believe in the Torah both Written and Oral?

 If no, then no. But if yes, how can you say that their is no Heven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud and is definitly something that Judaism does believe in. It is also connected to what all Jews must believe that their is reward for the rightious and punishment for the wicked.

Let's not mix everything up.

1)   I do believe in the Written Torah as the divine inspiration
2)   Talmud is a man-made collection of rabbinic commentaries, with some of which you may agree and with some you have the right to disagree. And I do disagree with some commentators. I may be too dumb to understand the wisdom of some of those sages, but the right to disagree is still there.

Therefore your statement “If no, then no” does not work here. I say, Torah – absolutely yes, Talmud – mostly yes.

Then you say “how can you say that there is no Heaven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud”.

Here is the trick: I can say that, because Torah doesn’t mention anywhere about Heaven or Hell.

If Maimonides talked about it in Talmud, with all due respect, that doesn’t make his opinion mandatory, since: 1) it is not in Torah, 2) it wasn't divinely inspired.

To continue on this, here is my hypothesis on where Maimonides got the idea of Heaven and Hell:

1)   First, we were given Torah, which does not mention afterlife ANYWHERE. The dry bones to me are symbolic, embodying Jewish souls that will return to G-d from atheism and secularism.
2)   Then when Greeks and Romans with their long and bloody occupation of the Land of Israel brought the myth of afterworld from the Greek mythology.
3)   Then Jesus was influenced by the myth and included it in his preaching, since the concept was very popular throughout the empire.
4)   Later Mohammed in order to “unite” everyone that he could, made Jesus a prophet and accepted the notion of afterworld as something very effective in rewarding or terrorizing people.
5)   Later, Maimonides, who lived among Muslims, decides to comment on the notion of heaven and hell, since in Islam it had a major place and importance.

History, even the most intricate, does not change the original word of G-d.

 What you just said is that in reality you do not believe in Judaism. Heven and Hell is one of the tenents of Judasim. Just believing in the Tannach, is not Judaism.
  You should see the DivineInformation video on Torahanytime.com , or the New video "Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi: A Night in Kings Point Great Neck   (04/01/2008)"
 http://www.kolyakov.org/Rabbi/Yossi_Mizrachi/

So, believing in Tanakh alone is not Judaism? OK.

Well, first of all, I said I believe Tanakh is the only divine inspiration. You, obviously, dont wanna tell me that Talmud is divinely inspired. I did say that Talmud is not 100% authority for me.

I hope that is clear.

Now. I have a question for you.

Who and when was first to introduce the idea of heaven and hell in Judaism?

[Rubystars]

Nuke Mecca, then when you see demonstrations in protest, bomb them.

Mecca is very close to Israel geographically, and thus if you nuke Mecca, you literally put Israel in the middle of an ecological catastrophy.

Maybe Israel could destroy the kaaba and the black stone then?

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

What for? There is little use to it.

I tend to seek for roots of problems first within myself and then in others.

The enemy of Israel and the West is not Islam, but Israel and the West.

Islam is certainly bad for us as well as for Muslims themselves, but it as bad to us as much as we allow it to be so.

So start changes not with others, but within yourself.

[Ambiorix]

What for? There is little use to it.

I tend to seek for roots of problems first within myself and then in others.

The enemy of Israel and the West is not Islam, but Israel and the West.

Islam is certainly bad for us as well as for Muslims themselves, but it as bad to us as much as we allow it to be so.

So start changes not with others, but within yourself.

Exactly. The enemy of the West and Israel  is the West and Israel itself.

[Rubystars]

What for? There is little use to it.

I tend to seek for roots of problems first within myself and then in others.

The enemy of Israel and the West is not Islam, but Israel and the West.

Islam is certainly bad for us as well as for Muslims themselves, but it as bad to us as much as we allow it to be so.

So start changes not with others, but within yourself.

Exactly. The enemy of the West and Israel  is the West and Israel itself.

What about the so-called "Zionist" people, both Jewish and Gentile, who are not really Zionists, but Globalists, and who claim to be working in Israel's interest, thus getting the Nazis all stirred up against all Jews, and at the same time hurting the Jewish people and Israel themselves?

This gets so tangled up sometimes it's hard to keep track of who's a Nazi, who's a true Zionist, who's a faux-zionist/globalist, and who's on which side. I believe that Chaim is a good guy at least

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

What for? There is little use to it.

I tend to seek for roots of problems first within myself and then in others.

The enemy of Israel and the West is not Islam, but Israel and the West.

Islam is certainly bad for us as well as for Muslims themselves, but it as bad to us as much as we allow it to be so.

So start changes not with others, but within yourself.

Exactly. The enemy of the West and Israel  is the West and Israel itself.

What about the so-called "Zionist" people, both Jewish and Gentile, who are not really Zionists, but Globalists, and who claim to be working in Israel's interest, thus getting the Nazis all stirred up against all Jews, and at the same time hurting the Jewish people and Israel themselves?

This gets so tangled up sometimes it's hard to keep track of who's a Nazi, who's a true Zionist, who's a faux-zionist/globalist, and who's on which side. I believe that Chaim is a good guy at least

Where are you from, Rubystars?

[Rubystars]

I'm from Houston, Texas, and I want Israel and all righteous people to survive

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

Well, first of all, why I asked about your geographic location is because of your interesting screen name sounding a little Russian. Russians refer to the stars above the Moscow Kremlin as ruby stars.

Anyways… Back to your question, which surprised me in a negative fashion, unfortunately.

Let’s make something clear.

1) There are evil Jews, no question about it. But their number is disproportionately lower than that of evil Gentiles. Even mathematically it is impossible to be otherwise.

Nazis of course single out Jews from all the rest no matter what.

2) Globalism is a new word for imperialism with only difference that Globalism uses economic intervention supported upon necessity by diplomacy and even military forces.

And again the number of Jews who are among the globalists is laughable in contrast to that of Gentiles.

I think the terms globalism, imperialism and Zionism are incompatible. Look at the size of Israel.

Let’s make certain of several facts to make sure that the Jews can’t come even close to the Gentiles in imperialism and globalism:

1)   Israel has never been the largest continental empire in world, unlike Russia.
2)   Israel has never been the largest oceanic empire in world, unlike Great Britain.
3)   Israel and the Jews have never concurred half of the planet to convert people into Judaism, unlike Muslims.
4)   Jews have never killed millions of their own brothers and sisters in religious wars, unlike Christians and Muslims.
5)   The Jews did not discover America, nor did they colonize it.
6)   The Jews did not bring Blacks to America to use them as slaves.
7)   The Jews did not kill millions of natives of colonized territories which they obviously never had.
   The Jews did not start World War 1.
9)   The Jews did not start World War 2 either.
10)    The largest corporations in the world are not owned or controlled by the Jews.
11)   And after all, the Jews didnt throw themselves out of their homeland, because we always minded our own business, unlike Romans, Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Turks, Brits etc.

What else? You tell me. Does your confusion still persist?

[Rubystars]

I'm not Russian and honestly I had no idea about that connection. My sister had a screen name called Auroran and at the time I wanted a pretty sparkly name too and I liked star rubies so that's what I came up with.

I just think that we have to remember that most mainstream organizations that claim to be for Israel often aren't. Sometimes those very same programs will end up giving money to the Palescumians or supporting a suicidal "peace process" for Israel. I believe we have to be smart and try to think two steps ahead of all enemies of the righteous, no matter who they are.

For example, all the people giving money to John Hagee who believe with all their heart they're helping Israel, don't know the money is going to evil self-hating organizations that support the suicidal "peace process". They should support an organization like JTF which is truly for Israel's interest.

I thought of another example, what about Ariel Sharon? Was he a Zionist when he gave away land to the Palescumians?

Sometimes you don't know who you can trust.

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

I believe that 99% of Jews would prefer living in Israel, but for the well-known and yet rarely acknowledged reasons they cannot live there:

First of all, we were expelled from our land.
Secondly, when we came back, we were on the verge of almost complete genocide.
Thirdly, we survided, but still have been a subject of an enormous pressure from both so called "friends" and open enemies.

Thus, if you see some Jews who demonstrate their support of Israel in some wicked way it is usually because of the wicked environment that they had to survive in for generations.

I can prove you step by step how expulsion of a small nation as the Jews from their homeland by Romans (yswz) turned the whole world upside down.

[Rubystars]

Yeah, the ancient Romans did some very evil things. What makes me very sad is to think that modern society is becoming a sickly reflection of that society in its greatest decline. Homosexuality and all forms of evil are running rampant.

Israel is a huge roadblock to the globalists. A strong, proud, nationalistic and Jewish Israel is an obstacle to evil people who believe in nothing but themselves and their own power, and want to unite and control the world under their grip.

The globalists are the true danger in the world to every proud nation and to every race and religion.

They're evil and very powerful. They're the billionaires that Chaim refers to. Nasty evil people don't play fair, they play dirty, even pretending to be "conservative", "right wing" or yes, even "Zionist", all to further their real goals. The real conservatives, right wingers, and Zionists may even be fooled by these con artists and follow their lead for a while. We need more people like Chaim to expose them.

I pray for people who are misguided, God knows that I don't understand everything as I should myself. My anger is directed toward the evil people at the top (who you pointed out are proportionately more Gentile a lot of times) rather than the common man or woman who might follow them without knowing their true nature.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Do you believe in the Torah both Written and Oral?

 If no, then no. But if yes, how can you say that their is no Heven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud and is definitly something that Judaism does believe in. It is also connected to what all Jews must believe that their is reward for the rightious and punishment for the wicked.

Let's not mix everything up.

1)   I do believe in the Written Torah as the divine inspiration
2)   Talmud is a man-made collection of rabbinic commentaries, with some of which you may agree and with some you have the right to disagree. And I do disagree with some commentators. I may be too dumb to understand the wisdom of some of those sages, but the right to disagree is still there.

Therefore your statement “If no, then no” does not work here. I say, Torah – absolutely yes, Talmud – mostly yes.

Then you say “how can you say that there is no Heaven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud”.

Here is the trick: I can say that, because Torah doesn’t mention anywhere about Heaven or Hell.

If Maimonides talked about it in Talmud, with all due respect, that doesn’t make his opinion mandatory, since: 1) it is not in Torah, 2) it wasn't divinely inspired.

To continue on this, here is my hypothesis on where Maimonides got the idea of Heaven and Hell:

1)   First, we were given Torah, which does not mention afterlife ANYWHERE. The dry bones to me are symbolic, embodying Jewish souls that will return to G-d from atheism and secularism.
2)   Then when Greeks and Romans with their long and bloody occupation of the Land of Israel brought the myth of afterworld from the Greek mythology.
3)   Then Jesus was influenced by the myth and included it in his preaching, since the concept was very popular throughout the empire.
4)   Later Mohammed in order to “unite” everyone that he could, made Jesus a prophet and accepted the notion of afterworld as something very effective in rewarding or terrorizing people.
5)   Later, Maimonides, who lived among Muslims, decides to comment on the notion of heaven and hell, since in Islam it had a major place and importance.

History, even the most intricate, does not change the original word of G-d.

 What you just said is that in reality you do not believe in Judaism. Heven and Hell is one of the tenents of Judasim. Just believing in the Tannach, is not Judaism.
  You should see the DivineInformation video on Torahanytime.com , or the New video "Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi: A Night in Kings Point Great Neck   (04/01/2008)"
 http://www.kolyakov.org/Rabbi/Yossi_Mizrachi/

So, believing in Tanakh alone is not Judaism? OK.

Well, first of all, I said I believe Tanakh is the only divine inspiration. You, obviously, dont wanna tell me that Talmud is divinely inspired. I did say that Talmud is not 100% authority for me.

I hope that is clear.

Now. I have a question for you.

Who and when was first to introduce the idea of heaven and hell in Judaism?

A "next world" or 'world to come' whatever you want to call it, is referred to rather directly in the Torah. 

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

Do you believe in the Torah both Written and Oral?

 If no, then no. But if yes, how can you say that their is no Heven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud and is definitly something that Judaism does believe in. It is also connected to what all Jews must believe that their is reward for the rightious and punishment for the wicked.

Let's not mix everything up.

1)   I do believe in the Written Torah as the divine inspiration
2)   Talmud is a man-made collection of rabbinic commentaries, with some of which you may agree and with some you have the right to disagree. And I do disagree with some commentators. I may be too dumb to understand the wisdom of some of those sages, but the right to disagree is still there.

Therefore your statement “If no, then no” does not work here. I say, Torah – absolutely yes, Talmud – mostly yes.

Then you say “how can you say that there is no Heaven and Hell, if that is written in the Talmud”.

Here is the trick: I can say that, because Torah doesn’t mention anywhere about Heaven or Hell.

If Maimonides talked about it in Talmud, with all due respect, that doesn’t make his opinion mandatory, since: 1) it is not in Torah, 2) it wasn't divinely inspired.

To continue on this, here is my hypothesis on where Maimonides got the idea of Heaven and Hell:

1)   First, we were given Torah, which does not mention afterlife ANYWHERE. The dry bones to me are symbolic, embodying Jewish souls that will return to G-d from atheism and secularism.
2)   Then when Greeks and Romans with their long and bloody occupation of the Land of Israel brought the myth of afterworld from the Greek mythology.
3)   Then Jesus was influenced by the myth and included it in his preaching, since the concept was very popular throughout the empire.
4)   Later Mohammed in order to “unite” everyone that he could, made Jesus a prophet and accepted the notion of afterworld as something very effective in rewarding or terrorizing people.
5)   Later, Maimonides, who lived among Muslims, decides to comment on the notion of heaven and hell, since in Islam it had a major place and importance.

History, even the most intricate, does not change the original word of G-d.

 What you just said is that in reality you do not believe in Judaism. Heven and Hell is one of the tenents of Judasim. Just believing in the Tannach, is not Judaism.
  You should see the DivineInformation video on Torahanytime.com , or the New video "Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi: A Night in Kings Point Great Neck   (04/01/2008)"
 http://www.kolyakov.org/Rabbi/Yossi_Mizrachi/

So, believing in Tanakh alone is not Judaism? OK.

Well, first of all, I said I believe Tanakh is the only divine inspiration. You, obviously, dont wanna tell me that Talmud is divinely inspired. I did say that Talmud is not 100% authority for me.

I hope that is clear.

Now. I have a question for you.

Who and when was first to introduce the idea of heaven and hell in Judaism?

A "next world" or 'world to come' whatever you want to call it, is referred to rather directly in the Torah. 

Really? Quote please.

[Rubystars]

If there's no existence beyond this world then what advantage is there to believing in God vs. atheism? Atheists can be moral and kind and do good works for others.

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

Brilliant question!

Well, to be very blunt, I am sorry to hear that the only reason why you believe in G-d is your “hope” that after your death you will be either rewarded or punished or maybe even both.

Such reason to believe can indeed be the only reason that you can have at your disposal, unless:

• You believe that the Jewish People were mass (more than 600,000 people!!!) witnesses of the miraculous “negotiation skills” of Moses, when he alone “kidnapped” a whole nation from the most powerful man on the planet at the time;
• You believe that the Jewish People were mass witnesses of the division of the sea, which doesn’t happen that often in nature . Imagine how strong the emotional impact was on these people that thousands of years later their descendants still believe with the same might.
• You believe that the Jewish People were mass witnesses of receiving the Torah from some force that caused a yet unseen combination of natural cataclysms.
• You believe that Torah is too sophisticated for an army of the most intelligent people to design. Let alone in ancient times.
• You believe the Jewish Prophets who at a sort of press conference of those days declared that G-d appeared to them, who said among other things that Israel will be reestablished within one day and that the small nation will defeat forces outnumbering it many times.

To be continued shortly.

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

OK.

Let’s say we believe in existence of G-d, but what are the motives of following His laws?

You say it must be the afterworld for whatever reasons. Let’s make it clear – you said it, not G-d. His Words did not contain such statements.

You say one should believe in G-d because, if he/she does good, then he/she will party day and night in paradise and if he/she does bad, then he/she will get a nice tan in hell.

Let’s look at it from a practical standpoint. It would be a strong motive, IF the rewards or punishments were coming the next day after the deeds or at least after a short period of time.

Let’s face it: the majority of people will live at least 50 years and every other morning will be just like the one before it. Don’t you think that most people would postpone being “good” for the next day a few thousands of times?

So, if you come to following the laws of G-d not from just trusting him, but from “what’s in it for me”, then you really must be motivated by something more active and effective than something that can come about in 50 or 60 years.

Thus, you must ask yourself a question:

Is there a system that can reward or punish you during your life time?

Well, let me tell my answer:

Everything that I was trying and testing in my life had the same conclusion.

Torah (The Law) is the most effective “Life for Dummies” I have ever read.

You can forever forget the Self Help section in your local Barnes and Nobles.

Torah is the best self help book.

If you do what it prescribes (not the same as good deeds, since some good deeds are not always good), life will reward you, and if you go against it (and I certainly did), life will destroy you morally and sometimes physically.

Thank you for your attention.