Ask JTF for Sunday, October 11, 2009

[TruthSpreader]

Dear Chaim, which Islamic country do you think is the greatest threat to Western civilization regarding nuclear weapons, Syria, Iran, or Pakistan?

[Americanhero1]

Dear Chaim,


What are your thoughts on Obama receiving the Nobel peace prize?

[Moshe92]

Dear Chaim,

What do you think of William Buckley? I think there were both good and bad things about him. He was influential among conservatives, and he fired Joseph Sobran from the National Review for being anti-semitic. However, you wrote on the forum that he applauded on the Merv Griffin Show when Irv Rubin called for the death of Jonathan Pollard.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Shalom Chaim,

I think you misunderstood me last week. I did not say that Israelis would reject Hayamin if they really heard our message. I said that right now, without having heard our message, if out of the blue the IDF decided to treat the Arabs in kind (not that that will ever happen), such as if the army shelled an Arab school, hospital, or restaurant in retaliation for every shahid that blew up a Jewish school, hospital, or restaurant that most Israelis would feel guilty about that and consider it "wrong" to kill Arab "civilians" like that. For sure, they would not support just expelling Arabs without compensation--let alone doing what G-d really commands them to do regarding Amalek.

(And, I also agree that this is a huge problem in America too. Most Americans today believe that 9/11 suspects were unjustly "tortured" while in custody. Would you have imagined on September 12, 2001 that in less than a decade, average people would be feeling sorry for these demons?)

How do we really, truly convince typical Israelis of the fact that Amalek has no right to exist whatsoever, and Americans of the fact that terrorists have not been treated harshly enough?

Bonesfan

[The One and Only Mo]

Dear Chaim,

     

[Rubystars]

res

[Yaacov Ben Yehuda]

Shalom Chaim,

what is your opinion regarding Turkey? strategic alley or just another anti semitic nation that Israel must make an example of one day?

also, do you think now that obama won the noble prize, he will be under the microscope to push his peace process onto Israel and the arabs? will Israel put their foot down when it comes to dividing Jerusalem?

thanks, and G-d bless!

[Manch]

Shalom Chaim,
you constantly state that number of Jews who were killed in all Israeli wars an terrorist acts is less than a number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. This is a good point but some people may see it far-fetching. Another point you may want to bring, and I suspect it is true, that since the WWII more Jews died in Black-on-White crime in US than did so in Israel's wars. I've never came across any numbers but I do know that may Jews are violently murdered in US. And that is when times are good.

[ProudAndZionist]

Shalom Chaim,

What do you think about Saudi Arabia? Their economy is very strong and I think they are worse than Iran. They are in the US economy, and 9/11 also were made by Saudi Muslim terrorist animals. They ordered Eurofighter Typhoons. Their army and their economy and their antisemitism are very dangerous. Honestly I'm a bit afraid of them.

G-d bless you, and your family,
Peter

[Dr. Dan]

Shalom chaim

Which is worse?  Sodom and Amora or today's society?  Who are the Lots of today?

On a different note, what is your opinion of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv?  He recently stated that Jews should not ascend the Temple Mount?

Thank you

Dr. Dan

[davinci]

Shalom Chaim

In Bereshith, the first book of Moses, the snake targets first Eve. She later on shares the fruit with Adam.
Unfortunately, many Christian theologians used to say, the fact that the snake targeted the woman first is the proof that women are weak. Would the serpent have gone to the man he would have refused.
Of course this is complete nonsense.
So I wonder what do the rabbis say about this? Why does the snake speak to the woman and not to the man?

And also, there are mentioned 2 trees:

1. the tree of knowledge of good and evil
2. the tree of life

The first tree is the one with the forbidden fruit. But what exactly is the tree of life? Can you please elaborate?

Kind regards

davinci

[FreedomFighter08]

Dear Chaim,

Do you think it's dangerous to follow every word of a religious book? (the Torah in our case)

I've read that Jews were very rich people in Spain under the Moors and we prospered there and were not persecuted by the government. I know that when the Two Catholics Monarchs took over Spain, my ancestors were forced to flee the land since I'm part Sephardic Jewish, and horrific acts of violence like burning and torturing occured under the signature of the Pope. Matter fact, this expulsion of Sephardic Jews was overturned in the 1960s only, of course Jews were allowed in Spain in the 1900s but they didn't even bother to change the laws. If you were living in the Dark Ages, would you rather live in a Christian country, or in a Muslim country at the time? What country would this be? It seems like Moor Spain was the place to be for Jews at the time and was even better then the Caliphate in the Middle East and the Christian countries in Europe.

[PaulIngram]

Dear Chaim,

It's well known that people who suffer brain damage can have personality changes.
They often become more violent and behave in ways that 'was' totally out of character.

Modern brain theory views personality as a physical mechanism of the brain.

Can people really be held responsible for their own behavior?

For example, people with Tourette syndrome have no control over what they say. But then again, do any of us?
Isn't self control just a physical mechanism of the brain? Therefore isn't freewill a delusion?

Paul

[dreidelhead]

Shalom Chaim,

Thanks as always for your sagacious words.

1) What would you think about a Mike Huckabee-Sarah Palin ticket in 2012, and would it have a chance of winning?

2) What do you think about gold these days?

3) When you were in prison, which group of low-lifes was the most dangerous? The most deranged? The most disgusting?

Thanks and Chazak v’emahtz!
Dreidlehead

[Ulli]

Dear Reb Chaim,

thank you for the great reading in the last show.

My question today is:
What do you think about Absalom, the son of David if you compare him to Brutus the adoptive son of Caesar?

Sincerly,

Ulli

[Bourne]

Shalom Chaim,

Can you please tell us the story of Cain and Abel from the Kahanist perspective?  I was discussing this story with a friend the other night who claimed that the point of Cain and Abel was that we (i.e., Jews) are not permitted to kill under any circumstance. 

Also, I would definitely be interested in a weekly religious lesson in conjunction with Ask JTF.  Perhaps you could give a quick lesson at the end of the show after all the questions?  I was raised Reform, so of course your lessons on Judaism are all brand new to me. 

Thank you.

Ephraim

[patches]

Shalom Chaim,

Did you ever visit Israel before you tried to emigrate there in 1996? If so, what did you think
of the country and why did you decide to leave? If not, why not?

Thanks,
Patches

[Jay_D]

Shalom to you Chaim.

According to AP, 1 in 4 people in the world is a Muslim, and that just in Germany alone there are more Muslims than Lebanon.
Reading this amazing report, reminded me of the Jewish prophecy that says the Muslims will rule the world for 9 months.
Is there a legal way for the west to stop or at least slow down this growth in Muslim population?

And one last thing, about your answer to my final question last time.
you said that jews who live outside of Israel are compared to people who have no g-d.
Does this also apply to all the great rabbinic scholars in jewish history that lived in the "Galut"? like Rabbi Schneerson and Maimonides?

thank you.
J-D.

[TheCoon]

Hello Chaim,

What do you think would happen if white America "knocked the chip off the black man's shoulder" as pastor James David Manning says? Do you get the feeling that after the disastrous Obama presidency, whites in America will finally call a spade a spade when it comes to monkey business?

[SW]

Shalom Chaim,

first of all I want to say that I am fine. After all this trouble with my ex girlfriend and the two account closings (GeorgeBushTheHero and GeorgeBushTheHeroJTF). Now I focus on Kahanism and to spread Kahanism in Germany. I am already successful. I am proud to be a Zionist Kahanist!

Now my question. What do you think about Larry Silverstein?

Thank you and greetings from Germany.

Steven

[Trace]

Shalom Chaim,

As you may know, Elvis Presley's maternal grandmother was Jewish, which made him a Jew by the Halachic laws. Elvis was raised as a Christian but he never tried to hide his Jewish heritage and in fact he actually used to wear a Chai necklace; he also supposedly had a wristwatch that had a cross and a Star of David on it to represent both sides of his family. What do you think about Elvis? Do you think he was a good influence on American kids? I'm aware that towards the end of his life he was addicted to prescription drugs but at least he did not advocate drugs or violence in his music. Compared to today's insane rap noise, Elvis seems like pretty good music for teenagers to listen to.

[Secularbeliever]

Chaim since you have been telling old stories of JDL it made me think of some of my experiences there.  One man, who I never met and who somewhat proceeded me was Avraham Herschkovitz.  He and his wife tried to hijack an Arab airliner in retalliation for Arab hijackings.  While I never met him, I remember going to a demonstration on his behalf at the prison in Danbury, Connecticut where he was serving his sentence.  People who visited him during the demonstration came out and announced that he knew we were there and appreciated it.  At the time, unable to contemplate such an existence of that as a prisoner (I know I still cannot really appreciate it) I failed to understand how important that was.

Whatever, became of Mr. Hershkovitz.  I know he got out of prison and I believe he went to Israel.  His wife had gotten out earlier.  Did they do well in Israel, have a family etc?  Why was he able to get into Israel when you cannot?  Has Israel changed for the worse since then in that respect?    Are there any parallels to your situation or to that of Pollard, anything that you have learned from him?  Just curious as to your thoughts?

[t_h_j]

Hello Chaim,

What is your opinion of the cult of scientology, and why is such an obvious scam so attractive to so many people?
thanks

[Avicenna]

I’m  responding to your false claim that Muslims copied Brahmagupta to get credit for Algebra. Khwarizmi is the father of Algebra and his accomplishments in the subject were independent of Brahmagupta’s achievements. His book on Algebra was translated and spread in Europe. During the Islamic golden age Muslim nations were the most advanced in the world and at the same time Europeans were the most backward. In fact, Europeans were scientifically far behind the Middle East for 5,000 years up until 1500 AD.  It’s only been in the last 500 years that they’ve had this lead. During the Islamic golden age Muslims made accomplishments in mathematics, architecture, astronomy, chemistry, physics, and medicine and the Europeans translated and learned their achievements. That was a major reason why the Renaissance.

In 2007 Jordanian 8th graders scored higher than Israeli 8th graders in science: http://nces.ed.gov/timss/table07_3.asp. In 2008 Iran ranked 5th in the world in the international math olympiad whereas Israel ranked 27th http://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx. Jewish achievements in nobel prizes means nothing because people like Obama can win so it has no credibility.

[imaknick]

Why do so many blacks like rabbi abraham joshua heschel?