Ask JTF For August 19 Broadcast

[Masha]

Dear Chaim,

I admire and respect you greatly, but I would like to take issue with your defence of polygamy. Sorry for the long comment.

1) No sane and self-respecting woman would think that sharing a husband with another woman is justice. It is a great injustice and offence to a woman's dignity. Try to imagine yourself sharing a wife with other men, and you would know how a woman would feel. Women have the same feelings as men.

2) Given that there is about an equal number of men and women, introducing polygamy would leave many men without a wife, which is an injustice to men, as well. Polygamy would not increase the population, because you would lose the potential children of the men who are now left without mates.

3) I am not aware of any Torah commandment that orders polygamy (am I wrong?), so the Jewish state without polygamy would not break G-s' laws.

4) The fact that the Patriarchs had several wives is not a sufficient reason, in my opinion, to re-introduce the practice. You yourself said that our illustrious ancestors, great as they were, were not automatically blameless in everthing they did. Even they erred occasionally. There might have been historical reasons back then which made polygamy defensible. I don't see such reasons today.

Chaim, even if you poll the opinions of very conservative women who believe in traditional values, including those who write to this forum, you will see that they are strongly against polygamy. Women don't want the return of polygamy. You can force it by law, but I doubt that you will be able to come up with an argument that will make it attractive to women. Why advocate a parctice that is not mandated by the Torah and will alienate half of the population? If you continue to support it, I hope you will do some soul-seraching and convince yourself that polygamy is consistent with the spirit of righteousness, justice, and equal respect for human dignity that permeates our Great Book.

[dawntreader]

Shalom Chaim,

I have a big question here. I just watched your YouTube video "A Rightwing Revolution is Needed." While I agree with what you had to say, there was one thing that bothered me.

The biggest thing is this: If we have the U.S. National Guard going door to door, or even cops going door to door to take names, trying to get Illegal aliens out etc. Depending on who is in power, because U.S. law is based on precedent, Don't you believe that it could, in fact, be used against anyone who disagrees with the government at all? It sounds all too much like an abuse of power would be possible here.

[HiWarp]

Shalom Chaim,

This is my first question to you so a short introduction is in order.  I am a Greek Orthodox Christian who grew up in Queens and currently live on Long Island.  My first exposure to Rabbi Meir Kahane was during an interview he gave on the Bob Grant show a long time ago (maybe 1984).  I immediately agreed with his message and later discovered the JTF broadcasts on Queens public access, which I began watching over 12 years ago.  I continued to listen to the programs on the web after moving to the island.

My question deals with the names of G-d.  I have noticed that G-d is spoken but never written or printed.  However Hashem is both spoken, written and printed and I believe there are other names for G-d that cannot be spoken.  Can you please elaborate on the differences and reasons between the spoken and written names of G-d in Judaism.

Thank you.

[Lisa]

Dear Chaim:

With all due respect, I agree with Masha's post.  Even though I am conservative and right wing, I am against polygamy.  In Genesis, it says a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave unto his *wife,* not "wives." 

So can you please elaborate (beside the fact that the Patriarchs and kings practiced it) on why you think it would be beneficial to Jews to revive that practice, as well as where the Torah/Talmud says men are *supposed* to have more than one wife?

As I see it, polygamy caused many dysfunctional families in the Bible.  Take for example Isaac, Ishmael, Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, Reuben having sex with Jacob's concubine, Absalom having sex with King David's concubines, etc. 

Finally, why do you think that polygamy was outlawed by the rabbis? 

Thank you, as always.

Lisa

[Daniel]

Do you think that Alan Keyes, Roy Innis, and the other few blacks that you support and speak favorably of would agree with your assessment that blacks like them are the exception and are one in a million?

Daniel

[imaknick]

This will be very hard to understand and may seem that I am against G-d, but of course I'm not.  I know G-d understands what I'm about to ask. Why do we hate the nazis and hitler for the murder of 6 million jews? Why do we hate the ancient egyptians and pharoah for the slavery and murder of jews when all this is a punishments from G-d to the jews? If G-d punished us, and created people like hitler and the pharaoh to put jews in salvery and and death camps why do we hate them for what they did and not just accept it as a punishment from G-d instead? 
 
Again, of course I am not against G-d, nor would I ever forgive nor forget the massacre that occurred in our history, but these are just questions that should be answered.
Toda rabah

[Shoshana]

Dear Chaim,

Could you tell me a bit about Israel's policies towards Israeli Kahanists. What is legal and illegal there in regard to Kahanism as far as meeting,demonstrations etc. I am asking this question for an Israeli friend who very much sympathizes with the ideals of Rabbi Kahane but doesn't want to get into any sort of legal trouble.
Thank you very much for answering my question,
Shoshana

[kahaneloyalist]

Chaim, recently a German joined the forum, I dont want any Germans joining us, what the German people did can never be forgiven and I dont think we should have any contact with that accursed people.

[Zvulun Ben Moshe]

Dear Chaim,

I enjoy every minute of your weekly audio and video broadcasts; however I have a suggestion on how to improve the overall system.

Let’s say, there is a certain number of subjects on which you do your videos: Israel, Illegal Aliens, Muslim Terrorism etc.

You also answer a lot of golden questions every week on Ask JTF shows that can be apportioned to one of the above subjects.

Why won’t we then open separate threads on the forum that would be called:
“Ask JTF: Israel”, “Ask JTF: Muslim Terrorism” etc., and you would make your weekly youtube videos based on questions placed under each subject separately.

It will have two great benefits:

1) It will make your videos more interactive, and thus more attractive to visitors, who would be more interested to register on the forum and ask questions;
2) It would obligate those JTF members who ask questions to go to the respective youtube videos more frequently and thus increase the ranking.

Please let me know what you think.

Reverences.

[Mishmaat]

Chaim,

What should America do to rid herself of the Federal Reserve and the IRS?

You're a gentleman and a scholar. May Ha'Shem bless you.

Kol tuv.

[Ari]

Hello Dear Chaim,

Hope all is well.  I am excited about your aliyah chances and G-d willing soon will be the time.  This week I would like to ask you about the Bible reference "G-d will bless those that bless thee and curse those that curse thee'" one of my favorites that JTF has often sited.  Of course I don't want to question G-d's wisdom as I know he has an eternal plan, but I was wondering if, up to this point in time, you believe Israel's enemies have been sufficiently cursed.  Yes, we have seen turmoil in Arab Muslim Nazi lands and seen the fall of the evil German Nazis themselves, but at the same time one could make the argument that many Arab lands have thrived off of the presence of oil and Germany has rebuilt itself into one of the most prosperous countries in Europe.  Is the day of G-d's reckoning still coming for these beasts, perhaps in the near future?  Until next week, G-d willing, thanks for all your efforts and wisdom.  All the best.

Ari 

[Sarah]

Shalom Chaim

I'm in Morocco for a couple of weeks and so far it has been fine. The people here are not evil, maybe stupid and oblivious to the rest of the world...but definitly not evil.
Islam is clashing with culture and Morocco is slowly succumbing to the modern western way of life.

Have a good week G-d Willing and I wish you the best of luck regarding your recent application to move to Israel.

Sarah

[newman]

Shalom Chaim.

I'm still confronted by fools who adhere to nonsense about G_d requiring us to 'love' and bless our enemies. Could you please spell out how G_d  requires us to HATE the enemies of Israel and other evil people in Torah.

Toda.

Newman

[RationalThought110]

Shalom Chaim,

       I think the archived JTF articles were excellently written.  I think you should consider compiling those articles into a book.  We could all help update any content if necessary and if you'd want to add more, some content would be able to be written up from You Tube videos. 

      In addition to people being able to learn from the book, you would also be able to make some revenue from it.  I don't know much about finding a publisher but the Rav Kahane had his books published.  So I think it's possible.  Furthermore, I think a published book would make it easier for you to get on televised and radio media sources.   

[takebackourtemple]

Chaim,

   Can you please respond to this? It is a video posted by Drinking With Bob on youtube and is also aired on QPTV. I would like to post your response on youtube. Hopefully as a response to this video if he accepts it. 

"What's next, I'll tell you what's next. You're gonna love this. There is a Muslim school opening up in Brooklyn in one month. You know who's paying for this? You are. The tax payer. This is wrong on so many levels, but number one separation of church and state. When I was a kid, my parents wanted me to go to Catholic School. You know who paid for me to go to Catholic School? My parents did. Why? The government said 'We will not use tax payer money for anything to do with religion.' I guess that's changed. On top of this, a group affiliated with this Muslim school put out a shirt that said 'Infidad NYC'. In short terms, that means uprising, or war in New York City. It was the original term for the Palest*****/Israeli conflict. Ok. It was a call for Palest*****s to go into Israel and blow up busses and blow up pizza places. The day it came out, the principal of this tax payer funded Muslim school said 'Oh no, it doesn't mean anything. It's just a way for the students to adopt in New York City society.' Less than eight hours later this same principal came out and condemned this shirt. Why? She knew exactly what it freaken meant. This country is out of control people. We have illegal immigrants coming in every day. Our infrastructure is collapsing around us. And now we have a tax payer funded Muslim School in New York City calling for war. What is it going to take for you people to wake up and see what is going on? What's next? What's next? What's next? "

[Shlomo]

Dearest Chaim,

I was purchasing the book "The story of the Jewish Defense League" on Amazon and I noticed another slanderous book in the links called "Rookie Cop" by Richard Rosenthal. I'm sure you may have mentioned him before but I never made the association. Who is this idiot and did you ever run into him?

Shalom,
jeffguy

[judeanoncapta]

Dear Chaim,

I noticed that on the JTF.org site, the articles are repeats mostly.

I certainly understand that you may be too busy to write new ones all the time, so I was wondering if you would accept articles written by myself or other JTFers?