Pilegesh.org

Should Israeli law permit civil marriage?

2012-01-17T12:05:00.000-10:00

Should Israeli law permit civil marriage?
By SHLOMO BRODY
The answer is yes: It is the most likely to help this country become a more Jewish and a more democratic state.

Photo by: Reuters
Should Israeli law permit civil marriage? The answer is yes because, given all of the non-ideal options, it is the most likely to help this country become a more Jewish and a more democratic state. Allow me to explain.

Over the past few columns, we have discussed the halachic status of relationships established under unconventional circumstances. These include couples who cohabit but are not married (pilegesh) and those who married exclusively through government authorities (civil marriage). We concluded that according to normative Jewish law, neither arrangement is permissible. Some decisors believed that post facto, a couple that married under civil law created a sufficient legal bond that would require a writ of divorce should they split up. Yet the current consensus maintains that such arrangements do not create halachic marital bonds and therefore, when necessary, we waive the requirement for a divorce writ.

Since its founding, Israel has granted jurisdiction over marriage and divorce to the Chief Rabbinate. As such, civil marriages between Jews are not performed in this country, with the many questions regarding such nuptials originating in weddings performed abroad. In recent years, the courts have ordered the Interior Ministry to recognize marriages performed abroad. As such, the government will recognize, for example, the marriages of non-Orthodox immigrants from America or Israelis who go to Cyprus for the weekend.

The latter option is frequently chosen by couples who cannot marry under Jewish law, as is the case when one partner is a not halachically Jewish, or when a kohen desires to marry a divorcee. Alternatively, they simply live together outside any formal marital framework.

Yet civil marriage abroad is also chosen by many secular Israelis who have found the process of working with the rabbinate to be unprofessional and religiously demoralizing. While there are undoubtedly many employees of the rabbinate who serve with dignity and kindness, it has unfortunately received a reputation, fairly or otherwise, of a certain amount of professional callousness.

To alleviate this problem, the Tzohar rabbinic organization established a marriage project that helps provide a more user-friendly, religiously uplifting experience for secular couples. As I write, legislation is advancing in the Knesset to help ensure that all couples, no matter their place of residence, can register at a Tzoharfriendly municipal rabbinate. Yet because Tzohar works within the strictures of Orthodox Halacha, some couples (including many children of immigrants from the former Soviet Union) still may not marry within the state.

There are those who continue to maintain that even though this policy denies these citizens the right to marry, it remains appropriate to not allow the state to sanction non-halachic relationships. Yet former Sephardi chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron has marshalled several arguments against imposing halachic marriages upon the broader Israeli public, many of which have to do with contemporary trends of divorce and infidelity (Techumin 25). Once a couple is halachically married, any extramarital relationship is deemed adulterous, with offspring from that affair deemed mamzerim (illegitimate children with limited halachically permissible marital opportunities). This problem can become particularly acute since divorcing couples may seek other companionship before ensuring that a halachic get (divorce writ) has been drawn up by the rabbinate. Accordingly, it remains preferable, in the long run, for such couples to remain halachically unmarried.

BAKSHI-DORON denounces any attempt to solve this problem by finding ways to subtly invalidate weddings performed for secular couples (such as by not using kosher witnesses for the ceremony). He notes that according to many decisors (Hatam Sofer EH 100), any public wedding that is attended by many people becomes, perforce, accepted as legitimate. More fundamentally, he, along with Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Teshuvot Vehanhagot 641), finds such deception to be immoral and unfathomable.

Bakshi-Doron further questions the halachic standing of weddings when the couple has no interest in the ceremony and only desires to receive civil benefits. He notes that historically many decisors, such as chief rabbis Abraham Kook (Ezrat Kohen 41) and Benzion Uziel (EH 2:49), felt that marriages performed primarily for immigration purposes (such as receiving immigration rights) were not considered valid.

While other scholars demurred (Meshaneh Halachot 10:238), Bakshi-Doron believes everyone would agree in the case of a couple that is ideologically opposed to traditional Orthodox conceptions of marriage.

To my mind, allowing for civil marriage would remove much of the animosity created by religious coercion and instead facilitate more meaningful religious experiences for those who would continue to choose a rabbinic wedding. According to surveys, 80 percent of secular couples eligible to halachically marry would opt for a religious wedding, even if they had a civil alternative. The choice would become a meaningful decision of Jewish identity that would be further strengthened by a rabbinate forced to provide premaritial counseling and wedding ceremonies that are both halachic and meaningful.

It behooves us to forsake the empty symbolism created by state-mandated religious coercion and replace it with substantive Jewish identity.

The writer, online editor of Tradition and its blog, Text & Texture (text.rcarabbis.org), teaches at Yeshivat Hakotel.

JPostRabbi@yahoo.com
reprinted from JPost.com

Daughter of U.S. immigrants wages legal battle against mikveh ban

2012-01-14T19:38:00.000-10:00

Plia Oryah, a Modi'in native, is among several parties to a December 29 petition asking Israel's Supreme Court to compel religious authorities to reverse official directives to municipal and regional ritual bath operators.

By Mordechai I. Twersky
A daughter of American immigrants is at the center of a legal battle over a woman's right to immerse herself in a mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath.

Plia Oryah, a 19-year-old Modi'in native, is among several parties to a December 29 petition asking Israel's Supreme Court to compel Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, Religious Services Minister Yaakov Margi, and the Office of the Chief Rabbinate to reverse official directives to municipal and regional ritual bath operators. The directives explicitly deny access to women who are single, divorced or widowed.

"These are public facilities," charges Oryah, who said she considers herself to be Orthodox. "It's their job to operate and maintain the facilities, not to decide who can use them."

The 17-page petition was filed in Jerusalem by attorneys for Oryah; a second woman named Amital Zaks; and two organizations, The Center for Women's Justice, and the Orthodox-feminist group Kolech. It asserts that the restrictions violate women's religious freedom and their right to privacy. They claim the prohibitions are tantamount to "religious coercion."

The petition cites a directive issued by Rabbi Metzger in 2008 declaring that "it is absolutely forbidden for an available woman to immerse herself for purification, and it is obligatory to prevent her and forbidden to assist her." Metzger included in his ruling a request for the broadest possible dissemination of the prohibition, along with his insistence that mikveh operators be "punctilious about mikveh attendants not allowing available [women] to immerse under any circumstances whatsoever."

"It makes me furious, and it makes my life miserable once a month," said Oryah, the daughter of New York City natives. For three years she has resorted to immersions on the banks of the sea, under the cover of darkness. She has even adopted disguises and spun various tales in an effort to elude inquiring "mikveh ladies," she said.

"I have been dressing up as a married woman," said Oryah, referring to the requisite head-covering, long skirt, and long shirt sleeves generally associated with Orthodox married women. "Why should this be? Any Jewish woman, no matter her status, should have the right to use a mikveh."

According to the state's interpretation of halakha, or Jewish law, only married women may immerse themselves in the ritual bath as an act of purification at the completion of their menstrual cycle. The rabbinic prohibitions against single women immersing themselves generally stem from a concern that some women may utilize their "ritually pure status" as a pretext for engaging in forbidden pre-marital relations. The more severe Torah prohibition for relations with a woman in the midst of her menstrual cycle warrants what is known in Hebrew as karet, or "divine punishment."

The petition argues for the right of single women to immerse themselves for a host of reasons - spanning the physical and spiritual realms - and maintains that they are under no obligation to delineate or justify their beliefs to religious authorities.

"The authorities are preventing women from observing the mitzvah of immersion according to their own beliefs - something that constitutes religious coercion and the violation of freedom of religion and conscience," the petition states.

"The resulting religious coercion is an unacceptable discrimination between single and married women," asserts the petition.

Oryah's parents, who are divorced, expressed divergent views on the matter.

"I am proud of my daughter for believing in something and for fighting for what she believes in," said Oryah's mother, Rina. "On the other hand, I believe that as Jews we have to follow the Torah and halakha. If the rabbis have decided something is not allowed, then this is what we must follow."

Oryah's father, Yaacov, said he supports his daughter's position.

"She believes in it, and I encourage her," he said. He said he considers himself to be Orthodox and insists that his point of contention is not with the halakha.

"This is a civil rights issue, he said. "The Rabbinate may wish to discourage single women from immersing themselves, but they do not have the right to forbid them from doing so." Oryah notes that her own approach to the ritual has evolved over time.

"Without any regard to a relationship I would still go to the mikveh every month," she said. "I feel a sense of renewal. It is an amazing, wonderful experience."

In her view, it is "not the rabbis' business" what women do prior to or after their visits to the mikveh.

"What will come next?" she asked. "Will Jews be barred from eating at restaurants that serve meat, out of rabbis' fears that people will soon after eat dairy?"

This story is by: Mordechai I. Twersky
reprinted from Haaretz.com

R. HaGaon Yaakov Moshe Toledano in support of pilegesh relationships.

2011-11-01T22:17:00.001-10:00

B"H
Check out Yam haGodol by HaRav HaGaon Yaakov Moshe Toledano

Siman 75 approvingly talks about the pilegesh relationships as a possible solution to many contemporary halachik problems:
(Siman 75 is 15 pages long and starts on page Kuf Lamed Bet (132) [page 137 of the pdf document]):

http://pilegeshpersonals.com/Yam%20HaGodol.pdf

(I'd like to thank HebrewBooks.org for making this responsa available online: http://hebrewbooks.org/529 )

Anyone willing to take time to translate this well in English will have a great merit and will be amply rewarded with a year of free advertising here and a certificate for a full year of membership in pilegeshpersonals.com a total value of more than $200.

Restrictions on rabbis from conducting weddings removed

2011-09-21T10:25:00.000-10:00

By JEREMY SHARON

Tzohar rabbis authorized as long as they supply proof of rabbinic ordination, know laws of marriage, currently serve as rabbi, teacher.

The religious-Zionist rabbinical group Tzohar, which provides rabbis free of charge to perform weddings, announced on Tuesday that it has succeeded in gaining approval from the Council of the Chief Rabbinate to conduct wedding ceremonies.

Executive Vice-President of Tzohar, Nachman Rosenberg, said that Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar in particular was critical to advancing the necessary changes for this reform.

“Tzohar praises this decision and especially the work of Rabbi Amar in succeeding to bring about this dramatic change, despite the opposition of some of the extremists on the Council of the Chief Rabbinate who oppose us,” Rosenberg told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

“Rabbi Amar’s efforts will help many young people and allow them to marry in a Jewish wedding and not run away to get married in civil ceremony in Cyprus,” he added.

Tzohar established a project in 1996 to reach out to secular Israelis who had negative experiences with the Chief Rabbinate and provide them with the opportunity to have a rabbi more sympathetic to their level of religious observance marry them without charge or expectation of any other kind of remuneration.

According to Rosenberg, this led the rabbinate to enact a series of restrictions making it virtually impossible for a rabbi to marry a couple who registered for marriage in a particular city without the permission of the rabbinate of that specific city or a rabbi on the Chief Rabbinate’s payroll.

Opponents of Tzohar claim that the group is too lenient regarding the numerous Jewish laws surrounding marriage ceremonies, and so rabbis from the organization would invariably be refused a license to perform weddings.

On Sunday, the Council of the Chief Rabbinate decided to remove its restrictions and will now instruct local rabbinates and rabbis to permit Tzohar rabbis to perform wedding ceremonies as long as they supply proof of their rabbinic ordination, demonstrate knowledge of the laws of marriage, and currently serve as a rabbi or teacher.

Due to a number of exceptions and ongoing pressure, Tzohar has nevertheless managed to perform 3,000 weddings a year, approximately 20% of all secular weddings.

“There’s no reason why Zionist rabbis in Israel should have to fight so hard to help secular couples interested in a Jewish wedding to get married,” Rosenberg said.

“We hope that this victory will help thousands of secular Jews to get married according to Jewish law and allow many other rabbis to volunteer for Tzohar to further this goal.”

Pro-Polygamy Ad Paid For By Unmarried Orthodox Women

2011-07-10T12:13:00.000-10:00

Pro-Polygamy Ad Paid For By Unmarried Orthodox Women
An unmarried Orthodox woman claims she and her friends paid for a pro-polygamy ad in an Israeli Orthodox Zionist publication because their biological clocks are ticking loudly.

According to Mostly Kosher, the Israeli Orthodox Zionist website Srugim published this admission from "Sarah," a single 39-year-old Orthodox Jew:

"I'm a 39 year old religious single woman that is worried that she will soon no longer be able to be a mother. Two years ago, I enquired about sperm donation, but all my rabbanim rejected the issue, and I also felt it was a terrible thing for a child no to have a father.
According to Sara (not the real name) she was advised of a halachic solution of wedding a married man. Sara, brought up the idea to her fellow single and divorced female friends who are in a similar situation, and they set up a support group with the encouragement of Rabbanim. They joined forced with the organization "The complete Jewish Home" that provides advice and solutions on the subject of polygamous marriages.

Sara continues and explains that there are 27 female members in her "support group" in Jerusalem, all of whom are religious, religious light or chozrim Be'teshuva

Savings Experiment - Make Your Own Tea

2011-03-22T23:08:00.001-10:00

Pilegesh.com would like to thank our new sponsor: NumberOnePCRepair.com

2011-02-19T18:37:00.004-10:00

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Miracles - A Chanukah Film

2010-12-01T17:32:00.002-10:00

Miracles A Chanukah Film
A morning sun rises in fiery splendor; a newborn baby enters the world. We witness miracles everyday and may sometimes take them for granted.

Amazing New Natural Clear Cream from Israel

2010-08-23T07:49:00.005-10:00

Dr. Heimlich Natural Clear Cream Complex

Heals Eczema, Dermatitis, Rashes, Vaginal Itching, Seborrhea and Skin irritations.

For Adults, Children, Babies & Infants

Every parent with a child suffering from allergic dermatitis or adults suffering from seborrhea or other skin problems know the meager recommendations conventional medicine has for skin treatment.

Clear cream cleared my 8 month old daughter's eczema in 2 days.
-Raymond Wassef

Order now at

http://naturalclearcream.com

Most of the treatment recommendations are for various skin
creams containing steroids or, alternatively Cortisone, in one quantity or another.
However, there are situations where the body has been suffering to such a degree that the severity of the situation has forced the individual to use these creams, and the patients have become addicted to dangerous creams, using them over and over and, finally causing two major kinds of damage:

1) The danger of overuse of steroids or cortisone – dangerous implications of use of the cream in the present as well as dangerous implications for the future.
2) Adaptation to the cream – after a period of massive use, the body does not react to the cream as expected. The problems of dryness and the sores do not heal as they did when the individual first used the cream. The body reacts indifferently to the different creams at different levels because it has become adapted to the strongest creams.

Due to such problems, patients have reached the most dangerous levels, including infections, terrible itching and helplessness.

The special product – Clear Cream – is based on natural ingredients alone. It does not contain either steroids or cortisone. The ingredients from which it is made are all natural and its advantages are clear. One of such advantages is that natural creams do not cause the body “to adapt” to them and therefore, there is no danger of using the cream continuously.

ABOUT CLEAR CREAM
Dr. Yechezkel Heimlich is a naturopath who succeeded in creating a natural treatment cream for those suffering from different skin problems.
The cream is meant for those suffering from allergic dermatitis, seborrhea, various skin problems, as well as dryness of the skin. The cream has been approved by the Israeli Ministry of Health.

The advantages of the cream: Natural, containing no dangerous agents. Effective and rapid improvement and healing (results are evident after 24 hours). The body responds to the cream to the same degree on subsequent treatments as at the beginning.

"I was surprised; after one night there was an amazing improvement. I have never before found a natural cream whose results were so effective and so rapid."
- Jonathan Cohen

Ingredients:
Water, Mineral oil, Cetearyl alcohol, calendula ex., Glycerin, Beeswax, Aloe vera ex., Arnica ex., Peg-20-glyconyl steavate, Butyrospermum Parkii.

Recommend Use:
Apply thin layer and massage into the skin twice a day, until it results in healthy smooth and calm skin.

Warning:
Do not apply other ointment during treatment.
Suitable for all types of skin.
For external use only.
Recommended to store in a refrigerator.

Order now: http://naturalclearcream.com

My daughter's teacher recommended this after it cured her own daughter's eczema. I ignored the recommendation. Miracle cream? I've tried them all. They are all bogus.
Then, a couple months later, my daughter's classmate also used this cream and it cleared up her eczema right away. Her mom also told me I should really try it.
I thought--hmm... two recommendations, separate from each other. I'm not crazy about putting mineral oil on my daughter's skin, but against my better judgment I ordered this cream anyway.
After four days of using this cream, her eczema is nearly gone. Just slight scarring is left, from where she used to be bleeding before starting the cream. The skin is soft and smooth, with no itchiness. I'm flabbergasted. It clearly says the cream contains no steroids but I cannot imagine any non-steroidal cream that could have such a huge and immediate effect. I'm suspicious of it. But it sure does work!
The two other girls have not had their eczema return despite stopping use of the cream. I am hoping that my daughter's won't either. We'll see about that. But anyway, in the meantime, I have to say I think this cream is a great thing.
-E. Harriman "EH" (NJ)

http://naturalclearcream.com

Vote Shaloh and win an I-Pad

2010-08-09T03:13:00.003-10:00

B"H
Dear Readers!
Have you ever felt a desire to make a difference in your community, but couldn't accomplish it due to lack of money?
How would you feel if you'd know that you could choose 4 deserving schools/yeshivas to receive $500,000 each?
You can do it now with the help of Kohl's Cares voting competition.
You can give away 20 votes up to 5 per school.
As a favor to me and to have an opportunity to win an I-Pad and possibly an I-Mac would you be so kind to give 5 of your votes to the school linked bellow:

PS. This school entered the contest late however it is quickly moving up (more than 20 spaces in last few days) and needs just about 400 more people to vote for it now to be in the top 20 and thus qualify for the half a million dollar prize.
Please spend a minute to make a positive difference in the lives of many families and increase the light of Torah in the Northeast.
To understand why this school truly deserves your votes watch the following short video:

До чего доводит женщин отсутствие секса?

2010-04-13T08:41:00.004-10:00

(The article bellow (originally in Russian) highlights the physical and mental dangers prolonged sex deprivation leads to in women such as increased irritability, more severe PMS, apathy, fatigue, also increased chance of uterine fibrosis , uterine bleeding and other gynecological problems.
It's noted that sex deprivation is not a cause of these deceases but can hasten their development.)
Новости

Утверждение, что секс необходим людям для здоровья, подтверждено многочисленными научными исследованиями. Причем для здоровья как физического, так и психического. Стало известно, как сказывается долгое отсутствие секса на женщинах.
Оказалось, что на многих женщин вынужденное воздержание действует, как на паровой котёл действует отсутствие отверстия для стравливания давления: повышается раздражительность, сильно обостряется предменструальный синдром, появляется апатия и повышенная утомляемость.
Кроме психических последствий, возможны также и физические, такие, как доброкачественные опухоли матки, маточные кровотечения и другие гинекологические недуги. При этом, как отмечают специалисты, отсутствие секса не является непосредственной причиной всех этих болезней, а лишь способно сильно ускорить их развитие.
(По материалам сайта uznayvse.ru)
http://newscomm.ru/novosti-daily.php#nnn15018478

Queen Esther & Starbucks - Purim Torah from Egypt:

2010-02-27T21:54:00.002-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO2NqMeOSuo
Happy Purim!

TSA Training Video - Hug A Jew

2010-01-18T03:38:00.001-10:00

Inflating Away Our Human Rights - Ben O'Neill - Mises Institute

2009-12-15T22:23:00.000-10:00

Inflating Away Our Human Rights

Mises Daily: Monday, December 14, 2009 by Ben O'Neill
"The alleged right to freedom from discrimination is, on close examination, merely a means to allow the use of force to prevent people from using all available information in their judgments of others."

One of the most effective ways to destroy a concept is through the process of conceptual inflation: First, expand the ambit of the concept to include contradictory elements. Then resolve the contradictions you have created through insistence that none of the elements is absolute and each element must be weighed off against the others. Finally, systematically and incrementally work to favor the bogus elements of the concept until the original meaning is totally lost.

This is what has been happening to the concept of "human rights" under the regime of antidiscrimination laws. By asserting a right to be free from discrimination, various government commissions and associated lobby groups have — for a long while — gradually undermined private property rights, which underlie our freedom to trade and our freedom of association. By doing so, these groups now claim extensive power to ride roughshod over private decisions.

Their abuses of the term "human rights" are well known, and so usually this process is done without people taking much notice. But every now and then it breaks into the public eye when the arbiters of our "rights" stretch the concept beyond all recognition.

This process of the conceptual inflation of human rights was demonstrated in a recent antidiscrimination case. A tour guide from Melbourne, Australia, attempted to create a small travel business operating women-only tours. Ms. Erin Maitland created the business to cater to the niche market of women looking for a "girls-only" holiday involving activities such as cooking, shopping, personal care, and crafts. She reportedly obtained the idea from her discussions with female friends after hearing of their aversion to mixed-sex holiday tours filled with sexual conquests and partying.[1]

As a legal requirement to operate her business venture, Ms. Maitland applied to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for an exemption to antidiscrimination laws that prevent the offering or advertising of such a service.[2] Her case was an important one for the hawks of the antidiscrimination profession, in that it tested the legal effect of the Victorian Government's recently adopted Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and provided an important precedent for the application of antidiscrimination laws in that state.

No doubt eager to strengthen their legal turf and establish a strong precedent in support of their powers, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission appeared at the hearing to argue — with a straight face — that Ms. Maitland's humble tour business would violate the human rights of men. In what became a comical demonstration of the process of conceptual inflation, the commission pulled out all the stops to ensure that oppressed men everywhere could breathe a sigh of relief at the protection provided by their benevolent overlords.

As part of their case, the commission contended that Ms. Maitland should be required to convince the tribunal of a "demonstrable need" for female-only services, based on safety, security, or other compelling considerations. However, they were also adamant that the desire of actual female customers to use the service would not suffice — that accommodating a "mere preference" by a section of the female community would be insufficient reason for an exemption.[3] The commissioner, Dr. Helen Szoke, explained her opposition to the business proposal:

whole article here:

Inflating Away Our Human Rights - Ben O'Neill - Mises Institute

Pay in U.S. Starbucks with rubles?

2009-12-15T19:06:00.003-10:00

Who were the Maccabees?

2009-12-15T07:34:00.005-10:00

A Litvish Haredi father explains:

-Abba, how did we beat the Greeks?

-With the help of God.

-So what were the Maccabees for?

-They were only soldiers. God helped them, thank God, and blessed be God, they won.

-The Maccabees were soldiers?

-Uh... soldiers of God. Armies of God.

-So the Maccabees were Lubvitchers?

-No! No! God forbid! They were Litvaks.

-Did Judah Maccabee carry a weapon?

-Yes.

-So was Judah Maccabee secular or a non-Jew?

-God forbid! What is this secular or non-Jew stuff?

-But only secularists and non-Jews go to the army.

-Religious Jews used to also go to the army.

-Why did the Maccabees go to the army and we don't?

-Because today, the Torah protects us.

-And the Torah didn't protect them then?

-Maybe go read some Mishnah with Moishey?

-Did the Maccabees learn Mishnah?

-They learned Torah. Lots of Torah.

-And they didn't work?

-God forbid.

-So Antiochus gave them money.

-No. They worked and made money here and there.

-Off the books, like Uncle Yanky?

-Yanky doesn't work off the books!

-So what did Matitiyahu do for a living?

-He was a farmer.

-Matitiyahu was a Thai?

-God have mercy! What's this Thai business?

-So how did he work in the fields with a white shirt?

-Where did you get that he wore a white shirt?

-Moishey told me that a real Jew wears a white shirt.

-You get mixed up too much with this Moishey. But he's right.

-What did the Maccabees want?

-They wanted an independent Jewish state that they would run.

-Is that what we want, too?

-Yes, but we can't tell anyone. We aren't Zionists.

-Abba, I want to be a Maccabee, a Zionist, a soldier!

-Gevalt! What happened to you?

-Just kidding, Abba. I'm going to see a Schwacky show with Moishe.

-Ah, good. Give my regards to Moishey's family.

A secular father explains:

-Abba, why did the Maccabees fight against the Greeks?

-Not now.

-Why not now?

-I'm watching basketball now.

-Come on, Abba!

-Uh... what does it matter. The important thing is that they won.

-Abba, in the encyclopedia, it says that it was because the Maccabees didn't want to eat pork.

-Could be.

-And for that, there was such a war?!

-Look, pork is full of cholesterol; maybe the Maccabees were into health and all that.

-And because of that there was a war?

-These Maccabee health nuts can be really extreme.

-Why did the Greeks force them to eat pork?

-Because the religious Jews make an issue out of everything.

-Were the Maccabees religious?

-Are you kidding? Religious Jews don't go to the army.

-So how did they beat all the Greeks?

-God helped them.

-But you said there is no God.

-True, there isn't.

-So is there or isn't there?

-There isn't. But they thought there was.

-Abba, I don't understand.

-What don't you understand?

-If there's a God.

-So ask Ima.

-Whenever you don't know something, you send me to Ima.

-I know important things. Whether there's a God isn't important.

-It says that Judah Maccabee beat the Greeks at Beit Horon.

-If it says it, it says it.

-Where is Beit Horon?

-Far away. It's not in Israel; it's in America.

-Abba, Columbus only discovered America in 1492.

-You know you're a pain? It's in the West Bank.

-What? Abba, were the Maccabees settlers?

-I knew it. Maybe go play with Sean?

-Abba, next time we're at Tiv Taam, are they going to force me to eat pork, too?

-If you continue with these questions, there'll be no Festigal this year!

-But Abba, I'm afraid. I only have one sister.

-So what?

-The Maccabees were five brothers, and they all fought together.

-Maybe go watch Dora?

-I want to watch Maccabee.

-Good, watch Maccabee.

-Abba, where are the Maccabees?

-Here in yellow. [note: Maccabee is the name of a sports team]

-Those are Maccabees?

-Yes.

-What are their names?

-Fizer, Bynum, Batista, Blumenthal and Cummings.

-Abba, you're being annoying. Those aren't the Maccabees' names.

-Where are you going?

-To fight the Greeks!

-You aren't going anywhere!

-I want to be a Maccabee, religious, a settler!

-Are you crazy?? You aren't leaving this house, do you hear!!

-Just kidding, Abba, relax. I'm going with Sean to McDonalds.

-Ah. Good. Pick me up a cheeseburger.

Reprinted from lamrot-hakol blog

Polygamy and friedom of speech.

2009-06-23T01:37:00.004-10:00

B"H
Can the government censor religious speech in the USA?
Apparently it does as pointed out on Ztgstmv:

Re: A TEXAS BIGAMY DEFENSE
April 4, 2009 by ztgstmv

To: jfloyd@JohnTFloyd.com Hello there. Good work blogging on the FLDS cases. What do you think about this idea: Bigamy laws should be overturned because they violate Free Speech rights, namely the right to call your significant other a “wife” and the right to “purport” to be married. These are the acts that define common law bigamy in Texas — the expression of this thing called marriage, rather than any physical underlying actions or deception. Expression in it self, if harmless, should not be criminalized at all. Why is it that Texas has a law prohibiting “purporting” (making the expression) that one is married to multiple people? Carrying the defense into the realm of free speech, according the Tom Green ruling in Utah, also opens up the door to bringing a defense on the basis of vagueness, which is critical to defeating the nonsensical, circular bigamy statute. (I say it’s circular because it is: you are married if you purport to be
the term “marriage” in public to define his second or third or fourth relationship. Multiple relationships are not, standing alone, illegal. It’s the manner in which the individual defines those relationships to the public. The Texas bigamy statute prohibits him from defining the relationships as “marriages” – whether state-sanctioned ceremonial, common law, or “spiritual” marriages.

The recent decision by the Iowa Supreme Court legalizing “gay” marriages (along with Connecticut and Massachusetts) will ultimately create the new line of attack on bigamy statutes, The traditional reason for prohibiting homosexual marriages, just as with multiple marriage, is the threat they pose to our society’s historical definition of “marriage.” If gay marriage does not unconstitutionally threaten that historical definition, then certainly polygamy does not pose a greater threat. Again, as we presented in our blog, Texas does not, nor do most states, protect marriage, either through its constitution or laws, as an “institution.” It is a “status.” A “status” can be redefined while an “institution” cannot. Ergo, “gay” marriages in Iowa (the American “heartland”), Connecticut and Massachusetts ).

Hope this helps answer your question.

[My response:]

I greatly appreciate your responding to this quintessential question of bigamy’s place on the law books.

I personally question the notion that the existence of a so-called “status” or “institution” has any place in the law books. I still think that’s a restriction on free-speech, free expression, and free thought, and I believe the common law bigamy law can be challenged on that basis. I don’t see any other way around it.

As long as the government can write laws that enshrine definitions for things such as marriage, they can also create definitions for other customs and practices and criminalize human relationships or activities. Take the term “girlfriend” which everyone knows and recognizes — sort of. What’s to stop the government from writing a law that prohibits someone from having a “girlfriend” from another country or to have several at the same time?

These are just social terms (”girlfriend,” “marriage,” “lover,” “associate,” “colleague”), that are constantly changing in their connotations and even definitions on an informal level. Are definitions themselves the province of the legislature? Can the legislature rewrite Webster’s dictionary tomorrow with the stroke of a pen and tell people which words they can and cannot use in public or just in a social context? Can they tell people how they can and cannot define themselves?

Thanks again for the reasoned reply,

Joey

Thanks! Joey

hat tip:
ztgstmv.wordpress.com

This , combined with Blaine Ammendments and few other barbaric discriminatory laws that unfairly persecute people based on their religion (albeit often in a very subtle way) unfortunately leaves millions innocent people in this country oppressed not that much different compared to countries the US is now fighting that assign dhimistatus to minorities .
May the G-d Almighty grant wisdom to people and the leaders of all the states and federal government of this country to truly offer "liberty and justice for all"

.

Frum Satire makes a shidduch

2009-06-15T10:43:00.001-10:00

Two bloggers who met each other in the comments section of FrumSatire blog are getting married and here's the tape to prove it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ7NArFMfn8

H.R. 1107: Nation's Economic Cohhabitation Act - The new Economic Plan

2009-05-26T05:28:00.001-10:00

Breslov Books VS. Mendy Pellin

2009-03-12T04:19:00.001-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRqwan0F8nw

The criminal act of having too many kids

2009-03-03T17:23:00.003-10:00

Straight Talk: The criminal act of having too many kids

Shmuley Boteach , THE JERUSALEM POST

It's open season on large families in America. Ever since Nadya Suleman became infamous as the unemployed, welfare mom of octuplets, the focus has been not only on her irresponsible behavior in becoming artificially impregnated with eight embryos after she already had six children with no visible means of support, but on the primitive choice of having lots of kids in the first place. One female pundit on CNN said that women who choose to have lots of children are usually uneducated, extremely religious, and bereft of any career.

Now I'm not defending Suleman whose actions are clearly objectionable. But aren't we overdoing our hatred of her? Since going on the airwaves and talking about her decision to have 14 children, she has had innumerable death threats. Through her website she has received 55,000 messages, nearly all angry and negative. Her publicist (yes, I agree, a bad idea) Joan Killeen said she dropped her client after receiving hundreds of death threats of her own. "They hope I die, they hope my business goes under, they want to rip her uterus out. They say I should be anesthetized and put down like a dog."

What was Suleman's main crime? Her babies will have to be supported by taxpayers. Fair enough. But have the CEO's of AIG, Meryl Lynch, and Citibank, who cost taxpayers infinitely more money to buy 30,000 dollar commodes and give their employees bonuses with which to buy Ferraris received the same threats of violence? Is this woman really the world's biggest criminal?

I HAVE WRITTEN several articles in the past as to how, as a father of nine children, I find myself apologizing wherever I go. Those articles sparked an avalanche of letters from families across America with five children or more who told me that friends and family always put them on the defensive for wanting a lot of kids. And they always find some sinister motive behind it. The fact that perhaps we just love children and feel they are life's most precious gift is something they can't accept. As I always tell my friends who ask me why I have a large family, "As soon as I find something I enjoy as much as my kids I will have a lot of that as well."

My wife and I travelled to Australia recently as guests of Qantas Airlines for a book and media tour. The airline could not have been more family friendly and accommodating to the baby we brought on board. A succession of both male and female flight attendants came by to play with the baby. When I asked one forty-something female flight attendant who was holding our daughter whether she had children of her own, she said, "My husband and I thought of it but decided against it. I guess we couldn't find a compelling reason to have a baby." After she departed, my wife said to me, "There she was holding the most beautiful thing in the world in her arms and that wasn't a good enough reason?"

Over the years many women have told me that they wanted more but could not afford it. And the vacations, cars and dresses that we shove onto our maxed out credit cards we can afford? The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story last summer about the shrinking populations of many countries in Europe - Italy, Germany - where the birthrates have fallen well below the death rates.

Amid the worst economic crisis in 70 years, all brought about by greed and misguided materialistic values, one would have thought that Americans would begin to get it, that we'd return to things that are truly valuable like family, spirituality, and community. But there it was in the newspapers this week that Saks Fifth Avenue was opening a new boutique for men with suits beginning at $7000 a pop. I was in Miami Beach, where I grew up, for a lecture this weekend. My brother Chaim and I walked to the boat show where multi-million dollar yachts lined the streets. As I walked by these behemoths, it dawned on me that sure, I'd love to own one of them. But to be honest, the pleasure I get from my kids by far outweighs anything I have ever received in the form of worldly goods. And I had a choice that needed to be made every day of my life. I could either work my guts out to afford one of these things. Or, I could work less and spend more time with my children.

TO BE SURE, having nine kids is not easy. When we go on a trip it takes a large amount of work to prepare. Tuition at religious schools is expensive. Food is equally so. But it's worth every penny. Watching our children laugh, learn, and interact with each other has no parallel to any joy in the universe. Often women ask me whether a particular man is husband-material. I tell them to look first and foremost at whether he likes children. If he does, it means he loves playfulness, imagination, and little cute critters who bring out his own innocence. If he sees children as a burden then he might be just a little too much into himself.

We can debate all we want as to whether Nadya Suleman should 14 kids or not. But once these children are born, the debate is over. The kids are alive. They need our support and love, not our criticism and condemnation. Children are of infinite value. And the debate as to whether they should be or not be, once they in fact are, does not reflect our truer, inner goodness.

The writer has just released his latest book, The Kosher Sutra: Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life. He has also launched a national Friday night family dinner initiative.

www.shmuley.com
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304799518&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Rabbis rule joking teens legally married

2009-03-03T15:20:00.002-10:00

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli girl has become a divorcee at the age of 14.

It all began as a lark, in a schoolyard where a 17-year-old boy recently declared the girl his wife, reciting a Jewish ritual vow in front of witnesses, and she accepted his ring.

That, and what a spokeswoman for Israel's Rabbinical Courts said was the consummation of their marriage, was enough to make them man and wife in the Jewish state.

Spokeswoman Efrat Orbach, describing the girl as the youngest Jewish divorcee in Israel's modern history, said the couple was granted a rabbinical divorce this week.

Under Israeli criminal law, sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl are not illegal as long as her male partner is no more than three years her senior.

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Editing by Paul Casciato)

Take the TV out of the bedroom

2008-12-16T02:38:00.000-10:00

Take the TV out of the bedroom

Shmuley Boteach , THE JERUSALEM POST

The terrible economic news that surrounds us has given a new opportunity to the family. Now that people aren't making as much money, perhaps they'll turn for comfort and security to what should have been prioritized in the first place, their loved ones. Indeed, this may be the only good thing to come from this global recession. With families tightening their belts, perhaps parents will take their kids for a hike in nature rather that a spree in a mall, and perhaps husbands and wives will take romantic strolls on a Saturday night rather than going to see a movie.

But the biggest challenge to family cohesiveness is actually something that has penetrated the innermost sanctum of marriage. There in the marital bedroom, in what is supposed to be a love-chamber, is usually a big shiny plasma TV screen. A couple's bedroom has been transformed from a temple of romance into an entertainment cathedral whose high altar is a piece of technology bringing 500 channels of distraction into the marital abode.

THIS YEAR alone I have received thousands of e-mails from couples - many husbands, but mostly wives - lamenting the sorry state of their love lives. Millions of women in America go every year with their husbands hardly ever touching them at night. It seems odd that we continue to see men as sexually voracious, when a very significant percentage seem to have lost almost any interest in making love to their wives.

To be sure, there are many factors that have led to the obliteration of the marital libido, especially in men. I wrote about the phenomenon extensively in my last book, The Broken American Male. Men who feel like failures suffer from depression that kills off their libido. And a man who thinks little of himself thinks even less of the woman silly enough to marry him. No man is attracted to a woman whom he thinks is even less special than he is. Conversely, in my upcoming book, The Kosher Sutra, I deal with the eight secrets of erotic desire that can hopefully jump-start even the most moribund marriages.

But for all the reasons we can look at to explain the explosion in the number of platonic marriages, the presence of a TV in the bedroom has got to be the most straightforward and the most profound.

TIME WAS when a man and a woman had each other, and perhaps a book or magazine, as the only forms of entertainment in the solitude of their bedroom. With little else do to, they would begin speaking, sharing intimacies of what happened during their day, their desire would be stoked and they would often enough end up in each other's arms. They might decide, while reading a book, to read aloud a particularly interesting paragraph to their spouse. This too might lead to a conversation that would draw them closer until the embers of desire would begin to glow.

But how is this supposed to happen when there are tens of thousands of people joining them in their bedroom through the medium of hundreds of channels of television? Rather than speak, others do the talking for them. Rather than read, they are both rendered utterly passive as they simply lay there and watch mind-numbing TV until they are too tired to watch any more. Could any sane person believe that this is an appetizer for a night of romance and passion? Since when does passivity lead to activity? And how can an invasion of so many strangers into the bedroom lead to any kind of emotional intimacy? Will a couple, married for a number of years, really choose to make love when the TV seems to provide for far more stimulating entertainment?

THERE IS a further consideration. I have been a marital counselor for nearly as long as I have been married, 20 years. I have learned something that seems to have eluded even the great Sigmund Freud, who famously said that he remains oblivious to what it is exactly that a woman wants. I have not learned this through any kind of special insight or through prophecy, even as I am jokingly marketed as 'The Love Prophet." Rather, through simple observation of the thousands of troubled wives who have sat before me with their husbands at their sides, and with their mascara running and their makeup smudged with tears, I have discovered the straightforward fact that a woman wants to be the center of her husband's attention and grows unhappy and insecure when she is placed at the margins. Wives are devastated when they feel their husbands' attraction weakening, and when everything in his life seems to take precedence over them.

But this is exactly what happens every night when they finally put the children to bed and shut out the world in the privacy of their bedroom. He lies down and immediately puts on the TV. Not only is this blather put before her, but there are even scantily clad younger women invading her bedroom where she is forced to compete. Is this going to lead to any wife feeling like she is in the mood? And if and when they do make love, can she know for sure that it's her he's thinking about and not one of the women he just saw on the tube?

Three years ago, when I started hosting TLC's Shalom in the Home and was obligated to review many hours of video tape and family show reels, I brought a TV into our bedroom to make it easier to get through all the tapes. It's still there and I find endless excuses about my need to watch the evening news so that I can write my columns and broadcast my radio show. And yet, I know that my wife and my marriage have to come first.

With so many families needing extra cash due to economic downturn, the time might just have come to put the TV on EBay, say good riddance, and make an even more handsome profit through a marriage that is more loving and more intimate.

The writer is the founder of This World: The Jewish Values Network. His new book The Kosher Sutra: Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life will be published by HarperOne in January.

www.shmuley.com
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728112953&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Contract Rights and the Chinese Concubine

2008-11-19T12:40:00.003-10:00

Contract Rights and the Chinese Concubine

Although the practice of concubinage was not abolished until 1971 in Hong Kong, concubines in a recognized relationship before that time may still have some legal rights.

The degree of the legal rights of pre-existing concubine relationships have not been re-examined until recently. The recent concubinage debate is between a property mogul, and his concubine "partner" of 46 years.

Lim Por-yen, property mogl argues that he lent Koo, his former concubine $74 million U.S. dollars in a schedule of 60 payments between 1994 and 2001. Koo argues that this large sum of money was a gift because she was a "third wife", lived with Por-yen for almost 50 years, and has two children with him.

Koo also contends that Chinese tradition should be adhered to and a concubine should be treated as a wife. This tradition is a foreign concept to the former Colony's British legal system, which upheld that marriage is a monogamous union.

In 2003, the Chinese Court ruled the couple's status was outside the scope of the case, and the real issue was whether the money from Por-yen was a loan of gift under contract law. Recently, an Appeal's Court overruled the 2003 judgment, and the question of whether a husband should take care of a concubine has resurfaced.

How the Wall Street Bailout works in layman's terms

2008-11-15T14:09:00.004-10:00

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a Donkey from a farmer for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the Donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad
news, your donkey died.'

Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Chuck said,'Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with him?'

Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'The farmer said: 'You can't
raffle off a dead donkey!'

Chuck said, 'Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's
dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with
that dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a
piece and made a profit of $898.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars
back.'

Chuck now works on Wall Street for AIG.

From a recent email newsletter by Rabbi Shea Hecht :
http://sheahecht.com

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

2008-11-07T01:05:00.003-10:00

WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country
Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."
http://www.theonion.com

Does Tory Burch Need A ‘Get’?

2008-11-02T21:48:00.001-10:00

Most people associate Tory Burch with $500 boots and the resurgence of 1960s fashion design. In four short years she has managed to build a veritable fashion design empire that has taken over the minds of teenage girls and married women... as well as the bank accounts of their fathers and husbands (or what’s left of their bank accounts in light of the current economic downturn).

Few, however, would identify her as a typical example of one of the tens of thousands of people that are the subject of a great halachic debate between Rav Yoseph Eliyahu Henkin, zt’l, (1881–1973) and Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt’l (1895–1986).

What lies at the heart of this great debate are the following questions: How does the halachah view a secular (non-religious) Jewish marriage? And what happens if such a marriage dissolves? When a Jewish couple that was married either in the secular court system or by a non-Orthodox rabbi is divorced, rarely do they seek to also obtain a Jewish bill of divorce, called a get. This could present a problem for the woman’s future marriage prospects and, unfortunately, for those of her children as well.

Although Tory Burch (daughter of Reva Robinson and thus halachically Jewish) apparently received the last name she is now using from her marriage to Chris Burch (not a Jew), she was previously married to William Macklowe, a famous real-estate developer who is also halachically Jewish. The marriage did not succeed, and it ended rather quickly in a secular divorce. The question is, though: What is the halachic status of this first marriage?

Rav Moshe Feinstein discusses this issue in Igros Moshe (Even HaEzer, vol. IV, No. 59; he discusses the issue in general, not Ms. Burch’s particular circumstances). In discussing these types of marriages in a letter to Rabbi Nissan Alpert, zt’l, Rav Moshe is of the opinion that since the original wedding was, in all probability, never made with any halachic validity, the need for a halachic get is not imperative. A halachic wedding requires a woman to receive an item of value accompanied by the Jewish declaration of marriage in the presence of two Sabbath-observing witnesses. If there were no Sabbath-observing witnesses present when the ring was given and the declaration made, there is no halachic wedding, states Rav Moshe.

Rav Henkin, on the other hand, disagrees. He quotes a principle of the Talmud (Gittin 81b and codified in Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 26:1) that a person does not generally wish that his marriage not be legitimate. The Mishnah there in Gittin explains that, according to Beis Hillel, if a man divorces his wife but subsequently remains with her in a pundaki (an inn), a get is required. The Shulchan Aruch (E.H. 149:1) rules in accordance with Beis Hillel.

Rav Henkin extends this ruling to cases such as the one mentioned above, as well. He points out that, although no longer practiced, there are ways of enacting a halachic marriage other than with the use of a ring (see the first Mishnah in tractate Kiddushin), and this is what is at play both in our case and in the Mishnah in Gittin. Since the members of this married couple are living together as a married couple, and the world views them as such, we have all the elements of a halachic marriage. What are the elements? The three elements are (1) kosher witnesses; (2) a valid method of effectuating marriage; and (3) the declaration of marriage.

In Rav Henkin’s view, who are the “kosher witnesses”? The witnesses are the entire world, including Sabbath-observing neighbors and friends that see them acting as a married couple. Rav Henkin refers to another Talmudic principle called an “anan sahadi,” which literally means “we [all] testify.” In his view, witnesses do not actually have to see it, but knowing it with certitude is sufficient.

Where is the declaration of marriage? According to Rav Henkin, there is a tacit, unspoken declaration of marriage that is based on the fact that a person does not wish his marriage to be invalid. Thus, when there is another method of effectuating the marriage—living together as husband and wife—Rav Henkin rules that the tacit declaration is the accompanying secondary marriage effectuation. Although it may sound somewhat strange, Rav Henkin’s position is not so novel. Poskim have discussed the notion of savlanos, sending gifts to one’s new bride, as a problem, and the issue is extended beyond the case of the Mishnah in Gittin.

Rav Feinstein attacks Rav Henkin’s position, stating that the husband thinks that the civil marriage has already effected the marriage. In defense of Rav Henkin, one could state that the non-observant Jew does not think that the civil marriage is effecting any change in the Divine view of his marital status. Rather, he thinks that the civil marriage is merely affecting (not effecting) the social apperception of his status. Rav Henkin, therefore, can quite justifiably employ non-conscious religious desires to effect the marriage.

How have the poskim viewed this great halachic debate? Rav Moshe Feinstein himself writes that ideally one should require a get in order to satisfy the other view as well. Rav Ovadiah Yosef also requires a get under ideal circumstances. However, the challenges of arranging for a get when the husband is truly not around allows for leniencies, according to both Rabbi Feinstein and Rav Yosef.

Just out of curiosity, one may wonder how contemporary Reform Judaism viewed this debate. Surprisingly enough, the halachic issues were dealt with in a Reform journal decades ago. It seems that the responsa committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis were somewhat insulted by Rav Moshe Feinstein’s position and stated that in their view Rav Henkin was correct.

Does it really matter for Tory Burch? Would it make a difference for her? Perhaps yes. It seems that she has been dating Jewish men since her divorce. She has dated both an Israeli designer and an American Jewish businessman.

The author can be reached by e-mail at yairhoffman2@gmail.com.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

The Minimalist: Kasha Varnishkes -- NYTimes.com/video

2008-10-27T16:49:00.001-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeNF_WrUPU
Mark Bittman prepares his mother's classic Kasha Varnishkes.

Tags:
thenewyorktimes NYT nytimes.com Bittman cuisine

Critics' Picks: 'Wall Street'

2008-10-25T22:55:00.001-10:00

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A. O. Scott looks back at Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" and its relevance to the current financial crisis.
A. O. Scott looks back at Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" and its relevance to the current financial crisis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZNvxrahfWg

Love in Saudi Arabia

2008-10-25T22:51:00.001-10:00

A peek into the way that some relationships happen in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BELYJmtLHc

The Brutal Truth

2008-09-19T09:00:00.008-10:00

B"H
Dear readers.
Please see the article bellow and comment if you have seen a personal ad in this style.
Please post its text oa link to it as a comment to this post or email noah@pilegesh.org

The Brutal Truth

By: Shea Hecht

We all put great value on the truth and demand honesty from others. Many times our biggest criticism to others - especially people in the political arena - is that people are not being honest.

In our relationships - marriage, work, children - we always say we want openness, honesty and truth. What is it about truth though, that often as soon as we hear it we get offended? Many times we'll "excuse the truth" by saying it was said because of a bias, hatred or jealousy.

The Talmud tells us that one of the pillars that the world exists on is truth - yet we so often fight it.

The other day I came across a fascinating ad that was a parody of our dishonest quest for honesty.

The Craig's List nanny ad was called brutally honest or unusually honest by many.

My kids are a pain... Just in the past hour, i have had to tell each one to do something more than once. oldest: can i have soda? it's just a sprite? please? can i? no, no and no.
the next one...don't even get me started. seriously.

The ad describes everything the mother expected from a nanny - in completely honest terms - everything the woman feels she can give to a nanny and everything in between.

the twin six year olds: one wanted dessert before her dinner was over, one kept wanting to know why I wouldn't let nine year olds swing her around by her limbs. (the fear of a dislocated shoulder did nothing.)
Please help me.

The "brutally honest" ad got lots of attention because of one tiny little fact - it was honest.

I can be a tad difficult to work for. I'm loud, pushy and while I used to think we paid well, i am no longer sure. i work from home, so you get the pleasure of being hounded by me all day long. and, you get to pretend to like me, because i am deeply sensative. (but well dressed and a know it all, a winning combination I assure you.)

The prospective nannies who read the ad recognized the honesty in it and other women looking for nannies saw the obvious too.

If you cannot multi task, or communicate without being passive aggressive, don't even bother replying.
If you are the type who doesn't notice crumbs on the table, skip to the next post, because crumbs are a deal breaker. they put me over the edge.

What's most amazing about the honesty of this 1,000 word ad is that people were amazed by the honesty! They were refreshed by the truthfulness of ad.

am not looking for Super nanny, or anyone who wants this job because they will love my kids as if they are their own. you won't. really. they are infinitely lovable, but trust me, they're mine and you will move on when your journey with us is over, and save for some funny stories and a delightful email every now and again, you won't grieve. Nor will we. (okay, we did all grieve a few of our past sitters, oddly they were all named Sarah or Kate, or Nikki. And Leah. Leah was delightful, even if she did drop my twin babies off our couch during a family gathering. Good times.

Have we become a nation of liars? Are we so jaded by the lies that people tell and write that honesty has become brutal? Unusual? Refreshing?

I need a team player. I need someone to back me up when it comes to remembering when the library books are due, and whether i have rsvped to that birthday party yet.

Rebecca Soodak, the 40-year-old Mother whose husband owns a wine store, eventually hired a 25-year-old University of Virginia graduate, to take care of her children. I guess the honesty drew her to the job.

Help me dear G-d keep track of our skim milk supply and also, also, also, what should I make for dinner tomorrow night?

In the end, Soodak's honesty was almost a joke - on her! As Soodak told the Times: "I hope she likes it here. I sent the ad to one of my old sitters and she said she felt it was pretty accurate, which sort of stung a little bit."

Rabbi Shea Hecht
Chairman NCFJE
718-735-0200
rabbishea@aol.com
To read more articles by Shea Hecht check out http://www.sheahecht.com/

Cinema as a Holy Tool, Judean Wineries and Original Music

2008-09-19T09:00:00.003-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icx5BFjE1jo
Israeli Salad #176 Part 2: Can religious observance and the world of cinema coexist? A visit to Judean wineries. Music from Erez Lev Ari. More video at IsraelNNTV.com.

Visit Jerusalem

2008-09-11T08:23:00.002-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YXQExQAXQs
http://www.visit-jerusalem.com

Hat Tip to: Michal Moreno http://www.israel-travel-tips.com

9/11:A Person Saved Twice From Tragedy

2008-09-11T00:46:00.003-10:00

How a person was saved from the Sbarro pizza bombing in Israel and then saved again from the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Watch this amazing story!!!

Michelle Obama Has a Rabbi in Her Family

2008-09-02T14:00:00.001-10:00

Michelle Obama Has a Rabbi in Her Family
Capers Funnye, Leading Black Israelite, Is Aspiring First Lady’s Cousin
By Anthony Weiss
Tue. Sep 02, 2008

While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it turns out that one of his wife’s cousins is the country’s most prominent black rabbi — a fact that has gone largely unnoticed.

Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and Rabbi Capers Funnye,

spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago’s South Side, are first cousins once removed. Funnye’s mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and Michelle Obama’s paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister.

Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY) is chief rabbi at the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in southwest Chicago. He is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world of black Jewish congregations, sometimes known as black Hebrews or Israelites. He has often urged the larger Jewish community to be more accepting of Jews who are not white.

Funnye’s famous relative gives an unexpected twist to the much-analyzed relationship between Barack Obama and Jews in this presidential campaign. On the one hand, Jewish political organizers, voters and donors played an essential role in Obama’s rise to power in Chicago, including some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent families. But the Illinois senator has struggled to overcome suspicions in some parts of the Jewish community, including skepticism about his stance on Israel and discredited but persistent rumors that he is secretly a Muslim.

Funnye, who described himself as an independent, said he has not been involved with the Obama campaign but that he has donated money and was cheering it on.

“I know that her grandfather and her father and my mom and all of our relatives that are now deceased would be so very, very proud of both of them,” Funnye told the Forward.

Michelle Obama and the Obama campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Funnye told the Forward that he has known Michelle Obama (born Michelle Robinson) all her life. His mother and her father, Frasier Robinson III, enjoyed a close relationship, and Funnye said he saw Michelle several times a year when they were growing up, mostly at family functions and on occasional visits to her house.

“Her father was like the glue of our family,” Funnye said. “He always wanted to keep the family very connected and to stay in touch with each other.”

Funnye, 56, said he and Michelle, 44, were not especially close growing up, but he remembers her as “energetic and smart and very caring.”

The two fell out of touch when they grew older and went their separate ways but then reconnected years later when Michelle Obama was working for the University of Chicago and Funnye was leading a local social service organization called Blue Gargoyle. Funnye also worked with Barack Obama, then a state senator, who came and spoke at events for the organization. When Barack and Michelle Obama married, Funnye and his family attended the wedding.

Although Funnye’s congregation describes itself as Ethiopian Hebrew, it is not connected to the Ethiopian Jews, commonly called Beta Israel, who have immigrated to Israel en masse in recent decades. It is also separate from the Black Hebrews in Dimona, Israel, and the Hebrew Israelite black supremacist group whose incendiary street harangues have become familiar spectacles in a number of American cities.

Funnye converted to Judaism and was ordained as a rabbi under the supervision of black Israelite rabbis, then went through another conversion supervised by Orthodox and Conservative rabbis. He serves on the Chicago Board of Rabbis.

Funnye’s relationship with the Obama family was reported in the Chicago Jewish News in an article dated August 22. A Wall Street Journal article in April reported that the aspiring first lady had a cousin (whom the paper mistakenly referred to as a second cousin) who is a prominent black rabbi but did not mention Funnye by name.

The rabbi’s familial connection with the Democratic presidential nominee is also a matter of common knowledge in Funnye’s synagogue.

“He really jumped on everyone’s radar after the 2004 convention,” Funnye said. “That’s when some people said, ‘Isn’t he related to you or something?’ I said, ‘Yeah, he’s married to my cousin, and she’s making him everything that he is.’”
from: http://www.forward.com/articles/14121/

Polygamy is the secret of longevity!

2008-08-20T17:06:00.002-10:00

Polygamy is the secret of longevity!

London: Forget long walks and calorie-controlled diets, the sure shot way to live a longer life is: get a second wife.

That's the conclusion of a new research, which has suggested that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones.

After accounting for socio-economic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12 per cent longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.

The latest research might solve a long-standing puzzle in human biology: Why do men live so long? This question only makes sense after asking the same for women, who - unlike nearly all other animals - live long past the menopause.

More offbeat stories | Health facts

One answer seems to be a phenomenon called the grandmother effect. For every 10 years a woman survives past the menopause, she gains two additional grandchildren, Lummaa says.

It seems that doting on and spoiling grandchildren aids their survival, as well as furthering some of their grandmother's genes. Men, by contrast, can reproduce well into their 60s and even 70s and 80s, and most researchers assumed this explained their longevity.

But Lummaa and colleague Andy Russell wondered whether other factors explained the long lifespan of men, such as a grandfather effect.

To test this possibility, the team analysed church-gathered records for 25,000 Finns from the 18th and 19th centuries.

People tended to move little, no one practiced contraception and the Lutheran Church enforced monogamy. Only widowed men could remarry, and if they had children with their new wife, they fathered more kids, on average, than men who married once. But ultimately remarried men "don't end up with any more grandchildren," Lummaa says.

"If anything the presence of a grandfather was associated with decreased survival of grandchildren," New Scientist quoted Lummaa, as saying.

Perhaps, Lummaa adds, the children of the first mother lose out on food and resources that go to the second mother's kids.

"It's kind of the Cinderella effect," Lummaa added.

Even fathers with only one wife provided no benefit to their grandchildren, a finding supported by previous research. With the grandfather effect ruled out, Lummaa and Russell next wondered whether the constraints of human physiology explain male longevity. In the same way that men have nipples that evolved for women to nourish their young, male longevity might be a consequence of biological selection for long-lived women.

To answer this question, the researchers compared the lifespan of men from polygamous countries with those from monogamous nations.

Using data from the World Health Organisation, Lummaa and Russell scored 189 countries on a monogamy scale of one to four - totally monogamous to mostly polygamous. They also took into account a country's gross domestic product and average income to minimise the effect of better nutrition and healthcare in monogamous

Lummaa stressed that their monogamy score is a crude first stab, and they are working to find multiple ways to assess marriage patterns. The conclusions could evaporate under further analysis, she adds.

If female survival is the main explanation for male longevity, then monogamous and polygamous men would live for about the same length of time. Instead, it seems that fathering more kids with more wives leads to increased male longevity. Men, then, live long because they're fertile well into their grey years.

The study has been presented at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology's annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.

"© 2004 sify.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Not Your Fathers Kosher Wine

2008-08-17T20:15:00.000-10:00

Polygamy Isn’t All Bad

2008-07-30T14:10:00.003-10:00

Polygamy Isn’t All Bad
Posted on July 30, 2008 by joelsopinion
Polygamy gets a bum wrap in this day and age, but let’s focus on the positive aspects of this alternative lifestyle. By having more than one wife it’s not ‘cheating’, which is a term that swirls with negativity. It’s a challenge. Anyone in a relationship knows just how much work it is to keep a partner content and happy. Now imagine the amount of love one needs to keep four, five, or nine women happy. It also inspires a healthy form of competition among the harem. They will feel impelled to improve their looks, cooking ability, and child rearing skills. Which ultimately makes them more desirable to the man. That in turns gives the man more incentive to “show” more love.

Just think of all the support you’d receive in a community full of family members. Everyone knows each other, and the kids will grow up as best friends/siblings/cousins. A close knit family with no secrets. Perhaps the best part (at least from my POV) is that the 4-7 days a month in a conventional family when the romance is inhibited will be done away with. A constant cycle of love. You’d always have somebody to turn to, and a place to rest your head.

I can’t tell you how many women tell me that there are no good guys out there. It may be true. So why not share the good ones? Some women never want children, others give in to the biological clock and only want a child with no man in the picture. Polygamy solves both problems. If you don’t want the hassle of a relationship, then just show up when you want another bun in the oven. It’s like a friendly no appointment necessary sperm bank.

I just might do some research and revisit this topic later. Just not in the odd-ball Mormon way.

Does living in the suburbs make people fatter?

2008-07-30T13:42:00.003-10:00

B"H
Neighborhood Walkability Linked to Weight
Obesity Risk Greater in Newer Communities
By Salynn Boyles

WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Elizabeth Klodas, MD, FACC
July 29, 2008 -- Does living in the suburbs make people fatter?

New research suggests that it might for those who reside in neighborhoods designed more for cars than foot traffic.

People in the study who lived in the most walkable neighborhoods weighed an average of 8 pounds less than people who lived in the least walkable areas.

Neighborhoods built before 1950 tended to have sidewalks and other characteristics that made them more accessible to pedestrians, including being more densely populated and having restaurants and other businesses nearby, lead researcher Ken R. Smith, PhD, tells WebMD.

In general, newer neighborhoods offered fewer opportunities for walking.

The study appears in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“We aren’t saying the move from older to newer neighborhoods is the cause of the obesity epidemic, but it may be a factor,” Smith says.

Walk Less, Weigh More
In an effort to test the theory, Smith and colleagues calculated the body mass index (BMI) of 453,927 residents of Salt Lake County, Utah, using height and weight data from their driver’s license applications. Adults between the ages of 25 and 64 were included in the analysis.

The researchers also reviewed census data that included information about the neighborhoods where the residents lived.

In general, the research suggested that the more walkable a neighborhood was, the less likely its residents were to become overweight or obese.

Based upon the analysis, a man of average height and weight who lived in the most walkable neighborhood in Salt Lake County would be expected to weigh an average of 10 pounds less than a man living in the least walkable neighborhood. For women, the difference would be 6 pounds.

Smith says the growing emphasis on designing pedestrian-friendly places for people to live, work, and play could have a large, positive impact on health in the future.

He cites a recent report from the Brookings Institution predicting that by the year 2030 half the buildings in the United States will have been built since 2000.

“That represents a huge opportunity to think about how we are building our communities and to make them better places, both from a health and an environmental standpoint,” he says.

Walkability a Goal
This is the goal of the CDC’s ‘Healthy Places’ initiative, says Andrew Dannenberg, MD, MPH, of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.

“Our mission is to get health on the table when building decisions are being made,” he says. “This has not been done much in the past, but awareness is growing.”

The recent stratospheric rise in gas prices and concerns about climate change have helped focus attention on the subject, but it is still too soon to know if the attention will lead to change, Dannenberg says.

The CDC’s ‘Healthy Places’ web site makes it clear that the challenge is daunting, as it calls for substantive changes with regard to future growth.

“Today, typical suburban homes sit in cul-de-sac subdivisions that empty out onto high volume roads,” it reads. “Zoning laws encourage the separation of residential areas from schools and shopping malls by long and often dangerous travel distances. Elementary school bicycle racks stand empty as parents fear for their children’s safety on narrow or traffic-laden roads. (And) pedestrians take risks as they cross dangerous intersections in communities where safe crosswalks are all but nonexistent,” the CDC statement reads.
View Article Sources
SOURCES:

Parks, E.J., The Journal of Nutrition, August 2008; vol 88: pp 1039-1046.

Elizabeth J. Parks, PhD, associate professor, Center for Human Nutrition, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.

“Toward a New Metropolis: The Opportunity to Rebuild America,” Brookings Institution, 2004.

CDC: “Designing and Building Healthy Places.”

Andrew Dannenberg, MD, MPH, medical officer, National Center for Environmental Health, CDC, Atlanta.

© 2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

Important video message! (Poly shiduchim)

2008-06-22T13:54:00.006-10:00

Deeper Reality (English with Hebrew subtitles)

2008-06-20T11:53:00.002-10:00

About - A Deeper Reality
* What is the Kabbalah?
* What does science think about the existence of G-d?
* What is the purpose of life and the world?
* Why is there suffering in the world?
* What can I do to feel fulfilled?
Join us for a fascinating journey - both mystical and practical - on
the Kabbalah’s look into the future. From the beginning of time through
our current technological revolution, take a deeper look into the
energy stored in sub-atomic particles, the new global community, the
future of the Internet, and where man’s intelligence is leading the
world.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
* Rabbi Butman - director Lubavitch Youth Organization
* Rabbi Dr. Dovid Gottlieb - Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem
* Rabbi Simon Jacobson - Meaningful Life Center
* Rabbi Shais Taub - teacher, speaker
* Rabbi Garelick - speaker
* Rabbi Homnick - speaker, teacher
* Rabbi Yossi Paltiel - teacher United Lubavitch Yeshiva, Machon Chana
"The Zohar, book of Kabbalah, predicted that in 1840 the wellsprings of
information will open up…"
- Rabbi Simon Jacobson
"We now have the power to destroy ourselves, what are we going to do
with that power?"
- Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb

Fiddler on the roof - Do you love me ? (with subtitles)

2008-06-20T10:19:00.001-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_y9F5St4j0

מזמור לדוד Song of David the Movie (with Hebrew Subtitles)

2008-06-10T19:49:00.004-10:00

B"H
Amazing new movie featuring NIZ (Nosson Isaac Zand)[ http://www.kosherhiphop.com ] now available online:

מזמור לדוד Song of David the Movie (with Hebrew Subtitles)

http://www.songofdavidmovie.com

Bill proposes to recognise polygamy

2008-06-08T08:24:00.002-10:00

KAZAKHSTAN
Bill proposes to recognise polygamy

Some people, including some women, support proposal; for others it is “nonsense.” In Central Asia the practice is not uncommon and many men can get a young second wife by paying off her poor parents.

Astana (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A new draft law in Kazakhstan would legalise polygamy. In predominantly Muslim Central Asia the practice is widespread but additional wives and their children are often without rights.

Citing Islamic customs which allow men to have up to four wives if he can maintain them and get the consent of his current wife or wives, proponents of legalising polygamy say the new bill will help improve the demographic situation in the country.

Polygamy has been practiced in Central Asian Muslim societies for centuries. Even during the Soviet era, some men took more than one wife, although only the first marriage was considered legal.

Similar proposals have been made in the recent past, by the League of Muslim Women of Kazakhstan for example. Its leader, Amina Abdukarim Qyzy, has said that polygamy “brings happiness to many men and women.”

In the southern part of the country, where Islamic traditions are strongest, many men have more than one wife.

Kazakhstan decriminalised polygamy in 1998, but in case of divorce or death of the husband additional wives and their children have no rights.

The proposal is not going well with everyone. Lawmaker Bahyt Syzdykova called the whole thing “nonsense”.

Speaking at a televised roundtable in Astana in early May, she said she would propose legalising polyandry—allowing women to marry more than one man—if parliament legalised polygamy out of respect for equal rights. In fact for her there is more need for a law giving greater rights to children born out of wedlock than any legalisation of polygamy.

A 2004 poll by the Express K daily suggested that some 40 per cent of Kazakh men supported legalising polygamy. In the same poll, more than 73 per cent of women said they wanted to be the only wife of their husband. Only 22 per cent of women said they would not oppose living in a polygamous marriage, but only if wives lived in separate apartments and were equally and adequately provided for by a husband.

The issue is also a topic of discussion in the other former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Here too a second or third wife is not uncommon, but here too she is without rights.

Many point out that in some areas rich men take on a young second or third wife by paying off her poor parents.

They believe that legalisation would provide these women with rights.

http://www.asianews.it/view4print.php?l=en&art=12382

Legal age of marriage in the USA state by state and Iternationaly

2008-06-03T06:07:00.004-10:00

B"H
In connection with the previous post on the age to get married ( http://pilegesh.blogspot.com/2008/06/age-to-get-married.html ) by the posek (rabbinic adviser) of this blog I'm reprinting bellow legal minimum ages of marriage in all the states with a link to wikipedia article which also contains age of marriage in other countries.
I'd like to point out that age of consent for a relationship that is not a marriage registered with the government such as a pilegesh relationship may be higher in some of the states listed. This post does't constitute a legal advice. Please consult a lawyer for more information.

# United States: Usually 18. Most states, however, allow marriage at a younger age with parental and/or judicial consent. Some states allow marriage at a still younger age if the female is pregnant.

* Alabama: 18, 16 with parental consent (statute).
* Alaska: 18, 16 with parental consent.[13]
* Arizona: no statutory minimum, those under 18 must have parental consent, those under 16 must receive approval of a superior court judge and parental consent. (statute)
* Arkansas: 18, 16 for females and 17 for males with parental consent.[14]
* California: no statutory minimum, those under 18 must receive approval of a superior court judge and parental consent.
* Colorado: 18, 16 with parental consent.[15]
* Connecticut: 18, 16 with parental consent.[16]
* District of Columbia: 18, 16 with parental consent.[17]
* Delaware: 18, 16 for females with parental consent.[18]
* Florida: 18, 16 with parental consent.[19]
* Georgia: 18 generally, 15 with parental consent, 16 without parental consent if pregnant.[20]
* Hawaii: 18, 15 with parental consent.[21]
* Idaho: 18, 16 with parental consent.[22]
* Illinois: 18, 16 with parental consent.[23]
* Indiana: 18, 17 with parental consent.[24]
* Iowa: 18, 16 with parental consent.[25]
* Kansas: 18, 16 with parental consent.[26]
* Kentucky: 18, 16 with parental consent.[27]
* Louisiana: 18, 16 with parental consent.[28]
* Maine: 18, 16 with parental consent.[29]
* Massachusetts: 18 generally for first marriage, 16 with parental and judicial consent [30].
* Maryland: 18, 16 with parental consent.[31]
* Michigan: 18 generally, 16 with parental consent. 15 and under with parental consent and probate judge approval.
* Minnesota: 18, 16 with parental consent.[32]
* Mississippi: 21, 17 for males, 15 for females, with parental consent.
* Missouri: 18, 15 with parental consent.[33]
* Montana: 18, 16 with parental consent.[34]
* Nebraska: 19, 17 with parental consent.[35]
* Nevada: 18, 16 with parental consent.[36]
* New Hampshire: 18 generally; 14 for males and 13 for females, in cases of "special cause" with parental consent and court permission.
* New Jersey: 18 generally, 16 with parental consent.
* New Mexico: 18, 16 with parental consent.[37]
* New York: 18 generally, 16 with parental consent, 14 with parental and judicial consent.
* North Carolina: 18 generally, 16 with parental consent, unlimited in case of pregnancy or birth of child with parental consent.
* North Dakota: 18, 16 with parental consent.[38]
* Ohio: 18 for males, 16 for females. Parental consent needed for minors.
* Oklahoma: 18, 16 with parental consent.[39]
* Oregon: 18 generally, 17 with parental consent. The consenting parent or guardian must accompany the applicant when applying for the marriage license. There is no waiver for anyone under the age of 17.
* Pennsylvania: 18 generally, 16 with Birth Certificate and written consent of parent or guardian. Anyone under the age of 16 needs parental consent and the approval of a Judge of the Orphans Court. (statute)
* Puerto Rico: 21, 18 with parental consent.[40]
* Rhode Island: 18, 16 for females with parental consent.[41]
* South Carolina: 18, 16 with parental consent.[42]
* South Dakota: 18, 16 with parental consent.[43]
* Tennessee: 18, 16 with parental consent.[44]
* Texas: 18, 16 with parental consent. 14 with judicial consent or if person under 18 had previously married and divorced.
* Utah: 18 generally for first marriage, 16 with parental consent, 15 with court approval.[45]
* Vermont: 18, 16 with parental consent.[46]
* Virginia: 18, 16 with parental consent.[47]
* Washington: 18, 17 with parental consent.[48] May be waived by superior court judge.(statute)
* West Virginia: 18, 16 with parental consent, under 16 (unspecified limit) with parental and judicial consent[49][50]
* Wisconsin: 18, 16 with parental consent.[51]
* Wyoming: 18, 16 with parental consent.[52]

see more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriageable_age#Americas

Age to Get married

2008-06-03T05:39:00.003-10:00

B"H
Age to Get married
by EmesLYaakov
Problem: Jews are not allowed to have premarital sex. Starting shortly after puberty, the teenager's hormones are raging. What does the Torah advise?

Solution: Most Orthodox Jews are familiar with the expression shemoneh esreh l'chupa - that you should get married when you are 18 years old. Most do not realise that this is neither the minimum age, nor the ideal age from a Torah perspective. They also do not realize that there is a halachic deadline.

Eighteen is the age given for marriage in Pirkei Avoth (the part of the Mishnah called Ethics of our Fathers). For many reasons, 18 is a very practical age - by then a man has had an opportunity to learn a large amount of Torah. He is expected to be mature enough to support a family. On the other hand, he has been urged on by his hormones for a few years already. The Talmud (Kiddushin 29b) says that from a perspective of guarding against sin, 16 is better and 14 is better yet. The Shulchan Aruch (Even HaEzer 1:3) says that the best way to perform the mitzvah of marriage is to get married at age 13.

The halachic deadline is age 20. If a man has not gotten married by age 20, the Talmud says that all of his days he will have sinful thoughts. My understanding of this is that since he did not get married at the time when his hormones were raging the strongest, and since he had no kosher outlet for his sexual drive, he has become permanently warped. A man who did not get married by age 20 is supposed to be beaten by the Beith Din (religious courts) until he agrees to get married. This is the halacha in Shulchan Aruch (Even HaEzer 1:3), though the Rama (Rav Moshe Isserles) says that the custom nowadays is not to force people to get married. In any case, if he hasn't gotten married by age 20, he should get married as soon as possible.

The sages of the Talmud understood the nature of man and his drives very well. They suggested that a man should get married at 18, and that for protection against improper sexual urges, younger would be better. They said that putting off marriage to later than 20 would permanently warp his personality.

Today in Jewish society, it is unusual for a man to get married as young as 18, and most don't even get married by 20, and it is almost unheard of for a man to get married younger than 18.

Clearly this is a cause to some of the problems of sexual morality facing Jewish society today.

Often when I present this simple concept to people, they argue that men are not mature enough to get married at age 14, or even at age 18. Certainly they are physically mature. The question is, are they emotionally mature. And are they mature at 24 or at 36.

Our grandparents or great grandparents got married at much younger ages than we do. The tendency in western society is to foster dependence until a late age, but this is a matter of conditioning and training. If we would expect our sons to be mature and would train them to be mature and would give them responsibilities, then indeed they could be mature enough to get married at the age that the Torah directs.

This would have many benefits: less sexual frustration and sexual immorality, more Jewish children born. It would also make it easier for girls/women to get married. Men generally marry women younger than they, and the greater the age when a man gets married, the greater the difference between his age and his wife's age. An older woman is therefore competing against women of a wider age span. Her competition is greater and her chance of getting married is less.

Polygamist sect parents, children begin reuniting

2008-06-03T05:30:00.003-10:00

B"H
In other news the police have raided every public school in the USA and arrested 14-15 year old pregnant girls and all other kids charged their parents and teachers with abuse and neglect etc. ,,, NOT!

Polygamist sect parents, children begin reuniting

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — More than 400 children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch two months ago began returning to the arms of their tearful parents Monday, hours after a judge bowed to a state Supreme Court ruling that the seizure was not justified.

"It's just great day," said Nancy Dockstader, whose chin quivered and eyes filled with tears as she embraced her 9-year-old daughter, Amy, outside a foster-care center in Gonzales, about 65 miles east of San Antonio. "We're so grateful."

Her daughter and four other children were among the roughly 430 children ordered released after two months in state custody, much of it spent in foster care centers. Because siblings were separated at facilities hundreds of miles apart, it will probably take several days for all the families to be reunited.

Judge Barbara Walther responded to a state Supreme Court ruling last week by signing an order that cleared the children to be released from foster care. Walther allowed parents to begin picking up their children Monday, ending one of the nation's largest child-custody cases.

Dockstader and her husband, James, were headed to Corpus Christi and to Amarillo to pick up their other children. "We'll get the rest of them," said Dockstader, who was clad in a teal prairie dress and clinging to Amy, who wore a matching dress.

Walther's order requires the parents to stay in Texas, to attend parenting classes and to allow the children to be examined as part of any abuse investigation.

But it does not put restrictions on the children's fathers, require that the parents renounce polygamy or force them to leave the Yearning For Zion Ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Child Protective Services removed all the children from the ranch after an April 3 raid prompted by calls to a domestic abuse hot line that purportedly came from a 16-year-old mother who was being abused by her middle-age husband. The calls are now being investigated as a hoax, but authorities contended all the children were at risk because church teachings pushed underage girls into marriage and sex.

The church has denied any children were abused, and members have said they are being persecuted for their religion, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven.

Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the child-protection agency, said authorities still have concerns about the children's safety, and the investigation into possible abuse would continue.

The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed an appeals court ruling that reversed Walther's decision in April putting all children from the ranch into foster case.

The high court and the appeals court rejected the state's argument that all the children were in immediate danger from what it said was sexual abuse of teenage girls at the ranch.

The Third Court of Appeals ruled that the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children.

Half the children sent to foster care were no older than 5.

All the children, including any underage mothers, will be allowed to go back to their parents, though it's possible some children's attorneys or child-protection officials could pursue further action in individual cases.

It's not clear how many might return to the ranch right away. Many of the parents have purchased or rented homes in Amarillo, San Antonio and other places around the state.

Rod Parker, a spokesman for the FLDS church, said some of the attorneys have advised parents to stay away from the ranch for now, but most families want to return to the ranch so the children can continue the education they were getting at the sect's schoolhouse before the raid.

Walther's order does not end a separate criminal investigation. Texas authorities last week collected DNA from jailed FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs as part of investigation into underage sex with girls, ages 12 to 15. He has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape and is jail in Arizona awaiting trial on separate charges.

The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Associated Press writers Elizabeth White in Gonzales, Linda Ball in Fort Worth and Betsy Blaney in Amarillo contributed to this report.
Hosted by Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A victory for all who care about human rights worldwide and rule of law in the United States of America

2008-05-23T08:22:00.009-10:00

B"H
Dear friends!
Living in a multicultural democratic state like the United States of America we are grateful to G-d who inspired the founding fathers of this country to create a foundation for all people and nations and communities living here to live in peace without the risk of their lives, their freedom, the right to educate their children according to the precepts of their faith, or fear of their property being taken away from them by government agents carrying weapons with no recourse.
While it is abhorent and scary that in the 21st century United States America we can witness more than 400 children being taken away from their parents based on a mere anonymous complaint against one of them that have so far proven to be unfounded. It is comforting to see that the courts have investigated the matter and issued an honest and humane decision against the state of Texas, returning children to their parents.
It is also horrific that while in custody of the state these children were allegedly denied the right to practice their religion remenicent of the worst abuses in the Communist (watch for example the story about 16 and a half minutes from the start in the video bellow about Jewish children being taken away from their parents based on nothing more than governments dislike of their religion) :

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7505109283292639124&q=rav+zilber&ei=hxA3SNbjFpmS-QGC8NzpAw
, Nazi, or secular Zionist (see Tehran children's case http://www.zchor.org/tehran/children.htm for example ) regimes.
It is my sincere hope that families abused by the state of Texas also sue and win huge setlement discouraging overzelous agents of various states and federal goverment agencies from ever doing such things again because while now this was done to fundamentalist Mormons it can and has been done to many other small religious communities including ours.
We may disagree with Mormons we may dislike their customs and beliefs , but we may not use it as an excuse to watch as their rights are being trampled in a state designed to protect the rights of all people to live in peace and serve G-d according
to their understanding of their respective faiths.
Let me make it clear that the practice of forced marriage is abhorent and this violates the law of the land and the government has a right and obligation to protect people from
such abuses, however it must do so without violating the constitution , due process and other rights and practicing collective punishment of an entire community based on unverified anonymous allegations for if not one day me may wake up and find ourselves in a Socialist/Communist like state such as former Soviet Union where I was born and grew up seeing the destruction of that society after it was totaly corrupted and people
couldn't take it anymore.

I feel that it is imperative for us to speak up in such cases for
the people working in the goverment responsible for such abuses don't respect any religion or culture other than watered down versions of their religions mixed with Liberalism and belief that end justifies the means and every culture they don't like can be thrown into American melting pot to be totally transformed to fit the fancies of the prevailing majority.
PS. I have been contacted by a rabbi / rabbinic judge from one of the Sefardic Jewish communities in Texas who is willing to offer help to people families hurt in this raid. Please contact me if you need helpand I'll forward your comments and emails to him. He feels solidarity for these people also because he believes that polygamy is permisible under G-d's law and should peaceful people who practice it shouldn't be persecuted. Please email me at rabbi@pilegesh.org
PPS. People of all faiths in America should also work together to stop the subtle economic exploitation of their communities thru unfair taxation supporting socialized public education see more about this here:
(see the highlighted part including the words "subtle form of financial persecution"
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:EaXC5aey60oJ:www.sichosinenglish.org/books/sichos-in-english/8/19.htm+site:

sichosinenglish.org+subtle+form+of+financial+persecution&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
and more on this in the 3 part Living Torah series video bellow:

see the embeded news reports and links about the case in Texas bellow:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/24789986#24789986

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/24790030#24790030
more information about this story:
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/news/FLDS/

Rabbi calls to abolish army service for women

2008-05-22T01:34:00.005-10:00

08:35 , 05.12.08

Photo: Gil Yohanan Rabbi Aviner Photo: Gil Yohanan

Prominent Zionist-religious leader Rabbi Shlomo Aviner rules girls must not enlist in IDF, move that he claims goes against Torah laws. In wartime, women's duty is to support their men, he writes
Kobi Nahshoni

Prominent Zionist-religious leader, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner called on young religious women not to enlist in the army, a move he defined as a violation of Torah laws.

In an open letter published in the Mayyaney Hayeshua movement's pamphlet this weekend, Aviner ruled that army service is forbidden for all women, and urged his female readers to act for its annulment.

"Never enlist in the army…ever," Aviner wrote, quoting a list of leading chief rabbis and religious leaders who have prohibited such service in the past. "It is forbidden! Forbidden like kashrut! Forbidden like Shabbat! And especially forbidden like modesty!"

The rabbi stressed that while contributing to the State is indeed important, one must not do so by serving in the army. The women's duty during war, he wrote, was to support the men who go to battle. Enlistment, on the other hand, is a desecration of God's name.

Instead of dedicating themselves to the challenges of military duty, Aviner offered girls to fight for abolishing "this negative phenomenon."

"We need you to function as a pure and clean woman… and not to undermine your mental foundation… remember: Army service for women, in any shape or form – is forbidden! Forbidden! Resist the temptation!" he concluded.

Religious affairs: God only knows where this will lead

2008-05-22T00:53:00.004-10:00

B"H
The following story illustrates the need for their unification of rabbinic authority in the Land of Israel under fully functioning Sanhedrin, because current situation is a virtual halachik anarchy enforced by the power of secular law and the other alternative total separation between Judaism and state in the so called "Jewish and democratic state" is also not desirable ( see also http://moshiachtv.blogspot.com/2007/05/moshiach-and-zionism.html ) nor wanted by most Jews in Israel nor is it 1st and foremost something within our power to allow according to the laws of our G-d recorded in the Torah which enjoin us to create a system of justice based not merely on human understanding but rather on the living Torah - the word of G-d.

Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 15, 2008

A high-ranking source in the rabbinical courts said this week that the recent controversy over conversions, pitting rabbi against rabbi, has devastated the rabbinical establishment.

"I don't know if we will ever fully recover from this fiasco," he said.

Last week, Rabbi Avraham Sherman, a judge on the High Rabbinical Court and the most important rabbinical adjudicator in the country, dropped a bomb which is still rocking the rabbinic world. In a 50-page legal decision, which is part talmudic dialectic, part emotional diatribe, Sherman blasted a rabbinic peer and in the process undermined the Chief Rabbinate's official Conversion Authority.

His attack cast doubt on the Jewishness of thousands of converts converted over the years by the Conversion Authority. Most of the converts affected by Sherman's claims are Soviet immigrants who came here under the Law of Return but who are not considered Jewish according to Halacha.

Sherman accused Rabbi Haim Druckman, a leading religious-Zionist leader and former Knesset member who heads the Conversion Authority, of forging documents and allowing political ideology to taint his legal judgment.

But Sherman's most severe accusation was apostasy. He said that Druckman intentionally converted gentiles, even though he knew they would never adhere to Halacha, willfully transgressing the God's will.

This was a blatantly evil act, no matter how you looked at it, argued Sherman. If Druckman seriously believed that the gentiles he was converting were being transformed into full-fledged Jews, then he was committing the sin of placing a stumbling block before the blind. The instant these converts emerged from the ritual bath, God would expect them to eat only kosher food, keep Shabbat and adhere to a multitude of other commandments.

If these converts would not adhere to the Orthodox law, claimed Sherman - who said Druckman knew they would not - these converts would receive heavenly punishment like any other wayward Jew.

On the other hand, if Druckman's conversions were not valid, as Sherman claimed they weren't, Druckman was permitting gentiles to intermarry with kosher Jews, a colossal assimilation disaster that would destroy the purity of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

Either way, Sherman said, Druckman was unfit to preside as a judge. And since a panel of three kosher rabbinic judges was an integral and necessary part of the conversion process, any gentile whose conversion was overseen by Druckman had never really converted.

Overnight, thousands of converts, many of whom had been living for years under the impression that they were part of the Jewish people, were being rejected by Sherman. If Sherman was right, the implications from a halachic point of view were far-reaching: If these "converts" were married to Jews, sexual relations were forbidden; if a woman had converted and given birth after the conversion, her children were not considered Jewish; if the convert was single and wished to get married, he or she could not do so in Israel, where marriages are governed by the Chief Rabbinate.

SHANEY GILBERT, a convert to Judaism who might be affected by the High Rabbinical Court's decision, was preparing for Shabbat when she first heard about Sherman's decision.

"My table was set; my Shabbat candles were ready; and I had some time before sundown," recalled Gilbert. "So I decided to check the news on the Internet. I could not believe what I saw. I started shaking all over. I could not believe that I had been through so much, and now this court could come along years after the fact and take away my Jewish status retroactively. Just like that, without any investigation into who I am."

Gilbert said that the decision was a clear violation of the biblical commandment to love the convert and not to wrong him.

"On the day of their judgment, those judges will be accountable for every tear that I and thousands of other converts shed," added Gilbert.

Druckman told The Jerusalem Post this week that Sherman's attack on him was "motivated by hatred, evilness and animosity."

"How can a judge condemn a man without giving him the chance to answer the charges leveled against him?" he asked.

Druckman related that even before the publication of Sherman's decision, which was signed by two additional High Rabbinical Court judges, Sherman had distributed the decision at a conference that took place three months ago. "After that I refused to appear before Sherman. It was obvious that he had already made his decision about me."

Druckman declined to address the specific accusations made by Sherman against him.

Sherman, who was contacted by the Post for his response, said that he was prevented from commenting on the matter. Rabbinical courts spokeswoman Efrat Urbach confirmed this.

However, Sherman received backing from the haredi rabbinic establishment. For instance, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levine, who heads an independent rabbinical court based in Jerusalem that specializes in determining Jewish genealogical trees (yihus) in the haredi community for couples before marriage, claimed in an interview this week on Radio Kol Hai that the vast majority of converts converted by Druckman's authority did not adhere to Halacha after the conversion. Therefore, this was proof the conversions were not valid.

Sherman's attack also received the backing of the haredi daily, Yated Ne'eman, which has been spearheading a campaign against the Conversion Authority for years. Haredi rabbis are fundamentally opposed to the creation of a separate rabbinical body that specializes in making conversions as easy and user-friendly as possible. Rather, these rabbis believe that conversions should not be encouraged, but should be performed only in extraordinary situations, when the prospective convert is sincerely interested in embracing all Orthodox strictures.

But many secular Jewish leaders and religious Zionist rabbis see mass conversions as the best solution to the threat of intermarriage posed by the presence of about 300,000 non-Jewish Soviet immigrants and their offspring. These immigrants are fully integrated in public schools, the IDF, the universities and the labor force. Even secular Jewish leaders who do not accept Orthodox strictures in their day-to-day lives are strongly convinced of the danger to Jewish continuity posed by these gentiles if they are allowed to meet Jewish Israelis, fall in love and get married without being converted.

Religious-Zionist rabbis believe it is possible to encourage conversion among non-Jewish immigrants while maintaining the highest halachic standards. These rabbis have to juggle two competing goals: converting as many non-Jews as possible to prevent intermarriage, while uncompromisingly adhering to the demands of Jewish law which dictate that a prospective convert must be willing to embrace Orthodoxy.

Haredim, in contrast, are convinced that conversions can never be the solution to the threat of intermarriage, because for the vast majority of gentiles, adopting a strictly Orthodox lifestyle is simply not realistic. The only guarantee against intermarriage, argue the haredim, is maintaining strict separation from secular Israeli society.

Sherman's decision, though more aggressive in its wording, was just another salvo in the ongoing argument over conversions between haredim and religious Zionists. But it also defined more clearly the delineation between the warring camps, and it placed Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar squarely on the side of the religious Zionists.

Although Sherman's rabbinic invective focused mainly on Druckman and his former deputy, Rabbi Yosef Avior, the attack was also indirectly aimed at Amar, who is the overriding halachic decisor supervising conversions performed by the Conversion Authority. If, as Sherman claimed, thousands of converts were passing through the Conversion Authority in a non-kosher way, without any intention of adhering to Halacha, Amar could not escape culpability.

Immediately after the publication of Sherman's decision, Amar released a terse press release saying that he backed Druckman, and that all conversions performed by Druckman or by the authority would be recognized.

However, so far, Amar has refrained from addressing Sherman's specific accusations, one of which is that Druckman signed off on documents attesting to the fact that he was present at conversions when in reality he was not.

As a result, dozens of city rabbis who have read Sherman's claims against Druckman are hesitant to register converts for marriage. City rabbis, who as part of their job also serve as marriage registrars in their respective cities, are responsible for determining the Jewishness of couples who come before them with a request to marry.

Several rabbis told the Post this week that if a convert came to them to register for marriage they would have to consult with Amar first.

A near anarchic situation has been created in which one arm of the official, state-funded rabbinate, the High Rabbinical Court, is attacking another, the Conversion Authority - while the chief rabbi, who is the ultimate authority of both, is torn in half, and has yet to issue a definitive stand on the issue.

More importantly, thousands of Israelis who converted to Judaism no longer know whether or not they are Jewish. The answer, obviously, depends on whom you ask.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668648537&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Jewish Tours in New York City www.JewishTours.com

2008-05-21T22:55:00.002-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOrNn1cuGmM
http://www.jewishtours.com

Penis theft panic hits city..

2008-05-20T19:28:00.002-10:00

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Mary Gabriel)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Oldest immigrant couple to Israel weds

2008-05-08T15:54:00.002-10:00

Benei Menashe. Assisting 'lost Jews' Photo: Ido Erez

Couple from Benei Menashe Tribe of India renew their vows jewish-style, fulfilling a long lost dream of returning to Jewish homeland
Ynetnews

Ya’akov Manlun, 97, and his wife Orah, 88, new immigrants from the Benei Menashe Tribe of India, wed Friday in a lavish ceremony joined by many guests in Kiryat Arba.

Ya’akov and Orah have been married for almost 70 years, and have recently made aliyah to Israel. The couple concluded their conversion process days ago and asked to be remarried under the Law of Moses.

Ya’akov and Orah Manlun (Photo: Tommy, courtesy of Shavei Israel)

Ya’akov is the oldest oleh from the Benei Menashe Tribe of India, as well as one of the oldest immigrants to ever make aliyah. The couple immigrated to Israel last year with the help of Shavei Israel, an outreach organization assisting "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish homeland.

The couple, who have waited nearly 15 years to receive permission to make aliyah, has nine children (three of which also made aliyah), and nearly 70 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren living in Israel and India.

Michael Freund, Chairman of Shavei Israel, who has worked energetically for many years in bringing members of Benei Menashe to Israel, said that in addition to being especially touching and joyful, "This wedding proves it is never too late to fulfill one’s dreams.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3539588,00.html

Star in Japan: Mendy Pellin

2008-05-06T04:28:00.001-10:00

(Posted with permission of broadcast company)

With a surprising popularity in Asia - This famous show takes a deeper look at Mendy Pellin, Crown Heights and Hassidim.
Category: People & Blogs
Tags:
Japan Jewish Japanese new york mendy pellin chabad tube shnowzal askmoses tv black riots rabbi jew israel matisyahu

We're the Government -- and You're Not

2008-05-02T10:19:00.001-10:00

What if the U.S. government released an "educational video" to teach today's Americans how to be good citizens?
Category: Comedy
Tags: satire parody libertarian political david mcelroy short film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvsADU2OOWM

Creative protest of bread sale during Pesach

2008-04-29T18:52:00.005-10:00

Man strips in protest of bread sale during Passover

Young man dressed as yeshiva student undresses at non-kosher supermarket chain, remaining only with sock covering his private parts. 'The shame is not mine,' he tells Ynet

The writing on the stomach: 'This isn't public???'

Avi Cohen

A 27-year-old man, claiming to be a yeshiva student, decided to launch an unusual protest against a court ruling allowing stores and restaurants to sell leavened food during the holiday of Passover.

The man, dressed as a haredi, arrived Monday afternoon at a store belonging to the non-kosher Tiv Taam supermarket chain in the city of Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv. Upon his arrival, he undressed and remained with only a sock covering his private parts.

The man explained that he could not be prosecuted for an indecent act in public, because according to the court's interpretation of the leavened food law, a supermarket is not considered a public place. He even wrote on his stomach, "This isn't public???"

The store employees alerted the police, who dressed the man, arrested him and took him to the police station. In his investigation, the suspect claimed that he was a yeshiva student studying in different yeshivot in Bat Yam.

He told the police that in light of the court ruling, he did not violate any law. The police were unconvinced by the young man's interpretation of the ruling, and are expected to ask the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court to send him to a mental observation.

'I left sock on because I'm religious'

"I don’t know if they plan to prosecute me, but I plan to demand it. They opened an unjustified criminal record, and I plan to fight for my innocence," the young man, Arieh Yerushalmi, told Ynet on Monday night.

He explained his decision to strip despite his religious values, saying that "this is why I left the sock on, that's what I didn’t care. Sometimes one has to shout – the shame was not mine, but the other people's."

Yerushalmi said that he entered the Tiv Taam store in Bat Yam's industrial zone at 2:20 pm. He noticed a group of minors and waited for them to leave. After they left, he said, he called the police and reported that there was a nude person in the store. He then walked over to the bread counter and took all his clothes off, apart from a sock covering his private parts.

Following his arrest and investigation, Yerushalmi was put under house arrest. He claimed that he was released because the establishment was not interested in a "media party" at the courtroom.

Yerushalmi told Ynet that after he undressed, there were several girls who laughed, while the store manager and guard demanded that he leave the premises. When the police arrived, he got dressed and went out.

Why did you do it during the holiday of all days?

"I wanted to do it a week ago, but I was lazy for different reasons. Now, during the mid-holidays, I'm free."

And how did you friends and family react?

"I got home half an hour ago and am not answering phone calls. I guess they don’t see things like I do."

What is considered a public place?

Several weeks ago, a Jerusalem Municipal Court judge decreed that the indictments against four restaurant owners charged with selling bread and leavened goods on Passover be scrapped.

In her verdict, Justice Tamar Bar Asher-Tzabann ruled that, by law, a store or restaurant is not deemed a public place because, unlike an open market, it is a closed off arena that cannot be seen by passersby. She said that leavened goods may be sold inside stores and restaurants, as long as they are not put on display outside or at the shop window.

About two weeks later, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz published a legal brief endorsing the court ruling. Mazuz noted that the State Prosecutor's Office did not intend to appeal the controversial ruling, as it fell in line with the State's stance.

He stressed that this stance in no way constituted a change in policy, on the contrary: "This has been the State's consistent policy over the years."

Roni Gal contributed to this report

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3534220,00.html

Matza relief! A 'kezayit' may be smaller than we thought

2008-04-13T09:18:00.004-10:00

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich , THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 11, 2008

Researchers from Bar-Ilan University's archeological botanics lab say they have identified the strains of olive upon which the minimal halachic requirement of matza consumption is based. And their conclusions, if rabbinically endorsed, would be good news for those who have trouble digesting too much of the unleavened bread.

The size of an olive (kezayit) provides the Talmud's standard for the smallest amount of matza a Jew is obligated to eat at the Pessah Seder within a very short time. But because strains of olives come in various sizes, the precise required quantity has been unclear.

Prof. Mordechai Kislev, who headed the team with Dr. Orit Simhoni, Yonit Tabak and Ofer Tzarfati-Zuta, maintains that Syrian and Nabali strains, whose weight per olive is only around five grams (about a sixth of the weight of a machine-made matza), are the model for the halachic standard. The researchers said these types of olives, smaller than today's olives, were the most common during ancient times.

There are rabbinical arbiters who maintain one must eat a whole machine-made matza at the Seder, while others are more liberal and require only half of a matza or even only five percent of a matza. While eating a whole matza is usually not a problem for healthy people, it is for some, and especially for celiacs, whose digestive systems are highly disturbed by the gluten in wheat flour; some buy special, expensive matza made of oats, which do not contain gluten, but too much of these can cause digestive problems.

Kislev and his colleagues said Syrian olives, which each weigh 2.5-3.5 gr., and Nabali, which each weigh 4-6 gr., were common in this area during Talmudic times. About 2,000 well-preserved olive pits of these two varieties were identified in archeological digs at the Masada fortress near the Dead Sea - destroyed in 73 CE. In addition, the Bar-Ilan researcher said, there are dozens of three-millennia-old olive trees of these strains around the country that still produce fruit.

The same types of olive pits from the time of the ancient Roman Empire have been found in digs at Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, the researchers said. The pits were preserved for thousands of years under the lava of a volcano that erupted in 79 CE.

Thus, the researchers concluded that when Joshua led the Jewish People into the Promised Land, and later at the time of the First Temple, olives were much smaller than today, and our ancestors carried out the commandment of eating matza by consuming very small pieces weighing about 5 gr., the measure of olives from that time.

Now celiac patients can carry out the commandment to eat a kezayit of matza at the Seder by consuming only 5 gr. of the "bread of affliction," said Kislev. "I hope this new discovery will help them observe Pessah according to Halacha."

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649986457&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Advance knowledge on pre-marital agreements

2008-04-11T05:26:00.002-10:00

Pre-nuptial agreements, or “pre-nups,” come into play most frequently in three (sometimes overlapping) situations:

• one person has substantially more wealth than the other and wants to protect all or a portion of those assets in the event of divorce;

• both people have been married previously, have children and want to preserve their separate estates in the event of divorce or death; or

• one person has been through a bitter and expensive divorce and is hoping to preclude another such trauma.

Not surprisingly, the less wealthy party, or “LWP,” is less than thrilled when the wealthier party (“WP”) raises the issue of a pre-nup. The request for a pre-nup is often viewed as indicating a lack of trust, implying either that the couple’s love for each other may be tainted by financial considerations or that one party cannot be counted on to act reasonably in the event of divorce. Unfortunately, where money is involved, many people do not act reasonably during divorce, and many concerns on this score are not without foundation.

WP often wants an agreement that gives LWP the absolute minimum allowable under the law. This approach generates two problems: First, it makes LWP feel devalued, and even if the agreement is signed, the marriage begins under a cloud; second, it gives LWP every incentive to challenge the pre-nup in the event of divorce. The result is that the pre-nup, instead of preventing a court case, may generate litigation even more bitter and expensive than if there had been no agreement.

I have a suggestion for those who find themselves contemplating a pre-nup. Rather than approaching your beloved with a penurious agreement and a “sign it or there will be no marriage” attitude, try to create a pre-nup that: addresses your partner’s legitimate concerns about your financial future as a couple; is generous enough so that it creates a disincentive for your partner to challenge it; and makes your partner feel valued.

This is not to suggest that discussing a pre-nup will ever transport the participants to dizzying heights of romance. Nevertheless, a high percentage of marriages end in divorce, and it is not unreasonable for people to have concerns about taking a major financial hit in the event the marriage fails.

Full and complete disclosure of assets is a prerequisite for an enforceable pre-nup. Obviously, the disclosure by WP is more significant than that by LWP, and the greater the disparity in wealth between the two, the truer that is.

The first step in the process is for the couple to sit down and “open the books.” If, many years into the future, after divorce proceedings are under way, one member of the couple can show that the other either failed to disclose significant assets, or substantially undervalued them, the chances of enforcing the pre-nup diminish drastically.

The next step is for the couple to discuss what each partner will need in the future to be financially secure and comfortable, in light of the assets that they own prior to the marriage, each partner’s income-earning ability and individual assets and income.

The discussion and negotiation of a pre-nup can significantly affect the future of a relationship. A little sensitivity and generosity from both parties can go a long way toward assuaging anxieties and resentment about the idea of a pre-nup and producing a pre-nup that everyone can live with “happily ever after.”

— Douglas S. Segal

Douglas S. Segal is senior counsel with Foley & Lardner in Boston. He is a member of the firm’s family law practice, focusing on divorce and custody, family disputes and pre-nuptial agreements. He can be contacted at dsegal@foley.com.

© 2008 Exhibit A
http://www.exhibitanews.com/article.htm/2007/12/01/Advance-knowledge-on-premarital-agreements

John Safran - Jew Town

2008-04-03T06:18:00.001-10:00

JewTown Lyrics:

People often ask me
What's that cap up on your skull
I say the bible said to put one there
So I won't got to hell

And people step up to me
And they tell me 'Eat this pig'
But if the hooves aren't split,
Then it ain't legit
And that's how I choose to live

In a world of non-believers
Who drive on Saturday
Don't forget,
It's our day of rest
So when they ride past just look away

I'm not some big old Rabbi
In a black hat and a gown
But we are the youth
We can make a change
It's time to get on down

Chorus
I'm going down down down
Down to Jew'Town
What I gotta do now
Get down to Jew'Town

People frount and ask me
Why you read from right to left?
I say it's not that complicated
It's the Hebrew alphabet

And Christians want to ask me
How you different from our people?
I say I like Bible number one
But I will not touch the sequel

In this crazy mixed up world
Where sin is all the rage
You gotta take that Torah off the shelf
And read every page

Take what you learn in Synagogue
And spread the word down town
We're Jews from the streets
And we're kicking out beats
And it's time to get on down

Chorus
I'm going down down down
Down to Jew'Town

(On passover week
be carefull with wheat)

Down down down
Down to Jew'Town

(It's bread unleavened
Twenty-four seven)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C62momglFPQ

Is Sex Necessary?

2008-03-31T06:54:00.004-10:00

Your Health
Alan Farnham
Forbes.com

Fans of abstinence had better be sitting down. "Saving yourself" before the big game, the big business deal, the big hoedown or the big bakeoff may indeed confer some moral benefit. But corporeally it does absolutely zip. There's no evidence it sharpens your competitive edge. The best that modern science can say for sexual abstinence is that it's harmless when practiced in moderation. Having regular and enthusiastic sex, by contrast, confers a host of measurable physiological advantages, be you male or female. (This assumes that you are engaging in sex without contracting a sexually transmitted disease.)

In one of the most credible studies correlating overall health with sexual frequency, Queens University in Belfast tracked the mortality of about 1,000 middle-aged men over the course of a decade. The study was designed to compare persons of comparable circumstances, age and health. Its findings, published in 1997 in the British Medical Journal, were that men who reported the highest frequency of orgasm enjoyed a death rate half that of the laggards. Other studies (some rigorous, some less so) purport to show that having sex even a few times a week has an associative or causal relationship with the following:

- Improved sense of smell: After sex, production of the hormone prolactin surges. This in turn causes stem cells in the brain to develop new neurons in the brain's olfactory bulb, its smell center.

- Reduced risk of heart disease: In a 2001 follow-on to the Queens University study mentioned above, researchers focused on cardiovascular health. Their finding? That by having sex three or more times a week, men reduced their risk of heart attack or stroke by half. In reporting these results, the co-author of the study, Shah Ebrahim, Ph.D., displayed the well-loved British gift for understatement: "The relationship found between frequency of sexual intercourse and mortality is of considerable public interest."

- Weight loss, overall fitness: Sex, if nothing else, is exercise. A vigorous bout burns some 200 calories--about the same as running 15 minutes on a treadmill or playing a spirited game of squash. The pulse rate, in a person aroused, rises from about 70 beats per minute to 150, the same as that of an athlete putting forth maximum effort. British researchers have determined that the equivalent of six Big Macs can be worked off by having sex three times a week for a year. Muscular contractions during intercourse work the pelvis, thighs, buttocks, arms, neck and thorax. Sex also boosts production of testosterone, which leads to stronger bones and muscles. Men's Health magazine has gone so far as to call the bed the single greatest piece of exercise equipment ever invented.

- Reduced depression: Such was the implication of a 2002 study of 293 women. American psychologist Gordon Gallup reported that sexually active participants whose male partners did not use condoms were less subject to depression than those whose partners did. One theory of causality: Prostoglandin, a hormone found only in semen, may be absorbed in the female genital tract, thus modulating female hormones.

- Pain-relief: Immediately before orgasm, levels of the hormone oxytocin surge to five times their normal level. This in turn releases endorphins, which alleviate the pain of everything from headache to arthritis to even migraine. In women, sex also prompts production of estrogen, which can reduce the pain of PMS.

- Less-frequent colds and flu: Wilkes University in Pennsylvania says individuals who have sex once or twice a week show 30% higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A, which is known to boost the immune system.

- Better bladder control: Heard of Kegel exercises? You do them, whether you know it or not, every time you stem your flow of urine. The same set of muscles is worked during sex.

- Better teeth: Seminal plasma contains zinc, calcium and other minerals shown to retard tooth decay. Since this is a family Web site, we will omit discussion of the mineral delivery system. Suffice it to say that it could be a far richer, more complex and more satisfying experience than squeezing a tube of Crest--even Tartar Control Crest. Researchers have noted, parenthetically, that sexual etiquette usually demands the brushing of one's teeth before and/or after intimacy, which, by itself, would help promote better oral hygiene.

- A happier prostate? Some urologists believe they see a relationship between infrequency of ejaculation and cancer of the prostate. The causal argument goes like this: To produce seminal fluid, the prostate and the seminal vesicles take such substances from the blood as zinc, citric acid and potassium, then concentrate them up to 600 times. Any carcinogens present in the blood likewise would be concentrated. Rather than have concentrated carcinogens hanging around causing trouble, it's better to evict them. Regular old sex could do the job. But if the flushing of the prostate were your only objective, masturbation might be a better way to go, especially for the non-monogamous male. Having sex with multiple partners can, all by itself, raise a man's risk of cancer by up to 40%. That's because he runs an increased risk of contracting sexual infections. So, if you want the all the purported benefits of flushing with none of the attendant risk, go digital. A study recently published by the British Journal of Urology International asserts that men in their 20s can reduce by a third their chance of getting prostate cancer by ejaculating more than five times a week.

While possession of a robust appetite for sex--and the physical ability to gratify it--may not always be the cynosure of perfect health, a reluctance to engage can be a sign that something is seriously on the fritz, especially where the culprit is an infirm erection.

Dr. J. Francois Eid, a urologist with Weill Medical College of Cornell University and New York Presbyterian Hospital, observes that erectile dysfunction is extension of vascular system. A lethargic member may be telling you that you have diseased blood vessels elsewhere in your body. "It could be a first sign of hypertension or diabetes or increased cholesterol levels. It's a red flag that you should see your doctor." Treatment and exercise, says Dr. Eid, can have things looking up again: "Men who exercise and have a good heart and low heart rate, and who are cardio-fit, have firmer erections. There very definitely is a relationship."

But is there such a thing as too much sex?

The answer, in purely physiological terms, is this: If you're female, probably not. If you're male? You betcha.

Dr. Claire Bailey of the University of Bristol says there is little or no risk of a woman's overdosing on sex. In fact, she says, regular sessions can not only firm a woman's tummy and buttocks but also improve her posture.

Dr. George Winch Jr., an obstetrician/gynecologist in Elko, Nev., concurs. If a woman is pre-menopausal and otherwise healthy, says Dr. Winch, her having an extraordinary amount of intercourse ought not to pose a problem. "I don't think women can have too much intercourse," he says, "so long as no sexually transmitted disease is introduced and there's not an inadvertent pregnancy. Sometimes you can have a lubrication problem. If you have that, there can be vaginal excoriation--vaginal scrape."

Women who abstain from sex run some risks. In postmenopausal women, these include vaginal atrophy. Dr. Winch has a middle-aged patient of whom he says: "She hasn't had intercourse in three years. Just isn't interested. The opening of her vagina is narrowing from disuse. It's a condition that can lead to dysparenia, or pain associated with intercourse. I told her, 'Look, you'd better buy a vibrator or you're going to lose function there.'"

As for men, urologist Eid says it's definitely possible to get too much of a good thing, now that drugs such as Viagra and Levitra have given men far more staying power than may actually be good for them.

The penis, says Eid, is wonderfully resilient. But everything has its limits. Penile tissues, if given too roistering or prolonged a pummeling, can sustain damage. In cases you'd just as soon not hear about, permanent damage.

"Yes," says Dr. Eid, "It is possible for a young man who is very forceful and who likes rough sex, to damage his erectile tissue." The drugs increase rigidity; moreover, they make it possible for a man to have second and third orgasms without having to wait out intermission.

"I see it in pro football players," says Eid. "They use Viagra because they're so sexually active. What they demand of their body is unreasonable. It's part of playing football: you play through the pain." This type of guy doesn't listen to his body. He takes a shot of cortisone, and keeps on going. And they have sex in similar fashion."

There's a reason the penis, in its natural state, undergoes a period of flaccidity: That's when it takes a breather. The blood within it is replenished with oxygen. "During an erection," explains Eid, "very little blood flows to the penis. During thrusting, pressure can go as high as 200 mil of water. Zero blood flows into penis at that time." To absorb oxygen, the tissue must become relaxed. "If you do not allow the penis to rest, then the muscle tissue does not get enough oxygen. The individual gets prolonged erections, gets decreased oxygen to tissue, and could potentially suffer priapism." (We recommend you get a medical encyclopedia and look it up.) "The muscle becomes so engorged, it's painful. Pressure inside starts to increase. Cells start dying. More pressure and less blood flow. Eventually the muscle dies. Then there's scarring. That's why it's considered an emergency."

Israel Targets Millionaires in Bid to Up Aliyah

2008-03-30T13:07:00.004-10:00

Slew of Tax Breaks Aimed at Spurring Immigration From the West
By Nathan Guttman
Thu. Mar 27, 2008

LEVIEV: Mogul left for London.

Jerusalem - The search for new ways to promote Jewish immigration to Israel has led policymakers in Jerusalem to target a new group of potential olim: Jewish millionaires.

On March 13, the Finance Ministry rolled out a new plan promising financial incentives and a generous tax-benefit package for Jews seeking to take their fortune to the Holy Land.

“This plan will enhance the human capital, will broaden the basis of knowledge and experience in the various fields of economy, and will stimulate Israel’s economic activity,” Finance Minister Roni Bar-On said in unveiling the new program.

Facing a steady decline in the number of immigrants coming to Israel, policymakers have been looking for creative ways to make aliyah more attractive for those who are not fleeing hardship and persecution. Immigration was down to less than 20,000 in 2007, with more than half of all immigrants coming from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, and the decline in immigration is expected to deepen this year.

Most of the ideas being tossed around in Jerusalem are focused on bringing in immigrants from Western countries, a target demographic that has proved to be more elusive than the emigrants from countries plagued by antisemitism that have traditionally made up the bulk of olim.

On March 25, the Knesset hosted the inaugural meeting of the Caucus for Western Aliyah, which will work on promoting “immigration of choice” and will aid the absorption of Western Jews in Israel. This year, the Absorption Ministry will allocate $25 million for promoting aliyah from around the world.

The recent decision of diamond tycoon Lev Leviev to give up on living in Israel has shed a harsh light on just how difficult it is to bring in, and keep, affluent Jews. Leviev relocated to London in January, blaming his decision on the secular character of the State of Israel and on what he described as the “the new American religion” replacing traditional Jewish values.

Though Leviev did not point to economic difficulties as his primary reason for leaving Israel, his departure was seen as a blow to Israel’s business community and as a possible indication that Israel might not be a natural homeland for Jewish entrepreneurs.

While the Israeli government did not limit the new incentive plan to Diaspora Jews and former Israelis of significant wealth, the program is, by all appearances, tailored to the needs of multimillionaires. It offers tax exemption for 10 years on all income derived from sources outside Israel, provides newcomers with a year to choose to which country they want to pay taxes, and will not mandate that firms owned by new immigrants be registered as Israeli firms.

Government officials quoted in the Israeli press said that while they do not expect an influx in Jewish millionaire olim, they do believe that the new plan can prove attractive for former Israelis in the high-tech industry who might be looking for ways to return after establishing their business overseas.

The new plan is “revolutionary,” Absorption Minister Yaakov Edri said, because it combines for the first time “immigration out of Zionist motivation with immigration out of financial motivation.”
http://www.forward.com

A Wiseguy’s Jewish Journey

2008-03-30T12:57:00.004-10:00

Q&A
By Peter Ephross
Thu. Mar 27, 2008

Louis Ferrante was just a Mafia member from New York City who was serving time, until he began a jail-time journey that resulted in his conversion to Judaism after his release in 2003. In “Unlocked: A Journey From Prison to Proust” (HarperCollins), Ferrante chronicles his trip. Although the memoir focuses mainly on his days in the mob, Ferrante depicts how his discovery of reading while in prison led him to the Torah. (He now lives in upstate New York and has a girlfriend who has also converted.) Peter Ephross recently talked with Ferrante, 38, and asked him to explain his embrace of Judaism — and how that embrace has affected his daily life.

Peter Ephross: In your book, you make it sound like it was easy for you to take on a Jewish identity while in prison.

Louis Ferrante: I would say that in the beginning it was difficult for me to just break away from everything that I ever knew. I have a strong sense of loyalty inside me, and I felt like there was a possibility I was betraying my family or my roots. And it took time for me to eventually be confident enough and secure enough that Judaism is the truth.

P.E.: How did other inmates react to your involvement in Judaism?

L.F.: Inside prison, I had problems [at first] when people thought I had made a clean break from the Italians. “Oh, he’s on his own now”; they didn’t know if the Italians threw me out of the clique or I went on my own, but whatever the case is, you’re sort of a renegade and you’re out there on your own. But I always fought for myself anyway….

The Italians ended up respecting me because I still stood up and did my time and didn’t give anyone up, so it didn’t make me less of a man in their eyes.

P.E.: Were you actively raised in the Catholic Church?

L.F.: We went to church for a while when I was a kid, on Sundays. My mother taught me to pray. We used to pray, me and my sister, at night. We weren’t strong with Catholicism, but that was our faith. I went to Catholic school when I was a kid.

P.E.: How did you move to the Torah from reading books?

L.F.: Getting to the Torah was a long process. At first, I read the Gospels. I wanted to explore my own religion first, obviously, so I read the Gospels and I picked up the Quran, and I picked up the Baghadvita and I studied Buddhism…. Now I’m saying to myself, “Wait a second” — ’cause I have a good sense of history now — “the Jews came first. Everybody said, ‘I’m going to change your book, change it a little, rewrite it,’ and then we’re gonna say the Jews are wrong. I mean, c’mon, what’s going on over here?”

P.E.: How would you characterize your Jewish life today? Do you pray every day? Do you keep kosher?

L.F.: I daven, I keep kosher, I keep Shabbos. I try to perform any mitzvah I can. I would say I’m either Modern Orthodox or ultra-Conservative. The only reason I’m not saying complete Orthodox is because my family is all gentiles, so if they cook for me they’ll cook Jewish food, but I eat in their house, out of their plates, out of my sister’s pots and pans. It’s difficult where I’m at now, wherever you are, if you’re traveling, to constantly get kosher food, so I’ll eat in a regular place but I’ll order a piece of fish that’s kosher or pareve. No way will I eat nonkosher food, whether I’m out or in.

PE: Do you attend a synagogue?

LF: I don’t, I don’t. I’m living in the mountains right now, up in the Catskill Mountains. So the nearest community is in Monticello. I’ll make runs down there to pick up my kosher food, but I’m not in walking distance to a synagogue. I intend to [be] eventually. I would love to have a place down in Florida, and maybe I’ll get one near a community down there.

P.E.: Do you think Judaism has helped you stay away from crime?

L.F.: Well, now it’s easy to stay away from crime. But when I made the break from a criminal mind to a different mind, Judaism was the rock, that was the foundation for everything. Everything that I am began there.

P.E.: Both the Mafia and observant Judaism have tight guidelines governing behavior. Do you think this made it easier to make the switch?

L.F.: No. That’s pretty, I guess, safe to assume, what you just said, and it makes sense. It’s logical. But it’s completely the opposite in reality, because I was lost — although I followed some twisted moral laws that we had. We had a set of twisted rules, looking back at them, but they were rules. The Mafia’s governed by rules: We couldn’t do this, we couldn’t do that, but I was lost….

You know what, what you said, I never thought of it, and from a different point of view, if I thought about it long enough I might have a different opinion on it in a couple of weeks. We did have a set of laws; they were just twisted.

P.E.: You say in your book that reading about the Holocaust helped you to endure jail. Of course, the difference is that you had been found guilty of criminal behavior while European Jews killed during the Holocaust were innocent.

L.F.: Absolutely. What kind of complaint could I have, knowing I deserved whatever came to me when you think about all these poor people? They were just scooped up in the middle of the night.

PE: Does it bother you that more Jews aren’t religious?

LF: Yeah, I think it bothers me. I may not have a right to say it bothers me, but I’m disturbed.

PE: A final question, on the lighter side. What’s your favorite Jewish food?

LF: I love everything. My girlfriend makes kosher shepherd’s pie, which is delicious. I know what you’re looking for, like matzo ball soup. When I lived in Massapequa, [N.Y.], I was able to travel to Ben’s [a New York-area deli chain]. There’s probably nothing I haven’t eaten on that menu.

http://louisferrante.com

http://www.forward.com/articles/13024/

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

2008-03-30T09:22:00.001-10:00

Women, Want a Healthy Marriage? Marry Man Uglier Than You, Study Says

2008-03-25T00:12:00.004-10:00

The best marriages are those where women marry men who are less attractive than themselves, research has found.

Psychologists who studied newlyweds found men who were better-looking than their wives were more likely to be unhappy and have negative feelings about their marriage.

In couples where the wife is more attractive, both partners tended to be very content.

The research, published in the Journal of Family Psychology, suggests that, in evolutionary terms, women are less choosy about their man's looks as long as he is able to help them reproduce.

Men, however, are programmed to choose a mate who is most likely to pass on their genes and look for youth, health and physical attractiveness.

The tests involved 82 couples married within the previous six months.
See the video:
http://drmanny.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/03/24/ugly-duckling-the-key-to-marital-bliss/
See the study (subscription required): http://content.apa.org/journals/fam/22/1/135.html

'I want women to know it's not a mitzva to suffer in silence'

2008-03-18T15:16:00.003-10:00

B"H

'I want women to know it's not a mitzva to suffer in silence'
Ruth Eglash , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 19, 2008

Four days before International Aguna Day is marked worldwide and nine years after first filing for a get - or writ of divorce - from her long-time spouse, Zehava (not her real name) was celebrating Tuesday after hearing the day before that the Rabbinic Courts had finally forced her estranged husband to dissolve their marriage.

"They should have done this a long time ago," she told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday, adding, "Words can't express how I feel right now. It still doesn't feel real."

Zehava said she was just happy that someone in the rabbinate had finally taken thetime to read her case through properly and recognize the pain suffered for many years by her and her two children.

According to Jewish law, a woman cannot remarry until her husband agrees to give her a get. Women waiting for an intransigent husband to give a get are known as agunot, or "chained" women. If agunot do marry without receiving a get from their previous husbands, the children born of the second marriage are considered illegitimate, or mamzerim, and are forbidden to marry.

The International Coalition of Aguna Rights (ICAR), which represents an affiliation of 27 organizations working to find a solution to the problem of women whose husbands are unable or unwilling to grant them a Jewish divorce, estimate that hundreds of women in Israel are currently caught in such limbo.

Activists for aguna rights will march at noon on Wednesday from the rabbinical courts in downtown Jerusalem to the Knesset to raise awareness about the issue. International Aguna Day is marked annually on Ta'anit Esther, 13 Adar-Bet according to the Hebrew calendar.

In her interview with the Post, Zehava described how she had put up with years of physical, verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband, and how even after filing for a divorce in 1999, he kept insisting to the rabbinic judges that the couple could rebuild their relationship and work on 'shalom bayit' [domestic reconciliation].

"For the first 20 years I did keep forgiving him and going back to him," she said. "I suffered his abuse in silence and he never thought that I would ever stand up to him. When I finally filed for a divorce, he was shocked and begged for my forgiveness. He claimed he wanted us to try and work things out."

But Zehava refused and continued to press on with the divorce proceedings. For the first four years, however, she was forced to continue living in the same house as her husband. He only agreed to move out after she bought out his share of the property in 2003.

"I would walk the streets after work so that I would not have to go home, and on Shabbat and festivals I would go to friend's houses," she recalled to the Post.

In 2006, the rabbinate decided that the case could not be solved and closed the couple's file, leaving Zehava still married but separated. That was when she turned to non-profit organization Yad La'Isha, one of the ICAR affiliates, which provided her with legal counsel to re-open the case and finally put an end to her suffering this week.

"I want all women to know that it is not a mitzva to suffer in silence," said Zehava. "I urge them to speak out and seek help any way they can."

"Women go into a marriage of their own free will and they should be allowed to leave a marriage in the same way," said Robyn Shames, executive director of ICAR, who is also familiar with Zehava's case.

Shames said that Wednesday's demonstration would hopefully, among other things, encourage the legislature to push through a bill on the division of property between divorcing couples that has already passed its first reading in the Knesset and is an important step to affording agunot women and those refused a divorce their freedom.

She also said that the public had to be made aware that they should not accept individuals who refuse to give their partners a divorce.

"We do not have exact figures on how many women are agunot or have been refused a get by their husbands, but this is a potential problem for any woman who enters a marriage," she said.

In January, figures published by the rabbinic courts showed that a total of 9,765 couples had divorced in 2007 and the rabbinic courts claim that they are now imposing more sanctions against husbands who refuse to give their wives a get, such as the cancellation of drivers' licenses and exit visas, or even prison sentences. In 2007, 23 men were incarcerated for refusing to give a get, compared to nine in 2006.

This article can also be read at
http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420721816&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

More Orgies, More Babies: A Modest Proposal

2008-03-14T09:07:00.003-10:00

B"H

By Ben Brofman

The most popular Jewish pastime, arguably, is our obsession with numbers and the size of the Jewish population, which, according to most recent studies, is in danger. The questions reverberate across Jewish boardrooms and dinner tables: How many Jews are there? Why aren’t there more of us? If two Jews fall in the forest, how many opinions will they have, and can we arrange for them to fall on each other in a way that might help one impregnate the other?

While the Orthodox community continues to grow apace, and its women have an annoyingly high total fertility rate, the non-Orthodox Jewish community seems to dwindle away with every new generation. Short of massive proselytizing and conversion efforts, what can we do to reverse Jewish population decline and avoid the fate of becoming a nation of stagnation?

Luckily, help is on the way: the popular birthright israel program has had success in bringing young, horny, undersexed, North American Jews of prime childbearing age to Israel for the first time.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YSvK5I8Vn2g
But, while hook-ups are common on the free 10-day trip, its true potential remains untapped: not enough is being done to encourage unprotected sexual encounters. For shame! With a small investment in intentionally defective condoms and some authoritative sounding, scripturally grounded bad advice, there could soon be a bumper crop of “birthright babies.”

The solution to the Jewish population crisis should be immediately obvious to anyone with no more than a seventh grade education: to save the Jewish people, we need more babies. To maximize baby production, we need an orgy. It’s utterly simple, with but a few insignificant and nearly insurmountable difficulties. The annual IJO: the week-long International Jewish Orgy (perhaps between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but I’m open to Passover, too) will provide Jewish men and women with endless sexual partners in a non-competitive, pro-procreative environment. The fully-catered event will feature an open mustard and cold-cut bar to get the men excited and provide ample liquor as social lubricant. Sponsored and underwritten by Goldman Extramarital Sachs, the event will be a draw for paying male customers who step up to this important national service, to impregnate as many Jewish women as possible. And for women, the formula is simple: arrive on time, have a drink or twelve, and leave pregnant with the Jewish future.

While this plan is undoubtedly controversial, it is not without precedent. For a period in Jewish history, sex with multiple partners, free love, and communal possession of children was common within kibbutz communities—an outgrowth of egalitarian attitudes. These children belonged to and were raised by the community. Such creative reproductive actions taken by Jews living in the nascent Israeli state deserve contemporary emulation.

As for providing community care for Jewish children and mothers, The Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society, Jewish Unmarried Mothers Services, and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum are all models we can build on for the disbursement of funds and assistance. Along with donations from wealthy Jewish benefactors, an endowment can be set up to provide for the unwed mothers and their bastard children.

Reason cannot guide us; only fear can. The unmitigated fear of what might happen in a distant, unpredictable future must compel us to take radical actions that might otherwise be considered unwise, were we to pause and reflect rationally. And we must not wait. We must act immediately, before someone realizes how ridiculous this proposal actually is. As taught by the apocryphal thirteenth century Rabbi Menachem “the Weird” of Chelm, “The only way to fight the reasonable is with the unreasonable or, if that doesn’t work, poison their borscht.” It should be noted that Rabbi Menachem’s congregation consisted solely of nine chickens and a very large radish—barely a minyan by most shtetl standards—hence the name Rabbi Menachem “the Weird.” To this day there remains much debate whether he was actually a rabbi. But, I digress.

Back to my point: the Jewish future. Orgies are the only way to ensure population growth. Some may consider this proposal absurd, offensive, or even unrealistic; but I would ask these critics to consider the millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust and, hopefully, in that moment of distraction, they will decide to criticize something else.

As the Bard famously said: “Let’s get it on.”

—
Ben Brofman is a foole from New York.
From:
http://www.presentensemagazine.org/mag/?page_id=148
Hat Tip to:
Ultra-LeftWinged ModernOrtho blog
of
Rabbi Dr. Tzvee Zahavy :
http://www.tzvee.com
Who never ceases to continue posting interesting stuff on many topics and some of the most inane defense of his "Moshiach" - the post-Zionist governments in the Land of Israel and bashing of its critics
(for honest halachik view about this subject see http://moshiachtv.blogspot.com/2007/05/moshiach-and-zionism.html )
on his blog:
http://tzvee.blogspot.com

Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

2008-03-13T20:52:00.002-10:00

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Hat tip: http://ymarkov.livejournal.com

Hang the traitors!

2008-03-04T23:24:00.007-10:00

By the grace of G-d
Dear friends!
In honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim let's all contribute money to donate gallows 50 amah high (see Esther 7:9):

to the State of Israel to try and hang the dirty traitors who are endangering our people in the Holy Land
and worldwide by cooperating with murderers and bowing down to the pressure of the public opinion instead of defending their citizens from terrorism.

As Rabbi Shalom DovBer Wolpo explains and many others have pointed out in the past this is a violation of the Israeli law banning any aid to the enemies of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. This constitutes treason and is the only crime punishable by death penalty by hanging under Israeli law.
See:

Please donate and, or publicize this appeal widely to increase the awareness of this disgusting betrayal of our brothers and sisters in the holy land of Israel by the post-Zionist gang of corrupt burocrats and politicians still allowed to remain in power doing next to nothing to stop this Holocaust from continuing.

We cannot simply sit back ignoring the cry of our brothers and sisters to do somethign waiting for more Devine retribution after the fact:

We must stop this nonsense. We cannot allow these traitors continue giving away parts of Erretz Yisrael to terrorists who enjoy singing about the "flesh of the Jews being carried away in black bags":

Small print:

If the State of Israel doesn't accept our money for the gallows it will be spent for the benefit of the residents of Sderot and other areas attacked by terrorists to help them protect themselves.

PS. While according to Torah law Jews who endanger the lives of other Jews by giving Jewish lives and money into the hands of the gentiles (laws of moser and rodef:

“It is forbidden to hand over a Jew to the heathen, neither his person nor his goods, even if he is wicked and a sinner, even if he causes distress and pain to fellow-Jews. Whoever hands over a Jew to the heathen has no part in the next world. It is permitted to kill a moser wherever he is. It is even permitted to kill him before he has handed over [a Jew], as soon as he has said: I shall hand over so and so, his person or his property, he has put himself under sentence of death. And if the man is warned, and told not to hand over, but retorts boldly that he will do so nonetheless, it is a divine commandment to kill him, and the sooner, the better... (Mishne Torah, Torts 8, 9-11).

)

'Whenever one pursues another to kill him, every Jew is commanded to save the attacked from the attacker, even at the cost of the attacker's life' (Mishne Torah, Murderers and Preserving Life, 1:1

also deserve execution in fact even without being formally judged since this measure is preventive, this is a goal oriented mitzvah and thus doesn't seem to be expedient thing to do at this time when the post-Zionist traitors are in control of the government, police, the army the courts and the media in the Land of Israel.

A urgent appeal! Please help!

2008-02-26T07:03:00.001-10:00

By the grace of G-d
Dear friends and readers can you please be so kind and donate money to help the poor woman described in this post:
Hard Luck Story
http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=2325
If you'd like to donate online by credit card or bank account transfer thru PayPal
click here
click
here
PS. I gave almost $200 myself but more is needed to help her get out of this mess see the LukeFord post above.

Investing in Charity

2008-02-26T02:32:00.001-10:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jboU9y1879o

Egyptian Polygamist Cites Koran and States: This Is the Nature of Men

2008-02-20T19:33:00.006-10:00

Egyptian Polygamist Cites Koran and States: This Is the Nature of Men

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian polygamist ‘Atef ‘Ammar, which aired on Dubai TV on December 21, 2007.

‘Atef ‘Ammar: When we first got married, we were very much in love. Our love story began two years before we got married, but once we got married, things changed. Very soon, she was pregnant. When she was pregnant, I was sort of patient, because I thought that once she gives birth, life would be beautiful again. But when she gave birth, she became preoccupied with the child, and I was gradually pushed aside. As a lawyer, I get to meet people, and a “link” may be formed with someone, and this leads to one of two things... What is the philosophy underlying polygamy? That you know the end right from the beginning. Let’s be realistic. It all begins when I meet someone, and there is a “link” or an attraction. We start talking – maybe about work – and we like each other. Then there are only two options - adultery or marriage. Let’s be honest.

Interviewer: No, there are many options, but you choose only these two.

‘Atef ‘Ammar: No, there are only these two. If you have a third option, I’m willing to listen.

Interviewer: The third option is that nothing happens. You work together, and that’s it.

‘Atef ‘Ammar: But you can't force a man to do that. The psychological reason underlying polygamy is first and foremost that men, by nature, are inclined towards polygamy. This is nature. "Fair in the eyes of men is the love of things they covet: Women and sons." By nature, men desire more than one woman. The virility of some men is a little high, and their wives do not satisfy them, so they look for more women. When the wife falls short of performing her marital duties, either the relationship collapses and the husband divorces her, or else he finds another relationship to compensate for this.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization providing translations of the Middle East media and original analysis and research on developments in the region. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute
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King Saul and King David: Public Sins vs. Private Sins

2008-02-19T20:12:00.003-10:00

B"H
King Saul and King David: Public Sins vs. Private Sins
By Rabbi Adin (Steinsaltz) Even-Yisroel

Saul and David were both among the first kings of the Jewish people. There are many points of similarity between them: both were young men from small villages; both were anointed as kings by the Prophet Samuel; and both were war heroes who rescued their people at times of distress.

Yet what a tremendous difference between their fates! King Saul was killed in battle and did not merit to have his sons become kings after him, whereas King David died peacefully, his descendants formed a glorious dynasty of kings and rulers, and he received Divine promise that the throne of kingship over the Jewish people will remain in the hands of his descendants for ever.

The Sages of Israel discussed this difficult question already thousands of years ago, and many of them accounted for this by saying that King Saul was punished for his sins. However, King David also sinned! And the Bible, which shows partiality to no one, describes David’s failures and sins, just as it describes his greatness.

It seems that the root of the difference in the fate of these two great men is in the different kinds of sins they committed. King Saul was, in his private life, a pure man; there are no scandalous stories about his family life, his relationships with women, or his religious observance. However, in his public life, in his role as king, he succumbed to opposing emotions: indecisiveness on the one hand, and uncompromising stubbornness on the other; compassion and a gallant gesture towards an enemy (I Samuel, chapter 15) — as against cruelty and insensitivity towards the suffering of his own people (Ibid., end of chapter 22). Personal suspicion and paranoia became things that occupied the army, the governing institutions and the state, which created distortions in all the systems of government (Ibid., chapters 23-26), and were combined with personal feelings of regret and uncertainty.

David’s sins, on the other hand, are private sins; they are his individual transgressions: in his relationships with women, and with his sons. On the public plane, however, David does not allow personal weaknesses to interfere with what is good for the people (see II Samuel 19:1-9). David’s confession “Against You, You alone, I have sinned, and done evil in Your sight” (Psalms 51:6) is, to a great extent, true. As far as his actions as a leader are concerned, no blemish can be found.

It should be remembered that the Bible’s test for public, political action is not its practical success. Saul’s war against Amalek was a decisive event: from that point on, Amalek ceased to be a politically significant element. Still, the events of this war are counted among Saul’s sins. On the other hand, many of David’s wars do not bring about clear historical results, whereas one of his diplomatic activities results in a rough war (II Samuel chapter 10) — yet none of this is held against him on his record.

Does this imply that individual transgressions are of lesser importance? Not at all; one does get punished for such sins, and punishment may sometimes be quite terrible (see Ibid., chapter 12:7-14). But individual sins are measured, and punished, on the individual plane, while public sins, or public fulfillment of commandments, receive their due reward on an historical plane for generations.

Thus, even after all of Saul’s sins, the Bible still calls him “God’s chosen one,” nor does it forget David’s transgressions (see I Kings 15:5). But in the very final analysis, “For David’s sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem” (Ibid., verse 4). For kingship is based on the king’s royalty, on his ability to transcend his flaws, on his adherence in what is proper and necessary for the kingship. And for this, he receives a reward for generations to come.

Rabbi Adin Steinzaltz Teacher, philosopher, social critic and prolific author who has been hailed by Time magazine as a "once-in-a-millennium scholar." His lifelong work in Jewish education earned him the Israel Prize, his country’s highest honor. Born in Jerusalem in 1937, Rabbi Steinsaltz studied physics and chemistry at the Hebrew University. Following graduation, he established several experimental schools and, at the age of 24, became Israel’s youngest school principal.

In 1965, he began his monumental Hebrew translation and commentary on the Talmud. To date, he has published 38 of the anticipated 46 volumes. The Rabbi’s classic work of Kabbalah, The Thirteen Petalled Rose, was first published in 1980 and now appears in eight languages. In all, Rabbi Steinsaltz has authored some 60 books and hundreds of articles on subjects ranging from theology to social commentary.

Continuing his work as a teacher and spiritual mentor, Rabbi Steinsaltz established a network of schools and educational institutions in Israel and the former Soviet Union. He has served as scholar in residence at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies in Washington, D.C. and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University. His honorary degrees include doctorates from Yeshiva University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Bar Ilan University, Brandeis University, and Florida International University.
Steinsaltz.org - The website of The Aleph Society and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adin_Steinsaltz
reprinted from :
http://chabadstanford.org/article.htm?King_Saul_and_King_David_Public_Sins_vs._Private_Sins-108
(This article is archived here for educational (Torah study) purposes based on fair use exception of the United States Copyright law..
The article was not posted here by or on behalf of Rabbi Steinsaltz. He is in no way associated with this blog nor has endorsed it.)

40% of children born in America in 2006 can say "My mother was a pilegesh".

2008-02-18T09:29:00.007-10:00

boyfriends."id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5168405029039424562"/>

I know this makes so called social conservatives blue in the face and causes Bible thumping ministers to make fiery speeches to fight of the "plague" of out of wedlock couples yet the simple common sense truth is:
"Anyone who thinks that by being in a Pilegesh relationship one is failing to fulfill some kind of commandment to get married, is seriously in error... For the Torah did not command us to marry, only to be fruitful and multiply in a permissable manner (i.e., nonadulterous, nonincestuous, and by mutual consent). And this Mitzvah can be fulfilled also in a nonmarital relationship But as for marriage itself, the Torah never actually obligated it. Rather, thus did She (the Torah) say: When a man takes a woman to be his wife, only then is the marriage rite required, and he is then obligated to do for her as is customary for the daughters of Israel in that time." (Rabbi Yaakov (Jacob) Emden Sheylot Ya'avetz, vol 2, no. 15) http://pilegesh.blogspot.com/2006/10/rabbi-yaakov-emdens-answer-regarding.html

Out-of-wedlock births
Single and now a mom

Nearly 40% of U.S. babies in 2006 were born outside of marriage.
Mom and baby
About half of unwed mothers live with boyfriends.

Forget wedded bliss. More and more women are skipping the traditional steps of love and marriage and heading straight into having babies.

Nearly 40% of all American babies were born out of wedlock in 2006, an all-time high, government statistics show. That's more than twice the rate in 1980, when 18% of children were born outside of marriage.

The fastest-growing group of unwed mothers: women 25 to 29. The number of babies born out of wedlock to women in this age group was 10% higher over the course of one year (2005-06).

"People feel more free to pick and choose their life trajectories and feel less compelled to marry," says Stephanie Coontz, professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and research director for the Council on Contemporary Families. "It's a sea change."

The dramatic rise in the number of unwed mothers is partially due to increased cohabitation and postponement of marriage by couples, Coontz says. About half of all unwed mothers are living with their boyfriends, she says. Many of these couples eventually marry.

But the numbers also reflect some single women's growing fears about developing fertility problems if they wait around too long for the right man, Coontz says. Still, others don't deliberately have babies out of wedlock, but they often find themselves welcoming an unintended pregnancy in a relationship.

Many unmarried women are ambivalent about their relationships, however, they are not willing to give up on the dream of having a child, Coontz says. "They are more afraid of marrying the wrong man and experiencing a di-vorce than of being an unwed mom," she says.

Although out-of-wedlock births are growing fastest among women who are in their late 20s, younger women still have the most babies out of wedlock. More than 80% of babies delivered by teen mothers were born outside of marriage in 2006, while nearly 60% of those delivered to women ages 20 to 24 were out of wedlock.

Nearly 30% of babies delivered to women ages 25 to 29 were born outside of marriage in 2006.

-- Rochelle Sharpe

Yosef Pash's Miracle Story

2008-02-14T20:05:00.001-10:00

Leno - Mendy Pellin on Tonight Show with Jay Leno

2008-02-13T21:12:00.001-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahzds-F_XbI

Chief rabbi of Israel is helping to promote pilegesh relationships by using reverse psychology.

2008-02-10T06:36:00.000-10:00

B"H
Pilegesh blog and personals would like to offer thanks to Rabbi Yona Metzger Shlit"a for sending us extra visitors and promoting common sense solutions to the lack of commitment to marriage among modern day Jewish singles by his creative use of reverse psychology.

PS. Many good reasons for abstinence till marriage can be given, but what he said at least the way it is reported in Jpost is not a rational reason it is not really a rabbinic prohibition just a long standing Ashkenazi custom.

Read more in the Jerusalem Post article bellow:
Chief rabbi prohibits single women from going to mikve
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 10, 2008

In an attempt to stem a trend of quasi-condoned premarital sex among young modern Orthodox men and women, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger has issued a prohibition against allowing single women to use mikvaot (ritual baths).

In a letter dated January 24 and addressed to the rabbis of the Land of Israel, Metzger warns of a trend in which young modern Orthodox men and women use mikvaot to circumvent one of the severest prohibitions connected with sexual intercourse.

"It is absolutely prohibited to allow a single woman to immerse herself in a mikve," wrote Metzger. "And it is an obligation to prevent her from doing so."

Metzger also advised that ritual bath attendants should be told to prevent single women from immersing themselves.

Jewish law proscribes sexual relations with a woman during and after menstruation until she immerses herself in a mikve. This prohibition is known as nidda.

Traditionally, only married women have been permitted to remove the prohibition of nidda via a mikve, so they can have sexual relations with their husbands.

In contrast, single women have traditionally been prevented from using a mikve because it would, in theory, remove the main prohibition against sexual intercourse.

There is no Biblical prohibition against a male and a female having sexual intercourse once the obstacle of nidda has been removed.

There is, however, a less stringent rabbinic injunction against premarital sex.

In recent years modern Orthodox men and women have been postponing marriage to pursue higher education and careers. Others have simply not found the right person with whom to settle down.

As a result, some young Orthodox people, who feel obligated to adhere to Halacha, but who also find celibacy impossibly difficult, have used the mikvaot to remove the main legal obstacle to premarital sex.

Prof. Tzvi Zohar of Bar-Ilan University wrote an article in March 2006 condoning premarital sex that aroused fervent debate in religious Zionist circles.

Zohar's article, printed in Akdamot, an academic journal on Jewish thought published by Beit Morasha, analyzed the opinions of leading halachic authorities from the Middle Ages, such as Nachmanides, and those of the modern era, such as Rabbi Ya'acov Emden, and showed that many permitted sexual relations without marriage.

In an arrangement sanctioned by Jewish law, according to these opinions, the woman becomes a pilegesh, or concubine. Neither the man nor the woman has any obligations or rights, but both must adhere to family purity laws in accordance with Halacha.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1202246357590&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Judios - Jews

2008-02-07T22:59:00.001-10:00

Todo Judio debe ver este video

Kinderlach - Moshiach

2008-02-07T22:36:00.001-10:00

The Kinderlach performing "Moshiach" on the Ma Kashur show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG7_WDUo2kI

Rebbe's emisary for he security of he land of Israel speaks:

2008-02-03T18:25:00.001-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED8zXpRH8Ec

Rabbi Sholom Dov Wolpo recently (winter of 2007) made some comments about Ehud Olmert that resulted in a media smear campaign against Rabbi Wolpo. What did he REALLY say? In this short video Rabbi Wolpo explains his statements and points out the danger that Olmert's plans pose for the Jewish People.

Rabbi Aviner: Divorcees are just as valuable, if not more so

2008-02-03T10:04:00.000-10:00

B"H

Rabbi Aviner: Divorcees are just as valuable, if not more so
Second Chance

Photo: Dudi Vaaknin Rabbi Aviner

Rabbi of Bet-El speaks out against the ‘evil stereotype’ attached to divorcees in Judaism, calls on followers ‘not to judge anyone by past marital status’
Kobi Nahshoni

In an article recently published in the Rosh Yehudi (Jewish Mindset) pamphlet, the Rabbi of Bet El and spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist movement, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, called on Orthodox Jews to change their deeply entrenched prejudices against divorced women, and to start judging people based upon their character rather than their past marital status.

Quickee weddings
From a white wedding to a divorce court / Danny Adino Ababa
An eternity that lasts two years: 17% of couples that divorced in Israel in 2006 were married less than three years
full article
“Divorcees are just like all other women, they do not have horns,” the rabbi noted. “As a matter of fact, these women are probably more worthwhile because of their previous experience with married life.”

Aviner went on tostate that divorcees have "feelings and emotions like all other women, and are just as G-d fearing, dependable and worthy as their never married counterparts.

“I have no idea where all of the evil stereotypes regarding divorcees originated,” said the Rabbi. “These women do not have horns on their heads; in fact they probably have a far broader and more mature outlook on life.”

Addressing Orthodox men’s reluctance to marry divorcees, Rabbi Aviner stated that “one must naturally take the time to find out whether there is some character flaw in the person in question that brought about the divorce, but as a general rule you should always take the time to assess your future spouses’ character and nature before marriage, whether or not they were previously married.”

Divorcess deserve second chance
Strong faith, fear of G-d, and dependability, explained the Rabbi, are all traits that one can most definitely find in a divorcee. “Divorcees do not fall short of other women in this respect, and their feelings and emotions must also be respected.”

In that vane, the rabbi stated that divorced Orthodox women should be allowed a second chance at marriage, not only with a widower or fellow divorcee but even with a single man.

“One must not marry right off the bat like a blind fool,” advised the Rabbi. “A couple who marries must be well matched and compatible. That being said, “we must judge each individual based on their character rather than their past marital status."

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3502095,00.html

Joshua and the Prostitute

2008-01-31T21:00:00.000-10:00

B"H

Joshua and the Prostitute

By Avi Lazerson

Joshua Bin Nun, the successor to Moses, never seemed to reach the fame-success ratings that Moses enjoyed. The book of Joshua, the sixth book of the Bible, which follows the five books of Moses, is not the best seller that the first five are. Never the less, there are scholars who believe that Joshua was a better leader of the Jewish people than Moses was.

Whereas most people recall Joshua with miraculously taking the Jewish people across the Jordan River into the land of Israel and also the miraculous crumbling of the walls of the fortified city of Jericho, few people realize that Joshua was a man of extraordinary personality.

Joshua was first mentioned in the Bible as the dedicated attendant of Moses. He completely nullified his personality to insure that his master, Moses, was well taken care of and able to perform his important public and spiritual functions. Moses in turn selected him while in the desert to lead a delegation of twelve representatives of the Jewish nation to ascertain the feasibility and true benefits of the divinely promised land of Israel. Of the twelve spies, only Joshua and Caleb returned with a positive report; the other ten told of the difficulties that the "new" land has for them - thereby turning the hearts of the people from G-d and incurring divine wrath and punishment.

Joshua was divinely chosen to lead the Jewish people into the Promised Land. He led in successfully fighting against the inhabitants who had to be destroyed or driven out, and he divided up the land of Israel for the various tribes. All of this with out any rebellion and with only one incident of sinning (Achan) as opposed to Moses' very difficult period of leadership. This led Rabbis' to comment that although Moses was likened to the sun and Joshua to the moon, because of Joshua's "closeness" to the people, as opposed to Moses' closeness to G-d, Joshua enjoyed far greater popular appreciation from the masses. Joshua had a closer understanding of the people, hence developed a more dedicated and a more disciplined people who came into the land of Israel.

One of the most amazing stories of Joshua is not the famous battle in which the sun stood still in the heavens until the battle was won, but that of Rachav, the prostitute.

Rachav, a non-Jew, lived in Jericho. Prior to the Jews entering Israel, Joshua sent two spies to seek out the land. They came to Rachav's house to seek shelter from the king of Jericho. Rachav risked her own life and hid the Jewish spies from the king's soldiers. In return, they promised to spare her life and her family's lives in return for her saving their lives.

The Talmud describes at length the attractiveness and sexual powers that Rachav possessed. The Rabbis of the Talmud said that all the important ministers and rulers of the world would come to visit her in order to experience her charms. The Talmud goes so far to state that in Rachav's time, if a man were to utter her name aloud he would come to have a seminal ejaculation - such was the beauty and sexual powers of Rachav.

But there is more:

The Talmud also relates that Joshua married her! Can you imagine today (with the exception of Bill Clinton) a distinguished head of state, or even more so, a major religious leader marrying the most famous prostitute in the history of the Bible?? Well Joshua married her! Plus it is related that many great men were descendent from her.

Our question is obvious: How could the number one Jewish leader, the successor to Moses, the representative of G-d on earth pick a gentile, the number one prostitute in the world to marry? Couldn't he find a nice Jewish girl?? Plus, we do not see any mention of revulsion from the Rabbis!

In this perhaps signifies Joshua's unique inherent strength and character.

Perhaps outward dress and actions may deceive us. We tend to give honor to those who dress and act in manners to elicit from us honor with out really knowing if this person is indeed worthy of the honor that we give him. We can't real see who is really true on the inside, we can't see behind every facade.

Many people can fool us into believing that they are truly G-d fearing, when perhaps they are lacking in this area. We can be deceived into thinking some one is a friend when in reality he has an ulterior motive for his friendship.

Joshua saw from Rachav's actions that she was really deeply G-d fearing. Instead of turning these two Jews over to the king's soldiers and garnished a reward, as any normal person would have done, she risked her life because of her belief in G-d, to save them. She believed with a deep conviction that G-d was leading the Jews back into the Promised Land. She believed deeply in the G-d of the Hebrews and that He would fulfil His promise to give the land of Canaan to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. She entertained no doubts of this and she desired to be a part of it.

That she was a prostitute perhaps was not the most desirous trait one looks for in a wife, yet, circumstances can cause many to seek living in a manner that seems unforgivable. Yet she robbed no one, killed no one. When she had the opportunity to join G-d's chosen people, even if it meant a possible life as a status-less individual, she was willing to accept the unknown. She asked for nothing, like Ruth, yet she merited the best.

All of this for being willing to sacrifice one's life for the benefit of others!

Perhaps this is the message that this story brings to us: to be willing to give of ourselves to G-d's master plan of the world.

~~~~~~~

from the August 2001 Edition of the Jewish Magazine
http://www.jewishmag.com/46mag/joshua/joshua.htm

2nd wife, or pilegesh wanted.

2008-01-20T23:47:00.000-10:00

B"H

:ספרדי, דתי, בעל עסקים ,עשיר מחפש אשה שניה או פילגש

avvii

http://pilegeshpersonals.com/showprofile.php?id=497

A frum (religious) wealthy Sephardi Jewish businessman is looking for a 2nd wife or a pilegesh.
You can contact him thru PilegeshPersonals.com
screen name:
avvii : http://pilegeshpersonals.com/showprofile.php?id=497
to get a free membership at PilegeshPersonals sign up here: http://pilegeshpersonals.com/signup.php
He speaks Hebrew and Yiddish.
If you are interested but don't speak Hebrew, or Yiddish please email rabbi@pilegesh.org with your information and it will be translated and forwarded to
avvii : http://pilegeshpersonals.com/showprofile.php?id=497

Strange news translation.

2008-01-16T12:13:00.000-10:00

B"H
Isn't polygamy already permitted in Saudi Arabia?
What all the fuss is about?

Saudi Women Demand Husbands Boycott Preacher Who Called For Polygamy

A call to permit polygamy, by preacher and imam Taher Al-Ahmad at a mosque in the Al-Ahsaa region has caused great consternation amongst women's organization in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Ahmad, who has three wives and is considering taking a fourth, stated that polygamy is a practical solution to many social problems.

Women worshippers at the mosque demanded that their husbands boycott the preacher and pray at a different mosque.

Source: Al-Watan, Saudi Arabia
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/4222.htm

Giving birth becomes the latest job outsourced to India

2008-01-13T13:55:00.000-10:00

B"H
Giving birth becomes the latest job outsourced to India

* Story Highlights
* A clinic at Anand's Kaival Hospital matches infertile couples with local women
* The surrogate mothers earn more than many would make in 15 years
* Anand's surrogate mothers have given birth to roughly 40 babies
* Some fear a necessity for the infertile could become a convenience for the rich

ANAND, India (AP) -- Every night in this quiet western Indian city, 15 pregnant women prepare for sleep in the spacious house they share, ascending the stairs in a procession of ballooned bellies, to bedrooms that become a landscape of soft hills.

A team of maids, cooks and doctors looks after the women, whose pregnancies would be unusual anywhere else but are common here. The young mothers of Anand, a place famous for its milk, are pregnant with the children of infertile couples from around the world.

The small clinic at Kaival Hospital matches infertile couples with local women, cares for the women during pregnancy and delivery, and counsels them afterward. Anand's surrogate mothers, pioneers in the growing field of outsourced pregnancies, have given birth to roughly 40 babies.

More than 50 women in this city are now pregnant with the children of couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond. The women earn more than many would make in 15 years. But the program raises a host of uncomfortable questions that touch on morals and modern science, exploitation and globalization, and that most natural of desires: to have a family.

Dr. Nayna Patel, the woman behind Anand's baby boom, defends her work as meaningful for everyone involved.

"There is this one woman who desperately needs a baby and cannot have her own child without the help of a surrogate. And at the other end there is this woman who badly wants to help her [own] family," Patel said. "If this female wants to help the other one ... why not allow that? ... It's not for any bad cause. They're helping one another to have a new life in this world."

Experts say commercial surrogacy -- or what has been called "wombs for rent" -- is growing in India. While no reliable numbers track such pregnancies nationwide, doctors work with surrogates in virtually every major city. The women are impregnated in-vitro with the egg and sperm of couples unable to conceive on their own.

Commercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002, as it is in many other countries, including the United States. But India is the leader in making it a viable industry rather than a rare fertility treatment. Experts say it could take off for the same reasons outsourcing in other industries has been successful: a wide labor pool working for relatively low rates.

Critics say the couples are exploiting poor women in India -- a country with an alarmingly high maternal death rate -- by hiring them at a cut-rate cost to undergo the hardship, pain and risks of labor.

"It raises the factor of baby farms in developing countries," said Dr. John Lantos of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo. "It comes down to questions of voluntariness and risk."

Patel's surrogates are aware of the risks because they've watched others go through them. Many of the mothers know one another, or are even related. Three sisters have all borne strangers' children, and their sister-in-law is pregnant with a second surrogate baby. Nearly half the babies have been born to foreign couples while the rest have gone to Indians.

Ritu Sodhi, a furniture importer from Los Angeles who was born in India, spent $200,000 trying to get pregnant through in-vitro fertilization, and was considering spending another $80,000 to hire a surrogate mother in the United States.

"We were so desperate," she said. "It was emotionally and financially exhausting."

Then, on the Internet, Sodhi found Patel's clinic.

After spending about $20,000 -- more than many couples because it took the surrogate mother several cycles to conceive -- Sodhi and her husband are now back home with their 4-month-old baby, Neel. They plan to return to Anand for a second child.

"Even if it cost $1 million, the joy that they had delivered to me is so much more than any money that I have given them," said Sodhi. "They're godsends to deliver something so special."

Patel's center is believed to be unique in offering one-stop service. Other clinics may request that the couple bring in their own surrogate, often a family member or friend, and some place classified ads. But in Anand the couple just provides the egg and sperm and the clinic does the rest, drawing from a waiting list of tested and ready surrogates.

Young women are flocking to the clinic to sign up for the list.

Suman Dodia, a pregnant, baby-faced 26-year-old, said she will buy a house with the $4,500 she receives from the British couple whose child she's carrying. It would have taken her 15 years to earn that on her maid's monthly salary of $25.

Dodia's own three children were delivered at home and she said she never visited a doctor during those pregnancies.

"It's very different with medicine," Dodia said, resting her hands on her hugely pregnant belly. "I'm being more careful now than I was with my own pregnancy."

Patel said she carefully chooses which couples to help and which women to hire as surrogates. She only accepts couples with serious fertility issues, like survivors of uterine cancer. The surrogate mothers have to be between 18 and 45, have at least one child of their own, and be in good medical shape.

Like some fertility reality show, a rotating cast of surrogate mothers live together in a home rented by the clinic and overseen by a former surrogate mother. They receive their children and husbands as visitors during the day, when they're not busy with English or computer classes.

"They feel like my family," said Rubina Mandul, 32, the surrogate house's den mother. "The first 10 days are hard, but then they don't want to go home."

Mandul, who has two sons of her own, gave birth to a child for an American couple in February. She said she misses the baby, but she stays in touch with the parents over the Internet. A photo of the American couple with the child hangs over the sofa.

"They need a baby more than me," she said.

The surrogate mothers and the parents sign a contract that promises the couple will cover all medical expenses in addition to the woman's payment, and the surrogate mother will hand over the baby after birth. The couples fly to Anand for the in-vitro fertilization and again for the birth. Most couples end up paying the clinic less than $10,000 for the entire procedure, including fertilization, the fee to the mother and medical expenses.

Counseling is a major part of the process and Patel tells the women to think of the pregnancy as "someone's child comes to stay at your place for nine months."

Kailas Gheewala, 25, said she doesn't think of the pregnancy as her own.

"The fetus is theirs, so I'm not sad to give it back," said Gheewala, who plans to save the $6,250 she's earning for her two daughters' education. "The child will go to the U.S. and lead a better life and I'll be happy."

Patel said none of the surrogate mothers has had especially difficult births or serious medical problems, but risks are inescapable.

"We have to be very careful," she said. "We overdo all the health investigations. We do not take any chances."

Health experts expect to see more Indian commercial surrogacy programs in coming years. Dr. Indira Hinduja, a prominent fertility specialist who was behind India's first test-tube baby two decades ago, receives several surrogacy inquiries a month from couples overseas.

"People are accepting it," said Hinduja. "Earlier they used to be ashamed but now they are becoming more broadminded."

But if commercial surrogacy keeps growing, some fear it could change from a medical necessity for infertile women to a convenience for the rich.

"You can picture the wealthy couples of the West deciding that pregnancy is just not worth the trouble anymore and the whole industry will be farmed out," said Lantos.

Or, Lantos said, competition among clinics could lead to compromised safety measures and "the clinic across the street offers it for 20 percent less and one in Bangladesh undercuts that and pretty soon conditions get bad."

The industry is not regulated by the government. Health officials have issued nonbinding ethical guidelines and called for legislation to protect the surrogates and the children.

For now, the surrogate mothers in Anand seem as pleased with the arrangement as the new parents.

"I know this isn't mine," said Jagrudi Sharma, 34, pointing to her belly. "But I'm giving happiness to another couple. And it's great for me."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/india.wombs.for.rent.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText?iref=werecommend

New child allowance plan targets Israeli polygamy

2008-01-13T08:27:00.000-10:00

B"H
Shalom

Reading the Haaretz article (quoted bellow) strenghtens my opinion that Israeli government (and other governments) should allow open polygamy for all who can afford it , lower the outrageously high taxes and transfer the responsibility of providing social services to charitable organizations of each community removing the incentives to exploit the system increasing productivity and morality of the population.
This would also improve the life of Beduin Arabs (and others who practice polygamy) as a recent study of Bedouin Arab polygamy have shown (among other things) that poly families which are dysfunctional, are mostly those where head of the family is chronically unemployed living on welfare:
(Family Process

Volume 45 Issue 3 Page 311-330, September 2006

To cite this article: VERED SLONIM-NEVO, ALEAN AL-KRENAWI (2006)
Success and Failure Among Polygamous Families: The Experience of Wives, Husbands, and Children
Family Process 45 (3), 311–330.

There is no reason for the "Jewish and Democratic" state to subsidize growth of population that will if given the opportunity vote this state out of existence.

Noah Smith
Pilegesh.org

New child allowance plan targets polygamy
By Ruth Sinai

The Prime Minister's Office intends to reduce or end child allowances to families in which the father has more than one wife. PMO director general Avigdor Yitzhaki will today meet legal advisers from the PMO and the Interior, Finance and Justice ministries to discuss proposals recently formulated on the issue.

"Polygamy is a blatantly illegal and immoral custom," Yitzhaki told Haaretz. "The purpose of such marriages is to bring as many children as possible into the world so as to boost the allowances paid by the state. The payments are a serious incentive, but these children are born into distress, into a bad life."

Yitzhaki said bigamy was forbidden by law but the Sharia (Islamic law) courts in Israel were allowing Muslim men to divorce their wives and marry other women. "This circumvents the civil law," Yitzhaki said. "It also undermines the natural balance because men are bringing in women from other places for trading purposes. We want to curtail this practice as much as possible."

A source involved in the issue believes, however, that most of the ideas raised until now cannot be put into practice since they discriminate against a certain group of children and so would not pass a test in the High Court of Justice. The only proposal that has a chance, the source said, was a uniform child allowance for all families in the country, in accordance with the coalition agreement between the Likud, the National Religious Party and Shinui.

However, the source added, such a move would be detrimental to large Jewish and Arab families, regardless of the polygamy issue.

At present, the High Court is considering petitions against a law that reduces child allowances for families without army veterans by 20 percent. In the past, Israel paid a higher allowance to families with army veterans, but this mainly affected the Arab population as the ultra-Orthodox were compensated in other ways. The government of Yitzhak Rabin scrapped the practice in the early 1990s.

It appears that budget concerns are not the only motives behind the initiative of Yitzhaki and the director of the Population Registry, Herzl Gadz. It also targets the practice of Bedouin men bringing women from the territories and Jordan in as additional wives. Some of these women come to Israel with children from previous marriages.

The Sanegor Kehilati volunteer organization for promoting the rights of the Bedouin population is outraged by Yitzhaki's initiative and believes it is no way to discourage polygamy.

"In a properly functioning state, it should be dealt with through educational and legal channels, and not by harming the victims of the practice - the women and children," Saliman Algrinawi, an activist in the organization, wrote to Yitzhaki. The proposal would only increase discrimination and widen poverty, Algrinawi said.

"It is a very dangerous move. Today, efforts will be made to prevent the Bedouin from having children. Tomorrow, these efforts will be directed against the ultra-Orthodox or Sephardis," he said. The director of the organization's branch in Be'er Sheva, Hadas Barzilai, said the state must enforce the law against men who take more than one wife and not harm their children or spouses, who are the victims.

The extent of polygamy in Israel - practiced mainly among the Bedouin - is not known but around 30 percent of Bedouin men are believed to have more than one wife. More than 60 percent of the 130,000-strong Bedouin population in the south are children, so the number of families that could be affected by Yitzhaki's initiative is relatively small, although the number of children is very high.

A study conducted last year by Prof. Julie Cwikel of Ben-Gurion University among 202 Bedouin women aged 22-75 revealed that only 10 percent had completed high-school, 35 percent were involved in polygamous marriages, 60 percent were married to relatives

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=271653&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Rabbi Cunin, Priest and a Minister telling jokes on Jay Leno Show

2008-01-13T05:40:00.001-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgRb9UUSyDw

Polygyny (Polygamy) Is Already A Practice

2008-01-09T06:01:00.000-10:00

B"H
Polygyny (Polygamy) Is Already A Practice

By Siahyonkron Nyanseor

The Perspective
theperspective.org
Atlanta, Georgia

To Africans including Liberians, the institution of polygyny (polygamy) is nothing strange. Polygyny was the acceptable form of marriage in Africa prior to the arrival of the colonizers and Christianity. The same can be said about the Americo Liberian settlers. As a matter of fact, the Settlers got involved in this practice of having more than one wife. Therefore, I assume it is out of ignorance that President Taylor wants to legalize an institution which has been the practice of the African inhabitants for hundreds of years.

Moreover, we need to correct a common mistake in referring to polygyny as polygamy. Polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife or husband at one time. Whereas polygyny is the practice of one man having more than one wife at one time. Polygyny is the form of marriage practiced in Africa not polygamy.

Having made this correction, permit me to ask why most Westerners and their westernized African counterparts considered polygyny a bad institution of marriage? Why do they condemned it? I can only conclude that they do so out of ignorance, especially, women. I believe it is done from the point of view of it being exploitative to women. Furthermore, most of those who do so, do it without making any effort to find out how the practice came about. They refused to see how "cultural relativity" is applicable to polygyny. I consider their refusal to do so as "academic hypocrisy."

However, before we begin to probe into the origin of polygyny, we need to know the role culture plays in a given society. In order to do so, let's look at the explanation provided by Professor Ali A. Mazrui. According to Mazrui:

Culture provides lenses of perception, the way of looking at reality, a world view; culture provides standards of evaluation; what is good and what is evil; what is legitimate and what is illegitimate are rooted in criteria provided by culture. Culture conditions motivations; what motivates individuals to act or refrain from acting, what inspires individuals to perform well or to really exert themselves, is partly inspired by cultural factors. Culture is the medium of communication; the communicative aspects of culture range from language in the literal sense to physical gestures and modes of dress. Culture provides a basis of stratification, a pecking order in society. Status, rank and class are partly the outcome of a cultural order.

According to the explanation given above, we can then see the cardinal responsibilities placed upon culture in creating institutions to address certain needs in society. However, due to ignorance, most individuals have the tendency to pass judgment on polygyny without thoroughly understanding it.

From on our understanding of culture, it is safe to say that one of the key responsibilities of culture is the establishment of social institutions which will maintain the orderly existence of a society. Secondly, these institutions serve to promote "a system of values, and these values are a set of ideas, concepts, and practices to which strong sentiments are attached."

In view of the above, one can easily understand how polygyny became the ideal institution of marriage in Africa. However, the rationale given for the practice of polygyny in Africa is provided by two schools of thought - the Social and Economic. Proponents of the Social School explained that at the time polygyny was established as the legal form of marriage, the ratio of women to men in Africa was about 10 to 1. As the result, those who were responsible for establishing social institutions - the elders, including women, decided to come up with a marriage system that would address this problem. Their aim at the time was to provide a balance and equal distribution of social, material, security and economic benefits to both women and men.

Furthermore, these social architects or elders felt that if the problem regarding the needs of unmarried women were not addressed, what would eventually happen was the snatching away of other women's husbands, or the unmarried women would, for example, engage in prostitution since as human beings, their sexual, social, psychological and economic needs had to be taken care of.

On the other hand, the proponents of the Economic School reasoned that polygyny was established to address the prevailing economic issues of the period. They explained that during the Pre-colonial era in Africa, the economic activities were centered around subsistence agriculture. This type of farming requires lots of manpower. In order to establish the mode of production that was going to be beneficial to the entire society, the polygynous form was preferred. Since this form of marriage emphasized collective responsibilities, communal ownership of farms, wealth and the economic benefit of the extended family.

The major concept of both the Social and the Economic Schools was centered around the male marrying more than one wife depending on the amount of dowry (bridal price) he or his family could afford. In the traditional African society where this arrangement was prevalent, a man who had four wives, was obligated to provide farm for each of his wives. The children and the relatives of each wife were required to work and attend to the operation and maintenance of the farm. The husband on the other hand, was responsible in providing periodic assistance as well as supervision to each farm.

The resources derived from these farms were pooled together to provide material and economic benefits for the entire extended family. With this type of arrangement, all members of the extended family were better cared for.

I will be the first to admit that polygyny has its negative and positive aspects; so do monogamy. But the major problem one finds with polygyny in Liberia started with the Americo Liberian settlers. Prior to their arrival in what is known today as Liberia, polygyny was the acceptable form of marriage practiced by the indigenous inhabitants. The establishment of Liberia as a Christian state gave rise to the conflict between polygyny and monogamy. In other words, since Americo-Liberian settlers condemned the practice of polygyny, monogamy was emphasized like other Western cultural hegemony in the Liberian society. However, the natives (as African Liberians were referred to) were allowed to continue the practice of polygyny.

But the Americo-Liberians who condemned the practice of polygyny found themselves practicing a brand of polygyny called "Chrismonopoly." (Christians' monopoly of marriage). Chrismonopoly became the form of marriage practiced by the settlers. It is an arrangement in which a male settler is married to his monogamous or Christian wife and at the same time is engaged in polygynous relationship with "native African Liberian women."

The origin of the relationship between the African-Liberian women and the Americo-Liberian men can be traced back to the plantations in North America where the Americo Liberians were once slaves. On these plantations, the white slave masters were engaged in monogamous marriage and at the same time were allowed to have at will the slave women. The children produced out of this relationship were never considered part of the slave masters' family but rather their properties. Whenever they saw it fit, they would sell these women and their offspring for economic gain.

Similar practice was established in Liberia by the Americo Liberian settlers. The Liberian experience was such that the offspring that were produced out of the relationship between the Americo Liberian men and the African Liberian women were not considered legitimate children. Instead, they were referred to as "out side children." On the other hand, the mothers of these children in most cases were referred to as their "country women" whereas the children of the monogamous marriage were viewed as "legitimate" or "inside" children. Of course, there were some exceptions but in most cases, this was the accepted norm.

In some cases, the "country women" live on the farms of the Americo Liberians. Social and economic opportunities as well as certain privileges were reserved for the so-called legal wives and their children, while the country women and their children could barely make ends meet.

Serious social problem emanated from the practice of Chrismonopoly. Some of the problems (bastard and illegitimate children) that polygyny was established to solved. For example, in a Chrismonopoly relationship, a distinction was made as to who were "inside or outside children." This was never the case in a polygynous relationship. As a matter of fact, the entire village was responsible in raising the children.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that President Taylor's called for marriage between Mandingoes, Krahns, Gios and Lormas is only a cliché to legitimized his relationship with his reported slew of women and encourage their social exploitation as well. This is the type of usury and exploitative practice that most female critics assigned to the practice of polygyny. This only suggest that in a given society where either monogamy or polygyny is the preferred institution of marriage, individual like President Taylor will use the institution to satisfy his selfish motives or misinterpret the practice to his advantage.

Therefore, I would advise critics of polygyny (polygamy) to first attempt to understand the institution before condemning it. In this case, they should be willing to listen to the pro and con regarding the institution.

Scientists Make Fruit Flies Gay, Then Straight Again

2007-12-13T03:01:00.000-10:00

B"H
Scientists Make Fruit Flies Gay, Then Straight Again

By Robert Roy Britt

LiveScience.com

While several studies find homosexuality in humans and other animals is biological rather than learned, a question remains over whether it's a hard-wired phenomenon or one that can be altered.

A new study finds that both drugs and genetic manipulation can turn the homosexual behavior of fruit flies on and off within a matter of hours.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Natural Science Center.

While the genetic finding supports the thinking that homosexuality is hard-wired, the drug finding surprisingly suggests it's not that simple.

In fact, homosexuality in the fruit flies seems to be regulated by how they interpret the scent of another.

Dramatic result

Homosexuality is widespread in the animal world. But scientists have long debated whether, in humans a "gay gene" exists.

Previous research in humans has suggested that how we interpret scents given off by another person might impact our sexuality.

In the new work, University of Illinois at Chicago researcher David Featherstone and coworkers discovered a gene in fruit flies they call "genderblind," or GB. A mutation in GB turns flies bisexual.

GB transports the neurotransmitter glutamate to brain cells. Altering levels of glutamate change the strength of nerve cell junctions, called synapses, which play a key role in human and animal behavior.

Post-doctoral researcher Yael Grosjean found that all male fruit flies with a mutation in their GB gene courted other males.

"It was very dramatic," Featherstone said. "The GB mutant males treated other males exactly the same way normal male flies would treat a female. They even attempted copulation."

Overreaction

Other genes are known to alter sexual orientation, but most just control whether the brain develops as genetically male or female. It's not known why a male brain does male things and a female brain acts in female ways, Featherstone and his colleagues say.

"Based on our previous work, we reasoned that GB mutants might show homosexual behavior because their glutamatergic synapses were altered in some way," Featherstone said. "Homosexual courtship might be sort of an 'overreaction' to sexual stimuli."

To test this, the researchers genetically altered synapse strength, independent of GB. They also gave flies drugs to alter synapse strength. As predicted, they were able to turn fly homosexuality on and off, within hours.

"It was amazing. I never thought we'd be able to do that sort of thing, because sexual orientation is supposed to be hard-wired," Featherstone said. "This fundamentally changes how we think about this behavior."

Sense of smell

The team figured fly brains maintain two sensory circuits: one to trigger heterosexual behavior and one for homosexual. When GB suppresses glutamatergic synapses, the homosexual circuit is blocked, the thinking goes.

So they did more tests. As expected, without GB to suppress synapse strength, the flies no longer interpreted smells the same way. The smells in question come in the form of pheromones, chemicals that affect sexual behavior in much of the animal kingdom.

It is not known, however, to what extent human attraction is affected by pheromones. A study in 2005 found that when smelling a chemical from testosterone, portions of the human brains active in sexual activity were turned on in gay men and straight women, but not in straight men.

But at least among fruit flies, "pheromones are powerful sexual stimuli," Featherstone said. "As it turns out, the GB mutant flies were perceiving pheromones differently. Specifically, the GB mutant males were no longer recognizing male pheromones as a repulsive stimulus."

The research was published online Dec 11 2007 by the journal Nature Neuroscience.