Category Archives: American Values

Senseless Hate =Tragedy

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Charlottesville, Virginia was a sleepy little southern town until murder and mayhem not only woke up its citizens but the rest of the USA. Tragically, our country was treated to a show of violence and murder by “right wing” fascists as well as “left wing” fascists who declared the destruction of Southern monuments a viable tactic to destroy our country.Somehow, every news report forgot to mention the reason for the protest. All I heard for a couple of days was that the President didn’t say what the Fake Media, DemoratsDemocrats,Steven Hayes, Karl Rove and other assorted NeverTrumpsters wanted him to say because…. The rest of us are sick of it and all the senseless hate that our media appears to relish. We are at a flash point in our history and it is time to find common ground before it is too late.

Most Jews, even if they eat bacon three times a day go to synagogue on Yom Kippur. Although many people recognize that as a fast day they may be ignorant of another one,the commemoration of the destruction of our holy Jerusalem Temple-twice.Senseless or baseless hate, in Hebrew,sinat chinam, caused their destruction. This is not my opinion, but the conclusion of ancient Talmudic rabbis. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about The Talmud is a compendium of stories and Jewish laws written in about 200 AD. That’s over 2000 years ago! Unfortunately, our “brilliant” elites in fields like archeology and anthropology buy the cultural Marxism propaganda of ” all cultures are equal,” so the Maya, who had a savage and blood thirsty culture is held up as amazing and all Native American tribes are “peaceful.” Funny, but our own Judeo-Christian values is verboten in schools.Perhaps, if boys and girls learned that our country was built on the Judeo- Christian ethos of kindness and forgiveness it would be easier to find common ground.

I heard the president state that we all love our country. He said that no matter our race or religion, we are all Americans. I agree, but I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut because I have lost too many jobs because of my opinions.I’m afraid that if we continue down this road we will face G-d’s wrath and suffer our own destruction.Our country is at a terrible turning point. It is time to find things we agree about,instead of creating controversy. We don’t have to agree on everything, but we should agree that the first amendment gives us the right to have an opinion. Does anyone agree with his/her spouse 100% of the time? Siblings or children? What happened to discussions and compromise? Our country isn’t perfect. People aren’t perfect, but the Judeo- Christian ethic is ” Do not do to others what you don’t want done to you. ” stated by Hillel or ” “Do unto others as you want others to do to you.” stated by Jesus. It was said for a reason – the tragedy of senseless hate.

Lashon Hara or A Wicked Tongue

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Our country is on fire and it looks like gasoline is being poured on  daily.  The animosity and lies against President Trump infects our country and  unfortunately the poison even affected my own home.  After the tragic and despicable shooting of  Representative Scalise I decided to reframe the hatred: to put the argument in non political language.  The Lefty self hating Jews are going to scream even louder, but  it looks like they slept during Hebrew school and never learned that gossiping, spreading lies, and  defamatory speech is against our religion. The taboo of  lashon hara, or having an evil tongue; is written in our Torah more than thirty times and is the reason Miriam, Moses’s sister, was afflicted with leprosy as well as the Israelites forty year march in the desert.

The law doesn’t just apply to Jews. As anyone who is a true Christian will admit, Jesus was a Jew. Living in the South for many years, I learned that many bible based Christian religions study the “Old Testament” as well as the New Testament. The religious ethos of Christianity  is built on the laws of Judaism. As a matter of fact, the great and famous rabbi Hillel stated “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you,” while Jesus was growing up. Sound familiar? The point is, since we’re still a  Judeo- Christian country, isn’t it time to examine our behavior?

People my age grew up with  the platitude ” Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”  Judaism teaches the polar opposite. As a matter of fact, we beg G-d’s forgiveness for the sins of improper speech more than a dozen times during our Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.  We are taught that the tongue (lashon) can be used as a weapon to destroy someone’s life.  The ramification of this can be read in the news and seen on TV every day. The domino effect of rumors, gossip, and plain malicious language has turned  hatred into a political tool.  This shouldn’t be surprising since we have seen since the 1970’s how  Fatah and Hamas rev up its base with hate speech  against Israel . Invoking malicious and incendiary lies for political gain always ends in mayhem and murder as we saw in the assassination attempt at the Congressional baseball game.

We live in country that guarantees  our freedom of speech and individual freedom. That gives us the right to disagree and have different opinions about our government and politicians. It doesn’t give us the right to ruin peoples reputations.One doesn’t have to be a psychologist to understand that human beings have different opinions and tastes. Some people prefer chocolate, others vanilla, and some dislike ice cream entirely.  Let’s stick to the issues, debate the issues, and forget lashon  hara before we see more violence and destruction.

Interview: Oleg Atbasian

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When I started hearing about the Putin takeover  in Ukraine I decided to get in touch with Oleg Atbashian because I heard that he lived in South Florida. For those who aren’t familiar with the name, he’s the brilliant satirist who writes The People’s Cube.  Although he no longer lives in the neighborhood, he graciously granted me a phone interview and we discussed not only Ukraine but immigration and other things that affect this country. Continue reading →