העורך Editor

There is a common question: why are Judaism’s laws (like contemporary society in Scripture) so livestock and agriculture-centric? There is no specific law against leaving the fields for the city, but if one wishes to observe more mitzvos, the farming and shepherding lifestyle is best (unless perhaps in Jerusalem at the time of the Temple).

Perhaps the answer lies in this quote:

The farmer was and remains the stumbling block to socialist experiments everywhere. Since he raises his own food and tends to live in his own house, he is less “controllable” than say, the urban dweller.

• Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Leftism: from de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Marcuse

Liberty permits personal responsibility, a prerequisite to Judaism.

I must say, though, I doubt the historical accuracy of the above quote itself.

Here’s an idle thought. If you remove just one word from the following passage, it sounds like something Murray Rothbard would agree with. Here is the quote, from Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar’s introduction to his opus “Vayoel Moshe”:

“כי אם ניקח כל פרצות הדור והעבירות המרובות הנעשות בכל העולם וישימו אותם בכף מאזניים אחת, ומדינה ציונית בכף מאזניים השניה, תכריע את הכל שהוא השורש פורה ראש ולענה של אבי אבות הטומאה שבכל אבות הנזיקין שבכל העולם כולו, והן המה המטמאים את כל העולם כולו”.

Can you tell which word to remove? This: “ציונית”.

What do you think?

Cars today must have seat belts, air bags, ugly metal exteriors, “fuel efficiency”, and more. Are you a car enthusiast? Do you love understanding everything there is to know about car models and engines? Check out Eric Peter’s site for car expertise and tips and the latest news from a strong libertarian perspective. This is his About page.

Check out the two videos here on Forthodoxy from Rabbi Chaim Ovadya. It’s a half hour altogether, and pretty compact in terms of content.

The author of the Tomer Devorah blog, after detailing the latest outrage from the Shalom Hartman Institute, says:

This is why I call myself a Torah Jew and not an Orthodox Jew. So-called “Open-Orthodoxy” has made the term meaningless. And I hate to say it, but as soon as there became a “Modern Orthodoxy”, it was only a matter of time.

Nomenclature is not Halacha, so anyone can do what they please. But this is why I myself usually prefer the un-hyphenated “Jew” alone. The “Torah Jew” title, too, has been vacated by a long train of abuses.

It’s time to bring back an arcaic religion known as “Judaism”!