State Arab Murder Trials Are a Farce

When a non-Jewish murderer of Jews is sent to jail in Israel, let’s stop pretending his prison term means anything. “Given a life sentence!” “Ten life sentences!” “Court recommends … never be released” We are supposed to rejoice and bear good will toward the judges (especially since 99% are Arabs and lefties)…

How silly.

We all know a prisoner exchange is all it takes for the state to free the “lifer” to murder more Jews (Surprise!). It’s only a matter of time, and not much time, at that.

Of course, jail itself is part welfare, too, but that’s a topic for another time.

The Jewish View of Banking

Murray Rothbard believed fractional reserve banking is fraud. Without going into much reasoning and detail, it appears Chazal disagree. I have never seen a breath of condemnation of honest bankers in Gemara.

A banker is called a “Shulchani”. Or, in Greek, טרפסיטים, Bamidbar Rabbah 4:8.

Unless bankers are a state cartel or guaranteed by government “insurance”, what could be or go wrong?

Newspapers Are Useful After All

Did you know newspapers are good for wrapping avocados so they ripen in timely fashion?

Why do I bring this up? The “fish wrap” metaphor for newspapers no longer resonates with us. Most of us don’t do that. Time for a new metaphor.

Better uninformed (or internet) than misinformed!

Was Epicurus the First Apikores (Heretic)?!

Of course not.

But then we must ask: why is it specifically his name that is synonymous for heresy in Chazal: Apikores? Why wasn’t an earlier individual’s name chosen?

From Wikipedia:

Also important in the history of atheism was Epicurus (c. 300 BCE). Drawing on the ideas of Democritus and the Atomists, he espoused a materialistic philosophy according to which the universe was governed by the laws of chance without the need for divine intervention (see scientific determinism). Although he stated that deities existed, he believed that they were uninterested in human existence. The aim of the Epicureans was to attain peace of mind and one important way of doing this was by exposing fear of divine wrath as irrational. The Epicureans also denied the existence of an afterlife and the need to fear divine punishment after death.

Now we understand. He was not the first deist, but the first to try and integrate it with everything else, to make it a “Shittah”.