העורך Editor

Tall grass gets mowed first.

Rabbi Meir Mazuz related in a recent Motz’ei Shabbos speech Rabbi Ratzon Arusi shlita (Rabbi Bar Ilan’s rabbi) encouraged the men in his city (Kiryat Ono, presumably) to wear their Tallis on the way to Shul. Why? Shabbos observance was suffering. He wished to publicize the Shabbos, and ensure it is honored. The custom stuck and spread.

That’s exactly what rabbis are for. And that’s exactly what customs are for.

שבת קנ”ב א’:

תניא, רבי יוסי בר קיסמא אומר, טבא תרי מתלת, ווי לה לחדא דאזלא ולא אתיא.

מאי היא, אמר רב חסדא, ינקותא.

כי אתא רב דימי אמר, ינקותא כלילא דוורדא סבותא כלילא דחילפא.

רבנו חננאל:

טבי תרי מתלת, פי’ יותר הוא טוב המהלך על ב’ רגליו מן הזקן שצריך משען כגון מקל או שבט להישען עליו והוא כמו רגל שלישי.

חבל על דאזלא ולא אתיא, פי’ הבחרות הולכת כשמזקין האדם ואינה חוזרת אליו.

ינקותא כלילא דוורדי, הבחרות כתר של וורד ריחו נודף ושל זקנה כתר של חילף שריחו מאוס.

The operative excerpt from Laurence M. Vance:

There are a number of things that U.S. soldiers certainly don’t sign up for. No matter what they think, their family thinks, or what Americans in general think, U.S. soldiers don’t sign up to:

• defend the country
• fight for our freedoms
• keep Americans safe from terrorists
• support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic
• protect Americans from credible threats
• serve the country
• secure American borders
• patrol American coasts
• guard American shores
• watch over American skies
• fight “over there” so we don’t have to fight “over here”

So, what is it that U.S. soldiers actually sign up for? Truth be told, they sign up to:

• boldly go where no American soldier has any place going
• obey orders unconditionally
• die in vain, for a lie, or for a mistake
• die for empire
• be a pawn in the hands of Uncle Sam to be moved around as he sees fit
• serve the state
• help unleash sectarian violence
• invade other countries
• occupy other countries
• fight foreign wars
• maintain U.S. hegemony
• make widows and orphans
• launch preemptive strikes
• spread democracy at the point of a gun
• be the world’s policeman, fireman, bully, and social worker
• be part of the president’s personal attack force
• enforce UN resolutions
• die a senseless death
• fight unjust wars
• kill and maim foreigners
• kill civilians
• die for imperialism
• destroy foreign industry, culture, and infrastructure
• change regimes
• nation build
• fight immoral wars
• defend other countries
• fight unnecessary wars
• carry out a reckless, belligerent, and deeply flawed U.S. foreign policy
• neglect their families
• intervene in other countries
• create terrorists, insurgents, and militants because of foreign interventions
• enforce no-fly zones in other countries
• fight undeclared wars
• take sides in civil wars
• engage in offense instead of defense
• get PTSD or a traumatic brain injury
• have their limbs or genitals blown off
• die for the military/industrial complex
• be a global force for evil

See the rest of it on LRC here…

What does labor want?

We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.

• Samuel Gompers, labor union leader

When you costlessly get more of what you want, instead of heroically stumbling toward it on your own two feet, you are not cultivating your human nature, but your animalistic nature.

That’s the problem with socialism.