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?
To remind others of “Ya’aleh Veyavo”, some say these words aloud as they reach them in their (otherwise) silent recitation. The Chazon Ish held this was disrespectful to prayer.
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!
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?
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”.