העורך Editor

Some of the Temple’s Opponents Are Dumber Than Pharaoh

They demand detailed answers well hidden in the future before considering any action in the present.

No, we don’t know how everything will unfold. We aren’t quite sure how to perform the Avoda yet. There are many, many questions. In fact, we are certainly getting even the questions themselves wrong.

So what?!

In Shemos 10:26 Moshe explains to Pharaoh why the Hebrews need all their flocks for the Holy Day in the desert (if we take their conversation at face value, anyway):

וגם מקננו ילך עמנו לא תשאר פרסה כי ממנו נקח לעבד את ד’ אלהינו ואנחנו לא נדע מה נעבד את ד’ עד באנו שמה.

“And our cattle, too, will go with us; not a hoof will remain, for we will take from it to worship the Lord our God, and we do not know how we will worship the Lord until we arrive there.”

(Translation based on Rabbi A.J. Rosenberg.)

Why didn’t Pharoah just seize on the lack of knowledge as an excuse?

Because he wasn’t that stupid.

Of Two Related Rabbinic Campaigns

  • One, we are told to vote.
  • Two, we are told to give tzedakah to the poor.

And yet, the practical result of socialist policies is to create the poor, crushed people we must then support…

Rabbis have brazenly supported the rich eating the poor since at least the Cantonist Decrees (the Malbim, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter and the like are the exceptions to prove the rule). See more here.

Infotainment

“There was a time when the reader of an unexciting newspaper would remark, ‘How dull is the world today!’ Nowadays he says, ‘What a dull newspaper!'”

— Daniel J. Boorstin

(I can’t find the source, but it sounds like something he’d say.)

Jewish Handbook for Public Speaking

“Speak Up – A handbook for effective public speaking“, by Avi Shulman.

From Amazon’s blurb:

Avi Shulman has worked miracles with people who thought they were tongue-tied, who thought a microphone was as lethal as a hand grenade, who wanted to run whenever they saw an audience. His seminars on public speaking have shown thousands of people that they can express themselves in public – articulately, effectively, and even enjoyably! In this handbook, Avi Shulman shares a career’s worth of tips, techniques, and tricks of the trade. Everyone should learn to Speak Up – so why not learn to take the fear out of it and do it well? Everyone – even experienced speakers – will profit from the down-to-earth guidance in this rich little book. Try it – your audience will like it!
Well written and brief. The book has helped me.