העורך Editor

We once mentioned Rabbi Alshich’s interesting theory Mashiach is waiting not at the gate to Rome in Chutz La’aretz, but Ruma, an ancient Galilean town.

More support for this can be found in “Doorways to Redemption“, a Mishpacha magazine tour guide column by Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz:

Quote from Mishpacha:

The Seder Hadoros, in fact, writes that the famous story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza that led to the Churban, concluding with Bar Kamtza traveling to “Rome” where he convinced the ruler of the disdain the Jews had for him, took place right here. If this is indeed the “Rome” being referred to, it means that here is where the destruction started, and it is from here that Mashiach is waiting to redeem us.

Judaism has mostly devolved into legalistic loopholes.

In Wikipedia’s page on “Jewish Humor”, the following mockery is presented as “in the tradition of the legal arguments of the Talmud, one prominent type of Jewish humor involves clever, often legalistic, solutions to Talmudic problems”:

Q: Is one permitted to ride in an airplane on the Sabbath?

A: Yes, as long as your seat belt remains fastened. In this case, it is considered that you are not riding, you are wearing the plane.

This isn’t just the outsiders’ take (per Berachos 17a, שכל טוב לכל עושיהם לעושים לא נאמר אלא לעושיהם לעושים לשמה ולא לעושים שלא לשמה); I heard this “joke” from many observant Jews, as well!

Who can blame a layman for thinking this way?!

בספר יערות דבש (איני זוכר מקור מדויק) מסביר שעקבים קרים מונעים הרהורי ניאוף.

In the following speech, the Klausenberger Rebbe testifies the Nazi concentration camps didn’t cause any obvious prayer and Teshuvah in the moment (as in Egypt) and offers his own explanation.

Download (PDF, 39KB)

I say it’s a form of desensitization, “compassion fatigue”, etc., see commentaries on “ותעל שועתם וגו’ מן העבודה”.