25 June 2024

Do Jews exist as a separate group of human beings? And so what, if we are?

19 Sivan 5784 |  י"ט סיון ה'תשפ"ד


Blogger's notes: Inspired by the article Is there a 'Jewish People'? by Alex Grobman, Ph.D. His article can be found HERE. I saw the video first on Tomer Devorah, and found it so fitting that I am posting it here at the end of the article.

Toward the merit of a friend of mine who just passed away a few days ago from this writing, Chaya Hinda bath Avraham Shmuel haCohen v'Doba חיה הינדה בת אברהם שמואל הכהן ודובה. Among many other things, she, along with her husband, was quite connected to Rabbi Sprecher, ztz"l; this is how I met them.

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Summary of points:

  • The core of the Jewish people is a family, bnei Ya'acov  בני יעקב (descendants of Jacob our father, the completer, aided by his four wives, of the source of the Jewish People). The source is your family Bible, provided that it is properly translated as needed for the reader's understanding.
  • The rest converted to the religion, or are descendants of converts on some level, and they may marry into the family. A lot of them have done so.
  • The world considers us different, whether our line is completely from the original family, not at all, or anything in between.
  • Due to lack of understanding and incomplete research, many outsiders consider today's Jews to be a generation of impostors. It would be one thing if they could prove it; but generally they want to take the inheritance of the Land of Israel, as small a portion of it as we have today, away from us. A significant portion also want to rid the world of us, too.
  • Having an ulterior motive is one reason for refusing to convert a candidate to Judaism (the religion that allows them to marry into the family); it is also a reason to disbelieve a Judenhasser, no matter where they come from, who accuse self-admitting Jews of being impostors without taking the time to prove their statement. To simplify, of claiming that the person in front of them is not a Jew/ess when s/he is.

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I assure you, dear Jew-hater, that, in an age when Jew-hate is farthest away from disappearing, not many people would want to identify as Jews, especially if they know they have no reason to do so. However, I have noticed over the time I have had this blog (since 2015) that when a confirmed, born-and-raised antisemite learns he is a Jew, he tends to turn to us suddenly, with more love than would be expected from someone who grew up hating us with a passionate hatred. The speed with which this occurs is nothing less than stunning. 

If I had written this post a few years ago, I would have had an excellent search link to give, and a number of really excellent profiles of such people. This has all been hidden or outright scrubbed, and replaced with stories of Jews who collaborated with the Nazis. 

Both sides are true, as far as I can tell. Just because SOME Jews collaborated, doesn't implicate ALL Jews. PLEASE DISCERN THE DIFFERENCE, as you have learned to do with other groups/nations/races. I object to the nations taking our prerogatives away from us, thinking they can do a better job. 

Maybe you should take a couple-and-a-half thousand years and be scattered all over the world, losing major portions of your history, self-esteem and language and much more along the way, before you even think about how you might criticize how we've been handling things upon our return to the world stage.

This brings another question: Could envy be involved in this ever-enduring hatred? (Please, don't mix this up with jealousy. I've started working on an article that distinguishes jealousy from envy, which is what most people today mean when they use the word jealousy.)

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And yet another question: Does a world that hates Jews almost without exception deserve to tell us that we have no right to our land? After all, 

"...in a debate with British historian Arnold Toynbee, [former Israeli ambassador] Yaacov Herzog asserted that the normal laws of history do not apply in this case, "so long as the world agrees that there is something unique about the Jews in the history of mankind, it cannot deny the right of the Jews to this land."  Grobman

I would add by way of clarification: Whether they hate us or love us, or anything in between. 

As a people, we are unique regardless; the worldwide Jew-hate at this time is positive proof, even though it doesn't implicate those who live among the haters who feel and live quite the opposite. Those who continue to stand by our side, despite all pressures, were also promised us by HQB"H (God, to the rest of the world). 

It's part of the Heavenly sorting process (which others before me have translated from the Hebrew בירור, and transliterated as birur) before the Great Redemption that will be witnessed by all the world.

I'm posting this video with the hope that it will help us with our own birur before that Great Day.

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More reading/watching:

Erdan blasts UN chief: He is an accomplice to terror and should resign today! | Video: Pogrom in LA | Video and article: After the LA Pogrom will American Jews finally come home? |



20 June 2024

The Shloshim of Rabbi Ephraim Avraham (Sprecher) ben Pesach Moshe and Rivka, ztz"l...

14 Siwan 5784 | י"ד סיון ה'תשפ"ד


...took place at the OU Center on Keren haYesod Street in Yerushalayim this past Monday 17 June, the 30th day after his passing on Shabbat Emor, hosted by his son Yoni Sprecher.

The hall where he once taught was packed with people from all over Israel. Relatives and friends woke up before 7am to watch from the United States on Zoom, from where this video was taken at 2pm Israel time.

Watch, and be blessed.

 

As his son Yoni said, others envied R' Sprecher because one can find his videos in many places. Some of them are:

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More reading:

The Only Indigenous People |