Here's my problem with Judah and Tamar: She dresses up as a hooker. He buys her services. He doesn't even know her name. He apparently doesn't even look her in the face so that he could know who she was. He just uses her. Oy, it just makes me ill.
Rabbi Rabbs says we can learn about modesty from the Arabs. He says the Arab countries have been modest for thousands of years.
Here's my problem with Judah and Tamar: She dresses up as a hooker. He buys her services. He doesn't even know her name. He apparently doesn't even look her in the face so that he could know who she was. He just uses her. Oy, it just makes me ill.
Here's my problem with Judah and Tamar: She dresses up as a hooker. He buys her services. He doesn't even know her name. He apparently doesn't even look her in the face so that he could know who she was. He just uses her. Oy, it just makes me ill.
Rabbi Rabbs explains what is wrong (according to the Torah) with masturbation, pre-marital sex and coitus interrupts.
Here's my problem with Judah and Tamar: She dresses up as a hooker. He buys her services. He doesn't even know her name. He apparently doesn't even look her in the face so that he could know who she was. He just uses her. Oy, it just makes me ill.
Rabbi Rabbs explains how the Torah works. How Levirate marriage works. Yibum. Marrying your deceased brother's wife.
Here's my problem with Judah and Tamar: She dresses up as a hooker. He buys her services. He doesn't even know her name. He apparently doesn't even look her in the face so that he could know who she was. He just uses her. Oy, it just makes me ill.
Rabbi Rabbs explains how both Judah and Tamar were intent on doing the right thing.
Here's my problem with Judah and Tamar: She dresses up as a hooker. He buys her services. He doesn't even know her name. He apparently doesn't even look her in the face so that he could know who she was. He just uses her. Oy, it just makes me ill.
Please remember to bathe, to put on clean clothes, and to abstain from marital relations for at least 48 hours before coming into our chat room because the rabbi and I have some pretty heavy commandments to lay upon you.
* Did Potiphar’s wife get special access to Joseph while he was held as a prisoner in Potiphar’s prison?
* Sexual promiscuity is a basic feature of all slave societies. The slave can’t say no.
* Potiphar’s wife does not respond to his cogent arguments but tries to wear him down. The erect ***** has no conscience.
* When Potiphar’s wife asks him to lie beside her, was that an innocent request? I’ve had women ask me that and sometimes it was very innocent. This Japanese woman I met on a music video shoot. Did they really just want to lie beside me or did they truly want to feel full? Sometimes women don’t say what they mean. They may say, “Let’s lie down together like brother and sister” but they really mean, “Turn me inside out.”
* Perhaps the wife would’ve been more successful with Joseph if she had warmed him up a little bit with questions about God and righteousness and the patriarchs before she flat out asked him for sex. She could’ve said she wanted to follow his God, could he take some time out of his busy schedule to instruct her privately in Torah including the laws of family purity and all that jazz. A lot of rabbis have fallen for similar patter. Even I have proven weak on one or two occasions, luckily God and the police intervened before I could commit a sin.
* Women such as Potiphar’s wife seem to have a particular skill at making false accusations of rape. Please discuss.
* How does the Pharoah talk about God when Pharoah is supposedly divine?
* How much of your life have you spent in spiritual bliss? Are you not satisfied with your reward in the World to Come? Do you expect also to live at ease in this world?
* I wish I could live like the patriarchs and have maid servants and concubines.
* Rabbi Rabbs writes: “I’m just happy to hear Congressman West be so supportive, and if he cites Christianity to protect my fellow Jews who insist on living in that Atheistic country established by Bolsheviks — in many ways the eye sore of the Middle East with its wanton desecration of G-d’s Laws right on top of the Holy Land…”
Perhaps the rabbi could name a land where there is more goodness per square mile than Israel? How would he measure this?
* How on earth did the Talmudic rabbis say that the sin of Onan was masturbation and thereby prohibit masturbation because of this story? To read this story and to say it is the sin of masturbation is to read the text wrong in a desire to prohibit something you don’t like.
* The Talmudic rabbis have a completely different attitude towards sex and masturbation than the Torah. The Talmudic rabbis prohibit any non-marital sex, including masturbation. The Torah does not prohibit pre-marital sex. All prostitutes in the Torah are portrayed positively. The Torah is not hung up with sex. The Talmudic rabbis and the New Testament appear hung up about sex by contrast to the Torah.
* Why no condemnation in the text of the sexual behavior of Judah and Tamar?
* Can you believe that our holy ancestor Judah had sex with Tamar without even asking her for her name? (Gen. 38:20) How shocking is that? How meaningful can sex be when you don’t even know the name of the person you’re porking? How could Jacob do this cosmically significant act and not know who it was with? How could such meaningless sex be truly fulfilling and pleasurable? He must’ve slept with her and never looked at her face. So where was he looking?
* Do you think more men would come to shul if there were cult prostitutes you could use before kiddish? Did Judaism miss the boat on cultic prostitution?
* Gen. 37:13 Why are the brothers pasturing at Shechem? Didn’t they wipe out the Shechemites? Would it not be dangerous for them there?
* Gen. 37:35. Jacob says he wants to go down to Sheol. What and where is Sheol?
* Why does the Torah include the unsavory Judah – Tamar story? Why must our holy Torah contain so much sex? It doesn’t seem very spiritual.
* The Torah does not condemn Tamar for being a hooker and it does not condemn Judah for hiring her.
AS: “Of his own free will, Judah would never have united with her, so an angel forced him into the path of a “harlot” to begin the creation of the Davidic dynasty.”
* When Onan spills his seed (Gen. 38:9), does this mean coitus interruptus or unnatural intercourse?
Please remember to bathe, to put on clean clothes, and to abstain from marital relations for at least 48 hours before coming into our chat room because the rabbi and I have some pretty heavy commandments to lay upon you.
* Jacob loves Joseph and Benjamin, not because they are children of his old age, but because they are Rachel’s kids.
* Jewish claim to be God’s chosen people is similar to Joseph’s dream of all the sheaves bowing down to his sheave. Why does it cause hate? If I told you my family was chosen by God, how would you react?
* Joseph was bringing bad tales of his brothers to his father. Not wise. (Gen. 37:2)
* How would you react if your sibling told you about such dreams of superiority? I’ve found that you never want to give others the feeling that you look down at them. They don’t like it. And it is usually best to confess your faults so others don’t have to remind you of them.
Holy rabbi, would you care to share any of your dreams?
* Artscroll (AS): Jacob did not rely on his own righteousness, but strove to ensure his safety through practical measures.
* Doing the right thing (Jacob following his mother’s instructions etc) usually makes your life simpler, but not always. I’ve learned through blogging that you can write the right thing, but if you hurt someone, even if done fairly, you will still pay a commensurate price.
* The measures Jacob take show that he thinks that Esau cares primarily about material things.
* The Torah thinks it is OK to flatter people and to buy them off?
* I’ve often wrestling with people, not knowing who they were, and was as desperate as Jacob, “Please tell me your name!” (Gen. 32:30)
* 34:23 Hamor is double-dealing. (JPS) Shechem and Hamor don’t mention the real reason they want to do this deal (so Shechem can marry Dina).
* Is the Jewish custom that you ask first and then sleep with daughter, or may you sleep first, then ask?
* 35:2 Jacob tells his household to rid itself of alien gods. What was going on?
Clean clothes important to Israelite religion. There are constant injunctions to launder and to change your clothes.
* What do you think of Reuben laying his dad’s concubine Bilhah? Was this more sexual or political? (JPS)
* Why is there so much sex in our holy Torah? Surely children should not read these things.
* Would you agree that the greatest thing you can is to die for HaShem?
* Does not God’s promise to Noah mean that there will not be catastrophic climate change?
* What about the Lingerie Football League? I’m trying to work out my feelings about this. Two of my favorite things going at it. Fred emails: “Physical exercise and sport are good for the soul.”
JPS: Even more terrible than the offense against the person and dignity of the girl and the assault upon the honor of the family is the pollution of the moral environment. The entire community becomes infected by such wanton deeds.
Hebrew navalah is a powerful term describing offenses of such profound abhorrence that they threaten to tear apart the fabric of Israelite society. For society’s own self-protection, such atrocities can never be tolerated or left unpunished.
Some sexual sins are far more serious than other sins.
How much money would you want to forget the rape of your daughter?
* What bothered Jacob? Was he thinking, poor Dinah? Or, was he thinking, they took one of our girls without permission?
* Shechem rapes her and then says to his dad, “Love is not blind. Love enables one to see. And now that I see what I have done…”
34:3 Then the rapist falls in love with her. How bizarre is that? He rapes her and then he comforts her. If he comforts her, does he realize he did something wrong?
Amnon, after his rape, hates his victim. (2 Samuel 13:15). How do you feel after a rape? More loving or hating?
This happened to a girl I know. This guy she was dating, well, they got naked in bed together, and then he raped her through one entrance and when she complained, he said, “I’ll make you feel better” and proceeded to rape her through another entrance. This particular friend of mine got raped a lot, but not by me. She was into hugging guys goodbye and lying naked with them in bed and she was always appalled when they proceeded to rape her.
Is rape natural or is it produced by pornography?
A friend of mine who went to college in the early 1970s and was recently accused of date rape told me, “All the things we did for fun in college are now felonies.” Is this good or bad?
* 33:11 Esau does not reciprocate with a lavish gift. This is the settling of an old score.
* 35:5 A Godly terror fell upon the cities so they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. I’d rather have people (not my friends) fear me than love me. Then they will treat me better.
* Israel means struggle with God. What does that mean? If you don’t have sexual tension, that’s not good for a marriage.
* Gen. 34: Dina did not deserve to be raped but she precipitated the events by wandering around on her own. Do you criticize her for going out? Do you criticize Jacob for allowing this? The plain meaning of the Torah text is that she wanted to hang out with women. She wasn’t looking for men.
34:2 Shechem saw her, took her, lay with her by force, and made her suffer. That’s how rapes go, I guess.
* Artscroll (AS): Jacob did not rely on his own righteousness, but strove to ensure his safety through practical measures.
* Doing the right thing (Jacob following his mother’s instructions etc) usually makes your life simpler, but not always. I’ve learned through blogging that you can write the right thing, but if you hurt someone, even if done fairly, you will still pay a commensurate price.
* The measures Jacob take show that he thinks that Esau cares primarily about material things.
* The Torah thinks it is OK to flatter people and to buy them off?
* I’ve often wrestling with people, not knowing who they were, and was as desperate as Jacob, “Please tell me your name!” (Gen. 32:30)
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
Here are my notes for my Monday 7pm PST discussion with Rabbi Rabbs:
* According to the Artscroll Stone chumash on Gen. 28:10-16: “Before going to Haran, Jacob spent fourteen years at the academy of Shem and Eber… R. Yaakov Kamenetsky explained that the first sixty-three years of his life he studied Torah with his father, in an atmosphere insulated from the corruption of Canaan. Now he would be living in Haran, among people who were Laban’s comrades in dishonesty. To survive spiritually in such an environment, he needed the Torah of Shem and Eber, for they too had been forced to cope with corrosive surroundings.”
* Gen. 28:16: Jacob says, “Surely God is in this place and I didn’t know it.” How often has that happened to you?
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban."
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
* Gen. 30:2 Jacob’s response to Rachel legit? The offspring of the righteous is good deeds. Every man is barren.
* Rachel is insecure. If she can’t have kids, she wants to die. She has Jacob inseminate her maid so she can keep up in the baby race. Rachel has a low level of differentiation (the ability to hold on to yourself while staying in relationship to others, as elaborated in the book Passionate Marriage)
* Gen. 31:1: Jacob accused of getting rich at the expense of others.
* Why did Rachel steal her father’s idols? To wean her dad from idol worship (Rashi)?
* From Facebook.com/RabbiRabbs: No wife, no sex, no money, and now with no surfing until next summer, no motivation for staying alive.
I can’t fly solo on Shabbos anymore, and I’m beyond done with waking up alone even during the rest of the week.
* Gen. 29:21 AS: “Jacob’s expression and I will consort with her would have been vulgar in a lesser person. Jacob’s only intent was that he was already eighty-four years old and he had to begin his mission of bringing the twelve tribes into the world. His concern was to serve God, not physical pleasure. (Rashi)”
I wonder if I could get away with such a line?
* Gen. 30:38 AS: “When husband and wife unite, they must purge their minds of all impure thoughts and every element which is foreign or which concerns third parties. The degree of their moral and spiritual purity will affect the souls of their children.”
* Have you tried to make a deal with God just a Jacob does? Do you expect God to do anything for you in exchange for keeping the commandments?
* Do you regard Jewish law as more of a gift or a burden?
* Why didn’t Jacob realize he’d spent the night with Leah, not Rachel?
This week’s Torah portion: “The parshah tells of Jacob’s travels to, life in, and return from Haran. The parshah recounts Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob’s meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob’s time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob’s children, and the departure of Jacob’s family from Laban.”
Here are my notes for my Monday 7pm PST discussion with Rabbi Rabbs:
* According to the Artscroll Stone chumash on Gen. 28:10-16: “Before going to Haran, Jacob spent fourteen years at the academy of Shem and Eber… R. Yaakov Kamenetsky explained that the first sixty-three years of his life he studied Torah with his father, in an atmosphere insulated from the corruption of Canaan. Now he would be living in Haran, among people who were Laban’s comrades in dishonesty. To survive spiritually in such an environment, he needed the Torah of Shem and Eber, for they too had been forced to cope with corrosive surroundings.”
* Gen. 28:16: Jacob says, “Surely God is in this place and I didn’t know it.” How often has that happened to you?
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Rabbi Rabbs, Luke Ford analyze Election 2010. Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats retain nominal control of the U.S. Senate.
Luke Ford writes: Join Rabbi Rabbs and me for the most comprehensive election coverage anywhere! I have 53 Vietnamese immigrants compiling and analyzing the latest polling data with the trusty help of a dozen nuns and Mormon missionaries.
Luke Ford - the most trusted name in news!
ButIsItGoodForTheJews: Big night for the Jews or not? ButIsItGoodForTheJews: But for those lame tea party types the Republicans nominated in places like Delaware, they'd be in the majority in the senate ButIsItGoodForTheJews: Not that it makes any difference. ButIsItGoodForTheJews: America needs nationalism. ButIsItGoodForTheJews: And some enlightened socialism. ButIsItGoodForTheJews: I'm thinking of starting an American National Socialist Workers Party that's good for the Jews. ButIsItGoodForTheJews: ANSWP or NSAWP -- which sounds better? ButIsItGoodForTheJews: Our song will use the music, but not the lyrics of the Hoerst Wessel Song. ButIsItGoodForTheJews: Because the Germans had the best music. ButIsItGoodForTheJews: Also a new religion. In this religion's heaven, the American worker, upon his death, goes to a cross between the World's Biggest Walmart and a really good Applebees ButIsItGoodForTheJews: Where is is served by dead bankers ButIsItGoodForTheJews: It will be a hit in heaven!
Rabbi Hershel Rabbs Remer posts to FB: TONIGHT’S SHOW IN A NUTSHELL: It will open with bad audio feed, no music, and the webcam focused on two empty chairs. Then, Rabbs will spend 30 minutes calling Luke Ford a heretic, followed by Levi lusting after all of the women in the chat room. Finally, in the final minutes, the duo will take turns discussing Torah, …or more accurately, one will talk while the other tunes him out to focus on the game on TV.
