Political? Not.

Yesterday I had a very quick facebook "discussion" with someone I really love.

I commented on a photograph that she had liked/shared and commented on that had been posted by a "friend" of hers.

This is the photo.

I recommend looking up the pesukim for yourself in a Chumash

The photo showed a sign being carried in what I assumed was a pro same-sex marriage rally.
The sign showed what was supposed to be a quote from the book of Deuteronomy.
It stated that a man must marry a virgin for a marriage to be valid and if she wasn't a virgin the woman was to be put to death.
Part of my life as a an observant Jew is talmud Torah, the study of the five books of Moses.
I knew right away this was not even close to being an accurate quote.
After looking up the pesukim to see what it really said I made a mistake.

I commented to this person about this sign's total distortion of what the Torah says.
I then wrote what the Torah was actually dealing with, which was not even close to what the sign made you think it was dealing with.
I also said that I was surprised that she would post this without checking to see what the pesukim were actually saying.
My mistake? I should have done this privately not on the post itself.

Unfortunately this person took my criticism as being against same-sex marriage.
The result was a comment directed to me that I had been warned before about posting my political beliefs on her page.
She then either deleted the post or blocked it from my viewing

Personally, I could care less what two consenting adults do or declare to each other.
I was defending what the Torah said.
I can't sit by without commenting when the Torah is mistranslated, misquoted and used incorrectly for the self serving purposes of any group, right, left, center, up or down.

I'm truly sorry this person, who I truly love, didn't understand the point I was trying to make, but I will never be sorry for defending the Torah.

Pepper Spray

When a mob tries to force their way into a meeting they were not invited to like they did at Santa Monica College, they get what's coming to them.

I say college students, especially in California, need to be pepper sprayed more often.

Be a king. Not a fool

There is a teaching in Judaism.

The Hebrew word for heart is lev, the place of emotion. Begins with an L (lamed)
The word for brain is mo-ach, the place of intellect. Begins with a M (mem)

The word for king is melech. Begins with a mem followed by a lamed. (ml)
The word for fool is lemech. Begins with a lamed followed by a mem. (lm)

When a person puts their mem (mo-ach), intellect, before their lamed (lev), emotion, they can be a king.
But if they put their lamed (lev), emotion, before their mem (mo-ach), intellect, they are a fool.

Listening to reports surrounding the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin is a prime example of this teaching.
The conviction of the shooter, George Zimmerman, in the press without waiting for the evidence,
the bounty put out on his head by the Black Panthers, Spike Lee's tweet with, what he thought was Zimmerman's address, the wearing of hoodies by members of different branches of government, the photos of Trayvon as a 14 year old teenager juxtaposed next to an old photo of Zimmerman in an orange prison jump suit instead of a photo of 17 year old Trayvon with his bling and tattoos and a more current photo of Zimmerman in a suit.

These images can also be found on the Internet but the media will not use these because they don't stir up a person's emotion.
This might lead the public to view things differently like let's wait to hear the facts and the evidence before we lay all the blame at Zimmerman's feet.

It's tragic that a person has lost their life.
That being said, it would also be tragic to rush to judgment like with the Duke La cross team, the Tewana Brawley story or the Professor Gates episode.

By not using their heads first, and only reacting with emotion, the news media, the professional race baiters, Sharpton, Jackson, the Black Panthers, Farakahn and to some extent the current President will, end up looking like a bunch of fools.

Who is the close minded one?

Last Sunday was the Dallas Kosher Chili Cook Off.
It is held every year as a local Dallas fundraiser for different charities.

( They really wouldn't know good chili if it jumped up and bit them in the tuchis. Chabad of Ft Worth entered several years ago with my chili recipe and we weren't even mentioned.(!פאסקודניאקס)

This year, I assume without thinking, they scheduled a woman to sing the Star Spangled Banner.
Now for those of you that don't know or follow Jewish law, men are not supposed to listen to a woman sing. In laws of Tznius ( modesty ) a woman's voice is considered arousing to men.

Now before you get all bent out of shape guys, you know there have been songs that certain women sing that "get your motor running."
Kim Karnes singing "Betty Davis Eyes"
Billie Holiday, Ertha Kitt or Peggy Lee singing anything did it for me.

So those Jewish groups that observe this law reminded the organizers of this, so they had a man sing it instead.
In this weeks TJP, the local Jewish paper here in DFW, there was a letter to the editor about the switch
from someone from the JWV of Dallas. I can't tell you if this person was a man or a woman because it was one of those gender neutral names.

This person stated that the organizers decided to "bend to the wishes of a narrow-minded minority (especially when it comes to women's equality) and violate the equality of women as guaranteed under American Law"

Now who is the "narrow-minded" one.
Without the participation of the Orthodox organizations, schuls, schools and the "DK", the Dallas Kosher organization that supervises the kashrus of the event, there would be no Dallas Kosher Chili Cook Off every year.
By letting the man sing the National Anthem everyone was able to participate.
If the woman would have sung, some would have been left out. Including some of the sponsors, and the event would not raise the amount of tzedaka that it did.

So again. Who is being narrow-minded?