Category — Failed Messiah

The JC reports,

His journey from yeshivah boy to blogger began only by chance several years ago when he was in Israel to visit a prominent Chasidic Rebbe. “A friend of mine mentioned that he was going to an Aish seminar, which gives you a crash course in learning in how to answer questions about Judaism and the historicity of our stories and reconciling science and the Creationist view,” he recalled.
[...]
The seminar impressed him, offering ideas on how evolution can be squared with Genesis and evidence for the Exodus. When he got home, he decided to follow up what he had heard, looking up websites on his computer. But the more he began to scour the internet, the more the Aish arguments – and eventually his faith – began to unravel.

I guess most haredim avoid the subject of evolution precisely because they know that it leads to heresy. Almost everyone in the haredi world intuitively understands that their outlook will be destroyed by the light of knowledge.

Haredism is a vampire.

Hat tip: Failed Messiah

Slander from Big Kiruv

Did you know I am “pro-Palestinian?”

Oh, sure. George writes,

David Kelsey, the former blog owner of Jewschool [sic], is one of the most stridently leftist [sic], anti Israeli [sic] pro Palestinians [sic!!!!] out there today, he makes J Street look conservative.

I don’t think that The Zionists or even Beyond BT would characterize my views as quite “pro-Palestinian.”

As much as I grovel on my belly seeking approval from Islamicists, I think that just might be a bit of a stretch.

Being a Diasporist hardly makes me “pro-Palestinian.”

You gotta give the Orthodox credit. They are all but a united front when it comes to aiding and abetting Kiruv deception and aggression.

That won’t stop. Not today, not tomorrow.

But even if the Orthodox effectively control many of the community Jewish newspapers on these issues, there are other a couple of other well-read places that they don’t own outside of the Jewish communal infrastructure.

Please see my guest post on Failed Messiah.

For my part, l will attempt to track Julie Gruenbaum Fax’s articles on Kiruv organizations in the future. She appears to be a problematic west coast cheerleader for NCSY. What the Jewish Journal calls a “reporter.”

Update: This is indeed part of a history of shilling. See another example of Jewish Journal’s “reporting” on NCSY’s JSU.

Westlake High School JSU president [name deleted by site owner] told the gathering that JSU has given her a safe community where she can express her Judaism and opinions without fear of judgment — a haven from the high-school stress of trying to fit in.

Because NCSY is all about no judgments and self-expression. And not fitting in. As Big Aish always points out — ultra-Orthodoxy is the epitome of radical thinking and non-conformism.

The problem is, these articles aren’t being featured on Aish.com. They are being published in one of the largest community newspapers in the nation as if they are objective.

Why Failed Messiah?

Because of all the heretics running around the blogosphere like it’s 1897, Failed Messiah has the largest readership. Also, I never get to see him, he boxes, and I need some back up from this hot headed right-wing Aussie Modern Orthodox blogger who (sort of, not really) threatened me.

Also, Failed Messiah has a thing for Ethiopian Jewish chicks. And he’s probably not going to meet too many of them blogging.

So help Failed Messiah come to Israel, speak out against the haredim, and meet Ethiopian girls.

Register for the convention here.

Failed Messiah has the story which I contributed to. This is exceptionally bad news for the Jewish community.

Failed Messiah has the story. A new website, Jerusalem University Online, is a deceptive Big Aish front for recruitment of college students to ultra-Orthodoxy.

Failed Messiah has the story. I guess such ideas are out there.

Mark my words. There is going to be hell to pay for this one, Rabbi Dovid Kornreich.

Oh…this guy practices outreach.

Perhaps just as fundamentalist Islam is the religion of peace, haredism is the religion of life.

Perhaps it is a sign of the seasonal redemption, because what could be sweeter for The Kvetcher than when the Ethical Monotheist leader, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, tag-teams the American ultra-Orthodox spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran with no less than Right-wing Modern Orthodoxy’s best, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb?

Ben Harris has the story on the JTA.

Rabbi Shafran wrote a deplorable essay defending Bernie Madoff, of all people.

After all, Madoff apologized.

…what I admire about him has to do with his owning up to his crime.

Think about it. The man knew for years that eventually his scheme would come apart and that prosecution loomed, yet he took no steps to flee, huge bribe in hand, to some country lacking extradition treaties. Idi Amin, we might recall, died of old age in luxury. Madoff’s millions, moreover, easily could have bought him a new face and identity papers; he could have spent his senior years tanned and well fed among the sunbirds of Miami Beach.

Instead, though, Madoff chose to essentially turn himself in and admit guilt. He apologized to his victims, acknowledging that he had “deeply hurt many, many people,” and adding, “I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done.”

Rabbi Weinreb responded,

Shafran argues that Madoff’s initial intentions were good, but that he became “inextricably trapped” in his own machinations. From the Jewish perspective there is no such thing as “inextricably trapped” — there are always choices — and he had numerous occasions, indeed daily opportunities, to end the scandal and thereby at least mitigate the losses of his victims.

There is another dimension to Madoff’s treachery. As a Jew, and as one who identified himself strongly with Jewish causes, he created a chillul HaShem, a profanation of the name of the Almighty, of historic proportions, reflecting disastrously on the reputation of all Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish God. Shakespeare’s Shylock and Dickens’ Fagin fade as symbols of supposed Jewish avarice and greed in comparison with Madoff and his misdeeds. Furthermore, reaction to his crimes not only sullies the name of Jews the world over, it endangers them everywhere. It provides confirmation for the most venomous anti-Semitic propaganda. For this, forgiveness is impossible.

Even 7FatCow, which usually demonstrates no morals to be outraged and no code to be violated, was horrified.

Failed Messiah (former BTs are usually more inherently moral than former FFB haredim who run out of venerable downtown non-glatt Jewish establishments without first paying their bill and will be arrested the next time they visit the premises, just try me) declared Rabbi Shafran “America’s worst rabbi.”

To be fair, Rabbi Shafran has apologized.

Big Yasher Koach to both Rabbis Weinreb and Yoffie for speaking up.

This is one of the dudes — “face” — who harassed me before I banned him, and continues to write vicious comments on Failed Messiah. As you can see by his affection for swinging a chicken, he is a chassidic, and I know from my research, a Chabadnik. For those of you who are not familiar with this holy chassidic tradition, you are really missing out on a great deal. The fact is, if you swing a chicken before Yom Kippur, you are forgiven of all your sins. As it is written, “And within the ten days preceding Shabos Shabason, though shalt swing your chicken publicly, and your sins shalt be like feathers of a pillow.”

We know from “within” that the holy swinging of the chicken should not be on the first (Rosh HaShana), and is not permitted on Yom Kippur itself. The great chassidic master the Khuchakavinshticker Rebbe also understood that the use of the word “within” suggests that Holy Chicken Swinging be performed on the day closest to the middle, preferably the fifth day, as that is closest to “within,” i.e., the middle.

Additionally, by “your” chicken, we understand that this means you must not swing someone else’s chicken, but it must be a chicken owned by you. For this reason, some rebbes claim that children of a young age should not have a chicken swung around their head, but must be at least of an age where they risk being molested at the mikvah.

I have decided not to reveal “face’s” name at this time, but I would note “face” is in-line with a few previous assumptions.

1) Orthodox internet trolls are disproportionately from Chabad.
2) Chabad men do things with chickens that a man should not do.
3) Chabadniks do not like color photographs.

“Face” is a reminder of the anger men have when they spend too much time swinging their chicken, for it is forbidden to choke one’s chicken.

Photograph supplied by “face” himself, after me confronting him with a photo that better showed his actual face, but did not have the added advantage of including a chicken.

Failed Messiah picked out the following from a Des Moines Register article,

Lawyers for Rubashkin and Agriprocessors also asked a judge to move the case out of Iowa and divide it into three trials. James Clarity, a lawyer for Agriprocessors, said heavy publicity had created an atmosphere in Iowa similar to Nazi-occupied Poland.

Remember, despite everything, these sleazebags continue to be championed by the general Orthodox communal infrastructure. Demand that the Orthodox community generally and Chabad, Agudath Israel, the Orthodox Union, and the National Council of Young Israel denounce this egregious statements through press releases and official public statements!

I am sending an email to UOJ to plead with him to please spread the word to his large Orthodox readership to demand that Orthodox institutions distance themselves from what is essentially tantamount to Holocaust denial.

What is clearly needed is more Holocaust Museums, one each in Crown Heights, Monsey, Teaneck, Boro Park, Williamsburg, and just for good measure, Riverdale and the Five Towns. Additionally, Orthodox day schools, yeshivas, and seminaries must spend more time on Holocaust education in their curriculum. Orthodox Jewish Holocaust denial must stop! We must stand up to these frum revisionists, who pretend Nazi occupied Poland was like contemporary Iowa!