Views about the internet

A friend sent me a link to the clip below of a rabbi discussing his views about the internet, asking me my opinion. I responded that I thought the rabbi gave too much credit to people in terms of overcoming weaknesses. If people could overcome their eating addiction, there wouldn't be so many weight loss surgeries being performed.

Someone posted a comment on something I posted regarding the internet asifa.

I do not want to give my name. But I can tell you the agony I am going through because I can't stay off the computer. I have a 'routine.' Certain news sites and blogs are mandatory morning ritual with my coffee. The problem is once I start I can't stop. I am looking for something. I don't view any porn or gossip sites yet I can spend literally hours looking going from one worm hole to the next. I can't tell you how many times I've missed davening and opportunities for mitzvah and even just getting done every day what every person must do. It has taken a toll on me emotionally. I am wracked with guilt because it has interfered with my relationship, my daily interaction with G-d. The Internet is a tool but a very dangerous tool. We got rid of our television. How can we get rid of our computer? According to Derech Hashem by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto of blessed memory, we are not to be like the goyiim or involve our selves in the mundane matters of this world. That we are to direct ourselves and our lives and interests into the holy. This to me is a very big test. G-d forbid when we go before the heavenly throne will there be just one image Hashem shows us that describes our life - a Jew pathetically peering into the computer as if it was some kind of an oracle?

AnashNews reports that Rav Kanievsky, upon hearing of the terrible car accident that claimed the lives of eight members of a family, stated:

 "כל המחלות והמיתות המשונות שפוקדות את עם ישראל הגיעו אך ורק בגלל התפשטות האינטרנט בבתי ישראל"

A relative thought there will be a new question added to the list of shidduch questions. What type of internet filter does the family have?

A horrific tragedy

A Bible was the only possession that was not damaged in the horrific car crash Monday night that left one seven-year-old girl alive to mourn for eight family members.
Read full article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156084

Click here and here for steps to be taken if your car brakes fail.

A Toronto native living in Jerusalem literally got away with his life when Arab school students smashed the windows of his car and tried to attack him Monday morning.
The near-deadly rock-throwing attack occurred as Ephraim Silverberg was making his annual pilgrimage to the Mount of Olives Cemetery for the anniversary of the death of his grandfather, who was brought to Israel for burial after he died in Toronto.
Read full article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156081

Simple mistakes

Breitbart reports that "Miriam Goderich, who helped edit a 1991 booklet for Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which erroneously stated that Obama had been born in Kenya, has issued a press release.
...I hope you can communicate to your readers that this was a simple mistake and nothing more."
Read full article: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/17/A-Fact-Checking-Error-Repeated-Multiple-Times-Over-Several-Years-by-Different-Agencies

There's a story at Yahoo about an honest employee at Goodwill Industries who was sorting through donations when she found "$14,505 in cash. The only problem is it appears to have been unintentional rather than a literal act of goodwill."

...For her part, Wells, 36, said she never intended to keep the money for herself.

"I can go home and sleep at night now," Wells said. "Otherwise, it'd come back and bite me. I really do think honesty is the best policy."
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/goodwill-sorting-allegedly-accidental-14-000-donation-194038233.html
 
By the way, a number of people have called up to claim the money.

Bringing about the final Bais Hamikdash

This morning The Lakewood Scoop reported the tragic news about the levayah of a young boy.

The late night Levaya of the young Yosef Meir Z’L drew a crowd of close to 1,000 men and women. Yosef Meir’s father noted how Yosef Meir Z’L must have had a special Neshama for the mere fact that he was able to unite tens of thousands of Yidden around the world and bring them to be Mekabel on themselves various Tikunim.
http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2012/05/nearly-1000-attend-levaya-of-yosef-meir-zl.html

Earlier the website reported about the "Petirah of Ha’Bachor Yosef Meir Berger Z’L, who was Niftar this evening. Yosef Meir, 13, son of Reb Ezra, was critically injured Erev Taanis Esther when he was struck by a bat, just days after his Bar Mitzvah. He was in a coma ever since."
http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2012/05/baruch-dayan-haemes-habachur-chaim-yosef-meir-berger-zl.html

Someone named Goldy, who was instrumental in keeping the Tehillim going, posted the following:

We kept the tehillim going through 53 cycles and were in the middle of the 54th. The last chapter I assigned was chapter 24.

The introduction to this chapter in the ArtScroll edition says: Dovid composed this psalm on the day he purchased the land of the eventual Temple site. Land, brick and stone were not enough to build a Jewish Temple. Man himself must be worthy of ascending the mountain where
G-d’s presence rests. This psalm describes the personal qualities that qualify a Jew for such a lofty aspiration.”
May each of us find within ourselves the desire and strength to do whatever we can and should do to help bring about the buildiing of the third and final Bais Hamikdash.

Speaking of the Bais Hamikdash, for those of you who missed it, there was an interesting VIN article about the origins of the lyrics of a new song released by Avraham Fried "which state that the third Bais Hamikdash will be built by the tears of Klal Yisroel."
Click here, for those of you who missed it.
Finally, I received an interesting comment about a post from a couple of days back dealing with the word "yashchena."

Apropos to this verb you bring, note it also finds itself in the word "Moshiach" - as if to suggest the more we all talk about Moshiach the more certain is his speedy arrival - where Moshiach is pronounced "Mee-Siach" - from talk!


Thank you in the vanguard.

Some articles

Some articles I came across this morning.....

Adam Kredo reports:
An employee at the pro-Tehran National Iranian American Council had an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic meltdown on Twitter yesterday, accusing Israel of intentionally murdering Palestinian citizens and claiming that pro-Israel advocates bribe members of Congress in order to get their way.
Beheshteh Farshneshani is a NIAC research associate, prolific tweeter, and occasional contributor to the Huffington Post.
Read full article: http://freebeacon.com/anti-semitism-in-140-characters/

Click here to read Obama’s Half-Uncle Gets Driver’s License Back.

Click here to read Did a WikiLeaks document doom Iranian ‘Mossad agent’?

Click here to read Iranian Clerics Issue Fatwa Justifying Killing of Anti-Government Rapper.

Whom you serve

This week I read a devar Torah that began with the following words.

We all know the story, HaShem created tablets containing the 10 Commandments which were miraculously spiritual in their disposition (which reflected the lofty state of the Jewish people at that time).
http://www.shortvort.com/component/content/article/114-rotator/11489-focus

This morning I was at a meeting with a few women and we were talking about the concept of "kochi veotzem yadi"- when one attributes successes to oneself rather than to Hashem. One acquaintance related how she complimented a woman this week about how well behaved her children were. The woman thanked her and acknowledged that she put in a lot of effort in child rearing. My acquaintance felt that the woman should have at least included how Hashem had also helped her.

Last week I posted about a judge who was "overseeing a lawsuit challenging the display of the Ten Commandments in a Virginia public high school " who urged the sides to consider removing those Commandments which have reference to G-d. Perhaps we have lost our merit because we don't mention Hashem enough.
The World Jewish Review has an article by Dennis Prager in which he discusses a speech made by Mitt Romney.

On Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered a speech to the 6,000 Liberty College graduates.
...
Romney: "You know who you are. And you know whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence . . . ."

This is a truism. Most American universities seek to graduate men and women who are as committed to secularism as nearly all the members of faculty are. In contrast, at traditional Christian and Jewish schools, the aim is, as Romney said, to produce students who know "whom [they] will serve."
What Romney is asking is this: If one is not morally accountable to God, to whom or what is one morally accountable? Most universities will respond: to one's conscience. But those who adhere to Judeo-Christian values do not trust the conscience alone.
Read full article:  http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0512/prager051512.php3

Finally Chadrei Charedim reports that a big simcha took place at the Mir Yeshiva when an "alte bachur" who is 52  got engaged yesterday to a 40-year-old woman. Mazal Tov! There is a G-d.

For those who understand Hebrew, there is a wonderful article at Anash News.
 

Why worry?

I just finished reading As long as I live, the life story of Aharon Margalit, who was stricken with polio and cancer.
The following is an excerpt from the book. (p. 437)

Shlomo Hamelech said, with his divine wisdom (Mishlei 12:25): "If there's worry in a person's heart, he should suppress it." The word for suppress is "yashchena." Chazal derive an alternative meaning through a different pronunciation: "yasichena la'acheirim" - he should discuss his worry with others.

Here's a nice poem titled Why worry about tomorrow?

Individual acts

An article in the New York Times published this week quotes "the Rev. Jim Wallis, another religious adviser to Mr. Obama and the president and chief executive of Sojourners, a left-leaning evangelical organization."

This evening I came across an interesting article by Rabbi Aryeh Spero concerning the statemnets made by the reverend about the redistribution of wealth.

"The Bible calls for acts of charity from the individual, for in being direct and personal, charity has the ability to elevate and ennoble the giver and provider. The direct act of giving changes the person and involves and partners him with God. Unlike Marxism, the Bible emphasizes the individual, not the state, the personal and not the “masses.” Those who receive charity are taught the virtue of gratitude. When given everything by the state, however, through redistribution of wealth, recipients are taught not gratitude but a sense of entitlement."
Read full article: http://www.caucusforamerica.com/opinion.art.php?pID=446

Finally, I am dedicating this week's posts to the six constant mitzvot. Below is Rabbi Noach Weinberg explaining the third mitzvah.

One good turn...

Sean Hannity interviewed author Edward Klein the other day. Click here to listen.
YidwithLid discusses the interview.

The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced it had awarded a $5.9 million grant to a University of Chicago Medical Center program tied to Michelle Obama and run by Eric Whitaker, one of President Obama’s closest friends.

Read full article: http://www.laoartist.com/forums/Whitaker.html

Scroll down the forums page above to read some other articles about the good doctor.

Here's another one.

Refuah Sheleima

This morning's e-mail brought the following.

Please say tehillim for:



Yisrael Refael ben Sarah Nesha, a young man with a large family who lost a daughter to cancer a year ago


who is suffering from an aggressive form of cancer.


He needs great rachamei shamayim.

May he see a yeshua. Puts things into perspective, doesn't it?


There's a fascinating interview and article with  Dr. Nora Volkow regarding addiction, free will and control at the Huffington Post.