tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.comments2023-09-22T06:24:01.470-04:00Libertarian JewUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger648125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-6778477865125976562023-06-29T22:06:44.678-04:002023-06-29T22:06:44.678-04:00Hi Libertarian Jew, thank you for your reply. Here...Hi Libertarian Jew, thank you for your reply. Here is a question for you. Was Maimonides a deist? <br /><br />Also, have you read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason book? Shmuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08740974591394925894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-57886895651235338432023-03-18T11:46:19.958-04:002023-03-18T11:46:19.958-04:00Excellent use of the term "bowdlerize".Excellent use of the term "bowdlerize".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-7204353944686663752023-01-31T13:14:06.533-05:002023-01-31T13:14:06.533-05:00Yes, I still identify as a deist. Yes, I still identify as a deist. Libertarian Jewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07063486300815461137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-77967498924283002712023-01-31T12:33:16.225-05:002023-01-31T12:33:16.225-05:00Thanks for your erudite analysis. Agree with your...Thanks for your erudite analysis. Agree with your analysis. Bottom line is that the "fiscally responsible" things to do are 1. NOT default on sovereign debt obligations already incurred. first and foremost. 2. Work in a bipartisan way to either increase taxes and government income (perhaps going after billions of dollars in tax cheats by fully funding the IRS) or work on cutting spending (I would suggest going after bloated defense department appropriations or perhaps building a few less billion dollar airplanes or winding down spending on nuclear arsenals!<br />Jeff Altmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-19082817906484636052022-12-31T18:11:36.555-05:002022-12-31T18:11:36.555-05:00Happy New Years! Happy New Years! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-34419553760284454222022-11-29T09:41:27.319-05:002022-11-29T09:41:27.319-05:00My dear friend Georgia passed away from Covid - I ...My dear friend Georgia passed away from Covid - I mean end-stage colorectal cancer as she was fearful of Covid and the doctor’s offices and day surgery centers closed down. Bobbie Despratnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-2514370773368574192022-11-14T16:38:00.090-05:002022-11-14T16:38:00.090-05:00Hi Libertarian Jew. Do you still feel this way? Ar...Hi Libertarian Jew. Do you still feel this way? Are you still a deist?Shmuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08740974591394925894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-26139817804456073762022-11-14T11:32:40.769-05:002022-11-14T11:32:40.769-05:00B"H
The real reason for not playing instrume...B"H<br /><br />The real reason for not playing instruments on Shabbos is similar to the deeper reason for why we don't play shofar on Shabbos.<br /><br />Delight ("taweenoog") is the highest level of the soul.<br /><br />When one plays an instrument, that delight is manifested in an object in the physical universe, outside of someone.<br /><br />Similar to how Hashem creates the universes, he uses Sefiros, which have oros and keilim (and everything is made, constantly, from the Torah (see ד"ה אנכי תשמ"ט), so technically the Sefiros are not only "instruments" ("keilim"), but also musical instruments.<br /><br /><br />On Shabbos, all of the universes are elevated to automatically have inherent delight, and the "lights" that are manifested in the Sefiros, are beyond the way they usually are (lights in vessels/"keilim"; rather, the lights on Shabbos are beyond keilim)..<br /><br /><br />In the beis Hamikdash, it was such a holy place that they were even able to draw down those elevated lights (that exist in shabbos) into keilim--instruments.<br /><br />But outside of the Beis Hamikdash, everything is in a much lower level, so we're not able to properly draw down those intense oros into keilim of chutza laatetz (/outside mikdash), and attempting to draw down the oros into defiled keilim, chas vishalom, is a disgrace to the orosYackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10395801794085864249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-24155222912679998912022-09-22T14:15:55.236-04:002022-09-22T14:15:55.236-04:00Democrats are miserable. They think they are victi...Democrats are miserable. They think they are victims and that the world is out to get them. I want to be with the Republican side that laughs. Why would I want to join the Left?Turk Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15821284995182048628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-42434177676183034412022-03-04T08:19:35.090-05:002022-03-04T08:19:35.090-05:00I agree with most of your points. You did not ment...I agree with most of your points. You did not mention the role of China in this conflict. They have the ability to bank roll Putin’s war, most probably via the purchase of oil and other energy resources. I am not at advocating for US troops to get directly involved. That would be a colossal mistake. China, while on the “sidelines” is closely watching our resolve and those of our allies. So far it is fairly strong and unified. Hopefully, it is enough to stave off any ambitiously reckless moves of its own in Taiwan or the South China Sea. Those possibilities are indeed scary and are game changers. China is not Russia. Similar economic sanctions would lead to economic collapse throughout the world, and inevitably lead to armed conflict and hence World War 3.Nonknowerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08494597789371356926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-20160324085364245632021-11-30T12:21:12.902-05:002021-11-30T12:21:12.902-05:00I suspect the mainstream left-wing support for gun...I suspect the mainstream left-wing support for gun control is going to diminish. Largest increases in first-time gun ownership last year during the unrest was among minorities and Biden voters. Majority of gun owners still Republican but I foresee gun culture spreading across the political divide and making gun control less of a winning issue among progressives.jgresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03287009809340785879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-28521178566917355032021-11-30T12:07:57.143-05:002021-11-30T12:07:57.143-05:00Another interesting aspect of Hanukkah is how it i...Another interesting aspect of Hanukkah is how it illustrates when it is permitted to abrogate the law and when it isn't. Normally there is a principle that the law should not be followed where life is at stake, so if you are starving and the only available food is pork then you may eat the pork to avoid starvation. But in the case of idolatry or murder or adultery, Jews must be prepared to sacrifice their own lives before committing those sins. Antiochus commanded the Jews to sacrifice pigs on the altar and to consume the flesh afterwards, but they let themselves be killed rather than perform such an abomination.jgresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03287009809340785879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-46194547160314728892021-11-05T15:59:14.519-04:002021-11-05T15:59:14.519-04:00Another thoughtful post! I grew up in a conservati...Another thoughtful post! I grew up in a conservative household where "social justice" was a dirty word, and when I became a libertarian I still held that view. My understanding of justice was very restrictive and meant only defense of negative rights against aggression; there was no room for positive rights or obligations to those in need. <br /><br />As I've learned more about Jewish ethics I have become less antipathetic to the term; the Jewish word "tzedakah", often translated as "charity', really means "righteousness" and there is a definite sense in Judaism that we do have moral obligations to those in need or less privileged than ourselves, even where their negative rights haven't been violated. <br /><br />That being said, I still have qualms about introducing positive rights into the law. An important insight of the libertarian philosophy is that morality and legality are not and should not be the same thing. You shouldn't attempt to enact a vision of a moral society through government force; that's how you end up putting people out of work completely just because you don't believe their employers are paying them enough. Even if the employer might have been able to pay more, forcing them to do so leads to counterproductive results. And I agree with you that the motivation behind much of the Left is not a good faith attempt to realize a vision of a moral and just society but rank envy and personal bitterness against the more successful.<br /><br />In sum, I might be more willing these days to concede that e.g. providing basic necessities to the poor is a matter of justice and not just charity. That is, we really owe it to the poor as taught in Torah. But there remain powerful arguments against entrusting this kind of redistributive work to the government rather than private actors.jgresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03287009809340785879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-84450347383691765252021-10-08T15:01:22.536-04:002021-10-08T15:01:22.536-04:00Hear hear!Hear hear!jgresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03287009809340785879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-30563492341660646772021-09-20T15:45:06.375-04:002021-09-20T15:45:06.375-04:00Thank you for the compliment and the correction. I...Thank you for the compliment and the correction. I have since updated the entry. I hope you enjoy your first Sukkot, and that it is the first of many. Chag Sukkot Sameach! Libertarian Jewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07063486300815461137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-78410718772919074892021-09-20T14:52:57.009-04:002021-09-20T14:52:57.009-04:00This was beautiful to read! Celebrating my first S...This was beautiful to read! Celebrating my first Sukkot as a prospective convert. We did not get around to erecting a proper sukkah but will try next year. We will eat outside on our deck and I made a small effort by decorating it with tree branches as ersatz s'chach.<br /><br />Just a minor point: "memento mori" means "remember death" not "moment of death".jgresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03287009809340785879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-70577586162517150212021-08-09T14:09:07.130-04:002021-08-09T14:09:07.130-04:00Seems a lot of those dire early predictions assume...Seems a lot of those dire early predictions assumed no spontaneous change in behavior in response to the virus. But people in the US stopped going out to eat well before local governments started imposing lockdowns. The trouble is the anti-lockdown movement attracted too many prominent "just the flu" cranks who denied the benefits of any behavioral changes. The correct approach was always that common sense changes in behavior were compatible with keeping most businesses open and not cratering the economy.jgresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03287009809340785879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-12841375333047535492021-06-30T09:49:29.126-04:002021-06-30T09:49:29.126-04:00nice blog.nice blog.small business ithttps://allsafeit.com/blog/types-of-it-services/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-38064213507517654472021-06-27T12:44:08.256-04:002021-06-27T12:44:08.256-04:00I didn't celebrate Juneteenth at all. It’s abo...I didn't celebrate Juneteenth at all. It’s about black people, not the emancipation of black slaves. What about Jews, white ppl or any other race? They get a whole month and a federal holiday now. The holiday is longer than Chanukah! I think a better holiday would be Emancipation Day. And it would be about the freedom of all Americans (including blacks), not wokism. (I know you said it was not about that but that's what they celebrate nowadays when the 1619 project calls Lincoln a racist).Turk Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15821284995182048628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-39797534799770546812021-06-11T10:38:19.115-04:002021-06-11T10:38:19.115-04:00Is "misallocation" what Austrian economi...Is "misallocation" what Austrian economists call "malinvestment"? I.e. when credit expansion pushes interest rates down below their natural rate (the rate determined by society's time preference or preference for saving over consumption), all of a sudden investment in certain long-term projects becomes profitable even though consumers are not actually making the necessary saving to afford those products when they are ready to go to market. Sorry I'm an economics auto-didact who has mainly read Austrian stuff and am not very familiar with the mainstream terminology.<br /><br />Really glad to find this blog, though. I'm interested in converting to Judaism but am put off by the progressive ideology of so many Jews, including the rabbi overseeing my conversion. I just want to make sure believing in compulsory wealth redistribution is not an article of faith!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238758288408231297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-22820755893181833752021-05-27T11:29:56.705-04:002021-05-27T11:29:56.705-04:00Thank you for this essay. Dennis Prager destroyed ...Thank you for this essay. Dennis Prager destroyed John Oliver's arguments in a video on PragerU. As you mentioned (above) the Ottomans sold the land of Sheikh Jarrah to Jews in 1877. Like the article says above, were it not for the Iron Dome, Israel would have seen hundreds of casualties. <br /><br />Another response we can give Noah is that ten times more Germans were killed in WWII than British. Yet the British weren't the bad guys! More Germans were killed in Dresden and yet virtually no Americans were killed in the Homefront. If the Japanese dislike Hiroshima they should have never bombed Pearl Harbor.<br /><br />These celebrities are not getting the attention they require during lockdowns and so they feel a need to voice their opinions on foreign affairs to stay relevant. No one cares. Their opinions suck. They don't know anything about politics. <br /><br />Gaza started this war. When Hamas hides in schools and deliberately attacks non-military targets such as schools and hospitals that is a war crime. The IDF is the most moral army in the world and calls civilians on their cell-phones about incoming airstrikes to warn them to flee. Hamas does no such thing while they aim at Israeli civilians. Yes, when children die that is a tragedy but what is Israel supposed to do? It is not Israel's fault Hamas places their batteries in highly densely populated areas. When Hamas uses children as human shields, that is evil. If your upset that children die, blame Hamas. Israel does not targets children.<br /><br />In short, the liberals who take the side of terrorists are evil. Shmuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08740974591394925894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-84221839349715619422021-01-23T21:12:49.793-05:002021-01-23T21:12:49.793-05:00I agree with every item that you quoted. There is ...I agree with every item that you quoted. There is only one exception. The wall and immigration policy. I disagree that the wall was harmful and costly. We need to protect our border. The US does not have an obligation to protect illegal aliens. It does have an obligation to protect its citizens from thugs and thieves. Not all Mexicans are thieves, but if you want to become a US citizen you should do so legally and learn the language (there is a way to become a citizen legally). Plus, mass immigration is stealing American jobs. <br /><br />Regarding WHO, I agree with Trump. Why should we pay the most to a company run by China? Trump's decision to terminate relations and to terminate giving money to WHO (World Health Organization) was necessary. Tedros is a puppet for China. He's a communist from Ethiopia and China pays him a hefty salary. So, he willingly lied when he said in late January that COVID was not contacted via human-to-human. He's a spokesperson for China. For example, when a journalist called him for an interview he ignored her questions before proceeding to hang up. Even more importantly, WHO banned Taiwan from joining its organization because China hates Taiwan. It's disgusting.<br /><br />Trump probably single-handedly saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions of American lives when he stopped trade with China in early January. Hopefully, Biden will do some good. But they just stool the election. There were most certainly huge massive amounts of fraud. There is a lot of evidence. Turk Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15821284995182048628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-11326328065334642952021-01-07T20:22:01.682-05:002021-01-07T20:22:01.682-05:00I agree with many libertarian views but dislike th...I agree with many libertarian views but dislike the party. The party is crazy. People dancing half-naked. It's crazy. But I like the idea of libertarianism. Big government is only good for two things. Raising taxes and building bombs. If you ever drive through a private toll road your notice how clean and smooth it is. Drive through a government paid road and it's full of potholes. Turk Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15821284995182048628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-73453106144946319772021-01-07T20:20:48.341-05:002021-01-07T20:20:48.341-05:00Yes, 2020 has been a crazy year for many.Yes, 2020 has been a crazy year for many.Turk Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15821284995182048628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374945593972878840.post-91439549748208056562021-01-07T20:20:27.560-05:002021-01-07T20:20:27.560-05:00I agree with many libertarian views but dislike th...I agree with many libertarian views but dislike the party. The party is crazy. People dancing half-naked. It's crazy. But I like the idea of libertarianism. Big government is only good for two things. Raising taxes and building bombs. If you ever drive through a private poll road your notice how clean and smooth it is. Drive through a government paid road and it's full of potholes. Turk Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15821284995182048628noreply@blogger.com